Lew Rockwell Linkorama

Lew Rockwell has a few posts that I'm linking below. He's an old school conservative (like Taki or Ron Paul) and since one of my favorite things to read about that I never get from the Pajamas Media Right is stuff about the evil of big government. LR's site has been one of my everyday stops on my web travels.

Trevor Bothwell has a piece over there entitled "The Sordid, Wretched, Self-Serving State"

Also, is there such a thing as a "prison industrial complex"? Don Bacon makes the argument that there is one in California:

The California Prison system is the third largest penal system in the country, costing $5.7 billion dollars a year and housing over 170,000 inmates. Since 1980 the number of California prisons has tripled and the number of inmates has jumped significantly. In the past few years controversies involving prison expansion, sky-rocketing costs, and claims of mismanagement and inmate abuse have put the California prison system under heightened public scrutiny.

What caused prisons to be a growth industry in California? Did Californians suddenly become lawless? We need look no further than the CCPOA, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. "The Power this prison guards’ union wields inside our prisons, legislative chambers and governor's office disturbs me. It should disturb every citizen." ~ Judith Tannenbaum, formerly an English teacher at San Quentin State Prison

Read the whole thing here

Lastly, the thing about Cali is that trends that first appear there have a habit of spreading across the country here's one I'm sure everyone will be happy about. There is a special license plate issued by the state that basically gives immunity from all traffic laws to anyone privileged to work for the government. Since there are nearly a million of those plates out there, the math works out to about 1 out of every 9 cars in California having these plates.

Read about the rest of this outrage here.

The Federal Reserve

Why do you need to go all the way to the financial press in Sri Lanka to find stories by the one politician that question the very foundations of our money system?:

"Few Americans give much thought to the Federal Reserve System or monetary policy in general," Ron Paul wrote in his column this week.

"But even as they strive to earn a living, and hopefully save or invest for the future, Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank are working insidiously against them. Day by day, every dollar you have is being devalued.

"The greatest threat facing America today is not terrorism, or foreign economic competition, or illegal immigration.

"The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation."

Read the rest here.

Pilfered from Lew Rockwell

The Tyranny of the State

William Anderson writes about Judge Andrew Napolitano and his book "A Nation of Sheep":

After his introduction, in which Napolitano clearly lays out his thesis, he then explains the natural rights origin of freedom, and how many of the founders of the United States held to a natural rights position. Law, in their view, existed to protect individual liberties from those who would deny them. Today, the deniers of liberty are those legally entrusted to protect it.

Napolitano quotes Benjamin Franklin, who certainly knew something about a natural rights origin of law: "Those who give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." The judge explains that people who are willing to give up liberty are giving power to a government that will take away the rest of their liberties, and make the people even more unsafe, as a predatory government never brings safety.

In his first chapter, Napolitano takes issue with legal positivists, who seem to dot the political landscape these days. I remember speaking to a True Believing socialist who held a high place in President Jimmy Carter’s government, as he told me, "The Constitution is whatever the Supreme Court says it is."

Certainly, it seems that legal positivism holds sway. From the writings of Judge Richard Posner to the Federalist Society to the New York Times to the leaders of both major political parties (or the "Republicrats or Democans"), the idea of natural rights and natural liberty seem not only passé, but also downright subversive to Good Government. Even though politicians will make passing remarks about individual rights and Constitutional government, nonetheless they govern as legal positivists who do what they want whenever they have enough weapons to back up their positions.

Read the rest of it here.

Katrina Revisited: Walmart Wins! Part 2

Lew Rockwell and Walter Block on Hurricane Katrina, it's aftermath, and getting people to realize that central planning (whether it's for the economy or for disaster relief) sucks balls:

Watching the Capitol Hill hearings on what went wrong after Hurricane Katrina provided a glimpse of what it must have been like in the Politburo in the 1950s. The Soviet bureaucrats would gather with the party officials and factory and farm managers to figure out why grain production was down or why shop shelves were empty or why the bread lines were ever longer and the quality ever worse.

They gathered under the conviction that they had a workable system that was being rendered unworkable because of the incompetence, shirking, or wrecking of certain key players in the chain of command. No one was permitted to say that the command system itself was the problem. Instead, they had to place blame on someone, as if all problems could be reduced to issues of obedience. It was always a scramble. Whoever was finally said to be at fault faced certain ruin.

Let's be clear, we are much closer to a socialist society than we are to a free state. Every aspect of our lives can be monitored, scrutinized, criminalized, or taxed by our government. But when the opportunity came for our government to make good on the marshmellowy promise of safety and protection during the hurricane, let's face it, the government swung and missed.

I don't fault Bush for the governments weak, inefficient, and incompetent response because Katrina could have happened on Clinton's watch and I'm pretty confident we would have gotten the same bureaucratic abortion that W presided over.

What we should be questioning is the fundamental assumption that our strong central government should be handling disaster relief (among many other things) at all. That's one question that no one in the MSM is asking.

I like the way Rockwell and Block end their paper:

It took decades for the rot to give way underneath the Soviet apparatus of central planning. But eventually the implausibility of the entire project was no longer possible to deny. It gave way under an intellectual reaction against the whole of socialism. We are seeing something like that take place today, as government fails in Iraq and New Orleans, and in every place around the country and the world where it causes problems and creates no solutions. The age of confident central planning is behind us. Right now, the state is just trying to keep its head above water. If freedom is to have a future, the time will come when it will sink to an ignoble end, and we will wonder how we ever believed in this myth called government crisis management.

Read the whole position paper here.

Someone owes Someone a Penny

This is a clip from CNBC two years ago between Art Laffer and Peter Schiff. Prescient.



Pilfered from Lew Rockwell.

What the Price of Gold is Telling Us

You know who deserves a second look as President? The guy who wrote this a few years ago:

Though everyone decries inflation, trade imbalances, economic downturns, and federal deficits, few attempt a closer study of our monetary system and how these events are interrelated. Even if it were recognized that a gold standard without monetary inflation would be advantageous, few in Washington would accept the political disadvantages of living with the discipline of gold – since it serves as a check on government size and power. This is a sad commentary on the politics of today. The best analogy to our affinity for government spending, borrowing, and inflating is that of a drug addict who knows if he doesn’t quit he’ll die; yet he can’t quit because of the heavy price required to overcome the dependency. The right choice is very difficult, but remaining addicted to drugs guarantees the death of the patient, while our addiction to deficit spending, debt, and inflation guarantees the collapse of our economy.

Special interest groups, who vigorously compete for federal dollars, want to perpetuate the system rather than admit to a dangerous addiction. Those who champion welfare for the poor, entitlements for the middle class, or war contracts for the military industrial corporations, all agree on the so-called benefits bestowed by the Fed’s power to counterfeit fiat money. Bankers, who benefit from our fractional reserve system, likewise never criticize the Fed, especially since it’s the lender of last resort that bails out financial institutions when crises arise. And it’s true, special interests and bankers do benefit from the Fed, and may well get bailed out – just as we saw with the Long-Term Capital Management fund crisis a few years ago. In the past, companies like Lockheed and Chrysler benefited as well. But what the Fed cannot do is guarantee the market will maintain trust in the worthiness of the dollar. Current policy guarantees that the integrity of the dollar will be undermined. Exactly when this will occur, and the extent of the resulting damage to the financial system, cannot be known for sure – but it is coming. There are plenty of indications already on the horizon.

The whole article is here. And if you've ever wondered or been confused about *why* a monetary system will survive over the long term only if it's asset backed, click on the link, you will find the answer there.

Good Riddance Elliot Spitzer

One of my favorite columnists William Anderson gives his take:

...for all of the "cleaning up Wall Street" rhetoric that came from Spitzer and his main supporter, the New York Times, his actions were more about shaking down firms and forcing them to pay for legal protection than "saving capitalism from itself." For example, he fingered PayPal while the fledgling company was maneuvering to have an initial public offering (IPO) several years ago.

PayPal was permitting its payment mechanism to be used to pay for online gambling, which then was legal. However, Spitzer told the principals of the company that he would block their IPO and give them trouble unless they paid his office $150,000. Now, had he come in with a fedora and Sicilian accent, people might have understood he was running a protection racket. But, instead, the New York Times insisted he was "protecting the public integrity."

It's amazing to me that he was elected into office with 70 percent of the vote. Buh-bye.

Read the rest of Professor Andersons column here and check out his archives here. I originally started reading his stuff from the Duke Lacrosse Case but his columns on the abuses and often criminal (as well as nonsensical) activities of the feds in the name of "justice" are what made me a fan. This is a good one about Martha Stewart and here is a different perspective on fighting terrorism.

An Eclectic Linkorama

Reason Mag has a couple of entries in their Hit and Run blog that caught my eye:

Democrats Pick Pork over Police Accountability - You know how everyone knows that the "War on Drugs" is a waste of money? You don't? Then click here.

Show us Your Money - From 2003 - The Patriot Act lets the government spy on your finances, but does it catch terrorists? It looks like it helps catch governors spending money on hookers.

From Lew Rockwell -

Cop Ratings Website Infuriates Police - Think of it as customer feedback

Fed Nationalizes Some Banks - Fascism isn't always jackboots and "Sieg Hiel!" to the Fuhrer.

La Shawn Barber - It's been awhile since I've visited her site but it looks like she has changed her focus away from politics. Amy Winehouse makes an appearance on her blog. Take a minute to listen to her cover of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"

From The Crossed Pond - Will the Fed Be Left Holding the Kitchen Sink? Of course not, the taxpayers will.

Also from TCP - Regarding Adm Fallon (current and soon to be former Centcom Commander), Adam asks:

At times like this, the poor choice of McCain’s “Bomb Iran” joke is highlighted. Also, does Bush just plan to keep appointing senior military commanders until one agrees with him?

Soviet Show Trial in America

Regarding Roger Clemens testifying before Congress, Lew Rockwell writes:

Of course, the inquisitors are actually getting both men for the non-crime of allegedly fibbing to a fed. I know that poor Clemens can't do it, but when one of the creeps kept reminding him he was "under oath," I wanted him to respond, "Yes, unlike you."

Which does bring up a good point, cops and prosecuters lie all the time to get indictments, to "catch" people for crimes, or non-crimes (see the Duke Lacrosse Players). But what consequences do "the authorities" face when they are the ones engaged in criminal acts? In the case of the Duke Lacrosse DA Mike Nifong (the most egregious and publicized example), I haven't seen criminal charges filed yet. And it's unlikely that we ever will.

Interview with Bob Murphy: An explanation of the FED, Monetary Policy, and Inflation

A great interview by Scott Horton of Bob Murphy author of the book: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism

Find out why we don't really have a "free market" money system. Also, an explanation of the subprime mortgage crisis. An overview of the Federal Reserve System (and how it steals the wealth of the poor and the middle class, yet doesn't affect the young, rich, and ridiculously handsome people like me). Plus why stagflation is a very real possibility for the future of our country (which should be placed squarely at the feet of W and a complicit Congress).

Pilfered from Lew Rockwell

The Handwriting is on the Wall

The press is starting to see realize what a central banking system actually does to money. It devalues it, encourages and enables government largess and malinvestment, it exaggerates business cycles:

So why have investors been abandoning conventional assets, such as government bonds and stakes in blue-chip businesses, in favour of a metal that appears to offer no reward for holding it? The answer, I'm afraid, is crumbling faith in the world's central banks, and in particular the US Federal Reserve, where the presses have been working overtime.

Some argue that the soaring gold price has been driven by temporary anxiety over global instability. The metal is a safe haven in troubled times. But answer me this: when was the last time the world felt like a cosy hideaway? Ever since mankind turned up, Planet Earth has never been a safe place.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a more muscular Iran and the unpredictability of Moscow are contributing to nervousness. But what's really upsetting investors is the speed at which money is being printed by governments, especially America's, that cannot face the problem of funding wild expenditure plans solely from reserves or taxation.

The whole article is here and is a great summary of why everyone should be pissed off that the government is stealing your nest egg at the rate of 10% per year and why England, after a 100 year absence, is going to surpass America in standard of living.

One thing that should not be forgotten is that up until 1913, this country didn't even have a Federal Reserve Bank. We didn't have an income tax either. In fact, if we got rid of the income tax, and replaced it with nothing, spending levels would drop to those of 10 years ago. Didn't we have enough government back in 1998?

Pilfered from Lew Rockwell

Lew Rockwell Explains the Mortgage Meltdown

Lew Rockwell lays it out:

The sea of inflationary credit is the core problem behind the falling dollar, the subprime crisis, the housing meltdown, not to mention the rise in the national debt and a thousand other problems.

And how do they deal with it? More credit and more calls for controls. No one in Washington seems to understand the reason for the crisis, much less how to fix it. The markets go for this stuff for a while until it looks like Washington is in panic mode. Even Wall Street is starting to sense that something is very wrong.

A good indication is President Bush’s freeze on subprime mortgage rates. It is a classic case that provides serious lessons for all of us. It shows the political penchant for intervening in the market, the market response, and the further interventions that are called forth when the first round doesn’t bring the utopia they imagine.

Here is the great mortal threat that intervention poses to the economy: not the first round, not even the second round, but the relentless dynamic of political rescues that drive us further into the pit of state planning. Under Bush's solution, rate freezes kick in next year and subsidize only part of those affected. His plan is under fire, not for being an intervention but for not bailing out every living soul.

If you aren't worried, you should be.

Read the whole thing here.

Baby Jesus

Update and BUMP: In keeping with CMStrapz comment, RightwingSparkle has this post:

According to the women security guard who shot the shooter of the Church in Colorado Springs yesterday, Jesus was in her gun.

Given that Mike Huckabee is a man of the church, his response to this high schooler's question is interesting:



Wasn't Jesus a man when he performed that particular miracle? Maybe Huckabee just likes Baby Jesus, like this guy:



Pilfered the Huck clip from lewrockwell.com

Ron Paul Linkorama

It looks like the Ron Paul blimp is going to fly. As of this morning, there are $383,000 worth of pledges at www.ronpaulblimp.com , they were looking to raise $350,000.

Dr. Paul interviewed on Fox and Friends this morning (talking about the Bunny Ranch endorsement): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noyTu_Wgse0

He also was the subject of a CNN piece this morning as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1iFfAvM6jc

A column by Michael Scheuer, author of the book "Imperial Hubris". His column is called "What the World Could Expect from Dr. Ron Paul's Non-Interventionist America" The title of the column is longer than his book. But the whole piece works to explain our history on non-interventionism and what it would mean if America truly went to war (emphasis mine):

Going to war would once again require a formal, constitutional declaration by the U.S. Congress; the world would see America involved in far fewer wars, and none started by the whim of a single man and the foreign-influenced ideological clique around him. And when war was declared, America’s foes would absorb an application of U.S. military force that would both utterly destroy them and their supporters, and serve as a warning to other miscreants bent on doing America harm.

The whole column is here

The CNN/Youtube Debate for the GOP is on tonight at 8 pm EST and 5 pm out here in Cali. watch the live stream at cnn.com, Michelle Malkin is liveblogging it, as well as Conservative Belle, Red State Eclectic will have live chat. I'll be lurking at those spots as well as at Ron Paul forums, and Ron Paul Radio.

I'm guessing this will be the night where people really start swinging hard at each other. Hopefully there will be tough questions asked about the economy, inflation, the falling dollar, and the volatility of the stock market.

Finally, TNR has an article broaching the subject of what our world would be like without a central bank:

Some of the country's greatest economists, including Nobel Prize winners, have been saying for years that the Federal Reserve has probably caused more problems than it has solved since its creation in 1913. Its role in the last century's boom and bust cycles is a matter of record; it looks as though it played a similar role in the current housing market crisis too.

Could it be possible to eliminate the Fed? Only if a certain OB/GYN gets elected. He's the only candidate talking about it.

Ron Paul Linkorama part II

It's been a good week for Dr. Paul and his campaign. The record setting $4.2 million dollars that his supporters raised on November 5th generated tens of millions of dollars in free publicity. With the economy and the value of the dollar both heading south, Ron Paul gave Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke a very public dressing down that was broadcast on CNBC (and had traders cheering his name while the market was in session). He spoke yesterday at a rally that was attended, by some estimates, as many as 4000 supporters. This past week could very well be the week that Dr. Paul's campaign officially moved into the "top tier".

Building on that momentum, December 16th will be the date for Ron Paul's next "moneybomb". Why that day? Because that's the day of the Boston Tea Party silly! http://www.teaparty07.com/




Links to some of the interesting vids and stories and interviews of Dr. Paul's record breaking week:

New York Times via Cnet.com fairest and best overview of his campaign so far

Dr. Paul on Meet the Press: Part I and Part II

Lew Rockwell with the top 100 political websites

Paul and Bernanke and the report of the traders cheering Dr. Paul's name

A local PA paper gives does an article on Paul

Wolves and Sheep

Judge Andrew Napolitano, legal analyst and a regular on Fox News has a new book out called "A Nation of Sheep". Andrew Young has an overview at LewRockwell.com:

Judge Napolitano dedicates a significant portion of his book to detailing the Bush Administration’s assault on the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans from unlawful searches and seizures of their homes, person, and property. He perceptively notes that one of the main justifications for the American Revolution was the British policy of allowing soldiers to conduct searches by simply writing their own warrants. The Framers specifically outlawed this practice when they adopted the Fourth Amendment, which bans searches and seizures unless a judge has signed a search warrant.