Maggie's Farm

Orwell would be proud. Steyn in the NY Sun:

My favorite headline of the year so far comes from The Daily Mail in Britain: "Government Renames Islamic Terrorism As 'Anti-Islamic Activity' To Woo Muslims."

What role do biofuels play in rising food prices? CSM.

Bill Clinton: Asset or liability?

Media complicity with Hamas propaganda

Is the FCC obsolete?

What's with the French guy who lost 7 billion?

"Is there a doctor in the house...who hasn't been sued?"

How would China attack the US? Military Times

Brit National Health: Don't treat the old or unhealthy.

Bill Kristol in the NY Times sounds like our piece yesterday:

Hillary’s advantage in the polls will, I suspect, erode. The erosion could be hastened by the expected endorsement of Obama by Ted Kennedy on Monday. It could be helped further along if Al Gore hops aboard the Obama bandwagon later in the week. Meanwhile, Tom Daschle, the Senate Democratic leader during most of the Clinton presidency, is actively supporting Obama. Talk to Democrats in D.C., and it’s amazing how many who know the Clintons well — many of whom worked in the Clinton administration — are eager that they not return to the White House.

And VDH:

We are watching something historic—the crumbling of the Clinton façade. Its disintegration does not mean Hillary won’t be President, only that she can now be beaten when just a few months ago that was deemed impossible. Strange to say: the election is in Republican hands.

A new psychiatric disorder: PNYTTSD

When government runs medical care. Captain Ed

Prof. B. wonders about Romney

Those idealistic students...except when it comes to their personal comfort. For Gaia, they should turn off all of the heat, too, and let them discover what academic gowns were really for.

What the "banality of evil" meant to Arendt. Norm

Filed in triplicate: Iowahawk takes on the Alberta Human Rights Commission

What is Davos drinking? Kudlow

"Poor" and fat. Insty. Such "problems" we have in America.

The good side of guns in schools. Kim

"No escape at UMass." You will not believe this BS...or maybe you will. (h/t, Minding the Campus)

Lopez on the game the Clintons are playing. And yes, they are trying to marginalize him as the black candidate. RWNH terms it "underhanded brilliance." I term it "sociopathic brilliance."

Celibate marriages. Althouse

"Two Cheers for Wall St." The Greed narrative vs. the Ecology narrative. David Brooks. A quote:

... there’s a moment when people realize how stupid they have been. They’ve bought a pile of subprime mortgages without really knowing what they’ve purchased. The ratings agencies suddenly don’t look so reliable. The cycle of overconfidence becomes a cycle of underconfidence because nobody knows who is holding worthless paper.

Then, finally, maturity sets in. Those who have lost great gobs of money get fired. People still find the new product useful, but within parameters and with greater safeguards.

The lesson of the Ecology Narrative is that, in most cases, the market corrects itself.

From Mediocracy, on compulsory organ "donation":

Photo: Drink Polar Pilsner. From Theo

Powerline takes another look at McCain.

Hey, Barrister. Here's a nice humidor.

The Tom Cruise video Scientology tried to suppress. Oh - here it is. Funny.

Evita. Is it really OK for Hillary to be running?

"Illegal Immigration: Republicans want cheap workers, Democrats want poor voters." Gates of Vienna

The sad problems at Lascaux. You can take a virtual tour here.

Why is Tide so popular? (read the comments)

A Prof thinks we should stop teaching fractions. How does saying "Add 0.75 tsp. salt" improve anybody's life? Can you imagine saying "Cut the dowel 14.875 inches?" Why are so many professors foolish when it comes to real life? Or how about "Add 0.3333... (how many threes do you want to go out?) cups of corn meal." h/t, Wizbang

An objective look at Kinsey's work. AVI

The Clinton tag-team campaign. Is Bill running for President again? You bet he is.

...what's happening here is almost grotesque. Bill Clinton is like a veteran champion returning to reclaim his belt, but who, through a perversion of the rules, is allowed to fight tag-team style, climbing in and out of the ring at will -- so long as the "title" is officially held by his "partner."

Electile dysfunction. It's funny, but I don't really like the premise: there is something weird about a person getting excited about a politician.

Back in the saddle: US Border guards. That would be a fun job.

The Anchoress advises Repubs to grow up. That's always good advice for everyone. It's so difficult, though. I want everything I want, for free, right now.

"Hey, I know, because I've done a study." neoneo

Yale celebrates abortion. That is sick and disgusting. Hey, Yale - try celebrating and struggling with knowledge and morality for a change, Eli. Lux et Veritas. It might do ya good.

View from the Right reflects on Thompson. Fred was closest to my views, but he was neither locked nor loaded. We will make an opening for him at Maggie's, though, if he wants to write or to make videos for us.

Bernanke hopes people will spend any tax rebate on things that are domestically-produced. Like what? Well, maybe another nice Colt for carrying. No - I'll put my rebate in the bank.

Sarko's new wife is a hot tamale...with a history. Blue Crab includes a link to a NSFW photo of the innocent blushing bride.

Who is this pussy trying to psychoanalyse my views of global cooling warming? Spare me.

How unionization damages economies. Those numbers don't lie. I have always been sentimentally (eg weakly) supportive of unionization, but their time is long past. People have learned mobility, and work has gone global. you cannot turn back that clock.  I would never join a union now: It's beneath my dignity, and I know what I am worth (which is not a whole lot because writing. like musicianship, is a common and vulgar talent). However, I happen to be slave labor on Maggie's Farm, chained in a rat-infested, Cuban-ceegar-smoke-filled, unheated, dirt-floored basement in global-cooling-afflicted New England. Save me, AFL-CIO!

Needed on our growing blogroll: Watts Up With That? Cool blog, sympatico.

Need more Gramci insight? He is the Head Coach of our Dems. I forget where I found this additional good Gramcsi link. It's all so obvious, and I do not like it at all because it is about slavery to the State - not about freedom...as you know.

Image borrowed from S,C&A's book cover collection: Rejected by Publisher

Some old computer ads. h/t, Synthstuff (sample on right)

Turning the tables on the enemies of the Second Amendment. Surber

Men, women, and empathy. Frontal Cortex

Global cooling crisis hits Iran hard

Being unfaithful keeps me happy. Telegraph

Mrs. Clinton defends Bill's attack dog role in her campaign. When did Bill ever know anything about dignity?

The behind-the-scenes Thompson story. Makes sense to me.

Another Gaza crisis? Red Cross wants Israel to offer more supplies to Hamas. As Cinnamon quotes:

You tell me what other country would be supplying electricity to people who are bombing their children on a daily basis, and risking their lives to do so.

Another bewildered journalist. Squaring the Boston Globe. The guy sounds like he thinks there has been a "market failure" in journalism, and wants a government job.

The WSJ on Obama's Clinton Education. A quote:

One of our favorite Bill Clinton anecdotes involves a confrontation he had with Bob Dole in the Oval Office after the 1996 election. Mr. Dole protested Mr. Clinton's attack ads claiming the Republican wanted to harm Medicare, but the President merely smiled that Bubba grin and said, "You gotta do what you gotta do."

We're reminded of that story listening to Barack Obama protest his treatment by the now ex-President Clinton on behalf of his wanna-be-President wife. "You know the former President, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Mr. Obama told a TV interviewer. "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts -- whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas."

 Now he knows how the rest of us feel.

Michigan denies driver's licenses to illegals.

French students prostitute themselves for tuition. I guess the mean government forced them into it - or maybe they have no other skills.

Rorke's Drift, on this day in 1879

Do you care about the budget deficit? Megan McArdle

Saudi Arabia to permit women to drive.

Right Wing Prof liked Cloverfield. So did a Bird Dog pup.

More MA medical insurance mess.

A Danny Ortega update.

Why you don't need to worry yourself about the Ice Caps

Is NATO irrelevant? RWNH

Are we reaching the end of cheap food? First the Chinese wanted oil, but now they want burgers too.

The MSM is not only on the Dem side, but they are afraid of the Clintons, who have the influence and willingness to destroy careers if it will help them. A quote from Am Thinker:

The Clinton political machine is nothing if not formidable.  When annoying tidbits inadvertently surface in the mainstream press, the political hammer comes down.  MSNBC is simply not allowed to criticize Democrats and especially not Hillary.

The preferential treatment the left receives from our mainstream press has become undeniably obvious.  Conservatives have pointed to it for many years, but the greater public is just now awakening to the truth, as reflected in the consistently low numbers the media receives in opinion polls.  CNN's staging of questioners during a recent Republican debate is a case in point.  While silly puff pieces about Hillary abound, we have yet to hear any substantive or aggressive questioning of the Senator.  Her agenda will likely remain a mystery, as most of the press is in her pants suit pocket.  Annoying cackles aside, the special contempt FOX receives from the socialist left is precisely because they are not part of the "progressive" team and not as easily controlled or intimidated as the rest of the media.  The Democrats take their influence for granted, and despise press they cannot control.

The usually-calm and sane Dr. Sanity lets loose a rant: Let's end the cold war and get rid of Marxist BS once and for all. A quote:

We were mistaken in the 90's when we thought we had won the cold war against the communists.....The same Marxist dialectic crap is now being played out in the Democratic primary. Which "oppressed" group will triumph over the other oppressed groups and go on to be oppressed by the evil Republicans, I wonder? There exists a heirarchy that determines whose victimhood is more worthy (I refer to it as the "socialist food chain" here). Will it be Obama or Clinton? Or, perhaps the pandering Edwards, who, while the low man on the victimhood totempole, is trying to suck up to both groups at the same time.

Isn't it time we finally showed this ideological nonsense the door and slammed it shut? We have a chance to not only finally put an end to the kind of racial and gender discrimination that only divides us and keeps us in perpetual victimhood; we have the chance of truly renouncing the vile communist and socialist ideas that suck the freedom and dignity out of all of us.

Rupert takes on Pinch.  Am. Thinker. I'd like to watch that competition. Truth is, I like the NYT EXCEPT for the way they propagandize in their news pages. The fact that their editorials are 1960s-era knee-jerk radical chic is predictable for a Manhattan-based newspaper, and one does not have to read them.

Whole Foods CEO lays out the future of food. (h/t, Am. Digest)

Is morality important in a partner? Dr. Helen. Duh.

Culture alters the brain. Of course it does - everything does. And big things effect it a lot.

How do politicians do this? Hillary Clinton's money.

The Canadian human rights scam. Steyn

Elegant bird feeders

You know you're near a bottom when mortgage brokers start jumping off bridges

Hawk killers. CNN Video. These are bad people.

Re McCain: What's a maverick? Betsy

Success of gun laws: Canadian knife deaths now exceed shootings

Fred: What might have been. Krumm (h/t, Insty)

Steyn on Bill Clinton in NRO:

Tomasky's missing the point: It's in part because "thousands of committed progressives... went to the mat for him" that he's in a position to screw you over ten years later. He decided back then he'd do what was necessary to win. Why would you expect him to behave any differently today? And how deluded do you have to be to think, of all people, Vernon Jordan's going to tell him to cut it out?

I love the way all these worldly Democratic sophisticates - the ones who told us "everybody does it" - sound so sweetly naive at discovering that this time round "everybody" has done it to them. Better get used to a lot more of that.

How the Dems view us, the people, at Moonbattery:

At a healthcare forum in Fremont, loony-left Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) offered some insight into how his kind view us little people.

Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, which oversees Medicare, Stark admitted that Dems are imposing socialized medicine incrementally so that people don't rebel:

If I told voters that we would implement a brand-new health care system on January 1, 2009, I'd be nailed to the front door of the nearest hospital.

Stark questioned why economic freedom should ever be applied to healthcare. He even declared that we have a "right" to force others to pay our doctor bills.

Speaking of which, a quote from this 1970 Time magazine piece about Saul Alinsky:

If the occasion requires, Alinsky's forces will not refrain from spreading rumors about an antagonist or indulging in something that comes very close to blackmail. "Our organizers," he says, "look for the wrong reasons to get the right things done."

Yes, the ends justify the means...For the Left, in my view, there are higher laws than those of morality.

Obama: None of our hands is clean. Sorry to disagree - mine are. Also, Obama goes after Bill. More from Wizbang. Apparently Obama is beginning to feel that hs is running against Bill, and I can understand why.

The archeology of downtown NYC. Wooden water mains. h/t, Synthstuff

Is divorce good for women?

The sex life of a polyglot. George Steiner on himself.

The twilight of the nation-state in Europe. Bruce Thornton

"I have a dream" speech was plagiarized, in part. Gateway. Cannot fault MLK's delivery, though.

MSM Propaganda: 1.Definining poverty in America. Half own their own homes, 3/4 own cars. Cramer  2. The fictional horrors of war. Steyn. More on the "soldier as felon" at Small Dead Lemmings

The darkest material on earth. Thompson

Siberian Light has a new format and a new mission

Chavez is a coke-head.

The USA is still a center-right country.

What's new in diversity at Yale? John Leo

Women in Saudi Arabia worse off than prisoners at Gitmo. Jules

Cassandra's Dream reviewed in the NYT. I won't be bothering to see it.

Ten Commandments "stupid," says Bill Maher. Can't fault him for lack of self-confidence.

PC pizzas, kids. (h/t, Theo)

Irish emissions bad. Bulgarian emissions good.

Obama and Rezko

Whither Fred Thompson? NYT

Alinsky's tactics: Hillary and Obama.

What does success in Iraq look like? Powerline

Rudy: Not running as an Italian-American.

Photo: Colorado skiing, last year.

I will be off duty for a couple of days for a bit of a hunt - a wild goose chase for a couple of days in the snow and wintr'y weather.

Speaking of killing, look what PETA does. Natural born killers?

As much as I love rail, the nation's massive  "investment" in it is not producing dividends. Coyote. If you ask me (and nobody does), this country does not need one more road on my nickel. Nor, apparently, does it need one more rail. Perhaps we're done with basic transportation for now.

Illegals moving north to avoid enforcement. Wizbang

Via Mankiw, Anna Schwartz dings the Fed. And yes, a feckless Fed did cause the Great Depression. The "market failure" meme was a scapegoat, but the Leftys did get some mileage out of it, and still do.

If you have not read about this already, the story of the NYT's public editor's assault on Bill Kristol is hard to believe. They clearly have no idea about how lucky they are to have him, but I still think they should hire Mark Steyn. When they hire Steyn, I will renew...maybe.

The truth about those famous Vietnam photos. Neoneo. Thanks for that piece, Neo, and for the series it is a part of. You put plenty of work into that series, to our benefit.

And speaking of MSM propaganda, the NYT used nine reporters to produce this utterly dishonest smear of American veterans. How can they bear to look at themselves in the mirror?

No clothes? Or an empty suit? Why Hillary, despite celebrity status, is an empty pantsuit.

I think this is accurate.  Why Mayor Menino doesn't want low-cost medical clinics - because they aren't run by the government. Who is he to decide where I get help? I'll go to the darn veterinarian, who is my pal, if I want to.

From a Betsy quote on college admissions craziness:

As for the remainder of the tuition--that portion not covered by student aid--it must then be provided by the parents, who work overtime in America's marvelous market economy so their children can spend four years in the care of college professors who despise the market economy and the bourgeois buffoons who work in it overtime so they can send their kids to college, where, coincidentally, the kids will acquire a degree that does next to nothing to prepare them for working in the market economy.

Witches useful to police in Kenya.

Steve Jobs' keynote speech, summarized. Without a doubt, Apple=Gizmos.

No comment on Michigan. All of this micro-punditry is hot air.

Shelby Steele explains why Obama is correct about Iran. Not saying that I agree, but Steele makes an intelligent case.

Children who need parents - not pills. Daily Mail

Does anybody believe this? Asthma and diet. Smells like junk science to me.

"Everything you need to know about how Hillary would govern." Sisu.  Viking explains it all, about the Hillary campaign. Indeed, Hitchins has it right - one quote:

In the New Hampshire primary in 1992, she knowingly lied about her husband’s uncontainable sex life and put him eternally in her debt. This is now thought of, and referred to in print, purely as a smart move on her part. In the Iowa caucuses of 2008, he returns the favor by telling a huge lie about his own record on the war in Iraq, falsely asserting that he was opposed to the intervention from the very start. This is thought of, and referred to in print, as purely a tactical mistake on his part: trying too hard to help the spouse. The happy couple has now united on an equally mendacious account of what they thought about Iraq and when they thought it. What would it take to break this cheap little spell and make us wake up and inquire what on earth we are doing when we make the Clinton family drama—yet again—a central part of our own politics?

If lightning never strikes twice in the same place, I guess we're safe up here in Yankeeland. The end is near for everybody else, though.

Is it true that Columbus brought syphilis to the old world?

Nifong files for bankruptcy

Yglesias critiques Goldberg's book. Atlantic

Not dead yet. Fred's raising $

"Please do not let this person near policy formulation again." Tigerhawk.  Yes - she is the return of Bella Abzug. Also piling on this wacko lady, Attack Machine.

Rush exasperated but "on fire." The Corner. More exasperation from Dr. Sanity:

What has the Republican Party come to? With all the socialism-lite being bandied about here in Michigan; all the empty promises glibly being made--how are these guys any different from the feckless Democrats who got us into this economic mess to begin with?

Where is the candidate who will proudly stand up for the free market? Who will say that too much government is the problem and that the solution is to do away with government regulation that is stifling economic freedom in Michigan and elsewhere?

Are we at the end of small government conservatism? The end? When did it begin?

Another letter to the NYT that will not get published. Powerline

Why is Mayor Menino going after low-cost medical clinics?

Tim Blair diagnosed with abdominal cancer. God bless, and good luck, Tim.

Remembering Bernie Goetz. Never Yet Melted notes:

The Goetz shooting was an intolerable assertion of individualism, one potentially capable of effectively politically challenging the principle of the state’s monopoly of force. Thus, from the statist perspective of the left, it was the Goetz self defense incident, not the crime level, which constituted the nadir of history for New York City.

Fuhrer knows best. Wilson reviews Goldberg's book in the NY Post

The elite readers of the NYT

"Ah, those clever literary intellectuals." neoneo

"Something for sneering know-it-alls to think about." No Pasaran

The desire for a political messiah. JR Dunn

Financial advisors' #1 worry: A Dem in the White House

A school vouchers Democrat. Front Page

More ice or less ice - Either way, it's global warming

Spies for Al Qaida. Big Lizard. The bad guys seem to slink away right before an assault.

Teaching teachers not to teach. h/t, Minding the Campus

The real meaning of academic letters of recommendation.

The LAT's phony propaganda

John McCain: Enemy of free speech

Krugman just can't stop America-bashing...but he will stop, once there's a Dem in the White House. Also, at Am. Thinker: Krugman sees Europe thru the looking-glass.

NYT begins a vet-bashing series

Strong stuff from the Pope: Trivialized sex=trivialized women

Global warming has doubtless caused the beautiful snow in Baghdad. Locals feel it's a signal from God - a signal of peace.

What about America's "international standing"? Donald Douglas

With a lower dollar, American products - and American stocks - are cheaper for the world. Why is that a bad thing?

More strong stuff from Vanderleun on New Orleans:

"You've got a mouth full of gimme, a hand full of much obliged." -- Bessie Smith, Gulf Coast Blues

I don't know about you but I have had it with the legions of hustlers, grifters, drunks, junkies, pathics and drooling layabouts that keep waddling and teetering up to the public trough from that swamp of puke called New Orleans. The latest of an endless line of calls upon the kindness of strangers by these public-purse pimps is this little bit of chicanery: Katrina victim sues U.S. for $3 quadrillion.

A good wholesome rant. Read the whole thing. 

Answer the questions and find your candidate, here.

An ad Ms. Magazine doesn't want you to see. Powerline

If you think US corporate tax rates are too low, read this at Surber.

The taxpayer is helping to underwrite the Countrywide buy-out.

French textbooks: good preparation for sitting in cafes all day talking about subjects you know nothing about

Nathaniel Hawthorne and health care. Phillips at Attack Machine

Remember this from 2004? Reuters admits appeasing terrorists

Who's stalking whom? Krumm on what Fred Thompson is up to.

Hillary's immigration flip-flops. And what's with her attacking big businesses while taking their money? And I see she has hired a new image guru.

Moral Health Care vs. Universal Health Care. The Objective Standard

Racial tensions roil Dem race. Ben Smith

The idea of America and moral relativism, from neoneo. A quote:

The United States is not just a country bound together by a common language or birthplace, as is the case with most other nations. There is something in American thought that is, in a sense, inherently proselytizing, and that is this idea of liberty and equality of opportunity as a great good for all humankind. And indeed, Americans did not hesitate to fight for their own liberty, and have not hesitated—especially since the twentieth century—to use military force at times to protect liberty around the world. This certainly isn’t in line with moral relativism.

Matt Stuart's street photography (h/t, Wall St. Fighter). Sample on right:

The Blonde Map of Europe. Assistant Village Idiot makes sense out of it.

How the biofuel market is destroying the jungles rainforests

The Dems face a moral choice. Am Thinker

"I've never worked a day in my life." A Mark Twain 1905 interview (h/t, Classical Values)

How do the unchurched view the churched? (h/t, News for Christians)

Women of the world should thank Hillary to making it now possible for women to cry. Is she out of her mind? Betsy on the subject.

Repent! The End is Near!

MA to permit CVS walk-in clinics.

Thank you America. Michael Yon

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton upset about Obama's run. It's quite clear why: he's not playing the game.

Is there a problem? Blame global warming, says the NYT