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.
More than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and
traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration reaffirming their
opposition to abortion and gay marriage and pledging to protect religious
freedoms.
The 4,700-word document, called "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of
Christian Conscience," was unveiled one day before the Senate is expected to
consider it's sweeping health care bill that includes a measure permitting
abortion funding.
...the 1079 emails and 72 documents seem indeed evidence of a scandal involving most of the most prominent scientists pushing the man-made warming theory - a scandal that is one of the greatest in modern science.
Piltdown Man, move over. Sample:
From: Phil Jones To: ray bradley ,mann@XXXX, mhughes@XXXX Subject: Diagram for WMO Statement Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:31:15 +0000 Cc: k.briffa@XXX.osborn@XXXX
Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm,
Once Tim’s got a diagram here we’ll send that either later today or first thing tomorrow.
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline. Mike’s series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998.
Thanks for the comments, Ray.
Cheers Phil
Prof. Phil Jones Climatic Research Unit Telephone XXXX School of Environmental Sciences Fax XXXX University of East Anglia Norwich
Is this what they call "research"?These science frauds need to be fired - and/or indicted.They are government employees.
I always celebrate my birthday on Thanksgiving.Selfishly, at least I’m guaranteed a turkey and good bottle of Beaujolais.When fortunate, I’m able to share it with family and friends, which is the ultimate of what Thanksgiving is: time to give thanks for others sharing theirs and our ability to share our bounty in America.
Aside from the 4th of July, there is no other holiday in America that is in every respect for all Americans.Indeed, I’ve been with recent immigrants from many countries who eagerly look forward to joining in our Thanksgiving rituals and meals, because it is for them an important rite of passage to becoming Americans and showing their feelings of gratitude for being here in our land of opportunities.
Thanksgiving, also, says much about the American character, that we early on officially enshrined a national holiday for giving thanks.
In 1789, George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation with these words: “Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be….”(Read the whole proclamation.)
As you make your plans for Thanksgiving, this early post is to remind you of why we celebrate and dedicate ourselves, in gratitude for all we’re given, achieve, and share, thanks to G-d and each other in America.
Somewhere in either Tolstoy or Dostoevsky there is a comment about the remorse of the hunter when holding a Woodcock in hand. You have noticed that our head image on Maggie's now is Woodcock hunting.
I have frequently felt something like remorse, when, on picking up a wounded
one, I have met the forgiving expression of its full and bright, yet soft hazel
orb. How many of the beauties who dazzle and enslave us would be proud of such
an eye.
Skinner's charming section on the Woodcock, written back before hunting seasons were instituted, is here.
The Woodcock is a fat little shorebird, fatter but not much larger than the American Robin, who renounced the shore and took up residence in our Eastern woods and swamps.
Like all shore birds, they are ground-dwellers and ground nesters, and do not perch. Because of their camoflage, their habit of feeding and being active at dawn and dusk, and their trick of freezing when approached, they are not commonly seen except in early spring, when the males perform their remarkable aerial mating dance at dusk.
Their long bills are hinged near the tip for capturing earthworms which they probe for in the soil and forest litter. They are thus necessarily migratory, to the Southern US.
A few other details: Woodock is the only "shorebird" which is a legal game bird in the US today. They are not widely hunted, but they make excellent sport and their liver-flavored breasts are a rare gourmet treat. The French especially favor the brains, on toothpicks. People who don't like to eat them should not hunt them. Their habitat overlap with the Ruffed Grouse makes a typical mixed bag for Ruffie hunters. Because of their small size and cute appearance, many hunters will admit a mingled sense of dismay and pleasure when they bag a Woodcock. Unlike grouse, they cannot be hunted without dogs, because you would never find them. A decline in Woodcock numbers has been noted over recent decades, which may be due to habitat loss, but the cause is not certain. They are fond of overgrown fields and orchards, wetland edges, and transitional young woodlands, especially birch and aspen. The European Woodcock looks like ours, but is larger. Woodcock's heads are oddly-arranged: their brains are upside-down, and their ears are in front of their huge eyes.
Part Whatever of The Hitchhiker's Guide is out, this one written by Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl. If you live in a cave and missed Douglas Adams' series, it's an amusing science fiction spoof.
The Moonbats want to get rid of "Fighting Sioux." The Indians want it kept. How does "The Fighting Sue" sound instead? Or "The Pacifist Sue"? Beat us, please.
The bill will nationalize the nation’s health care industry, increase costs, ration care, tax cosmetic surgery, cut Medicare, charge a monthly abortion fee, and take away your freedom.
Please take time tomorrow and Saturday to call your US Senator.
According to a recent paper by Drs. June and Dave O'Neill of Baruch College, the City University of New York, two national studies--the National Health Interview Survey and the Current Population Survey--put the number of folks who don't have health insurance because they can't afford it at 21.6 million. That's almost exactly the number that Dr. Reid's big spending plan would leave uninsured.
After spending $848 billion, of course.
Maybe it won't insure anybody, but it will achieve control of us. That's the point.
Next on the Dem agenda: Legalizing illegals. Pete DuPont says Congress is hard of hearing, but they are not. They have a small window of opportunity to ram through their wish list before they are voted out next November. These are not issues that there is a national consensus about. Bad politics, bad news, bad everything.
Seven trees? Isn't the hockey stick graph dead already?
How times have changed. The CA students once protested for free speech. Now they protest about Gimme gimme. What pathetic, whining, entitled children this country has raised. Yes, I worked my way through UMass, and I am the better man for it. The young benefit from challenges. I did.
They don't build 'em like this anymore. My lousy photo does not do justice to this house, which I assume to have been the parsonage of the First Congregational Church of East Haddam, right across the street.
In the old days, the minister was given a house to use and land to farm as part of his compensation. In the real old days, he was paid via town taxes too: The Congregational Church was the established church of CT. Not that that meant all that much: Congo churches did, and still, vote on everything - including their doctrine and their choice of pastor - within their own congregation. Zero hierarchy, for better or worse. Every person was/is considered to have his own hotline to God.
The wife typically ran the farming business: it paid the bills and kept her out of the pool halls.
Update: I think our reader is right - the addition is the part on the left. The congregation must have felt prosperous at the time.
...the history of humanity is a history of social networking all the same, according to Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler, authors of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. “Our connections affect every aspect of our daily lives,” they write.
Some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were taken aback Wednesday by Attorney General Eric Holder's refusal to reveal conflicts of interest involving Justice Department lawyers who, before joining the Obama administration, worked on behalf of Guatanamo detainees.
In New England, Indian Pudding is as essential a part of Thanksgiving dinner as Pumpkin or Squash Pie.
It's called "Indian" because it is made with corn (maize) meal - the staple food of North American Indians.
Simple rustic ingredients. No sugar? You use molasses. No flour? You use corn meal. The only trick is to make sure it is neither too firm nor too runny. Serve warm.
It goes against against my instinct, judgement, taste, and sense of proportion to do a Christmas post before Thanksgiving, but I couldn't resist this bizarro Dylan offering. (All money from Dylan's Christmas record goes to charity.)
Remain strange and unpredictable, Bob. We like you that way. This is a good Minnesota Polka:
Sarah seems to be a subject of great fascination. She was charming, smart, and funny on Hannity last night. Yes, her political points were shallow - but more substantial than "hopey-changey," and she has had more experience than he had - both in life and in government.
Here's her book tour schedule. Alas, nothing in New England. She should go to Boston.
The AP supposedly hired 11 fact-checkers to discredit Ms. Palin’s memoir (Did Fox News hire 11 to question the very questionable things found in the two Obama memoirs?)
(I wondered, as did Jammy, whether the AP will assign as many to studying the details of he health care bill: "Considering the AP assigned 11 "fact-checkers" to pore over Sarah Palin's 415-page book, I figure they'll assign a proportional amount to this, right? That would be 55 of them, assuming they're interested.")
If you believe, as I do, that the GOP once again needs to become the “party of ideas” — as it did under Ronald Reagan — then Palin is not the solution to what ails it. At this stage, based on the interviews I have seen with her, she doesn’t seem able to articulate the case for conservatism in a manner that is compelling or even particularly persuasive. She is nothing like, to take three individuals I would hold up as public models, Margaret Thatcher, William Bennett, and Antonin Scalia — people brimming with ideas, knowledgeable and formidable, intellectually well-grounded, and impossible to dismiss.
True, but those folks are not American politicians -
Finally, a word from our commenter MM on our Palin-mania post yesterday:
Sarah is doing a lot of things right. Holding true to her principles in spite of the ugly backbiting of the liberal media, remaining a faithful wife to Todd and a good mother to their children -- these are admirable things. Since I come from 'flyover country' myself, I have learned to discount what the limousine liberals have to say about most things and people. They view the world through a skewed lens of anger and resentment. But I still haven't figured out why they reveal their worst and ugliest selves whenever Sarah Palin is mentioned or comes on the scene. As a New England based commenter said on Neptunus lex the other evening, by all rights, by all they say they believe in, feminists ought to love her. She got her college degree, she married her high school sweetheart, she has five children, and she has been a successful governor of the largest state in the Union, and got a more than 60% approval rating from her constituents..
What's not to like? Of course, she has had more real world experience in managing effectively a large complex enterprise, meeting payrolls, and solving problems by concentrated effort. But what's so bad about that? Ohh, right. I forgot. Our present President hasn't done any of that. No governing ... no meeting payrolls ... no solving difficult diplomatic problems.
I guess you just have to hate a woman [or a man] who can do all of the above, successfully.
Or maybe it's just because she's beautiful. And her husband adores her. And encourages her in her achievements. Yeah ... that's probably it.
‘I love the tea party movement,’ she said. ‘It’s beautiful, it’s healthy. It’s part of that good healthy competition that’s needed in a political party.’ She contrasted the somewhat tumultuous state of the GOP to what’s going on in the Democratic party today. ‘It seems like the Democratic party is filled with more sheep-like individuals, who go along and get along,’ she said.”
The health-care mess grows worse: The Chinese have caught on that Obama wants to borrow more billions for us, who are cash
poor, to create entitlements that they, who are cash rich, would not
create for their own people. The new government suggestion that women
not begin receiving routine mammograms until age 50 comes at a bad
time, given that critics of Obamacare have been arguing that it will
lead to rationing of service.
Americans who are troubled by the decision to send alleged Sept. 11
mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York for trial will feel
better about it when he's put to death, President Barack Obama said
Tuesday.
It's time to review mincemeat pies. I just bought a bottle of decent French brandy for the purpose.
Regular readers know that the history and the making of mince pies is a favorite winter hobby down at Maggie's Farm. They were once banned in Boston. Made with lard, of course, and preferably venison (I am using local venison shank this year), well-aged with brandy.
Favorite mincemeat pie quote: "Dad, what's a mince?"
Here's a photo one of ours from last Christmastime. I used cranberries in it along with raisins and currants. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream or hard sauce.
The Englishman recently posted his favorite recipe. It must be well-aged, weeks or a month, but it will work fine with a couple of weeks of aging.
I said good-bye to a fellow I have worked with on and off for over 15 years yesterday.
His wife died last winter, and he has finally decided to move to Florida to live with one of his daughter's families. Lonely. He is in his 80s. Most of his old pals in town that he worked with, grew up with, and worshipped with are dead. A sad farewell for both of us. He gave me a big bear hug. He was never a regular psychotherapy patient, but an irregularly-regular patient when things got tough.
Strong guys are not afraid of getting help when they need it.
I nursed him through panic attacks (cured them easily with medicine), a major depression after his heart attack, a major depression after the death of his wife, the suicide of one of his daughters. In the process, I learned a lot about his life. A lot about life. It is my privilege to learn a lot about life through people's lives. Their stories enrich mine.
Today, he reminisced about his troop ship trip home from England after having been a tail-gunner - a teenager - for a couple of years in WW2 in Italy and France, and finally in Germany. He was based in Dijon for a while. "We got the news about FDR's death on the ship. Some liked him, some hated him, but he was our boss. Ship was half-filled with guys like me headed for furlough, and half-full of POWs. Why, at that point in the war, they were bringing German POWs to the US I have no idea, but the military never makes sense. That's a given when you're in the service. For my furlough, they took me from New York to Massachusetts to Miami to New Jersey before I could get home to Massachusetts. After my month furlough in the local pub, I had to spend three months down in New Jersey to get enough points to qualify for discharge."
"Doing what?" I asked. "Basically, nothing," he said. "They just had to make us wait out our time. The action then was mopping up in the Pacific." He said "It feels so long ago now that it's like another life."
He is a retired mailman who remembers horse-drawn fire trucks, played trumpet in the Volunteer Fire Department marching band for 50 years, and still sings in his RC choir and delivers food to the elderly. "I'm older than most of the people I deliver to." He was the guy who told me that flak on an airplane sounds like "a bucket of gravel being dumped on the fuselage. You get used to it after a while. We all assumed we would die, and got used to that too."
An American fellow to the bone, and one of the finest, humblest, most giving and unselfish people I have ever known. He dedicated his life, and especially his retirement, to being a good companion and to doing unto others in whatever ways he could.
She's a pheenom. She's a non-elite, non-Hollywood celeb. She is beautiful, fertile, and athletic. Her hard-working, macho hubbie supports whatever she wants to do. The MSM hates her.
She's a yokel with common sense. Like Truman, Lincoln, and Andrew Jackson.
Even if you do not want her to be President, it is difficult not to like her.
...the majority of our representatives may congratulate themselves on reducing the number of uninsured, while quietly understanding this can only be the first step of a multiyear process to more drastically change the organization and funding of health care in America. I have met many people for whom this strategy is conscious and explicit.
We should not be making public policy in such a crucial area by keeping the electorate ignorant of the actual road ahead.
Readers know that I am opposed to death taxes - estate taxes. The wealthy find ways around them (how long has it been since a Kennedy or a Rockefeller held a real job as opposed to an optional job?), but merchants, the middle class, and farmers get screwed by them.
My friend in southern CT recently told me about a third-generation (the grandpa was an Italian immigrant) family-owned flower shop in their town which had to close up shop last month when Mom died. Why? They had to sell their small building to pay the estate taxes. Like a family farm, that is generations of dedication, good will, hard work, and a long-established part of a community down the drain.
Furthermore, I like the idea of middle-class families being able to build wealth over generations - and most people who work hard like that too. People like to feel that they are building something for the family's future, and for their family's independence from the kindness of strangers - and the government.
I do advise everyone, even if not wealthy, to do the best that they can to avoid the crushing effects of death taxes by getting the best estate-planning advice you can afford.
Brit Ted Dalrymple takes on the Fabians on the topic, in Let Them Inherit Debt. One quote:
There are many unfairnesses in life that we must learn to put up with, if we are to have any chance of happiness or even of tolerable contentment. For example, I should like to be taller, better-looking and more intelligent and gifted than I am. Every time I meet someone better-looking than I, taller than I, or more talented than I, which I do very regularly, I experience a brief spark of envy. What did they do to be as they are, my superiors? Why did providence, or chance, endow them with characteristics so much more attractive than my own? Needless to say, I never stop to think that, just possibly, some people might ask the same of me when they meet me.
But the differential endowments of nature are unfair, not unjust, because (at least as yet) no human intervention can prevent them. The inheritance of wealth is not like this: it is a human arrangement that could be abrogated if not easily, for political reasons, at least with some effort. And if injustice is unfairness brought about by human means, then inheritance of wealth is unjust. Ergo, inheritance of wealth ought to be forbidden because it is unjust, and we must always seek justice.
The question, then, is whether we should always seek justice to the exclusion of other desiderata. Is it true that justice always and everywhere trumps other considerations? I think the answer is no.
In the course of our basement water pipe flood this summer, I seem to have lost my couple of pairs of light shooting gloves. I like to shoot with gloves even when it isn't too cold. Most of the hunting I do tends to be in cold weather so I like to get used to the feel of gloves on a trigger.
And I have a mild case of Raynaud's.
Glovemakers vary in what they mean by L,M, S, etc. Here's a great way to determine your numerical glove size when ordering online. Leather, of course, tends to stretch a bit with use.
The right gloves for hunting grouse in the snow or ducks in the sleet at 10 degrees F is another topic. The perfect gloves for those things do not exist, as best I have been able to determine. Heavy waterproof gloves, obviously, do not fit rapidly and easily inside a trigger guard, and if you are using a double-triggered old s/s, it's really a problem.
Ideas are welcome. I wonder what the Army uses in Afghanistan in the winter. Maybe things like this.
Jim O'Hara is a member of EAA chapter 493 in San Angelo. He is a retired college professor (I believe in Aeronautical Engineering) who learned to fly when he was about 60 years old. He's now 81 years old. 15 years ago, he began construction of a 2/3 scale P-38. Using information he obtained from various sources about the P-38, he drew up a set of plans using a computer aided design program. Jim and his wife Mitzi built the entire aircraft by themselves. I've been fortunate enough to know Jim for almost the entire 15 years that he's been working on his "project." He first flew his plane in July of last year, and has just completed flying off the time (I believe it was 50 hours). He designed the plane to have a small jump seat behind the pilot for his wife. She's tiny, and it's a good thing; the jump seat doesn't have much room.
He made his first cross-country with Mitzi from San Angelo to Fredericksburg Saturday, accompanied by many of his friends from Chapter 493.
What is the goal of the so-called conservative Democrats? We can infer from Charlie that it is merely to escape the wrath of the voters back home.
Pelosi & Emanuel allow a carefully deduced number of Democratic Members from conservative districts to be untouched because, you see, that serves their ultimate goal — pass a suicidal healthcare bill as they earlier passed a job-killing cap & trade bill out of the House.
Our ongoing occasional series from Capt. Tom on his home town -
Samuel McClellan House
Built in 1736, the McClellan House is an example of an early American large farm home. Located across from the S. Woodstock Commons and Codfish Flats (Codfish Flats was an area where farm hands lived in homes provided by wealthy farmers). Its basic structure has remained unchanged since 1736 with the exception of electricity and modern appliances. The roof is still cedar shingles and the frame is post and beam style with massive chestnut beams. The colors are original and were researched extensively by the current owner prior to painting.
Samuel McClellan was a Revolutionary War hero. McClellan raised one of the first Horse Calvary units of the war from Woodstock and the surrounding area. He purchased this home sometime after the French-Indian War - historians believe in 1763.
One point of interest: this home has several examples of Louis XV furniture built into the walls of the home - two dressers and one writing desk.
Editor's comment: I would speculate that the 1736 house is the part on the right, facing the road, and that the later addition off the rear, typical of New England, was cleverly integrated to enhance the original dwelling.
A propos our earlier post today about Immune from Logic, here's what they are doing in the UK: Health and safety snoops to enter family homes. Why people would put up with that is beyond me. Oh, I forgot. It's for the Greater Good. Meaning the good of the government.
It makes sense, however, in a sick sort of way: who pays the piper calls the tune. The more government controls the funding of medical care, the sooner they control what we do in our lives. Thus we get to things like this: A cost-benefit analysis of abortion vs. live birth.
Abortions are cheaper, of course. As Chicago Boyz says,
It’s as if we in the U.S. are moving toward a system where just about anything
can be justified because some government official says that it should
be so. It’s all for the greater good, right? What are pesky little
things like individuals and predictable rules in the face of all that
wonderful greater goodness?
Our universe is only 14 billion years old, in human time. Is our universe just part of a larger system? One dimension of a Multiverse?
Something Wonderful at Vanderleun. Listen to the video with Caltech's Sean Carroll, which only requires intro Physics. Science fiction come to life. It does put life in perspective.
One quote from Carroll re entropy:
"Every time you put milk into your coffee and watch it mix and
realize that you can't unmix that milk from your coffee, you are
learning something profound about the Big Bang, about conditions in the
very, very early universe. This is just a giant clue that the real
universe has given to us to how the fundamental laws of physics work.
We don't yet know how to put that clue to work. We don't know the
answer to the who done it, who is the guilty party, why the universe is
like that."
If liberals are so disturbed by Congress dictating whether abortion is
a legitimate health care issue or not, it only makes sense that they
should be equally troubled by government management of other health
care decisions.
Undoubtedly, this is zealously naive thinking on my part. Reaching
such a conclusion demands a modicum of consistency. And as we’ve seen,
health care “reform” is an ideological crusade immune from logic.
In addition to his nonprofit advocacy, Gore is a partner in a venture capital firm that finances "sustainable" and alternative energy businesses, prompting some critics to accuse Gore of promoting environmental policies that will fatten his bank account.
"Cap & Tax — Don't Be Fooled: Al Gore Will Make billions," read a sign carried by Alan Tudor, who drove from Tampa to attend Saturday's protest.
"Gore's Favorite Green Product? Your money in his pocket," said another sign.
On the other hand, it has often been pointed out lately that you catch the most flak when you are over the target. Via Riehl:
Amazingly, but not surprisingly, the AP somehow nabbed a copy of the
book before it was released. They're now erroneously reporting on the
book's contents and are repeating many of the same things they spewed
during the campaign and afterwards. We've heard 11 writers are engaged
in this opposition research, er, "fact checking" research! Imagine that
– 11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book,
instead of using the time and resources to "fact check" what's going on
with Sheik Mohammed's trial, Pelosi's health care takeover costs, Hasan's associations, etc. Amazing.
We tried McDonalds' Angus Burgers on our way into the Indian Summer woods and meadows this weekend. Surprisingly tasty. Give them a try. We bagged a few birds, too.
Here's the lawn of the rustic old Fish and Game club we visited, with clubhouse and barn on the left. It was originally an 1830's roadside inn on a stagecoach route:
The look of the areas we hunted. Many of the field edges are woodland marshes:
Two prominent blogs raise the question of whether President Obama is an “idiot.”
John Hinderaker at PowerLine wonders, “One seriously hesitates to draw the conclusion that Barack Obama is an idiot, no matter how strongly the evidence may point in that direction. But what are we to make of a man who is ignorant of history; who is ignorant of economics; who despises his own country; and who appears to believe that awareness of his own wonderfulness is enough to guide him? Has such a fool ever played a leading role on the world stage? I think it is fair to say, no: not until now.”
At HotAir, Allahpundit’s headline is, “Japan expert to ABC: Yes, Obama’s bow made him look like an idiot.”The post continues: “So much of an idiot, in fact, that according to Tapper’s source, at least one Japanese paper isn’t running the photo out of embarrassment. This tool actually groveled himself into a minor international incident.”Then, adds: “And yet, having said that, I’m not convinced that the “groveling” explanation for the bow is necessarily the correct one. For one thing, his protocol office is famously run by imbeciles. They may very well have simply given him bum advice: 'Be sure to hunch way the hell over and stare at the ground. They all do it that way.' ”Though, they don’t all do it that way.Jim Hoft, at GatewayPundit, brings us the video, “47 World Leaders – 46 Handshakes – 1 Bow.”
One could make a verrrry long list of President Obama’s ignorant statements and actions, and outright lies, apparently believing the MSM will continue to cover for and excuse him and the American people will continue to believe him. But, does that make him an “idiot”?
In strict definition, “idiot” is an outmoded term for someone so mentally retarded that their mental development is less than a 3-year old’s, with an IQ of 25 or less, but connotes an “uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed person.”In more common usage, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “idiot” as “a foolish or stupid person.”
So, this jury holds that, yes, President Obama is an idiot, “a foolish or stupid person” who believes the American people are “uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed” idiots who can be gulled to believe in dangerous foolishness by he and his excusers.
The education provided by President Obama, along with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, in their versions of liberal fixes to our health care, economy, and foreign policies has been a boon to Americans, as polls demonstrate, who are now well-informed about the idiocy of Obama-Reid-Pelosi and their apologists. More and more of the Americans who voted for Obama may have been "foolish and stupid", but are no longer. President Obama is, still, an idiot. A very dangerous one.
P.S.: A professor friend at a leading university, who is learned in exegesis, just emailed me: "It's the kind of idiocy that only great arrogance and hubris can produce." So, maybe the strict definition, above, does apply to President Obama, acting like "less than a 3-year old"!
I moved this poll back up to the top tonight to see if we can squeeze out any more reader responses -
Besides work, what are the five most frequent places you go to in a normal week?
Bank, post office, minimart, a walk outdoors, hardware store, pub, gym, deli, fish market, supermarket, visit friends, visit boyfriend or girlfriend, hairdresser, church, dock, stable, theater, liquor store, places to eat or to get food, massage parlor - where do you all go most often?
My own list is dull as dishwater reflecting my ordinary life: Post office, minimart or Dunkin Donuts, supermarket, bank, places to eat. That's about it, and then there are plenty of places I go to around once a week.
From The Atlanticarticle The Science of Success(h/t, reader):
Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.
It's an interesting article about the interaction of genes and the environment in primates, but I'm not sure what's so new about it: I thought it was fairly well accepted that variation in personality and behavioral tendencies, like any genetic variations in any species, enhance the adaptability of that species.
The Woodcock is a fat little shorebird, fatter but not much larger than the American Robin, who renounced the shore and took up residence in our Eastern woods and swamps.
The social psychology 
In New England, Indian Pudding is as essential a part of Thanksgiving dinner as Pumpkin or Squash Pie.
Sarah seems to be a subject of great fascination. She was charming, smart, and funny on Hannity last night. Yes, her political points were shallow - but more substantial than "hopey-changey," and she has had more experience than he had - both in life and in government.
Hard words from VDH: 
She's a pheenom. She's a non-elite, non-Hollywood celeb. She is beautiful, fertile, and athletic. Her hard-working, macho hubbie supports whatever she wants to do. The MSM hates her. 
Non-elites: 
In the course of our basement water pipe flood this summer, I seem to have lost my couple of pairs of light shooting gloves. I like to shoot with gloves even when it isn't too cold. Most of the hunting I do tends to be in cold weather so I like to get used to the feel of gloves on a trigger.
Our universe is only 14 billion years old, in human time. Is our universe just part of a larger system? One dimension of a Multiverse?
Global warming: 
