Maggie's Farm

An Idiot’s Guide to Getting Dressed

Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog

Pew poll says millennials support gun rights, WaPo calls this “mysterious”

Are you feeling terrorized by ISIS?  I am not. In some ways, I empathize with Obama's practical and political dilemma. Let me explain.

Jihadists pose no threat to the US as a nation. To some unfortunate randomly-selected innocent people, yes. That is evil at work in this dangerous world. I have little doubt that their efforts are designed to produce hysterical overreactions to add fuel to their bluster and threats and to magnify their importance in the name of Allah. This is neither WW 2 or WW 3.  Jihadists, whether Taliban. Al Quaida, ISIS - they are all basically the same thing and their only significant threat is to their fellow Middle Easterners, and perhaps secondarily to Europe to some extent. Israel, rightly, fears no one.

In their delusions, they are at war with everybody, but I do not see them as America's problem.  Beating war drums and ginning up popular emotion is cheap politics, but perhaps effective politics.

I've left a lot out to keep it short. My final point is that the Middle East is a tar baby, and takes up far more American bandwidth than it deserves. There are no real nations there, just tribal and religious warfare. It is a pre-national, semi-civilized part of the world. There will be no end to that in our lifetimes. And it's not our job. The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire was a disaster.

Go ahead and argue, please. It's a topic worthy of thoughtful disputation. I am sympathetic to this piece: FEAR of Terrorism Is Much More Dangerous than Actual Terrorism

and to this: If We Want To Stop Terrorism, We Should Stop SUPPORTING Terrorists

and re Trump's idea re Muslims, I am in favor of a moratorium on all immigration to the US, legal or illegal, until the nation as a whole can debate and decide what makes sense in today's world.

Gopnick makes the case that "we're all to blame" for the San Bernardino massacre. I am so tired of these sorts of arguments.

Naturally, he blames the guns. I know that Bird Dog and his friends had good fun with firearms this weekend, and not one of their firearms went postal. Also, Gopnick neglected to mention that they had bombs too. Everything they did and had was illegal and had evil intent.

How do you make something more illegal?  San Bernardino Islamic Terrorists Set Up Bombs to Explode on First Responders

George Will: The nonexistent case for progressive taxation

I am certain that Mr. Will fully understands that the reasons are 1) political and 2) the Willy Sutton reason.

No threatening menorahs and no traumatic Christmas trees?

Well, it's fun to get righteously indignant about stupid things, but how stupid can an Ivy college get? Sheesh.

Aren't they sposta be our moral and intellectual superiors?

Today is the first day of Hannukah, and of course we are well into Advent now. These times have a large secular component (and Christmas, of course, a large pagan component), and can be enjoyed by everybody regardless of religion or lack thereof. Even atheists tend to love Christmastime.

Thus perhaps the great Cornell University is worried about the hypersensitivities and potential postal rages of the Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, Ba'hai, Confucian, Zoroastrian,  Wikkan, and Muslim students and faculty, but naturally nobody has heard those hypersensitivities expressed because who could be or would want to be that much of a negative, obnoxious a-hole?

This is all to be laughed about without wasting any mental bandwidth on angry indignation: It's Holiday Season for all, so cheer up and lighten up, you university sillies and you university pantywaists.

My message to university administrators: Chill out, have an eggnog, and and go look for a pretty girl (or boy) under the pagan mistletoe. You will feel better.

I am not sure why this is a "crisis."  It is unwise to ever borrow - or lend - money if there is a reasonable concern about repayment. Nonetheless, people often do it.

Now that politicians have defined it as a crisis, they want to pander and to throw OPM at it and to do all the things pols do.

As Reynolds and many others have been explaining for years, there is a bubble in the pricing of higher ed.  There will never be enough money to satisfy them, and loans and grants perpetuate the situation. It is a scandal, really, between the pricing and the little return from so many schools which are little more than diploma mills for recreating youth.

I would propose two simple solutions: eliminate federal loan guarantees, and permit student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy. This would normalize the debt and lending mess in higher ed, and would force pricing downwards.

Have you ever pored over the balance sheet of an institution of higher ed? If you get the chance, prepare to be shocked.

Here's one proposal: How to Fix the Student Debt Crisis - Stop loaning money to students; loan it to colleges instead.

 Why is college so expensive? Three main reasons. First, because colleges, with enthusiastic support from politicians of all stripes, have convinced Americans that higher education is the ticket to success. While a college degree is no longer a badge of the upper class, it is still viewed as a luxury good and is priced accordingly. Second, colleges have joyfully suffered from what Andy Rosen, CEO of the testing and online-education company Kaplan, has called “an edifice complex.” Colleges, including lots of state schools, continue to build luxury dorms, gourmet dining rooms, and lavish athletic centers to attract students—almost as if academics were an afterthought. Staffs have become bloated, too, not with more professors, but with administrators. Third, colleges have been playing with other people’s money. Washington has pumped trillions into financial aid programs. Low-income families get outright grants; everyone else qualifies for easy-to-obtain loans.

Via Powerline:

We, the Students of Hamilton College, demand the end of the inevitable tokenization of all marginalized bodies at Hamilton College. Hamilton College cannot continue to overwhelmingly perpetuate narratives that center whiteness, able-bodied individuals, colonization, heteronormativity, and cisnormativity.  The faculty, administration, staff, and student body at Hamilton College almost ubiquitously encompass a single population that continues the exclusion of historically underrepresented communities.

Good grief. That is not even English. Hamilton would barf.

There is something wrong with the general state of education in the US today, and part of it seems to be some lack of grown-ups with integrity and maturity. What do adults do when kids stage tantrums?

Grade-fixing might be Farina’s idea of ‘renewal’ at failing schools

The Upside Down Campus Protester

The Contradiction at the Heart of Speech Limitations Sought by Campus Progressives

North Korea Has Taken Over Academe

The Pathology of the Professors

CAVED: These 10 college presidents surrendered to campus protestors’ diversity demands

Academic Freedom, Conformity of Opinion, and the Student Demands

Politically Correct Holy Rollers: The New Campus Revival

Hysterical Yalies protest a free-speech panel.

Ivy Leaguers need to stop with the PC obsession

Yale med school dean answers student demands for ‘anti-oppressive curricular reform’

What? And who next? Student pilots?

Not Even Scientists Can Easily Explain P-values

It is central to all studies, but what does it really reveal?

No it is not. The President of Oklahoma Wesleyan tells it like it is: This is Not a Day Care. It’s a University!

 Oklahoma Wesleyan is not a “safe place”, but rather, a place to learn: to learn that life isn’t about you, but about others; that the bad feeling you have while listening to a sermon is called guilt; that the way to address it is to repent of everything that’s wrong with you rather than blame others for everything that’s wrong with them. This is a place where you will quickly learn that you need to grow up!

At Duke, “Intolerance” Can Cost You Tenure

Brown to invest $100M to address racism

Dartmouth vice provost apologizes for saying conservatives are ‘not nice’

Feds Plan to Use Accreditation to Produce More Degree Holders

The College Problem Begins in High School

Brandeis Provost Green Lights Academic Pass for Protesters

Why should journalists know anything about economics or history?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Ivy League Presidents Try Appeasement.

VDH: Politics and What Remains of the English Language

Language is pressed into service to create victims where there are few, but where many are sorely needed, psychologically -- and on the chance such a prized status might lead to a profitable trajectory otherwise impossible by passé notions of work and achievement.

Handmade, no two alike. Possibly the best and trickiest puzzles in the world. Stave

I went through a Trollope phase about ten years ago. Good stuff. My favorite was Barchester. 

Intellectuals called him "a people-pleasing boor." In his bicentennial year, the long-overshadowed novelist finally gets his due.

Overshadowed by Dickens, of course, who was a consummate people-pleaser. Was, and is. 

For charming relaxed long-weekend getaways, it's Bermuda for people on the east coast.

Bermuda is nearby and a cheap, quick flight, is warmed by the Gulf Stream, is surrounded by wonderful coral reefs, and remains entirely British in custom and manner. There is world-class golf year-round, but in spring and fall it's perfect for everything - snorkeling, rent a whaler, tennis, motorbiking and exploring. It's not just for honeymooners and sailors. Dark and Stormys, Bermuda Fish Chowder, baked Grouper. Good stuff. Not to mention the location of The Tempest.

A marriage needs a little Bermuda sometimes.

Maggie's Farmers like Cambridge Beaches. It is understated, modest, traditional, and where the Brit royals have always stayed. Yes, you dress for dinner. It's not your Caribbean or your Hawaii.

Every person's list will vary due to geographical, climatological, financial, and cultural matters, but I think it's a good topic to think about, especially for parents.

Regardless of their genitalia or gender identification, what are the basic life skills you want/wanted your kids to attain before they are/were kicked out of the nest and sent on their way in life?

I'll begin with my How To list which is probably somewhat New England-oriented (my partial list, as an example), How To:

Ride, handle, and care for a horse, ski, sail a boat and handle a powerboat in rough weather, ride a bike, handle all types of firearms, catch and clean a fish, train and handle a dog, change a tire, drive a tractor, tap a Sugar Maple, swim, golf, play tennis, play some team sports, throw every kind of ball, tie knots, play some card games, play an instrument, split wood, identify basic local birds, trees, and animals, go to church, exercise daily, basic cooking, try every sort of new food, perfect table manners and social conversation, dress appropriately to occasion, write a thank-you note and a condolence note, deliver a brief speech to a crowd, make a garden, pay attention to geography and geology, cement a post, use basic tools (and chain saws for boys), do laundry, clean a house, start a fire, tell a story without boring the listener, drive a stick shift, and, not least, travel internationally with confidence.

Put your ideas about basic life skills in the comments, please.

Probably not. What they excel at is attracting higher percentages of talented kids.

Are the elite colleges really any better? (education sentences to ponder)

A venture capitalist searches for the purpose of school and formal education. Here’s what he found.

An interesting topic. There is no doubt that schools are there to do the things that parents are not equipped to do or might not have time to do: acculturation, academic skills, some practical skills. Foundations for life.

Tyler says Education is about self-acculturation.

The Twenty-First Century Retirement Model Is Coming into Focus:

 Defined benefit pension systems have rules that strongly favor long term workers. Workers often didn’t qualify for pensions until they worked a threshold number of years—if you left the company before you ‘vested’, you lost your pension benefits. And because length of service played a large role in calculating pension benefits, workers who changed jobs or careers often ended up with very small pensions. There have been heartrending cases of workers in manufacturing companies who lost everything when their jobs went abroad before they had worked enough years to collect a good pension. And in their 40s and 50s, many could not replace those jobs or the lost pension benefits.

Those old-time pensions are a thing of the past, except for some government employees.

 My Headmaster, in fact. He had a pet otter which followed him everywhere. An old school fellow. The Rev. Seymour St. John. Nice photos via Salt Water.

A repost  -

Some readers may remember when that was a bumpersticker. (It's on the same order as Bird Dog's old school football cheer: "Repel them, repel them; make them relinquish the ball.")

It is a theme on this blog to think about the things that people hold most dear and the things they hold to be sacred. I tend to judge such things based on people's behavior, not on what they say. I tend to believe that God should come foremost in my life, but I can be a hypocrite at times.

Karl Reitz at TCS looks at secular religions - systems of belief which can play as strong a role in shaping people's lives as loving God can for the religious. His piece is consistent with several things we have written over the past week or two. A key quote from An atheist's defence of religion:

The fundamental difference between traditional religions and these secular religions is that secular religions promise us that perfection (heaven) is possible here, on earth, in present times. Conservatives, starting with Eric Voegelin, have long warned against buying into these secular religions by warning us not to "immanentize the eschaton." As Jonah Goldberg explained:

"Immanentize means to make part of the here and now. Eschaton, like eschatology, relates to the branch of theology which deals with humanity's destiny. You know, the end times, when all of that wacky, end-timey, Seventh-Seal stuff happens (oceans boil, the righteous ascend to heaven, Carrot Top is funny, etc). Hence 'immanentizing the eschaton' means, in effect, trying to make what is reserved for the next life part of the here and now."

As I wrote earlier this week:

There are two utopias - the womb, and Heaven (if you can get there before they close the door). Life is bracketed by utopias, but in between we must toil and strain and sometimes suffer. It's "the way things are", as the mice say.

Bliss and ease are only momentary during this brief spell on earth, and it has something to do with how reality was built. Specifically, I think it has to do with finiteness, limits, and scarcity - of just about everything, and not just of material things. I know only about four things that do not fit that: air, a dog's love, God's love...and blogs. No scarcity of good blogs.

A pal insisted that I read Stephen Mitchell's The Book of Job.

Mitchell's translation is astonishingly poetic and powerful, and his commentary is excellent. I can not recommend the (short) book more highly.

As a commenter says, "...he deals with the so-called "problem of evil" by simply dissolving it."