Recently in Agrariana Category

Alex Massie notes another small advance of totalitarianism in Obama's America. Seriously, you don't expect this petty and ridiculous example of nanny statism to exist in the American West.

UPDATE: When I first posted this, I thought, "Is there anybody who will read it who might think that I'm serious by referring to an anti-chicken ordinance in a small Montana town is a sign of creeping Obama communism?" I thought it ridiculous, but decided to put in the "Seriously" line, as a tip-off to the few literal-minded scolds who might be out there. Show's what I know. Of the four posts on the thread right now, two of them think I'm serious as a heart attack. Here's one:

I started reading this blog with the hopes of reading an honest conservative who wrote germane posts on current issues. Note - those I consider honest guys on the left are Krugman, Delong, Juan Cole and the sort. This sort of thread if typical of what I expected on wingnut conservative blogs, and not what I expected from Rod. Just yesterday I read that Pat Boone thinks the White House is filled with vermin, and should be fumigated. Wasn't that the sort of solution from 65 years ago?

ps. I don't intend to post or read this blog again. If this was meant in fun, my apologies, the author can email me and I will withdraw this post.

And other wisdom from Wendell Berry, forwarded to me by reader Gary Seaton:

MANIFESTO: THE MAD FARMER LIBERATION FRONT by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Buy Wendell Berry's selected poems here.

Will McNamara, Rochester, NY:

The Barkley Family of Mount Airy, Md:

Mary Therese Crawford of Dallas, and Fluffy Buffy:

Haven't sent you and your chickens' snapshot in? What are you waiting for! rdreher (at) dallasnews.com