I've been slow to realize this: the O is turning out to be a dud. I did not vote for him, but I had some hope that he would try to govern as a pragmatist-moderate - against all evidence, of course. Even the thrill is gone' [...]
By 1940, essentially all American Chestnuts, a dominant climax tree (and a major mast-producing tree - once the major food of Turkey, Deer and lots of other critters) of American forests, were killed by the blight. Their wood has a remarkable durability [...]
Quite possibly. We have been calling "fraud" on this site since forever. The raw data has been carefully hidden for years (see conceal the decline). It's heart-warming to see a Viscount rant. One quote:
As a revealing 15,000-line document from the computer division [...]
Gringo made an important point in the comments the other day that deserves to be both repeated and elaborated upon.
Here's the quote:
"Check the net for your stolen ID"
While this purports to be a site that will inform you [...]
Should you financially support my mother-in-law or sister-in-law, if they legally immigrated to the US? Both are of very limited financial means. Government benefits here in the US are actually better than in Germany. Is it up to you to pay to offer them a better life? My wife [...]
Add to the climate list: Climate change causes Filipinos to become prostitutes. Of course it does. Everybody knows that.
Older fellow eats hottest pepper in the world
Burn the witch! Martha Stewart agrees. But who cares what she [...]
Benjamin Franklin's Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress (1745).
[...]"Lost your job, dear? I'll bring home the bacon... just don't expect our marriage to survive"
Dr. Bob: It's all the Christians' fault. Darn those pesky Christians.
Get ready for the Turkey Flu! We're all gonna die!
Two Teens. h/t, Lucianne
How the Dem minimum wage bill killed jobs for teens and college kids
Too heavy for the field (as I am reminded on the rare occasions on which I use it in the field), but it's the only shotgun of the too-many I own that shoots straight. Wonderful for skeet, trap, and clays. I think the weight has something to do' [...]
Among numerous problems, I think the biggest problem with the Dem medical care bill is that there is no national consensus for this.
It is unwise to do things this large without a national consensus, but the Left is intoxicated with their (temporary, cocaine-like) [...]
Dylan Radio. You can request, too. We like it.
Just push "Tune in" and let it play. You do not need to log in.
The Great American Songbook. Guy has great taste in folk/pop music, whether his own stuff or that of his betters (?).
[...]
Jeanne-Claude died - Christo's remarkable wife.
One of the first posts on this site, back when we had around 20 visits per day and had no idea what we were doing (not that we do now), was our visit to Christo's Gates on a frigid day in [...]
You can have these sent to you daily via email. Here's today's:
Eighty One percent say the quality of their own, personal health care is Good or Excellent. No wonder there is no popular support for the Dems' plans to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Who wants their doc working for the government? I want' [...]
Via FOX News:
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 [...]
Re the earlier post, see Tim Blair for the actual emails. h/t, reader. Quote:
...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 [...]
Somebody let us know about The Sniper. Good stuff, plus eye candy for both boys and girls:
At Wizbang and Moonbattery.
It is worse than I thought - and I thought it was bad.
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 [...]
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.
John Stuart Skinner in his classic 1883 The Dog and the' [...]
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.
It's called And Another Thing...
Toon via Lucianne.
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.
Somebody read Sarah Palin's book
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 [...]
The social psychology of subways
The importance of social networking in life:
...the history of humanity is a history of social networking all the same, according to Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler, authors of [...]
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?' [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Hard words from VDH: When reality catches up to rhetoric. One quote:
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 [...]
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' [...]
"People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything."
Thomas Sowell, via Dr. Sanity's One Big Fathead
[...]
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' [...]
Non-elites: Joe and Carrie
Report: FOX is fair
Top Ten Reasons Black America Fears Rush Limbaugh
Kossers are angry old white men?
Eel Spearing at Setauket (1845)
You can read a blurb about this painting here.
The picture is part of a current show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Stories: Paintings from Everyday Life 1865-1915.
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 [...]
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' [...]
There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.
Maggie Thatcher
This came in over the transom -
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' [...]
"Green fuel" destroying the rain forest
Catholics Organize Against Annual Church Drive to Fund ACORN Groups
Engineering degrees on the upswing
How the Dems got health bill thru the House:
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Our ongoing occasional series from Capt. Tom on his home town -
Samuel McClellan House
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 [...]
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' [...]
Via Protein's Progressive utopia — enemy of Liberty:
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.
[...]
"Some of the Great Goods cannot live together. That is a conceptual truth. We are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss."
Isaiah Berlin, from Isaiah Berlin, Beyond the Wit at Chronicle. I would have said "does," not "may."
Global warming: World leaders agree to hold off agreement. Related: Al Gore begins attracting protesters:
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 reader had good seats for Dylan in Boston last night (he did the amazing Every Grain of Sand, I am told):
From The Atlantic article 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 [...]
Erl Happ, via Icecap: What follows is a general theory of natural climate variation supported by observation of the changing temperature of the atmosphere and the sea between 1948 and September 2009. This work suggests that strong warming after 1978 is an entirely natural phenomenon. [...]
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, [...]
Best books on etiquette
Nyquist: Thucydides in the Underworld
How ed schools have destroyed American math skills
The teacher glut
Spiro Agnew was right (h/t somebody)
Related: Time and Newsweek
Mark 13:1-8
13:1 As he came out of the temple,
one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what large stones and what
large buildings!"
13:2 Then Jesus asked him, "Do you see these great
buildings? Not one stone will be left here [...]
An uplifting piece about freedom at American Thinker.
Even freedom of food is easy to lose and difficult to regain.
Lots of folks around the world like to eat McD's when they are hungry. I do not care for it much (I [...]
If you were dismayed by those photos of the O not responding to the flag on Veteran's Day, (but had no problem with bowing - which is neither proper protocol nor American, to the Saudi Prince or, yesterday, to the Emperor of Japan - see Why' [...]
Neither Russia nor China, nor Iran, nor other hostile countries are comfortable with the dominance of world power held by the United States. They are independently and together working assiduously to neuter the US’ sway in the world. President Obama is helping them.
Russia is reasserting its influence [...]
President Oba Mao heads to China. Do they still like Mao over there? If so, why? I thought they had evolved past authoritarian hero-worship.
Photo below via Flopping, who provides the quote:
CUNY students can't do math. You would think the SAT would have made that clear.
Newt Gingrich: The job-killing president and Congress
Climate change bill to back burner. I think it's dead. Or frozen.
Jesus the Capitalist? I' [...]
Government planning, via Marginal:
China's empty city
(of the day). YouTube. At about 1:20 you will see that a city built
for one million residents remains empty, a' la Austro-Chinese business
cycle theory. "Ordos was a government idea, an infrastructure project
taken to its limits, the' [...]
From Legal Insurrection, via Tiger: 100% Plus Taxation Key To Permanent Dem Majority.
One quote:
To say that antipoverty programs in the United States are perverted may
be an understatement. When you take into account the loss of
means-tested benefits (e.g., cash assistance, food [...]
Those photos of White Moose that have been going around for a couple of years are legit. Not albinos though: Just White Moose.
[...]
One of the best new features in Vista (it's also in Windows 7) is the Snipping Tool. I only started using Vista a month ago, so it took me a while to blunder my way across it. What a great find.
If you just want a grab a picture' [...]
From Ace's excellent (and serious) essay Pelosi: It's Very Fair That We Jail You If You Don't Buy Health Insurance:
I'm paranoid? Really? I am not fretting here about some remote and
unlikely possibility. We are not speaking here of "slippery slopes" or
in [...]
Photos from Cassini (as is this photo)
For history buffs, two books via Theo:
Greek And Roman Artillery, Technical Treaties
E. W. Marsden
And
Greek and Roman Artillery. Historical Development
E. W. Marsden
[...]
We have asked our friend Capt. Tom Francis to share some photos and info about his home town of Woodstock, CT. (Maybe in April we'll invite him to write about trout fishing in New England, as he is a fresh and salt-water fishing guide.)
Here's his first offering' [...]
From a pointed Graham post at NRO, we learn that
UMass (also) has a speech code, by the way (it bans, among other things, "staring or leering"), so figure that one out.
Leer at will, my Yankee friends, below the fold, and [...]
While lesbian feminista Democrat Camille Paglia admires Pelosi's "grittiness" and "mettle" (but detests what Pelosi has produced. BTW, we like Paglia a lot. She is the kind of person it is pleasant and interesting to disagree with, and we appreciate grit in women), Dr. Laura has another [...]
This morning I told a friend I often watch idiotic escapist movies. Those who make the better ones need to be creative wonders. A look behind the scenes at one of the more successful reveals that he needs also to be an idiot.
My local newspaper carries a wire [...]
A friend of mine was on the set for that 1973 movie, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid. He asked somebody who the weird, silent guy on the set was with his head covered with a sweatshirt hood or a hat, always sitting under a tree with a guitar. [...]
What's the SEIU up to, with Stern's 22 visits so far this year to the WH?
Oh no - not another government jobs bill
What the heck is wrong with From Dixie With Love?
The Decider, or The Ditherer?
