Maggie's Farm

How to identify a cigar at a distance: Know your cigars.

Dems knew about "torture," but kept silent until now. Why? They knew all along. Lying phonies.

Who is Andrew Ferguson? An interesting guy.

Four hours, 400 on stage, plus a goat. War and Peace at the Met. Somebody, please invite me!

How green was Bali? Bali was a joke.

Nanny-staters just never, ever, ever stop fucking with people. Ace

Nobel winner: Y chromosome greatest threat to mankind. Take your glasses off and try saying that to my face, you pencil-neck weenie.

Best-kept secret in the MSM: Despite everything, the Bush economic boom continues.

Boom and Bust. US housing. CSM. And Kling on your income and your house, at TCS

Let them eat cake. NY Philharmonic to play in N Korea

Candidates' net worth. Money

Rubber room? Big tension in Hillaryland. As low-life scheming politicians go, I do like Obama - but none of his views. I think Hillary is a liar and a Commie and a closet Fabian.

Time Magazine has carried a torch for Russia since Stalin. Still does.

Afghan Army goes after Taliban. CSM

Eco-Religion. It's usually not as dramatic as this one-minute video depicts, but I still think it's basically a religion.

K-Mart Shoppers!  Holiday Trees? I still do not know why "Christmas" is so offensive to retailers. Is any shopper in the world outside of Saudi Arabia offended by Christmas?

IPC caught manipulating data on sea levels. IBD. Locally subsiding lands, like eroding places, are not examples of sea level rise - and how can sea level rise be local anyway? h/t, Tangled Web

Cathedrals of Insanity. EU Referendum on wind turbines in the UK

Clear simple explanation of the sub-prime ripple effect. S&M. And how it happened on the ground, at Dino. Is there a grim hysteria in the financial world? Yes. I hear it everywhere I go.

Ignoramus du Jour. Maureen Dowd

Dems admit that "paygo" was a con game. No kidding!

Somebody told me that they thought Hillary Clinton was a Fabian. I think so. She looks like one.

The horserace. There is something to this at NY Magazine:

...Romney’s entire presidential bid has the feel of a PowerPoint presentation come to life: linear, analytical, bloodless. The game plan that he and his advisers devised was straightforward. First, raise a ton of dough. Second, play the inside game: Court the Beltway Republican Establishment, neutralize the most vocal sources of potential opposition, rack up gold-plated endorsements. On issues, cravenly disregard what Romney once stood for, tailoring his positions to make him minimally acceptable to the three legs of the GOP stool: social, economic, and national-security conservatives. Pour resources into Iowa, win there and in New Hampshire (where Romney retains a pronounced quasi-hometown edge), then roll to the nomination.

Romney would be a fine President, but he is not an inspiring candidate, and people - rightly or wrongly - want to feel inspired. He is like the CEO/Country Club candidate. That's what we need.

Phony: Gore takes train, his luggage takes a Mercedes. So does he really believe, or is he a poser?

Politics:  The Oprah and Obama Show: Althouse. The show is making big waves.

CA diocese splits from the Episcopal Church. I doubt that it's all about homosexuality. The Episcopal Church has been an empty suit for years.

Do we need death? Bailey at Cato Unbound

Nowadays, even cranks get a hearing. Central Park horses

A quote about Krugman and health care at Just One Minute:

...Hillary and Bill made it clear in 1993 that their goal was use health care to create a huge new middle-class entitlement, thereby positioning the Democratic Party as the purveyor and protector of these middle-class benefits in the same way that (back in the day) the Democratic Party wooed the elderly by being generous with Social Security.

Biofoolishness at Blue Crab. I was about to comment that Rufus will have something to say about this, but I see he has already engaged Gaius in the comments.

"Should my wordless kid go to school with your normal kid?"

Another view on 9-11 and Afghanistan and Iraq at Overcoming Bias:

If the USA had completely ignored the 9/11 attack - just shrugged and rebuilt the building - it would have been better than the real course of history.  But that wasn't a political option.  Even if anyone privately guessed that the immune response would be more damaging than the disease, American politicians had no career-preserving choice but to walk straight into al Qaeda's trap.  Whoever argues for a greater response is a patriot.  Whoever dissects a patriotic claim is a traitor.

Initially, there were smarter responses to 9/11 than I had guessed.  I saw a Congressperson - I forget who - say in front of the cameras, "We have forgotten that the first purpose of government is not the economy, it is not health care, it is defending the country from attack."  That widened my eyes, not so much for agreement, as for that a politician could say something that wasn't an applause light.  The emotional shock must have been very great for a Congressperson to say something that... real.

But within two days, the genuine shock faded, and concern-for-image regained total control of the political discourse.  Then the spiral of escalation took over completely.  Once restraint becomes unspeakable, no matter where the discourse starts out, the level of fury and folly can only rise with time.

Baby-selling in Guatemala. Even worse, baby factories for the American market. But I ask this: If you're a middle class white suburban American family and adopt a Guatemalan baby, can that kid put "Hispanic" on his college application? And, if so, what does it mean?

Cuba damaged by Chavez defeat. h/t, Insty

How our military has had success in Iraq.

A Merry Media Christmas. Am. Thinker

Gays in the military: A statement from some retired generals.

China to the West: You can go to hell messing with your emissions. 

Gay Patriot thought this sounded like an interesting book, and I think so too. Education's End: Why Our Colleges Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life

Quackery supported by Brit NHS. Why? Because it's political, of course. Socialized medicine is all about politics, not medicine.

Eye disease and Impressionism. Neurophilosophy

Before we go all hysterical like Andy Sullivan, here are the facts about those CIA tapes.

A player to make people like golf who don't like golf

Chavez: Our people aren't mature enough. Dr. Sanity. Not mature enough to want to be serfs to the State?

What is "sloth"? Kimball

When a bad kid smiles at a teacher.

What gun laws do for us.

The case for English as the official language. NY Sun

Is this guy getting a bad deal? I have never seen a child porn site, but what if I just wanted to see what was on them? Cramer

Magna Carta for sale.

Dissent not allowed in Bali. h/t, Insty

More on The Death of the Grown-Up: Driscoll

The logical flaw in modern Darwinism. Auster. It's about the human instinct for teleology.

Kangaroo farts are Green. What about Wallabees? All I have here is a whole bunch of Wallabees.

G.I. Jill. Gateway

Image: Thomas Nast's Santa. History of Santa here.

When will the global warming arrive? It's cold as hell up here. When is warming supposed to begin? Do I have to wait 20 years? I can't wait.

Search elsewhere. 72 virgins at Wellesley? Lucky just to find 72 cute gals at Wellesley these days.

Streisand supports Clinton: Obama dirty tricks blamed

Intellectual conformity and the cascade on the globalistical warmening hoax. Never Yet Melted.

Ho ho ho. You're fired.

Religious schools do best in Britain.

Best piece I've read on The New Republic fiasco. Iowahawk

A boring subject, but it's no joke. The AMT. Conspiracy. More good on the AMT: Big Lizards

Hey shrinks! A new diagnosis: OMS (Offended Muslim Syndrome)

The Dems dislike Uribe (he's not a Commie), but he is saving Colombia. The American. Lucky Colombia, unlucky Venezueala. A Harvard guy, but clearly not brainwashed.

All too easy to satire. Madeleine Bunting wants the State to control your fun. What a pill!

World's hardest easy Geometry problem. Coyote.

Are the Dems still in a Wonderland, where international hostilities can be handled like problems in Sunday School? Opinion Journal

No smoking in your own apartment? NY Sun

San Francisco will Save the World! With a new tax, conveniently. New taxes are the real Convenient Truth.

Iraqis protest Al Quaida. That tells me that they feel safe.

Eric thinks the Global Warming hysteria is just the latest device to try to foist communitarianism on America. I agree. With poverty fixed as well as it can be, what else is there to use as a crisis?

Re Canada's investigation of Steyn. It is just as we always warn, from Ace:

This is shameful. All those dark fantasies conservative "crazies" concocted about the left actually becoming Nazi-like and Stalinist in purging and persecuting those it found troublesome on the right... well, they're not fantasies, and those conservatives weren't crazy. People like me who said "Oh shush with that nonsense, they'd never dare, they too have a commitment to basic liberal values, if perhaps not a very strong one" were actually the crazies.

Whiners. From a Rasmussen South Carolina poll report:

Thirty-three percent (33%) of South Carolina Democratic Primary Voters say the economy is the number one voting issue. Twenty-eight percent (28%) name the War in Iraq while 14% say Health Care.

What's wrong with the economy? We have complete employment and the subprime mess doesn't effect the average person - it hurts Wall St. Iraq is going well, and everybody gets medical care if they're sick. What's the problem?

- In which we are reminded anew of Hillary's antediluvian trade policies. RedState

- Hillary gives Wall Street a Warning, quote from the NY Sun:

 Senator Clinton gave a clear indication yesterday that as president she would be happy to intervene in the management of the economy if she thought the free market was failing middle-class Americans.

Speaking to donors and supporters at Nasdaq's headquarters in Times Square, Mrs. Clinton threatened legislation to regulate the mortgage lending industry closely if money managers do not come up with their own scheme to defray the effects of the subprime mortgage collapse. She also served notice on wealthy Americans that they should be prepared for tax increases.

- Quoted from Hillary's Charm Offensive by Voegli at No Left Turns:

Haven’t we seen this before – the boundless sense of entitlement, the fury at those who would presume to deny the self-anointed candidate her destiny? Despite all the talk about how Hillary had grown in the aftermath of the health care debacle, the stories about how she had learned to play nice with others in the Senate, the same attractive attitudes and habits that endeared her to the nation 15 years ago are once again on display.

Carl Bernstein’s book, A Woman in Charge, reports that in 1993 the First Lady beguilingly told a group of Democratic senators, who expressed doubts about the political feasibility of passing ambitious health care reforms, that the Clinton administration would “demonize” those who stood in the way of her plan. It was the last straw for Sen. Bill Bradley. “You don’t tell members of the Senate you are going to demonize them. It was obviously so basic to who she is. The arrogance. The assumption that people with questions are enemies. The disdain. The hypocrisy.”

When her task force of 500 members and 34 committees sent the Democratic Congress a bill that was 1,324 pages long, it sank like an anvil. Smaller, simpler measures might have passed, but the First Lady refused to support any plan but her own. Bob Boorstin, a media relations deputy with the task force, told Bernstein that Hillary is “among the most self-righteous people I’ve ever met in my life.”

"Uppity nigger" Obama upsets Clintonistas badly. Honestly, the attitude of the Dems towards black Americans does remind me of the segregation days. They are not supposed to wander off the plantation or to make any trouble for Massa.

Portland ME ties 1890 snows. Globalistical Warmening causes weather, dontcha know. We didn't used to have any weather before this warmening crisis.

Don't blame me. Blame my credit card.

Controlled drinking? LaShawn

Enviros oppose wind farms. For the wrong reasons, though. I think wind is stupid because we could easily meet all of our electrical needs with cheap nuke power, with zero environmental impact.

The CSM is already blaming world events on global warming, when global warming hasn't happened yet, to a meaningful degree. It's a theoretical prediction, but that is obviously news to our "objective" reporters at the CSM.

Bacon comes from rocks? I wish.

Washing your car is immoral. Glad to hear it. I hate doing it. If I can now be moral instead of lazy by not doing it, groovy.

Polls, shmolls. Rasmussen. Obama: People do not like Hillary Clinton. Duh.

Who is your turtle? Evang. Outpost

Image: Thanks, BL. More suitable for Halloween, however.

Seattle parish introduces astrology. It's marketing. Groovy, far out, dude.

Curtis Sliwa wants to get involved in NY politics. Nobody knows the city as well as Curtis does.

Doesn't it feel good to "make a difference"?  Sanctimonious  goofballs.

Bali, from Seattlepi (via Drudge)

The U.N. estimates 47,000 tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will be pumped into the atmosphere during the 12-day conference in Bali, mostly from plane flights but also from waste and electricity used by hotel air conditioners.

If correct, Goodall said, that is equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, such as Marseilles, France, would emit in a day.

And we are supposed to think they take this seriously?

From a Brit blogger via Mr. Free Market:

I SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT UNTIL THE PISTOL BAN IS REPEALED I WILL BUY, MANUFACTURE OR OTHERWISE LEGITIMATELY ACQUIRE AT LEAST ONE GUN OF SOME DESCRIPTION EVERY SINGLE YEAR, NO MATTER WHAT MY FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES.

Not that I will not break any laws but I will do my best to be as politically-incorrect and individualistic as possible at all times. This is the non-violent, gentle revenge of a freedom writer. Who's with me?

From a piece on climate hysteria at EU Referendum:

Cartoon from Siggy. More Santa cartoons there.

I am heading off hunting early tomorrow morning, but wanted to leave our readers with a few good links before I leave. Related:

A quite extraordinary thing happened to me on Wednesday. I was out shooting with a few friends and we were walking from one field to the next down a country lane when a battered old Citroen screeched to a halt, the window was wound down and a young hippyish woman stuck her head out and shouted “Murderer” at me.

Read the whole thing at Devil's Advocate. I need to keep an eye on Barry Beelzebub.

Mummified dino shows its stripes.

“Is the AP going to be charged with an in-kind contribution to the Clinton Campaign?” Rick Moran

Sarko is wrong about at least one thing. Who in the world is impressed by French policing?

Harry Reid: Iraq is getting worse.

CNN is the Corrupt News Network. LA Times. Kinda like the BBC.

Let us not be timid in the face of bullying. David Warren

Vote for the white guy!

The hamlet of Narvik lost money speculating in subprimes!

Great moments in progressive taxation. Coyote

A fine gardening site. Garden Web. h/t, MouseNaround

Photos: The 20 ga. I am bringing for grouse tomorrow. It's an old Abercrombie and Fitch. Well-banged-up, but shoots straight.  Below, a happy Tuesday Morning tottie from Theo who is not coming with me, I am sorry to say.

I am listening to Imus this morning on his debut on WABC. He is talking about the Rutgers thing in a wonderful, serious, and personal way. He is talking about his alcoholism and drug addiction. He says "Things worked out the way they should have worked out." He says the experience changed him for the better. "You can waste a lot of your life being bitter and unforgiving." Final bit of his monologue: "Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still Satan, and I'm back on the radio." He has Levon Helm playing on the set with Larry Campbell. Just terrific to hear Levon shoutin' it out. And no, I am not a big Imus fan, but I thought I would give him a chance this morning.

A big NO for Chavez. That is great news for the Venezuelans. But, like the EU constitution, he'll find another way.

"The things America spends money on." Auster

Teddy Bears, Parked Cars, and Moral Equivalence. Powerline

Dr X responds to the NYT piece on Psychoanalysis

Behead the enemies of Steyn! Dr. Sanity

Zimbabwe ringtones. h/t, Theo

I mentioned The Fear of a Blue Planet yesterday morning. In a piece titled Clear as Mud, Crittenden reminds us of a Hillary Clinton quote:

“We can talk all we want about freedom and opportunity, about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but what does all that mean to a mother or father who can’t take a sick child to the doctor?”

He comments:

Well, okay, what does “all that” mean to someone stuck in congested traffic? Or annoyed by the price of cable television? What does Mrs. Clinton mean?

I do not find her quote to be ambiguous. It's plain as day. I believe that she is saying that "liberty and opportunity" are obsolete. Show me one sick child in America who is denied medical care, but, before you begin looking, I will warn you that you will not find one. (Me? I just want free legal care when I get my DUI. And free gas, please, for my truck - and would you throw in free car insurance, please?)

How does her view differ from that of Lenin or of Chavez? My point is that if the ends justify the means, then any unmet human want or desire or personal responsibility can be used to rationalize the whittling away of freedom, American values, and the American way of life. And in whose hands does that power end up? In the hands of politicians - the last people in the world one would want in charge of your personal life.

We should not re-design the government for those few who have big trouble in life. We should just charitably arrange to take care of them, but not sacrifice our ideals to do so. Charity is good. Government power is not, because government is populated largely by arrogant, ego-driven, power-oriented folks with minimal experience in the real world, and who know more about DC restaurants than they know about folks like me who want nothing from them except to be left alone.

Give me American freedom, and let me take my own chances and live by my own choices, wits, and my own luck, and let me deal with my own difficulties without government interference or "help". I am an adult.

As readers know, my view is that life in America is meant to be difficult and challenging (while full of opportunity to find one's own path, and with abundant charity from people and from government to protect those who stumble), because that is the price we pay for freedom. Serfdom is secure but soul- and spirit-stifling, whether the Lord of the Manor is the King of France, the Duke of York, a bureaucracy in Brussels or Moscow, a plantation owner, or the US government. A weak government is a good government.

I believe that the once-worthy Dems (eg JFK) have been entirely captured by the "deep swimmers of the Left", as Horowitz terms them - abetted by the guilty or noblesse-oblige-oriented ultra-wealthy.

Some of these links don't work - I apologize - will fix after church.

The Fear of a Blue Planet. NY Post. Yes, it does frighten be a bit because I do not think those folks give a darn about my individual freedom. They claim to care about the "greater good" of "the people," but I never met "the people." History tells me that "the greater good" means a power grab from me to the State, with efforts to placate me with bread and circuses and cheap doctors trained in Pakistan, Russia, and Africa. I do not like that; I do not approve of that, and I do not think that is the American way: that's what our Revolution was all about. If I were running for office, I would run on "the American way."

The Pope on eternal life. NRO

Repub candidates and immigration. Flares

Dutch CIA spies on Dutch media. Pajamas

Canadian Molson Beer drinkers will drown French prisons?

The Enigma Machine in flash. h/t, Grow a Brain

The Museum of high-heeled shoes. h/t, Thompson

Catching up on the teddy bear story. Yes, I am sick of Moslem Rage too. As someone noted recently, Hate Week is every week for the Moslem Rage boys - and for the rabid Dems too.

The NYT always finds the negative. Since war is no longer staggering Iraq, now corruption is. Trying to be multiculturally sensitive, I thought that bribes were an intrinsic part of Midde Eastern culture - so this must mean that things are returning to normal.

The ripple effects of the subprime mess: Nobody knows what it will mean. Dino

Photo from A Slower Pace. Kentucky is Dan'l Boone country.

More thoughts on the Dems as the party of the rich. Dr. Sanity

Venezuelans flee to NYC. NY Sun

Rodney King. Still an icon of dysfunctionalism.

How to go to college for free.

How to date at the office. Dr. Helen

Keep your laws off my body. Except... Coyote

The Dems want a bilingual America. Pure pandering, IMO. I can speak French and German (and a little English, aka Modern Friesian), and the only thing that might motivate me to learn Spanish is to read Cervantes. The only language I covet is Sienese Italian.

The latest on cybercrime and spambots. We have had our tussles with spambots here.

Prepare ye for the end! Rick Moran thinks Pat Buchanan's new book is over the top.

CNN: We're not embarassed by our lack of journalistic integrity

Dr. Bob on Medicare:

The history of Medicare is a history of regulatory tyranny which invariably results in “unintended and perverse consequences.” When your local hospital closes, after this proposal is implemented, be sure to write your Congressmen and local Medicare officials to express your deepest appreciation for their efforts to improve health care quality.

I always wondered about this too: PC says kids cannot hold hands, but they should get condoms in school. Protein

Gingrich predicts Obama in Iowa.

Why does Free Speech matter? Stumbling

All about the Sten Gun. FMFT

Excllent update on the endlessly-annoying and tedious subject of the Palestinians, at Jules

Update on Hillary Clinton's radical past: via Powerline

Is $97,000 family income rich? Polipundit discusses. No, it certainly is not rich in the Northeast, after 45% state and federal taxes and a mortgage payment.

More on The Sound of Settled Science. Small Dead Lemmings.

Jewish students flee Moslem mob in Canada

Control freakery in the EU: Tangled. And speaking of creeping tyranny via nanny state regulation of everything, see "Reasonable Regulations" at Alphecca.

The history of ideological hatred. It's about ideology replacing religion. From a piece by Dunn at Am. Thinker:

It will grow more rabid in time, as it always does. When Rudolph Giuliani is elected, they will turn on him the same way they did Bush. They already have in New York City. (In all discussions of Giuliani's "failings" I have yet to see anyone point out that Giuliani is the sole Republican candidate who has put the boot to the liberals successfully and repeatedly.) For that matter, Mitt Romney would be in for the same treatment if he were elected. Even Ron Paul, borderline radical that he is. 

Any Republican elected to high office will be treated the same for the foreseeable future. So the media may as well knock off all the marveling on how hated Republican office holders are. At this point, it's simply part of the job description. Liberalism has become the party of hate -- the first major party to fit that description since the heyday of the Know-Nothings. You can check the record and see how long they lasted. 

As ye sow... Intellectual, peace-loving Presbyterian youth with guns in France battle cops.

More on Vin Gupta and the Clintons, via Lucianne

Eric at Classical Values on guns, urban and rural. Gun rights are one of the third rails of politics in the US.

Gives you whiplash. During the first Bush campaign, Gore was the muscular neo-con and Bush the quasi-isolationist. Then 9-11. When Iraq got challenging, the Dems changed horses in mid-stream and became limp defeatists. But now what? And is it all just partisan wrestling, really? My opinion? Yes. That's our system. As The Barrister always says, "You cannot be too cynical to understand politics."

Jules on Iraq=Korea. A quote:

This sets up a logical strategic arrangement, addressing vital U.S. and Iraqi interests, that illustrates how ridiculous withdrawal proposals have been, as they concentrated on abandonment without regard for any internal or external consequences.  Particularly the Murthite “over the horizon” proposals.  I’d suggest 50,000 U.S. troops in bases would have to have significant combat capability if they were to be prepared to carry out any of the roles outlined above.  Sounds almost … Korea-like. Maybe more like our 62-year arrangements with Germany and Japan. Watch and learn, as Iraq and the United States forge an opportunity not to repeat the wretched experience of Southeast Asia.  Who wants that? Oh yeah, right.

Photo: Why the odalisque from Theo? Because I think she could add a bit to the discussion of epistemology in the previous post.

Rudy's Roots. Who is Rudy, and what does he believe in? Much detail in Newsweek.

A Chavez Freezing Fenzy. Gateway.

Fur is Green. FMFT

The insanity epidemic. Moonbattery. Paranoia, stupidity, or plain boredom with life?

Insty found this brewing story about the Clintons and Vin Gupta.

MVRWC asks:

At one point will a Clinton candidacy prompt the following question of Laura Bush “Do you feel qualified to run for President, after eight years as First Lady”?

What would be the reaction if she said “being First Lady doesn’t qualify you to be President”?

Total Control: How Brussels regulates our daily lives. Der Spiegel

The Times of London tentatively outs Hillary Clinton

American Thinker outs the Nazis

Chauncey Bailey and Oakland's Moslem Bakers. Classical Values

Thompson has a tax plan. Makes sense to me. Kudlow likes Fred.

Immigrants an economic boon to NY State? NY Sun. I see no distinction made between legal and illegal in the story, and I wonder about those numbers.

Rowan Williams - Public Embarassment. Roger Kimball

From useful idiot to useless idiot. The Tanja Nijmeijer story.

Mankind is killing the entire universe? Dino. There's a subject for Gaghdad Bob.

LA Times tries to make beach erosion into a global warming issue. Dumb, or deceptive?

The vast power of the Saudi lobby. Israpundit

Up to one billion songbirds may be killed during each migration - hitting glass.

Worst archbishop in history? Times Online. Commenter Tony G says:

If anyone wishes to understand why the Church of England has lost all relevance to society in the 21st century they need only examine the biased, sanctimonious, naive utterings of Williams. He should restrict himself from lecturing others on their behaviour until he has set an example of how to constructively face and overcome the many problems facing society in his diocese.

Stockholm Syndrome? Kidnapped by Taliban and now defending Jihad.

My sense is that Hillary Clinton's heroes are Saul Alinsky and Eleanor Roosevelt. A good summary of Alinsky's political tactics for radicals here. A sample:

You do what you can with what you have and clothe it in moral garments.

Goals must be phrased in general terms like "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," "Of the Common Welfare," "Pursuit of Happiness," or "Bread and Peace."