The most important issue facing our nation right now is to control our spending. We all live wildly beyond our means — both as a government and as individuals. Fix this or we will face the consequences:
we need to figure out what a “normal” growth rate is, without all the stimulation from excessive monetary expansion by the Fed and real estate speculation. That growth rate is going to be lower than we want, in part because Americans refuse to acknowledge that we have an economy that doesn’t produce wealth. We no longer extract or manufacture in America. We produce consumer goods and services, mostly for one another.
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how do we get America focused again on being a productive economy
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If we do not get our public sector finances under control quickly, the dollar will collapse and we could see much higher interest rates. [...] We are not very far away from a time when foreigners will be explicitly dictating terms to the U.S. Treasury and private companies when we need to borrow money. Our future as a sovereign nation depends upon our ability to govern our financial behavior.
It is almost certain that some time during the next few decades the rest of the world will begin flexing previously unimaginable authority over our economic affairs. The less debt we owe the rest of the world (more than $30 trillion right now), the less we need to listen to them.
America, I beg you: do not let us become a country of Donald Trumps: at least not any more than we are already.
An interesting new recruiting tactic from the US Army (from Slate’s Today’s Papers):
The WSJ reports that in order to meet recruiting goals, the Army will try a different incentive besides the usual money-for-college route by offering recruits up to $40,000 to buy a home or start a business. The Army will market this new program to parents and other “influencers” because, as one Army official said, “we know most 18-year-old kids don’t think about mortgages yet.”
Their solution? Offer that money to the people who terrorists won’t be shooting instead: the soldier’s family. Hang a wad of cash over the parent’s head and hope it will make them want to sell their children into service and potential death — all for a down payement on their home and a way to avoid bankruptcy.
Regardless of the spin, parents pressuring kids to die in Iraq will be the result of this policy.
That is un-American.
Our troops morale is so low because we are accomplishing so little in Iraq. Our involvement in Iraq has now caused the death of more Americans than 9/11. Every soldier who dies today, tomorrow and the next day dies honorably, serving our country; but they die in vain. We long ago realized Iraq does not possess weapons of mass destruction. It long ago became clear that our presence will fail to create a secular, western democracy in the country. Those insurgents wielding bazookas and IED are not going to invade the US; they do not threaten our national security.
We only stay in Iraq to save face. Which is ironic, since the rest of the world lowers their opinion of our country every day we remain there. That, in my view, does not warrant a single American life. Stop building massive permanent bases in the country. Bring the troops home. Most of all: Stop this rampant spending!
It is hardly surprising that some left wing media sites want to restrict discussion to topics and opinions that they have pre-approved.
What is surprising is that Little Green Footballs, of all sites, thinks nothing of complaining about this while running its own censorship campaign inside its own site.
Both Little Green Footballs and RedState — among other blogs and MSM outlets — resent the enormous volume of commenters supporting Ron Paul. They responded by removing any comment that mentions or supports the presidential candidate. Amazingly enough, refusing to allow supporters of a libertarian-republican to voice their opinions only excited them further — telling someone obsessed with the constitution to limit his speech is a great way to piss him off.
Here is a pretty darn funny RedState parody of all the Ron Paul fans:
What makes this video unFunny is the fact that “serious” news organizations fail like FoxNews and ABC fail to address Ron Paul’s policies nor treat him with respect.
Tax men. A modern-day incarnation of the Sheriff of Nottingham. They help steal from the poor and give to the state through a litany of so-called-crimes like “speeding”, “public intoxication” and “illegal parking”.
The Highway Patrol are the worst offenders. It seems that the Highway Patrol officers in Utah are unsatisfied with their role as regressive taxmen — they want to terrorize civilians too!
Gardner does not attempt to handcuff Massey without the use of a Taser. This is in stark contrast to the man who had multiple security personnel attempting to handcuff him by hand before using Tasers while John Kerry was attempting to give a speech. Nothing suggests that Gardner used force as a last resort. I imagine that in an earlier era before Tasers, Gardner would have shot and killed the man.
Amazingly, people in Utah want their police officers to assault and arrest them as often as possible, as evidenced by the following editoral in the Salt Lake Tribune:
If you watched closely, and heard Gardner order Massey to put his hands behind his back, there’s no doubt that by walking away, Massey was resisting arrest. There’s no doubt that the use of the Taser was justified; that an attempt to physically subdue Massey may have forced both men into oncoming traffic
The officer was out of line to attempt to arrest the victim; he was further out of line to assault the man with a “non-lethal weapon” just to assert his authority.
Thank God the officer was able to restrain himself from tasering the pregnant lady. The fact that, luckily, the victim was not killed by this police officer tasing him was merely by chance.
Thank God we have video cameras and YouTube. The buried, positive aspect of this story is the fact that the victim was able obtain footage of the entire incident by requesting it from the county records. As much as we decry the draconian state of affairs in this country, remember that we still retain a great deal of authority to make things right again. There are a great number of countries where this crime would have gone unnoticed; in the United States this family are likely to be acquitted on their speeding charge and receive a meager sum of money from the city or state for the damage they caused the victim.
Still, that does escape the fact that Utah’s Highway Patrol failed miserably in this encounter with the public. The Highway Patrol claims to aspire to the following values:
“above reproach in dealing with the public”
“sincere and honest”; “open and honest communication”
“make decisions based on organizational values”
“deliver service that reflects a concern for the quality of life”
“allow only those of exemplary character to enter or remain in our ranks”
Due to the clever thinking of the accused to release the video to YouTube, the investigation into the officer’s actions has bee expedited. At a minimum they can live up to the “or remain” aspect of their values.
But are these actions the result of one bad apple named John Gardner or the entire organization? If you go to their more personal website website, they appear to find it appropriate to play a gunshot sound whenever you mouse-over any of their links. I am not sure how shooting people with guns and tasers so recklessly shows concern for the quality of life of their communities.
Further dubious activities by the Highway Patrol:
At no time during the video does the officer, John Gardner, read the accused, Jared Massey, his Miranda rights, despite the victim asking for them.
Towards the end of the video, the police officer also enters the vehicle to perform a search. The officer does not have a warrant. The police officer only said he was suspicious of speeding. Therefore, he has no probable cause to search for evidence related to anything aside from speeding. Had Gardner found anything, this would constitute an unwarranted search unless Mrs. Massey had given the policeman permission; the evidence would be inadmissible in court.
I would stay as far away from Vernal and Utah as possible until they get things in control over there!
As someone just getting started planning my future retirement, the pending collapse of the dollar and our great country’s economic standing is of prime concern to me.
You get a shockingly different picture of our economy if you convert the value of homes and the stock market into alternatives, such as oil and gold. Check it out:
Americans have lost something like 50% of our wealth since 2000 (in measured in how much gold and oil you can buy with a share of the stock market). Meanwhile all our congressmen want to do about it is print out ever more paper — this paper means about as much as the rest of their empty promises. It is easy for the stock market to go up 5% per year when the dollar is losing 10% a year.
I have a passport; I plan to visit foreign countries during my life; nothing I buy is made in my country. When the purchasing power of the dollar falls twice as fast as our economy is growing, I’m becoming poorer.
My country’s government and its policies are destroying any wealth I build up and maintain in US dollars.
I have good things to say about one analyst in particular on Fox Business, Peter Schiff. I first heard his commentary in August when I was worried about the stock market crashing. He was the only analyst that made any sense to me — probably because he is just as worried about the dire state of affairs as I am.
The most distressing part was that he was written off with callous laughter. Now that what he has been saying for months has come so true (do not hold dollars, invest overseas, oil and gold will skyrocket up), the rest of the talking heads have stopped laughing.
It is funny that one of the few financial pundits who made any sense to me turns into a major Ron Paul supporter a couple months later.
Citi ran an ad today during the Patriots-Colts game. It was something to the effect of going abroad with Dad to get in touch with the family roots. The trip was great until in the end they realized the roots were actually in Sweden.
One of my friends recently returned from his honeymoon in Sweden. He says it was so expensive he’ll never be able to go back.
This ad would be a lot more effective if the average joe watching football on a Sunday could afford to take a trip to Europe. How many can when a cheese sandwich costs $15? Few Americans can afford to visit any other first world country; the Fed is too busy creating the American peso instead. I guess there is no other way we can pay back the $40+ trillion dollars we owe the rest of the world though, is there?
This ad just reminds me that the fed and our government are trying to bail out many of our country’s largest banks, including Citi.
A more realistic ad would be a Citi representative helping their customers place their assets in a more stable currency, like the Argentine Peso.
Perhaps Citi and the rest of them will have better luck finding their way back to profitability, responsibility with new CEOs.
Of course, Citi and the banks are not the only ones to blame. We all share the blame. For nearly a decade we have been playing fast and loose with our cash, helped by gratuitous spending in Washington and irresponsibly low interest rates set by the Fed.
The most important issue facing our nation right now is to control our spending. We all live wildly beyond our means — both as a government and as individuals. Fix this or we will face the consequences:
Citi ran an ad today during the Patriots-Colts game. It was something to the effect of going abroad with Dad to get in touch with the family roots. The trip was great until in the end they realized the roots were actually in Sweden.