Maggie's Farm

"Battle is not a terrifying ordeal to be endured. It is a magnificent experience wherein all of the elements that make man superior to the beasts are present: courage, self-sacrifice, loyalty, help to others, devotion to duty."

Gen. George Patton

The Battle in Iraq

Here and here and here. Zarqawi may be dead.

Delay Won't Go

Delay is a tough SOB and no lefty cabal will drive him away. The story is already old. But if you need info on who takes these lobbyist junkets, here it is, FYI, Nancy Pelosi: Surprise! And here's the $ comparison: Dems win again! We're not saying these trips are bad. We don't know. We just don't like the pious hypocrisy.

One Year Ago

The MSM priorities:

(Courtesy of Cox and Forkum)

Talk Radio

I love Garrison Keillor as a precious addition to my life. It is a treat when I can hear him coming through from Northeast NPR on Saturday night, and his books are masterpieces of warm, penetrating yet empathic humor, like a perfect psychiatrist, uncle or grandfather. He has fine, eclectic taste in music, and his singing voice has the same sort of sweet quavering frailty we heard in Jerry Garcia's. I don't agree with his politics, but he's from Minnesota so he can't help it. Still, I don't get why he seems to hate Bush, who seems to be the only person on the planet that this gentle man despises. He points out that local talk radio has been around since the advent of radio, and he claims no fear of conservative - he calls it "right wing" - radio. But he prefers the local chat. (Photo from Lake Wobegon Trails courtesy of Ludwig Photo)

Need a Good History Web Site? Try Best of History - Click here: Best of History Web Sites: World War II History (WWII)

Need a Wife? Still can't buy them on Amazon yet. Shop here.

The 7 Plots

We have all heard the rumor that there are only seven storylines in all of literature. Well, it depends. Denis Dutton reviews Christopher Booker's The 7 Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. Sounds like an engaging if flawed book. The review is fascinating, and it happily digs into Aristotle a bit. Still amazing to me how everything tracks back to Plato and Aristotle. I guess we are a Greco-Roman colony.

Gorilla Warfare: War over gorillas in Africa., from NYT.

The Sky may not be Falling: We understand the hidden motive of "Smash Capitalism to Save the Earth," but what if the earth is sort-of OK?

Lucas Happy to Retire from Star Wars

What a run. 25+ years of fine fantasy, even at its worst. One can only be grateful to him:

"Lucas' accomplishments marked a one-of-a-kind revolution. He sneaked into a Hollywood that no longer had the verve or nerve to make the weird, giddy, goofy Saturday matinees of his youth. He found a lone patron among fainthearted studio executives willing to pony up cash for what was essentially an Arthurian sword-in-the-stone fantasy in space." Read entire.

Advice to Bloggers

Good post from RWN, who shares his years of blogging experience.
Among other suggestions, he suggests adding one's photo, so I have
dutifully posted my photo to the right.

"A cynic is someone who, when he smells flowers, looks for a coffin"

 H. L. Mencken

Humility at the NYT?

Drudge mentioned last night that this piece was coming out. The NYT is examining itself. About time. For one thing, they found a serious credibility problem, with only 21% of readers believing "all or most of what they read" in the NYT. Piece here.

Those Evil Christians

Dems want to make Christians into the next Commies. It won't work. Somehow I missed the anti-Christian Hootenanny.

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will always find a way around the law."

Plato

All things are possible to him that believeth.

Mark 9:23

An email from back-country Thailand, from a Medical Friend

Farewell Thailand,

I am at the airport on my way back to the USA.  I am most excited about the prospect of the Old Country Buffet.

I had my first bout of a non GI illness.  My feet were quite battered given diving fins , hiking, rocks, ill fittnig sandals etc. They became both red and painful with ugly drainage from some of the cuts. Another doctor I happened to meet acknowledged that spreading redness is never a good sign. I could no longer use my sandals as they were so painful, so I limped around the town barefoot.  Of course, I stepped on a piece of glass.  I hailed a French tourist for help, However he looked taken aback by my feet, and did not want to try and pull the glass out of the black sole of my foot, so with the help of a kind hostess and a toothpick we got it out. I was forced to wear shoes for the first time in a month-I felt like Tarzan from the disney movie.

As recommended, I took a cooking course there.  Look out mango salad, and thai green curry.  Wada and Dee were my teachers and there mantra was, "smile and stir" by the end day they thought it best if I specialized as the taster-good kitchen fun had by all.

I rented a motor bike and cruised around the hills outside the town. I had a helmut that looked like a plastic tupperware bowl-perhaps it was at one point. The winding roads and scorching air made me feel a part of the "motorcycle diaries".  gratefully, I only saw a motorbike accident, and wasnt part of one.  The roadside police stopped me because I didnt have an international license and asked me to go to drivers bureau and pay a fine. I said no that I would not, and then they let me go. Why can't it be that easy in the US.

One afternoon I was hitchhiking from a distant temple on the outskirts of town.  I got a ride from Donald M., a recovering alcoholic, he took to a great AA meeting in the outskirts of of Chang Mai-holy providence!  We sang its a small world.

Bloggers: Who are they? Norm at normblog in the UK has interviewed over 50 of them.

Debate: Brewton and Prof. Gavin Kennedy debate role of Judeo-Christian values in capitalism. This is high-quality blogging.

1961 Farmall, Model 560

Not a thing of beauty, but it has a simple honesty to it, and at least that front axle adds some stability, unlike those old tippy Farmalls.

Tractor accidents are the #1 cause of work-related mortality for farmers.

Magical Mystery Tour

He's back! Iowahawk, that is. From rehab? From jail? From the sanitarium? Or was he just another runaway bride? And with a report of his "tour" of the old USA.

Ye flowery banks o' bonie Doon,
   How can ye blume sae fair?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
   And I sae fu' o' care?

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonie bird,
   That sings upon the bough,
Thou minds me o' the happy days,
   When my fause love was true.

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonie bird,
   That sings beside thy mate,
For sae I sat, and sae I sang,
   And wist na o' my fate.

from Ye Flowery Banks (Bonie Doon) by Robert Burns. Read entire: Click here: RPO -- Robert Burns : Ye Flowery Banks (Bonie Doon)

Social Security vs. Savings

"Liberals want you to be entirely dependent on the Federal government.  Otherwise, you might not have to vote for them." That deserves to be a QQQQ.

Excellent summary of the issue by Brewton. 

Trompe l'oeil

NYC's expert street artists create 3-D illusions with chalk. (If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, eh Frankie?)

One more:

"I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."

Winston Churchill

Free Toby...I mean Save Toby

This is dumb. But Toby will die, unless...

Cinco de Mayo

Daily Demarche tells us what this celebration commemorates.