Don't you just love government medicine?

As with all government-run socialist schemes, the government is the ultimate decider. Here, a woman is turned down for surgery because she's too old. Wow, 61 is too old? It's all too predictable and history is our guide: long lines, shortages, higher taxes, less quality, and ultimately, rationing. That's what you get when you socialize goods and services.
(Thanks to lewrockwell.com for a link to the article)

The Great Depression

With a severe recession looming, there is occasional talk about the Great Depression of the 1930's. Gene Smiley has written a short book, Rethinking the Great Depression, that is a good introduction. It's not as good as Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression, but it's a good start and is somewhat easier to follow for the neophyte to history and economics.

In the preface, Smiley correctly sums up what every American should be taught but unfortunately are not: "Government efforts to control and direct the gold standard for national purposes brought on the depression. Once it began, government actions, particularly in the United States, caused it to be much longer and much more severe. When the contraction finally ended, government interference in U.S. markets made the recovery unbearably slow and in 1937-1938 brought on a 'depression within a depression.' The 1930's economic crisis is tragic testimony to government interference in market economies."

Dead on point. Unfortunately, an overwhelming majority of history, government, and economics professors, most of whom have always been in academia and have never held a job in the private sector, blame the "free market" and teach students that the government saved the day. They then teach that government is something we need more of and that surrendering your property (hard-earned income) is something to be applauded.

Soviet style education

You couldn't pay me enough to live in the People's Republic of California. That state is the closest thing to one of the former republics in the former Soviet Union, may it rest in peace. As always throughout history, whether it be countries, states, provinces, or empires, whenever you try to repeal the fundamentals of economics, failure is the result. Here's another amazing article that states how California's school system is melting down.

What's the governator to do?

A devastating war

I can't even begin to write about how devastating this war is to our security, prosperity, and standing in the world. The U.S. invasion of Iraq, a nation that could not attack us militarily, will have repercussions for the rest of our lives. And those repercussions will be negative.

Read this great article that appeared on antiwar.com today. Great article that hits the nail on the head.

Why I fear McNeocon

John McCain, who has many nicknames like McNeocon, McRelic, etc., scares me because all he seems to talk about is this war on terror. A nice piece was on lewrockwell.com today, and the article by Robert Dreyfuss is somewhat disturbing because it seems McCain would take this war on terror to a new level, which is quite costly for us taxpayers and it does nothing to endear ourselves with the rest of the world. From the article:

"To combat what he likes to call "the transcendent challenge [of] radical Islamic extremism," McCain is drawing up plans for a new set of global institutions, from a potent covert operations unit to a "League of Democracies" that can bypass the balky United Nations, from an expanded NATO that will bump up against Russian interests in Central Asia and the Caucasus to a revived US unilateralism that will engage in "rogue state rollback" against his version of the "axis of evil." In all, it's a new apparatus designed to carry the "war on terror" deep into the twenty-first century."

You can read the rest of the article here. Scary stuff.

Sowing the seeds of love

The American Empire continues to intervene in the affairs of other nations, just like it's written in the Constitution of the United States (not!). The more America intervenes, the more hatred grows. As you can read in this article that appeared on antiwar.com today, one Iraqi woman calls the U.S. soldiers devils in clothes and vows revenge. And what about all those young boys who lost their fathers? What will they do when they reach adulthood? Love the U.S.? I doubt it.

It's time to heed the words of the Founding Fathers and the framers of the Constitution. Leave everyone alone politically and militarily and just trade with everyone. Nothing promotes friendliness with other nations as much as free trade. Plus, we wouldn't have to pay the $12 billion war tax every month.

Ready for the draft?

As you can see by this article, John McCain, Republican presidential nominee, is just the kind of war hawk to get us involved in more conflicts. The army is exhausted already, so the only way he can tell other countries what to do is to draft you. Yes, you.

As the new draft is written, it says all men and women, between the ages of 18 and 42, must serve two years in the military. You can't get out like people did during the '60's and '70's, where those in college were exempt. They've taken that away. So get ready to exchange your textbooks for a rifle and grenades.

I'm sick of war, especially now that we've been in Iraq for longer than the U.S. fought in World War II. And it's costing the U.S. 12 billion dollars a month! That comes from you and me, the taxpayers.

Refill the punch bowl!

Every time the market tries to take the punch bowl away and end the party, the Fed steps in and refills it. The new punch is simply more "soma" to keep Wall Street happy. Wall Street and the big banks are hooked on the drug, and they want the party to be never ending. Today's action by the Fed, and the subsequent rise in the markets, spells ultimate doom and more pain later. The more the Fed prolongs the party, the greater the ultimate pain will be. There will be a reckoning.

As you recall, soma was the drug most people were hooked on in Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel about the future, Brave New World.

Is Government water safe?

As you can read in this article, 41 million Americans have government-supplied water that has all kinds of interesting stuff in it. Don't worry, you can just cut off that second head you're growing by drinking this stuff.

Ever wonder why I prefer the private sector over the public sector?

Armed and dangerous

Pull out your pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution. Take a look at the powers of Congress. Note the first, third, and last powers. The first is the taxation clause, the third is the commerce clause, and the last is the necessary and proper clause, affectionately nicknamed the "elastic clause."

I ask you, is there anything Congress can't do when they're armed with those three clauses? Don't forget, the commerce clause has grown into a monster and regulates almost all economic activity. And the necessary and proper clause allows Congress to make all laws necessary and proper in order to carry out all the powers listed before it, which includes, of course, the taxation clause and the commerce clause. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, Congress is armed and dangerous, and there's almost nothing they can't push through. Especially since most Presidents now can't find their veto pens.

Credit markets freezing in the new economic Ice Age

The perfect storm is forming in the world's credit markets, as described here in this article that was posted on prudentbear.com. I'm urging friends to hold onto their cash and postpone projects around the house as well as the purchase of new cars. I myself have postponed my new garage project. I may need that eight to nine thousand to purchase food. Americans are also now beginning to curb their unquenchable thirst for gasoline. Santa might not show up at the end of the year - it could get quite scary.

The empire keeps the "systems" in line

In the first Star Wars (1977) movie Princess Leia remarks to Tarkin that "the more you tighten your grip, more and more systems will slip through your fingers." When I read this article about the U.S. firing missiles in Somalia, I was reminded of the empire from Star Wars, trying to keep all the local systems in line. We're in Iraq and Afghanistan of course, but we're also in dozens and dozens of other places.

Terrorists are evil for sure, as we know, but doesn't it seem like we're chasing them all over the planet? Didn't Vader and his henchmen chase Luke and his pals all over the place? Isn't the U.S. looking for the hidden "rebel base," in the hopes of finding Bin Laden?

Bin Laden should be brought to justice, of course - but shouldn't the U.S. stop meddling in the affairs of other nations? Shouldn't we just trade with people while they determine for themselves what leader and what government they want? If they were here bothering us, wouldn't we be upset? I just can't believe we're still sticking our noses into Somalia's business again. I'm sure they appreciate it.

War draining America

As you can see in this article, the cost of the war is draining America and is driving up the cost of a barrel of oil. One of the largest myths is: "war is good for the economy." If so, we should wage perpetual war.

As bad as Barack Obama will be, I think he'll be less crummy than Hillary "socialized medicine" Clinton or John "I don't care if we're in Iraq for 100 years" McCain. At least Obama is talking about bringing the troops home.