Maggie's Farm

Bush on Iran: Jihad Watch

Sheehan at the SOTU. Johnson at Frontpage looks into the ridiculous details. She is great for comedy, at her expense. Call it tragicomedy.

Lots of bloggers on the story of France-Soir publishing the Moslem cartoons. Dr. Sanity has a nice post on the subject, also commenting on Slick Willy's loathsome comments. And the latest on this silly story at CSM.

Sen Reed (who he? D, RI) thought Alito wanted too much religious freedom, so voted against. You can't make this stuff up. Anchor Rising. Hey, RI - you are marching to your own kazoo.

Is there a "right" to a child? Touchstone says no. Of course not - what a dumb idea.

The Amazin' Dancin' Alito. Pretty cute. Court Jester

Math teachers are hard to find. Yeah, math is sooooo hard. Especially if you can't think straight or clearly. Education Wonks

The whining of the MSM. Finally, another arrogant quasi-monopoly falls. Buzzmachine. Teddy Roosevelt would love it. Welcome, newspapers, to the Kodak, Inc. experience. Or should I say the "Kodak Moment"? Obsolete tree-killers.

Hand-holding is good during stress. Yes indeed it is, at any age. Accidental Verbosity.

Google corrects. About time. I would not buy it.

What did I dislike about Bush's speech? I disliked the laundry list of things the Federal Govt wants to do for us. We elect conservatives for devolution of money and power. But politics drives things in the opposite direction. Example: CT has an over 300 million surplus this year, maybe much higher. Local municipalities want that $ so they don't have to deal with the political consequences of raising their taxes or cutting "services." Likewise, in other situations, CT goes hat in hand to the Feds for $ they can squeeze out of them so CT doesn't have to raise state taxes. Is government just a big vote-buying scam?

And, on the subject of CT, there is a push to remove one of the remaining Blue Laws of the puritan era: the Sunday hunting ban. The Sunday ban has been law since the 1600s. For working folks, it gives you only one day - Saturday - to hunt. That is not enough.

Did the MOMA sell its soul for its new building? Perl in New Republic says it has become a mall. There's no such thing as "modern art" anyway. Fra Angelico was once modern.

More on the Moslem cartoons. They need to work on their sense of humor. No-one is exempt from humor and satire. No-one deserves to be, either. Powerline joins the fray. Go Vikings!!!

CAIR is looking for a few good men. LGF. College credit available. CAIR has learned a lot from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but they have learned nothing noble or honorable from either of those mountebanks.

Lileks is sick of this sh-t and so am I. PC Maoist BS run amuck. Not to mention anti-Christian. We should we way past this sort of thing - it's material for satire, not for real. But it keeps on coming.

Harper Lee. I didn't realize she was alive. She keeps a low profile, most of the time. NYT

Are the Danes caving in to the Jihadist bullies? BKP. Hope not. Please buy Danish - Democracy Project tells you what to buy. Of course, Bill Clinton has to have his say: Belmont

Moho is still on the job. They drilled a hole almost to the earth's mantle. Very cool.

Is there a health care crisis? Merline at TCS looks at the numbers and asks "Is there a Recreation Crisis in the US?" A quote:

If there is a crisis in health spending, it is the direct result of government policy over the past four decades, which has encouraged the dramatic rise in third-party payment of health care.

Two boys in Boston were playing baseball when one of them was attacked by a rabid dog. Thinking quickly, the other boy ripped a board off of a nearby fence, wedged it into the dog's collar and twisted it, breaking the dog's neck. 

A newspaper reporter from the Boston Herald witnessed the incident and rushed over to interview the boy. The reporter began entering data into his laptop, beginning with the headline:

"Brave Young Red Sox Fan Saves Friend From Jaws Of Vicious Animal"

"But I'm not a Red Sox fan," the little fellow interjected.

"Sorry" replied the reporter. "But since we're in Boston, Mass, I just assumed you were." Hitting the delete key, the reporter began:

"John Kerry Fan Rescues Friend from Horrific Dog Attack"

"But I'm not a Kerry fan either," the boy responds.

The reporter says, "I assumed everybody in this state was either for Red Sox or Kerry or Kennedy. What team or person do you like? "

"I'm a Texas Ranger fan and I really like George W. Bush" the boy says. Hitting the delete key, the reporter begins again:

"Arrogant Little Conservative Prick Kills Beloved Family Pet."

The Sears Roebuck 1975 Catalog. Cafe Hayek

Math in California. It's not your father's math. RWN. Why do we pretend that everyone can learn everything? It is so obviously not true.

Dean is going down. Too bad. Excellent source of humor and amusing press. Everybody loves a clown. Dean has been our Galloway. More from Vodkapundit.

The "urban heat island" in NYC. NASA is studying it. Interesting phenomenon. ScienceDaily

The Fed budget looks bad. We always said that there should have been a temporary war tax. Freedom isn't free. It costs blood and treasure.

Hillary has chosen not to be the standard-bearer for Dem centrism. NYSun: What was she thinking? And the Leftist bloggers are giving the Dems heartburn, and delusions of grandeur: Captain Ed

First Denmark, now Norway feels the Jihadist heat. Stand firm, Norsemen. Dinocrat. Moslems have to learn to take a joke - and to look at themselves: Classical Values has example, and links to more Moslem cartoons. Somehow I sense that Jihadists are lacking in a sense of humor. They need therapy.

Savings rate lowest since Depression. Not good.

Hamas: opinions at Am. Princess, Gay and Right, neo-neocon, Daily Pundit

Cindy for Senate! Something on which everyone seems to agree. Ace, Ten Napel, Michelle,

Standing by its values: Notre Dame. Sensible Mom

Do not raise your hand in England schools? This is the sure sign of a decadent culture, in decline. Painful to watch. Moonbattery

Who is an Indian? Phin

Not news, but the dumb pseudo-filibuster cum fund-raising effort went down fast. YARGB is right about that. Any press is better than no press, right? The DNC is desperate: According to Drudge tonite,  They are broke. A good way to look like an out-of-touch fool but, as on Wall Street, there is always a bigger fool to buy what you are selling. What should be interesting is the next Supreme nominee. She will be female, and a lady too. I can't wait. Anyway, Alito is a done deal now - but he always was. Now he can go back to his usual habits of smoking pot and chasing babes at the strip clubs and driving drunk and getting off on Ecstasy. A tip to radical Leftist Dems: Save your bullets....aw, it's too late now. You used them already.

"Aslan isn't safe, but he is good." Hunter at Ornery American digs into the Narnia movie, with some praise and some serious critique: A Defanged, declawed Aslan

I know Ted Kennedy just gets riled up, but I can't believe he said this about Alito and asthma. Makes himself look like a total idiot. Alito's not a doctor. Not that Mass. cares. Wizbang

Cement is not a boring subject. Neither is this graph of world cement production, via Synthstuff.

Why Mommy is a Democrat. It's a book. How come it's not "Why Daddy is a Democrat"? Maybe because he isn't. Right Wing News

Bush supporters are all bigots. Science says so, so it must be true. Expose the Left (did the Political Teen grow up? My, my, my - how time flies.)

Is eBay fundamentally a fraudulent enterprise? The Prof wonders.

Very funny photo of "Mrs. Clinton" with soldier. Confed. Yank

Hamas: Pothole-fillers or Nazis? Front Page says Nazis. They sure sound like it.

View from the Left: Americans even dumber than Bush. Paul Craig Roberts. Yup, no doubt that's the problem with America: we let dumb conservatives vote. I haven't heard the suggestion yet for "thought-adjustment centers." Wait a minute - we already have those. They're called "public schools" and "colleges."

View from the Clitoris: Shere Hite on orgasming the world to peace. Haha. She doesn't mean it as satire, tho. She needs to get out more.

The Great Wall of Cuba. The ongoing fear of ideas, at Paxety

New polls on immigration: Instap. It's a major political issue, and both parties wish it would just go away. This is a fundamental problem with immigration anywhere: if you have too much of it, it intimidates the politicans and, the next thing you know, it isn't your country that you know and love anymore. That is a big problem for national unity and identity and shared purpose. And that is why we believe that would-be immigrants should stay home and fix their own place. A country is family - or should be. Japan understands that basic principle of human nature. More tomorrow.

Our cousin and brother-in-arms Mr. Free Market and friends enjoyed a good shoot. But I don't get the jays and magpies. Are they edible? Or is it the old "If it flies, it dies" approach to shooting? I could get on board with that. Robin ravioli with gibier sauce and black truffle? Jay on toast? Chickadee puree with leek sauce?

Valentine's dinner at Alto. $4400 for two, (but tip is included, and one would hope a little romance too, afterwards). $4400 is pocket change for us Maggie's Farm sharecroppers - we made a killing by shorting pumpkin futures in October.

Not all Dems are Moonbats. Obama sounds rational. Calif. Yank

Brit poll: Less abortions. RTLC

Who is standing up for Denmark in their refusal to be bullied my Moslems? Classical Values is, and so are we, for what it's worth. Stand firm, Vikings.

Euro and American relationships with Libya are normalizing. CSM. Proof, is it not, that if a Moslem country renounces aggression toward us, we'll leave them alone.

American Future takes on The Nation, which asserts that the Iranians aren't scarey. They blame the US for "stoking a climate of fear."  WTF? And LGF posts a speech - Nukes for all Moslem countries.

Who is the enemy of America? Bush, or the Jihadists? Patterico attempts to clarify this knotty question.

We posted "Stuck on 1968" yesterday. Today, Barone makes a similar point at TCS, "Stuck in the 70s".

Condi says we won't give $ aid to Hamas. Duh. However, we do give over 350 million of hard-earned taxpayer $ to Palestine annually. Where does that $ end up? And why should coal miners in West Virginia, and cops in Paducah, be giving their $ to Palestine when they have their own Christmas credit card bills to pay? Not to mention their bar tabs.

Can you believe this? I guess I can. Naomi Wolf finds Christ. I should say that Christ found her. She was a very bitter, angry, destructive person, beloved of the man-hating feminists, but I guess divorce was tough. Can hardly blame the poor fellow who probably has to go out there and eat protein and try to grow his penis back. Now, she will be ostracized by the Moonbats.

Evil, evil Halliburton: No-one wants to buy their KBR subisidary, which isn't making any money in Iraq. Winding it all down.

I am fat. It is the restaurant's fault. Can't blame me: I just eat what they give me.

Recharge your cell phone by working out. There's a good idea. Engadget.

"Brea, buter en grienne tsiis is goed ingelsk." That is Frisian for "bread, butter and green cheese is good English". Frisian is said to be the mother tongue of English - but is English just Frisian? I guess so. A dialect of Frisian, with a bit of Latin and French added for flavoring.

Cockburn on Kristof's brothel issue. Hahaha

Pikeville wants its environment destroyed. Amazing. I know Pikeville. Good American coal town, with solid church-going people on their front porches in the evening, smoking and sipping coffee or beer in their undershirts while their wives are cleaning up in the kitchen, and saying Howdy to the folks passing by. Pronounced "pok-v'l."

Anti-Americanism at the Beeb. There has got to be a limit. YARGB. Hey, Beeb - we ain't all that bad, really. We're just your average blood-thirsty imperialist capitalist monsters who want to oppress the world with evil freedom and evil economic success and evil life opportunity. We are bad, aren't we?

France's D-Day Museum tried to go the way of the 9-11 Memorial. Got to keep an eye on the sneaky Moonbats. Moonbattery

The End of the Spear. HH recommends it. Will see it, and will bring Gwynnie.

Getting difficult to find dog on menus in China. What a shame. The sad loss of an iconic multi-cultural item. Like live monkey brain, which no doubt our kids eat in grammar school when they do their multi-cultural sensitivity section on China, immediately following their section on Tienanmen Square, no doubt. Am I a bit pissed off at China? Yes. Our growing handful of Chinese readers have abruptly disappeared. Why would they block a Farming Blog? Or am I paranoid? Yeah, I guess they probably just didn't enjoy Maggie's...

And where the heck are our Cuban readers? We love Cuba, hate Fidelito. Guess no-one there can afford a PC because it's a People's Paradise where everyone can be happy without being confused by information. Socialism has kept them a Third World country. Great free medical care, though, if you don't mind cockroaches, rats, and Russia-trained doctors: notice how many Americans go there for treatment? Exactly none, even though travel to Cuba by Americans is easy and often done these days. You just go via Mexico. They want dollars. As Fidel ages and dies, we should loosen up with Cuba. More connection with the US will help the next generation of Cubans, but I know the hard-ass Florida Cuban-American vote is important to the Repubs.

He is 7' and 323 lbs. He is "the beast from the east" and he is the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

A bird flu vaccine produced at Univ. of Pittsburgh. That is very good news and a big deal.

How can computer-generated animation convey emotion accurately? You have to study the human face: Cog. Daily

If you have not already, check Michelle today on two things: Harry Byrd's support for Alito, and Kerry's considering using the filibuster.

Scott takes a look at the Return of the Rosenbergs. Hey - these folks were criminal spies.

A cool science/philosophy site: Edge. H/T, Instap.

Ken Blackwell in Ohio: Malanga in City Journal. Malanga is always excellent. Quote:

Ken Blackwell has so many people worried because he represents a new political calculus with the power to shake up American politics. For Blackwell is a fiscal and cultural conservative, a true heir of the Reagan revolution, who happens to be black, with the proven power to attract votes from across a startlingly wide spectrum of the electorate.

Monkey police: Live Science

Google turns to the Dark Side: Blogcritics

Canada: Tory minority in Canada is for the best, says Cap'n Ed. And is "Canadian Military" an oxymoron? TCS And more on Canada: The Harper Derangement Disorder is rapidly developing - you won't believe the quotes: Belmont.

Hillary: To know her seems to be to dislike her. Maybe the Dems should take a pointer from Bill, and find someone else to love. She'll end up filling Ted Kennedy's shoes for the rest of her life, or for as long as New York puts up with her. Goldberg at LAT on Hillary's downslide:

But there's a great irony here. Hillary Clinton's success over the last decade and a half has been in pretending to be her own woman while really playing one part or another for the benefit of the media, her husband or various feminist constituencies desperate for a role model to confirm all of their comfortable stereotypes.

That's why there's something oddly satisfying in the possibility that Clinton being herself is politically disastrous. And, if she's really just playing one more role according to some classically Clintonian political triangulation, there's something equally satisfying to the prospect that even her fans aren't falling for it anymore.

The great Brit disgrace: The National Health. Tangled Web. Thank God we never went for that here in the US. Politicized medicine has got to be one of the worst ideas possible.

If what Loftus said last night on the excellent John Bachelor Show on ABC radio is true, this could be the The Story of the Year.  Tapes of Saddam discussing WMDs, how he fooled the inspectors, what countries are helping him, etc. Loftus is hyping the unveiling of this info, in February. Why wait?

Howard Dean & Co. may need to get ready for a rapid "adjustment." Should be interesting, especially if this intelligence is real, of course. But Loftus claims that a US intelligence agency has confirmed that it is Saddam speaking, and has confirmed the meeting dates on the tapes - but I will be a sceptic for now.

Similar, but separate info via the Sada book at RWNH and at Powerline.

"Domestic spying"? A phrase borrowed from the Nixon era. I do not believe anyone who claims they have been spied on. Pure narcissism. The Globe loves to write stuff like that.

Canadian Border Guards run away!!! Too funny. Maybe Harper will correct the weeniness in Canada. RTLC. Funny coincidence: Harper wants to increase Canadian tourism from the US. I guess a gun works better than a passport.

Steve Cropper. You can listen to him here and here. Didn't know he played so much with Wilson Pickett, but did know he is is the greatest soul and R&B guitarist in the world.

The Border War with Mexico. It is happening. Moonbattery

Is 12 years enough for reporters who reveal national security secrets? YARGB. I'd prefer banishment - why should we pay their room and board? And more on the press...since when do laws not apply to them? Lib. Leanings

Repubs should quit worrying about Hillary. Why do they worry, anyway? Cap'n Ed. Repubs should worry more about living up to their stated ideals.

The Joel Stein Follies. Pline

Michelle corrects the Ben Franklin misquote that had been going around. Thanks. Was gonna do it myself.

The "curious rise of anti-religious hysteria," from Furedi at Spiked

Religion of peace: Brit Moslems to boycott Holocaust events. Am Future

Education: Stossel: The poor are trapped in their schools.  And this new idea, the 65% solution to school budgets. 65%!!! WFT. CSM

Balance on the Court matters now, but it didn't with Ginsburg. Reason looks at the news, then and now.

The Blackberry case. NY Sun

Why are the once-optimistic Dems floundering again? McIntyre at RCP

Wolfowitz isn't getting it done at the World Bank. Financial Times

Clinic assists doctor's suicide. BBC

A fine TR (therapeutic rant) on American education. View from 1776

Confed. Yank on Hillary, blacks, Repubs and Dems. And Shelby Steele.

NYT argues against Alito in bad faith and dishonestly. P'line

Bloomberg wants NYC to go into the cigarette business big-time. NYSun. Why doesn't NYC simply build a cigarette factory of its own?

Is Ahmadinejad truly nuts? This immanent 12th Imam stuff sounds wierd. On the other hand, our Second Coming probably sounds wierd too. Condi said yesterday that the time for discussion is past. What next?

The Plague of Athens led to the end of the Golden Age around 430 BC. Strong new evidence that it was typhoid fever.

McCain-Feingold cannot be constitutional. I see no way it can be, despite the Court's 2003 ruling. The Court returned this Michigan case back to a three-judge panel yesterday, but it may come back to the Court. As far as I can tell, without being a lawyer, this case represents simple infringement of political speech.

Canada's elections: We will know late tonight. It should be interesting to see whether Harper can eke out a majority govt. Strange that there is so little interest in the US MSM. Michelle has a summary, and of course Captain Ed is master of the ship. We ignore Canada, but should not. It seems that lots of Americans view Canadians as the stereotypic nice, irrelevant, harmless Lefty wackos, lacking in testosterone and cultural confidence, and oppressed by a corrupt Nanny State that won't leave them alone to work and achieve (very different from our view of the Aussies). And they do not seem to like us Americans too much, but they should. We do not match any unflattering stereotype they hold of us, either. We are all warm and cuddly, when we aren't busy hunting ducks and deer and fascists and terrorists, and rescuing civilization from barbarians.

US Govt borrowing: It is huge, claims Dem watchdog group. Regardless of their partisanship, there should have been a temporary war tax - on ice cream or something. Or imported beer. Or tea? But Bush Jr. didn't want to mess with taxes. It destroyed his Dad: remember "Read my hips"?

Satanic drivers in Afghanistan. Amazing.

Mrs. Clinton was pandering to her plantation. P'line

The American Left is on a Death Trip - literally. So opines American Thinker.

The quest for the perfect Don Giovanni. Marginal Rev. H/T, YARGB. My opinion - a live performance beats all that plastic.

Lots of work for him to post his Alito Vote Watch. Calif. Yank.

That high school kid who went to Iraq - the real story finally appears. BareKnuckle

A 25th anniversary review of Reaganomics in the Opinion Journal, with this quote:

Where Republicans have most strayed from the Reagan vision has been on controlling federal spending. But most still adhere to his tax-cutting lessons, with a few prominent exceptions (notably Senator John McCain). They should all recall the Gipper's words in his inauguration speech 25 years ago: "It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government."

USA to Bin Ladin: "Nuts." NYSun

Blogger in the news: Zany and irreverent lawyer David Lat (now blogging at Wonkette), and his blogging problems with his boss. Funny piece. NYT

Fuming about the no-smoking laws in Spain. NYT

US Navy catches Somali pirates. Cool.

Gary's Crush of the Week: Lisa Schue. Yikes. A Harvard gal, too. Ex-Donk. Maggie's Farm does Dogs of the Week and Birds of the Week, etc., but we probably should do a Soft Porn Babe of the Week to really improve our numbers...but, thinking further on this, why bother with Soft? And, for the gals and the gays, we could do a Hunk of the Week too. But Bird Dog would not stand for that: we are supposed to be a dignified blog. Maybe I need my own blog.

Canadian Libs made a campaign error by talking anti-American? Cap'n Ed. I guess the US and Israel are the world's main scapegoats these days for desperate politicians. How many times must America rescue large chunks of the planet from Fascism? And will we ever be appreciated for it? Maybe not. But in the US we are still grateful to France for their necessary assistance in our war against the Brit Empire. We know gratitude. And George lll wasn't a bad guy: Parliament was stupid and greedy.

Is it possible to flirt without cigarettes? "Got a light?" - WaPo

Rushdie gets psychological with Moslems - fear of female sexuality: Tel Chai. I don't buy it.

A tattle-tale parrot leads to divorce. Classical Values. Moral of the story: Own no talking birds or dogs.

More on Europe's decline: John at Powerline. Regulation and socialism destroy the economy, and in my opinion undermine the historically vigorous character and heart of the people.

The effect of moonbats like Belafonte and Sheehan is to make other moonbats appear less insane.

Christians should get their hands dirty by venturing into pagan worlds. Giles at Town Hall. Good piece. A quote:

"Look, horribly confused Christian:  from what I’ve gathered from reading the scripture a few times, the believer has three options when he’s faced with an overtly wicked environment.  He can either:

1. Absorb the culture.
2. Separate from the culture.
3. Or infiltrate the culture.

Let’s check out the tres selececciones."