Welcome to the April Business of Wine issue of NorthBay biz. This is a relatively new cover theme for the magazine. It explores some of the different aspects of the wine industry that are so important to the economic vitality of the North Bay. We hope it helps grow your knowledge and appreciation of the huge economic engine chugging along every day right here in our midst. So please enjoy all the stories, special features and columns this month in the North Bay’s only locally owned business publication—NorthBay biz.
A year ago in my April column, “Rule Number One,” I opined: “…the administration has wasted no time in its efforts to use this financial crises as a means to nationalize entire segments of the economy in an astounding shift of power. Suddenly endangered now is an America where individuals control and determine their own routes to happiness and success—where ‘free markets’ are free to work—where citizens possess power. Instead we’re on a road that envisions a very real and different destination—a vision in which politicians and their minions are at the center of American life—where every decision about what’s best for you is made in Washington. Trust in government, not in your own ability, is their mantra.” Nothing has happened in the past year to alter that perception. If anything, that reality has been reinforced. So, I’d like to expound on this theme further.
America is at war with itself. One competing faction favors big, omnipresent government while the other favors smaller, limited government. America’s future way of life is embedded in this struggle. This argument can be framed another way: is it more American to believe individuals have responsibility for their actions and therefore are accountable for outcomes, or is it more American to believe individual responsibility is passe and instead government, in its many manifestations, should share responsibility for personal outcomes?
Once upon a time, not that long ago, this wasn’t even a debatable or controversial question. However, once enough people decided it was a pretty good deal to trade their personal freedoms for government handouts, a tipping point was reached and the nanny state was born. Politicians covet power—the more the better. Deciding what car you drive, how much water you can use, what insurance you need, where and in what kind of house you can live are just some of the decisions they’ll be happy to make for you—all in the name of, “we know better” and “it’s only fair.” What’s not openly stated is their desire to totally control your life. They really believe you can’t be trusted to know what’s in your own best interest. It serves the greater good if you just fall in line and become a willing ward of the state.
The joke here is that in their rush to accumulate power and control of every facet of your life in the name of fairness and treating everyone equally, everyone’s equal but them. Instead of raising people up, however, this move to homogenize society shifts it toward the lowest common denominator. The powerful few control the many—a totalitarian state. The person who works two jobs to better himself and his family should gladly allow the government to confiscate his hard won wages to support others who choose to not work. The person who chooses to buy insurance should pay the insurance bills of those who don’t. It’s only fair.
Politicians claim society owes the individual—and it does owe everyone equal opportunity. It’s impossible, however, to legislate equal outcomes. That’s where the individual should know he’s responsible for himself. Politicians, however, in their maniacal pursuit of more power, prey on those who respond to entitlements, persuading the willing to believe the handouts they’re being given are actually owed to them. These are the people willing to cede personal freedom and, in doing so, are endangering the survival of a truly free society. As this happens, the America we grew up in is changed fundamentally. Its greatness is lost. That you can believe in.
As you ponder that, let me endeavor to share some little known facts that will fill the rest of my column and also might make you a hit at your next wine tasting party. The following is courtesy of an unnamed source on the Internet—my favorite place to find unimpeachable information!
• An average American will spend six months of his life waiting at red lights.
• The cruise ship, QE2, moves six inches for every gallon of diesel it burns.
• Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, or it will digest itself.
• Our eyes stay the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
• In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• Cats have more than 100 vocal sounds. Dogs have about 10.
• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• A crocodile can’t stick its tongue out.
• A snail can sleep for three years.
• In every episode of “Seinfeld” there’s an image of Superman somewhere.
• In the course of a lifetime, you’ll eat 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders in your sleep.
• Most lipstick contains fish scales.
• Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.
• Wearing headphones for an hour will increase bacteria in your ear 700 times.
• More than 50 percent of the people in the world have never made a telephone call.
• A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time for 1/100 of a second.
• There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: “abstemious” and “facetious.”
• Pinocchio is Italian for “pine eye.”
• Barbie’s full name is Barbie Milicent Roberts.
• There is one word in the English language with one vowel that occurs five times: “indivisibility.”
• The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
• Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors.
• The winter of 1932 was so cold, Niagara Falls froze completely.
And that’s all there is for now. Enjoy this month’s magazine.
