Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
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Friday, December 11. 2009IncentiveVia Climate Skeptic:
Friday morning linksY2Kyoto: I Say We Start By Canceling The Olympics Take This Paradigm and Shove It: Each year, I get invited to Washington DC to serve as a pimp. (h/t, Insty) Climategate gaining traction - even in New Jersey Dino: From the Snail Darter to CO2 Watts: The Smoking Gun at Darwin Zero
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08:06
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Thursday, December 10. 2009An end-of-year Note to our Readers about Maggie's FarmPeople ask me why we seem so predictably and boringly preoccupied with the health care and climate change issues. There is a simple answer: Those are the two topics which are currently being exploited to the max by Leftist totalitarian-minded folks, who believe themselves to be our moral and intellectual superiors, in their endless efforts to control our lives and to chip away at our freedom and our dignity as sturdy, intelligent, competent, free-thinking adults and families in a free nation with (semi-) free markets. In history, the battles against central powers were fought on different fronts and, in the future, they will be fought on new fronts that have not been concocted yet in the Gramscian and Alinskian laboratories. It will never end. If Stalin's holocausts didn't end it, if the fall of the Berlin Wall didn't end it, if the evidence of Cuba and North Korea didn't end it, if Pol Pot didn't end it, if the turn of China and Russia to Capitalism didn't end it, if the countless failures of centralized control economies didn't end it, if the attempts to turn Euroland back to free markets and greater freedom didn't end it, if the pathetic return of Euroland to an imperial EU doesn't end it, if the countless failures of hugely-expensive but failed yet immortal government programs didn't end it, then nothing will ever end this battle. Power, unlike wealth, is a zero-sum game. It is in the nature of governments, which we fully accept as necessary evils, to accumulate power and funds from the citizens - and to regard citizens as children or as subjects. This seems to be something that occurs regardless of the form of government. Some people seem born to seek power over others, some wish to be security-minded subjects, and others simply seek mastery of their own lives. We prefer the latter pursuit, with God's grace, while fully aware that this mortal life we hold so dear may be often full of sound and fury, but signifying little in the end beyond our relationships with the Deity, our family, and our friends. Without wanting to sound or to be grandiose, people like us at Maggie's and similar sites aim to be perpetual revolutionaries, freedom-fighters, Tea Party Indians, Tom Paines; the minor heirs of our heroic forefathers, attempting to stay true to their ideals of the dominion of individuals seeking their own goals without the oppressive weight of an intrusive government. At least, that is what we aspire to be in our small way. Individual freedom in relation to the State is close to sacred to us. We pay the State dues to protect us from external enemies and from internal criminals, for justice under law, plus for just a few other minor things. Otherwise, we want to be left alone and to take care of ourselves as best we can in a culture in which every person exercises their morals, their integrity, and their concern for their neighbor by the Golden Rule. Live and let live, but don't tread on me. We demand that individual freedom and liberty be part of every political equation - a Constant, like Avogadro's Number. The Constitutional Amendments lX and X remain real and valid to us - delusional though we may be. We at Maggie's do not even feel entirely comfortable with the notion of "rights." We dislike and distrust the use of the word "rights" in America. In our view, the worthy subject of discussion is that of government powers and their prescribed limits. We the people need no "rights," as the US was conceived. We are free human beings. Free to fail, free to speak, free to do stupid things, free to take risks, free to succeed in our goals - if we have any- free to do almost any damn thing we want to. Yes, maybe we are crazy idealists and maybe we are foolish rubes who produce nothing but superficial cant and pointless rant. However unheard a voice we at Maggie's may be in the big world, we will use it to resist insidious political maneuvers and manipulations until we turn senile or die - or run out of things to say. If the latter comes first, we'll cheerfully turn our focus purely on things like shotguns and recipes and wildlife and fishing and salt marshes and architecture and history and philosophy and art and pretty girls and boats and travelogues and God and all of the other joyful, interesting, and delightful things in life. By the way, if you have friends who might like Maggie's, email our link around. We do not like to be cybersluts (hmm - maybe we do), but we do not want people who might enjoy our eclectic offerings to be deprived of our humble efforts. Let people know that we exist, because our readership is our only reward for our enjoyable efforts here on ye olde Farm. Doing so would be the finest Christmas present for us.
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11:33
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Thursday morning linksImage via Moonbattery More experts have second thoughts about AGW
Via View from 1776:
AGW is a potential bonanza for rent-seekers and power-seekers. That's why the facts no longer matter. It changes every day: Government medical takeover update Get ready for Health Care 'Sticker Shock' Isn't this racial profiling? The NYT: Christmas gifts for people of color?!?!?!? Shades of separate water fountains.
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07:41
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Wednesday, December 9. 2009The report suppressed by the EPAVia Human Events:
Dare I repeat this again? It's all about a political agenda. Tuesday, December 8. 2009Weds. morning links, updated belowPhoto of one of Tiger's
Vanderleun: The day we killed John Lennon Insty on law schools:
Althouse: Stanley Fish finds Sarah Palin's book "compelling and very well done. Related: Palin's 21st-century stealth campaign of surgical strikes keeps Obama off balance Also related: Who's the rube? Palin sure has the internet thing down pat. Tiger: The continuing war on business. Related from Pethokoukis: The EPA and Obama’s Uncertainty Tax The teacher's union that stole Christmas
Climategate: They all get the same outcomes cuz they all used the same "improved" data. Related from Lawrence Solomon: Dirty climate data The O and Conyers: President Obama told me to stop ‘demeaning’ him, says Rep. Conyers Blair: Is Cap & Trade anything more than income dedistribution? Not that I can tell. Must be want they really wanted: Euros become subjects of a New Versailles. Maybe they never really bought in to the risks, the self-reliance, and the uncertainties of human freedom and dignity. More... Sarah Palin discusses Climategate in the WaPo Charter schools growing, despite union hostility Am Thinker: Watermelon Marxists Why is Mexico such a mess? City Journal Sen. Inhofe: The greatest scandal in modern science
Good point from Melissa: The Left and the MSM have portrayed her as an ignorant rube. So how can she not exceed expectations? This is cruel: The people of WalMart (video) The press and Climategate: Like a hamster in a cage with a snake Tuesday morning links: All the news is badCute gal, to cheer us up, via Washington Rebel, who seems to compete with Theo for demure tottie and outspoken opinion - EPA Finding Gives It Effective Control of the Economy. Suddenly, it isn't funny. Indeed, it is one reason businesses are wary of new hires. Democrats' war on small business and family businesses. Also, not funny. And it is why small businesses are wary of new hires. With no functioning MSM, people like Harry Reid get away with pure BS like this. Unbelievable. Pajamas on the politics of non-warming:
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08:29
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Monday, December 7. 2009We're from the government, and we're here to helpThe 111 new bureaucracies and agencies in the Dem health care bill, via Never Yet Melted: 1. Retiree Reserve Trust Fund (Section 111(d), p. 61)
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17:44
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How scientists used to beVDH at NRO:
Watch out for the trickHere's the trick that is coming:
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12:58
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News flashChristmas puddings cause global warming. But you already knew that. Photo is a dangerous Plum Pudding. Talkin' 'bout our girlsLloyd Marcus at Am Thinker: In Defense of Sarah Palin and Conservative Women. And here's Marcus' Our Girls:
A few Monday linksWhile the MSM is preoccupied with Tiger Woods and wackos sneaking into White House parties, government health care is proceeding apace behind the scenes. Nat Hentoff on The Cold Heart of Obamacare. Jay Cost on Why Does the Public Oppose ObamaCare? Christmas trees axed from Copenhagen conference. However, Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges. Yes, indeed, The C Students of the World Unite! Did you read this? CRU Raw Temp Data Shows No Significant Warming Over Most Of The World. And did you catch this excellent one from Bolt? - Climategate: how the conspirators gagged on their deceptions Krugman quotes union study to support government jobs plan. At this point, Krugman has about the same degree of credibility as Andrew Sullivan.
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09:43
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The NYT does ClimategateThe NYT drank the Kool-Aid years ago - for political, not scientific reasons. They know nothing about science or math (how much stats did Pinch take in college?), but they do know that they approve of any kind of authoritarianism of the elites and the experts as long as they and their Manhattan pals are the elites and experts. I think that it is notable that they have finally admitted that Climategate exists. They have not quite gone so far as to admit that a debate about the science - or about the hysteria in which they have participated in avidly - exists. Their editorial concludes:
They did not decide to mention that those emails go to the heart of all of the hysterical pronouncements of the IPCC. The CRU is the beating, seemingly duplicitous, heart of the entire movement. Rather than being the cynics and skeptics that we expect of hard-nosed journalists, the NYT predictably drinks the Kool-Aid because it suits their authoritarian politics. Pathetic, limp - and unprofessional.
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06:10
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Sunday, December 6. 2009Sunday late-day outstanding and mild linksImage via Mr. Free Market Christmas books: The Dangerous Book for Boys Good streaming Christmas music via FBC radio . It's not mall music. Not being an economist, I always have to look up the exact definition of rent-seeking A nation of Watanabes. My view? There is no such thing as predatory lenders. There is such thing as greedy, predatory, amoral borrowers and risk-takers on the bank's nickel. Sometimes Ace gets serious and, when he does, he says wise things. As in this piece (which is not really about Palin). h/t, Villainous. One quote:
An outrage indeed. The re-do of the Sunmaid girl. They made her less ethnic, and no longer a field worker. I have heard many views on this: House Republicans Seek Reprieve For Navy SEALs. I tend to think it's like those cases where they arrest a 6 year-old girl for having a butter knife in her lunchbox. NSFW: Obama's Safe Schools Czar. This creep would have been arrested if he came by my elementary schoool. Is California the Dems' model for growth? Via Pethokoukis, The chart that keeps the WH econ team up at night:
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Climategate updateJust when it seemed as if, finally, there could be some real open discussion about the data, ClimateGate Professor Calls G-Warming Skeptic 'A**hole' on Live TV Climate scientist: There is no smoking hot spot The other scientists held their nose in public. Bolt - Climategate: how the conspirators gagged on their deceptions:
I agree. Coyote on one Example of Climate Work That Needs to be Checked and Replicated. Urban heat. Via Driscoll on the MSM:
Image: The new palms and rising balmy waters at Maggie's
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07:31
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Saturday, December 5. 2009The most influential tree in the worldClimategate reveals 'the most influential tree in the world,' by Christopher Brooker. Related: Part of the manbearpig episode, for those few who have never seen it. At Manbearpig Scammers Sunk by Their Own Hysterical Rhetoric at Moonbattery. Powerful stuffCongressman Mike Rogers' opening statement on Health Care reform in Washington
CRU Raw Temp Data Shows No Significant Warming Over Most Of The World
From AJ Strata
Saturday morning linksTiger Woods drives sales of physics book sky high Hungarian cave-dwellers could split grandmother's $6.6 billion fortune Gore's mountain of misinformation. Related: Global warming may require higher dams, stilts. Good grief. Rereading the ADL’s Foolish Report on Rage Timothy P. Carney: Jobs summit features rent-seeking CEOs Geert Wilders summoned to trial Media Tricks: Three Big Stories, Three Media Disappearing Acts MSM silence on climategate: Day Fourteen and Counting RCP: Dems Doing Liberalism Badly Targeting Sarah: Looks like somebody has been assigned the full-time job of making Sarah seem "controversial" and tainted Dogs as con artists (article from 2002). A quote:
The sound of settled science (from Bolt):
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05:36
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Friday, December 4. 2009Friday morning linksAt NRO:
In Search of a Jobs Agenda: Go West young man, but stop at Texas. It's only fair: Coburn, Vitter want to force Congress into public health plan 59% think scientists lied about global warming
Towering Hypocrisy: Times Calls Swiss Intolerant for Minaret Ban Protein: All your objective media are belong to us! Re Climategate:
Wizbang: Insight Into the Deleted Data Boxer attacks the whistleblowers. Thus re-enacting - and confirming - the whole problem. Law suit over NASA hiding climate data Nigel Lawson: 'Saving' the planet will be the real disaster Oh Noes: Arnold Schwarzenegger unveils dramatic climate change map which shows flooded San Francisco of the future
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07:28
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h/t, Theo Thursday, December 3. 2009A moral imperative for insurance?
It is a moral imperative for parents to take care of their kids as best they can. And, in a nation founded on equality in the face of the law, you could make a case for universal free national legal care. Socialized medicine is no more insurance than Social Security is. What it is is having the government - ie your neighbors - pay your bills. That's not insurance. Tipping PointVia Junk Science (whence the image): This IS the Tipping Point. Similar theme at Pajamas: The End of the Line for Climate Hysteria?
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