For want of a horse...

I never knew my wife's Grandpa Burley Moyer. He passed away long before we met.

I don't remember when farmers used horses for doing the farm work either. Of course, a lot of Amish use horses for farming around here nowadays, but that is more from choice than necessity.

I do remember when I was a kid, they used to have horse pulls at the Mooreland Fair. Burley might have been there, but like I said, I didn't know him, so I couldn't really say.

I remember that I was pretty small, and those horses were pretty big. They had a big sled at one end of a dirt track, and the horses would pull it from one end to the other.

I remember that there would be a long line of men standing along the track, and as the horses pulled the sled down the track, more and more men would climb onto the sled until the horses just couldn't pull it anymore.

I remember that no matter how strong and determined the horses were, eventually, when enough people climbed on the sled, the horses just couldn't pull it any more.


I wish the politicians in Washington would remember that.

Something refreshing from the Barr....

I've made some mistakes in my life. I'd be the second to admit that. My wife would be the first. The worst thing about making mistakes is the problems that accompany them. The best thing about making mistakes is that, if you live through them, you have the chance to learn not to make them again. That's a good thing, I think.

I caught a clip of Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr on the Colbert Report tonight. As expected, Colbert made some humorous straw man suggestions about Libertarians,(e.g., equating opposing the FDA to drinking lead based paint) and then moved on to some more serious questions about Mr.Barr's past votes on some less than libertarian bills in Congress concerning the Patriot Act and the Drug War.

It was refreshing to hear a politician say that some of the things he had supported weren't right, and that we need to change directions. That's probably as close as we're going to come to hearing a politician say that he made a mistake, and I doubt that we'll hear it from anybody else.

But wouldn't it be nice to hear the Republicans (and Democrats) admit that their aggressive foreign policy is bankrupting our nation, and that their oppressive domestic policies have cost us more freedom than the nations we fight with?

How much better off would we be if the Democrats (and Republicans) would admit that the social and entitlement programs they have created to provide all things for all people are unsustainable, even if we count on our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to pay for them?

Wouldn't it be refreshing if they all would admit that they had made mistakes, but were now willing to make amends?

Wouldn't it be nice if a few of them would follow Bob Barr's lead?

Wouldn't that be refreshing?