Look, there are two ways to prevent young children from drowning:

1.Place barricades, gates, locks, and other restraining devices around any body of water large enough to immerse the child’s head in; in addition, provide education, audio-visual instruction, role-playing and other methods to inform young children on the dangers of inhaling large amounts of water – whether it be fresh water or sea water – and to provide the funding, continuing outreach and community activism necessary to make sure that ALL Americans are prevented from encountering these deadly dangers wherever they may be found.

Or:

2.Teach your kid how to swim.

a November 1985 article in The Free Market, a monthly publication of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, author and historian Richard J. Marbury pointed out: “This official story is … a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving’s real meaning.”

Limited government power

A balanced budget

Personal liberty

Strict adherence to the Constitution

Sound money

A strong defense while avoiding all undeclared wars

No nation-building and no policing the world

The 2008 analogue to the Volcker strategy would be to force a harsh, fast marking-down of all bank assets to real values. A one- to two-year bloodbath is far preferable to a decade of death by a thousand cuts. Many banks will fail and will have to be re-equitized by the government -- the terms should be neither punitive nor excessively generous -- but the weakest and the most irresponsible should simply be let go.

in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food.

Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases.

A child in traditional school is taught arithmetic for six years, but the entire subject can be taught to a child who is “learning ready” in as short as two months, with application and constant practice. Do not think, for a moment, that you should replicate what occurs in a traditional classroom. You don’t need to spend six years teaching a child to do arithmetic. Start it when they’re ready and they show an interest, and then it can be done quickly. Repeat it to reinforce and strengthen memory, not because it takes long to learn the basic concepts. If it is taking a long time or the child isn’t retaining what they’ve learned, they’re not learning ready. Stop and wait for readiness.

The government also expects to borrow $368 billion in the first quarter of next year. Let’s hope the government is getting better at these estimates. If it’s as bad at estimating future borrowings as it was in July, we’re looking at a government that might need to borrow more than $2.5 trillion over the next two quarters, which would mean that the Treasury would be borrowing more than one-third of total Gross Domestic Product.

That’s obviously unrealistic, and we’re sure the new numbers reflect a better perception of the costs and risks faced by our environment. Because by now these guys who are cooking up these numbers must have learned something about risk, right?

I am persuaded that the progressive income tax is something of a religious doctrine to the political left. They seem to believe that they have a moral right, even an obligation, to play Robin Hood; to rob the rich and give to the poor. Of course, they define the rich as anyone with a full time job.

HOSPITAL CHAIN REFUSES TO COOPERATE WITH ASSISTED SUICIDE IN STATE OF WASHINGTON
NOVEMBER 10, 2008

Days after voters in the state of Washington approved a bill allowing doctors to assist their patients in suicide, the state's largest hospital system has announced that it "will not support physician-assisted suicide." Providence Health Care said that the decision "is grounded in our basic values of respect for the sacredness of life, compassionate care of dying and vulnerable persons, and respect for the integrity of medical, nursing, and allied health professions. We do not believe health care providers should ever be put in a position of aiding a patient in taking his or her own life.”

But even among the bastion of Obama’s powerbase there are significant signs that he was voted for his image, rhetoric, and historical nature and not for his policies. Consider gay marriage. In California 70% of blacks voted in favor of the ban on gay marriage. In Florida 71% voted in favor of a ban. This represents a dramatic departure between the policies of Obama’s base and Obama’s policies. He may share the ethnicity with black Americans, but he is certainly culturally out of touch with them as a social liberal in contrast to the strong social conservative roots of the American black population.

Meanwhile, in Texas, the tables were turned. Both the Republican and Democratic parties somehow missed that state's deadline to include Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on the Texas ballot. Barr's campaign sued, noting the equal protection problems with allowing the two major parties to skirt campaign rules while holding third party candidates to the letter of the law. Barr was right—Obama and McCain should have been kept off the Texas ballot. But Barr's suit was dismissed by the Texas Supreme Court without comment. Apparently, the Democratic and Republican parties are, to borrow a now-tired phrase, "too big to fail." They're allowed to break the rules.

Ron Paul had no choice in the matter. The GOP primary ballot access laws in several states force candidates to pledge to not run on another party’s ticket if they should not win the Republican nomination. In an email sent to us (included below) by Jesse Benton, Ron Paul’s spokesman and campaign communications manager, clarified this fact...

The new version would outlaw abortions but included exceptions for rape, incest and pregnancies that threaten the life or health of the woman.

The results of the 2008 election won't be official until the President of the Senate counts the votes out loud at a special joint session of Congress held on January 6, 2009.

Did you know that out of the 193 countries in the world, we have American soldiers stationed in 140 of them? Not just a few soldiers, either. Our "peacetime" troop strength in those 140 countries is over 250,000 strong. Add in the 140,000 we have getting shot up in the Iraqi desert, along with the 150,000 that are floating aboard various warships, and the magnitude of the problem begins to become apparent.

In 2000, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA) was first introduced in Congress. This was a two-paragraph bill intended to clarify that any baby who is entirely expelled from his or her mother, and who shows any signs of life, is to be regarded as a legal "person" for all federal law purposes, whether or not the baby was born during an attempted abortion.

Cobwebs hang on the hallway's chandelier in which only two dusty, yellow bulbs flicker. The paint has peeled off the door in the bathroom, and the sink has only one faucet. The heat broke.

And it won't be fixed. The hostel is closing, and Brody is apathetic.

"Do you think that's just his hostel name, that he picked up in Australia or somewhere?", TSG asks.

Brody has worked here 18 months, the hostel has been here 13 years. Now the owner is going to raze it, subdivide the property, and build apartments.

"So, what's there to do in Eugene?", we enthusiastically ask.

"Actually, there's more to do in Portland," Brody responds.

My spellcheck wants to change his name to "Broody."

Maybe I'll leave it at that.

Masks the Unsanitary Condition of Factory Farms
Irradiation is an after the fact "solution" that does nothing to address the unsanitary conditions of factory farms, and actually creates a disincentive for producers and handlers to take preventative steps in production in handling. The longer shelf life created by irradiation (affording longer shipping distances) also provides greater opportunity for post-treatment contamination via shipping, handling, etc. Additionally, irradiation does not work to stop toxins produced by some bacteria (like botulism); viruses, like foot and mouth disease or hepatitis, are resistant to the irradiation doses used in food; and prions (thought to be the cause of BSE, or Mad Cow disease) are resistant as well.

How can we the people get enough clout to take on the giant financial and corporate giants? What can we do that will make politicians sit up and take notice?

How about swarming the courts? New case law indicates that a majority of the 750,000 homeowners expected to lose their homes this year could have a valid defense to foreclosure. As much as $2 trillion in real estate may be vulnerable to this defense, providing a very big stick for a lobby of motivated debtors...

When the embattled banks demand a bailout because they are “too big to fail,” the taxpayers can respond, “You have already failed. It is time to try something new.”

... If there is no signed mortgage note or recorded assignment, foreclosure is barred. The defendant must normally raise this defense, and most defaulting homeowners, unaware of legal procedure and concerned about the expense of hiring an attorney, just let their homes go uncontested. But when the plaintiffs bringing subprime foreclosure actions have been challenged, in most cases they haven’t been able to produce the notes.

Interests:
Martial Arts, Bluegrass & Folk, Guitars & Banjos, THE GRATEFUL DEAD & Jerry Garcia, Swimming, Water Polo, Snowboarding, Sustainable Agriculture, Self-sufficient Farming, Yerba Mate, Coffee, Microbeers, Honey Wine, Volvo 240's, Mercedes-Benz Diesels, Portland Oregon, Kids, Babies, EC, Catholicism

If I could duke in just ONE question for the candidates to expound on, it would be, "Gentlemen, since the Founders obviously followed a "laissez-faire" economic policy, and wrote nothing into the Constitution about bailing out or buying banks, etc, how would your Administration justify continued support of a policy that seems to be one hundred and eighty degrees out of phase with the original intent of the Constitution?"

Another argument goes like this: “As wrong as abortion is, I don't think it is the only relevant ‘life’ issue that should be considered when deciding for whom to vote.” This reasoning is sound only if other issues carry the same moral weight as abortion does, such as in the case of euthanasia and destruction of embryos for research purposes. Health care, education, economic security, immigration, and taxes are very important concerns. Neglect of any one of them has dire consequences as the recent financial crisis demonstrates. However, the solutions to problems in these areas do not usually involve a rejection of the sanctity of human life in the way that abortion does. Being “right” on taxes, education, health care, immigration, and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life. Consider this: the finest health and education systems, the fairest immigration laws, and the soundest economy do nothing for the child who never sees the light of day. It is a tragic irony that “pro-choice” candidates have come to support homicide – the gravest injustice a society can tolerate – in the name of “social justice.”

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- After a four-year spending spree, Icelanders are flooding the supermarkets one last time, stocking up on food as the collapse of the banking system threatens to cut the island off from imports.

Socialism cannot compete!
206 Comments

Oct 13 06:22 PM

THANK YOU!! I've been saying this for the last few weeks, as the bailout was debated, passed, and then as we've watched the market dive-bomb last week...this notion of needing to grease the wheels for credit is *completely* backwards!! Too much credit is what got us here...it's time to deleverage, and that has to start at the grassroots...those who are trying to pay their mortgages and account for 2/3 of GDP!! Middle-America has been attempting to do so with the overhead of 30-40% federal taxes...and now, the misguided bailout will cause an increase in that, as well as *inflation*!!

Not the answer. Deleverage by *massive* spending cuts, accompanied by *massive* tax cuts. They claim this is not the answer...but that's because lending is how banks make money -- and the goal here is not to make banks money, but to get Americans out of debt so they can begin spending money that is free-and-clear...truly discretionary...rather than spending borrowed money!! Then and only then, have we bottomed!!

The root of the problem is that we ever got into credit-based living to begin with: the banking industry is much bigger than it ever should have been, because we should not have ever *needed* to be borrowing...at least anywhere near the extent that we do. Why do we just take for granted that in order to own a home, we will need a mortgage?? My grandparents were poor: lower-middle class at best, but they worked and saved and bought their (very small) house outright. It is hardly possible to do so any longer. I blame the humongous growth of taxation and the bloated, corpulent behemoth that we call the federal government. And now they want to do us one better, and have the wise among us who didn't buy what we couldn't afford help pay the difference in the mortgages of those facing foreclosure!!

Enough. End the bailout. Kill the Fed. Cut the government to the core. They clearly don't know how to manage an economy. Just give us *OUR* money back -- I'm willing to bet we know what to do with it!!

let's step back and ask ourselves why it is we need an office of Secretary for Financial Stability in the first place.

The answer is we have an unsound banking system based on fractional reserve lending, compounded by micromanagement of interest rates by the Fed, and runaway spending in Congress.

To date, I have not heard one single sentence from anyone important enough to matter, about what really went wrong and why. Instead we have yet another governmental body attempting to add "financial stability" while doing nothing to address the root cause of this mess.

The worst part is the Fed and the Treasury have decided the problem is that banks are not lending enough. The reality is that banks have lent too much.

Often when writing technical documents, you will instruct the reader to "set up" his PC or run a "setup" file. Remember that "set up" is a verb, and "setup" is a noun.

Correct use of "setup": Verify that your network setup is correct before attempting to connect to the Internet.

Correct use of "set up": Click Go to set up your database

Noticeably absent from this list is any effort to move forward with an �Idaho-style� stop sign law. In Idaho, bicycles are allowed to (when safe) treat stop signs as yields. The idea was raised by Senator Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene) in the Oregon legislature back in 2003. It passed the House and, once word spread to the media, it failed to pass the Senate. Last session, a citizen-led effort garnered a bit of support, but it was never considered in committee.

Top 10 Corporate PAC Contributors:

Obama:
Goldman Sachs $739,521
UBS AG $419,550
Lehman Brothers $391,774
Citigroup Inc $492,548
Morgan Stanley $341,380
Latham & Watkins $328,879
Google Inc $487,355
JPMorgan Chase & Co $475,112
Sidley Austin LLP $370,916
Skadden, Arps et al $360,409

McCain:
Merrill Lynch $349,170
Citigroup Inc $287,801
Morgan Stanley $249,377
Wachovia Corp $147,456
Goldman Sachs $220,045
Lehman Brothers $115,707
Bear Stearns $108,000
JPMorgan Chase & Co $206,392
Bank of America $133,975
Credit Suisse Group $175,503

Whatever the label, I was unhappy and feeling empty. The amount of time I spent on Facebook had pushed me into an existential crisis. It wasn�t the time-wasting, per se, that bothered me. It was the nature of the obsession � namely self-obsession. Enough was enough. I left Facebook.

Copper and brass outperform stainless steel in reducing bacteria. At room temperatures it takes 34 days for E. coli O157:H7 bacteria to die on stainless steel tiles, 4 days to die on brass tiles, and just 4 hours to die on copper tiles. At chill temperatures typical of food storage, the study found that 10% of the bacteria were still alive on stainless steel tiles after 34 days, whereas bacteria were completely eradicated on brass tiles within 12 days and on copper tiles in just 14 hours. "It may be possible to achieve important public health benefits just by changing the surface material commonly used in food processing," said a study author.

When I sit down to write now, my mind feels clearer and calmer than it used to. Before going raw, I�d get a jumble of ideas racing through my mind, and I�d type furiously to get them all down; then I�d have to organize them into a coherent article. If I ever consumed caffeine, that racing sensation would be amplified. Today the racing sensation is all but gone, and in it�s place there�s this smoother, calmer flow of ideas. When I write it feels like I�m in a light meditative state. It�s emotionally pleasurable (joyful, happy) to sit down and write, so that makes me want to write even more.

It�s interesting that whenever I�ve made improvements to my diet, the mental benefits are always more pronounced than the physical ones.

Ron Paul 2008


Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Dear Friends,

Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.

The events of the past week are no exception.

The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters."

That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we're being told it's unavoidable.

The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences - predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics - are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!

� The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.

� Financial institutions are "designated as financial agents of the Government." This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.

� Then there's this: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.

There goes your country.

Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this "sadly necessary." Sad, yes. Necessary? Don't make me laugh.

Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind - another example of the big choice we're supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they're not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.

Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we'll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.

The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?

When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?

Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.

In liberty,

Ron Paul

Bush noted that the maximum $700 billion in the proposed bailout was huge, but was dwarfed by the $1 trillion in lost wealth that resulted from Monday's stock market plunge.

Industry, as noted, views IP as its own end and fiercely protects it. "But such thinking has proved counterproductive to industry," the report states, "which in health fields has seen declining levels of innovation despite increasing stakes in intellectual property."

�Dear Senator/Representative:

You MUST reject the Paulson/Bernanke plan for bailing out and propping up reckless banks at taxpayer expense. This is madness to ask us, the taxpayers, to cover the liabilities of Wall Street. We are tired of being fleeced. If you vote to support this plan, I will do everything in my power to remove you from office before you can give away any more of our money to failed businessmen.

Thank you, [Your name]�

In democratic societies, every great surge of the government�s size, scope, and power rests on a foundation of fear, and the present occasion is no exception. The president, the secretary of the treasury, congressional leaders, and the vultures now swarming Washington to pick the remaining flesh from the taxpayers� bones would have us believe that unless the colossal rip-off now being formulated in Congress is enacted, the future will be too horrible to contemplate.

Journalists, as usual, are doing their part to create an atmosphere of fear. Reports characterize the bailouts as �a bid to unlock the flow of credit� and make reference to �the frozen credit markets.� It�s hyperbole, don�t believe it.

There are many benefits to using biodiesel over petro diesel and, other than running a diesel engine, the two fuels have little in common so comparing them could be irrelivant. Biodiesel is an easy, inexpensive first step toward making energy solutions real now before petroleum reaches peak. Biodiesel is made from crops that are renewable for an ongoing but seasonally limited supply. Biodiesel emissions are non toxic. Biodiesel has a higher lubricity which helps the engine run smoother and longer. It is not necessary to kill anyone to gain access to biodiesel. Biodiesel supports local businesses and economy. Biodiesel is primarily carbon neutral. Biodiesel smells good.

We're pushing the idea that we ought to pursue a broad-based legislative attack on all aspects of the Bush-era assault on the Constitution. We have a perfect vehicle to use for this approach, Congressman Ron Paul's "American Freedom Agenda Act." This bill was created by a number of progressive and conservative organizations and introduced by Ron Paul. This bill would . . .

...but broadband prices are way too high for way too little speed...

...because of the trusts...

...we need antitrusts to break up (1) telecom companies, (2) music labels, and (3) car manufacturers
Americans have lost sight of the harm that monopolies do to innovation and the free market...

...i mean, this is 2008 and we're stilling driving cars with air-inflated rubber tyres...

...where are the hovercraft? where are the auto-pilot driven robotic cars?...

stifled by the greedy corporate hogs, who milk what they have until it's gone...


it's 2008 -- why are well being forced to buy cds of crap for $15.99? i think music labels should be forced to represent 50 artists maximum...

Indeed, standard market-failure arguments have less credibility in our hyper-regulated era. When this happens, governments are more likely to engage in war, if only to increase their short-term popularity and to draw attention away from their role in the economy. Since war is the health of the state, it is a more likely option when the state is not at least constrained and decentralized in structure and power.

Undoubtedly the press will paint this as a victory for Cablevision's RS-DVR system which it is, but it's much more. It's another defeat for the media companies failed 25 year strategy to sue nearly every new technology which kicked off with the VCR and also includes the MP3 player. (Most people have forgotten the record labels ganged up and tried to get MP3 players outlawed. Thankfully they resoundingly lost.) Rather than work constructively to make new technology beneficial for them they try to halt its advancement with an army of attorneys. (They could have negotiated with Cablevision to make ads unskippable for example or even negotiated a small reasonable fee, but that opportunity is now likely lost.) More importantly it indicates the courts have not forgotten the consumer. Implicitly acknowledged is that consumers have the right to record, store and playback content - and it's OK for companies to help them in the process.

TOP TEN LIST OF THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT AS A NEW PARENT

1. E.C.
2. Ergo
3. All-in-Ones*
4. BabeSafe
5. Snappies
6. Michael & Debbie Perl
7. Attachment Parenting (portions)
8. Moby
9. Robeez
10. CL*