Maggie's Farm

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.

Image on right via Surber. Related, at Volokh:

Good to hear that American free speech tradition isn't "too deeply unsettling to world order." But wait -- check out the footnote following this paragraph:

See generally Louis Henkin, Gerald L. Neuman, Diane F. Orentlicher & David W. Leebron, Human Rights 564 (1999). Admittedly, in a globalizing world, our exceptional free speech tradition can cause problems abroad, as, for example, may occur when hate speech is disseminated over the Internet. In my view, however, our Supreme Court can moderate these conflicts by applying more consistently the transnationalist approach to judicial interpretation discussed infra Part III.C.

And what is this "transnationalist approach" that can help "moderate these conflicts" caused by American constitutional protection for "hate speech ... disseminated over the Internet"?

Read it. I say "Good grief."

A vote for sanity: Climate change bill sidetracked

Harvard student takes on Barney Frank

Black Caucus praises Castro. Nice role model. Everybody wants to emigrate to Cuba, don't they? The Gulf of Mexico is packed with Mexicans and Liberals trying to get to the peoples' paradise.

Obama's anti-nuke speech. Dino

Why "quality" medical care is dangerous

Are American housing policies rational? Prof B says no, and I agree. The American Dream isn't home ownership - it's freedom. I am a flat-taxer and opposed on principle to the mortgage interest deduction.

O's foreign apologies: What did you expect? Still, Rick says:

Yes, it discomfits me that Obama seemed eager to disrespect his own country in front of those who, at times, have been equally arrogant, equally dismissive, and certainly more derisive when George Bush was president. But in perilous times, it is best to keep your friends close. And despite a few gaffes (”Austrian” language? Are you fricking kidding me?), Obama’s trip was helpful to our interests and will hopefully pay big dividends in the future.

This is entertaining:

Dept. of Hopey-Changey: A US-based Al Qaida magazine. Does it have a centerfold like the one on the right? If not, I will not subscribe no matter how good the articles may be.

Most Americans have too much wisdom to devote their entire lives to it, but we do have the right to get rich if we want to do that.

Note to depressed Muslims. Keep us out of it.

This may be news to most Americans, from Janet Napolitano: "This is one NAFTA, one area, one continent..."

Too bad. Looking a bit bleak for Coleman. Can't believe those folks voted for the other doofus.

No more buche de chevre? Sucks, dude. Try a government job.

The arrogance. Nobody even knows where the Missouri capitol is. "Hey, Ahmed. I have a great idea. Let's crash into the Missouri capitol to show the infidel the power of Allah." "Cool, dude. Will you do it? But what's Missouri? Show me."

Powerline on the Strib's terminal ailment. Related: Greedy capitalist newspapers want donations from Google. Why not just make them part of the executive branch?

Hey ladies: get your fellow some of this stuff. We need a happier world.

Tiger and Insty both are interested in token Greenie stuff (nothing real), but Tiger at least admits it.

Why docs are refusing Medicare.

Dems push for voting rights for illegals. We saw that coming.

Students: Beware of the one-party classroom

Went for a family visit and Palm Sunday Mass in MA at the family church yesterday. Still cold up there: rain, wind and snow today. Spring feels very far away, due to Climate Change.

More Tea Parties. It's a Protest Movement! Power to the Silent Majority!

Not just for out-of-towners. Hop on and hop off tour busses in NYC. Cool.

It's a tie in upstate NY

Charles Blow needs a change of underpants

This is just wonderful. Indeed it is.

AVI rarely seems to have an ugly thought, but he had one.

Why does O bash the US in foreign countries?

McCain rebukes Hispanics for not supporting him.

Our problems:

We've narrowed down our troubles.  Neither small pox nor poor crops are really all that troublesome any more.  No, our problems are now pretty much each other.  (Inasmuch as small pox and poor crops are still problems in some places, see what the men there are up to.)

If you think man-against-man problems went away in ancient times, recollect the 20^th century.  One hundred million deaths can be attributed to communism alone.  Add in perhaps 21 million more thanks to Hitler.  R.J. Rummel tried to count 20^th century human deaths caused by governments, not including wars between nations.  His count: over 260 million.  That was before the Congo (3.9 million), Sudan (2 million), Rwanda (937,000) and recent "famines" in North Korea (2 million), all since 1990.

They say I am afraid of Michelle Obama's vegetable garden. WTH? I am usually afraid of the menacing weeds in Bird Dog's garden, however.

College orientation, for whites only. They've gone full circle! No doubt some pomo logician can explain it to me.

Can we afford to bet our economy on the supposition that Freeman Dyson is wrong?

CNN is running out of religions to respect. h/t Driscoll. In my view, respect for peoples' religion is a simple matter of manners - but all religions need criticism. Everybody and everything needs criticism.

Hate to say it, but I think this is true:

Max Borders argues that the President’s motive is, not ending the recession, but using it as an excuse for truly radical restructuring of American society and further deformation of the Constitution. 

If the President’s goals become reality, most of the remaining checks and balances of the 1787 Constitution will effectively have been eviscerated, leaving a nation driven by Tocqueville’s tyranny of the majority, ravenously confiscating other people’s money.

We all know a Prez can't "end a recession" anyway.

No country in the Middle East will take in Palestinian refugees. Is there a reason? Obama wants to take them. I thought they had their own country now, with an elected government and tons of weapons etc.

Tom Sowell says we have a rookie President. Related: Most polarizing Prez in the modern era. Related, the brilliant Obama invents a new language: Austrian.

Protesting Obama at Notre Dame.

Taxation:

"That is the American way," Stroger replied. "And the way that it's generally done is, you find some group that's small enough where they can't beat you up, and you tax them and you tell everybody else, 'See? We didn't tax you.' "

Marriage is a contract, but is it just a contract?

Aussie boobs getting bigger. It's Climate Change.

The politics of vouchers. Choice not allowed:

Mr. Duncan's office spurned our repeated calls and emails asking what and when he and his aides knew about these results. We do know the Administration prohibited anyone involved with the evaluation from discussing it publicly. You'd think we were talking about nuclear secrets, not about a taxpayer-funded pilot program. A reasonable conclusion is that Mr. Duncan's department didn't want proof of voucher success to interfere with Senator Dick Durbin's campaign to kill vouchers at the behest of the teachers unions.

The decision to let 1,700 poor kids get tossed from private schools is a moral disgrace. It also exposes the ugly politics that lies beneath union and liberal efforts across the country to undermine mayoral control, charter schools, vouchers or any reform that threatens their monopoly over public education dollars and jobs.

Meanwhile, the DC pols all send their kids to private schools.