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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Wednesday, July 24. 2013Weds. morning links
How about a crab and shrimp boil with some grilled chicken legs and sausages on top? (pic via Theo) Baseball’s Darryl Strawberry buries his past in new career as a pastor I've recently had Wasabi and also Green Tea ice cream. Good stuff. Not too sweet. Cashmere trade threat to snow leopards The Songs Otis Redding Could Have Sung Study: Feds underestimating the number of protected bird deaths at all the wind farms they aren’t prosecuting Home schooling: Increasingly... public schools are designed for kids from dysfunctional backgrounds. New Yorkers moved on; Weiner apparently couldn’t "couldn't"? Weiner Admits to Sending More Lewd Messages, Photos to Women Doctors are skeptical and confused about Obamacare, survey finds Who isn't? Related: What a silly billy to think that numbers matter anymore Free to choose after Walker reforms, thousands of Wisconsin workers abandon government unions Freedom! Paul Ehrlich wrong again: World Cereal Production Set To Reach Historic High Related, from 2005: Cornell ecologist's study finds that producing ethanol and biodiesel from corn and other crops is not worth the energy Yep. It uses more fossil fuel to make fuel out of corn than there is energy in the ethanol you produce Note to Paul Krugman: It Took More Than Markets to Ruin Detroit Joe Scarborough is a blooming idiot, and “stand your ground” laws have been around for a long time Since the cave men, I reckon Cities Are Doomed From Hotcoldwetdry Somewhere Between 87 and 2,187 Years From Now Sultan: So Long, Detroit
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Ginger ice cream is my favorite. Green Tea is a close second.
Cookies 'n Cream is right up there. Public schools are designed to need the needs of the children who live in he society we have created.
Paul Ehrlich wrong again.
Is that a surprise to anybody? Has he ever been right about anything? Why do people even pay attention to him any more. Re Detroit:
For the sake of argument, let's assume Detroit is allowed to proceed with bankruptcy and its financial woes are solved. What then? All the problems that led to Detroit's bankruptcy still exist. What is to stop them from heading down the same fiscal path again, once the financial reset button has been pushed? CORN isn't a motor fuel... It is marginally useful as an Energy Transfer Medium and to some extent an oxygen source for the purpose of emission control. We are not running out of oil so why stop using it.......
The number one issue with Detroit going forward is the demographic composition. If Detroit could somehow transform into a white majority with strong entrepreneur skills with high social and financial capital it would do just fine. As it is currently contructed, it was doomed to failure and there's no hope for future success. Show me evidence otherwise of a majority black population in political control that is a thriving and attractice place to live and do business.
Meanwhile we'll just blaim it on liberal or conservative ideologies - depending on who is shouting into the microphone - and ignore that big ol' elephant sitting on the shattered table. except that ...
http://www.bing.com/search?q=ethanol+is+dirtier+than+hydrocarbons&form=IE8SRC&src=IE-SearchBox --a little-known slew of post-act studies, more or less buried by the looking-out-for-the-little-guy party media. Paying to be robbed AND injured is worse than merely perverse --ultimately it's a suicide model. Eveything old is new again, mostly...
Henny Penny-esque banter has been around so long, I guess it started when bird poo dropped on Ughhh the caveman, and he thought the sky was falling... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/world/asia/principal-in-india-tainted-lunch-deaths-arrested.html?_r=0
--these Indian kids were encouraged to eat the tainted food because in their poor area, the free school lunch was their big --if not only --meal of the day. The CW is that a quarter of India's kids suffer from hunger & malnutrition --that's a lot even with the do-gooder-stampede-effort rule-of-thumb discount of roughly half. And here we are, paying up to burn food, and accepting the damgage to everything from our fuel, equipment, and air quality, to world food commodity prices and commerce. Paullie "The Beard" Krugman would not have said, in essence, "bad things happen, whatcha gonna do" is Detroit had been run by Republicans for 50 years. How many bankrupt cities are there in Texas?
Cities DOOMED!: I'm guessing that in 2000 years cities will move inland enough to stay out of the rising seas...if they do rise. (Standing by for Gang of Z reply...) Why DOES the EPA hate birds and bats so much? My money is on crony corruption. Weiner: My money is on him. NuYawkers are that stupid. Doctors confused? How could that be with 2700+ pages of the bill to read and who knows how many pages of regulations to come? I mean, doctors are SMART! Wisconsin gummint unions: Mah heyart buhleeeeeds fer 'em. re Cornell ecologist's study finds that producing ethanol and biodiesel from corn and other crops is not worth the energy
The Cornell findings are not new. Way back in 1975, I was in an Agriculture economics class and we touched on ethanol which was then in its infancy. The prof said three things that I never forgot: 1) It takes more energy to produce ethanol than you can extract from the corn. 2) Because there are fewer BTUs in a gallon of ethanol than a gallon of gas, blending them will only cause your mpg to drop. 3) In an unsubsidized market there is no way it can compete. And that was 1975. The astounding growth of ethanol is a testament to lobbying and special interest politics. Of course you can make the came case against wind power, electric cars and innumerable other government sponsored projects. The squeaky wheel gets the money. You got two real choices for a successful model for Mo-town:
1 - use the Chinese method. Complete central authority, metered citizen response with maximum output for the common good. 2 - use the Baltic\Lithuania model - revert to open markets, libertarianism, and a flat tax. Both methods will never work here - there is too much power, authority, and outright graft in the system in which to feed upon, to surrender. The many players will never agree to relinquish that much power... It is inappropriate to refer to a "majority black population." The correct phrase is "vibrant ethnicity."
"How many bankrupt cities are there in Texas?"
Well, it's true they're all solvent, but that's only because they're such awful places to live, because they don't provide the basic minimum civilized requirements of public support. Which is why they're losing population . . . . Wait. No they're not. QUOTE: The fundamental educational principle of Comenius is that, "we learn to do by doing." A victim of the schools of his time, he thus describes them: "They are the terror of boys, and the slaughter-houses of minds--places where a hatred of literature and books is contracted, where ten or more years are spent in learning what might be acquired in one, where what ought to be poured in gently, is violently forced in, and beaten in, where what ought to be put clearly and perspicuously is presented in a confused and intricate way, as if it were a collection of puzzles--places where minds are fed on words." So who thinks our current public schools are a lot like the school Comenius endured? And that we've lost 400 years of educational theory that Comenius started only to end up back where we started? Of course, today the "violently forced" is more civilized in the form of performing to the test. For further reference, here is a quote from just 120 years ago: QUOTE: In a letter, now before me, of recent date, Col. Ingersoll, with characteristic force, says: "I agree perfectly that the hand and head must work together. Nothing excites my pity more than a man who has given fifteen or twenty years of his life to study--who is the graduate of a University and yet knows nothing of importance--knows nothing that he can sell--knows nothing by which he can make a living. HIs poor head is stuffed with worthless knowledge--with declensions and conjugations--in other words he has spent his whole life learning the names of cards and has not the slightest idea of a game." Do Col. Ingersoll's words seem like they could have been spoken yesterday rather than yesteryear? Oh right...thanks for the correction. I struggle to keep up with these PC euphamisms.
Heh. Well that may be Buddy, but I see it more like a sorcerer's apprentice thing. Maybe one wheel is changed out and suddenly there are two squeaky wheels there in its place.
Not to mention that little issue of that net cost majority "vibrant ethnicity" demographic.
--even more so, what with the net. Everything is right there --it's a miracle.
=== Re ethanol disc upthread, i believe i just heard (only half listening at first) The American Petroleum Institute (voice of supreme authority) come out foursquare against the use of E15. The worm is turning, but oh! so slowly. We could run out of O.P.M., and then the wheels just fall off the government favorites.
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