Crabgrass Redux.......

The following is a re-post of a blog from several months ago. I only bring it back because I don't think that I could have communicated the overall message in this blog…had I have written it myself…(oh wait…I DID write it)….Really it's just that I told someone earlier today that I was in a mood that made me just want to “write something to p*** off a liberal somewhere”……This might not be it….but it IS relevant to what is going on in Washington right now. The ultra-left wingers like Nancy “face too tight” Pelosi….are determined to push some version of a health care bill through Congress in spite of what the people of the country...or the Republicans in Congress...say or do. Forget the fact that when the Democrats had a “super majority”, they couldn’t agree among themselves enough to reconcile the House and Senate bills. Don’t be fooled into thinking that what they are doing is really about helping anyone……instead it’s simply an attempt to get the Government’s big giant foot into the door of health care. It might be a smaller bill now…..but watch out, once they have their foot in the door of health care…..it’s only a matter of time before they will completely own it…..This will be done by over-regulating the existing health care industry as we know it out of business. As with many government projects…..this one might start out small……but eventually it will grow into a huge bureaucratic monster that bleeds tax dollars. Government does not know how to run ANYTHING (big or small) within a given budget. (PLEASE prove me wrong on that one if you can) Whether it’s the Post Office….Amtrack….or the congressional coffee shops and restaurants…operating within a budget is as unfamiliar to those in Washington as fidelity is to Tiger Woods. With that said……here we go again for the first time…..


If you live in Florida, and have a yard…..then you are probably familiar with crabgrass. It’s official name is “Digitaria” and it is a genus of about 300 species of grass (family Poaceae) native to tropical and warm temperate regions. First let me say that I truly believe that crabgrass is evil. Here is why I say that………

I really take pride in my yard….I actually have the regional manager’s phone number for TruGreen (my lawn service for fertilizing and weed control, etc.) on the speed dial of my phone. (that’s not a joke…that’s for real). I see my yard for approximately 5 minutes every day…..as I am walking to my car in the morning and then again as I round the corner on my street, see my house and yard, park my car, get the mail and walk into the house in the evening. (ok, maybe 7 minutes)…But here’s my point….when I do see it….I want to see grass…beautiful green grass. However from time to time when I actually walk through my yard, I will look down and see this “grassy looking” growth that while it is green, it’s not like the rest of the grass. It is (play creepy, evil sounding music here) CRABGRASS. (sorry, that was the spookiest font I could find). While crabgrass is green and resembles “real” grass….it is not. What’s more, if you just look at it, leave it there, and say….”oh it’s just a little patch”….you are in for serious trouble. If you don’t yank it out by the roots, right then and there, when you come back tomorrow it will have spread. If for some reason you don’t come back tomorrow, and it’s next week when you finally come back….it could have spread over a large portion of your yard. If you look at it as it has spread over a large portion of your yard and say….”well at least it’s green…and it’s just too much trouble to pull it ALL up by the roots….so I’ll just leave it”….Let me tell you that is a BAD IDEA….The reason this is a bad idea is when you come back in a month….you will find that you no longer have “real” grass…..just CRABGRASS. (any better…as far as evil looking fonts go?)….What has happened at this point is that the evil crabgrass has taken over and destroyed the “good” grass….and any lawn care person will tell you that the only way to get your “real” grass back….is to kill (Roundup® kind of kill) the entire yard and start over. That is a real pain and VERY expensive….but if you want your yard back….it is necessary. So they come in and spray the yard with poison….wait for it to die….bring in a sod-cutter to remove the dead grass and then put down brand new healthy sod. That is great and now your yard is perfect……BUT……pay close attention to the BUT…..If you don’t keep an eye on this brand new yard….that evil crabgrass will creep right back in and destroy this yard as well…..so you watch this brand new yard every day…and if something doesn’t look right, you do something about it…..it’s the proverbial “nipping it in the bud”

Right about now….some of you (if you are still awake….or still reading) are saying…..”Wow….I had no idea that he knew so much about grass”……or “I wonder if it’s really all that bad to officially recognize Pluto as a planet….since we’ve done it for all of these years?”……or MAYBE there are a very few that are saying “What does this have to do with government involvement in business?”….While I would love to address the first two observations….I will only address the last one.

The government is like crabgrass…..it’s bad enough in small quantities….but in large quantities….it is just evil. (Maybe I should have my Senator and Congressperson’s phone numbers on my speed dial just like the TruGreen guy) It would be great if we could just go through our daily lives walking around and living our lives……and thinking that all the while our society and the rest of the world around us would go on with no problems. You know, just ignoring all of the little things that are annoying. That’s is no more realistic than looking at your yard for 5 (or 7) minutes a day and expecting it to remain perfect…..Just not gonna’ happen. Here’s why that doesn’t work………One day we happen to see something in our government where they have stepped into private business and forced this business to do business in a way that is unconstitutional….but it’s just a little thing, or it doesn’t involve us personally….so we say…”oh it’s no big deal”….and we let it go…..BUT…..pay attention to the BUT…..if we ignore it for a short while, it gets bigger and maybe affects us, (maybe not directly…maybe just our neighbor or someone at church…but not US directly)….so we say….”Oh its not that big of a deal….my life is still ok”…..BUT….then all of the sudden it starts to affect us a little and we say…”well I don’t like this but now it’s gotten kind of big…so there isn’t anything I can do without a LOT of work”……so we let it go…..Here’s where it gets VERY serious…..if we ignore it for an extended period, we look around and see that the government has taken over everything and there is no such thing as “privately run” companies any more…..the government has slipped in just like crabgrass….a little at a time and taken over.

Recently I was involved in an online discussion with a friend. In the course of the discussion he made the following statement………”those who claim to be independent thinkers but have voted straight ticket have chimed in today not realizing their candidates and conservative heroes of choice have played a large role in American Keynesian economic policy”…….. (Author’s Note: Let me insert a definition here….Keynesian (pronounced /keinziən/) economics advocates a mixed economy—predominantly private sector, but with a large role of government and public sector) …… He went on to say……”Keynesian economic theory……..is the belief that a mixed economy is optimum. I believe it has been the driving force and paradigm our nation has used since WW2 - from Roosevelt to Reagan to Bush to Obama. The cries of communism and socialism are a rouge. The argument is about the mix not replacing capitalism.”……..Here’s my problem with that type of thinking…..It would be the same line of thinking that a little bit of crabgrass is good because it helps identify the “real” grass….Yes I believe that there has to be a certain amount of regulation….but not to a point to where the government gets involved in the same business as you….and becomes your competition….(read article from 10-15-09 for more information on that)…..and then destroys your business…since they don’t have to operate on a “for-profit” basis. Once that happens….free enterprise is GONE….The government has no sense of business….If they did how could they make a claim that providing health care for somewhere between 10 and 40 million (another fine example of government accuracy in accounting….or really in this case…counting) “won't raise the deficit one dime”…..Seriously?....You can say that with a straight face…and then get pissed when someone calls you a liar?....Really?……The only thing the government will do is destroy the Health Insurance industry and then once they “own” it all….the pricing will go out of control…..That’s because the government has no control over itself….once it steps in…it destroys what it tried to “fix”. In the little town where I have my business….I have seen the city government literally drive businesses….out of business. I have seen this enough to where I now refer to the “Code Enforcement” people as the “Department of Business Prevention”. They just DON’T know where to stop. So yeah…maybe a “mix” is good….but why is it that the mix doesn’t stay balanced when the government gets involved?

It’s about health insurance now…..but what’s next? Maybe groceries? After all everyone has to eat….so let’s control the food industry….grocery stores, fast food places, Mom and Pop restaurants? Why don’t we take them ALL over...tell them how much they can charge for a product....and then tell them how much profit they can make….Because after all, profit is a four-letter word….right? (actually it’s a six letter word) If right about now you are saying….”well that sounds good to me”….let me remind you of this….(pay attention anyone who might work for a local, large privately owned supermarket chain)…..if the government regulates groceries…in the way they want to regulate health insurance….YES, the price of groceries will go down…but in the process, so will profits…then in order to stay in business there HAS to be cuts in expenses. As a business owner I can tell you that the best way to cut your expenses…is to cut people out of jobs…So if you’re ok with that for the evil health care insurance companies (that they ALL lose their jobs)…just hang on….they will get to you eventually. Once the government starts taking over ANY industry….it’s only a matter of time until they take over the one you’re working for. (Yes…I’m talking about YOU) First  its just health insurance….because EVERYONE needs it and deserves it…..Then its controls on gasoline pricing….because EVERYONE needs it and deserves it…..THEN it will be the food industry….WHY?......because the same logic would follow that EVERYONE needs it and deserves it…….then you wake up one day….unemployed and say…”what happened?.....You really want to know?......you didn’t stop the crabgrass when you had a chance……Then Again…..That’s Just Me.


Note from the author: As you probably know..."Redux" is an adjective meaning "brought back or restored" (from the Latin reducere - bring back) that is used in literature and film titles.....I obviously have used the term quite loosely, since by including it in the title of this article....it would (based strictly on the definition of redux) include the preceding article under the umbrella of "literature". My apologies to writers of literature everywhere.