American Farmer

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Apology

I didn’t intend to let this blog lapse over the holidays.  It just happened.

Now that I’m back to work, with school back in session and my wife due in a month, finding the time and energy to devote to writing just does not seem to be happening.  If anyone is still checking in, a month after the last post, I appreciate your faith in me, but I have to say that I’m not sure when I will post again.

I hope Nock becomes an inspiration to other people in the same way that he is to me, but I am afraid that this is not the right time for me to be actively working toward that end.  Now is the time for me to be looking more inward, to my family, seeing to their needs and educating them.  Hopefully at some point in the future, when my kids are older and more independent, I can take up this mantle again and do a better job of it.

One final comment for now: I bought myself a Christmas present, The Forgotten Man by Amity Shales.  It is a history of the Great Depression, written without the FDR rah-rah.  I think except for a couple minor cases, the author did a good job of presenting facts rather than opinion, and that she did not go out of her way to bash FDR when it was unwarranted.  His actions speak for themselves.  My intent in reading it was to better understand the Great Depression in the context of our newly elected president and our current recession, with the hopes of predicting where we are going economically.  While I am convinced that Obama took much of his political strategy straight from FDR’s playbook, I am no longer concerned that he will be driving us off a cliff into another depression.  That feat required monumentally stupid trade barriers being erected, as well as actions by the Federal Reserve that were exactly opposite what was necessary to preserve economic health.  Trade barriers are a possibility, but my experience has been that while the Fed is not always on the side of the angels, neither is their grasp of macro-economics as superficial as it was in the 1930s.  We are in for rough times, certainly.  But not Great Depression rough.  This book was a valuable history lesson for me, and a fascinating study in the evolution of the modern progressive movement.  I highly recommend it.

Thank you for reading.

1. I’ll miss your posts but life gets in the way sometimes.  I’ll be checking back weekly just in case you decide to post something.

   Best of luck to you and yours!

   P.S.  I’ve got Nock!  Just finishing off another book before I start reading it.

   yabusame | 1/16/2009 11:10 AM CDT
 

2. You could… just could scribble a bit about homeschool and new youngsters in the house.

   A discussion is often as good a thing as an essay.

   But not our will, but thine be done. 

   Weetabix | 1/16/2009 03:58 PM CDT
 

3. Good Luck Farmer!

   You (and the du Toits) have been instrumental in my own (re?)education and my reading of Nock.

   Thanks

   shkinma | 1/27/2009 02:53 PM CDT
 

4. Who cares how busy you are? Daily posts, please.

   Oh… and welcome to MY (former) world.

   (Mr.) Kim du Toit | 1/29/2009 03:00 PM CDT
 

5. I still haven’t figured out how you managed it, Kim.  Putting together something coherent twice a month is hard enough.  And even then it’s junk half the time.

   Some people have a talent for it.  That’s the only way I can explain it.

   American Farmer | 2/4/2009 02:46 PM CDT
 

6. So.... how are you feeling now? Since they are attempting to erect trade barriers and seem to be using Japan’s Lost Decade (15 years...) as a plan?

   silvermine | 2/22/2009 01:30 PM CDT
 

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