Category Better Life

Apr 25 2018

The Art of a Tantrum

 

Many years ago, I wrote a column entitled “Teenage Politics.” The article was intended to show the shortsightedness of the liberal policies being foisted upon us through the hammer of government. The engine of generations of “me now” entitled delinquents clamoring for society to fill their ever voluminous tanks of personal passion in its immediacy has driven our Nation and States to the brink.

This writer makes no claims to the prophetic but sadly my accusations of the leftist teenage approach to politics has come the more clearly into fruition. The pattern of implementation was to be expected. Still, it is startling that the left has done so little to disguise the tactics.

The art of a tantrum is a learned form of manipulation and ageless. Children are born tyrants in search of a power to dethrone them. For a while the outcries are helpless and necessary to the communication for their needs. But needs become wants….

And soon comes the moment of truth when the little despot is in search and need of a stronger force, in the form of a parental insurrection, that topples the reigning monarch from his throne down to rightful place as subservient to his parents. Will the parents have the strength of will and heart to stand firm in the first of many battles of those wills? Sadly, many do not.

Again and again parents relinquish ground to the child. The child learns the basic tenets of a victorious tantrum. Make it loud, make it long, never give in, and never reason.

There is no losing for the tantrum of despotic child. By the time they reach their teens, they have no concept of a loss or not getting their way. Any obstruction to their will is just met with increased volume, the more unhinged antics, and threats of more intoleration, with no sense of impropriety or shame at the spectacle, leaving beaten parents capitulating once again in hopes of some moderating moments of sanity.

It’s all about winning. There can’t be any losing. The spectacle is the leverage.

The spectacle? Which flavor do you want? For the Art of a Tantrum is on full display with the Democrat Party and their media allies.

They have spiraled through a kaleidoscope of variants hoping to bring down their nemesis, The President. With each failure, the volume only increases, the antics more ludicrous, and the further removed from reality they stamp and shriek, with threats for more. But there is measured goal behind the mayhem in that good and loving people, who want peace and tranquility, can and will be worn down to give in, hoping to regain some peace and quiet.

Who can forget the moments growing up when little Miss Stamping Fitts and Mr. Puss Face, children of Mr. and Mrs. NeverWrong, decided they want your toy at the Party you never wanted to go to? You never understood why Mr. NeverWrong didn’t deal with his children, who were always “just tired,” and you ended up having to give up your toy to “just keep them quiet.” It wasn’t right then and it isn’t right now, but we are letting it happen and they expect us to do it again next fall.

The tantrums will continue until we give them control. They must have their way. They cannot lose and they expect us to give in like always.

Traditional Marriage; Yes, that institution created by heterosexuals for heterosexuals for the propagation of life in a stable society. We were told to give that up so those that did not create it would be happy and calm down. So we did, now it’s settled law because it wasn’t when it was the other way, and don’t even think to question or criticize anyone who took something from you that didn’t belong to them…or they’ll throw another tantrum.

Sports; That has been completely destroyed. No one knows who is competing with who. Whoever they decide to be is whoever gives them the best chance to win and if you disagree or say there are rules….they’ll throw a tantrum.

Politics, our Institutions; This is the next onslaught we are in the midst of right now. The left is in the midst of an elongated tantrum right now to try and delegitimize our political process. If they can wear the American people down by the constant noise, one thing after another, then perhaps we will surrender.

We cannot. We must unite against them and hand them another loss. Be prepared the tantrums will ignite in fury all the more if we hand them a defeat next fall.

The issue of this election will be the 2nd Amendment. The media, Democrats, Hollywood, and, well yes, teenagers are all converging on this issue. We have to rise up and be ready for battle this election.

We have our differences. I confess the many posts I see among some of my 2nd Amendment allies disparaging my Faith does not fill me with warm thoughts of unity. I set those aside for a different battleground and instead focus on the enemy at our door who would come to take our Natural Born Right to Self Defense.

We need to focus on leaders who support the 2nd Amendment, and get those into or back into office. Even if we have differences with them on other issues, this may be the time to set those aside, to maintain a bulwark against this storm. Let’s be the immovable force and take the tantrum makers to the woodshed this next fall.

Apr 10 2018

The Plight of Small Town Maine

 

When filtered through the lens of a photographer, reality can take on a different hue, which by design challenges the perception of the viewer. Pictures of worn and decrepit structures throughout rural Maine have been filtered and presented as idyllic beautiful art for a collector to hang on the wall, finding visual satisfaction. The reality of those pictures tells a different story for those who live in the surrounding region.

Rural Maine, Small Town Maine, and Farm Town Maine, are slowly decaying into their own landscape. The greater sadness is that the factors to their demise are beyond the control of Small Town Maine. No, this is not even the tale of little communities who cannot keep up with the changing times or technologies; but instead, is the story, to often told in Maine, of bureaucratic government’s abuse, corruption, and overreach and the cowardice of those, who should, to curtail it.

It’s the story of Atkinson, Maine. The farming community that I live in. It’s a story that could be rewritten into the borders of every little town in North Central Maine and very little of the plot would be changed.

At last census, Atkinson had 326 people who resided here. That number now is in the mid 200’s. In comparison to the wildlife and dairy cattle, humans are clearly in the minority in Atkinson.

But the hay fields, farm lands, streams, and timber lands of this community has become ground zero for the subversive tactic of choice by leftist environmental groups. These groups have hijacked tax windfall programs designed to benefit farmers and timber harvesters in the state of Maine. These groups and individuals have bought up large tracts of land and put them into programs which are tax free or nearly tax free, rendering nearly 75% of Atkinson’s land virtually nontaxable.

This has driven the mil rate of a town with less than 300 (less than that pay taxes) to 23.5. Couple the non-existent tax revenue with ever burgeoning school budgets in an under performing school district, and you have recipe for the slow painful death of a little town. Small Town Maine,bound and helpless, led to its demise.

Atkinson has more land in Open Space conservation than all of the towns in Aroostook County combined. Northeast Wilderness, out of Montpelier, Vt., holds 6000 acres in conservation easements, along with one individual, who owns 10,000 acres in easements, the Alder Stream Preserve, and plans to turn over his land to North East Wilderness. The State of Maine and the Bud Leavitt Preserve holds another 1000 acres in tax exempt status.

Some of these lands were at one point put into a program called Tree Growth. This was a program designed to give tax incentives to large paper companies such as Great Northern and International Paper in an effort to encourage them to stay in our State and continue to employ and boost our forestry industry. A requirement for Tree Growth is to have a working harvesting plan, yet many of these conservation groups have no such plan or fail to implement them.

Our state has over-regulated our forestry and farming industry until it is nearly gone. These tax incentives were given to those industries with an understanding of an economic trade off that benefited our state’s economy. No such trade off exists with environmental groups who are exploiting these land trust plans to benefit their agenda.

Atkinson decided to fight back in the only way it could, by deorganizing. It has been a long arduous process which has resulted in no good answers for anyone, but with also little choice for Atkinson. I would draw imagery of David and Goliath except David wins in his story.

Suffice to say, the withdrawal/deorganization process is legalized extortion. I will address this in another column. As with all of the Small Town Maine, Atkinson is the victim of a government and bureaucracy that is unwilling to reform its practices.

Because the people of Atkinson have voted to withdraw, in retaliation the single landowner of 10,000 acres has obtained permits to put all of his land into Open Spaces, which cannot be taxed. Programs, which were designed to encourage job growth, are being used as political bludgeons on rural Maine. Of the 23,000 acres of land in Atkinson, 17,000 cannot be taxed to the benefit of the town, the tax burden is shifted to the few remaining landowners who pay taxes. With a predicted rise in mil rate to 28, these few small landowners are effectively subsidizing the abuses of wealthy land barons.

The fault lies with a government that turns a stone ear to the plight of its rural towns. These processes must be reformed. Out of state groups and land barons cannot be given a free hand to destroy the economies of Small Town Maine, while at the same time operating at the expense of those same towns. Augusta needs to start working for and listening too Small Town Maine.

Apr 3 2018

Tuesday Truth

This is really a housekeeping measure: I welcome and enjoy the thoughtful and provocative comments that many readers have sent my way. Here’s the rub. No matter your viewpoint, if you cannot express yourself without foul language or degrading and insulting those you disagree with, I will not post your comments.

Don’t try to create some twisted contorted fantasy of a 1st Amendment violation. This is my private site and I try to comport myself with some modicum of decency. I monitor comments so that TMCV reflects that decency. This is no different than if you were at my home and cussed in front of my wife and kids, I promptly cleaned your clock, and then tossed you out the door, with emphatic instruction not to come back until you cleaned up your act.

Still if you want to accuse me of such a violation, if its clean, I’ll publish it. I enjoy a good laugh. But in the end, I am the purveyor of The Maine Conservative Voice and I’ll run it the way I choose.

Andy Torbett