War…is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror. Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things. Only economic action has created the wealth around us; labor, not the profession of arms, brings happiness. Peace builds, war destroys. (Socialism, p. 59)

Barack Obama: Geez, ya know. We’d be taking a stronger lead towards achieveing the goals I set forth during the campaign, but all these setbacks….this crisis, you know, we couldn’t have anticipated it.

Ron Paul: We are going to have a dollar crisis. I ran for Congress in the 70′s because Nixon removed the last remnants of the gold standard and I knew that would lead to disaster. We need to have sound money, move towards a new gold standard and abolish the Federal Reserve. (Also see: The Case for  a Genuine Gold Dollar)

Financial Times: China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund.

Click image to see the rest of the album

Time is doingthe top 100 again!

Dylan’s interview back in the day.

A Forgotten Day and A Forgotten Country Harry Brown

In 1886 the federal debt was $1.40 per person (adjusted for inflation to dollars of 2002 value). In 2002 the federal debt was $21,564 per person.

Free to Plan A Secure Retirement Harry Browne

The federal government owns trillions of dollars worth of assets it doesn’t need and shouldn’t have. These include power companies, pipelines, idle military bases, business enterprises, over 400,000 buildings, oil and mineral rights, commodity reserves, and much more — including 29% of all the land in the United States.

When the federal government is reduced to just its Constitutional functions, there will be no reason for it to continue hoarding those assets. They can be sold to the public, putting them in the hands of people who will use them more responsibly and more productively. And the sales will generate the money to clean up the financial mess the politicians have made.

Repudiating the National Debt Murray Rothbard

It is ridiculous for a citizen to be taxed by one arm of the federal government (the IRS), to pay interest and principal on debt owned by another agency of the federal government. It would save the taxpayer a great deal of money, and spare savings from further waste, to simply cancel that debt outright. The alleged debt is simply an accounting fiction that provides a mask over reality and furnishes a convenient means for mulcting the taxpayer.

Social Security, perhaps the most revered institution in the American polity, is also the greatest single racket. It’s simply a giant Ponzi scheme controlled by the federal government. But this reality is masked by the Social Security Administration’s purchase of government bonds, the Treasury then spending these funds on whatever it wishes. But the fact that the SSA has government bonds in its portfolio, and collects interest and payment from the American taxpayer, allows it to masquerade as a legitimate insurance business.

…This combination of repudiation and privatization would go a long way to reducing the tax burden, establishing fiscal soundness, and desocializing the United States.

In order to go this route, however, we first have to rid ourselves of the fallacious mindset that conflates public and private, and that treats government debt as if it were a productive contract between two legitimate property owners.

What is America Harry Browne

If you devote yourself to fighting against the latest political proposal, you may be wasting your time.

The growth of government is inevitable because the major issue has already been decided: there is no longer an America of tiny government, voluntary association, and the free market. So the only arguments now are over how the politicians will run our lives — the Republican way or the Democratic way.

Our one hope is to persuade our fellow Americans that a return to the Bill of Rights could bring us much smaller government, much greater personal income, access to more low-cost products and services, and the freedom to live your own life as you think best — not as the President or Congress wants.

Every battle is trivial compared to the fight to restore that unique America.

And don’t forget about the Fed

The Solution Murray Rothbard

To save our economy from destruction and from the eventual holocaust of run away inflation, we the people must take the money-supply function back from the government. Money is far too important to be left in the hands of bankers and of Establishment economists and financiers. To accomplish this goal, money must be returned to the market economy, with all monetary functions performed within the structure of the rights of private property and of the free-market economy.

Abolish the Fed Ron Paul

From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the burst of the dotcom bubble last year, every economic downturn suffered by the country over the last 80 years can be traced to Federal Reserve policy. The Fed has followed a consistent policy of flooding the economy with easy money, leading to a misallocation of resources and an artificial “boom” followed by a recession or depression when the Fed-created bubble bursts.

Of course, the best line so far, “Congradulations, you created a world without murder, all you had to do was kill someone to do it.”

if i pay for a service i expect what i paid for. if i don’t receive good service, why would i want to continue paying for it?

are you looking forward to your social security check in how ever many decades? i know i’m not. where’s the measure of success? i want to see some competition!

if the government is going to give my money to failed banks, “defense” contractors, jail people who smoke pot and try to prop up economic policies that don’t work, or even “invest” in some broad long-term Obama-vision that no one can seem to explain or agree on, why would i want to pay or invest in such an idea? the problem is, unlike in a free market, what choice do i have? they just take the money. and that’s supposed to be a good example of good government?

and then on top of that we have an organization that tries to rule the market too!

Unnatural Disaster by Thomas Woods

“As with all goods, the supply and demand for lending capital determines the price. If more families are saving or more banks are lending, borrowers don’t have to pay as much to borrow, and interest rates go down. If there’s a rush to borrow or a dearth of lending capital, interest rates go up.”

“Thus the interest rate coordinates production across time. It ensures a compatible mix of market forces: if people want to consume now, businesses respond accordingly; if people want to consume in the future, businesses allocate resources to satisfy that desire. The interest rate can perform this coordinating function only if it is allowed to move freely in response to changes in supply and demand. If the Fed manipulates the interest rate, we should not be surprised by discoordination on a massive scale.”

“The more the Fed inflates, the worse the reckoning will be. Every new wave of artificial credit deforms the capital structure further, making the inevitable bust more severe because so much more capital will have been squandered and so many more resources misallocated.”

Also see:

What is the Free Market by Murray Rothbard

The House Poor by Karen de Coster

And it’s this type of analysis I equate with law and rulers. If a dictator ignores the people’s cries [consumer demand] and continues to press on and oppress, eventually there will be all out war. Dictatorial rule is known for ignoring what people need and want. It destroys prosperity and trust. the ruler is acting in self-interest and is only concerned with the general welfare in so far as it affects self-interest. and the general welfare is defined by whatever the laws are, not what you or I think it may be.

i don’t expect you to agree with me, i don’t expect to change your mind, but if you claim to be able to empathize with “poor” people, or “minorities”, then i expect that one should be able to understand a very simple principle as letting people keep what is rightfully theirs, and not simply say “we’re taking from you for your own good”. you have to be able to convince those people and not just oppress them with your political programs. that’s not a very good long-term strategy to say the least.

Sodahead.com reads:

The MIAC report specifically describes supporters of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as “militia” influenced terrorists and instructs the Missouri police to be on the lookout for supporters displaying bumper stickers and other paraphernalia associated with the Constitutional, Campaign for Liberty, and Libertarian parties.

I am reading the whole thing now. I’d actually seen a similar brochure months ago, but I didn’t take it seriously then because of the absurdity. So upon reading about such nonsense again I thought it to be old news. Let’s hope it is and that it’s not for real. Unfortunately this document is dated Feb 20, 2009. Allegedly a spokesman from the office claimed it was just part of a training exercise. Mmhmm.

This “leaked” document allegedly came from this office in Missouri: the MIAC.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s tour of Missouri’s “fusion center” on March 11 was her first visit to a state fusion center since joining President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. Governor Jay Nixon briefed Napolitano on the workings of the fusion center, known as the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC).

Sec. Napolitano and Gov. Nixon then traveled to Kansas City to address the National Fusion Center Conference. Fusion centers are collaborative efforts by law enforcement and other agencies to pool information, resources and analysis to better address and detect crime and potential terrorist threats. Napolitano called fusion centers, which often receive federal funding and work with federal agencies, “the future of law enforcement.”

I think Obama has some explaining to do. The first question should be: When did the Constitution become an illegal, or terrorist,  document?

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I got my first gun when I was five. Thanx Dad! .22 Chipmunk

To this day I have never had to shoot anyone, let alone use a gun for defense. I blame part of that outcome on the way I conduct myself in society, that is, with respect for other people’s property. Hopefully – for the perp(s) – I am never subject to such an unfortunate position as having to defend myself, family, friends or someone in distress.

“Every state should be laser-focused right now on one issue: jobs, jobs, jobs,”

….”This rejection is less about the people of South Carolina than it is Sanford’s political ambitions,”  said O’Malley, vice chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

Maybe the vice chairman should go get a real job and stop playing political bully. I wonder what political ambitions he’s talking about? Afraid of a little competition? Of course he is.

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat, dismissed Sanford’s move as “100 percent political posturing.”

Oh really? And I wonder what Clyburn is getting out of the stimulus? More votes for bringing home the artifical bacon? It sounds to me like these Keynesian schills think Sanford is committing political suicide. So what are they so worried about? Oh right. Jobs. Well, like I said, go get a real job and leave the social engineering to people and out of the reach of political whim and the long arm of the law.

I always look forward to a new installment by Jack Hunter – aka The Southern Avenger – and wasn’t surprised that he dedicated a whole youtube clip to the SC Governnor. I don’t claim to know anything about Mark Sanford and I care nothing for party politics, but I understand very clearly what Hunter is saying and that Sanford has presented himself as a man to be reckoned with. PS- Jindal sucks.