slipping thru our hands

May 16th, 2008

s Ben Franklin was leaving Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation, at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he was asked, "Well, Doctor, what have we got — a Republic or a Monarchy?" To which, he replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it." The term "republic" had a special significance for all those early Americans. It meant a lot more than just representative government and was a form of government in stark contrast to "pure democracy", where the majority dictated laws and rights, aka chaos. And getting rid of the English monarchy was what the Revolution was all about, so another monarchy was out of the question. The American Republic required strict limitation of government power. Those powers which were actually permitted, would be precisely-defined and delegated by the people, with all public officials being bound by their oath of office to uphold the new US Constitution. The chaotic democratic process would be limited to the election of our leaders, and not used for granting special privileges to any group or individual, nor for defining special rights. The early American Revolutionaries clearly chose liberty over security, since their economic security and their very lives were threatened by undertaking the job of forming a new and limited government. Socialism and welfare were never even considered as alternatives to a republican form of government. That was the way it was supposed to be. In reality, just a scant 221 years later, our precious Republic is slipping away from our ever-weakening grasp. We've allowed it to progressively happen. We have ceded all kinds of unwarranted power to political parties and their corrupt, criminal politicians and supporters. We've traded liberty for security, and pretty soon, we'll deserve neither for the Faustian Bargain we've knowingly made. There was no welfare state in 1900; in 2008, we have a huge welfare state, which continues to grow each year. We've allowed it to happen through the scum we've elected. The federal government is now fully-involved in providing unlimited health care, houses, unemployment benefits, education, food stamps to millions, plus all kinds of subsidies to every conceivable special-interest group. It's become a "way of life", for millions. It has destroyed the ~~African-Americans~~ American Blacks, by keeping them on the "welfare plantation", and taking away all incentive for achievement and self-worth. It's done that to Whites and threatens to do the same to Hispanics, too. Welfare is now an integral and inseparable part of our culture, costing hundreds of billions of dollars every year. It is now an "inalienable right", something one is "entitled" to. Calling it an "entitlement" makes it sound all very legal and respectable, but it is theft, bottom line. Anyone who has a need, a desire, or a demand and can get the politicians' attention will get what s/he wants, even though it will be at the expense of someone else. The same is true for "corporate welfare", which quickly makes "just" corrupt politicians into true criminals. Today, it is considered morally right and politically correct to promote the welfare state; any suggestion to the contrary, is heresy. We have allowed the government to get control of education and medicine, both of which were specifically prohibited by the US Constitution, since they were the individual state's responsibility. We have allowed taxes to get far, far out of control, a federal police state to be formed to monitor our every thought and act, given presidents sweeping powers they were never meant to have... I could go on and on. Sure, we're cursed this ponderous, year-and-a-half election cycle with "The Three Stooges" — a black racist, Leninist, America-hating, terrorist-supporter, or a morally and criminally-compromised, menopausal Marxist, or a treasonous, lying, corrupt old fool who couldn't think his way out of a wet paper bag — but The American Electorate is 100% to blame for what we've had in the past, what we have now, and what we will have, for politicians and leaders. No one else. We listen to them. We evaluate them. We choose them. We elect them. We are responsible for the horrors which our so-called leaders inflict upon this Republic, at the local, state and federal levels. For us to allow black race-baiters & poverty-pimps, subhuman muslim-islamic-arab terrorist supporters, brown illegal aliens & criminals, yellow chi-comm espionage agents & traitors, and white trash 70s ~~radicals~~ saboteurs, communists, socialists and anarchists to gain access to elected office, is to ignore the continuing formation of The Enemy Within^™, aka The Fifth Column^™, who are dedicated to the overthrow of The United States of America. And yet we stand silently by, while the worst-of-the-worst possible subhuman filth, are elected and returned to office for multiple terms. Our choice, remember? I'm talking about politicians of all stripes, from all sides of the room. Few are worth keeping; most are worthless dirtbags and deserve summary trial and immediate execution. And fully 60% of The American Electorate is completely worthless, and richly deserving of the same end-fate, IMO. It sure would be nice to start over again, with a "clean, uncompromised Republic" after all the criminal politicians and compromised voters are gone. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening anytime soon, and I don't see anyone on the horizon worth voting for, right now. As a Conservative, what do I do? Vote for the "lesser of three evils"? Not vote at all? That's a question each of us must ask ourself, at the proper time, and do the right thing according to our own conscience. I'm working on it. One word of advice: "Be very careful what you wish/vote for; you just might get it."

Around The Garden Center™.

The rains were every bit as heavy (we got 2"+) as forecast on Friday, and we went to our already-discussed "Plan B" for the day. The LSCP Crews did the scheduled simple tree installations, the Key Staff and I met to review and modify the next 2-3 weeks work schedules, and I called it a day around 4:30pm. For each day we're rained-out, we theoretically lose 1-2 days of work, waiting for "dry-out" on the work sites, if machinery is required there. OTOH, we can always shift smaller jobs into place and get them completed, to free-up days on the back-end of the work schedule, which now extends to the end of June. So far, the economy isn't a factor, but the real test will come from July through September, when a number of economic factors converge in the 3rd quarter.

Mother's Day Weekend: Saturday was a rainy, cold day, with another ¼" of rain, early in the morning, but the system passed over around 2pm, and the skies cleared. The retail traffic flow was steady and heavy, all day. I had several employees in to help Dad and me, and I was glad Seth, Jennifer, Arthur and Tyler were there. Besides working on the now-5" pile of stuff on my desk, I also pitched-in and helped out some customers, loaded trees, mulch and a couple of cars and trucks with purchases. By 5pm, I'd closed, made two stops and headed home. At least my two condo cats were glad to see me, if only for their dinner. The "Best of The Savage Nation" was on from 6-9pm, and I didn't even make it through those 3 hours. By 8:30, I was asleep.

Sunday: up at 5am to feed the cats, then slept-in 'til 10; made coffee & Eggs Benedict; actually, 13+hrs was too much sleep, I could get very used to that regimen. Scanned the Net's weather forecasts, news, politics etc. SOS, except for more rain coming and new *FLOOD WARNINGS*, for Monday. Off to the Office and food shopping. My back was really hurting from loading and lifting plants/trees, yesterday. Big mistake, now that I feel the pain. Unplugged all the outside irrigation controllers, since we're to get heavy rain, t-storms & lightening strikes tonite and Monday, the remnants of these storms which hammered the Plains, Midwest and Southeast. Worked on corporate website's Open House page, and finished the Drip Irrigation page, Trough Gardens and Alpine Plants pages, coding-in pics I shot last week. The rain was steady and heavy all evening, and the occasional lightening made for a nice visual display.

At 4am, I knew much of the work week was already a wash-out for any serious landscape and hardscape work. It'd take 2-3 days to dry-out the worksites, and a lot of jobs were now going to snowball backward into the coming weeks. We'll be able to get some '07 plant replacements done, but the scheduled new jobs, are on hold. More serious rain coming Thursday thru next Monday, the forecast reads, but that'll change by the hour. "Plan B" was on my desk as I met with Alan, my Landscape Foreman and Seth, my Hardscape Foreman, on Monday at 7am. I'll have a lot of calls to make in rescheduling many, many jobs. No complaints, as last year at this time, it was a very dry Spring and we went directly into a very, very dry Summer & Fall, aka "The Unending Drought From Hell". What rain we did get was in the 2-3-4"/hour period, and 95% of it ran-off into the streams, benefiting no one. I checked the condo's rain gauge: 2¾" as of 5:45am, as I left for work. And the rain was still falling hard. Retention ponds had overflowed during the night, streams and creeks turned into rivers. The GC&N's rain gauge read 4" by 10am. The LSCP Crews called-in, but were no-shows. Alan, Seth, Arthur, Jennifer & Bob were all in to varying times, up until 10. James & I had a 1pm lscp mtg in near-by Shrewsbury, and after that, I closed-up and went home. Tomorrow's another day; hopefully sunnier, warmer and drier.

Oil hit a record $126/bbl on Monday, and on the way home I saw gas prices breaking the dreaded $4.00/gal barrier. Unleaded Regular (87oct) is now at $3.75/gal, Unleaded Premium (89oct) is at $3.85/gal, and Unleaded Super Premium (92oct) is $4.05/gal. Was I surprised? Nope, not at all. Pissed-off at filling up my 20gal '02 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo, with 18.889gal ($3.75/gal Regular) for $71.00? Yes, I was that.

The rain finally quit on Monday evening, around 8:30; that's 28½hrs of steady, occasionally hard rain since Sunday at 4pm, with my condo's new rain gauge total at 3¼", and the GC&N's total was 3.0" in the rain gauge. My 2 (multi-billion gallon) retention ponds overflowed bigtime, as did many in the area. I saw many creeks and streams overflowing their banks — not an unusual sight in the lower-lying areas — but the receding took several days longer than usual. A few roads were closed, and I don't remember hearing or reading of any major life-threatening problems.

My email and FTP went down Monday afternoon while the former MTWirefree — now known as ModernTymes — moved www.gdnctr.com to a new server, since being bought-out by Double Dog Communications, a few weeks ago. Apparently, DDC will handle only Internet access, while MT will continue to handle their website hosting business. I'll miss both Doug & Hugh, from MTWirefree, as they were nice folks and always tried to get the job done for their customers. Just another glitch along the way, I guess. It was eerie not to get email at 4am, with coffee (and most all day) before I left for work at 5:45. Old habits are hard to break. I juggled some smaller lscp jobs and replacements into this week, since it was way too wet to get into the much larger, previously-scheduled lscp job in Maryland. Seth, my Hardscape Foreman/ Master Mason, is holding down the fort for us, until the site dries out, and we can get in, en massé. By around 3pm, email and FTP were back up, and I had a pile of messages to go through. Plus, some website page changes I'd been holding from the previous evening's workload. A stone truck and a plant delivery will be in tomorrow around 7am; at 10am, at my condo, I have a local HVAC contractor replacing my water heater with a Rheem^® Tankless Water Heater, which will take 3-4hrs, as well as my cleaning lady and her husband in for their weekly visit. It'll be another busy day. After an off-site meeting, I closed-up and went home to listen to , at 6pm EST.

Wednesday was hectic and mostly SNAFU'd by my local HVAC subcontractor's installer, for the installation of the new Rheem^® Tankless Water Heater, at my condo. I left the Office at 9:15am, to be ready for the installers by 10am, the appointed time. My cleaning lady and her husband were in at 10, and left at 1pm. After being told by phone that they'd be 3+hrs late, I did some site visits for plant replacements, and the HVAC installer and his assistant finally showed-up. After another 2½hrs of prep work, it looks like it'll be another 5-6hrs to get it fully-finished. They need some additional parts, since no one in their firm has ever done one of these tankless installations, with separate venting. Shit, I wish I'd have know that a few weeks ago, before I contracted the project. (((sigh))) Okay, everyone has a bad day, once in a while. After getting back to my office around 4pm, I had 260+ emails waiting, a pile of messages to return, but opted to deal with them on Thursday morning, since none were "life threatening".

My back (L5 & sciatica) and left shoulder (rotator cuff) were really hurting when I got up at 4am on Thursday, but a handful of aspirin and a hot shower helped me to get out the door and to work by 5:45am, to open-up the Complex. I'd considered staying in bed until 6 or so, with a heating pad, and getting in by 9am, but there were just too many "loose ends" on several small jobs, which needed finalizing. I had an epidural back in November '07, and may need another, soon, if the pain gets any worse. Alan and I took care of it, and got the LSCP Crews out, and they finished two of the previous day's jobs, and started and finished, two others. Arthur and another crew worker were on replacements, all day, and made progress. Seth, James (and the cute Madison, his 3-yr old daughter), Alan and I met at 4pm, and revised the next 2-3 weeks' LSCP (landscape) and HSCP (hardscape) schedules, due to rain/dry-out delays. After 18 years, you'd think I'd have the scheduling procedure/routine 'down pat', but I'll be the first to admit that I don't. I coined the phrase years ago: "Mother Nature's in charge; we're just along for the ride." That truism is 100% accurate, and never varies, as with the many other Immutable Laws of Nature. I have to make some calls tomorrow, to let our waiting customers know that their respective jobs have been pushed back, by the weather, and the jobs in-line ahead of them.

Net, net: I'll take the rain anyday, as compared to previous years' early drought conditions in Spring, which carried-over into the Summer months, and caused a lot of damage by Fall. I'm seeing that damage also carry-over into this Spring, and professionally am glad that we have some serious moisture 2-3ft down in the ground. Lakes and reservoirs are full and will probably be able to withstand "The Unending Drought From Hell", if it returns in the 3rd quarter. It's easier to reschedule existing landscape & hardscape jobs, than it is to explain to customers why plants are dying all around them. Sure, our Drip Irrigation Systems have made a huge difference from 6-7 years ago, when we didn't rely upon them, but that readily-available technology has truly given us and this industry a fighting chance in the unending struggle against Mother Nature.

Fonts For You™.

Many Journal entries are best viewed in the Charrington Roughened and the Orlando typefaces. You may already have Century Gothic on your Windows-XP machine, and that's occasionally used for the body copy or subheads, but grab it anyway! They're free from my website. Grab 'em! Save them to your HD, and install to C:/Windows/Fonts folder, thru your WIN XP Control Panel > Fonts > File > Install New Font. Simple stuff; just takes a few minutes.

Here are a few others, which my Journal will be written in during the coming weeks: Papyrus and Acoustic Bass, and Caesar Regular and Carleton and Charrington Strewn and Catherine. Get and install them, and see how much nicer these pages are to view and read. Plus, they add to your repertoire of available fonts in MS-Word, as WIN-XP System Fonts, so you can use them for your daily documents etc.

Things Which Make Your Head Explode™.

For this reason alone, I truly hope that muslim-islamist, America-hater, Barry Hussein Obama-Osama-Lama-Ding-Dong is assassinated. His perverted liberal leftist, Marxist worldview is very, very dangerous and needs an "abrupt ending", IMO.

Cowardly, treasonous, lying scumbag John "No Brain" McCain is for abortion/murder, as clearly evidenced in these waffling statements from 2000 and 2007. McCain's an asshole, pure and simple.

After losing another $700 million in just one year, the lowlife loser USPS is once again raising the cost of a letter to 42¢. Dumbasses! Privatize the US Mail, and let a "for-profit" corporation do the job, profitably! Why does the US Government always reward losers with more US Taxpayers' hard-earned monies? Assholes!

Simple possession of a noose is now a hate crime in the Peoples' Republik of Connecticut, a turd-world shithole right here in the US? Hey there, idiot Gov. M. Jodi Rell (BITCH-CT): FUCK YOU, SKANK WHORE!

Global Warming™.

Have you seen this video: "BBC: The Great Global Warming Swindle"? It was outright-banned from leftist, hate-filled, dirtbag lowlife scumbags, Google.com's and YouTube.com's websites, by the mentally-ill, left-wing, global warming idiot wackos, but I've preserved it, for posterity, aka you, me and *ours*. Watch, be informed and download it for others to see. It's on my corporate server, and will stay there, BTW.

Here's everything you need to know about Global Warming, and why it's a good thing.

The "Greenhouse Effect" is a natural and valuable phenomenon, without which, the planet would be uninhabitable. Global Warming, at least in recent times, is real. CO₂ is not a significant greenhouse gas; 95% of the contribution is due to Water Vapor. Man's contribution to Greenhouse Gasses is relatively insignificant. We didn't cause the recent Global Warming and we cannot stop it. Solar Activity appears to be the principal driver for Climate Change. CO₂ is a useful trace gas in the atmosphere, and the planet would actually benefit by having more, not less of it, because it is not a driver for Global Warming and would enrich our vegetation, yielding better crops to feed the expanding population. CO₂ is not causing global warming, in fact, CO₂ is lagging temperature change in all reliable datasets. The cart is not pulling the donkey. Wake-up, folks.

Here's a listing of The Best Global Warming Videos on the Internet.

Hey, fat, shit-for-brains, bloated, liar, sweaty-pigfucker, huckster, fraud, criminal, charlatan, scumbag, loser, disgraced, run-out-of-office, ex-VP AlGoreBore (LIAR-TN), is back using $300 million of OPM (Other Peoples' Money) to promote his Global Warming Bullshit, after the worst Winter in over 100 years. Welcome back, fatso huckster asswipe AlGoreBore!

CO₂ bad? No; CO₂ is good, and we need more of it, or we're in for a very cold period, very soon.

Lowlifes, Dirtbags & Scum-Sucking Filth™.

Shit-for-brains, Billy Bob O'Really, one of the lowest dirtbag scum-sucking pieces-of-shit-filth, can't handle pressure and flies off the handle with filth, at his studio technicians. Check out his pathetic wig; it's on way too tight! O'Reilly's a two-bit, alcoholic punk; I'll kick the white trash, loudmouth's cowardly ass if I ever see him, on the streets.

Criminal, liar, inciter-to-riot, murderer, lowlife dirtbag Nigga©, fat, bloated sambo, Al Sharpton, richly deserves a bullet in the head, IMO. He should have been assassinated years ago, after inciting riots and murder at Freddy's Fashion Mart, in NYC's riots in the 80s. Here's his known "list of crimes".Nigga© needs killing, not prison!

Piece-of-shit, lowlife dirtbag turncoat whore, who sold-out to the criminal, turd-polisher, faux-Conservative, anti-America, pro-commie ACLU, Bob "Fuck America" Barr (TRAITOR-GA), is running for US President, on the laughable, automatic-loser Libertarian ticket? Bwahahahaha! Snow-fucking-ball's chance in hell, IMO! Go ahead, asshole, waste a few million dollars. Where's Lee Harvey Oswald when the country really needs him?

Amazing how a lack of talent, too much money, a plastic surgeon's scalpel, drugs, booze and greed, greed, greed, can turn a decently-performing MoTown Family into lowlife, subhuman-looking Niggas©, isn't it? The Jacksons managed to do it.

Election 2008.

No, bomb threats and vandalism aren't my cup o' tea, but pointing out that shit-for-brains, porch-monkey sambo, Barry Hussein Obama-Osama-Lama-Ding-Dong is a subhuman black racist piece-of-shit, America-hater, Whitey-hater, left-wing wacko Leninist, liar, scumbag, dickbreath, cokehead, drug dealer, Nigga©. And so's his ugly, stinking bitch Nigga© wife, Michelle, a lowlife skankbag whore. Go iron your hair, ungrateful bitch.

Barry Hussein Obama-Osama-Lama-Ding-Dong made this election all about *race*, and West Virginia responded "Fuck you, Nigga"! Just wait until the rest of the 50 states "respond" in November, sambo, if you're the least bit curious as to how you're going to do against shit-for-brains liberal trash, McCain. You can bet that millions who've already said "fuck it" — and I'm one of them — will now go to the polls, just to keep your racist Nigga© ass out of The White House, and prevent you subhuman filth from defiling it. Truly, I hope James Earl Ray's cousin "finds you", asshole.

Ambulance-chasing lowlife sodomite, white trash piece-of-wife-beating-shithead, disgraced, run-out-of-office, liar, huckster, alcoholic, John "Breck Girl" Edwards (SCUM-NC), is endorsing Barry Hussein Obama-Osama-Lama-Ding-Dong Nigga©? Well, hoopty-fucking-do! Y-a-w-n. Both liberal-demokkkRATs are treasonous scum, and should be summarily tried and shot, IMO.

Have you seen the film, "Hitlery's Downfall"? Go ahead; I dare you.

Headline: "McCain faces doubts among Republican conservatives." Duh.

Some People Just Need Killing™.

For years, I've said that all pedophiles, child molesters, child rapists and murderers, should be summarily tried, convicted and headshot, and the fat, bloated, alcoholic, drug-addicted, liberal trash, rectum-sucking pigfuck, Bernie Ward, is prime among the subhuman filth deserving killing. He'd better think about changing his name to "Bernice" and losing some weight before he's gang-raped nightly, and hopefully beaten to death in prison, for the 5+ years he's going to serve. Rot in hell, asshole!

No, no, no; espionage against the US isn't a prison offense. It's a killing offense! Shoot the chink scum for espionage, dammit! And headshot the white trash American bastard who was involved with him on the espionage. All spies should be summarily executed, upon conviction; no appeals. All treason/espionage/sabotage crimes would be immediately punishable by death, in "my perfect world".

Glass Bottle Soda.

Most people buy a soda bottle for what's inside the container. Brent Barber takes a more holistic approach to his consumption of fizzy drinks. He appreciates the glass and the way it preserves the essence of the pop, as soda is called in his native Midwest. So he's cataloged 110 pop brands across 29 states, all to share his love of carbonated nectar in crystalline containers. From Ale-8-One to Twig's Sun-Drop, the sodas are listed alphabetically and by brand, but only regional bottlers, not stuff you can find everywhere. This is the place to head if you're craving Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer or a bottled Shirley Temple. Discover the taste of Americana with Orca's Bubble-Up, Moxie Original Elixir, Nesbitt, and Quench sodas. Kick back a (presumably) non-alcoholic Havana Mojito. Fortify yourself with Foxon Park's Iron Brew. You can drink case after case of these local brewskies with not an aluminum can in sight.