Like gold and silver as an alternative to federal reserve paper? You are a domestic terrorist.

Like Bernard von Nothaus.  Like Peter Schiff.  Like me.

Another follow-up to the "Outrage" post:

Speaking of federal reserve notes, I have seen a few five dollar bills with the words "Deo Vindice" written across Lincoln's forehead in pen. 

Can anyone conceive of someone doing like that? Its illegal to deface the currency, you know...

Texas star Debra Medina: "States are duty-bound to interpose"

The ties between England and what would become the United States of America were severed, as Tench Coxe, delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress, put it, in large part due to the perversion and mal-administration of the British government.[i] Two hundred years later, Americans are manifesting similar levels of frustration with government and inflammatory terms like secession are being used by politicians ever anxious to grab the media spotlight and secure their re-election.  But what have they done exactly to correct the “perversion and mal-administration” of the government?

Our founders, astute students of history, well understood as St. Augustine had described, Libido Dominandi, the lust to dominate. They knew that if permitted, the federal government would transgress the limits of the constitution, and, as Thomas Jefferson remarked, “[annihilate] the state governments and erect upon their ruins a general consolidated government.”[ii]

Debra Medina is a featured speaker at Nullify Now events, and her article can be found on the Tenth Amendment Center Blog.

DiLorenzo teaches Paul Krugman about the War Between the States'

When James M. Buchanan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1986 the first thing he said at his George Mason University press conference was that the award "does not make me an instant expert in everything." Buchanan was well aware – and amused – at how previous recipients of the award had made fools of themselves by viewing the award as a license to pontificate about anything and everything, whether they knew anything about the subject or not.

No such modesty and sense of reality occupies the mind of a more recent Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman. As a New York Times columnist he has always done what all New York Times columnists do – pretend that he does in fact know everything about everything. A case in point is his March 29 New York Times blog entitled "Road to Appomattox Blogging." After mentioning how the Times has a special "Disunion" blog to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the start of the war, Krugman gives a hilarious, elementary-schoolish rendition of his "take" on the "Civil War."

Krugman said he has always been infatuated by the "symbolism" of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, with "Lee the patrician in his dress uniform," compared to General Grant, who was "still muddy and disheveled from hard riding." Krugman is apparently unaware that in 1860, on the eve of the war, Robert E. Lee was in his thirty-second year as an officer in the United States Army, performing mostly as a military engineer. He was hardly a "patrician" or member of a ruling class. Grant, by contrast, was the overseer of an 850-acre slave plantation owned by his wealthy father-in-law. The plantation, located near St. Louis, was known as "White Haven" (which sounds like it could have been named by the KKK) and is today a national park. (On the "White Haven" Web site the National Park Service euphemistically calls Grant the "manager" of the slave plantation rather than the more historically-accurate word "overseer"). 

Article on Lew Rockwell website.

Jack Hunter condemns the Stereotyping of the Old South in the Charleston City Paper

"My entire adult life I have defended the Old South and the Southern cause in America's bloodiest war, not because I support slavery or racism, but despite it. The positive parallels between what the Confederacy was fighting for in 1861 and what the American colonists fought for in 1776 are many and obvious: republican democracy, political and economic freedom, independence, defense of one's homeland. But these causes are never obvious to critics who can only see the other parallel, that both the Old South and the 13 colonies were dependent upon, and protective of, the institution of slavery. 

 

In the United States today, the very concepts of states' rights, nullification, secession, and other examples of Jeffersonian democracy are routinely dismissed as racist doublespeak. When a number of states recently declared that they might attempt to nullify Obamacare, their critics emphasized the fact that there seemed to be a high degree of hostility toward America's first black president. Of course, this was coupled with the establishment's tried-and-true narrative that allowing states' rights is what the Old South was all about."

Complete article.

The Judge says "Shut it Down"

and (I paraphrase the Judge and Astronaut Alan Shepard):  "G-d's speed, Glenn Beck..."

Regarding the government shutdown:  It's really gonna suck for everyone on the dole.  Painful now or more painful later, your choice on budget austerity.  You want your kids to starve or do you want to tighten your belt and take the hit for them?

Regarding Glenn Beck:

Respect him for the millions he reached and taught.

Pity him for worshiping Lincoln, and not wholly embracing Austrian economics.  Perhaps he'll see the light yet, if he is intellectually honest as the Judge says.

As for me, I will always be pissed at him for humiliating Debra Medina when he had a chance to elevate a constitutional conservative, just when she had been surging against Kay Baily and Rick Perry.  Made me feel he was in bed with big government when he espoused constitutional conservatism.  My enthusiasm for him never recovered, but I still think a great deal of him (if that makes any sense).  Now I listen to him as a skeptic instead of as a believer.

What does this flag mean to you? "Freedom"

The Stars and Bars and the Third National fly in Palestine, TX.  

 Listen to the 10 year old redhead answer the reporter's question: "What does this flag mean to you?".....

Two good posts on the economy from Gonzalo Lira

First, from Friday April 1st:

 The causes of the mess we're in

 

Right now, we’re in that weird in-between time of financial crises: The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 is behind us, while the next global crisis is not here yet—but it’s on its way.

“But I just wanted a pony!”

We can feel how it’s on its way. Most everyone plugged into the macro-economic zeitgeist can tell you that bad juju is most definitely in the post—just that nobody yet knows (or is sure) what shape the next crisis will take.

Lots of people have been pointing to the various signs of the coming crisis: A U.S. Federal government deficit that’s over 12% of GDP, to be repeated in fiscal years 2012, ’13, ’14 and possibly ’15, if not surpassed; abnormal rises in commodity prices; European disintegration; a Federal Reserve that is printing money like there’s no tomorrow; the largest bond fund in the world—PIMCO—exiting Treasuries (that’s like Baskin & Robbins exiting chocolate); a complete inability of the political leadership class to do anything about the fiscal mess of the United States, at the Federal, State and local levels.

 

Continued here. 

 

------------------------------

and he debunks an argument against hyperinflation in this post, from April 5th:

 

In fact, the money [for hyperinflation] is coming right now from the Federal Reserve to the wider economy, by way of the Federal government’s spending.

As I have shown elsewhere—and this isn’t controversial or anything anyone seriously debates—the Fed is monetizing roughly 50% of the Federal government’s FY 2011 deficit by way of QE-lite and QE-2. That’s roughly $100 billion a month that the Fed provides, $75 billion of which it is printing out of thin air.

The Federal government needs this money printing—as I’ve said repeatedly, Washington is a junkie, and the Fed is its friendly neighborhood dealer. Washington can’t afford to go off the horse—the Federal government would go broke if it did. Broke as in bankrupt—broke as in full government shut-down. Broke as in no more money to pay for entitlements, the military, or regular government services.

Broke as in broke.

Think it through: If the Fed suddenly cut off it’s $100 billion monthly purchases of Treasuries, where would the Federal government get its funding? From China? They’re selling Treasuries and getting into commodities. From Japan? They’ve got Fukushima to deal with. From Europe? They’ve got Portugal on deck, Spain and Italy warming up.

Read the whole article here.

Barocky Road Ice Cream

I got this in one of those emails you get sent by a friend with a million cc's.  Thought it was worth sharing...

In honor of the 44th President of the United States , Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream has introduced a new flavor: "Barocky Road".

Barocky Road is a blend of half vanilla, half chocolate, and surrounded by nuts and flakes. The nuts and flakes are all very bitter and hard to swallow.

The cost is $100.00 per scoop.

When purchased, it will be presented to you in a large beautiful cone but after you pay for it,  the ice cream is taken away and given to the person in line behind you at no charge.

You are left with an empty wallet and no change, holding an empty cone with no hope of getting any ice cream.

Are you stimulated?

Obama skewered and roasted

Love him or hate him, you never want Jon Stewart's wit turned against you on the air...

The Daily Show - Victory Lapse - Obama Transparency Award
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

This is great, via David Kramer's post on LewRockwell.com.

Embracing the wingnut

First, a digression:

Many regular readers of this blog know me by now;  I am the kind of guy that judges a person by their character, and I try to make an effort to get beyond the superficial when I meet someone new.  Why do I go out of my way to say this?  Because some strays to this blog may think:  Uh-oh, confederate lover, must be a slavery longing racist closet KKK kinda guy.  

Uh, not really.  If you only knew me...

When I teach my kids about bad words (I mean unacceptable language, swearing, etc.), whether it is in response to something we saw on TV, or what another kid said in school, I don't shy away from actually saying the word.  I say the word out loud (usually making the kid cringe, and say "ooooh, dad, you said a bad word") when I teach about what they mean and why we don't use them.

I don't believe in shying away from reality when I try to teach my kids about anything.  They get the bad words, the descriptions of bad things in history, gore and all, so that they understand what they are up against.  For some reason, some people, like my wife, think that if you don't talk about a subject in front of a child, they won't be tainted by it, or they will have a much happier childhood, or something like that.  Nice sentiment, but my job as a father is to prepare my kids for taking care of themselves, not to keep them anesthetized.  That means allowing them to hear about reality from me before it hits them in the face.

A second digression:

I loathe politically correct speech.  I am a product of my culture, which was conservative and anglophilic.  I grew up in the seventies, and went to college in the eighties.  When I hear someone pushing PC language, or making a point of correcting someone else, it sets off my inner resistance to external force.

I make silly references to politically correct speech when I talk to other people, calling the cover to the sewer a "person-hole cover" instead of man-hole cover, and I will call anything that has the word "black" in it "African-American" (like calling a blackout an african-american-out).  The PC crowd at my college was a bunch of spitting self righteous liberal bullies, kind of like someone who looks like a hippie but acts like a brownshirt or member of the Komsomol, so I resent it to this day.  But I am no racist.

So with those digressions to start, I wanted to talk about the term, "wingnut". 

I resent a label being applied to myself and people who think like me by an outsider.

You've heard Olbermann, Schultz, Bill Maher, and Rachel Maddow all refer to right wingers, especially Constitutional conservatives like Ron and Rand Paul as well as tea party folks "wingnuts". Basically, anyone they disagree with is bound to be labeled a wingnut eventually.

A wingnut, according to our intellectual betters on the Left, is an epithet for a person who espouses radical right wing political views.

Well,

The British called the colonials Yankee Doodle dandies, and the colonials embraced the term, and called themselves Yankees with a sense of pride.

Eventually we called the Brits "Limeys" and they called us "Yanks" during the Second World War, which were basically terms of affection (I guess it depended on the person's tone when they said it).

Haters of black people called blacks "niggers" in the past, but blacks decided to turn the tables and started calling each other "nigger" and condemned anyone who wasn't black for using the word, so they made the word everyone now calls the "N" word their own.

Haters of homosexuals called them "fags," "faggots", "queers", gays, etc, and now, you guessed it,  now that's what they call themselves, and they say it with pride.

I am proud to think of my ancestors as "secesh", even though it started out as a derogatory term. I know they had the right idea.

When Obama was elected, my heart embraced the idea of secession, and I felt that I mentally seceded from the current Statist goverment.  Not because we have the first black man in the white house (Please don't think it dear, dear Jeanene Garofalo;  it would cut me deep if you thought ill of me).   I seceded mentally because we have yet another national socialist Statist in the white house.  I couldn't care less if he is a black community organizer from the slums of Chicago or a another lilly white Yale Skull and Bones member who gets invited to the Bilderberg Group meeting every year.

So I say with pride:  I am a wingnut.  A Ron Paulian, tenther, threeper, gun-toting, religious, small government, free market, sound currency supporting, Confederate flag waving,  States' Rights believing, unconstitutional federal law nullifying, secesh, Austrian economic school fellow traveller, dyed-in-the-wool wingnut.

Why not call ourselves "wingnuts"?  I like wingnuts. 

Lefty loosey, righty tighty (or, Lefty looney, Righty righty, as the case may be)

 

Quote of the Day 4/5

There is in all of us a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are “just” because the law makes them so.

--Frederic Bastiat




-------------------

I never wanted to sit on a jury until I started to absorb this idea.  Even more so when I learned that many convictions are based on the way the State "instructs" a jury, and the jurors don't realize the power in their hands.

Update on "Outrage" post -- Feds trying to confiscate precious metals

Followup to this post:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Federal prosecutors on Monday tried to take a hoard of silver "Liberty Dollars" worth about $7 million that authorities say was invented by an Indiana man to compete with U.S. currency.

Bernard von NotHaus, 67, was convicted last month in federal court in Statesville on conspiracy and counterfeiting charges for making and selling the currency, which he promoted as inflation-proof competition for the U.S. dollar.

His Charlotte-based lawyer, Aaron Michel, is appealing that verdict. He wrote in a motion filed Thursday that von NotHaus did nothing wrong because he didn't try to pass the Liberty Dollars off as U.S. dollars.

...The case involves more than five tons of Liberty Dollars and precious metals seized from a warehouse, which the government wants to take by forfeiture,...

That's partly why von NotHaus' group has been followed for years by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that tracks political extremism. Long before the government began its investigation into von NotHaus, the group was raising concerns about the popularity of Liberty Dollars among fringe groups on the far right.

"He's playing on a core idea of the radical right, that evil bankers in the Federal Reserve are ripping you off by controlling the money supply," said Mark Potok, spokesman for the group. "He very much exists in the world of the anti-government patriot movement, whatever he may say. That's who his customers are."

Link to full article

------------------------------

By the way, by SPLC standards, I am officially a member of the radical right anti-government patriot movement.  

And getting prouder of it by the minute. 

Bonnie Blue Rebel, byproduct of the U.S. government

Quote of the Day 4/4

"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. 


Moderation in temper is always a virtue; 


but moderation in principle is always a vice." 


--Thomas Paine: The Rights of Man, Part 2, 1792

Re-branding Libya

Daily Show's John Oliver interviews the former Libyan ambassador to the US:

The Daily Show - Rebranding Libya - Ali Suleiman Aujali
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Love the flag.

American interventionism explained by the Daily Show

John Oliver explains to Jon Stewart about America's "Freedom Packages":

The Daily Show - America's Freedom Packages
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

You have to watch all the way to the end, to read the small print...


-----------------


I know he's liberal, and most of the time I don't watch, but he will sometimes turn his lens on the left and make fun of the progressives with as much passion as he makes fun of neo-cons. 


I decided I liked him in the first season of his show when he made fun of a Democrat in front of what was obviously an audience made up of Democrats, prompting an "ooooohhhh" of condemnation from his audience.  


Stewart looked up at the audience with a smile and said:


"Not so funny when it's your guy, huh?"

Quote of the Day 4/3

But no people can ever be free, whose government is founded upon the usurpation of their sovereign rights; for by the act of usurpation, the sovereignty is transferred from the people, in whom alone it can legitimately reside, to those who by that act have manifested a determination to oppress them.


St. George Tucker, Virginia, 1752-1827