MONEY: Where are we going to be in 20 years?

Monday, March 16, 2009

http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5565&Itemid=48

The Money Meltdown: A Conversation with Thomas Woods Jr. by Brian Saint-Paul 3/11/09

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Q: We’ve had bailouts and stimulus packages, and possibly more of both in the near future. If you were to look into a crystal ball, where are we going to be in 20 years? Where is all of this heading? Will we reach a point of total economic collapse? Or will we wind up as the newest Euro-style state?

It seems to me that the best-case scenario is a kind of European third-way stagnation: high unemployment, anemic growth (if any), and a whole bunch of people scratching their heads and wondering why this is happening. That could be our fate.

Of course, it could be worse. It may turn into something like what Japan endured in the 1990s and beyond — though at least Japan had some domestic savings as a cushion. Or there could well be a complete collapse of the system, with the dollar destroyed. This is all conditional, because it depends in large part on what the government does. Its cure is almost sure to be worse than the disease.

I’d love to think that if a collapse came, people would say, “Obviously, intervention doesn’t work, so let’s try what the Austrians have been suggesting.” But I think instead a demagogue would rise up to say — as usual — that the problem is not enough government involvement, and that he’s going to rescue us.

That’s the most likely outcome.

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Thomas E. Woods Jr. is senior fellow in American history at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of nine books, including two New York Times bestsellers: The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and the just-released Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, as well as the award-winning The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy. Visit his new Web site.

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RANT: Gun quote send me on my Drug War rant. It’s all connected.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/gaddy/gaddy49.html

Another Bright Shining Lie
by Michael Gaddy

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The state has many weapons in its arsenal to keep Boobus ignorant of their illegal, unconstitutional activities and in compliance with its confiscatory tax and slavery system. In all likelihood, the two most often used of these weapons are fear and prevarication.

Our new US Attorney General/Race Agitator, Eric Holder, last week used a bright shining lie in his advocating the introduction of a new Assault Weapons Ban. (AWB) He stated:

“Putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border. I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.”

What a crock; believing the fantastically wealthy drug cartels actually secure their weapons from America is analogous to taking a hamburger to a steak dinner. The drug cartels use their millions, if not billions, to purchase some of the finest weaponry that can be had, far exceeding the firepower of their state-armed opponents in both Mexico and the US.

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I agree that Holder is peddling “barbara streisand”!

We could pacify the Mexico, Columbia, and Afgan drug lords with one stroke of a pen.

End the psuedo-Drug War now!

What does a Drug Kingpin do when WalMart becomes your competitor? Drive a cab.

All we have to do is recognize that people make bad choices. We just don’t have to use the guns or government to inflict more pain on everyone.

I’ve read estimates that there is a “residual addiction rate”. Some people you will just be unable to keep from being addicted; no matter what you do.

I’ve seen estimates that ending the drug prohibition will actually reduce the addiction rate to the residual since there will no longer be the allure of “doing something illegal” to the young people.

I’ve read estimates that the cost of “illegal” drugs will drop to the cost of aspirin and that the marketplace’s (i.e., WalMart, RiteAid, Walgreen, CVS) “drugs” will be USP grade. (No more deadly overdoses from too strong street drugs or side effects of it being cut with rat poison.)

And, what does the gooferment have to do to accomplish this. Absolutely nothing but pass a law decriminalizing drugs. Closing the DEA, BATF, and FDA would also be a good idea.

Why won’t they? Money, power, and a scary “issue”.

President Obama could pardon ALL non-violent drug offenders.

And a cow could jump over the moon!

It’s all “barbara streisand”!

The powers that be like it this way so this is the way it will stay.

We have to end this nonsense the same way “We, The People” ended alcohol prohibition. In the jury box.

When you’re in the jury room hearing a drug case, and no one got killed, vote “NOT GUILTY”. Don’t discuss it. Don’t preach. Don’t say anything but “The State didn’t prove their case!”

The Drug War will be over in a heartbeat. The Gun Violence will follow soon after that.

WalMart will be selling drugs. Think they will sell to children? Think they won’t offer help? THink that they will have gun battle with the near by WalGreens?

Over stuff that has the profit margin of aspirin?

It’s all “barbara streisand”! And, we put up with it!!

Argh!

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POLITICIAL: Ron Paul on Bill Mahr simple and direct!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5lb0l3sYBo&eurl=http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/025457.html&feature=player_embedded

Ron Paul rocks on Bill Mahr’s show!

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LIBERTY: for all ideas, tolerance. but, freedom for all regardless of ideas they hold

Sunday, February 15, 2009

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30490  

Globalism vs. Ethno-nationalism
by Patrick J. Buchanan
01/30/2009

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Standing before the Siegessaule, the Victory Column that commemorates Prussia’s triumphs over Denmark, Austria and France in the wars that birthed the Second Reich, Barack Obama declared himself a “citizen of the world” and spoke of “a world that stands as one.”

Globalists rejoiced. And the election of this son of a white teenager from Kansas and a black academic from Kenya is said to have ushered us into the new “post-racial” age.

Are we deluding ourselves? Worldwide, the mightiest force of the 20th century, ethnonationalism — that creator and destroyer of nations and empires; that enduring drive of peoples for a nation-state where their faith and culture is dominant and their race or tribe is supreme — seems more manifest than ever.

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It does seem that the USA is bucking history. Fighting against a tide of religious zealotry. Seeking to maintain freedom in an ever increasing climate of tyranny.

We need to launch a new effort for “political freedom”, just like we have “religious freedom” here. With calm civility. Tolerance.

But we must stand firm that “all men are created equal”.

Unfortunately, e seem to also be swept into intolerance of any idea that doesn’t match our own.

Freedom for everyone!

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RANT: Medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system {Breaking News}

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan
Commentary by Betsy McCaughey
reported on Bloomberg

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Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

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Surprise, surprise, surprise.

We’re like the Jim Neighbor’s character, the village idiot, and we’ll be “suprised” that this “stimulus bill” has a lot of “interesting ideas” in it.

DownSizeDC is right: Read The Bills (make the congresscritters read what they are voting on), One Subject At A Time (No mash ups), and all their other suggestions. (www.downsizedc.org)

This is a disaster. It has NO —- none, zero, nada —- redeeming value.

It’s going to send us down the road to debt and a ultimately societal collapse. Not in the next thirty minutes. Thankfully, I won’t have to pick up the pieces, but a terrible legacy to leave behind.

I wonder if the citizens of the Roman Empire saw it coming as well? Debt, Inflation, Circuses, collapse.

Privacy and security down the tubes. There are no computer break ins or leaks. The gooferment can’t secure its prisons, but your medical records will be just fine. Ask ARod how it feels to have private medical records discussed by the President on National TV!

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POLITICAL: Where does the Ron Paul energy go?

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Where does the Ron Paul revolution (i.e., peace, nonintervention, economic freedom, personal liberty, sound money, and a drastically limited government) go?

The shell game of Republican and Democrat bigger gooferment prevents any other “choice”.

Argh!

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