Maggie's Farm

Warming crisis continues, despite absence of global warming. Related: Texas environmentalists urge solar electric chair  (h/t,NE Repub)

What's the NEA's political agenda this year?

Obama loves to lecture us rubes. Now it's about languages. How many does he speak? (I speak Polish - thanks to a Grandma - plus German, and French. No Spanish.)

Iran rattling its little sabers. What a joke.

Who pays all of the taxes, at Powerline. Quote:

...for the first time in decades, and perhaps ever, the richest 1% of tax filers will have paid more than 40% of the income tax burden. The top 50% will account for 97% of all federal income taxes, while the bottom 50% will have paid just 3%."

also,

Given that poorer citizens always outnumber the rich, political philosophers have worried that government based on majority rule could lead to organized theft from the wealthy by the democratic masses. "If the majority distributes among itself the things of a minority, it is evident that it will destroy the city," warned Aristotle.

Can't Kerry it off. Surber

Feinstein wants to limit congressional speech. WTH? Related insanity: More on the DNC's food Nazis. This reminds me to smoke some pork butt this Friday, for the weekend.

Is the Left conservative? Quoted at Driscoll:

Every mill that shuts down is a "sign of our sad times." No matter that the new mill will do things better, faster and cheaper than the old one. New farming techniques grow more food on less land. But dammit, if there wasn't something romantic about the old-stye "family farm" that's deserving of government protection. Innovation isn't celebrated, it's excoriated for displacing some idealized vision of the way things once were. In matters of progress and dyanmism, the left is far more conservative than the conservatives are.

A report on the recently-discovered Chauvet cave in France, and its art. New Yorker

Obama playing the voters for dupes. Lowry

Extrapolating from a single data point. Climate Skeptic

American cost of living, in perspective. SDA

Bush: buffoon or great leader?

Is Socialized medicine a done deal in the US?

Barack Obama woos Hispanic vote with promise of citizenship for 12m illegal migrants. Free Republic

Canada: an example to the world? Insty

Toon courtesy of Theo

Rooting out racist toddlers. Atlas. Racism in toddlers includes saying "Yuk" to ethnic foods. Photo: Eyeball Soup, an ethnic dish. Yuk.

Now Iraq feels ready for a timetable. Great.

More on free speech and "media reform." Am Thinker

AP: Everything is terrible. We need Obamamessiah. Then everything will be just fine.

How economic liberty produces personal fulfillment. Reason

The sky is falling! Everybody panic! Pajamas

What's Mayor Mike gonna do? Merrill wants to sell $6 billion of Bloomberg stock.

The "Constitution in Exile" vs. the Leftist view. Villainous

Still catching up with Good Stuff du Jour after my long weekend away. It may be TMI, but I do feel the responsibility to put these good things out there anyway, and will give myself a break in the morning:

Photo: Evil imperialist American soldier at the opening of a swimming pool in Baghdad.

A bad economy? Coyote puts our American standard of living into some perspective.

Patriotism and American Exceptionalism. That's my view too. Related: Be a patriot and get a job and support your family: Driscoll

The latest Just Ask Me from Surber. It's a good schtick.

"For many years, I was a charcoal snob..." Prof Bainbridge

Like us, interested in the Scottish Enlightenment

Like us, interested in the illusion of time. By the way, what time is it?

Related to time: The affluent have less spare time. Duh. They do things.

It's not just the NYT. Arianna is upset with Obama too. Sounds just like conservatives' upset with McCain. But do I give a damn about what Arianna thinks? Not really. Related: How Obama really "put his career on the line" re Iraq. Sheesh. Related: Ripping off the Hillary band-aid. Related: Obama's flips don't matter.

Economists support McCain's economics. Related, from Kristol's Where's Murph?

McCain is frustrated. He thinks he can beat Obama (politicians are pretty confident in their own abilities). But he isn’t convinced his campaign can beat Obama’s campaign. He knows that his three-month general election head start was largely frittered away. He understands that his campaign has failed to develop an overarching message. Above all, McCain is painfully aware that he is being diminished by his own campaign.

This last point is galling. McCain has been a major figure in American public life for quite a while. And yet his campaign has made him seem somehow smaller. Obama is a first-term senator with no legislative achievements to speak of. His campaign has helped him seem bigger, more presidential.

UK Updates: Knife crime is Britain's shame. Also, Brown advises Eat all of your food. But how does that work with their war on obesity? Also, what do teachers do these days in England?

Despite the trashing and thrashing that Bush's minimalist Social Security reform plan received, many government employees are exempt from Social Security taxes. Most teachers, for example. How that happened I do not know, but it's a raw deal for us regular folks in the private sector.

The worst Economist article of all time.

Ask what the government can make you do for your country...? Related: A Nuremberg rally? I agree with whoever said that this is getting creepy.

Why the heck is California doing this, if there is no global warming? Is everybody crazy out there? What's the deal?

Jihadis with American police records.

Other ways that a bad credit rating hurts you.

New moves to ban race preferences. CSM

Insty: "EXPLAINING TO THE A.P. THAT Yahoo! is not the government."

Dr. Tim Ball further debunks the warmists. Why do I continue to expect reason to prevail?

A new Watteau has been found, hanging in a corner in an English country house (image on the right). A good chance to remember that artist.

Who was the real first Bozo?

The WTC hole and the politics of "can't do".

A New Declaration of Independence. Purcell at Front Page

Al Qaida defeated in Iraq. Ace: We are winning. Iraqis lead final purge.

Related: The Taliban have a plan. Not a very good one, though.

It must suck to be Joe Wilson today. More on Saddam Hussein's nuclear program at Am Thinker

Sarkozy wants to turn screw on the Irish. Didn't the French referendum also vote down the EU "Treaty"?

Via David Thompson, Abandoned Hotels

Freedom of photography in the UK.

Re yesterday's post on biofuels, How many orangutans per mile?

Rocket fuel needed. McCain tries yet another campaign "relaunch"

Liberal imperialism? A lib wishes the empire had held together.

Obama changing essentially all of his campaign messages. This displeases the NYT. Good update by Viking. He's flipped on the Iraq war, on foreign policy in general, on loving America, on welfare reform, and on abortion in the past four days. More to come.

Got home tonight and spent an hour or so catching up on all sorts of stuff to try to keep me - and Maggie's - up-to-date on the world's latest nonsense. Great stuff, including a whole section on how Obama is changing his stated views on everything. You should'a seen it.

But you won't see it. Somehow, I lost my entire post, and I am beat from a long weekend at sea and a heavy traffic drive home. My body is still rocking - or is the land still rocking? Maybe my brain too. Since I am sure that you are interested, I did catch one ginormous Striper on a wet fly up on the Cape. Released her in the hopes that she will breed next Spring, and ate clams instead.

All I have the energy to post now is a quote quoted by Kimball on British tyranny and Obama's tax plan:

The colonies were taxed at 10 percent of British metropolitan rates and most of that was spent on protecting them from the French and Indians. Obama’s 56 percent marginal tax rate will put British ‘tyranny’ into better perspective for you …

I have dibs on our leased boat for this weekend down in Rhode Island, and will pick up the boat in salty Newport today with a new special friend. Should be good fun even though she doesn't know too much about boats...yet.

Newport is always a pretty good time if you can avoid bar fights with the alcoholic sailors in the local pubs. Maybe we will shove off tonight, or maybe in the morning. I am considering heading to Buzzard's Bay, stopping at Cuttyhunk, popping up through the Cape Cod Canal and then putt-putting around the Bay. Maybe to Wellfleet for the best oysters in the world, and P'town for a Portuguese seafood meal, and then maybe out onto the ocean, Stellwagen Banks to see some whales, then out to the Race for some Striper fishing. Depending on weather, I might take the outside route down to Chatham to hole up for the night, and make a big circle but this trip will require speed and might be too ambitious, not to mention burning tons of gas. The GPS makes it so easy, but filling the gas tank is going to hurt badly. Carpe diem, though. Back home late Sunday night to the Massachusetts woods, God willing. See ya later.

XP was pretty good, but it's gone now.

Rush signs $400,000,000 contract. God bless him. Still less money than the big hedgies make, but he adds more value to the world. He made my lazy brain think, and I am in his debt.

Here's the real story about the Starbucks closings 

"No M2 for you?" Well, you can buy a cannon easily, online.

Let me opt out of Social Security. Please. I understand all of the arguments, but I have no desire to force the youngsters to be taxed for my retirement. My life is my gift, and my problem - not yours and not your kids'.

Jolly good show. Prince William is on the job.

An entirely-intentional chilling effect.

"Artful." It's an artful word.

"Annoy A Liberal - Work hard and be happy," "Work Harder. Millions On Welfare Depend on You!"  and other bumper stickers.

Quack quack. WPAs celebrate 50 years. Good stuff.

Tell Edfu - ancient Egypt. More good stuff.

Unequal America. Naturally, from Harvard Magazine. Two comments on this thoughtful if deeply flawed essay. First, the serious one: It makes the fallacious assumption that wealth is a zero-sum game. Wrong: there is no such thing anymore as "share" of wealth, except via taxation. Wealth has not been zero-sum since economies were based on farming, and you had to own land. It is, and should be, the goal of the American economy that everyone be wealthy, and we've done a better job with that than anybody else in the world. Without the Death Tax, we'd have even more wealthy folks. Me? I am voluntarily poor right now (an IRA, an old 4WD F-150, a boat-share, and a rental apartment), and more than half-loving my single, free-as-a-bird life. When I need more money for kids or whatever, I will find surely find a way. Socialism makes everybody equally poor, and unmotivated to achievement. Second comment: When Harvard College admits applicants by lottery, I will believe in their committment to "equality." Until then, I think their committment to "equality" is the empty sanctimonious elitism which we are so sick of.

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. "Meta-messages" and re-defining patriotism. Am. Thinker

Why America is the greatest country on earth. Ben Shapiro

But some disagree. Who is responsible for "the greatest holocaust in human history"? Hitler? No. Stalin? No. Pol Pot? No. Attila the Hun? No. Mao? No. The correct pomo answer is apparently the American Founding Fathers. Good grief.

Rockin' and rollin' at NRO. Scroll. They are all in a good mood over there. I am, too. Warm beer, and fireworks from the waterfront villages shooting over the water. Always a fine American weekend, regardless of weather. God Bless America.

King Abdullah: Get used to these gas prices.

Who's smearing whom? Politico

How bad is the economy? Stossel. My take is that the economy isn't terrible, but prices are hurting the middle class.

Obama wants more support for faith-based groups. That is a clever chess move. Related: Barack Trudeau Obama?

55% of US handgun deaths are suicides. Gun control, at Pajamas

Al Qaida's new global strategy.

Image on top from Theo

Brits regulate salt shakers. Has anybody considered that these government people just don't have enough to do? Related idiocy: European travel space requirements.

McCain's Universalism vs. Obama's Particularism.

Something hit us in 1908

In France, it's the reputation, stupid. Do we live in a post-factual world? Related: Mr. Valiant for Truth.

Oil makes us sick? Excuse me: oil is wonderful stuff.

In Congress, the guilty interrogate the innocent. Reisman 

Going places. Mr. Obama is going to travel to Europe this summer. How nice for him. A broadening experience and all that, you know? Apparently he has never gone anywhere, despite making millions over the past few years. Related: Obama's real patriotism problem. Hey - we all know this guy doesn't have a patriotic bone in his body. He only sees the negative, as the effete elite like to do. That's allowed - it's a free country - but I am not sure it's a Presidential attitude, or an attitude that appreciates our country's history or its spirit.

Yellow Science. WSJ. Related: Solar cooling

"How I chose a smaller, less-distinguished program and wound up with a better education." h/t, Minding the Campus

The Obama market. NY Sun. Related: Lieberman blasts Obama. Related: MSM provides cover for Obama

In Iraq, "Where's the failure?"

Leaving tonight for a fishing trip (not for Catfish, however), so I will offer this good pile of items:

What it's like to be a bat.

The Englishman appreciates Scalia's historical sense. As do I.

Why humans left Africa 80,000 years ago

Why men are becoming reluctant to volunteer with kids.

Brits harassed for flying their flag

The Canadian Human Rights folks blinked. Driscoll is quite right: it was to save themselves.

What change does Obama offer us? JC Phillips

Americans overwhelmingly support conservative economic policies

Swedish nanny state wants to tell you who to invite to your birthday party. They should tell their nanny to go jump in the lake, or fjord, or whatever.

More on "I hate practicing medicine."

Via Bainbridge: Justice Breyer as culture warrior.

Re guns, Surber's Just ask me

What's really up with Arctic sea ice? (And do we care? Well, it is interesting.)

My view on oil markets. Coyote

Time for a Grand New Party?

Beijing is ready. Just don't breath the air.

I agree that this is stupid.

Liberals as enablers of totalitarianism

Taliban back to their old ways. Gateway

I went to Wiki today to check the history of the Fairness Doctrine

I also had to refresh my understanding of the Turing Test. The real question is whether people can think.

The value of a practical education: John Hawks. Related, at Villainous, who wonders who should teach

From a piece at Dino:

The Beltway MSM are historically 12 to 1 for the Democratic ticket, and have said that their favorable coverage is worth perhaps 15 points in electoral results. That’s in a normal year. But this appears not to be a normal year; we sense that there’s payback on the minds of some in the press. The coverage could get pretty out-of-control before November rolls around.

The Bad News Banks

Amnesty International hits bottom

The EU goes to ground

Why guns are a feminist issue. Class. Values

It's just a question of who they're afraid of. Indeed.

More on the father of Canada's health care system, and his renunciation of it. It's a basic lesson in how reality works.

Why McCain isn't doomed.

The New Patriotism will be on display in Denver. Also, no fried food? Good grief.

Change we can be shocked at. Rick Moran

Getting the French to work. (h/t, Flares)

It's about Amendments 1,2, and 14. The NY Sun on the candidates and Heller.

And Tiger on the NYT on Heller. A quote: "There are plenty of Constitutional rights that drive inefficient, inconvenient, or even unwise public policy. One can recognize that a right exists and deplore the consequences of the right." Lots of wisdom in that simple sentence. Rights aren't about efficiency or even effectiveness - they are about human dignity and freedom. As the old saw goes, "Mussolini got the Italian trains to run on time."

Save the planet - ban drive-thrus.

The insane world of Congress. Powerline. Nevertheless, House Dems seem headed for a "permanent majority." Even if deserved, it's a depressing thought because they do not seem to understand even the basics of free market economics - or to value freedom as I understand it.

The DC gun ban case should be out this morning. It won't be the be-all and end-all, but it will be interesting.

Why the Left abandoned Darfur. A quote from Bernard-Henri Levy at SC&A:

We are prisoners of a scheme of thought in which, if you are a victim and if you don’t play a role, if you don’t have a part on the big stage, in the big history, in the big tale of the opposition of the evil empire and the good anti-imperialist forces, you don’t really deserve attention.

Why passenger trains don't work in the US: Charlie Martin at Pajamas

A Utah warning for McCain

Dems want the fairness doctrine back. At Tiger: "There should be no doubt that this is nothing less than a broadside attack on freedom of speech."

Another guy eaten by a Mountain Lion. Too bad they won't stick with healthy fruits and vegetables. I guess they haven't had the advantage of modern nutritional "science." It's best to be armed in serious lion country. You can't throw them a banana any more than you can throw a Jihadist a pork chop.

Anatomy of surrender. Bruce Bawer in City Journal: "Motivated by fear and multiculturalism, too many Westerners are acquiescing to creeping sharia."

Global warming causes terrorism? Add it to the list. I'm pretty sure it causes my Athlete's Foot, too.

Check these photos of Berkeley antiwar folks. The pics say it all.

Our blog friend at Squaring the Boston Globe is resigning from blogging following his wife's cancer diagnosis. We will miss his good work, but it's the right thing to do. Best to his family, and God's presence.

The case against Turkey's ruling party.

Prison had "criminal subculture." That's headline news, folks. Why won't jailbirds behave like the sweet, passive, innocent victims of The System that they are? Guess they didn't get the memo.

Who are the subprime villains? Every story needs a villain. If you're a paranoid, anyway.

And, speaking of witchhunts, has it occurred to Americans that those evil evil oil speculators might not be American? Hong Kong to have its own commodities exchange. Chart on the left from the piece at Dino.

Photo: Cahoon's Hollow, Wellfleet, Cape Cod

That's a photo of Ellen Carrington, Miss Tennessee, who carries an S&W .40. I see nice bulges, but no gun bulge. Maybe she cutely stows it in the back of her panties.

European vexillophobia

Stunning pic of Sting Ray migration. (h/t, Grapevine)

50 scientifically-proven ways to be persuasive.

God bless the speculators. Stossel

Great moments in climate alarmism. Climate Skeptic

More Quincy. Mirrors

FEMA doing a great job. That's not news, though.

Obama's lack of normal modesty. Am Thinker

Big governments serve the needy worse

Performance-enhancing drugs in the white-collar workplace

If Scalia writes DC v. Heller (h/t, Insty)

Ethanol: minimal impact on gas prices, pressure on food

Thank you for smoking.

More on global cooling

Physics prof says nothing you can do about warming. Too bad, because I think we need more global warming, and I'd like to help.

When talking makes things worse. Max Boot

Since when did the Presbyterians go insane? Good grief.

The 100 push-up program. Like Joe Carter, I will begin today. Naw, maybe tomorrow...

The AP wallows in a parody of gloom.

"Could be seen as patronizing" Really?

Iran's "nightmare scenario" mulled: NY Sun

Defending the faith: LaShawn on Christian Apologetics

Another Obama flat-out lie.

McCain gets meaningful endorsement.

A Coney Island of the Mind, revisited. The first time I read it, I was blown away.

Academic cannon fodder.

A lesson in economics from a Chinese finance minister.

Look at job growth in Texas.

The Bush Paradox. David Brooks. A quote:

Bush is a stubborn man. Well, without that stubbornness, that unwillingness to accept defeat on his watch, he never would have bucked the opposition to the surge.

Bush is an outrageously self-confident man. Well, without that self-confidence he never would have overruled his generals.

Quoted at EU Referendum:

He was asking, "Has Europe's terminal crisis begun with a triple no vote?", telling us that, "The ultra-Europeans have overplayed their hand," and then asserting: "We can now glimpse a chain of events that will halt, and reverse, this extremist push towards an Über-state that almost no one wants."

He may be right when he says: "the attempt to override the triple "no" votes of the French, Dutch, and Irish peoples has brought the EU to a systemic crisis of legitimacy," adding, "A line too many has been crossed. Any sentient citizen can see that the process has become unhinged."

Girls forbidden to whistle at construction workers

Quote from a speech posted at Brussels Journal:

To say that the luminaries of the conference disappointed my hopes is to understate things. But to say that that were luminous is to be perfectly accurate. I’ll just name three of the most prominent and powerful:

•    Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanouglu of Turkey.
•    Former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
•    His Royal Highness Prince Turki bin Faisal al Saud, former director of Saudi intelligence, and until recently the Saudi Ambassador to the United States.

These men are educated… well traveled… experienced… wealthy… and Westernized. And each of them told the conference that for the West and Islam to reconcile, the West must abandon the principle of free speech.

A pilot's ideal cockpit, via Theo:

The Czech libertarian spirit is alive and well. SDA

In defense of sweatshops.

There is no reality in the Dem energy "policy."

The best movie ever about Communist Romania

Miss Tennessee has a concealed carry permit.

Majority of Dems want to nationalize oil industry. Is that before - or after - they nationalize medicine and Big Food? Maybe they should just tell us what they don't want to nationalize.

Evidence supports School Choice. Pajamas

27 daily affirmations for bloggers

Carla and Michael attack the Massachusetts tax dragon. Good luck to them.

I am breathlessly awaiting the Supremes' DC gun ban decision. Any day now.

Bad boys get more girls. (h/t, Flares)

Another drop-out who made good. Carl

Right Wing Prof vs. The Power.

Obama losing his sheen? Pajamas. Heck, he's just another Chicago pol. Breaking his promise re public financing clinches the argument. But the card he has up his sleeve is the Race Card.

Is the high price of oil really unintended? Synthstuff. He is right: high oil prices is Dem official policy.

Should McCain pick a lady Veep?

Pot OK, tobacco not.

The incredible disappearing Iraq War. Confed. Yank

The Global Warming Inquisition. We just knew this was coming.

Do you know your lumber? Not like Sipp, you don't.

Citigroup to fire tons of bankers. A once-great company is now a mess. Thanks for nothin', Sandy Weil.

Newspapers in deep trouble.

Why I don't want kids. Captain Capitalism. Kids are, no doubt, impractical. But who wants to be practical?

Correcting your Mozart deficit. NY Sun

Sharpton vs Imus, Round Two? Good grief.

Me back from Maine, refreshed and full of clams, mussels and Codfish, and happy to have a hot shower with something called "soap." My summer vacation time is all used up, but I still have my weekend boating schedule to keep me summering although I am already thinking about hunting season.

Did some thinking about how to improve my little corner of Maggie's Farm, but did not come up with any great ideas, other than to post less, more often, if only to make my job easier for me. I am not trying to compete with Insty. However, I have catch-up today since I have been happily without any news for going on two weeks. Funny how life goes on just the same whether you know what's happening or not. News is at least half entertainment and diversion/distraction but, on the other hand, being informed and involved is one's duty as a citizen in a free republic - even in summertime.

Sad to hear about Russert. A decent, likeable fellow, too young to go. Carlin too, although I never quite enjoyed his humor too much. Memento mori.

Here's a view of Acadia park, where I have been bumming it. Yes, the water is cold:

Back to reality? What is "reality"? One Cosmos

My alcoholism, from Dean's World. A damn good piece. (h/t, Mod. Voice)

A vehicle from the point of view of a dog. Bad idea: dogs must be expected to adjust.

Another blogger we enjoy takes a break. Prof Deneen. Wise move. Production without compensation is insane. At Maggie's, we are all insane.

Mordechai Kedar on that Al Jazeera interview, at Youtube

Dr. Merc already posted this, but it's a serious point. Obama not ready for prime time. But neither was Bush the Younger. Related: How to read a far Left-wing hack like Frank Rich. Related: Thinking about David Brooks' piece on Obama

Power blackouts in the strangest places.

The NYT is rife with biased reporting on Israel. They are rife with biased reporting about everything else, too.

Pssst. I can make you a deal on a Pious Prius. It's a marketing triumph.

Another Irish referendum? I guess you can keep making them vote until they vote the way you want them to.

The exodus of the middle class from San Francisco. Isn't it rather basic that prices go up when a thing is desirable? What's the big deal? That middle class is making a killing by selling their SF houses.

Theophobia. Prof. Bainbridge

Loses 80 lbs. on a MacDonalds diet

16 year-old plans solo sail around the world. Mom claims to be relaxed about it.

Happy 5th Birthday, American Digest. Vanderleun is a member of our cybertribe, I think.

Kelo update. Volokh

Democrat language, translated. It is not complicated.

Not enough cheap power? Blame the Evil Corporations.

Are men more sexy if they do housework? Dr. Helen. Sexy or not, of course men do housework. It just has to get done sometimes - but as little as possible to maintain minimal decency. It's called "man clean," meaning that the pizza boxes and beer cans go to the garbage before you have a girl over.

Via Coyote: "Democrats are great public supporters of science over faith (e.g. stem cell research, evolution) except when the science is economics and one's faith is in government."

Where's the virtue in permitting evil to triumph? Neoneo

What's the Dem energy policy? Related: The Big Lie about ANWR.

The big economic story of the year is about the bond insurors. From Bloomberg:

"Financial Security and Assured Guaranty Ltd.'s insurance unit were the only bond insurers to keep a top rating and stable outlook from Fitch, Moody's & S&P."

FSA has been the strongest, meaning there is no hope for Assured. 

and more at Bloomberg:

"The funds are concerned that they may get stuck with the debt because banks that have agreed to act as buyers of last resort can cancel those agreements when insurers' credit ratings drop below specified levels."

and more. It's a fascinating story with all sorts of implications for debt markets and for muni markets. I don't understand the ins and outs of credit default swap pricing, but I can understand the implications of the collapse of the bond insurors. As we said here months ago, if Maggie's were a billion-dollar fund we'd have been buying distressed credits for 8 months. And now we'd be selling them to the other hedgies and making millions.

There appears to be no popular biography of Rush, a man who would be of interest even if he had not been a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

As our readers know, Rush was the preeminent American physician of his day, the founder of American psychiatry, a pioneer in the humane treatment of the mentally ill and of prisoners, a pioneer of the therapeutic approach to addiction - and an ardent revolutionary who antagonized Washington (he wanted Washington out as being an inadequate strategist - which he was).

He was also a passionate Christian whose faith guided his life, and his fierce opposition to slavery did not endear him to many. He founded the first Bible society in the US.

This book by Brodsky seems like less of a popular bio than a compilation of Rush's huge correspondences. 2000 Rush letters survive.

This one by David Barton might be the best one out there.

Here's Rush's autobiography

Here's his book, Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind.

And, no - I have not been invited to anybody's grand  waterfront "cottage" in one of those upper-crust Maine villages. I will be roughin' it in Acadia Park, like the working class, no-trust-fund, non-country club Reagan Republican that I am, with some old college pals.

Definitely no golf. Clams, beer, and lots of fresh fried cod with fries and cole slaw. Salt and vinegar on the fish. A few lobsters, too. I shall swim - or at least immerse - in that ice-cold June water, if only to try to stay clean. Lots of hiking around. No golf, but some deep-water fishing.

I have pre-posted some things to try to help keep Maggie's in business. See y'all in a while. (No, I do not do cameras. I do love looking at photos of stuff, but I learned that, when I go somewhere with a camera, I focus on the camera instead of on the thing itself. So I gave 'em up.)

FYI: I will likely be away the rest of this week and next, depending on the weather. I really do need a vacation with plenty of salt water, seafood, sand, and sun. Boating this week around RI, Montauk, Cuttyhunk, Nantucket, and Chatham, then, afterwards, camping on the coast in Maine. That is my current plan, anyway, but I do not camp in rain: been there, done that. I will try to post if and when I can, and will pre-post a few items if I feel inspired.

Sometimes I wonder why I turned my "links" posts into a near-daily item. It just grew like Topsy, but it was never intended. And it was never intended to try to be timely - just interesting. Our original idea here was to avoid the timely (and to limit our total number of posts to 3-4/day max), because you can depend on the rest of the web for hot news. However, one does tend to get caught up in ephemera - if only as diversion and for its entertainment value.

Yes, I do need a little vacation from politics, work, and the internets - and some good American perspective and some good American clams and a good American sunburn or two. I am amused to see our excellent blog pal and fellow Yankee Jules doing the same thing.

This Irishman knows what he's doing. Apparently he is not inclined to vote his freedom and autonomy away. Clearly, he is not "Progressive."

With health care "reform," Ted Kennedy would die right away, In the remarkable world of modern medicine, only rationing can cut costs. I forget the exact stats, but something like 80% of US medical care costs are in the final year of life. Adding weeks or months to dying peoples' lives is one expensive thing at which medical science has excelled. (Don't get me wrong - it has also produced wonderful, near-miraculous things.)

Stuff White People Like: Having gay friends.

Al Gore investing in a carbon credit company. Related: Is global warming really a pressing problem? Related: The cost of an insurance policy matters.

The fundamental right to be left alone

Steyn on Obama's "humility". I still think Obama's promising nice weather forever could set people up for disappointment. Related: Obama - A True Ideologue, at Pajamas. Related: No Pasaran quotes Goldberg:

[FDR's] New Deal gave Americans "hope" and "faith" in a "cause larger than themselves." Hope for what? Faith in what? What "cause"? The answer: the liberal God-state or, if you prefer, the Great Society — which is merely that society governed by the God-state in accordance with the general will.

Panda s*x. With photos

Upper photo: Nice boat
Lower photo: The News Junkie, hard at work.

No slacker left behind. Moonbattery. After all, rewarding effort and achievement is just so Capitalistic.

1000 kg WW2 bomb defused in London. Still ticking? How can that be?

Chavez eating some crow. About time.

Actor Bob Anderson died. Who? You remember him.

I always loved Simenon. Read some of his in French (in school), most in English. I had no idea he was so prolific.

Canada signs trade agreement with Colombia. Not the US, though. Since when did "Love thine enemy" mean "Hate thine friend"? And who elects people to love my enemy anyway?

Chuck Hagel joins the Blame America First crowd.

How John McCain can use the internet

Why the electoral college will never go away.

The Guardian's position on Islam

Britain's Free Speech breakdown. Can I say it again? Brave New World is not a handbook.

What could Mark Steyn's punishment look like? h/t, piece at Tiger

Serious finger-painting

Lots of good posts at Coyote

Quoted in a piece at Villainous:

The U.S. birth rate is 2.0, just below replacement. We have an increase in population because of immigration. When broken down by ethnicity, the Anglo birth rate is 1.6 (same as France) while the Hispanic birth rate is 2.7. In the U.S., the baby boomers are starting to retire in massive numbers. This will push the "elder dependency" ratio from 19 to 38 over the next 10 to 15 years. This is not as bad as Europe, but still represents the same kind of trend.

Obama: Lightworker. Good grief. Maybe he really is the real Mighty Quinn. Either that, or our reporter is freakin' insane from homoerotomania. To me, he is the teeny-bopper candidate. Hey - the dude is just a Commie Chicago pol who talks like a preacher, for heaven's sake. Maybe reporters just aren't used to hearing preachers.

O'Rourke as quoted in a piece at No Left Turns:

The problem on the left is, now that Karl Marx has forsaken them, they have no philosophy. Thank goodness. Think what evil creeps liberals would be if their plans to enfeeble the individual, exhaust the economy, impede the rule of law, and cripple national defense were guided by a coherent ideology instead of smug ignorance.

Obama maps a 57 50-state campaign. They have the money and the volunteers to do it. Related: Phony ops build the Obama Myth. Related, from Big Lizards:

Barack Obama, giving commencement speeches, sneers at graduates whose vision is to own their home or business. Instead he exhorts them to do something about global warming or other manufactured crises of the left.

“You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy,” he said about a week ago, as if this were an ignoble pursuit.

He would prefer this:

But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

“It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.

That interpretation of the promise of America might be a surprise to the people who actually did build the country. You know, those who hitched their wagons to oxen, not ideology. That’s how this country was built. Obama might know that if he had ever actually created a job, instead of attacking those who have.

My "individual salvation depends on collective salvation." Huh? What? Since when? I think I need a vacation to deeply ponder this notion of "collective salvation." Or is the "wagon" I am supposed to hitch onto just the same old IRS?

How about a vaccine for human flatulence?

The Reaper in action, in Afghanistan. Video

Bob will be touring in New England in August

We need more leaders like Vaclav Havel

Is DC's military checkpoint plan unconstitutional?

The blooming of red Burgundies

Getting Mugabe out. LA Times

Israel: Iran attack unavoidable

Cashing in on Castro's cashing out.

Parliament has little to do anymore.

Peak oil vs speculation. Blodget on oil prices