Maggie's Farm

A confessional from Neal Gabler: The Secret Shame of Middle-Class American.

Living beyond one's means, and not saving. Not a happy combination.

Yes indeed. We'd be lost without it

Fossil fuels are natural and organic.

Bill Whittle Goes Into the Lion's Den

Darn good job.  Why the college admin called him a Nazi and deleted his speech/Q&A is beyond me. Why not just call him a poopy-face or something if you don't like his points of view?

Whittle is a likeable, humble, engaging fellow. I would enjoy meeting him over a beer.

Why do you like Trump?  Is it because you think he is the only Repub who can win, is it his attitude and the atmospherics, is it plain hope, or is it his policy tendencies?

Besides immigration, in my view nothing he says about policy makes any sense to me. So why Trump? Tell me. I am persuadable.

Steyn's piece on Merkel is relevant to the AGs going after Exxon:

What a disgraceful person she is, the worst German chancellor since ...well, I don't want to go all Godwin's this early in the piece. But a few years ago, when Maclean's and I had our triple-jeopardy difficulties with the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission, the Ontario "Human Rights" Commission and the British Columbia "Human Rights" Tribunal, the response of many of my fellow Canadians to the eventual outcome was along the lines of: "Well, I don't know what Steyn was making such a fuss about. The process played itself out and he was acquitted. So the system worked."

Some of these people were genuine innocents who've never been caught up in a time-consuming seven-figure legal battle before. But many others were making the argument cynically. They know that, if you can tie up a book or a magazine article in court, then there will be fewer books and magazine articles.

The litigants win whether they win or lose. Exxon can afford the lawyers and the time, but can you? Thus self-censorship and paranoia.

Will you really make the USA more like Sweden?

If so, I am on board.

Re yesterday's link about what the hippie discovered, a David Burge quote:

"Capitalism" isn't a "system," it's a word made up by an 1860s hipster dipshit to whine about people voluntarily buying and selling stuff."

A Hippie Discovers Economics, And You’ll Never Guess What Happens Next!

Polygamy is constitutional in the US. It has to be.

Of course it is. It is not the Court's job to reinforce culture, customs, taboos, and traditions other than their own. We can label some things or people as immoral or depraved, but there is freedom too.

Pop culture changes as Judeo-Christian standards decline. Adultery used to have a death sentence unless you were royalty or an aristocrat. Today, it seems unremarkable as habits of the lower classes and those of the rich and powerful converge.

The quiz.

Over my life, I have been in and out of bubbles. Either is fine with me.

And what will the new money be?

This is not money. It is currency:

Smart young fellow, still a little wet behind the ears. "The Left is not going to let you live your life."

It was 23 F. in NYC this morning. Warm would be welcome at this point. When you figure a day's temp varies 30 degrees, what matters 1 degree per century? Even if it is real? Who cares?

Via American Digest via Federalist article:

Can New York Fix Its Housing Crisis? The New York City Council passed a number of measures meant to ease the city's housing crisis. Will they work?

Of course not. They never do.  Every issue has to be called a crisis these days, to the point that the word has no impact.

It is a fact that housing costs in desirable urban areas are high, and you do not get much for your money.  So while market forces are at work, market forces are also contending with all sorts of government interventions which distort housing markets and have unintended consequences: zoning, subsidized housing which is often termed "affordable housing," rent control, multi-year hurdles for new construction which only people like Trump can overcome, etc.

One thing I know for certain is that, if you want "affordable housing" in a fancy neighborhood of Manhattan, you had better have a friend in the Mayor's office. You get government friends with money.

The lady is a space archeologist: View From Space Hints at a New Viking Site in North America

Many of them do, anyway. Let's face it: they do not come for the culture or the political freedom. Or for the weather.

I do not think this applies much to Muslim immigrants to the US, for some reason. The Muslim immigrants I encounter seem to jump into American bourgeois life with zeal and gratitude that can put native-born Americans to shame. Nonetheless, at the moment I am opposed to any new immigration to the US.  The country is unsettled by it, and there is not enough work anyway.

Former Trump Operative: The Donald Never Wanted to Be President

I think it was a self-promotional lark, but it turned serious. Now what?  Get out, Donald. You have had your fun. Either that, or get yourself educated. Begin with the US Constitution (that means the rules that constitute the union and the government, Donald).

Evidence the guy has no clue what he is talking about: Trump names health care and education, along with security, as the top functions of the federal government

Well, he got one out of three right. When he gets things right, it seems to be by accident. He is a Music Man.

At Betsy:

Even some of Trump's strong supporters are having trouble defending his brand of crazy. Ann Coulter, one of the most incoherent, attention-grabbing people out there, has been fervently defending Trump all over the place. Yet even she is having trouble sometimes defending him.

    Defending billionaire businessman Donald Trump is like constantly having to bail a teenage son from prison, author and political commentator Ann Coulter groused in a recent radio interview.

    "I'm a little testy with our man right now. Our candidate is mental! Do you realize our candidate is mental?" Coulter said jokingly during a taping of an episode of the "Milo Yiannopoulos Show," which is scheduled to air in full this weekend. "It's like constantly having to bail out your 16-year-old son from prison."

Not very flattering about Hillary

True?  It is all truthy, anyway. 

It's a myth. There is a reason they want to go to cold, gloomy northern Europe.