Saturday, March 25. 2006
An online interview with Chomsky, here. Problems with polygamy: it leaves some guys with nobody to love. 75% of respondents (Who are these people?) agree with Charlie Sheen that 9-11 was faked. Normal folks call that spending too much time in Tinseltown, where all reality is fake. Easter Eggs banned in St. Paul. Worried about Jihad, folks? Afraid the Moslems might come in with a bomb to your Parking Violations Department in the Town Hall? Is that the American Way of Life? Dems floundering for a message? My opinion? They don't dare say what their real message is. Super piece by Ace on the subject. Bob Kerry admits new intel demonstrates Saddam-Al Quaida links. Russians gave Saddam US attack plans. Why? They want the oil. Epicures discover Basque cooking. Will it replace French cuisine? Not on my watch.
Friday, March 24. 2006
The dihydrogen monoxide environmental crisis. This chemical can have a very serious impact on the environment. Gee whiz, what happened to the Harvard logo on that paper about Israel? Headline of the Week: (via Drudge): French Anarchists Riot over Job Security Our neutral news media: Bush makes me sick. The people will kill him if he is freed. As I said before, I want this guy at Yale. Neither rain nor sleet...what? This dude is fine for military duty, but not for the Post Office. I guess the Post Office is extremely picky about who they hire...and, from the opposite end of the moral spectrum, marathoner jailed for false disability claims in UK. Incredible photo, via Fark. Don't miss the crow. Now it's California levees. Why permit people to live in idiotic places, if taxpayers have to support it? Why not make dangerous flood zones into wildlife sanctuaries, and be done with it? Art News: Panda bear painted on a single hair. Nice for over the fireplace? German Beer update, from Der Spiegel "They were a really nice family." Tennessee Pastor's wife suspect in killing of husband. Haven't I always said "Beware of "really nice" people"?
Thursday, March 23. 2006
Great Mercedes advt - watch.
 In praise of duct tape. And for sportsmen, there is real Duck Tape too.
Michelle's Headline of the Day yesterday: AP: Clinton vows to block bill criminalizing illegal immigrants. Hey, Barrister - how about a Fallacy of the Week on Double-Speak? What I wonder is what that would mean for all the folks who come here legally, with Green Cards, etc.? Part-Time Pundit has a Guard the Borders Blogburst. From the Brussels Journal, another obituary for Old Europe: Europe’s current problems are entirely self-inflicted. This does not mean, however, that the result will be less catastrophic. By subverting the roots of its own Judeo-Christian culture – a process that started with the French Enlightenment (as opposed to the Scottish Enlightenment, which was not anti-religious) – a religious and cultural vacuum was created at the heart of European civilization. The collapse of faith in its own values has, not surprisingly, led to a demographic collapse because a civilization that no longer believes in its own future also rejects procreation. Today, a new religion and culture is supplanting the old one. There is little one can do about it, but hope for a miracle.
Image: I just love the sugar-free concept. You buy two jelly doughnuts and a sugar-free coffee, and think you are being healthy.
Wednesday, March 22. 2006
The Indian stock market. Hot. Impeach Ginsburg? There's an idea. It's academic, of course. "A spiritual necessity"? "In Europe, the welfare state has become a spiritual necessity." Interesting. An Allen-Condi or Condi-Allen ticket? I'd consider it. Wal-Mart welcomed in China...(but not in NYC) The Lego Wars. This is the UN's idea of a good idea. Anti-War or Anti-Bush? Ya gotta decide, folks. I agree with this quote from Balloon Juice: ...but at some point it becomes pretty clear that these anti-war protests are little more than anti-Bush protests. While hating Bush has become far more fashionable as of late (in fact, hating Bush is so popular that the cool kids are already doing something else), these protests accomplish very little. Bus is already in the middle to low 30’s in popularity, and there really is no ‘war’ to protest, per se.
and Murdock at NRO has a similar take: Why have so many liberals abandoned overseas the very people they lionize at home? The answer is the worst four-letter word in their vocabulary: “Bush.” The Democratic Left hates President Bush’s guts. They also hate his face, his footsteps, and his shadow. Since hurting him involves looking away as terrorists slaughter pacifists, diplomats, journalists, teachers, and children, they do so with zeal.
Why all of this hate? I thought we were supposed to hate nothin' 'cept hatred...
OK. We have the apologist for the Taliban at Yale. And Abdul Rahman on trial for his life for converting to Christianity. No wonder even some reasonable folks are growing weary of helping these people. What do they call Christians and Jews? "Sub-human feces-eating pigs." I do not disagree with Bush's aspirations, but I wonder if these stone-age people deserve it. If Rahman is executed, there will be hell to pay. And hey, Lux et Veritas in New Haven - I'd prefer seeing these two guys in the opposite positions.
In reading all about the "revolution" in Belarus in places like Publius, I realized I knew nothing about it. Here is where it is. Used to be called "White Russia." Population ten million. Broke from Soviet Union in 1991. Details here. Capital is Minsk. I know a joke about Minsk, but I'm not going to tell it now.
The Odyssey, illustrated. 2500 year-old pictures of the tale. Immigration: Just give me some truth: a quote: "a million people illegally entering the United States is clearly a passive policy choice, not an inevitability." Norm on why we should still read Marx. Harvard Prof Russell considers Horowitz's The Professors Yes, there is a double standard. And there should be, too. What 14 year old fellow would sue this gal complaining about a sexual encounter? Seems to me like every 14 year-old's dream come true.
Tuesday, March 21. 2006
 You are being sold, and don't know it. Product placement ads in movies and TV shows.
The Pacifist Left marches over the cliff with their grey pony-tails, with Cindy leading the way. Haven't we all noticed, however, that the Pacifist Left always picks which side should be Pacifist, and which side is entitled to go to war (ie, whatever side opposes the evil, evil US)? Cindy, remarkably, sides with Germany in WW2. I am not sure this represents true pacifism... And the LA Times likewise goes over the cliff. Claude Allen steals because he's black? So what about all of the white thieves? Lots more white thieves than black thieves in the USA...guess it's cuz they're white. A counter-protest in France. Who knew? Without Instapundit? Trout fishing in basement, in Belgrade. Convenient, yes. Sporting? Well... Women spend a total of two years of their lives getting ready to go out. Would it be more accurate to say that women waste two years of their husbands' lives waiting for them? Welsh Church turns other cheek - and gets stabbed in that one too. Wake up, UK. We love ya, but you are acting like schlemiels.
Need 19,000 acres in Botswana for hunting? Mr. Free Market can tell you how. We are close to full employment. But the French would never stoop to learn from us. They have been trained to want a free ride, not a chance to excel. Tobacco Louges....didn't we used to call these "bars"? From RTLC: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” (Martin Luther King, Jr., Aug. 28, 1963) “I have a dream that my four little children will be presumed too stupid or incompetent to get into a college based on the content of their character, and will get in only after their white liberal massas judge them by the color of their skin.” (Julianne Malveaux, 2006)
Daily Pundit thinks Condi is a Rockefeller Republican. For you young 'uns out there, that means a non-conservative. Zero-tolerance as a post-religious morality, and the loss of England Did you know that being raped is a crime under Sharia Law? Yes, ladies - you made him do it. Apparently this passes for thought at Yale: "If we shut ourselves away from an understanding of Hashemi's culture and life experiences, we restrict our own agency over our identity in an increasingly complicated and connected world."
What the heck does that mean? It is not English, but if I can de-code the BS, I think it means that if we don't meet guys from the Taliban, how can we decide whether we want to be Taliban ourselves? By that logic, why not admit dogs and cats too? Jeff Miller on truth vs. doctrine- shopping. Who is in this new peace mini-movement? Same old people.
Monday, March 20. 2006
Well, it looks like the "radical" pampered youth of today have somehow got it in mind that those radical 60s are something to emulate. Go for it, kids. But never forget which side your bread is buttered on - your freedom here to make a fool of yourself. H/T, Michelle. And do not forget that you will need to work someday, and to be free to speak your mind later, when wisdom arrives along with gray hair.
We have had 100,000 visits 
since January 1, 2006. That's a lot for a minor-league, or a critic might say Bush-league, or, you might say, boutique, or, you might say, insignificant or, you might say, a grab-bag, but we like to think we have an elitist and eclectic blog for the discerning few. We hope you all visit daily. Your visits to Maggie's are our reward. Yes, Maggie's Farm has been around for a year, but we didn't have the stat-gathering format that we have now, thanks to Blogmeister Chris - our Guardian Angel. And his system is more accurate than Site Meter - tho we use that too. And it's Spring, but it will be 26 degrees (F) tonite and we are having light snow flurries right now.
Pouring Water on a Drowning Man - the Brit NHS, from Tangled Web The history of drinking and socializing and dating. Does it make sense to throw the small ones back? Env. Econ. Light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq? How much of the negativity is pure partisanship? YARGB has Iraq comment update.
Sunday, March 19. 2006
I am taking over The News Junkie's job this afternoon, while he goes pheasant shooting. In the beginning...Astrophysics, metaphysics, or revelation? Too stupid to know he's stupid? I do not think that applies to Jeff G. at Protein Wisdom, but it might apply to me. Mall-Walking, and soaking up the American Experience. Am. Spectator. I am glad he reports on it, because I'd almost rather be dead. "I didn't touch a girl or alcohol for seven months." Soldiers interviewed. Another Christian on trial? Where are the lions in the Colosseum? A few thousand visits per day. That is all that some excellent blogs get. I guess blogging is kind of like writing poetry - you do it because you have to, and you pray to have any impact. But we won't have much, I fear, because most blog-readers read the blogs that support what they think in the first place. We are politically centrist, but when I read the Lefty blogs, they seem too crude, angry and silly to take seriously - or to respond to. Academic Bill of Rights introduced to NYS Assembly. Let's support it. It is a counterbalance to academic Maoism. Mixing Memory addresses the cognitive factors which they believe interfere with the supposedly benighted American population's acceptance of Evolution as Gospel. I make two points: First, as psychologists, and not physical scientists, they lack the humility which the physical scientists possess, probably because they never took Quantum Algorithms and the Fourier Transformation in college - not for lack of brain-power, but lack of interest. Second, they lack metaphysics. They are psyche-centric, which is reductionistic. I enjoy their blog regularly, but everyone has their limited view of the world, as do we, no doubt. Einstein: "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." And, Yes, I do think ID is silly. But, on the other hand, I am more interested in the cognitive obstacles to connecting with God than in the cognitive obstacles to connecting with evolution. Heck - which is more important? And one piece about politics and science: from The Conspiracy: The environmental movement maintains that science and technology cannot be relied upon to build a safe atomic power plant, to produce a pesticide that is safe, or even to bake a loaf of bread that is safe, if that loaf of bread contains chemical preservatives. When it comes to global warming, however, it turns out that there is one area in which the environmental movement displays the most breathtaking confidence in the reliability of science and technology, an area in which, until recently, no one—not even the staunchest supporters of science and technology—had ever thought to assert very much confidence at all. The one thing, the environmental movement holds, that science and technology can do so well that we are entitled to have unlimited confidence in them is forecast the weather—for the next one hundred years!
Update: Will have an apology to Mixing Memory coming up soon, for our somewhat frivolous critique...we do enjoy his blog, as I mentioned.
 "Limited evidentiary value." Ahhh, the press has a new phrase. Funny the way it is selectively applied. Michelle. Dan Rather never heard of that expression.
More on Saddam and Al Quaida. Cap'n Ed. A nation on the downslide: More protests in France. Why so many pro-Mercedes Benz symbols at Calif. peace march? Haha A Tale of Two Fathers: Dads of soldiers. RWNH Tee hee hee: Excuuuuuuse me! A true medical mishap. Long Beach church victim of Kelo. So change the law, Calif. I wish churches would stay out of politics. Render unto Caesar, etc. Plus many pastors are politically hopelessly naive and prime useful idiots for any sentimental cause, regardless of consequences. The world of manipulators, con-men, professional victims, liars and politicians is just not their domain. CSM. Mark Roberts on the DaVinci Code: It's an opportunity.
Saturday, March 18. 2006
This photo, and more, at Atlas: 
 Mr. Bean was on the right side of this one: Brit Christians help defeat Hate Bill. Truthfully I cannot see why Labor would want to support this bill - blasphemy and irreverence are good fun. H/T, Burkean Canuck (Rowan Atkinson photo stolen from Atlas)
The Guardian tends to be far out, but they do a nice, irregular feature on Bad Science. The latest: Magnets for health. Did not know that Ben Franklin had tried that. Are we ready for cyborgs? The new neuroelectronics. Has Anarchy lost its mojo? Seavey says yes. Joe on Soul Mates and Manly Men. Really a fine piece. H/T, HH. The proof everyone wanted: Saddam and Al Quaida.
Friday, March 17. 2006
Pentagon plans Cyber-insect Army. All-volunteer, no doubt. Talk about stinging butterflies. Third Annual Nigerian Email Conference. Student violence in France continues. What is wrong with that country? And Confed. Yank quotes one of the students, re work: "You've got to do every single thing they ask you to do or you'll get sacked." Gee wiz, wow - that just ain't fair! These students are about as mature as the Moslem rioters were. Department of Dumb Criminals: Man caught with Billion Dollar bills. What do you say at the mini-mart when you buy a 6-pack, a pack of Marlboros, a pack of condoms and two Snickers bars? "Sorry, it's the only cash I have on me - can you make change?" The $100 computer for the world's poor. Not bad. But Bill Gates doesn't like it. Newspapers in error 20% of the time in medical articles. Be glad they aren't doctors. Polymorphous perversity in Holland. Yeah, be open-minded? Who is really hurt by necrophilia? Melanie Phillips. Oh, and more from Holland - the govt tries to bring Dutch gays and Moslems together. Ace. Only a govt could have an idea this dumb. From MassBackwards: 
Ordering a pizza in 2010. Very clever, even if paid for by the ACLU. Is spousal death as distressing as had been thought? Maybe not. Line item veto. Trying again. Calabasas, CA bans outdoor smoking. WFT? May I assume that applies to tobacco, but not weed? The night I became an American. Lee Harris Does the Welfare State prevent the pursuit of Happiness? Tony Snow There are only about 100 of them, but the Florida Panther is beginning to annoy people. Sorry, folks. The Panther was there first. If you want to live with real animals, move to Miami. Neo-neo takes the time to go over some internal Saddam documents. The MSM will not do this, will they? Not even the NYT. Our Fark link was bringing Maggie's Farm over 50,000 visits per day. That Fark is one popular site, and all of the visits gave our Chris a fun challenge to keep us in operation. Thanks, Chris. We hope lots of those people will return. SENIOR DRIVING As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, "Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on Interstate 77. Please be careful!"
"Hell,"said Herman, "It's not just one car. It's hundreds of them!"
Thursday, March 16. 2006
 We are trying to blog lightly today, due to our traffic-control issue, but John Hinderaker really gets it about Ginsberg and the Supremes. Hello, Justice G! Can you remember your Job Description? It is what we pay you for with our hard-earned dollars. (It is not to play God, nor to be a Founding Father, nor to be an original thinker - you do not get paid for those jobs.) Your job is to read the US Constitution while we go to work. If you forgot, be impeached or go home and water your house plants. Hinderaker has a brilliant, brief piece on the subject.
(News image of Justice Ginsburg asleep on bench.)
Here comes John Wayne and the cavalry - the good guys. I wish the world would understand that the US only wants to leave Iraq in peace and with our best wishes for freedom and the pursuit of happiness, as they see fit. Free from the violent intimidation of sociopathic thugs and murderers - masquerading as religious people.
Dr. Bob encounters a shrill, angry Leftist who can shout empty slogans but is ignorant of history, and reflects on the experience. Ed Koch asks the NYT to apologies for the "Bush Lied" nonsense. Don't hold your breath. The Princess addresses the Dem agenda? in response to Pelosi's speech on Tuesday. As usual, the Left in America has trouble articulating an agenda which will appeal to voters. They have one, but they don't dare to say it outloud because it is too extreme and too statist for American taste. Pejman says more about the growing Iranian leadership problems. Come on, Iranians. Return to the civilized world. We love Iranians, but their current leader, albeit elected, is a dangerous kook, like a Hitler on acid, and he gives the wrong impression of what Iran is like. Looks like an interesting book on the history of corporate America: The Prof Dinocrat says Sharia creates an economically and intellectually backward society.
Wednesday, March 15. 2006
Get your own Border Initiative coffee mug here.  How Chavez is helping the Colombian economy by destroying his own: Publius
The War amongs the Pacifists: I always believed that the Leftist Pacifists have the goal of being subjugated by anybody, in the hope that things would be better, somehow. Neo-Neo A nice cheerful rant against teacher's unions. Hitchens does Flashman: Part James Bond, part Bertie Wooster: Good stuff. The You Can't Make This Up Department: Graffiti at DePaul leads to prayer session. What idiots. A few blogs I have come to enjoy lately: Rantings of a Sandmonkey - entertaining Egyptian rants from a smart
and clearly highly immature Sandmonkey Always good for a laugh, even if a laugh of despair for the Commonwealth: MassBackwards Legal Beagles: Overlawyered is worth a regular read. Orin Kerr has a new blog - a spin-off from Volokh.
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