The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Greetings to everyone in western Illinois.
Maple syrup sap collecting is all but over for the most part.
I'm a hop'n everyone had a good sap run and fun in doing it.
Thunder in March betokens a fruitful year. Those of you'ns that was around these parts last weekend heard lots of thunder along with a plentiful supply of rain. Let's now see how the upcoming year turns out. I think the old farmer's saying has to do with lightning fixating nitrogen to the rain, to enrich the soil with that important nutrient.
By now the migrant birds are retuning and/or passing thru in great numbers. Meadowlarks are the ones I look for the most, after the robin, this time of year.
I heard tell of many thousands of geese resting on the Russ Gardner farm, in the Biggsville area. In a trip up there to have a look see, I saw a most unusual and fantastic sight. Those snow and Canadian geese had the ground literally covered. I'm told they spent the greater part of last week in his corn stalks. I've never seen so many geese concentrated in one place at one time, honking and carrying on in the most beautiful manner. Isn't nature grand!
There are good days and there are bad days, and dependent upon your determination, this is one of them.
March is breeding season for opossums, skunks, flying squirrels, muskrats, and coyotes in these parts. Keep a watchful eye out and you will notice their changed behavior.
On March 11, 1918 the Spanish flu epidemic hit the United States. I am told more strong young men were killed by this mutated disease than was killed in World War I, which was going on at that time.
On March 12, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his first fireside chat which was broadcast on the radio. How many today can remember huddling around the old crystal radio set eagerly awaiting some positive news?
Here we are seventy-six (76) years later hoping for more good news. Misinformation is being presented under the banner of journalism. Daily news includes more layoffs with the jobless rate topping 8%, the highest in 26 years; more burdens being proposed for small businesses forcing them to provide health care, IRAs, and/or 401 ks, "more expensive bookkeeping"; farmers threatened by the EPA for dust laws and gas emissions of animals, all the while being punished for their lifetime self sacrifices and hard earned successes by increasing capital gains taxes; a proposed 10% state income tax (2nd highest in nation) to partially finance politicians pensions; disincentives to corporations and individuals adding additional burdensome taxes during a recession; a record $3.6 trillion budget projecting a monumental $1.75 trillion deficit for 2009 alone; new excise taxes on offshore drilling and plans to require polluters to buy permits which could affect "all Americans who drive a car, who have a job, who turn on a light, and who farm with modern machinery; step up in the war with Afghanistan and willingness to negotiate with the Taliban; clamp down on military defense spending and missile defense system; Iran approaching nuclear warfare capabilities; corruption in government (especially in Illinois); five (5) cabinet appointees not paying their proper taxes but being allowed special consideration due to their importance and political influence; mandated abortions; a $787 billion "stimulus package"; a $410 billion spending bill; pork everywhere in government spending with 8,570 earmarks worth $7.7 billion with the approval of President Obama who repeatedly stated he would not allow such to happen under his administration; abortions to 14 year olds without parental consent; the potential loss of gun rights which are now guaranteed by the Constitution; higher gas taxes; reversal, by executive order, of restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research; judges changing terms of mortgages resulting in higher costs to everyone; proposed state building code negating the old saying, "Your home is your castle"; General Motors supporting five retirees for every active employee at dollar levels that would make a farmers mouth water, all the while expecting the tax payer to bail them out; increased crime wave and drug cartel gang warfare in Canada and Mexico; a health care fix that promises long lines and limited service; and the list goes on and on and on without let up.
Now the present leadership is ready to fix the aforementioned problems. They will provide, "Big Government" help, with the additional taxes of your hard earned dollars, to solve everyone's dilemmas. Even those who pay no taxes will receive funding to service their illegal drug, gambling, and drinking habits. It is called equalization of income. Never mind that one works hard and the other does not, but we must equalize!
The Puritans had a better cure for this problem. It was called, "No work-no eat"!
President Obama is confident the American worker will utilize stamina, and ease his way out of our current problems, as he has always done in the past.
But, never before were so many disincentives proposed to discourage success as are being proposed currently.
The American Indian understood this well. He felt the government, as he knew and experienced it, spoke with a "forked tongue". In fact the government helped him out of anything and everything worthwhile that he once had, and put him on barren reservations.
They were disarmed, their family structure disintegrated, oft times by force and deceit, their culture destroyed, and made subservient and dependent on the government for survival, oft times at the least meager level.
If'n you think the government is not capable of doing this by and by, get yourself a copy of the Secretary of States, Rules of the Road. There you will see threats to restrict your "privilege" to drive dependent upon non driving events. Example: don't pay alimony and loose your license, etc. etc. Don't ever think government is incapable of unreasonable coercion to mold you to their ways. Look at Europe, Asia, or South America if you would like to see good examples of unreasonable government cohesion.
Well anyways, Roosevelt's Fireside Chats would be a welcome relief today, in comparison. And, along with March being the breeding season for the varmints mentioned earlier in this column, I think it also holds a good start for the breeding season of corny liberal ideas from our politicians, mimicking those thieven sneaky coyotes with a smell worse than a spray'n polecat.
Welcome to the, "New order of society of hope" as was promised us these last two years of campaigning. Some might say they did not readily recognize who and/or what the "hope" was designed for!
Keep on smile'n!
Catch ya later
Barnyard Bruke