Tuesday, July 15. 2014
I think this is intelligent (or I would not link it): How to Think about Immigration - The U.S. government is generally expected to act in the interest of the people of the United States.
 Photos via Drudge: Endless wave of illegal immigrants floods Rio Grande valley:
Early Saturday, whistles and signal calls echoed in the night air from across the river and in our midst, the clandestine communication of coyotes and cartel members using the border crisis to profit. As we moved, on foot or by car, through the thick brush toward the river or down the rocky path, we heard them all around us, moving with us, at some points frighteningly nearby.
SMALL DEAD CHILDREN Found “Washed Up Along Riverbank” of Rio Grande
Let’s visit the laws and lawyering that got us into this mess.
New York Times: Border Crisis 'a Myth'
Eric Holder, America’s chief law enforcement official, tries to spark racial hatred
Surprise! Democrats to Push Race Issues in 2014 Midterms
Why You Should Probably Own Fewer Stocks
Daily Beast: 'Tea Party Is a Religion'
The story of the faculty test-cheaters in Atlanta
Lurie: The ObamaCare 3.8% Tax on Investment Income: A Second Income Tax
On Global Warming, Follow the Money
Jewel’s “Personal Growth” Divorce
Time to put the IRS back in its place
Lots of good stuff at American Digest
Monday, July 14. 2014
Here's a list of the Phoenix VA Hospital administrators and their salaries. There are no doctors in this list (wrong). This is what you get when the government runs health care..... via http://www.openthebooks.com/search/?PensionCode=840&F_fiscalyear=2013&F_Station=Phoenix&F_Name=&perpage=100
Correction -
That list did seem implausible. Sorry for conveying erroneous info! Sloppy of us.
 Tiny Houses Big With U.S. Owners Seeking Economic Freedom
We used to call these cabins
New Harvard Study Proves Why The Bees Are All Disappearing
Pesticides
Europe’s Anti-Art Laws - Will the EU’s pedestrian-safety regulations save lives, or just make cars ugly
Why Crossovers Conquered the American Highway
Atlantic City falling on hard times again
The Sexual Politics of Autism
Why Middle School Should Be Abolished
Film Critics Hate 'America'
Fun with the perpetually-outraged
The Government’s Here to Save You From Elmo
Uber/Lyft vs. taxis: Let the market decide, not taxi cartels and their government enablers — bureaucrats and legislators
Ex-J.P. Morgan Trader Joins Bitcoin Bulls Launching Hedge Funds
Australian Judge Asks, If Homosexuality and Adultery Are Now Ok, Why Not Incest?
Portuguese bank crisis is the tip of the iceberg - Analysis: The deeper issue is the European Central Bank papering over economic problems
‘Dirty Harry’ Reid’s increasing eccentricity - Senate majority leader practices politics of personal destruction
Breaking developments in Sen. Reid pederast scandal; Reid camp to Ace of Spades HQ: Allegations are ‘cute,’ refuses to deny
Romney don't run
Pelosi: ‘We Should Be Afraid Of This Court’
Maher Rips "Useless Obama Hacks" Over NSA Spying: "Liberals Would Be Apoplectic" Under Bush
The IRS Oddities Add Up
President Obama apparently likes raising campaign funds.
Actually, Hillary's Wealth Is Her Greatest Accomplishment
David Brock Claims Hillary’s Bad Book Sales are a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Jesse Jackson hits Obama for putting immigrant children first
Google Co-Founders Sergey Brin & Larry Page: Health Care Regulation Is Blocking Innovation
Muslim Brotherhood Authorizes 'Anal Jihad' for Lonely Terrorists
So, Lawrence of Arabia walks into a gay bar in the Nefud Desert with a
paraplegic, a disadvantaged youth, an angry Women's Studies student, a
quadroon, and a tranny
I believe that Lawrence himself was gay
Obama, Translated - Whenever the president talks about himself, flip it so he’s saying the opposite.
According to owner Aaron Franklin, Obama was probably the first
person to ever cut the line.
NSA Whistleblower Speaks: "The Ultimate Goal is Total Population Control"
The border crisis isn’t Obama’s Katrina – it’s worse
The nation is getting furious about this, and I know why. First, they are showing contempt for our sovereignty and our laws from the start. Second, somebody invited them to come and Mexico is complicit. Third, these people are jumping the queue and exploiting the situation and exploiting the US. Fourth, many of these "children" are violent gang members. Well, I could go on.
I don't care what age these immigrants claim to be are or where they try to sign up for high school - they are not children and I do not want them in my neighborhood:
Sunday, July 13. 2014
Mexican and Guatemalan Governments Conspired to Transport Invaders to US Border
Of course they did. Mexico bans any immigration. It's a crime in Mexico. (Almost forgot - it's a crime in the US too without papers.) Nobody enters Mexico unless the government lets you. The southern Mexican border is fully-armed with federales and those federales are not kind-hearted, gentle fellows. Their northern border is not, of course.
Corruption Of Academic Journals For Profit and Climate Change Propaganda.
It's not likely that anybody would get a Pulitzer for reporting on journalistic malfeasance.
Most journalists have two natural biases that influence and limit their work; no science training, and a determination to push their institutional and personal bias on society. Stories about climate, and they are mostly stories, devolve to sensationalism. Balance and objectivity are virtually gone in the media. Fox News’ slogan “fair and balanced” should be a redundancy, but became a proud and almost unique claim, albeit tokenism. Nowadays, news reporting is almost always an opinion or an editorial.
Been there, done that. The tough old-timers I knew felt they were doing the devil's work, seeking unpleasant truths, rocking all boats, and creating chaos, but the modern young ones think they are doing God's work. Silly people. Still, as the old saying went, it's tough to argue with people who buy ink by the barrel.
Related, Orwell Would Be Proud: US Media Admits Divine Right To Decide What Public Needs To Know
Just How Wealthy Is the Average American?
The problem is, there is no average American so the numbers mean nothing.
Wow. Quite a story. I hope it all works out: The Post-Post-Apocalyptic Detroit
Saturday, July 12. 2014
Mexico, Guatemala fast-track delivery of illegals to U.S.
also, Washington DC seems like a madhouse:
Our southern border has been openly breached by our good neighbor Mexico and Central American corruptocracies, working hand-in-hand with the Sinaloa Cartel, La Raza, people smugglers (including children) and Valerie Jarrett, who has met with the Children’s Crusade organizers --- who are not allowed to talk to the media. Obama only shrugs --- the situation is beyond his control, it’s just a human flood of poor kids being let in without parents, but with a lot of teenage thugs grabbing their crotches for the cameras. And Obama just keeps smiling as he runs fundraisers only hundreds of miles away from the crisis.
I am going fishing to keep myself sane.
 Are bikinis for lechers?
Bikinis are basically underwear, aren't they?
How Much Physical Activity Do You Really Need?
The ultimate comeback: Bringing the dead back to life
Judge Takes the Next Step, Attempts to Normalize Incest
LeBron: In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.
Why the Culture Wars Are Nothing New
Examination of Progressive programs shows middle-class reduction as a common if unstated theme under either political party.
Earth's Magnetic Field Is Weakening Fast
I blame global warming
Dr. Roy Spencer: Science Knows 'Almost Nothing' About Global Warming
North Korea provides more entertainment
Interesting site I found via Vanderleun: The Z Blog
Workin’ at the carwash — those ‘dirty’ immigrant jobs
Ah, the Dreamers! Little children!
Why the State and Local Pension Problem Will Get Worse - Detroit’s cost-saving plan isn’t possible elsewhere.
Ah, dreamers!
Why the former Ice Age became global warming, then climate change
Krauthammer: Where Is Obama’s Border Policy? - A serious president would push to eliminate the Central American loophole in our immigration laws.
As We Reported 6 Years Ago: The Pentagon Is Using AI Programs To Predict How People - e.g. Americans - Will React To Propaganda
WSJ's Jason Riley blames liberalism for brainwashing black America.
Here's why it's so wrong -- and dangerous
Dangerous?
I’ll check my white male privilege right after you check your arrogant liberal assumptions
Union Cuts Ties With Black College Group Over Koch Donation
Target shoppers become targets
What Didn't the President Know and When Didn't He Know It?
Does Religious Speech Threaten Democracy? It could be restricted or banned under a constitutional amendment Democrats have proposed.
Adult Illegal Immigrants Posing as Children To Enroll in High School - A Massachusetts city‘s packed school system is being forced to accept illegal-alien adults.
“Democrats’ Strategy: Divert Media from Big Donors’ Big Gifts”
Friday, July 11. 2014
Confessions of a Computer Modeler - Any model, including those predicting climate doom, can be tweaked to yield a desired result. I should know. (WSJ paywall)
200th Anniversary of the Waverly Novels
The 25 US cities nobody wants to live in
A Look at BlackRock and Some Market Myths
Law Schools Peer into the Abyss
Redskins Game at UMN Could Cause Campus-wide Protests
Professor John Taylor of Stanford is a menace:
A central bank which aims to improve on the “performance” of the macro-economy is the enemy of the free market. In order to manipulate and target economic outcomes like GDP, jobs, housing starts, consumer spending and capital investment, an activist central bank must perforce destroy the financial markets which are at the heart of capitalism.
And “destroy” is not too strong a term because at the end of the day there are only two options. On the one hand, the monetary politburo in the Eccles Building can set the price of money, debt, the treasury yield curve and the host of financial assets which are valued with reference to them. In the alternative, they are the spontaneous result of “price discovery” in which millions of traders, investors and speculators find market clearing prices for financial assets and instruments–even ones that are not pleasing to PhD economists promising unicorns and unwavering prosperity.
America's Economic Woes: Why Jobs Are Scarce, Wages Low and Government Can't Help
Obama Administration Launches Training 'Tool' for Caregivers About 'Needs of LGBT Seniors'
The Crisis on the Border - No one who wants to help has authority, and no one with authority is helping.
Mega-billionaires unite for immigration amnesty
Obama Laughs His Way Through Meeting with Gov. Perry
“I don’t have to run for office anymore, so I can just let it rip,” he said.
He has not been behaving in a measured, President-of-all-the-people way. What's going on with him?
Anti-Semitism on the Rise in Sweden
'IAF destroyed more targets in 36 hours than in whole of 2012 clash'
Hamas ups the ante:
Now what might a “reasonable” response look like?
First Lesson of Gaza War: Maintain the Blockade
Sunny with light missile cover in Tel Aviv this morning.
Thursday, July 10. 2014
 I like Guggenheim S&P500 Equal Weight (RSP). For equities, I prefer it to S&P 500 funds, which are weighted by market cap, but I keep my equity money to a relatively small % of my modest pile of financial assets.
My Godfather was one of the original inventors of mutual funds. At the time, he only sold his funds to rich guys.
His first fund was simply to sell shares of his own portfolio from his inheritance from his family. He had done well with it, and had sold the family business.
When I was a kid, he would tell me that he was certain that, in the future, retail funds would be a big business, diluting risk. I didn't really know what he was talking about. He was slightly ahead of his time but made enough money to build a custom 92-foot sailboat which is all he ever dreamed of.
Guy did not leave me a penny, but left me the memories of his companionship and the example of his Christian faith which has been a great gift indeed. I never told him that before he died at his desk in his office, aged 88.
I do not care to pay for actively-managed money. When it comes to investing on the retail level, I have always said that one can never get rich that way unless one is blessed with the same combination of recklessness and luck that wins the Powerball. Like investing every penny you had in Microsoft when it first went public in 1986. Some office secretaries did, though, just like all the regular citizens of Omaha invested in Berkshire 40 years ago just because they knew Warren from around town.
Over time, however, one can hope to maintain one's financial assets and keep up with inflation and sometimes exceed it. Public equity markets are a sophisticated casino. Over the years I have gotten some very good tips, but a prudent person without inside info never wants to risk enough for it to make a meaningful difference in the end. I will confess that I own a few individual stocks.
It's those occasional base hits in bullish markets which keep retail citizen dopes like me coming back to the casino, while the people making big money in markets are those who construct and sell the financial products we little people buy, and the people in the non-public markets (eg venture capital, hedge funds, etc).
I am still waiting for a major market crash or correction. I have cash waiting in my "retirement" account, but that ammo is getting rusty.
 Is the era of blogs past?
3 Simple Ways To Make The Most Of Your College Summer Vacation
Map of what’s across the ocean if you’re on the beach
The Thousands of Volunteers Who Grade Millions of AP Tests
Six examples of how 3-D printing is changing our world
Tuition Discounts at Private Colleges Are at Record High
Bummer: “Climate Change” Could Cause Gingers To Go Extinct
Die, Ex-Im Bank! Faster, Faster!
Feds Spent $430,608 to Get Mothers to Dance With Their Daughters
Is Hillary Clinton past her sell date?
MSNBC: Obama’s Policies Gave Illegals The Impression They Could Stay
It’s Not True that 20 Million Americans Gained Coverage Under Obamacare
Some “Children” Illegally Entering U.S. Are Gang Members, Killers
Will Single Women Save Democrats In 2014?
Sultan: Gandhi's bit of genocidal madness has now become mainstream in Jewish circles.
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced Wednesday to
10 years in prison for bribery, money laundering and other corruption
that spanned his two terms as mayor — including the chaotic years after
Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
EPA Goes on Road Show to Missouri to Spread Lies and Misinformation About its Farmland Takeover:
...farmers harvesting hay may be exempt from needing a CWA permit only if they follow NRCS Conservation Practice Standard No. 511: four pages of criteria covering timing of the harvest, moisture content of the hay, length of the cut hay, stubble height and much more.
Bull gores Pamplona survival guide author
Return of the Fence: Immigration crisis spurs renewed calls for border barrier
Obama Fundraises as the Border Disintegrates
Coburn: 'For $8M, We Can Put them All on a First-Class Seat Back to Their Homes'
Border Patrol Protects the Nation From the Terrifying Threat of Canadian Pot Smokers
The Border Crisis Is Obama’s Hurricane Katrina? Don’t Be Ridiculous!
The Government vs. the People: Rebuilding Trust in the Midst of the Illegal Alien Tsunami
"Moderate" Fatah Also Firing Rockets
Hamas unveils bigger, better rocket arsenal against Israel
New York Times Criticizes Israel for Trying to Save Lives in
Gaza
Wednesday, July 9. 2014
 Up here in the northern hemisphere, July and August tend to be slow times for websites. It's vacation season. Nevertheless, it's a good time to ask our readers to spread the word about Maggie's Farm. As we say, a growing readership is our main reward for doing this. You don't have to be a Libertarian-Conservative to learn from, and to enjoy, our eclectic site. We may sometimes piss off Liberals, but Lefties need to see other points of view just as we do.
Anyway, please help us get the word out - or we'll shoot that dog.
The Ultimate Bachelor Pad is Being Built in New York
A Zorba's Dance flash mob
The silent screams of plants
Things Christians should not say to hurting people
In support of death panels
Soccer, a Game of Chance
Just pretend this dead lion is a human baby, and then you won’t be so upset
Backlash has begun against gluten-free dieters
Obama and the Verdict of Posterity - Thanks to liberal historians, the 44th president will probably get much higher marks than he deserves.
For what?
What’s behind Chicago’s carnage?
Can the US adjust to a cooling climate?
The Pied Piper of Permisos - Our president—and his party—owns the immigration mess.
UN Urges US to Accept Thousands of Illegal Immigrants from Central America
MS-13 gang members and jihadists let in over the border as children
'A Country that Won't or Can't Control Its Borders Is Not a Country Anymore'
MS-13 Gang Members Leave Graffiti on Bathroom Walls of Nogales Border Patrol Processing Center
Bled dry by the New Class of government workers
Good news: D.C. public schools forced to actually convince people to go to them
“All Kids Can Learn,” and Charter Schools are Raising the Bar
Common Core Becomes a Legal Nightmare
Not the federal govt's job
NYT backs off on climate alarmism
The liberal and conservative case against National Flood Insurance
A new organization: Gay Conservatives of Color
Is Germany leading the euro zone toward the no-growth cliff?
The Myth of Ethnic Inequality in Israel
Saddam's WMDs. I thought Bush lied.
Gov. Perry to Obama: Pound Sand You Grandstanding Useless Piece of Shit
Tuesday, July 8. 2014
An English war for American independence:
It is fashionable today to view the Revolution as one might a traditional war between foreign powers, but, in truth, the break of 1776 was the latest in a series of fallings out between brothers — a civil war fought by men who were separated by an ocean but not by a history. Reading through the extraordinary profusion of pamphlets and gripes that the crisis produced, one cannot help but be impressed by how keenly the revolutionaries hewed to existing principle. Thomas Paine, perhaps the most radical of the agitators, may have believed that he could start the world all over again, but the colonists who marched with him mostly definitely did not. Instead, they sought a restoration of their inheritance, the Constitutional Congress asserting in 1774 that British subjects in America were “entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural- born subjects, within the realm of England.” In the same year, William Henry Drayton, a lawyer from South Carolina who later served as a delegate to the Congress, fleshed out the claim, establishing in a tract of his own that he and his countrymen were “entitled to the common law of England formed by their common ancestors; and to all and singular the benefits, rights, liberties and claims specified in Magna Charta, in the petition of Rights, in the Bill of Rights, and in the Act of Settlement.” With this popular sentiment, Drayton and his acolytes set themselves up as the Roundheads of the New World, linking spiritual arms with the parliamentarians of the English civil war, with the seditious architects of the Glorious Revolution, and with all who had established colonial outposts in the name of English freedom.
 Beer: It's Good for Your Health
Pig Sex Is Becoming a Thing of the Past
Gay divorce
7 tips for having a great one-night stand
Is that the new normal? Women's Lib? Erica Jong?
The black slavery in Africa today
“This could be about information considered embarrassing to Saudi Arabia”
More make-work jobs for the youth?
A case for getting rid of Indian reservations
Why do we have them? Indians are just people, just Americans. I am one myself, technically, and it worked out for my family that the squaw Jane left the Indian ghetto to marry my ancestor farmer in Norwalk, CT.
Here’s How We Feed the Future
If You're Reading Reason.com, The NSA is Probably Already Following You
What's the matter with this country?
Government: All your children belong to us
Real Change in Egypt?
More Illegal Immigrants from China Crossing Border
HHS Will ‘Muzzle the Media’ During Tour of Immigrant Child Housing
School nutrition group turns on Michelle O, now fighting federal lunch regulations
VDH: California’s Hydromania
Clive Crook: I've reluctantly concluded that the U.K. needs to consider its options for becoming a non-European Union country.
This guy thinks the Texas Republicans are insane
"If I were Ted Cruz..."
Excellent choices. Problem is, Cruz scares people. He doesn't seem warm and cheerful.
George Gilder: Do you pass the Israel test?
Volokh, via Protein's “If Only Thomas Jefferson Could Settle the Issue”
“If Only Thomas Jefferson Could Settle the Issue”
The assumption of natural rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence can be summed up by the following proposition: “first comes rights, then comes government.” According to this view: (1) the rights of individuals do not originate with any government, but preexist its formation; (2) The protection of these rights is the first duty of government; and (3) Even after government is formed, these rights provide a standard by which its performance is measured and, in extreme cases, its systemic failure to protect rights — or its systematice violation of rights — can justify its alteration or abolition; (4) At least some of these rights are so fundamental that they are “inalienable,” meaning they are so intimately connected to one’s nature as a human being that they cannot be transferred to another even if one consents to do so.
This is powerful stuff.
Monday, July 7. 2014
I am not sure why Obamacare rules require coverage for sexual conveniences. Sex is not a disease and, indeed, it is a sign of health. I recall that major medical policies frequently do not even cover labor and delivery because pregnancy is not a disease either.
The Obamacare rules do not require coverage for cosmetic surgery, at least not yet. Somebody will lobby for "Sagging Jowl Syndrome," you can be certain, in the future. When government gets involved with medicine, medicine becomes politicized and "diseases", "disorders", and "dysfunctions" proliferate.
 It's the hurricane of illegals.
Not an Act of God, but an act of governments. Mexico is funneling these people through, and the administration doesn't really mind.
I care more about the status of people who attempt to immigrate legally. It can take many years, even if you are a nurse, an MD, or a Physics PhD, and even then it might not be OKed.
Don't we have enough unemployed Americans? Or have we given up on them by giving them food stamps, welfare, and disability? When you quit having citizenship expectations of people, they often quit having those expectations of themselves. A sad fact of human nature, especially for the weak-willed or the rent-seeking.
Sunday, July 6. 2014
Is it American? A good piece for Revolution weekend: Professor Hamburger argues that administrative law is unlawful, unconstitutional and illegitimate. A quote:
The history of government is largely a story of elite power and popular subservience. Americans, however, turned this old model upside down. By establishing a republican form of government, they eventually made themselves masters and made their lawmakers their servants. More than two centuries later, the shell of this republican experiment remains. Within it, however, another government has arisen, in which new masters once again assert themselves, issuing commands as if they were members of a ruling class and as if the people were merely their servants. Self-government thus has given way to a system of submission.
Thursday, July 3. 2014
The Problem With a Culture of Excellence - Asian Americans have become a model of academic achievement. This is bad news for basically everyone.
Is it?
Krauthammer: "If Fences Don't Work, Why Is There One Around The White House?"
Limbaugh; You Can’t Dump Your Dog on the Street – But Can Dump 50,000 Kids From Central America
These people can't wait to get arrested. It means they're home free. San Diego Border Patrol: One Airplane of Illegals to Arrive Every 72 Hours
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The 
10 of Ben Franklin’s