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.
Election Day: Do not vote today - unless you understand the issues, and have thought it all through. When uninformed and foolish people vote, everyone loses. As we have noted, it's all about whoresStoogespandering for a sinecure desiring to serve you.
Looking behind those health care stats. Mankiw in the NYT. (h/t, Viking). He pokes a hole in all of the scare tactics. What people want is portablility, I think. Of course, everybody wants cheaper too - but not if it means less freedom of choice. Medical treatment is not a commodity, and a physician is not a factory worker.
A good point on the supposed "problem" of income disparity. Cafe Hayek. The numbers are deceptive because women are working more these days, and the stats are based on household income, not individual income.
Why doesn't Maggie's Farm enter those annual "Best Blog" contests that are going on now?
1. We think it's a little silly. 2. We might not win. 3. We have no clue about what blog category we could be in, and there are far better tractor blogs than we are. I reckon we could win, though, in the "Best Commenters" category- but there isn't one.
The Perils of Petrocracy. Something good from the Sunday NYT. It begins:
Who holds the world’s oil? You might assume it’s in the hands of big private oil companies like ExxonMobil. But in fact, 77 percent of the world’s oil reserves are held by national oil companies with no private equity, and there are 13 state-owned oil companies with more reserves than Exxon-Mobil.
Tony afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted - like us. More on Tony Snow's speech,at SDA. Another quote from Tony:
Political rhetoric has turned nasty, childish, and very personal, especially on Capitol Hill, and Americans are sick of it. Hotheads seem to be enjoying a false spring of fame. And members of the mainstream press are scratching their heads and asking, “What's going on here? Why are the nation´s newspapers hemorrhaging readers? Why are the television networks losing viewers? Why has cable news suddenly hit still water? What is going on? Don't Americans care about the news?"
Well, of course they do: The problem is, they don't think they´re getting news — and they´re right.
Since when do Bill and Hillary live together? Not since the White House, I'd wager. Doesn't she have her own townhouse in DC? Why do people talk as if they were actually ever together these days? Anyway, Althouse on Krauthammer on father-son vs. husband-wife connections.
A person who believes so strongly that a problem needs to be remedied that she dedicates substantial time to ... getting other people to fix the problem.
"It’s time for the press to declare themselves either free guardians of the public trust or owned members of a political movement. They can’t be both."
Without question, the most entertaining thing on the Intertubes right now. If Iowahawk ever calls, and says: Road trip!, never say no. You can sit in the back with me, the Techno-Viking, and the Seven Horsemen of the Apocalypso. And Dick Dale, if'n he ain't busy.
...the larger point is that her policy approach revealed all the impulses not of the New Centrism but the Old Leftism. Her statements were redolent of the 1990s phrase "command and control." They reflect a bias toward the old tax-raising on people who aren't rich, who aren't protected, the old "my friends and I know best, and we'll fill you dullards in on the details later."
I, the Maggie's Farm News Junkie, am heading off to northern NH for a two-day hunt, but I wanted to get these good links on the board before I leave tonight. The team will fill in, as always.
More on the U of Delaware ideological reeducation at FIRE. h/t, Never Yet
A big tent Repub party? Definitely. Both parties should be big tent. It's a party's job to win elections, not to be pure. And yes, I like Rudy as a candidate. He is tough, scrappy and quick.
I like Putin's election strategy. It sure beats promising new entitlements.
No sex on Singapore Air, please. But then why the comfy beds?
From "Beware of Conservative speakers on campus - they might actually change a mind or two", at neoneo - a quote from Prager:
….ad hominem labels are the left’s primary rhetorical weapons. So when leftist students are actually confronted with even one articulate conservative, many enter a world of cognitive dissonance. That is one reason why universities rarely invite conservatives to speak: they might change some students’ minds.
Arrogantly titled "The Board," the NYT's new blog by its editorial staff is predictably condescending, and the entries are anonymous. It ain't Opinion Journal.
So I watched the Democrat debate tonight in its entirety, just taking it in. Is there an industry they wouldn't attack? From Hedge Funds, Defense, the Airlines, Insurance companies and, of course, the Oil Companies, it seems they all have investigations, regulations, or some restrictions in mind, assuming they flat out don't just want to do away with it completely?
Not once did I hear anything even remotely referencing the individual and certainly nothing that might challenge one. Apparently people can't become Doctors ... unless the government pays their tuition - and the trend discussed was free college for all at the government's expense. I mean, why should people be expected to invest in such a thing themselves? And they seem to be advocating having the State take charge of children as early as from two - four years-old. It's as if parenting should be relegated to a two-year proposition. Okay, you birthed the thing, we'll take it from here.
Medical research? We don't need the Pharma's, just turn it over to the NIH, while increasing governmental education-based grants for research across the board. There seemed to be no room for a market-based dynamic in such things at all.
A California doc with some good proposals for medical insurance, at Pajamas. Practical, and not scary for the poor. Got to listen to the docs in the trenches, not the pandering pols.
If global warming causes more rainfall, why try to blame droughts on it? Flopping. And yes, I am still waiting for more hurricanes. I love stormy weather.
El Baradai: "We are the eyes and the ears of the international community." No, they are a joke.
Why Eleanor Roosevelt declined the invitation to run for President after FDR died. RTLC
Get health care or we'll kill you. Viking. (Odd how it is that nowadays they say "health care" when they mean "insurance.") What if you're a Christian Scientist?
Arthur Kornberg was born in Brooklyn on March 3, 1918. As a youth he helped out in his parents’ hardware store. He was only 15 when he entered the City College of New York.
Dr. Kornberg earned a medical degree from the University of Rochester in 1941 and interned at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. He applied for research training grants but failed to receive any, he said, because of anti-Semitism.
"Our relentless search for wellness through medicine has created a kind of therapeutic imperative, the urge to treat every complaint, every deviation from the norm, as a medical condition." --Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated, p. 206
Tom Lantos: Europeans more upset about Gitmo than they were about Auschwitz. True. You have to notice that critics say Gitmo symbolizes bad things - not that it is a bad thing. Confusing symbols with reality is insane.
What are you doing today? Heavy rain here, so the Mrs. and I eschewed our usual Saturday morning horse fun and are making enough mincemeat for 8-12 pies, using Grandma Myers' recipe but doubling it and backing off on the sugar a bit: I do not care for an overly-sweet pie of any sort. I am adding dried cranberries and dried currants, and I am using Canada Goose and beef because I have no venison this year: it's been too warm to hang one, so it makes no sense to shoot one. I will age the mixture until close to Thanksgiving. I used rum in it last year, brandy this year. Also, to sip a little for a bracing brunch while cooking and chopping meat, suet, and apples.
I am, at the same time, making my special beef bourguignon for dinner, so the kitchen smells of spices, molasses, raisins, vinegar, apples, wine, brandy, bacon, and cooking meat. The smell is a hearty meal in itself.
Putin saber-rattling. What for? Isn't it obvious at this point that we mean them no harm?
Photo:Poodles can hunt. It isn't widely known that the breed originated in Germany, for duck hunting. They love marshes. The only problem with Poodles is that they are smarter than humans.
The Italian governmentuneasy about the internet. Why? And how many other governments want to control the flow of ideas and facts? In my opinion, any government that wants to do that is illegitimate, by definition.
The Al Qaidavideo game. Meanwhile, Bin Laden declares war against the UN "occupation" of Darfur. And amusingly, terrorists turn angry with Bin Laden. Such things happen when people are losing.
Photo: It's finally hunting season again. Long-time readers of Maggie's know that she is the famous Maid of the Marsh, a lovely and elusive mythical creature known only to duck hunters, and seen only on foggy days by hunters with serious hangovers combined with mental instability. We were fortunate to catch this photo, which is clearer than most photos of Bigfoot.
October has been a very good month for new Maggie's readers. A fine harvest of new friends, whether you agree with us about things or not.
A hearty welcome to all of you in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and the rest of the world. We are pleased and honored to have you all as visitors.
Please sample some of our "recent essays" on the upper left column - we only post "thought pieces" there - not that we are really capable of orderly thought: we do our best, with limited time, limited IQ, not to mention our neanderthal lack of intellectual sophistication. We are simple country bumpkins, recently fallen off the turnip wagon, who aspire only to Common Sense - and a few other things.
And don't forget to send us around to all of your friends and enemies. They should not feel left out.
Dems propose 4% surcharge on incomes over 150,000. Why? I suppose just on general Marxist principles. The rich? A cop married to a supervisory nurse make that much around here. It isn't "soak the rich" - it's "soak hard-working families." To soak the rich, go after Ted Kennedy's and George Soros' offshore investments. Anyway, a tax increase won't happen, now.
Climate skepticism 
More on the Dems' problems with illegal immigration. 
Why doesn't Maggie's Farm enter those annual "Best Blog" contests that are going on now?
The micro-celebrity and the world of image: 
From today's 
Boston Globe discovers relationship between 
Blacks in the top chairs. 
More on the U of Delaware ideological reeducation at 
Why we need 527s. 
How AIDS got to the US. 
A California doc with some good proposals for medical insurance, at 
Hillary knew all about 
There is a 16 billion pixel image of The Last Supper 
15 people I do not wish to hear another word about. 
Moral dilemmas and counterinsurgency in Israel. 
October has been a very good month for new Maggie's readers. A fine harvest of new friends, whether you agree with us about things or not.