Blaughing

'Twas the night before Christmas in Washington, D.C.

stakk — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:10:33 GMT

The Night Before Christmas in Washington D.C. 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the House Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The TARPs were all hung by the speaker's chair In hopes that St. Bernanke soon would be there. The reps and lobbyists were snugly in bed, While visions of bailouts danced in their heads. Hank Paulson and friends of Goldman Sachs Just about to settle in for a new 4 year nap When from the White House lawn arose such a clatter Paulson sprang from his bed to see what was the matter Away to the window he ran in a dash Tore open the blinds and saw mountains of cash Paulson jumped up and loosed joyful hollers There was St. Ben dropping brand new dollars The cash piling high smelling of fresh ink Caused Paulson a double-take and a wide eyed blink So overjoyed was Hank, the Secretary elect woke up Tim Geithner arose and took a sip from his cup Paulson asked him if the cash he could see Geithner glibly said, "Ben ordered it, from me." "You see Hank, I'm a Fed Bank President From New York City where I am a resident I roam board rooms from D.C. to Manhattan By FOMC vote, interest rates will flatten" "We'll get them low, right down to zero To nearly all in D.C. the Fed is a hero Printing money for all the spending Previous, current, and projects yet pending "Bernanke and I will take to the skies Dropping cash and singing greenback lullabies To the donors and cronies who matter the most Forget moral hazard, let's have us a toast The celebrating masters took to the sky The chopper so weighed down could barely fly Pallets of cash hanging in the night The engines churning with all their might On Frank, on Schumer, on Dodd, and Reid Both sides of the aisle all, from the money trough to feed To Detroit and Manhattan they'll send a fleet Liquidity for all and the price is so cheap! While people are mulling cider in holiday spices The Fed is busy propping up toxic asset prices Just as gravity, economic law cannot be repealed And the mistakes of these policies will be revealed The Keynesian policies of debt spending and inflation Destroys savings and wealth all across the nation Redistribution from the prudent to the reckless By those whose policies are naught but feckless Remember the first solution of central banking Is to do their best to keep the presses cranking For when industry cuts back and takes the pain The government does nothing but more of the same Expand programs, augment the spending Open the money spigot and increase the lending Consolidating control over more and more markets Nationalizing the economy, in hopes to spark it Backing up the money truck with a line of trailers They keep spending like drunken sailors So implore them, ask nice and say please Get them to study Rothbard, Hayek and Mises The best economy in the world it could be But how long will it take for these blind masters to see If printing money was the true road to wealth Then Zimbabwe would have the most economic health As the reserve currency, the dollar's days are numbered By many tens of trillions in debt 'tis encumbered Entitlement programs, endless wars and subsidy Heading in the direction of Weimar Germany To inquire for what cures a recession Savings for investment answers that question Capital does not just drop from the sky From Fed bank masters who know how to fly As the fleets spread out and presses run non stop The Fed and the Treasury continue the money drop Meanwhile Hank heard them exclaim as they flew out of sight "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

International Talk LIke a Pirate Day, Sept. 19

stakk — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:29:01 GMT

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/ September 19th (every year) is International Talk Like A Pirate Day

disclosure

stakk — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 07:34:31 GMT

disclosure to another disclosure to self discovering one's own safety level finding that it meets requirements to absolve oneself of guilt of not saying what one burns to say my yearning bubble has popped and let my need escape and rise up above my fearful ego thank you thank you for hearing me I thank me for being brave and though I don't know how this unfolds I know that it is not lack of knowledge that brings me to tears but a heart overflowing, that will not be contained by a story of self-doubt, protection and chains that shorten the distance between what is felt and expressed. Every moment to unfold perfectly, precisely leading to the next as it is, as it will who knows what the future means, what it brings, so I stop now.

substitute Cascadia for Idaho in this piece..... =)

stakk — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:07:35 GMT

(http://www.lewrockwell.com/buppert/buppert11.html) "Good Morning, Governor, how might we…" "Mr. President, I realize you are a busy man so let’s get down to brass tacks…we are calling the ball and withdrawing our support of your Administration and the Federal government in DC. Effective immediately, we have coordinated to place all outgoing receipts to the IRS in a caged account here in Boise…" "Governor, you can’t do that…" "Please don’t interrupt while I am speaking as we are from this point onward peers in the family of nations. I hope you have reviewed the diplomatic instruments we sent by courier last night to Department of State which delineates the terms of our divorce." "I did receive those and you have no earthly idea the can of whoop-…" "Please, sir, maintain the decorum of these proceedings so we can move forward to an amicable separation. I give you my personal assurance on the safety and well-being of all Federal personnel we have detained for immediate repatriation to the remainder of these United States. Any non-law enforcement Federal personnel who wish to remain behind will be permitted to do so." "I hope you have thought through the consequences of what you are embarking on." "Mr. President, we have had over two hundred years to give the rulers on the Potomac a chance but that time has expired. Effective immediately, all so-called Federal lands now belong to the nation of Idaho and we will dispose of these lands at our leisure. In the interest of burying the hatchet, we will not seek compensation for the seizure, abuse and tenure of Federal practices on the aforementioned land and call the balance even." "Those are my lands, Governor…" "In actuality, they belong to neither of us, sir. On to other business, I have alerted my National Guard forces to establish checkpoints at all the main arterials in and out of Idaho. All National Guard forces deployed overseas will return home in the next 48 hours. I would also caution you on the use of military force to convince Idaho and its citizens to forcibly return to the yoke of the Union. Idaho has a well-deserved reputation as a rather well-equipped state in firearms possession and use. As Yamamoto said, you may find a rifle behind every blade of grass." "Are you threatening the president of the United States?" "No, sir, I am simply making an observation about the hazards of one country invading another." "You are land-locked, Governor and wholly dependent on federal subsidy for a great deal of employment and infrastructure in Idaho." "No longer, the tremendous tax burden across the spectrum formally imposed in our nation as a subject State in your country is now effectively terminated and we are going to unleash the free market to address all of our former shortcomings as a result of the overarching government supremacism practiced here before. In telephone conversations with my neighboring governors, we are on the verge of Confederation negotiations that will pave the way for Idaho embassies in British Columbia, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. We do intend on opening a consular office in DC as soon as we can ensure the diplomatic baggage containing sufficient weapons assures our safety in the greater DC metropolitan area for our diplomatic personnel." "Governor, what Constitutional right do you have to secede from the US?" "Mr. President, the behavior you have exhibited toward the Constitution has been at best characterized by active neglect and abhorrence for the restraint on governance in the Bill of Rights. I am rather surprised you would resort to assuming the document in any way has weight in Washington, DC. I would suggest my rights extend as far as our ability to throw off what has become a government of occupation instead of cooperation. We resign, sir and wish to go in peace." "I will use every measure in my arsenal to force you back into the fold." "Mr. President, thank you for the heads-up but we have taken certain precautions to ensure that any rash measures on your part have a disproportionate impact in the DC/Virginia corridor. Please don’t press us on the issue. I would like to offer one more rather moderate important proposal to our future business. These United States as administered by DC are now essentially bankrupt. War on the world, out of control spending and borrowing, debt and deficit, non-funded future liabilities in the tens of trillions and a banking infrastructure rotten at every level has pushed the US to an economic abyss from which it cannot shrink. We will provide you a demonstration project of tiny government, free banking and a formerly enslaved citizenry unleashed to realize their potential with no government interference. We simply wish to go our own way untethered from the Remora Nation DC came to symbolize." "Governor, this conversation is over." "Good day, Mr. President."

today's show and tell...

stakk — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:16:25 GMT

In my community we are superstars we know we are brothers, sisters, thrivers none other than life's vibrant disciples discerning beauty discovering the superheroes in us all In my community we radiate to the sun to stars since deceased who light still shines pointedly, aligned to the point of Wow! Our skies, Our endless combusting novas blazing galactic trails In my community we find our way in the dark transdimensionally multimodal art supplies tales and stories alight bursting at the seems to be birthing within spiral arms

Four Minutes and Twenty-Nine Seconds of World-

stakk — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:12:24 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY The Internet has been the capitalist's best friend, where virtual unknowns can quickly rise to the top of the pack if they have the right idea and a good plan. You mainly hear from the big winners such as the founders of Google and the like. However, there are many people who may not have become billionaires, but nevertheless they benefit in their own right by leveraging the ingenuity of the web. In just under a month, over six million viewers have seen the YouTube video, Dancing, a low-tech, yet colorful video of Matt Harding traveling around the world doing a jig in dozens of locations with hundreds of people, many of them children. The producers took a simple, campy premise, filmed it in front of vivid backgrounds and synched it to music. Any one of us could have been Matt, that is, if you're able to grin and flap your elbows and knees in front of a camera, but the difference is that Matt took the initiative to make it happen and created it in such a way so that people would enjoy it and tell their friends. After the success of his first self-financed video in 2005, the popularity compelled Matt to envision and plan loftier videos, and after finding a sponsor he has been able to create two more, each one bigger and better than the one before it. For me, the most relevant aspect of the video is the sheer number of people whose lives were improved in the process. Naturally there was Matt, a man who loved to travel, and thus became a wealthier person by being able to fulfill that dream. If he's lucky, he'll leverage his success into a travel show or book. Another beneficiary of the trade was Stride gum. Unlike other corporations that subsidize these types of ventures, Stride did not ask that Matt wear a logo t-shirt or pass out Stride gum to people he met. Instead, there was a moment at the end of the video where the producers thanked Stride for making it possible. Will that improve sales? Yes. While at Sam's Club today, I purchased a box of Stride gum since in a world of parity products, what have the other chewing gums done for me lately? There were many other parties that benefited from this trade other than of course YouTube. Amazon MP3, an online music store and a much-needed competitor of iTunes, got a boost in sales and clout by becoming the exclusive distributor of the song used in the video, Praan, which is now one of their bestsellers. Thanks to the publicity that six-million viewers can give you, the singer, Palbasha Siddique, will surely get several more contractual offers to sing. Then there are the six million viewers who didn't benefit financially from the venture, but nonetheless became a little bit richer after watching the video. It might have been a lesson in geography and anthropology for some. For others it might have been a heartwarming experience to realize that children from far-flung places like Bhutan and Zambia act just as silly as American children when allowed to let loose. For me it meant that all around the world there are people who are willing to express themselves in motion with an American they just met. To me that says a lot about the human race: that despite our differences in language, appearance and customs, when given an opportunity we will dance together. July 16, 2008 Todd Steinberg [send him mail] works with his family at a wholesale teddy bear company in Dallas. In his spare time he is furiously working on his cartoon, "Don’t Tell My Wife I’m a Cult Leader," which he plans to unleash on the Internet and beyond in 2008.

Futures trading isn't driving prices up

stakk — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:11:22 GMT

by Michael Rozeff (posted at lewrockwell.com/blog) Fallacies about oil futures prices abound. One is that the Arabians bought the futures and sent the prices up so they could sell more oil at higher prices. Which is it? Are they buying or selling? Another is that oil speculators buy and sell from each other in rounds of trading while lifting the price. The fact of the matter is that the futures price is connected to the current spot price for immediate delivery. It is impossible for the futures price to get too far above spot. It cannot get above it by more than the cost of carry. Otherwise traders will buy spot and carry the commodity while selling the futures contract. This will lock in an arbitrage profit. Oil contracts out to March 2009 are showing this cost of carry situation. On the other hand, the spot price can get higher than the futures price if the existing supply is limited or if the future supply is expected to be large. Oil futures prices start to decline after March 2009. No sensible speculator will pay prices so high for future delivery that they could have gotten oil cheaper by buying it now and storing it for a few months. The Saudis can't make any money by bidding the futures price up beyond the cost of carry. Otherwise they will end up taking delivery of high-priced oil, far from being able to sell it t high prices. Unlike stock prices, which can vary within large bounds because their maturity is infinite and there is nothing necessary to tie down the price (apart from a liquidation or a buyout), futures prices cannot depart from the reality of the spot price very far. That is because in a few months time, the contract matures. And when it does, the futures price converges to the spot price at that date. Hence, the futures price is tied strongly to spot prices. If oil futures prices are rising, the essential thing is that the spot prices are rising. If oil is expected to be short in the future, then as futures prices rise, it will cause traders to buy in the spot market and store oil. If inventories are not rising, then the latter is not occurring. Reports are that inventories are not rising. This means that futures are rising because the spot prices are rising. It means that demand NOW is meeting lower supply NOW, and that is the proximate cause of the oil price rise.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

stakk — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:26:40 GMT

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/bush_tours_america_to_survey LuvTheOnion!

random thoughtburst

stakk — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:10:09 GMT

okay all, this one's been brewing for a while, time to let the bubble pop. thanks How about removing the "CAN" from lines like "we can change the world", or "this can change the world" or whatever line comes out like that that refers to something of potency. There is no ambiguity about it, whatever it is IS changing the world. So, please whatever hesitance one finds associated with it, give it up, release it, as it is only a fiction. The fact is that change is the nature of nature. And all of your being is nature. (editor's note-a bit more longwinded than initially expected-that's okay though, it was due to change)

Julia Ward Howe, great 1870 proclamation:

stakk — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:05:14 GMT

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether our baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace, Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God. In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And at the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace. Thanks so much to Lewis Ballard for reminding me

Watch the web for climate change truths

stakk — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:01:20 GMT

Original link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/04/do0405.xml and comments: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/04/do0405.xml#comments Watch the web for climate change truths By Christopher Booker Last Updated: 12:01am BST 04/05/2008 Have your say Read comments A notable story of recent months should have been the evidence pouring in from all sides to cast doubts on the idea that the world is inexorably heating up. The proponents of man-made global warming have become so rattled by how the forecasts of their computer models are being contradicted by the data that some are rushing to modify the thesis. # Read more from Christopher Booker Polar Bears in Alaska Last September's data, showed ice cover had shrunk over six months to just 3 million but by March the ice had recovered to 14 million sq km So a German study, published by Nature last week, claimed that, while the world is definitely warming, it may cool down until 2015 "while natural variations in climate cancel out the increases caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions". A little vignette of the media's one-sided view was given by recent events on Snowdon, the highest mountain in southern Britain. Each year between 2003 and 2007, the retreat of its winter snow cover inspired reports citing this as evidence of global warming. In 2004 scientists from the University of Bangor made headlines with the prediction that Snowdon might lose its snowcap altogether by 2020. In 2007 a Welsh MP, Lembit Opik, was saying "it is shocking to think that in just 14 years snow on this mountain could be nothing but a distant memory". Last November, viewing photographs of a snowless Snowdon at an exhibition in Cardiff, the Welsh environment minister, Jane Davidson, said "we must act now to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause climate change". advertisement Yet virtually no coverage has been given to the abnormally deep spring snow which prevented the completion of a new building on Snowdon's summit for more than a month, and nearly made it miss the deadline for £4.2 million of EU funding. (Brussels eventually extended the deadline to next autumn.) Two weeks ago, as North America emerged from its coldest and snowiest winter for decades, the US National Climate Data Center, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a statement that snow cover in January on the Eurasian land mass had been the most extensive ever recorded, and that in the US March had been only the 63rd warmest since records began in 1895. While global warming enthusiasts might take cheer from the NOAA's claim that "average global land temperature" in March was "the warmest on record", this was in striking contrast to a graph published last week on the Climate Audit website by Steve McIntyre. Tracking satellite data for the tropical troposphere, it showed March temperatures plunging to one of their lowest points in 30 years. Mr McIntyre is the computer expert who exposed the infamous "hockey stick" graph - that icon of warmist orthodoxy which showed global temperatures soaring recently to their highest level for 1,000 years. He showed that the computer model that produced this graph had been so designed that it would have conjured even random numbers from a telephone directory into the shape of a hockey stick). On April 24 the World Wildife Fund (WWF), another body keen to keep the warmist flag flying, published a study warning that Arctic sea ice was melting so fast that it may soon reach a "tipping point" where "irreversible change" takes place. This was based on last September's data, showing ice cover having shrunk over six months from 13 million square kilometres to just 3 million. What the WWF omitted to mention was that by March the ice had recovered to 14 million sq km (see the website Cryosphere Today), and that ice-cover around the Bering Strait and Alaska that month was at its highest level ever recorded. (At the same time Antarctic sea ice-cover was also at its highest-ever level, 30 per cent above normal). The most dramatic evidence, however, emerged last week with an announcement by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that an immense slow-cycling movement of water in the Pacific, known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), had unexpectedly shifted into its cool phase, something which only happens every 30 years or so, ultimately affecting climate all over the globe. Discussion of this on the invaluable Watts Up With That website, run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts, shows how the alternations of the PDO between warm and cool coincided with each of the major temperature shifts of the 20th century - warming after 1905, cooling after 1946, warming again after 1977 - and how the new shift to a cool phase could have repercussions for decades to come. It is notable that the German computer predictions published last week by Nature forecast a decade of cooling due to deep-ocean movements in the Atlantic, without taking account of how this may now be reinforced by a similar, even greater movement in the Pacific. Mr Watts points out that the West coast of the USA might already be experiencing these effects in the recent freezing temperatures that have devastated orchards and vineyards in California, prompting an appeal for disaster relief for growers who fear they may have lost this year's crops. Mr Watts's readers are amused by the explanation from one warmist apologist that "these natural climate phenomena can sometimes hide global warming caused by human activities - or they can have the opposite effect of accentuating it". It is striking, in view of the colossal implications of the current response to "the greatest challenge confronting mankind" - as our politicians love to call it - how this hugely important debate is almost entirely overlooked by the media, and is instead conducted largely on the internet, through expert websites such as those run by Mr McIntyre and Mr Watts. On one hand our politicians are committing us to spending unimaginable sums on wind farms, emissions trading schemes, absurdly ambitious biofuel targets, and every kind of tax and regulation designed to reduce our "carbon footprint" - all based on blindly accepting the predictions of computer models that the planet is overheating due to our output of greenhouse gases. On the other hand, a growing number of scientists are producing ever more evidence to show how those computer models are based on wholly inadequate data and assumptions - as is being confirmed by the behaviour of nature itself (not least the continuing non-arrival of sunspot cycle 24). The fact is that what has been happening to the world's climate in recent years, since global temperatures ceased to rise after 1998, was not predicted by any of those officially-sponsored models. The discrepancy between their predictions and observable data becomes more glaring with every month that passes. It won't do for believers in warmist orthodoxy to claim that, although temperatures may be falling, this is only because they are "masking an underlying warming trend that is still continuing" - nor to fob us off with assurances that the "German model shows that higher temperatures than 1998, the warmest year on record, are likely to return after 2015". In view of what is now at stake, such quasi-religious incantations masquerading as science are something we can no longer afford. We should get back to proper science before it is too late.

Does Our Weakness Matter? by Robert Higgs

stakk — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:42:47 GMT

(abstract: How tyrrany digs its own grave, and plants flowers over it--M) Thucydides tells us that "the strong do what they will, while the weak suffer what they must." We recall these words even after 2,400 years because they have the ring of truth. And a hard truth it is, especially for those of us who cannot but regard ourselves as ensconced among the weak. As we look about, we see that the strong, who control the state, are rampaging in every jurisdiction and, sure enough, in countless ways the weak are suffering the consequences of these destructive rampages. Libertarians habitually indulge in wishful thinking. We live in a country where freedom is under relentless attack in ways too numerous even to categorize easily. Governments at every level seem determined to crush each remaining molecule of liberty, and, worst of all, most of the citizens readily accept, when they do not affirmatively demand, the suffocation of freedom wherever it dares to raise its head. Schumpeter foresaw our present situation with clear eyes when he wrote in his diary: "Humanity does not care for freedom. The mass of the people realize they are not up to it: what they want is being fed, led, amused, and above everything, drilled. But they do care for the phrase." Ah, yes, "land of the free"―try to utter that phrase three times without breaking down in laughter or weeping. Yet libertarians are constantly seizing on some little tactical retreat by Leviathan or some little endorsement of liberty and describing it as the beginning of an imagined "revolution." What are they thinking? Few friends of liberty are willing to recognize forthrightly just how formidable are the legions that oppose us and therefore how close to hopeless is our cause. In the United States today the enemies of liberty have both the big battalions and the big bucks. Yet, as we are reminded from time to time, other, even worse tyrannies have fallen. The United States is a despicable police state, but it is not as horrible as the Soviet Union was, and today the USSR has passed away and the Russians enjoy a milder form of police state. The United States is not as horrible as Nazi Germany was, and today Hitler's Thousand-Year Reich survives only as dust blowing in the European wind. The United States is not as horrible as Mao's great leaping China was, and today the Chinese enjoy a milder form of police state. If worse tyrannies have undergone substantial attenuation or, like Nazi Germany, complete destruction, then perhaps we have some reason to hope that our freedoms will not be crushed into oblivion and perhaps even that a few of our lost liberties may someday be recovered. When we look closely into how other tyrannies were checked, however, we encounter a vitally important fact: except where a tyranny was destroyed in war, as Hitler's regime was, great advances of freedom have usually occurred not so much because a hardy band of freedom lovers grew more and more powerful until they ultimately controlled the situation, but because the tyrannies they were resisting destroyed themselves. People did not have to defeat their tyrannical rulers; the rulers changed their minds about the desirability of perpetuating their tyrannical rule and loosened the reins on the people because they were willing to countenance a freer society and economy in the service of their own personal interests. Thus, the Russian and Chinese Communist rulers were not defeated; they simply switched sides, as it were, declared themselves to be capitalists, and, by hook or by crook, assumed personal control of the socialized assets they had previously administered in their capacities as state planning functionaries. They had come to understand that, in the immortal words of Deng Xiaoping, to get rich is glorious, and, flipping Marx on his head, they undertook to transform themselves and their privileged children into capitalist billionaires or at least millionaires by what a lapsed Marxist might dub acts of not-so-primitive appropriation, well seasoned with rampant perfidy and corruption. It is more than a coincidence that the way in which freedom tends to be restored―for the most part as a by-product of actions by people seeking only their own narrow goals, as opposed to a freer societal end-state―parallels the way in which freedom gained a foothold in the first place. This centuries-long process occurred in Europe from the eleventh century onward as merchants, seeking a more secure environment for the conduct of their business, essentially bought off the predatory robber barons (the real ones!) who preyed on traders as a source of revenue. In this deal, the lords got money tribute, rather than the customary feudal dues in services and locally produced goods, and they could then purchase the luxury goods, such as spices and fine textiles, that the merchants were making ever more available in Europe, owing to the revival of long-distance trade. In exchange for their periodic payment of money taxes, the merchants received assurances that the lords would respect their private property rights and the "liberties" of their commercial towns and cities ("Stadtluft mach frei"). The merchants, who were much more the pioneers of liberty than the philosophers, were not seeking to build a free society as such; they were simply seeking to diminish a costly hazard to their business dealings. Yet, in the end, they did indeed build that glorious social edifice we know as bourgeois civilization, complete with its private property rights, its tolerance of strangers, and its cultivation of virtues such as prudence, promise-keeping, thrift, and self-responsibility. Both the history of liberty's initial establishment and the recent cases of its (partial) restoration in tyrannical societies show that it may eventually win out even though the little band of liberty lovers remains weak. And weak we probably will remain, because, as Schumpeter's dictum and our own observations alike inform us, few people really care about living in a free society―though they like the phrase. Most people are content as long as they enjoy creature comforts, ample entertainment, and the illusion that the rulers are protecting them from real and imagined dangers. They would rather go to the mall than to the barricades. Still, notwithstanding our fellow citizens' customary acquiescence and the alacrity with which they fall for every cheap trick the ruling establishment pulls on them, the giant tower of tyranny may crumble. Like the centrally planned economies that could not allocate resources rationally for want of private property rights and a market price system, our pervasively interventionist tyranny may tie itself in so many regulatory knots, operate its fisc so irresponsibility, and mismanage its fiat-money system so atrociously that it will ultimately find itself incapable of going on, unable to pay for many of its promised benefits, unable to collect many of its taxes, unable to sell its bonds, unable to maintain its globe-spanning structure of military bases, and unable to command anyone's real respect. The powers that be like to pretend that they have solved all the problems that brought down previous empires, but we may rest assured that they have not actually done so. As the U.S. government taxes, spends, borrows, regulates, mismanages, and wastes resources on a scale never before witnessed in the history of mankind, it is digging its own grave. It has been digging for quite a while, and I do not pretend to know how much longer it can continue to dig before it topples headlong into the pit. Nor do I know whether the arrangements that take its place will be any better or freer; the world of tomorrow may prove to be even more hideous than the world of today. Yet, when the present system destroys itself, freedom will at least have a chance to be reestablished. May 7, 2008

Mr. T, Treat Your Mother Right

stakk — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:41:28 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rBidCkJxo

For Tax Day, In memoriam to all victims of legalized violence

stakk — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:53:17 GMT

"When your premise is ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ you can skip a lot of distractions and just get to work." ~ Alia Johnson Introduction This short essay on a long subject was brought to mind by an editorial from The Economic Times (Mumbai) of 10 April 2008 by Paramahamsa Nithyananda. I am grateful to the Swami and to Mother India for their presence that keeps on reminding me of my real work of Self Realization, the ultimate goal of the human being on this earth. The issues of ethics and morality are only "big" in an industrial and alienated civilization; in a properly humane culture, ethical values are simply natural. In such a culture, these values are obvious and real, rather than intellectual abstractions. I have lived among "underdeveloped" peoples for whom what we now call "high" ethical values are simply "the way it is – the way it is done around here." People respect life, and thus they respect each other. The truth is automatically spoken, even by those who have made an infraction. There are no high-powered lawyers paid to lie and to get their client off on legal technicalities. There is no "Fifth Amendment Defense." People are expected to tell the truth, and they do. It is culturally ingrained. They would not think of doing otherwise. There is no institutionalized "judicial system." There is common law justice arrived at by the assembled people themselves in a process of discovery. They confer together and reach a consensus discovery of what is the natural law in a given case. Discovery is very far away from dogma. The rule of law is possibly the single most dangerous idea ever imposed upon mankind. A law is a lie that creates slavery. Imposed ethics is no ethics. Law is made by the powerful to manipulate the meek. I once asked a Zuni elder about the "old ways" in respect of a trial for murder. "What if the accused lies?" He looked at me incredulously – "We don’t lie." Our "advanced" industrialized civilization has made men into sharp dealers and liars and cheats. When a people deals directly with raw nature for its sustenance, there is no scope for the lie. There are no money games to play, and everyone knows everyone else. Much of the source of our degenerate culture is due to its capacity for anonymity in the big city. A person can live in modern society with very few real, face-to-face relations. Morality Must Arise From Consciousness What immediately follows is quoted from Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda: Freedom is our true nature. We are totally and completely free from everything that binds us. Please understand this. When we express this freedom we enter the spiritual path. Rules and regulations are only superficial, artificial and imposed by the society. Societal and religious morality binds us. They limit our freedom. They do not lead to spirituality. . .(exerpted for this blog) . FULL TEXT AT: http://www.lewrockwell.com/knaebel/knaebel16.html see also: www.freeofstate.org Breaking the Double Bind As long as I am the subject of a State under a rule of violence – and participating in violence through my bread labor – I cannot be free to work toward Self-Realization. This sets up a double bind. If I submit as a servile subject to the State’s coercion imposed upon me, I become a coward – particularly in my own eyes – where it matters most. If I resist with aggressive (rather than defensive) violence, or in a mental condition of fear, I have allowed the System to defeat my ethical values. I have permitted myself to become intellectually and morally servile. I am bound by the State’s chains of mental conditioning. The very first step toward freedom is emotional: abandon all hope. Abandon all blind and irrational hope that anyone else will free you – that anyone else will awaken to the reality of our collective fate if we remain on the Ship of State, captained by the Merchants of Death. The second step is mental. Deconstruct the conditioning of your mind that has been constructed with malice aforethought by the State’s coerced compulsory public education system that takes in wild and free children of human beings – precious living expressions of a Great and Beneficent Creation – and imprisons them for 12 years of "education" in how to become a mindless servo-mechanism of the Machine. Tear down the mental walls built by the bureaucracy. You paid for it – every single board and nail of it – you should be able to walk away from an unwanted mental structure that would mortgage the fate of the earth itself to a vast epoch of suffering and death in exchange for one more sip of the ambrosia of Power. The only way out of a double bind is to smash it. The simple and best way to survive an abusive relationship is to leave it. Because one cannot control others, but can control himself – at least as to intentions, if not outcomes. How can you negotiate with depraved insanity which is holding a gun to your head? Abandon the State. Help starve it of cash. Let it die in a manner that the falling colossus does not hit your head on the way down. Stand clear of falling debris. Build your own self-reliant life of a freeman. Help others: so long as one of us is a slave, we are all co-dependents in slavery. Is Liberty not the mother of peace, and peace the path of human survival? It is often said that we are all "interdependent." This is true – and we are interdependent either as servile subjects within a system-structure of institutionalized violence – or as free men in a peaceful and decentralized, stateless society of mutual respect and voluntary cooperation. May you live long, earn your freedom, and experience the beatitudes of a natural humane life. April 15, 2008 Jeff Knaebel [send him mail] is an expatriate American domiciled in India since 1995. He formerly practiced as a registered professional engineer, having been trained at Cornell Univ. and the Colorado School of Mines. Visit his website.

Let's Foreclose on the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008

stakk — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:01:12 GMT

(Another one for the economics interested crowd out there--I love ya!-- again from lewrockwell.com/blog) Let's Foreclose on the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 Posted by Karen De Coster at April 6, 2008 06:45 PM The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 is another New Deal-style power grab that includes some significant provisions, especially the gravy for homebuilders. Extension of Net Operating Loss Carryback. To aid homebuilders and other businesses hit hardest by the economic slump, this bill will extend a law allowing corporations to apply excess net operating losses to tax returns from prior profitable years and receive any applicable refunds. For 2008 and 2009 losses, the provision would extend the “net operating loss (NOL) carryback” to four years (back to 2004 and 2005, respectively) from the two years currently in law. Measures to prevent companies from abusing the intent of the provision are also included. This is a significant tax break for those who profited immensely from the housing boom while their lobbyists campaigned to sustain all the rotten policies that prolonged the housing bubble so that homebuilders could continue to reap the gorgeous profits. And they made money - lots of it. (See Pulte 2001 and 2002 results, along with its "poor me" 2007 forecast and announcement of job cuts. Pulte CEO Richard Dugas had been called "America's Real Estate King.") How did this little gift come about? A very influential group called the National Association of Homebuilders worked its magic. Jerry Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders, said in an interview that the tax break is "very important to the building community." It will keep many small homebuilders out of bankruptcy, he said, and will prevent large builders from having to liquidate assets. Other big beneficiaries would be Wall Street banks such as Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley. In fact, any company now struggling after years of healthy profits that pumped up their tax bills could benefit. I am always and everywhere for any kind of tax break except when it's a free lunch for the monster corporations that breezed along in good times, assisted by one government intervention after another. For years we listened to the homebuilders sing on high as profits went up 30%, 40%, 50%, and more, and now we listen to their woes as the false prosperity can no longer be maintained, even with the multitude of attempts from their fairy godmothers in the halls of government. Let these fools suffer the consequences of no demand for homes, just as they benefited from the spike in demand for homes thanks to the government's money machine and social engineering. The people of the National Association of Home Builders were so furious that this tax break was not in the economic stimulus package, they declared they would "stop making contributions to congressional candidates until further notice." The organization claimed that congress had not "adequately addressed the underlying economic issues that would help to stabilize the housing sector and keep the economy moving forward." This is a group that has given at least $20 million to Washington policy makers since 1990. This bill will also bring more of the same thing that got us here in the first place: new (and higher) FHA loan limits which would allow people to borrow 110% of the value of their home; government subsidization of foreclosed home purchases; pre-foreclosure "counseling"; and stop foreclosure for military folks (this is called "preserving the American Dream"). The mortgage counseling piece is pegged at $100 million, and the Democrats are complaining that isn't enough, and so they demand $200 million. Anybody ever wonder how you "counsel" someone who, at all costs, has to live beyond their means? Of course the Psychobabble State will figure out a way to convince us all that five, one-hour sessions with a government employee can change the behavior of juvenile adults who have practiced financial irresponsibility for years and years, and have taught their children the same. As a final note, the social welfare types are enraged that the bill doesn't include bankruptcy intervention because the Mortgage Bankers Association squashed that effort.

Former FDA Commissioner attempts to justify it all

stakk — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:34:18 GMT

David Kessler as quoted in Robert Higg's The FDA: A Billy Club Is Not A Substitute for Eyeglasses (from Against Leviathan): "If members of our society were empowered to make their own decisions about the entire of range of products which the FDA has responsibility ... then the whole rationale for the agency would cease to exist. ... To argue that people ought to be able to choose their own risks, that government should not interfere ... is to impose an unrealistic burden on people when they are most vulnerable to manufacturers' assertions. ... Those are precisely the situations in which the legal and ethical justifications for the FDA's existence is [sic] greatest." AND: One Less WMD http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23959384/ A federal B1 bomber burns in an outpost of the empire, with neither airmen nor victims harmed (taxpayers are, as usual, another matter). The Pentagon says it has no idea why its socialist death machine was near Iran. (Thanks to Lauren Scheffers.) both headlines from www.lewrockwell.com/blog

A Question for the Law Prof

stakk — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:31:00 GMT

Writes Wayne Uffleman: ( I don't now who this Wayne is, but he poses a good question, i think--mt) I attended a dinner seminar a few nights ago, where some well know law professors discussed mostly Constitutional Law issues. One of the professors spoke about the death penalty, which he advocated in some very strong terms. The over-arching point of his speech was that lethal injection is inadequate because it doesn't inflict enough pain on criminals. (He prefers the firing squad.) As I asked this question in front of hundreds of Statist lawyers, professors, and students, some people actually booed me, but then others clapped when I was finished. His answer was, "I dont think I need to answer that." I thought you might enjoy the question: Part 1: My question involves the application of the retributive philosophy. "It is morally right to hate people who commit terrible crimes like murder." In order to be consistent, shouldn't we extend that principal to institutions as well? Professor, you recounted some heinous crimes committed by individuals in gory detail. But no individual can compete with the atrocities committed at the hands of government. Even if we added up all of the terrible crimes committed by individuals, they would pale in comparison--by number and degree--to those committed by governments. Governments, including our own, are responsible for the bloodbaths of their unjust wars, maintaining torture chambers and concentration camps, the intentional starvation of millions, and the enslavement and annihilation of entire races. I will stop there, but as we all know, this shameful list is virtually endless. Part II: If we are to consistently follow the retributive philosophy, why would we empower the government to kill? Shouldn't we do the very opposite? Shouldn't we hate the government and seek its painful execution, or to be more precise, its destruction? In other words, why is government seen not only as exception to the application of the retributive philosophy, but also its enforcer, when history clearly demonstrates that governments are far more likely than individuals to commit monstrous crimes?

Hawai'i pictures posted

stakk — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:25:34 GMT

http://picasaweb.google.com/vayacongaia

CIA role claim in RFK killing

stakk — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:13:02 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/6169006.stm

Stuff White People Like (a blog)

stakk — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:21:07 GMT

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/ Here's a partial list: # #89 St. Patrick’s Day # #88 Having Gay Friends # #87 Outdoor Performance Clothes # #83 Bad Memories of High School # #82 Hating Corporations # #70 Difficult Breakups # #69 Mos Def # #67 Standing Still at Concerts # #66 Divorce # #65 Co-Ed Sports # #64 Recycling # #63 Expensive Sandwiches # #62 Knowing What’s Best for Poor People # #61 Bicycles # #60 Toyota Prius # #59 Natural Medicine # #44 Public Radio # #43 Plays # #42 Sushi # #41 Indie Music # #40 Apple Products # #39 Netflix #25 David Sedaris #13 Tea # #8 Barack Obama # #7 Diversity # #6 Organic Food # #5 Farmer’s Markets # #2 Religions their parents don’t belong to # #1 Coffee

Aimee Allen (i haven't figured out how to embed youtube yet-m)

stakk — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:51:51 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBCKMTo210k

Big Island Love

stakk — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:41:39 GMT

Aloha, I return from the Big Island in a couple of weeks. March 10 is the plan. Looking forward to spreading aloha in Seattle upon my return. Lovin' y'all -m

update from the Big Island

stakk — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:11:31 GMT

Wow am I having a good day. I started the day in the jungle, went to a big ol' tidepool and swam there, then hitched a ride to the hot pond (water temp approx. 94), went back to the jungle, cooked lunch for folks, then rested. Now I'm at a new friend's house about to have another amazing dinner. I brought rosemary to Roze two days ago that i had harvested from my neighborhood . And know she's made a whole dinner based around it. I'm continually amazed by the blessings presented to me. And I've only been here a couple days. Going to camp on a beach tomorrow night after a visit to the volcano. Sending you big love from the big island, -m

California Schemin'?

stakk — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:29:31 GMT

Writes Holly Clearman:"After sifting through the results of California's primary, a phenomenon has occurred that can only be explained as a statistical miracle. "In California, a state larger and more diverse than many countries, each and every congressional district returned the same result. The Republican candidates placed first through fourth in the same order and in nearly the same proportion except for CD 52 where in an inexplicable fit of randomness, Romney beat McCain. It's astonishing. "Note to RNC: next time you need a hack, you might consider contracting with the 10 Ron Paul spammers. At least their work is convincing." UPDATE from Holly Clearman: "Romney has since won CD 21 by 216 votes or .4%, and CD 42 by 73 votes. Ron Paul's numbers, however, remain unchanged."

The Mouse that roared: Why Ron Paul won the election

stakk — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:06:12 GMT

http://dougwead.wordpress.com/2008/02/06/the-mouse-that-roared-why-ron-paul-won-the-election/ Well now, Republicans say, we have a nominee. That may very well be but there was only one clear winner in the confusing GOP nominating contest and it was not John McCain. The winner was Ron Paul. And the effects of his win will be felt for years to come. Ron Paul made a classic political mistake. He told the truth. In debate after debate he pointed at his party, his president, his fellow contenders for the GOP nomination, shouting aloud like the little boy in the proverbial story, “they have no clothes” and lo and behold, we looked and they didn’t. They were all naked. He showed that the conservative movement has lost its way, its moral authority and its logic. He showed us that we have become a red team versus blue team. That since we have decided that this is a political war and all normal rules are suspended, conservatives can do liberal things to win it. Conservatives can run up big deficits if it helps their side win. They can dole out needless pork if it elects another “conservative” to congress. They can go to war if it makes their president look like a leader and wins him another term. But in the process, Ron Paul showed us, that we have lost our way. We are no longer conservatives. We are fighting for power not for principles. We have become corrupted by the process and the only way back is to retrace our steps and find all the things we discarded along he way. Barry Goldwater lighted a similar fire with his Conscience of a Conservative. Its truth and arguments were so obvious and so honest that one laughed aloud while reading it. But Goldwater, himself, was doomed to political defeat. And Ron Paul had no chance to win this election either. One could see that when he first opened his mouth. And yet, the words and arguments of Ron Paul are still resonating. They still hang over this election. They are haunting and troubling. They are producing blogs and papers and books and like Goldwater’s revolution they will one day very likely produce their own Ronald Reagan. And when those heady days happen a small but hearty band of pioneers, who first had the nerve to join him and start shouting from the street, “They aren’t wearing any clothes,” will be able to say that they could see what the country missed. They were there when history was made. John McCain and his poorly chosen words, of staying in Iraq a hundred years, have almost guaranteed that he will be the answer to the trivia question, who was the Republican candidate who lost to the ticket that claimed the first woman and black for the presidency? Another question may very well be, “What other candidate ran that year and launched the movement that has dominated national politics for the last generation?” And the answer will be Ron Paul.