Maggie's Farm

Got any rabid Moonbat relatives?

Man, I do. Our loyal readers are lucky that I got out of there alive. I was close to getting waterboarded, if not tied up and thrown into one of the several roaring fires in the fireplaces (they have four in the antique farmhouse).

All I did was to ask three entirely innocent and unprovocative questions in a mild-mannered, friendly fashion: 1. What if Iraq works out well? 2. Have you ever tried to find out where your "recycled" glass ends up? and 3. Who do you want to pay your medical bills for you? Apparently I am an "idiot," "greedy," "in denial" and a "blind Bush-lover."

There was no possibility of calm, rational discussion. My fault: I have a couple of glasses of wine and I open my big mouth. I gracefully retired from the field after being asked "Didn't you see Al Gore's movie? Didn't you see the hockey stick graph?"

It's almost enough to make a Conservative/Libertarian like me decide to register as a Republican. Every one of these folks is prosperous by statistics (top 1% income, but far higher in assets like investments, home, second houses and land), and expensively over-educated - and each one of them has an envious, brooding, toxic contempt for the presumptively "criminally wealthy." Why do they care about what others do? And why so ungrateful for their freedom to chose their own lives in their own way? Why so bitter?

I am the only one who isn't even in the top 25% income category (I am at about the US average, with no assets other than a modest IRA, a $31,000 savings account in a Vanguard bond fund, a half-paid off Ford F-150 at 0% interest, and a powerful server and router rescued from my friend's company's discards. My modest and comfy living quarters, with wood stove, are rented. I do not do debt, and I do not need stuff; I desire no wine cellar and I drink good beer happily at Rudy's Bar and Grill. Yes, I could use a sweetie wife, if I can find a serious keeper to whom to devote myself.)

I don't give a damn what other people do or make because I chose my own path in life: I do not covet other peoples' money nor would I ask or expect anyone to pay my bills. I believe that my freedom from government power is my wealth and my inheritance, purchased with the blood of my ancestors and of my fellow countrymen.

For that historically rare and remarkable blessing I am fortunate - and profoundly thankful every day - not just on Thanksgiving.

NPR explains why Bush is Hitler. Moonbattery

What is a "cargo cult"? h/t, BL

More on how they think of us. Dissident Frogman

Secular Shakers. As long as these Gaia-worshippers, with a doctrine approximating child-sacrifice, keep this up, they may mercifully remove their genes from the gene pool.

An insider's look at the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound. h/t, Growabrain

Patri Friedman in a comment to his own post:

Lafayette - Democracy everywhere is a farce, in the sense that an individual voter's actions do not matter, and the system as a whole produces many decisions which are detrimental to almost all of its constituents. See the field of economics called "Public Choice Theory" (wikipedia) for a more detailed explanation.

He's a thoughtful guy with all sorts of interests. Going to our Blogroll so we don't forget to keep up with him.

If you have been away from the blog for a few day as I have, you might have missed The Barrister's heart-warming Thanksgiving reminiscences. Also worth a look - my link on Weds to The Feminization of Churches/

I am heading off to Familyland to help give thanks for being a free American, and to pray that I and we will continue to be.  Will dig ya when I get back.

Tiger: The civil rights the NYT does not like.

Iraq: What went right? NY Post

All you need to know about the Care Bear Stare. Lord, help me keep my mouth shut about politics this holiday.

A hate-filled Europe. Lib. Leanings

J School propaganda. Minding the Campus. Worse than teaching colleges.

Affirmative action, hyphenated Americans, and other conumdrums. Kimball

Feminization of the churches. Maxed Out Mama. One quote:

I really have no great desire to be in touch with my feelings. To be a man is to know that if you really expressed your feelings, you’d be locked up for some of the more salacious criminal articles.

I have no desire to lectured to by someone who knows less than I do. I stopped going to a particular church because the rector persisted in discussing economics. Her theory of economics might have best been described as Seussian-Marxist ("I have none and you have two/ Let’s share everything, skippy-do” and “Tell you what, just for a laugh/ Let’s break everything in half").It’s bad enough when the ignorant discuss theology, but I’ve been lectured on law, history, business and politics by total idiots from the pulpit. The conservative clergy generally restrict themselves to Scripture, about which they generally know something.

Read it all. Good stuff. True, too. When they get off the subject of God and Jesus, they are just as foolish as you or me.

Photo on right: Baghdad by night, from a piece at Attack Machine

Ingratitude at Thanksgiving. James Lewis at Am. Thinker.

More on the Supremes and the DC gun ban. LaShawn

Redefining "swift-boating," and re-writing history.

The age-old dilemma: in a party primary, do you vote for your favorite, or for the most electable? Powerline

Busted: NYC cheats on school performance exams.

Jefferson would have preferred blogs to newspapers. Pajamas

It's good to see that VDH was awarded one of these.

A classic Vermonter asks a classic Vermont question: "Have I created a monster which I'm begging to help me preserve or am I just a nuisance to people?" Webster said. "It's a big question." I say that it's too bad more people don't ask themselves the same question. Ya gotta love this codger.

Women sexually abused as kids make more money.

Al Gore gets seriously serious green. TigerHawk. Sounds like a filthy Capitalist to me.

Thomas Sowell on "making a difference," quoted in a No Pasaran piece on how the UN defines poverty:

I would be scared to death to "make a difference" in the way pilots fly airliners or brain surgeons operate. Any difference I might make could be fatal to many people.
Making a difference makes sense only if you are convinced that you have mastered the subject at hand to the point where any difference you might make would be for the better.
Very few people have mastered anything that well beyond their own limited circle of knowledge. Even fewer seem to think far enough ahead to consider that question. Yet hardly a day goes by without news of some uninformed busybodies on one crusade or another.

Darfur for Dummies. Cinnamon

Cultural deterioration in a mediocracy, a quote:

If cultural deterioration is acknowledged in a mediocracy, it is blamed on marketisation. The implication is that cultural products are somehow traded more than they used to be, which is specious. Culture has always been bought and sold, and would not get produced at all without someone to pay for it.

What is different about a mediocratic market for culture is that purchasing power is in the hands of the mass consumer and the state, rather than those of a small elite. The characteristics of the prevailing culture will therefore reflect the tastes of the mass, and the ideological preferences of the political class, rather than the tastes of the bourgeoisie.

Whole thing here. h/t, David Thompson.

Speech recognition comes of age.

Photo: Infidel, from Theo

Neo-neo recalls her first visit to the Main Branch of the NY Public Library on 5th Avenue. Photo of the main reading room on right, from her piece.

NEA study says people aren't reading as much as they used to.

A tour of NYC's holiday window displays in the NY Sun: Window Wonderland

Novack: Clinton is Nixonian

Racist or Culturist? A quiz

Have you ever been served an assault rifle with your coffee? They think this is us

Lawrence Weiner's "mind-stretching retrospective" at the Whitney

Texas challenges "Everyday Math". NY Sun.

When clergy make pronouncements about things they don't understand.

Why the free ad for Maker's Mark? We are providing "equal time" due to the sympathetic post on Jack yesterday. Maker's is the best mass-market Kentucky bourbon.

More on the corrupt CNN debate. Who were the neutral "undecided voter" questioners?

A Democratic Party bigwig
An antiwar activist
A Union official
An Islamic leader
A Harry Reid staffer
A radical Chicano separatist 

Conservatives and climate change, by Rick. A good piece. Personally, the only politics I see in the climate bandwagon is that the Left sees in this a golden opportunity for more government, more taxes, more control, less freedom - and to put a ding in the mighty, uplifting power of free enterprise. One half a degree Centigrade in a century, even if accurate, matters not one bit to me. Count me in as one of the Not Afraid. I still cannot get a decent Beefsteak tomato crop up here, and, as I mentioned, it's snowing.

Teaching the Euros about Thanksgiving. Jules

Driscoll's Quote of the Day a couple of days ago, from Prelutsky's Hypocritical Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous:

"The plain truth is that if guys like DiCaprio, Clooney and Robert Redford, were women, they’d be called bimbos."

Related, at Humbug: The fallacy of Appealing to Celebrity

From Anchoress:

‘Bout a year and a half ago I wrote:

Nothing good will show up in the news until Bushitler is out of office and the Dems are back in. Nothing. Good news has been disallowed. If you want to find good news, you will have to look for it yourself.

Bad news, though, is so welcome it even gets made up.

Read the whole thing.

Clinton Derangement Syndrome? Last Man Standing.

Climate Derangement Syndrome? NYT. It's snowing here, as I write.

Talking about autumn foliage is about as cornball, old-fogie a subject as I can think of, but this fall has been the best in my memory. Since New England has been spared heavy rains, windstorms, and Nor'easters thus far, the leaves are still on the trees in many areas. A visual feast wherever you look, and nourishing food for the soul. It's uplifting, exhilarating, and it reminds me to be grateful for being alive.

Life is wonderful, despite being poor (statistically I am one of America's "poor" - which bothers me not one whit: just a humble, underpaid  journalist junior reporter at a smallish newspaper).

I love this brisk autumn weather which leads the spirit to thoughts of thanks-giving. Life is good. I am going to cook the bird I shot this morning (with my Gramp's 20 ga. Parker) on lentils with shallots and gibier sauce, for my current chick beautiful, intelligent, super-special gal. Wish I had a bottle of Jarhead Red to relax her, but I have something else. (I mean a bottle.)

Try to tell me that I am poor! I am blessed. Poverty is a state of mind.

Hunted this morning. Four or five hours in beautiful woods and swamps, busting brush, and one fine grouse in the bag. Not bad. We only put up three birds, but who cares? Thanks to my friend who lets me hunt his land with its old orchards, tangles, raspberry brambles, and streams. We saw no Woodcock, alas, because I know how to make a killer Woodcock hors d'oeuvre on toast, using its sauteed guts and liver with a bit of wine, garlic, and butter as a sauce for the tiny legs and breasts.

On the right to give offence, at Thompson

Thoughts about Conservatives and Climate Change. Tigerhawk.

Who is blogging, and why? Is the blogosphere in a digestion phase? h/t, Flares. Lots of interesting data on blogs and blogging. Would somebody please remind me why we do this?

Is Belgium a nation? Not really.

Department of Irony. I guess it isn't working very well. Samizdata would like this one.

Yum. Traditional Christmas Pudding.

Driscoll's Quote of the Day:

"The plain truth is that if guys like DiCaprio, Clooney and Robert Redford, were women, they’d be called bimbos."

From Will There Always be an England? in New Criterion, a quote:

Lee Smith, in an article in The American Prospect a couple of years ago, accurately summed up Tariq Ramadan’s “point of view”:

Ramadan is a cold-blooded Islamist who believes that Islam is the cure for the malaise wrought by liberal values. His revision of the jihadist paradigm—peaceful but total—is brilliant in its way, and he may well turn out to be a major Islamist intellectual, far surpassing even his grandfather’s influence. His cry of death to the West is a quieter and gentler jihad, but it’s still jihad. There’s no reason for Western liberals to try to understand that point of view.

That gets to the nub of the issue—both with respect to the reality of Tariq Ramadan’s agenda and what we in the West should think of it. It was not a popular “point of view” at Oxford. But then political realities have always had a difficult time surviving in that rarefied air. On the High Street last month we saw a church placard announcing that they were “praying” to be a more “inclusive” congregation. And remember the Oxford Union in 1933: “Resolved, that we will in no circumstances fight for king and country.” To have resolved otherwise would have been to exhibit what one confrence-goer stigmatized as “cultural essentialism” and a lamentable tendency to demonize “the Other.” How comical Tariq Ramadan and his friends must find these effete moral gymnastics. “An open mind is the best way to look at the world.” It’s such emollient advice, especially if you are bent on making sure that you alone will decide what counts as openness.

I believe that one reason the Left has contempt for Conservatives is for our coarse, knuckle-dragging lack of such effete gymnastics.

Is Santa saying "ho,ho,ho" a new taboo? Wizbang. Ya can't make this stuff up. 

From a piece at Surber: "Arizona Republic reports: “you must be a legal resident to get a driver’s license” — in Mexico."

Excellent site for those in, or who wish to be in, the music business. h/t, Worstall

More people killed by wind energy in the West than by nuclear power

Warmongering, fascist Boy Scout fund-raiser for troops blocked in Cambridge. Cambridge is so sophisticated, isn't it?

NYT warns: Resort owners affected by...snow?

Smoking bans were just the first step for the Health Nazis. Samiz.

Harry Reid,via Breibart:

"Every place you go you hear about no progress being made in Iraq," said Senate Democratic majority leader Harry Reid. ..."It is not getting better, it is getting worse," he said.

How badly does the press want Hillary? Really bad.

The truth about those poor Polar Bears. Jim Miller

Ivy League profs overwhelming donate to Dems. Big Surprise. It must be because they are so much smarter than me.

CBS says Rather has gone off the deep end.

Reagan was a racist politician? There are so many logical holes in this guy's argument that I don't have time to address them. h/t, Dr. X

Photo: Man's best friend, from Theo

Working for Murdoch: Buzz Machine

Nature vs. nurture re race is no longer taboo at the NYT. Auster

Jules after one year of his blog: "I also discovered it’s a colossal pain in the ass, like owning a restaurant." Indeed. Only idiots like us would even try to do it.

John Thain goes to run Merrill.

Moslem wetsuits. Gates

Blame the doctors. Overlawyered

Rangel on "our voluntary tax system." Conspiracy

Ira Levin died, author of This Perfect Day. Cafe Hayek

The revolting, oily Sidney Blumenthal is back working for the Clintons again.

This is the sort of Kos-like shrill hysteria, enraged derangement, fear-mongering, and distortion which is his stock in trade, from a piece at Salon:

Under crisis conditions of an extraordinary magnitude political leadership of the highest level will be required in the next presidency. The damage is broad, deep and spreading, apparent not only in international disorder and violence, the unprecedented decline of U.S. prestige, and the flouting of our security and economic interests but also in the hollowing out of the federal government's departments and agencies, and their growing incapacity to fulfill their functions, from FEMA to the Department of Justice.

Howard Dean makes up his own theology. Everybody goes to heaven? That's not the deal, as I understand it.

Who told the Indians that Thanksgiving should be a time of mourning for them?

Can you believe that Newsweek did this? If they really want to sell magazines, they should just switch to real porn instead of political porn.

The rich are a pinata. Corner

Two links to Rick in one day? What's a little vote fraud among friends?

Vagina dentata. Sheesh. h/t, Vanderleun

Gore goes to Kleiner Perkins. A part-time job. I'll bet it is.

The strange war on homework. Am. Thinker

The insane hatred of the Left towards Bush. Berkowitz in Opinion Journal. "You've got to be carefully taught," right?

Oil speculation has driven gas prices.

What is an "involuntary father"?  Whatever it is, should it pay child support? Dr. Helen

"Stewardship" of the people. Brits called upon to control their people more thoroughly. Moonbattery. This is totalitarianism, or monarchy, by bureaucrat, and Brussels is the new Versailles.

A website to help people with disabilities - Disaboom. h/t, Slower Pace

A negative hotel review from Rick. Tropicana. For starters, I would not be caught dead in Las Vegas. Second, if taken there dead against my will, I would stay at the Bellagio.

A fast food calorie counter.

Merry Christmas. NY Gov. Spitzer will collect sales tax from internet sales. 8.3%, if you can believe that. Aren't internet sales out-of-state? No?

Bush supporter elected PM in Denmark. Denmark?!? Hmmmm. Maybe the world is waking up and smelling the chai skim latte.

Rich Lowry has it right. From Quiet Victory (h/t, Ace):

Forget the briefings from generals, the intelligence evaluations and the Pentagon status reports. There is a handy indicator for whether the war in Iraq is going well — its relative absence from the front pages.

Clintonian terror tactics to keep the press in line:

CNN's Wolf Blitzer has been warned not to focus Thursday's Dem debate on Hillary. 'This campaign is about issues, not on who we can bring down and destroy,' top Clinton insider explains. 'Blitzer should not go down to the levels of character attack and pull 'a Russert.'' Blitzer is set to moderate debate from Vegas...

ie, No tough questions or you are screwed. Russert's question was a "character attack"? That is a lame spin. Related: Camille Paglia on Queen Hillary's Disruptive Court

Is there a vast media conspiracy to elect Hillary Clinton? I have no doubt.

L. Brent Bozell agrees: Whitewash: What the media won't tell you about Hillary Clinton.

Our Yankee friend Raven has had enough of politics at And Rightly So, and has moved over to her Just Raven site - whence the moose photo on the right. As the New England moose population burgeons, this is becoming a common roadside sight. Scary, too: you do not want to hit one with your Prius. A year or two ago I enjoyed a moose filet. Very fine.

The gay choice of deathstyle in Iran. Gateway

Hey students! Stay out of political "engagement" in our local politics.

Praying for rain in Georgia. 

For Dalrymple fans, Decadence, Europe, America, and Islam, from a year ago.

Adding to Ye Olde Blogroll in Science: The Frontal Cortex

How well do dogs see at night?

Bolton kicking ass, back at the UN.

The fungus that causes dandruff. John Hawks

The brain does benefit from physical exercise.

Higher taxes are key to happiness, says Edwards.

Non-poverty in the West creates dire political crisis for Left. I guess their only option now is to convince the middle class that they are oppressed by The System. (h/t, No Pasaran)

Band of Bloggers: video at History Channel

Bluefin Tuna and overfishing.

Number of foreign students in the US increasing rapidly.

The fact that Antarctic ice is increasing does not deter alarmist visiting South Pole. Meanwhile, Vaclav Klaus speaks sense to Europe.

State's economies compared with world economies. 

Why Obama's Social Security tax increase won't work.

Curvy women are smarter.

Those sneaky, slippery Mormons.

US Navy makes a boo-boo. Ouch. That isn't supposed to happen.

4000 year-old temple in Peru, with murals. This at a time when the Indians up here were living in stick and bark wigwams.

What's wrong with Mexico that Mexicans break laws to come to the US? TCS

France's Left wants to find out what Sarko is made of. This is his chance to kick some ass and teach the Euroweenies to grow up.

Thompson first to offer a genuine Social Security plan. Oh, OK, now Obama has one too: Raise taxes. How original!

The Big Green Scare Machine at Am. Thinker. And I cannot resist re-linking this: Weather Channel founder says AGW "greatest scam ever."

Hitchins falsifies MLK's inspiration. Hitchins is by no means stupid, so can I assume that the errors are deliberate?

Worried yet? Up to $400 billion in write-downs due to sub-primes? I see tasty buying opportunities in my near future: stocks, plus maybe a time to get out of my rental.

Calling out the weak sisters at the NYT:

Jules on Frank Rich

Brad DeLong on Bob Herbert

Norman Mailer: Roger Kimball and I are on the same page." Mailer is/was a greatly over-rated would-be hipster.

Evangelicals rethinking divorce? Yahoo News (h/t, News for Christians)

Rove: Pelosi's House is a mess. I prefer it that way.

Blogworld update, from Rick Moran in Vegas.

Liars on infant mortality. Dan Collins has it nailed.

Always gets caught cheating.  Maybe it's because they cheat so often.

King of Spain tells Chavez to shut up.

Intolerance of tolerance. Koukl at Town Hall (h/t, MouseNaround). It's about "tolerance traps." A quote:

Most of what passes for tolerance today is nothing more than intellectual cowardice, a fear of intelligent engagement. Those who brandish the word "intolerant" are unwilling to be challenged by other views or grapple with contrary opinions, or even to consider them. It's easier to hurl an insult—"you intolerant bigot"—than to confront an idea and either refute it or be changed by it. In the modern era, "tolerance" has become intolerance.

Whenever you're charged with intolerance, always ask for a definition. When tolerance means neutrality, that all views are equally valid and true, then no one is ever tolerant because no one is ever neutral about his own views. Point out the contradiction built into the new definition. Point out that this kind of tolerance is a myth.

He recommends:

Be egalitarian regarding people.
Be elitist regarding ideas.

Photo: A red Labradoodle