We 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.
...believe it or not, the federal government is now starting another initiative to force banks to lend to low-credit-rated blacks and Hispanics -- not just anybody but specifically blacks and Hispanics -- and is threatening -- and already imposing -- huge punitive fines if they don't. Moreover, this time they're going even further. They're going to take over thecredit rating agencies and force them to change their standards to accommodate blacks and Hispanics so that nobody will have any idea who is a bad credit risk and who is not. In so many words, the government is about impose its will on the whole home-lending market and force another round of bad loans so that the banks are going to be looted once again so that even the federal government may not be able to bail them out this time.
Designed to fail, like the Health Care bill. They'll blame the "greedy bankers" again, while forcing them to do stupid things which lose money. Then they will want to nationalize the banks and eliminate the reality of credit risk. Laws that try to cancel out reality are never a good idea but can gain plenty of political support.
My dad took a huge chance without any help, grants, assistance -- no safety net -- and started our small company in our garage. He worked hard, and he did finally achieve "solid middle-class" levels by the time I moved out on my own, but I'll tell you, things got pretty thin at times.
On my own I worked for my dad, and I worked hard. Neither of us ever asked for anything from the government. I paid my taxes. I married. My wife and I both worked for the company. We saved our money. We gambled with the future, investing our efforts into that small family business that paid us little. In fact, among the three of us, we made less than we paid our top employee.
We lived simply; we didn't eat out except sometimes a take-out pizza. We didn't have much, but we were working for the future.
That's what my Dad did, but he never hit the big time. Didn't care too much, just wanted to be honest and to get by on his own with some masculine dignity. Still proudly working every day at age 72. He will never retire because work is in his Polish-Yankee blood and he was not made for leisure.
Welcome to the Dependency Society, where citizens and public servants alike have their hands out, and sometimes even in the till.
In all, some 45 million Americans are now on food stamps — a record high. And more Americans went on “disability” over the past three months (246,000) than actually found jobs (225,000).
It’s vicious cycle: The bad economy leads to job losses and reduced income; lower or nonexistent incomes force more people to take advantage of the safety net; government spending on “entitlements” rises to meet the demand; deficits widen; borrowing soars; the economy worsens — and ’round we go again.
Yet President Obama and the Democrats soldier blithely on, proposing $3 trillion budgets, running up massive deficits and pushing the national debt — now almost $16 trillion — into the ionosphere.
And, for the most part, the Republicans go right along with them.
Why? For votes. It’s just that simple.
Yep. What did FDR's aide say? "Tax, tax; spend, spend; elect, elect." Bread and circuses for the plebs, provided via the patricians. It keeps the plebs fat and malleable, until it doesn't. Gimme more!
Michael Mann, the professor who created the climate-change "hockey stick", announced over the weekend his intention to sue National Review over Mark's Corner post "Football and Hockey".
Impartial, clinical, objective observations on my part:
Gunther Holtorf's 23-year road trip - Back in 1989, as the Berlin Wall fell, Gunther Holtorf and his wife Christine set out on what was meant to be an 18-month tour of Africa in their Mercedes Benz G Wagen. Now, with more than 800,000km (500,000 miles) on the clock, Gunther is still going.
Liberals are not idiots. They’re just like you were when you first moved out of your parents’ house. It’s like their research is cryogenically frozen right before Google was invented. However, unlike extremist Muslims and Hasidic Jews, some of the things they believe are actually correct.
One of the problems with having multiple bloggers on a site such as this is that everyone has a different idea of what's "not quite too sexy" for what is, ostensibly, a refined, cultured site that tries to present a wide range of topics in at least a semi-dignified manner. Nobody here is a 'prude'. We all admire the human body in its God-given form. But, by the same token, using gratuitous sensationalism merely for sensationalism's sake doesn't seem to jibe well with a penetrating look at the national economy or the growth of the psyche in a young child's brain.
So, a line must be drawn, rules must be written.
The problem, of course, is one of getting bogged down in the minutiæ. The rule clearly states "no frontal nudity" — so does that mean 95% frontal nudity is okay? It clearly states "no bare nipples" — so does that mean covering them with the thinnest gauze in the known universe gets a pass?
Wet gauze, no less?
That's the point I was at in my thought process when suddenly, in an incredible one-in-ten-billion happenstance, two of my brain synapses lined up correctly and I had a revelation:
The rules don't have to be written!
Because Maggie, herself, has already shown us the way. Below, fellow and fellowess bloggers, you will find a wide variety of examples of posts which have already been approved by the governing board and are, indeed, on the site this very day. Merely right-click on one of them and open 'Properties' or 'View Image Info' and you'll see the direct link to Maggie's. So if the picture in your post looks just like one of these, you're good to go.
For the rest of you, as a quick example of what we're up against with the governing board, here's what appears at first glance to be a revoltingly rude picture that's obviously pushed the bounds of decorum way too far:
Despite the sordid events that took place that day, the above shamelessly revealing photograph was deemed 'okay' by the governing board because of its obvious authenticity. Hence the confusion among us bloggers. We figure if that kind of raunchy material isokay, then it's pretty much "anything goes" around this joint, and that's when we get into trouble.
So show us what's permissible to post, dear Maggie. Let history be our guiding light.
The procedure is very straightforward and easy. Simply use the officially-sanctioned picture below as your guide for each area and emulate it as closely as possible. Use the Windows Magnification Tool if necessary. When you feel your picture is "in sync" with the online guide picture, you'll be ready to post with no fear of repercussion.
RULE #1: NO BARE NIPPLES
Exceptions:
A: Unless covered by the thinnest gauze in the known universe:
B: They're painted:
C: On a wall mural:
D: Covered in sludge:
E: Or it's Christmas:
RULE #2: NO BARE BOTTOMS
Exceptions:
A: Except...
B: when viewed...
C: from the...
D: side:
E: Or covered with a bathing suit:
RULE #3: NO BARE CROTCHES
Exceptions:
A: Unless covered in sludge:
B: Covered by the darkest shadows of the netherworld:
C: Or it's too far away to see anything, dammit!
RULE #4: NO PENISES
Exceptions:
A: Unless it's "art":
B: Or at least somebody's idea of it.
RULE #5: NO FEMALE FRONTAL NUDITY
Exceptions:
A: Unless it's painted:
B: Is a video that starts off with "NSFW":
C: Or is back behind the barn:
SPECIAL RULES
This is the traditional 'gray area' that's a little hard to define, but let me give you some examples and you'll catch on.
1. This picture would have been soundly rejected if the two photoshopped faces had been reversed:
Seeing Hillary with deep cleavage would have been deemed far too risky for our readership's delicate sensibilities, and some of the younger ones might have snapped. We all have our breaking point.
2. If a male had posted this:
He would have, correctly, been soundly condemned for perpetrating the frustrating, almost-impossible-to-achieve ideal that the 'perfect woman' has the hips of an 18-year-old boy.
But since a female posted it, it's perfectly okay.
3. If a female had posted this:
She would have, correctly, been soundly condemned for perpetrating the frustrating, almost-impossible-to-achieve ideal that the 'perfect woman' has the hips of an 18-year-old boy.
But since a male posted it, he's just considered a big dumb ape who doesn't know any better.
That's why this 'gray area' stuff is confusing.
SURVEY RESULTS
As a guide to what type of pictures your readers might enjoy, we've extensively surveyed the Maggie's Farm readership and these are the categories they most prefer:
A. Pictures they can have on the screen when you-know-who suddenly walks into the room:
"What are you doing, dear?"
"Oh, uh, picking out new bedsheets for your birthday, sweetheart!"
B. More stacked, knock-kneed girls in heels and short skirts holding lollipops:
Romney sat for an interview with Brian Williams yesterday and Williams garbled the warm-up to a question about Romney’s running mate. “I know how much you love quoting unnamed Romney advisers,” Williams said, then cited a source close to the campaign who said Romney is looking for a “boring white guy.” Romney responded to Williams:“You told me you were not available.”
Over the transom:
At a high school in North Dakota, a group of boy students played a prank.They let three goats loose inside the school.But before turning them loose, they painted numbers on the sides of the goats: 1, 2 and 4.
School Administrators spent most of the day looking for No. 3. And you thought there was nothing to do in North Dakota.
I am getting a kick out of this dumb Chick-Fil-A story. I suppose it's a good story for late July, for the entertainment value.
As I understand it (never seen one in NY or New England), it's an Atlanta-based, family-owned and very popular chain of fast-food chicken joints. Chicken sandwiches! I don't know whether the outlets are franchised or company-owned.
The founder is a traditional Christian who happens to hold a traditional view of marriage. Most Americans do, but that doesn't matter. President Dan Cathy had the temerity to say:
“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”
I suspect good ol' Col. Sanders felt the same way. So do I. Politicians who desire to show their cultural leadership (who asked them to do that?) are now all about banning Chick-Fil-A from their burgs. You have to laugh. People want to eat these sandwiches.
I mean, like, you know, they aren't banning Catholic churches, are they? Or Baptist churches? Or Muslim mini-marts? Or mosques? Or businesses whose CEOs are Catholics? I suspect the folks at Chick-Fil-A HQ are just enjoying the free publicity, and wondering about this crazy world. They don't need the money. I think the family is still amazed by their popularity and the growth of their recently-tiny, simple business. Plain old fried redneck chicken on a hamburger bun.
When will the word get out that the owner of Subway is a married, never divorced and never-gay Roman Catholic? Funny thing about this dumb brouhaha is that it makes me hungry for a Chick-Fil-A. I've never thought about it before. They must be pretty darn tasty to deserve all of this attention.
Probably tastes like chicken.
(Almost forgot to mention that the family didn't build that family food business. The government did it. Let's nationalize Chick-Fil-A, and Subway too.)
Sicily is a spectacularly beautiful island between Europe and Africa. It is surrounded by sea as clear and clean as gin, but what happens on dry land there is as dark and disturbing as sewage. In Sicily, which gave the world the word “Mafia,” it is impossible to tell the difference between a mafioso and a politician. Follow the money—if you can.
I have been to Sicily many times for work and on holiday. Its stunning countryside is dotted with stately old abandoned houses in the baroque style. I love it there. It would be great to own one of those houses and they cost next to nothing, but what would be the point? How could I possibly live in Sicily? Life is tough enough here in the “red” Romagna surrounded by “ex” communists who years ago sent me a bullet in the post for my eldest daughter (now eight) because of something I wrote.
That's what these fall elections boil down to, this year. A stark choice in attitudes towards the relationship between the individual and the state. A Parental State vs. a Servant State. The country votes roughly 50-50 on that, which, to my mind, is pathetic in a bold nation like this. Too many people looking for a caretaker instead of embracing opportunity.
Lots of people are embedding this Scott Brown ad. The strange, shrill anger in Harvard prof Warren's voice is disturbing. She needs to be reminded who pays for the roads - and for her salary. The angry condescension towards the free commerce which makes this nation alive always bugs me, especially from those who have never engaged in it:
Give him a chance. He can be pretty smart sometimes, if not all the time. Certainly nails the psychology: Media Desperately Trying To Tie Batman Shooting To Conservatives:
Great. Other cancer patients get sent cute, upbeat jokes from their friends in order to lift their spirits during these depressing times. That's what friends are for, to be there during times of need with their calm, understanding ways, right?
So what kind of jokes do I get from my dear friends?
That is, I think it was a joke. Some jokes sound so real it's hard to tell.
In case you missed the announcement a few weeks ago, I need an operation to get rid of a tumor in my lower intestine. Thankfully, they caught it at an early stage, so I've got some time to dig up the cash for the operation. Horrific details are here.
I'm having it done down in ol'Mehico, because it's a quarter of the price as up here. Funny old world, huh? The Canadians come down here for medical treatment and we go down to Mexico.
With a little over a month to go, I'm edging nearer to my goal. After some wonderful donations from family (the advantage of having 13 cousins), the gang at my mom's rest home (thank you, Alice!), some terrific support from the Maggie's Valued Readers™ (and you know who you are) and selling off $5K in stocks, I'm about $6K short. I talked my neighbors into springing for a newspaper ad and we had a collective yard sale here last weekend where I sold pretty much everything that wasn't nailed down and garnered another $550. The one thing I refuse to put on the chopping block in the Guild 12-string guitar I bought in 1968. It's sitting here three feet from me. I'll go before it does.
The link to the Save-Our-Doc campaign is here. As I noted in the last update, if there's anything online I can do for you in exchange, like promote a web or blog site or set one up for you, just tell me in the comments to email you. Every little bit helps.
Oh, back to that 'friends' thing for a sec. Another one of my friends sent me the following pic with a note that said "Hey, maybe you can use this in your art collection!"
But we didn't build that ourselves. Other people did that - our readers did that, but I know they read us for our recipes.
Are we a Conservative website? I think of us as more Small Government-Libertarian in our political ethos. "That government is best which governs least - that government is best which governs not at all." (That's a Thoreau quote, variously also attributed to Tom Paine and Tom Jefferson.) We're freedom-from-government-power-and-control people. Like this:
The actions of James Holmes are not a reflection on us or on that imaginary village that raises all of us. It is a reflection on him. To forget that by assigning responsibility to the gun or the movie is to abdicate individual responsibility and throw up our hands to the liberal gods of government and the police state to come and save us from ourselves. And they will eagerly answer the call.
Is John trying to snag Gelernter as a contributor to his site? Who would not? We have been Gelernter fans since his first book. A quote:
...more surprising than his political super-buoyancy is the resurrection of big-government, 1930s-style economic thinking in the Democratic party long after it was taken out with the trash along with Jimmy Carter, and once more (for good measure) after Gingrich smashed Clinton in the ’94 midterms. The failure of central planning and state-managed economies is one of the big themes of the 20th century. But Obama’s handlers have yet to tell him.
His biggest asset is being black. People feel virtuous when they vote for him, or support him, or at least don’t trash him. We all like to feel virtuous...
He has a winning smile, too. And
While conservatives worry about debt and taxes and huge problems abroad, the left is busy pulling the whole country out from under them. While conservatives fiddle around on the roof, robbers are rifling the house and stealing the children. Conservatives might consider climbing down and having a look. Obama is only the first of a new breed.
The main method Obama and many politicians seek to stimulate the economy is through deficit spending.
What is lost on those who engage this method is that for deficit spending to actually work, it has to be funneled into truly useful production, projects which will yield massive value. Without getting into the problems inherent in all deficit spending, some might make a case that government related spending may yield benefits. It's a stretch to say that the TVA or the Hoover Dam was best provisioned by the government. Fact is, private industry would have managed these projects much more efficiently.
But these are examples of the sort of project which could make the government look better than it does right now by spending massive amounts of money with little to show for it. I'm not saying I support these projects, just that better options exist than Obama's current path. He made a moderately good show by using some funds to try and build a train tunnel under the Hudson which would have saved me 15 minutes on my commute each day. That tunnel, however, was going to be built with limited oversight, meaning costs would've spiraled and New Jersey would have overspent on it, thus losing all the value it would provide.
More importantly, these types of projects are difficult to begin today. Why? Regulation. It would be virtually impossible to build the Tappan Zee Bridge today, and even the current upgrade of the facility has faced massive problems which have increased the cost dramatically. A study of the region around the Hoover Dam, with today's regulatory environment, would end up killing this sort of project altogether due to environmental concerns. My perspective is simply that the Left has hung themselves on their own petard. They want the government to spark job growth, but they want to regulate all sorts of things, not realizing they hamper job growth.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has issued its annual report on the regulatory environment, outlining the economic costs of current Federal regulations. Today, these economic costs are greater than all corporate profits. In other words, one of the fastest and best ways for Obama to earn tax income to drive down the deficit would not to be raising taxes - but by reducing regulation. Of course, this would mean admitting his previous approach was incorrect and flawed.
On rare occasions I agree with the teachers' unions, to whom this was an election year favor. I don't think the feds have any proper role in education. I don't even think the states have a proper role in education. Important things like education and medical care need to be kept far away from politicians.
Related, from Harsanyi: Are Obama's Ideas Un-American? - If not un-American, the ideas that propel Obama's re-election campaign are certainly unprecedented.
"Does your cauliflower have a large carbon footprint?"
If your thang today is to just log on and hang out, I have a couple of suggestions for your entertainment, education, and/or enlightenment.
Pic: From the 'Framing The Shot' collection in my art gallery
For starters, I've recently rearranged my video section and have collected my better 'video articles'; that is, articles centered around a video, into a new section called, appropriately enough, Video Articles.
As for my double-hip Special Vids section, I've recently added an interesting documentary on crossword puzzles. Before that were two documentaries on the Fukushima tsunami/meltdown, and the brilliant — if half a century old — flick, '12 Angry Men'.
I also opened up a Fave Vids section where I've collected the web vids that have really touched me over the years, usually because of the music. If you remember Gwynnie's 'seat belt' commercial from about a year ago, that's in there.
And, of course, there's the infamous Bag O' Clips, also known as "the last refuge of societal misfits everywhere", where movie lovers can slip away for hours. If you think my movie clips on Maggie's are sharp, the WMV clips in that area are the next step up, because I'm not reducing the quality by rendering them to FLV so the Mac bunch can see them.
And, just in case you're a music lover and have been away for the past month or so, allow me toss out the link to my Introducing Jackie Evancho post one last time. What a fun post that was.