Maggie's Farm

Villa Balze, in Fiesole, last fall. It's Georgetown's Italian campus. The hills of Fiesole overlook Florence. We have concluded that staying in Fiesole, rather than downtown Firenze, is a good idea. Just hop on the bus with the nuns and the schoolkids for a 20 minute ride to town. And, yes, I am proud of this photo.

You can’t make Socialists out of individualists. Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming, where everyone is interdependent.

John Dewey
h/t, Kim du Toit

Re-posted from July 26, 2005:

Great Connecticut towns, Plus Loot from the annual super-stupendous Pequot Library Book Sale - worth a drive if you and your family like books.

Photo is one of the many early 19th Century sea captain's houses in elegant Southport, the loveliest and most exclusive town in CT (with runners-up as Litchfield and Old Lyme, but not to omit the understated, historic, and noteworthy havens for tasteful and genteel Yankee gentlemen and gentleladies - da gentry, ya know -  in Roxbury, Washington, Sharon, Kent, Warren, Essex, Norfolk, Salisbury, Sachem's Head, Granby, Harwinton, Farmington, Pomfret, Centerbrook, Avon, Southbury, Woodbury, Southington, Greenfield Hill (in Fairfield), and Lakeville, among a few others that do not jump to mind). 

The reference is to Southport's Pequot Library's famous annual used-book sale. (Last weekend of July.) Here's my loot - Christmas in July - at the request of The Dylanologist, hardcovers only: Life Magazine Photo History of WW2, The Guns of August by Tuchman, The Lost World by Crichton, The Atlas of Ancient Archeology by Jacquetta Hawkes, A Shropshire Lad by AE Housman, A Countryman's Woods by Hal Borland, Five Seasons by Yehoshua, Days of Awe by Agnon, Blue Highways by Wm Least Heat Moon, Clausewitz on War, Hotels and Country Inns in Italy, The Fatal Shore by Hughes, English Verse: Longfellow to Rupert Brooke, Restoration Poets: Milton to Goldsmith, A Travel Guide to Scotland and the Islands, The Great Gardens of Britain, The Master Sniper by Hunter, An Illustrated History of Firearms by Hogg, The Oxford Annotated Bible, Life in the Castle in Medieval England by Burke, The Encyclopedia of Rock Music (1994), The Atlas of Early Man by Jacquetta Hawkes, English Weapons and Warfare 449-1660, The American Heritage History of the Civil War by Bruce Catton, The Founding Fish by McPhee, The Complete Works of Paul Klee, Atlas of the Epic Land Battles of History, and about ten Robert Parkers. Plus about ten other misc. paperbacks. Could not find an excellent book on the identification of eastern trees, but I know most of them anyway. Total under $100.

If I had been around on Saturday instead of late Sunday afternoon, it would have been more. This book sale keeps me safely and harmlessly occupied for months. Remembered when I got home that I had already read the Hughes and the Tuchman - I guess I liked them. The Housman was a replacement for an overly-used and disintegrating paperback.

And no need to travel if you can read travel guides - a return to the amazing and hospitable Turkey is next on my list, but maybe after Provence. Then Scotland again for grouse-shooting and scotch-tasting - absolutely no golf - golf is for strivers and the Japanese - then Tuscany again. That's the long-range plan, not including routine hunting trips to Manitoba and New Brunswick or Maine.

Photo: One of the many fine 19th Century sea-captain's homes in Southport, CT

Editor's note:  Hope the Dylanologist is home from Montana this weekend to take a drive to Southport.

Maggie's Farm readers know how fond we are of Box Turtles and Wood Turtles - two woodland species which can be found in New England, and both under extreme population pressure in these parts - essentially endangered.

When we see them, we tend to see the Box in the shady woods, and the Wood Turtle in the streams, but our pup finds the Wood Turtle in the wet pasture too.

We train our dogs to bark at them, but to never pick them up. The first time they find one, we give them heck with the shock collar and they learn that these turtles are radioactive.

My introduction to the charming Box Turtle was at the Massachusetts Audubon Society sanctuary in Wellfleet as a kid. Cape Cod was full of Box Turtles then. Many fewer now, due to cars and dogs and coyotes - and the northward march of raccoons.

Why does the subject come up? Tuesday night, with lightning flashing all around and rumbling thunder in the distance, I took an evening stroll with the flashlight, and stumbled on a Box Turtle digging a hole for her eggs in a sandy patch surrounded by oaks, not far from the marsh. Slow and steady. I have never seen this before.

My first thought was "Wish I had my camera," but my second thought was "Why photograph everything?" It makes it no more real, and this is a special sight, a real gift from nature. So I turned my light away, and left her alone to her arduous task.

Image of a box turtle digging a nest hole, in daylight, from Univ of Ga.

How should Bill Gates spend that 60 billion? The Copenhagen Consensus has some ideas. TCS

Marry your cousin? No problem, says Stossel at Town Hall

Taranto has mixed feelings about Bush's stem cell veto. I think it's probably a good thing, because it injects the moral dimension into the science. How do we want to regard human embryos? I don't know, but it's a question.

How illegals damage the American economy. Malanga at City Journal. His point: A few get cheap labor, while the rest of us pay the bills.

Papa Duck, Roland Remmel dies at 88. Remmel was the grand old man of Ducks Unlimited.

Camus' wartime journalism. Plus plenty of things I did not know about him. TNR

I can make more generals, but horses cost money.

Abraham Lincoln

It's been a while since we posted from
Sam Pepys' diary.  Here is the excellent Diary link> He would have been a blogger. A viall is proably like a viol da gamba - like a viola. In those days, you had to make your own music. I think Sam had a thing for Bagwell's wife, but he always notes his feelings about the ladies. He was fond of his own wife, too.

Friday 17 July 1663

Up, and after doing some business at my office, Creed came to me, and I took him to my viall maker’s, and there I heard the famous Mr. Stefkins play admirably well, and yet I found it as it is always, I over expected. I took him to the tavern and found him a temperate sober man, at least he seems so to me. I commit the direction of my viall to him. Thence to the Change, and so home, Creed and I to dinner, and after dinner Sir W. Warren came to me, and he and I in my closet about his last night’s contract, and from thence to discourse of measuring of timber, wherein I made him see that I could understand the matter well, and did both learn of and teach him something. Creed being gone through my staying talking to him so long, I went alone by water down to Redriffe, and so to sit and talk with Sir W. Pen, where I did speak very plainly concerning my thoughts of Sir G. Carteret and Sir J. Minnes. So as it may cost me some trouble if he should tell them again, but he said as much or more to me concerning them both, which I may remember if ever it should come forth, and nothing but what is true and my real opinion of them, that they neither do understand to this day Creed’s accounts, nor do deserve to be employed in their places without better care, but that the King had better give them greater salaries to stand still and do nothing. Thence coming home I was saluted by Bagwell and his wife (the woman I have a kindness for), and they would have me into their little house, which I was willing enough to, and did salute his wife. They had got wine for me, and I perceive live prettily, and I believe the woman a virtuous modest woman. Her husband walked through to Redriffe with me, telling me things that I asked of in the yard, and so by water home, it being likely to rain again to-night, which God forbid. To supper and to bed.

Our author of the Aliyah Diary just sent this in:

I am fine. Things tense here. Last night dinner with a psychoanalyst from Brazil, Dr. E (and a guest who spoke Yiddish). 

Dr. E's son heard a rumor that the army is moving MLRS (multiple launch rockets) from Golan to Leb border; today, my realtor had to leave early to get ready for his call-up tonight - tanks being moved to Leb border. MLRS have never been used by Israel: they rain steel. The Air Force dropped pamphlets over areas of southern Lebanon warning citizens to leave certain areas as these will be bombed.  M. said that MLRS is a serious move towards war.

In Tel aviv today to meet with realtor and seller about apt in Jer. We were on the 16th floor, watching the horizon. Hezbollah had threatened to hit Azraeli towers at dusk (when radar doesn't work as well). An empty threat.

I feel safe, but unsettled. I sent you (I think) my account of the walk with D. before his deployment north.  These Arabs are not worth the death of a single Jew.

The shelters have been opened here. I rather do not want to be cooped up with the people in the merkaz klita.

I've been asked to go north tomorrow to work with olim hadashim in safed and such; not sure this will take place. tomorrow evening, have been asked to run group meeting for oilim in Ra'anana.

Ironically, Jerusalem is one of the safer places to be -- for  a change.

Hope to have my soldier book off to press by end of month (I have minor surgery July 28).  Meeting with the artist, I hope, on thursday. Look forward to starting the Jacob and Joseph book.  Also have a paper on dreams and another paper that I have left sitting for some time.

I don't think this war will last too long: the Israelis are doing too well and the U.N. doesn't tolerate that.

We have much to be proud of. At dinner last night, the yiddish-speaking guest described his father's activites in the concentration camps; I thought of my father's sad attempts to smuggle food and an occassional bullet into the ghetto.  Jews need to be strong first. And forever.

Editor's note: Sounds like it's all going as predicted by our news here in the US. And it's nice to have most of the Islamic nations on Israel's side, for once. Perhaps sanity is sinking in? Someone has to take out the garbage. Including Ahmadinejad, whose lovely comments today are here and here.

We have no idea why Al Gore refused to use this image in his movie. It graphs itself.

Is mass migration needed, now that women have quit having kids? A quote from Brussels Journal:

“Europe and Japan are now facing a population problem that is unprecedented in human history,” said Bill Butz, president of the Population Reference Bureau. Countries have lost people because of wars, disease and natural disasters but never because women stopped having enough children. Japan announced that its population had shrunk in 2005 for the first time, and that it was now the world’s most elderly nation. Italy was second. On average, women must have 2.1 children in their lifetimes for a society to replenish itself, accounting for infant mortality and other factors. Only one country in Europe – Muslim Albania – has a fertility rate above 2. Russia’s fertility rate is 1.28.

Writer Spengler in the Asia Times Online commented that demography is destiny: “Never in recorded history have prosperous and peaceful nations chosen to disappear from the face of the earth. Yet that is what the Europeans have chosen to do. Back in 1348 Europe suffered the Black Death.” “The plague reduced the estimated European population by about a third. In the next 50 years, Europe’s population will relive – in slow motion – that plague demography, losing about a fifth of its population by 2050.”

Read the whole thing.

To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.

The Owner's Manual

July 16, 2005  A soldier readies for deployment north

I stay with small stories. The big ones - political matters, wars - are too large a canvas for me. Tolstoy I am not.

Today - after two soldiers killed and one kidnapped in Israel by Gaza, after several soldiers killed and two kidnapped in Israel by Lebanese, after rockets designed in Iran have landed in Haifa, Sfad, Carmiel, Naharya, and other places - I sit in Netanya in the down-at-the-heels Green Hotel lobby, the TV running with news of the eight killed in Haifa today to write.To tell about D.,a 21 year-old sergeant in Nachshon, a unit trained for close-combat urban warfare.

About how he prepares his nine men for deployment in the North. Saturday, D. approaches me in front of the Beit Kenesset after services. Wants to talk with me some time today, before he gets called back. He must check in hourly for status, but has been getting intermittent phone calls from his men.  Asks them to call only if it seems critical.  These newly trained recruits, trained by D., seem nervous, I think.  The other trainees consider D. too tough, to distant, too demanding. His men defend him.  I gather that D. is particularly good at training his men to stay alive.  For this they are grateful.  He knows that at the end of the training in a few weeks, he will "break distance": they will be able to call him by his first name, likely toss him into a pool and such.  For now, he keeps the distance he needs to keep them alert.  He does night guard duty with some of his men to make sure that they stay awake.  Tells them do push-ups, run to stay awake. When one fellow takes a jog to keepalert, he is almost clocked by a buddy; the night is no friend to "friendly fire."

He apologizes that he did not call me Friday when he returned: had an hour to spend with his main squeeze on the beach; apologizes for not being in shul this a.m.-- went with his little sister to see her friend at an another shul; wants to see me today for one of hour walks that last a few hours. He will be heading back at nightfall.
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Our Crocosmia is in full bloom, but a bit weighted down by their flowers, and by over-growth from all of the rain. The bulbs are fairly expensive (wrong - mine were $35 years ago, but cheap now), but they spread vigorously in a sunny spot and you soon have bulbs (I think they are technically "corms")  to give away. Hummingbirds love these. (lens had a little condensation from coming out of the A/C) Tropical-looking, they grow well in Yankee-land.

The Who to go on tour. The remaining two, that is. Townsend and Daltrey. Still, could be interesting. h/t, Basil

Dress for church? Quote from Anchoress piece:

But for heaven’s sake, people dress up go to work, they dress up to meet someone important…why would you not want to dress a little better when you’re going to greet the King? He may not care how you dress, but why not communicate your esteem, if you can, by dressing for Him as you would if you were going to meet…okay, a mayor.

Imagining a better world without Israel at Daily Kos. Anti-semitism just never quits. h/t, Small Dead Animals

Clinton terms going after Lieberman "nutty." He is right, unless...Kos is working for the CIA and Bush.  Tim Blair

Doug TenNapel (on our blogroll) has written a (comic) book. Apparently, that is what he does when he doesn't blog. Blogging is a major waste of time.

From Stratfor, re Israel and Iran : A Middle East Crisis: Backgrounder

Israel lives with three realities: geographic, demographic and cultural. Geographically, it is at a permanent disadvantage, lacking strategic depth. It does enjoy the advantage of interior lines -- the ability to move forces rapidly from one front to another. Demographically, it is on the whole outnumbered, although it can achieve local superiority in numbers by choosing the time and place of war. Its greatest advantage is cultural. It has a far greater mastery of the technology and culture of war than its neighbors.

Two of the realities cannot be changed. Nothing can be done about geography or demography. Culture can be changed. It is not inherently the case that Israel will have a technological or operational advantage over its neighbors. The great inherent fear of Israel is that the Arabs will equal or surpass Israeli prowess culturally and therefore militarily. If that were to happen, then all three realities would turn against Israel and Israel might well be at risk.

That is why the capture of Israeli troops, first one in the south, then two in the north, has galvanized Israel. The kidnappings represent a level of Arab tactical prowess that previously was the Israeli domain. They also represent a level of tactical slackness on the Israeli side that was previously the Arab domain. These events hardly represent a fundamental shift in the balance of power. Nevertheless, for a country that depends on its cultural superiority, any tremor in this variable reverberates dramatically. Hamas and Hezbollah have struck the core Israeli nerve. Israel cannot ignore it.

Read the rest of their report below, thanks to Gwynnie's subscription:

Re-posted from 7-5-05

Mark Helprin Update

Soldier of the Great War is my favorite of the four books of his I have read, but many know him only through his WSJ opinion pieces. An excellent interview, mini-bio, and update in Harvard Magazine. An excerpt from the piece:

No living authors influence his writing, Helprin says. Instead, his lodestars include Dante, Shakespeare, Melville, Mark Twain. There are indeed echoes of Twain in his new novel, Freddy and Fredericka, due out this summer. It narrates the journey of a wayward British royal couple rusticated to America, where they travel incognito and survive hilarious adventures that read, as the dust jacket has it, “as if de Tocqueville had been rewritten by Mark Twain (with a deep bow to Harpo Marx).”

Helprin is a classicist. He believes in history, tradition, and eternal verities. He values aesthetic symmetries and the literary forms the centuries have passed down to us. To Helprin, the principles of modernism are fatal to art, and he has no truck with the avant-garde. “The avant-garde are frauds,” he bluntly declares. “Modern literature is all cool and detached, even though a lot of modern writers are passionate about their politics. To me, passion should be for literature, and reason and detachment for politics.

“A lot of people hate heroes,” he continues. “I was criticized for portraying people who are brave, honest, loving, intelligent. That was called weak and sentimental. People who dismiss all real emotion as sentimentality are cowards. They’re afraid to commit themselves, and so they remain ‘cool’ for the rest of their lives, until they’re dead—then they’re really cool.”

Photo by Jim Harrison in Harvard Magazine

Update: Did read Freddy and Frederika this past winter. It would work for beach reading.

It's a beach and boat day! Carpe diem. Hope you meet no rogue waves; hope the gals meet plenty of handsome rogues. If you're single, Hey, Jude, don't be afraid: reach out and touch someone today! Summer is the time for luuuuuuv.

Rogue Waves.  Most of us were introduced to rogue waves in A Perfect Storm. Turns out they are more common than thought. NYT Science News.

Why do Jews tend to vote Dem? Kesler takes a look.

The Healthy Forests Restoration Act is a waste of $. No doubt. The Commons

Dems try to figure out how to manipulate religious people. RWN

Microsoft, the European Commission, anti-trust. The EU hates success: they want to be KING. Disturbed people love power.  Coyote

Ptown gay group goes terrorist against "breeders." That ain't smart.  Polipundit

From Bob, a happily rambling Bobistical, but not solipsitical, piece on the inner universe, the soul, Hopkins, the human face, and God. One Cosmos. His piece made me think of The Kingfisher, which is why it's today's Saturday Verse. A quote:

But one of the fundamental teachings of any spiritual view is that the universe has a within that is accessible to humans. In other words, the universe is not simply an exterior, made up of discrete parts that are external to one another. Rather, by looking at the parts in a certain way, we may discover a wholeness in the world that in turn reveals its interior dimension--and therefore its meaning. Parts show us only the exterior of the cosmos, while wholeness shows us the great within (and vice versa).

Read our Dr. Bliss' piece on Happiness posted on Thurs.

Self-defence is a basic human right, both for individuals and for nations - or for animals, for that matter. It is the most basic right of living creatures. An unprotected home is not a safe and secure home, and a handy gun is as essential as a shovel, duct tape, or a pair of pliers.

You cannot defend yourself and your family with a whistle and a phone call to 911 any more than Israel can defend herself with a phone call to the UN.

Guns are the best tools for self-defence by far, plus they are fun, too. And, thank God, we are still allowed to shoot when bad guys invade our space and our lives.

Looked at one of these yesterday at the gun shop. The Marines use them. I like it. Bad guys hate it, because it can turn their heads into instant pizza-topping, which is highly discouraging to those with evil intentions. The Benelli M4. One ugly-looking shotgun.

"Black Culture" blamed for Katrina woes. Synthstuff.

The battle for Harry Truman's ghost. Oxblog. Good piece.

Gentlemen's Sports: Martini-mixing, insulting foreigners, and hitting on ladies. FMFT

How complicated are things in Lebanon? Breibart

Krauthammer: It's about Israel's right to exist. Here. But if they got rid of Israel, who would they blame for their problems?

A Soccer comment from our Gwynnie:

In June 1812, Napoleon’s Grande Armée of over 600,000 men (mostly Germans pressed into service) crossed into Russia. Gwynnie thinks that the head-butting of Materazzi by Zizou (mostly Algerian) was the most aggressive and courageous action by a Frenchman in uniform since.