Ron Smith of the Baltimore Sun: "history tells us nothing, in the end, is too big to fail."

Ron Smith wrote an excellent piece in The Baltimore Sun in support of fiscal restraint. Read it here. This is in the intro:

Looking at the history of runaway government spending, a disturbing pattern is readily discernible: There is never a lack of observers at a given time who understand the severity of the trouble at hand, but these people lack the power to cut costs and avert calamity. An observer at the time of Imperial Spain's unwinding more than three centuries ago commented on the failure of every attempt at real reform, writing, "Those who can will not and those who will cannot."

Ron Paul: What are they afraid of?

Michelle Bachmann On Obama's Health-Care Plan

Peter Schiff Money Bomb

While Rand Paul's run for senate is generating a very mild buzz, Peter Schiff's potential run for senate is gaining a lot more support, a lot quicker. Video's like these, that are a bit more polished, and reminiscent of Ron Paul's presidential run, have not been made for Rand Paul. Peter Schiff is obviously generating a lot more excitement as he has more name recognition and popularity within the liberty movement.

Obama's Tax Pledge

Ayn Rand on Fascism

"In this country, few people care to advocate, to defend or even to understand capitalism; yet fewer still wish to give up its advantages. So if they are told that capitalism is compatible with controls, with the particular controls which further their political interests - be it government handouts, or minimum wages, or price-supports, or subsidies, or antitrust laws, or censorship of dirty movies - they will go along with such programs, in the comforting belief that the results will be nothing worse than a "modified" capitalism. And thus a country which does abhor fascism is moving by imperceptible degrees - through ignorance, confusion evasion, moral cowardice, and intellectual default - not toward socialism or any mawkish atruistic ideal, but toward a plain brutal, predatory, power-grubbing, de facto fascism.
No, we have not reached that stage. But we are certainly not "an essentially private enterprise system" any longer. At present, we are a disintegrating, unsound, precariously unstable mixed economy - a random, mongrel mixture of socialistic schemes, communistic influences, fascist controls, and shrinking remnants of capitalism still paying the costs of it all - the total of it rolling in the direction of a fascist state.

. . .

Now let me mention, and answer, some of the standard objections by which today's "liberals" attempt to camouflage (to differentiate from fascism) the nature of the system they are supporting.

"Fascism requires one-party rule." What will the notion of "Government by Consensus" amount to in practice?

"Fascism's goal is the conquest of the world." What is the goal of those global-minded, bipartisan champions of the United Nations? And, if they reach it, what positions do they expect to acquire in the power structure of "One World"?

"Fascism preaches racism." Not necessarily. Hitler's Germany did; Mussolini's Italy did not.

"Fascism is opposed to the welfare state." Check your premises and your history books. The father and originator of the welfare state, the man who put into practice the notion of buying the loyalty of some groups with money extorted from others, was Bismark - the political ancestor of Hitler. Let me remind you that the full title of the Nazi Party was: the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany."

Ayn Rand, The New Fascism: Rule by Consensus , June 1965.

Alan Grayson vs. Ben Bernanke

Questioning the "Official Response"

Found here.

Ron Paul Questions Jim Carr from NCRC

Ron Paul Questions Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke

Russia Today: Ron Paul Puts The Fed Under Fire

Southern Avenger: Ron Paul and Jim DeMint take on The Fed

Alan Greenspan on Market Regulation

What collectivists refuse to recognize is that it is in the self-interest of every businessman to have a reputation for honest dealings and a quality product. Since the market value of a going business is measured by its money-making potential, reputation or "good will" is as much an asset as its physical plant and equipment. For many a drug company, the value of its reputation, as reflected in the salability of its brand name, is often its major asset. The loss of reputation through the sale of a shoddy or dangerous product would sharply reduce the market value of the drug company, though its physical resources would remain intact. The market value of a brokerage firm is even more closely tied to its good-will assets. Securities worth hundreds of millions of dollars are traded every day over the telephone. The slightest doubt as to the trustworthiness of a broker's word or commitment would put him out of business overnight.

Alan Greenspan, The Assault on Integrity, 1963.

Ron Paul on The Fed and Consumer Protection

Bar Stool Economics

Found here:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on e day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers?How could they divid e the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where t he atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Schiff Takes Talking Head To School

Ron Paul 2012

Dennis Kucinich Acting Like Bill O'Reilly

Dennis Kucinich is a complete ass in this video. His point can be made without continually interrupting the witness who is simply trying to answer the question. Not to mention, Kucinich's final question is a bullshit one. It pre-supposes the cause of the high cost of health insurance in the United States is due to the insurance companies even though there are credible arguments that suggest the high cost of health insurance is a result of government intervention. Referring to biased government statistics doesn't help his argument any further. Anyone I have ever met in Canada that has needed elective surgery has had to wait much longer than 4 weeks.

A larger point is also being missed in the argument for national health-care in the US. Most innovations that have occurred in health care have occurred in the United States. This is directly related to the profit incentive (greed) that is an institution of free markets. Up until the late 60s, believe it or not, the US has an actual free-market health care system, and it was the greatest health care system in the world. The rest of the world, the socialized systems in Canada and Europe, greatly benefited in the past from the free-market system in the US; unfortunately the US system now just acts as a government-legislated money grab by insurance companies and the free market has been effectively eliminated while failing to provide even the level of health care socialized countries provide.

The United States government spends a greater portion of its budget every year on health care than any western country with socialized medicine and the American people get the least bang for their buck. People are pissed off. So incompetent government intervention will lead the way for further incompetent intervention.

Ron Paul: What if...?

I've posted this before, but after watching it again today while bored at work, I decided its worth a second post.

Here's the actual speech:



Here's the remix:

Garden Update

The lettuce has begun to thin out. The strawberry plants have really grown; you can see all of the shoots in the pictures. I was worried the cucumber wasn't going to survive. The pot those plants are in had no drain it had flooded with all the rain. I took a knife to the pot to relieve that issue. The snow peas are have grown well and are blossoming as you can see. In one photo you can even see a pea-pod begin to grow.

Today Sarah and I are off to the valley to have the air conditioner looked at on the Fit. Afterward, I work 1 - 9:30; picked up an overtime shift this weekend. We looked at a few more houses last night. We didn't see anything of interest.

The Fed Under Fire

Ron Paul: Opening Statement at Fed Hearing

Jim Demint Attempts To Add The Federal Reserve Sunshine Amendment

Pastor Steven Anderson

We're backing out of the house...

...time to start looking again.

Obama Hypocrite on Science

Obama once blasted Bush for sensoring Jim Hansen, a NASA scientist who supports man-made global warming. Like many things Obama blasted Bush for doing, he follows up with his own imitation of the exact same action. From the Wall Street Journal:

Except, that is, when it comes to Mr. Carlin, a senior analyst in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics and a 35-year veteran of the agency. In March, the Obama EPA prepared to engage the global-warming debate in an astounding new way, by issuing an "endangerment" finding on carbon. It establishes that carbon is a pollutant, and thereby gives the EPA the authority to regulate it -- even if Congress doesn't act.

Around this time, Mr. Carlin and a colleague presented a 98-page analysis arguing the agency should take another look, as the science behind man-made global warming is inconclusive at best. The analysis noted that global temperatures were on a downward trend. It pointed out problems with climate models. It highlighted new research that contradicts apocalyptic scenarios. "We believe our concerns and reservations are sufficiently important to warrant a serious review of the science by EPA," the report read.

The response to Mr. Carlin was an email from his boss, Al McGartland, forbidding him from "any direct communication" with anyone outside of his office with regard to his analysis. When Mr. Carlin tried again to disseminate his analysis, Mr. McGartland decreed: "The administrator and the administration have decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision. . . . I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office." (Emphasis added.)

Mr. McGartland blasted yet another email: "With the endangerment finding nearly final, you need to move on to other issues and subjects. I don't want you to spend any additional EPA time on climate change. No papers, no research etc, at least until we see what EPA is going to do with Climate." Ideology? Nope, not here. Just us science folk. Honest.

Read more here.

"Ron Paul Strikes Gold"

From the Associated Press:

He has rallied the majority of the House to support his new cause: an audit of the Federal Reserve. Legislators are sick of not knowing what's going on inside Bernanke's fortress, especially as the Fed becomes further enmeshed in the nation's fiscal policy. Paul's little bill has become emblematic of a larger movement, one that could spell trouble for Obama's troubled regulatory plan. Ron Paul—always an enemy of regulation—is now an enemy of Obama. And a mighty powerful one at that.

Read the rest here.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

For anyone interested in global warming, this is a must watch.

US Hire Afghans To Attack US