Maggie's Farm

The quantum computer will make our machines look like the horse and buggy. Science Daily. More details here.

A cheap MRI. "I am not going to pay a lot for this MRI." Weekly Standard

Putin is a martial artist. Never Yet melted. Not surprised.

Is The Guardian obstuse about Hamas? Hatemonger. I cannot be that charitable: They are propagandizers for Hamas.

Beware of government as the last action hero. Mark Steyn

Was Scooter Libby a surrogate defendant? A scapegoat for Armitage?

Is Universal Health Care just a Trojan Horse for greater control? Coyote

The US: The cause of all problems on the earth. Driscoll

The joke that the UN has become, plus a very funny comment - really a series of comments -from Donald Trump about UN incompetence.

From a piece at Dinocrat:

...recent history has shown, as it did in the day of Churchill (The River War), the real destruction that can be unleashed, as in Gaza, by the young, bloodthirsty, and religiously hopped-up, who come to love the frenzy of wanton destruction. If such men enjoy their days of slashing throats, shooting the random bypasser, and raping and pillaging and then retire back to families and villages that welcome and house and feed them, what, ultimately, is the alternative to razing those villages?

Photo: a sexy 1958 Ford Model N

Asmus in The WaPo. A quote:

Democrats today have a problem with democracy. We have lost our voice on the issue of promoting democracy abroad -- which means that what was once a core Democratic foreign policy idea is being ceded to the GOP.

Who anointed Bono to speak for millions of Africans? Why should Africans require a pompous if not megalomaniacal condescending white European pop star to speak for them, as if Africa were populated by helpless children?

A quote from a piece by Brendan O'Neill in Spiked:

Indeed, we could just as easily ask what earthly right the G8 itself has to discuss and determine what should happen in Africa’s poorest countries. Like Bono, no G8 leader has ever been elected by the nations of Africa. For these leaders, the G8 summits have become a kind of moral spectacle, intended to show that they care and they have a humane and giving side; our leaders find it easier to show ‘moral courage’ on Africa than on divisive issues at home.

Israel will attack Gaza. via Drudge. I suspect they may show America how to do it right, but probably without an obsessional concern with collateral damage.

Repub Senators in danger. Surber. The worst part is that they deserve to be. They aren't called "the stupid party" for nothing. Most smart Repubs go into the world, not into politics, so you end up with bozos like Trent Lott, and with folks who cannot communicate, like George Bush.

60% of Baghdad not under control. It's crunch time. But Flopping Aces says stay the course. Clearly, there are problems trying to fight a compassionate war: it's an oxymoron. Speaking of which, read Habu's comments on the post prior to this one. A quote from Leon De Winter:

During the past four years, 170,000 Americans have died in traffic accidents. For young people, traveling in a car is the leading cause of death. Over the same period, 3,500 Americans were killed in Iraq in a war against radical Islam. These statistics haven't been properly contrasted.

Voters are such an annoyance, Part 334. EU pursues superstate powers by bypassing national referenda. It's a perfect set-up for future civil war within the EU, because some people are trying to build an Empire without force of arms. Consider it - Napoleon and Austria and Germany and Russia tried to do the same thing.

Speaking of Ramblin' Jack Elliot. Elliot Agnopoz, born as the son of a doctor in Brooklyn. Even "authentic" show biz is fake. I do like Ramblin' Jack, though, even though "ramblin'" referred to his tendency to ramble when he speaks rather than riding the rails. Who doesn't like him?

Almost forgot to link that Schwartzenegger story about learning English. What a joke. Learn English - it's a fine language. I wish Bush could speak it.

Photo: A bit of Father's Day totty for the dads out there, from the Theo Spark Collection of Fine Art Photography. God bless all Dads, including my own Dad.

Addendum - by coincidence, a piece by Driscoll yesterday on pre- and post-Dallas liberals. 

As you know, Nifong resigned in disgrace. Every detail of the trial at Durham in Wonderland. Thus far, no apologies from the Duke faculty who so desperately wanted the rape story to be true.

"Canadian nice" just never lets up. Canadians honor terror supporters. Dust My Broom

The lovely Clinton couple "peeked" into their blind trust. Wizbang. What would be the news if Dick Cheney did that?

"Body movements and non-verbal responses such as moans are not consent." They aren't? Since when? Coyote.

A WMD flashback, from The Guardian, at Norm

Smart Dem women prefer Obama to Clinton. Oxblog

The EU as an Orwellian Superstate. Tangled Web

What is a criminal and what is a terrorist/combatant? TigerHawk

Teaching Truths: Attack Machine on a Dr. Sanity piece on edumacation.

Remembering the Bonefish. Reasoned Audacity

Maggie Thatcher, Reagan, fear, and cats: Sisu

The unwelcome return of the immigration bill: Don't get me started. Kesler explains some of the things that are wrong with Trent Lott.

Art photo: A friend of Theo

John Edwards the Witch Doctor. An ambulance-chaser thinks he is going to solve Health Care! Solve what? Surber.

Hahaha. The Cornish Liberation Army. h/t, Blair

Roger Simon interviews The Great Steyn, on video. Pajamas

California wants all dogs castrated. That doesn't sound very nice, but Classical Values opines that what they really want is all males neutered.

Speaking of castration, Synthstuff has a perfect pair of balls.

Why Gaza now? Powerline

Flipping out about the flipping Senators. View from the Right.

"When they say "cycle of violence", it means Pallie attacking Jew. When they say "senseless violence", it means Pallie attacking Pallie." SDA

2000 Waterbury CT students may need to repeat grade. Don't they have Truant Officers any more?

What, indeed? EU Referendum.

What, besides simply trying to build a "post-democratic" Oceania, ruled by genius, unelected bureaucrats who will generously spare you the trouble of thinking for yourself and stressing your tiny brain?

Coldest June in MA in 7,412 years. You could look it up. Lows in the 40s. Women and minorities hardest hit.

Don't let the rabble vote. Some things are far too important and complicated to let the people decide. Like gay marriage. Viking

Gov. Patrick wants to spend a bit more of our money. As quoted (from a Globe columnist!) in a piece at Squaring the Boston Globe:

The governor is proposing free community colleges, universal preschool, full-day kindergarten, 1,000 new police officers, an extended commuter rail line, a $1 billion biotechnology investment, and property tax breaks.

That's like pulling a new BMW into my driveway, putting Red Sox season tickets in the glove compartment, leaving the hottest cellphone on the driver's seat, filling the trunk with video games and DVDs - and then asking my son if this dazzling array interests him. Of course it does. But just like the taxpayers of Massachusetts, he has no way to pay for it.

Stumbling on Happiness: A book I want to read. h/t, Dino, who has a quote.

"We got it whether we liked it or not." A Brit on immigration. Small Dead Gophers.

The Haditha story. Bruce Kesler has been following it closely. I suspect that all will be exonerated, but their lives will be in ruins and their hearts broken.

The deportation abyss. Why is it so difficult to throw someone out? Michelle

Gaza. It's now a brand-new mini-state in the Middle East, controlled by Iran. Some wag on a blog (I forget who) noted that the Palis now have their two-state solution: Gaza, and the West Bank. At Ace, But we're not Jews.

Antioch College surrenders to reality.

Jag, Volvo and Land Rover are for sale.

'08 Elections. I hate discussing this - it's way too early. However, I think McCain is a goner. I think the old-time smoke-filled back rooms might have picked Romney. I think Giuliani could win a national election, but could have trouble with some primaries. I like Fred Thompson.

I do not care for cats, but that is one cool Savannah Cat in the photo. Story at Synthstuff. If that animal wandered around the neighborhood, somebody would lock up the kids and call Animal Control.

Evil, evil nativist requests that people speak English. Protein Wisdom. Personally, I demand that you speak English, unless I feel like practicing my French or German.

A call to arms in Britain. About time. Confederate Yank,

He talk like a white boy. LaShawn

CAIR is a Potemkin Village. Powerline. 26 donors, and they put their spokesmen on TV? CAIR is now a proven scam.

From "global warming" to "climate change." Shrinkwrapped thinks that change in wording heralds the end of that silliness.

Menopause chic. Neo-neocon.

Big Babies. The press wants special treatment. Dr. Sanity. They live in a dream world, like academics.

It's not the economy, stupid. Viking. Find another issue.

The grim truth about Darfur. Sometimes you have to let the fire burn, and wring your hands, and wish there were something to do, says Jeff Harrell.

D-Day. Another badly mismanaged battle plan. Aren't they all, in retrospect? Every armchair general is a genius in retrospect. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Lincoln had left the popular McClellan in charge.

For your convenience (but mainly for our convenience), we have added the following sites to our Blogroll of Honor: Memeorandum, Prof. Deneen's What I Saw in America, and Dumb Still Looks Free

A great Connecticut couple.

20 years ago today, Reagan almost did not say "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

Will amateurs threaten the porn industry? Crittenden. I have always found it amusing that hookers refer to non-working girls as "amateurs" in the same way that cops and soldiers refer to others as "civilians."

How Tyranny arrived in Zimbabwe. Kirchick in Weekly Standard.

More evidence for the theory that delinquency has biological roots.

"You can't base your immigration policy on a bad old poem on an ugly French statue." Small Dead Baby Seal. With Steyn. 

Richard Rorty and Pragmatism. Deneen, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Evil, greedy Big Pharma. Attack Machine

Slo-mo Kristallnacht in Canada? Driscoll

Steyn in The New York Sun. It begins thus:

I forget where I was when I first heard the phrase "undocumented worker." Possibly it was after swimming the Rio Grande and emerging dripping on the northern shore to be handed a fake Social Security number and a driver's license. But I assumed, reasonably enough, that this linguistic sleight of hand was simply too ridiculous to fly even with the American media. I underestimated my colleagues, alas.

Sweden, Today. It is getting depressingly Brave New World-ish. Teaching little kids how to be transvestites, however, seems illogical to me.

Captain Ed says the Fred campaign did not come out of nowhere. The elites hate to give credit for brains to folks with Southern accents...except for Bill Clinton. 

The NYT somehow manages to make the Eastern European enthusiasm for America look like less that what it is. Tried hard, too.

How McKinsey blew it for AT&T. How did all of those smart guys imagine that people wouldn't want cell phones? Samizdata

Cafe Hayek on Landsberg's fine piece in the WSJ. It's about human progress, and how it happens.

Bank of America giving credit cards to illegals. (h/t, a piece at View from the Right)

Schwartzenegger's spending spree. I guess he'd rather join 'em than lead 'em.

Why Africa is difficult to help. Gee, it's the same reason everyone is difficult to help.

From VDH at NRO (h/t, reader). A quote:

The old postwar order is tottering on the brink of Islamism, oil-price hikes, energy shortages, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, Russian belligerency, global-warming concern and hysteria, and war.

Europe is at the edge of the chasm, despite its strong euro and strengthening economy. Once convinced that they would serve as a kinder, gentler Western answer to the United States, Europeans would offer humanity a sort of soft-power colossus that would check George Bush’s “dead-or-alive,” “smoke-‘em-out” America. They would fix through good works what we had botched. That welcomed alternative seemed attractive to many as we slogged it out in Iraq, and the “I told you so” Europeans felt justified that military power really does cause far more problems than it solves.

Read the whole thing.

I like to be in America!
O.K. by me in America!
Ev'rything free in America
For a small fee in America! 

A quote from Heather MacDonald's The Republicans' Hispanic Delusion at City Journal:

Even Republican Hispanics are not particularly conservative on economic issues. A 2002 poll by the Pew and Kaiser foundations found that 52 percent of registered Latino Republicans supported a higher-taxing, larger state sector, a higher percentage for big government than one finds among white Democrats, reports Steve Sailer. As for the majority of Latinos—poor and poorly-educated—the more government services, the better. Mexican consulates across the country are busily signing up illegal Mexicans for all the free government-funded health care that the consulates can find—that would be American - not Mexican-funded health care, mind you. “We have the right to health services,” an illegal Mexican in Santa Clarita, California, told the Los Angeles Times.

This attitude of entitlement—not only among illegal aliens but also among legal Hispanic immigrants and their children—extends to the full array of welfare programs. In fact, welfare use actually increases between the second and third generation of Mexican-Americans—to 31 percent of all third-generation Mexican-American households.

This wave of immigration arrives with different hopes from America than previous waves who, we are told, sought only opportunity and/or political freedom. Of course, that might have been different if there had been government programs at the time of the Southern Italian and Irish immigrations.

I will be away for a few days fishing, boating and beaching around Rhode Island and "The Islands." Heading off to Watch Hill tonight, and will pick up the boat in the morning in Newport. We are planning on touching down on Block Island of course, Cuttyhunk, the Vineyard, Yuppie Nantucket where we will be the smallest craft in the harbor, and probably Chatham - living on fish, beer, and clams on our leased new Whaler 345 (photo below), which has no wifi. We might stop at Monomoy for some birding, and maybe hit the rips at Montauk for some fishing if we have time. I'd rather sail, but we need to cover plenty of miles to do what we plan. When you are an employee, they might not pay you too well, but they give you paid vacation days. Why they do that is beyond me, but they do it. (Photo is one of Theo's girlfriends who I would like to meet on the beach, but she would not give me the time of day. "Hey, babe. Nice bathing suit. Are you lonely? Whatcha doin' tonight?"). Where's my tackle box?

Is this Hell? 1,680 guitarists play Smoke on the Water. LGF

Which Repubs voted in favor of illegal immigrant felons becoming citizens? Daily Pundit

Keep an eye on this guy Gupta. Powerline. He knows how to hire people.

Web censorship. The latest fad. All of the cool countries are doing it now. 

Younger wives in the White House. Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. I think Frances Cleveland was a great looking lady - maybe not babelicious, but very fine.

God, evolution, and politics. Can you find the ten dumb assertions/statements in this piece in the usually-good New English Review?

Better off illegal? Immigrants take heed, and get on board. It's much better to be illegal than legal.

Gets it wrong. Edwards claims gun ownership is a privilege. Huh? Given by whom, John? (h/t, Viking). I thought it was all about "endowed by our Creator..."

White Lit Prof takes a niggardly look at tar babies. Protein Wisdom. You would have to be a total ignoramus - and a paranoid - to construe such things as racial slurs. He discusses "intentionalism."

A fun letter to the editor rant from Brit Barry Beelzebub, who has had it up to here.

Hillary's plastic surgery? I guess she can afford it. From Granny to Soccer Mom. Before and after photos to the left. Can Botox alone do that? And can they get Fred Thompson to get the same treatment? He looks older than he is.

Moslems really do not trust their women. Moderate Voice. Why not?

Harry Reid claims that illegals are Americans. Wait just a minute, Harry. When I am in Japan, am I Japanese? Or am I Japanese only if I am in Japan illegally? What happened to passports and all that stuff?

Fark's Drew Curtis on news, etc. from an interview at Right Wing News:

I think news is kinda like church: we all say we go, but most people don't and it's one of those deals where the...numbers don't bear out (what people say).

Brit nose art defeated by political correctness. Don't want to offend Moslems. Maybe the missiles will contain buttered popcorn and the bombs will be filled with goody bags.

No Looking Backwards (in this morning's links) linked to an editorial in New Hampshire's Union Leader, which explains the freedom view of the world in terms of the minor issue of mandatory seatbelts.

When freedom is removed from the political equation, and replaced by benevolence, the result is tyranny. Don't all tyrants say they want what is good for some or most of "their people"?

I love the C.S. Lewis observation, which we often quote:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

I will trust free markets over government any day of the week.

The problem with all of the "minor" issues - trans-fats, smoking, motorcycle helmets, seatbelts, gun control, etc - is that they eventually add up to an oppressive, dispiriting burden, as in the UK. A quote from the Union Leader article:

When the state crosses that line and begins protecting adults from themselves, the people have lost their authority over the state. At once, there is no decision the state may not make regarding an individual's personal behavior. The people have conceded that power, and it is no longer theirs.

New Hampshire remains the "live free or die" state, and its people take that motto very seriously. Start telling them how to live their lives, and they will start telling you exactly where you can go.

That's right. But you can feel like a nut and a crank standing up and opposing each tiny, seemingly well-intentioned step that government takes, even though the imposition of most of these issues is really driven by controlling do-gooder cranks with too much time on their hands. The problem, as I see it, is that these are laws, not advice. Heck - I usually use my seatbelt - especially when I am  driving my pick-up, drinking Coors Lite, reading the paper, shooting various animals and shooting various annoying people out the car window, listening to the radio, eating a bagel, talking on my cell, and blogging on my Blackberry - all at the same time, like every normal busy red-blooded American does.

If America doesn't still stand for individual liberty from state power, then what good are we? If we, and our politicians, remove individual liberty from the equations they apply to law-making, what are we?

If laws have to have "Environmental Impact Statements," how come they don't have to have "Freedom Impact Statements"? (I don't think I am the first to say that, but if I stole it, I don't remember from whom.)

Addendum: I should also have re-linked the Cafe Hayek piece on the subject of trans-fats (which government experts insisted upon, just a few years ago, as an improvement over lard) and the food Nazis. A nanny with cops and guns backing her up is worth calling a Nazi, in the sarcastic Seinfeld sense of the term, if you ask me. (See our Mayor Bloomberg satire, which some readers thought might be real.)

Appalling examples delivered fresh, daily, at Moonbattery

Will you marry me for an hour or two? It's wedding season, and wedding anniversary season, and Moslem clerics have endorsed the "One-hour marriage." Cool. No alimony, one would hope. (h/t, Vilmar)

Rip Van Winkleski wakes up, finds world changed. Attack Machine

Freeman Dyson on video, on warming hysteria, via Classical Values

Bush rocks Prague. Quotes from his speech on freedom. Gateway

Do not read this book, says the New York Times

Hillary talks about "her faith." Tammy Bruce. Meanwhile, Obama catches up with her in polls.

Remember the kid who shot that monster pig? It might have been a farm pig. (h/t, Reader)

New Hampshire rejects a seat belt law, and No Looking Backwards explains, in no uncertain terms, why that's a good thing.

Similar issue re trans-fats, at Cafe Hayek. A quote:

None of these things are really worth fighting for, are they? Are you going to picket a politician for making some other folks stop smoking or wear their seat belt? Not worth it.

Of course, that's how the nanny state grows. It's just not worth fighting any one infringement of liberty. So no, I'm not going to fight for the right to buy a locally-baked pastry with good mouth feel.

But I will fight against the idea that the Montgomery County Council has the right to ban trans-fats. That's why I'm writing this post. That's why I mention it to my neighbors. It requires a bit of schizophrenia. But it's healthy. I don't care about trans-fats, but I care about the ban. I care about the principle.

The principle is tricky. It's not the right to eat trans-fats. The principle is that I don't want powerful people to decide what I do with my body or my life. Those are my responsibility. They are my responsibility because that's what adulthood is. Adulthood is being responsible for the risks you take, reaping the rewards and enduring the costs.

60% of Brit Moslems think the London bombings were an inside job. Driscoll

Global cooling anticipated in next 20 years due to solar cycle. A few challenges to the AGW True Believers. Tangled

Olympics logo, improved. It you can believe it, the logo which appears to represent something collapsing cost $800,000. But it is slightly improved, at An Englishman's Castle

The Brits are "a people." DNA confirms it. They are not a "nation of immigrants." Is it possible for a nation to retain its identity and its sense of family-like connection with massive immigration? Doubtful. Discussion at Brussels Journal

Even Nat Hentoff has had it with the UN. Close it down. As we have said many times before, nations can, and do, talk to each other anytime they want without the UN getting in the way. Just one more failed utopian dream. Moonbattery. It is painful to think that any of my money is going to support them. More at Viking.

Interesting lawsuit. Ouch. TigerHawk

Vermont secession movement advances. What would Lincoln do?

Can the media admit that anything is good? Conspiracy

What was the Number 1 song on your birthdate, wedding date, etc? (h/t, Never Yet Melted)

Have you seen Panoramio? Map your photos. Google is buying the company.