Maggie's Farm

It's been cold, rain and stormy, noisy wind here. "Feels like 34," weatherman said yesterday. We are eager for some global warming - solar, anthropogenic, cow farted, or otherwise.

A new book of Mark Twain's unpublished work. One quote:

Twain describes his dentist: "He was gray and venerable, and humane of aspect; but he had the calm, possessed, surgical look of a man who could endure pain in another person."

Bummer: Online shopping taxes are on the way. Government = Greed.

Dems promise that gummint medical care will deny you treatment. Duh.

Kinky gerontophiliacs? Is it legal?

Piracy: There's been lots of it since the Barbary pirates.

Sin City on the Tigris: Baghdad getting back to normal.

Ban Ki Moon annoyed with Ahmadinejad. Delegates walked out.

The truth behind the Maersk Alabama story.

Spengler outs himself to be...David P. Goldman, of First Things

Miss California (on left) is a gay marriage skeptic. Will Wikinson defends gay marriage on libertarian grounds.

It's about time we added The Other McCain to our blogroll

Cuts of $100 million? A joke. Who is he kidding? (Probably lots of people who can't add.)

What's the state of manufacturing in the US? Not too bad.

I'm with Jules: this is the sort of reporting I want from the NYT

Politics and public pension shakedowns

DHS Threat map (h/t, Moonbattery)

More on the govt's opposition to solar power. But that's fine with me. I think oil is great stuff, and a gift to humankind.

Fred Barnes: Defeat Obamacare. Related: Socialism and cancer

Michelle O and her no-show paycheck. It's the Dem ideal: money for nothin'

Who said this?

"Edicts of nondiscrimination are not enough. Justice demands that every citizen consciously adopts a personal commitment to affirmative action, which will make equal opportunity a reality."

Close the service academies? Jules

Re Elaine Showalter's new book on women authors:

"I believe that women writers no longer need specially constituted juries, softened judgment, unspoken agreements, or suppression of evidence in order to stand alongside the greatest artists in our literary heritage." That, she acknowledges, may not sit well with some literary critics, men and women. The Chronicle Review talked with her about why she thinks the time is right for the kind of broad survey she's undertaken and why it's taken so long to get it.

A blast from the past on Fascism (Parts 1,2, and 3): Volokh

Hate-spewing sanctimony: Garofolo. People use ad hominem when they run out of arguments, but this is ridiculous. Who is this person, anyway?

The O's tax plans running into resistance. Hmmm

More links later tonite - probably.

Good news: people increasingly AGW skeptics. As John says, The public is catching on. Follow the money...

Related: Lefty Court disallows Alaska offshore drilling. Insane.

Alice Waters: Let them eat organic grapes. I cannot stand people like that. Alice needs to check out a Big Mac.

I never heard of "teabagging" before. Maybe I'm innocent. I still don't know what it means.

Justice Stevens renders an opinion on who wrote Shakespeare's stuff. Whoever it was, I will continue to refer to him as Shakespeare.

If you tax the rich at 100%, it's still not enough for the O's budget

Conservative college speakers need bodyguards.

Is waterboarding worse than killing?

The Left and Islam. Why are they friends?

"We Chinese need to be controlled." Why? Because otherwise "we would do what we want." God forbid!

2nd Amendment, Montana-style

Excellent Afghanistan battle report at Villainous

Faculty scared by veterans. I guess gratitude never entered their mind.

Alarmed by Obama, at Am Thinker. A quote:

Obama's most transparent strategy, about which much has been written, is to cement American citizens' economic dependence on the government, and therefore on him.  In order to achieve this, Obama has deepened and prolonged an otherwise fixable economic crisis, creating menacing conditions for social disintegration and chaos. His tax policies and private sector takeovers ensure jobless rates that will rival those of the Depression era, greatly increasing the number of individuals who will look to government for their survival.

But Obama's strategies go far beyond mere economic control.

I know it's a cheap shot which is beneath Maggie's dignity, but that photo (Caption This) from Wizbang isn't a person walking a dog: it's a dog walking a person. I just use the photo to make the point that, in general, it only takes about 3 hours (9 20-minute lessons at 2-3/day) to train a pup to heel (his nose at your left knee), and it will never forget with regular reinforcement of the lesson. Nobody wants to be seen in public with a dog that will not heel because it's a reflection on you, like a kid that throws food. Pinch collar and dog yummies. An untrained dog means you don't really care about the animal, same as an uncivilized kid. In the Obama's defence, that is a darn good-looking PWD (if a bit older than the ideal 6-9 weeks), but any dog can be easily trained. Obedience is what they are bred for. It just takes a few minutes and a little firmness. The training is the real bonding. Train that dog the way you train the Dems in Congress. Sit! Heel! Vote!

Government should bail out dying media. Brilliant! Just like Chavez. Or Pravda. Put 'em on the gummint payroll and they will play nice, like the BBC and the CBC.

Treasury "allows" bank to return TARP funds; bank complains about changing the rules. Duh. Take their money and you're on their plantation.

Does Georgetown hate its Jesuit heritage?

Dem crook du jour: The Car Czar. So many Dem sleazes that it seems normal now. Not news.

From Tiger:

An old pro like Barack Obama has to be more amused by these protests than worried about them. The left is laughing for a reason.

If the right wants to succeed in civil resistance, it needs to study the tactics of the left and adopt the methods that are not incompatible with its own morality.

Related: Thousands protest: the Left sneers

Finally, a war the Left would embrace with enthusiasm

Journalists have journalist arrested. That's the spirit! (h/t Insty)

LaShawn outs herself as a right-wing extremist

Why many with 6-figure incomes do not feel rich

Obama apologizes to innocent asteroids

How the CIA extracted info from Jihadists.

Krauthammer shreds Obama's BS. Amazing to me how the O gets away with it.

NYT: Tea Parties dismissed as group therapy. Dem leaders have a different view: Tea Parties are Neo-Nazi racists and militias. I guess they are referring to people like the Neo-Nazi skinhead neoneo.

And another Dem Rep calls them despicable. Huh? I thought dissent was patriotic...never mind.

And via Driscoll:

Related: “Never before in history have so few been able to accuse so many so often and so pervasively of so much they didn’t say and don’t mean”, Roger L. Simon writes, in his look at “Tea Party Derangement Syndrome.”

Social pathology and structural poverty. A quote:

The biggest question to ask liberals is: Why don't you support those solutions that have worked so well in your own life?

It is hard to avoid the feeling that the Left is endemically racist and classist: That they have simply decided that what works in their own lives will never work to raise poor blacks, Hispanics and whites out of poverty.

If that's not true, I would like to hear from liberals: Why don't you just encourage all the people you feel sorry for to adopt those work and life habits that made your own friends and families successful?

Dick Morris on the anti-success President. A quote:

Obama’s perverse view of fairness threatens to create reverse incentives, militating against growth, jobs, expansion, and upward mobility.

For decades, astute observers of national welfare policy warned of the perversity of the incentives which kept the poor on welfare and discouraged them from taking jobs. Employment meant that their slightly higher income would be more than offset by the loss of other benefits like food stamps, day care, rent supplements, and Medicaid. Work didn’t pay.

Now Obama is applying the same crazy policies to the upper end of the economic spectrum.

Upward mobility is alive and well in the United States, at least until Obama took over. A study conducted in the late 1990s examined the economic fate of those consigned to the bottom 20% of incomes in 1980. The analysis concluded that more than four out of five had left the bottom quintile and one in five was now in the top 20%! It is true that the top quintile is getting richer while the bottom is getting poorer, but the bottom is not the same people. There is, fortunately, a constant churning at the bottom as new immigrants move in and those who used to be on the bottom begin their long, thrilling, upward climb to the American dream.

But Obama does not believe in individual upward mobility. He would penalize it, tax it, regulate it, inveigh against it, and disincentivize it.

Cincinnati photo via Moonbattery:

 Also, the 101 freedoms the Left doesn't want you to have.

Sarkozy: Obama is unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated.

It must be Spring. Campus moron infants must have their fun. Learning physical chemistry is apparently not on their agenda.

Beware of the geeks. The health and climate experts are usually wrong.

The Englishman says this guy in photo needs Courage to "give him enough confidence to tell the woman the dress was not flattering":

Mourning Michigan. Dr. Clouthier

Very sensitive: Georgetown hides Jesus at Obama's request. But I thought Georgetown...never mind. Jesus is old hat: Mohammed is cool, dude, and he was big into underage chicks. Can you dig it?

Want Cadillac health care?

You can have Cadillac health care. You want lots of doctors, no waiting lists and coverage for virtually all your medical and psychological needs? Sure. But there's a price to pay. I know, you're already pinching pennies because your nest eggs have been decimated and you're wondering how you're going to put the kids through college. Still, if you want unlimited health care, hand over half your paycheque to the government.

Photo below from Michelle's Tea party update:

One more dangerous right-wing fanatic, and another reason to attend your local tea parties, via Ace:

Tea Parties all over. Martini Parties too, but in private I suppose. Photo from Ann Arbor. Map of today's Parties: Lots of 'em.

Also, Why you should go to one. LAT: Tea Parties are insane. Tea parties are about future taxes: Q&O.

Each one is identically different: Sipp.

Pirates talking tough. AAARRRGhhh. It's the most trivial of our international problems. Related: More support for the pirates. Let's all collect bottles of Bacardi for the poor fellows.

Social class in America:

For readers who somehow missed this snide, martini-dry American classic, do have your assistant Tessa run out and get it immediately (Upper), or at least be sure to worriedly skim this magazine summary over a low-fat bagel (Middle), because Fussell’s bibelot-rich tropes still resonate.

When Viktor met Olga.

More Lefty thugs preventing free speech at UNC. Aren't different points of view interesting?

The unbearable lightness of Paul Krugman

If you are a single guy, and paid your taxes today honestly (or at least filed your extension), your reward, besides feeling patriotic and honest, is the young lassie below the fold courtesy of Obama and Timmy Geithner. She's waiting at home for ya.

Legal scam or real problem? Chinese wallboard

Is there a freedom not to buy medical insurance? Why does that question even need to be asked?

Animal nutritionists at the National Zoo

A "quick" bankruptcy for GM? Megan

Nuclear disarmament: a bad idea in many ways.

A generation of selfish, self-centered liars. Perfect for the Brave New World.

Yes, the Dems killed it, but

What’s a bunch of African-American kids, versus the teachers’ union? Especially in this administration?

Related at Ace who says Obama hates black people.

Goldman beats expectations. Clever dudes down there. From what I heard, they hedged their AIG debt with AIG shorts.

Speaking of Goldman, Wilkinson considers whether there is something nasty about wanting to make lots of money. Of course there isn't: everybody is free to pursue their own (legal) aspirations. The contemptuous assumption that "all the rich are crooks" is as foolish as "all poor are honest." People without functional morals are well-distributed everywhere.

News flash: Economics is an art, not a science

Pirate photo via Theo. Rick Moran offers another side to the Somalia piracy story. Of course, lousy fishing conditions do not justify piracy. These pirates are just thugs with a heretofore easy gig.

Shades of Larry Summers: Disney uses science to attract boy viewers

We posted previously that Western Civilization is not consistent with Brown University's values. Jules attempts to comprehend what is consistent with Harvard's values. It's confusing to say the least. He quotes young Kristol 3rd:

Harvard today happily pays for future bankers to take accounting courses at MIT, but refuses to pay for aspiring military officers who take ROTC courses. Since 1994, anonymous donors have generously picked up the tab, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for Harvard’s ROTC students.

Bravo to our Navy, our SEALs, and to Captain Phillips.

NY taxes now #1.

Mr. Silver says of the coming tax hikes: "We've done it before. There hasn't been a catastrophe." Oh, really? According to Census Bureau data, over the past decade 1.97 million New Yorkers left the state for greener pastures -- the biggest exodus of any state. New York City has lost more than 75,000 jobs since last August, and many industrial areas upstate are as rundown as Detroit. The American Legislative Exchange Council recently said New York had the worst economic outlook of all 50 states, including Michigan. And that analysis was done before these $4 billion in new taxes. How does Mr. Silver define "catastrophe"?

I think he could more accurately say that it hasn't been a catastrophe for the politicians.

Move along. Nothing to be learned here.

A history of the computer mouse. h/t, Thompson

Turns out that all of that about the evil Bush power grabs was insincere electioneering. Gee, who knew?

Daniel Hannen MEP on the Brit NHS:

Imagine that, in 1945, we had created a National Food Service. Suppose that, in the name of "fairness" and "need and not ability to pay", sustenance had been rationed by the state. Conjecture that every citizen had been allocated one butcher, one baker, one café and so on. We all know where that would have led: to bureaucracy, to duplication, to surpluses in one field and scarcity in another, to racketeering, to hunger. No one, not even Prescott, is suggesting that we socialise food distribution - even though food is at least as basic human need as healthcare. As those Americans of whom you seem so contemptuous might put it, John, go figure.

 Chris Dodd's "Banking for Change" does seem like an unfortunate choice of campaign motto

More on China's excess of males

The NYT, Obama, and the UN Human Rights Council

The Blago case: Biz as usual?

The AP is sword-rattling towards the internet. I agree with the article that the relationship is symbiotic.

The Left hopes the New America will no longer be exporting democracy. I understand Realpolitik, but it hardly seems like something to be enthused about.

What is it about Europe and free speech?

Proposed: the right to sue the Fed gov for the weather

It's Holy Saturday - another day to mourn and to reflect on the cross - and to anticipate Easter. We all encounter our personal Good Fridays - the seeming death of God to us in our own foolish lives, and the feeling of abandonment by God. Through prayer, constant prayer, we can humble and diminish our precious selves and reestablish the link by making space for Him to return to us and to talk to us. Think I am crazy? Try it. Our self-love and self-pity leave little room for Him in our hearts.

But here are some unholy links:

Who are the Socialists in America? Whatever happened to love of freedom? When did a decadent yearning for dependency take over?

Health care reform and free markets. Q&O

Piracy. Why there are no armed men on freighters in that area is a mystery to me.

Western Civilization inconsistent with Brown's values. Which are what????

Global sea ice far above normal now. Explain that. Related: NASA now says it's not CO2 - it's aerosols. So much for "settled science."

The elephant in the room: Obama vs. USA. A quote from Phila Enquirer:

What is indisputable is that Koh calls himself a "transnationalist." He believes U.S. courts "must look beyond national interest to the mutual interests of all nations in a smoothly functioning international legal regime. ..." He thinks the courts have "a central role to play in domesticating international law into U.S. law" and should "use their interpretive powers to promote the development of a global legal system."

Koh's "transnationalism" stands in contrast to good, old-fashioned notions of national sovereignty, in which our Constitution is the highest law of the land. In the traditional view, controversial matters, whatever they may be, are subject to democratic debate here. They should be resolved by the American people and their representatives, not "internationalized." What Holland or Belgium or Kenya or any other nation or coalition of nations thinks has no bearing on our exercise of executive, legislative, or judicial power.

Koh disagrees. He would decide such matters based on the views of other countries or transnational organizations - or, rather, those entities' elites.

Shades of Oceania.

Obama's arrogance: neoneo. I think he thinks he's smarter than he is.

What is the carbon footprint of green pizza? It reminds me of how Elvis used to send his plane from Memphis to LA to pick up  his favorite PB&J sandwiches.

The Left is "monitoring" the Tea Parties

Obama is reaching out to the moderate pirate community

Hey Dems - keep your hands off Teddy Roosevelt

I wondered this too: if universities receive federal funds, why doesn't the gov try to run them too?

O makes a case for unilateral disarmament. Bret Stephens:

It's also worth considering just what a new round of arms control is meant to accomplish. In his speech, Mr. Obama painted it as a matter of setting an example to the wider world.

But as the journalist Walter Lippmann observed in 1943, the disarmament movement of the interwar years only proved "tragically successful in disarming the nations that believed in disarmament." Mr. Obama himself noted that "some countries will break the rules" of nuclear nonproliferation, adding that "That's why we need a structure in place that ensures when any nation does, they will face consequences."

Sure. Like the UN? Related: The Department of No Defence

Poor Joe Biden. He really seems to be a compulsive liar and self-aggrandizer. Maybe it's a good match. Related: Rush Limbaugh's meeting with Obama!

Different visions. David Limbaugh via Intell Cons:

The liberals see they now have a chance to actualize their vision for an America remade in their image and radically at odds with the vision of this nation's Founders. It doesn't matter that there couldn't be a worse time in our history for implementing their reckless policies. They know they may not get another chance in their lifetimes to work such mischief. Even though it will break the federal bank, us, our children and our grandchildren, it's all going to be OK because they will finally have achieved their statist vision for America.

Yep, they think they are smarter and wiser than the average rubes like us.

From Vanderleun's Deer in the headlights:

Of course, much of the current government's institutionalized death wish, and the culture of cowardice that both precedes and envelops it, is carefully camouflaged, hidden from the sight of the less-than-persuaded centrists, independents, and other Americans who might not be ready to follow the Democrats across the Styx and down into the hell of collectivism "done right, this time, trust us." The love of death-in-life in political philosophies must always be hidden. If it were not the American collectivist party would wither to its small and wizened core. After all one must, even while taking the country down the path to defeat and ruin, pretend that one has only the very best core American values at heart. It keeps the marks and the rubes from wising up, waking up, or blinking in the glare of the headlights.

Let's tax 'em at 80%. Just for the heck of it. They'll keep on working hard...won't they?

Is amnesty designed to be a distraction from the Big One - the budget?

One of the scariest things in America is prosecutorial power. Am Thinker discusses.

17 Socialists in the House? At the very least, it seems to me. Plus one in the White House.

From David Warren on Thomas Sowell (and MLK):

I love Sowell, because he can "do" desolation without wandering into despair. Reciprocally, he can do hope -- the real thing, not the rhetorical posture. A black man, from a fatherless home, raised by an aunt whom he thought was his mother, in rural then urban conditions that would excuse any man for failure, he saw through his circumstances. He dragged himself up, through a machine shop, through the Marines, eventually to great eminence in the academic world, at a time before he could trade on his race. And he continued rising, with the help of honest friends, and by ignoring vilifications.

Getting dates: What's your FICO score?

College admissions officers emote. What a horrible job they have: all those snot-nosed kids putting their egos on the line.

Powerline gets rough on Harold Koh: Curtailing our representative democracy. Yes, this is a serious issue.

Related, from Dick Morris: The repeal of the Declaration of Independence. Not funny.

Utter economic ignorance in the NYT. Does the Left think money is manna from heaven? Somebody has to make it, you know.

A good reason for the gummint to encourage smoking. Plus, they get the tobacco taxes. Smoking is patriotic.

A good story about charter schools: We don't want your money

Taxes heading up for the middle class. Duh. No free lunch.

Guess what? If you spend $50 billion on construction, you do get a little bit of construction. Not a lot, but some.

We are now bailing out life insurance companies. Did you know that?

Paglia on Obama's painful missteps. I would not have made all of those gaffes, nor would have Paglia.

For the ignorant press, this counts as "evidence" nowadays. Unbelievably stupid.

Transgender laws headed for New England. Whoopee! We're almost all transgenders up here, ya know. We like those of the opposite sex, if that is what it means.

76% vote to live off the other 24%. Hey, who wouldn't? Unless you happen to have some dignity and pride...

 Let's not offend...Britain? WHT? Do these people know anything?

"It's like Miley Cyrus Does Europe." I don't know who Miley Cyrus is, but Jules does.

The 2010 Census as a welfare project

Tony Blankley begins:

Of all President Barack Obama's transformative domestic policy proposals, none is more far-reaching and less transparent than health care.

President's science advisor: Let's cool the earth. Not up here, please. We had snow today, and we are burning oil like crazy in NYC to keep the furnaces blasting.