Weighing In On The Election

I haven't weighed in on the election yet so I must. We didn't have a good choice for President. This is why.
Conservatism and it's ideals will sustain a nation forever.
Liberalism must eventually destroy the nation it governs. We are well on the way.
Conservatism believes competition is good and that if you fail at being competitive with ideas and products, your company will fail. And if your business fails everyone who works for you will lose their good paying jobs. If you make loans to people who can't pay them back, your bank will fail. Failure is a correction. Failure is a great teacher and sets you up for the next victory. Everyone survives it, but you end up with smarter business people, bankers, suppliers and better products and a better, stronger nation. Forever.
Liberalism says it's okay to fail. They don't believe in winners. Everyone gets a trophy. They want everyone to be equal and a dependant of the federal government. Even if you don't work. They will swipe money from the smartest business people (taxes) and give it to you so you won't need to worry. They want to take care of us. This destroys the will to work and removes gumption. This gives the recipient a sense that "I can go it alone so I don't need a complete family unit to survive." "I don't need help, I have the government." Liberalism totally destroys the individuals' will to succeed. Liberalism will only work until we run out of wealthy people. (I'm not wealthy by the way)
It also demands that the wealthiest in our country move as much of their business and assets, elsewhere, as soon as possible. They will take the jobs with them as they go.
A high minimum wage also speeds this process up. Our present economy is evidence of the effects of raising wages on a whim, (even though it's not very intelligent) without regard for the havoc it will inevitably have on the economy.
Conservatism says government needs to stay out of business. All attempts to make it 'fair' will have far reaching, unexpectedly bad results. Conservatism does not believe in bail outs.
Liberalism says we must take care of all families and businesses. That kind of thinking is why the tiny (in population) state of Nebraska has an HSS budget nearing 3.5 BILLION dollars. That my dear readers is what is wrong with our economy. All other spending, military and war included, pales by comparison to HSS. Over 60 cents of every tax dollar now goes to 'entitlements.' That's why in the liberal strong hold of Chicago we lost more people by murder than we did soldiers in Iraq during the same period. This, in spite of having a 'brilliant' organizer.
The reason the failure must continue to the end is that the biggest cities control the ballot box. They cannot see the problem from where they stand. Their representatives to Washington must produce 'give aways' to get votes. The representatives will say the problem gets worse every year because of a conservative somewhere but not realizing that almost every major city is held and run by liberals. The worst of the crime, bad schools, and broken homes in our nation are under liberal leadership. (ie, New Orleans) But it's these same representatives who stick their chest out and proudly bring back more pork to the home town. They WILL get the votes because voting for them means 'Taxgetters won't need to work so hard.' Liberalism is a good example of perpetual motion. It gets bigger every pass.
Our economic emergency was started by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They got into trouble because House of Representative big wigs demanded that they make loans in the cities to their constituents. Yes, to anyone and everyone so as to get votes. Even to folks who couldn't pay them back. If you don't have money for a down payment...no problem we'll loan you 125% of the value of the house you want to buy. You say you can't make the payments? That's okay we'll let you pay 'interest only' for a few years.
It was a good way to get votes but it started the ball rolling. If we could remove these two institutions from the equation, then we would have been left with a simple economic downturn. The first one in eight years.
All of our biggest problems will and must get worse so long as we follow liberals. The spouting constantly that we need to throw more money at every problem, won't fix the problem. It never has. It never will. And so long as we have a votary who can't see the root of the cause, we are destined to continue down our road to socialism and then on to the last step of communism.
Personal responsibility is the only answer for the problems our country has. We have to deal with our own short comings in our families, our businesses, and our society.
And lastly and most dangerous of all, Are the probable appointments to the supreme court. The appointees will be attorneys set on making their own laws regardless of present law, the U.S. Constitution be damned. They will be using beliefs from around the world and will likely not consider the Constitution. With the appointments of the next four years to 'what used to be' the Supreme court will likely be the beginning of the end. After all they will be made by a man who has proven that he believes that infantacide is okay.
We are destined to move toward more failures of families, large businesses, and schools for the next four years and beyond. We were destined to do that no matter who won the presidency.
Liberalism, once rooted, can't be stopped. Just watch.
It could be worse. You could be in the military and have to salute the new commander in chief.
Now, where's my trophy?

Dear Turkeys,
I submit to you my Thanksgiving column for your perusal. It can be found HERE on The Midwest Producer magazine website.

The Beginning Of The End

I don't have much time to write this, so you'll need to read fast!
Sorry to not have been a good blogger as of late (as if I ever was) but we've been busy harvesting. Today should be the end of it and none too soon, it's supposed to hit 12 degrees this morning and my combine operator is heading to Corpus Christi tomorrow.
Two of my brothers and my combine have hung in there. My bride has been gracious enough to let our daughter drive my semi for several days now. That means Marilyn and Mandy have had to do all of the grooming by themselves.
Our bins are full and our corn was too high in moisture to be accepted in our local elevator so she (our daughter) has had to deliver a lot of loads to a processor 25 miles south of here.
Any good farmer would tell you that predicting the end of harvest is pretty stupid. It's not good to become smug and there by tempt 'the breakdown gods' before you get done. After all, a bad breakdown could occur this morning and we could be eating Thanksgiving dinner and then going back to the field to finish harvest.
But I'm predicting the end of harvest anyway. Today. Noon.
Now I've got to send someone after oysters. It's tradition.
Update: We finished harvest and pulled the combine and grain cart into the shed at 11:55 AM. Wrong shed but at least they're inside of a shed.

So, yesterday morning I sat down to write a column for the paper. I got a call from my Bride. She said she just got a text message (from Dan our son) that said they didn't 'induce' the delivery as planned because she had just started labor on her own right then.
Twenty minutes later Marilyn called back to say "It's a Girl!" She had a twenty minute labor attended to by nurses. The Dr had gone across town to his clinic for a while. He missed it. When the baby arrived the nurses said, "we said don't push." The reply was "I didn't push."
Well, off to lincoln we went.


This is a pic of my lovely daughter in-law a couple of weeks ago.

This is what we found in the hospital. The little one is Georgia Kay.

Grandpa reported that he was pulling for Cliffetta or Ralph-ina for a name. The look on Marilyns face means, "you're not serious?"

Great Grandma went along to hold the baby.

Cousin Hudson brought Dad along to see the babe also.

Congrats to Julie and Dan and a big welcome to Georgia Kay!!

Okay, now I'm past deadline on the column. It was going to be about Thanksgiving and having a grateful heart. It will be easier to write now.

Big Announcement To Follow

Check back a bit later today. I have four appointments today. Between numbers 2 and 3 I'll make the big announcement with pictures.
A hint: It involves adding members to our immediate family.

This Farming Game Is Not For Sissys

The combine broke down again today. One of my brothers drove 45 minutes north to a John Deere dealer and I drove 45 minutes south to a John Deere dealer to pick up one part the first dealer didn't have in stock.
My parts man brought out a 5 inch long machined pipe with a small gear on the end. It was small enough to easily hold in one hand.
"Should I bill this to the other dealer?" he asked.
I said "Yes."
He said, "Wow, it doesn't look like it should cost $340 dollars does it?"
I quietly said, "You can't scare me."
He said "Pardon me?"
I said, "I've owned John Deere equipment for a lot of years so nothing you could say about price could possibly scare me."
He smiled and said, "I'll bet not."
He's right.

THE HIT MOVIE

BROKEDOWN MOUNTAIN
Starring CLIFF'S COMBINE. Four sizable breakdowns in two days. I didn't pay for a new combine but I'm buying one Johnny Cash style. One Piece At A Time.