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Offline Dunrobin

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When it became obvious earlier in the year that Dr. Ron Paul would not get very far in the Republican primaries (not that I was really surprised), I made myself a vow to leave off from making any more "political" posts here, but I've decided to break it.  I sincerely believe that we are poised on the brink of disaster, and that everyone really needs to be aware of it and that even Three Stooges fans need to take a few minutes to discuss what is happening.

I believe that we are pretty much screwed no which of the Quisling bastards - Obama or McCain - claims power in November.  I'm planning on sitting this "election" out, as I see no point and I refuse to vote for evil, lessor or otherwise.  (If less than half of the population cast a vote in the election, since there isn't a "None of the Above" option, shouldn't that make the election invalid?  After all, the majority will have opposed it they only way they can, by abstaining.)

Here's an article that you may not have seen yet, which I think is well worth reading, a speech by Dr. Thomas Woods that was given at Dr. Paul's Rally for the Republic that was held this past week during the Republican convention in St. Paul, MN.  Thomas Woods is one of my favorite authors online, and I have two of his books (Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush and The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, both of which are excellent.)  I am also posting the video of Dr. Woods speech below the article.


Quote
The Lifeblood of the Empire
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

These remarks were delivered at the Rally for the Republic, Target Center, Minneapolis, on September 2.


About fifteen years ago a conservative columnist wrote that Americans are faced with a choice between the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. And that once in a while the two parties get together and do something that's both stupid and evil, and that's called bipartisanship.

If anything, that view was too optimistic. On so many issues that matter, we may as well have a one-party system.

Some people on the Left are finally discovering to their chagrin that the so-called change Barack Obama would make to American foreign policy is just cosmetic. What did they expect? His foreign-policy panel, a who's-who of the establishment, includes Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State who said "the price has been worth it" when asked on 60 Minutes what she thought of the fact that the Bush/Clinton sanctions on Iraq had led to half a million dead children.

So that's the "change" candidate. Well, how very refreshing.

On taxes, the Democrat favors a top income tax rate of 39.5 percent, and the Republican favors a top rate of 35 percent. Well, ain't democracy grand! We get to debate a whole four and a half percentage points.

Forget about spending. The Democrat spends his time devising new ways to throw away money we don't have. Who knows what additional billions the Republican nominee's foreign-policy bellicosity will saddle us with. But he pledges to balance the budget without a tax increase by 2013, while also strengthening the dollar and closing the $70 trillion entitlement shortfall. And we're expected to believe this.

Been there, done that.

And by the way, if I may be forgiven for stating the obvious, you are not a fiscal conservative – or any other kind of conservative, for that matter – if you think it's a-okay to stay in Iraq for one hundred years.

The subject I've been asked to address here, though, is yet another one that finds the two major candidates – let's call them McBama – in agreement: namely, money and the Federal Reserve System.

Since the Fed was established in 1913 the dollar has lost 95 percent of its value. The Fed has given us more financial bubbles than we can count. When it inflates the money supply it lowers the value of the dollars in Americans' pockets and hurts society's most vulnerable. It redistributes wealth from the middle class and the poor to the politically well connected, by means of what economists call distribution or Cantillon effects.

What's more, F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize in economics for showing how central banks like the Fed create the boom-bust business cycle in our economy. When the central bank manipulates interest rates, it causes massive discoordination. The interest rate is supposed to coordinate production across time, but it can do so only when it reflects an aggregate of voluntary choices, not the whim of the Fed chairman. Entrepreneurs are misled into making investments that make no sense in light of current resource availability. The Fed's intervention starts the economy on an artificial boom that ends in an inevitable bust.

More and more financial analysts are coming to accept Hayek's view, known as the Austrian theory of the business cycle, because it corresponds so closely to what's happening all around us. In the 1920s, when so-called mainstream economists were foolishly assuring us that permanent prosperity had arrived, economists of what's known as the Austrian School of economic thought, to which Ron Paul also belongs, stood alone in predicting the Great Depression.

Yet in spite of all this, we've had no serious discussion of the Federal Reserve System for nearly 100 years. It has been fantastically successful in depoliticizing itself. No politician even mentions it. And although he is too genuinely humble to acknowledge it, one man is responsible for finally blasting open this forbidden question: Ron Paul.

Look at how members of Congress treat the Fed chairman when he appears before them. He gets asked only the most inane, sycophantic questions. Members of the Banking Committee, decked out in their "I Heart Bernanke" T-shirts, wave incense before him.

Ron Paul, on the other hand, looks him in the eye and says, "You are stealing from the poor!"

The economic and historical arguments against sound money (that is, money that government can't just print up at will) are surprisingly weak – really just a string of fallacies. For now I refer you all to the education page at CampaignForLiberty.com for plenty of resources in defense of sound money.

But Joseph Schumpeter, one of the great economists of the twentieth century, said that even if you accepted all the bogus economic arguments against gold, it still made perfect sense to favor it. Why? Because it is the only system compatible with freedom.

If "fiscal responsibility" is your issue, you'll never get anywhere as long as the government can create out of thin air all the money it wants. If the federal government is an addict, then the Federal Reserve System is its enabler.

Or suppose you're concerned about war and what Ron Paul calls our government's "bull-in-a-china-shop foreign policy." (By the way, that's a concern shared by the genuine Left – people like Kirkpatrick Sale and Gore Vidal – and the genuine Right, by which I mean traditional conservatives like Russell Kirk and Robert Taft, not today's neoconservative death cult.) Well, you, too, should care about the Fed, since the central bank is the lifeblood of the empire. If you want to stop the war machine, you'll have to go after the money machine.

How did Lyndon Johnson get away with his war spending in Vietnam? By a deliberate policy of concealing the cost through inflation – a cost the American people bore only later, in the stagflation of the 1970s. Just the cost overruns on two Pentagon projects added up to more than the combined GDPs of North and South Vietnam. By silently looting the American population, the government was able to get away with much more spending than would otherwise have been possible.

Then there's the disastrous war in Iraq, the propaganda for which was fed to us by America's Pravda, the New York Times. How has that war been funded? By borrowing from foreigners, and creating new money out of thin air.

As for our current economic mess, McBama agree with the president, who summed up his own business cycle theory in these words: "Wall Street got drunk." Their solution? For starters, hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts to the alleged drunkards. Bailouts and scapegoating – anything other than pointing the finger where it belongs – are all McBama can think to do. To hear them speak, you'd never know the Fed's mad money creation spree and its resulting economic distortions had even occurred.

And no, the free market doesn't cause housing bubbles and mortgage crises. The federal government has been pushing unsound loans on banks for years, both through legislation and by a Federal Reserve policy of flooding the economy with cheap credit. This new money went overwhelmingly into the housing market, the result being the housing bubble that is now bursting. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Government Supported Enterprises (GSEs) that get special tax and regulatory breaks, and that everyone knows will be bailed out if it should come to that. So there's nothing to stop them from buying up risky mortgages from banks. And banks in turn are more likely to make risky loans in the first place if they know Fannie and Freddie will be happy to buy them up.

This crazy system is a layer cake of moral hazard, not the free market. But as usual, the free market is being blamed for the stupidity and recklessness of the blockheads who rule us.

Every four years we're subjected to a pair of empty suits whose only real argument is over exactly how and through what channels they plan to squander Americans' wealth. It's enough to make the non-comatose segment of the population despair. What can we do?

For starters, you can do what Ron Paul does, which is to start your day by reading LewRockwell.com. You can go to amconmag.com and read and subscribe to The American Conservative magazine.

But above all, today we have a special suggestion. If you're tired of having to choose between two wings of the same bird of prey, then help us change America: go to CampaignForLiberty.com and join Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty!

H.L. Mencken put it this way: "The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it."

Publishers Weekly says Dr. Paul "gives new life to old debates." But you know what? Without him, we wouldn't be having these debates in the first place.

Ron Paul reminds us that our future is not cast in stone, and that if we as a people so choose, we do not have to live in the kind of America the two major parties have in store for us.

Thanks to all of you for the sacrifices you've made on behalf of this great American cause – and above all, thank you, Ron Paul.


September 4, 2008

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. [view his website; send him mail] is senior fellow in American history at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is co-editor (with Murray Polner) ofWe Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now and co-author, most recently, of Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush. His other books include Sacred Then and Sacred Now: The Return of the Old Latin Mass, 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization(get a free chapter here),The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy (first-place winner in the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Awards), and the New York Times bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.

Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.com
 
Find this article at: http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods96.html

Part One:

[youtube=425,350]yzxdzHxp9yU[/youtube]
Part Two:

[youtube=425,350]l-fzBzj7j8g[/youtube]


Offline Major Hyde

I understand your frustration and I shared it until about a week ago when Palin was announced as McCain's VP choice. I grew up in a very liberal, card carrying Democrat household but started to get educated about the American political process after I left the nest. After everything that I have learned over the years I find myself now being just barely to the left of Rush Limbaugh. I also have my disagreements with McCain and I was a Fred Thompson fan during the primaries. I will be voting against Obama more than for McCain. However, after hearing Sarah Palin speak the other night I do have some hope for conservatives like me, especially should something happen to McCain or if she should decide to run in '12.


Offline shemps#1

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Hmmm...I wouldn't classify Rob as a neo-con ("conservatives" are not really conservative in the true sense of the word, and same goes for "liberals" being liberal), and I'm positive that the geriatric McCain's VP pick has alleviated any of his fears (if I know him well enough, and I think I do, it probably has brought up more concerns). Either way we are once again told to go out and vote, then told we can vote for one of two candidates or said votes don't count.

I too am abstaining from this election, and I urge everyone who hasn't done so to go out and register and then stay home on Election Day. An extremely low voter turn out will send a powerful message.

Back to Palin, you gotta admit that picking her was a very condescending move on the part of the GOP. The mere thought that Hillary Clinton supporters will automatically follow her without researching her policies is repugnant and denotes that they don't think highly of the Clinton supporters. Oh, and I don't want to hear shit from her on "family values" should they win (I don't think they will, seems to me like McCain is trying everything he can to throw the election and I'm starting to look at the conspiracy theories about the Presidency being decided beforehand with a much less cynical eye)...what with her not tending to her retarded baby and her 17 year old daughter being knocked up (how trashy, and a prime example of one of the major problems with this country).

Also, a candidate that adheres to the Separation of Church and State would be nice. If I have to hear one more of these jackoffs thump a Bible I'm going to hurl.
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish." - Unknown


Offline Lefty

I would soitenly never vote for a Bible-thumper in any circumstances.  Maybe all of the crooked politicians (which is as redundant as wet water) should be forced to read the Constitution from beginning to end, then take a test on it, and upon failing, forfeit their jobs and pensions.  McBama or no Palden, does anyone really believe that Gee-Dubya will leave his appointed post voluntarily on January 20th?


Offline Major Hyde

Of course, you're entitled to your opinion but I think staying home is exactly what we shouldn't do. I've been waiting for the Republicans to field a real conservative for some time. All we ever get these days are RINOs who cave to the Dems at every turn instead of growing a set of balls and I, for one, am tired of it. Seems like every time we're told government will get smaller(Bush included)it gets bigger. Oh well, let the flaming begin. ::)


Offline shemps#1

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I'm not going to flame you (didn't think I was in the first post). The Republicans are not really a conservative party just as the Democrats are not really a liberal party. The only way you're going to get to vote for a real conservative is if you do your homework and find a third party/independent candidate.

What I'm curious about is why you think people should go out and vote. If someone really likes Obama or McCain then by means, but if I were to go and force myself to vote for one or the other I would be showering for a week straight afterwards to rid myself of the putrid stench. I refuse to let myself be raped of my vote because "one is the lesser of two evils". That's why I'm going to keep my vote to myself and abstain.
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish." - Unknown


Offline Major Hyde

Fair enough. I have no doubt that if Obama were to be elected president he would appoint Supreme Court justices which are, shall we say, a bit left of center with a very real possibility of being very left of center. I think with McCain we have a far better chance to get conservative justices appointed, and let's face it there are a number of Supreme Court justices who are getting close to retirement. As a responsible, law abiding, firearms owner I was APPALLED at how close the recent Washington DC handgun ban decision (Heller vs Wash DC)was(5-4!). Thank God Alito and Roberts were confirmed otherwise the people of Washington DC would still be helpless against criminals with guns which is further proof gun bans don't work(trust me, I live near Chicago). It's really getting ridiculous how things that were considered wrong years back are now simply considered different, and we can no longer tell a person what's right or wrong. What were once sins are now diseases requiring massive amounts of treatment funded by taxpayer dollars. >:(


Offline Dunrobin

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Quote
As a responsible, law abiding, firearms owner I was APPALLED at how close the recent Washington DC handgun ban decision (Heller vs Wash DC)was(5-4!). Thank God Alito and Roberts were confirmed otherwise the people of Washington DC would still be helpless against criminals with guns which is further proof gun bans don't work(trust me, I live near Chicago).


I agree with you about the fallacy of "gun control laws" (anyone who thinks disarming the law abiding will some how make them safe from criminals is either retarded, insane or evil), but you should do a little more research into just what the "Supreme Court" actually did in the case.  They "recognized" a right but left the door wide open to regulate it into non-existence.  Just the fact that, when Heller tried to register his gun in D.C. after the Court's decision, he was turned down yet again under new asinine "regulations" should demonstrate that it was a hollow victory.


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What I'm curious about is why you think people should go out and vote. If someone really likes Obama or McCain then by means, but if I were to go and force myself to vote for one or the other I would be showering for a week straight afterwards to rid myself of the putrid stench. I refuse to let myself be raped of my vote because "one is the lesser of two evils". That's why I'm going to keep my vote to myself and abstain.

To be honest, I always have some kind of problem with these politicians. Whether it's Bush vs. Kerry or Obama vs. McCain, I'm always voting for the "lesser of two evils." If it were really up to me, I would've never registered at all, but my parents made me because they said that I must be "a good citizen."



Offline Dunrobin

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To be honest, I always have some kind of problem with these politicians. Whether it's Bush vs. Kerry or Obama vs. McCain, I'm always voting for the "lesser of two evils." If it were really up to me, I would've never registered at all, but my parents made me because they said that I must be "a good citizen."

LOL!  I got bamboozled by the same argument, and I did "my patriotic duty" for thirty years before I caught on to the swindel.  But I'm through "voting for the lessor of two evils", since that means that I am still voting for (and therefore endorsing) evil.  I'm not refuse to lend the fraud they call "free elections" any legitimacy by participating.

Besides, I am vehemently opposed to "democracy", just as the Founding Fathers were - and for the same reason.   ;)


Offline Major Hyde

Quote
I agree with you about the fallacy of "gun control laws" (anyone who thinks disarming the law abiding will some how make them safe from criminals is either retarded, insane or evil), but you should do a little more research into just what the "Supreme Court" actually did in the case.  They "recognized" a right but left the door wide open to regulate it into non-existence.  Just the fact that, when Heller tried to register his gun in D.C. after the Court's decision, he was turned down yet again under new asinine "regulations" should demonstrate that it was a hollow victory.
 

It already has made an impact. We've had a number of communities here in Chicagoland that have dropped their policies of banning guns. Now that the SCOTUS has recognized it to be a individual right many of them just don't want to pay for the costs of litigation to reaffirm our right to self defense.
 


Offline Dunrobin

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It already has made an impact. We've had a number of communities here in Chicagoland that have dropped their policies of banning guns. Now that the SCOTUS has recognized it to be a individual right many of them just don't want to pay for the costs of litigation to reaffirm our right to self defense.

That is rather ironic, when you think about it, since the large sums they pay for those litigations to preserve their power to deprive us of our rights are paid for by money that they steal from us in the first place.  I'm happy to hear that you have at least some communities that are doing the right thing, at least for now.  (I'd still keep a very close eye on them, though, since there is a good chance that they will try to slip even more onerous burdens on to their citizens at a later date, when they think they can get away with it.  The Heller decision left the door wide open for them.)

If there is anything to be learned from studing the American Revolution, it is that political "leaders" are never to be trusted.  Thus the need for a well-armed militia (which the Founders defined as being all able-bodied men) to protect free people - from the government itself as much as from any foreign invaders.


Offline Major Hyde

Quote
If there is anything to be learned from studing the American Revolution, it is that political "leaders" are never to be trusted.  Thus the need for a well-armed militia (which the Founders defined as being all able-bodied men) to protect free people - from the government itself as much as from any foreign invaders.
 

Couldn't have said it better.
 


Offline locoboymakesgood

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I'm not diving in to this one, but I will say one thing. Palin is a total MILF.
"Are you guys actors, or hillbillies?" - Curly, "Hollywood Party" (1934)


Offline Major Hyde

Quote
I'm not diving in to this one, but I will say one thing. Palin is a total MILF

Big time!


Offline FineBari3

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I'm not diving in to this one, but I will say one thing. Palin is a total MILF.

Well, so much for the legitimate political discussion! I think she is just fantastic!

I used to be an American Government teacher, and believe me, I didn't want to teach that subject.  I had a lesson with a test as to where one fits on the political spectrum, plotted on a X Y graph. I cannot remember what the vertical scale was, but I know that I was one notch to the right of middle, which makes me one of those on the fence people.

I am a registered Republican, but I do not vote on party lines alone. I also live in one of those places in Pennsylvania that Obama spoke of that clings to guns and religion, but I do not particpate in either.

This election is proof that this country needs a third party badly. There are things that I feel terribly about that the R's will never stop (war machine), but I also do not agree with the D's when it comes to their socialism.

I do not consider myself a political scientist, so I wonder how many different political parties with elected officials there are in other democratic countries? I know that in Great Britain and Germany there are usually a few.
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Offline shemps#1

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Fair enough. I have no doubt that if Obama were to be elected president he would appoint Supreme Court justices which are, shall we say, a bit left of center with a very real possibility of being very left of center. I think with McCain we have a far better chance to get conservative justices appointed, and let's face it there are a number of Supreme Court justices who are getting close to retirement. As a responsible, law abiding, firearms owner I was APPALLED at how close the recent Washington DC handgun ban decision (Heller vs Wash DC)was(5-4!). Thank God Alito and Roberts were confirmed otherwise the people of Washington DC would still be helpless against criminals with guns which is further proof gun bans don't work(trust me, I live near Chicago). It's really getting ridiculous how things that were considered wrong years back are now simply considered different, and we can no longer tell a person what's right or wrong. What were once sins are now diseases requiring massive amounts of treatment funded by taxpayer dollars. >:(

Although I personally I am not gung ho about firearms I do support everyone's right to keep and bear them as outlined in the Second Amendment. Unlike most who claim to follow either the Elephants or Jackasses I staunchy support every word of the US Constitution and not just the parts that suit me.
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish." - Unknown


Offline Dr. Belch

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I have a column in my periodic blog about Sarah Palin, particularly the hypocritical and overblown reaction from the "mustache brigade" wing of the feminist movement on her nomination, which bears close reading.