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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Thursday, January 6. 2011Thursday morning linksHennessey: The ten most important American economic policy issues of 2010 Pethokoukis: ‘Cut and grow’ is really the only way forward Why Our Best Officers Are Leaving McArdle: Commercial Real Estate on the Mend? Via Neptunus:
Miller begins:
Reb recalls The vicious lie behind the global warming scare Russian News Discusses Rise of Communism in New York City Television Losing Ground to the Internet as a Main Source of News
Volokh: District Court Upholds Stolen Valor Act Again First Amendment Challenge The value of Facebook: Take the money and run Anonymous on the internet: Schniederman Watts: Are huge northeast snow storms due to global warming? Wednesday, January 5. 2011Post-bubble ideasAt The American, Living in the Political Wake of the Bubble. A quote:
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Weds. morning linksWorld’s Hardest LanguageHow difficult can it be if their little kids learn it so easily? I don't understand what David Brooks is trying to say here. Powerline: Is Obama Intentionally Damaging Our Economy? Hollywood and the Miracle of 'Narnia' Nanny State: Spain bans smoking in public and private venues Prominent Editor in Egypt: 'I Accuse!' 21st Century Jobs 1: Higher Ed ROI Planning? Countdown to Disappointment: Don't expect the new Congress to cut spending Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement: Bush’s Legacy in Africa In the 10th Year of War, a Harder Army, a More Distant America Tuesday, January 4. 2011Oil pricesI see Oil price ‘threat to recovery’. Crude oil pricing is fascinating to me, but I know little about it. I do know that OPEC controls the big spigot, and thus controls global supply and global pricing. (Pricing is global, not local, and I do know that it is determined, in the final details, by global commodities exchanges.) But, in an interesting and rather cool feedback loop, if oil is too high, it can begin to strangle economies, reducing demand and thus reducing the prices the oil producers can get. I also know that the American oil companies are, sadly, rather small players on the world scene, nowadays: We probably have readers who can explain the vicissitudes of crude oil pricing, from the producers to the pump. If you can, please do. In 100 words or less (or is it "fewer"?).
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The bad news
How Obama Gets to 270 in 2012. "It's all in the math — and the numbers aren't looking good for the GOP."
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Tuesday morning linksImage from Don't Touch My (Area of government intervention Here) Junk As frustration grows, airports consider ditching TSA Earthquakes and climate change: Stupidity of the day Intelligence is for stupid people Insty noted this Harry Stein Book: I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican: A Survival Guide for Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry, Smug, and Terminally Self-Righteous [Paperback] Synthstuff reports from the small biz arena The Alexandria Church Bombing: The Plot Thickens Iconoclast: Don't blame the West - The 'root causes' of Islamist terrorism do not lie in poverty or western imperialism In The Arena:
Reason on Obamacare: The law will penalize doctors to pay patients and penalize patients to pay doctors. A quote:
George Will: Sarah Palin Cannot Be Elected President If she tries to run, she will damage her brand. She's a fine spokesperson, for now. She should run for some other office if she wants to be a pol. I think she's better as a voice in the wilderness. Europe starts confiscating private pension funds Monday, January 3. 2011A few Monday morning linksIt's Back To Work Monday. Back To Grim Reality, and Back To The Gym At 5:30 AM. If you are just back to Maggie's, and have a moment, please scroll down and catch up on our posts from the past week. We saw The King's Speech last night. Good stuff. Logue basically functioned as the King's psychotherapist. A fine friendship. It's a shame that the King died so young. His docs advised him to smoke, "for his nerves." Lung cancer. Mobile phone radiation linked to people jumping to conclusions NYT: Public Workers Facing Outrage as Budget Crises Grow FrontPage’s Person of the Year: The Tea Party She was the single mother who claimed her town was poisoned by its water supply... but was Erin Brockovich wrong? David Warren: Is history bunk? VDH: I, I, Me, Me, My, My — for Pacifism! The Olive Tree Initiative: A Fig Leaf for Anti-Semitism? Disposing of a new light bulb in Maine — this is not a joke Spot the political haters Just Another Radical Obama Appointee
Barone: Personal Well-Being Overshadows Income Inequality
Free markets are great for the creative, ambitious, and energetic. Who would want to de-incentivize those folks? We regular people are in their debt for what they add to life. Sunday, January 2. 2011Deals on Padrons
FYI, at Thompson. Still, not cheap.
Government As Source Of Income InequalityDoyle McManus at the Los Angeles Times sums up the best that liberals can come up with for reducing income inequality: better education for the poor, to reduce The Upward Mobility Gap. He correctly points out that this goal is one of the few that Democrats and Republicans can agree upon. And, then he stops. The goal is fine but how to get there is the question. McManus says, “Opportunity in America isn't what it used to be.” Liberal nostrums fail to mention the biggest barrier to reducing income inequality – if considered needing reduction -- is government, whether one advocates more or less government programs. To now, more government programs actually create more government workers, their pay and benefits unaffordable while diminishing basic public services. Less government programs tend toward wholesale cuts in unaffordable welfare and government worker benefits, while failing to refocus funding on productive education and related infrastructure. As well, McManus passes over the “moral” or lifestyle elements that are necessary to taking advantage of educational and employment opportunities as being difficult to measure. Yet, these are crucial. Three of the ways that the poor found rungs on the ladder of upward mobility, manufacturing jobs and small businesses, are under continuing pressure, while illegal immigrants reduce even sustenance jobs for citizens. US manufacturing employment has shrunk for repetitive tasks while requirements for technical education and skills has increased, overall production holding its own. Lesser costly environmental and workplace regulations, along with lower wages, has drawn much lower skilled manufacturing abroad. More government regulations and greater competition due to reduced transport costs and increased imports of staples has made small business less able to survive or thrive. Illegal immigrants – mostly uneducated -- mostly impact manual labor opportunities for the poorest American citizens, while consuming much government funding that could otherwise, maybe, hopefully, be redirected toward support and education foundations for poor American citizens. Government programs that focus on useful job skills are un- or underfunded, in favor of expensive contemporary elite culture curriculums, especially victimology humanities. Legal immigrants – thankfully -- fill our sciences. Government programs that sustain or increase welfare dependency, and regulations that discourage risk taking, perpetuate a permanent lower income class. The virtues of stark choices may be overrated, but elimination of such choices is less virtuous. Corruption and self-dealing, either financial or ethical, is unacceptable. Fish stink from the head. The same standards must apply to chieftains of government as to of business. Lack of performance must not be tolerated in government any more than it is in private enterprise. Two examples of the difference culture makes, my father and my son. The common thread, across the generations, is work habits, learned young, family emphasis on useful education, and behavioral skills and focus. My father, born 1920 in Detroit, from a large poor immigrant family, dropped out of high school, did manual labor and worked for local retailers, then went to trade school to become a tool & die maker (others in the family had similar life-stories), thereafter earning a decent worker’s income. His choices were stark, the path up clear. My son, born 2000 in California, from a middle-class family, is an A student. The caliber of primary education in his school district is high, the primary differences among schools and their scores being the lesser parental involvement at the schools in the poorer areas. My wife and I are pretty demanding and involved. There are almost no manufacturing jobs locally, the few being highly technical. There are few local stores, and laws forbid he being hired for anything. Anyway, what retail jobs there are go to otherwise unemployed humanities college graduates! New Years eve he watched MTV’s Jersey Shore revelry, before getting bored and going to sleep. Last night, he watched Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees. After the movie, he said to me that people used to act nicer. On one side of my house are the two, contemporary culture, lazy 20s boys taking four years to complete two-year AA degrees, their courses being weak humanities type. Their father had gotten them manual labor construction jobs and, though they are big and strong, the illegal immigrants outworked them. On the other side is a former Eagle Scout, majoring in a technical field at a top college. Today’s choices are no less stark than they once were. The only real difference is between those who recognize that and those who avoid the choices or enrich themselves by sheltering those who would otherwise benefit from starker choices.
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Sunday morning linksiPhone pic of the light show at Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC yesterday, emailed by a friend. To keep things fair and to level the playing field, there should be a law that all photos in the US must be taken with iPhones. Not fair for some to have better equipment. The end of Kodachrome (with the song) Coffee-spew warning - and strong language warning, but it's all in a good cause. Sheesh. Sounds just like my 7th Grade English teacher. The Englishman's 7 steps to health in 2011 The most important book of 2010? Mead takes on the Trinity: Yule Blog 2010: Meaning in Three Dimensions God is beyond our petty distinctions, boxes, and categories. Black Bears: This guy is insane Reckless denial of what "wild" means. Q&O: The usual "self-absorbed baby-boomers" article King Coal: The Future Looks A Lot Like The Past
Two Americas: the Americans who want to be given free stuff, and the Americans who do things and make things. The latter just barely out-vote the former - which is to our credit. How Libs Explain Bush Book Success: It’s Because “He Was So Hated” Must be why Sarah's books sell so well too - and O'Reilly's. Via Ross:
Related at Powerline: Relatively Speaking, It's Still Cold Ron Paul: 'Moral hazard' to keep the scope of big government programs Via NYM:
Last Psychiatrist: Taboos Are The Ways Christians Try To Control Us Timing matters. Burst bubble, and return to normal trendline. Via theo: 97% of climatologists think what? Radosh: The Second Time is Farce: Frances Fox Piven Calls for a new Cloward-Piven Strategy for Today From a comment at B&R on Sadie Hawkins online dating:
Pajamas: The Environmental Protection Agency’s End-Run Around Democracy Medical care by bureaucrat For our own good Insty: More on the higher education bubble From the drippy Archbishop of Canterbury: "Whether you're a Christian or belong to another religion or whether you have nothing you'd want to call religion at all, some kind of big picture matters." Friday, December 31. 2010Orderly and non-spontaneous expressionOur family likes de Kooning, so we'll probably go to the the current show at the MOMA. Here's a brief review of Abstract Expressionist New York. I am still annoyed that we missed the Kandinsky show at the Guggenheim - lines to get in were always too long for me. Even if I don't really get Jackson Pollock, we'll get a very good lunch someplace. New Year's Eve linksThe World's Worst Invasive Mammals Am Thinker: Manmade famine in America WaPo: 'Don't ask, don't tell' has been repealed. ROTC still shouldn't be on campus. What's the next excuse? Related: Elis for ROTC Princeton has ROTC. Why not Yale? Speaking only for myself, though, I'd rather be led into a firefight by a Lieut. from SMU than one from Princeton or Yale. Jonah: The moral mush of pacifism Busy With Afghanistan, the U.S. Military Has No Time to Train for Big Wars Herbert London on The Mullen War Strategy Send in the social workers! An Ivy League epiphany on charity and taxes Hmmm. Why don't they want to donate to the US Treasury? Will: China has seen the future, and it is coal Commies love cheap energy Thursday, December 30. 2010California Dreamin'Via Bernard Goldberg's Trials and Errors:
Snow blindAm Thinker: Snow Blind at the NYT At Watts, Terence Kealey: What Does Climategate Say About Science? It's a good brief history of how science works. A quote:
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Thursday morning linksYou're with Stupid (meaning yourself) A Plague of Pigs in Texas - Now numbering in the millions, these shockingly destructive and invasive wild hogs wreak havoc across the southern United States Via Hot Air, Delaying Sex Makes Better Relationships, Study Finds Hewitt: Obama's EPA and the 2012 Elections Rauh and Novy-Marx: The crisis in local government pensions in the US NYC babies complain about the snow: "I'm Angry Too": Mayor Mike on City's Snow Response Reason: Carbon Rationing By Other Means Examiner: As governments go broke, public employee unions must share the pain GREEN SCOTLAND Relies on French Nuclear Power During Deep Freeze Via Insty, Lunchbox mix-up leads to charges for Sanford teen Stossel: Please Stop "Helping" Us Via Powerline:
Examiner: A truce in culture wars as voters focus on economy Voters flee to states with less government intrusion Am Spectator on government medical care: Is It a Right or Isn't It? Michelle: Un-merry Christmas from the ACLU The ACLU was co-opted by the radical Left years ago. Sad. Global Warming Skeptic Predicts Brutal Winter, Warns “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” Wednesday, December 29. 2010Weds. morning linksDyson uninvents the vacuum cleaner Social Security: The Chilean Model The Utter Futility of Reducing Carbon Emissions Dalrymple: When Predators Don’t Prey - Another good word bites the dust. Mead: Give The People What They Want. A snippet:
Tuesday, December 28. 2010Tuesday morning linksToon via Theo On Palin's Reading List, C.S. Lewis Kudzu: A Lesson in Big Government Failure DADT: Don’t Fret, Don’t Whine Under the Christmas Tree This Year? The Return of ‘Death Panels’ Pete Du Pont: Turning America Around - Voters send Republicans to Congress with a mandate for a new direction. Rick Moran: 2011: The year of insolvency for some states Krugman: I’ve repeatedly found that people just won’t believe me. It's because we're brainwashed, he claims. More laws to confuse us, more government. Great. That's called "progress." Obama's Reversal on 'Indigenous Peoples' Rights Stirs Concern Over Legal Claims Can the Neaderthals get Europe back? How Government Failure Caused the Great Recession Pickens abandons wind power Why Public Charity Doesn’t Work and Will Bankrupt Us All SANDERS: A global food fight that's going to get worse Powerline: Gangster government, HHS edition
Sunday, December 26. 2010If the FCC Had Regulated the InternetSad but true, at Slate. We would be ten years behind, with the rent-seekers and the power-seekers in control of it all. The intertunnels are a lesson in what a truly free market and a free world can do. Watch all governments try to f- it up for their own purposes. But don't worry. They care deeply about the common good. I have never met Mr./Mrs. Common Good, but I'm sure he, she, or it, is a very fine human being and deserving of special government attention and care. Government, and government's client and business allies, are "special interests." Heck, all I really want is some good free porn anyway. The world is full of Lonelyhearts and sometimes I am one of them. So sue me.
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Sunday morning links (with a few bad links - sorry about that)We reportedly have a blizzard arriving today on the Snowball Express. That's fine with me, except that the Lad and his charming Mrs. are airport-stuck in Birmingham (with the Memphis Blues again?). Well, not really stuck - they are there with loving family. Don't be surprised if we lose power, though. We usually do, with good strong storms. This one looks to be a winter Nor'easter. Think I'll feed the birds this morning.
Lovely winter post from The Englishman:
Prager: Want To Raise a Good Person? Stop Nurturing Your Child's Self-Esteem A cheerful humility is the best and most realistic attitude. EPA moving unilaterally to limit greenhouse gases An attempted end run around Congress Hands-only CPR. You need to know this. But a medical friend of mine saved a 90 year-old lady who had cardiac arrest on the sidewalk. She got a lawyer to sue him. She claimed her time had come, and that she should have been left alone. He was protected by Good Samaritan legal protections, but his legal costs to get to that point were considerable. You can be sued for not helping, too. A new website to me: Jews for the preservation of firearms ownership Green Lake, Austria. Cool vid KUHNER: Radical Islam vs. Christianity - The cross is near extinction in the ancient lands of its origin Environmental groups sue to block wind farm I'm with them. Wind farms are a scam on the taxpayer - regardless of the bats. Did I say "bats"? Voters elected Republicans to end Obamaism, not expand it School food Nazis:
I can understand parents' not wanting schools to feed their kids candy, but what's with the salt? Basic instinct: Women take just three minutes to make up their mind about Mr Right Driscoll: Where Unions Are, Americans Aren’t We have been warning about this apocalypse for years. Those who blame the U.S. for all the world’s ills It would take serious shrinkology to understand why somebody would hate as free and noble a nation as the USA. Probably displacement from conflicts with Mom, right? It's always the Mom, right?
The Year of Stupid: Potsdam Climate Institute Now Says To Expect “Warmer Colder” Winters! San Francisco May Vote on Circumcision Ban Next November. Abortion OK, Briss not OK. Why Christians do brisses is beyond me. But a hand on my boy's dick? That is definitely the domain of a San Francisco government... Speaking of brisses, more on Tutu and the Jews Taxes and the Top Percentile Myth - A 2008 OECD study of leading economies found that 'taxation is most progressively distributed in the United States.' More so than Sweden or France.
Just like the IRA...but not. Do you think your taxes are too low? Make a contribution to the US Treasury. Byron York: Smiling Dems will soon cry 'Washington is broken' It's "broken" when they cannot do whatever they want. Friday, December 24. 2010Rush's Good CheerJust had to say that Rush is so kind and good and understanding with his Lib callers. He has a bigger heart than any angry or chronically-depressed Lib, and is full of encouragement for those who want to do things in life instead of sitting on their butts with excuses and complaints, on ye olde pity pot. He is positive and cheerful, the way proud, free Americans, with their heritage of amazing opportunity, ought to be. He's on 770 on AM radio up here. He is a genius at handling hostile calls with grace, good humor, and even affection. He needs more of those callers. (Call me a fool, but I am wrapping and listening, like the ignorant clinger that I am, and preparing for cocktail hour. Christmas music then.) A Merry Christmas to good old Rush! He keeps me amused and encouraged whenever I need it.
Posted by The Barrister
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13:42
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Christmas Eve morning linksI know everybody is doing their Christmas shopping today, but I have some links anyway if you have time. I am heading up to MA to see the family, with my sack of goodies for them.
Cal Thomas: What if the Christmas story is true? Kimball: ’Tis the Season to Be Politically Correct.
Gerald goes to WalMart Wind power? It's a scam. The rent-seekers are all over it. How Democrats gave up on religious voters It’s official: Polar bear not an endangered species He knows what is best for you. All about Cass Sunstein: A Czar is Born 45 people lynched amid Haiti cholera fears. Haiti's real problem is cultural. Iran Just Shipped Missiles to Venezuela. Hello? Is This Thing On? Buying up the entire Western world at discount prices: Fresh humiliation for eurozone as China says it will bail out debt-ridden nations Malpractice costs and defensive medicine costs, in NY Pajamas: American Leftists Refuse to See the Handwriting on the Wall in Europe -Our domestic lefties have been pushing for decades to turn us into the type of society that is now crumbling before our eyes in Europe. Not All Global Warming Skeptics Are Crackpots?!? Slate: Whose Internet Is It, Anyway? Let's drive 'em all out of business: UAW’s King Announces 2011 Goals: Target Foreign-Owned Auto Plants. No, they'll just move their factories to Mexico. After predicting a mild winter, the British weather service is profoundly embarrassed by the current deep freeze Uncle Sam Will Help Buy You an Alpaca - How the government produces negative unintended consequences Q&O: Is access to the internet a “civil right”? Driscoll: Global Warming Died; Women, Children, AlGore Hardest Hit Other McCain: Class Warfare vs. Economic Facts Neptunus on ROTC:
Obama Administration Admits Polar Bears Are Not ‘Endangered’ But Sets Aside 187,000 Miles For Them Anyway. Very scientific. Pilot exposes TSA baloney, gets in trouble:
We misunderestimated him: Bush's memoir sells 2m copies in a month - nearly as many as Bill Clinton's sold in six years The Krautman says something people don't want to hear: Obama's new start
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06:39
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Thursday, December 23. 2010Christmas Eve Eve linksThe experts were wrong: Carbs are the problem - not fat You can now eat all the fat you want. Eating fat doesn't make you fat. Where germs breed on airplanes Bishop Tutu Is No Saint When it Comes To Jews Driscoll: Mega-Consumers against Consumerism John Fund: The Net Neutrality Coup - The campaign to regulate the Internet was funded by a who's who of left-liberal foundations. A quote:
Armies always used to take control of the radio stations first Obamacare is a government takeover Happy Kwanzaa, Commies, Racists, and Psychopaths Obama Supported Ousted Honduran Thug Zelaya to Appease Chavez School Requires Permission Slips for Pledge
Wednesday, December 22. 2010Greenies: It's the politics, stupidStolen in full (because it is so well-said) from Never Yet Melted's Van Jones Urges Young Supporters “To Pretend” EPA Regulations Are Needed:
Rush has been making accusations about this for years, and so have we. It's good to hear somebody confess the scam in public. The innocent, ignorant, and sanctimonious Greenies are the useful idiots in this game.
Posted by The News Junkie
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17:46
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A Jewelry Store at Christmastime, and the economyStopped by my local jewelers at lunchtime today (to pick up a repaired watch - not shopping). The place was packed, and I had to wait a while despite there being 8 salespeople. The lady who retrieved my watch showed me a $285,000 watch. Used. It doesn't look fancy or flashy at all. She told me they would sell it this week, already sold one just like it earlier in the week. I admired it, but I prefer my old Accutron that my wife gave me the first year we were married (and my Timex Explorer for banging around). She also showed me a pretty bracelet, $60,000. She said they had had five of them three weeks ago, now down to this last one. They have an armed rent-a-cop on duty full time. When I finally got my watch delivered from the repair and jewelry construction area upstairs, she handed it to me and said "No charge. It was a simple repair, just a cleaning and oiling. Merry Christmas."
Posted by Bird Dog
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15:51
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A creative solution to eminent domain conflictsIt's money. At The American. One quote:
Pay them the real value. Makes sense to me.
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