My chicken problem -- and ours

Great article, Rod! There was a British TV show about urban farming that ran on our local PBS station awhile back, called "Good Neighbors." http://valdefierro.com/neighbors.html If you haven't seen it, you should look for it on DVD; it's funny, and poignant, too, as they struggle for total self-sufficiency in an urban environment.

I feel compelled to ask "Why Culture 11?" Is it some sort of Spinal Tap reference like "Our culture goes to 11", or do you like prime numbers?

I've been really tempted to bring up "Good Neighbors" even since the chickens showed up but I was afraid it might be too obscure. Now that someone else has, I'll second the suggestion. I love the scene where Tom barters for a newspaper with eggs while a third person watches totally bewildered. Great comedy.

Great article, Rod. I think this is probably the most important bit of Crunchy Conservative writing you've done since the book itself.

As a fellow practitioner of suburban chicken husbandry, and a front-yard vegetable gardener, I completely identify with the necessity of having to confront one's own fallibilty and the anxiety that comes from putting that same fallibility so publically on display to one's neighbors.

You've written often of the cultural changes that occurred in the '60's and their aftermath. I think one of the most unfortunate consequences is that people have begun to recoil from one another. We've lost faith and trust in one another because deep down we don't really have any faith in ourselves. We don't have to because we have experts and specialists to take care of everything, and no external pressures to keep us in line.

Which brings me to the next challenge after you get over your fear of failure - staying motivated in the long term. Few of us really need to be doing this, and it is an enormous amount of work. This is where I've come to feel that cultural, and specifically religious observances can be of great use. I myself don't practice any particular religion, but increasingly I plan my gardening around having certain significant things available for harvest in time for certain religious holidays. There is a deep and rich well of traditional knowledge and wisdom to be tapped here. Your chicks should begin laying sometime around next Easter. The egg obviously has significance to that season.

I keep hoping that eventually Crunchy Conservatism will become dedicated to discussing these kind of things, but too often it's caught up the news of the day. That's fine and well, but there is more to life than that. We need there to be more than that. Sometimes doing things for symbolic reasons is necessary.

I agree with Mike, Rod. That's one of your very best articles, and I think you ask yourself exactly the right questions, but exactly. The "Jean de Florette" syndrome (just saw the movie in my movie club two months back, as one of the characters said, "wine and dynamite do not mix").

I especially like the bit about tethering an elephant with a little tiny rope at the ankle. That is really a deep observation, and true of so many of us, who have so much potential and power, but who are constrained by neurosis and by ingrained "thou shalt nots" from the past.

Thanks for this, Rod.

Beautiful piece, Rod. It really hit home. Thank you. I'll definitely bookmark Culture 11.

Ok, Rod. Have it your way. But I STILL WISH YOU'D GROW A SPINE.

You are the guy in charge... You choose what you allow and what you don't. But for some reason, it seems you're perfectly willing to smile and never comment on people who come here and declare conservatism a character defect, or that all conservatives are racist, etc.

You allow the most personally insulting, denigrating, and offensive liberal steretypes to go unchallenged, uncensored. The whole of beliefnet seriously challenges my ability to remain even slightly calm, with it's endless repetition, aimed personally DIRECTLY at people who believe as I do, with the most UN Christian and UN kind and IN tolerant language, implications, and outright accusations, along with the standard aforementioned "stereotypical assumptions".

With few exceptions, even the blog owners here would NEVER pass my mother's "sniff test". She'd say that people who engage in that kind of talk about others are ... well, let's say it's not good.

Am I abrasive? Sure. I used to be the most diplomatic and kind and "understanding" of debaters, until I realized that I was being nice to people who hate my guts with a deadly passion. They wished I was dead, and some have even threatened to attempt that end...

Why should conservatives bother being "nice"? Liberals do not. They hate, with unending, unabashed, and unapologetic vehemence all who do not conform to their orthodoxy. They seem to consider disagreement personal affront. They don't just want their ideas to win, they want to defeat others and force themselves and their dogma upon them.

But let me guess at what you got all bothered about... Your comments about Hillary and if she'd been this way, she'd get elected kind of comment.

Rod, that is the most incredibly INFURIATING insult thrown at the American people I have read in a long time. And from you? How could you? Hillary lies. She's shallow. She's arrogant. She's utterly out of touch. She's a self-important and presumtuous lib. And to think that if she'd just have better packaging and be more "on the attack" she should or would win the hearts of the people? What KIND of people? Anyone who falls for that, or is PRESUMED to fall for it? That's an insult!

Nothing said at the DNC convention is ANYTHING BUT AN INSULT. We know they're dishonest, we know they're self-serving politicians, with nil for real human concerns governing their decisions and statements and even policy ramblings.

We laugh at Obama's shallow emptiness. And then presume that the public in general can't see it. How insulting to the public.

So, I dare you. Raise the level if you wish. But RAISE IT. Really raise it. Grow a spine. Tell the libs "this is right, this is wrong, walk this way." If you don't want mud flung, don't fling it. Tell EVERYONE what the real standards are, and then STICK TO THEM for all.

Apply serious judgement, Rod. It's good to know you're at least reading, though. I just wish you had some real stones in your gut. Go forth and do battle, fearlessly. Got it?