We 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.
Around 4 million acres of California farms are dependent on irrigation. Without imported or diverted water, those acres cannot grow crops reliably, and never did grow much before irrigation.
It's been a dry year in California and Oregon, but these things happen. California has never had enough water, especially in southern California. As usual in dry places, people fight over water: California Drought Is Not About ‘Climate Change’ – It’s About Policy
I appreciate many of your responses and found them educating, in particular those instances when having a shotgun or rifle may have prevented a home invasion or assault. I don't know of a site where these can be recorded and shared with a larger population and I am certain there would be concerns that this would be used against gun owners and individuals by some government agency but it might balance some of the anti gun arguments.
As for the stories in the media, dog bites man is not news, man bites dog is. A friend of mine who worked at CBS said the news director in New York had one criterion for the line up of stories on the local evening in news: "If it bleeds it leads." That has not and will not change. The issue of carrying firearms at all times is probably more of a regional issue. But did the retired police officer really need to have his weapon with him at a movie theater with his wife in what sounds like a peaceful neighborhood? It doesn't matter who said what to whom, it matters that back in the day in the Bronx those words might have sent fists flying not bullets. And if the other guy is too big and intimidating, stand down or at least ask yourself if your pride is worth taking a beating for.
Sometimes Maggie's seems like an echo chamber because there is only one point of view, so try this one for me:
While everyone celebrates the freedom to blow your foot off or have your five year old shoot his four year old friend while playing cowboys and liberals, why are all of the news stories about men shooting other men for no justifiable cause? The retired sheriff who felt threatened by a man texting his babysitter was justified because the popcorn thrown at him had many hard unpopped kernels? The man who shot the black teenager for playing loud music in a parking lot PMWB (playing music while black) had cause because he didn't like the tunes? Please. Where are the stories of self defense? Oh, I forgot Zimmerman.
(Editor's note: If you disagree, do so kindly and explain yourself reasonably. No need to talk about deaths in car accidents. Azeff is a good-hearted guy who did not grow up with firearms in the farm kitchen, as I did. Somebody asked me the other day how many firearms I have. Between home and the Farm, I dunno, I replied. Never counted. I asked "How many hammers do you have? A hammer is a lethal weapon, just like a baseball bat. Nobody knows how many hammers they have. Firearms are just more expensive than hammers and baseball bats.")
Our back porch this morning, as today's snow is just beginning and the wind moaning. Lovely, ain't it? A good day to stay home by the fire, take the dog for a walk down the road, and a hot toddy later. Wonderful stuff, but not too easy to mine the firewood out of the snowdrifts.
I half-hope Jose and his minions get here soon with the plow. (Why is it always Central American immigrants from the tropics doing the plowing and shoveling instead of native white or black guys? Is this a racist industry? Or am I an evil racist to even wonder?)
Mrs. BD and a pupette tell me that this Twelfth Night on Broadway was the best theater performance they have ever seen - of anything. See it before it closes.
Like Social Security, which provides a safety net so people can retire, the health law may have the effect of leading some Americans to stop working…they called the impact positive, arguing that people have for too long been stuck in jobs that are a poor fit or that they dislike, simply for the benefits. While some people may make the calculation to just work less to keep more generous benefits, many will use their time to do something more productive, such as start their own business or take care of family members.
OMG. Some people don't love their jobs? That's a terrible tragedy.
America is drifting into totalitarianism because of the left's exploitation of social failures. The critical mass of social breakdowns, from gang violence to terrorism to poverty, justify the nanny state, the police state and all the other totalitarian states of authority. When there is nothing and no one else to trust, a failed society turns to a tyrant who can cut through all the red tape and govern with pen and phone.
How Iowa Flattened Literature - With CIA help, writers were enlisted to battle both Communism and eggheaded abstraction. The damage to writing lingers.
I'm looking forward to visiting there this Spring.
Sicily has had its native tribes, then the Greeks, the Phoenecians/Carthaginians, the Romans, the Muslims, the Normans, and is currently occupied by European powers. What next?
The message here will be what it was in 2008 and to a lesser extent in 2012 — a chance to make history, this time by electing the first female US president. In fact, that’s all Hillary has. She has no track record of significant accomplishment in her eight years as a US Senator, and nothing at all to recommend her from her four years as Secretary of State. Even a Clinton ally like Lanny Davis couldn’t come up with a single data point in a tenure bookended by the “reset button” embarrassment and the debacle in Benghazi. Despite her outsize power in the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton is simply a weak candidate and a mediocre-at-best campaigner — and that’s why Democrats should be hitting the panic button.
... if the poor pay attention, they can learn from the rich and become better off themselves by investing in education, getting and staying married, and working full-time.
Do most Americans energetically pursue wealth? I don't think they do. People have other desires besides wealth, fortunately. Of course, few would refuse a windfall. Even Bill Ayers lives high on the hog, on his family fortune.
Not that there is any reason to assume the CBO is 'impartial'. It likely is not. It's probably not any more impartial than a host of other predictive organizations out there. However, the CBO does have a larger veneer of impartiality than, say, the president's Council of Economic Advisers.
But today's release, by the CBO, about how Obamacare will impact the workforce is possibly the most insightful look into the potential damage this legislation will wreak on workers in the United States.
But wait! There's more! Spin, that is. After all, what good is an administration if it can't get the gullible masses to believe the CBO didn't say what it did say? I'm curious to see how this plays out (or doesn't, as is more likely) in the media over the next few days.
Football
Is Top Sport in U.S.: 1,088,158 High School Players - See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/football-top-sport-us-1088158-high-school-players#sthash.hjKC0UA2.dpuf
Charter
High Schools Increase Earnings and Educational Achievement - See more
at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/02/charter-high-schools-increase-earnings-and-educational-achievement.html#sthash.shWRN1wD.dpuf
Panelist
at Podesta's Think Tank on Common Core: 'The Children Belong to All of
Us' - See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/video/cnsnews/panelist-podestas-think-tank-common-core-children-belong-all-us#sthash.LUCyJ9E4.dpuf
ABC’s Slime-Time News- Did flashy reporting go too far when it stirred up hysteria over a common beef product?
Michael Barone: How ObamaCare Misreads America - The Washington elites who designed the law must be bewildered: Why doesn't everyone behave as they do?
Science changed dramatically in the 1970s, when the reward structure in the profession began to revolve around the acquisition of massive amounts of taxpayer funding that was external to the normal budgets of the universities and federal laboratories. In climate science, this meant portraying the issue in dire terms, often in alliance with environmental advocacy organizations. Predictably, scientists (and their institutions) became addicted to the wealth, fame, and travel in the front of the airplane...
Just this morning we were thinking about the former Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. He’s written books, has a heck of a CV, and has received oodles of honors from very prestigious institutions. And yet there’s something missing from the résumé of the Job Czar: he’s never had a job in the private sector. It’s a remarkable thing, and atypical of US history, though quite typical of today’s utopians.
New York’s failed expedition into governmental nannying is symptomatic of its class structure. Rich people’s scolding is really a form of snobbery masquerading as concern for poor people’s well-being. Rather than admit that the underclass repulses them, wealthy New Yorkers try to strip away their repulsive behavior by force of law. Expect the trend to continue through the de Blasio years.
Pizza requires government rules: I want a hard, thin, half-burnt crust and hate the soft soggy crap, and I demand government action now. It should be free, too. The People need good pizza.
Count me in with those who believe Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. After all, many Ponzis start with a surplus and garner interest, but over time the payouts exceed incoming revenues. All Ponzis are based on paying dividends to "investors" out of active money incoming from new "investors". But even Ponzis don't pay out additional money to people who petition for someone else's funds. If they did, I presume they would lower one person's payout to cover the person making the petition.
I'm not sure how long Social Security can last. A friend of mine who is dyed-in-the-wool liberal/progressive believes the upper range limit for SocSec payments should be eliminated and it should be handled the same way as an income tax. That is probably the first step that will be taken. Soak the Rich. This will extend the scheme for a few more years. Then they will undoubtedly implement means-testing, which will extend it a bit longer. At some point, all the financial engineering will fail. Until then, keep kicking the can down the road.
Religion is a map. A map provides orientation and direction, but one is under no compulsion to go anywhere with it. It lets you know YOU ARE HERE and GOD IS THERE. The rest is between you and him.
"What I like to do is to start businesses. It can be any kind of business, I've done everything from restaurants to specialty wire manufacturers. Most fail, some struggle along, some do OK, and occasionally there is a home run. It's great fun, all of it."
Robot 
Sometimes Maggie's seems like an echo chamber because there is only one point of view, so try this one for me:
There Are 
Image via Sultan's post, linked at the bottom 
Thanks to a reader for that pic of Massachusetts this weekend.
The Lowdown on Low-Cut: Salary's Dress Code Survey - Find Out the 
Kid-Rearing (This is like, so Un-PC… But is it useful?)