Maggie's Farm

From Charles Murray, who was assaulted at Middlebury

Making Middlebury safe for speakers: A modest proposal

Can we admit that American higher ed is mostly run by pussies (mostly male) without principles? Not setting a good example.

It depends on what one means by "equality," doesn't it?

Equality under law is the most important form of equality, and is remarkably standard now in Western nations. Equality of opportunity is important too. Equality of personal attributes, along with wealth and power, are another matter.

de Toqueville thought a lot about the topic.  WILL TOCQUEVILLE’S DILEMMA CRASH AMERICA? Is equality a danger to freedom in a democratic United States?

I understand the argument. Abolish the Income Tax, Abolish the IRS

A beautiful homily, to kick off Holy Week: Archbishop Chaput’s Address at Vocations Jamboree cosponsored by the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, and the Diocese of Bismarck (March 20, 2019)

Last year I had a bit of spare cash burning a hole in my pocket, so instead of a second exotic spousal trip we decided to do a little work on ye olde homestead (it is, indeed, an old farmhouse, 1820) to enjoy as we begin to experience a touch of grey. 

Not a large project, but everything is complex in an old rambling firetrap of a place. You have to make some steps. We combined two small bedrooms into one gracious one, and added 14' to the upstairs (while expanding the kitchen workspace downstairs) for a walk-in closet and space to put an upstairs washer and drier. 

Not a big deal, really, but why we put off putting that washer and drier upstairs for all of these years seems crazy to me. Sure could have used it when the kids were little. It feels sinfully luxurious but I think I earned it. GE machines, ok but maybe not the best.

The plumbing was a little complex, of course. Plaster walls.

The Moose, a monster animal of the North Woods lowlands and marshes, has been moving south into Massachusetts and Connecticut.  They now seem to be breeding in CT.

I blame global cooling. In any event, It's one more animal to try not to hit with your car.

Joel Kotkin on China today (podcast)

These great books podcasts are excellent. I listened to the one on Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court yesterday.

Worth bookmarking. 

NY college pres.: ‘A campus is not the place for free speech’

About the global warming echo chamber:

 As a university professor, I am best positioned to report on the widespread incompetence and malfeasance found specifically in academe. A work colleague once corrected me on a matter concerning the greenhouse effect. With no scientific training, he had recently moderated a panel discussion on climate change in an attempt to convince students to support our university president’s Green Initiative, which as far as I could tell reduced carbon dioxide emissions not at all but placed undue strain on the university’s finances, which in turn put upward pressure on tuition costs. I mentioned to my colleague in passing that, from an educational standpoint, the term greenhouse gas was an unfortunate misnomer since the architectural design of an actual greenhouse is not closely related to the physical properties of tropospheric greenhouse gases. ..

Photo is a cabin at Phantom Ranch. 

Arguably the best hike in the USA are the trails down - and back up - the Grand Canyon. It's the only way to see the Grand Canyon up close and personal. The hike up takes twice as long as the hike down, roughly. It's not too challenging but it is glorious.

We did it 12 years ago and stayed 2 nites at the rustic Phantom Ranch on the riverbank. That's the way to do it.  That first cold beer at the bottom is the best beer in the world even if it's Bud Lite in a can. The food there is great, thanks to the mules who carry everything down and up all day. Phantom Ranch has some cabins, 4 dorms, and a wonderful mess hall.

Look at the photos. 

It's not a hike for young kids, and it's a hike for spring or fall - not summer. Too hot. One handy service they have is that they will take a duffel bag down for you on mules, and back up when you leave. Thus all you need to hike with is a daypack with water and snacks.

When you're out there, why not hop over to Sedona for some easy hiking in red rock country? Lots of pleasant hikes, few of the basic ones long or arduous:

From Christakis, the Yale Prof in our morning links

That principle even applies to progressive types too. Some examples:

- People demand that their own kids go to school every day and learn things.
- People demand that their kids work and become independent
- People force themselves to conserve assets and not to be reckless
- People do not welcome strangers into their homes
- People demand that their families be law-abiding and respectful
- People demand perfect behavior, appropriate dress, and positive achievements of their kids

I guess I could go on and on, but it's interesting how our conservative, bourgeois expectations can dissipate the further people are from us. 

"How does it happen that even today a couple of ordinary French stonemasons, or a carpenter and his apprentice, can put up a dovecote or a barn that has more architectural perfection than the piles of eclectic stupidity that grow up at the cost of millions of dollars on the campuses of American universities?”

Thomas Merton, “The Seven Story Mountain” (via We Are the Barbarians Living in the Ruins of a Superior Civilization

Fake image via Powerline 

Instapundit has this meme: "If you consider reporters as Democrat operatives with bylines, a lot of things make sense."

Has it become a new normal that "journalists" have come to view themselves as advocates rather than as reporters? In some ways, Trump has removed the veil.  I recall how the press protected Obama and Hillary from all of their errors and misdoings, while anything Trump does is wrong. 

Maybe you can say that "journalists" see their role as "to make the world better" - by shaping opinion to fit their own. That is fake news, not reporting. Historically, we view it as propaganda.

The arrogance is mind-boggling. My suspicion is that journalists suffer from inferiority feelings because their role is essentially to be observers of things rather than actors, but if you can see yourself on a noble mission to fix the world in your own image, you can feel heroic instead of passive. You not only have the power to frame reality - you have the power to shape it. Bringing down a President would be a great coup.

Trump's public life will never be free of a Russia taint regardless of reality.

 Journalism Dies In Self-Importance

 Taibbi: As the Mueller Probe Ends, New Russiagate Myths Begin

Given that “collusion” has turned out to be dry well, to the ordinary viewer it will look a hell of lot like the MSNBCs of the world humped a fake story for two consecutive years in the hopes of overturning election results ahead of time. Trump couldn’t have asked for a juicier campaign issue, and an easier way to argue that “elites” don’t respect the democratic choices of flyover voters. It’s hard to imagine what could look worse.

For the commercial press to recapture any dignity after this collusion debacle, it has to at least start admitting to its role in artificially raising expectations in the last two years. It’s hard to imagine them doing that, however. This story has been so enormously profitable for cable stations, in particular, it will be hard for them to let go of this narrative. What are they going to do, go back to just reporting the news? One can almost feel how depressed network executives must be at the thought. They’ve trained audiences to expect bombshells. What will they sell now?

An answer, from The Week:

 This is not a great moment for Trump's critics. We can see that he is a bad president and to watch his defenders proclaim him exonerated is frustrating and troubling. The work to hold this president accountable for his behavior isn't ending, though. Someday — sooner or later — the truth will at long last catch up to Trump. That too might be a painful moment. In the meantime, those who pursue that truth should keep working — and never apologize.

Glenn Greenwald re MSNBC:

“Intercept” co-founder Glenn Greenwald said that MSNBC deliberately lied to its viewers about the credibility of the charges that the Trump campaign colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election, claiming he and other left-wing journalists were banned from appearing on MSNBC due to their skepticism on the issue.

Talking to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Greenwald said that MSNBC “should have their top host on primetime go before the cameras and hang their head in shame and apologize for lying to people for three straight years, exploiting their fears to great profit. These are people who were on the verge of losing their jobs. The whole network was about to collapse. This whole scam saved them. Not only did they constantly feed people for three straight years total disinformation, they did it on purpose.”

Greenwald explained that “There was a whole slew, not just me, of left-wing journalists with very high journalistic credentials, far more than anyone on that network, like Matt Taibbi and Jeremy Scahill and many others… who were banned from the network because they wanted their audience not to know that anybody was questioning or expressing skepticism about the lies and the scam they were selling because it was so profitable.”

Amherst College Releases 'Common Language Document'.

Laugh or cry? 

 “Kids are the best. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the Internet and all.”

- Homer Simpson, via On Great Art 

The condition and characteristic of an uninstructed person is this: he never expects from himself profit, or advantage, nor harm, but from externals.

The condition of a philosopher is this: he expects all advantage and all harm from himself. The signs of one who is making progress are these: he censures no man, he praises no man, he says nothing about himself as if he were somebody or knew something. When he is impeded or hindered, he blames himself. If a man praises him he ridicules the praiser to himself and if a man censures him, he makes no defence. He removes desires from himself, and transfers aversion to those things which are contrary to nature. He employs a moderate attitude towards everything; whether he is considered fooling or ignorant he cares not.  

In a word, he watches himself as if he were an enemy and lying in an ambush.

- Marcus Aurelius, The Enchiridion