{"id":12396,"date":"2013-06-01T11:15:35","date_gmt":"2013-06-01T15:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind.html"},"modified":"2017-12-01T10:15:51","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T15:15:51","slug":"reap-the-whirlwind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/","title":{"rendered":"Reap The Whirlwind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\n

Watching the latest devastation from the tornados in Oklahoma, I am reminded of the proverb from Hosea, “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”. No, I am not insinuating that this bout of tragedy is indicative of God’s outraged judgement on our decadent nation; nor am I making the case that a cyclical weather pattern that occurs annually is suddenly to be attributed to man-caused global warming simply because we all have smart phones and can take pictures of what has always been. Both anecdotal positions are equally absurd.<\/p>\n

Rather, I am reminded by the fury and devastation of the imagery that was the proverb’s intent. Just as you can’t actually “sow the wind”, you also aren’t to be said to be “reaping the whirlwind” because you get caught in one. The reference is rather of someone sowing something they think useful, and generally harmless, but reaping something unintended, uncontrollable, and devastating.<\/p>\n

We are beginning to see in Washington the harvest of the plantings of central planning, big government. We are reaping the consequences of power, and absolute power, which Lord Acton reminds us are corruption and absolute corruption. What begins with words like justice and fairness, sown in the garden of concentrated power, inevitably leads to realities of injustice, cheating, and tyranny.<\/p>\n

My very first blog on this site almost two years ago (click here<\/a>) spoke of how bullying and cheating are the inevitable result of investing too much power in one central locus. What was once considered to be an act of public service, with little reward except the satisfaction of duty to country, elected office in Washington has become a high stakes, winner takes all game… no, not a game at all, a war. And war is Hell. In Hell there are no rules. Good guys finish last, the ends justify the means, and to the victor go the spoils; all the power, all the money, all the future. Honor, virtue, following rules, all have no place in Hell, no place in war, no place in Washington, unless you are a soldier in a larger war, that of Good and Evil.<\/p>\n

IMHO: The scandals in Washington all show one common thread, the abuse of power. Like the One Ring in the Tolkien tales, it is a power so absolute that it can’t be used for ultimate good, no matter the wielder’s intention. The duties of government are necessary, we are not anarchists, but they work best diluted and localized. Perhaps the IRS would be a good place to start. Would it not be possible to transition to a system whereby the states are responsible for the collection of revenues by whatever tax or system they deem appropriate, and then make a contribution based on census data to the running of the Federal Government? It would be good to to turn the paradigm around and make Washington beholden to the States, rather than the other way around. No tyranny gives up power voluntarily, ultimately a greater power would need to rise up, a power not so easily corrupted, because we are many… We the people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watching the latest devastation from the tornados in Oklahoma, I am reminded of the proverb from Hosea, “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”. No, I am not insinuating that this bout of tragedy is indicative…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\r\nReap The Whirlwind - In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reap The Whirlwind - In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Watching the latest devastation from the tornados in Oklahoma, I am reminded of the proverb from Hosea, "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.". No, I am not insinuating that this bout of tragedy is indicative...\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-01T15:15:35+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-01T15:15:51+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin Cail\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin Cail\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/\",\"name\":\"Reap The Whirlwind - In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-01T15:15:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-01T15:15:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#\/schema\/person\/0e79835757e9a64c87cd1aa4dee59cce\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Reap The Whirlwind\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/\",\"name\":\"In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#\/schema\/person\/0e79835757e9a64c87cd1aa4dee59cce\",\"name\":\"Kevin Cail\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95cee3d463a61fe69d3e3725e4a51969?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95cee3d463a61fe69d3e3725e4a51969?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin Cail\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/author\/kcail\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reap The Whirlwind - In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reap The Whirlwind - In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog","og_description":"Watching the latest devastation from the tornados in Oklahoma, I am reminded of the proverb from Hosea, \"For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.\". No, I am not insinuating that this bout of tragedy is indicative...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/","og_site_name":"In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog","article_published_time":"2013-06-01T15:15:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-12-01T15:15:51+00:00","author":"Kevin Cail","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin Cail","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/","url":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/","name":"Reap The Whirlwind - In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-06-01T15:15:35+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-01T15:15:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#\/schema\/person\/0e79835757e9a64c87cd1aa4dee59cce"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/2013\/06\/reap-the-whirlwind\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Reap The Whirlwind"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/","name":"In My Humble Opinion: Albany Political Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#\/schema\/person\/0e79835757e9a64c87cd1aa4dee59cce","name":"Kevin Cail","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95cee3d463a61fe69d3e3725e4a51969?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95cee3d463a61fe69d3e3725e4a51969?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin Cail"},"url":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/author\/kcail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26952,"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12396\/revisions\/26952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/imho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}