Ron Paul on Larry King

Glenn Greenwald on Afghanistan

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Ron Paul @ Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing

Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man

This was pretty funny; it's worth a watch. Neither politically nor economically related. . . well, maybe a little economics.

Hayek on Keynes

Quote - F.A. Hayek on Economic Dictatorship

"Most planners who have seriously considered the practical aspects of their task have little doubt that a directed economy must be run on more or less dictatorial lines. That the complex system of interrelated activities, if it is to be consciously directed at all, must be directed by a single staff of experts, and that ultimate responsibility and power must rest in the hands of a commander-in-chief whose actions must not be fettered by democratic procedure, is too obvious a consequence of underlying ideas of central planning not to command fairly general assent. The consolation our planners offer us is that this authoritarian direction will apply "only" to economic matters. One of the most prominent economic planners, Stuart Chase, assures us, for instance, that in a planned society "political democracy can remain if it confines itself to all but economic matters." Such assurances are usually accompanied by the suggestion that, by giving up freedom in what are, or ought to be, the less important aspects of our lives, we shall obtain greater freedom in the pursuit of higher values. On this ground people who abhor the idea of a political dictatorship often clamor for a dictator in the economic field."

F. A. Hayek, The Road To Serfdom, 1944.

Lord Chrisotpher Monckton: Obama to cede US Sovreignty In UN Climate Change Treaty

Ron Paul On Afghanistan

Southern Avenger - Lindsey Graham vs. Ron Paul

Quote - F. A. Hayek

The fashionable concentration on democracy as the main value threatened is not without danger. It is largely responsible for the misleading and unfounded belief that, so long as the ultimate source of power is the will of the majority, the power cannot be arbitrary. The false assurance which many people derive from this belief is an important cause of the general unawareness of the dangers which we face. There is no justification for the belief that, so long as power is conferred by democratic procedure, it cannot be arbitrary; the contrast suggested by this statement is altogether false: it is not the source but the limitation of power which prevents it from being arbitrary. Democratic control may prevent power from becoming arbitrary, but it does not do so by its mere existence. If democracy resolves on a task which necessarily involves the use of power which cannot by guided by fixed rules, it must become arbitrary power.

F. A. Hayek, The Road To Serfdom, 1944.

Cartoon in The Chronicle Herald

I'm lovin' it. Taken from The Chronicle Herald website.

Dollar Losing Reserve Status To Yen and Euro

Over the last quarter, banks put 63% of their reserves into the Yen and the Euro. Read about it here.

Talking Politics With IT Admin In New York, NY

IT Guy: Where are you located?

Me: Halifax, Nova Scotia

IT Guy: Oh ya, you don't sound like you're from outside the country. Probably better you're not in the US.

Me: Yea, things are a mess down there.

IT Guy: No kidding.

Me: So what do you think the problem is?

IT Guy: Its the government, and the shadow governments that control it, WallStreet and the Fed.

Me: Yea, sounds about right. So who were you routing for in the last election?

IT Guy: Neither of them. If I could have voted for him I would have voted for Ron Paul. He's been fighting this stuff for years.

Southern Avenger: The Nobel Police Prize

On Obama

“When a small man casts a long shadow the sunset is near.” — Lin Yutang

From LewRockwell.com.

Dollar Reaches Breaking Point as Banks Shift Reserves

Central banks flush with record reserves are increasingly snubbing dollars in favor of euros and yen, further pressuring the greenback after its biggest two- quarter rout in almost two decades.

Read about it here.

Ron Paul: What If?

I've posted this before, but this will be a video I'll post every once in awhile as it will continue to have significance.

Grayson on Afghanistan

Who Obama Beat For The Nobel Peace Prize

From LewRockwell.com:

Sima Samar, women’s rights activist in Afghanistan: “With dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the Taliban fell, Samar returned to Kabul and accepted the post of Minister for Women’s Affairs.”

Ingrid Betancourt: French-Colombian ex-hostage held for six years.

Dr. Denis Mukwege: Doctor, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has dedicated his life to helping Congolese women and girls who are victims of gang rape and brutal sexual violence.

Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: “These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon.”

Hu Jia, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, who was sentenced last year to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for ‘inciting subversion of state power.’

Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China’s communist system. He now lives in the United States.

absurd decision on Obama makes a mockery of the Nobel peace prize

From the TimesOnline, Michael Binyon wrote a scolding commentary, entitled absurd decision on Obama makes a mockery of the Nobel peace prize, in regard to the Norwegian committee's inability to "seperate hopes from achievement." Here's a gem from the article:

The spectacle of Mr Obama mounting the podium in Oslo to accept a prize that once went to Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and Mother Theresa would be all the more absurd if it follows a White House decision to send up to 40,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. However just such a war may be deemed in Western eyes, Muslims would not be the only group to complain that peace is hardly compatible with an escalation in hostilities.

And, as I previously compared this absurdity to the absurdity of Henry Kissinger winning the prize, so does Mr. Binyon:

Mr Obama’s prize is more likely, however, to be compared with the most contentious prize of all: the 1973 prize to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho for their negotiations to end the Vietnam war. Dr Kissinger was branded a warmonger for his support for the bombing campaign in Cambodia; and the Vietnamese negotiator was subsequently seen as a liar whose government never intended to honour a peace deal but was waiting for the moment to attack South Vietnam.

Obama and Nobel: A Follow-Up

Thomas DiLorenzo makes the following observation over at LewRockwell.com:

So Obama joins Woodrow Wilson in the pantheon of American presidents who have won the Nobel Peace Prize (Wilson won it in 1919). I learned this morning that nominations for the prize had to be in by Feb. 20, about one month after Obama was inaugurated. That means that the prize went for his rhetoric during the campaign, not anything he could have actually accomplished. As I recall, his two most memorable foreign policy pronouncements during the campaign were 1) advocating that the U.S. bomb Pakistan; and 2) escalating the war in Afghanistan. He did order the murder of some people in Pakistan by bombardment shortly after taking office. I’m still surprised, though, that he won the prize after killing so few people. Usually, one must be a major league murderer like a Wilson or a Teddy Roosevelt to win such a prize.

Michael Moore: Babbling Idiot When Challenged

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize while bringing war to Iraq and Iran, advocating harmful sanctions against 70 million Iranians, and providing $16 billion to a corrupt government in Pakistan.

I think the credibility of the award just flew out the window. Others would probably correct me and advise this happened in 1973 when Henry Kissinger won it.

Obama has prisoners held indefinitely in American prisons all over the world (well at least in Guantanamo Bay and Bagram), he has failed to prosecute individuals responsible for torture, he's conducting two wars in two countries while bombing another and threatening another, he's murdered scores of innocent civilians (starting during his very first week of office), he's bailed out the wealthy at the expense of the poor, and has yet to stop Israel from developing on Palestinian land (not that its his business to do so, just sayin', he's trying really hard and failing).

Jimmy Carter must be pissed it took him decades of promoting democracy around the world the win it.

But thank god for Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". Obama often does remind me of Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Of course, next to Henry Kissinger, Obama might be considered a saint, so in that respect it makes sense.

Quote - F. A. Hayek

"while for the immediate improvement liberalism had to rely largely on the gradual increase of wealth which freedom brought about, it had constantly to fight proposals which threatened this progress. It came to be regarded as a "negative" creed because it could offer to particular individuals little more than a share in the common progress - a progress which came to be taken more and more for granted and was no longer recognized as the result of the policy of freedom. It might even be said that the very success of liberalism became the cause of its decline. Because of the success already achieved, man became increasingly unwilling to tolerate the evils still with him which now appeared both unbearable and unnecessary."

F. A. Hayek, The Road To Serfdom, 1944.

Quote - Ivor Thompson

"from the point of view of fundamental human liberties there is little to choose between communism, socialism, and national socialism. They all are examples of the collectivist or totalitarian state . . . in its essentials not only is completed socialism the same as communism but it hardly differs from fascism."

British Labour MP Mr. Ivor Thompson, The Socialist Tragedy. Ivor Thompson left the Labour party to join the Conservative party in 1948.

Southern Avenger: Iran, Iran So Far Away

"World Is Giving America A Collective" Middle Finger

"The Demise Of The Dollar"

The Independent has a good article on the world moving away from the use of the US Dollar as the reserve currency and its use to price oil:

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

Ron Paul On Foreign Policy From The Floor

Michael Moore = Idiot

CNSNews recently had a chance to ask Michael Moore a few questions. In response to one, Moore made this comment:

“You know, I had to pretty much beg, borrow and steal. The system is not set up to help somebody from the working class make a movie like this and get the truth out there.

In fact, in Fahrenheit 9/11 if you remember, capitalism, the Disney Corporation, tried to kill that film--tried to make it so that people couldn’t see it. My book Stupid White Men--Harper Collins tried to kill that book so that people couldn’t see it. It's only because I put the light of day on it and told people what was going on did people get the chance to see these things.”

Moore is saying that capitalism tried to beat down his message, but because he magically "put the light of day on it" he was able to do what no other would be able to do! He actually thinks that he was able to make millions of dollars IN SPITE of living in a capitalistic society. What an idiot. Because he lives in a pseudo-free and pseudo-capitalistic society, those in powerful positions could not stop him from making his documentary or publishing his book. Capitalism and free-markets allowed him to sell his material and earn his fortune.

Yep, Moore, you fought capitalism back with your magical weapon, the "light of day". You really showed him! Indeed. Idiot.