There are times when they tell you FLAT OUT what they are going to do, or rather, what they are doing.
The Federal Reserve in its September policy meeting says clearly and flat out that they consider inflation to be a tool for fighting unemployment.
I am sick, and therefore not motivated at present to detail why this is a bad bad bad policy, and why it won't work.
However, simply noted, it means the era of cheap imported goods and a strong purchasing ability of the dollar is over. In simple terms, think of the imported goods at WalMart costing twice or three times what we have now, and you get the idea.
We are in for one heck of a ride.
The Daily Reckoning - Entertaining Ideas on the Economy, Markets, Gold, Oil and Investing Strategies
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: What's the Hot Topic at the United Nations General Assembly? Gold
Bottom line: We may be having a major shift in the demand curve for gold. The old demand curve was based on only goldbugs buying gold (until serious inflation kicks in). If we do indeed have a new demand curve, the goldbugs are joined by hedge fund managers and even more important the international elite. This moves the demand curve much higher, and I don't think their is a forecast out there yet reflecting how high this demand curve may have moved.
Unusual worry for economy: Is inflation too low? - Yahoo! Finance
Expect more of this kind of crap........
and buy silver and gold.
Do not imagine that this is not sheer propaganda.
"Pledge to America" Unveiled by Republicans (Full Text) - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
I downloaded it.
I read it.
I yawned.
I placed an order on Bullion Direct to buy more silver.
I bought some more ammo.
I downloaded a document called "a checklist for all your important papers in the event of an emergency"
I cancelled an auction on ebay to sell 100 cases of MREs. I think I will keep them......"just in case"
This is just a document whining about what O has done. There are VERY few specifics on how they plan to address them. In fact, the document is not really a plan for change at all, but a fulminating carping bleat. It disgusts me.
A REAL change by the Republican party would have:
1) an absolute budget freeze, across the board, in every department
2) a pledge to put on the prez desk (forcing him to veto), plans for the eradication of at least one federal department (Dept of Education?)
3) a commitment to force the president to constitutionally justify the use of so-called "czars" to manage sectors of our society. These are people whom the president has appointed to issue rules and regs that are in areas Constitutionally mandated to be overseen by Congress.
4) demanded an audit of the federal reserve
5) DEMANDED an audit of the federal reserve, including the gold in Ft. Knox
6) DEMANDED AN AUDIT OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE!!!!!
7) a pledge NOT TO FUND the unconstitutional travesty of "Obamacare"
8) a pledge to restore Social Security to solvency by means of a) adjusting retirement age b) means testing and c) voluntarily privatization of sections of the plan
9) a frank acknowledgement that we are facing a looming currency crisis that will not be easily solved (cutting money growth will initially increase the deficit, because we have moved so much of the economy under fed control), but stating plainly that ignoring it will mean future financial ruin. Specific plans to institute some lock on how much money we can flush into the system (a gold standard? there are lots of differing measures)
10) a statement that a Republican Congress will FULLY SUPPORT the current movement of individual states to assert their rights under the 9th and 10th amendments to resist federal encroachment in areas like health care, gun control, drug enforcement, immigration status.
This document is just political crap.
Sorry. Just the way I see it.
I hate the Republican Party.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
FT.com / US / Economy & Fed - Fed hints it could buy more bonds
Doesn't this just reassure you to no end?
When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
The fed can only use monetary policy (i.e., print money) to address the problems we have. They are going to do that till they destroy the treasury and credit markets.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Fractional Reserve Banking by Murray N. Rothbard
This review of the various kinds of banking and their relation to politics is VERY VERY VERY good.
It is concise, clear, to the point, and brief.
Of course it is! It is by Murray Rothbard. What else would one expect?
Sunday, September 19, 2010
YouTube - Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's 33rd Annual Award Gala
Go to this speech at 22:31 and listen to where O quotes the Declaration of Independence.
Anyone who can reference what he left OUT (deliberately?) gets a purple jelly bean
More Christine O’Donnell Craziness: ‘Midnight Picnic on a Satanic Alter’ | ChattahBox News Blog
So what about the 11 year old video where Christine claims she dabbled in witchcraft? Or the 15 year old clip about seeing a satanic altar?
Chattahbox (hey, it was on the google news feed!) had an entry where they referenced several times the claim that she sat with a guy on something that was thought to be a "Satanic Alter" (sic).
Here were my comments, though I doubt they will make it through the mods there:
Number one: Please learn how to spell “altar” before mocking the intelligence of someone talking about one. That would help a bit.
Number two: This was a 15 year old clip. Do you think you might find a home video where she sasses her mom, and play that so that we can see how defiant she is to authority? Why not criticize her fashion sense or hairstyle in a high school shot?
Number three: It is common for newly converted Christians to become a bit obsessed or fixated on the reality of a supernatural world, especially the demonic aspects. It is unfortunate that sometimes comments are made that sound a bit hyperbolic. I dunno about O’donnell. Maybe what she said was true, and maybe she embellished this stuff, or maybe made it up wholesale.
If you are questioning her veracity and integrity in the clip, I might be skeptical with you. I would then like to see how she handled being confronted on the issue. Part of maturity (if she misspoke, I don’t know if she did) would be saying, “I not only lied, but I lied in the name of the truth. That is wrong, and I hope my getting carried away 15 years ago doesn’t destroy my credibility today.” That would show not only common sense and maturity, but maturity about what Christianity is all about, which is not moral rectitude (though you would hope for that), but humility and repentance, rather than pride, foolishness and deceit.
As far as foolishness goes, though, it is the height of idiocy to assume a supercilious stance and mock the reality of a spiritual world that is populated by super-intelligent beings, some of whom are truly malevolent. Moreover it is the height of dumbass to assume there is no spillover from that world into this one.
I can’t tell from your jibe here. Are you just as stupid as you accuse O’donnell of being?
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Why the Price of Gold Goes Up in a Struggling Economy
I like Bill Bonner. An honest financial writer.
Rockefeller Republicans by Patrick J. Buchanan
I do not always agree with Pat Buchanan, but when he is on, he is DEAD on.
He calls this one perfectly.
Pajamas Media » Gunned Down in Vegas: What Really Happened to Erik Scott?
Until cops first learn to police THEMSELVES and quit closing ranks to defend "the brotherhood" you are going to see a rising tide of public hostility, distrust, and outright defiance and uncooperativeness (is that a word?).
This is murder, plain and simple.
Social Justice
Some advocates of "social justice" would argue that what is fundamentally unjust is that one person is born into circumstances that make that person's chances in life radically different from the chances that others have – through no fault of one and through no merit of the others.
Maybe the person who wasted educational opportunities and developed self-destructive behavior would have turned out differently if born into a different home or a different community.
That would of course be more just. But now we are no longer talking about "social" justice, unless we believe that it is all society's fault that different families and communities have different values and priorities – and that society can "solve" that "problem."
Nor can poverty or poor education explain such differences. There are individuals who were raised by parents who were both poor and poorly educated, but who pushed their children to get the education that the parents themselves never had. Many individuals and groups would not be where they are today without that.
All kinds of chance encounters – with particular people, information or circumstances – have marked turning points in many individual's lives, whether toward fulfillment or ruin.
The Great Housing Bamboozle: How The Numbers Show Home Ownership Is A Terrible Investment
Nice article demonstrating that home ownership is a TERRIBLE investment.
Interesting, since ownership in a home is the NUMBER ONE INVESTMENT most people make in their lives.
The horrifying thought in this picture is that if inflation really does come roaring in with a vengeance asset prices (like houses) actually FALL as people liquidate them to pay for articles of daily living like food and other consumables.
I have paid approximately 25% more into mine than I can get out of it right now (including tax breaks for mortgage deductions, and the "required money" I would have had to spend on rental for a place to live)....., and I do not live in an upside down mortgage AND I have aggressively paid down my mortgage on an accelerated basis AND I only took a 15 year note out in the first place.
I would be far far far better off to have lived in a house trailer for 5 years and aggressively saved money....... of course, I would have had a fantastically unhappy wife and family, so I suppose there is some kind of intangible benefit that offsets the raw money argument.
The Great Housing Bamboozle: How The Numbers Show Home Ownership Is A Terrible Investment
Interesting, since ownership in a home is the NUMBER ONE INVESTMENT most people make in their lives.
The horrifying thought in this picture is that if inflation really does come roaring in with a vengeance asset prices (like houses) actually FALL as people liquidate them to pay for articles of daily living like food and other consumables.
I have paid approximately 25% more into mine than I can get out of it right now (including tax breaks for mortgage deductions, and the "required money" I would have had to spend on rental for a place to live)....., and I do not live in an upside down mortgage AND I have aggressively paid down my mortgage on an accelerated basis AND I only took a 15 year note out in the first place.
I would be far far far better off to have lived in a house trailer for 5 years and aggressively saved money....... of course, I would have had a fantastically unhappy wife and family, so I suppose there is some kind of intangible benefit that offsets the raw money argument.
The Great Housing Bamboozle: How The Numbers Show Home Ownership Is A Terrible Investment
iowahawk: If It Is a Fight These Jacobins Want, Then It Is a Fight They Shall Have
Iowahawk is a master at satire. Here he takes on the moneyed Republican establishment.
iowahawk: If It Is a Fight These Jacobins Want, Then It Is a Fight They Shall Have
iowahawk: If It Is a Fight These Jacobins Want, Then It Is a Fight They Shall Have
Carter still mad at Kennedy over health care - The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency
Next week he will remind us that the OTHER reason he was a failure has to do with Jerry Falwell, also dead.
What ever happened to "shut up and slink away, peanut boy."
I despise this venomous little weasel as much as any public figure we have seen in recent history.
Incompetent, sleazy, dishonest, pathetically inept, small minded, vindictive, and the only president we have had whose popularity rate fell below the prime rate.
His entire retinue since 1980 has been a series of bitter vindications of his failed presidency. Just shut up, already.
Carter still mad at Kennedy over health care - The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency
What ever happened to "shut up and slink away, peanut boy."
I despise this venomous little weasel as much as any public figure we have seen in recent history.
Incompetent, sleazy, dishonest, pathetically inept, small minded, vindictive, and the only president we have had whose popularity rate fell below the prime rate.
His entire retinue since 1980 has been a series of bitter vindications of his failed presidency. Just shut up, already.
Carter still mad at Kennedy over health care - The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency
Those Who Know Will Understand | FINANCIAL SENSE
More tin foil hat stuff.....
However, the remarks about Konstantin Borovoy in 1999 about the KGB recruiting Muslims to "torpedo" buildings in the USA using airplanes is enough to make you stand up and say "huh?"
It is also very very interesting about Alexander Litvinenko, the ex KGB officer who claimed that KGB was behind Al Qaida. His mode of death was most unusual and has "state murder" all over it.
Those Who Know Will Understand | FINANCIAL SENSE
However, the remarks about Konstantin Borovoy in 1999 about the KGB recruiting Muslims to "torpedo" buildings in the USA using airplanes is enough to make you stand up and say "huh?"
It is also very very interesting about Alexander Litvinenko, the ex KGB officer who claimed that KGB was behind Al Qaida. His mode of death was most unusual and has "state murder" all over it.
Those Who Know Will Understand | FINANCIAL SENSE
Friday, September 17, 2010
Congressmen Weiner and Waxman Set Gold Hearing -- Seeking Alpha
Whew! Congress to the rescue, again.
It was a close call, but those champions of liberty, free speech, business ethics (Waxman) and fiscal common sense are going to finally do someothing to protect us against the unscrupulous and predatory advertisers who are just PREYING on people's financial fears! Not only that, these vicious plunderers advertise on GLEN BECK!
Something must be done. Something will be done. Hooray for our protectors!
Congressmen Weiner and Waxman Set Gold Hearing -- Seeking Alpha
It was a close call, but those champions of liberty, free speech, business ethics (Waxman) and fiscal common sense are going to finally do someothing to protect us against the unscrupulous and predatory advertisers who are just PREYING on people's financial fears! Not only that, these vicious plunderers advertise on GLEN BECK!
Something must be done. Something will be done. Hooray for our protectors!
Congressmen Weiner and Waxman Set Gold Hearing -- Seeking Alpha
Michelle Obama life as First Lady is 'hell'
We understand, Michelle.
No need to deny. For once, America agrees.
White House, French Embassy deny report that Michelle Obama told Carla Bruni life as First Lady is 'hell'* - Political Punch
No need to deny. For once, America agrees.
White House, French Embassy deny report that Michelle Obama told Carla Bruni life as First Lady is 'hell'* - Political Punch
Fury at the attempted seizure of IRAs
I am assuming anyone reading this knows of the upcoming attempt to steal the largest untapped source of funds by the Federal Government, the private retirement plans of the nation (IRA/401K plans)
They will cloak it in the language of needing to "protect" us against the wild fluctuations of the stock market and will drag up some idiot schlub who took his entire retirement account and put it in a penny stock company promising to make fuel from Ostrich guano or something. Now the poor moron is penniless. Boo hoo, don't you feel the pain? So we now have to put your money in something SAFE, like, er, "TREASURY BONDS." They are REAL SAFE, right? Never mind they just happen to be the major tool by which this group of money junkies borrow to finance the debt spiral they have created. They have our best interests at heart. Really!!!
Look at the comments at the link below on this. The fury is palpable here. This is the kind of stuff that gets the ruling class dragged into the streets to be guillotined, hanged, or shot in other countries.
PostScript#2 on the Death of your IRA and 401K | FINANCIAL SENSE
They will cloak it in the language of needing to "protect" us against the wild fluctuations of the stock market and will drag up some idiot schlub who took his entire retirement account and put it in a penny stock company promising to make fuel from Ostrich guano or something. Now the poor moron is penniless. Boo hoo, don't you feel the pain? So we now have to put your money in something SAFE, like, er, "TREASURY BONDS." They are REAL SAFE, right? Never mind they just happen to be the major tool by which this group of money junkies borrow to finance the debt spiral they have created. They have our best interests at heart. Really!!!
Look at the comments at the link below on this. The fury is palpable here. This is the kind of stuff that gets the ruling class dragged into the streets to be guillotined, hanged, or shot in other countries.
PostScript#2 on the Death of your IRA and 401K | FINANCIAL SENSE
The Volokh Conspiracy » The Case for a ‘Repeal Amendment’
I am usually not for a bunch of amendments to the Constitution, but this one looks very promising.
I think I would support it, from what I can see here.
The Volokh Conspiracy » The Case for a ‘Repeal Amendment’
I think I would support it, from what I can see here.
The Volokh Conspiracy » The Case for a ‘Repeal Amendment’
Cook Report: It’s a Toss Up. — Daily Ructions
Holy reversal, Batman!
In the Connecticut race for the US Senate (ahhh, if only Peter Schiff had won the Pub primary!!!), Richard Blumenthal led by FORTY POINTS in January.
The race is now being called a tossup.
Gulp!
If this is true, 1994 might be considered a trial run for what happens this year.
Cook Report: It’s a Toss Up. — Daily Ructions
In the Connecticut race for the US Senate (ahhh, if only Peter Schiff had won the Pub primary!!!), Richard Blumenthal led by FORTY POINTS in January.
The race is now being called a tossup.
Gulp!
If this is true, 1994 might be considered a trial run for what happens this year.
Cook Report: It’s a Toss Up. — Daily Ructions
MyDesk ▷ TheBullionDesk
Silver closing in on $21.00 per ounce.
I am thinking of starting an online silver business.
My own personal "stash" (assuming I had such a thing, and assuming it would be easy to go dig it up and assuming it was within easy driving distance to get to) is certainly not for sale. However, as prices rise, I am considering brokering some, as buying it in decent quantities over the last 10 years or so has introduced me to some decent sources. The other day I got a call from a guy who wanted to sell me 500 silver dollars (morgan and peace, none slick) for 17 dollars a piece, but I had to buy all of them at once. I declined, but with dollars going for 24-25 dollars a piece, I am thinking that maybe I should have bought them, flipped them for maybe 20 dollars a piece, and invested the rest in more silver. If I could use the business to assist my friends in putting together their own hedge against the coming financial tsunami, I would feel like I had done a good thing.
If I had a group of people who were interested in enhancing their own inventories, I might do so. I already have a skeleton corporation registered with the state of NC.
Please email me at eddie.gilchrist@gmail.com if
1) you think that might be a good idea, and
2) if you might be interested in using such a service to buy silver as an investment yourself.
MyDesk ▷ TheBullionDesk
I am thinking of starting an online silver business.
My own personal "stash" (assuming I had such a thing, and assuming it would be easy to go dig it up and assuming it was within easy driving distance to get to) is certainly not for sale. However, as prices rise, I am considering brokering some, as buying it in decent quantities over the last 10 years or so has introduced me to some decent sources. The other day I got a call from a guy who wanted to sell me 500 silver dollars (morgan and peace, none slick) for 17 dollars a piece, but I had to buy all of them at once. I declined, but with dollars going for 24-25 dollars a piece, I am thinking that maybe I should have bought them, flipped them for maybe 20 dollars a piece, and invested the rest in more silver. If I could use the business to assist my friends in putting together their own hedge against the coming financial tsunami, I would feel like I had done a good thing.
If I had a group of people who were interested in enhancing their own inventories, I might do so. I already have a skeleton corporation registered with the state of NC.
Please email me at eddie.gilchrist@gmail.com if
1) you think that might be a good idea, and
2) if you might be interested in using such a service to buy silver as an investment yourself.
MyDesk ▷ TheBullionDesk
FOXNews.com - Congress Poised to Hit Campaign Trail Before Finishing Basic Budget Duties
Nice to see they have their priorities straight.
FOXNews.com - Congress Poised to Hit Campaign Trail Before Finishing Basic Budget Duties
FOXNews.com - Congress Poised to Hit Campaign Trail Before Finishing Basic Budget Duties
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Jefferson Nickel Melt Value - Coinflation.com
A nickel is now worth 5.7 cents when melted down for its constituent base metals
Jefferson Nickel Melt Value - Coinflation.com
Moreover, you do not have to worry about refining out the copper from the nickel, either. There is a vibrant market for "cupronickel" in industry.
All you have to worry about is the fed (ha ha!), as this practice is illegal.
However, it certainly makes sense to consider again the "poor man's hedge" against inflation as simply stockpiling nickels.
Bulky? Yes. But cheap as dirt.
Jefferson Nickel Melt Value - Coinflation.com
Moreover, you do not have to worry about refining out the copper from the nickel, either. There is a vibrant market for "cupronickel" in industry.
All you have to worry about is the fed (ha ha!), as this practice is illegal.
However, it certainly makes sense to consider again the "poor man's hedge" against inflation as simply stockpiling nickels.
Bulky? Yes. But cheap as dirt.
The Democratic party revives!
This is too funny!
My wife told me Tuesday night that the Democratic party was poised to make a "major announcement" that would revitalize the party.
She asked me if I knew what it was, or had heard of it.
My response was that if it doesn't relate to the price of gold, the price of silver, guns, foreign exchange rates, daily Bible reading schedules by RM MCheyne, or my business, I likely have not heard of it.
Well, I have heard it now.
I can't help giggling.
here it is:
It is a new, heart pumping thrilling LOGO! Hooray! Take THAT John Boehner!!
Oh yeah, they got a new website, too. It has the new inspiring logo. www.democrats.org
My wife told me Tuesday night that the Democratic party was poised to make a "major announcement" that would revitalize the party.
She asked me if I knew what it was, or had heard of it.
My response was that if it doesn't relate to the price of gold, the price of silver, guns, foreign exchange rates, daily Bible reading schedules by RM MCheyne, or my business, I likely have not heard of it.
Well, I have heard it now.
I can't help giggling.
here it is:
It is a new, heart pumping thrilling LOGO! Hooray! Take THAT John Boehner!!
Oh yeah, they got a new website, too. It has the new inspiring logo. www.democrats.org
The Pure Rendition of How You Yourself Are by Jeff Snyder
Wow!
It took a non Christian to sum up the teachings of Jesus in the "golden rule" better than I have ever heard
In the Christian sense, you have nothing at all to do with what others do unto you – it does not concern you; it is a curiosity, an impertinence, a lack of good sense on your part to meddle in things that are absolutely no more your concern than if you were not present. You have to do only with what you do unto others, or how you take what others do unto you. The direction is inward; essentially you have to do only with yourself before God. This world of inwardness, this rendition of what other people call actuality, this is actuality. The Christian like for like belongs to this world of inwardness. It turns itself away and will turn you away from externality (but without taking you out of the world), will turn you upward or inward. In the Christian sense, to love people is to love God, and to love God is to love people – what you do unto people, you do unto God, and therefore what you do unto people God does unto you. If you are indignant with people who do you wrong, you actually are indignant with God, since ultimately it is still God who permits wrong to be done to you. But if you gratefully accept the wrong from God’s hand "as a good and perfect gift,"3 then you are not indignant with people either. If you refuse to forgive, then you actually want something else: you want to make God hard-hearted so that he, too, would not forgive – how then would this hard-hearted God forgive you? If you cannot bear people’s faults against you, how then should God be able to bear your sins against him? No, like for like. God is actually himself this pure like for like, the pure rendition of how you yourself are. If there is anger in you, then God is anger in you; if there is leniency and mercifulness in you, then God is mercifulness in you. It is infinite loving that he will have anything to do with you at all and that no one, no one, so lovingly discovers the slightest love in you as God does. God’s relation to a human being is at every moment to infinitize what is in that human being at every moment.
The Pure Rendition of How You Yourself Are by Jeff Snyder
Theological vivisectionists will sharpen their scalpels and declare that he is simply personalizing our own psyche and calling it "God." This may be true for the author, but he has nevertheless, stumbled into an amazing correlation between the relation of our psyche and the world around us and our relationship to God.
It took a non Christian to sum up the teachings of Jesus in the "golden rule" better than I have ever heard
The Pure Rendition of How You Yourself Are by Jeff Snyder
Theological vivisectionists will sharpen their scalpels and declare that he is simply personalizing our own psyche and calling it "God." This may be true for the author, but he has nevertheless, stumbled into an amazing correlation between the relation of our psyche and the world around us and our relationship to God.
YouTube - Maddow Diggs Up Christine O'Donnell Video On MTV (1996) Promoting Masturbation Abstenence
Rachel Maddow is a little shriveled up ball of hate. No other way to put it.
Scrounging up a 14 year old video of a girl promoting individual sexual purity is the first thing Maddow does when Odonnell wins.
You can just hear the venom dripping.
Christians can be phenomenally stupid at times, especially when it comes to ....... well, ANYTHING. Some of the public statements Christians make are really dumb. This is NOT one of those statements, though. It is a statement about an issue that is if anything, personal. However, CHRISTIANS DID NOT DRAG THIS PERSONAL ISSUE INTO THE PUBLIC ARENA. It was out there by..... OUR FEDERAL OFFICIALS. Kids saw the news every night, and leaders in the church felt they needed to respond.
Maddow is doing everything she can to intimate that O'Donnell is wack about sex. Rather, this seems to be simply a young woman attempting to stand up for what she believes is true and correct. This video was made when the not so distantly past news was of that LOON of a surgeon general Jocelyn Elders. Our chief medical officer, the Surgeon General, publicly instructed kids that a great way to avoid AIDS or sexual diseases was to masturbate, helpful soul that she was. This was during the presidency of the chief horn dog himself, who was servicing a young intern on her knees in the oval office. All the sexual maelstrom at the time WAS COMING FROM THE GOVERNMENT. Elders had resigned as Surgeon General a few short months back, and "getting a Lewinsky" was becoming street slang. In this context, a young woman says in essence "Sex is not primarily about selfishness and personal pleasure. It is designed by the Creator to be something to make two people closer together and to give EACH OTHER pleasure. In short, it is about love, and not lust."
This is fuel, then, for the sneering contempt of Rachel Maddow. It is amazing that those who claim not to believe the Bible consistently behave EXACTLY as the Bible describes they will.
YouTube - Maddow Diggs Up Christine O'Donnell Video On MTV (1996) Promoting Masturbation Abstenence
ahhh..... the always classy NEW YORK TIMES weighs in on the illiterate hillbilly rubes and their quaint puritannical obsessions with sex. Here is the lead paragraph telling us about O'Donnell's recent victory
Scrounging up a 14 year old video of a girl promoting individual sexual purity is the first thing Maddow does when Odonnell wins.
You can just hear the venom dripping.
Christians can be phenomenally stupid at times, especially when it comes to ....... well, ANYTHING. Some of the public statements Christians make are really dumb. This is NOT one of those statements, though. It is a statement about an issue that is if anything, personal. However, CHRISTIANS DID NOT DRAG THIS PERSONAL ISSUE INTO THE PUBLIC ARENA. It was out there by..... OUR FEDERAL OFFICIALS. Kids saw the news every night, and leaders in the church felt they needed to respond.
Maddow is doing everything she can to intimate that O'Donnell is wack about sex. Rather, this seems to be simply a young woman attempting to stand up for what she believes is true and correct. This video was made when the not so distantly past news was of that LOON of a surgeon general Jocelyn Elders. Our chief medical officer, the Surgeon General, publicly instructed kids that a great way to avoid AIDS or sexual diseases was to masturbate, helpful soul that she was. This was during the presidency of the chief horn dog himself, who was servicing a young intern on her knees in the oval office. All the sexual maelstrom at the time WAS COMING FROM THE GOVERNMENT. Elders had resigned as Surgeon General a few short months back, and "getting a Lewinsky" was becoming street slang. In this context, a young woman says in essence "Sex is not primarily about selfishness and personal pleasure. It is designed by the Creator to be something to make two people closer together and to give EACH OTHER pleasure. In short, it is about love, and not lust."
This is fuel, then, for the sneering contempt of Rachel Maddow. It is amazing that those who claim not to believe the Bible consistently behave EXACTLY as the Bible describes they will.
YouTube - Maddow Diggs Up Christine O'Donnell Video On MTV (1996) Promoting Masturbation Abstenence
ahhh..... the always classy NEW YORK TIMES weighs in on the illiterate hillbilly rubes and their quaint puritannical obsessions with sex. Here is the lead paragraph telling us about O'Donnell's recent victory
DOVER, Del. — In the bright light of Wednesday morning, Christine O’Donnell, whose Republican primary victory upended the calculus for future control of the United State Senate, became quickly known to Americans as the woman who once made dire warnings about the negative impact of masturbation.
Cosmic Log - China continues satellite maneuvers
Uh oh.
Here goes the space race for the Military.
We spent the Russians into an early grave by running an antiballistic missile system they could not keep up with.
Now it is China's turn to do it to us, I fear.
Cosmic Log - China continues satellite maneuvers
Here goes the space race for the Military.
We spent the Russians into an early grave by running an antiballistic missile system they could not keep up with.
Now it is China's turn to do it to us, I fear.
Cosmic Log - China continues satellite maneuvers
What is the 'tea party' and how is it shaking up American politics? - CSMonitor.com
Nice, clear, unbiased article describing exactly who is the "tea party" and from whence they came and what they believe.
When the Christian Science Monitor decides to do it right, they REALLY do it right. Unlike the New York Times, which cannot avoid rolling in prejudice and editorial instructions on how we should think, CSM really does try to be objective when they present analysis of conservative groups. It is one of the better periodicals in my opinion.What is the 'tea party' and how is it shaking up American politics? - CSMonitor.com
When the Christian Science Monitor decides to do it right, they REALLY do it right. Unlike the New York Times, which cannot avoid rolling in prejudice and editorial instructions on how we should think, CSM really does try to be objective when they present analysis of conservative groups. It is one of the better periodicals in my opinion.What is the 'tea party' and how is it shaking up American politics? - CSMonitor.com
Thirsting for Inspiration | FINANCIAL SENSE
Fiscal suicide, with a system fair neither to the prisoners or those who imprison them.
I think of another, older, more "primitive" justice system, and see no prisons. The only punishments are financial (you steal you are fined a multiple of what you stole, or are in forced labor till you pay it back), beatings (public, of course) or death.
Recidivism in such a system is far lower, and there are no costs of 45,000 dollar a year per inmate to send them to "graduate school for crime."
Of course, reforming our draconian drug laws would also help, since the majority of incarceration in any state are for drug related offenses.
Thirsting for Inspiration | FINANCIAL SENSE
I think of another, older, more "primitive" justice system, and see no prisons. The only punishments are financial (you steal you are fined a multiple of what you stole, or are in forced labor till you pay it back), beatings (public, of course) or death.
Recidivism in such a system is far lower, and there are no costs of 45,000 dollar a year per inmate to send them to "graduate school for crime."
Of course, reforming our draconian drug laws would also help, since the majority of incarceration in any state are for drug related offenses.
Thirsting for Inspiration | FINANCIAL SENSE
The Smoking Ruin Solution | FINANCIAL SENSE
THIS.
"While the Republicans are clearly energized by their concerns about the direction the Democrats are taking the country in, the Democrats themselves seem to have decided to forgo the voting process, perhaps in favor of a refreshing nap."
Funny. ha ha. Snarky and well put.
However, please read the entire article.
It is fantastic and makes great sense...... which is why we won't do it....., and why I am still buying gold and silver. Collapse time coming.
The Smoking Ruin Solution | FINANCIAL SENSE
"While the Republicans are clearly energized by their concerns about the direction the Democrats are taking the country in, the Democrats themselves seem to have decided to forgo the voting process, perhaps in favor of a refreshing nap."
Funny. ha ha. Snarky and well put.
However, please read the entire article.
It is fantastic and makes great sense...... which is why we won't do it....., and why I am still buying gold and silver. Collapse time coming.
The Smoking Ruin Solution | FINANCIAL SENSE
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
IMF fears 'social explosion' from world jobs crisis - Telegraph
"So what was all that again about it being so paranoid to own a gun?" he asked,as he sat there oiling his AK-47.
IMF fears 'social explosion' from world jobs crisis - Telegraph
IMF fears 'social explosion' from world jobs crisis - Telegraph
Tea Party Scores New Upset in Delaware Republican Senate Race - BusinessWeek
Republican party insiders have been alternating between harrumphing with embarrassment at Christine O'Donnell and laying into her with some frighteningly savage attacks. It will be interesting to see how she does now against her Dem rival Coons, who is only slightly to the left of Pol Pot, and crazy enough to be an Obama czar, in my book.
If Odonnell pulls it off the republican national committee is going to wet its pants, as they will know they have lost complete control, and that they can no longer call the grass roots revolt "suicidal" or "kamikaze" or lunatic fringe or any of the other endearing, unity building terminology they have used.
There is a tsunami of pure rage out there at the entitled, arrogant, enthroned political establishment. This could not be anything but good. It is what a voting Republic is all about.
Tea Party Scores New Upset in Delaware Republican Senate Race - BusinessWeek
If Odonnell pulls it off the republican national committee is going to wet its pants, as they will know they have lost complete control, and that they can no longer call the grass roots revolt "suicidal" or "kamikaze" or lunatic fringe or any of the other endearing, unity building terminology they have used.
There is a tsunami of pure rage out there at the entitled, arrogant, enthroned political establishment. This could not be anything but good. It is what a voting Republic is all about.
Tea Party Scores New Upset in Delaware Republican Senate Race - BusinessWeek
Political Shocker: Tea Party candidate knocks Lazio out of governor’s race - New York Government | Examiner.com
It is SHOCKING, I tell ya!
The republican party grassroots has finally come to the stunning conclusion that they simply do not have to swallow and shut up and support whoever the party bigwigs say they have to. This is amazing in and of itself.
The somber political pundits will nod gravely and intone a disaster at these rubes who insist on putting forth unelectable candidates.
I am all for the crazies taking over the house. It simply cannot get any worse than the two mirror image parties we have now, full of thieves, hucksters, lying pandering proponents of more and more power, irresponsibility and arrogant hubris.
Political Shocker: Tea Party candidate knocks Lazio out of governor’s race - New York Government | Examiner.com
The republican party grassroots has finally come to the stunning conclusion that they simply do not have to swallow and shut up and support whoever the party bigwigs say they have to. This is amazing in and of itself.
The somber political pundits will nod gravely and intone a disaster at these rubes who insist on putting forth unelectable candidates.
I am all for the crazies taking over the house. It simply cannot get any worse than the two mirror image parties we have now, full of thieves, hucksters, lying pandering proponents of more and more power, irresponsibility and arrogant hubris.
Political Shocker: Tea Party candidate knocks Lazio out of governor’s race - New York Government | Examiner.com
Rubio up by 16 over Crist
This cannot be ANYTHING but good
FOXNews.com - Fox News Polls Track Midterm Election Races in 5 Key States
FOXNews.com - Fox News Polls Track Midterm Election Races in 5 Key States
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Gold's Rise Dependent On How Low US Dollar Will Go: Ron Paul by Daniela Cambone
I interact every day with people who would not DREAM of not insuring their homes, their cars, their lives, their health....., but have NO insurance at all against a dollar collapse, or severe retrenchment of the dollar. This obtuseness and stupidity amazes me to no end. Many of these people are middle class people who have worked hard all their lives to amass homes, retirement portfolios, savings and other forms of wealth.
They seem to be blissfully unaware or unwilling to consider that a period of severe hyperinflation will literally wipe them out. Reactions range from the "it won't happen, the government will do something to fix it"(the government CAUSED the problem, folks, and it is now shoving those same destructive policies into high gear!!!!!!!!!) to "I can't do anything about it, so why worry?"
On the other hand, a very few group of friends of mine are now calling and emailing me asking "do you think I should buy some precious metals?"
The clear and compelling answer is YES. Don't buy it as an investment. Buy it as insurance on your investments.
You will not be sorry.
Gold's Rise Dependent On How Low US Dollar Will Go: Ron Paul by Daniela Cambone
They seem to be blissfully unaware or unwilling to consider that a period of severe hyperinflation will literally wipe them out. Reactions range from the "it won't happen, the government will do something to fix it"(the government CAUSED the problem, folks, and it is now shoving those same destructive policies into high gear!!!!!!!!!) to "I can't do anything about it, so why worry?"
On the other hand, a very few group of friends of mine are now calling and emailing me asking "do you think I should buy some precious metals?"
The clear and compelling answer is YES. Don't buy it as an investment. Buy it as insurance on your investments.
You will not be sorry.
Gold's Rise Dependent On How Low US Dollar Will Go: Ron Paul by Daniela Cambone
Roger L. Simon » Young Guns: The Conservative 2.0 Campaign Book
Campaign books are almost never “high literature,” nor are they usually intended to be. And no one would mistake Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders for de Toqueville’s Democracy in America, but the new book (published tomorrow) by Congressmen Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy is the next best thing to a classic. It is a war cry.
This war cry is not just the predictable excoriation of the failed liberal Democratic policies of Barack Obama, but a striking attack by the three Republican congressmen on their own party for having violated the small government principles upon which they were elected. If the Tea Party movement is looking for leadership, it may be sitting there in plain sight with Cantor, Ryan and McCarthy.
Roger L. Simon » Young Guns: The Conservative 2.0 Campaign Book
This war cry is not just the predictable excoriation of the failed liberal Democratic policies of Barack Obama, but a striking attack by the three Republican congressmen on their own party for having violated the small government principles upon which they were elected. If the Tea Party movement is looking for leadership, it may be sitting there in plain sight with Cantor, Ryan and McCarthy.
Roger L. Simon » Young Guns: The Conservative 2.0 Campaign Book
Michael Totten » Above the Killing Fields of the Galilee
Great article by Michael Totten (one of my very favorite bloggers) on life on the Golan Heights as Israelis attempt to move in and resettle it with a civilian population. Those people are amazing!
Michael Totten » Above the Killing Fields of the Galilee
Michael Totten » Above the Killing Fields of the Galilee
Club Mod: Cellulosic Ethanol: $2.35 per gallon
WOW!
A non-grain source for ethanol. Note that much of the research came from AUBURN UNIVERSITY! (home of the Mises Institute, the base for Austrian free market economics.... just an aside). Switchgrass. Anyone here even heard of it?
I am not much for government involvement in much of anything, but if we are determined to waste the moneys, rather than spend trillions of dollars and thousands of lives of young Americans (not to mention hundreds of thousands of lives of Iraqis, Afghanis, Pakistanis, etc) trying to stabilize the ME (or even more stupidly, bomb them till they like us!), why don't we just render the ME economically irrelevant. Plus, imagine the wealth that can be generated by prairie lands anywhere!
An alternative to petroleum would send every one of those countries back to the medieval hellholes of poverty, corruption, and insane fanaticism they were before oil was discovered there.
Club Mod: Cellulosic Ethanol: $2.35 per gallon
A non-grain source for ethanol. Note that much of the research came from AUBURN UNIVERSITY! (home of the Mises Institute, the base for Austrian free market economics.... just an aside). Switchgrass. Anyone here even heard of it?
I am not much for government involvement in much of anything, but if we are determined to waste the moneys, rather than spend trillions of dollars and thousands of lives of young Americans (not to mention hundreds of thousands of lives of Iraqis, Afghanis, Pakistanis, etc) trying to stabilize the ME (or even more stupidly, bomb them till they like us!), why don't we just render the ME economically irrelevant. Plus, imagine the wealth that can be generated by prairie lands anywhere!
An alternative to petroleum would send every one of those countries back to the medieval hellholes of poverty, corruption, and insane fanaticism they were before oil was discovered there.
Club Mod: Cellulosic Ethanol: $2.35 per gallon
County Sues Farmer, Cites Too Many Crops - News Story - WSB Atlanta
Just another day in the land of the free.......
County Sues Farmer, Cites Too Many Crops - News Story - WSB Atlanta
County Sues Farmer, Cites Too Many Crops - News Story - WSB Atlanta
Democrats love the GOP fight on the right in Delaware | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
Politics sure calls out the worst in people. I know it does in me.
The race in Delaware between Christine O’Donnell and Mike Castle is a good example. Hateful, scurillous gloating stuff being said by both sides that the Huffington post would be cautious about printing.
From what I know about Mick Castle, I am not a fan. He seems to be the embodiment of the GOP good old boy network that caused the upsurge of the Tea Party movement in the first place. Maybe it is impossible to clean these guys out without a mess.
The concern in the Republican party is that Christine O'Donnell is thought to be "unelectable" in a statewide contest between parties.
If O'Donnell does get the GOP nod and then wins the general election, I predict panic and hysteria among the GOP party bosses.
Not much could make me happier.
I tend to be the kind who says it is better to lose with principles than give them up to win.
This is counter to the opinion of every political expert out there. They all say that politics is the art of compromise. I agree, but I guess we just disagree over what should be up for compromise.
Democrats love the GOP fight on the right in Delaware | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
The race in Delaware between Christine O’Donnell and Mike Castle is a good example. Hateful, scurillous gloating stuff being said by both sides that the Huffington post would be cautious about printing.
From what I know about Mick Castle, I am not a fan. He seems to be the embodiment of the GOP good old boy network that caused the upsurge of the Tea Party movement in the first place. Maybe it is impossible to clean these guys out without a mess.
The concern in the Republican party is that Christine O'Donnell is thought to be "unelectable" in a statewide contest between parties.
If O'Donnell does get the GOP nod and then wins the general election, I predict panic and hysteria among the GOP party bosses.
Not much could make me happier.
I tend to be the kind who says it is better to lose with principles than give them up to win.
This is counter to the opinion of every political expert out there. They all say that politics is the art of compromise. I agree, but I guess we just disagree over what should be up for compromise.
Democrats love the GOP fight on the right in Delaware | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
SayUncle » Guns in parks
Tennessee recently revoked laws forbidding carry of firearms in public parks. There were predictions of a upsurge of violence, rage killings in parks and wild west shootouts in public places.... Well, "since the law removing restrictions of handguns in parks, an amazing thing happened. Nothing.
Whenever prohibitions on carry are loosened, there’s always calls that there will be blood in the streets and violence at kids’ soccer games. But it keeps not happening."
Dang it, and I bought myself a set of blood proof hip waders to slosh through that river of human blood for the next time I drive through Chattanooga. Looks like I wasted that purchase.
On a related note, Tennessee recently revoked its law against carrying in restaurants. They DID get their first shooting in a restaurant/bar after that law....... a drunk guy carrying in his pocket accidentally shot himself in the leg. Never mind that one of the first things he did was VIOLATE the law by drinking while carrying a firearm concealed (idiot!), the cretin actually got hammered while carrying a weapon. Again, guns and alcohol, bad combo. I am for concealed carry just about everywhere, but RESPONSIBLE concealed carry. The guy should have his carry permit permanently revoked.
Again, though, the Brady crowd are always yammering about predictions of wild west shootouts any time you allow carry of firearms anywhere. Truth is, it just doesn't happen. The worst that happens is usually some candidate for the Darwin Awards shoots himself....., like here.
SayUncle » Guns in parks
Whenever prohibitions on carry are loosened, there’s always calls that there will be blood in the streets and violence at kids’ soccer games. But it keeps not happening."
Dang it, and I bought myself a set of blood proof hip waders to slosh through that river of human blood for the next time I drive through Chattanooga. Looks like I wasted that purchase.
On a related note, Tennessee recently revoked its law against carrying in restaurants. They DID get their first shooting in a restaurant/bar after that law....... a drunk guy carrying in his pocket accidentally shot himself in the leg. Never mind that one of the first things he did was VIOLATE the law by drinking while carrying a firearm concealed (idiot!), the cretin actually got hammered while carrying a weapon. Again, guns and alcohol, bad combo. I am for concealed carry just about everywhere, but RESPONSIBLE concealed carry. The guy should have his carry permit permanently revoked.
Again, though, the Brady crowd are always yammering about predictions of wild west shootouts any time you allow carry of firearms anywhere. Truth is, it just doesn't happen. The worst that happens is usually some candidate for the Darwin Awards shoots himself....., like here.
SayUncle » Guns in parks
Former DEA heads unite against California plan to legalize marijuana - CNN.com
It ain't about pot. It is about POWER.
Someone tell me WHERE in the constitution the federal government has ANY authority to weigh in on this. (hint: it is not in the commerce clause...., nice try)
Former DEA heads unite against California plan to legalize marijuana - CNN.com
Someone tell me WHERE in the constitution the federal government has ANY authority to weigh in on this. (hint: it is not in the commerce clause...., nice try)
Former DEA heads unite against California plan to legalize marijuana - CNN.com
The Silver Bullet | FINANCIAL SENSE
Interesting piece on the price of silver as relates to the power brokers in the political and financial realm.
The Silver Bullet | FINANCIAL SENSE
The Silver Bullet | FINANCIAL SENSE
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
I never thought of us as Communists.......
These are 3 of 10 of the central planks of the Communist Mannifesto (1848):
2) Graduated income tax
5) Centralization of credit by the state in the form of a central bank
10) Free universal education for children. Combining education with social goals of equipping children for industrial production.
These were NOT the marks of a free society before Marx and Engels, and were clearly seen as tools to implement state control over men.
The sad thing is that they are universally accepted in the "capitalist" west including the "land of the free." Go over to some red meat conservative site like RedState, Lucianne, or Free Republic and argue against one or all three of them. You will get a barrage of protests, and these are so called "conservative" sites to the point that they are fringe. How bout that? Conservatives who are 33% commies, and don't even know it!
No other way to argue it, we are about 1/3 Communist in the west. Marx would be proud.
The "hyperconservative" teaparty seems ready to break with number 5, and it is throwing the statists into hysterics. I am all for it. If we could get a movement that is ZERO per cent communist, rather than 20% communist (no one yet has officially repudiated planks 2 and 10 of the communist party), maybe I could get a TV, just to watch the CNN talking heads turn purple on the air.
2) Graduated income tax
5) Centralization of credit by the state in the form of a central bank
10) Free universal education for children. Combining education with social goals of equipping children for industrial production.
These were NOT the marks of a free society before Marx and Engels, and were clearly seen as tools to implement state control over men.
The sad thing is that they are universally accepted in the "capitalist" west including the "land of the free." Go over to some red meat conservative site like RedState, Lucianne, or Free Republic and argue against one or all three of them. You will get a barrage of protests, and these are so called "conservative" sites to the point that they are fringe. How bout that? Conservatives who are 33% commies, and don't even know it!
No other way to argue it, we are about 1/3 Communist in the west. Marx would be proud.
The "hyperconservative" teaparty seems ready to break with number 5, and it is throwing the statists into hysterics. I am all for it. If we could get a movement that is ZERO per cent communist, rather than 20% communist (no one yet has officially repudiated planks 2 and 10 of the communist party), maybe I could get a TV, just to watch the CNN talking heads turn purple on the air.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Monday, September 06, 2010
I went to church with my mom yesterday.......
.... and I was struck with a variety of thoughts.
It took me back in time to my memories of growing up in Alabama and attending meetings of the faithful. The service was not at all like most of the places I have attended in RTP. It was simple, not very sophisticated, and decidedly NOT cutting edge. I would not describe it as anti-intellectual, but more like un-academic. There are places like that which are obnoxious in kind of a haughty ignorant self righteousness, but this was not that way at all. These were just simple, good people who loved Jesus and were profoundly sincere in a way most people would call "old fashioned."
It reminded me of that line in John Prine's song "Grandpa was a carpenter" where he talked about "stained glass in every window, hearing aids in every pew." There were no stained glass windows and no pews, either, but at age 55, I was "young," or at least relatively so. Part of that may have come from the geriatric crowd my mom is a part of. However, I got the distinct feeling that I was a part of an institution that used to be central to the South that is fading away. The sunday school lesson came back over and over to the need to be willing to adapt and change in order to have some kind of bridge to a generation that does not watch TV, treat marriage and commitments as options rather than obligations, see sexual mores as antiquated, get their entertainment more from YouTube (some did not know what that was) than some cable TV channel, and considers religion irrelevant.
The pleasant surprise to me was listening to a bunch of 60+ year olds discuss the secularization of culture and the consequent loss of influence by the church on the world around them. These are red state people, who still see the American flag and the cross of Jesus as symbols of America as it once was and should be. I expected "the normal" lament I have come to expect when I log on to places like Free Republic, which is a derisive, hostile and dismissive attack or ridicule on the foolishness of people who attempt to build a culture without God, and a lament that "they" have flushed it all down the drain. Rather, I found them expressing a sadness and sense of loss for their grandchildren who are growing up morally adrift, spiritually directionless, and in the old biblical term "lost." I expected to find a hostility toward the removal of God and Christianity from the public sphere and a desire to seize political power to "put prayer back in schools" or something, I rather heard repeated affirmations that "freedom of speech" means that competing voices have validity in the public square and that what they would call "our side" is no longer dominant, nor even relevant, and one should not expect, for example, to pray at HS football games in the name of Jesus. This was a maturity and level of cultural understanding I did not expect to find in a fundamentalist church in Alabama. I came away wondering who was the real cultural elitist, me or them.
The pastoral sermon was about "in God we trust." I almost groaned, expecting some marriage of the civic religion of God and country and goodness and surface morality that had been so distasteful to me as a kid.... then I wound up embracing it in the religious right, and now have come to see it as actually an attack on the gospel itself. Instead, I heard a wonderfully humble man who simply called his flock to trust in Jesus for their eternal destiny. I almost stood up and yelled "YES!" when he hammered over and over about the need for US (as opposed to THEM) to simply trust in the simplicity of the gospel message that Christ died to gain us perfect standing with God. Moreover, he hit the fact that this trust is the pulse and heartbeat of the Christian. From there, he talked about trust in prayer. He spoke about the need to take all of our lives and all we know about to God and pray, trusting Him. It was precious and powerful at the same time. Finally, he spoke on learning to trust God in our problems, perplexities, pains (my alliterations, not his. Not one time did he talk about the political implications of this. It was all calculated to help these folks to walk with Jesus.
I came away thinking that if there is any hope for our culture, it is NOT in the ones seeking to reform DC (lotsa luck on that one!), or influence legislation, or any number of other missions. Rather, it would be by God simply reviving and energizing little people like North Shelby Baptist Church.
I am a better man today for having gone.
It took me back in time to my memories of growing up in Alabama and attending meetings of the faithful. The service was not at all like most of the places I have attended in RTP. It was simple, not very sophisticated, and decidedly NOT cutting edge. I would not describe it as anti-intellectual, but more like un-academic. There are places like that which are obnoxious in kind of a haughty ignorant self righteousness, but this was not that way at all. These were just simple, good people who loved Jesus and were profoundly sincere in a way most people would call "old fashioned."
It reminded me of that line in John Prine's song "Grandpa was a carpenter" where he talked about "stained glass in every window, hearing aids in every pew." There were no stained glass windows and no pews, either, but at age 55, I was "young," or at least relatively so. Part of that may have come from the geriatric crowd my mom is a part of. However, I got the distinct feeling that I was a part of an institution that used to be central to the South that is fading away. The sunday school lesson came back over and over to the need to be willing to adapt and change in order to have some kind of bridge to a generation that does not watch TV, treat marriage and commitments as options rather than obligations, see sexual mores as antiquated, get their entertainment more from YouTube (some did not know what that was) than some cable TV channel, and considers religion irrelevant.
The pleasant surprise to me was listening to a bunch of 60+ year olds discuss the secularization of culture and the consequent loss of influence by the church on the world around them. These are red state people, who still see the American flag and the cross of Jesus as symbols of America as it once was and should be. I expected "the normal" lament I have come to expect when I log on to places like Free Republic, which is a derisive, hostile and dismissive attack or ridicule on the foolishness of people who attempt to build a culture without God, and a lament that "they" have flushed it all down the drain. Rather, I found them expressing a sadness and sense of loss for their grandchildren who are growing up morally adrift, spiritually directionless, and in the old biblical term "lost." I expected to find a hostility toward the removal of God and Christianity from the public sphere and a desire to seize political power to "put prayer back in schools" or something, I rather heard repeated affirmations that "freedom of speech" means that competing voices have validity in the public square and that what they would call "our side" is no longer dominant, nor even relevant, and one should not expect, for example, to pray at HS football games in the name of Jesus. This was a maturity and level of cultural understanding I did not expect to find in a fundamentalist church in Alabama. I came away wondering who was the real cultural elitist, me or them.
The pastoral sermon was about "in God we trust." I almost groaned, expecting some marriage of the civic religion of God and country and goodness and surface morality that had been so distasteful to me as a kid.... then I wound up embracing it in the religious right, and now have come to see it as actually an attack on the gospel itself. Instead, I heard a wonderfully humble man who simply called his flock to trust in Jesus for their eternal destiny. I almost stood up and yelled "YES!" when he hammered over and over about the need for US (as opposed to THEM) to simply trust in the simplicity of the gospel message that Christ died to gain us perfect standing with God. Moreover, he hit the fact that this trust is the pulse and heartbeat of the Christian. From there, he talked about trust in prayer. He spoke about the need to take all of our lives and all we know about to God and pray, trusting Him. It was precious and powerful at the same time. Finally, he spoke on learning to trust God in our problems, perplexities, pains (my alliterations, not his. Not one time did he talk about the political implications of this. It was all calculated to help these folks to walk with Jesus.
I came away thinking that if there is any hope for our culture, it is NOT in the ones seeking to reform DC (lotsa luck on that one!), or influence legislation, or any number of other missions. Rather, it would be by God simply reviving and energizing little people like North Shelby Baptist Church.
I am a better man today for having gone.
Friday, September 03, 2010
What happens in a society with inflation.....
Each big inflation -- whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US -- starts with a passive expansion of the quantity of money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation is disguised. The effect is much like lighter fuel on a camp fire before the match is struck.
People’s willingness to hold money can change suddenly for a "psychological and spontaneous reason", causing a spike in the velocity of money. It can occur at lightning speed, over a few weeks…
Here is an example of what happened in the hyperinflation of Weimar Germany....
"Velocity took an almost right-angle turn upward in the summer of 1922," said Mr. O Parsson. Reichsbank officials were baffled. They could not fathom why the German people had started to behave differently almost two years after the bank had already boosted the money supply. He contends that public patience snapped abruptly once people lost trust and began to "smell a government rat".
Near civil war between town and country was a pervasive feature of this break-down in social order. Large mobs of half-starved and vindictive townsmen descended on villages to seize food from farmers accused of hoarding…
Grand pianos became a currency of sorts as pauperized members of the civil service elites traded the symbols of their old status for a sack of potatoes and a side of bacon. There was a harrowing moment when middle-class families first started to understand that its gilt-edged securities and War Loan would never recover. Irreversible ruin lay ahead. Elderly couples gassed themselves in their apartments…
Great numbers of people failed to see it coming. "My relations and friends were stupid. They didn’t understand what inflation meant. Our solicitors were no better. My mother’s bank manager gave her appalling advice," said one well-connected woman.”
Morgan Stanley has recently stated openly that the spending of the US will overwhelm monetary policy of the fed, and the US Treasury bond market will rocket "shortly" from around 0 per cent to 5.5.
People’s willingness to hold money can change suddenly for a "psychological and spontaneous reason", causing a spike in the velocity of money. It can occur at lightning speed, over a few weeks…
Here is an example of what happened in the hyperinflation of Weimar Germany....
"Velocity took an almost right-angle turn upward in the summer of 1922," said Mr. O Parsson. Reichsbank officials were baffled. They could not fathom why the German people had started to behave differently almost two years after the bank had already boosted the money supply. He contends that public patience snapped abruptly once people lost trust and began to "smell a government rat".
Near civil war between town and country was a pervasive feature of this break-down in social order. Large mobs of half-starved and vindictive townsmen descended on villages to seize food from farmers accused of hoarding…
Grand pianos became a currency of sorts as pauperized members of the civil service elites traded the symbols of their old status for a sack of potatoes and a side of bacon. There was a harrowing moment when middle-class families first started to understand that its gilt-edged securities and War Loan would never recover. Irreversible ruin lay ahead. Elderly couples gassed themselves in their apartments…
Great numbers of people failed to see it coming. "My relations and friends were stupid. They didn’t understand what inflation meant. Our solicitors were no better. My mother’s bank manager gave her appalling advice," said one well-connected woman.”
Morgan Stanley has recently stated openly that the spending of the US will overwhelm monetary policy of the fed, and the US Treasury bond market will rocket "shortly" from around 0 per cent to 5.5.
Under God: Obama, Beck: Who is Christian? Who decides? - Elizabeth Tenety
Let me state first of all that I really like the WAPO pointing out the sloppy thinking of evangelicals here. In the midst of culture wars, it is a wise thing to actually listen to detractors from both sides. It is fairly clear to me that the POST considers itself (and is considered) on the "other side" of the bible totin', church going, working class people who listen to talk radio hosts and watch Fox News. They RIGHTFULLY point out that there is hypocrisy in rejecting Obama's claims to be Christian (I reject them, too, by the way), and then falling in line behind a man whose church teaches that all other churches are apostate and that one must be rebaptized into an entity which rejects many of the core tenets of historical Christianity. I think this is an accurate criticism and a shot at the heart of the major failing of the religious right. That is, it is a cultural RATHER than a religious movement, and its goals are primarily cultural and political. This is why there is such a swooning over the vague talk about "returning to religious values" and "respect for absolute standards" and "recognizing the right of private property in 'thou shalt not steal'" and such. All these values are things are true, and it is also true that their collapse is the cause of our social, political and economic ills. "God is not mocked" as the old book puts it. But it is a falsehood that a "return to these values" will save our culture. God really doesn't care much about cultures. Rather, He saves PEOPLE. Cultural blessings are what I call a "happy accident" of a pot boiling, bible waving, excess producing, excitement engendering gospel awakening. There is simply no substitute for this kind of event. All the cultural analysis and biblical critique of culture and apostasy are like a Ferrari with no gasoline. Beautiful but powerless. Rather, we desperately need God's power blowing through His people like a thunderclap or a cat5 hurricane. It disrupts, reorganizes, energizes, and changes EVERYTHING. The cultural blessings so longed for by the religious right are a natural result of a people who have been radically remade from the inside out. All the Washington rallies we can plan will not substitute for it.
Jesus said "my kingdom is not of this world." His kingdom does have immense impact on this world, and that is the point, here. But the weird thing about Biblical Christianity is the claim that cultures are saved when you no longer care about them as the end result. Societies are transformed NOT when we get "godly leaders" up there in whatever halls of power pretend to run things, but when millions of little people are so selfless, guileless, and passionate that they care far less about houses, mortgages, retirement accounts, good colleges for kids, etc than the gospel message of salvation. For that message, they live sacrificially and selflessly and do a million heroic deeds that cause the pagan world to say "behold how they love one another" and "they care not only for their own poor, but ours also." This kind of stuff comes ONLY when God sends His Spirit on His own church. The primary object of reformation is never the culture. Again, that is an aftereffect. In fact, I believe that much Christian effort towards culture is misdirected and counterproductive toward what should be our true goal.
That (true Christian awakening/revival) is certainly not the goal of the Post critics, but it should be our goal.
PS. If you want to know what I am talking about when I say we should long for renewal, rather than a cultural transformation, read the two volume bio of George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore. It used to be published by Banner of Truth, and it is an amazing recount of what happens when God "shows up" in His church.
Under God: Obama, Beck: Who is Christian? Who decides? - Elizabeth Tenety
Jesus said "my kingdom is not of this world." His kingdom does have immense impact on this world, and that is the point, here. But the weird thing about Biblical Christianity is the claim that cultures are saved when you no longer care about them as the end result. Societies are transformed NOT when we get "godly leaders" up there in whatever halls of power pretend to run things, but when millions of little people are so selfless, guileless, and passionate that they care far less about houses, mortgages, retirement accounts, good colleges for kids, etc than the gospel message of salvation. For that message, they live sacrificially and selflessly and do a million heroic deeds that cause the pagan world to say "behold how they love one another" and "they care not only for their own poor, but ours also." This kind of stuff comes ONLY when God sends His Spirit on His own church. The primary object of reformation is never the culture. Again, that is an aftereffect. In fact, I believe that much Christian effort towards culture is misdirected and counterproductive toward what should be our true goal.
That (true Christian awakening/revival) is certainly not the goal of the Post critics, but it should be our goal.
PS. If you want to know what I am talking about when I say we should long for renewal, rather than a cultural transformation, read the two volume bio of George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore. It used to be published by Banner of Truth, and it is an amazing recount of what happens when God "shows up" in His church.
Under God: Obama, Beck: Who is Christian? Who decides? - Elizabeth Tenety
Bus Error: Lesson #2 From Katrina: Run from the Police
If lesson #1 from Katrina was that the press royally screwed up the coverage and badly misreported what happened, lesson #2 should be that the police were watching the bad press coverage, believed it, and went totally bonkers. And that's putting it politely.
After all, how else do you explain the need to steal Cadillacs to use as patrol cars. Or to go shoe looting, er, shopping. Or to suddenly decide we don't have a second amendment which applies......
Please do link to the vids below. The article is horrific.
Bus Error: Lesson #2 From Katrina: Run from the Police
After all, how else do you explain the need to steal Cadillacs to use as patrol cars. Or to go shoe looting, er, shopping. Or to suddenly decide we don't have a second amendment which applies......
Please do link to the vids below. The article is horrific.
Bus Error: Lesson #2 From Katrina: Run from the Police
Pajamas Media » Domestic Violence Fairytales Threaten Constitutional Protections
Great article on the farcical state of justice when it comes to "domestic violence." Well meaning idiots and laws.........
Pajamas Media » Domestic Violence Fairytales Threaten Constitutional Protections
Pajamas Media » Domestic Violence Fairytales Threaten Constitutional Protections
The Associated Press: Calif man gets death for sex-killing of 5-year-old
There is a shred of rationality left in San Francisco, after all. Six years late, but late is better than never.
Sexually brutalizing a child fills me with loathing beyond words. I only wish the mother of this child were taken out and publicly horsewhipped for bringing predators like this home. I take delight in noticing that she is due to be tried for murder as well, even though she was not present while this demonic being raped and murdered a 5 year old girl (and severely beat her 6 year old brother).
As an aside, look at the picture. Does this guy look 29 years old to you? Evil destroys a man/woman by breaking them down. In extreme stuff like this, it shows up in their countenance.
There is something within people with any sense of morals that says "THERE SHOULD BE JUSTICE, HERE!"
Opens a whole pot of other questions.
The Associated Press: Calif man gets death for sex-killing of 5-year-old
Sexually brutalizing a child fills me with loathing beyond words. I only wish the mother of this child were taken out and publicly horsewhipped for bringing predators like this home. I take delight in noticing that she is due to be tried for murder as well, even though she was not present while this demonic being raped and murdered a 5 year old girl (and severely beat her 6 year old brother).
As an aside, look at the picture. Does this guy look 29 years old to you? Evil destroys a man/woman by breaking them down. In extreme stuff like this, it shows up in their countenance.
There is something within people with any sense of morals that says "THERE SHOULD BE JUSTICE, HERE!"
Opens a whole pot of other questions.
The Associated Press: Calif man gets death for sex-killing of 5-year-old
The Associated Press: Army: Chaplain is 1st killed in action since '70
First Military Chaplain since 1970 to die in combat. Some chaplains are truly selfless servants to soldiers. You know them by the respect they get from the men, and their own willingness to expose themselves to danger when ministering to men in dangerous situations. On the other hand, since all men die, I cannot think of a situation I had RATHER pick to die in than something like this. Selflessness in this epoch is a rarity. We should honor it when we see it.
Prayers for the family.
The Associated Press: Army: Chaplain is 1st killed in action since '70
Prayers for the family.
The Associated Press: Army: Chaplain is 1st killed in action since '70
N.C. newspaper completes sale to Alabama company :: WRAL.com
LOL. Evidently stuck in their craw so bad they could not even bring themselves to mention the name of the paper that was sold!
I don't know whether it is fanatical ideological zeal or simply rock bottom stupid reporting. I suspect the former, but there is also good evidence for the latter.
N.C. newspaper completes sale to Alabama company :: WRAL.com
I don't know whether it is fanatical ideological zeal or simply rock bottom stupid reporting. I suspect the former, but there is also good evidence for the latter.
N.C. newspaper completes sale to Alabama company :: WRAL.com
Whew! Utes fend off No. 15 Pitt in OT | The Salt Lake Tribune
I started to make some smartass remark about Pac 10 teams being so over rated..... and then I remember the 2009 Sugar Bowl, and decided to get my underwear out of the dryer instead.
I LOVE college football! Makes me wish I had a TV. The bartenders around here love the revenue from me, as well.
Whew! Utes fend off No. 15 Pitt in OT | The Salt Lake Tribune
I LOVE college football! Makes me wish I had a TV. The bartenders around here love the revenue from me, as well.
Whew! Utes fend off No. 15 Pitt in OT | The Salt Lake Tribune
Have We Squandered Our Cultural Inheritance?
Great article by Timothy Dalrymple on the general state of religious culture in America.
Have We Squandered Our Cultural Inheritance?
Have We Squandered Our Cultural Inheritance?
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Soros says Gold is "ultimate asset Bubble"
If this is true, there are some basic things always true about a bubble, and one of them is that the bubble always goes on far longer and gets far bigger than anyone ever expected.
I don't think precious metals are a bubble, but simply one of a group of alternate currencies. Right now we are seeing them grow simply because folks at the top are nervous about the role of fiat money (paper that is money just because a government says it is). We have not seen the kind of mind numbing price explosions that will occur when the man on the street loses total confidence in the paper issued by governments.
When THAT occurs, I think I will no longer be a buyer of gold and silver, but might try to exchange it for land or investments or commodities.
We are still along way away from that.
Gold Rallying to $1,500 as Soros's Bubble Inflates - Bloomberg
I don't think precious metals are a bubble, but simply one of a group of alternate currencies. Right now we are seeing them grow simply because folks at the top are nervous about the role of fiat money (paper that is money just because a government says it is). We have not seen the kind of mind numbing price explosions that will occur when the man on the street loses total confidence in the paper issued by governments.
When THAT occurs, I think I will no longer be a buyer of gold and silver, but might try to exchange it for land or investments or commodities.
We are still along way away from that.
Gold Rallying to $1,500 as Soros's Bubble Inflates - Bloomberg
Nickels, the poor man's inflation hedge
It astounds me how people who read the financial headlines (versus people who confine themselves to arts and entertainment, Washington politics, sports, or whatever else) can see the looming clouds of financial disaster, and simply remain paralyzed. I don't know how many people I have talked with who have looked at some of the stuff I reference and simply said "I don't know what I can do about it," or worse "I can't do anything about it." This is foolish and silly. There is one VERY good and very easy hedge against inflation, one that the US Mint has already acknowledged WORKS NOW (they got a law passed against it). Moderate to lower income people can easily do this right now.
I am talking about saving nickels for melt value. On the front end, I AM NOT ADVOCATING YOU MELT THESE DOWN RIGHT NOW. Number one, you are saving these for appreciation. Number two, you will get a knock at your door if you try it and they find out about it! You will have to wait until the treasury begins issuing (2011) their cheapie zinc crap nickels and those chase all the ones we now have out of circulation (always happens). Then the recently passed law against melting down coinage will probably be repealed, or openly ignored, as it will no longer represent a threat. They passed the law, by the way, a short time back when the price of the nickel and copper in a 5 cent piece hit 7.5 cents. You could get a 50% return (minus the price of melting) simply by melting down and selling blocks of "cupronickel" to any number of industrial users. So, Congress in its typical arrogant stupidity decided to outlaw basic economic laws. Sigh. I expect them to try and outlaw gravity some day, the morons. Anyway, it is now officially illegal to melt down US coinage. So what happened? well SHAZAAM, Sgt. Carter! Who'd a thunk it? Amazingly enough, there popped up any number of smelters just across the border in Canada and Mexico. People were taking thousands and thousands of nickels and melting them THERE. So, Congress passed a law forbidding taking over a small amount of coins outside the US (I think it is about 200 dollars or so). This is, by the way, the first official currency control law in the history of the USA. You can expect more of this stuff if the economy really tanks and people are desperate to get out.
Anyway, the pressure here went away with the economic collapse of 2008 and the price of the metal content fell back to under 5 cents per coin. There was no economic incentive to melt them down. Now though, the combination of a tidal wave of money (we doubled our money supply in a week in 2008 and have been continuing to do so, and we are about to have more "quantitative easing" by the fed), and a lessening of the global terror has kick started the rise of nickel and copper prices again. (You could say this is the beginning of the collapse of the value of fiat currencies, rather than a rise in metal costs, but that is another debate). Anyway, if you go to coinflation.com (url below), you see that a nickel is now worth about 5.5 cents if you melt it down. That is pretty significant, as it represents (not counting the fuel costs to melt) a ten per cent return on investment IMMEDIATELY. Take half of that away for fuel and you have an IMMEDIATE 5% ROI. Checked yields on CDs lately? Returns on the Dow?
The really great thing about these is that if inflation roars in ("IF?"), you will be able to hedge yourself with small, inexpensive units of currency, that ANYONE can put away. I try to put away about 26 dollars of nickels per month (13 rolls). Pretty simple, really. Put your change in a jar, trade it for rolls of nickels at the bank (don't try to do a bunch at once, you will only annoy your bankers), and salt them away somewhere. The only drawback to this is that they are bulky.
I like to use 30 caliber ammo cans, which you can buy at flea markets for about 2 dollars, if you don't mind surface rust. Each one stores almost 200 dollars of nickels (face value) and they already have a watertight seal. You can use any number of containers, though, including recycled plastic or glass jars, or other small plastic containers.
If severe inflation is NOT coming, this is, of course, utter crap and howling at the moon paranoid lunacy. Make your own choice.
Current Melt Value Of Coins - How Much Is Your Coin Worth?
I am talking about saving nickels for melt value. On the front end, I AM NOT ADVOCATING YOU MELT THESE DOWN RIGHT NOW. Number one, you are saving these for appreciation. Number two, you will get a knock at your door if you try it and they find out about it! You will have to wait until the treasury begins issuing (2011) their cheapie zinc crap nickels and those chase all the ones we now have out of circulation (always happens). Then the recently passed law against melting down coinage will probably be repealed, or openly ignored, as it will no longer represent a threat. They passed the law, by the way, a short time back when the price of the nickel and copper in a 5 cent piece hit 7.5 cents. You could get a 50% return (minus the price of melting) simply by melting down and selling blocks of "cupronickel" to any number of industrial users. So, Congress in its typical arrogant stupidity decided to outlaw basic economic laws. Sigh. I expect them to try and outlaw gravity some day, the morons. Anyway, it is now officially illegal to melt down US coinage. So what happened? well SHAZAAM, Sgt. Carter! Who'd a thunk it? Amazingly enough, there popped up any number of smelters just across the border in Canada and Mexico. People were taking thousands and thousands of nickels and melting them THERE. So, Congress passed a law forbidding taking over a small amount of coins outside the US (I think it is about 200 dollars or so). This is, by the way, the first official currency control law in the history of the USA. You can expect more of this stuff if the economy really tanks and people are desperate to get out.
Anyway, the pressure here went away with the economic collapse of 2008 and the price of the metal content fell back to under 5 cents per coin. There was no economic incentive to melt them down. Now though, the combination of a tidal wave of money (we doubled our money supply in a week in 2008 and have been continuing to do so, and we are about to have more "quantitative easing" by the fed), and a lessening of the global terror has kick started the rise of nickel and copper prices again. (You could say this is the beginning of the collapse of the value of fiat currencies, rather than a rise in metal costs, but that is another debate). Anyway, if you go to coinflation.com (url below), you see that a nickel is now worth about 5.5 cents if you melt it down. That is pretty significant, as it represents (not counting the fuel costs to melt) a ten per cent return on investment IMMEDIATELY. Take half of that away for fuel and you have an IMMEDIATE 5% ROI. Checked yields on CDs lately? Returns on the Dow?
The really great thing about these is that if inflation roars in ("IF?"), you will be able to hedge yourself with small, inexpensive units of currency, that ANYONE can put away. I try to put away about 26 dollars of nickels per month (13 rolls). Pretty simple, really. Put your change in a jar, trade it for rolls of nickels at the bank (don't try to do a bunch at once, you will only annoy your bankers), and salt them away somewhere. The only drawback to this is that they are bulky.
I like to use 30 caliber ammo cans, which you can buy at flea markets for about 2 dollars, if you don't mind surface rust. Each one stores almost 200 dollars of nickels (face value) and they already have a watertight seal. You can use any number of containers, though, including recycled plastic or glass jars, or other small plastic containers.
If severe inflation is NOT coming, this is, of course, utter crap and howling at the moon paranoid lunacy. Make your own choice.
Current Melt Value Of Coins - How Much Is Your Coin Worth?
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