Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Bee Hiving Moon<\/p>\n
15 degrees this morning. \u00a0Woolly Charlie Haislet who lives on Sims Lake near Gordon, Wisconsin reports 1 degree and 8-12 inches of snow on the way. \u00a0They have 2 feet of ice on the lake.<\/p>\n
Beware the ides of April. \u00a0Libertarians and certain anti-tax right-wingers (we know who you are tea partiers) ventilate today. \u00a0Can you hear the sighs and moans of U.S. citizens forced to chip in for such things as roads, environmental protection, defense, national criminal justice systems, national science and health programs, healthcare programs, national weather services, Congress (well, o.k., Congress is a tough sell right now, but we can still vote the bums out), regulatory authorities?<\/p>\n
Just how a complex citizenry, divided up among 50 states, and working in the world’s largest economy would function without national level efforts puzzles me. \u00a0But the fevered imagination of those who took the Reagan era’s “starve the beast” rhetoric seriously sees totally free agents doing anything they want personally and economically and being better off for it. At least the anarchists have the underlying idea of co-operation as a value for a functioning community. \u00a0The libertarian and tea-party folk apparently believe in a Hobbesian “all against all” and yearn for it. \u00a0Picture me scratching my head.<\/p>\n
Freedom, by itself, is pointless. \u00a0Yes, I said that. \u00a0Freedom alone only allows room to act. \u00a0It does not, in itself, guide action unless, of course, it is freedom itself that is denied. \u00a0Given the paradox that absolute, unfettered freedom would produce its enemies: totalitarianism, constant criminality, or a forever war; then, we have to consider the limited freedom that makes modern civilization possible. \u00a0Even within the limits on freedom represented by taxes, speed limits, criminal law and regulation, the opportunity to develop yourself and your family as rapidly and as thoroughly as you wish, exists.<\/p>\n
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Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Bee Hiving Moon 15 degrees this morning. \u00a0Woolly Charlie Haislet who lives on Sims Lake near Gordon, Wisconsin reports 1 degree … Continue reading Beware The Ides of April<\/span>