Maggie's Farm

More errors on continuation page below -

Quote from an essay of the above title by Roger Scruton in City Journal:

Until recently, European architects have either connived at the evisceration of our cities or actively promoted it. Relying on the spurious rhetoric of Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, they endorsed the totalitarian projects of the political elite, whose goal after the war was not to restore the cities but to clear away the “slums.” By “slums,” they meant the harmonious classical streets of affordable houses, seeded with local industries, corner shops, schools, and places of worship, that had made it possible for real communities to flourish in the center of our towns. High-rise blocks in open parkland, of the kind that Le Corbusier proposed in his plan for the demolition of Paris north of the Seine, would replace them. Meanwhile, all forms of employment and enjoyment would move elsewhere. Public buildings would be expressly modernist, with steel and concrete frames and curtain walls, but with no facades or intelligible apertures, and no perceivable relation to their neighbors. Important monuments from the past would remain, but often set in new and aesthetically annihilating contexts, such as that provided for Saint Paul’s in London.

Citizens protested, and conservation societies fought throughout Europe for the old idea of what a city should look like, but the modernists won the battle of ideas. They took over the architecture schools and set out to ensure that the classical discipline of architecture would never again be learned, since it would never again be taught. The vandalization of the curriculum was successful: European architecture schools no longer taught students the grammar of the classical Orders; they no longer taught how to understand moldings, or how to draw existing monuments, urban streets, the human figure, or such vital aesthetic phenomena as the fall of light on a Corinthian capital or the shadow of a campanile on a sloping roof; they no longer taught appreciation for facades, cornices, doorways, or anything else that one could glean from a study of Serlio or Palladio.

Read the whole thing. 

Photo below: The charming, friendly, safe, and human-scale Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, which was a crime-ridden "slum" one generation ago, part of Hell's Kitchen. Ripe for massive demolition and "urban planning" and "urban renewal." The social engineers are almost always wrong because they are oblivious to human nature. This one-time slum is a very pleasant place to live in, provided that your neighbors behave themselves.

Don't blame the old buildings.

The Spider's Web (aka "Natural History")

The spider, dropping down from twig,
Unfolds a plan of her devising,
A thin premeditated rig
To use in rising.

And all that journey down through space,
In cool descent and loyal hearted,
She spins a ladder to the place
From where she started.

Thus I, gone forth as spiders do
In spider's web a truth discerning,
Attach one silken thread to you
For my returning.

White, never one to waste words, wrote this poem in 1929 as a love letter to his wife. Photo is the Maine boathouse he used as his writing studio.

A re-post.

Surely some readers have cucumbers in their gardens by now. Not us, quite yet. We will not have tomatoes for a few more weeks, either.

First one: two slices of good bread, one slice of Costco ham, plenty of mayo, a fat slice of a tomato from the garden, and generous slices/chunks of Costco goat cheese, salt and pepper. Mmmm.

Or: bread, fat slice of tomato, skinny slices of warm cucumber from the garden, salt and pepper and mayo. Wow.

Or, minimalist - the man's version of a lady's cucumber sandwich: bread, two or three fat slices consisting of an entire cucumber from the garden (sliced lengthwise, not in rounds, with or without the seed part), salt and pepper, mayo. Olive oil and vinegar dressing always substitutable for the mayo, but I prefer the Hellman's.

Never build a sandwich without salt and pepper - learned that long ago from a chef friend. Except PB&J - or Fluffernutter, of course.

Theo's inflated girlfriend, pictured, loves a good old Yankee Fluffernutter. She told me so. (Loyal Yankee tho I am, I cannot eat those things.) Anyway, I think this gal is pulling in her tummy for the photo.

Dunes near Cahoon's Hollow beach on the ocean side of Wellfleet, MA (Cape Cod). I hope to get there in August, but those dunes and marshes are calling me right now.

Here's the real Fourth. Been there, friend. Related: On Cape Cod, nothing happens until the 4th

Is the "tiresome" baby boomer cohort beginning to retire from their faculty jobs? Neo hopes so.

Washington's boyhood home found.

Tiger growls at the NYT: Are they the rubes? (Yes, they are, outside of Easthampton and the West Side of Manhattan.)

More on My Alcoholism: Dean's World (h/t, Dr. Bob)

Largest re-enlistment in history.

Experience matters. Ask John Adams

Moonbats hate the 4th of July

An anorectic guy? Litigious little SOB too.

All Freedom pieces at RCP today

For the umpteenth time: Oil is a bubble. Same as many other commodities right now.

A good day to remember what these good folks do for us. 

God bless 'em all.

Yes, this is the central debate of our time, and of the past 150 years. The authors of this series believe that most political ideas can be divided into either Individualistic or Collectivist categories.

It's a good day to post Parts 3 and 4 of this enjoyable brief and straightforward series, which captures much of what Maggie's believes in. (Parts 1 and 2 here.) Again, a h/t to Dust My Broom for finding these. Please send these around.

Part 3: Coercion vs. Freedom:

Part 4: Equality and inequality under the law:

Well, largely irrelevant I think, but not completely.

For one thing, relatively few people read blogs. Even the "big" blogs we read, like Michelle and Insty and Powerline, are miniscule in the larger scheme of things. But every once in a while a blog will have a major impact on events, on the news - or on just one random reader who gets a new thought or a new perspective.

However, blogs with any strong political bent are usually preaching to the choir. We are fortunate in being eclectic and pleasant and useful enough that people of all stripes seem to read us, and we attempt to be friendly enough so as not to drive people away just because we think Barry Goldwater was a political prophet.

We are not a political blog. We obviously do discuss politics with a strong point of view: Freedom First. An individual freedom bequeathed by God, with justice and mercy, is the bottom line of our politics and our world view. There is no reason for the USA to exist otherwise. If anybody has a stronger foundation, let us know. We'll listen.

Reader Buddy once said something like "Consider Maggie's to be just one more small brick in the wall of Western Civilization." Very small, but a brick. I like that very much, and I try to bear his comment in mind as a source of inspiration.

A Happy 4th to all of our freedom-loving readers. We will keep stuff coming over this weekend. Maybe we'll do some fun re-posts from our archives, along with a little oddball new stuff.

It's the Puppy Tactic. And the head-scarf tactic.

How JFK's assassination changed things. Driscoll. Related, from a piece on patriotism at Powerline:

One of the basic problems faced by liberals, and the reason why they tend to get sensitive whenever the subject of patriotism comes up, is that a large majority of Americans share the conservatives' view of their country. Rasmussen Reports adds up the numbers: 75% of respondents are proud of America's history, while 13% are ashamed of it. 64% say the U.S. is a positive role model for human rights.

As always, these numbers break down quite differently based on party affiliation. 91% of Republicans are proud of our country's history, compared to 64% of Democrats. Not surprisingly, there is also a racial divide: 81% of white respondents, but only 44% of African-Americans, are proud of America's history. (It would be interesting to see the breakdown for other races, but for some reason Rasmussen doesn't provide it.)

Marry "Mr. Good Enough"? Single, and turning 30.

It's about time: McCain shakes up campaign. Related: Prager on Why I Support McCain. I agree with most of that.

Lefties go bonkers as Obama slips and slides towards the center. Also, Obama's Chicago deals.

Photo: That's our Dylanologist sitting on a water taxi in Baveno in June. He is now back in Rome.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Re-read the whole thing here.

From a letter from John Adams to Abigail on July 2, 1776:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the mo