Saturday, August 14. 2010
 ATTENTION: This post and its accompanying sister post will get bumped to the top of the page a few times throughout the day in a determined effort to warn our more sensitive readers of the calamity that's just taken place:
Bird Dog's gone on vacation for 10 days.
And, without adult supervision, there's no telling what depths of depravity and despair to which this site might sink. The best I could do was promise Bird Dog that when he returned "the domain name might still be working."
You should steel yourself to witness first-hand:
— A seemingly endless panorama of buxom, scantily-clad females in a shameless display of gender objectification
— Scathing "articles of anarchy" whose ideas, if implemented, could thoroughly disrupt our good Congress's noble intentions to better mankind
— Mind-numbingly cute articles on chipmunks and butterflies as we try to sweet-talk PETA into dropping that lawsuit
— A constant barrage of bile and venom as we continue to ridicule, mock, scorn, defile and degrade California in a desperate attempt to give our own pitiful little relic of a state some tiny shred of self-respect. We fail continuously, of course, because California just plain ol' is cool, as that CA native, the handsome and dashing Dr. Mercury, bears witness to daily. But we'll keep trying.
— Reruns
Note that you'll still see some of Bird Dog's posts around as he tries to trick the poor bloggers into thinking he's still watching over us, but we're onto his game. He pre-timed the posts, the little rascal.
I, myself, promise that I'll do my best to maintain the high standards and level of decorum that we've come to know and expect from such a refined, elegant, tasteful site such as Maggie's Farm.
Starting with...
I am not one for the notion of "hallowed ground" in general, but I understand that people can and do make sacred whatever they want to, for whatever reasons. I tend to find the idea of making places where people die "sacred" to be a pagan, superstitious notion.
Anyway, of course I agree with the Pres that Moslems have the right to freely worship and gather. It's legal. But that's not the point. We recently quoted somebody's shrewd comment that "'It's legal' isn't a defense; it's a confession."
The point is that Americans and especially New Yorkers are reacting to the stunningly in-your-face insensitivity of the siting of this mosque and "cultural center." It's the insensitivity verging on hostility that pisses people off. It's probably legal to site a strip joint next to a Baptist church too, but who would do it?
As I am wont to say, civilization is more about the soft rules than the hard rules. The mosque violates an obvious soft rule of civil behavior. Codes, not laws.The usual consequences of significant soft-rule violations are shunning, rejection, avoidance, or expressions of discontent or even contempt. "Virtual stocks," you might say.
Our condescending elites only worry about the soft rules when it fits their narrative du jour (eg BJs in the Oval Office are ok). Their knee-jerk reactions generally run against the sentiments and instincts of ordinary Americans (among which I am one). I find the Imam's choice to be insulting and contemptible. We Americans have welcomed him to his new adopted country, and are reasonable to expect respect, appreciation, and gratitude instead of self-serving legalisms.
It is reasonable to expect people who wish to be accepted as Americans to learn how to behave. I would, were I to move to another culture.
I think it's a good time for another White House beer summit with the Imam, Pamela Geller, and Bo. Maybe Sissy Willis too. This issue can surely be settled by the O over some cold Coronas with lime.
Image on top: the c. 600 Hagia Sophia, minus the minarets which were added by the Ottomans when they converted this remarkable and splendid ancient Christian basilica to a mosque.
 Regular News
Well, I promised you some good old-fashioned Maggie's Farm-style California bashing, so let's get right to it.
Californians' income falls for first time since WWII
Ah, the ol' schadenfreude feels pretty good, doesn't it? After we're through here we'll go pull the wings off flies.
Blogger calls popular California resort lake "terrible"
Famed California actor claims "Wherever I go, terrible things happen"
California women now have triple the nation's fat rate
In unrelated news, New York state, in an effort to maintain its plush welfare lifestyle, has decided to sell off its universities and roads.
The dead-wood Las Vegas Review-Journal, in a desperate bid to save itself, has hired a professional hit man to track down bloggers linking to online Review-Journal articles and sue them for copyright infringement.
No, that's not one great big typo.
In applied business news, here's how one enterprising fellow traded up on Craiglist from an old cellphone to a Porche.
Do you remember one of the great victories of the Obama Administration, the FAA limiting the time a plane can stand idle on the tarmac? Well, so much for victories.
Interesting article here on the primal ancestor of the eagle:
In a blink of geologic time an eagle the weight of a squirrel evolved into a giant predator that fed on animals twice as big as humans. It grew so large it approached the physical limits of flight, a new study suggests.
"There is a body mass above which normal flapping flight becomes physically impossible," said Holdaway, "Various studies have suggested that that occurs at a body mass of about 15 kilograms," which is the estimated weight of the Haast's eagle.
The good professor, however, is extremely puzzled how these fine and noble birds could have died out.
Why this happened is a question that continues to perplex Holdaway.
"The Haast's Eagle lived in a world that is now gone and it is very much a challenge to put together as much of the structure and process of that lost community, and to see how and why it unraveled so rapidly when people reached New Zealand," Holdaway said.
Yep, it's certainly a mystery. People arrive on an island to find these great big fat, barely-able-to-fly, ready-for-roasting turkey-sized birds... and they all disappear?
And say, by the way, what did this bad boy feed on, anyway?
The eagle fed largely on the moa, an extinct flightless bird somewhat like an ostrich.
But as the professor clearly states about the Haast's extinction...
"That has deep lessons for us today with much of the natural world under threat from human activities."
In other words, if the Haast eats the moa into extinction, that's good and natural, but if we eat the Haast into extinction, that's bad and unnatural. According to the good professor and his ivory tower ilk, we're a threat wherever we turn; the war of the humans against the natural world.
Well, speaking of threats, I suppose it's time to turn to the top political news stories of the day.
Political News
Vegetable garden to be planted on White House grounds
Friday, August 13. 2010
 It takes all kinds. Man lives as TV dog. Good for him. A world without eccentrics would be a dull as Singapore.
How advertising genius Albert Lasker transformed America
San Francisco proposal would limit toys in kids' meals. Will these cranks ban the toy in Crackerjacks too? Which is worse: Bloomberg or San Francisco?
Photos of opera houses. h/t, Thompson
Understanding your husband's sexual needs
More evidence that 'Recovery Summer' is a cruel hoax
Model corruption - The truth about the GM 'rescue'
The Dem strategy for November is in place. It's dishonest, but it's everyday politics.
Via NYM:
A thought experiment: I am grieved by Saudi policies — for example, Saudi religious discrimination, oppression of women, and persecution of homosexuals. If I were to express these grievances by blowing up a Saudi kindergarten, do you think Imam Feisal would say (1) the Saudi Royal family must share responsibility for the carnage, and (2) whether or not I had committed an act of terrorism is a “very complex question”?
Your daily dose of good wholesome sarcasm: Why Can’t You Selfish Ingrates Feel the First Couple’s Pain?
Says it all: Buchanan's Putting Government First. Quote:
...we have a situation where private sector workers in Middle America are being taxed, their children being driven ever deeper into debt to China, so government employees who have greater job security than they do, and earn more in pay and benefits than they will ever earn, can stay in Fat City.
And folks wonder why so many Americans detest government.
Related: Why people aren't hiring-
 Lucy’s Kin Carved Up a Meaty Meal, Scientists Say. h/t, Dr X. I think they were cannibals. They look like cannibals.
Energy crisis and peak wood
Obama: Slaves on the Government Plantation. All persons of skin tone must return to their barracks immediately.
Weather liars. Flat, outright lies, and fully-deliberate.
I heard last night that an estimated 1 in 8 babies born in America last year were born to illegals.
How Pres. Hoover damaged the economy: raised spending and raised taxes
Home Ownership: American Dream or American Headache? It's natural for people to want to own stuff. Not always sensible, though.
Related: Feds rethink policies that encourage home ownership. I want to see federal policy to encourage boat ownership. Boatie Mac, or something. No money down.
Stimulus Pushers -The latest bailout for public unions and spendthrift states. The irresponsible and the unions get the dough.
Q&O: Is the US bankrupt? Well, we are just pwned by China.
Harry Reid is sane? Harry Reid ad: Sharron Angle 'dangerous,' 'crazy'. She seems just like an ordinary citizen to me.
Public favors Tea Party over top Dems
Juan Williams: White Votes Are Irrelevant
The threat of the 'fake fishermen': How BP may be paying out millions in oil spill compensation to fraudsters. Hey, I go fishing every chance I get.
Wow. A Dem won a Dem primary
Some thoughts about how liberals are made
American Conservatives have "new ideas"? No, they don't. They have 1776 ideas. Liberals have 1912 ideas.
Sports feminists want space on the sports pages. h/t, Insty. Are they talking about newspapers? They should quit bitching and just create some good women's sports websites, and make some money. Or not.
Fla. AG McCollum Pushes New Immigration Law Tougher Than Arizona's. We are looking at the unfolding of a rebellion.
Thursday, August 12. 2010
From Megan's retirement post:
...there is no conceivable system that is going to allow the vast majority of the population to spend a full third of their adult life in retirement, at anything like the same standard of living they had when they were working.
Toon above via Powerline. See new surge of layoffs.
Never a bad idea: a summer visit to the USS Constitution, still commissioned in the US Navy. Old Ironsides (that was southern Live Oak) never lost a fight.
Bill Gates: watch for the disappearance of the physical university. Right now, you can eddicate yourself pretty good with The Teaching Company. We love their courses, but no term papers (bad) and no exams (good).
Legal Ins, to the Left:
Obama has accomplished as much as he could for you. He has put in place laws which will enable him to accomplish through regulation that which he could not accomplish through legislation. Obama is playing the long game, and you are short-sighted.
The savvy Leftists always keep their eye on the long game.
Majority of voters consider Democratic agenda “extreme”
Dalrymple on conservation and aesthetics
More violent rage from the Left: N.H. Dem Airs Palin Death Wish on Facebook. Where's the tolerance and sensitivity to differences?
Prof B: Coerced "caring" is not compassion
McArdle: The End of Retirement as We Know It. People used to expect to work until they keeled over. What's wrong with that?
Wednesday, August 11. 2010
Laura Ingraham speaking to Howard Fineman, via Driscoll's The MSM Sure Grades on a Curve:
How is it though with all these smart people at Newsweek – I went around the block with Evan Thomas about this as well. How did you all think that a guy who basically went from the Harvard Law Review, to some community leafleting, organizing, whatever you want to call it, to a short stint, a few lectures about constitutional law at [the University of] Chicago, very short stopover in the state Senate, and a very short stopover in the U.S. Senate. How does that add up to experience to run the biggest economy and the biggest military in the world? And why wasn’t Newsweek, instead of doing these celebrified covers of Michelle and Barack as historic, and celebrity culture, and all this love-love-love-love-love, why wasn’t – Why weren’t those questions asked before this election took place? Because to me, those were the questions to ask. . It wasn’t about personality. It was about experience and outlook.
and note this bit:
GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt gathered the NBC reporters together in early 2009 and scolded them for reporting negatively on Barack Obama. GE owns 80% of NBC Universal.
 Excellent brief reminder of the history of limited government
A fresh look at the Shakers. Today, I think we'd term them a cult. As a furniture cult, they had good taste.
She quits job, emails office with her erase board messages. Fantastic. I have heard of a MILF but not of a HOPA. Now that I know the term, I have to say I have seen lots of HOPAs. (Note: this is a dubious story, but good even if fictional.)
THAT WAS NO TEACHER… Unhinged Leftist Who Confronted Palin Is a Singer in a Drag Queen Band. Seriously. . (Note: this is also probably a half-true story)
Enraged over McNuggets. Speaking of McDonalds, Moonbats Continue Jihad Against Happy Meals
The Increasingly Self-Pitying Obama White House
The elites don't get it: 'We Socialists' vs. 'We the People':
It is insufferable (and will not long be suffered) to be lectured to and imposed upon by a ruling class that loathes our nation's history, values and accomplishments; by those who are not, in fact, our genuine betters. They are neither better educated nor more profoundly morally versed.
In fact, they are our intellectual and moral inferiors -- not superiors.
Let's start building some freaking small nuke plants. As I have mentioned, we have a small home-made reactor in the farm basement. Runs great except when mice get into the rods. When it runs a bit hot, we just spray it with a hose.
Tuesday, August 10. 2010
I read that America's saving rate is rising, and that people are paying off their personal debt - and that retail business is terrible.
Are you buying stuff and spending money, or restraining yourself these days?
Let us know, in the comments.
Good  travel advice image h/t Theo
The world's great structures built with Legos
Rules for blues musicians (h/t, Synth)
Virtual democracy comes to the EU...as an alternative to real citizen participation in their "important work."
How many failed empires has history seen in Europe? Ths thing is just the latest, and I doubt that it will last my lifetime. It is too far from the people, and too condescending towards the people.
Help wanted, but no takers
Gutfield: A gay bar next to mosque for reconciliation and peace purposes. It's all about tolerance of differences!
My take on the mosque? It's obnoxious and incredibly insensitive, to the point of hostile provocation. Where's the sensitivity and respect? There is much more to civil behavior than determining what is legal. "Legal" is about the hard rules. "Civil" is about the soft rules. Except for criminals, most of life is about the soft rules.
Neo: Ezra Klein: cub journalist
The end of responsibilityFrom homeowners to government, the buck stops nowhere
More on the myths of preventive care. Villainous
...all this puts a terrible burden on a sycophantic media with a long tradition of trashing the slightest hint of aristocratic enjoyment on the part of first ladies (e.g., Nancy Reagan’s china). So, just as golf, around winter 2009, ceased to be an aristocratic distraction from the nation’s pressing problems, so too luxury on the Mediterranean must be a sort of federal employee’s deserved state vacation.
Monday, August 9. 2010
Here's Dem pollster Pat Caddell on the mood of the electorate. Holy mackerel, this is powerful:
Sunday, August 8. 2010
Do you like him any better now?
No?
Then you're not a racist.
Driscoll: The ‘Diversity Economy’ and its DC Discontents. One quote:
...you can’t successfully govern when you’re trying to regulate the bejesus out of such a diverse 21st century economy. If you’re not already in a recession, the odds are very high you will be soon. Particularly when you’re also attempting to go Barack to the Future with a 1930s through 1960s-style command and control governing style that attempts a return to corporatism, and has enough hubris to imagine that it’s possible to run a wildly decentralized, demassified economy out of Washington DC.
I agree that our ruling classes are living in the 1930s.
Well, it was another busy week in American politics.
Saturday, August 7. 2010
 From Belmont, civilian casualties in the Pacific (h/t Tiger):
Hiroshima 70,000–80,000
Battle of Manila 100,000
Nanjing 300,000
Comparing the O with Lyndon Johnson. Daily Beast
Why they are calling her Michelle Antoinette
Global Warming, R.I.P
Observing increasing CO2 levels and increasing temperatures, scientists assumed that the former must have caused the latter. How did the warmers know that it wasn't the other way around, and that higher temperatures caused higher CO2 concentrations? Or how did the warmers know that there wasn't another process, a naturally occurring one, that caused the temperature rise, with increasing CO2 just along for the ride? Answer: They didn't, because they never bothered to look.
Via Reb
Something is going very wrong in Mexico to prompt more than half a million of its citizens to cross the border illegally each year. Impoverished Mexican nationals variously cite poor economic conditions back home, government corruption, a lack of social services, and racism. In other words, it is not just the desirability of America but also the perceived undesirability of Mexico that explains one of largest mass exoduses in modern history.
But why, then, would Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose country's conditions are forcing out its own citizens, criticize the United States, which is receiving so many of them? And why, for that matter, would many of those illegal immigrants identify, if only symbolically, with the country that made them leave, whether by waving its flag or criticizing the attitudes of the Americans who took them in?
Dino:
With 20% of prime age men without jobs, you’d think that the chief executive of the United States and his team would be all over the problem.
The list of things to do is rather obvious...
At Wizbang:
"It's not illegal" isn't a defense, it's a confession."
What Do Judge Walker and Justice Kennedy Have in Common?
A Fine Argument for Gay Marriage, but a Flawed Legal Opinion
Economy Stalls as Obama's Economic 'Dream Team' Hits the Skids
Intolerance of diversity: Attacks on black Conservatives
Governments seem to have forgotten that picking industrial winners nearly always fails
Dean: Individual Mandate Will Be Gone by 2014
Why the same-sex marriage ruling will stand.
Harsanyi:
...isn't it about time we freed marriage from the state?
Friday, August 6. 2010
The big cheerful news of today is 131,000 jobs lost, and slowing economic expansion. Says the WSJ:
"It still feels like a recession," Jay Feldman, economist at Credit Suisse, wrote in a note. He pointed out that private jobs are still down 0.3% compared with 13 months ago, when the economy started to grow again. By contrast, private jobs were up by 3.5% on average in the job market recoveries of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.
I visited my dentist this afternoon, and he admitted to me that business was terrible. People are putting everything off.
 I wasn't surprised by that, but he told me something interesting: the dentists are offering Botox, lip plumping, and wrinkle injections now (Juvaderm, collagen, etc). He said they take a several-day course on weekends, take an exam, get a certificate, then have their receptionist ask "Would you like to consider some of our new services?"
"You can get a brand new smile."
He told me they do it for half of what the dermatologists charge around here for the same thing (the latter of which is around $1000 for a basic Botox routine).
Yes, "It still feels like a recession."
The only thing about this lengthy recession ( an ongoing recession for which, at this point, I blame federal government policies and plans) which brings a smile is the significant deflation in the price of good hand-made cigars.
Climategate review: Jaworski from December: Climate Gate – Global Warming The Myth: CO2 The Greatest Scientific Scandal of Our Time. Scathing.
How Chavez does it: Welcome to Censorship in the 21st Century
Morris: THE COMING CATASTROPHE: STATE GOVERNMENTS
Is this hyperbole? Google-Verizon Deal: The End of The Internet as We Know It
Q&O: Jobless claims “unexpectedly” rise
It's back: The Return of the $1,000 Down Mortgage
70% of the births at Dallas' Parkland Hospital are to illegals. Parkland makes a profit on that, via Medicaid. We are paying those bills. h/t NRO
Chicago Boyz asks:
Why does the Ruling Class, using Codevilla’s term, have such strong cultural confidence? And what can we do to undermine it?
Prof Bainbridge's post on Conservative style attracted much commentary. From Tom Smith's post:
...take Sarah Palin, who graduated from the University of Idaho, whose alma mater was sung at my father's funeral, so don't neg the U of I around me. She's not as well educated as Michelle Obama. She's not as well educated as a President or Vice President should be. But had she gone to Harvard Law her ideas about the constitution would be a lot less sound than they happen to be. That is what we have come to.
More on that from Insty.
And from AVI
Thursday, August 5. 2010
Without my normal, being long-winded, I say ditto to this on "gay marriage."
(HT: HotAir)
Related at Legal Ins: Deconstructing marriage
You can get almost anything at Costco
Hard Drinkers, Meet Soft Science
Home Alone
Lessons from Ma Bell
Michelle: Mad Maxine’s minority fat-cat bankers
Insty: Is higher ed a waste of money?
Driscoll: Paranoia, Short-Term Thinking, and the Ongoing Media Death Spiral
Sowell: Democrats Bite Democrats: Part II
WSJ: Liberal Piety and the Memory of 9/11
What was that movie where they handicapped everybody? Universities That Use Kindles vs. the ADA
Missouri's Prop C will be ignored. McCaskill: Message received (that the voters don't get it). Says Brewton:
If the practical effects of this conflict between state and federal law are likely to be limited, more importantly, Missouri’s vote revealed once again that the country is still aghast over President Obama’s health-care presumption. Earlier this week, the Congressional Research Service reported that the new bureaucracy the bill created is so complex and indiscriminate that its size is “currently unknowable.” Capitol Hill’s independent policy arm added that among “the dozens of new governmental organizations or advisory bodies,” it is “impossible to know how much influence they will ultimately have.”
No wonder Missourians rebelled, as with voters in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia last year. There will be more such what-have-they-done ObamaCare moments. Wait until the public discovers the government is now literally determining what qualifies as “health care” in America.
Fighting the union for school innovaton
Am Thinker: The Revolt of the States. It's about time.
GOP aims for House seats in New England
Wednesday, August 4. 2010
Why is this? Why is desiring Constitutional government anti-black and anti-brown people? (toon is h/t Lucianne)
My view is that the assumption that people with more skin pigmentation cannot make a decent life in America without government hand-outs and special favors is insulting, condescending, racist - and simply untrue.
Am I a racist for saying this? America has tons more white folks on the various government doles than folks of color. I'd like to see them all get their act together, regardless of pigmentation. America is the least color-conscious nation on the planet. Nobody here cares about that, anymore (except for the race-mongers who still try to make careers out of it).
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