Bill Bonner On The Federal Government's Active Role In Shrinking The Wealth Of The American Family

Complete with the Quote of the Week:

Haven't they done enough already?

There's a sort of cold comfort in this article for OS, because for the past twenty years or so, he has felt like he and his family have had to run at full tilt just to tread slowly into a semi-comfortable and dignified existence. It is a modest life, for which he is deeply grateful, so please--this is not a whine or a pity party. But at times, he thought, 'What's wrong with me? I'm working so hard and making so little progress.' Maybe, OS sez to himself, it wasn't all about you after all.

At the same time, OS always has had the sneaking suspicion that things were not, well, exactly healthy, even as the suburbs and shopping malls sprang up around the every major city in the heartland. Actually, we're at the point that it is hard to tell if one is in the suburbs of Dayton, Louisville, Memphis, Birmingham....it's all depressingly the same, with different weather in each location.

It was smoke and mirrors, and when things hit the wall, the Gubbermint came to the rescue of the people who had created TheGreatBubble, and stuck the rest of us with the bill. It may take decades to repair the damage, assuming we begin acting sanely this week.

The choice between Obama and Romney is quite disheartening. A vote for Obama is not possible. So, OS plans to vote for Romney, and donate to and work for state house and Congressional candidates that make Paul Ryan look like a girly-man. Someone has got to stand up a loud 'Hell-No', and it that Someone needs to be a comfortable majority of both House and Senate, and in every state and county legislative body in the country.

In the meantime, OS is tending his garden...

 

Pastor Peters Propounds Positively Pursuant To That Old Precious Word: 'NO'

One of Mel Brooks' more inspired films was 'Silent Movie'--not one of his blockbuster pics, by any means, but inspired. One of the great scenes involves the great French mime Marcel Marceau, who, bless him, broke out of his mime role for one magical moment and intoned the word 'NO'. It's the one word spoken in the movie, and it was a moment of genius. Completely unexpected, shocking even, to emerge from the lips of that most famous of all mimes. Brooks, as always, was jabbing the culture in the ribs. We never expect to hear that word, assuming always that whatever we desire should be met with 'YES' instead.

Fast forward almost forty years, to a Lutheran pastor in a Tennessee parish, who takes up the subject again. As always, erudite and reasoned, Pastor Peter shares with us all why 'NO' is such a crucial word, one the culture desperately needs to hear:

It seems that the Church is the lone voice speaking to the culture that "no" is not only within our vocabulary but it is the wisest and most positive path you can take in so many instances. Saying "no" is not all the Church says but it is the beginning of the conversation. You cannot begin to speak of the benefits or morality of self-denial until first you admit that saying no to self is itself a virtue. The Church begins with the proposition that saying no is not only possible but it is beneficial to us and to our culture. Indeed, the rule of desire is not freedom at all but the worst of all possible prisons.

That last line is especially pithy, is it not? 'The rule of desire is not freedom at all...' This idea stands in direct contravention to the entire present culture, which in OS's humble opinion, has turned openly pagan. It worships what it creates, consumes, manipulates, and assumes that this is all the life there is to live--so let's go for the gusto, ya'll!

Pastor Peter's citations of St. Paul ring loudly these days, words written to people living in another pagan culture, long ago and far away.

Now, if some enterprising publisher could only coax a book out of Pastor Peters...

Now, If We Could Manage To Extradite Jon Corzine To Iceland

Damn!  These Icelanders actually sent two banksters to prison!  Man-bites-dog-alert!

Really, ya'll, think it over. The United States has seen its wealth and culture decimated by a series of massive bank frauds. Apart from Bernie Madoff, who turned himself in, no one has been indicted, or prosecuted, or seen a day of jail time. Most of the perpetrators of the crime are still in their jobs, or jobs similar, in both finance and government.

So, OS, ever the innovator, has a proposal:

Let's lease Iceland. 

 
Not the real estate, mind you, but its prosecutors and courts, economists and political leadership. They told Europe and its death-dealing Euro to stick it where the sun don't shine, returned to their own currency, and began prosecuting the fraudsters (after kicking the previous regime of politicians to the curb for their complicity in turning their country into a giant hedge fund). Their economy is recovering, because they made a decision to save their cultural soul and make the economy the servant of the culture, not the master.

So, knowing that, let's make a deal: We grant the Icelandic courts and prosecutors jurisdiction to prosecute financial fraud in the United States, wherever they find it. A bounty system, if you would. The more they recover, the more they get to keep. They indict, we extradite. They convict and house the banksters (for loooong sentences) in cold and uncomfortable cells up on the eastern shore, where the cold winds blow from the Baltic. The banksters get to learn how to grow their own food, fish for their protein from small open boats with limited fuel and no life jackets, and are not allowed in the vicinity of any electronic device apart from a transistor radio tuned to the local station. We pay Iceland handsomely for their services, so they can make a tidy profit for doing what our own systems of justice and politics seem incapable of. Think of it as a frozen version of Club Gitmo, only the inmates have verifiable identities and are serving defined sentences for actual convictions.

After Corzine and about one hundred others are actually seen serving sentences in the Icelandic pokey, OS predicts a new sobriety may overtake both bankers and politicians. A chill new wind would blow down both Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Think about it, ya'll. It would cost a lot less than the price we've paid to date, and help Iceland as they poke a stick in the eye of EuroLand.

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee: The Call To Wisdom, And St. Paul's Wisdom

OS sends greetings to HM and to all her subjects. In the past sixty years, this country has had as head of state Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and HimselfTheWinnerOfTheNobelPeacePrize. Apart from the first two, arguably Ford and definitely Reagan, it has been a pretty disappointing cast of characters at the helm.

Ya'll have had the Queen, who has worked at looking after things in challenging times. She has dealt with some serious knucklehead Prime Ministers, especially in Blair, Brown and Cameron, but England is still doing better than that train wreck across the Channel, Europe. She's one of the main reasons why.

In the US, the live video feed of this morning's service was blocked, and the BBC Radio Coverage was shameful, with the self-impressed presenters chattering over the service and making certain to downplay any Christian content. Shame on them, and OS hopes his readers in the UK will take the matter up with the Beeb. Ya'll deserve better. You're paying these clowns to chatter over the great events of your history.

Still, bits of video were posted, and OS shares two of them with you.

The anthem for the day, based upon the Old Testament reading from Proverbs 8 was the newly-composed 'Call To Wisdom', sung by a choir dawn from across the UK.

Lord of wisdom, Lord of truth, Lord of justice, Lord of mercy;
Walk beside us down the years till we see you in your glory.
Striving to attain the heights, turning in a new direction,
Entering a lonely place, welcoming a friend or stranger. 

I am here, I am with you.
I have called; do you hear me? 

Silver is of passing worth, gold is not of constant value,
Jewels sparkle for a while: what you long for is not lasting.
Rulers govern under me with my insight and my wisdom.
Those who love me know my love; those who seek me find their answer. 

God the Father and the Son, Holy Spirit, co-eternal;
Glory be ascribed to you, now and to the end of ages.

Words: Michael Hampel (b.1967), based on Proverbs 8. 1-17
Music: Will Todd (b.1970)

The second video features David Cameron reading the New Testament lesson from Romans 12.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual worship. Do not be confor med to this world, but be transfor med
by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of
God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of
yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober
judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For
as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the
same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually
we are members one of another.

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the
leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one
another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not
lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in
suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend
hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those
who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another;
do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than
you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble
in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably
with all.

Romans 12. 1-18

How very appropriate to make the Prime Minister broadcast these words to the world. The inspiration, truth, poetry, aspiration and inherent optimism of St. Paul's vision for how society should run (in light of the the Gospel he so eloquently described in Romans 1-11) stand in dissonant contrast to how governance is practiced these days. These sorts of events are not for nothing--words have power, especially well-written words spoken in front of millions. OS hopes that the public presentation of these words will have some sort of restraining effect upon all in public life, on both sides of the pond.

As for Her Majesty: God bless you, and thank you for all the ways, great and small, you have looked after your part of the world. You have blessed us all.

This Is How Wars Get Started #2: Obama Still Determined To Sell Out The Falklands

The man is a venal idiot, a resentful child in an adult's body who won't be satisfied until he has burned the world down around him.

Nile Gardiner tells the sad tale, again. Argentina is in chaos, again, so what do they want to do? Ramp up a crisis in the South Atlantic! Sweeeet!

November cannot come soon enough.

Hugo Chavez's Campaign Playbook: OS Wonders How Much Of This We Will See Between Now And November

HT Devil's Excrement.

Things are not going well in revolutionary Venezuela, and political opposition is growing from those who believe that freedom and might be a better approach than socialism.

Thus the Chavez regime published a list of '10 Commandments', techniques to employ to disrupt the opposition candidate's campaign appearances:

You can, for example (Commandment #1) coordinate sports, cultural or social activities to compete with Capriles’ visit.

Or, you can use Government resources to have a National ID campaign (Commandment #2) that same day, once again, the idea is not have people show up at Capriles’ rally.

Better yet, you can have an “open air” Mercal, selling cheap produce purchased by the Government (Commandment #3), as the text says: “This activity “captures” a large segment of the population”. Of course, people are scraping by in the revolution.

Then there is Commandment #4, which is somewhat cryptic: “Coordinate with the Francisco de Miranda Front (Chavez campaign organization) and with the Socialist Youth, “political agitation activities”. I am not sure what those activities are, but it does not sound like they will hold a mass or anything like that.

Some of the rest are somewhat lame, like placing women in places to tell Capriles they would vote for him if he had not “take over” the Cuban Embassy in 2002 (which is a lie) or if he had not participated in the “coup” against Chavez in 2002. Or to place people in strategic places to chant: ” Capriles Fascista, Oligarca Imperialista”

But the true Jewel in the commandments is the tenth:
“Provoke situations of political agitation with the security personnel and the bodyguards of the “majunche” candidate”

And then, there is the note:
“All of these activities will be backed by fellow countrymen of alternative media, independent reporters  (??)and members of the national public media (read: Government media). As well as intelligence organizations of the State which will be there dressed as civilians”

Hmmm...bread and circuses. Hire thugs to break up events (SEIU, Black Panthers anyone?) or hold violent rallies on the day, coordinate with the media outlets who have drunk your Kool-Aid and live on your dole. Use plainclothes law enforcement types to assist in creating havoc, all in the cause of 'maintaining order', you know. Shield the thugs, arrest the opposition supporters. 


Nahhh...this is America...can't happen here...

Apparently, Even The YewNorkTimez Has Had Its Fill Of Himself

For those of us, like OS, old enough to remember the dark days of the Nixon years, one of the darkest was the day it was disclosed that Mr. Nixon maintained an 'enemies list', a list of people who he and his felt had crossed him, made life miserable, opposed him, or even expressed opinions that contradicted his. The New York Times bellowed its disapproval, its righteous indignation, that such a thing could possibly exist, etc. etc. WorldWithoutEndAmen.

Amongst certain of the literati, it even became a badge of honor to have been named on the Nixon Enemies List, sort of like getting your Leftist props, don't-cha-know. OS remembers Gore Vidal getting a lot of mileage on the literary circuit thereby.

And, the Times, hypocritical and corrupt as it was and is, was correct to raise unshirted perdition on the matter, because it cut at the heart of civilized life, and was a portent of a totalitarian state.


Now, we have Barack Hussein Obama, WinnerOfTheNobelPeacePrize, President of the United States, in the White House, calling in drone strikes on his own personal list of terrorists.

It has been clear for years that the Obama administration believes the shadow war on terrorism gives it the power to choose targets for assassination, including Americans, without any oversight. On Tuesday, The New York Times revealed who was actually making the final decision on the biggest killings and drone strikes: President Obama himself. And that is very troubling. 

Well, yes, it is troubling, gentlemen. You're just now catching on?

It is too easy to say that this is a natural power of a commander in chief. The United States cannot be in a perpetual war on terror that allows lethal force against anyone, anywhere, for any perceived threat. That power is too great, and too easily abused, as those who lived through the George W. Bush administration will remember. 

Mr. Obama, who campaigned against some of those abuses in 2008, should remember. But the Times article, written by Jo Becker and Scott Shane, depicts him as personally choosing every target, approving every major drone strike in Yemen and Somalia and the riskiest ones in Pakistan, assisted only by his own aides and a group of national security operatives. Mr. Obama relies primarily on his counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan.

To his credit, Mr. Obama believes he should take moral responsibility for these decisions, and he has read the just-war theories of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. 

 Damn. That last bit of information should make us all feel better, right? This is what Lyndon Johnson was doing in the Oval Office during the Vietnam war, personally calling in and choosing airstrike targets--this little bridge here, that village there. This one lives, this one dies, this pilot gets to get shot down, this one goes home--all on the whim of Lyndon's mercurical moods.

Of course, right around the corner from this sort of thing (just down that slippery slope over yonder) lie the Salvadoran death squads, the Disappeared of Argentina, the Chinese and Vietnamese 're-education' camps. 

We are closer to that corner and slope than ever.

OS is happy discover that the editors of the YewNorkTimez have finally located their bollocks, if ever so tentatively. What he truly awaits is the editorial that indicates they have located their consciences as well, the one that states:

It is incumbent upon the editorial staff of a large urban paper, when lending its support to a Presidential candidate and regime, to actually investigate what manner of man they intend to endorse. In the case of Barack Obama, we failed in our duty, so carried away were we with his charisma, his skin color, and our unshakeable faith in the politics of The Left. This man is unfit for office, and whatever ideological reservations we may have concerning Mr. Romney, we have had enough experience with him over the years to know that he is a sober adult possessed of a conscience. The same cannot be said of the current occupant of the Oval Office, and we urge his removal via the electoral process this November.

OS will not be holding his breath waiting for such an editorial.

The Federal Gubbermint's War On Guitars: You Just Can't Make This Up

For anyone, anywhere on Planet Earth who wonders why the US economy is not recovering, and is not likely to recover with the present regime in place, OS shares this story from the Nashville Tennessean.

Now, mind you, the Tennessean has never met a Democrat politician it didn't love--the more to the left, the better, the stupider the better, the more corrupt the better. Hell, they even sheltered AlGore as a young man, had him on the staff as a writer because his Daddy was Senator Al Gore Sr and LittleAl needed to be parked somewhere, 'cause college just didn't agree with the boy.

So, for this paper to cover this story is noteworthy. Maybe it's dawning on them as well, since their business is barely holding together, that something may be terribly amiss with life under Himself and MassahHarry.

Remember, the Obama Administration wants to keep the border open, wants more people on welfare, wants to control the health-care system, objects to the idea of anyone actually having to identify themselves as they vote--they've got all that covered, ya'll. They love illegals, welfare dependency, and vote fraud--they live for it!

The real focus of their attention is on small business, 'cuz that's where the munney-is-hunney, and especially they hate those subversive....guitar makers and dealers.

Read and see if this makes sense to you:

Here’s how Tennessee retailers get approval to export a vintage guitar containing protected species of wood or animal products:

First, they must get export licenses from Fish and Wildlife and APHIS, which have to be renewed every year or two. Then they must apply for Fish and Wildlife permits to export each guitar containing protected plant or animal materials.

Retailers who get a permit must ship the guitar and export documents to be inspected in another city because there are no designated inspection stations in Tennessee. APHIS officials examine wood products containing Brazilian rosewood and other protected woods, while Fish and Wildlife agents inspect products containing animal products such as ivory. The nearest city with inspection offices for both agencies is Atlanta.

Individual musicians also need permits to leave the country with vintage guitars containing Brazilian rosewood, ivory or other protected materials, but they don’t need to submit Lacey Act paperwork when they come back to the U.S., APHIS officials say. Federal officials say they focus on commercial vendors and haven’t heard of any enforcement actions being taken against musicians.

The fees associated with permits and inspections can add up to more than $200 per guitar, said Jim Goldberg, Washington counsel for the National Association of Music Merchants. The shipping and insurance to get a guitar to an inspection station can cost an additional $150 or so, merchants say.
Time is the biggest cost, according to merchants. Fish and Wildlife officials say approving a permit usually takes two to three weeks, and inspections generally occur the day an instrument is received. But Goldberg said the entire process — from applying for a permit to shipping the guitar to the buyer — typically lasts closer to two or three months.

Gruhn Guitars’ latest attempt to ship two guitars to the Netherlands took five months, business manager Christie Carter said. She said she applied for a permit on Sept. 19 and received it on Nov. 8, but the guitars weren’t shipped until Jan. 26. Carter said they might have been shipped two weeks sooner had she better understood where to send them for inspection.

Few international buyers are willing to wait five months, Gruhn said.



This is what it takes to sell a vintage guitar, ya'll.  Let's extrapolate that out to all the other businesses and products of a large economy, and ask ourselves 'Why don't businesses form and grow?'

Until the day comes when we elect both Houses and Senates at both state and federal level in overwhelming conservative majorities that will refuse to spend another penny of our money on nonsense like this, we will continue to stagnate and decline. Until we run people like the enviro-nuts and the inspectors and the layers of 'civil servants' who daily make war on the culture out on the proverbial rail, we will not recover.

It's really that simple, but it will be difficult to achieve. No time like the present to begin.

Holy Humiliation, Batman! Obama Lost His Own Primary In Most Of Kentucky's Counties!

The Courier Journal tells the tale, and has the map of the state results by county.

President Barack Obama’s underwhelming victory over a nonexistent candidate in Tuesday’s primary in Kentucky can be tied to a mix of factors — but mostly to widespread and emphatic opposition to many of his policies, according to state and national political observers. Voting for “uncommitted” over Obama in the primary doesn’t mean Democrats will vote for a Republican in the fall, “but it’s a pretty loud criticism of where they see this president and his policies,” said Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, who believes Obama has angered people in Kentucky coal counties with his support of alternative forms of energy. Obama won just 58 percent of the vote against “uncommitted,” which drew 42 percent of the vote. “Uncommitted” won in 67 of Kentucky’s 120 counties and tied Obama in another.

Himself lost to MizzHillary in the 2008 primary and McCain took the state in the general, but still, ya'll.... Kentucky is a heavily unionized/closed-shop state, and predictably Obama won Louisville and Bowling Green, where the UAW plants are located, along with the universities, and General Electric (in Louisville). (Precinct-by-precinct results here.) But apart from the traditional urban Democrat-or-nothing enclaves, it is not good news for Himself.

He has openly declared war on the coal industry, and by golly the counties that house the coal industry are, well, pissed-off. The Department of Labor attempted to regulate family farms to the point that children couldn't do chores-and by golly, the rural county voters pushed back, at least those few who bothered to vote the Democrat primary. The Department of Agriculture and EPA have decided that dirt stirred up by the wind is a threat to the polar bears, and rural people are pushing back while they still can. It is no secret that Obama, Holder, MizzNancy and MassahHarry would confiscate every gun in every home, given the opportunity; or that they would leave the southern border wide open, given the opportunity.

They think people who live in small towns are stupid, that they are just dumb rednecks, unworthy of a thought. The small-town folks beg to differ.

Then there are the social issues...and the obvious decline of the county seats under the heel of a government that only knows how to increase welfare dependency and punish accomplishment. The schools that don't function, occupied by the NEA, still. The decline in living standards, the ballooning of debt, the underemployment, the kids having to move back in with their kids because all the jobs went away.

Then, there is the memory of the 1990's, when the federal government and the trial lawyers kicked the legs out from underneath the tobacco industry. The empty barns and idle farms stand as silent witnesses to that bit of Utopian intervention. People remember when those little tobacco plots made the difference in a family's way of life, and how they were taken away, and all that 'settlement money' from the tobacco industry was simply pissed away by the politicians. They remember these things.

They also remember that it's their kids who join the military, and do the fighting and dying, and suspect the Commander-in-Chief may be working off some other playbook than the one that outlines how to win wars.

So. Let's assume all those 'undecided' types, after they see that their primary votes are ignored, simply...stay...home this fall. No donations. No phone calls, no meetings attended. No yard signs. No showing up at the polls in November. That's the best-case scenario for Himself.

 OS thinks some of those folks will even show up in November, given the opportunity to express their feelings about Obama, and vote GOP, up and down the ticket. OS checked the precinct totals at the union halls--even there, there were some 'undecideds' lurking about, and not many votes cast at all. Wonder how many of those folks, who are unhappy with Himself but not willing to confront their union bosses, just stayed home?

Of course, this won't receive much attention from the East Coast media. After all, those folks in Kentucky are just a bunch of hillbillies, not worthy of the attention of sophisticates like us...

The Lockerbie Bomber Dies Peacefully In His Libyan Hospital Bed. His Victims Are Left With More Questions Than Answers.

The whole affair stinks to High Heaven.

Two hundred-seventy innocent people were murdered in cold blood. The lives of their families were shattered. Al-Megrahi, the bomber, lived in freedom for eleven years before his keepers in Libya decided to cough him up. They needed the money from the oil revenue, and had tired of the role of Pariah of the Mediterranean.

He's convicted in Scotland, sentenced to life. Finally.

Then Scots cough him up again in 2009, and send his scurvy cowardly behonkus back to Libya, supposedly on 'humanitarian grounds', two years ago. Eight years into his life sentence, claiming he was at death's door, poor chap. He's put on the plane in Scotland on a hospital gurney, and upon his arrival in Tripoli, saunters down the step of the plane to a hero's welcome.

Meanwhile, twenty-four years later, the families still feel the loss, and know two things:

They will never get the true story of why their loved ones were killed. This was not a one-man operation, by any means.

They were sold out, probably for cash, by politicians in both Edinburgh and London.

OS especially extends his sympathies to those parents whose college-age children were lost. Those kids would be about forty now, most with families and kids of their own. Every December, those parents, now in their seventies, hear silence where their grandchildren that never were don't gather around the tree and table. They also get to relive the date 21 December, when their children died, as they soak in that horrible silence.

Lest anyone wonder at the general sense of disgust felt by the law-abiding towards their amoral and law-flouting political class--remember Lockerbie.