Rocks and Clods

If you read my previous column on this topic (“Picking Rocks,” 4-11-2012), you know that rocks represent the politicians, bureaucrats and policies that harm our prosperity and limit our liberties. Rocks must be removed from the field whenever we encounter them. They will damage our tools (yes, I broke a tine on my 3-point tiller on my final pass before planting) and disrupt our seeding if we allow them to remain in place. Rocks hide just under the soil until a rain exposes them, and that is when the diligent farmer must retrieve them and remove them from the field.

Clods are somewhat different from rocks. Clods are tightly wound or clustered hunks of soil that resist the manipulation of the seed bed preparation tools. Clods are made of the same stuff as the remainder of the fertile soil so the goal is not to discard them, but to pulverize their stubbornness into cooperating with the rest of the seedbed. While clods are actually soil, their tendencies to deflect seeds at planting time can limit plant growth and diminish the harvest. Cultimulchers and cultipackers are useful for breaking the clods, but sometimes after a gentle rain clodbusting can be accomplished by the more gentle application of a harrow. The harrow is preferable because of compaction issues related to the two packer types.

Yes, we do have some clods in the liberty-patriot movement. They are the ones who may be focused on only one issue, one candidate or one party. Their sentiments are with us and our goals, but their blinders have caused them to be resolutely bullheaded about what they perceive as our best path. Oddly… most clods believe that all the other members of the movement are thickheaded and cloddish. They suspect that we are unusually dense because we cannot grasp the obvious superiority of their point of view. They stay with us, but constantly grouse about our failure to see it their way. They bitch a lot. They rightfully discern that their opinions are unappreciated. While they profess loyalty to the Declaration, Constitution and other Founding or Framing principles, they insist on government intervention into certain aspects of our lives. Typically the clods support a Homeland Security-type effort that crushes individual liberty or they promote federal legislation that defines strict guidelines for personal behavior. Neither approach is constitutional nor respecting of individual sovereignty. Clods rarely understand how their positions may be counter to the Founding vision. Instead, they interpolate the characters and integrity of the Founding Generation into hard-fast legal requirements. They fail to realize that the Framers’ insistence on citizen virtue as a fundamental element of our nation’s success was an individual necessity not a collection of laws and rules.

Clods are not hopeless. They are valuable members of the field. If treated with care and carefully cultivated, they will become very fertile members of the movement. Rocks are permanent, always dangerous and must be removed. Clods generate bumpy rides and are difficult and obstinate, but they must be massaged to become the productive assets they can be. Leaders and Do-ers sometimes have difficulty discerning the difference between rocks and clods. Clods often seem to be obstructionist and disruptive, but their hearts and souls are laden with patriotic fervor. Their reasoning, understanding and knowledge must catch up to their passion, and they will become the indefatigable warriors for the cause of liberty. Admittedly they’re a little thick, somewhat hard and very rough around the edges, but clods are precious and will carefully nurture the seeds of freedom if they are treated appropriately. Clods will become vital parts of the fertile field when they accept the goals for the harvest.

Always discard the rocks. The politicians, bureaucrats and unconstitutional policies, programs and agencies are lethal. Their very presence displaces the seeds of liberty and destroys the work of freedom. When the rocks are numerous and control the field, the harvest is meager and the people starve. Rocks are deadly. Clods can counteract the rocks. Before they have become integrated into the fields of freedom, clods are used by rocks to stir the people and advance the rocks’ agendas, but when the clods understand and appreciate their rightful places in the fields of liberty’s labor, they will expose the rocks for what they are. Move and destroy the rocks. Nurture and work with the clods. Liberty will win.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Picking Rocks

When I was young and growing up on the farm, one of my father’s standing rules was that whenever we encountered a rock while working in the field, we were to pick it up, place it on the tractor platform and deposit it along the fence row for later collection. I was twelve when I finally understood the relationship between rocks, costly equipment and seed displacement. You see, I was a young farm boy who was prone to daydreaming. Although I had my assigned tasks on the farm, I wasn’t very diligent in performing them because my mind was often wandering to places and events far beyond our acreage in north central Ohio.

During the spring of my seventh-grade year my father had to be hospitalized for an extended time. My mother and I were left to milk the cows, feed the hogs, gather the eggs and prepare the fields for planting. My siblings at 9 and 8 years of age were too young to materially assist us, so I missed a few days of school and we soldiered on. After we had the fields ready for planting, our neighbors and fellow church members arrived with their planting equipment and completed the job in one day. I learned about neighbors helping neighbors and the blessings of community that year. It was an eye-opening experience for my curious twelve-year old mind.

Back to the rocks… During my early years on the farm I could not fathom why rocks would appear in fields after we had picked them the previous years. One field was particularly obstinate. It consisted of 6 acres of “jackwax”… a black-blue soil that turned over in huge slabs when it was plowed with a moldboard. It was beautiful to see and extremely difficult to work as the reluctant slabs would fight every attempt by the disk, cultimulcher, cultipacker, springtooth and harrow to tame it into a seed-ready bed. That darn field was a kidney destroyer when I would drive the tractor across its massive slabs. Invariably, a few days after beating the black mass with our entire equipment inventory, my Dad would tell me to take the small tractor and a trailer and go “pick up the rocks in the jackwax field.” I was perplexed. I thought we had retrieved all the rocks the year before…and the one before that. What evil presence was pushing these rocks up to the surface just to annoy me?

That year that my father was in the hospital… the answer was revealed to me. The rocks were numerous and were lying in the rich soil quietly minding their own business when an all-day soaking rain or a 30-minute “gully-washer” would wash the soil away and expose their hiding places. The fertile black-blue soil camouflaged the rocks as they lay silently waiting to damage a disk blade or deflect some precious grains or kernels of seed. The cleansing rain washed away their cover and exposed them for what they were: impediments to our lives and prosperity. If the field were to have a good yield, the offending rocks had to be removed. Their hard-core interference had to be stopped so that our family farm might flourish.

More than a half-century later I was picking rocks from my own fields for the same purpose that my father and grandfather had. Even as I approach “golden-ager” status, my mind still wanders….and wonders. As I was driving my Gator while “rock scouting” and stopping to pick up the offending “back breakers,” I thought my exercise would provide a simple metaphor for where our nation is today. We are so blessed to live in a land of abundance and variety. We have a population that has brought the strengths of many cultures to our shores, but we are struggling…. and our yields are diminishing.

If the field represents our nation, the rich and potentially productive soil is symbolic of our natural resources and our citizens. Clearly the rocks are the faulty policies, the venal career politicians and the arrogant bureaucrats who damage our tools and suppress our yields. The Tea Party, liberty advocates and patriots are the rains. The steady downpours are the constant vigilance and insistence for accountability that our freedom warriors demand. The thunderous gully-washers represent the inflamed ire of our people when they have been “crossed,” sold-out or cheated. Freedom-loving people will expose the offending rocks and remove them….one by one until the field is cleared. We must never forget, however, the rocks will continue to appear, and we must always be vigilant rock pickers forever more. We cannot afford to be daydreamers like that young farm boy was more than a half-century ago. We must be alert. The heavy lifting never ends.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Clamoring for Cialus

The following column may not be suitable for small children or small-minded adults.

Once again it appears that the voters of the United States may be headed toward another “lesser of two evils” decision on Election Day November 6^th. Let’s identify this flaccid phenomenon for what it really is….Electoral Dysfunction. As citizens trickle to their polling places, their sense of political impotence will be heightened by the absolute lack of distinctive choices available to them. They will moan, groan and strike a despondent tone as they suffer from the anxiety performance associated with choosing the better of bad options. Once they emerge from the curtained cubicle they limp off to their favorite pubs or ice cream shops to wash away their indecisiveness.

With the fearful act behind them they move forward and hope their choice prevailed, but not too surprised if the other one should win. Deep in the recesses of their hearts they hope the eventual winner will exhibit a stiffened resolve to save our Republic from its own excesses and abuses. They know, however, that in the end they will get the shaft….that the nation will continue its inexorable drift toward decay and decadence. They resign themselves to the knowledge that there is no magic potion for restoring strength and self determination. There is no instant pill or capsule for a malady that has affected us for decades. They know that the weakened condition of the nation will be further eroded by the non-performance of the elected class. As they quaff their pints and languidly lick their cones, they admit they do not have the will or the strength for an uprising for freedom.

Watching a nation slip into acquiescent despair is similar to watching political pornography. There is sense of the surreal, but one is filled with fascination and disgust as a once-great crucible of liberty discards its foundations and falls into the abyss. Frustration and anger abound as so many of the citizens seem to be unaware or uncaring about the inevitable fate of the once supremely-blessed country. Their blunted passions are matched only by their fractured dreams as they no longer look to the future or honor the past. They have become obsessed with the present hour…..and little more. They rent out their minds and commitments as if they were cheap flop houses…..for one hour at a time. They’ve given up. They’ve withdrawn from the fight. They have lost their passion for life, for liberty and for pursuit of any kind. Just as their nation is dying, so are they and they appear not to know it.

Who will save them? Who will save the nation from itself? Who can? Aside from a revival of faith, the answer for renewal and an energized vigor must come from within. All the props, potions and pills in the world will not renew a passion for liberty. It must be discovered and fueled by each individual. Sometimes a mass of people or a rowdy mob can excite the ardor for freedom, but that remedy is short-lived and ineffective. The high tension and extreme actions of the mob wear thin, and the lonely individual is left behind….exhausted and spent…unable to lift himself up from the mat of nonperformance. Many of the truly important aspects of life and living require a dedicated individual who labors on when others have fallen. Commitment and endurance are vital for effective performance and ultimate victory.

What remedies….what uplifting help is available for the liberty lover whose spirits are sagging? How can his deflated dreams be pumped up with new energy? He should meet Al. Al is always perky, ready and upright. Al is the one that people follow when times get tough. Al is the magnetic personality that others want to “hang” with. Al never falters and never wavers. Others frequently speak of him by saying, “See, Al is dependable. See, Al is strong. See, Al is always working. See, Al is never a quitter. See, Al is always filled with passion. See, Al is.” Those of us who falter must be like Al if we are to save our nation. See, Al is the answer.

Clearly our government has grown too large and is suffocating our freedom. The Framers and the Founders insistence that federal government powers be enumerated and limited was prophetic. They understood “The Peter Principle” before it was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in 1969. Government has exceeded its level of competence by far.

Caution: If your infatuation for the current political elites persists for more than four hours, please notify your psychiatrist or call an exorcist.

Author’s note: This column is irrefutable proof that advertising works. With the saturation of male enhancement ads on audio, video and print media my brain has clearly been affected.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Just a Little Bit

As we survey the social, economic and political issues around us, it is rather easy to become dismayed. I know. I have felt so overwhelmed at times that I was ready to curl up into a fetal ball and let the world move on without my participation. Upon further reflection, I decided that withdrawal wasn’t an effective strategy for dealing with our nation’s problems. I have children and grandchildren whose lives will be sorely limited by the onerous direction our land is pursuing. My obligation as the patriarch of our little clan is to preserve and protect their liberties to the best of my limited ability. And so….I have determined that if I cannot make all the difference in our national drift, I must make some difference….have some impact….do my share….if only a little bit.

Faced with an aging body that is reaping the consequences of a lifetime of unhealthy living, I find that my energy and my capabilities are limited. Even if I had an engorged super-hero complex, the aching bones and rigid nap times would minimize my capacity for turning things around. Some of you (the ones with bluer hair or fewer hairs) may remember the Brylcreme commercials. “A little dab will do ya’” they confidently stated about the unmovable hair grease. That’s where I am these days….dibbing and dabbing and hoping to motivate those who have more strength and energy than I have. I let the Founders and Framers carry the wood and start the fire. I’m the old guy with the poker in my hand who stirs the fire from time to time …. hoping to keep it going until the youngsters can haul in more fuel for the hearth and raise the temperature for the nation.

One of the advantages of growing older (aside from the obvious one of being on TOP of the grass) is that as one’s physical abilities diminish, one’s wisdom about how and when to get physical increases ( well, usually ). It’s called “choosing the moment.” Usually a crisis or opportunity emerges and I engage in frenzied activity to address it followed by high-intensity napping. Some of my “little bits” take place in the middle of the night as I spring awake from a deep slumber. It may be the “call of nature” that sets off my internal alarm or the throbbing sensation in my battered knees that interrupt my sleep. Facing the improbability of returning to the blissful quiet of a sound sleep, I stumble to the office to write some profound words about how our government is destroying our personal liberties. For me and perhaps for you also, the act of reviewing my writing recaptures the slumber bug and allows me to drift off for a couple more hours.

The purpose of this column isn’t to regale you with my sleep habits or patterns, but to suggest that each of us can do a little bit beyond thinking about our problems. If you wake in the middle of the night, write a letter to the editor or to a politician….that will put you back to sleep. As a cautionary note, I recommend that you review the letter in the morning before mailing it. Trust me on this. You don’t wish to be placed on another “watch list” just because you engaged in highly inflammatory language at 3:00am. Many of you are gardeners and you can take a short amount of time during lunch (the hottest time of day) to jot a note or an email expressing your concerns. The little bits for most of us can be squeezed into precious moments between activities or when first arising or at bedtime.

Most of us have neither the time nor the talent to accomplish great things for liberty. Our personal “little bits of difference” can add to the efforts of others. Cumulatively we can combine our “bits” and move the nation back to its moorings. Let me be clear here at the risk of offending you. Just attending the meetings and reading the email threads is not enough. Those efforts are pre-“little bits.” It’s the next step of involvement that moves you from a mere participant to a neophyte activist. Little bits by citizens who love liberty can seem like incessant drops of water torture to those politicians who believe they can woo us then ignore us. Little bits of letter writing and email campaigns may convince the editorial pages and program directors that we are here, we are angry, we are serious and we are numerous.

Even if you or I may not have the strength and endurance to lead the charge up Liberty Hill, we can do our little bits by loading the cartridges, holding the horses and joining the swarm when our stronger leaders reach the crest. Every little bit helps. Every little bit is needed. Every little bit counts.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Sluts and Nuts

Sandra Fluke is a slut. A 30-year old woman who is studying law at one of the nation’s premier law schools should not ask blue-collar hard-working people to pay for birth control products that would allow her uncontrolled libido to screw the American taxpayers and premium payers. She is a slut because she is willing to exchange her dignity, her self-respect and her reasoning ability for 15 minutes of fame and unrestricted sexual activity. That represents a barter…a type of exchange wherein each party supposedly receives something of value to offset the loss of the assumed value of the object being traded. Just as “will screw for food” would be considered prostitution in most cities (generally controlled by progressive Democrats), as well as “will trade privacy, dignity and principles for sex.” She sold her soul for a big-government looter’s agenda. Rush Limbaugh was correct. When one expects “someone” to pay for one’s nymphomania, one is being paid to have unlimited sexual activity. With generic birth control pills selling for $9.00 per month at Wal-Mart, that leaves approximately $892.00 per year for condoms and other additional “protections” based on Ms. Fluke’s $1000.00 per year estimated cost for her or others’ profligacy.

Rush Limbaugh and his little butt-kissing buddies, Hannity and Levin, are also sluts. While Limbaugh attempts to use the absurd to illustrate the absurdity of Ms. Fluke’s demand, he fails to recognize the inconsistencies of his own positions. He and his cohorts claim the mantle of constitutionalism, but nevertheless do not hold Congress and the Administration accountable for some of their more egregious constitutional abuses….because those unconstitutional acts coincide with the subjective world-views of Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin. Whores and sluts sell their bodies either for pleasure or because of hard-core commercial purposes. Limbaugh and his little band of merry men sell out their constitutional principles either for their own self-serving purposes or to curry favor with their audiences and their supreme government masters. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States clearly identifies that Congress has the authority (and the obligation after careful and thoughtful consideration) to declare war. Yet, since December 8^th, 1941 Congress has NOT declared war even though we have been engaged in three decade-long conflicts plus the Korean “police action” in the interim. Why has the triumvirate of conservative talk radio cavalierly ignored this constitutional proviso? Perhaps….it doesn’t fit into their preferences for the unbridled exercise of government power, so they ignore the requirement/mandate. They are sluts and whores because despite their professed love for the Founders, the Framers and our constitutional republic, they willingly sell their souls, their integrity and their principles to unconstitutional activity. Progressives and conservatives, liberals and moderates have all chosen to selectively support the Constitution. All of…..or rather too many of them view the Constitution of the United States as a buffet of privilege for themselves and of limitations for their opponents. No wonder we are in the pit we are in when the supporters of our primary document distort it beyond recognition.  

Most of the mass media are sluts. I know….that’s redundant. Screwing the nation, the regular folks and constitutionalists is the number one activity for most media types. It is not too difficult to assume that the excessive carnal efforts by the media have resulted in debilitating STDs. Their diminished mental capacities would suggest that the spirochete bacterium of syphilis had occupied and destroyed their cognitive abilities. Their observations and reporting are primarily agenda-driven, and for the most part their agendas do NOT coincide with most citizens or with the Constitution. The members of the media can be excused at some level for their shortcomings because of their limited mental acuity. Reading and understanding the Constitution probably requires an eighth grade proficiency which is far beyond the capacity of many who chose to follow journalistic endeavors.

Obviously, the career politicians who unceasingly abuse our rights and ignore our Constitution are the “Sultans of Slut-dom.” They take oaths of office following their elections and proceed to systematically violate them at every turn. Not only are many of our political class… whores, they are cheap whores. They routinely sell out for campaign funds from their favored interest group or for ground troops for their re-election campaigns. They consistently pass new legislation to “clean up” the process but simultaneously open new loopholes and crevices for circumventing the law. They sell out and roll over at the mere glimpse of a dollar or a favor. Their favorite pastimes are screwing the constituency, screwing the nation and violating their sacred trusts. They are whores, sluts and hookers of the highest order. They are committed to their assumed profession and ignorant of their public obligation.

The title of this column is “Sluts and Nuts.” This is a term that most large-scale political campaigns know. There is an element of society that “hangs around” the campaign seeking opportunities for engaging the candidate or upper staff in questionable activity. Some politicians appreciate their presence but fear their disclosures. Others tremble when the sluts and nuts are nearby, but they are a common element of our political life. In light of my previous ranting about the “sluts” in our political structure, allow me to posit that we, the voters and citizens, are the nuts. We are nuts because we allow the sluts to do what they do to us, our Constitution and our republic.

Note to Ms. Fluke: If you’re playing the game and seek the fame, don’t complain about the name.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com