Maggie's Farm

An email last night from our crafty and intrepid webmeister Chris:

It has been two days of fending off hackers.  I even had to skip a party and postpone a date.  But I just hit the mother lode.  I just intercepted the Botnet client software (called Toyo).  I now have a full copy of the software & code that is used to infect so many machines.  Tomorrow I am going to install my modified version of client Botnet code on a dummy virtual machine and try to get the control of Botnet.  This is going to be fun. Better than Christmas!!!  It should also lead me to the infamous Qted code that I have been reading about for the past month.  I have everything I need to, for lack of a better word, f- them.....

Listen to the recording - it's a kick, and a grammar lesson. Nyhan. But who is prolix here?  (Just an idea: Prolix - the new antidepressant that gets you talking again.)

'Tis of a brave young highwayman this story I will tell
His name was Willie Brennan and in Ireland he did dwell
It was on the Kilwood Mountain he commenced his wild career
And many a wealthy nobleman before him shook with fear

  It was Brennan on the moor, Brennan on the moor
  Bold, brave and undaunted was young Brennan on the moor

One day upon the highway as young Willie he went down
He met the mayor of Cashiell a mile outside of town
The mayor he knew his features and he said, Young man, said he
Your name is Willie Brennan, you must come along with me

Now Brennan's wife had gone to town provisions for to buy
And when she saw her Willie she commenced to weep and cry
Said, Hand to me that tenpenny, as soon as Willie spoke
She handed him a blunderbuss from underneath her cloak
Now with this loaded blunderbuss - the truth I will unfold -
He made the mayor to tremble and he robbed him of his gold
One hundred pounds was offered for his apprehension there
So he, with horse and saddle to the mountains did repair.

Now Brennan being an outlaw upon the mountains high
With cavalry and infantry to take him they did try
He laughed at them with scorn until at last 'twas said
By a false-hearted woman he was cruelly betrayed.

Willie Brennan was an Irish Robin Hood during the 1700s. The song was made famous by The Clancy Brothers. 

Maggie's Farm has been under attack. Slows us down a bit, damages commenting function. Trying to find out where it's from. Who would want to bother us? We will find out...and will punish them.

Chris is on the job - a Vermonter and a real Green Mountain boy - and we are all Yankees here. Don't tread on us unless you are willing to pay the price: we enjoy self-defence: we are well-armed, and love to use our weapons.

Contrary to what some would have us believe all cultures are by no means equal. The fact is that one is clearly superior to all the others by almost any measure we may choose as a basis of comparison. All the evidence shows that the West is the only successful cultural tradition of our time while all the rest have shown themselves to be incompatible with the modern era. The claim that all cultures are intrinsically equal is thus not only patently untrue, but it is also one of the most insidious lies of our age.

Any nation that truly desires prosperity, human rights, and progress must adopt western values. Those in other traditions that have done so have been amply rewarded for their prescience. Japan, South Korea and Honk Kong are examples of those who have prospered greatly as a result of adopting those quintessentially western constructs - democracy and capitalism.

Advancement, justice and affluence can only be attained by societies that operate along the western lines. For all their alleged wisdom and insight all the other civilizations have not only failed to achieve these ideals but have invariably produced the opposite, spawning malfunctioning and backward societies. History has clearly shown that the only viable way is the western one. It is the only one that can bring about progress and guarantee a dignified existence for man.

It is rather ironic that while progressively larger parts of the globe are in the process of transitioning to the western model, its internal enemies have managed to undermine it from within. Their weapon of choice - and one which has proven surprisingly effective - is multiculturalism, a ploy by which they seek to dilute our tradition with values of failed cultures. That this subversive doctrine has gained such prominence is remarkable given that the foreign material at its disposal is for the most part not only noticeably defunct, but - judging by the results it produces - to be avoided at all costs. The deep inroads multiculturalism has made over the years are largely a result of the decades of relentless attacks on the West which have undermined its people's confidence in their own civilization and weakened their resolve to stand up in its defense.

Can't you feel 'em circlin' honey?
Can't you feel 'em swimmin' around?
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
and you're the only bait in town.
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
and you're the only girl in town.

(Jimmy Buffet's "Fins," of course)

A primeval Frilled Shark has been videotaped.

Someone needs to remind them that they are humble scribblers who earn their pay checks by selling ads, and are not gods. Powerline explains.

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”

Ernest Benn (h/t, Patriot Post)

An older lady gets pulled over for speeding...

Older Woman: Is there a problem, Officer?
Officer: Ma'am, you were speeding.  
Older Woman: Oh, I see.  
Officer: Can I see your license please?  
Older Woman: I'd give it to you but I don't have one.
Officer: Don't have one?
Older Woman: Lost it, 4 years ago for drunk driving.
Officer: I see...Can I see your vehicle registration papers please.  
Older Woman: I can't do that.  
Officer: Why not?  
Older Woman: I stole this car.  
Officer: Stole it?  
Older Woman: Yes, and I killed and hacked up the owner.  
Officer: You what?  
Older Woman: His body parts are in plastic bags in the trunk if you want to see...

The Officer looks at the woman and slowly backs away to his car and calls for back up. Within minutes 5 police cars circle the car. A senior officer slowly approaches the car, clasping his half drawn gun.  

Officer 2: Ma'am, could you step out of your vehicle please!

The woman steps out of her vehicle. 

Older woman: Is there a problem sir?
Officer 2: One of my officers told me that you have stolen this car and murdered the owner.
Older Woman: Murdered the owner?  
Officer 2: Yes, could you please open the trunk of your car, please.

The woman opens the trunk, revealing nothing but an empty trunk.

Officer 2: Is this your car, ma'am?
Older Woman: Yes, here are the registration papers. Officer 2: One of my officers claims that you do not have a driving license.  

The woman digs into her handbag and pulls out a clutch purse and hands it to the officer. The officer examines the license. He looks puzzled.

Officer 2: Thank you ma'am, one of my officers told me you didn't have a license, that you stole this car, and that you murdered and hacked up the owner.

Older Woman: Bet the lying SOB told you I was speeding, too. 

DeNiro clip, at YouTube

Guess which one was not charged in the London bomb plot? (from a piece at Squaring the Boston Globe)

 

“[This] is a world in which facts always bow to feelings. What matters is not so much that you do good, but that you feel virtuous, or perhaps more to the point, are seen to be virtuous.”

Mona Charen (h/t, Patriot Post)

George W terms Islam "a fanatic and fraudulent religion."

1619 blast furnace found in VA

Hugh Hewitt is a "pathetic pedant." Aren't we all? Isn't a pedant just a stickler for truth?

A serious football fan. Probably the doc felt the same way. I'd call this a win-win-win-win.

Bainbridge compares Hillary with Maggie.

Al Quaida to Bush: Bring 'em on. Brave words?

Am. Thinker slams the Duke faculty.

Saddam obit completed:

Hussein was predeceased by two sons, Uday and Qusay, and is survived by 17 sons: Sooflay, a restauranteur; Guday, who lives in Australia; Huray, a sports fanatic; Sashay, who is gay; Kuntay and Kintay, twins living in Africa; Sayhay, a baseball player; Ojay, a stalker and murderer; Gulay, a singer and entertainer; Ebay, an internet entrepreneur; Bejay, a male prostitute; Biliray, a country music star; Ecksray, a  radiologist; Puray, a manufacturer of kitchen blenders; Tushay, an Olympic fencer; Raygay, who lives in Jamaica; and Tupay, who is bald, and by seven daughters: Lattay, a coffee-shop owner; Bufay, a big eater; Dushay, owner of a feminine-care-products company; Phayray, an actress; Safeway, a grocery store owner; O lay, who lives in Mexico; and Gudlay, a hooker. There is reportedly another surviving son, Oyvay, but he has been disowned by the family.

Powerline tells the sad truth you might not have known about Gandhi, and the sad truth you do know about Jimmy Carter.

Great example of how the the press mis-reports science. Altruism in the Brain.

I can list ten reasons why this report is misleading.

The magazine Psychology Today, which, mind you, is not a professional journal, is determined to spread the word that conservatives are all crazy, and liberals sane.

Our contention at Maggie's Farm is that anyone with certainty about anything is nuts, and many folks with great uncertainties are also nuts. So, anyhow, we will all confess to being quite disturbed.

A-RAB: (As Psychiatrist) Yes!
Officer Krupke, you're really a slob.
This boy don't need a doctor, just a good honest job.
Society's played him a terrible trick,
And sociologic'ly he's sick!

ACTION
I am sick!

ALL
We are sick, we are sick,
We are sick, sick, sick,
Like we're sociologically sick!

So, now we have confessed to our mental instability which renders us probably undeserving of the vote and parenthood, and which likely would open the door to permanent Social Security Disability.

But now Iron Shrink debunks the entire study that created the story in the first place. Gee, that's surprising. It's here. (h/t, Michelle) Well, even if Iron Shrink is right, we are still crazy after all these years - and nobody can take that away from us.

Image: Engraving of Bedlam from Hogarth's A Rake's Progress

Oh my God! She he it Billary announced!

What a shocker. She's only been running for President for 15 years.

This is not exactly a "fresh face," is it?

I'd gladly vote for Condi, but I cannot stand this condescending, calculating, manipulative person. There is something in her voice and manner which says "I am better and smarter than you."

No you ain't. The only differences between me and you, Hillary, is that you are intoxicated by power, and I am not; and that you are a ruthless, mean bitch, and I am basically a fairly nice guy.

 

 

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

(h/t, reader)

Or is our notion of time a psychic construct? Physicists discuss time. 7 minute video. (h/t, Siggie)

Two things of importance are beyond ordinary time: God, and the unconscious.

Klinkenborg in the NYT

This excerpt is from John 17, in which Christ is praying about his followers. We have been reading The Great Divorce, and talking about what it means to be "in the world, but not of it."

14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.