Marching Orders

From Markos at Daily Kos last night via Twitter:

"Insurance companies win. Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate."

A Statement Of Principles

I am a huge fan of Maggie's Farm and suggest that you read it routinely in case you do not already do so. This should give you an excellent idea of what to expect there:

People ask me why we seem so predictably and boringly preoccupied with the health care and climate change issues.

There is a simple answer: Those are the two topics which are currently being exploited to the max by Leftist totalitarian-minded folks, who believe themselves to be our moral and intellectual superiors, in their endless efforts to control our lives and to chip away at our freedom and our dignity as sturdy, intelligent, competent, free-thinking adults and families in a free nation with (semi-) free markets.

In history, the battles against central powers were fought on different fronts and, in the future, they will be fought on new fronts that have not been concocted yet in the Gramscian and Alinskian laboratories. It will never end. If Stalin's holocausts didn't end it, if the fall of the Berlin Wall didn't end it, if the evidence of Cuba and North Korea didn't end it, if Pol Pot didn't end it, if the turn of China and Russia to Capitalism didn't end it, if the countless failures of centralized control economies didn't end it, if the attempts to turn Euroland back to free markets and greater freedom didn't end it, if the pathetic return of Euroland to an imperial EU doesn't end it, if the countless failures of hugely-expensive but failed yet immortal government programs didn't end it, then nothing will ever end this battle.

Power, unlike wealth, is a zero-sum game. It is in the nature of governments, which we fully accept as necessary evils, to accumulate power and funds from the citizens - and to regard citizens as children or as subjects. This seems to be something that occurs regardless of the form of government. Some people seem born to seek power over others, some wish to be security-minded subjects, and others simply seek mastery of their own lives. We prefer the latter pursuit, with God's grace, while fully aware that this mortal life we hold so dear may be often full of sound and fury, but signifying little in the end beyond our relationships with the Deity, our family, and our friends.

Without wanting to sound or to be grandiose, people like us at Maggie's and similar sites aim to be perpetual revolutionaries, freedom-fighters, Tea Party Indians, Tom Paines; the minor heirs of our heroic forefathers, attempting to stay true to their ideals of the dominion of individuals seeking their own goals without the oppressive weight of an intrusive government. At least, that is what we aspire to be in our small way.

Individual freedom in relation to the State is close to sacred to us. We pay the State dues to protect us from external enemies and from internal criminals, for justice under law, plus for just a few other minor things. Otherwise, we want to be left alone and to take care of ourselves as best we can in a culture in which every person exercises their morals, their integrity, and their concern for their neighbor by the Golden Rule.

Live and let live, but don't tread on me.

We demand that individual freedom and liberty be part of every political equation - a Constant, like Avogadro's Number. The Constitutional Amendments lX and X remain real and valid to us - delusional though we may be.

We at Maggie's do not even feel entirely comfortable with the notion of "rights." We dislike and distrust the use of the word "rights" in America. In our view, the worthy subject of discussion is that of government powers and their prescribed limits. We the people need no "rights," as the US was conceived. We are free human beings. Free to fail, free to speak, free to do stupid things, free to take risks, free to succeed in our goals - if we have any- free to do almost any damn thing we want to. Yes, maybe we are crazy idealists and maybe we are foolish rubes who produce nothing but superficial cant and pointless rant.

However unheard a voice we at Maggie's may be in the big world, we will use it to resist insidious political maneuvers and manipulations until we turn senile or die - or run out of things to say.

If the latter comes first, we'll cheerfully turn our focus purely on things like shotguns and recipes and wildlife and fishing and salt marshes and architecture and history and philosophy and art and pretty girls and boats and travelogues and God and all of the other joyful, interesting, and delightful things in life.

By the way, if you have friends who might like Maggie's, email our link around. We do not like to be cybersluts (hmm - maybe we do), but we do not want people who might enjoy our eclectic offerings to be deprived of our humble efforts. Let people know that we exist, because our readership is our only reward for our enjoyable efforts here on ye olde Farm.

Doing so would be the finest Christmas present for us.

Put Me On An Ice Floe Now

This defeats the entire reason to have insurance - no one wants to get financially wiped out by a medical crisis. Have these people completely lost their minds?

From The Plum Line:

The internet is buzzing today with the news that Harry Reid quietly inserted a loophole in the Senate health care bill that would let insurance companies put limits on medical care for folks struggling with costly illnesses — angering patient advocates, and in apparent violation of a promise made by Obama this fall.

But in an email to me, Reid’s spokesperson defended the move, arguing it was necessary to hold down premiums.

The news started making the rounds this morning after the Associated Press reported that a “tweak” to the Senate bill had been made, weakening a provision originally banning such limits. Advocates for patients protested that such a ban is a key consumer protection.

The current bill would allow insurance companies to place annual limits on the dollar value of medical care — provided those limits are not “unreasonable,” a term the legislation doesn’t define.

This seems at odds with Obama’s impassioned rhetoric on the issue. As Jane Hamsher notes, Obama vowed in August to stop insurance companies from placing “some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime,” because “no one should go broke because they get sick.”

Asked for comment, Reid spokesman Jim Manley justified the shift in an email:

“We are concerned that banning all annual limits, regardless of whether services are voluntary, could lead to higher premiums. We continue to work with experts on how best to accomplish our goals of preventing insurance companies from imposing arbitrary coverage limits while providing the premium relief American families need and deserve.”

Given Obama’s previous tough talk on the issue, the shift could create a bit of a headache for the White House, and it seems unlikely that such a politically sensitive move would have been made without tacit or overt White House approval. More when I learn it.

A Tee Shirt I'd Like To See

Suggested by Glenn Reynolds:

"Proudly Ungovernable Since 1776"

As Instapundit reader Zachary Terry writes: “That silly, silly Constitution. It always seems to get in the way. In all seriousness, though, wasn’t the United States intended to be relatively ‘ungoverned?’ Why is it not surprising that blatant deviation from the intended structure and function of our national government has led to this quandary?”

Quote Of The Day

"The problem of buying good presents for other people, even people you supposedly know well, illustrates that old familiar Hayekian concept, the knowledge problem. If you can't even give your loved ones the right presents, how likely is it that a central authority could make the right decisions for everyone?"
- Virginia Postrel

Locavores Go Hunting

I am always pleased when I learn that more people are taking up hunting and fishing as activities. I have recounted here the difficulties the young squire and I had when we decided a decade ago to pursue those pastimes since we didn't have anyone to mentor us. Our young miss was the first person I ever heard use "Whole Food" speak to describe hunting; especially for acquaintances and co-workers that had difficulty envisioning her as a hunter let alone condoning hunting as an activity for someone with a college degree. But I have to say I get a particular kick from foodies being driven to hunt as recounted in this recent New York Times article.

There you have it - hunting, gardening and canning have come full circle and are now "hip" from a green standpoint. All I can say is "Spare me".

Update: For those that like to keep track of such things, our young miss, her young man and the young squire have taken six deer this season (two bucks and four does) as of yesterday. The freezers are filling up and the eating will be good for the foreseeable future.

The Next James Bond Automobile

May I be so bold as to suggest the stylized rendition of the Aston Martin DB9 shown below as the next James Bond Car?

Sweet!

KSM In NYC

The best round up on this situation courtesy of Andy McCarthy:

"Our enemies will be given a full-blown civilian trial with all the rights of the American citizens they are sworn to kill. They will get a year or more to sift through our national defense secrets. They will have wide latitude to turn the case into a trial of the Bush administration - publicizing information about anti-terrorism tactics that leftist lawyers will exploit in their quest for war crimes prosecutions in foreign courts against current and former U.S. officials.

In the military system, we could have denied them access to classified information, forcing them to accept military lawyers with security clearances who could see such intelligence but not share it with our enemies. In civilian court, the Supreme Court has held an accused has an absolute right to conduct his own defense. If KSM asserts that right - as he tried to do in the military commission - he will have a strong argument that we must surrender relevant, top-secret information directly to him. And we know that indicted terrorists share what they learn with their confederates on the outside.

Finally, as policy, the administration's decision is perverse. A half-century of humanitarian law, beginning with the Geneva Conventions, sought to civilize warfare. To receive enhanced protection, combatants must adhere to the laws of war and refrain from targeting civilians. Under Obama-logic, the Cole bombers get a military commission while the 9/11 savages are clothed in the majesty of the Bill of Rights.

So here's the message to terrorists: If you kill thousands of civilians, we will give you better rights than if you attack military assets. That is dangerously irresponsible."

This show trial is strictly political in nature. KSM will spend the rest of his life behind bars in the US regardless of the outcome here. This trial is strictly red meat pay back for Obama's supporters who want revenge against the Bush administration. It will also act as a suitable shiny bauble distraction while the balance of the progressive agenda gets ram roded through the Congress.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain....

Quote Of The Day

"We are all time travellers moving at the speed of exactly 60 minutes per hour."

My Kind Of Skeet Shooting

This Is Cute

I was never much of a Lego fan but this is too cool:

Let your imagination run wild! Seems like the perfect Christmas stocking stuffer.

H/T Boing Boing

So, I've Been Gone For A While....

Needless to say, I would rather have been posting on my blog. But Noooooo, I've been in the hospital with pneumonia instead. I haven't really felt like posting and seem, beyond my obvious physical issues, to be suffering from some sort of Obama malaise. God save us all from this man and his progressive agenda for our country.

Funny Thread

Over at Serious Eats they are holding a form of foodie confessional - the topic being The Most Unhealthy Thing You Have Ever Made. Here is my favorite comment:

"I've made a cheeseburger with grilled cheese sandwiches as buns. Hell yes, it was good!"

I'm Not There

I recently watched "I'm Not There", the film about Bob Dylan with a number of actors portraying Dylan at various points in his career - Cate Blanchett is phenomenal. To say the film is kaleidoscopic would be an understatement but if you know Bob's music it all fits together. Highly recommended for Dylan fans - all others beware as it will make very little sense.

Below are a couple of musical moments from the film I particularly enjoyed:

Maize

According to Theo "Found on Rt 6 between Sandusky & Fremont, OH".