Maggie's Farm

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.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Monday, December 19. 2011

Monday morning links




Why unhappy people become Liberals:



...what if you are afraid to control your own destiny? What if you have such low self-confidence that you believe it isn’t worth it to even try, that a Steve Jobs is the exception rather than the rule?



Vaclav Havel dead at 75


One of the good guys. Playwright, tennis fanatic, and rational politician


Hitchens: A naughty boy


Darth Vader gets festive


Kim Jong Il was a real-life Dr. Evil, intent on being taken seriously and yet almost unfailingly laughed at.


The Nanny State in Connecticut


Trinity Church getting annoyed with OWS


Limousine Liberals Learn the Essence of Leftism


The return of the Radical Chic evening


In Colorado, Judge says it is her job to dictate state funding of education, not the job of the voters or legislators


Jeb Bush: Capitalism and the Right to Rise - In freedom lies the risk of failure. But in statism lies the certainty of stagnation.


Ruth Marcus: The marriage gap presents a real cost


Isn't single parenthood one of the highest correlates with poverty?


Report from the Global Warming Policy Foundation on shale gas 


The Global Warming

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:04 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

PingBack
Weblog: blogs.dailymail.com
Tracked: Dec 19, 09:13
PingBack
Weblog: blogs.dailymail.com
Tracked: Dec 23, 07:23

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

The Episcopal Church has long turned from a spiritual message to a secular one with a spiritual paint job. The secular message has been, "The government shall be all things to all people." It's been accompanied by a thread that runs through the history of the Christian church, that the wealthy did not earn what they have and so have no right to keep it.
And now the Trinity parish is hoist with their own petard. Imagine that. "We need more and you have more." The Episcopal Church, among others, has been telling those who think they are poor that they are, and that they are poor because the rich are rich. It isn't so but there are Scriptures that can be used to suppor the idea that the rich don't deserve to be rich. Now it comes back to the Church itself.
#1 Geoff Brown on 2011-12-19 10:52 (Reply)
Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas. They knew it was a snake when they picked it up. Somehow these Episcopalians never learned these aphorisms. (How often does one get to write "aphorisms"?)
#2 Sam L. on 2011-12-19 11:43 (Reply)
In the spirit of today's conversation I offer this read:

http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/98567/jurgen-habermas-religion-philosophy
#3 faculty wife on 2011-12-19 11:58 (Reply)
Regarding the first item, there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg question there. While there is some truth to the claim that the "unhappy people" as described in that article become liberals because they want the government to take care of them, another whole class of people stay "stuck" in their lives because they buy into a bunch of liberal premises and ideas. As someone who has spent most of my adult life in and around universities in one capacity or another, it's obvious to me that one reason there are so many Marxists and leftists on campus is that the structure of higher education and the tenure system effectively encourages it and tells them that the "outside" world is worse and more exploitative, etc. To some extent their leftism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
#4 Kurt on 2011-12-19 12:10 (Reply)
The article on shale gas is excellent, there is little downside to this important discovery! Great news on the energy front!
#5 Reverendyo on 2011-12-19 13:19 (Reply)
This is why the Episcopal Church is suffering from internal divisions and mass defections.
#6 wirraway on 2011-12-19 14:47 (Reply)
The shale gas article is, indeed, interesting. I have small problem, however, with the closing sentence of Professor Dyson's Foreword:

"Because of shale gas, wealth and health will be distributed more equitably over the face of our planet."

No person or thing, and certainly not shale gas, can "distribute" health and wealth more "equitably" over the face of our planet. It is certainly possible that portions of the world now heavily dependent upon burning coal (or wood, charcoal, etc) for fuel may achieve improved, even western levels of, health and wealth.

Such an outcome will certainly seem more "equitable" to people, especially those who achieve greater health and wealth, but it will not be a result of the "distribution" of health and wealth - it will be the result of achievement through effort, pure and simple.
#7 Knucklehead (Link) on 2011-12-19 15:07 (Reply)
Trinity Church's hipocrasy: They support OWS trespassing on another's private property, but not their own! And the Church is supposed to be a place of refuge. They deserve what they are getting and more.
#8 nathan on 2011-12-19 17:17 (Reply)
To see a phony religion like ""The Episcopal Church" finally get tripped up by its own leftist political ideology brings a smile to my face.
#9 Jim on 2011-12-19 17:30 (Reply)
that a Steve Jobs is the exception rather than the rule?

He is. Fewer than 5% of even those startup companies that get as far as an IPO are still in business in 5 years.

I'm not saying one shouldn't try. I am saying that starting any kind of business, even in a country more business-friendly than Obama's US, is a gamble at bad odds -- a gamble best made with money you can afford to lose.

This is why it's crucial that the law continue to let people be rich. It's not impossible for a poor person to create lasting jobs, but it is so risky that most will never make the attempt.
#10 John David Galt on 2011-12-19 22:51 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.