Reinke Faces Life

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http://www.unrlibertarians.com/2007/11/ron-paul-sweeping-northern-nevada.html

Monday, November 19, 2007
Chalking the US Constitution

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Members of the Ron Paul Pack and the College Libertarians chalked the entire constitution in front of Lawlor in preparation for Ron Paul!
I admit, I had my doubts, but it turned out great, and we got many thousands of words out on the concrete! Check out the photos!
Pictures taken by: Kelly

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Wow, you have to see the pictures. Some people put in a ton of work!

Impressive!

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http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071120_ron_paul_does_the_math

Cheering for Ron Paul
Posted on Nov 20, 2007
By Robert Scheer

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That money could have paid for a lot of things we could have used here at home. As Rep. Paul points out, for what the Iraq war costs, we could present each family of four a check for $46,000—which exceeds the $43,000 median household income in his Texas district. He asks: “What about the impact of those costs on education, the very thing that so often helps to increase earnings? Forty-six thousand dollars would cover 90 percent of the tuition costs to attend a four-year public university in Texas for both children in that family of four. But, instead of sending kids to college, too often we’re sending them to Iraq, where the best news in a long time is they [the insurgents] aren’t killing our men and women as fast as they were last month.”

How damning that it takes a libertarian Republican to remind the leading Democratic candidates of the opportunity costs of a war that most Democrats in Congress voted for. But they don’t need to take Paul’s word for it; last week, the majority staff of the Joint Economic Committee in Congress came up with similarly startling estimates of the long-term costs of this war.

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It is interesting when one hears costs put into comprehensible terms. I can imagine how that mythical family of four feels when they hear that they could have invested in their children or paid for the “emperor’s new clothes” (i.e., we can have ‘peace in our time’, ‘make the world safe for democracy’, ‘turn back the yellow hordes’, or what ever the phrase is for the next war). Sigh!

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http://seekingalpha.com/article/54831-the-5-stages-of-grieving-over-the-u-s-dollar

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Finally, stage five, acceptance. The foreign currencies rise to sustainable levels versus the US dollar. Inflation and real economic activity decline in the foreign countries. They begin buying more goods and services from the US, and dollar claims are redeemed. Inflation and interest rates rise in the US, as we have to produce more to pay off the dollar reserves now being redeemed by foreigners. (Send us goods and it will pay off your debts! Amazing how the US got good terms on both sides of the transaction.”)

Well, maybe. It will take a while before all major trading parties in the world float/adjust their currencies to fair levels. At the time that happens, though, it will be obvious that the US is less important to the global economy. The relative value of all US assets will be a smaller proportion of global assets, though it will still likely be the largest share in the world. My view is this process to get to stage five will take no more than 10 years.

By that point, the hopelessness of Federal social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare, plus underfunded Federal and state retirement plans, will force benefit reductions and tax increases on the US, and crimp borrowing capacity, unless they borrow in a currency other than dollars.

There are five stages of grieving for US social welfare programs as well, but I am afraid we are only in the first stage now, denial.

That is a topic for another day, and not one that I am excited to talk about.

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Happy tday! Enjoy it. The tough times are most certainly coming.

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http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle444-20071118-02.html

The River Rubicon
by L. Neil Smith
The Libertarian Enterprise

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Seven years ago—although thanks to the horrors of George Bush’s reign of state terrorism it seems vastly longer than that—the Waco Willy Clinton administration, ever fearful that Americans might be equipped for and capable of defending themselves from its predations, served up a list of 83,000 human sacrifices on the altar of victim disarmament.

“Victim disarmament” is the accurate term for “gun control”, as its principal purpose and effect is to render the act of self-defense impossible. Its visible effect on gun-grabbers in public debate is soul-satisfying.

Those 83,000 names belonged to military veterans suffering from disabilities like “post-traumatic stress disorder”, a phenomenon as old as war itself—it’s been called many different things: “shell shock”, “combat fatigue”—but which genuine science (as opposed to the primitive religion known as “psychology”) knows very little about. The names were added to the National Criminal Information System (NCIS) presumably so they would be red-flagged by a Brady background check and their owners could thereby be deprived, for highly dubious pseudomedical reasons, of their Constitutional right to buy or own firearms.

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Do you think perhaps that the congress critters might be a little afraid of having such a large segment of the population armed and unhappy? The fact that the gooferment has screwed over “the troops” in various wars has been well established. This war is no different. Leaving aside the media biases, which during the Clinton era swept “vet gets screwed” stories to the dust bin of history and now regales us with “vet gets screwed” stories on the front page because the White House is held by the “other team”, leave that aside, it’s an article of faith that the first casualty of war is truth. And, boy, do we have a lot of wars going, foreign and domestic. War on Drugs, which is really against our own people. War on Terror, (how does one make “war” on a “tactic”?) which covers anything the gooferment wants it to cover.

Sigh!

I’d say the experiment — as in the American Experiment with a republican form of government — is over. It failed. Shall we try anarchy?

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http://ncrcafe.org/blog/1122

On the Road to Peace
by John Dear S.J.
Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007
Vol. 2, No. 10

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There were many consoling, inspiring and uplifting moments last Friday, Oct. 26, in Linz, Austria, at the beatification of the anti-war hero Franz Jägerstätter. The resounding applause for his 94 year-old widow Franziska. The reading of the declaration. The unfurling of the 30 foot banner with Franz’s photo and the sight of dozens of bishops and cardinals standing up, looking up — at last! — to Franz. But the most moving was the presentation of his relics. Franziska kissed them, gave them to a cardinal for the cathedral in Linz, then wept. She knows it now. Franz no longer belongs to Austria. Now he belongs to the world. And his work is just beginning.

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It’s hard to imagine having the courage to stand up an say “no”.

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http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22535838-5012895,00.html

The Right Brain vs Left Brain
Article from: AAP
October 05, 2007 12:00am

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The Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

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I found it entertaining. Interesting!

But the best discovery was that by closing one eye I could make the dancer reverse. With both eyes open, there was nothing I could do to see the reverse.

Can you guess which way I default to?

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http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle443-20071111-03.html

Starship Troopers Revisited
by A.X. Perez
Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

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Starship Troopers is arguably Heinlein’s preachiest novel. This is because it is a rite of passage novel in which Johnny Rico progresses from a snot nose rich kid who “wouldn’t recognize civic virtue if it bit you in the ass” (to quote the movie version of ST which is vastly inferior to the book) to an adult who values his fellow man’s rights enough to voluntarily risk dying to defend them. Surprise, this includes a lot of internal debate in which Heinlein clearly demonstrates why ST is not a fascist book and instead is one in which the values held by a libertarian who chooses to serve his fellows through the state are spelled out.

Starship Troopers is not a fascist novel, instead it is an argument that only those who have demonstrated their love of and willingness to defend their brethren and sistern’s liberty should be trusted with political power. Golly, gee How dare Heinlein argue that?

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Did I mention that this is my favorite book?

Seriously, it was the first book I read that explained my thinking to me.

If only veterans could vote and hold office, then I bet a buck we would not be mired in losing war after losing war. I bet we be very careful about using the word “war” for anything.

We have a far better country if we were following Heinlein’s prescriptions.

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http://www.fandango.com/movies/1/moviefanreviews.aspx?mid=108973&

Lions for Lambs … …

… imho …

an indictment of the media, politicians, our ability to gather foreign intelligence, and dumb social engineering ideas.

* Cruise is unbelievable as the “intelligent but calculating Republican”. The left wing Hollywood types take a swing at West Point.

* Streep is unbelievable as a reporter. The left wing Hollywood types indict the “wind sock” media. Which was clever the first time it was used; not not so much the second and third time.

* Redford was believable as the “voice of America’s troubled conscience”. But, then he exemplifies the Hollywood “watermelon” (i.e., ecological green on the outside but communist red on the inside). The classroom presentation of “eliminating the junior year of high school for national service” was right out of the liberal play book and just as dumb there as it is in real life.

I agree with another reviewer. “no John Wayne heroics” That turned some believable characters into cartoons. And, in this day an age, of overwhelming American air superiority, it would be unbelievable that a ground commander would not have air assets stacked up all over the place. Twenty five minutes to give close ground support. Completely unbelievable. No radio comm with men on the ground. No smoke or flairs to mark their positions for air support. Please. But them one would not expect the Hollywood elite to know anything about a real fight.

And, what student would not take a “no work B”?

I agree with another reviewer that it does ask some questions. Questions that deserve an answer. I state it as “what are you doing?”

Unfortunately the film is soaked in the watermelon pov.

* It assumes that We The People have to do something for “our Country”. That National Servitude, national slavery, is a good thing. Does a “nation” even exist.

* It laughs at the military, and the sacrifices made by men and women for what they believed in. Rightly or wrongly. The ride past the graves in Arlington while Streep’s character weeps was insulting at best.

* It insults the American people, and the youth, by insinuating that we are living off the contributions of our parents. It’s the gooferment that is the parasite here.

So, I think you should see it and see how many more trite insults you can find.

NOT RECOMMENDED for anyone but a policy wonk.

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http://www.recruitingbloggers.com/rbs/2007/11/just-say-no-to-.html

The Electronic Recruiting News In Email_071108

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Just Say No To Forced Brothel Visits

Brands are fragile things, like snowmen in spring. That’s what Julie Roehm learned with Wal-Mart, a case study we concluded back in August. And now it seems Steve Biegel, former creative director for Dentsu America, is about to learn the same thing.

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Wow!!

There are so many lessons to take away from this one it’s hard to know where to start.

I’ll drop back to my first lesson in morality from a good Nun in Annunciation Parish too many years ago. “When you are presented with a situation, just ask yourself “When my Mom finds out, will she be proud of me?”. Seems like a real easy standard to meet.

After applying that lesson, I know I wouldn’t have been in this fellow’s shoes.

Also, the blogger’s observation — about upset about being fired or upset about the brothel visit — was pretty spot on. You have to make your objections in a timely manner. Hours; not years.

So here we have an illustration of another later lesson in morality from one of my first bosses at AT&T (Joe DJ) “don’t come to work drunk. don’t steal their pencils. don’t dip your pen in company ink.”. So that particular piece of guidance would have also dodged this bullet.

Finally, my own internal compass would have tilted at the suggestion, with a reading off the scale, pinned to the end of the dial with the legend “Are you out of your mind!”.

I too just shake my head in bemusement.

… but it makes great blogging fodder!

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http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2007/11/07/academic_cesspools_ii

Academic Cesspools II
By Walter E. Williams
Wednesday, November 7, 2007

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It’s a safe bet the university did not highlight this kind of learning experience to parents and students in its recruitment efforts. Nor were generous donors and alumni informed that they are racists by birth. I’d also guess that this kind of “education” was kept under wraps from the state legislators who use taxpayer money to fund the university.

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That’s why we need to get the gooferment out of ALL education. At all levels. And, let institutions succeed or fail based on merit. Not subsidies of the taxpayer extracted at gunpoint.

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