Maggie's Farm

Somebody asked me to recommend a recipe for it. Here's one: John Rooney's Foie Gras Stuffing.

I had that once as stuffing in boned quail, but it would be perfect for any bird. Reminds me that, years ago, a friend made us boned squab stuffed with squab liver and sage (he raised his own squab). That was tasty too. I see that D'Artagnan (thanks for the big bucks, D'Artagnan) sells boned Coturnix quail and boned squab. I suggest trying them sometime for a special feast.

Speaking of liver, how about Italian liver sauce. It's great stuff, a classic Italian pasta. I'd like some right now.

"Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious."

George Orwell (h/t, reader)

Depleted Texas lakes expose ghost towns, graves

They are obviously man-made reservoirs, not natural lakes

Kimball: How to Reform Primary Education

Puerto Rico's Gov. Fortuno Shows Washington the Way

James Hansen and the Corruption of Science

Warren "Tax Me More" Buffett's Company Sues IRS Over "Illegal" Taxation

Big city Lib explains his transformation into a Conservative

NYT: World isn’t perfect, boo hoo hoo:

Once again, the New York Times is ginning up support for yet another expansion of the central government. This time a War on Near Poverty.

AVI says he wants the government to give him a magic pony

Iconic face of OWS

OWS: Piles of human feces

Via Mankiw: The Long, Sad History of Industrial Policy

Newt H8tes teh childrens … or janitors … or something

Krugman: ‘Only fools and clowns’ believe Republican ideology

What "Republican ideology"?

Bumpersticker via Vanderleun's " The two parties are not playing the same game. They play different games, under different rules."

The History of Newt - Are Republicans ready to look past his ­transgressions?

Senate Grants USCIRF a Stay of Execution Until December

The Suicidal Passion - Who is damaged more by anti-Semitism — Jews, or those who organize politics against them?

First Lady Michelle Obama Booed At NASCAR Race

That's rude, but duh - these are regular folks and she seems to hate them, and all regular Americans.

It's White Truffle season right now (Oct-early December) in Italy. Black Italian truffles are often jarred, but the fresh Italian White Truffle is "the diamond of the kitchen" and is only obtained fresh.

At $300/oz., they ain't cheap, but you shave them into paper-thin flakes with a truffle-shaver so just one truffle goes a long way in making ordinary things into something miraculous. One is good for many meals.  That incredible funky, earthy fragrance is the thing. The rule is that you never cook truffle: only add it after the cooking. D'Artagnan has them now, until they run out.

My very best truffle experience was Woodock Ravioli in jus gibier, with shaved black truffle on top.  Perhaps my best taste experience in my life. My chef pal and occasional hunting buddy made it for us, with Woodcock he had shot. (Non-American readers may not know that wild game cannot be sold commercially in the US. You have to fetch it yourself.)

Some friends treated us to dinner last Weds. night at their favorite Italian restaurant because they were having a special White Truffle Night there. We chose the Carpaccio with Truffle, the Truffle Risotto, and a wood-grilled Tuscan Steak on a bed of Truffled Potato. That's Italian! Not many places I know where you can get a real Tuscan steak. It's not bland like an American or Argentinian corn-fed steak, and it's grilled with Italian Bay.

They even had a White Truffle Gelato, but we passed on that.

I commented that, if I were eaten by a tiger on my way to the car, he would be pleased because I was White Truffle-infused.

Most of the time, when we want a truffle flavor, I just use truffle oil. It comes in either White or Black, and it is wonderful stuff. D'artagnan sells that, too. As with fresh truffle, you add truffle oil after cooking.

I'm going to make up a nice big venison stew to go along with the turkeys this year. I have a few nice shoulders and loins shrink-wrapped in the freezer. Something sort of like this. I will make a venison bone stock for it instead of a veal stock but I will make it with the magical Porcinis.

Best to make a stew a day or two ahead. Better that way.

Do my friends shoot does around here? Darn right they do. Bow-hunting, usually. It's about the meat. Trophies are silly. Where ya gonna put them?  We hang the deer for a week or two in the garage, and butcher them ourselves. In parts of New England, White Tails are almost pests. Many areas, no limits on does.

Contemplating oyster stuffing for the oven turkey this year. Seems like a bit of a waste of good oysters, though. I noticed that the Brits sometimes put Parmesan in their bird stuffings. Hmmm. I dunno. Best bird stuffing I have ever eaten had chunks of foie gras in it. Great. I have done cornbread/chestnut/sausage/apple stuffing too long, and got tired of it. Plus it's a pain in the neck to make, chopping all that stuff like a prep cook.

Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms

The ABC’s of Self-Reliance - A core American virtue becomes a pejorative in the media.

You are supposed to depend on the State

What’s the Matter with Rachel Maddow? - The MSNBC host champions bureaucratic power at the expense of regular people and their rights.

Why Lefties hold bureaucrats, technocrats, and dictators in such high esteem remains a mystery to me. I think it might be a substitute for faith in God - and in onseself.

Dr. Helen: Is "Forever Lazy" the Future of Adult Americans?

OWS: Capitalism's spoiled children

More people shop at Macy's in NYC every day than are involved in OWS, but those normal Macy's shoppers don't get on the news. Silent majority, I guess, getting on with life without any hystrionic public bitching.

Connecticut deemed the sinkhole of the nation

The Complete And Annotated Guide To The European Bank Run (Or The Final Phase Of Goldman's World Domination Plan)

Dino: Frankly, we’re not looking forward to what the next political year is likely to bring.

Tunisia heads toward Islamist extremism – but don’t worry, they voted

Stupid Math Tricks from Jim Hansen

3 Reasons We Shouldn't Bail Out Student Loan Borrowers

EU Forbids Claim That Water Prevents Dehydration

The EU is insane, arrogant, intoxicated with power. Time for Euroland to be rid of this leviathan.

Newt: "You're going to see from me extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America and give people a chance to rise very rapidly."

How Unemployment Benefits Became Twice as Generous

14,000 abandoned wind turbines

Windmills are a joke. Solar is mostly a joke unless you live in some place like Nevada. For fuel and power, we love nuclear, coal, oil, and gas. And wood!

Philippians 4

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

A preview performance of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard at Classic Stage. Is Cherry Orchard the first modernist play? Some say it is. Plenty of ellipses, and disjointed communication. A comedy, sort-of, or a slice of life. Chekhov was a physician, a writer on the side.

Superb early dinner at the Blue Water Grill on Union Square. Mrs. BD had the Crab and Sweet Potato Hash. I had the Baked Cod with Lobster Mashed Potatoes. I didn;t pay attention to what our friends had. We had a jolly afternoon and evening in NYC. Blue Water is a Maggie's 4-star joint, especially for seafood. Perfect ambience, service, and food. I prefer the balcony, but there's more people-watching on the main floor. Their pic below:

I didn't want to use flash:

Took the subway, of course. Quicker and cheaper. The NYC subway system is a good IQ test, and a small d democratic form of transportation in the best sense. I have always enjoyed the subways. The whole thing was developed by separate private companies to meet market demaind, not by government planners. Works great, once you get the hang of it. The government took it all over, but I don't know why. Governments always have reasons to take things over, and it's usually all about money or votes.

14th St was hopping. Gotta love the vitality of a thriving, bustling city full of young, hard-working, ambitious, determined, and attractive people. That's the Empire State bldg lit up in the distance:

Multidisciplinary team of researchers develop world’s lightest material

How Calvinists Spread Thanksgiving Cheer-Charity and predestination go hand in hand.

Turkey gravy recipe

If you don't buy this, he'll whip the kid

No other book has given more to the English-speaking world.

Top 10 Reasons Men Prefer Guns Over Women.

Megan on docs treating blood tests instead of persons

Insty wonders: QUESTION: Is marriage losing importance around the world?

Review of Michael Lewis' Boomerang in NYRB

Bummer du jour: Prepare Yourself for Obama's Second Term

Pelosi proclaims her goal to “do for childcare what we did for healthcare”

Is there anything the Feds don't want to control?

Bloomberg: Unions hijacked protest

Morning Jay: Previewing the GOP's 2012 Message

The medium matters as much as the message. In the TV age, ya gotta make people feel good. Politics is a reality TV show.

Obama USDA delays shale drilling, up to 200K jobs

There simply is no green energy race with China. No one needs the product.

We all suffer due to green ideology

Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israelism in Western Schools

Besides rewarding donors with taxpayer money for the last three years, Obama keeps nominating radical policy experts who make the old Soviet Union's Public Health Commissars seem almost moderate by comparison.

 Mindless Green Flackery at the Times (and, I remind you, Mead is a Lib):

The planners like their project and speak well of it; that is enough to get a lengthy, heavy breathing puff job (hardened newspaper people would use a phrase in place of that one that is unsuitable in a family friendly blog like Via Meadia) in the New York Times. Only an idiot or a propagandist would write such a piece; it is hard to see how any editor would put it in print.

The Snow Man

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Just down the road from where the Pilgrims first landed in Provincetown. A house in town, downtown Wellfleet. I'd happily live, and raise some American bambinos, in this one had there been any work there - which there is not. As you can discern from my pics, Wellfleet ain't Nantucket. It's always a little raggedy, which is what I like.

At last count, we have 32 people, friends and family, coming for Thanksgiving. Ages 4 to 86.

It's a partay! I usually do 2 large turkeys, but was wondering if I needed 3. How Much Turkey Per Person? Use This Rule of Thumb

I like leftovers more than I like the first go-round, and I just like a little bit of turkey to go with my main deal of mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry relish, and gravy.

 Which reminds me, I need to get out and buy up my annual supply of fresh cranberries. 10 bags, at least. Perhaps corner the New England market for cranberries, and make out like George Soros. I freeze them whole and use them year round.

Politely Demonizing Men at Wesleyan

Well, Wesleyan is not known for either manly men nor cute chicks

Whatever happened to the beloved Pilgrim Hymnal?

Denting the Universe: Steve Jobs Thinks Different; Analysts Listen

The Rise of Ayn Rand on Campus

Maryland’s Governor Spends $553,000 on Pianos at Left-Wing Junk College:

As states send more and more mediocre students to college, students learn less and less. “Our colleges and universities are full to the brim with students who do not really belong there, who are unprepared for college and uninterested in breaking a mental sweat.” “Nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates show almost no gains in learning in their first two years of college, in large part because colleges don’t make academics a priority,” according to a widely-publicized January report from experts like New York University Professor Richard Arum.

The Treasury Department dramatically boosted its estimate of losses from its $85 billion auto industry bailout by more than $9 billion in the face of General Motors Co.'s steep stock decline.

Pure union payoff, on my nickel

Federal social policymakers are still using a measure of poverty from the 1960s, one that fails to take account of the many programs launched since then to battle poverty.

There will be 23 carbon cops roaming the streets doing snap audits of businesses that “choose to link your price increases to a carbon price”.

Asia Rediscovers Its Love For America

Elliott Abrams: Palestinian Diplomacy, Lost at Sea

Billionaire Buffett's Bakken Boom

Christians in the Middle East

Juan Cole’s Totalitarian Odyssey

FBI Releases 2010 Hate Crime Data

"The Entire System Has Been Utterly Destroyed By The MF Global Collapse" - Presenting The First MF Global Casualty (link fixed)

Wow. That is some letter

Germany's secret plans to derail a British referendum on the EU

Re-posted from last Thanksgiving season -

We did one turkey in the oven, stuffed with cornbread stuffing, and the other one on the grill with occasional doses of soaked apple wood chunks and with white wine in the steam water. Both brined 24 hrs before cooking, and each around 18 lbs.

We had plenty of family and friends to eat it all up.

I think people preferred the grilled (no stuffing in the grilled bird).  It was my first time trying grilled turkey. Beginner's luck: It came out perfectly: moist, with a pleasant hint of smokiness. It took around 3 1/2 hrs to cook. Keeping the temp at near 325 involved carefully titrating the number of briquettes and fruitwood chunks to keep the heat low, but to not let the fire go out.

Nice grill, eh? This cast-iron thing weights 500 lbs. I had to assemble the darn thing off a truck, and got most of it right. Except for the wheels, which fell off. Now it takes a few pall-bearers to move it.

This is halfway:

And done:

The puppy seemed equally happy with scraps from the grilled and from the oven-roasted turkey.

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods."

H. L. Menchen (h/t, reader)

“Members of the jury, my client is innocent because his amygdala made him kill his wife.”

Saudi Arabia: Women Must Cover Provocative Eyes

From Great Courses: The Everyday Guide to Wine

Bad idea. You can educate your palate beyond your wine budget in about a week.

Not your grandfather's Britain: Her rescue was delayed by senior fire officers who showed “rigid compliance” with official health and safety procedures, the inquiry concluded.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae execs bonus pay–seriously?

Jay Cost: Four Enduring Truths of American Elections

Robt Kennedy Jr's green company scored $1.2 billion bailout

Allen West to Media: “Stop Being Afraid of this President… The Guy Sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Is Destroying This Country”

Many Americans say they will have to work until they're 80

Will be lucky to live to 80 with ObamaCare

Obamacare Architect Jonathan Gruber Fears Supremes Could Rely Upon Constitution, Other Old Documents In Voiding Health Care Law

CBO Director Admits That 2009 Stimulus Will Reduce US GDP

A couple of Thanksgivings ago -

In Scientific American, The Wipeout Gene - A new breed of genetically modified mosquitoes carries a gene that cripples its own offspring. They could crush native mosquito populations and block the spread of disease. And they are already in the air—though that's been a secret.

Good, bad, or indifferent? It's a little creepy to me, like Ice-9.

Has individual liberty been a prime value in American politics and policy since Coolidge? (We are defining liberty as freedom from the power and interference of the state.)

For starters, this excellent Robinson interview with Prof Paul Rahe, most recently author of Soft Despotism:  Democracy's Drift:

Do Americans talk liberty, but desire utilitariansm? Is real freedom too difficult or scarey for most people nowadays?

Secondly, three guys including Will Wilkinson discuss Libertarianism and Liberty in serious depth at Boston Review. At Maggie's, we believe that the "liberty cost" has to be a large factor in any policy equation, or else we aren't America anymore.

Today, you hear more about financial cost, health cost, and environmental cost, than about liberty cost. (Can I trademark the term "liberty cost," or has somebody else done that already?)

Seems to me that Repubs talk more liberty than the Dems, who have eliminated it from their political calculus since Woodrow Wilson. However, the Repubs talk it better than they act it. Have pols simply learned that, when it comes to voting, people want stuff more from the feds than they want freedom?

Volume 1: The Complete Pogo

Walt Kelly was a genius.

That good old toon is via Anchoress, from XKCD

Via Insty, Spanking Vs. Abuse

High IQ linked to substance abuse

Women Ascendent: Where Females Are Rising The Fastest

Via Cafe Hayek, David Hume on Rousseau:

Thus you see, he is a Composition of Whim, Affectation, Wickedness, Vanity, and Inquietude, with a very small, if any Ingredient of Madness. … The ruling Qualities abovementioned, together with Ingratitude, Ferocity, and Lying, I need not mention, Eloquence and Invention, form the whole of the Composition

WaPo in 1994: Paula Jones Suit a 'Soap Opera'; WaPo in 2011: 'Lingering Questions' About Cain Must Be Answered

Nice guy moving to Berlin

The apotheosis of multiculturalism

Dems criticize eviction of Occupy protesters.

Good grief. The Dems are mad at you, Nanny Mike.

EPA using flawed data, economics to justify regulations, congressmen say

Obama Nominee for Social Security Board Favors Rationing Health Care

The rising cost of medical care comes from advanced, expensive technology (almost all created in the US), advanced expensive pharmacology, costs of malpractice insurance and absurdly excess expenditures to avoid lawsuits, and medical insurance and government insurance-subsidies for all medical care. Given all of the above things not changing anytime soon, the only way to control costs is bureaucratic rationing - which will entail the politicizing of any medical care which is covered by insurance. And that is a very bad idea, too. I see a future for medical care outside the entire insurance nexus.

Even in a Sub-Par Jobless Recovery, There Are Labor Shortages in the U.S. and Around the World

Is This Romney's Time in History?

Many forget that one reason McCain was nominated was because Romney was felt to be too conservative

The Concept of Brotherhood in Islam - How Muslims View Each Other and How They View Non-Muslims

Troops feel more pity than respect

Not from me. Pure admiration and gratitude.

Let’s All Feel Superior to Mike McQueary

Had I been a young, junior kid on the staff, I'm sure I would have done what McQueary did. Chain of authority. Had I been in Paterno's shoes, probably what he did: chain of authority. Arguably ethically wrong, but natural. (Update: I may not be well-informed about what was witnessed.)

Toon below via Vanderleun

A beautifully-restored turn-of-the-century summer "cottage" on the CT shore. These sorts of places originally had no central heat as they were indeed summer get-aways for prosperous New Yorkers, but they had plenty of coal fireplaces to take the chill off on cool summer or fall nights.

Third floor, as in most larger, pre-income tax era houses, was servants' quarters.

Very nice carriage barn too, with room upstairs for your chauffeur or gardener. In those days, there were tons of secure jobs for semi-skilled servants.

From Wemyss' A Severed Wasp: Orwell - Woolf - Kierkegaard, two quotes:

Theodore Dalrymple put it characteristically well in the City Journal a few years ago when he said that, had she survived to our own time, Woolf would have had the satisfaction of observing that her cast of mind - shallow, dishonest, resentful, envious, snobbish, self-absorbed, trivial, philistine, and ultimately brutal - had triumphed among the elites of the Western world. And if that seems a little harsh on someone who did I think have a considerable gift - Mrs Dalloway is surely a very good novel - just remember that she also wrote the most immitigably stupid book of the twentieth century.

It just goes to show that you should look at how people comport themselves towards the world before accepting that they have something worthwhile to say about turning away from it. But the good news is that, when you do look, what you see is not always a disappointment.

You can turn away from the world without a chip on your shoulder, perhaps without even really thinking that that’s what you’re doing. But of course it isn’t as easy as that. Most of us will turn away from the world because it displeases us, and displeasure with the world is usually going to be our own fault. By comparison, turning away from the world in the full bloom of its loveliness is a gift, and no one will grasp it who has not already begun to receive it.

and