Bedtime Reflections

Barack Obama is on the major networks right now. I would normally be watching such an event. A political candidate with so much money to throw around that he's buying an entire half-hour of primetime on three major networks. However, I know he will just infuriate and depress me.
Instead I am clinging to God and guns, to turn a phrase (if only I were kidding... Remington 870's are on sale at Dick's Sporting Goods this week). So rather than listen to the political grandstanding and sugar-coated shredding of our Constitution I am listening to my two year old son sing along with Fernando Ortega as he blesses us with some hymns. Allow me to share one of my favorites with you. Written in 1787 it has lifted the souls of Christians through many a dark hour,

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
to you that for refuge to Jesus have fled?

"Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed!
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell shall endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."

Beautiful. Now, I must be off to tend to the afformentioned son as he protests the audacity of bedtime.

~ Gabriel

Illinois Corn Huskers

It's a beautiful Autumn day today. A crisp 54 degrees, bright sunshine and deep, deep blue skies. Perfect weather for harvesting corn. It's been a little wetter than you'd want recently, but today is perfect. The combines are out in the fields in force, mostly John Deere green with a good showing of Case IH red as well. There should be a few New Hollands out there and perhaps an occasional CAT. Grain trucks shuttle back and forth; new Peterbuilt day-cabs with full trailers, rusty old Ford F-600's, and classic International trucks. Hundreds of thousands of bushels of corn are currently being stripped from the stalks, husked, seperated from the cob, and loaded onto the waiting trucks in a single operation.

Innovation in harvesting technology and techniques allow the modern American farmer to harvest large tracts of land with very few people in a short amount of time. Even a single farmer can now quickly harvest acreage that would have been out of reach for a team of people a few short decades ago. So what did Central Illinois corn farmers do before the advent of GPS guided combines and diesel powered Kenworths?

Bill Kemp, at the McLean Country Museum of History provides us with a glimpse into harvest time in the Midwest before the advent of mechanized harvesting equipment:

Today, corn is harvested by the kernel, but for most of human history the grain was harvested and stored by the ear. In Octobers now long past, the Corn Belt countryside would be dotted with groups of men and boys methodically working their way through the fields, picking the ears by hand.

A good picker - also known as a husker, shucker or even jerker - could work two or three rows simultaneously, snapping the ears off the stalks, removing the husks, and bouncing the now-cleaned ears off of a raised backboard (or "bangboard") of a horse-drawn wagon.

The most difficult step was stripping the husk off the ear. For this, many used glove-like husking hooks. Strapped to the wrist or across the palm, these tools featured a sharp steel edge that when drawn down the husk separated the shuck from the ear.

As you can imagine, this was a simple process in concept, yet demanding and skillful work if done well and quickly. In the manner of men since the beginning of time (I assume) any activity that requires skill and strength must soon become a competitive endeavor.

Like a lot of manual farm labor, husking was simple to learn yet difficult to master. It demanded stamina, speed and hands of iron. The more accomplished huskers competed against each other in local, county, state and national contests, and crowds numbering in the tens of thousands would gather in fields to watch men "bang" upward of 50 ears a minute.

The typical husking contest lasted 80 minutes. Speed was not the only measure of success. Pickers, for instance, were penalized for leaving corn in the field (referred to as "gleanings"), or failing to strip away enough husk on the picked ears.

Irvin (also known as Irvan) Bauman, an unmarried, 22-year-old farmer from Congerville, captured the 1935 state championship. A crowd estimated at 25,000 gathered at the Woodford County farm of George Shuman to watch Bauman husk 2,662 pounds of corn, with a deduction of 105 pounds for missed corn and excess husks. Bauman’s net load of 36.5 bushels was not far from the then-world record of 36.9 bushels.

The next time you here someone refer to the "Midwestern work ethic" keep this story in mind. Mr. Bauman single-handedly harvested 36.5 bushels of corn in 80 minutes. Now, that was the state record of course, not your average Livingston Country cornhusker, but still. And the next time you see a football game on a Sunday afternoon and marvel at the huge stadiums and the 75,000 people in attendance, think back through Illinois history to a time when farmers drew bigger crowds than athletes or movie stars:

In 1939, the state title match in Danville drew a crowd of 90,000. The champion was Ecus Vaughan, a Kentuckian who helped work his half brother’s farm in Monticello. "Despite a record-breaking crowd," the Pantagraph reported, "many of the farm advisors reported interest in husking contests waning, due to more and more general use of machines."

The advent and evolution of farming machinery might be another post in itself. The 1930's were the last decade in IL to see virtually all the corn crop harvested by hand. As the country boomed after WWII, manufacturing took giant leaps forward and farming became increasingly changed by the availability of tractors, harvesters, combines and everything else that have become the staples of the modern farmer's life.

So next time you drive through the country and witness the corn harvest coming in, think of two things. Firstly, marvel at the ingenuity and technological prowess that allows so few people to grow and harvest so much grain. It is a feat unprecedented in human history. Secondly, take moment to picture groups people moving through the fields picking and shucking each ear of corn by hand and tossing them into a horse-drawn wagon; take a moment to appreciate the strength, determination, and hard-working spirit that was exemplified by the people that built these counties into the heartland that we sometimes take for granted today.

~ Gabriel

Bill Kemp, the Archivist/Librarian at the McLean County Museum of History has put together a series of articles at the Pantagraph detailing various aspects of life in Bloomington/Normal and the surrounding counties throughout the history of the region. I find these articles fascinating and intend bring a few of these articles and stories to my blog in an effort to celebrate the history and cultural roots of Central Illinois.

An Offer They couldn't Refuse?

Normally I don't read or recommend the New York Times, but take the time to read this story, it should be an eye-opening experience. A few relevant quotes, and a lot of questions:

The chief executives of the nine largest banks in the United States trooped into a gilded conference room at the Treasury Department at 3 p.m. Monday. To their astonishment, they were each handed a one-page document that said they agreed to sell shares to the government, then Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said they must sign it before they left.

What? Well, certainly these executives had already agreed to the deal and this was only a formality, right? Surely they attended this meeting fully aware of what they were getting into, greedily holding their hands out for government money? Right?

The chairman of Wells Fargo, Richard M. Kovacevich, protested strongly that, unlike his New York rivals, his bank was not in trouble because of investments in exotic mortgages, and did not need a bailout, according to people briefed on the meeting.

Wait a minute, at least one of these banks had made wise choices, stayed out of the mortgage mess and WASN'T on board? Hm. Surely they were allowed to opt out? Take their chances? Trust to their own judgement?

What happened during those three and a half hours is a story of high drama and brief conflict, followed by acquiescence by the bankers, who felt they had little choice but to go along with the Treasury plan to inject $250 billion of capital into thousands of banks — starting with theirs. ...

...But unlike in Britain, the Treasury secretary presented his plan as an offer the banks could not refuse. “It was a take it or take it offer,” said one person who was briefed on the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private. “Everyone knew there was only one answer.”...

This should send chills down our collective spines. This is an unelected government official that has just been given a 750B blank check flexing his muscles Mafia-style. "We've taken the liberty of writing your confession, you're welcome to sign it... sure would be unfortunate if something were to happen..." Of course, this is a last resort, there are no other options, these banks NEED this intervention to function. Right?

Kenneth D. Lewis, the chairman of Bank of America, also pushed back, saying his bank had just raised $10 billion on its own. ...

... In an interview on Monday, before the meeting, John J. Mack said his bank, Morgan Stanley, did not need capital from the Treasury. It had just sealed a $9 billion deal with a large Japanese bank.

Hm, apparently financial professionals are able to work on financial problems without Big Brother buying shares in their companies.
With every buyout, bailout, and safety net that the Federal Government provides, our country falls farther and farther from it's roots, foundations, and principles. This is disheartening when it is done with willing accomplices in the private sector. When it is done TO an unwilling company it is maddening, criminal. That's not a bailout, it's extortion.

This begs two questions that need answering:
What CAN we do?
What SHOULD we do?

Paulson is not elected Bernake is not elected. They were appointed by the party of "fiscal responsibility." Normally my response to questions of this nature is "elections matter, vote conservative." However, apparently, in this case, elections did not matter. Would the response to this "crisis" have been MORE socialist with Kerry or Gore as president? I ask again, what can we do? What should we do? Should we do anything?

~ Gabriel

When Confidence Fails

Of the many things that conspire together to make the United States of America the greatest place in the world to live, our long record of peaceful transfer of power has to among the most prominent. Throughout our 200+ year history our leaders have been replaced and disputes about power transfer have been settled with the ballot or through elected representatives. Obviously this has not always been perfectly accomplished, or done without some occasionally bitter divisions and disputes. But on January 9, 2009 George W. Bush will willingly surrender his office to the winner of this years presidential election. Such a peaceful succession of power is only possible if the citizens and the politicians involved have a reasonable level of confidence in the election process.

Surely all Americans will admit there is some amount of voter fraud in every election. We would be naive not to admit it. However, we have chosen to believe that the vast majority of voters and election officials are honest, that there are enough safeguards to ensure an accurate and fair election. We have to believe this, otherwise our system of government is a sham.

Recent evidence is beginning to call that confidence into question. Particularly in regards to the activist group ACORN. ACORN purports to be a non-partisan, non-profit organization that is interested in promoting involvement in the democratic process by as many people at possible. Admirable, if true. Nothing could be further from the truth however, they are actively partisan, supporting and promoting Barack Obama. Unashamedly so. This should be scandal enough, but there's more, and worse. They have been shown to be engaged in widespread voter registration fraud. Deroy Murdock over at National Review Online posts a good article summarizing most of the voter registration fraud connected to ACORN that is currently known. I have no doubt that more will come to light. You'll have to read the whole thing for yourself, but some relevant sections:

In Indiana, people seem really psyched for November. STATSIndiana reveals that 644,197 adults in Marion County (Indianapolis) are of voting age. Among those, 677,401 are registered to vote. Thanks to these 33,204 fake voters, Indianapolis enjoys an amazing 105.15 percent registration rate.

In Lake County, among 5,000 registration applications that ACORN submitted, all of the first 2,100 proved bogus. “All the signatures looked exactly the same,” Republican election official Ruthann Hoagland told CNN. “Everything on the card filled out looks exactly the same.” Her Democratic colleague, Sally LaSota, agreed. “We’re not handwriting experts, but what’s obvious is obvious.” These 5,000 forms were placed in what Hoagland called the “fake pile” for later scrutiny.

One card was filed by Jimmy Johns. His address is listed as 10839 Broadway in Crown Point. That turns out to be the location of a fast-food restaurant called . . . Jimmy Johns.

Don't worry, each one of those 35,000 registrations is an isolated incident by an over-enthusiastic volunteer, not typical. (Of course, my 35,000 number is HUGELY conservative considering it allows a 100% registration rate for Marion county and assumes that only the first 2,100 registrations in Lake County are fraudulent.) But wait, there's more:

In New Mexico, Bernalillo County authorities are examining 1,400 dubious registration cards. Also, ACORN illegally has hired felons there to register voters. This apparently included a child rapist. ACORN reportedly has had at least 59 felons signing up voters across America.

More isolated incidents:

According to the Wall Street Journal, a worker for one Ohio ACORN affiliate in 2004 “was given crack cocaine in exchange for fraudulent registrations that included underage voters, dead voters, and pillars of the community named Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, and Jive Turkey.”

And yet a few more over-enthusiastic volunteers, just wanting to help people:

In Washington State, ACORN agreed to court supervision and paid a $25,000 fine after five of its workers went to jail in July 2007 for sitting in a Seattle public library and filling out 1,800 registration forms with names they invented. In 2004, some Democratic precincts generated more mail-in ballots than there were mail voters.

This is just a sampling. ACORN is being investigated in 13 different states. This is probably the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Many states, including our own Illinois, aren't even looking at ACORN for voter fraud. It's impossible to tell how much fraud takes place when the people responsible for the safety of elections aren't interested in groups like ACORN. Of course, elections in Illinios are largely determined by the Daley machine. "Vote early, vote often!" has long been a Cook County motto. Now, a group like ACORN can handle the dirty work under the cloak of "non-partisanship."

For more on ACORN and Barack Obama's ties to the organization see Stanley Kurtz's piece, here; Mark Hemingway, here; or any one of Michelle Malkin's posts on the subject, start here.

Back to the greater point. In light of prevalent fraud of this nature, and the knowledge that we are only looking at the tip of the iceberg, what are we as a society to do? It has become rather common for elections, even national ones, to come down to thousands, even hundreds of votes. What if the candidates are separated by 2,000 votes in Indiana? 5,000 in Illinois? (unlikely I know) Iowa by 500? What would we do? Pretend that fraud didn't play a part in the selection our President? If we DO recognize the fraud, what would we be able to do about it?

Our election systems are in trouble. It's time to take a hard, honest look at some of our policies. Like even allowing a third party to register voters in the first place. Or same day registration/early voting. Or even early voting at all, I guess there are some situations where it is needed, but it should be rare. One immediate way to begin reform is to ask for a simple photo ID at the voting booth. We show photo ID for virtually everything else. I have to show a photo ID to buy cold medicine for my kids, to rent a video, to drive a car, the list is endless. The idea that this would discriminate against any eligible voter in any way is ridiculous and embarrassing. The idea that it would it would unfairly hurt minorities is condescending, offensive, and racist.

Open, honest and fair elections are among the basic foundations for our system of government and way of life. These elections are under attack. If we do nothing, we risk losing our collective confidence in the electoral process. What will happen when that confidence fails?

~Gabriel

Photoshop credit: Leo Alberti

Monday Quote of the Day

From Charles Robinson's "Winners and Losers" column at Yahoo Sports:

The decision to squib the kickoff with 11 seconds remaining cost the Bears the game, plain and simple. What was with the soft zone in the secondary, allowing Michael Jenkins to catch a 26-yard pass to put Jason Elam in field-goal range? This is a team that could be 6-0 right now with some better coaching decisions.

Agreed, with the one caveat that there is virtually never one decision that costs a game. There were plenty of poor decisions to go around. However, once you overcome your poor decisions/play to take the lead with 11 seconds... you have to stop making those same mistakes that nearly cost you the game already. "Could be" is for wimps, but still... 6-0 would have had a nice ring to it.

~ Gabriel

Catching up and Stuff

At long last I'm posting again. Life has been keeping me rather busy. An emergency surgery in the family, a family camping trip and time spent sailing into the sea of mortgages have kept me on my toes. So much has transpired since my last post that I would normally write about that I shall try to catch up with an "Impromptus"-style post (with apologies to Jay Nordlinger at National Review). A stream-of-consciousness post mixing personal, political, and sports news of interest to me (and hopefully you as well):

It's interesting to note, when I signed on to Blogger yesterday I found an unfinished post from about 4 or 5 weeks ago in which I set out to illustrate that the times we live in aren't nearly as bad or unique as they seem. Our country just isn't THAT old and each previous generation has dealt with challenges that certainly seemed to be worst the country had faced. However... given the events of the last few weeks, I'm beginning to wonder if that post is still valid. Particularly in regard to the nearly unprecedented government involvement in the banking/investment/mortgage business and the subsequent reaction and instability in the markets.

Speaking of big-government, for you Illinois folks, our own Dick Durbin is up for re-election this year. So make sure and get out on election day and vote for Steve Sauerberg. Frankly, I'd just about vote for Mickey Mouse if he was running against Durbin. We're not supposed to question politician's patriotism (couldn't tell you why not), in Durbin's case I guess you can't question what you can't see.

Since my last post we've had two debates between McCain/Obama and one between Biden/Palin. I can't really bring myself to care enough about the debates to write much by way of analysis. Suffice to say, it's too bad Fred Thompson never made it past the primaries.

On to sports. The baseball season has come to an end for our regional teams. My own St. Louis Cardinals sputtered out and finished in an entirely unspectacular fashion. Their finish not withstanding, it was a great year for the Cardinals as they outperformed all expectations and chased the first place Cubs and held off the Brewers for most of the season.

Speaking of the Cubs... "unspectacular" is about the last word you'd use for their end of season. After setting some kind of team record for back to back appearances in the post season, they proceeded to AGAIN fail to win a single game. I wonder what the record is for postseason appearances without a win? A few words from Buzz Bissenger,

"...The inevitable implosion of the Cubs – the sad fury of their futility – only gave the rivalry an added extra, with nothing more fun for a Cards fan than to watch the Cubs self-destruct with their own special brand of pathos..."

I really did think this year might be the exception.

Harvest is now in full swing. This my absolute favorite time of every year. I know, every season has it's special moments, but Autumn is far and away dearest to me. The sweltering humidity of August breaks and is replaced by 65-70 degree days and 45 degree nights. The trees go out it a blaze of glory, the fields of corn are shining and golden, the sunsets shining through the cumulative dust of hundreds of thousands of acres being harvested are spectacular.

I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but there's a certain intangible quality about this time of year. Maybe it's the romanticism of harvest. Maybe it's the bittersweet nature of Fall; beautiful in its own right, but ultimately all the beauty is a collection of endings, harbingers of winter. Maybe it's nothing more than hot apple cider on a cool evening. Whatever the reason, this time of year speaks to me in ways I can't always explain, I hope it does for you too.

I look forward to fitting in a few more posts in the near future that are currently half-written in my mind. By request I'm also planning on doing a review of "To Train up a Child" by Michael and Debbie Pearl sometime this fall. I'm still debating what sort of format to do it in, it's a rather time-consuming process to do a good job. As always, feel free to leave comments or ask questions. I'm trying out the "Live Chat" box on the right side of the screen. If it says I'm available for chat, I really am. Feel free to try it out or to leave a message for me through it.

~Gabriel