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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Friday, June 14. 2013Doc-in-a-Box and other sorts of docs I think everybody's ideal is to have an internist or family practice doc who knows you well personally as well as medically, and where you can call or come in anytime if you have a concern. For various reasons this has become elusive. Based on what I have seen, three trends are growing. The first is the Doc-in-a-Box or, more likely, a PA in a pharmacy. The second is concierge medicine in which, for a modest annual fee, you have unlimited contact - 24/7 - with your generalist. The third is generalist docs who will not accept insurance but who charge modest fees and will offer a bill that you can send for your own reimbursement, if any. They can charge modest fees because they do not need to hire a large back office staff for coding and billing. It's a good idea to have a generalist who knows you and your family. With ObamaCare, I think all three of these modes will grow in popularity, especially the last one. They are all working mostly outside the system. They are not likely to want to make time to see you, however, unless they have met you (except for the PA in a box trend). Generalist physicians, whether Family Practice, Internal Medicine, or whatever, are the ultimate docs. They see everything, major and minor, and know when to refer. People who want to use their Medicare and Medicaid are going to have a tough time with office visits in the future. I had always aspired to be a country doc, a generalist, in the New Hampshire countryside, but became too fascinated with what I now do. I had dreams of fixing broken arms, stitching up nasty cuts, treating poison ivy, delivering babies, consoling the terminal, sending appendicitis patients to a surgeon friend, etc. It's kind of funny, but my generalist friends tell me that half of their work is Psychiatry anyway. With the training I had, I suspect that I could still do those country doc things pretty well, but my malpractice insurance does not cover it. In my training, I caught 42 babies. Some were dangerous and complicated. As I have admitted here in the past, I refused to participate in abortions not because I am so religious but because I did not want it in my memory. Primum non nocere.
Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss
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16:21
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Where to pee? A civil rights crisisWhere should transgender teens pee when at school? In some precincts, this seems to be a burning civil rights issue. Oregon County Requires Gender-Neutral Bathrooms A Maine court case signals the next frontier of civil rights: transgender equality. You've come a long way, baby. I think these teen transgenders are probably just terribly mixed-up confused people. Some days I feel like I am trapped inside a human body, and not a particularly wonderful body either. But I cope with it. I am taking a cute little gal on a fishing trip off Block Island this weekend. How good is that for June 15? Is that a keeper?
Posted by The News Junkie
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12:22
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Friday morning links These Sunglasses Really Fill the Void Where My Personality Should Be We spend millions on hatcheries for trout and salmon, but not a penny on codfish hatcheries. The American migration to Soviet Russia Merion Golf Club and the decline of WASPs 5 Things Nobody Tells You About Being Poor AmeriCorps is a joke The fracking revolution might be coming to California. Anything to maintain a bloated, ridiculous government MSNBC: Gov. George Wallace Was a Republican Wrong. However, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr was a Republican, and so was Abe Lincoln, if anybody recalls. Lawmakers rebel against being subject to Obamacare NOT-SO-GREAT SOCIETY: Fatherlessness in America Poof! Media drop coverage of IRS scandal Reid Kills Amendment Requiring Border Security before Amnesty Could Our Immigration System Be Even More Irrational? Sadly, Yes How Many Attacks Would Have Happened Without the NSA's Phone Record Database? Possibly Zero. French Man Attacked by Muslims for Eating Ham Sandwich Obama Slips Through Hotcoldwetdry Regulations In Policy Regarding Your Microwave The next hilarious step in the emasculation of Europe I thought sitzpinkler was an insult Rush: Dems playing the GOP Hillary Clinton’s Book Ghost Writer Revealed–He Used to Write Speeches for Bill Clinton Saudi Police Arrest Flying, Naked, African ‘Sorceress’ Thursday, June 13. 2013Another reason to buy shares of BerkshireA government out of control and drunk with powerFrom George Will's Scowling face of the state:
From Henninger's The Sum of All Fears - The IRS audits and NSA surveillance flow into the same
But how about this: Not Shocking At All: Obama’s Snooping Excludes Mosques, Missed Boston Bombers We New England Yankees assert that it is un-American to trust governments. That's the whole point, the reason we exist as a nation.
Posted by The News Junkie
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12:36
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Thurday morning links Image: I forgot who used that one. Don’t Listen to the Buzz: Lobsters Aren’t Actually Immortal New Evidence That Grandmothers Were Crucial for Human Evolution Unborn Turtles Actively Regulate Their Own Temperature Something Wonderful: Timelapse of a supercell near Booker, Texas The Decalogue and Liberal Democracy Unemployed Workers Still Far Outnumber Job Openings in Every Major Sector Grandma, armed: You son of a bitch, get out of here. New Study Blames Collective Bargaining for Education Stagnation Biden Slams Obama’s Qualifications To Be President 10 things to know about the NSA Joe Scarborough to Chris Matthews: You Sure Didn't Seem To Think These Issues Were "So Complicated" When Bush Was President Re David Brooks: The most grotesque article I have read in quite some time People are reading Orwell again Greenwald: Media Filled with 'Slavishly Partisan…Democrats' Sheesh, I finally agree with Greenwald Lindsey Graham: I’d Support Censoring The Mail If Necessary Email? Insty: POLITICS LOOKS SPOOKIER NOW NSA hacks China, NSA leaker Snowden claims Duh. Radical Environmentalism and Second Thoughts Noted Junk Scientist: “When You Put More Energy Into a System, It Gets More Energetic” Give that buffoon some Valium Coulter: IF THE GOP IS THIS STUPID, IT DESERVES TO DIE What’s Wrong with Sweden? Wednesday, June 12. 2013Cheat sheet for the Senate's immigration bill
Posted by The News Junkie
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19:31
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Federal paramilitary agenciesWe've all known for a while that the DHS has been building a potent paramilitary organization. The justification for that eludes me. Of course, the FBI and ATF are paramilitary too. What am I missing among federal paramilitary agencies? However, I never imagined that the IRS was doing the same. Gun Control? Not at the IRS! Is the US constructing the ingredients of a police state at home because of the actions of some wacko Jihadists?
Posted by The Barrister
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14:19
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Political QQQsDr. Phil Jones – CRU emails – 5th July, 2005: “The scientific community would come down on me in no uncertain terms if I said the world had cooled from 1998. OK it has but it is only 7 years of data and it isn’t statistically significant….” That was written 8 years ago but I believe, to be more accurate, there has been slight cooling since 1995, not 98. Dr. Phil Jones – CRU emails – 7th May, 2009: ‘Bottom line: the ‘no upward trend’ has to continue for a total of 15 years before we get worried.’ "Worried"? I thought we were supposed to get worried if it got warmer, not if it didn't...but I don't really care what the weather does. I like any and all weathers except for tornadoes. Those are via a commenter at The warming ‘plateau’ may extend back even further Yes, the alarmists are worried because they want a crisis. Here's Powerline: Times Struggles to Keep Climate Hope Alive
Weds. morning links New Study Finds It Is Impossible To Lose Weight Oldest maps of the world Are Women Too Passive When It Comes to Sex? The Arab Slave Trade Predates European Slave Trade: 650AD to 2008 A large assortment of Hayek YouTubes University of Chicago Removes Pews from 88 Year-Old Chapel to Accommodate Muslim Prayers Gaze into the abyss of Cali’s cap-and-trade 60 percent of Richmond families are single parent George Will on sugar:
Sen. Ted Cruz: Democrats Designed Immigration Bill to Fail – So They Can Use It as a Political Tool Al Gore: Scientists 'Won't Let Us' Tie Climate Change To Recent Tornado Activity New York Times: Lack of Global Warming Proves There's Global Warming So would global warming prove that there is no global warming? Or is it "Heads I win, Tails you lose"? Nyquist: Economic Recovery vs. Government Intervention Tuesday, June 11. 2013Can this be Constitutional?Crime to Post “Indecent” Speech “About a Person” with “Purpose to Harass”? Would it be criminal to call this guy an un-American jackass? This guy ought to watch the harassment that takes place in every Question Time in the Brit Parliament. The guy is pathetic. Harassment of others is poor manners, but frequently necessary in life because so many deserve it. Including him. David Brooks, amateur shrinkDavid Brooks' Analysis of Edward Snowden Tells Us a Lot...About David Brooks Brooks is sort of a smarmy putz, isn't he?
Posted by The News Junkie
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11:44
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Tuesday morning linksWomen as sexual predators Psychedelic Academe - Research into mind-altering drugs is back. Retiring on $1 Million? Think Again Thomas Sowell from 1984 on ‘Why drugs should be legalized’ Why New Urbanism doesn't work: The latest trend in urban planning builds bureaucracy, not affordable living. Murphysboro & The Death of Small Town America Understanding the IRS scandal A Conservative Case for Prison Reform From a generation that fought the Nazis to a generation that fights hurt feelings. There are so many logical and factual errors in Bill Keller's Affirmative Reaction Last week, I solicited responses to the question, what is the dumbest thing ever said to you by a liberal... Armed Citizen Project Gives Firearms Training, Shotguns to Single Houston Women Why Social Security was the New Deal's biggest mistake @NYTimes: The Dog Ate My Global Warming. NSA personnel would trade clips of eavesdropped phone sex between US soldiers abroad and wives in US. President Obama’s welcome plot twist: Edward Snowden Monday, June 10. 2013Monday morning linksManliest Father's Day Pie TrackingPoint: Does Technology Take the Sport Out of Shooting? Once dying, Birmingham is suddenly hot Why Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects were more real than CGI More Crucial Education Research Is Big Pot on the way? Philly crane operator was stoned HHS Website For Girls, 10 to 16, Informs Youth About Birth Control, Gay Sex, Professors Are About to Get an Online Education Mailvox: writing back to a young female engineer (h/t Driscoll) Slut-Shaming Isn't Just a "Girl-On-Girl Crime" (h/t Insty) Offshore Wind: The Enormously Expensive Energy Alternative Lying liar Anthony Weiner’s underage girl problem You Won’t Believe What People Think is the Leading Cause of Poverty in America - See more at: http://menrec.com/you-wont-believe-what-people-think-is-the-leading-cause-of-poverty-in-america/#sthash.bfLkA6Mk.dpuf You Won’t Believe What People Think is the Leading Cause of Poverty in America - See more at: http://menrec.com/you-wont-believe-what-people-think-is-the-leading-cause-of-poverty-in-america/#sthash.bfLkA6Mk.dpuf You Won’t Believe What People Think is the Leading Cause of Poverty in America - See more at: http://menrec.com/you-wont-believe-what-people-think-is-the-leading-cause-of-poverty-in-america/#sthash.bfLkA6Mk.dpuf Leno: ‘We Wanted a President That Listens to All Americans - Now We Have One’ Global Warming Alarmism In Twilight Homeschooling Growing Seven Times Faster than Public School Enrollment Temp staffing jobs hit record as firms dodge ObamaCare costs Why Schumer-Rubio is a fraud — the nutshell version Few options for online users to avoid spying, experts say Here's a site: SueTheIRS.com Obama in Palo Alto: Fundraising with the Rich Radicals Stealth Edit: The New York Times Has Now Lost all Credibility NSA Obtains Data from 50 Companies Pelosi on Obamacare: Hey now, I never said premiums wouldn’t go up China and Hong Kong Hold Edward Snowden's Fate Snooping Concerns Emerge Over Congressional Blackberries Serviced By Verizon Via Gateway:
Allah wants you to try it. Sunday, June 9. 2013When everything is a crime, government data mining matters
From Prof. Jacobson.
A "cognitive talent" gap?College grads are waiting on tables. Is that a bad thing? Is it a result of the terrible Obama economy? It's been decades since a college degree guaranteed a good career. BAs are commonplace now, and are not as elite as they used to be in the job market. Many graduate degrees aren't worth the cost in cash or time either. At the moment, talented people are begging for any kind of work. ‘Waiter and waitress nation’ might not be so bad if it means we’re becoming more of an ‘eating out at restaurants nation’ Americans are using restaurants and take-out more than ever. It's a cultural shift in which home cookin' becomes something special and in which diners, McDonalds, and Thai take-out becomes the American middle class routine. If it's not all about the Obama economy, some of it could be about what Cowen calls economic resets. Not enough work for the cognitively-talented, but I hear that a good chef can always find work. Cognitive talent is not rare, and probably never was. Social class and lack of opportunity kept a lot of it hidden and invisible. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't know Calc and Stats, if you don't know the Gas Laws and Avogadro's Number, if you don't know about mitochondrial RNA, if you can't discuss Haydn's role in Western music and can't write a brief but elegantly-structured essay on any cultural topic at the drop of a hat, you have a degree but you ain't "eddicated." That's why people like me, who have risen in new businesses to the point of interviewing new hires, ignore resumes and ask probing questions. We want people who know a lot about everything because we are a pioneering business with, as yet, no annoying HR Department.
Posted by The News Junkie
in Education, Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays
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08:12
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Saturday, June 8. 2013NSA criminality?
This administration looks lawless. Dems are beginning to see it too. Petraeus was inconvenient. Most of us are inconvenient. Officials: NSA mistakenly intercepted emails, phone calls of innocent Americans Cleta Mitchell: How to Investigate the IRS - Cleta Mitchell, the attorney who helped expose Justice Department Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance - Government lawyers are trying to keep buried a classified court finding that a domestic spying program went too far. Whose government is this?
Posted by The News Junkie
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13:51
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Saturday links How the Robots Lost: High-Frequency Trading's Rise and Fall Google is the new GE and Amazon is the new Sears Roebuck. Unemployment Rate Jumps to 7.6% Big Brother also collecting your credit-card transactions I bought a crock pot on Amazon a few months ago, not a pressure-cooker. Government Storing Vast Phone, Email Data at NSA Data Center in Utah The Asymmetric Outrage of Big Government Scandals - Spare us the talk of bipartisan disgust with the IRS. Analysis: Obama's agenda scorched in firestorm U.S., British intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program Mounting concern over NSA in Congress Nice distraction from the hideous IRS Is Obama Lying About Big Brother? Breaking: NSA Eavesdropped on People With Whom They Had Personal Grudges Max Boot defends the NSA Obama tells donors: Democrats favor ‘light touch’ on regulation As in Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, IRS... Shoot The PRISM-Gate Messenger: Obama To Launch Criminal Probe Into NSA Leaks But Woodward and Bernstein are heroes? Republicans Focus Fire on IRS Involvement in Obamacare Wehner: Obama Can’t Be Trusted with Power This administration is in deep manure Internet Companies Deny They're Helping the NSA Collect User Data. Should We Believe Them? Friday, June 7. 2013Big government, out of control and intoxicated with power and moneyDemocratic Senator: I Wasn't Briefed on PRISM and In Fact Had Never Heard of It Until Yesterday "It can't happen here," right? Never, ever try to tell me that big government is benign. The road to hell is paved with the best of intentions; power corrupts; etc etc. Everybody knows this even if they hope government could be a benevolent parent to them. Our Dr. Bliss considers that notion to be a naive, infantile fantasy. George Washington said that. He was a big-enough man to reject power and a truly reluctant public servant. Most of our so-called "leaders" are arrogant and ignorant. "Don't follow leaders, watch your parkin' meters..." I was taught that even Karl Marx planned for the eventual dissolution of The State. How Obama Scandals Threaten to Kill 'Good Government' - Emerging narrative supports claims that Washington is intrusive, incompetent, untrustworthy and heartless. Duh. That's been mostly true since Woodrow Wilson. There is no "trust in government" crisis. Old-time Americans have always viewed government as a necessary evil and always subject to distrust. Tom Jefferson said that. Well, our government seems to be suspicious of us (eg IRS, etc) so maybe this is some sort of liberty. Breaking, via Drudge: Feds: Postal Service photographs every piece of mail it processes 1984 was not meant to be a governance manual.
Posted by The News Junkie
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17:52
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Nocera on big-time college sportsEverybody understands that big-time college sports are a big business which has little to do with a university's mission. Indeed, they can corrupt the university's mission. Like so many things in life, it's about money and status. Big Division 1 athletics brings in big bucks from contracts and from alumni which is why the coaches are paid so well. Everybody working at a sports university gratefully feeds from that trough and are rightly grateful to the coaches and teams. Status, too. It's called "marketing." How often do you hear kids say that they only want to go to a Big Ten School, or a Southern Conference school? I hear that often. Sports powerhouses attract students. UConn is a perfect example with its booming athletic program (aka sports franchise) in recent years. TV college sports put humble UConn on the national map. Education is an industry, and Higher Ed is a big industry with crony relationships with TV and government. Joe Nocera suggests disconnecting the NCAA Division 1 sports from the universities, and paying the players. I wonder what our readers think.
Posted by The Barrister
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15:57
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A 'family blog' update Pic: Exhibit A I've received a handful of complimentary comments and emails since then, but this one kind of stood out. It's cutely done in something of an over-the-top manner, which I like. It also reminds me of a friend of mine who claims to have the most dysfunctional family in the country. Or did until this arrived.
And you're mighty welcome, big guy. And he's right about the value of communication amongst family members. My middle brother and I went through about a decade of estrangement ages ago, but then we took a canoe out at a family reunion about ten years ago, spent the whole day talking and got it all hashed out. I thought of that a few weeks ago when we had a great chat on the phone. There's just something about getting family problems out in the open that's wonderfully cathartic. My how-to site is here. If you're going to give it a spin, it's important to do the five steps in order. The link to the web hosting service I use pops up when you get to that part of the setup routine. There's a specific page on setting up a family blog and a Quick Reference Guide for the newbies. When it comes to getting a blog or web site going, nothing beats WordPress, although how much you get out of it depends on how involved with the settings, plugins and widgets you get, hence the value of an in-depth how-to site. At 50,000 words spread over 81 pages, this monster is probably the biggest how-to WordPress site on the 'Net. It takes twice as long to get through the setup routine as the next site, but you'll learn four times as much. Any questions, give a holler in the comments.
Friday morning linksFYI: Drowning people do not splash They usually just slip under, quietly Top Science Journal Rebukes Harvard's Top Nutritionist More junk science. I never believe anything nutrition experts say. Now they tell us that broccoli causes cancer. Sheesh. U.K. Had the Coldest Spring Since 1962 Inside The New Marble-Filled World Trade Center Subway Station The Left wages war on Father's Day The War on Pot Is Both Insanely Racist and Insanely Expensive, New Report Says It should not be illegal. If you want to be a stoner, then be one. Or be a drunk. It's a free country. Good luck finding a job, though. Argentina: A Textbook Case Of Government Gone Mad The people don't care. They ignore the government and the laws. They're Italians. The IRS Can’t Locate It’s Own Receipts Criminal Unions: The Perfect ‘Government Union Fat Cat’ Storyi Sultan: The Apotheosis of Chris Christie
The Hidden Jobless Disaster - At the present slow pace of job growth, it will Meet one of the people Joe Biden says lives ‘in fear and in the shadows’ Fixing California: Is the dream becoming a nightmare? Kimball on Richwine: The assault on truth continues NYT: President Obama’s Dragnet Meet PRISM / US-984XN - The US Government's Internet Espionage Super Operation Makes people feel paranoid US Mainstream Media Fail to Break Even One of Four Obama Scandals
Is Big Data turning government into 'Big Brother?' Reagan's Normandy speech Sen. Marco Rubio zeroes in on cutting the 'heart' out of ObamaCare From Mead:
Thursday, June 6. 2013I'm with Rand Paul on this
And I am with Rep. Gowdy here. But Mrs. Gowdy needs to discuss his haircut with him. I think the Federal government is out of control in many ways, and I think Andy McCarthy is wrong, for once. See this: America's surveillance state: anger swells after data revelations
Posted by The News Junkie
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17:36
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The Twerking Crisis
At the same time, Twerking is sexual harassment of some sort. How a Twerk dance harasses anybody is beyond me. It's meant to be silly fun. As Instapundit says cleverly "Welcome to the neo-Victorian era — bringing back the censoriousness, but not the virtues..." Thursday morning linksPhoto is a Worksman Bicycle, made in NYC since 1899. Their original factory was at the site of the World Trade Center:
Emirates Air now offering private cabins Do Not Disturb Texas farmer is pursued across field and stung to DEATH by 40,000 killer Insty doesn't dare wonder whether Viagra sales are due to the rise in fat American women Idolizing Hannah Arendt Sarah Murnaghan lung transplant case: Sebelius ordered to make exception on transplant The politicization of medical care begins The Insiders: As trust in government erodes, Obama’s plans evaporate Do Human Beings Only Matter To the Extent They Serve as Cogs in a Government Plan? Just when did political consultants start passing for journalists? Google Hires Obama's Reelection Campaign E-Team DNC, Press Share Talking Points on GOP's Reaction to White House Scandals CNN Solves Problem of Piers Morgan’s ‘Liberal’ Overreach… Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong? Stephanie Cutter Attended WH NSA collecting phone records of millions daily, court order reveals From this report:
UCLA Study: There is No Recovery Except in DC
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