Maggie's Farm

April 18, 1775. The Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Jules Crittenden linked to the English documents regarding that battle.

We owe everything, historically, culturally, and spiritually, to those reckless farmers who were not willing to take any crap from their well-intentioned but ultimately feckless government.

Rick Moran remembers Paul Revere and his midnight ride.

The photo below, taken by our friend Chris in his backyard in Connecticut this week, raised the subject of the opossum.

The Virginia opossum, aka possum, is the only marsupial in North America. These strange, nocturnal, tree-climbing, omnivorous critters have been expanding their range north for many years, and seem to find ways to survive even in suburban neighborhoods. I know the Dylanologist has one living in his backyard in Tennessee, because I saw the big fellow scurrying through his tomato plants at twilight.

Primitive and adaptable, they are also said to be good to eat by our Southern friends. I have never tried one as a meal. I once saw a female with babies clinging to her back, crossing a road at night. What an odd sight.

You can read about their habits here. Yes, they do "play possum."

He brought his Strad, too, and picked up an easy, tax-free $32.

I think it was a delightfully wacky thing to do. Story here. The audio here. (h/t, reader)

The Intelligence Squared debate on global warming in NYC last month. Pull up a chair, grab a beer, and give it a listen. These guys are scientists, not politicians. Michael Creighton is one of the debaters, and NPR's Brian Lehrer is the moderator. I suggest the longer, unedited audio version.

Unfortunately, it's not set up as a true debate - more like a series of brief talks, but the exchanges get better towards the end. Still, interesting - except for that Brenda, who has nothing to say.

It's at The Reference Frame.

It left me wondering whether there is an ideal temperature for the earth, whether we can have any effect on it or not (which I doubt). Overall, quite enjoyable.

Life is very difficult and everything kills you. The only thing you can do nowadays is sit fully clothed in the woods and eat fruit.

Pat Buckley (Mrs. William F. Buckley, Jr, who died this week)

Video, here. It's about the Clintons. I do not trust these people.

America is better than this.

My opinion? Sexual organs, whatever shape they may be, or however interesting they may be, have nothing to do with political qualifications.

Photo: Hillary at Wellesley. To tell the truth, I probably looked like (or was) an arrogant, know-it-all jerk in college too. But I know better, now.

"Doing my taxes is like doing an appendectomy on myself."

Heard on Bob Brinker radio yesterday. He also noted that, if you get a refund, it's because you screwed up your witholding or your quarterlies, and gave the govt a free loan. A refund is not a gift.

Thanks for the photo, reader.

A truck bomb destroyed the Sarrafiya Bridge this week, and killed drivers in the process.

A landmark, and a gift from the Brits in the 1940s, it was the first fixed bridge in Baghdad over the Tigris.

Our friend in Israel says that "the Germans were good at two things: killing Jews and building vehicles, but the Palestinians are only good at one thing: killing Jews."

Any idiot can build a car bomb, but can Muqtada's or Al Quaida's thugs build a bridge? Or a car? Or a city? Or a modern civilization? Or even save a life?

This story is depressing. Destruction, sadly, is the easiest thing in the world to do: it has the physics of entropy on its side. The Stone Age is never far away, and killing is simple.

Thoughts about the bridge from Iraq the Model and from Treasure of Baghdad (whence the photo).

Is Iraq too "multicultural" to hold together as a nation without a totalitarian, sadistic dictator? Helping the Iraqis seems like treating a patient with cancer. My prayers are with the patient - and with Dr. Petraeus.

(A message to the bad guys here. h/t, Ace)

Photo: "Dirt-drifts" in South Dakota, caused by corn farming on unsuitable and marginal lands. Shades of the Dust Bowl. That mean old Law of Unintended Consequences will get you every time: first we see corn prices rising so high that Mexicans cannot afford to make tortillas, and now this mess. Plus it's a political scam anyway.

The full report on land conversion in the northern plains is here. The Ducks Unlimited press summary below:

From Ducks Unlimited:

BISMARCK, ND, April 12, 2007 - Home, home on the range where the deer,
antelope and ducks play may become a thing of the past if the rapid loss of America's prairie grasslands isn't stopped. Ducks Unlimited (DU) believes a new Congressional report will help Congress focus on solutions to the loss as it writes the new 2007 federal farm bill.

The report says the country's few remaining native grasslands in the Great Plains are being plowed under. The Prairie Pothole Region of the Great Plains is the world's most productive duck breeding habitat.

"It is encouraging to see that the issue of grassland conversion in the
Northern Plains has the attention of Congress as it prepares to write the
2007 farm bill," said Scott McLeod, DU's farm bill lead for the Great Plains
Region. "This issue has greatly concerned conservation groups, hunters and ranchers across the country for several years.

John 20:19-31

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” ²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Image: Caravaggio's (1571-1610) The Doubting Thomas

300,000 protest in Ankara against Islamist threats from Turkish political Imams.

I am fond of Turkey, as readers may know, and eager to return there for another visit.

It is mighty refreshing to see a mass protest like this in the Middle East.

Story at Gateway. (That is Ataturk's mausoleum in the background.)

The Clinton crack-up. This is a problem.

Meet the Faggot  Family.  They look fairly normal, for Brits.

Another plug for Indoctrinate U.

Yes, they want Spain back. And no, they aren't kidding.

Moslem toilets. They are different.

Zakouma sights and sounds. Ivory Wars, in Chad. Very cool drums, and more elephants than you have ever seen.

More fine video: Heaven, Earth, Tequila: Un Viaje al Corazon de Mexico. Great photos.

Image: Consensus male scientificalistical proof of global warming: a girl at a beach in Maine, early this morning.

This photo of a Maggie's Farm buddy with a big Texas pig, from a post last summer, elicited a comment from a reader saying that they had them in Wisconsin. Wisconsin? That was news to me. I thought "razorbacks" were more of a Southern and Western thing.

Happily, they have not invaded New England yet.

I knew about Texas, California, etc., and I checked his link. Yup. They are now found in 23 states. They are basically wild domestic pigs, but, depending on their location, the urban legend is that they may have some "Russian Boar" blood from game farms mixed in - but the domestic pig and the wild European boar are the same species: Sus scrofa. When breeding wild, feral pigs devolve into their natural form and habits. Unlike wild horses, they attract little sympathy, and they are not cute.

In many areas of Europe, boar is extinct or endangered. In the US, these adaptable invaders are spreading fast, which is bad for forests but fun for hunters.

Omnivorous, destructive of their habitat by aggressive rooting with their snouts, raising up to 4 litters per year, and ranging from 70-400 pounds in adulthood, these hardy, non-native critters are environmental destructos from hell. And their only real predator, to keep their numbers in any control, is man.

To make things more difficult, their shoulders, where you might wish to place a bullet, have very dense tissue which is difficult to penetrate. They are also potentially dangerous beasts who use their tusks as swords: they can easily kill a dog or seriously damage a human. On the plus side, they are highly edible.

Because most states have an open season on pig, hog hunting is increasingly popular - and environmentally necessary - whether with bow, shotgun, rifle (or even handgun, for the very brave or reckless).

Here's a piece on boar hunting in Ohio. Here's one from California.

Widely posted and re-posted here and elsewhere, but worth one more time:

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

John Stuart Mill

Some us grew up sailing and racing Lightnings when they were the largest racing class in the US. 19' with a heavy centerboard and a three-person racing crew. They work as a fine day-sailer too. This 1966 Lippincott brings back the good old days. That outboard, though, ruins it. I have flipped a few of these with the spinnaker up, when a squall blew through. Photo is Cape Cod.

From a piece at the BBC:

...looking at the past 1,150 years the Sun has never been as active as it has been during the past 60 years.

Over the past few hundred years, there has been a steady increase in the numbers of sunspots, a trend that has accelerated in the past century, just at the time when the Earth has been getting warmer.

The data suggests that changing solar activity is influencing in some way the global climate causing the world to get warmer.

Discussion at Synthstuff.

For those who know zilch about sailboats, catboats are comfortably beamy, have a mast far forward, and one sail, usually with a gaff rig. Catboats remain popular on Cape Cod. This one, the graceful 16' Lynx, is built by Cape Cod's Arey's Pond Boatyard.