Daylight Saving Time

 

After Daylight Saving Time was explained to the old Indian, the old Indian said:

Only the Government could believe you can cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it on the bottom of the blanket, and then have a longer blanket.

Before The Cock Crowed

Peter denied Christ three times before the Cock crowed, and Christ was crucified for man’s sin.

Obama denied his Ambassador three times before the Cock crowed, and the Ambassador was killed for 40 days of reelection politics.

Ronald L Clark announces publication of his latest book, Libertas And Thunderbolt, ISBN-13:9781455751214

A brief Synopsis follows:

Carl Sagan, Steven Hawking, and others, are well known for their theory of why we do not see abundant intelligent extraterrestrial life all around us. The reason being, that once intelligent life discovers technology, that technology is used in a self-destructive orgy that brings about the extinction of all intelligent life within reach. So, when one looks out into the Cosmos to search for intelligent life, all life that once was there, no longer exists, save mankind. This theory, of course, has profound implications for us stranded here on spaceship Earth, especially as we watch in horror as our technology grinds out bigger and more powerful weapons of mass destruction every day. This book is a flight of fancy that supposes our Creators (with profound apologies to those who do not believe we have Creators) have undertaken a mission to save Humankind from blowing themselves to kingdom come just like all of the other "Intelligent" life has already done well before mankind began to build parking lots, shopping malls, and H-Bombs. Our Creators have names, and their names are Yahweh and Asherah. So come take an interstellar ride with Yahweh and Asherah as they struggle to help Humankind become an exception to the doomsday theories of Sagan and Hawking.

This book can be purchased at any book store or on line at any book retailer. I have included links to Amazon and Barns and Noble:

http://www.amazon.com/Libertas-Thunderbolt-Ronald-L-Clark/dp/1457512416/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344175068&sr=1-1&keywords=libertas+and+thunderbolt

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/libertas-and-thunderbolt-ronald-l-clark/1112113130?ean=9781457512414

Ron Clark

Vesting Redux

Please bear with me as I once again post the piece on the insidious use of VESTING as a means to make Government Programs permanent and unstoppable. I have come upon a quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the implementation of Social Security Program that proves the charge that these programs were developed with vesting as a fundelmental and important part of their structure in order to make them unstoppable. President Roosevelt quote, to wit:
"Those taxes (Social Security payroll taxes) were never a problem of economics. They are politics all the way through. We put those payroll taxes (Social Security Taxes) there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no dammed politician can ever scrap my Social Security Program. Those taxes aren't a matter of economics, they're straight politics."
Quote source: http://www.ssa.gov/history/Gulick.html

Why We Can’t Win At The Ballot Box

You say you want to cut Big Government down to size and regain our freedoms by using the ballot box? Good luck with that. It can’t be done and here is the reason why. VESTING.

That’s right fellow citizens, VESTING. What is vesting? Vesting is when you invest your money, time or other good and valuable resources into a program and then expect a return on your investment. Let me give you a real life example of how our elected Government uses Vesting as an insidious device to perpetuate and expand power by creating basically social programs that cannot ever be stopped or curtailed because of vesting.

Let’s take Social Security as an example and here is how it works. You start a safety net program for old age and pass a law that says you must participate in the program by paying taxes to support the program. Viola, you are now part of the program and you can’t get out without losing all of the money you have paid in even if you could. After time passes you realize that you have paid a great deal of money into the system and you then demand that the program be continued in order that you receive your fair share of what you have invested into the system. In short, you have become VESTED regardless if you wanted to be or not, and the program can never, never ever, be terminated because the citizens have become VESTED in the program.

It only gets better. The Government keeps on expanding the program (Social Security) into other areas and forces you to pay more taxes because you can’t or won’t get out of the program due to VESTING. I bet most people don’t realize that Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Aid to Dependant Children, etc. were all enacted under the Social Security Act. Insidious. Now multiply all of the others program that use vesting to perpetuate themselves and you have a situation where the citizens of this country will never allow anyone to stop these programs because of VESTING. For these programs to be fair, they should include an “Op In” clause so that if you want the Government to run your healthcare or retirement, then you must Op In into the program and only you and others who Op In to pay the taxes to support the program. I am now laughing out loud! You should live so long. I’m sorry Brothers and Sisters, you can’t fix our Big Government via the ballot box, it was designed to be unstoppable.

Green

I feel compelled to address the ongoing Orwellian speak being accepted by intelligent people everywhere. The subject is the acceptance of the "Green" label for things that minimize the release of CO2 (Carbon Dioxide).
For example: By shutting down coal burning power plants, we will reduce the amount of CO2 released and thereby encourage ways of producing energy that does not release CO2. These new ways of producing energy, sans CO2, is the "Green" way to produce energy.
Incredible; have we completely lost our collective intelligence?
Flora, all plant green things, require CO2 as their life's blood in order to be green. More CO2, more green things. More green things, more O2 for Humans and other animals as a byproduct.

Little Girls

If it wasn't for little girls, the economy would collapse.

Gas Price

I guess being cynical nowadays means you are way more right than wrong.
Take the gas price surge.
Here is a cynical look at why the current spiking gasoline prices could be occurring
What if the oil companies have had a belly full of Obama and his desire to force gasoline price up in order to promote a "green" agenda. So perhaps, the companies are conspiring to jack up the gas prices themselves in order that people will blame BHO for wrecking their economic lives.
You know, a proactive approach to ensure BHO looses the election because it looks like the Repubs are going to screw up this election big time.
I'm just saying

A Conflict Of Visions

Perhaps you have been as confused as I by what is going on in the Political Arena and society in general nowadays. I am confused because I refuse to believe that the root cause of our loss of freedoms and the decline of morality in our society is because the powerful people who are orchestrating the loss of freedom and morality decline are doing it because they are inherently evil. Perhaps I’m an eternal and naive optimist, but I feel for the most part the powerful behind-the-scenes movers and shakers, along with their compatriots in the Governing Class, are not really evil. I like to believe they are not evil because they simply believe that what they are doing is because they sincerely believe that their vision for the country is the best way for all people. They believe and do these things even if they use deceit and power to force people to adhere to their vision. A fine example of, The Ends Justify The Means.

The problem with this, of course, is that evil is never done in the name of evil it is always done in the name of glorious good for all, regardless if the Do-Gooders are evil or not These people may not be inherently evil, but they sure as hell enjoy the power that comes from enforcing their vision. All of which means, free people are no longer free, and are forced to give up their freedom and hard earned treasure by those in power, for the good of all, of course.

I have found some clarity to all of this by reading a book that goes a long way in understanding why these people are doing what they are doing. The book, A conflict Of Visions, by Thomas Sowell:

http://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Visions-Ideological-Political-Struggles/dp/0465002056/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330702451&sr=1-1

posits that the reason for today’s political schism is because people have a conflict of vision on how society should operate. The difference in visions being:

Constrained and Unconstrained Visions.

Constrained vision meaning, man is born with certain inalienable God given rights along with a hard-wired notion of what is “right” and “wrong” developed from experience generated from countless generations of social living. All of these things then form the inherent nature of man. What this means is that Government must accommodate the fact that man is constrained by these things and must not seek to change the nature of man. The US Constitution is the incorporation of this vision.

Unconstrained Vision meaning, the nature of man is not fixed but is malleble and capable of being changed by superior knowledge and benevolent intent, for the betterment of all. Of course, only those with superior knowledge know what is best for all. Socialist Governance is the incorporation of this vision.

Reading this book will be well worth the while if you are interested in understanding what is going on.

Hubble Far Field Cosmos Video

http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm

Required viewing when one believes how important one is.

A discussion:

Very good video, indeed. I follow this stuff with total awe. I have always wanted someone to point the Hubble at a point in far field, record the scene, and then point the Hubble 180 degrees in far field, record the scene, and then determine if the scene is of the same objects in reverse (like a reverse scene in a mirror). My problem is that the objects observed in the Cosmos are always analyzed as if every thing is traveling in a straight line. This defies logic because nothing in nature is linear or straight line. So making measurements of distance as a straight line is flawed if the Cosmos is a contained sphere and Einstein proved that gravity refracts light and all other fields for that matter.

Mitt Romney, AKA Gordon Gekko

I think the Repubs are being suckered. They are being told that Romney is the only one that can beat BHO. The Dems can't wait to portray Romney as Gordon Gekko, because he is. He is not a Capitalist, he is a Money Changer that makes money off of money. Capitalism is when you invest your money in Productive Enterprise and that enterprise makes a product that people buy and all profit.

Romney makes his money by wrecking existing business, and making money off of the parts. Don't forget the issue of the OWS thing is the Fat Cat Money Changers and that issue is supported by a wide majority of Americans, and the Dems will leverage this fact to victory.

Romney is the last person who can beat BHO, IMO.

Tags:

Hey Daddy, Where Do Wars Come From?

I think that I am as guilty as the next fellow in being unable to see how important some things are because they are with us constantly and so they disappear by being familiar. For example, the intelligentsia in America, and indeed the world, keep promoting bigger and more powerful Government as the only way to prevent war and manage the constant strife amongst all people. They could not be more wrong. Government alone causes war, and the bigger and more powerful the Government, the bigger the war and the greater the strife. Free people do not engage in war, Government coerces free people into war. Free people may squabble and fight amongst themselves, but they do not engage in full scale war.
And this leads me say once again how increditible it is that the Founders understood this and created a very limited Government. However, as we all know, that Government has grown so large and instrusive, that it may be impossible to cut it back down to Constitutional size.
So, the answer to the question, Where does wars come from, is, they come from Governments.

I'm Just Saying

It is a sad commentary about our beloved Nation that the reality may well be that President Bill Clinton, more of a comic book character than a statesman, is probably the best President the country has been able to muster up in quite a while.

Free Markets

Free Markets

By now most citizens have become aware of the so-called “Occupy Wall Street” movement. The movement appears to be more of a protest movement, like the Vietnam War protest movement, than a political movement. Suspicion exists that skilled and unseen power-Meisters and seasoned organizers are using the dupes, naïve, and frustrated members of society, to promote a hidden agenda by orchestrating the latest movement. The suspicion is encouraged by the “spontaneous” global organization of the protests that is taking place. Time will eventually expose the real agenda, and uncover the hidden organizers as well, if they are indeed behind the Occupy Wall Street and global movements.

The Tea Party is another so called movement and most citizens are aware that this movement is basically a political movement that protests big government, taxes and intrusion into free peoples lives. The Tea Party has survived extensive investigation that has tried to uncover if the movement is being orchestrated by hidden power-Meisters and seasoned organizers. To date, no such orchestration has been uncovered. In other words, the Tea Party is a grass-roots movement of frustrated members of society that seeks to change the political structure of the country.

Other than these two basic differences between the movements, could there be a nexus supporting both movements? Of course there is.

The nexus is the universal frustration of all citizens, and of every political stripe, that its citizens are no longer controlling society, but rather, society it is being increasingly controlled by:

Pick One.

a. An out-of-control professional political class that craves power like an addict craves narcotics.

b. Greedy Moneychangers who are sucking up all of the wealth of the country for their personal use.

c. Intellectual Elites that seeks to force all people of the world to join their vision of an “Age of Aquarius” utopia.

d. Knuckle-dragging religious nut jobs that want to take the world back to the dark ages.

e. Variations of all of the above.

Guess what? A democracy enabled by a free marketplace will resolve most of the current citizen frustration with society. Oh my, that’s what out Constitution mandates. Problem is, a regulated and directed free marketplace is an oxymoron, and is what we have today. Oh by the way, the regulated and controlled free marketplace we have today is unconstitutional, but who cares? One has to laugh when the Occupy Wall Street brainiacs sing out that the free market is running amok and is the cause of all of our problems. Little do they realize that the free marketplace is “us” and is the ultimate control they supposedly seek for their lives. Lord help us all.

War and Non-war

This is a piece I did in response to a question concerning assassinating terrorists.

The real problem, as I see it, all started when the Professional Politicians in the "take no resposibility for anything" Congress refused to adhere to it's Constitutional requirements and formally declare war when we are fighting a war. I think it all started with the "police action" Korean war continuing today with the "war on terror". None of this legal nonsense would be under discusssion if Congress will declare war when we send our sons and daughters off to fight in war, regardless what you call it. The Orwell quote," Only an intellectual would believe this nonsense" applies here.

This also means the "War Powers" act is illegal and is an attempt to put lipstick on a pig by not requireing Congress to be responsible for declaring war. All in all, a sorry situation, made worst by Americans citizens getting into inane auguments about trying "combatants" in civil courts when we are fighting an undeclared war. This also means if the President sends the armed services into battle without congress delaring war, He should be removed from office at once by the Congress. Good luck with that.

When we are fighting a legally declared war, combatants are subject to the rules of war, not the Constitution

THEIR MAN MITCH

Let me see if I got this all straight, Repub Movers & Shakers come to Indiana and talk at length with Our Man Mitch, after which, My Man Mitch sez, my wife doesn't want the stress and strain of saving our country from certain destruction, so I'm will not be a candidate for President of the good old US of A. Instead, Governator Mitch sez, he was elected by the good folks of Indiana to save Indiana from complete ruin and he just wants to finish the job, so no time for National politics.

Still with me here?

While none of us was a fly on the wall when the Repub Movers & Shakers had their sit-down with Their Man Mitch, one can only assume they were not discussing what would be the latest deep-fried concoction at the Indiana State Fair. Perhaps, I'm just saying, they were (wait for it).............. developing a strategy to have Reluctant Man Mitch drafted as a savior of the Republic when all of the current Repub Yahoo candidates had beat the crap out of each other to an extent that none of them could be elected dog catcher, let alone President.

Problem is that none-candidate, Reluctant Man Mitch, would have to have to state his National Political positions without the messy primary food fight thing. What to do, what to do. Wait, I know, he, National Man Mitch, can write a book to be released at just the right time and go on national TV telling everyone and everybody about how to save the Republic from ruin by trusting, of all things, the Americn People. And the book (Keeping the Republic, Saving America by Trusting Americans) can't be about his being born in Pennsylvania and his developing childhood days in Tennessee and Georigia before coming to Indiana when he was 11 years old which allowed him to develope that good old Indiana work ethic and stern regard for the truth. Oh no, it would be about, golly, National Political Positions.

I am so giddy with anticipation that I can hardly wait to see how the Repub Movers & Shakers will wamp-up the Draft "America's Man Mitch" campaign to save the Republic at just the right time to get Reluctant Man Mitch the Repub nomination for President. I sure hope Mrs. Mitch doesn't catch on to what's going on, because if she does, she is really going to be some kind of Indiana mad.

But then again, I could be wrong about all of this. But I bet my cut of the Stimulas Package that I'm more right than wrong.

Happy Days

There have been some who have not caught the full significance of the Song "Happy Days Are Here Again" at the end of the piece about the Blob.

Back when the depression was going and America was suffering badly, Franklin D. Roosevelt mounted a Presidential campaign that featured the song, Happy Days Are Here Again" with vague promises of a transformation of American into a place where the Government would take care of the people. He was elected with "Happy Days Are Here Again" ringing in everyone hearts and ears. This was the start of real socialism in America and if you are so inclined to research the era, you will discover everything that FDR did during his years as President, made the depression and suffering much worse. The depression was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity (never let a crisis go to waste) to gain power for the Federal Government to implement policy that would never be accepted during normal times. His nanny Government also was responsible for extending the depression in America while the rest of the world recovered quite rapidly.

In other words, it was WWII that ended the American depression, not the entitlement, utopian policies of FDR. There is even strong evidence that FDR made decisions that forced the US into war in order to recover from the depression with his socialism policies firmly in place.

I know, not pretty, but mostly true.

The "Happy Days Are Here Again" theme during the FDR era is the same utopian Flim Flam that people ate up then and is the same as is the "Hope and Change" utopian nonsense that gullible people are gobbling up today and believe the Government can create jobs and take care of them. The point being, that the same disastrous results are occurring as in FDR's day and one must wonder if all of these unnecessary wars nowadays are an attempt to recover as FDR used WWII to recover. (Sorry, the wars nowadays are not big enough to effect the desired change.)

There really is no free lunch, someone must pay and we are now paying with our treasure,freedoms and jobs.

Clark

The BLOB That Ate The Economy

The Blob That Ate The Economy

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has morphed into a job-killing machine.

The Justice Department is a Constitutional Smashing, Freedom Bending, job-killing machine.

The Professional Politician Congress is a Happy-Go-Lucky job-killing machine.

Federal Laws are the gears and wheels for the Federal job-killing machine.

The Digital/Computer/Robotic age is upon us and is a job-killing machine.

The Federal Reserve is Yankee Dollar, reserve currency, fiat printing job-killing machine.

The Federal Government is the ubiquitous BLOB that eats the economy for lunch.

Ya say you need a job Bunkie?

Feeling a little down lately?

Can't pay your mortgage or afford gasoline for the heap?

Can't believe a loaf of bread costs $3.00 and your Union is negotiating for lower wages?

Is that what's has your stomach churnin' and turnin' like Elvis Presley's hips?

So who needs a job anyway? Obammy will take care of you and yours.

Come on now Bunkie, off the meat and on the feet.

Sing along and all of your troubles will fade away like last week's paycheck.

http://wn.com/Happy_Days_Are_Here_Again-Leo

SCOPING OUT THE DEBT PROBLEM

The Wall Street Journal reports today that there is more to the debt problem than out-of-control Federal Government spending.
During the 1990s, Household debt was 84% of annual income.
In 2007, height of the boom, the Household debt was 127% of annual income.
Today, the Household debt is 112% of annual income mainly because of bank writeoff of bad debt.
It would require households to pay off $3.3 Trillion to get back to the 1990s 84% level.
First off, where and what kind of money was used to enable household debt?
How will households ever payoff oustanding debt when real wages keep declining and most need to borrow just to keep heads above water?
How does the household debt relate to the federal debt limit debate?
There are so many questions, so little time.

Casual Obseravtions

Casual Observations

· The mystery of life is the only mystery science can never solve.

· Political speech means exactly opposite what the words say.

· Watching the morning light add color to your life while peacefully in bed beside your loving wife/husband is as good as it can possibly get.

· Religion can serve both despots and the righteous alike.

· Pretty girls rarely evolve into gracious women.

· Macho boys rarely evolve into substantial men.

· Money is inversely proportional to happiness.

· Money is the least important aspect of the education process.

· Money is only an enabler of commerce.

· Money is a poor indicator of character.

· Culture can explain everything Human.

· The beautiful notes of a Red Cardinal and the sordid words of a Rapper both evoke strong emotions.

· Lush grass requires much effort while weeds are no sweat.

· Many pay for what they want and beg for what they need.

· Morality represents the way that people would like the world to work while economics represents how it actually works. Steven D. Levitt

· Civility is not a sign of weakness.

· Vulgarity is not a sign of powerfulness.

· Cleanliness is sexy.

· The size of an automobile is inversely proportional to the size of the owner.

· Age related loss of hearing is a blessing.

· Clothes make the man but makeup hides a woman.

· Chance favors the prepared.

· Dress, art and music are the truest reflection of culture.

· A determined woman is harder to deal with than a resolute man.

· People really don't believe we are made of the same stuff that the universe is made of.

· Drinking beer makes you fart but drinking wine make you look smart.

· Economic conditions may wax and wane but business at the Hemorrhoid Center is always booming.

· Dogs love to smell other dog's butts while humans love to kiss other people's butts.

· I-Pads and Droids are more advanced than Star Trek communicators.

· People who smoke cigarettes often limit their fat and sugar intake for health reasons.

· Beautiful and enlightened people are recognizable by the water bottles they always carry.

· Liberals are called liberals because they are liberal with other people's freedoms, money and property.

· Conservatives are called conservatives because they try to keep what they have earned.

· Relationship augments can be identified because they always begin with "I" and end with "We".

· The credibility of an offering is inversely proportional to the number of itty-bitty

little words used.

· The offering plate is always passed before the sermon.

· With rare exception, the cover is the book.

· If I have a 50/50 chance of making the right choice, 90% of the time I will make the wrong choice.

· Regardless of the course I sail, the wind is always in my face.

· The faster I run the further away I get.

· Available time is proportional to age.

· Activity is often confused with work.

· Complexity is a device used to confuse.

· The idle often engage in argument.

· Golf tests one's ability to count strokes.

· I'm through observing now.

HOPE & CHANGE

Vesting

Why We Can’t Win At The Ballot Box

You say you want to cut Big Government down to size and regain our freedoms by using the ballot box? Good luck with that. It can’t be done and here is the reason why. VESTING. That’s right fellow citizens, VESTING. What is vesting? Vesting is when you invest your money, time or other good and valuable resources into a program and then expect a return on your investment. Let me give you a real life example of how our elected Government uses Vesting as an insidious device to perpetuate and expand power by creating basically social programs that cannot ever be stopped or curtailed because of vesting. Let’s take Social Security as an example and here is how it works. You start a safety net program for old age and pass a law that says you must participate in the program by paying taxes to support the program. Viola, you are now part of the program and you can’t get out without losing all of the money you have paid in even if you could. After time passes you realize that you have paid a great deal of money into the system and you then demand that the program be continued in order that you receive your fair share of what you have invested into the system. In short, you have become VESTED regardless if you wanted to be or not, and the program can never, never ever, be terminated because the citizens have become VESTED in the program. It only gets better. The Government keeps on expanding the program (Social Security) into other areas and forces you to pay more taxes because you can’t or won’t get out of the program due to VESTING. I bet most people don’t realize that Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Aid to Dependant Children, etc. were all enacted under the Social Security Act. Insidious. Now multiply all of the others program that use vesting to perpetuate themselves and you have a situation where the citizens of this country will never allow anyone to stop these programs because of VESTING. For these programs to be fair, they should include an “Op In” clause so that if you want the Government to run your healthcare or retirement, then you must Op In into the program and only you and others who Op In to pay the taxes to support the program. I am now laughing out loud! You should live so long. I’m sorry Brothers and Sisters, you can’t fix our Big Government via the ballot box, it was designed to be unstoppable.

Hooray, Hooray, They've Saved The Day!

Hooray, Hooray, They’ve saved the day!

The Grand Old Elephant and Common Man Donkey embraced, and amid a mighty roar, bombastic hoopla, and with a final historic grunt, brought forth a Gnat.

Hooray, Hooray, They’ve saved the day!

Same Sex Marriage

I never thought intelligent people would be required to debate the fundelmental aspects of Marriage anymore than I thought there would be a necessity of debating what makes males and females physically different. But here we are, forced by a powerful minority that thinks the world revolves around their sexuality and insisting that all other people and society must change to suit them. If this powerful minority can force society to change against its will, one can only speculate what other behavior, that took untold generations to determine as deferential to society, will also insist on being made civil.
It seems to me to be unecessary to state it is SOCIETY that has determined that marriage between a man and a woman needs to be encouraged because the resulting nuclear family is the bedrock upon which civilization rests. Same sex marriage is an invalid argument because neither you or I created the Human Race and required different gender as the means to procreate it's people. In other words, gravity dictates we fall down, we cannot fall up regardless if a self-centered and powerful minority insists that we must fall up. Why we even have such sophomoric discussions about "Gay Marriage" in the first place is beyond me. The worst part of this manufactured debate is that somehow the "Gay" community (aided and abetted by the entire length and breath of Media, academia and entertainment industry) will foster the label of bigotry and assigning hate upon people who only support society authorizing marriage between a man and a woman. Most people, including me, believe sexual preference is a personal matter, not an official society sanctioned matter, but yet we are accused of being hateful and ignorant by not supporting same sex marriage. I'm for living and let live and if same sex people want to join together I say more power to them, but they can no more be married than you can fall up.

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

Daylight Saving Time.

When told the reason for daylight saving time the old Indian said, "Only the Government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket."

UNIONS

Present day Unions are a victim of modern times. Back when the industrial revolution was getting going and most industry was domestic, unions were needed to battle the robber barons and secure a decent wage and working conditions for labor. Times change. Not only did unions become powerful, they also became corrupt. (Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.) Then came the digital & computer revolution. As I have written before (The Coming Age Of The Borg) there is far more American jobs (labor) lost to computerized automation and industrial robots than all of illegal immigration, and moving factories overseas combined. In other words, the basic feed stock of unions (labor) is decreasing at an ever increasing rate resulting in less and less membership. So union corruption, industrial automation and globalization has delivered domestic unions a triple whammy.

So unions must do something in order to survive. Viola, become international to address globalization and organize the only remaining American labor pool that is still growing, i.e., Service Industry labor and Government Service labor. Organizing Government labor is the best for domestic unions because there is no labor competition and wages are guaranteed by taxes with no competition for wages either. This situation is corruption nirvana, i.e., make law requiring Government to withhold union dues and then use union dues to fund professional politicians and make them beholding to organized labor: Corruption Nirvana. By going international, unions can not only address globalization, they can become a political force to be reckoned with, as we are now seeing.

I know, not a pretty picture.

Political Market Equilibrium

THE TALK SUPPLY EXCEEDS THE DEMAND.

Freedom Versus Socialism

Freedom Versus Socialism

Have you ever been surprised when a subject you were familiar with and understood reasonably well all of a sudden was crystallized into a new awareness and understanding by some words someone spoke on a different subject? It has happened to me a number of times and it just happened again and I thought I would share the experience with you. The subject is the political philosophy of Socialism and the exceptional American Constitutional government that ensues freedom of the individual to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Regardless of your political persuasion and political philosophies, even if you don’t have any, the USA has been slowly moving from a nation of full individual freedoms to a socialistic governance that has a central governmental political authority directing more and more of our individual lives, for the betterment of all, of course. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, Supplemental Security Income, ad infinitum, are a few examples of socialism’s slow and steady march to dominance within our society.

Even if you buy into the hokum about helping people who can’t help themselves, the truth is that Socialism is a form of Government that forces people to behave in ways that are not necessarily in ones best self-interest, but rather, to behave in ways to benefit all as determined by a central political authority. I think we all reasonably understand the concept and the distinction between individual liberty and socialism. But now, carefully read the words of Wamditanka (Big Eagle) of the Santee Sioux, circa 1860s:

“The whites were always trying to make the Indians give up their life and live like white men- go to farming, work hard and do as they did- and the Indians did not know how to do that, and did not want to anyway… If the Indians had tried to make the whites live like them, the whites would have resisted, and it was the same way with many Indians.”

We all know full well how the free Indians were treated and destroyed by the white man, for the good of all, of course. The elegant lament of Big Eagle did not stop the white man from changing the Indian any more than the lament of free Americans can stop the socialists from transforming the society of America, for the good of all, of course. After all, elegant though the lament may be, it is powerless to stop a determined force that somehow knows what is best for all.

The Coming Age of the Borg, Redux

First there was John Henry matching muscle power with a steam machine. Then we had Garry Kasparov matching wits with IBM's Deep Blue in a thinking contest over a chess board. And now we have Ken Jennings and Brad Ritter matching knowledge with IBM's Watson over the Jeopardy board. We all know what the outcome is going to be. And what this means is we lose more jobs to computers and automation that all of the outsourcing and current job killers combined. The American deep thinkers had better consider what is happening with computers and automation causing a great social change and formulate policies to deal with it or we will become irreverent.

Thats right John Henry, Garry Kasparov, Ken Jennings, Brad Ritter, Mr. & Mrs. America and all the ships at sea:

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE,

YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED.

Divine Science

Divine Science

Perhaps you have read my rants about science and how science has somehow become the de facto sole source of truth. Well we now have another instance of criminal science being perpetrated and the really sad thing about it is that most people, and certainly not the mass media, don’t seem to care all that much about it.

The criminal science I’m talking about here directly resulted in the unnecessary death of innocent children in addition to suffering unnecessary pain, and in some cases, permanent disfigurement. What I am talking about here is one Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his published findings in Lancet that our modern children’s vaccines cause autism. The so-called scientific study was manufactured by Dr. Wakefield for, are you ready for this, money. Lawyers paid Wakefield some $674,000 to create the fraudulent study in order to provide a scientific basis to sue vaccine manufactures so that they could make lots and lots of money. I can’t begin to imagine a punishment severe enough to serve justice for this despicable crime against not only children, but against science as well.

I'm Just Saying

My latest book is now available at book stores everwhere. You may purchase it on Amazon and Barns&Noble. You may also buy it directly from me free shipping. This book is a complilation of the posts listed on Banging the Drum Blog

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Im-Just-Saying/Ronald-L-Clark/e/9781608448104/?itm=1&USRI=i%27m+just+saying

http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Saying-Ronald-Clark/dp/160844810X/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292948092&sr=1-17

ETFs. OMG, HERE WE GO AGAIN

ETFs. OMG, Here We Go Again

It was announced today that ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) have now reached $1 Trillion dollars. Please take the time to research ETFs and if you can filter out most of the esoteric BS, you will find that ETFs are gussied-up derivatives. Brothers and Sisters, ETFs are not Capitalism; they are simply another way to make money off of money. Capitalism is when you invest your hard earned money into a business that is engaged in productive enterprise and the business makes a profit by producing something that people need or want. This adds to an economy. MONEY is not an economy. Money only enables commerce that makes it easier to grow an economy. Making money off of money cannot grow an economy and the growth of ETFs will be the next bubble that can destroy our fragile economy. Yes Gordon Gekko, greed is still alive and well.

We Can't Win At The Ballot Box

You say you want to cut Big Government down to size and regain our freedoms by using the ballot box? Good luck with that. It can’t be done and here is the reason why. VESTING. That’s right fellow citizens, VESTING. What is vesting? Vesting is when you invest your money, time or other good and valuable resources into a program and then expect a return on your investment. Let me give you a real life example of how our elected Government uses Vesting as an insidious device to perpetuate and expand power by creating basically social programs that cannot ever be stopped or curtailed because of vesting. Let’s take Social Security as an example and here is how it works. You start a safety net program for old age and pass a law that says you must participate in the program by paying taxes to support the program. Viola, you are now part of the program and you can’t get out without losing all of the money you have paid in even if you could. After time passes you realize that you have paid a great deal of money into the system and you then demand that the program be continued in order that you receive your fair share of what you have invested into the system. In short, you have become VESTED regardless if you wanted to be or not, and the program can never, never ever, be terminated because the citizens have become VESTED in the program. It only gets better. The Government keeps on expanding the program (Social Security) into other areas and forces you to pay more taxes because you can’t or won’t get out of the program due to VESTING. I bet most people don’t realize that Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Aid to Dependant Children, etc. were all enacted under the Social Security Act. Insidious because those who don't even pay into the system are now VESTED. Now multiply all of the others program that use vesting to perpetuate themselves and you have a situation where the citizens of this country will never allow anyone to stop these programs because of VESTING. For these programs to be fair, they should include an “Op In” clause so that if you want the Government to run your healthcare or retirement, then you must Op In into the program and only you and others who Op In to pay the taxes to support the program. I am now laughing out loud! You should live so long. I’m sorry Brothers and Sisters, you can’t fix our Big Government via the ballot box, our big Government was designed to be unstoppable.

Psst, Wanna Know a Secret?

Wanna know a secret? A secret that multi-billion dollar Pharmaceuticals Companies don’t want you to know? They don’t want you to know because if you knew, they couldn’t sell you a $5.00 pill that requires a $6.00 pill to address side effects the first pill caused and on and on. Ya know what I’m talking about here, don’t you? I’m talking about a way to prevent the common cold, that’s what. That’s right, it works every time and only costs pennies. Alright, stick with me now, think back to previous winters when it turned cold and your house got really dry inside and all of a sudden you started blowing small amounts of blood into your Kleenex. What happens is that the capillaries inside your nose are very close to the surface, and when it gets dry outside, the inside your nose starts to dry out too, exposing the capillaries and causing them to leak blood. You now have exposed blood vessels inside your nose that will permit the direct introduction of germs into your blood stream. So when you breathe in through your nose, you are providing an avenue for cold and others viruses that are in the air a way to get directly into your blood stream. Viruses and germs that have a direct path into your blood stream will ensure infection. This nonsense of washing your hands to prevent virus introduction into your mouth is a bunch of hooey. This is not how most colds are caught. Most colds are caught because the virus has a way to get into the blood stream (inside the nose) and directly causing a cold infection. What to do? Every morning grab a Q-Tip and dab a generous amount of Neosporin on it and then put it inside your nose to thoroughly spread it around in there. Do it for each side of your nose. What happens is that the petroleum base of the Neosporin will reverse the dryness inside your nose and thereby permit the openings in the capillaries that are leaking blood a chance to heal and no longer be an avenue for virus to infiltrate into the blood stream. This simple step will prevent most viruses from gaining an avenue to infect you. Also, the antibiotic compounds in Neosporin will kill any bad guys that are still in there. Rather simple and oh so logical. Try it, it really works, and you will enjoy a cold free winter without all of the colds remedies and misery.

MONEY, MONEY,MONEY

Bloomberg News reports that the Federal Reserve has "bought" $1.7 Trillion dollars of Federal Government Securities (Bonds) through March of 2010. The Federal Reserve will buy an additional $600 Billion of Federal Government securities through next June of 2011. Combine these "purchases" with some $300 Billion of Mortage bonds the Federal Reserve has already "purchased" and you have a reported $2.6 Trillion dollars added into the economy. Please bear in mind that these amounts are what has been reported by the Federal Reserve. The books of the Federal Reserved are closed to the public so we really have no knowledge of any other Federal Reserve "purchases". To gain perspective to this number, I just paid $2.88 per gallon of gasoline. $2.6 Trillion is:
$2,600,000,000,000 and will buy a lot of gasoline. It's unclear what this "created out of clear air" money means, but it can't be good, can it? For example, the Federal Government issues a Bond for X amount of dollars and those dollars go to pay for highway construction or whatever. That money goes into the economy as wages paid and materials are bought. If the Federal Reserve buys the Government debt bonds they are in essence creating the money that goes into the economy. Bear in mind this money was not created by productive enterprise so it has no value other than the value assumed by combining with real money and thereby reducing the value of all dollars. So what happens when when the Bonds bought by the Federal Reserve mature? Does the Federal Government pay back the Federal Reserve back with tax dollars? Does anyone really know what is happening here?

2010 Election, Cities Versus The Rest of the Country

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this election is the patently obvious Cities versus the rest of the country outcome. Look at the 2010 election Red/Blue map. Don't underestimate the decades long development of the entitlement constituency among the mass population of the urban areas by the professional politicians. In other words, political and constitutional philosophy means little to the entitlement electorate and the historical schism between the Cities and the rest of the country is now fully realized within the body politic. This is the same schism that brought Rome to it's demise along with many other civilizations throughout history. The Tea Party movement and other political movements must understand this city/country schism in order to be effective in achieving political power.

HIGHSCHOOLS

HIGHSCHOOLS 1957 vs 2010
Scenario 1:Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack. 1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack. 2010 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
Scenario 2:Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school. 1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies. 2010 - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.
Scenario 3:Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students. 1957 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again. 2010 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The family gets extra money (SSI) from the government because Jeffrey has a disability.
Scenario 4:Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt. 1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman. 2010 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.
Scenario 5:Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school. 1957 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock. 2010 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.
Scenario 6:Pedro fails high school English. 1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.. 2010 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.
Scenario 7:Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed. 1957 - Ants die. 2010 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -- and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.
Scenario 8:Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him. 1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing. 2010 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.
(Thanks to Mr. B. Franklin for this post.)

Education, It's Time To Roll

Education Initiative

There is little controversy regarding the dismal state of public education in the country nowadays. Perhaps it’s time for the citizens of this country to roll up their sleeves and take up this issue because it is much too important an issue to continue to let Politicians and Special Interests keep using it as a political football while our children grow more ignorant by the day. As a matter of fact the time is now for Parents, Citizens and Tax Payers to insist that they be at the head of the table, as the number one special interest, when Educational reform is considered. What I’m suggesting here is that we all think deeply about this issue and then use our respective citizens forums to thoroughly and carefully discuss the issue so as to come a consensus of opinion as to facts, philosophy, problems and solutions concerning public education. We can then distil the results of our deliberations in order to codify a statement of facts and problems within the our educational systems and then set forth a set of recommendations to take to the appropriate Governor for action. If we all can do this, we can gain the initiative from the professional special interests and finally become a positive force that the politician and educational system will have to listen to. I will start the ball rolling with some comments to start fleshing out this important issue.
1. It is patently obvious that more money does not equal better education.
2. Lawyers must be taken out of the classroom.
3. Strict discipline in the classroom must be regained in order that our children have the proper environment to learn.
4. Culture is the most important factor that determines if children have a desire to learn.
5. Parents and citizens must approve textbooks and curriculum to ensure our children are being educated and not indoctrinated.
6. Teaching is one of Man’s most honorable professions and is not a job. Unions are for protecting and representing workers that have a job, so therefore, teacher’s unions cannot represent the honorable profession of teaching.
How is that for starters? This is a big issue and perhaps this can be a great test to see if Parents and Citizens can effect important change divorced from the political class. Come on Patriots, let’s roll!

BALLOT BOX REVOLUTION

Conventional wisdom is that the American democracy provides for periodic revolution at the ballot box, therefore negating the need for the more historic type of revolution. I am beginning to question if that wisdom can prevail for the ballot box revolution to disestablish the huge federal establishment that the Tea Party agitates for. And here is the reason why. Most all of the federalization of everything has become institutionalized into the entire fabric of American life and we all have become “vested” in it. It is the INSIDIOUS way to build a new government that is not constitutional. Just one example of “vesting” is the Social Security act. SS was promoted as a safety net for old age that has now morphed into a social engineering vehicle to promote a socialist fabric people can become comfortable with (bet you didn’t know Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Obamacare was enacted under the Social Security act). Here is how the “vesting” takes place. The Govt. taxes you for your share of Social Security, and after time passes, you demand your “fair” share of social security because you have your money invested in it. INSIDIOUS. Do you recall the incredible sound bite during the run up to Obamacare that had an elderly lady saying, “We don’t want socialized medicine and don’t be messing with my Medicare either”? INSIDIOUS. I fervently hope we can affect a revolution at the ballot box on 2 Nov., but when push come to shove, I really don’t think the “vested” population will support a real disestablishment of the Federal Government back to Constitutional size.

SALARIAT

SALARIAT, The Fourth Branch of Government

Breaking News: The Federal Government work force is growing. Perhaps I engaged in a little hyperbole here because this really isn’t breaking news, but then, what is breaking news nowadays anyway? Ready for some numbers?
Total Federal Employment (less Postal Service)
Year 2007 3,776,000
Year 2008 3,919,000
Year 2009 4,188,000
Source: US Office of Personnel Management, Federal Employee Statistics
http://www.opm.gov/feddata/HistoricalTables/ExecutiveBranchSince1940.asp

There are the numbers, but what does it mean other than it takes a lot of Bureaucrats to run the Federal Government establishment? Well for one thing, all of these federal employees are salaried, i.e., they are not paid wages for their labor, they are instead, paid a salary. The romantic word for those who work for wages is the Proletariat. Those who work for a salary also have a word to describe them and that word is the Salariat. Salariat is not a new word. Socialist and Communist intellectuals coined the word to describe the necessary Government salaried Administrators to turn their esoteric political philosophy into mundane everyday practice. But what is so important to our benevolent Socialist and Communist intellectuals about the distinction of being a salaried government Bureaucrats rather than being a wage paid government Bureaucrat? Wages are normally paid for work associated with producing a product and so the expense of labor is part of the product price. This arrangement means that there are customers required to purchase the product being produced and this means that the one working to product the product is therefore connected to the customer, i.e., no product, bad product or too expensive product, no customer and no more wages. That is to say, wages are part of the production expense. Salary paid to government Bureaucrats are simply an administrative expense born by the taxpayers and the one receiving the salary is only required to administer the laws, rules and regulations assigned to them and so they are only connected to the salary paying Bureau or office they belong to. That is to say, the Bureaucrats will continue to receive their salary regardless what taxpayers or citizens say or do because they are only connected to the Bureau or Office that pays them their salary. This distinction of salaried Bureaucrats is so important that both Bernard Shaw and John Maynard Keynes said that salaried Bureaucrats (the Salariat) is the administrative vehicle designed to operate the Socialist society.
So, if one wanted to fundamentally transform a Democratic Republic into a
Socialistic Government, one would have to establish a salaried Bureaucracy big enough to do the job. That is exactly what has been happening as President Obama appoints Czars without Congressional approval, takes over the healthcare system that has untold numbers of new boards and offices to administer the new program, and on and on. Lets just look at the new national Healthcare program. Not only is there over 2,300 pages to describe a new law that no one understands, Bureaucrats are busy creating thousands of new rules and regulations that will have the force of law without the necessity of having the peoples congress being involved. Hey, who needs that messy democratic congress thing when we will have salaried Bureaucrats that will, for all intents and Socialistic purposes, become the fourth branch of Government?

VERITAS THROUGH A LOOKING GLASS

Veritas Through a Looking Glass

Roger said, “I am lying.” Is what Roger said the truth or a lie? When you consider what Roger said, there is no truth to be found, only a paradox. So how is one to know the truth (Veritas) when the truth is always viewed through the subjective human looking glass like the Roger statement above? How about another anecdotal example of Veritas through the subjective human looking glass? In 1809 the Miami Indians, in what is now the central area of Indiana, reluctantly agreed to a treaty (The treaty of Fort Wayne) to sell some 3,000,000 acres of their land so that white settlers could establish homesteads in what is now central Indiana. The treaty was signed by the Miami, Potawatomi, Delaware, Wea and Kickapoo Indian tribes for subsidies and payments that amounted to about 3 cents per acre (the treaty is also known as the 10 O’clock Line Treaty). The Miami War Chief, Little Turtle, did not trust the white man’s instruments because he said the white man could manipulate what the surveying instruments indicated (as relating to the agreed upon true direction of the boundary line) and so he would only sign the treaty if the boundary line of the tract of land to be sold was determined by the direction of a shadow cast on the ground by a spear at ten o’clock in the morning. I can’t imagine why Little Turtle did not trust the white man, can you? But I digress. So where is truth as to the direction of the boundary line to be found? Is the truth to be found in the white man’s scientific surveying instruments or the local sun at 10 o’clock in the morning casting a shadow of a spear thrust onto the good soil that the Miami Indians were currently living on? It mattered little where the truth was hiding because Tecumseh, who was living just north of the ceded lands, took much exception to the treaty. Tecumseh traveled to Vincennes with 400-armed warriors and met with Governor William Henry Harrison to demand that the treaty be rescinded. Harrison said no. Tecumseh said he would ally with the British to void the treaty with armed force. The battle of Tippecanoe ensued and all of this eventually led to the war of 1812 with the British. So was the truth concerning the direction of the boundary line instrumental in what happened later as consequences, unintended and otherwise, unfolded? Not really because Veritas is subjective and always subject to interpretation by whomever has the most power or is victorious. All of this leads me to question the veracity of the notion that President Obama will oversee a fundamental transformation of the United States of America. Will knowing the truth in this matter really make a difference to you and me? I doubt it because if the transformation is to be from a democratic Republic to a socialistic Government, then all freedom and independent loving citizens will take exception to the transformation and gather together to defeat the notion rendering it false. If the transition to a socialistic Government occurs and we all yearn for a utopia where all men are forced by Government to be equal, then the notion of transformation will be made true. Regardless what the President really meant when he said he was going to fundamentally transform America, the truth will not be known until all of the consequences of all of the actions relating to this matter have played out. So Veritas will likely never be served until we are no longer upright on the sunny side of the grass. Nevertheless, I really like the word Veritas. I like it because it sounds like a more authoritative word than the English word Truth does, don’t you think? Well, if you are searching for the truth, or Veritas, in what President Obama is doing nowadays, I urge you to spend some time reading the following authoritarian account of John Maynard Keynes at Harvard University. Why read about Keynes at Harvard? What you will discover upon reading the account is that President Obama is a student of Keynes and the true agenda of his Presidency can most likely be found in the pages detailing the life and time of John Maynard Keynes.
Click here: http://www.keynesatharvard.org/book/KeynesatHarvard-ch04.html
Long live Veritas.

STIMULATING STIMULUS

Stimulating Stimulus

A drunk once confided to me: The reason God created booze and brewski was so that ugly people could enjoy sex too. I really don’t know why the fellow directed his observation about ugly drunk people in my direction but I did think at length about what he apparently said in humor. You know things like, if God wanted to ensure that the planet would always be fully populated, creating booze and brewski would be an easy way to do it. You know, a sort of Divine Stimulus Program. Nevertheless, I did curtail my alcohol consumption several-fold to test the drunk’s hypothesis and to lose some weight, what the sunshine boys call a Win, Win situation. On second thought, given that the hypothesis might indeed be correct, then perhaps it could end up being a Lose, Win situation. All of this brings to mind the famous quotation attributed to Sir Winston Churchill when Lady Astor accused him of being drunk, to wit the grand man was reported to have said, “Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly." But I digress. The Divine Stimulus Program to keep the planet populated got me to thinking about the Washington (Divine) Stimulus Program, you know, the one where the Government is creating money and the created money will somehow be injected into the economy which will then “stimulate” demand, which will then stimulate the economy to produce more goods, services, etc., which will stimulate the creation of jobs, which will stimulate the payment of money for labor (physical and intellectual), the payment of money for labor will then stimulate more demand for goods and services and, voila, a functioning and viable free market economy where only ruin and wreckage had once prevailed. Yeah, right. In days gone by, I was a Program Manager and I had to go to Washington DC to pitch my programs at Navy Headquarters in order to get money to execute my programs that the Navy wanted. The pitch was usually a view-graft presentation showing all of the elements of the program and how it would all come together, on time and within budget. Usually somewhere in the presentation things would inevitably get a little hazy on how a key element would occur (like requiring a technology that did not yet exist) and this is the place where a miracle would need to take place to make the program successful. Well in reality there are no such things as miracles and the so-called Government stimulus program requires a miracle somewhere in there to make it successful, and here is the reason why. First, there are two basic kinds of economies, a Top Down Economy (managed economy, e.g., USSR) and a Bottom Up Economy (free market economy, e.g., USA), with many variations in between. The USA has a free market economy even though with each passing day it becomes more and more a managed economy. The government intervening into a free market place by throwing artificial money into the system (the stimulus program, with more about artificial money later) transforms the functioning of the free market because the intervention is an attempt to manage the economy rather than let the free market place manage the economy. Just like you can’t really pay off a credit card with a credit card, you really can’t manage a free market place by intervening in it. If you attempt to manage a free market, you can only further disrupt the functioning of the economy. This counterproductive situation should be patently obvious even to Flim Flam Politicians. Let’s talk about money. Money is a wonderful invention by man to facilitate the functioning of an economy. Without money, we would be reduced to barter, and we all understand that an economy based upon barter would leave us stuck in the Stone Age. Real money is the medium of exchange (gold, paper certificate, ones & zeros, etc.) that we all agree has the same value as our labor, goods or property. Money relies exclusively upon the faith and trust of the people that money is as valuable as their hard work, property and productive enterprise. Real money can only be produced by productive enterprise because only real money represents real value. The Government cannot produce real money, only productive enterprise can produce real money and only real money is viable in a free market place because it alone represents real value. Government can only produce artificial money because it (the Government) is not engaged in productive enterprise in a free market economy. If the Government produces (prints or borrows) artificial money, that artificial money can only dilute the value of real money (inflation) because it (artificial money) was not produced by productive enterprise. Unless a miracle occurs, throwing artificial money into a free market economy cannot possibly grow the economy because the artificial money does not represent real value and the intervention is doomed to eventual failure. The only possible way to restart the economy and cause it to grow is to create the conditions favorable to productive enterprise. This can be done by a moratorium on business taxes, eliminate capital gains tax, provide incentives for business to do business here rather than outsourcing factories and jobs to more favorable locations. The most important change that must occur before any long term improvement can occur is that our economy must change from a 70% consumer driven Gross National Product (GNP) to a more sustainable productive enterprise GNP. So here is the situation that we are stuck with in this Government Stimulus Intervention. We will all get drunk on artificial money, but in the morning we will be sober, and the economy will still be ugly.