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Maggie's FarmWe 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. |
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Wednesday, August 2. 2006Too darn hot.
Enjoy it, luxuriate in it. Complaining is for babies. Pretend to be a wisteria vine, reaching for the sun, or one of those giant patches of happy, heat-intoxicated crabgrass in my lawn. Watch those Beefsteak tomatoes in the garden turn redder by the day. In January, you will pay good money to travel to such temperatures and blue skies. We'll only have this kind of astonishing heat for a couple of more days. If I didn't have a case coming up, I'd call this a pool, book, nap, and gin and tonic day. Throw a few of those giant ice blocks in the pool, and float on them like a Polar Bear. Got the grandkids coming this weekend, so the iceman cometh. And, to all of you greenies - please turn off your a/c in your cars, homes, and workplaces. You are destroying the planet. If you turn it on, you are a fraud and a hypocrite. Do not tell me, like Al Gore, that he needs his but you can't have yours. I promise you that his house on his tobacco farm in Tennessee has a/c. And if your workplace refuses, stand out front today with signs and protest that your workplace is killing Gaia with its wasteful a/c. It'll be a big hit: you will be popular and folks will thank you for having the courage to stand up for Gaia. Be a hero, and try it! Weds AM Links: Guaranteed to be 12-24 hours behind the news
Slacker males: Not the greatest generation. Viking Stick with Babalu for Castro death watch #2713. New work on the genetics of autism. Science Daily A little tour through hell: Not with Vergil - Maxed Out Mama visits the Dem blogs. Not a pretty sight. Getting it straight: Terrorists don't have to follow the rules. The West has to. I agree with that thesis, as long as we kill the terrorists. Dem Project gets a bit upset about the double standard. Who doesn't? Happy to say that Israel is moving in with adequate ground troops. And Hezbollywood may turn out to be the scam story of the year: people believe what they want to believe. No work ethic in Europe. They subscribe to the "Vacation Ethic." But what about people who want to work hard, and do things, and not laze about like cows in a field? Tangled Rick reviews the decline of chivalry in warfare. Part of the world is still in the "try to be chivalrous" mode, and the rest doesn't give a damn. Media Lies: This time, the Detroit News. Israpundit SPP and NASCO: The most under-reported major story of the year. RWH
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Tuesday, August 1. 2006Three pieces on the Israel-Iran WarA few interesting pieces: First, from this new piece by Jimmy Carter, a man who has always been in utter denial of evil and detructiveness in the world and the easiest con target on earth. He blames the war on Bush (wasn't it great the way the "Peace Process" worked before Bush?):
All I can say is this: if these terrorist guys were calm, rational, and humane, the problem would have been solved by Jimmy Carter himself - if not by Nixon. No need to read it all - the guy is in LalaLand. He had his chance, and he kissed Yasir Arafat. Decades later, he still wants to drop love bombs. Second, Tracinski at RCP, asks "If the Iranian strategy is so clear, why can't we deal with it?" Damn good question.
Third, a quote from Dershowitz in The Front Page:
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Tues. AM LinksWhere were the men in the Qana rubble? The mystery grows. SISU Cuba's hereditary dictatorship: What is his brother Raul like? Breibart. Charming fellow. French ban topless sumbathing in Paris. I knew they were nuts, but this is the final proof. An interview with Roger McGuinn. PopMatters. h/t, Althouse AOL to unveli strategic direction on Weds. I can't wait. CT newspapers support Lieberman: NYT supports challenger, but can't quite explain why. Calif. Yank This absurd statement by the French: Iran is a respected, stabilizing force in the middle east. Is that just diplomat talk? YARGB Ortega poised to be elected in Nicaragua. How nice for them. RTLC Israel wonders what happened in Qana. Size matters. Cartridge size and efficiency. h/t, Alphecca. My question - who cares about efficiency? The list of lone Moslem shooters in the US grows longer. Anyone see a pattern yet? Ramsey Clark plans emergency march against US support of Israel. Why? Hez promises "next big battle" will be against the Leb politicians. This does not sound promising. Big Pharoah Obrador shuts down Mexico City to protest losing the election. No wonder Mexico is such a mess. This goes beyond being a sore loser. The photo proof that Haz is shooting from houses, in violation of Geneva.
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Monday, July 31. 2006The Latin Beat: Chavez UpdateMr. Chavez visits Iran with Mr. Morales and If Graham Greene were writing the novel how would it end? It seems the Mid East and Asia are not the only worries for the mighty US, no me thinks I smell more than one ratoncito in Latin America. Condi and George W will need our allies to start speaking up soon. If you do not read the ATLANTIC, then I highly recommend you buy the May issue:
Piece here: The Talented Mr. ChávezMonday Links
A cease fire is a Hez victory. Jerusalem Post Mel Gibson? Why do we care what movie stars say, drunk or sober? But that was really bad. Atlas is covering the war from up close. An interview with Roger Scruton, one of our favorite essayists. Find out what he thinks are the two things America can do to improve itself. h/t, Weekend Pundit A pastor disowns pulpit politics. Makes sense to me, but his parishioners are not pleased.
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Sunday, July 30. 2006A bit More Brain ExerciseYou are on a horse, galloping at a constant speed. On your right side is a sharp drop-off, and on your left side is an elephant traveling at the same speed as you. Directly in front of you is a galloping kangaroo and your horse is unable to overtake it. Behind you is a lion running at the same speed as you and the Kangaroo. What must you do to safely get out of this highly dangerous situation? Get your drunk ass off the merry-go-round!
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Sunday Morning Links
Bush made me buy property in Crawford, says Cindy Sheehan. Wizbang. This peculiar lady is an endless source of humor, but sometimes one feels sorry for her due to some emotional condition, despite being a traitor, an idiot, and a tool. The Top 100 Fly-Fishing sites. Here. Chicago shoots itself in the foot. Why not go all the way and set the minimum wage at 100/hour? Rick explains, patiently. The ACLU scam: find a sympathetic judge, then clean up with the big bucks, just like trial lawyers with juries. But, win or lose, WE PAY the bill. RWN explains. New Sisyphus is thinking that something evil is loose in the world. The Congregational Church, Town Meetings, and American democracy. Tom Brewton Juan Williams leaves the Plantation. God Bless him. YARGB
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Saturday, July 29. 2006Sat. linksOn his way east from LA and Seattle, the Dylanologist stopped by to see his old friends at Pine Butte this week. Yes, snow in July. Great place. Photo If you are concerned about global warming, you will support this fix. The genetics of "tameness," in NYT Science News/ I think I have enough of these genes to grow a garden, but not enough to be a good husband. Bumble bee flies 8 miles to its home. Good weekend day trip, if you are anywhere near Storm King. Always thought that was a killer name for a mountain. Those Hudson Highlands are surprising. Zero to sixty in 4 seconds - on a battery. Alphapatriot. Cheap too. Fisk - of all people - on Beirut. Many people are fond of Lebanon. Cluck, cluck. Women in the UK may be able to sell their eggs. Tangled Web. Just like Brave New World. Can you get, brown, white, organic, large and medium? Lamont: 2.8 million in 2005 income, 5000 in charity. Typical Dem - Let The Govt Do It. Just One Minute. Cannot include the Family Fund - I suspect that's a foundation with legally-required disbursement. What's wrong with English instruction? Newmark, via Betsy Cohen on survival and proportionality. Sanity. How is this? Whole thing here:
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Friday, July 28. 2006Friday AM LinksConvert your LP records to CDs, with an Ion Turntable. Great idea. Does it eliminate the scratches? Believe them - or don't. Moslems want to re-establish the Caliphate. They are not joking. Kidding around is not their schtick. Dems propose a bill to halt global warming. It's another feel-good thing. If it does any good, I'll let you smack me with a mackeral and call me Mildred. On same subject, more evidence that Kyoto is a scam. Env. Repub Doug Ten Napel provides a penetrating rebuttal to a comment on embryonic stem cells. Doug is like one of those guys who got Ds in college, read only comic books, and was smarter than anyone else. Nasrallah is displeased. The IDF hacked into his communications network. I heard on the radio that he ran away and is at the Beirut Sheraton. Would love to run into this guy down in the bar, trying to pick up chicks. How "assortive mating" affects social mobility. People tend to mate with those of similar income/education. Stumbling. Maybe a govt regulation against this insidious practice? The Long Tail. Am I the only one who hasn't read this book? A review Ampakines sound like good stuff. They reverse memory loss. They reverse what?
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Thursday, July 27. 2006Thursday Morning LinksEdith let me take her photo at the beach on Sunday, but she refused a dinner date. (Is it still Sweeps Month? But we don't do ads anyway... Anderson Cooper confused about what a terrorist is. Wizbang Nuclear power. The NYT can't figure it out. Jim Miller Clinton duplicity: Do as I say,... Pardon My English Cindy Sheehan's fast: Not looking any skinnier... Lee might be right about this:
Al Jazeera is supporting Rick Santorum's opponent. If you passed over it, go back and read yesterday's link to Brussel's Journal.
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Wednesday, July 26. 2006Weds AM LinksHurricanes: The problem is people building and living too close to the coast. Duh. NYT At Maggie's Farm, we oppose any new Federally-subsidized flood insurance. It's stupid: we subsidize people to live in flood zones, then have to pay to rescue them from floods and hurricanes and to rebuild in the same place. Only govt could be that dumb. But it's not their money, is it? Could be some truth to this, from piece in The Guardian:
The more I think about it, the more I suspect that they wanted to create a little border scuffle as a diversion from Iran, and did not count on a strong reaction from an Israel who was feeling cornered and beseiged - and fed up with the fact that, with every concession, their enemies just move closer. I'll sign it, but. The debate about "signing statments." Opinion in the NY Sun No free lunch. Either permit drilling, or pay more for Arab and Venezuelan gas, and quit complaining. Wyoming protests new drilling on federal lands. Africa. The failure of the Doha Round means a dead end has been reached, for now. Publius. Africa needs agricultural markets, but the world doesn't want them to have them. Biodiesel in Europe. Bill Quick has some reasons to be, well, disappointed in Bush. So does Lee. Illegals get better deals with state colleges than Americans. No wonder they come. Can my kids do the same at the University of Guadalajara?
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Tuesday, July 25. 2006A good opportunity to re-paint the bottom
Gwynnie asks whether GM has any submarines available. Everyone on board should hike out to starboard. Tuesday AM Links LinksHomeowner kills intruder with .50 cal muzzle loader. How did he have time to load that thing? Some fine Mary Chapin Carpenter lyrics at Villainous. Case apologizes for AOL-Time Warner merger. Good grief. Listen to these quotes re Rice's visit: "The Americans want a new Middle East devoid of jihad, resistance, liberation, martyrdom, retaliation and dignity. These are all terms that disturb the Americans. "They want to see a Middle East full of Arab presidents, monarchs and princes who serve as slaves for their American masters," Afaneh said. More in the Jerusalem Post The girl who named Pluto. h/t, Norm Neighborhoods begging for a Whole Foods. We have one, and I do not see what's so great about it. Dead IRANIAN soliders being flown home from Lebanon. Big surprise there. Why I love the Lebanese: they are party people. From those that I have known, I'd have to agree. Big Pharoah The Bronco cheerleaders cheered the troops last week. Europe doesn't want to talk about Eurabia. Why not? It is real. Augean
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Monday, July 24. 2006One Small Way to Support our Troops
I will send him one that says "Did you remember to take your Prozac today?", another with a snake that says "Repti-vite - for happy reptiles," and an AAA magnet which could come in very handy in Iraq. That's all I can spare. I will send a Ducks Unlimited sticker, but magnets is what they need for full protection. 200 mg. of Thorazine IM Stat
Rove is behind Leftist anti-Semitism. LGF. Rove is not a human - he is The Devil, incarnate: a multi-tentacled evil monster. Spends a lot of his time blogging too, with one of those tentacles, under pseudonyms, in his spare time - no doubt.
Monday AM Links
An Airbus whistle-blower in deep trouble in Austria. LAT Judson Laipply does the Evolution of Dance. YouTube Brits expected to welcome 45,000 criminals. That would be lovely. Tangled Web. (Isn't that what Botany Bay was for?) In other psychotic Brit news, Galloway glorifies Hezbollah. Gateway. I think they need to add Thorazine to their drinking water - or to their beer. This is not my homeland that I know and love. A conversation with Milton and Rose Friedman. This is too good. Betsy Maps of the IDF incursions into Lebanon. Belmont Ben Stein: Israel is too restrained. Repubs lag among Latinos. Why? Bolton has proven himself better than advertised. Why oppose his nomination?
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Saturday, July 22. 2006Saturday Evening LinksCockroaches and Hezbollah. Shape of Days Google is going gangbusters. The guys are not going to relax. Autism - chic. It is not fun, or chic, for the parents. Spiked Thousands march in England against Israel. Mind you, this is in a country where you are not allowed to shoot burglars in your own house. Meanwhile Iran declares that it has taken control of the battle. Duh. Different kinds of taxes. Interesting to consider, but, in the end, you are going to be taxed. It's the price of civilization, but part of it is the price of imperfect democracy. I like flat tax. Doubts about Israeli damage estimates. They will need to get in there with boots and tanks. Zogby wants a political solution. Hello? Israel is preparing for a more effective solution. Who are these idiots in Lebanon who want a free ride out, courtesy of the Marines? Right Wing Nation/ See Indepundit for a really cool evacuation ship. Tough guy movies, at The Shelf Should the UN be able to tax YOU? Gimme a break. Who are they, to me? I did not elect them. Brussels Journal
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Saturday LinksEnv. Repub found us some good You-Tube rock videos here and here. Department of euphemism: Partial-birth abortion now termed "women's health. Stop the ACLU Smugness alert. Ex-Donk. Smugness is a very annoying trait. There are 2000-8000 programming languages. Is this much diversity helpful? Am. Scientist Women see color differently. Cognitive Daily Big new nondenominational churches springing up in supposedly atheistic Manhattan. First Things Gay intolerance: Gay Patriot complains that Leftist gays have no tolerance for gay conservatives.
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Friday, July 21. 2006CIA contractor fired for having top-secret blog
Poor judgement on her part. Still, an excellent adventure.
Friday AM LinksOmar has a creepy post which makes me wonder whether anyone in the West understands these people. Iraq the Model Neckties: Are they coming back, or going out? CSM Clinton will campaign for Lieberman. As you may recall, Gore declined to support him: a bad idea, if he was your vice-presidential candidate. According to Duke faculty, the lacrosse players are guilty anyway, as one prof is quoted in a piece at HNN:
It's always about "Whose truth?", like Pilate. How about The Truth? Yes - that same old cliched faculty-speak, which makes it clear that white males are always guilty. Further comments at Coyote The dangerous fantasy of peaceful Arab intent: Seattle Times Headlines you won't see: House Committee hears testimony debunking the hockey stick climate graph. Redstate Who knew that you could buy an entire edition of a Law Review? Cramer. Shameful, stupid, whorish, embarassing. The NYT spins it as a good thing that Lamont cannot raise $ in CT against Joe Lieberman. Nice try, NYT. What it obviously means is that he has minimal financial support in the state - but he is doing well in the polls. We were going to comment on the VDH piece on the weariness with fighting Jihad, but Dinocrat beat us to it. A cool resource: Middle East bloggers round-up, at Truth Laid Bear. Toilet-training, Adorno, Barry Goldwater, and John Dean: Classic rambling blogging by Classical Values. I still believe there is a basic confusion existing out there: It's the Left and the Progressives who want to control our lives - not the Conservatives. Or am I missing something?
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Thursday, July 20. 2006Thursday MorningHow should Bill Gates spend that 60 billion? The Copenhagen Consensus has some ideas. TCS Marry your cousin? No problem, says Stossel at Town Hall Taranto has mixed feelings about Bush's stem cell veto. I think it's probably a good thing, because it injects the moral dimension into the science. How do we want to regard human embryos? I don't know, but it's a question. How illegals damage the American economy. Malanga at City Journal. His point: A few get cheap labor, while the rest of us pay the bills. Papa Duck, Roland Remmel dies at 88. Remmel was the grand old man of Ducks Unlimited. Camus' wartime journalism. Plus plenty of things I did not know about him. TNR Wednesday, July 19. 2006Weds. Evening LinksWalmart wins, unions lose. Env Repub. Apparently there is a relevant law. Is it now the Left that doesn't want change - or is that just an artifact of having Repubs in control of congress? Driscoll The Duke group of 88 - who are these people? Dino found out. They are, umm, not "regular folks." Doubtless smarter than the rest of us. "Why Stephen Harper is my hero." At YARGB Leaving people to die on Everest usually makes sense. Big Lizard explains. Dying is a basic part of the sport. Like the military, don't do it if you aren't willing to die doing it. I have two friends who have lost relatives on mountains. The risk and challenge is the deal. You can chose to sit home and watch TV. Someone else who wonders why an Israel cease-fire would be a good idea: Bolton. As the Wash. Times commentary puts it:
Krauthammer agrees. So does Gingrich: Not the time for restraint. But, on the other hard, David Clark in The Guardian wants Israel to give up even more land...probably all of it. They will not:
That's a perfect example of a guy who preaches appeasement, and would be pleased to see Israel an Arab nation - but who is too naive, (maybe) to acknowledge that these people would just find another scapegoat for their mess.
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Tuesday, July 18. 2006Tuesday Evening LinksNew State Slogans. Two samples:
Read the rest at Dr. Sanity NYT reduced to begging for readers. Am Thinker How Liberal is Joe Lieberman? Very. And I see Lamont cannot raise $ in CT. Calif Yank What's wrong with "social justice?" FIRE Who wants a cease fire? What for? Finish it, first. RWN An important point reinforced at S, C and A: Being elected does give you some legitimacy, but it doesn't make you right. From a new piece by Steyn, re Canada - and multi-cult in general:
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Another Note from our Guest Author, in Israel
I am fine. Things tense here. Last night dinner with a psychoanalyst from Brazil, Dr. E (and a guest who spoke Yiddish). Dr. E's son heard a rumor that the army is moving MLRS (multiple launch rockets) from Golan to Leb border; today, my realtor had to leave early to get ready for his call-up tonight - tanks being moved to Leb border. MLRS have never been used by Israel: they rain steel. The Air Force dropped pamphlets over areas of southern Lebanon warning citizens to leave certain areas as these will be bombed. M. said that MLRS is a serious move towards war. Editor's note: Sounds like it's all going as predicted by our news here in the US. And it's nice to have most of the Islamic nations on Israel's side, for once. Perhaps sanity is sinking in? Someone has to take out the garbage. Including Ahmadinejad, whose lovely comments today are here and here.
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