The Germans are known for their engineering and, in particular, the engineering of legendary cars. The brands of Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, BMW and even breeds of Volkswagen are synonymous with the highest standards of quality and feats of engineering. And should you be so fortunate to see, let alone drive, a Bugatti Veyron, you will have encountered the ultimate in automotive design reserved for select Saudi princes and rich gangster rappers.

But there’s another legendary car, also crafted by Germans that many have never heard of and may find almost as rare to encounter as the renowned Bugatti “ride”. My family had the once in a lifetime opportunity to cruise around in this collector’s item while visiting a museum downtown. Those fortunate enough to own one of these automotive gems, so unique and so rare, will hold on to them tenaciously as family heirlooms to be passed on from generation to generation.

Readers who follow automotive news know that I speak of nothing other than the legendary Trabant 601, manufactured by VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau from 1963 – 1991. Yes the Trabant, endearingly referred to as the “Trabbi” —a car like no other, thankfully. Just take a look at these specs (source Wikipedia):

• Air cooled two cylinder 600cc two-stroke engine with a eye-popping 26 horsepower – about the same as a large lawnmower.
• The car took 21 seconds to get from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) with a top speed of 112 km/h (70 mph), assuming it did not fall apart before then.
• There were two main features with the engine: the smoky exhaust and the pollution it produced —nine times the amount of hydrocarbons and five times the carbon monoxide emissions of the average European car of 2007.
• The fuel consumption was a respectable 34 mpg with a dipstick inserted into the tank to determine how much fuel remains.
• The fuel tank was placed high up in the engine compartment so that fuel could be fed to the carburetor by a technological marvel called gravity at an increased fire risk in front-end accidents.
• Sturdy duroplast construction made of recycled material, cotton waste and phenol resins from the dye industry—going green before green was cool.
• Streamlined with the removal of unnecessary safety features such as brake lights and turn signals.
• The lifespan of an average Trabant was 28 years because if you waited enough time for the privilege to buy one, that was probably the last car you would ever get to own.

So how is it that the Trabant, designed and manufactured by Germans, could be listed as one of the worst cars ever built? Because this wasn’t the Germany we know and love, fueled by freedom, capitalism, engineering pride and corporate greed. This was state controlled East Germany, monopolized, void of competition, and deprived of any incentive to do anything remarkable. And so goes America as we outsource our lives to the drab and dreary juggernaut of Government issued healthcare, retirement, education and industry. Enjoy the new “ride”.

Years ago, I was up late one night channel surfing when I came across a lecture being given by Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist, atheist and humanist. I had heard about Dawkins but this was the first time I’d heard him speak. I believe the venue was Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia which struck me as an odd location for his brand of lecture– but maybe it was a tactical decision. He spent a lot of his time criticizing religion, Christianity, peoples of faith, and lampooning the story of Abraham and his son Isaac found in the book of Genesis.  It was actually pretty disgusting and several member of the audience got up and walked out—something this Oxford scholar apparently cherished. He went on to espouse the incarceration of parents who abusively teach their children traditional values and biblical principles, people like me.

Nice.

Curiously, the very week that he was speaking at this college, a tragedy had unfolded in another little town further north in Pennsylvania, a town where tradition had staved off technological progress for centuries, a town where children are taught a literal interpretation of the Bible and to actually believe it, a town where the people should be rounded up and incarcerated according to the pronouncements of Dr. Richard Dawkins.

On October 2 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered an Amish schoolhouse in this other little town of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and took ten girls (ages 6-13) hostage eventually shooting them in the head execution-style. Five were killed, the other five wounded seriously. The details of the story can be found on Wikipedia under “Amish Schoolhouse Shooting”.  I could never forget the event, especially watching the county sheriff beside herself, weeping, while interviewed on air by a news reporter.

The part of the story that’s pertinent to Richard Dawkins has to do with the aftermath. In response to this heinous crime against their community what did these people of faith do?  What did these simple adherents to the literal biblical text do?

Here are quotes from the account on Wikipedia:

• Shortly before Roberts opened fire, two sisters, Marian and Barbie Fisher, 13 and 11, requested that they be shot first that the others might be spared. Barbie was wounded, while her older sister was killed.
• On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives not to hate the killer, saying, “We must not think evil of this man.”
• I don’t think there’s anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts.
• A Roberts family spokesman said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them.
• Amish community members visited and comforted Roberts’ widow, parents, and parents-in-law. One Amish man held Roberts’ sobbing father in his arms, reportedly for as long as an hour, to comfort him.
• The Amish have also set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter.
• About 30 members of the Amish community attended Roberts’ funeral.
• Marie Roberts, the widow of the killer, was one of the few outsiders invited to the funeral of one of the victims.

The schoolhouse was torn down and new one built at a different location. No lawsuits, no memorials, no national commemorations for this tragedy, probably no psychiatrists and social workers. You may hear about it again as the fifth year anniversary draws nigh, but maybe not.

I am tempted to ask Dr. Richard Dawkins how such behavior exhibited by the Amish community factors into his worldview; how in a world without God and propelled by a selfish gene could such a thing be imagined let alone committed. But I would fear any materialistic explanations would profane this sacred story – a story of humbling supernatural forgiveness few of us could exhibit.  I’m not sure what other sort of proof would convince Dr. Richard Dawkins of, at least, the possibility of God. But since this is a spiritual issue and not an intellectual one, I’m not sure it would matter to him anyway.

The Tuttle Farm of Dover, New Hampshire is up for sale. Not that a farm for sale is all that newsworthy save for the fact that the Tuttle Farm is one of the oldest family farms in America, under continuous operation since—get this–1632. For 379 years eleven generations of the Tuttle family have owned and operated the parcel of land which has varied in size from the original 20 acres to a peak of 240 acres in the mid twentieth century. Among reasons for selling the farm, the current owner Will Tuttle cites—amazingly—the lack of interest of the twelfth generation of Tuttle’s who are too entrenched in their careers to take over!

I am trying to think up a career that one could possibly have that would outweigh a family tradition that has survived the span of centuries and the life of nations.  But I can’t lean too heavily on the Tuttle offspring since most of our American culture has sold out to one form of idolatry or another.  We might ask ourselves what traditions have we secured even for a single generation consider these fading traditions sacrificed to the god of career:

• Raising your own children
• Growing your own produce
• Cooking your own meals
• Repairing a broken household item
• Sewing and mending
• Buying something with money you actually possess
• Eating together as a family
• Praying before a meal
• Observing the Sabbath
• Time, to do anything

Too much stock is put into one’s career; most careers that are in demand today did not exist a generation ago and probably won’t exist a generation from now. The software, laws, proposals and policies we write will be discarded and forgotten soon enough.  And the ones that will grieve your passing won’t be the people you impressed at a cocktail party with your advanced degrees and impressive titles on a business card.   At any rate, what could be more impressive than a 379 year old tradition?

The parliament of the small European nation of Malta, which lies in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and North Africa, has passed legislation that likely escaped your attention. The legislation, the last of its kind in Europe, has made it legal to obtain a divorce in that country.

There are two things that amaze me about this news whisper. The first is the fact that there was (until recently) at least one radically progressive country left in the Western world that so believed in the sanctity and the relevance of marriage between a man and a woman, that divorce was—really—not an option.   It wasn’t that long ago in the early 1990’s when that was also true of Ireland which had the same radical perspective when I was there on my honeymoon. Since then, in November 1995 to be exact, the Irish legalized divorce with a constitutional amendment.

The second amazing thing about this event is the general reception of the news as being sensible and good, that the legal preservation of marriage was some relic of the past clinging to the island nation of Malta like a vestigial organ.

But I think it is sad, very sad.

To think about the matter of divorce is, for me, to think of a passage in the Book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, only a few pages but an incredible pronouncement by God through His prophet to do what is right in many aspects of community – it is an amazing book. And there He says in exasperation, “I hate divorce!”. He goes on to admonish the men for the way they were dealing treacherously with the wife of their youth.

And it would be four centuries before He would speak again.

A quote from philosopher Peter Kreeft which has been the primary influence for this Neo-traditionalism blog is appropriate with regard to the legalization of divorce now everywhere in the Western world: When heresy becomes the orthodoxy of the future, tradition is the last remaining radicalism.

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University publishes the Freedom in the 50 States, An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom which “comprehensively ranks the American states on their public policies that affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres” as stated on their website.

According to the study, New Hampshire and South Dakota are about even at the top, being the most free states. Kudos to New Hampshire which has apparently lived up to its motto “Live free or die”. At the bottom are states like New York and New Jersey—no surprise sense you are not even allowed to pump your own gas without authorization.

I am pleased to see my state of Virginia near the top at number nine. I am also not surprised to see Maryland at the bottom ranking forty-three.  Having lived in both states a number of years, I can attest to the general impression—now confirmed by the Mercatus study—that Virginia understands freedom whereas Maryland just doesn’t get it—ironically, since Maryland has the nickname “The Free State”. Ah—marketing.

I lived in Maryland for twenty-seven years. Admittedly my impression of Maryland is highly skewed by living in Montgomery County whose regulations don’t always align with the rest of the state but certainly align with the spirit of it. The same goes for Fairfax County Virginia where I now live.

In many ways, the restrictions imposed by governments like the one in Maryland can be an insult to one’s intelligence.  Let me illustrate. During an open-house on a dairy farm in Maryland I was helping a man work his cider press. We put fresh apples in the top which were chopped and squeezed into a fresh cider that poured fragrantly into a glass container. I wanted to sample the juice and then purchase a gallon or two—but no.  He had to have it pasteurized first according to state law.  But I could have an apple.

Or how about when I was in college and needed a job to pay for my education?  I got a job at Shoppers Food Warehouse in Olney but only under the stipulation that I belong to the United Commercial Food Workers (UCFW). There was no choice in the matter—I had to join and pay union dues garnished from my meager wages. If that weren’t bad enough, the union literature mailed to my house was unabashed about what candidate I should vote for in the upcoming presidential election.  So let’s summarize: my money used against my will to support a candidate I did not want in office—hmmm.  Well, that’s Maryland.

Let’s examine a few areas of personal freedom and compare the policies of the so-called “Free State” with that of the “Old Dominion”:

• Each year, near the date of July 4 a bunch of tin kiosks will pop up all over Fairfax County to vend fireworks. Just across the Potomac River in Montgomery County you will be stopped by police for possessing what you may have purchased. How dare you commemorate Independence Day with your own pyrotechnics exhibit! Besides, you’ll shoot your eye out!
• When I go shopping at Trader Joe’s or Costco, I can avail myself of a large selection of beer and wine at remarkable prices—but only if those shops are located in the Old Dominion. What’s more, if I see a deal on wine at Wine.Woot or a nice bottle of red from California, I can have it shipped to my house. Only recently did they allow that in the Free State while at the same time prohibiting the practice when it comes to cigars—a net of zero on the freedom ledger.
• Raw milk in Maryland is illegal and treated like a contraband drug. Virginia at least allows you to own herd shares and do what you want with the milk.
• Virginia led the way in concealed carry permit issuance and many other states in the union followed suit. Maryland is one of the last of a handful of crime-ridden states that butt-drags to arm their citizenry; criminals, however, are permitted to carry.
• In Virginia, you are expected to drive responsibly and as you cross the American Legion Bridge into Maryland from Virginia, you are welcomed with a number of signs enumerating all the prohibitions in the so-called Free State. One now tells you that cell phone use is prohibited while driving. But of course you can drive a manual while drinking Starbucks reading your copy of the Völkischer Beobachter—that’s fine.
• If you live in Montgomery County, not only do you pay property tax but you pay an additional dealer markup of 60% of your state tax that becomes your local tax—the so called piggy back tax. And who gets all this ADM? It goes to Baltimore, to build their stadia or some other pork barrel project. Virginians do not have a piggy back tax and the property taxes are kept relatively low.
• The general legislative approach in Maryland is as follows: we know what’s good for you. In Virginia: you should decide. Case in point, the issue of same-sex marriage was voted on in the Old Dominion; contrast Maryland which has had plenty of time to weigh in on the issue wouldn’t dare put it up for referendum. As I said, Maryland’s approach to governance is generally an insult to one’s intelligence. We value your opinion, just as long as it matches our own. Otherwise, you’re an extremist.

When I use to live in the PRM (People’s Republic of Maryland) I would routinely become infuriated with the news of some policy just enacted during the day while I was at work earning money to pay for my state and local taxes.

Now that I live in Virginia, I just laugh.

Those who work in the field of software engineering may be familiar with the phrase eating your own dog food[1]. For example, if a company creates word processing software, one would expect that the company would do all its business word processing using the software they created. Or, if a company created a search engine, would mandate that all employees use the search engine in their day to day activities. How would you feel about Microsoft Word if the employees at Microsoft used OpenOffice (created by Sun Oracle) or if Google used Bing as their desktop search engine? What if all the desktop computers at Microsoft’s headquarters were running Linux —what would that say about their flagship operating system, Windows?

You see the logic: by subjecting the software engineers to be the end users too, the quality of the software increases.  Since they use the software frequently in various ways and must rely on it as would you and I, they know what works, what doesn’t, what should be added and what should be removed. Result: higher quality software.

I bring this up to suggest that our beloved Congress adopt the same policy when it comes to lawmaking. In this instance, congressional members and their immediate families would be subject to the base implementation of the law for as long as they live or as long as the law exists. For example:

• Taxation  – all members of congress must comply with income tax laws without use of a consultant or tax preparer. Members must do their own taxes by hand or use commercially available software. Tax returns will be subject to a mandatory audit.  Members will be subject to fines, penalties and/or jail for incorrect tax returns.
• Security  –  all members and their families traveling will be subject to both an X-radiation scan and a pat down by TSA officials every time they travel through U.S. airports.
• Crime – any politician found guilty of breaking the law will receive the maximum penalty for the infraction that is prescribed by the law.  No more reprimands, get out of jail free cards or passes on tax evasion.

The same motivation applies here as it does in software engineering: increased quality. Such a policy would transform an “aware” Congress to an “affected” Congress. And you can expect a more rational approach to taxation, security, crime and punishment—and fast.

Now how do you get Congress to pass a law that stipulates they must eat their own dog food on every form of legislation?

Good luck with that.