Ice extends out to Juniper Island, about a third of the distance across the lake
My favorite Canadian blogger, Colby Cosh, (a politcally conservative atheist) defines the difference betwwen liberals and conservatives in a post about changing NHL rules on fighting:
...this raises the political question whether social experimentation is wise where its consequences are unforeseeable, and conservatives and (modern) liberals are defined by canned answers to that question. The conservative says "The consequences are always unforeseeable, and where the existing order or way of life is a contingent achievement built on the wisdom of many generations, experimentation is inherently more likely to inflict more harm than benefit." The liberal says "Progress is impossible without experimentation: defending the status quo means, precisely, defending the results of past experiments, so why should we feel hesitant to perform them in our time?" And both are quite right. The reason I'm not a liberal, in this sense of the word, is not that the liberal premise is wrong. The reason is that experimentation cannot be justified on the liberal premise if we are not willing to abandon failed experiments, and liberals never do abandon them. Even where the failure is quite palpable, as with cookie-cutter no-fault divorce or monopolistic public schools, their only answer is to shriek "SO YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO THE BAD OLD DAYS, DO YOU?" This is the clue that they are not really liberals, but utopians smitten with the romance of revolution. The parallel conservative failing is, of course, to defend the indefensible. I do not mind much when conservatives do this—but you will notice if you observe me closely that it does raise my hackles when they defend order by the liberal means of introducing preposterous novelties, such as "creation science" in the classroom, or the notion that any therapeutic abortion is ipso facto murder. To me, this makes them worst of all: dangerous utopians without the flimsy excuse of good intentions.
Youtube video consisting of Japanese ordering breakfast to the tune of Beethoven's Fifth (Asagohan means "breakfast"):
Last shots from Headwaters:
Diversity is not without its problems
Evening Grosbeak outnumbered by Pine Grosbeaks
Baby mole froze at 15 below
Rob sent me some pictures from the abbey in France:
Ready for more snow blowin':
Added another house to my daily rounds:
Snows every day here at R&G's Headwaters Farm:
Tailess Chickadee:
How did he lose it, and how can he fly without it?
Snows every day here at R&G's Headwaters Farm:
"Wild Ramps" agreed to have his portrait shot:
Yesterday he came flying up from the basement like a bat out of hell and ran the length of the house to the other basement stairs, I heard him crash into some pans there, and then he shot under a chair and poked his nose out as if to see if the monster was still chasing him. Next he came out and laid on his back... his eyes kind of dilated and spacey. I was too engrossed to get the camera. I think maybe he hit his head down in the basement... or he is just loco.
Rob and Gay are going to their Abbey in France for a month!(I will be housesitting at Headwaters!!):
Their building is the middle one in the foreground
Rob's websiteCross mark on Abbey:
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Xmas makes one nostalgic:
Torn photo from Xmas '51
Dad and me, Jan Mom and me, Jan cat and me, Grandpa Hall and me
Red-Shouldered Hawk dines on pigeon in our woods:
November snow at Trapp's:
Oliphant brings out the tumbrel:
From Ape Lad:
AIG's Starr started Stowe
AIG rolled the dice and we pay the price:
Stowe Reporter:
"Eighty percent of Stowe Mountain Resort is now owned by the U.S. government."
Warren Buffett famously described derivatives bought speculatively as "financial weapons of mass destruction."
...law professor Frank Partnoy of the University of San Diego: "The really interesting question that no one knows the answer to is, if you were to go into liquidation and sell off all the derivatives contracts, what is the value?" he told the newspaper. "We are just learning that no one, not even the senior people within these banks, knows how much these contracts are worth."
The CDS market exploded over the past decade to more than $45 trillion in mid-2007, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. This is roughly twice the size of the U.S. stock market.
BBC's Robert Preston:"the CDS market is so opaque that it's impossible to know right now who is holding the radioactive baby."
Paulson's plan: I CAN HAZ $700 BILLIONZ KTHXBAI ACT.
Dear American, My Dear Friend: I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you. I am working with “Mr. Phil Gram," lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a citizen, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe. This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred. Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds. Do not discuss this message with anyone! Time is of the essence! Yours Faithfully. Minister of Treasury Hank Paulson
I archived some pictures on Picasa:
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