With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932 – July 4, 2010

The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation.

“Home sales are down. Retail sales are down. Factory orders in May suffered their biggest tumble since March of last year. So what are we doing about it? Less than nothing,” he said.

California is tightening faster than Greece. State workers have seen a 14pc fall in earnings this year due to forced furloughs. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is cutting pay for 200,000 state workers to the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to cover his $19bn (£15bn) deficit.

Can Illinois be far behind? The state has a deficit of $12bn and is $5bn in arrears to schools, nursing homes, child care centres, and prisons. “It is getting worse every single day,” said state comptroller Daniel Hynes. “We are not paying bills for absolutely essential services. That is obscene.”

Roughly a million Americans have dropped out of the jobs market altogether over the past two months. That is the only reason why the headline unemployment rate is not exploding to a post-war high.

Let us be honest. The US is still trapped in depression a full 18 months into zero interest rates, quantitative easing (QE), and fiscal stimulus that has pushed the budget deficit above 10pc of GDP.

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Rush Limbaugh: America has become ‘Obamaville’ – June 30, 2010
‘The only difference is Obama is doing this on purpose. Hoover wasn’t’

At the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s, many Americans fighting for survival ended up living in crudely built shantytowns known as “Hoovervilles,” in humiliating honor of President Herbert Hoover, who many blamed for the economic distress.

Now in 2010, radio giant Rush Limbaugh is declaring the United States has become one giant “Obamaville,” thanks directly to the policies of President Barack Obama.

“The whole country is Obamaville,” Limbaugh said on his program today. “Obama is Herbert Hoover. You know they used to call those unemployment camps Hoovervilles. Well, now we’re going to see Obamavilles springing up all across the nation.”

“Hoover was trying to fix things. Obama’s not. The only difference is Obama is doing this on purpose. Hoover wasn’t.”

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Analyst: Obama has U.S. economy in ‘death spiral’ – July 4, 2010
‘Simple math’ confirms unemployment won’t be solved by government hiring

A new analysis of the U.S. economy shows that since 2007, the private sector has lost 10.5 million jobs while the public sector has added 720,000 jobs, creating a “death spiral” for the nation’s economy.

The study comes from The Free Enterprise Nation, a nonpartisan national membership/advocacy organization for individuals and businesses that make up the private sector.

The analysis was done using statistics about employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The recession of the last two years exacerbated the larger problem that already was in place, it revealed.

“Over the 10-year period between March 2000 and March 2010, the private sector lost over three million jobs, while the public sector gained nearly two million jobs,” the analysis concludes.

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Read article

Fox and Friends: The Hidden Costs of Government

Dow Repeats Great Depression Pattern: Charts

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is repeating a pattern that appeared just before markets fell during the Great Depression, Daryl Guppy, CEO at Guppytraders.com, told CNBC Monday.

“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it…there was a head and shoulders pattern that developed before the Depression in 1929, then with the recovery in 1930 we had another head and shoulders pattern that preceded a fall in the market, and in the current Dow situation we see an exact repeat of that environment,” Guppy said.

The Dow retreated 457.33 points, or 4.5 percent last week, to close at 9,686 Friday. Guppy said a Dow fall below 9,800 confirmed the head and shoulders pattern.

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The We’re-Not-Europe Party
The bill comes due for a life of fairness at the expense of growth.

One of the constant criticisms of Barack Obama’s first year is that he’s making us “more like Europe.” But that’s hard to define and lacks broad political appeal. Until now.

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For Americans, this has been a two-week cram course in what not to be if you hope to have a vibrant future. What was once an unfocused criticism of Mr. Obama and the Democrats, that they are nudging America toward a European-style social-market economy, came to awful life in the panicked, stricken faces of Europe’s leadership: Merkel, Sarkozy, Brown, Papandreou. They look like that because Europe has just seen the bond-market devil.

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Economic stagnation arrives like a slow poison. Look at the floundering United Kingdom, whose failed prime minister, Gordon Brown, said on leaving, “I tried to make the country fairer.” Maybe there’s a more important goal.

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The second debt storm

The debt mountain that brought down some of the world’s biggest banks and dragged the international financial system to the brink of disaster has simply shifted to governments. Now it’s threatening countries around the globe — and, if left unchecked, could rip the very fabric of Europe’s economic system and wreck economic recoveries in the U.S., China and Latin America.

The impact on markets has been severe. The euro has slumped more than 12% against the dollar since the sovereign-debt crisis flared in southern Europe. Gold has marched to new highs as investors seek a safe haven and, perhaps most alarming, it is now more expensive to buy insurance against national default than it is to insure against corporate failure.

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Some investors and analysts are increasingly concerned that governments may be no more capable of repaying their debts than the banks and insurance companies they saved. And, they warn, if a major country comes close to default, it could trigger a financial meltdown that would eclipse the panic that followed the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

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“All we’re doing is shifting chairs on the deck of the Titanic,” he added.

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Economic drag

Once government debt levels approach 100% of GDP, things can get tricky.

That’s because a lot of a country’s income from taxes and other sources has to be spent on interest payments.

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U.S.

The U.S. government has spent more than $1 trillion bailing out financial institutions like American International Group (NYSE:AIG) and rolling out fiscal stimulus programs to bolster the flagging economy.

In 2009, the government took in about $2.1 trillion in taxes and other revenue and spent more than $3 trillion, according to TrimTabs’ Schnapp. The gap, or deficit, is made up by borrowing more money through sales of Treasury bonds and notes.

In coming years, U.S. government debt will exceed 100% of GDP, according to economists at Exane BNP Paribas and elsewhere.

In the next 20 years, if fiscal policies aren’t changed, U.S. debt to GDP will exceed 150%, putting the country in the same league as Greece and Portugal, according to recent research led by Stephen Cecchetti, head of the Monetary and Economic Department at the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland.

And the official data don’t tell the whole story, Buiter says.

Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) have been the responsibility of the U.S. government since the mortgage giants were placed into conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency during the financial crisis in 2008, he noted.

Fannie and Freddie’s liabilities at the end of last year’s third quarter were almost $1.8 trillion, according to Buiter. This equals 13% of U.S. GDP and should be included in measurements of the country’s general government debt, he added.

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How will all this debt be repaid? Developed nations could generate strong productivity gains, while rising exports from their pharmaceutical, technology and financial-services industries could generate better-than-expected income. Combined with “frugality, sacrifice and good fortune,” there could be enough money to repay debts, he explained. This may include lower government spending and higher taxes.

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Read entire article

US faces one of biggest budget crunches in world – IMF

Earlier this week, the Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, irked US authorities by pointing out that even the world’s economic superpower has a major fiscal problem -“even the United States, the world’s largest economy, has a very large fiscal deficit” were his words. They were rather vague, but by happy coincidence the International Monetary Fund has chosen to flesh out the issue today. Unfortunately this is a rather long post with a few chunky tables, but it is worth spending a bit of time with – the IMF analysis is fascinating.

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Now, it is true that the US has some similar issues to Greece – the high debt, the need to roll over quite a lot of debt each year, the rising healthcare costs and so on. But it has two secret (or not so secret) weapons. The first is that unlike Greece it is not trapped in a monetary union. The US, like Britain and Japan, can independently control its monetary policy; it can devalue its currency. These are hardly solutions in and of themselves, but they do help make the adjustment a lot easier and more gradual. Second, the US has growth. It remains one of, if not the, world’s most dynamic economies. It is growing at a snappy pace this year (in comparison to other countries). And a few percentage points of GDP make an immense difference, since they make those debts much easier to repay.

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America is not Greece, but if it does not start making efforts to cut the deficit within a few years, it will head in that direction. The upshot wouldn’t be an IMF bail-out, but a collapse in the dollar and possible hyperinflation in the US, but it would be horrific all the same. America has time, but not forever.

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Read entire article

Ron Paul has been warning us for years now over debt concerns that would spread to the United States. We have moved from a financial crisis to a worldwide currency crisis. Europe is next. Will we be the last to fall? How long before Americans wake up?

The 100 Years War: Collectivism vs. Individualism
By David McKalip, M.D.
Americans are caught in a war and it is time to choose sides or be prepared to live with the consequences. In this war there are two sides vying for victory: the forces of collectivism and the forces of individualism. Those Americans who plan to wait out the results and live with the fallout should think twice since the victor will have a profound influence on their lives. That is because the collectivists seek to control every aspect of the lives of every American and every person on the planet. The individualists wish only to win control over the degree of power possessed by government and wish no control over the lives of Americans — no power, no money, no special place in the economy. (read article)

The Limits of Power
By Thomas Sowell

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Ironically, the United States is moving in the direction of the kind of economy that China has been forced to move away from. China once had complete government control of medical care, but eventually gave it up as the disaster that it was.

The current leadership in Washington operates as if they can just set arbitrary goals, whether “affordable housing” or “universal health care” or anything else — and not concern themselves with the repercussions — since they have the power to simply force individuals, businesses, doctors or anyone else to knuckle under and follow their dictates.

Friedrich Hayek called this mindset “the road to serfdom.” But, even under serfdom and slavery, experience forced those with power to recognize the limits of their power. What this administration — and especially the President — does not have is experience.

Barack Obama had no experience running even the most modest business, and personally paying the consequences of his mistakes, before becoming President of the United States. He can believe that his heady new power is the answer to all things.

Read entire article

While many were romanticized over the Obama’s and reality was distorted, it’s time to learn from the past and be ready to face what is ahead of us. We already know that we are in trouble financially; our debt is unsustainable, health care passed against the will of the American people with 58% who wish to repeal and replace, and now the debate of illegal immigration (amnesty) begins where 58% favor policies to crack down on illegals.

What nation doesn’t secure their borders? Apparently, the United States. People know that an illegal crossing the border is a crime, but hell the federal government won’t manage the law, so it then must be enforced by the states. Gov. Jan Brewer from Arizona, in their latest effort, signed a new law that has sparked a furious debate where many on the left are now labeling the bill as a way of racial profiling. Protecting the borders and enforcing the law is now racial profiling? I say, it’s about time to do something to protect those that in are in our country legally. It’s called following the law.

(I will discuss more regarding illegal immigration in another posting)

We know that the Canadian press has always been a bit ahead of American media. Below is the latest regarding Barack Obama’s eligibility as President of the United States. Quite disturbing but if you have been following the Obama presidency like I have, this comes at no real surprise. Facts are the facts and only time will tell exactly what will happen regarding the legitimacy of Barack Hussein Obama, Congress, and the Democratic Party. When certain Congressional individuals are on record claiming they don’t follow the Constitution, making up the rules as they go along, then would something like eligibility phase them? Probably not. Whether you agree or disagree, it is a MUST READ!

DC Knows that Obama is Ineligible for Office

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Members from all three branches of the Federal government already know that Barack Hussein Obama is ineligible for the office of President. National leaders, to include members of the US Supreme Court, already know that Barack Hussein Obama is not a “natural born citizen” of the United States of America, and therefore, is ineligible for the office he currently holds.

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The US Constitution no longer stands as the governing law of this land. Obama’s many unconstitutional policies, Czars, executive orders and statements provide the proof, and the fact that nobody in DC cares whether or not Obama is constitutionally qualified to be president of the United States should send a shiver down the spine of every red blooded American citizen, no matter their partisan agendas.

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Read entire article

I make no clear affirmation regarding the eligibility of President Obama but since the beginning nothing has made sense. Every piece of the puzzle that I attempt to assemble is as bizarre as the next sequence. One thing is clear – it’s about power and control. I have devoted much time since the elections of 2008 to dissect and assemble the truth as our Founding Fathers and Mothers would have wanted given the privilege as Americans. It’s up to us to hold those in power accountable to their actions. Patriots are standing up and saying, “enough is enough!”

Each passing week the November elections look to be more favorable for a significant Republican victory. Don’t get too cozy with the numbers there is still work to do be done. Americans are awake, active, and engaged. Now more than ever the people’s voice will be reality. Time to tell Congress we mean business.

Nothing is for certain in the upcoming months as a number of battles lie ahead. Whatever you do, don’t give up hope. Faith is our greatest healer and we know that God is with us every step of the way. Keep active, educating yourself, and whatever you do, don’t stop spreading the truth. America is experiencing an awakening like no other time in history. Perhaps this will be the purging and cleansing we need to restore civility and return to our roots. God bless!

Republicans Threatening Congressional Seats Long Held by Democrats
The fight for the midterm elections is not confined to traditional battlegrounds, where Republicans and Democrats often swap seats every few cycles. In the Senate, Democrats are struggling to hold on to, among others, seats once held by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Democrats are preparing to lose as many as 30 House seats – including a wave of first-term members – and Republicans have expanded their sights to places where political challenges seldom develop. (read article)

Remember November
Remember November so that we can return America to its founding principles of freedom, personal responsibility and economic liberty. We Remember November so we, our children, and grandchildren can live with the freedoms our founding fathers intended.

Feel free to donate to Jennifer Horn or any other candidate who values limited government and unlimited opportunity. Support for Tea Parties across America are growing. It’s the American Way!

This post in particular causes a bit of concern. This article was pulled from Reuters (and just recently also from Canadian Yahoo). The question that is raised is why did Reuters pull this story?

It is a story suggesting a backdoor tax hike will affect America’s middle class. This is a statement from Reuters:

The story Backdoor taxes to hit middle class has been withdrawn. A replacement story will run later in the week.

However, thanks to the internet, the original is still available.

Backdoor taxes to hit middle class – Tuesday, February 02, 2010
By Terri Cullen

NEW YORK (Reuters.com) —The Obama administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.

In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year — effectively a tax hike by stealth.

While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.

The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration’s Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily scaled back the estate tax to zero in 2010.

If the provisions are allowed to expire on December 31, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. But lower-income families will pay more as well: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent. The special 10 percent bracket is eliminated.

Investors will pay more on their earnings next year as well, with the tax on dividends jumping to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increasing to 20 percent from 15 percent. The estate tax is eliminated this year, but it will return in 2011 — though there has been talk about reinstating the death tax sooner.

Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a “patch” that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.

Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year’s levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy — the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.

Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:

* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes;

* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies;

* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses;

* Individuals who don’t itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid;

* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.

So, again, why did Reuters pull the story? Interesting.

Latest source – (NRO Media Blog)

What began the Obama administration in 2009 as a year of high hope and optimism ended in unprecedented havoc. The growing outrage from the American electorate over Obama’s bad policies and a disconnected administration is causing severe discontent and divisiveness throughout the nation. With a growing deficit, high unemployment, an increase in personal bankruptcy filings, weakness on terror, and an administration out of control (Chicago-style politics brought to Washington, D.C. come to mind), the nation is trying to process the overgrowing concerns of such dire circumstances. Where is the recovery, Barack? Even when we begin to recover many of the jobs will not return.

We have seen broken campaign promises, backroom deals, congressional bribery, and massive government corruption with ties to special interests and power grabs. It is blatantly clear the Democrats are ignoring the will of the American people while continuing to attack the very people who elected them.

Last week, C-SPAN came out and challenged Congress to televise healthcare negotiations. The head of C-SPAN implored Congress to open up debate. The lies and deceit from an elitist inside Washington mentality has left a bad taste for government and our political system. Where is the government transparency Obama had called for during the 2008 presidential campaign?

During the Christmas holiday, the White House came under fire for their Christmas decor featuring Mao Zedong, an ornament of Obama’s head on Mount Rushmore and of drag queen Hedda Lettuce.

President Obama and administration also came under fire for the responses regarding the thwarted Christmas Day attack. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano first claiming the “system worked” then a day later retracting due to the heat the White House was getting out of absurdity. The response time while President Obama still on holiday seemed out of touch. Are we really to believe the system worked? What is Obama doing to keep Americans safe or is Obama not protecting us?

Keep America Safe released this video of the time-line.

Here is another Keep America Safe video – Rhetoric vs. Reality!

Many are asking themselves: is this all due to an administration and Congress being totally incompetent or is the Obama administration intentionally set in fundamentally changing us? Through massive planning and funding over decades of manipulated and calculated moves, the radical left has worked their way into our entire way of life everything from our education, to entertainment, to news media.

This administration is wreaking havoc throughout America’s capitalist, free-enterprise system by taking over major industries those of which include banking, auto and healthcare. The Obama administration is busily engaged in undermining and destroying the nation’s key institutions – or as Obama himself euphemistically put it a few days before being elected president, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

It is becoming more apparent that the current governing administration over America’s free people are using tactics to collapse the system. It is a strategy known as the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” which seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

The actual result of 2009’s non-stop crises has been not just the dramatic transfer of wealth and power away from citizens and small businesses and into the hands of government, but also the beginnings of a profound transformation of America’s economic and governmental system.

Many Democratic incumbents are facing their own challenges in 2010 amid high unemployment rates, concerns about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and anger at incumbents. Now that America is awake, do not underestimate the will of the American people. Continued activism and the growing support for the Tea Party movement is gaining strength, poised to make significant strides in 2010.

“The tea party movement has the potential to drive public opinion and electoral support in ways that are hard to fully appreciate right now. The American people are angry at both parties, and the tea party movement fills an important void that neither party currently addresses,” said Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor Doug Schoen.

We all have learned valuable lessons over the past year and have come to realize that we as free people can no longer remain complacent and apathetic. It’s time to rise up, become active and get involved. It is not too late to take the blinders off and realize the full extent to which, we as Americans, have the greatest gift – with freedom and liberty come responsibility.

The sleeping giant has awoken and the people of this great land will use every means necessary to stop the very threat of tyranny that lies before us. It is a pivotal year and whatever happens from this day forward will forever change the future of America. The rise of political angst among both parties makes way for a bloodbath in the 2010 elections. Will it remain the “last best hope for mankind”? That depends on you. Do you want to remain free or will you continue to remain silent giving up liberty for Statist control?

It becomes more evident that, 52 years ago, Ayn Rand predicted today’s world. John Stossel airs a great program that reflects on individualism and our role in society. Our government should be limiting regulation and protecting against the nanny state, allowing us to live more freely. This should not give man authority to restrict freedom and rights out of a sense of obligation. This act is immoral. Just think, environmentalists, vegans, animal right activists, safety control, etc.

(1) What are values? (2) Who should be the beneficiary of values? Altruism substitutes the second for the first; it evades the task of defining a code of moral values, thus leaving man, in fact, without moral guidance.

Is it selfish to not care for our ‘welfare’ neighbor? How about wrong to not want to protect the adult who wishes to drive a car without a seat belt? Or, what about being the decider to ban cigarettes, alcohol, and trans fats because they are all bad for your health? At what cost is safety? Is there a difference of virtue of those promoting individualism for the benefit for all over those who promote altruism for the simple sake of giving? Should one sacrifice for someone else’s benefit even if they don’t deserve it? Where is the good in doing something when one restricts? Sacrifice is needed but at what cost?

All questions that many of us think about but we have our own take on it. I tend to look at things from a win-win perspective where if it benefits both (all) of us then it has achieved the goal of true goodness. If it didn’t jeopardize the goal of one life for another (those individual rights for someone else), which is exactly what many on the left think we should be doing, then it has truly served for the common good.

In part, that of which damages the individual is as follows: redistribution of wealth, increased regulation, society bans that put safety above freedom, over control and dictatorship (and the idea of a military draft). Claiming my belief over yours is taking something away by brute force.

Man’s rights can be violated only by the use of physical force. It is only by means of physical force that one man can deprive another of his life, or enslave him, or rob him, or prevent him from pursuing his own goals, or compel him to act against his own rational judgment.
(Ayn Rand Center)

Now onto the John Stossel video.

What is the moral code of altruism?

The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value.

Do not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which, in fact, altruism makes impossible. The irreducible primary of altruism, the basic absolute, is self-sacrifice—which means; self-immolation, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-destruction—which means: the self as a standard of evil, the selfless as a standard of the good.

Do not hide behind such superficialities as whether you should or should not give a dime to a beggar. That is not the issue. The issue is whether you do or do not have the right to exist without giving him that dime. The issue is whether you must keep buying your life, dime by dime, from any beggar who might choose to approach you. The issue is whether the need of others is the first mortgage on your life and the moral purpose of your existence. The issue is whether man is to be regarded as a sacrificial animal. Any man of self-esteem will answer: “No.” Altruism says: “Yes.”

Read more of the definition

My brief response on a Facebook status after I saw the program was regarding capitalism and the dangers of those who try to poison society:

Oh yeah, sure…blame capitalism but if you let the free market do what it’s suppose to do by allowing those to succeed or fail on it’s own, there would be no need for regulation and the nanny state. That includes not manipulating the system and then bailing out failed businesses.

My good friend Christopher Budden of the The Conservative Rainbow had gone a bit more in depth and posted this with a video regarding Ayn Rand and altruism:

Ayn tackles the poison of altruism. Pay particular attention to the distinction she makes between giving to someone else you VALUE vs. giving to someone else merely for the sake of giving–whether the excuse is by religion tells me to or to make myself feel better; neither of those are valid excuses. Therein lies the subtle difference that Americans have lost the grasp of and why our leaders have been able to convince us that big government programs which rob us of our own VALUE and highest moral purpose are “good for us.”

Here is a short clip that was provided.

Something that benefits us all: Many who know me know that I am a big supporter of our military. That is a true sacrifice like no other. To put your own life ahead of others is a true testament of character and strong will. To stand on principles of freedom and liberty and risk life affects each and every one of us. Without a strong defense, many of the freedoms today would not exist. Our military is simply the best and they deserve to be treated as such for their bravery. In return of their goodness, as it the brave men and women who choose to serve for us, we must remind them everyday how thankful we are of them. God bless them!

All of what I can do is be a voice of reason. To stand up and defend freedom when it is under attack. To challenge those who wish to shred the Constitution. If anything, to provide insight and rational thought to counter that clouded view and lack of direction. Common-sense is a corner stone to a practical approach in doing what is in the best interest without imposing on the liberty and free will of others. To do no harm!

More from the Ayn Rand Center:

“The two great values to be gained from social existence are: knowledge and trade. Man is the only species that can transmit and expand his store of knowledge from generation to generation; the knowledge potentially available to man is greater than any one man could begin to acquire in his own lifespan; every man gains an incalculable benefit from the knowledge discovered by others. The second great benefit is the division of labor: it enables a man to devote his effort to a particular field of work and to trade with others who specialize in other fields. This form of cooperation allows all men who take part in it to achieve a greater knowledge, skill and productive return on their effort than they could achieve if each had to produce everything he needs, on a desert island or on a self-sustaining farm.

Top Ten States with Looming Budget Disasters

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A study released Wednesday warns that nine states are barreling toward an economic disaster similar to California’s ongoing fiscal crisis, which has been marked by IOUs and budget-busting deficits.

States with Looming Budget Disasters:
Arizona
California
Florida
Illinois
Michigan
Nevada
New Jersey
Oregon
Rhode Island
Wisconsin

Budget Disaster Criteria (Pew States):
High Foreclosure Rates
Increasing Joblessness
Loss of State Revenues
Relative Size of Budget Gaps
Legal Obstacles to Balance
Poor Money Management

Our government in an attempt to protect us from feeling the pain of a downturn (recession) has created a new bubble – all in hopes of keeping prices artificially low to prevent inflation and high interest. In the past year we have been spending into oblivion which far exceeds anything we have ever seen in our history. These actions of government protection are short lived and will only make things worse down the road. This sets us up for not only an unsustainable debt (in the trillions) but a total breakdown of our currency. Continuing to print money and spend will further put a financial burden on our children and grandchildren but what’s worse could be a total collapse.

Once this bubble bursts, it will spark a raging fire instantly creating hyperinflation, high interest rates, and a standard of living that has not been seen here in America since the Great Depression. What is clear is that we importing far more than we are exporting. Oil and gold are on the rise and the value of the dollar continues to weaken. Unemployment is still on the rise and nothing is being done to create jobs and spark growth. We are on a wrong track and this act by our government and the Fed is uncontainable. Our media and politicians are the enablers to our demise.

Is our current administration and government that ignorant to ignore history and what we know to be true or are they aware of what they are doing because they want a US collapse?

Cloward-Piven Strategy (a strategy by forcing political change through orchestrated crisis)

Here is a list of stages during during an economic downturn:

Economic Downturn
Recession
Depression
Great Depression
Collapse of the Dollar
Global Currency
One World Government
New World Order

Glenn Beck Tuesday

Peter Schiff on CNBC Fast Money discussing Obama’s China Policy (11-16-09)

Peter Schiff nails it every time. Too bad those on CNBC are a bit clueless to the economic problems that Americans are facing and we need to address these concerns head on.

China questions costs of U.S. healthcare reform

Guess what? It turns out the Chinese are kind of curious about how President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform plans would impact America’s huge fiscal deficit. Government officials are using his Asian trip as an opportunity to ask the White House questions. Detailed questions.

Boilerplate assurances that America won’t default on its debt or inflate the shortfall away are apparently not cutting it. Nor should they, when one owns nearly $2 trillion in assets denominated in the currency of a country about to double its national debt over the next decade.

Nothing happening in Washington today should give Beijing any comfort or confidence about what may happen tomorrow. Healthcare reform was originally promoted as a way to “bend the curve” on escalating entitlement costs, the major part of which is financing Medicare and Medicaid. That is looking more and more like an overpromised deliverable.

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Read entire article

Peter Schiff talks about the US Dollar

Glenn Beck- The Domino Theory (Collapse of The Dollar)

Why No Hyperinflation….Yet? – Banks are holding onto the excess Dollars

Glenn Beck & Arthur Laffer — Obama’s Government vs. Free Market System

Grim Milestone as Jobless Rate Tops 10% NOVEMBER 9, 2009

The unemployment rate last month soared above 10% for the first time since the early 1980s, a milestone likely to weigh on consumer confidence and stir new efforts in Washington to spur job creation.

Some 558,000 people joined the ranks of the jobless in October, sending the rate to 10.2% and the tally of officially unemployed Americans to 15.7 million, the Labor Department said. The 10% figure could overshadow last week’s news that the economy began growing again this summer after a long contraction.

“Ten percent is a terribly important number,” Democratic pollster Peter Hart said. “It is not only the 10.2% of the people who are unemployed, it is the number of people who are reliant on that 10%. It’s probably the other 20% who say, ‘I’m worried, I’m uncertain, I’m afraid about this, I worry about my job.’”

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Unemployment Now at 10.2 Percent – Obama Signs Bill Extending Jobless Benefits as Unemployment Rate Skyrockets

Greta Van Susteren & Steve Moore — Barack Obama Administration Lying about Jobs Created and Saved by Stimulus

Gregg: U.S. Could Become a Banana Republic Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:57 PM
By: Gene J. Koprowski

A leading voice for government spending restraint, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, says that the U.S. economy faces a future as a “banana republic” if current federal fiscal policies continue.

“We’re creating these massive debts which we’re passing on to our children,” Gregg said on CNN on Sunday.

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