Maggie's Farm

AVI critiques Strunk and White

Cuba Update: THE CUBAN GRAPEVINE

Aljazeera: How the Arab world lost southern Sudan

Charen: Who's Irresponsible?

Sports vs. Social Justice - Does Derek Jeter really deserve to earn millions of dollars?

Obamanomics: Economy Grinds to a Halt, Consumer Sentiment Lowest Since March 2009

The Word of God, Satisfaction, and Staycations: What You May Have Missed in the Polls

Krauthammer: Call Obama’s bluff

Hawkins: Obama Admits There’s No Social Security Trust Fund

Obama lied about a central fact about his own life which he used — powerfully — to push health care reform.

McConnell proposal would force major review of entitlements

Graph from Am Thinker's Barack and Joe: Taxation

Sweden update: Disability for heavy metal addiction. Related: Swedish gov't will hand out lollipops to calm the streets

Guess Who’s Not Paying Their Fair Share

It's tough at the top for alpha males: study

Related: Baboon study shows benefits for nice guys, who finish 2nd

McConnell’s Uber-Clever Debt-Deal Stratagem

Don't misunderestimate McConnell, Here's his point:

Mitch McConnell: “Republicans Will Not Be Reduced to Being the Tax Collectors For the Obama Economy”

Harvard Researchers: Take Obese Kids Away From Their Parents

They are crazy. Not to mention that fatness is a cultural thing, a cultural choice.

Wilkinson: Getting Money Out of Politics

Why? It costs lots of money to get a message out there.

Taranto: America Tunes Out - Why is Obama such a bore? One historian blames Reagan.

 University of California Parasite Factory to UC: "Fuck You. Pay Me"

Toon via NYM

I enjoyed Dr. Merc's take on hippies

Dream interpetation, for the masses

What's a "muffin top"? Laura knows what it is.

So much for the obesity epidemic

Boehner: Dealing With the White House 'Has Been Like Dealing With Jell-o'

They playin ya, dude.

Krauthammer: It's about who gets the blame

Voter photo I.D. passes — in Rhode Island

Change!… Obama’s Approval Rating Now Lower Than Bush’s 2008 Rating in Arab World

Arab world respects expressions of strength

"Obama once again showed the true face of a Chicago ward boss when he dangled the threat of interrupted social security and veteran benefits checks over the heads of the American people. This is thug politics."

Aussie carbon cops ignore carbon rules 

America’s Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It

Suddenly, big money is good in politics

Glenn Beck visits Israel, gets 'adoring' welcome

Greece: Where Profit Is Taboo - A shipping magnate on the fate of his country.

America’s Burgeoning Class War Could Spell Opportunity For GOP

Are Conservatives Being Fair to Barack Obama?

Media bends over for Mrs. Obama

A pol said this:

“Government should not be involved in the bedrooms of consenting adults. I have always been a strong advocate of liberty and freedom from unnecessary government intervention into our lives. The freedoms that our forefathers fought for in this country are sacred and must be preserved. The Republican Party cannot be sidetracked into discussing these morally judgmental issues — such a discussion is simply wrongheaded. We need to maintain our position as the party of efficient government management and the watchdogs of the “public’s pocket book”.

Henninger:

The U.S.'s projected long-term welfare costs, including the new health-care law, are the justification the Obama economists give for pushing spending to 25% or more of GDP. The tax increase the president is fairly shrieking for this week isn't for the August debt limit. It's for the next 25 years.

"If we're going to move to a European welfare state," says Prof. Lucas, "we're going to have to pay a European price." And that price could be a permanently lower level of GDP per person. The U.S.'s amazing 100-year ride would slow.

Claremont looks at books about Obama

WSJ: In Defense Of 'Little Boy'  - Herbert Hoover warned President Truman that invading Japan would cost at least half a million American lives.

Marcus: The Black Code

House turns out light on old-style bulbs - Republicans unable to overturn law on efficiency

Atlanta teacher: "Those kids were dumb as hell."

Divorce and emotional pain: Numb and Number

In my view, the government should be able to eliminate poverty, war, stress, work, worry, and emotional pain.

The unbearable smugness of Liberals: A Guide

Are the poor morally superior?

Mamet:

I went to a consultant a few years back, and he said, “You want to make your life better?” I said, “Yeah, sure.” He said, “Stop drinking and don’t read the newspapers.” So I did both.

California wants to discriminate against Asians again

High-achieving Asians get no respect

Chicagoans Overwhelmingly Vote to Ban Palin, Beck & Coulter Books at Book Fair in Obama’s Home Town

Dangerous ideas for the Masses 

If the Prez were a Repub, this would be bigger than Watergate

Re Krugman on the stimulus:

I can’t find the part where he says “but in two years if it doesn’t work I’ll say it just wasn’t the right kind.”

Nobody should believe anything Obama says about the budget

The O throws Dem Mediscare tactic under the bus

OBAMA: PASS MY DEBT CEILING OR I’LL STARVE GRANDMA.

Dino: Running up the debt wasn't a bug, it was a feature

Senator Marco Rubio: Everything Is Worse Under Obama

Corporate money flowing to Dems

Nothing new about that. The Dems are the party of Big Biz and Wall St; the Repubs are the party of Main St.

A Drudgeism:

GE Immelt lectures biz owners: 'Stop complaining about government'...

FLASHBACK: Company Paid NO TAXES Last Year...

Buchanan: An Establishment in Panic

Mead: An Unhappy Ending To The Drug War?

Graph below via Mankiw:

Ace thought this piece in Esquire, How Can We Not Love Obama?, was a satire, but finally concluded it isn't. One quote from the florid piece:

The turning point came that glorious week in the spring when, in the space of a few days, he released his long-form birth certificate, humiliated Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and assassinated Osama bin Laden. The effortlessness of that political triptych — three linked masterpieces demonstrating his total command over intellectual argument, low comedy, and the spectacle of political violence — was so overwhelmingly impressive that it made political geniuses of the recent past like Reagan and Clinton seem ham-fisted. Formed in the fire of other people's wars, other people's financial crises, Obama stepped out of Bush's shadow that week, almost three years after taking over the presidency.

To tell the truth, I still can't tell whether it's tongue-in-cheek or written by a guy with a serious man-crush. Perhaps our readers can help me out.

...well, on further thought, reading this 'graph convinces me that the author is pulling my leg:

We love Obama — even those who claim to despise him — because deep in our hearts and all over our lives, we're the same way — both inside and outside our jobs, our races, our cities, our countries, ourselves. With great artists, often the most irritating feature of their work is the source of their talent. Obama's gift is the same as his curse: He's somehow managed to be like the rest of us, only infinitely more so.

The Class-Size Debate Never Graduates High School

Norm on circumcision

Number of Legal Jobs Continue to Shrink, Number of Lawyers Continue to Rise

HUMOR IN UNIFORM: Photos Show The Funny Side Of Life On The Front Line

WSJ: A Home Is a Lousy Investment - Today's young people would be foolish to imitate their parents and view ownership as the cornerstone of personal finance.

AVI revisits Charlie on the MTA

The Coming Collectivization of American Health Care - Collectivizing American doctors will fail as badly as collectivizing Soviet farmers.

The Cultural Proficiency Journey: Moving Beyond Ethical Barriers Toward Profound School Change,”

Beyond "ethical barriers"?

Obama wants $1 trillion in taxes on top of what he's already signed - WSJ: Let’s not forget Obama’s already-imposed new taxes

Video: President Obama promises ‘massive job killing taxes’ if re-elected

I'll Gladly Cut Spending On Tuesday For a Tax Increase Today

BREAKING: NAACP and Union Thugs Harass Kenneth Gladney Outside Clayton, MO Courthouse …Update: More Than Half Jury Pool Has Union Ties

Lynching a runaway slave

Gillard puts future on the line with radical plan for Australian carbon tax . Related: Inevitable: Qantas, Virgin Airlines Passing Australia’s Carbon Tax Along to Consumers

Driscoll: Liar’s Poker Meets the Community Reinvestment Act

EU calls emergency meeting as crisis stalks Italy

The EU will have its hands full of welfare states

CURL: Mr. President, do the math: $250,000 per year isn’t rich

Flat jobs data signal weakest recovery in decades/ What recovery? Unemployment remains high and jobs scarce 2 years after Great Recession ended

France tells Libya rebels to seek peace with Gaddafi

Remind me, we are there why?

Democrats’ Incoherent Push to Cut Defense

What's wrong with Defence jobs?

Obama Regime Imposing the Same Race-Based Loans That Brought On 2008 Collapse

Brilliant!

Black economic gains reversed in Great Recession.  Says Protein:

It. Hasn’t. Worked. If by worked you mean lived up to a single of our ‘expectations’, and if by expectations you don’t mean this is really just how we grab power from the flyovers.

Where are the results, if not in the statistics? The left has destroyed black America.

Why the Dems are now stymied, at Am Thinker:

They have shot their bolt with cheap money and stimulus spending and cranked up the National Debt by 40 percent. But here we are in Summer 2011 and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.

To fix things the Obamis would have to adopt the Republican agenda and reduce the weight of government. They would have to repeal ObamaCare, reverse their green energy boondoggle, lower tax rates, and cut wasteful government spending.

You can see the problem. For the last 40 years, ever since the "unexpected" success of Reaganomics, liberals have been telling themselves and everyone else that supply-side economics is a mirage. Now they have to admit that everything they believe is wrong.

Polar Bear populations have been increasing steadily since 1950. Image from a piece at Watts.

Scrubbing your mug shot from the net is a growing business.

But at $99 per mug shot, who can afford to remove them all? I suggest government subsidies.

The UN’s plan to dominate the world of energy and to redistribute wealth? “Climate change”

What's their Plan B? They might need one if they still want to rule the world.

VDH: The Great Madness of 2004-10

The hatred, the worship, the diagnosis

Met Office supercomputer tops polluting list:

But the Met Office is less than happy with the accolade. It said in a statement: “We recognise that our DEC rating [carbon dioxide emissions] is large but it is also necessary. Our supercomputer is vital for predictions of weather and climate change.”

Translate that as "vital for their jobs."

Chávez Is Believed to Have Colon Cancer

Heather MacDonald responds to defenses of DSK's maid

OK, Heather - but it is still not right to stiff your sex workers

Wehner: A Jobs Report That Defies Description

Reason: The Price of Big Government - Do the benefits ever outweigh the costs?

Bookworm: Why poor people should pay taxes (not lots of taxes, but some)

We agree that every person or family should have some skin in the game, or just be parasites

View from the Left (the NYT): The Worst Time to Slow the Economy

Their plan: raise taxes and increase government spending. However, that is always their plan for everything. Their faith never wavers.

Joe Klein: Time to Ax Public Programs That Don't Yield Results

His example is Head Start

Dan Greenfield: Government of Sociopaths

Unemployment Unexpectedly Up, President Hardest Hit

Geithner tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that it's a very tough economy. He says that for a lot of people "it's going to feel very hard, harder than anything they've experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come."

Apparently he has no Plan B and is plumb out of ideas. Thanks, Timmy. We understand that a government cannot control an economy, but you guys did the opposite of what Reagan did. You guys jumped on the recession as a golden opportunity to increase the size of the federal government - and for pork.

Source: Dealing with Obama: “…beyond bizarre”

Our friend Nathan sends us this slice of pop culture from his visit to San Francisco. I never heard of Diesel, but Maggie's is light on pop culture. You might say that it's not really our beat.

Attended my first Diesel opening Friday.

OK, my first anything opening.

L., who helps Diesel, an Italian label, find possible stores and set up their design in U.S. cities, had invited me. Thursday late, she called, saying that Francis or Danieli of Diesel had called desperately saying that they needed extra props for the store: old TV sets, beat-up furniture. The theme was to be the aftermath of a tornado. We hulked a dusty tubed TV into her BMW, then over to the store on Market Street, where we were met by a cheerful helper, who opened the car door and announced, “Hi, I’m Jeremiah,” which name was also tattooed on his left neck, should a vampire be interested in the brand name of his source. But, easy to overlook Jeremiah’s name tattoo amongst the other skin art on him and others.

Branson also was helping with the design. He tops two meters and his height is enhanced by a dyed black hair wave that brings to mind Hirokawa’s tsunami prints; a flip of the wave at the top gives him a lopsided look, which he straightens with a smile. As we lugged TV, he unloaded broken branches for the window display. Tornado-esque.

Jeter Homers for 3,000th Hit, First Yank to Do it

Perfect families and divorce: Cultural Commitments & Marriage

 New Internet Top-Level Domains Coming

It's about time

Sowell said it in 1975

McArdle: Hoover Was No Budget-Cutter

Disgusting. Memphis Reporter Mocks Mitt Romney’s Mormonism

Mitt would be better off as a Muslim

Priuses: Battle Formation! The Implacable Left Reads Obama the Riot Act

Media Matters and Dem Groups Form Organization to Track GOP Candidates with Army of Videographers

Dirty tricks, basically. My theory is that Conservatives are all too busy doing or creating real jobs to do this sort of thing.

The GOP's Demographic Problem

Media Bias 101: How liberal lies seep into our pop culture and become “fact” (UPDATED)

The New York Times: Lying For The DFL

At Overcoming Bias:

1. Why such a consistent focus on the same three charity-related areas over such a long time? In general the simplest way to help folks is to give them cash. One needs other relevant factors to explain a desire to help in other ways. And to explain a consistent focus over many centuries, such factors must stay relevant over many centuries.

2. Why did charity-like spending grow from a tiny to a huge fraction of GDP? Why are we today so much more eager for charity-like spending?

The Big Apple Celebrates the King James Bible

 The Applause at Mass has to Stop

Housing Finance: For Once, Please Leave It Alone

Ladies And Gentlemen, We Have A Totally New Scariest Jobs Chart Ever

[Fill In Blank] Industry Furious At Obama

Obama's Plan for $10 Gas

Krauthammer: We have an unserious President

Bernie Goldberg: Any criticism of Herman Cain is racist

Our country tis of thee big government wealth redistribution and centralized management meant to fundamentally transform the country into some sort of social democratic nirvana ruled over by self-styled ruling class elites

Via the NRA:

...longtime anti-gun activist Sarah Brady has said that in March, the president told her “I just want you to know that we are working on [gun control] ... We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

Pic is Theo's artwork

Giant hogweed can scar and blind you, N.Y. warns

I have seen that plant. Didn't know it was poisonous.

5 Pro-Marijuana Arguments That Aren't Helping

Pot should not be illegal. It's just like Prohibition - everybody who wants pot gets it anyway. It's wrong to outlaw every dumb thing there is to do in life. Part of freedom is freedom to do dumb things - and to deal with the consequences.

Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel for Students

Mankiw: Housing Tax Subsidies

One more example of how government distorts markets

EPA Funds Green Groups That Sue The Agency To Expand

There is something truly wrong about that. You might term it an implicit conspiracy against the people, similar to the conspiracies between governments and government unions.

Hinderaker: Liberals: Wrong Again. Do They Care?

It is a phenomenon we see over and over again: a liberal will make a wild accusation or engage in defamatory speculation about a political opponent. The accusation will then be taken up by left-wingers across the internet and, if it looks promising, it will be repeated in far-left newspapers like the New York Times. Liberals everywhere will eat it up and elaborate on it. Then, in due course, it will be proved entirely baseless.

What happens next? Do liberal web sites, columnists and reporters retract their fictitious claims and apologize? Hardly ever. By the time the truth comes out, they have moved on to some new libel or conspiracy theory.

That's the "drive-by" media

Obama Refers To The Internet As "The Internets"

That would be a big deal if Bachmann said it

White House shows early signs of re-election panic

Klavan: Why Do Blacks Vote for the Party of Racism?

Commentary: The Obama Doctrine Defined

Mead: Beyond The Big City Blues

Health care: Ezra Klein’s public-private fetish

Yale's anti-Semitism whitewash

75% See Vital U.S. Interests As Only Reason For Committing Military Forces to Overseas Action

It's an upscale village of 19,000 now, but 25 years ago it was just turning from semi-rural to suburban. The farms are all gone. Even with a train connection to NYC, it's a hike. Wiki again:

The town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States. In 2008, CNN Money ranked New Canaan first in the nation with the highest median family income.

(Prosperous, indeed, but what those stats really mean, in part, is that there are no poor neighborhoods there to drag down the average.)

The comfortable colonial (built 1936) pictured is for sale for $4 million and change, but 3 years ago it would have been 6 or 7.

American Front Lawn Update: Turf Wars

Related: The Case Against the American Front Lawn

Related: Setbacks, Suburbs and the American Front Lawn

Flying car gets regulatory clearance

Cosby to Christians: Man Up!

View from the Left - New Republic: Man Without a Plan: Obama’s Short-Sighted View of U.S. Politics

Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level.

Just like what we wrote about on Tuesday: Long-term California Cooling Trend Blamed on Global Warming

Climate change causes everything.

Malanga: The Compensation Monster Devouring Cities - The real battle over public workers’ pay is happening in city halls, not state capitols.

The vote-buying pols sold out the taxpayer everywhere

Goldberg: ‘That’s Racist’ - The accusation becomes a punch line.

Hey, Jonah. That's racist.

Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr (R., CA): Ronald Reagan Would Never Be Elected Today

Why we like Marco Rubio: “The kind of language you would expect from a leader of a third-world country, not the President of the United States”

A forceful speaker. Is it racist to say he is "articulate"?

Blame the rating companies: Portugal reels after Moody's junk rating.

In the last go-round, they accused the raters of being too lenient. I think the raters are trying to find a delicate way of opining that Greece and Portugal are technically bankrupt.

Driscoll: Why does the MSM Downplay the Violence at Left-Wing Protests?

The Lt. Dan Band: Trailer, For the Common Good

 Why Greece is thwarting Gaza flotilla

Small Wars Journal: Killing your way to control

WSJ: Inside the Disappointing Comeback

“Fast and Furious” Blows Sky-High

How Greece's Political Elite Ruined the Country

Pork for all! Greece is bankrupt, and everybody knows it. There is no way they will ever pay back what they have borrowed to sustain their vote-buying politics. Maybe they could just sell the whole country to Club Med, and change those Euros or Drachmas into drink beads.

Obama Losing Canada's Oil to China

Saddam Hussein Torture Doctor at Work in British Hospital

Brits can't get top students to go to medical school anymore (nobody really wants to work for the NHS) - so they have to import docs from Whereisitstan.

McArdle: Why Can't the GOP Get to Yes?

She sort-of agrees with David Brooks. I don't know what I think except that the Dems cannot stop spending money they don't have to give people stuff they don't want. Plunder politics.

Stossel on The College Scam. A quote:

"There are 80,000 bartenders in the United States with bachelor's degrees," Vedder said. He says that 17 percent of baggage porters and bellhops have a college degree, 15 percent of taxi and limo drivers.

Nothing wrong with that (a bartender who can discuss Paradise Lost with you is a good thing) - unless those folks were scammed into getting those diplomas as a financial investment. I see many parallels with sub-prime mortgage sales. Most colleges these days are all about sales - warm bodies with loans in hand. It's become the Big Education industry, built on debt.

Obama’s Final Argument: Republicans Are Poopheads: A quote:

No Republican has won the presidency without significant name recognition entering primary season since Warren G. Harding in 1920. That is because Republicans have to face down Democrats’ constant attacks on their personhood, attacks are made more effective because the Republican platform is supposed to be personal responsibility and aspirational performance standards, while the Democratic platform is handouts, pure and simple. The only way for Republicans to win is to make it widely known to the American public prior to their demonization that they are good and decent human beings.

President Obama’s only hope, by contrast, is to personalize, polarize, and destroy. It’s pure Alinsky, and it will work unless Republicans nominate someone so honest and eminently kind that Obama’s criticism seems as foolish as it clearly is.

Remembering Entebbe

I am an unworthy - and grateful - American

What he said

Climate scientists predict mini Ice Age

Then catastrophic warming after that, I suppose? How long must I wait?

Coyote: More Wind Craziness

Feminists Against Beautiful Women

How To Plan a Fireworks Show

The best Literary Tales Of Real-Life Crimes

Via Insty: The Five Best Inventions of the Founding Fathers

The War on Lemonade Stands! Nanny of the Month (June 2011)

Carpe: How State Income Tax Rates Affect NBA Outcomes

Cory Maye is finally getting out of jail

Sowell: Politics Versus Reality:

It is hard to understand politics if you are hung up on reality. Politicians leave reality to others. What matters in politics is what you can get the voters to believe, whether it bears any resemblance to reality or not.

Am Thinker: The Education of a Compassionate Conservative

Barone: Replacing Property as a Source of Wealth Creation

Connecticut’s ‘Anti-Christie’ Malloy Plans Worker Cuts

Joe Biden Warns Teamsters: Vote Dem or ‘You’re on Your Own, Jack’

NYT freaks because CEOs make big bucks. But what about Pinch?

Re our wars: Belmont Club: The return of reality

Obama’s Economists: Each Job ‘Saved or Created’ by the Stimulus Cost $278,000 (So Far)

Obama's labor union problem

Twenty-two states (plus the District of Columbia) currently impose an estate tax or an inheritance tax (Maryland and New Jersey have both).  (h/t Insty)

Re the housing bubble and Fannie Mae:

Under Johnson, an important Democratic operative, Fannie Mae became, Morgenson and Rosner say, “the largest and most powerful financial institution in the world.” Its power derived from the unstated certainty that the government would be ultimately liable for Fannie’s obligations. This assumption and other perquisites were subsidies to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac worth an estimated $7 billion a year. They retained about a third of this.

Morgenson and Rosner report that in 1998, when Fannie Mae’s lending hit $1 trillion, its top officials began manipulating the company’s results to generate bonuses for themselves. That year Johnson’s $1.9 million bonus brought his compensation to $21 million. In nine years, Johnson received $100 million.

At Driscoll:

At Big Government yesterday, Phillip Dennis asked, “What Has Happened to Liberals In the Past 50 Years?” Here’s one answer: They went from viewing America as a beacon of freedom (or a Shining City upon a Hill, to borrow a phrase popular with both liberal icon JFK and former Roosevelt liberal Ronald Wilson Reagan) worth sharing with a beleaguered world to a Show About Nothing during that time. If only they had Upped Their Game during this period, instead.

Related: “Were the Founders Democrats?” That depends on whether you spell it with a large or small-d.