Hole in the Wall

Pop didn’t make it in this morning. So, maybe I get my two days to myself after all. I take advantage of the leisure to duct-tape the hole on the outside wall above the elephant ears and next to my room. I then water the elephant ears, along with a little plat of grass that is so dry that I am afraid it might not come back to life this spring.

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1455

Pop does make it back today. His car coming into the driveway pulled me from my nap. It was a good nap, but I wouldn't have minded another ten minutes. At least he comes back alone.

James Madison

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

-- James Madison

Pop

Pop said he got sick bad last night. He was out with Kay getting her groceries, and he was outside waiting in the windstorm, and it threw him for a vicious loop. He said that Kay almost called the ambulance.

I am afraid it will not be too many days when someone will have to call for an ambulance. Too many close calls lately.

Of Liberal Individualism

In his biography on Burke, Mr. Norman gives some discussion on some of the shortcomings of the liberal, individualistic society, as seen in our current day economic and political stresses of a society that is big on debt and ease and is averse to sacrifice and self-discipline. It is a familiar lamentation, but it is well expressed.

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We have been living beyond our means. We have been paying ourselves more than our efforts were earning. We sought political leaders who would assure us that the good times would never end and that the centuries of boom and bust were over; and we voted for those who offered that assurance. We sought credit for which we had no security and we gave our business to the banks that advertised it. We wanted higher exam grades for our children and were rewarded with politicians prepared to supply them by lowering exam standards. We wanted free and better health care and demanded Chancellors who paid for it without putting up our taxes. We wanted salacious stories in our newspapers and bought the papers that broke the rules to provide them. And now we whimper and snark at MPs, bankers and journalists. Fair enough, my friends, but you know we really are all in this together.

-- Matthew Parris (2012)

[Source: Jesse Norman, “Edmund Burke”]

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