Long, Slow Burn

I’m attemping to mount a high definition antenna up in my attic and fish a coaxial cable down the wall to get to our TV so I can try out some free HD TV when the phone starts ringing. It’s Mike Johnson and he asks me what I’m doing. “Nuthin” I reply. He said “Good, we’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

The Johnsons are good friends of mine, both from home schooling circles plus they’re on the board of the Forsyth County Archery Club with me.

I go outside to turn on the Christmas lights so it’s all festive when they come over and I’m hearing sleigh bells. Around the corner comes the Johnsons, some friends, and they’re being pulled in a horse drawn sleigh / carriage. That’s Christmasey!

“I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system,” Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision “to make sure the economy doesn’t collapse.”

Bush’s comments reflect an extraordinary departure from his longtime advocacy for an unfettered free market, as his administration has orchestrated unprecedented government intervention in the face of a dire financial crisis.

Dunderhead! If we let the free market work, we’d have a bunch of pain (such as a fever) but then we’d be on the road to recovery (such as when a fever breaks). Now, who knows if we’ll survive the wisdom of our government officials.

“I am sorry we’re having to do it,” Bush said.

Not as sorry as I am W.

Laughed at! Are these people eating crow now? Financial advisor on the Ron Paul presidential team, and right all of these years. I guess I’m becoming a Peter Schiff fan.

Note to self: Must slap Ben Stein next time I see him.

We’re in a mess, and the people in power don’t have a clue on what to do. Congress is backwards. We’re in a financial meltdown and the Dems are talking about “The Fairness Doctrine”?!?! Really?

When was the last time that either of our two major presidential candidates spoke of balancing the budget? It’s all about who will spend more money. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of it. I’m mad as hell.

I’m going to vote (early) next week. I’m going to write in Ron Paul’s name for president. I can’t stand even the second tier candidates: Barr and Nader.

And even today, as market forces deflate the credit bubble, the government is stepping in to re-inflate it. First came the Treasury’s $700 billion plan to purchase mortgage assets that no one in the private sector would buy. Now it has recapitalized banks to the tune of $250 billion, guaranteeing loans between banks and fully insuring non-interest-bearing accounts. Policymakers say that absent these steps, banks would not be able to extend loans. But given our already staggering debt burden, perhaps more loans are not the answer. That’s what the free market is telling us. But the government cannot abide solutions that ask for consumer sacrifice.

Real credit can be supplied only by savings, so artificial steps to stimulate lending will only produce inflation. By refusing to allow market forces to rein in excess spending, liquidate bad investments, replenish depleted savings, fund capital investment and help workers transition from the service sector to the manufacturing sector, government is resisting the cure while exacerbating the disease.

With the $850 bailout (including all of the PORK!!!), and the banks being funded by government, we’re in big trouble. We need to let market forces work, let sanity return to business, encourage individuals to SAVE their money, and maybe, MAYBE we might get out of this thing.

Read more here:
Don’t Blame Capitalism

This makes me a bit nervous. The government is buying stock in banks. They say that they’ll back out once stability has returned to the markets. Is this temporary just like the income tax on individuals? This is getting very little press I’m afraid. Why is that?

We need to let the free market work, and that means that some people will lose their investments. What part of government means that people can’t lose their investments? What part of government dictates that the economy can’t be unstable? We’re throwing bad money after bad debt, and this makes me nervous about the future.

U.S. will buy stock in banks, Paulson says

All of my life, people have cried out “Throw the bums out” and two things happen: (1) People don’t do it, incumbents re-win and (2) the new bums are as bad as the old bums.

Here’s what I propose: Just like with a misbehaving puppy, more training can do wonders, both with love/praise and with a newspaper to the nose.

I’ve been saying this for years, and I feel that this is more true than ever: Voting occurs once every couple of years, with presidential elections every four years. Not a lot of opportunity to make an impact. A phone call, a letter, an email however … can have the impact of 1,000s of votes!!! I called each of my senators and my representative over the last couple of days. I feel as if I made a difference. Sure, they may have been voting against Pelosi because of her whiny speech, or voting against Pelosi because she allowed all of her friends to vote against the bill while encouraging the junior members to vote for it, or they may have voted against it when the minority leader called the bill a “mud sandwich”, … or maybe … just maybe … our representatives
listened to the public that called and emailed in huge volumes.

Last night, the pundits were whining “We lost $1T dollars to evaporation in the market today!!!” Sob! Sob! Boo-hoo! (Okay, the last part was my addition.) Today, did the world end? Nope, not by a long shot! The
DOW opened up 200 points!!! As we speak it’s up 350 points!!! Does that mean that $500B condensated? (What’s the opposite of a stock market evaporation anyway?!?) All in ONE DAY!!! Sure, the market won’t
close up 350 points, but if it closes up 200 points, that’s a huge victory for our children and grandchildren by keeping the dollar strong. (at least not weaker like would happen with the bailout. Harumph!)

I plan on putting my phone where my mouth is and keep being an annoying ass by contacting my representatives and senators on each bill that I think is important. (Before I would just worry and whine and suck my thumb in the corner of the room.) And YOU SHOULD TOO!!!

Voting the old bureaucrats out of office won’t work. We’ve tried that for decades now. We need to learn our own lesson. Phone + email = tough love for our lost puppies of politicrats that have lost their way and in doing so have lost their spine.

Freedom. Freedom!!! There is nothing else. Do not give up. This tree can still be saved.

… and on that note, as you reflect on my above diatribe, here’s a little snippet of a story from a great book. No, I’m not going to tell you what book:

“The great oak tree had stood on the hill over the Hudson, in a lonely spot on the Taggart estate. Eddie Willers, aged seven, like to come and look at that tree. It had stood there for hundreds of years, and he thought it would always stand there. Its roots clutched the hill like a fist with fingers sunk into the soil, and he thought that if a giant were to seize it by the top, he would not be able to uproot it but would swing the hill and the whole of the earth with it like a ball at the end of a string. He felt safe in the oak tree’s presence; it was a thing nothing could change or threaten; it was his greatest symbol of strength.

One night, lightning struck the oak tree. Eddie saw it next morning. It lay broken in half, and he looked into its trunk as into the mouth of a black tunnel. The trunk was only an empty shell; its heart had rotted
away long ago; there was nothing inside - just a thin gray dust that was being dispersed by the whim of the faintest wind. The living power had gone, and the shape of it left had not been able to stand without it.

Years later, he heard it said that children should be protected from shock, from their first knowledge of death, pain or fear. But these had never scarred him; his shock came when he stood very quietly, looking
into the black hole of the trunk. It was an immense betrayal - the more terrible because he could not grasp what it was that had been betrayed. It was not himself, he knew, nor his trust; it was something else. He stood there for a while, making no sound, then he walked back to the house. He never spoke about it to anyone, then or since.”

Take a look at this foreshadowing of the crisis we have today:

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr071602.htm

Bonus points to Dr. Paul for proposing the solution and not just pointing out the crisis.

Here Dr. Paul talks to Neil Cavuto:

I like Penn Jillette. He’s a fellow Libertarian like myself. He’s talking about having government doing less of me. I like that. I’m of an independent mind.

I don’t want anyone as president who promises to take care of me. I may be stupid, but I want a chance to try to be a grown-up and take care of my family. Freedom means the freedom to be stupid, and that’s what I want. I don’t want anyone to feel my pain or tell me to ask what we can do for our country, or give us all money and take care of us.

Read more here:
Commentary: Last thing we need now is a great leader

#1 issue: Fiscal responsibility.

Dr. Paul talks about how we’re in such trouble. Our country is now built on sand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txhabgZF_gE