Just Sick of It!

It’s not common knowledge and something I only heard in passing a while ago but it just came up again while doing some research. But it’s believed that the United States of America declared, albeit not publicly, a national bankruptcy. The problems we are having today have been partially seen before and are rooted way back in the history of the country. Mastermind century long plot to rule the world? Mistake after mistake by shortsighted politicians? Or plain old greed. You decide.

We were all taught in school, and a lots of people still believe, that the American dollar is valued against gold, which is housed at Fort Knox, this monetary system is called the gold standard. But the fact is that a long, long time ago this standard was abolished and our monetary systems moved from the gold standard to a monetary system called fiat currency.

Before the gold standard there was just gold and other precious metals minted into coins, this is called commodity money. Due to costs and other issues governments decided that instead of issuing gold or silver as coins issuing representative money works out much better. Governments actually made profit for offering representative currency against gold, this profit called Seigniorage occurs when currency marked against the market value of gold at the time it’s issued and if the value of gold goes up the difference between the currency’s mark to gold and it’s current worth is a net profit for the Government.

Most people still believe that printing more money devalues it. This is true when the currency is using the gold standard. Lets assume that there is 100 dollars in the country and 100 ounces of gold in the governments vaults. In that case 1 dollar equals 1 ounce of gold. If the government then doubles the amount of currency in circulation all of a sudden 1 dollar no longer equals 1 ounce of gold, but 1/2 ounce, this is textbook inflation.

On June 5th 1933 Congress passed House Joint Resolution (HJR 192) which suspended the gold standard as the monetary policy in the United States. Replacing it with the Fiat currency monetary policy. Fiat money has no derived value, for example against gold. Instead it originates it’s value from the fact that it can be used to pay ones tax obligations to the government. This in essence links the currency to the entire economy of the country. The currency in the United States was the United States Note until 1971 and Federal Reserve Notes afterward.

The difference between the Unites States Note (“USN”) and the Federal Reserve Note (“FRN”) is critical. Although the USN and FRN are both Fiat currencies they enter circulation far differently. A USN is considered a “bill of credit” and enters circulation into the economy at face value, without interest. While a FRN is issued via the Federal Reserve to the banks, at interest, and then enters circulation via lending from private banks to the people with interest. This interest levied onto the FRN means it is based on debt, to get one dollar into circulation has interest, debt to be paid’ to a bank, come along with it. USN’s were issued by the United States Treasury Department, or for another words the United States government. But FRN’s are issued by the Federal Reserve Bank, which is not part of the government, but back to that latter.

The foundation of the Bankruptcy of America started in July 9th, 1868 with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Primarily dealing with citizenship of people in the United States and the freeing of slaves, Sections 1 though 3. But section 4 is the point of concern:

"The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution created the National Debt in 1868. This debt was incurred during the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. In addition to creating the national debt this section also nullified any debt that was created by the south in the civil war.

Some people believe that the Federal Reserve was the first and only national bank the United States has ever had. This is incorrect, before the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 there were actually two national banks, the First Bank of the United States and the Second Bank of the United States. This also brings into the forefront that these banks were private companies. The United States has never had a central bank that was not a private company. From it’s independence in 1783 till the creation of the First Bank of the United States in 1791 the 13 original states had their own banks and currency.

Both the First and Second Bank of the United States had 20 year charters, when the Second bank’s charter was up it was not renewed and the central bank dissolved. Government deposits then reverted back to state charted banks. From 1833 till 1913 the United States operated without a central bank.

In Part two we will discuss the 1913 Federal Reserve Act and progress forward and backwards following the twisted history of the Bankruptcy of the United States of America.

Same bat time, same bat channel.

On October 3rd and 4th in 1993 the United States military, Rangers and Special Forces were engaged in a heated battle in Modadishu, Somalia. The heavily out manned and under supported forces fought hard to complete a ‘low profile’ mission to attempt to capture members of a vicious warlord. Those two days would write our nations military’s policy for years to come.

What policy did it write you may be asking? On October 6th 1993 the Clinton administration conducted a policy review which the result of which was to halt all actions by U.S. forces in the region. These two days of fighting and some horrific images of barbaric treatment of dead U.S. soldiers on TV showed the world that the United States didn’t have the stomach for a prolonged, and bloody fight, we were a paper tiger.

Paper tigers look scary, I mean that’s a tiger right? It could cause some damage. Oh wait that tiger is made of paper, I could blow it over, man that wasn’t bad at all. You could practically hear the worlds terrorists laughing and cheering when we stuck our collective tail between our legs and ran.

Fast forward 16 years and we’ve been in Iraq for almost 6 years. For a comparison, the entire world war two lasted 6 years, not just our involvement in the last 3 or so years. The war in Iraq is gritty urban warfare, and in the time of embedded reporters and high definition TV’s we have found the guts to stick it out. I know, I know the liberal panty waits don’t have the gusto to do it, but we did show that as a country we can when we have to.

Don’t think we had it easy, like in 93’ the terrorists tried every play in the their play book. They dragged American bodies through the street, kidnapped people, pulled out bodies of women and kids to an area where a bomb hit and said we kill civilians. Again and again we cried and moaned, but we pushed on and stayed the course, we were no longer a paper tiger.

It was a high price to pay in American lives and money. But we showed that when pushed and bloodied we can bring forth armageddon and have the will to keep our collective boot on the throats of those who think we will fold at the first sign on trouble. I’m not saying this won’t change in the new Obama administration, and we could revert back to our paper tiger ways, but for the time being they will have a little gremlin of doubt.

Yes it was a Republican president, but seeming we have the ability to swap those out every 4 years it can keep the terrorists on their toes and if they happen to have a long running plan hatch when another one of those is in offices, i.e. sometime around 2020, then they will be another country or two lighter.

Finally, after 2 years of campaigning and politics, it’s over and Obama is president. Part of me is actually glad, my hope is that the real Republicans will get their heads out of their collective asses and head back to what matters. Hopefully John McCain will never run again, Sara Palin will go back to Alaska and never return. As much as I like John McCain he’s not a smart man, and extremely old and out of touch. Sara Palin doesn’t have any experience or knowledge to have been thrust into the position she was in, stay in Alaska lady. McCain had to choose someone like Palin because choosing someone like Mitt Romney would anger the bible thumping Republicans.

What I hear from 90% of the young, smart, people out there is that if Republicans were so god damn bible thumping they would stand with them. They constantly side with the religious fanatics, which are the rights version of the lefts anti-war, green party, MoveOn.org’ers. Young people are extremely tolerant, but there is no reason for religion in politics for a county that doesn’t have one religion, and they know this. The Republicans constantly tackle issues that no one cares about because they have to please the bible thump’ers, for example the FCC’s crusade against TV and Radio for accidents. They try to be the ones who says what’s moral and not, and this is what they got.

I classify myself as a socially liberal conservative. This means I’m pro choice, I’m not religious but I’m spiritual. I believe in limited government and that taxes should be low. I believe that people will help other people, though giving and that shouldn’t be mandated via the government. I believe in free speech and that I have no right to tell gays or lesbians how to live and that they should get married. I also believe in the right to bear arms.

Now why is this that so freaking hard! No one speaks for me, no one. Republicans are bible thump’ers who just want to stifle speech on radio and TV because it may contain sex. They also want to tell gays and lesbians that they can’t marry and no more abortions. Meanwhile the Democrats want to tax me to death, give it to people who pay no taxes and don’t work. They want abortions but refuse to kill criminals who rape and kill people. They trumpet man made global warming that any people with half a brain knows is a lie. They also hate every religion and want it banned from everything, except of course if that religion is Muslim.

I HATE both parties! I’m sick of having to put up with Republican religious bullshit because they are better than the Democrats. Wait, I just heard something, did one of you reading this just say a third party? Green Party (YUCK), Libertarian (YUCK AGAIN). Independent, now wait a second, what dies Independent mean? Well let me tell you, it’s a Democrat or Republican who’s trying to get the most votes by not being affiliated with one of those parties.

I don’t mind Obama being president, but having the Democrats control everything is not good. It wasn’t good when the Republicans had that power, and all the Democrats were crying. Now that the tables are turned they love it. It makes me sick and it should make you sick too. Our government and Congress in particular was founded on the principal of compromise. Well we can’t have that when one party is in control.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better. People have to stop being blindly lead around by flashy’ness, or party politics. This country isn’t doomed because of Obama, he’ll do fine. But this country is doomed because of us, all of us.

I’ve been reading the book “Culture of Fear” lately. I know I’m years behind the bandwagon and knowing that Michael Moore’s movie Bowling for Columbine I expected a more liberal take. I do recommend the book as it is very critical of the media and that they, and us, tend not to focus on the right issues.  But a theme of the book was very anti-gun. According to the author, Barry Glassner, if we didn’t have guns nothing would be wrong. Which I’m sure was what Michael Moore was trumpeting.

First let me say that there are just people out there that should not, and never have, guns of any kind. Criminals, people who have anger management issues and other metal instabilities should not be allowed to buy a weapon of any kind. Some people would have it this way, I do not. I would not mind taking a test, getting gun safety training and keeping my mental stability test and gun safety tests up to date every few years or so.

Now that I’ve said that there is a reason why the founding fathers wanted the citizens of this country to be armed. The reason is that an unarmed and defenseless citizenry is much easier to control and pacify.

Sometime in the future there is going to be a need to refresh the tree of liberty and when this happens it is the citizens of this country that will refresh it and keep the spirit of the United States alive. This may not be in the next 50 years, or 100 years, but it will happen. We would be foolish to think that the United States will live on forever in it’s current form. The government will crave more and more power and control and eventually the citizens of that time will show it why a government should fear it’s citizens and not the other way around.

Should all guns be allowed? No. Fully automatic rifles should not be on the streets along with any heavy artillery, like missile launchers, mines, etc. But as a whole the citizens of this country, and democrats in particular, need to stop thinking small and near term. They rail against the Patriot Act but try to limit our ability to protect ourselves from an oppressive government. That’s because they are part of it and it’s their source of power just the same as the Republicans.

No one can predict when the time will come and it’s vital that we are ever vigilant and keep the government in check. Your power as a citizen of this country is your voice and your gun. Remember to speak softly and carry a big stick.

Unless you’ve been in a hole, or cave, the last week I’m sure you’ve heard of the bailout of American International Group, Inc. I’ve already heard the talking heads, man on the street and politicians using this as just another example of the government helping evil mega-corporations but refuse to help poor old John and Jane with their mortgage.

Thus far this year the government has helped or rescued four companies: Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and now AIG. The reason each of these actions was taken was to protect the integrity of the financial system and the country as a whole. Do I completely agree or like these bailouts, no. But I understand that the government needs to take action to protect the whole country and keeping the financial system operating is a key piece to keeping the country, and possibly the world, running.

Helping Joe and Jane with the home mortgage doesn’t benefit the country. It makes for wonderful feel good, but doesn’t help the country or anyone else.

Now I’m not that much of an ass, if the lender was predatory, or the loan was crap then maybe some help was warranted, which by the way was already done by the federal government by freezing interest rate resets. But be realistic, if someone forecloses a home the only people hurt are the family and the mortgage company or bank. The family gets another home or apartment, which they can afford, and the home gets sold.

The extreme of this is if way too may homes start foreclosing. Think about what happens here for a second. People loose their home, but they move on and get an apartment or cheaper house. But now the mortgage company and bank now have this house, which they don’t want. So they sell the house at a fire sale price and move on. The more and more houses being sold at these rock bottom prices being to drive property value prices down in the area. The cycle will repeat, as the fire sale price is adjusted to the property value of the area, the lower it is the lower the price goes.

Liquidity is a term used to denote that something can be easily turned into cash. For example a stock of a highly traded public company like IBM is very liquid. But property like a house is not liquid, because selling a house takes time which selling a stock does not. The state of our current finical system is a two headed dragon of liquidity and confidence.

Liquidity became a problem when the interest rates began to rise and all the sub-prime mortgages began to default. This caused the banks and lenders to start selling the houses at a  cheap price, costing the bank and lenders money. This drove down house prices and people began to become “upside down” on their mortgage. Being upside down means that you owe more then your house is worth, and usually a good queue to walk away, i.e. foreclose.

This all trickles up hill as the smaller banks end up having less and less liquidity and can’t pay their obligations to the larger banks, so on and so forth. There have been 11 failed banks this year and the government has not bailed those out. But a saving and loan company is far different then what AIG is. AIG provided insurance for financial products this insurance mitigated risk for those products and thus companies invested in them. Let’s also be clear, AIG wasn’t insolvent, it was illiquid. The loan the government made to AIG will be repaid with interest back to the government and will give AIG operating capital so that it can liquidate those pesky investments and holdings.

Eventually we will see our way through this, we always do. The world is not over and life will go on. We will see more companies and bank fail and those whose failure can pose systematic risk to the financial system will be helped and those that won’t will die.

I just posted an article on freedom of speech and I head over to Drudge to take a look at the headlines and guess what I’m greeted with? The state of California just banned Trans fats! The state of California has nothing else to deal with I guess? All their problem are fixed and there are no other issues right? It’s no like California has almost 40 billion dollars of debt, or have an estimated 14 billion dollar budget shortfall for FY09. Nope, Cali is in great shape, such good shape that they have decided that the free market place doesn’t work and and that a more socialistic method of dealing with things should be taken.

So the world is now saved! California war on trans fats has saved you from killing yourself. You should be thankful that your freedom of choice in California is now limited like it is in New York and those liberals are looking out for your best interests.

Hell, if they weren’t telling you want to eat you might do something truly terrible and eat something that may kill you in 50 years. Thank god that choice is now gone and you can go about your life living the way the liberals and government tell you do. Speaking of that, make sure you check with them before reading this and any other form of free speech, we know how much they love that and I’m sure it too will end up being bad for your health.

I feel so much safer now. The trans fats are gone and we will have no more issues, right? Instead of tackling the hard issues and fixing their state the politicians in California fixed something that didn’t need fixing. Look, in the free market people are free to make the choice for themselves. People who care will get food that is healthy for them and eat well and some will just go grab a burger. That is their god damn right!

But I bet you don’t realize that this is the start of socialized medicine. You see you can’t have a bunch of fat unhealthy people in a country with socialized medicine, because they cost too much. That’s right, if your fat or a smoker your shit outta luck with socialized medicine.

Can I get three cheers for government? They have saved us from boradom while barbarians wait at the gates, our system works! No longer will we have right to make choices for ourselves and eventually all the fat people and smokers will be dead, beacuse they won’t be suppored by our wonderful healthcare.

Because of the my total disdain for political correctness and how special interest groups can get people fried from this jobs because of a simple joke or slip of the tongue, I have not considered the United States a champion or leader in the arena of free speech. But according to an article Canada, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia and India all have laws or have signed international conventions banning hate speech.

That is eight major world countries that have laws banning or limiting peoples speech. These countries have laws that limit the discussion within their citizen base. Let’s be clear, limiting what people in a country can say is a great way of controlling the population and limiting the discussion on topics that the government wants to.

The political correctness of this county make me sick and drives me completely crazy and hate laws are completely without merit. How can a law police a feeling? Really tell me? How do you or anyone else know if I, or anyone else, said something in hate? You can’t and no one can. But still we like to rise up in this country and call something raciest or hateful to stifle the discussion because the people making those claims can argue their point or are completely wrong.

This country was founded on free speech, but liberal crybabies want to limit that right by tagging something as hate speech when they feel it works to their advantage, or more likely on a subject that cannot be defended. No speech should be restricted, you want to yell fire in a crowded theater, well be prepared to live with the consequences of your actions.

But instead of having a think skin in this country lets get hurt when someone calls us a name, have them put in jail and seek counseling for the next five years. Because, lets face it more and more people in the US are whiny little crybabies who believe “Sticks and stones may break my bones but works will damage my inner child forever.” (paraphrase of Carlos Mencia).

In America we have to put up with the liberal crybabies and special interest groups in regards to hate speech, but thank god we have no laws against it, yet. Now there are hate crimes, but if your just having a conversation or even an argument you can’t be charged. But given enough time I’m sure the liberal lawyers will figure that one out soon as well.

Enjoy your limited free speech while you can, it’s only going to get wrose. Never have I heard of a goverment giving back rights, real concrete ones, once they’ve been taken away. So peace out my nigga’s! Opps, did I just say that.

There has been a quite, may semi-quite, storm brewing on the Internet as of late about a tiny, no nothing island out in Alaska, called Gull Island. Gull Island, and by extension the under it and Alaska, could be the solution to lowing the price of Oil within the next few year. This has spread so much as of late that on today’s Sean Hannity show a caller mentioned it to the guest host.

So in case you are having trouble finding out about this little island that could let me give you a little history and information that I have collected. Gull Island is located about five miles off shore from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska’s northern slope.

Gull Island, although close, is not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or ANWR which you can see the border of it does not cover the Prudhoe Bay area and is a few miles north east of the ANWR area boundary, which is also clearly visible on the official ANWR site.

In the 1970’s Lindsay Williams a Chaplain for the Alyeska Pipeline Company witnessed ARCO drill, test, analyze and then cap a huge oil find on Gull Island. It’s been said that Gull Island has enough oil to pump 2 million barrels of oil a day for 200 years. We import about 10 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2007, so using 1970 era figures and technology we have solved 1/5th of our foreign oil dependence on an already drilled and currently capped well.

But that was 1970 and technology has gotten at least a little bit better since then. Keeping that in mind I believe that 2 million is a entry level figure and should at least double with current technology and methods. If we start drilling now we will see our prices start dropping soon, but it won’t be by a lot. By freeing our oil companies to build new we will be sending a message to the futures markets and futures prices will drop.

If we leave our local oil and Gull Island to just sit there we could end up paying a lot more and oil will reach $170 a barrel easy. If you don’t believe me King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia today mentioned in a speech that we should all get used to current prices and prepare for even higher rates.

But there is no problem right? We could all be switching to other cars, and all those people that can’t afford an electric car or a hybrid should just walk or take the bus, because that’s how you move a family with kids around, the bus. But let is not live off of our land here in America who is without a doubt the most resource rich country in the world from oil to natural gas.

So let the debate rage on. Let’s keep pushing our country toward a depression by raising the cost of transportation and goods to a level where the low-middle and lower class of our society cannot eat or get around. Somehow I should be more worried about a few anamials and micro-organisms in Alaska then my next door neighbor, yea that makes sense.

This political season universal, or if your trying to hide a meaning behind cleaver words national, health care is an extremely hot topic. While I do agree that we should help as many people as possible and I have a great disdain for the health care insurance industry. But I’ll tackle those snakes at a latter time, today I want to talk about national health care.

I was born in Winnipeg, Canada and lived there for about 10 years before I moved to the United States. I go back and visit Canada every year and have on occasion gone to doctors offices and hospitals to visit family members. Although I don’t have a tremendous volume of experience with Canada’s health care system I have far more then most people who talk about it here. My thoughts about it, it’s great in theory. I’ve heard horror stories from family members about waiting months or years to get quality of life surgery, because there are waiting lists, or hours upon end in doctors offices and emergency rooms. I watched Micheal Moore’s documentary on national health care and where he shows the completely vacant doctors office is the exception, not the rule.

My mom has some health conditions and when she moved back up to Canada for a while she had trouble finding a doctor that would take her. Most of the doctors she used when we lived there before were not accepting new patients and finding ones that were was a difficult task. Much like here in the United States you have a primary care physician, ‘your’ doctor. This is where you go when you need a check up, something looked at, maybe having some trouble, etc. You always go to your primary care doctor first. Well what happens when people don’t have a primary care doctor? They go to the hospital first and more accurately they go to the Emergency Room or a walk in clinic.

Now there are news reports of Canada running out of doctors. Which can’t be true, because of the superior nature of national health care those doctors are paid very well and thus it’s a desirable job, or not. If someone is telling you that national health care is the land of milk and honey and has so many benefits and never once mentions an issue or downside your healthy level of skepticism should have kicked in. For god’s sake our government can’t even keep it’s restaurants in order and we expect them to do our health care correctly?

I believe that extending Medicare and Medicaid, which need major fixing, to everyone that can’t afford or does not have health insurance is a good thing, but there should be provisions to make sure companies still offer health plans. Also laws and regulations should be created to prevent the health insurance companies from denying claims just to save them money.

Rarely is totally one solution ever is the right answer and dramatic swings in our country’s fundamentals are pretty dangerous as well. Much like United States population we should blend the best of both worlds, the total coverage of national health care with the best doctors and technology of privatized health care and have a system we can all be proud off, instead of taking sides like schoolkids on the playground.

Recently the California Supreme Court lifted the ban on gay marriage in California. So as soon as this summer gay and lesbian couples will be able to marry. Queue the end of the world music because according to some right wing bible thumping crazies out there this is the beginning of the end.

Now I’m glad people out there believe in something and I actually like the fact that we reference god in our society’s, in the pledge and on our money. We should all realize that the word god and it’s meaning can be a placeholder for whatever you believe in. So I’m not a hard nosed atheist and I don’t’ specifically follow a single religion. This allows me to view both sides of the argument without any bias, so make me as your outside observer in this arena.

What I’ve been looking for is the reason why gays and lesbians should not marry. Some say it signals the beginning of the end, other point to it as more proof of the moral decay of our society and other say that it violates gods will. Gays and lesbians are already living together, raising kids and are productive members of the democrat party, and well maybe society as well. So if they are doing all those things why can’t they get married? If it makes them happy, who are you to stand in the way of that?

Do I necessarily approve with gays and lesbians, no I do no. From a purely biological level it is not something that I can justify, but what does that matter? Why would somthing I believe in effect someone who doesn’t believe in it? What gives me the right to force my opinion or beliefs on other people.

I understand that as a people, a society and a govement that we need to control behavior and activities that could harm oneself and others, for example taking drugs, drunk driving, etc. But gay marriage, no matter how you frame the argument, in itself is not a dangerous activity.

So let Tim and Tom, Jane and Jan and every other gay and lesbian couple get married. It’s not something I want to join in, but I know I don’t have the right to force my beliefs on them.