Maggie's Farm

If you showed somebody an i-phone 20 years ago and told them that it cost $100,000, they would have thought it was a good deal.

Mark Simone on WABC radio this morning

Since I am on my news sabbatical for a few weeks, here's the real News of the Day (damn fine video, but it doesn't show me riding Target through a stream). 

However, if you need to stay an engaged citizen, the Recess Rallies are today. I will show up, to be a good citizen and to present my views.

An email correspondence today from a dear pal who I haven't seen in a few months:

The B: How are things going?

Friend: Guilt, tension, shame, fear, and not getting laid enough. The usual. When are you free for a Martini or two?

Photos from space of some of the earth's impact craters. (h/t Thompson's Friday Ephemera.)

If I remember rightly, the Gulf of Mexico was an impact crater. A big collision. Big one in the Chesapeake, too.

But the biggest might have been the one that separated the earth from the moon. Thank God for that one. There would be little romance without it. No romance = no sex = no fun = no babies.

My plan, after today, is to stay away from the news until Labor Day. Not other interesting subjects, just news.

I'd never read the news if my American freedoms were not under daily threat by government (of any or either political party).

I need a short sabbatical (sitting by the pool hallucinating by watching the mermaids in my pool and letting my blood pressure return to normal) from my active membership in the highly-organized mob, from our secret cabal of hate-spewing, un-American evil ones who worry about too much Federal government power over our lives and who have the intolerable audacity of hope to say so, and to question our Dear Leaders.

(As I said the other day, in a mixed economy as the US has (if we can keep it), government becomes just one more special interest with their own goals and agendas, their own desires for money and power and chicks, their careerists, their criminals, their corruption, their cupidity, their influence-peddling, and their hordes of dependent bureacratic employees. Their only difference from most other organizations is that they do not have to show a profit and they do not have to be smart.)

However, given the attempted government take-over of medical care in the US (see list of their tactics, and dig this about how much they are spending on ads), this seemed an important cautionary tale:

Canadian Health Care "Imploding"-- Doctors Meet & Discuss Private Options

What a genius idea! A private option! As in freedom to pay for the medical care you want, and to buy whatever insurance you might want? Like in America?

Maybe the government-centric view of life isn't all it's cracked up to be. I am an adult. I am a man, I spell M-A-N. If government is supposed to be my parent, I prefer to be an orphan. Nor do I want a Philosopher-King. I am my own Philosopher-King of my own life, thank you very much. That's the whole point of America.

Our friend Ace has a remarkably serious post on the topic of medical insurance. I wish I had written it, but I was too busy having fun with the horses. He says - and I totally agree -

The reason that employees at companies that pay for insurance get most of this paid for is that their employer is merely paying them wages in a different form; i.e., rather than pay you an extra $10 a week or $500 per year, they'll pay $500 of medical expenses you would otherwise have to pay yourself.

They're not "insuring" you. You cannot be "insured" against a "risk" 100% guaranteed to occur.

They're just delivering wages in a roundabout fashion.

and

Individual mandates, for one.

To be perfectly honest with you, I personally am not completely opposed to this one, in principle, assuming it would take a tolerable form.

But I don't assume that. It will take an intolerable form. I assume it will take the form of the stupidest, vote-buyingest, most socialistic scheme possible, so I oppose it in fact.

So long as it's not greatly socialist -- e.g., young people, with barely any need for insurance at all (which is why they skip it) are overcharged ludicrously so they are forced to subsidize the elderly, who use a lot of insurance dollars. Or rich people are forced to pay money for the poor. In that case, I could kinda get behind it, or at least not bother myself to oppose it strenuously.

Or it covers anything except unpredictable, rare, catastrophic health crises.

This idea that taxpayers ought to pay for someone's eyeglasses or routine visits to the doctor or utterly-predictable need of antibiotics or flu immunizations is, well, two words; In. Sane.

As my final point on the topic for a few weeks, I see the WSJ is repeating what I always say: Who has a better use for their money than to treat their disease or to keep their health? It's what prosperous people do. One quote:

Though it hasn't been widely realized, the desire for shelter was a major driver of the U.S. economy during the second half of the 20th century and the first several years of the 21st. About one-third of the new jobs created during the latter period were directly or indirectly related to housing, as the stupendous ripple effect of the bursting housing bubble should make painfully obvious.

Once these material needs are substantially met, desire for health care—without which there can be no enjoyment of food, clothing or shelter—becomes a significant, perhaps a principal, driver of the economy. A little-noticed feature of the current recession is the role of the health-care industry as a resilient driver of the general economy.

Yes, spending on medical treatment is a wonderful thing and a great privilege. People should want to spend more on it. Just check out my dental implants, or read my (stainless steel) left hip. Good stuff, but not cheap - but worth every penny, and only easily available in the good old USA.

I am going for a ride after church on this lovely August day. If I take a bad fall or hit a branch and break my neck, rest assured that I not only have private major medical insurance and thus will be no burden to you, but I also have a living will. If I am permanently wrecked, shoot me. (.45, base of the skull. Closed casket is fine with me anyway, because I hate having people staring at me whether I am living or dead unless they are shapely 20 year-old blonds. Also, undertaker take note: I am allergic to Formaldehyde.) I would do the same favor for a horse or a dog - and I have done so.

This a quote from Acton:

In a fast-paced society, we have a tendency to leap past the basic questions into a morass of detail. Single payer or government as one provider among many? Mandates requiring every citizen to buy health insurance? Control over utilization by some board of experts? These are all important questions, but they should come after a consideration of our core values. The United States prides itself on being a nation with citizens possessed of a freedom given by God and thus not subject to the whims of human government.

The great Wilhelm Roepke, architect of West Germany’s miraculous post-WWII economic recovery, viewed the tendency toward ever larger government with alarm. He correctly ascertained that the more areas of life the government brings under its responsibility, the more it will eventually dictate the basic conditions of those areas of life. Democracy combined with a lack of appreciation for human independence from the government results in a “pre-totalitarian” society.

It is a sober and somber essay.

Related: I think Whole Foods is a joke and a half - and a rip off joint for the Volvo and Chardonnay set - but their CEO gets it about medical insurance. Good on him. As he points out:

Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This "right" has never existed in America

Even in countries like Canada and the U.K., there is no intrinsic right to health care. Rather, citizens in these countries are told by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are eligible to receive and when they can receive them. All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.

Although Canada has a population smaller than California, 830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in Investor's Business Daily. In England, the waiting list is 1.8 million.

Yes, the Socialist Utopia Awaits. All you have to do is to turn yourself into an ignorant, helpless infant first.

Hey, Bird Dog. That was not a tornado you experienced on Monday. That, I believe, was a Microburst. Most people have never experienced them, so you are a lucky one.

Microbursts are violent, brief (10-15 minute), very localized downdraft weather events with the power of tornadoes.

As one guy reported on his experience of one of these,

Microbursts are caused by a collapsing thunderstorm. What happens is, a thunderstorm rides up and over some hot dry air. This causes the rain that the thunderstorm is trying to drop to evaporate, which in turn, causes that hot dry air to suddenly cool off. Cool air falls fast, in fact so fast in this case, that it steals all the energy rising up into the thunderstorm. The sudden downdrafts cause all of the storms energy and moisture to drop in place. It would be kinda like placing a bunch of the little green plastic soldiers on your patio and then standing up on a picnic table, pouring a pitcher of water straight down on them. As the water hits the concrete, there is no where for it to go but out sideways with great force. That is what causes all the wind damage.

It is very hard to predict a Microburst. Later, the ABC station showed their Viper Radar loop. Indeed, there were sheer indicators that popped up right over us right as the Microburst occurred. It only showed on radar for about a minute or two and then was gone, but it sure did a bunch of damage in the short time it was here.

Government is the most powerful and dangerous "special interest" that exists. Everybody knows that. George Washington predicted it.

Government power is the flaw of democracy. That's why they wanted a Constitutional Republic, but Lincoln and FDR erased that ideal for most purposes. What "Constitution"?

It's the businesses, poverty pimps, and unions (so they do not have to fuss about it) that support government medical care (but the poor already have Medicaid). It's the people who do not support a government take-over. They are not impressed by how government runs things, for good reason.

I heard on the radio today that the Prez admitted that he has never read the latest medical care bill. Well, a good salesman can sell ice to Eskimos.

It is wonderful to see that Americans still want freedom from government control, aka "government help." Kudlow points out today that, in Georgia, you can get good medical insurance (including Major Dental - wow! My teeth are a mess) for $120/month. Of course, federal law forbids interstate medical insurance.

Why? It's supporting some friends of some politicians. Government is the most insidious and potent "special interest."

Toon via S,C &A;

A post of the above title, by Auster. Good fun about the cosmos, first causes, the vertical dimension of existence, etc.

I never had any problem hypothesizing a Big Mysterious Something, but many times I have had problems with the idea of a personal God who would be interested in me, much less love me. Still, I know that that is intellectualizing, and that God does not reach out to us mainly on an intellectual plane.

He talks to us everywhere, inside and outside. I just need to listen more. BD taught me that.

Surber:

Senator Sanders asks "Why is there not a progressive television network?”

Technically, he is correct; “there is not a progressive television network.”

There are 6 (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and PBS).

"All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both. One of its primary functions is to regiment men by force, to make them as much alike as possible and as dependent upon one another as possible, to search out and combat originality among them. All it can see in an original idea is potential change, and hence an invasion of its prerogatives. The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are. "

HL Mencken (h/t, reader)

It's an excellent way to drive capital and jobs overseas. Via Tiger, the US keeps high corporate taxes while the rest of the developed world lowers theirs:

Tattooed quotes seen on a guy's forearms in a greasy spoon in CT, one line on each arm:

Every saint has a past.
Every sinner has a future.

Prison tattoos, I suspect. Pseudo-teutonic script, nicely rendered. Even if I had had a camera, I would not have asked this particular gent for a photo because he did not appear too friendly, nor did he appear to be one of my peeps. He had that lean and hungry look, if you know what I mean.

We have frequently opined here that too many Americans go to college, wasting time and money and extending adolescence in those who could and should be doing real things in the real world, and getting life experience instead of mastering beer pong and Leftist theory about how to remain a dependent throughout life on the effort of others. A solid high school education was good enough for Bill Gates, and ought to be a good platform for lifetime learning for them as wants it.

Anybody can go to the library and find a free book to guide them through Aristotle, Plato, Aquinus, Locke, Burke, and Hume. Anybody who doesn't feel moved to do so does not belong in college anyway: for them, it's just expensive day care as it was for Sebastian Flight.

Knowledge is cheap and readily accessible these days for all (thank God) - but learning is never easy.

The smart people I know just used their silly academic credentials so they could get a good apprenticeship in some useful and profitable line of work. That's what I had to do. My fancy law degree (which cost me lots of money) just gave me the chance to learn law afterwards. It is a dumb and/or corrupt system in which academic credentials, however empty or enriching, are required. Monopolistic, I believe, on the part of the Big Academia industry/cartel.

I have no trust in Big Academia. Like the tort bar, Big Academia is bought off and in the pocket of the Lefties. Follow the money...

Reason agrees (with a Reason video).

Photo: Harvard Yard. They can give you a pricey credential, but what you can do with it or chose to do with it, in the end, depends on you.

We are fascinated by Cahokia, and posted on the topic last year.

The review of a new book on the subject.

Megan McArdle, who has recently been obsessing about what government can do about obesity (A silly obsession, in my view. Why has it become a reflex for people to ask "What can govt do?" about this or that thing, as if government had magical powers to alter reality?), used the Swedish word "lagom" in a piece about Ikea.

The word is not easily translatable into English, because it is such a dispirited, dysthymic Swedish concept.

Want to give it a try?

From the review of physicist John Polkinghorne's new book at First Things:

As he notes in the preface, for fifty years such contextual theologies as feminist theology, liberation theology, or African theology, have been flourishing. Polkinghorne takes the novel step of treating science and religion as an important type of contextual theology in its own right, recognizing that science, no less than other aspects of modern thought and culture, can suggest insights and provide information that are vital for theological reflection. “Theology conducted in the context of science must be prepared to be candid about the evidence for its beliefs,” he says forthrightly, but science does not dominate the conversation: There are clear limits to its authority and competence that both believers and unbelievers need to realize.

The overall message Polkinghorne brings is a crucial one: Science cannot provide its own metaphysical interpretation. As he says with typical precision, “Physics constrains metaphysics, but it no more determines it than the foundations of a house determine the precise form of the building erected on them.”

Via Driscoll:

“The government that’s big enough to give you free health care is big enough to tell you whether you can have a lemonade stand.”

Always a pleasant scene when they bus the union guys pawns in from God knows where. It's the Chicago Way. How great a thing is YouTube?

I know how unions work. Those guys are getting paid to show up, from the dues of innocents. It's the union bosses' payback to Obama for the favors he is doing them.

Please, Lord Obama, Bring us together! Kumbaya!

Dems call on the tough guys to deal with the Brooks Brothers mob. Isn't it called "astroturfing" when you bus in organized groups - and pay them for a day's work?

Now I see why the DNC falsely accused the protesters and questioners yesterday - and again today. It was to provide some cover for their astroturf plans. They will bus in their ACORN geniuses too (who are notably supported by billions in government funds) along with the union thugs.

Truth is, those who have been showing up in the Town Halls thus far have been regular people who are worried about government plans, and who have gotten to the meetings under their own steam and without a day's pay.

Levin is our Patrick Henry, ferocious in his defence of freedom. h/t, Reaganite:

More of the Dem's health care bill, in its own words.

The MSM is reporting nothing that is in this bill, and simply parroting the Dem talking points. We gotta read it ourselves.