Maggie's Farm

Via Volokh from Pillage Idiot:

From VDH on The Way Our World Works (h/t, Am Digest - with Randy Newman's Short People):

...those on the left are moralists, smarter people who pass up their own personal agendas to help the community. They think of society, not self, and so when they err, they do it under stress, in accidental fashion, and with no lasting significance — not like their selfish Neanderthal cousin conservatives, for whom transgression is a valuable window into their flawed souls. Bushisms became a media pastime, but no one suggests that a president who says Cinco de Quatro, or 57 states, or references the “Austrian” language is a Dan Quayle wrestling with potato.

Via Phi Beta Cons:

...the academic rigor in graduate ed courses is comparable to that in preschool. I put more work and effort into one week of an engineering or computer-science class than into a full semester of an ed class. Would you believe that an episode of Frontline was an acceptable source for a master's-level research paper? That Wikipedia was also an acceptable source?

What are "intellectuals" anyway?

When I was young and vain I thought I was one. I read lots of books, got myself overly-eddicated, used to read the New York Times daily, and robotically held most of the socially-acceptable, arrogant, bien pensant views. Now I know I am a regular person who just tries to live in reality as best I can, fully aware that many non-tweedy, non-Ivy grads understand life far better than I do. Uncommon sense and sensibilities can replace common sense.  From Tom Sowell's new book, with interview video, at SDA:

Thomas Sowell on Intellectuals and Society - intellectuals certainly can renounce war, “and that does not stop your neighbor from building up the biggest army in the world and coming in and killing you.”

H/t to Vanderleun for Spengler's essay, A Commedia for our times. One quote:

The most onerous expression of idolatry in the modern era was the communist conceit that the scientific ordering of society can eliminate uncertainty. Scientific socialism was supposed to eliminate economic crises and war; instead, it brought about 100 million deaths and reduced once-prosperous countries to penury. Seventy years after its founding, the entire value of the industrial plant of the Soviet Union and its satellites was less than its scrap value, taking into account the costs of environmental cleanup. The life expectancy of Russian men has fallen to only 55 years, and the most frequent cause of death is alcoholism. Russia and its former satellites have such low fertility that their populations will fall by between one-third and one-half by mid-century. Europe's nanny-state version of social democracy is a low-grade version of the same infection.

You will recall that the despicable race-monger and hate-monger Al Sharpton made his name with the Tawana Brawley case. It was, of course, a hoax, the victims of which were the then-15 year old Tawana herself - and police officer Steven Pagones. 

Our link this morning to Powerline's The radical feminist empire strikes back at Duke got me to thinking about one of our perennial themes here at Maggie's (namely the bullsh-t people and the MSM feed us) which we specifically touched upon three years ago in a random post on Truthiness, from which I borrow these quotes:

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.
Aldous Huxley 

A historian who would convey the truth must lie. Often he must enlarge the truth by diameters, otherwise his reader would not be able to see it.
Mark Twain

All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.
Bob Dylan

One of the most untruthful things possible, you know, is a collection of facts, because they can be made to appear so many different ways.
Dr. Karl Menninger

What is Truth? 
Pontius Pilate

There is no doubt in my mind that many careerists, opportunists, cranks with an axe to grind, neurotic cause-seekers, victim addicts, grievance-seekers, and folks with passionate political agendas use Tawana Brawley Case methods to advance their causes. These people need problems to justify their work, their income, or their very raison d'etre. If they have a sociopathic streak, they are not above inventing or exaggerating those problems:

Those Duke profs want more rape.

The warmists want more warming.

The race-mongers want more racism.

The transfat haters want more heart attacks.

The capitalism-phobics want more poverty.

Educators want more ignorance.

The race-mongers want more black kids to fail in school.

The Moslems want to be insulted.

And so on. Yes, I always want more legal cases too.

Photo is Al Sharpton with Tawana Brawley, 1988.

I hope our News Junkie will be able to get back from the north country tomorrow, because we are tiring of covering the links for him. Will stagger on just one more day.

Vanderleun: What I learned from Avatar

Getting old and sick? 2010 is the right year to die in. Mankiw thinks we should keep it this way. So do I: Every prosperous family means one less poor family.

Solar Farm Held Up for Two Dozen Tortoises. I'm with the Desert Tortoises. Solar is a subsidized joke. Give me my nuke plants, and leave the ancient reptiles alone.

For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk. Their unemployment rate is at least half what ours has been this fall.

A new carry revolver: The Rhino

A Democrat right wing racist? Nobody can take a joke these days.

What every young man needs to know about fighting and violence. The ladies count on us guys to protect them and to apply force when needed.

What did Palin do as gov of Alaska? Lots of things.

There's no cure for stupid. Mortgages and the people who cannot pay them.

Coyote: Congress and Obama Enticing States Further into Bankruptcy

Is Environmentalism a Religion? h/t, Driscoll

Or is Obama a religion?  Joan Walsh of Salon Finds Criticism of Obama "Traitorous"

Fineman: Obama’s Health-Care Gamble, And why he may come to regret it.

Re Napolitano: her potential is almost unlimited. Really?

Reason: Upholding the Right Not To Be Offended - The First Amendment protects even the ugliest forms of speech.

At Yale, they are having to turn students away from the Great Books course. Smart kids still want to know the good hard stuff.

Goldberg: Capitalism Fingered as Fiend of the Past Decade - Reducing “capitalism” to its alleged sins.  One quote:

Every good thing capitalism helps produce — from singing careers to cures for diseases to staggering charity —  is credited to some other sphere of our lives. Every problem with capitalism, meanwhile, is laid at her feet. Except the problems with capitalism — greed, theft, etc. — aren’t capitalism’s fault, they’re humanity’s. Socialist countries have greedy thieves, too.

Free markets are in disrepute these days, particularly by the people running Washington. For them, government is the solution and capitalism is the problem. If they have their way over the next decade, they won’t cure what allegedly ails capitalism — people will still steal and lie — but they will impede everything that makes capitalism great. And that will be bad for everyone, even NPR.

Doormat image is from this site. You may be needing one.

Is there such a thing as failure in science? From Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up (h/t, Neptunus):

How to Learn From Failure

Too often, we assume that a failed experiment is a wasted effort. But not all anomalies are useless. Here’s how to make the most of them. —J.L.

1 Check Your Assumptions

Ask yourself why this result feels like a failure. What theory does it contradict? Maybe the hypothesis failed, not the experiment.

2 Seek Out the Ignorant

Talk to people who are unfamiliar with your experiment. Explaining your work in simple terms may help you see it in a new light.

3 Encourage Diversity

If everyone working on a problem speaks the same language, then everyone has the same set of assumptions.

4 Beware of Failure-Blindness

It’s normal to filter out information that contradicts our preconceptions. The only way to avoid that bias is to be aware of it.

From a piece by Lazarowitz at Am Thinker:

With our inalienable rights to life and liberty, one might assume that among our unenumerated rights would also rest the rights of voluntary association and contract (such as the relationship between a doctor and patient) and the right to not buy insurance if one doesn't want it, as well as the right to opt out of a government health scheme. One might also assume that individuals have an inalienable, natural right to not report their medical status to the government.

The Founders were clear that such unenumerated rights would be recognized by natural law -- that is why they wrote and unanimously approved the Declaration of Independence -- but our natural rights may not be protected by constitutional law. Barnett has also wondered whether "mandatory insurance" is unconstitutional. However, given that our natural rights are inalienable, meaning that government may not take them away for any reason, it really should not matter if any of the health care proposals in Congress are unconstitutional.

Sig Sauer P239 CCP: High Quality Carry Gun.

I never leave home without my carry gun, my keys, my wallet with some cash in it, and my cell. Who would?

Update: In response to queries, I now carry a Colt Cobra with which I very much enjoy trying to shoot beer bottles and cans down on the lower 40. Do not mess with me if you see me in downtown Hartford.

I have never needed to aim a gun at a person while in civilian clothing, although I have performed a Dick Cheney once or twice in thick woods with birdshot. Most bird hunters have. It's something to be avoided, because it pisses off your pals and makes them reluctant to invite you again.

His wonderful 1936 essay, Shooting an Elephant. One quote:

I did not want to shoot the elephant. I watched him beating his bunch of grass against his knees, with that preoccupied grandmotherly air that elephants have. It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. At that age I was not squeamish about killing animals, but I had never shot an elephant and never wanted to. (Somehow it always seems worse to kill a large animal.) Besides, there was the beast's owner to be considered. Alive, the elephant was worth at least a hundred pounds; dead, he would only be worth the value of his tusks, five pounds, possibly. But I had got to act quickly.

So I learn from my post yesterday about HDR that I now have to learn about Ansel Adams' Zone System. Sheesh. I just like to take casual family snaps.

I do not aspire to be an expert in this. Can't do everything.

A powerful piece by Steele in the WSJ (h/t, reader). The emperor has no clothes, says Steele. One quote:

...Mr. Obama always knew that his greatest appeal was not as a leader but as a cultural symbol. He always wore the bargainer's mask—winning the loyalty and gratitude of whites by flattering them with his racial trust: I will presume that you are not a racist if you will not hold my race against me. Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and yes, Tiger Woods have all been superb bargainers, eliciting almost reverential support among whites for all that they were not—not angry or militant, not political, not using their moral authority as blacks to exact a wage from white guilt.

But this mask comes at a high price. When blacks become humanly visible, when their true beliefs are known, their mask shatters and their symbiotic bond with whites is broken. Think of Tiger Woods, now so humanly visible. Or think of Bill Cosby, who in recent years has challenged the politically correct view and let the world know what he truly thinks about the responsibility of blacks in their own uplift.

Capt. Tom posted a snow photo of an old Ford truck enhanced by HDR. I had no idea what HDR is, and I mainly/only take family snaps.

Apparently it is High Dynamic Range imaging. I wouldn't term it a surrealistic effect: more like a hyper-realism effect. Like an oil painting. Or like what the eye sees, when gazing at a certain spot.

This guy discusses how to use HDR. It's over my head. Maybe a reader can make it simple for me.

This fine night photo of NYC is in large scale here.

Why the Dems will lose the House in 2010

At NRO:

It would be nice if, after eight years, the ACLU could explain how exactly a Nigerian national boarding an aircraft in Nigeria, or Amsterdam, has an American "constitutional right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and to due process of law."  Even when the Constitution does apply, moreover, the Fourth Amendment bars only unreasonable searches, and due process is merely the process that is due under the circumstances — so:  How are anybody's rights violated by stepped up security measures during wartime when we know, after several incidents, the enemy's strategy includes both attacking aircraft and using planes as weapons?

Satire in the US - but it could be reality in England

The cadence is indeed odd. In fact, he seems pissed to have to be talking instead of golfing. Somebody told him to do this.

Iran: Khamenei has his escape planned

Top 10 Most Ridiculous Uses of Stimulus Funds

Touting Scott Brown. Why not? The guy may as well swing for the fences. The GOP has written him off, however. It's up to the people now.

Dems love taxes, but do their damnest not to pay them. All the rich Dems I know are like that. Now another four more caught. Wizbang

sorry for the link problems below - the links do work -

Are you sure we want a world without nukes? at Marginal Rev http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/a-world-without-nuclear-weapons.html

Bob Herbert: There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate’s version of President Obama’s effort to reform health care. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/opinion/29herbert.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Orszag discusses how to redistribute while wounding but not quite killing the golden goose

Betsy: Don't you find Janet Napolitano so reassuring?

Smart science student? It's not fair, but We can fix that.

Re John Adams and freedom, a quote from Serfdom vs. liberty in 2010 in the Pittsburgh Trib:

Mr. Adams, of course, would have been labeled a "right-wing extremist" or a "militia maniac" by today's "progressives" in Congress who have been working so assiduously to soil the fabric of America. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would dismiss Adams' sentiment as "un-American" and tap dance around its implications of unconstitutional freelancing.

But on the cusp of a new year and the second decade of the 21st century, this is where America finds itself: Constitutional perverts and rule of law scofflaws are in charge, the once-creeping crud of socialism has broken into a trot and an increasing number of good and decent people really are mad as hell and not willing to take another centimeter of the shaft.

Image: John Adams, right-wing nutjob

Watch out for (yield) curves

Why is this clown in charge of our security?

WSJ: The New Climate Litigation How about if we sue you for breathing?

A Lib discovers that other nations pursue their own interests

Related, 25 Brits in jet bomb plots

Related, Human Rights according to the O Admin

From Dino:

Once upon a time we worried about the quality of China’s financial reporting and its banking policies, but no longer. Their policies look pretty reasonable, at least in comparison to a United States that is rushing headlong to being utterly dependent on the rest of the world — for handouts in amounts so large it does not appear possible that they can be financed.

How the Liberal mantra changed over the past 30 years. h/t, No Pasaran

Ace:

...here's a point where I agree with Frum...the idea of restraining the government based on a limited powers argument is an anachronism. Most Americans have no real understanding of the Constitution or the concepts upon which this country was founded. An overwhelming number of Americans are far too willing to accept any government action as legitimate even if it involves trading a little freedom for the promise of some government goodies.

I wish it weren’t so but it demonstrably is.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Social Justice

Gifts that abide. Vandeleun

We've been in a lost decade for stocks

A concise summary of Climate Change. Powerline

Jobless Decade May Loom

Animal Welfare Victories Prompt Farmers' PR Moves

A "frightening new view of the O"?

From a Norquist post:

When ruling elites feel threatened they oppose partisan bickering. They oppose the idea of a legitimate opposition. If the polls showed support for stimulus spending and taxes on energy and government run health care there would be no partisanship in Washington. Only peace and unity and niceness. The elite views opposition to the imposition of their will as annoying and illegitimate.

What's Marion Barry up to these days? Weekly Standard. Sounds like he has a good church.

A journalist converted to a skeptic. One quote:

A few years ago, I accepted global warming theory with few doubts. I wrote several columns for this paper condemning what I thought were unfair attacks by skeptics and defending the climate scientists.

Boy, was I naive.

Gaza suffers. Not because of Israel, though.

Health care. Steyn notes:

What the bill delivers – as Mark Steyn puts it – is lots and lots of government and not very much health care. 

Obama Green Plan: Substitute Dependence On Chinese Metals For Dependence On Saudi Oil

Powerline: "Don't Say We're Violent, Or We'll Kill You"

Feckless re Iran. Krauthammer

Morris -THE DEATH OF MODERATE DEMOCRATS

Rick Moran begins:

I must confess that the more I read of the health care reform bill that just passed the senate this morning, the more it grows on me.

Unfortunately, that growth is a cancerous tumor, one that will be impossible to excise once this God-awful monstrosity becomes law.

If the Democrats had stuck to their original intent - covering more people, covering those who are chronically ill and denied insurance, and trying to bend the cost curve on Medicare - I would probably have supported it. These things are necessary goals for America and legislation was desperately needed to address these problems.

But the overreach in this bill is incredible.

Blogcritics: The Government is Too Damn Big, Slow, Inefficient, and Intrusive. One quote:

During FDR's New Deal, numerous “alphabet agencies” were created to pull the country out of a depression. Many of those agencies still exist, although their efforts to end the depression were largely ineffective. World War II was mainly responsible for ending the depression. The agencies not only continue to exist, they have “growed like Topsy” during the more than half century since their creation; they continue to do so, and it is at least questionable whether they do more to help the country than to harm it.

Most of the actual work done by the government is done by its Administrative Agencies. Let's look at how a typical agency works. I practiced communications law in Washington, D.C. for twenty years, and all of my clients had dealings with the Federal Communication Commission. That is the agency with which I am most familiar, and even though it was not created to end the Great Depression, it is typical in many respects of the other alphabet agencies. I should add that I retired twelve years ago, and so some of my observations may be dated; still, I think that not much has changed or ever will.

I can picture delicious Tautog (Blackfish) out there hanging around in the rocks, wanting and hoping to get caught and eaten on a nice warm platter - but Capt. Tom has gone south for Christmas - or maybe for the mid-winter - and I would guess that his boats up here are out of the water. 

Update: Snow is melting today