Maggie's Farm

A villainously good post from Villainous Company. One quote:

Submission. What a stale, moldy, outdated, concept. I cringe, even while I'm typing it because I'm sure it will bring the wrath of God down on my poor head for daring even to suggest that I agree wholeheartedly, unreservedly, with the author on this score. Marriage is a parnership meant to last a lifetime, and it's not easy making a marriage work. It's a serious promise, not just a few silly words you toss off unadvisedly, thinking in the back of your mind, "Well gosh, now I kinda sorta love her, but if the feeling passes I can always get a divorce."

I believe you are promising, not to feel love, but to practice it, and that is an entirely different matter when you are looking at a four or five decade time horizon. On the day you marry, if both a man and wife aren't willing to put their marriage ahead of their careers, their children, and most importantly their own private selfish interests: if they aren't willing to submerge at least a part of themselves into this larger thing called "the marriage", it won't survive.

Does that mean you lose yourself? Of course not.

Read the entire, thoughtful piece.

Dalrymple, a retired psychiatrist, takes on the subject of evil through the lens of Rwanda. A quote:

The murderers were pleased with their work, they thought of all the corrugated iron roofing, cattle and so forth that they were ‘earning’ by it. They had never been so prosperous as during this period of slaughter and looting. Unaccustomed to eating meat very often (the Tutsi were pastoralists, the Hutu cultivators), they gorged themselves upon it, like hyenas finding an abandoned kill in the bush. Very few were their pauses for thought.

 

Let us not console ourselves with the thought that these were unsophisticated Africans, without the mental capacity to know better: in short, mere savages. Again, I do not know how much Hatzfeld has edited their words, but his perpetrator interlocutors seem to me more articulate than most of the people with whom I have had to deal in Britain as patients over the last decade and a half. Indeed, their language occasionally becomes poetic: though poetic language in this circumstance is mere euphemism.

Where does wealth come from? Not from natural resources, but from knowledge and culture. Shulz discusses David Warsh's new book at TCS. Quotes:

But what about growth itself--especially the sustained economic growth that we now take for granted (however sluggish it may be at times)? At an informal academic conference in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1988--assembled by Jack Kemp, then a member of the House--the Stanford economist Paul Romer presented a paper that ultimately turned the economic thinking on its ear. In Mr. Romer's work, as Mr. Warsh puts it, "the concept of intellectual property was, if not exactly 'discovered,' then formally characterized for the first time in the context of growth." Mr. Romer saw that knowledge was "both an input and output of production."

Thus instead of land, labor and capital--the traditional inputs of economic theory--it was "people, ideas and things" that mattered, driving technological change and entrepreneurial creativity. "No longer were the advantages of technical superiority to be understood as a case of 'market failure,'" Mr. Warsh writes. "They were part of the rules of the game." Such superiority was by its nature temporary--i.e., nonmonopolistic. New knowledge constantly trumped old, and the law (rightly) gave ideas only limited property-protection.

Read the whole thing.

Ricky Nelson. Hello MaryLou

The Band. The Weight

Grateful Dead. Truckin'

Van Morrison and Dylan: Crazy Love

BB King: The Thrill is Gone

Dylan. Like a Rolling Stone (from the MTV Unplugged)

Billy Holiday: Strange Fruit

Louis Armstrong. I cover the waterfront

Stevie Ray Vaughn and Albert King messing around

Another shot of your basic red (actually, "apricot")  hunting poodle:

 Naturally, there is a Red and Apricot Poodle Club. The pups are fuzzballs. 

Here's a Red Labradoodle. I assume they hunt, but I have never seen one in the field. A great looking animal:

It's still hunting season, but it is plant catalog season too. Here are a few interesting things we came across in the Wayside catalog.

Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangea (photo)
Clematis Recta purpurea - small, upright clematis with purple leaves
Hosta Blue Mouse Ears - a cool mini-hosta
Fountain Buddleia
Dwarf Echinacea
Pink Muhly Grass

^{Psalm 72}

¹Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.
²May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. ³May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
⁴May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
⁵May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
⁶May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
⁷In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
⁸May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
⁹May his foes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
¹⁰May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
¹¹May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.
¹²For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.
¹³He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
¹⁴From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.
¹⁵Long may he live! May gold of Sheba be given to him. May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all day long.
¹⁶May there be abundance of grain in the land; may it wave on the tops of the mountains; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field.
¹⁷May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun. May all nations be blessed in him; may they pronounce him happy.
¹⁸Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
¹⁹Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.

We never covered all of the sporting breeds we wanted to during the Chinese Year of the Dog, but we hit quite a few of our favorites. Not all of 'em, cuz we never met a dog we didn't like.

We have the same weakness for baby humans. (The adults are another matter.)

At the end of the year, I want to remind our readers that the Poodle is a huntin' dawg. We said it once before, and this is the last time we'll say it.

Just don't give them deep, ocean water to retrieve from, as you would with a rough and tough Chessie. Marsh, streams, and ponds are just fine. Many Poodles have a strong pointing instinct too - mine have had one.

Am I tired of people telling me "He might break a nail"? Indeed I am. The only problem with Poodles is that they have higher IQs than humans, and that they love to laugh - at your expense. Yes, they are bird dogs and they will find your bird. And they will drop it at your feet - if they feel like it. 

And if they have a field full of bird, they just might tell you to go to hell, and roust them all at once and leave you looking like an idiot. Unlike some breeds, they can run all day, working. They do not tire. But when they want to sleep, they want their head on your pillow.

The Brit coppers videotaped the hunt supporters from a distant window with telephoto lenses. What is this? A John Le Carre novel? Nice to know that there is no other crime in the UK. But I thought the UK was "tolerant" of different cultures? Except their own, I guess. So we have Gandhi-like civil disobedience. Bravo! Bulldog spirit!

From our cousin Mr. Free Market:

It is false humility, and thus sinfully prideful, to deny oneself satisfaction in one's genuine humility... if you get my drift.

The News Junkie (of Maggie's Farm)

The Anchoress took the time to assemble a good round-up of comments and reactions.

Do I think it is morally right to execute leaders who have been defeated in war? I have real doubts about that, but it was Iraq's call, not ours. In the Middle East, execution is a casual and routine matter, and they do not seem to value human life in the way that the West does. "It's multicultural, ya know?"

It has been always darkly amusing to me how "multiculturalism" can be so selective in its reverence.

Scott Ott of Scrappleface gives up serious, sincere  reportage for a moment, and tries his hand at satire. This is a must-read. (h/t, RWNews)

It's about Katrina, the Federal government, and life. Maybe we will post the whole thing. Probably should.... OK, we will, since it comes so close to being a Maggie's Manifesto, here is a quote to encourage all to read the whole thing:

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, journalists sought someone to blame. They, predictably, found President George Bush was the best scapegoat. But in lashing out, yet again, at their favorite source of all discontent, they missed a bigger target. If anyone “out there” is to be blamed, it is the large, remote, centralized federal government which has become a surrogate father to so many millions of Americans.

Over the decades, we have ceded power, authority and responsibility to the federal government far beyond anything envisioned or desired by our founders. As a result, instead relying on our own intelligence, resources and ability to work with others in our communities to solve problems, we have turned to Washington D.C..

This is not a matter of ‘blaming the victim’, because the victim has become so immersed in this twisted view of human life that he cannot see what has happened. The federal government’s dehumanizing effect has torn up neighborhoods, torn apart families and turned brave, capable people into compliant recipients of redistributed wealth.

The problem is that the morsels of that wealth never provide enough to do anything other than keep folks in a perpetual state of dependence upon the State. Even if those morsels became chunks big enough to choke a horse, the dependency would remain. The federal government has become not only the safety net, it is everything from the crib blanket to the casket lining.

The danger of centralized government control is not that it robs a few dollars from rich people and gives them to the poor. It’s not even that such a bureaucratic behemoth spawns the waste of billions of dollars. After all, it’s just money.

No, the threat of this system is that it strips a man of what makes him a man, and turns him away from his inner resources, or the inclination to partner with neighbors to solve problems. It humiliates him, blinds him and ultimately cripples him.

Saddam will be hung tonight at 10 EST. Michelle has a good round-up of comments. Jesse Jackson is shedding tears, which is puzzling to me. Rick Moran's somber comments are excellent.

No death is an occasion for joy among civilized peoples (except maybe Fidel Castro's), but is it not odd that executions are momentous events, but mass murders by brutal dictators are not?

In the horrendous words of Joe Stalin, "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." Wrong...so wrong.

The University of Texas is considering taking down their monuments to Confederate heroes. Says Never Yet Melted:

A common tragic reality of our time is that positions of power and responsibility typically go to the mediocre conformists who successfully climb the greasy pole of life, one finger cautiously raised in the air at every level of ascent. In a better world, the president of the University of Texas would be a gentleman of sound principles and liberal education, capable of feeling a sense of loyalty to his state and region’s history, courageous enough to withstand the divisive demands of rabblerousers and demagogues, and dignified enough to dismiss the unseemly impulses of fashion.

Read his whole piece here.

Why are we sympathetic to our fellow Americans who were part of the Confederacy? Not because we like slavery (the war was only partially about slavery), but because the principle of states' rights was correct. Those 250,000 southern farm boys who died were not fighting for slavery - few of them owned slaves.

No, they fought valiantly for honor and freedom under the leadership of one of the finest Americans in history, Robert E. Lee. As fellow Americans, they deserve to be honored and remembered.

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.

George Burns (h/t, Samizdata)

A quote from a Brewton piece, Federalism vs. Totalitarianism, which uses a Maggie's piece as a starting point:

As Aristotle observed around 2,300 years ago, some humans are by nature slaves, that is people who prefer to be taken care of, rather than to take responsibility for themselves. Hilaire Belloc in The Servile State (1912) described those effects of the Fabian, gradualist process that was called creeping socialism in the United States. Voters gain more welfare-state benefits, but the cost always is surrender of some degrees of personal freedom.

What is art about? The New Criterion's December art issue is out, and just the introduction is a fine and succinct update on the current state of art criticism. One quote:

At least since the 1970s, efforts to dethrone the aesthetic and short-circuit or marginalize greatness have triumphed in the academy and many other institutions charged with the preservation and transmission of our artistic patrimony. Several of the pieces in this issue discern a possible change in the ideological weather, a shift away from regarding ideology as the proper end of the critical project. It is too early to call these preliminary sightings a forecast or gather them together to make a prediction. But here and there we sense an accumulation of positive signs, a yearning for something lost—a recognition, at least, that something has been lost.

From Wizbang's piece, with which I whole-heartedly agree:

Ford, though, played the genial, amiable elder statesman role to the hilt. He played his golf. He showed up for certain ceremonial events, when called for -- but like he had over the rest of his life, never sought the limelight.

Ford will now be at the center of the limelight one last time, as a nation that rejected him 30 years ago now pays its last respects to one of the most decent men to ever hold the highest office in the land.

Rest in peace, Gerry. You did right by us. It just took us a while to realize just how well you did.

Hitler on Federalism. Volokh's piece begins thus:

One of the relatively few underanalyzed major topics in the extensive academic literature on federalism is the relationship between federalism and totalitarianism. A potential advantage of decentralized federalism is that it might serve as an obstacle to the establishment of an oppressive totalitarian state. Yet most scholars have largely ignored this possibility. One writer who didn't, however, was Adolf Hitler, who had this to say on the subject in Chapter 10 of Mein Kampf (which is devoted to German federalism):

"Might serve"? Definitely serves. That was the original deal, aka the US Constitution. It's easy to forget the degree of sovereignty the states had, before signing the deal - and long after the deal, until Lincoln re-wrote the deal. Not that he was wrong about the slavery issue, but our modern, post-FDR, post-LBJ federal government has us all becoming 50% slaves. What's the difference? Well, voting is the difference. We are free to vote ourselves into benevolent federal slavery.

The Volokh piece is here. 

We agree with the point which is made. Centralized power is always a threat to freedom - even when it is elected. It is in the nature of government to accrue power over the lowly, ignorant and inept masses, using any excuse at hand. You can always find a "well-intentioned"  reason to assert distant federal power over the people, and forget that the people are meant to be sovereign in the USA. The American ideal was meant to be "every man a Lord of his domain," guided by God and his (or her) conscience and interest.

FDR was the worst criminal, in this regard. That well-intentioned, arrogant, noblesse-oblige aristocrat was a natural totalitarian, but I doubt he ever really knew it. (Harold Ickes, and other advisors, knew it, though - and made the most of it.)

The Civil War and Jim Crow gave state's rights a bad name, but I am inclined to believe that, generally, states and localities have the right to be wrong sometimes. That is part of what freedom is meant to guarantee: dumb mistakes are part of freedom. As is paying the price for them.

Neither wisdom, nor common sense, resides in Washington, DC; it resides elsewhere - in our people in our towns, the hard-working real people who lead honest lives, and ask no-one for anything. Washington, DC obtains most of its power from the income tax, and the ignominious power of vote-buying with OPM - and is thus intrinsically corrupt.

But many will vote away their personal freedom for a bowl of lentils, especially when they feel spiritually and personally uncertain, frail, and lacking in a "support system".

We ain't seen any yet this year, and it's a shame. I am sure that Mad River Glen is not pleased either. Photo from December, 2005.