liebig's law

LIEBIG’S LAW


Do you remember how I was insufferable and gloated for days when a Loyal Minion, First Class sent me a whole friggin case of canned bacon ( Yoders Canned Bacon (2 Cans) 9 Oz Each )? Do you remember when another sent silver ( NEW Buffalo/Indian Head Nickel Art Coin 1 TROY OZ .999 SILVER BULLION )? I was doing the Naner-Naner Dance. Or how about the time I got a carbon steel straight razor? Those things are pricey as hell ( Dovo Carbon Steel Half Hollow Best Quality Razor, 5/8" Black Handle ). I’ve had books sent to me, cash, checks, money orders. I’ve had the less well off put in a lot of time working on various projects in lieu of material items, such as article indexes and putting together the three year blog compilation. Guest articles. And when I’m all grey and bummed out, cursing the Gods that I’m too weak have the courage to quite this forsaken project that sucks in my sanity and time, along comes article ideas. Not to forget all the great folks that order through my Amazon links. For such a small number of readers, the generosity flows pretty freely. I like to think it is because of my otherworldly talent and intelligence, but then I come to my senses and realize I’m just funny with a smattering of occasional brilliance. Why do I bring all this up? Well, of course I have to suck up so the gifts keep flowing, but mostly it is because once again I get to gloat and throw it in your face that I got a care package in the mail today. The wife gets German chocolate, and god knows her skinny ass needs all the calories we can shove down her throat, but I got something much better. An LED flashlight ( Energizer Radio Crank Flashlight 5-LED ) . We can all agree that perhaps I’m just a little gay over LED’s, and not that fun cute kind of gay like the couple on Modern Family ( which I didn’t think highly of watching previews but which turned out to be hilarious ) but a nastier shade of gay like brown eyeing. I’ve loved LED’s since my first bike light WAYYYY back in the day like eight years ago or so. And I’ve let you know ever since that they were the only form of illumination you should consider ( remember, I’ve been writing newsletters long before this blog ). At first I was even known as “that LED guy”, before they became popular and commonplace. And does anyone light candles in my honor? Erect a monument thanking me for my tireless effort? NO. They just troop on down to Wally World and buy Chinese crap light ( I have dozens myself ). But one minion remembered.

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My brand spanking new LED flashlight isn’t any old ordinary flashlight. Oh, no. It is a hand cranked flashlight. But that isn’t good enough. It is also a 12v rechargeable flashlight. And it can be switched from five lights to three to prolong use. I can hook it up to my socket in the trailer on a sunny day and then use it for five hours. No cranking needed. But that isn’t all. Cower in shame as I describe the best part. It is made in Germany. Oh, I imagine that there are Chinese chips in it ( or at least Taiwanese ). But the Germans aren’t really known for cheap crap so I imagine even their Chinese parts are higher quality. Except for Volkswagon cars. Not the new ones from the 1990’s on. Perhaps not the worst cars out there but not German quality. Of course, when I bought a Braun shaver ( Braun Series 3 370 Men's Shaver ) in the late eighties it broke the first time I used it. Perhaps that was just a bad time for German manufacturing. But I’m nonetheless convinced my brand spanking new German flashlight is of outstanding quality. Thanks, loyal minion! Hell, I’m in such a good mood over my package that I’m going to give you guest articles all weekend.

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I was reading the Arch Druid Dude this morning (http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/ ) and I came across another idea to steal. Liebig’s Law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebig's_law_of_the_minimum .

The least abundant nutrient in your soil dictates what can be grown. You can have an overabundance of nitrogen or phosphate or whatever but if there aren’t enough earthworms, or whatever, your crops will turn out poorly. This is simply common sense, but of course forgotten in our orgy of artificial fertilizer and oil input agriculture. You also know it as “fast as the slowest student” or perhaps “the IQ of a mob is lower than the stupidest member”. Speaking of which, I was sent a heads up on a quote listed elsewhere, supposedly from me. http://thementalmilitia.com/forums/index.php?topic=9045.0 if you go from the top, the second entry and the second quote in that entry. Does that really sound like me? I could be in denial only because of my imperfect memory, but I swear that doesn’t sound like me.

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We can apply Liebig’s Law to other things, like the collapse of society instead of just the collapse of a crop. “Only as strong as the weakest link”. The first thing that comes to my mind is my earlier comment on the Arch Druids contention that organic farming expands all the time in this country, implying that by the time the oil runs out we will be able to farm without petroleum inputs and all will be well. His reasoning for a slowwwww collapse. Granted, the Dude says that we must all do our own transitioning to a sustainable economy. But the transition to organic farming from oil farming is what will feed the masses in the urban areas. The people without gardens. I don’t care the Cuba feeds itself with garden plots in Havana. That doesn’t translate to our country where it is a lot colder, a lot dryer and a lot more crowded. We might not eat petroleum through the fertilizer in a few more years, but we certainly will continue to eat oil through the need to transport food from farm to city. We paved over all the urban cities farmbelt for suburbia. Plowing the soil now under asphalt will yield a barren, dead medium. We can’t go back, at least not fast enough to avert famine. In time, we will return to sustainability. In the interim we will die with the oil supply. We’ve become dependent on transportation globally and countrywide for all our needs. Less fuel for transportation means that supplies aren’t delivered. Remember our talk about our communities being like a moon outpost being supplied with all needs including oxygen ( another idea I stole )?

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You are the weakest link. Goodbye.
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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail. Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
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