Maggie's Farm

The largest frozen burger patty company in the US has folded after massive recall. Just looking at that burger machine is sickening enough.

Meanwhile, if you wait long enough, maybe everything will be recalled.

Hey, all you visitors from Dr. Helen, Hot Air, etc: Check around our blog while you are visiting. You might like us. We even have a shrink who posts regularly occasionally - Dr. Bliss.

This personal ad, and the reply, are said to have appeared on Craig's List personals:

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I'm tired of beating around the bush. I'm a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy. I'm not from New York. I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won't get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she's not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?

Here are my questions specifically:

- Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars,
restaurants, gyms

-What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won't hurt my
feelings

-Is there an age range I should be targeting (I'm 25)?

- Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east
side so plain? I've seen really 'plain jane' boring types who have
nothing to offer married to incredibly wealthy guys. I've seen drop dead
gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village. What's the story
there?

- Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows - lawyer, investment
banker, doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they
hang out? Where do the hedge fund guys hang out?

- How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for
MARRIAGE ONLY

Please hold your insults - I'm putting myself out there in an honest
way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I'm being up front
about it. I wouldn't be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn't
able to match them - in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a
nice home and hearth.

* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial
interests

The good reply below on continuation page. (Photo is not the gal who wrote the personal ad. This is one of Theo's girlfriends.)

An artist I like very much. Most is graphite and charcoal. Virginia Miller Gallery has a number of his works. This one is titled Vision de Juana (1999):

Even kids, as in this familiar 2005 story. Cartoon via Wizbang, with thanks to C&F.

A quote from Students know less after 4 years of college: Harvard gets D+ on civics quiz, in the NY Sun:

Students at many of the country's most prestigious colleges and universities are graduating with less knowledge of American history, government, and economics than they had as incoming freshmen, with Harvard University seniors scoring a "D+" average on a 60-question multiple-choice exam about civic literacy.

According to a report released yesterday by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the average college senior at the 50 colleges and universities polled did not earn a passing grade.

"At the most expensive colleges, they actually graduate knowing less," the executive director of the Jack Miller Center at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Michael Ratliff, said. "Colleges and universities are not directing students to the courses that would educate them. We want to know whether after getting $300 billion to do their work, universities are actually educating their students."

Indeed. I have noticed this myself.

A re-post from over a year and a half ago:

"With so much being written by the Left and the Right side of politics on the subject of Faith and Legislation, Judgeships and War, I have found some interesting essays and a 20 year old homily given by newly elected Pope Benedict XVI covering the topics discussed in the Congressional corridors, blogosphere, campuses, and in the homes of concerned citizens. These men, leaders in their fields of poetry, philosophy and religion, comment and forewarn of the dangers of men who tread on the domain of the Highest Power and whose thoughts of glory can at times lead Humanity into the Abyss from which it cannot escape. When kids sit in a History classroom learning about the Age of Antiquity and say," why do we need to learn this? It is so old." The teacher answers back, "because we cannot learn from our mistakes if we do not revisit them." Well, at least that is what I remember saying."  

 "The child who dwells inside us trusts that there are wise men somewhere who know the truth. That is the source of the beauty and passion of intellectual pursuits --  in philosophical and theological books, in lecture halls. Various "initiations into mystery" were also said to satisfy that need, be it through the alchemist's workshop or acceptance into a lodge (let us recall Mozart's Magic Flute). As we move from youthful enthusiasms to the bitterness of maturity, it becomes ever more difficult to anticipate that we will discover the center of true wisdom, and then one day, suddenly, we realize that others expect to hear dazzling truths from us (literal or figurative) graybeards."  

Christian faith has destroyed the myth of the divine state, the myth of the state as paradise and a society without domination. In its place it has put the objectivity of reason. But this does not mean that it has produced a value-free objectivity, the objectivity of statistics and a certain kind of sociology. To the true objectivity of men and women belongs humanity, and to humanity belongs God. To genuine human reason belongs the morality that is fed by God’s commandments. This morality is not some private affair; it has public significance. Without the good of being and doing good there can be no good politics. What the persecuted Church laid down for the Christian as the core of its political ethos must also be the core of any active Christian politics; it is only when good is done and recognized as good that a good human social existence can thrive. To bring to public acceptance as valid the standing of morality, the standing of God’s commandments, must be the core of responsible political activity.

"Such is the gospel of the idealists. But it is also true that cosmos has sometimes degenerated into chaos. It is futile to rush with a fire brand through the priceless architecture of an ancient civilization chanting 'Excelsior' as each tower topples and each temple is destroyed. The mere efflux of time is not synonymous with progress: alteration is not necessarily repair; change may as easily connote decay as its opposite."  

 

"How do you write about suffering and still be able to approve of the world at the same time? If you really think about the horror of the world, the only suitable attitude seems to be to reject it. I've always regretted that I'm made of contradictions. But, if contradiction is impossible to overcome, we have to accept both its ends."

From Cynopsis:

It looks as though MySpace isn't the only major media site attracting phishers. Malware in the form of Zlob adware has been discovered embedded in YouTube videos. Attackers are using a fake video link to initiate a p#rn adware program that results in the installation of data-stealing code. Zlob Media's spyware codec was the most prevalent threat to PC users in the month of May, according to Sunbelt Software's Threat Research Center.

Photos of Tiger Woods' home in the islands. Ain't talent, discipline, and determination a wonderful combination for fulfilling one's dreams, whatever they may be? For Tiger, clearly, one part of the dream is comfortable shelter. This pad has nothing in common with Maggie's Farm except that both have indoor plumbing.

More photos on continuation page below.

Bella Thomas spent some time in Cuba in April, and reports on the visit in Prospect Magazine.

Thomas feels that the US embargo has been a major factor in keeping Castro in power. A quote:

Most also know that liberalisation is vitally needed, but they are cautious about speaking openly, partly because they have too much else to think about (such as how to get food), partly because living under a dictatorship generates extraordinary levels of patience, and partly because questioning the regime can lose you your job or even land you in prison. Also, whatever the iniquities of the current system, there is still a certain sort of fear about what may be in store once the regime passes and, in some cases, there is even an affection for a tyrannical parent figure.

There are plenty of visitors to Cuba from rich countries (including a disproportionate number from Britain) who believe they have encountered a true alternative to capitalist democracy. Why? Perhaps it is a way of keeping alive the idea of some ideal society, without having to experience the disadvantages oneself. It may also be a facet of a general dislike of the US, or a way of expressing unease with capitalist excesses. But it is also, in all probability, related to a nostalgia for the political certainties and the handsome design of the 1950s and before: the cars, the bars and the glamour. It is not for nothing that Cuba sells itself with the music of the pre-revolutionary period. If North Korea had charm and salsa and innuendo and beaches, perhaps a lot of politically naive people would be advocating its merits too.

There is one which specializes in the subject: The Center for Immigration Studies. Lots of info. 

New York's 115 year-old Claremont Stables is closing.

Seeing those fine-looking riders on their fine-looking mounts has always been part of the charm of the Park, and the many miles of riding trails are excellent.

Great story. Uplifting and heart-warming, and as American as apple pie.

Too bad she didn't wing the guy.

Risk management in the financial world is evolving into an entirely new, specialized, highly-paid profession, akin to that of actuaries.

"Internet television developer Mash Networks launched Risk Television, a network devoted to financial risk management research and news. The stars of this network are analysts, investment bankers and members of the Federal Reserve, who give video interviews on topics such as enterprise risk management, risk assessment and operational risk case studies. Mash Networks also operates Sox Television, devoted to study of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act."