Maggie's Farm

Our Aliyah Diary author has been truant from Maggie's for too long. He has not yet completed the lengthy and arduous aliyah process required for becoming an Israeli citizen, but his Hebrew and his riflery are getting better and better, I understand. He files this report of his visit to a fellow physician in the Bedouin village of Rahat last week.

          An afternoon and evening in Rahat, guest of a gentle Bedouin Professor A., who was my Virgil in a tour through the fringes of Hell.  A Bedouin town, one of seven built by the Israelis in the early 70’s, Rahat, meaning water-hole, a place to gather for shepherds, so too to gather-in the wandering Bedouin. A town of several thousand, located geographically at the northern tip of the Negev desert, but in other ways, located someplace between here and the fringe of Bombay.

           I begin with my leaving. Too late, too tired, I see what A., driving his VW diesel Passat, does not: a man, perhaps a father, red broomstick whipping over his head, full-armed whacks on three children to get into the yard. The youngest, a girl perhaps five, has arms upraised, futile, trying to fend off the next blow.  He does not always swing; at moments he motions threateningly, stand at the steel corrugated gate.  Then, he lets loose once more on the girl’s back and the gate is closed to the outside world.

            A. says a few moments later that it is better to tour Rahat at night: the darkness hides what should not be seen.

            I have spoken about courage among Israeli soldiers at Ben Gurion University, thinking at the back of my neck how there are Bedouin colleagues in the audience. Awad has invited me to his home afterwards. Dinner, early.

           Awad studied medicine in Rumania during the era when the Israeli Communist Party gave scholarships to Arab students to learn in Soviet medical schools.  He lived there some six years, got a degree and a Slavic wife, L.  It is an evening all in Hebrew.  L. is flaxen, angular-faced, has a large wart punctuating the end of her left eyebrow.  Seems a Slavic trait – a punctuated face.

           A. and I enter the house and I barely notice at my right, sitting beneath a tent suspended from the house, is an ancient woman,  a white cotton shawl over her head, the left margin clamped at the left corner of her lips.  She is there when I arrive; she remains there six hours later.  We pass her once more, A. and I. He says nothing, nor does she. She is his mother. 

Read the rest on continuation page below.      

At 247', Mirabella V is the world's largest single-masted sailboat. She can do 20 knots under sail: that lengthy waterline helps with boat speed.

Best of all, you can lease her, with crew, by the week - but it's a bit pricey for the average workin' stiff at $300,000 per week. Summers in the Med, winters in the Caribbean.

Details and great photos at Mirabella V.

We have written many times about how using ethanol (alcohol, aka moonshine) as a gas additive is a scam, and nothing more than a massive farm subsidy which is raising the cost of food.

But I just learned more. When you use gas with ethanol, it can destroy your gas-powered power tools and mowers. I just had a conversation with my local Stihl and Scag dealer yesterday - my Stihl hedge trimmer needed a new carburetor. Guy said the ethanol kills these machines - their lines, their carburetors, etc. He says it's also murder on outboard engines.

He explained that it's less of a problem for pros who use their tools daily, but if you use your tools occasionally, the alcohol - being water-soluble - separates from the gas and makes a mess. The new carburetor cost me $97.

His advice: Run the machine down to empty if you aren't going to use it for a while, and always use fresh gas - don't use two-month-old gas.

If you are like me, you have five gallon containers of vintage gas-oil mix left over from last fall. Get rid of it, somehow.

Here's one article on the subject.

Excellent news video from ABC on the school desegregation case (from Patterico's piece on the subject). Forced bussing was a catastrophe for our cities and for kids of every color. In a city, kids should be able to walk to grammar school and, if you want parents involved, they ought to be able to amble over there too.

It was telling, on that video, that the black Louisville civil rights fighter applauded the Court's decision, but the white Lefties on the Court just don't get it. It's not the 60s anymore, and those battles have been fought and won. Hotheads with agendas and rent-seekers continue to try to stir the pot, but it's over: happily, race is not a big deal to anyone anymore and, as we have often said here, nowadays it can be difficult to tell what race somebody is anyway. America might not be a melting pot, but it's a racial melting pot. You could go nuts trying to put a racial label on people.

We believe in color-blindness, character-awareness, and culture-alertness.

For example, my so-called "white" Yankee kids have Irish blood and North African blood from southern Italians from their Mom, and American Indian blood and Brit blood from me. On the other hand, my daughter's friend is "Hispanic" for school and college purposes (where that 'hispanic" comes in mighty handy), with an aristocratic Spanish father with a family castle in Spain (with a large hunting preserve where they occasionally hunt with King Juan Carlos), married to an "anglo" American doctor.

The Roberts Court: Sanity, Common Sense, and the requirements of the Constitution.

It sounds like Breyer lost his cool during this case, but what does he know about being a black 8 year-old? Nothing. Justice Thomas does know, and he knows more than that: he understands the condescension of the Left towards their plantation darkies. He has been hunted down by their hounds for escaping Massa's plantation and for not being what the Dixiecrat Dems used to call "a good nigger."

We are rarely reminded that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican (albeit a rather liberal one, back in the pre-conservative era), and that it was the Repubs (Eisenhower, for starters) who began the civil rights movement. (Well, maybe you could mention Repub Lincoln, too.)

Photo: A famous 1991 Benetton advertisement

Here's part of the front shade garden we've been working on completing all Spring. The general idea here is low, mostly horizontal, serene and subtle, which is why this piece of the garden has no Astilbe patch.

It has a some morning sun, otherwise Maple shade, except on one end. We re-did this garden about three years ago with deep soil enrichment, so most of the plantings are youthful or new. In a couple of years it should be just right - but every garden is a work in progress. 

Front to back: Bleeding Heart, Pee Wee hydrangea (which is a dwarf Oak Leaf), assorted rare interesting Hostas, a deciduous Azalea, a couple of low-growing azaleas with hostas in front of them, hybrid rhodies in the corner with a few special low hydrangeas in front of them, a patch of Coral Bells in front a row of Bridal Wreath hydrangeas, and where the photo is washed out, a large patch of Ladie's Mantle. Cinnamon Ferns scattered in the back along the garden.

I need my good camera back from Olympus repair.

From another angle, here's the newest section. I haven't fully set in the metal edging, and probably never should have bothered with it. The area with the grasses gets the most sun. An orange trumpet vine is trying to climb over the wall and into the garden. I believe a decorator would term that a color clash:

With the collapse of what I call the Bush-Kennedy Immigration Bill, it has been dramatically demonstrated the people of America have spoken loudly enough to be heard.

Every single phone call helped defeat this bill, which had all the power in the world behind it - The Repub leadership, the President, the Dem leadership, business, labor, MSM, newspapers, etc etc. All the power in the world, except for the power of the common sense of the American people.

The message is this, I believe:

We citizens put up with a lot of crap from the arrogant Bozos in Washington (mainly because we are too busy being independent and working hard and running our lives and driving kids around and paying bills and taxes) to speak out all of the time. But, when it seems critical, we speak loud: We are a sovereign nation, and our country is precious to us. Prevent invasion, secure our borders, enforce existing laws - and then let's discuss what legal immigration policies we want and need.

But first, if you agree with our view on the issue, celebrate the death of a terrible idea which would have been a costly disaster. Raise a glass or three of Veuve Clicquot today with us at Maggie's Farm, where we happily employ our legal Mexicans friends, give them advice, help them learn English, and generally help them get established - but we will not employ illegals.

Addendum: A quote from Sen. Bob Corker (R, TN), in today's piece by Kesler:

”Americans feel that they are losing their country ... to a government that has seemed to not have the competence or the ability to carry out the things that it says it will do.''

My life experience, and common sense, tell me that clear cultural and subcultural structures are necessary foundations for dependable and predictable human interaction. People associate tribally for good reasons - they don't know what the deal is with other tribes, nor are they powerfully curious about finding out (which cannot really be done non-superficially anyway, since inculcation into a culture requires the time from birth to around age 18).

Multiculturalism throws a bomb at those grounding, life-sustaining  structures, which is why I consider it to be a nihilistic political movement.

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam is seemingly scared by the non-PC, non-multicult results of his new diversity research. He has reason to be scared: The PC Speech Control Enforcers can be ruthless: recall the academic fury towards Charles Murray's Bell Curve, the Larry Summers massacre, etc.

John Leo's piece about Putnam, Bowling with our Own at City Journal, begins thus:

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, is very nervous about releasing his new research, and understandably so. His five-year study shows that immigration and ethnic diversity have a devastating short- and medium-term influence on the social capital, fabric of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities. He fears that his work on the surprisingly negative effects of diversity will become part of the immigration debate, even though he finds that in the long run, people do forge new communities and new ties.

Putnam’s study reveals that immigration and diversity not only reduce social capital between ethnic groups, but also within the groups themselves. Trust, even for members of one’s own race, is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friendships fewer.

Read Leo's whole piece about Putnam. We like John Leo - he is an expert birder and birders are a good, if a bit eccentric, crew.

Interesting comments on Leo's piece from, among others, our friends Rick Moran and  Dr. Sanity,

Addendum: Here's our archive piece on Trust Cues and Tribalism

Her farewell ABT performance yesterday, in Romeo and Juliet - video clips here. (You have to click on the Alessandra Ferri photo link.)

How does that look, for a retirement performance? You could mistake her for a 20 year-old.

"A kind of fierce love" from her audience for this passionate prima ballerina.

Photo: Alessandra Ferri. Not sure what dance that photo is from, but will try to find out.

With the interest in old time traditional cast iron cookware on our piece on A Darn Good Steak, (in which I learned that lots of folks prefer fried to grilled steak), here's a little cast iron cookware info.

Lodge is a good source, and you can buy directly from them. I like the assist handle and the pouring lip. Here's their advice for care and feeding of iron. I think two sizes of skillets ought to do it.

I know darn little about the subject, but I see that Wagner bought out Griswold, and that both brands are now owned by American Culinary Corp., which now produces a Wagner line.

Here's another source of cast iron cookware care.

I know it's grilling season, but I took a tip from The Prof and tried his blackened steak recipe - minus the salad part. (I have nothing against a salad course, but I am morally, spiritually, and philosophically opposed to serving salad with meat as they do in restaurants these days, like that revolting but ubiquitous Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. They give you crappy bland slices of chicken, an out-of-the-can Caesar dressing, and expect you to like it because it is supposedly low-cal.) 

I had a 1" supermarket sirloin, coated the sides generously with a mixture of ground black pepper, salt, cayenne, thyme, garlic powder, and paprika and let it sit a little bit. Then I dipped both sides in melted butter and threw it on a maximum heat pre-heated ungreased iron frying pan on my gas stove. About 3 minutes per side made it perfectly rare and failed to set off the smoke alarm. Black and crunchy on the surface, but still trying to walk back to Kansas on the inside. As good a steak as I have ever had, and much tastier than steak on ye olde charcoal grill.

From now on, steaks get cooked in the pan, and the grill will be for butterflied lamb, chops, London Broil (a tasty but un-chewable cut), chicken, burgers, hot dogs, sausage, bluefish, tuna, etc. After all, aren't grilled steaks always slightly disappointing unless they are from a premium butcher and extremely full of fat? They smell good, though.

Since when does "the public," ie the government, "own" the airwaves? A radio operator buys or leases a frequency, and then transmits radio waves on that frequency. Who gave the government ownership of frequencies? The government took them over in a weird example, I guess, of eminent domain, in the 1930s. However, the arguments used could just as well have been used for government ownership of news print.

Boortz makes the history of the notion very clear. Perhaps it would be analogous to the government taking ownership of bandwidth. How long until political use of bandwidth is regulated by Washington?

We wrote about this yesterday.

Photo: Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. The first transatlantic radio message from the US was sent from Teddy Roosevelt to King Edward Vll in 1909, from good old Wellfleet on Cape Cod. The beach location is now called Marconi Beach, and it is surrounded by protected land - part of The Cape Cod National Seashore - thanks to JFK.

Addendum: For fascinating historical detail about the early goverment intrusion into radio, read the first comment on this post.

Story at Think Progress. It's a seriously, frighteningly wrong impulse to consider shutting up voices you don't agree with.

The way I see it, conservative talk radio emerged and blossomed because conservative views had been suppressed for so long in all mass media - TV, print, and radio. Back in the 80s, I would hear people say things like "Until I heard Rush on the radio, I thought I was the only person who thought that way." Around 60 million people listen to Rush Limbaugh now, I believe.

AM radio was a dying animal until daytime talk came along.

The fresh viewpoints have been great for the country, in my opinion. The debate is good for everyone, because it makes us think and re-think instead of stagnating. Even when you disagree, it helps sharpen and clarify your thoughts.

Talk radio remains one of the few places where alternatives to the MSM "establishment" views and spin can be heard. If print and TV were more balanced, some talk radio and some blogs wouldn't feel the need to exist. Their markets would shrink.

Still, I suspect that if some cheerful, optimistic, warm-hearted, avuncular, humorous, and self-mocking (all traits I attribute to Rush) liberal came along on the radio, he or she could build a sizeable audience. But maybe not.

Maggie's Farm supports and admires the work of The Land Trust for Tennessee - as we do the good work of all land trusts. 

Photo from yesterday's celebration of a donor of a conservation easement on her working farm. Some things in life mean more than money.

Yes, Maggie's Farm has had a conservation easement for a number of years, and can never be developed.

Nice old farmhouse. What style would ya call that, Sippican?

Sippican: It's "a nice little spindle-style Queen Anne house, a little spare on the embellishment."

The destruction of America's egret population was one of the reasons for the creation of the Audubon Society. The special breeding-season egret plumage made great decorations for ladys' hats.

Our egret populations have recovered nicely. If you have a rookery anywhere nearby, where often many species of egrets nest together, you are fortunate because you will see these fellows all the time, stalking for food in the shallows.

When you see a Snowy, watch for those bright-yellow feet on their black legs. Like Mickey Mouse. You can read about the Snowy here. (thanks, reader, for the nice photo)