Wednesday, August 28. 2013
Tuesday, August 27. 2013
Sultan: Egypt is Where History Goes to Die
A quote:
The assumption that historical processes align with a forward motion, that the liberalization of a society moves it forward, are so innate that it goes unquestioned. It is why democracy is held to be a good, entirely apart from its outcome. Even if democratic elections lead to a takeover by a junta of fanatical cannibals, the very act of holding an election moves a society forward through one hoop in the great circus of historical processes. The immediate result may be cannibalism, but in the long run, as Arab Spring advocates remind us from the editorial pages, the society moves forward.
The liberal understanding of history made it impossible to see the Muslim Brotherhood for what it was because its victory did not fit the march of progress. The victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in a democratic election meant that it was progressive. Because that is how the forward motion of history is meant to work. And its overthrow had to be considered reactionary, regardless of the issues...
Here at Maggie's Farm, where we use tractors and fossil fuel and the internet, we nonetheless tend to view the notion of "progress" as a false idol.
Monday, August 26. 2013
 Real Men of West Monroe - One thing most reality shows lack is reality. Not Duck Dynasty.
How to Encourage More College Sexual Assault Victims to Speak Up
Sheesh. Just call the cops. Crime is crime. Violence is violence.
Beware of Warrior Cops
Most Expensive U.S. Cities to Live In
... Most work in the psychological and social sciences suffers from a lack of conceptual rigor.
My life with black people: My Race
Who fears the Man from Nazareth?
,,,if your idea of your marriage contract requires you to stay exciting and
interesting, then it’s like a TV show that depends on its ratings, and
eventually, no matter how many cute kids you add, murder trials you
withstand, or sharks you jump in water skis, ratings will inevitably
decline.
In Another Country - How do we make people want to be successful?
A private bisexual conference at the White House
Rangel: ‘No reason why a young person should have to pay for college education’
The Thug Culture That Killed Chris Lane
Tuition will keep increasing as long as Washington bases loans on college costs
Washington Post Baffled to Find that Most Egyptians Support Overthrow of Morsi
Why Steve Ballmer Failed - The resignation of Microsoft's CEO is also an acknowledgement: The computer world changed, and Microsoft hasn't.
NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies
Dead souls of a cultural revolution
SEIU: The 21st Century's Jack Cade
This is supposed to be bad: New Jersey Senate Candidate To Single Mothers: Stop Relying On Food Stamps And Go To Work!
White kids spreading the n-word and Nazi flags around campus for kicks,
without giving a damn how many minorities they scare or upset, does seem
like a great example of white privilege!
How Oberlin Manufactured the Hate-Crime Hoax of the Year
Defenders of stop-and-frisk and racial profiling have made me break my public silence about the night I almost died
Tutor reveals Ivy-admissions madness of rich penthouse parents
Pat Buchanan: 'Whites Are the Only Group That You Can Discriminate Against Legally in America Now'
Martin Luther King Is Weeping in His Grave - Commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the March on Washington with fearmongering and demagoguery.
Saving Homeowners By Letting Them Go Bankrupt
Facial Scanning Is Making Gains in Surveillance
Going, Going, Gone - The arguments that justified Obamacare are already being discredited. Here’s how to replace it.
MSNBC's Touré: Slavery 'Obviously' to Blame for Black Unemployment
DOJ Sues to Keep Louisiana Kids in Failing Schools
Richard Vedder: The Real Reason College Costs So Much - The expert on the economics of higher education
explains how subsidies fuel rising prices and why there's a 'bubble' in
student loans and college enrollment.
PRUDEN: Up to our ears in Al Gore’s ‘climate change’ snake oil
Obama Holding Private Bi-Sexual Conference At White House - See
more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/08/obama-holding-private-bi-sexual-conference-at-white-house/?ModPagespeed=noscript#sthash.mwt3jeMo.dpuf
Sunday, August 25. 2013
Some of our friends have a (volunteer, but expert) project to provide cheap and simple medical 911 systems to Third World countries. They plan to begin with Haiti and Latin America.
Beacon: 9-1-1 where there is none
Here's their recent press release.
It's a good cause. Roll them a coin if you can, and tell friends who might be interested. It's not an app, it's a phone feature. God bless those who put their time, brains, and energy into such positive and inventive pursuits.
Few of us in the First World have any idea what it's like out there. And still people in America complain about medical care. They always will. Prosperity and the world's best medical care have turned us into babies.
 Finally! One thing we can all agree on is that last-minute Christmas shopping is a real drag. The crowds, the noise, the confusion, the cold sleet or snow because you're in the middle of goddamn winter — in short, it sucks.
So, while we'd all appreciate just a few more days in the shopping season to help us out, the hands of the retailers are tied since there's an unwritten rule that they can't swamp the land with Christmas stuff until the official 'Thanksgiving timeline' is over.
However, with the help of the Department of Interior collaborating with the National American Turkey Council, they came up with a very clever solution:
Oh, For Gobble’s Sake, Thanksgiving Decorations Are Out Already
If you’re the kind of person who likes to start getting their Thanksgiving table ready several months in advance, you’re in luck.
They moved up their Thanksgiving timeline by two months, thereby allowing the Christmas retailers to do the same!
125 Shopping Days Left: Retailers Start Xmas Deals
Even before the school bells are ringing for many families, retailers are sounding sleigh bells.
Yes, that's right. With 120-plus shopping days left, stores are already talking up their holiday offers.
As I said six years ago in Another Successful Disappointing Holiday Season:
For someone who grew up in an era when it was strictly verboten for businesses to put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, it's been somewhat sad to see the commercial greed seep forth a little earlier every year since. I believe these days the decorations are going up just after the 4th of July. I hear Easter's the next goal.
In the writing biz, this is known as when fantasy meets reality.
They just beat out Labor Day.
And that's just after the 4th of July.
I hear Easter's the next goal.
Saturday, August 24. 2013
 Too many projects to get done on the Farm today.
For starters, I need to find a new 6-V starter battery for the old Ford tractor. Then mowing, hedge-trimming, and tree-cutting.
Half of America is on holiday right now, and nobody else is in the mood for the bad news anyway.
I will throw in one link, about coffee: How to Make Perfect Coffee - The science of what makes coffee great. The article feels so effete that it could be satire, but it isn't.
And one more important sociological study to peruse while enjoying your Dunkin Donuts: Hey, Ladies, New Study Proves Men Aren’t Pigs
Friday, August 23. 2013
aaf;jlkeeeeeeeeeeeefjeifj3feiiiiifjieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiie;fff;3;hasffffyyyyyy 3999999999999r999r 333l;aas;;;;;;aaaaaaaasssffff99333333jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj;fff3ffffaa ;a3-rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee3jrf3;;;;;;;;;;
333333333333333ffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-
Pardon me.
"Rowrwrrr! Hsssst!"
Okay, all better. I'll tend to the wounds later.
As BD mentioned a while back, he and the missus are doing their usual summer fling in Italy in a few weeks, so I'll be saving up goodies and not posting much in the interim. I'll have some pretty interesting pieces, though, including an AGW post with a very unique viewpoint, a tutorial on how to make one of those 'slideshow songs' where the pics line up with the lyrics, how to type "I ♥ Maggie's Farm" with a few quick keystrokes, and it only took two hours and 20 years of online expertise but I finally tracked down a copy of the 1974 National Lampoon Stereo Test And Demonstration Record on a backwater P2P site for your listening and stereo testing enjoyment.
On the health front, I just took my blood pressure and it was 135 (high figure), and that's without taking any blood pressure medicine for four days. That's still slightly above average, but compared to its peak of 195 a few months ago, it'll do.
The one main difference has been an almost salt-free diet. I got so curious about the whole salt issue that I purposefully didn't change anything else (exercise, smoking, coffee, etc) just to see what would happen. Despite claims that "salt does not cause these things", I must beg to differ. The blood pressure medicine initially knocked it down to non-life-threatening levels, then I halved the dosage a few weeks ago, then decided to see what would happen if I stopped it altogether four days ago. The results speak for themselves. I'll go back to halving it and get a fresh prescription when I visit the GP in a few weeks.
I also still owe the hospital over a thousand bucks and am desperately low on cash (as I've been since this nightmare started), so if anyone would care to throw a few doubloons into my relief fund, it would certainly be appreciated.
In other news, I heard via email the other day another by-now-typical domain name heartbreak story:
(the names have been changed to protect the innocent, if any)
Doc -
Well, craparoonie! You would think that "James Morgan Downing" would be an obscure enough name that it would be available, but not only was "jamesdowning.com" and "jamesmdowning.com" taken, but so was the whole thing, "jamesmorgandowning.com"! I ended up taking "james-downing.com", but I'm not happy about it. On the other hand, I suppose I should be grateful that at least it was available!
Indeed.
As I've noted before, once a domain is gone, it's pretty much gone forever because the domain harvesters will snatch it up automatically within milliseconds of it coming back on the market. They figure if somebody wanted it once, then somebody else will want it again one day, at which point they'll be happy to lease it to you for the rest of eternity — unless you want to buy it outright for a mere $4,995, of course.
The bottom line is, if you ever might want your own domain, even if just to post pics of the grandkids on in twenty years, now's the time to get it. At $5.95/mo, it's the cheapest bill in the In Box, and you don't have to actually build a site or anything to hold it.
As for grabbing it, I highly recommend BlueHost. It's run by a nice conservative company based in Provo, Utah. The CEO does a twice-yearly email round-up and the guy's hysterical, always throwing zingers and barbs at Washington and our meddling Congress. I have some tips on domain names here.
For your visual delight, a blast from the past; the incredible footage of that airliner landing on that highway out in L.A. a few years ago. The fact that a TV news crew happened to be right there when it happened was a remarkable stroke of luck, not to mention catching on film the horror of the harrowing landing, itself.
It's a miracle anyone survived.
The details of this breathtaking event are here.
200 New York Cities Headed for Pension Trouble
Climate Change Battle Space Prep
Are atheists mentally ill?
Donald Rumsfeld: Obama Has Created a 'Leadership Vacuum'
Who needs a democratic Egypt?
High Deductible Plans Creating Health Care Slowdown
California Prison Academy: Better Than a Harvard Degree - Prison guards can retire at the age of 55 and
earn 85% of their final year's salary for the rest of their lives. They
also continue to receive medical benefits.
Is Obama Already a Lame Duck?
33 Shocking Facts Which Show How Badly The Economy Has Tanked Under Obama
Feds running out of wildfire money
Freaking out about fracking sand
The dirty secret is that there is no difference between labor and management.
What Israeli drips did for the world - Netafim, the pioneer in drip
irrigation technology, tells its story in words, pictures and video
A Few Quick Thoughts on
DOJ’s Suit Against Texas on Voter ID and Moves on Redistricting
PBS Includes Vicious Anti-Semites in Show About Mohammad
Kimball: Obama’s Dependency Agenda
Obamacare
Officials Hire Detective Force to Go With Their Armed Tax Agents - See
more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/08/feds-hire-obamacare-detective-force-to-go-with-their-armed-tax-agents/#sthash.URtmUZhH.dpuf
Thursday, August 22. 2013
I don't know what was wrong with Dr. Phil's tweet.
If a guy has had some drinks, is it OK for a gal to have sex with him just to satisfy her immediate lust? Horny women take advantage of guys every day, and nobody says a word about it. Seducing guys is the easiest thing in the world and every female knows it. Vice-versa, not so easy.
A funeral home owner confesses
If A $15 An Hour Minimum Wage Is Good, Why Not Make It $200?
A cheerful item: Homeowner shoots, kills escaped prisoner in Iowa
WSJ: Even The EPA Admits Biofuels Are A Disaster
Heartless evil in Oklahoma
If these kids had picked a black dude to kill for thrills, it wouldn't make the news. Routine.
The Obamacare Chronicles: Like your family’s insurance? Suckers!
Daniel Henninger: The Soft-on-Security Issue Returns - Can liberals be trusted to fight the real world's threats from urban crime and overseas terrorism?
Obamacare, tepid U.S. growth fuel part-time hiring
HHS to Host Brown-Bag Lunches to Explain Obamacare to Employees
Obama Regime Pushes for Warrantless Smart Phone Searches
Some fun Hillary quotes
Wednesday, August 21. 2013
Perhaps the "bored youth" need more access to government midnight basketball?
And with this sort of cash lying around, if you got really bored you could take a vacation trip to California or Europe. Or maybe spend it on some summer computer programming courses. When I was a bored youth with only the money I had from my paper route, I'd go fishing or read a book or throw together a little baseball in the neighborhood.
However, I never desired any jail cred. I think jail cred, for these youths, is what Eagle Scout was in my neighborhood. It's a multicultural issue to which we are supposed to be sensitive.
It's not enough to accept any government's explanations for censorship or unlawful detention. We have to consider what compels government to do what it does, in general. That is, the pursuit of power.
The promise to "fight terrorism" may provide a fig leaf, but barely that. "Terrorism" is whatever a government chooses it to be, and this definition will be used by those in power to pursue more power.
my view will be informed by these points:
1. Governments lie about the scope of their surveillance measures against us.
2. Governments say that what they are doing in the war on terrorism needs to be secret, but governments have an established record of lying about their need for secrecy.
3. When governments say that they are using their powers to fight terrorists, government are lying. Government actually use their expanded powers to pursue whatever they want, including copyright infringement and the War of Drugs. Therefore it would not surprise me in the least if a nominally anti-terrorist measure were stretched here to accommodate a leak investigation.
4. Governments say that they are using their power to fight terrorists, as if the identity of "terrorists" is a static and principled matter. In fact, who is or isn't a terrorist is a political question resolved in the discretion of the government based on the balance of power at any given time, as I learned to my regret.
If a government knows it will draw attention by detaining a somewhat high-profile individual, what prevents that detention or harassment of you or me?
Tuesday, August 20. 2013
NYT: Memo Refers to 'Seven Perils' for China's Communist Party:
"... a memo sent to China's universities told them to avoid “seven evil subjects" -- listed as "universal values; western ideas of the freedom of the press; civil society; civic rights; historical mistakes of the Communist party; crony networks; and judicial independence.""
Funeral eulogies banned in Irish Catholic diocese
What Is a Brony?
Help Thy Neighbor and Go Straight to Prison
Arctic sea ice-free by 2013
America's Libertarian Moment - A longtime libertarian policy wonk talks about whether the
philosophy can save the GOP -- and why he still doesn't think Rand Paul
can win the presidency.
Obamacare: Lawmaker, Regulate Thyself
Your new health care system, schematized
Obama’s vague Buffett Rule a political ploy
Scientists Unlock Self-Fertilizing Crops
NY Welfare Recipients Eligible For More In Benefits Than Teachers Earn
The Worst Argument Against Catastrophic Health Coverage
The ‘Forced Home Inspections’ in Obamacare Law
Adult kids at home: New Jersey’s Boomerang Generation
Are big-time journalists out of touch with America?
Monday, August 19. 2013
When welfare pays better than work:
There is no evidence that people on welfare are lazy. Indeed, surveys of them consistently show their desire for a job. But they’re also not stupid. If you pay them more not to work than they can earn by working, many will choose not to work.
While this makes sense for them in the short term, it may actually hurt them over the long term. One of the most important steps toward avoiding or getting out of poverty is a job.Only 2.6 percent of full-time workers are poor, vs. 23.9 percent of adults who don’t work. And, while many anti-poverty activists decry low-wage jobs, even starting at a minimum-wage job can be a springboard out of poverty.
Thus, by providing such generous welfare payments, we may actually not be helping recipients.
Avoiding poverty is easy. Get a job. Work hard. Save money. Make friends. Get married before you have kids.
Don Surber is back
Russell Moore: From Moral Majority to 'Prophetic Minority' - The new leader of the Southern Baptist political arm says Christians have lost the culture and need to act accordingly.
The hardest working man in demagogy
It turns out that Democrats destroyed the entire health care system to insure, like, 3 extra people
New York Bans in Schools Words Like: Gun, Dinosaur, War, Disease
Steyn: Idiot Big Brother
Got a Great Health Plan? Get Ready to Kiss It Goodbye
Can the GOP Fix Its Woman Problem in Time to Fight Clinton?
Deputies Bust Gays with Unconstitutional Sodomy Law: Don’t Cops Have Better Things to Do?!
Overburdened - New York’s tax regime costs the city jobs in a hypercompetitive age.
Egypt’s One Chance for Democracy -Only capable armed forces can check the violent proclivities of Islamic supremacism.
Are Democrats About to Fracture Over Fracking?
China’s Xi “Lurches” to the Left, Promotes Maoist Revival
Rochester man installs solar panels on his home to help educate taxpayers about the wastefulness of subsidies
In Defense of Football - It's a rough, sometimes dangerous sport, but critics exaggerate football's risks
The truth Johnny Depp wants to hide about the real-life Tontos: How
Comanche Indians butchered babies, roasted enemies alive and would ride
1,000 miles to wipe out one family
Saturday, August 17. 2013
How Did Rich Connecticut Morph Into One Of America's Worst Performing Economies?
A quote:
When investors and entrepreneurs consider important decisions like where to establish a residence, where to operate a business and, yes, where to die, they compare their options. From a financial point of view, Connecticut turns out not to be a great option.
I love this state, or parts of it anyway. However, it is one of those states, like California, which once were independent-minded and traditionalist Yankee Red, but gradually turned Blue and then finally Dark Blue. They took their prosperity for granted. Farms, inventors, entrepreneurs, booming factories, great private schools, and great universities and colleges; the summer homes of the prosperous of NYC and even Hollywood; a charming coastline great for swimming, sailing, and fishing; old-time Yankee towns and virtues.
Jobs for all. Minimal taxation. A huge middle-class, with more upper-middle than most states had, to spread their money around. Huge Hartford insurance industry. Horses, cattle, fine Connecticut shade tobacco. Old town greens with their Congregational churches. Town Meeting governments where every wise old guy and every crank had his say. The southern half is close to NYC, and the northern half goes to Boston for baseball and football and hockey. Good choices.
Government policies did their damage. State taxes and local property taxes. Unions corrupted urban governments, along with some of the immigrant Mafioso components. Semi-skilled blacks from the rural South moved north in a vast migration for the industrial jobs, jobs which fled this high-tax, heavily-unionized post-War state leaving them with nothing while immigrant Mexicans happily do most of the hard labor and even skilled labor like masonry and construction, and are happy to work in our Dunkin Donuts shops.
For many businesses and many individuals, economics now trump sentimental home-town and home-state attachments.
Probably, like many Californians, government is doing their best to drive me away but it's still home to me. Roots, family, friends, traditions, church, clubs, colleagues. Some of my wealthy friends retire to elite enclaves in Florida for six months plus one day, and spend the rest of their time up here. Not that they really retire, but you know what I mean: they keep working via the internet and phone.
Attorneys and accountants are needed to minimize the damage of the government greed which, unlike private desire for profit, comes to us at gunpoint.
Nothing about Florida holds any charm for me (sorry, Florida readers). It's just how I feel. I have enjoyed visits to the Everglades, and other places in Florida. But not to live. It's just not my subculture.
Now I must be off to a neighborhood cocktail party. Some of the old traditions persist amongst the traditionalist old minority here, where a blazer and tie are still never the wrong attire for a Connecticut Yankee.
Nobody has informed Bridgeport about that yet, but I still hold some hope for that old town if they can starve out the mob, the unions, and etc. "Park City."
Friday, August 16. 2013
Zinn hated the country which made him millions with his 1930s-style propaganda, and which bought his nice summer place on Cape Cod. He even bought the theater there. There is something twisted about people who welcome opportunity for themselves, but hate it for others.
Howard Zinn – Hero of Hollywood and the academic left
Sarah Hoyt gets it: Occupied!
'Duck Dynasty’ Premiere Shatters Cable Records
If Obamacare is the Law of the Land, then Why Does the Obama Administration Keep Ignoring It?
Study: Journalism grads don't read newspapers, mags, books
Stocks as overvalued now as at 2007 high
Fetuses Made Into Soup in China
Roger Simon: End the Civil Rights Movement
Bryan Fischer: Obama Was Photoshopped Into Bin Laden Situation Room Photo
How American Rich Kids Bought Their Way Into the British Elite
Rachel Carson and chemophobia
Total US Household Debt at Lowest Level in Seven Years
The Coming Hillarycult? - The Left may succeed in turning Clinton into a cultural icon in the Obama mold.
Study: More Americans on Disability than Live in NYC
PA
Chief Promises to Bypass Congress in Responding to Global Warming - See
more at: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/#sthash.hz3lWavt.dpuf
EPA
Chief Promises to Bypass Congress in Responding to Global Warming - See
more at: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/#sthash.zKxT9pCC.dpuf
EPA
Chief Promises to Bypass Congress in Responding to Global Warming - See
more at: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/#sthash.zKxT9pCC.dpuf
Thursday, August 15. 2013
 With good reason. Americans Remain Wary of Washingto.
One quote:
The alienation of citizens from their government is not limited to people whom the government decides to prosecute. Because so many regulations are so unconnected to anything resembling right or wrong, people who want to be law-abiding find themselves picking and choosing the laws that they deem worthy of respect. It is a pernicious process regardless of whether they get caught when they break the rules. People who feel compelled to judge laws on a case-by-case basis have attached provisos to one of their most basic civic loyalties.
Photo is of the Obamacare law. Nobody in America knows all of what's in it, to this day. No doctor or lawyer ever will and, God knows, no politician will ever bother to know: they exempted all national politicians from it. Teams of hundreds of junior staffers wrote that stuff, and put in whatever they felt like.
The detailed regulations to that pile of crap will fill a library, and every hospital, drug company, medical device company, insurance company, doctor, and nursing home in America will be in violation of something. Work for attorneys, for sure, so I guess that's a good thing.
Our government is insane. My personal definition of insanity is not knowing that you are nuts. If you worry about being nuts, you probably aren't.
When, why, and where, did around 50% of Americans get the notion that government was a good thing rather than the necessary but strictly-limited evil which our founders envisioned? What made tough, independent American pioneers into willing children of the State? Is European-style serfdom contagious?
My ancestors escaped serfdom, at great personal risk. I will be loyal to that. I have no gratitude for government "services." I want to be left alone and never "helped." That's American to me.
Rodeo clowns asked to take ‘sensitivity training’
What America needs are more sensitive clowns. As if government did not provide enough of them.
A Reasoned and Balanced Call for the Ritual Stoning of the
Subversive Rodeo Clown Which Is Perfectly In Keeping With Our American
Values
All the Gold in the Universe Could Come From the Collisions of Neutron Stars
40 amazing maps that will help you make sense of the world
Unease at Clinton Foundation Over Finances and Ambitions
The New York Times takes down the Clinton Foundation. This could be devastating for Bill and Hillary
WALL STREET JOURNAL REMAINS #1 NEWSPAPER IN U.S.
New peer reviewed paper shows only 36% of geoscientists and engineers believe in AGW
To campaign against the bullying of LGBT people as if disagreement with the gay lifestyle were an evil is itself a form of
bullying.
Just Being Hillary Isn't Enough
If Elected, Hillary Clinton Could Save The World
Yet another messiah?
|
An