female, respect, deserve

"When Will Female Authors Get the Respect They Deserve?"  Three key words: female, respect, deserve.  I am so weary of this idea that because an individual is a member of a certain group they automatically deserve a certain level of respect above and beyond what they would deserve if they were not part of that group.  Wasn't the whole idea of the civil right movement that we should evaluate people on their individual merits or lack thereof, and not on their status as members of this or that demographic group?

How about "When Will Quality Authors Get the Respect They Deserve?"  That would work for me.

preserving healthcare workers' liberities

Did you know that healthcare professionals that chose to not participate in life-ending activities are (potentially) about to be discriminated against? If this doesn't seem right to you, go here to learn more about it and to sign a petition. April 9th is the deadline.

Church

We went to church this morning. I have a hard time with church. Here are some of my notes from this morning ( I jot them down and hand them to my husband who nods cryptically at me).

"Hair-on-head: Hyperbole"
The service opened with a short message about how awesome our God is cause He knows the number of hairs on our heads. Number of hairs x number of people = really big number = awesomeness factor.

BUT, the Bible was written in languages that rely on hyperbole, and as such, should not be taken literally. So this is like having a passage of scripture that includes the words "at the drop of a hat" and then making a big deal about the hat. I would argue that the hairs on the head bit is a poetic device saying that God knows us intimately.

I really don't have an opinion on whether He is a hair-counter or not. I think that focusing on the hair-counting is missing the message: that God knows us and attends to the details of our lives. Somehow that message didn't get included in the math and the bald-jokes and the awesomeness of it all.

"I feel like a fraud."
Whilst everyone is standing and singing songs that are mostly about feelings am I the only one whose only feeling is that of being a fraud as I stand there mouthing the words about feelings?

I have beliefs and convictions; the whole feeling thing mystifies me. In fact, the only feelings I was having was that of peevishness about the aforementioned hairy awesomeness and the requisite guilt associated with feeling peevish in church.

"What exactly do missionaries DO all day?"
Today was missionary day, where a missionary stands up and tells us about his life. I have missionary-allergies, having seen too many of them stay at my Mom's house and basically milk her for goodies. I have developed a very robust cynicism. So this guy stands up and I jot down, "What exactly do missionaries DO all day?"

To my delight and dismay, he proceeds to tell us: He sits in coffee shops and drinks coffee with people. Missionaries who run medical clinics and organize soup lines and so forth will get my donations. They are feeding the poor and housing the sick in the name of the Lord and it's likely that for the recipients, these missionaries' good deeds are the only Bible they will ever see.

But I just don't see the Biblical mandate for socializing -- excuse me, I'm supposed to call it 'investing in relationships' -- and even if there is a mandate, this guy can get a job and work shoulder-to-shoulder with other guys and invest in relationships that way. I am not donating to support him (and his wife and 3 kids and their tutor) in idleness.

"Jay Leno"
That's what missionary guy looked like.

"WiFi?"
I heard the little 'new mail' tone from my iTouch. Probably a good idea to switch the router off during the service. I'm just saying . . .

So, do you see why we don't often go to church? I walk in all confident that God loves me and Christ died to save me and that the details of my life are known to God and that He cares for me. And I walk out feeling like I had better keep my mouth shut.

On the bright side, I did get the outline done for a new children's book project I am working on.

We are All Socialists Now: I's in your government, stealing your freedoms

For a long time now, I have assumed that the problem was that the American people had not noticed the Socialist take-over. Then I saw this:




So the problem is not that Americans haven't noticed. It's worse. We apparently don't care.

One of my high-school friends sent this to me today. I'm still working on verifying the quote sources (do you know where the quoted passages came from?), but I wanted to share it with you in the meantime. The biographical content is straight from Wikipedia.

Norman Matton Thomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911. As a candidate for President of the U. S., Norman Thomas said, in a 1944 epoch speech:

The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism", they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.

He went on to say:

I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform.

I have friends and family who support the Democrats and I am sure that they have no idea what it is they are actually supporting. It all sounds so charitable and nice on the surface, but it tyranny underneath.

Why I like the Christian Science Monitor

I'm not quite sure what Christian Scientists believe, and I'm feeling too grouchy and over-whelmed to go self-educate, but I do know that they neither hate nor deny God and that they believe that religious activities have a healthy place in our lives, and that is much more than I can say for some other news sources.

Today's edition of The Christian Science Monitor included:

• a great story about man vs the burglars and the man won.
• only 2 ads -- one for bird books from Audubon and one for PeaceCorps.
  
• an article on Facebook and the ubiquitous 25 Random Things post (I'll cut-and-paste 25 Things into another post in case you aren't on Facebook. And speaking of which, I have to know you in RL to know you in Facebook, so don't be said if I don't friend you, except for Richard Starkey. I made an exception for him so my husband would think I am cool.)
• a cute picture of a pygmy rabbit and an interesting article on conservation efforts.
• a timely article on biofuels
• and an article on No-Knead bread which seemed awfully familiar. Oh that's right. I posted about it last spring: no-knead uber-yummy bread. And I thought ours (top) was much prettier:

• A recipe for brioche that I will try
• And a really nice article about a good man named Mr. Putnam.

Those were all the articles that caught my eye. There were also articles about US in Afghanistan, the Stimulus from THE ONE, Sudan and Dafur, Detroit auto-sellers, Turkey, World Poverty policies, Iran, the Balkans, Obama's challenging economic dilemma, Micro-Finance, and a handful of mini-articles.

World news.
National news.
And some good news -- not prettied up glossy sentimental news, just an article in each edition about someone who would be nice to have as a neighbor.

And no sleazy articles about hooking-up or manscaping or other things I really don't want to think about.

The "C" word

Warning, this post is all about the "C" word.

I'm working on my very brief introductory comments for my World Lit class as we enter a unit on "Class, Race, and Ethnicity".

Here is my working draft. Your comments are very much wanted.

I've always found it rather amusing that we are a culture which will discuss, promote, and visually present most any sexual behavior or detail and yet can hardly manage to acknowledge class, much less discuss it.

Many factors contribute to class: income, education, boundaries of what is considered appropriate for public behavior, civility or the absence thereof, syntax and diction, race, ethnicity, geography of address, religious participation or absence thereof, education level and occupation of parents and siblings, wardrobe choices, height/weight ratio, hair & grooming choices, body alternations, and [what else, gentle reader?].

All of these factors contribute to class or social standing via an intricate and highly-personalized formula. Factors that weigh heavily in my book my be irrelevant in yours and visa versa, yet we all (even if we won't admit it nor discuss it) use class categorizations to help us navigate our contact with others.

In this unit we will be reading a variety of selections that hold up to our attention class concerns [ blah blah blah ].

Along with whatever else you have to say, please think about, and let me know what details matter to you in assessing class.

not much of a box to soap from

I follow the blog of one of my favorite former students who is both thoughtful and articulate. He arrived to me in already gifted -- I'm not trying to take credit for him, that goes to his parents. Anyway, Kyle said this today, as part of a longer post on Gaza.

But I'm an outsider, so it's easy for me to take a side and criticize. Until I personally engage in that situation, I don't have much of a box to soap from. What's left then, but to mourn?

If you get discouraged about the future of our country, drop by Form & Function and take hope.

NJ Kids With Nazi-inspired Names Removed From Home

Three New Jersey siblings whose names have Nazi connotations have been placed in state custody, police said.

If the weird names are the only reason the kids have been taken by the state then this is outrageous.

Yes, the names are weird.
Yes, the parents are idiots.

and

Yes, they have a constitutional right to be weird and idiotic.

I don't like what they have done.

But I'll defend their right to do it.

the back story

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job.

As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a Back Story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my big home at last year's Christmas party. I'm sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don't see is the BACK STORY:

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... you never realize the Back Story and the sacrifices I've made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:
I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero... Nada... Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don't understand... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? You defibrillate his heart! Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It's quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I'll fire you. I'll fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

So, if you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about...

Signed,

The Boss

I'm still trying to find who authored this, so I can attribute it,
but I've had no luck thus far. Do you know?

Magical Thinking: True Stories by Augusten Burroughs

This was an awkward read for me. Augusten's life is so different from mine and his meanness disturbed me. I didn't like it in the same way that I didn't like Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, which is probably my most-hated book ever.

The difference is that Wally Lamb's books was fiction, and Augusten Burroughs' book is not. So, whether I like it or not, Burroughs lives his life and has the courage to put it into print, and I have to grant some credit for that.

Yes, Magical Thinking: True Stories is funny. Yes, it was intriguing. I felt a bit like a tourist reading it. Much in the same way that I was an embarrassed sojourner whilst reading certain parts of Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex or whist walking around Amsterdam's sadly fascinating red-light district. Augusten's life is sordid and mean and he doesn't seem to notice or mind. I felt sad after reading his book.

One of my Christmas gifts was Oliver Van DeMille's A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century, which came highly recommended from my cousin (who is a published poet you know). I will review the whole book later, but for know I want to share with you the four classifications of stories: bent, broken, whole, and healing.

A. Bent stories portray evil as good and good as evil. Such stories are meant to enhance the evil tendencies of the reader, such as pornography and many horror books and movies. The best decision regarding Bent stories is to avoid them like the plague.

B. Broken stories portray accurately evil as evil and good as good, but evil wins. Something is broken, not right, in need of fixing. Such books are not uplifting (in the common sense of the word), but can be transformation in a positive way. Broken stories can be very good for the reader if they motivate him or her to heal them, to fix them. The Communist Manifesto is a broken classic; so are and The Lord of the Flies and 1984, In each of these, evil wins; but they have been very motivating to me because I have felt a real need to help reverse their impact in the real world.

C. Whole stories are where good is good and good wins. Most of the classics are in this category, and readers should spend most of their time in such works.

D. Healing stories can be either Whole or Broken stories where the reader is profoundly moved, changed, or significantly improved by her reading experience.

Magical Thinking: True Stories? Broken.

argh

Fred Thompson shares good news about the economy

And who wouldn't like some good news?

Where does money come from?

Yes this is a rerun, but in light of the RIDICULOUS bail-outs, I think it worth it to see it again.

Kelli's article

If you know us in real life you will know that we have some really interesting people in our family. One of them, Kelli, just got an article published about her work as an intern at the Center for Justice. Go take a look.

emergency preparedness & winter prep

As winter (and the impending socialist regime) approaches, my thoughts turn to emergency preparedness.

I found a great site, ShelfReliance, that presents lists of what you might need, emphasis on the might. It seems to me that the emergency preparedness list is a bit of over-kill, but I did glean from the site these items that every home in the county should have on hand before the winter storm season:

Food Stuffs - The Shelf Reliance food calculator will itemize a list of what you need to have on hand to feed your family for a month (or more, you can pick the amount of time). These estimates are customized for your family size and family members' ages.

According to them, if I had all this, we would be just fine if we were stormed in for month.

Grains/Pastas:

• 30 pounds of wheat, not ground up - (of course they are happy to sell me a wheat grinder)
• 6.5 pounds of pasta
• 7 pounds of rice
• 10 pounds of quick oats
• 7 pounds of cornmeal
• 7 pounds of white flour
• 14 pounds of whole wheat flour

Vegies: remember that they are selling these items in cans, so of course they are advocating canned items. Nevertheless, I think the recommendations of quantity are sound, regardless of form:

• 5 pounds of carrots
• 4 pounds of onions
• 5 pounds of potatoes
• 5 pounds of instant potatoes

Fruits:

• 5 pound of banana chips
• 20 pounds of apple slices

Dairy:

• 5 pounds of cheese
• 15 pounds of instant milk (blech)

Beans:

• 15 pounds of dried beans

Baking:

• 10 pounds baking soda
• 7 pounds salt
• 17 pounds of sugar

Food Storage:

• a feasible plan for preserving the food in the freezer if the power goes out (I have some food in ice chests in the freezer, which will keep things cold a bit longer.)
  

Emergency - I added some items to this list

Light and Information:

• hand-powered AM/FM/ Portable Radio with Flashlight
• power-generator - here is the one I want, as it has nifty bonus features: Wagan 400-Watt Power Dome EX Jumpstarter with Built-In Air Compressor
• matches
• candles
• rechargeable AA batteries
• several working flashlights

Warmth:

• full warm layers for all: boots, socks, legware, torso, neck, ears, head, hands.
• heat packs/handwarmers
• matches
• firewood

Food:

• pocket knives
• a means of cooking if there is no power or if the gas goes off (Coleman stove or BBQ with full propane tank or BBQ & brickets or, for us, a wood stove with a flat surface and a handful of cast-iron pots and pans)
• bottled water, or at least clean containers for catching rain/snow or dipping into the well

Shelter: in case the windows blow out or trees fall on your roof

• tarps
• plywood
• duct tape

Health & Hygiene:

• cold & flu medications
• bandaids
• anti-bacterial ointment
  
• Vitamin C & D
• backstock of any necessary prescription drugs
• tp
• lady products
  

Pets:

• backstock of pet food
• backstock of any necessary prescription drugs
  

What else?

:: one year ago today: first storm of the season

Anatomy of a Bank Run

Go read about it now, so that when it happens in a couple of weeks, you'll at least understand why and how a bank run works.


:: one year ago today: works for me: flexible cutting boards
:: two years ago today: works for me: snuggly Jesus

I'm a conservative. Am I going to lose my job now?

Recently it was pointed out to me that I am putting my position as adjunct faculty at the local community college at risk by openly being a part of the local Republican party. It may be prudent then, for me to clarify WHY I am part of the Republican party.

I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I would like to see a small federal government that does not meddle in social causes, domestic or abroad. Be it education policies at home or regime changes abroad, I don't think it is our federal government's place to get involved. Education policy should be determined by local communities with a little bit of state coordination. Policies and politics of other countries should be determined by the citizens of those countries.

This is not to say that we should ignore heartaches abroad, but that our Federal government should not be the primary conduit of assistance. We allow the appearance of Federal Aid to stand in for personal involvement, even though we know full well that much of that aid seeps away in the form of bureaucrats' salaries.

Of the two parties, the Republican party historically advocated for small government, lower taxes, and individual freedoms more than the Democrat party did. Yes, the Republican party has drifted away (Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, etc., this atrocious bail-out) from its core and that is why I am involved. The Ron Paul movement allowed me to see that there are quite a few people who align themselves as I do -- more Republican than Democrat -- but pretty dissatisfied with the current face of the Republican party. If we all get involved, perhaps we can yank nudge the party back to the right.

I'm putting this out here so that if any of my community college colleagues come to check out the rumors that I am (gasp) a Republican, they can learn that yes, I am, because I don't like what the current administration has been up to.

In what ways do I disagree with the Republican norm?

1. I don't think government has any business organizing any sorts of marriage. I think we should do what Germany does. Individuals register their couple-ship with the state in a civil ceremony which takes care of fiscal concerns. Religious people hold a religious ceremony in a religion of their choosing. The state does not take a position on what is moral, and the religions are free to acknowledge - or not - the marriages of other flavors of religion.

2. Foreign policy, obviously. Why on earth are we out defending other countries' borders and repairing their roads and bridges when our own borders, roads, and bridges are falling apart? Military might is for defense, not meddling in other people's business.

3. No Child Left Behind. Yikes! Bureaucrats determining curriculum is always a bad idea. Schools should be accountable to parents, not to federal cubicle-dwellers.

So, there you have it. I'm that kind of conservative. A mind-you-own-business be-responsible-for-yourself shrink-federal-government states'-rights reduce-taxes kind of conservative. And I'm a really good English teacher.

I want to believe that my political ideas will have no bearing on contract renewals. Am I just being naïve?


:: a year ago today: rant: television
politics, job security, GOP

federal bailouts

Dear Friends:

The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School predicted has arrived.

We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy - all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment - and prevent the market's attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets.

Last night the president addressed the nation about the financial crisis. There is no point in going through his remarks line by line, since I'd only be repeating what I've been saying over and over - not just for the past several days, but for years and even decades.

Still, at least a few observations are necessary

The president assures us that his administration "is working with Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in our markets." Care to take a guess at whether the Federal Reserve and its money creation spree were even mentioned?

We are told that "low interest rates" led to excessive borrowing, but we are not told how these low interest rates came about. They were a deliberate policy of the Federal Reserve. As always, artificially low interest rates distort the market. Entrepreneurs engage in malinvestments - investments that do not make sense in light of current resource availability, that occur in more temporally remote stages of the capital structure than the pattern of consumer demand can support, and that would not have been made at all if the interest rate had been permitted to tell the truth instead of being toyed with by the Fed.

Not a word about any of that, of course, because Americans might then discover how the great wise men in Washington caused this great debacle. Better to keep scapegoating the mortgage industry or "wildcat capitalism" (as if we actually have a pure free market!).

Speaking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the president said: "Because these companies were chartered by Congress, many believed they were guaranteed by the federal government. This allowed them to borrow enormous sums of money, fuel the market for questionable investments, and put our financial system at risk."

Doesn't that prove the foolishness of chartering Fannie and Freddie in the first place? Doesn't that suggest that maybe, just maybe, government may have contributed to this mess? And of course, by bailing out Fannie and Freddie, hasn't the federal government shown that the "many" who "believed they were guaranteed by the federal government" were in fact correct?

Then come the scare tactics. If we don't give dictatorial powers to the Treasury Secretary "the stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet." Left unsaid, naturally, is that with the bailout and all the money and credit that must be produced out of thin air to fund it, the value of your retirement account will drop anyway, because the value of the dollar will suffer a precipitous decline. As for home prices, they are obviously much too high, and supply and demand cannot equilibrate if government insists on propping them up.

It's the same destructive strategy that government tried during the Great Depression: prop up prices at all costs. The Depression went on for over a decade. On the other hand, when liquidation was allowed to occur in the equally devastating downturn of 1921, the economy recovered within less than a year.

The president also tells us that Senators McCain and Obama will join him at the White House today in order to figure out how to get the bipartisan bailout passed. The two senators would do their country much more good if they stayed on the campaign trail debating who the bigger celebrity is, or whatever it is that occupies their attention these days.

F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize for showing how central banks' manipulation of interest rates creates the boom-bust cycle with which we are sadly familiar. In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, he described the foolish policies being pursued in his day - and which are being proposed, just as destructively, in our own:

Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion.

To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection - a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end... It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.

The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not learn from history.

The very people who have spent the past several years assuring us that the economy is fundamentally sound, and who themselves foolishly cheered the extension of all these novel kinds of mortgages, are the ones who now claim to be the experts who will restore prosperity! Just how spectacularly wrong, how utterly without a clue, does someone have to be before his expert status is called into question?

Oh, and did you notice that the bailout is now being called a "rescue plan"? I guess "bailout" wasn't sitting too well with the American people.

The very people who with somber faces tell us of their deep concern for the spread of democracy around the world are the ones most insistent on forcing a bill through Congress that the American people overwhelmingly oppose. The very fact that some of you seem to think you're supposed to have a voice in all this actually seems to annoy them.

I continue to urge you to contact your representatives and give them a piece of your mind. I myself am doing everything I can to promote the correct point of view on the crisis. Be sure also to educate yourselves on these subjects - the Campaign for Liberty blog is an excellent place to start. Read the posts, ask questions in the comment section, and learn

H.G. Wells once said that civilization was in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have.

In liberty,



Learn more.

bailout, rescue plan, Ron Paul, economy, Austrian School Economics

We Agree

Over at The Campaign for Liberty, it is posted that the other parties -- not the Dems, not the Reps -- but Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, and Ralph Nader(Independent) agree with Ron Paul (Republican) on these four principles that make so much sense to me that I am puzzled why the two main parties don't get it.

Foreign Policy: The Iraq War must end as quickly as possible with removal of all our soldiers from the region. We must initiate the return of our soldiers from around the world, including Korea, Japan, Europe and the entire Middle East. We must cease the war propaganda, threats of a blockade and plans for attacks on Iran, nor should we re-ignite the cold war with Russia over Georgia. We must be willing to talk to all countries and offer friendship and trade and travel to all who are willing. We must take off the table the threat of a nuclear first strike against all nations.

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none. Thomas Jefferson ~ March 4, 1801

Privacy: We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture, eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret prisons. We must deny immunity for corporations that spy willingly on the people for the benefit of the government. We must reject the unitary presidency, the illegal use of signing statements and excessive use of executive orders.

The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation is unjust and already threatening our economy and the value of our dollar. We must pay our bills as we go along and not unfairly place this burden on a future generation.

This seems like a no-brainer to me. Individually and corporately, we have got to start living within our means.

The Federal Reserve: We seek a thorough investigation, evaluation and audit of the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationships with the banking, corporate, and other financial institutions. The arbitrary power to create money and credit out of thin air behind closed doors for the benefit of commercial interests must be ended. There should be no taxpayer bailouts of corporations and no corporate subsidies. Corporations should be aggressively prosecuted for their crimes and frauds.

You do realize, don't you, that the Federal Reserve is not a government bank, but a private business with the power to print money at will?

election 2008, ron paul, got liberty?

Blindness by Jose Saramago

I just finished Blindness by Jose Saramago. It was interesting but I'm not sure if I liked it. It's an ugly story, well-told. Citizens of a modern city are suddenly afflicted with blindness, not just a few of them, but most of them. Quickly all the trappings of civilization are shed as the nameless citizens kill, rape, and misuse one another. Saramago narrates all this without benefit of quote marks, indentation, or other normal paragraphing, giving it all a breathless rushed feeling, as if he has to get the story out before either he or I are also struck with the white blindness.

Of course, Saramago is telling a bigger story, one in which we are reminded that we are one disaster away from savagery. As I said, it was interesting, but I'm not sure if I liked it.

books