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Aid, and the Nature of Governments, Voting with your
Feet (Las Vegas Vs. Detroit), Transportation Socialization,
Wal-Mart, Aiding America's Poor, Club For
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and Government, French
Riots, Post Office, Israel
and Palestine, Optimism, FDA
Tyranny, Communist
Musings, College, RIP Carrie Largent,
Medical Lobbying, The
Bureaucrat In Your..., Amnesty
From Government, Media Freedom, Nevada
Politics, Social Conservatism, The
Israeli Lebanon Conflict, Ebay, Tax Cuts, and
Capitalism, Fee
Trade, Ideology, Emotion, and Reason, Bad
Karma, Good Karma?, Airbus vs Boeing,
Personal Responsibility,
Mental Responsibility; Milk, It Does A Government Good,
Ron
Paul 2008, Settling the Small
Business Hype, Personal
Responsibility, Mental Responsibility, Part II Christ
In Life, New
Leadership on HealthCare: a Presidential Forum, Restricting
the Body, Elevating the Mind, DO
Day on the Hill, Round 2.
For Excerpts from the larger research papers click here.
For newer archives see, Archives 2',
'Archives 3', 'Archives 4'
(latest)
Posted 4/21/08 ( by
Kyle Hunt)
The
Mighty Tree
4/21/08 Neoperspectives.com by Kyle
Hunt
After three long weeks of work at my new job, I needed a respite from the world of bits and pieces. I was able to find one right outside my door.
I sat silently in the small Los Angeles courtyard, gradually forgetting the challenges and stresses of running a company. I felt the comforting presence of the tree above me, shading me from the sun when I got too hot, and breathing with me in time. The tree let little glimpses of light shine through, while its neighbors reflected the sun with their leaves, creating a dynamic, daytime star field as they swayed in the breeze – telling their ancient story:
Throughout the history of man, trees have played a crucial role in our development. Years ago, they were our shelter, giving us a better perspective from up high and protecting us from predators. We shared this home with many other creatures who also sought a place in which to flourish. But like those other animals, we needed to leave our homes to gather resources, find mates, and exchange goods. Life was simple, but fraught with danger.
And then man learned of fire through some act of nature, God, Prometheus, or Lucifer. He discovered how to contain the flame and then how to create it. Those with this knowledge held a clear advantage over those left in the dark.
The carriers of the light traveled north to explore the uninhabited lands. The trees became more coniferous, the nights grew long, and the winters became a blistering cold. Trees, preferable in their decaying state, were burned to keep our internal flame going. We were safeguarded against night stalkers and hypothermia. The flame even became a sign of civilization – a gathering point around which a community of humans might form. The torch currently symbolizes this phenomenon.
Though originally made of earth and stone, the houses of these humans once again became the trees. But this time, the trees were felled and reordered into more and more suitable shelters. They provided a sufficient barrier against the outside world, giving a sense of safety in a perilous existence.
They even became our vessels against the sea, opening up new worlds. Man was able to move people and goods in much higher quantities, at much greater speeds, because of the amazing properties of wood. How else could so many Irish, Chinese, and African people have been shipped to labor in the New World, but for our mastery of trees?
We can look around today and see how integral the tree has been to our way of life. But does our relationship to the tree not go any deeper? Perhaps.
For one, we share the same calendar with trees. Trees mark their solar years in a circular fashion, while we blow out the flames of our years stuck into a cake.
Tremendously, the most intelligent data structures imitate the tree. When organizing family histories, the internet, and knowledge in general, the tree becomes the most appropriate resulting diagram – unfortunately it is often squashed down into two-dimensions and rendered useless.
Triumphantly, we are trees. Our toes, feet, and legs are our roots. Our trunks are.. well, our trunks. And our arms, hands and fingers branch out, probing into the world. They allow us to produce, obtain, and consume energy.
We lack the chloroplasts of the tree, which makes us unable to sufficiently synthesize enough energy from the sun without also eating. But like most forms of life, we have melanin to protect our sensitive bodies from the sun's radiation. With the proper amount of sunlight, the melatonin hormone within us helps us to be happier, healthier, and more radiant people. Hence Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the ridiculously acronymed "disease" that occurs when a human does not spend enough time outside.
But unlike the tree, we can pull up our roots – our support structures – and plant ourselves all over the world. Some people are of hardier strains, with more fully developed brains containing many branches and roots. These humans are much like the hemp plant, incredibly useful, abhorred by big corporations, and able to flourish in even the harshest of conditions.
But of course with the Tree of Life comes the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Macbeth was right to worry when 'Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane'. The wizard Sarumon could not stand the onslaught of Ent tree-herders angered out of Fanghorn Forest. Have you never seen a tree with eyes?
They are full of power and force, and yet we take them for granted in our daily lives.
I wonder: what would the wind be like if there were no trees to give it life and voice? and will the Cradle drop?
|
Posted 4/21/08 ( by Travis)
The
Double Trouble of Taxation[Ron Paul]
House.gov
^ | 20 Apr 2008 | Ron Paul (Required Reading)
Reprinted
in full:
Taxes were on the forefront of many Americans’ minds
this week as they scrambled to meet the April 15th deadline to file their returns. Tax policy in
this country hurts taxpayers twice – once when they pay taxes, and then when the government spends
the money. Americans are sick and tired of the financial burden and the endless forms to fill out.
To add insult to injury, after collecting this money the government does some very detrimental
things to the economy.
The burden of complying with the income tax is
tremendous. Since its inception in 1913, the tax code has gone from 400 pages to over 67,000. The
Tax Foundation estimates that around $265 billion dollars and 6 billion hours are spent just on
compliance. That expense amounts to about 22 cents of every dollar the IRS collects. Imagine the
boon to the economy if we spent that time and money expanding our businesses and creating jobs!
Aside from the direct loss of money and productivity,
the funds from the income tax enable the government to do some very destructive things, such as
vastly over-regulating economic activity, making it difficult to earn money in the first place. The
federal government funds over 50 agencies, departments and commissions that formulate rules and
regulations. These bureaucracies operate with little to no oversight from the people or Congress and
generate around 4,000 new rules every year and operate at a cost of about 40 billion dollars. There
are some 75,000 pages of regulations in the Federal Register that Americans are expected to know and
abide by. Complying with these governmental regulations costs American businesses more than one
trillion dollars per year, according to a study by Mark Crain for the Small Business Administration.
This complicated system drives production to other countries and shrinks our job market here at
home.
Big government is destructive when it takes your money
and when it spends it. There is no economic benefit to supporting a government sector as massive as
ours. In fact, this country thrived for well over 100 years without an income tax. Today, if you
took away the income tax, the government would still have revenue from other sources equal to total
government spending in 1990, when government was still too big. $1.2 trillion should be more than
enough to fund a government operating within its constitutional confines, and that is exactly what
we need to get back to.
I have introduced legislation many times to abolish the
IRS and the income tax. It is fundamentally un-American to require taxpayers to testify against
themselves and be considered guilty until proven innocent. Abolishing the IRS altogether would
trigger an avalanche of real growth in the economy.
With these financial hard times only just beginning,
this would be the most efficient and logical way to get our economy growing again, and Americans
would need not dread the 15th of April every year.
(Added to
'Required Reading' and 'Ron Paul
2008')
|
Posted 4/20/08 ( by Travis)
The
Texas polygamy raid (was the action taken by the state excessive ?)
WorldnetDaily
^ | April 20,2008 | Joseph Farrah
Pretty
outrageous if you ask me, for the state to seize over 400 children from their families on what have
turned out to be false charges and then fish for crimes. What happened to innocent before proven
guilty?
This is not the first time we've written about Texas Child Services
on this website.
|
Posted 4/20/08 ( by Travis)
The
Lawyers' Party
American
Thinker ^ | 4/17/2008 | Bruce Walker
Today, we are drowning in laws, we are contorted by judicial decisions, we are driven to distraction
by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives. America has a place for laws and
lawyers, but that place is modest and reasonable, not vast and unchecked.
An interesting perspective with some worthwhile facts in here; if you can cut through the rhetoric.
|
Posted 4/18/08 ( by Travis)
Kenya's
Cabinet 'Soaks Up 80% Of The Budget'
The
Telegraph (UK) ^ | 4-17-2008 | Mike Pflanz
Kenya's expanded new government will spend 80 per cent of the entire national budget on luxury
vehicles, inflated salaries for ministers and general running costs, a local anti-corruption group
claimed on Wednesday.
President Mwai Kibaki's administration now boasts 43 ministries - up from 34 - in a deal with the
Orange Democratic Movement, led by Raila Odinga, following the bitterly disputed election.
Of the 222 MPs, almost half now have government jobs. Cabinet members benefit from annual salaries
exceeding £83,000 and numerous perks, including official cars and "entertainment"
allowances of £600 per month.
Almost half of all Kenyans survive on less than 50p a day.
What
percentage of US citizens work for the government? How lucrative is it to be employed by the
government as opposed to work in the private sector in the United States? The answers to these
questions show we differ in scale and scope, but not in substance from Kenya. In fact, how much of
Kenya's budget is from US taxpayers? Last question, how many aid groups are operating in Kenya
but are not addressing the root cause of Kenya's poverty: the corruption and socialism of the Kenyan
government and economy?
"For
God's Sake please stop the Aid" REQUIRED READING
7/4/05 Der Spiegel Kenyan
economist James Shikwati
(Added to 'Causes
of Poverty in Developing Nations' and 'Charitable Corruption')
|
Posted 4/17/08 ( by Travis)
Half
the country can't get an NHS dentist - and haven't had any treatment for two years
4/17/08 Daily Mail (UK)
Half the population has received no dental care on the NHS in the last two years.
And thousands of suffering patients are turning up at hospital emergency departments for treatment
because they cannot find an NHS dentist.
Dentists complain the contract does not reflect the amount of work they actually carry out - for
example, they receive the same amount of money regardless of whether they provide a patient with two
fillings or ten.
Many have left the NHS, complaining they are not being properly paid.
Last year, a
survey found that one in 20 patients had resorted to DIY treatment, in some cases pulling out their
own teeth.
One patient in Lancashire claimed to have removed 14 teeth using pliers.
Earlier this month Elizabeth Green, 76, from Winchester, Hampshire, told how she was turned away by
12 dentists.
(Added to 'British
Healthcare')
|
Posted 4/16/08 ( by Travis)
Jill
Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
Feb 2008 Ted.com
A very interesting
talk; a personal experience on left brain vs right brain and our perceptions of the world, related
to enlightenment.
What if there was a
way to artificially and safely temporarily cause the 'good' part of the effects of the stroke she
had by somehow inhibiting that part of the brain?
(Added to 'Sivananda
Yoga')
|
Posted 4/10/08 ( by Travis)
Free
Market Healthcare
4/10/08 neoperspectives.com
Here is the
powerpoint of the presentation given two days ago at Touro University AMSA/SOMA health policy week.
It is 110 slides and the presentation lasted about two hours. There is some video and audio, recorded on digital camera and mp3 respectively, but
because of technical limitations doesn't cover
the whole thing and so I didn't post those. Perhaps I'll try to venture down this path again in the near future and create a
more dynamic internet presentation, maybe on youtube or something.
(Added to 'Government
Healthcare')
|
Posted 4/10/08 ( by Travis)
Chen:
China should decrease state holdings
Yale
Daily News ^ | 4-9-08 | Helen Gao
Chen, who studies the Chinese economy,
argued in a lecture Tuesday that the Chinese government ought to decrease the stake it holds in its
economy in order to even income distribution among citizens.
Presenting data that he said reflected an inverse relationship between the number of state-owned
enterprises and the level of economic development, Chen argued that instead of promoting economic
equality, state ownership centralizes wealth and produces a wider gap between the rich and the poor.
(Added to 'Inequality,
Aid, and the Nature of Governments')
|
Posted 4/10/08 ( by Travis)
CA:
State Tomato Board is dissolved
LA
Times ^ | 4/9/08 | Jordan Rau
Interesting article describing the uselessness of a half dozen California agencies. Notice that
there is a 'private' tomato board, in conjunction with the state board. Best to just get rid of the
state one and let these jokers manage their own companies.
|
Posted 4/10/08 ( by Travis)
The
Real Cost Of Public Schools
4/6/08 Washington Post (Andrew J.
Coulson from CATO)
Sometimes all it
takes is a bit of simple math. I'd like to apologize to readers, as I quoted the $13,00 number repeatedly
in 'A Charter School Tale'. Coulson makes a pretty strong
case here that the number is actually twice that:
We're often told that public schools are underfunded. In
the District, the spending figure cited most commonly is $8,322 per child, but total spending is
close to $25,000 per child -- on par with tuition at Sidwell
Friends, the private school Chelsea
Clinton attended in the 1990s.
What accounts for the nearly threefold difference in
these numbers? The commonly cited figure counts only part of the local operating budget. To
calculate total spending, we have to add up all sources of funding for education from kindergarten
through 12th grade, excluding spending on charter schools and higher education. For the current
school year, the local operating budget is $831 million, including relevant expenses such as the
teacher retirement fund. The capital budget is $218 million. The District receives about $85.5
million in federal funding. And the D.C.
Council contributes an extra $81 million. Divide all that by the 49,422 students enrolled (for
the 2007-08 year) and you end up with about $24,600 per child.
For comparison, total per pupil spending at D.C. area
private schools -- among the most upscale in the nation -- averages about $10,000 less. For most
private schools, the difference is even greater.
(Added to 'A Charter School Tale')
|
Posted 4/8/08 ( by Travis)
Attention all Nevada
Readers:
A powerpoint presentation titled:
'The Virtues of Free Market Healthcare' will be given tonight (Tuesday) at 6pm at Touro University.
Touro U is on American Pacific dr, just past Gibson in Henderson near where the 515 and 215 meet.
You will need to sign in at the front desk before hand. They know people not affiliated with the
school will be coming. The talk will be in lecture hall two. I've been allotted two hours, although
I won't use up that much, hopefully! :)
Hope to see you all there!
-Travis
I will try to upload the presentation
to this site afterwards.
|
Posted 4/6/08 ( by Travis)
All
hail the burger king Airman completes mission to eat every burger at McGuire's
4/5/08 NWFdaily news
DESTIN — Two years and 28 monster burgers later, Geoff Dobson’s mission is accomplished.
Let us be the first to congratulate neoperspectives
contributing author Geoff Dobson on his incredible feat. :)
|
Posted 4/6/08 ( by Travis)
Hospital
Disputes Clinton Story About Uninsured Pregnant Woman
FoxNews.com
^ | 04/05/08 | Aaron Bruns
Why
we shouldn't trust politicians. This story demonstrates a few things; an inaccurate worldview, a
factual misunderstanding of the US health system, and an irresponsible, almost reckless approach to
informing the public on key issues affecting the nation. For example:
Bryan Holman, had played host to Mrs. Clinton in his home before the Ohio primary. Deputy Holman
said in a telephone interview that a conversation about health care led him to relate the story of
Ms. Bachtel. Deputy Holman knew Ms. Bachtel’s story only secondhand, having learned it from close
relatives of the woman. Ms. Bachtel’s relatives did not return phone calls Friday.
So, from this information, Clinton says at a rally:
“It
hurts me that in our country, as rich and good of a country as we are, this young woman and her baby
died because she couldn’t come up with $100 to see the doctor.”
And the whole
things is false.
(Added to 'US
Healthcare')
|
Posted 4/3/08 ( by Travis)
Frozen
in Grand Central Station
maniacworld.com April
Now this is a cool
prank! :)
(Added to 'Humor')
|
Posted 4/1/08 ( by Travis)
NHS
dentists play as patients wait
London
Times ^ | 3/30/08 | Sarah Templeton
Health service dentists have been forced to go on holiday or spend time on the golf course this
month despite millions of patients being denied dental care.
Many have fulfilled their annual work quotas allotted by the National Health Service and have been
turning patients away because they are not paid to do extra work. This is despite the fact that more
than 7m people in Britain are unable to find an NHS dentist.
Eddie Crouch, secretary of the Birmingham local dental committee, estimates that up to a third of
dentists in the West Midlands have run out of work or have had to reduce the number of NHS patients
they treat.
Representing the
interests of patients, or dentists?:
The
British Dental Association fears that other dentists have been unable to meet their quotas and will
be forced to pay back thousands of pounds to the NHS.
(Added to 'British
Healthcare')
|
Posted 4/1/08 ( by Travis)
Ran across these interesting graphs
comparing Canada and the United States Healthcare while compiling a 'Free Market Healthcare'
Power point presentation for an upcoming talk (this ppt will be uploaded when finished).


(Added to 'Canadian
Healthcare')
|
Posted 3/31/08 ( by Travis)
One
in 6 West Virginians is on food stamps
Charleston
Daily Mail ^ | 3/26/08 | Justin D. Anderson
Amid rising food and fuel costs, the assistance is becoming worth less and less.
And supplemental food programs for poor families are
struggling to keep up with the added demand as donations are on the decline.
Nationally, more than 26 million Americans were on the
food stamp program last year, according to the federal agriculture department.
"We never have enough food to totally give everybody what they really want," Nardella
said.
IMO, these welfare agencies will never 'have enough' regardless of how
many Americans are on welfare - the same welfare that is the very reason
for their poverty. These agencies have already decimated Appalachia.
(Added to 'Welfare;
History Results and Reform')
|
Posted 3/31/08 ( by Travis)
Bernanke:
Federal Reserve Caused Great Depression
worldnetdaily.com
^ | March 19, 2008 | David Kupelian
Despite the varied theories espoused by many establishment economists, it was none other than the
Federal Reserve that caused the Great Depression and the horrific suffering, deprivation and
dislocation America and the world experienced in its wake. At least, that's the clearly stated view
of current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
In "A Monetary History of the United States," Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton
Friedman along with coauthor Anna J. Schwartz lay the mega-catastrophe of the Great Depression
squarely at the feet of the Federal Reserve.
Well, this is nice to see! However, does Bernanke apply this knowledge? Or does he believe that it
was not the 'power of the Fed' to begin with that caused the great depression, but just how it was
applied? He apparently believes he could do better:
The proposal would designate the Fed as the primary regulator of market stability, greatly expanding
the central bank's ability to examine not just commercial banks but all segments of the financial
services industry.
The Associated Press obtained a 22-page executive summary of the proposal. It seeks to make sense of
the mishmash of overlapping oversight in which an alphabet-soup roster of agencies regulates banks,
thrifts and credit unions.
Under the current hodgepodge, institutions that take deposits and are federally insured face
multiple regulatory bodies. By contrast, hedge funds, private equity firms and investment banks
endure substantially less regulation.
IMO, the more power given to Federal agencies to meddle in the affairs of the market, the more
likely the Fed will cause another 'great depression'.
(Added to 'The
Great Depression')
|
Posted 3/26/08 ( by Travis)
Lose
weight or we'll take all six of your children away:[UK]
This
is London ^ | 24 Mar 2008 | This is London
Six
young brothers and sisters face being taken from their parents and put into care because they are
overweight.
Social workers have warned they will intervene if three of the youngsters – including a
12-year-old boy who weighs 16 stone – do not shed several pounds in three months.
The parents have been told they risk losing all their children if there is no improvement in the
12-year-old or two of his sisters aged 11 and three – who weigh 12 stone and four stone – by
June. <.>
Last year, an eight-year-old girl from the Cumbria area was taken into care because she weighed nine
stone.

Don't think it
won't happen here... For the children, you see...
|
Posted 3/21/08 ( by Travis)
Obama
passport files violated; 2 State Department workers fired
Washington
Times ^ | March 20, 2008 | by Bill Gertz
Government records of political
candidates are tightly restricted because of concerns they could be used against candidates or the
data could be altered as part of campaign dirty tricks.
No word yet on any
'restrictive protections' for the rest of us. Government data collection on its citizens has little useful
purpose IMO, and can only lead to corruption and invasion of privacy. I don't see any reason why the
government should keep records of where we've gone.
|
Posted 3/21/08 ( by Travis)
FBI
posts fake hyperlinks to snare child porn suspects
CNET
^ | March 20, 2008 4:00 AM PDT
Undercover FBI agents used this hyperlink-enticement technique, which directed Internet users to a
clandestine government server, to stage armed raids of homes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Nevada
last year. The supposed video files actually were gibberish and contained no illegal images.
One
wrong click and.... bam!
|
Posted 3/21/08 ( by Travis)
ETHANOL
MADNESS (2006)
Executive
Intelligence Review (excerpt) from Technocracy.org ^ | 06/02/2006 | Staff
Well, first, we'll get 20% less gas mileage from our fuel
that way. Second, we can pay a good deal more for fuel, in direct prices and subsidies; in fact,
we'll be able to use a fuel whose price is inflating much faster than the price of gasoline. Third,
we'll be able to spend tens of billions of dollars more a year in tax revenues, subsidizing ethanol
makers, including some of the biggest global cartels. Fourth, we can use up more petrochemical
energy making ethanol than we get by using it. Fifth, we can use up large volumes of scarce regions
of the country, and overburden our transport infrastructure as well. Sixth, we could soon deny corn
exports to nations that need them — maybe even cut our own consumption of corn and burn it in our
cars instead...
And last but not least, we can delay or cut off the revival of nuclear power for industry and
economic expansion; instead, we could take a major scientific and technological step backwards, a
great leap back toward primitive ages when mankind burned straw for fuel.
Is this not similar to the previously posted
story on how Hydrogen cars pollute more (plus are more expensive) than regular gas cars?
California's
Ethanol Follies
7/17/07 Waterbury
Republican-American Editorial
(Added to 'Gasoline
and Government' and 'The Environment')
|
Posted 3/20/08 ( by
Kyle Hunt)
An analysis of energy and film
3/20/08 Neoperspectives.com (By
Kyle Hunt)
The "news" does not interest me much these days. It is too disheartening.
I am more interested in the principles and concepts that can be considered "timeless." I have been most interested in the field of energy that sustains all life. Unfortunately, many are unable to grasp the complexities and ultimate simplicity of this concept.
In an effort to increase understanding and engage in a meaningful discussion on this topic, I would like to present some of my favorite movies that deal with the manipulation and control of energy in space-time. I could reference a bunch of books that I have read, but that would be less fun and take way too long. In an odd way, this is where I cite my sources:
12 Monkeys
Brad Pitt Understands Consumerism – Bruce Willis is sent back in time from an apocalyptic future and put in an insane asylum. There he is introduced to the
evils of the world through an oddly-attractive lunatic who later goes on to be a terrorist leader.
A Beautiful Mind
Breaking Boundaries – A true genius attempts to find a unifying theory. The government puts him to work, he discovers too much, and is sentenced to a terrifying future of electro-shock and insanity. There are patterns everywhere.
Dark City
Intro/Beginning – In this movie, there are pale/grey men who control the reality of every person alive. That sounds familiar. Also, let us not read too far into the "KH" seen on the briefcase.
The End – Mind over matter to the full extent. Jennifer Connelly has been in my thoughts since
Labyrinth!
Donnie Darko
Trailer – Watch for "they made me do it" – or is it "The y made me do i x" This is touched on in
X * Y. Time Travel is discussed in Continuing the Spiral.
Mad World – Great lyrics and great production design for the film by Alec Hammond.
Head Over Heels – An amazing sequence showing life in school. Reality is only a matter of perspective.
Good Will Hunting
A Genius Interviews with the NSA – Although I don't like or respect many shrinks, Robin sure seems like an exception. He hits the nail right on the head. It is not uncommon that a genius lacks direction in such a society and is unable to commit in relationships. There is also a comparison drawn between Will and the Unabomber in the movie. One must be crazy to not want all of the "great things" our civilization has to offer.
Lord of the Rings
Opening Scene – Chilling. "And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History Became Legend. Legend Became Myth."
Two Towers Trailer – There is an obvious Twin Towers link. The multi-cultural coalition against the powers of evil is of note. So is the ability of the pale-skinned elves to see the future possibilities.
ROTK Trailer – Neither the Stewards of Gondor nor Sauron want Aragorn to take the throne, as he would usurp their powers.
Matilda
Dancing with the World – "She's a witch.. Burn her!" (Monty Python
logic)
The Matrix
Original Trailer – Paranoia and confusion in the
high-tech age. Reality vs. illusion while waiting for a savior.
Neo Meets the Architect – The Architect is an old white male. Neo is not the first anomaly, but he is the One. Was the First Matrix that is described the Garden of Eden? Note the logical, perfectionist Father Architect and the intuitive, loving Mother Oracle. Neo chooses the non-logical choice because an emotional response – something very difficult to calculate. It is interesting to see that although the Architect and Oracle created the system, they never claim to be God.
Network
Mad As Hell – It is pretty easy to be these days. What a great description of society.
Phenomenon
Travolta on Energy – Mr. Kotter taught him well. I attempt an explanation in Star Theory.
Powder
An Explanation of Connection – Again, the light-skinned magician. The 3rd eye (6th chakra) is discussed. Powder's code of ethics seems strikingly similar to the Jedi's. I will admit I am very pale, but I have a bit more melanin and more of a pinkish/red tone.
Star Wars
Yoda's Wisdom – A discussion of the life force. Search "Yoda" on Youtube, and all you get is inanity.
Yoda on Premonition, Death, and Attachment – The Jedi have a philosophy very much in line with Buddhists and many other mystical belief systems.
The Usurpation of Power – The force is balanced much in the same way Shiva dances, but unfortunately this means the bad guys can grab the reigns of power for a time. It is interesting how the expendability and controllability of the clone army is ultimate.
Terminator
Time Travel Kyle – Kyle Reese travels into the world in the infamous year of 1984 – a year after this Kyle came in. He had been sent back in time to save the future of humanity from the machines that eventually take control. He must kill a buffed up Terminator who intends to kill the mother of the resistance's leader, as he is ultimately successful. I chose this clip because Kyle Reese is the ultimate badass, eluding cops without hurting a single one.
X-Men
Jean Grey Flips Out – Here is the same ultimate and total control of mind over matter. It is notable that Jean Grey ends up transforming into the Phoenix much in the same way Gandalf the Grey turns into Gandalf the White. We should also not forget the hostility that the majority of the population has for the mutants. Nor the over-priced trading cards I used to adore.
Some of these movies are better than others, but there are many important correlations between them. What I would like to suggest is that some, if not all, of the powers portrayed in these movies do, in fact, exist and will continue to become prevalent in our realities. We all know that science fiction quickly becomes science fact. Welcome to the real world.
|
Posted 3/16/08 ( by Travis)
Book Review
Destiny Denied, by
Kirsten Snyder
This review should
have been up a long time ago for a pretty good reason: it is simply the best book I have ever read.
A fictional epic,
in the style of Tolkein and C.S. Lewis, it delivers a gripping tale of fantasy adventure, as a band
of advanced Pylorians, 'wizards' who are able to harness the power of the 'mind sense', fight
against an evil menace rising in the east. The nations of Calmer and Zireth take sides as intrigue
and treachery ensues and a
princess and sorceress fight for country, honor, and love.
It is definitely a family novel. Judeochristian values predominate and the tale is
rife with teaching symbolisms. I've read this book 3-4 times, the last few unintentionally because I
just couldn't put it down. :)
I'll say no more,
but it can be purchased here.
(Added to 'Book
Reviews')
|
Posted 3/16/08 ( by Travis)
Quote section
updated! The following quotes have replaced some of the others in the quote section:
C.S. Lewis
I
do mean that wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of some good in the wrong
way. You can be good for the mere sake of goodness: you cannot be bad for the mere sake of badness.
James Madison
I flatter myself [we] have in this country extinguished forever the
ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.
Matthew
17:25-26
……and Jesus said, What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take custom or
taxes? From their sons, or from strangers?
Peter said to Him, from strangers. Jesus said to him, Then truly the
sons are free.
Dave
Barry
See,
when the government spends money, it creates jobs; whereas when the money is left in the hands of
taxpayers, God only knows what they do with it. Bake it into pies, probably. Anything to avoid
creating jobs.
Joseph
Sobran
After
two world wars, countless smaller wars, mass murders, religious and racial persecution, several
species of tyranny, punishing taxation, erosions of ancient liberties, debasement of money, and
state-sponsored moral decadence, you’d think modern man would have drawn certain lessons about the
modern State. All of us ought to talk about the State the way the Jews talk about Hitler.
John Taylor Gatto
One afternoon when I
was seven I complained to him of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head. He told me that I was
never to use that term in his presence again, that if I was bored it was my fault and no one else's.
The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn't know that
were childish people, to be avoided if possible. Certainly not to be trusted.
Frank
Chodorov
Freedom
is essentially a condition of inequality, not equality. It recognizes as a fact of nature the
structural differences inherent in man - in temperament, character, and capacity - and it respects
those differences. We are not alike and no law can make us so.
James Madison
If men were angels, no
government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls
on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over
men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the
governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
Lao
Tzu
The
more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are
impoverished....
The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be.
The wisest course, then, is to keep the government simple and for it to take no action, for then the
world stabilizes itself.
Therefore the Sage says: I take no action yet the people transform themselves, I favor quiescence
and the people right themselves, I take no action and the people enrich themselves....
Thomas
Jefferson
When
all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all
power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as
venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.
James
Madison
If
Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
|
Posted 3/15/08 ( by Travis)
Even
huge tumour can't secure care in Ontario
Globe
and Mail ^ | March 11, 2008 | LISA PRIEST
Inside Sylvia de Vries lurked an enormous tumour and fluid totalling 18 kilograms. But not even that
massive weight gain and a diagnosis of ovarian cancer could assure her timely treatment in Canada.
The Ontario Health Insurance Plan says it won't pay for
the $60,000 cancer treatment because Ms. de Vries did not fill out the correct form seeking
preapproval for out-of-country care.
As well, it says no medical documentation was submitted
that indicated a delay in obtaining the service in Ontario would result in death or medically
significant, irreversible tissue damage.
That administrative misstep has left Ms. de Vries, a 51-year-old corporate
communications manager, with a staggering cancer bill.
(Added to 'Canadian
Healthcare')
|
Posted 3/15/08 ( by Travis)
Should
the U.S. adopt the Chilean pension system?
Bloggingstocks
^ | 3/10/08 | Aaron Katsman
The private funds earned an average 10 percent return since their start, ensuring that typical
workers who contributed since 1981 now collect about 85 percent of their final wage upon retirement.
That's more than double the average 40 percent paid to full-career, middle-income Social Security
recipients in the U.S.
|
Posted 3/15/08 ( by Travis)
States
May Warn Doctors to Follow Smoker Treatment Guidelines or be Sued for Medical Malpractice
NewsRx
^ | 03/11/2008 | PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Public
interest law professor John Banzhaf, whom the media has dubbed a "driving force behind the
lawsuits that have cost tobacco companies billions of dollars," and the "law professor who
masterminded litigation against the tobacco industry," has written to the health commissioners
of the fifty states suggesting that they warn their state's doctors about such law suits based upon
a recent article in a leading medical journal and an even more recent study about saving smoker
lives.
The letter notes a recent study which shows that
physicians are killing more than 40,000 American smokers each year by failing to follow federal
guidelines which mandate that the doctor warn the smoking patient about the many dangers of smoking
and provide effective medical treatment for the majority who wish to quit.
"Since physician malpractice kills over 40,000
smokers annually – more than motor vehicle or product liability accidents – it should not be
surprising if antismoking lawyers, as well as those in private practice working on contingency fees,
find physicians who deliberately flout federal guidelines to be a major target of litigation."
Lets us go back to July
5th, 1997,
when the landmark tobacco settlement against Tobacco companies was being negotiated. The AMA (and
one assumes the AOA) were in favor of the hundred billion dollar settlements, which, incidentally,
turned many lawyers into multi millionaires.
Two public health groups, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free
Kids and the American Medical Association, were involved in the negotiations that led to the accord.
And just two years ago:
AMA Urges Florida
Supreme Court to Uphold Verdict Against Big Tobacco
CHICAGO, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its
commitment against the dangers of cigarette smoking, the American Medical Association (AMA) this
week joined several other public interest organizations in a friend-of-the-court brief reaffirming
support for a Florida class-action victory against the tobacco industry.
In July 2000, the $145 billion punitive damages verdict
in Engle v. Liggett Group Inc. et al sent a strong message to tobacco companies that toying with the
health and lives of Americans can be a prohibitively expensive business. The damages awarded in this
case, however, could be overturned because an appellate court has reconsidered the case's class
certification. The AMA believes the Florida Supreme Court should overturn the appellate court's
ruling and compel the tobacco defendants to pay for the damages they continue to inflict on society.
"As long as the tobacco industry profits from business as usual, they must
bear responsibility for the human suffering and economic costs that result from tobacco-related
illnesses," said AMA Trustee Ronald M. Davis, MD. "Preserving the penalties in this case
will provide a strong incentive for tobacco companies to change their behavior."
First they went for the tobacco companies, but the doctors did not care
because they disliked the tobacco companies. But when they came for the doctors there was no one was
left to come to their aid.
(Added to 'Medical Lobbying')
|
Posted 3/10/08 ( by Travis)
Sivananda Yoga Recordings
About 20 hours of teachings, lectures, songs, chants, and other recordable
events are contained in the above link. Feel free to peruse them on the other page, but the very
beautiful Satsungs have been excerpted here for your listening pleasure. :)
ATTC 2008 NASSAU BAHAMAS

The following recordings are from the 2008 ATTC (Advanced
Yoga Teacher's Training Course). This was a month long, intensive course on yoga,
meditation, and philosophy. Its prerequisite was the TTC (teachers training course), another
month long course. These courses take place at Ashrams, communal type retreats, with peaceful
regimented daily livings dedicated to spiritual advancements. In my personal opinion, the TTC was an
immediately gratifying shock of a course, but whose main effects dissipated, while the ATTC is a
more subtle course, with seemingly longer lasting effects and positive change.
The recordings below can be downloaded by left clicking
on them and saving them to your computer. They are all WAV files. You will need to turn the volume
up. If it is still too low try right clicking on the sound icon on the lower right hand corner of
your menu bar and finagling with it. Feel free to convert these WAV files to MP3s and play them on
your Ipod or MP3 player!
If you are new to the subject of Yoga, the philosophy, or
even if you are not :), I recommend you start with the 'Satsungs'. Satsungs are the equivalent of
church gatherings, and the 'preaching' parts have been recorded here. These particular Satsungs are
taught by Swami Sadasivananda, a friend, teacher, and spiritual leader. He lives what he espouses
and these brief teachings are truly joys to behold.
If you are considering taking the Sivananda Teacher's
Training Course, you can hear Swami Sadasivananda give an introduction below under 'Miscellaneous'.
And if you are looking for a great yoga class, especially if you are familiar with Sivananda yoga,
the 95 minute Yoga 'meditation' class also under 'Miscellaneous' will take you to a whole new level.
This is truly how Yoga was meant to be practiced. It was the last class of our course.

Satsungs
3.16MB(13 min) Swami Sadasivanada Satsung, on desires
and true freedom
4.1MB (17 min) Swami
Sadasivanada Satsung, on living a Divine Life, dealing with problems
4.9MB (21 min) Swami Sadasivanada Satsung on Humility
4.3MB (18 min) Swami Sadasivanada Satsung
on Spiritual aspirants
5.6MB (24 min) Swami Sadasivanada Satsung on Faith
4.54MB (19 min) Swami Sadasivanada Satsung on
Happiness
3.2MB (13.5 min) Swami Sadasivanada Satsung on
living a Divine Life

|
Posted 3/9/08 ( by Travis)
Rememberances
of Mr Buckley
3/10/08
Rushlimbaugh.com
Rush
pens, or should I say, orates, a touching tribute to a giant in the conservative movement. A
highlight:
I
went through one year of college and I was having trouble, flunked speech, should have called the
course Outline 101. Flunked speech, did every speech, showed up at every class and still
flunked it. I said, "This is not for me." And one morning I was sitting in the
house at 20 years old and I said, "I'm quitting." I told my dad, "I'm quitting.
I can't handle this. I'm leaving. I've got a job offer in Pittsburgh, and I'm going to go
there." And, of course, he came from the Great Depression, and that was the worst news he
could hear. The formative years of his life were the Great Depression and World War II.
You go through the Great Depression, and if you didn't have a college degree you had no chance of
getting a job.
He had great fears. I'm the only member of my family I think that doesn't
have a college degree. He was very concerned he was a failure as a father, and I remember
telling him, "Well, I want to be like Bill Buckley." He said, "What do you
mean?" "Well, I want to be able to sit around and write and think and speak,"
and so forth, and my dad blew up at me. "What are you talking about?" He gave
me a two-hour lecture on, "Where do you think Bill Buckley went to become what he is? Do
you think Bill Buckley just sits around and writes and thinks and speaks, and people like you have
this reaction to him?" I got a serious lecture on how hard and time-consuming achievement
is. When you see the output of someone's work but you don't see what goes into it, you can
make the mistake of assuming it comes easy to them, especially those who are great at what they do.
They make it look so easy that you think you could do it, too. And you form impressions of how
they do it, and you see these people on television and so forth, you really don't see any of the
prep or any of the hard work that goes into the final product, and my dad was right about that.
So it wasn't until I left the formal academic setting at age 20, that I got serious about
education above and beyond what I'd learned at home. I was reading omnivorously and voluminously,
meaning anything I could get my hands on that was of interest to me.
Isn't it interesting? Rush Limbaugh flunking speech in college? Rush's Dad was right about what it takes to
succeed and the humility necessary to achieve accomplishment, but wrong about the importance of college.
(Added to 'College')
|
Posted 3/7/08 ( by Travis)
At
Charter School, Higher Teacher Pay
The
New York Times ^ | March 7, 2008 | Elissa Gootman
The school, which will run from fifth to eighth grades,
is promising to pay teachers $125,000, plus a potential bonus based on schoolwide performance. That
is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, roughly two and a
half times the national average teacher salary and higher than the base salary of all but the most
senior teachers in the most generous districts nationwide.
The school’s creator and first principal, Zeke M.
Vanderhoek, contends that high salaries will lure the best teachers. He says he wants to put into
practice the conclusion reached by a growing body of research: that teacher quality — not star
principals, laptop computers or abundant electives — is the crucial ingredient for success.
“I would much rather put a phenomenal, great teacher
in a field with 30 kids and nothing else than take the mediocre teacher and give them half the
number of students and give them all the technology in the world,” said Mr. Vanderhoek, 31, a Yale
graduate and former middle school teacher who built a test preparation company that pays its tutors
far more than the competition.
In exchange for their high salaries, teachers at the new school, the Equity Project, will work a
longer day and year and assume responsibilities that usually fall to other staff members, like
attendance coordinators and discipline deans. To make ends meet, the school, which will use only
public money and charter school grants for all but its building, will scrimp elsewhere. <.>
Ernest A. Logan, president of the city principals’ union, called the notion of paying the
principal less than the teachers “the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, called the hefty salaries “a
good experiment.” But she said that when teachers were not unionized, and most charter school
teachers are not, their performance can be hampered by a lack of power in dealing with the
principal. “What happens the first time a teacher says something like, ‘I don’t agree with
you?’ ”
Only when teachers and the educational system is outside the control of the teachers unions can
these sorts of experiments happen. This decentralized control, bottom up approach to education with
the money going strait to the classroom might
just work.
(Added to 'A
Charter School Tale')
|
Posted 3/6/08 ( by Travis)
Tons
of food aid rotting in Haiti ports (some since November)
Associated
Press ^ | Associated Press Writer
While millions of Haitians go hungry, containers full of
food are stacking up in the nation's ports because of government red tape — leaving tons of beans,
rice and other staples to rot under a sweltering sun or be devoured by vermin. <.>
Jean-Paul Michaud, a Canadian, said he sailed to the
capital of Port-au-Prince late last year carrying 60 pounds of donated clothing and medicine — and
that port authorities demanded $10,000 in "customs fees" — code for a bribe to make the
fees disappear.
"I'd have rather thrown the aid in the
water," said Michaud. The Canadian Embassy intervened and the fee was later waived.
Krabacher's group says it has paid nearly $16,000 in
fees in the first six weeks of 2008 alone, compared to $23,418 for all of 2007.
Readers may recall this
story:
British charity Oxfam has had to pay the Sri Lankan
government $1m in import duty for vehicles used in tsunami reconstruction work.
As oft stated: it is not
lack of food, commodities, health care, etc.. which cause a lack of these things. Socialism causes
shortages of these things. The people of Haiti could produce all they need and more if it wasn't for
the criminals running their government. Even without the corruption,
this aid is a major reason for perpetuating and encouraging the socialism already present in Haiti,
and further disrupting their
economy. Indeed, throw the aid in the water! And burn our tax dollars! Better that than
have our government spend our money hurting the good people of Haiti.
(Added to Charitable Corruption and Causes
of Poverty in Developing Nations.)
|
Posted 3/4/08 ( by Travis)
(Las
Vegas)City shuts clinic, with harsh words for owners
Las
Vegas SUN ^ | 1 MARCH 2008 | Marshall Allen
DiFiore said in a letter to the clinic’s owners that Desai ordered his nurses to reuse syringes
and reuse single-dose vials of medication when administering anesthesia to patients who received
endoscopic procedures. The practice, which allowed cross contamination of patients’ blood, caused
six people to become infected with hepatitis C.
Desai, who was a member of Gov. Jim Gibbons’ transition team in 2006, is the majority owner of the
Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada
Desai used to sit on the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners, which has now launched an
investigation into the clinic. <.>
Thank goodness we have medical licensing by the government. Who knows what horrors free enterprise
would yield?
“The fact that, once caught, you have agreed not to engage in a technique well known to the
medical community to subject patients to death or serious illness again does not persuade me
that you won’t do it again,” DiFiore wrote.
Who is this man
whose opinion needs persuading so - some gov bureaucrat?
Regardless, this
scandal has been rocking the Las Vegas medical community since the beginning of this week. Our
office has had over 50 lab referrals to check for Hep A, B, and C. The staff has been quite
frustrated with all the calls coming in as well. The papers told people they could get tested at UMC
Quick Cares, but the UMC gubermint people who told the papers this forgot to tell their employees,
and so people were getting turned away and being told to 'see their primary care physician'. So,
it's been one screw up and mix up after another...
|
Posted 3/4/08 (by Travis)
Pain
and Suffering
3/4/08 neoperspectives.com
Consider it pure
joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your
faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and
complete, not lacking anything.
- James 1:2-5
When pain enters the
consciousness the soul uplifts, the mind becomes joyful, and thanks and praise is given to God. What
a wonderful opportunity, delivered by pure grace, sent by the wings of angels. Oh pain, oh
suffering, oh teacher, lead me to the light and fill me with your blessings. How grateful am I for
your coming.
- Swami Sivananda
(paraphrasing)
Previously
it was discussed that happiness does not arise from external events; life experience does not emerge
from the set, but from the camera; our current perceptions, our very consciousness, arises entirely
from within, and changing the processing, without exclusive focus on the input is the key to
increasing our happiness and understanding.
If this premise is
true, then pain and suffering must be viewed quite different from standard convention. Pain is a red
flag, a blaring "fix me!", a lighthouse in a frothy sea of turbulent emotion and thought.
Pain is our imperfections jumping out at us, allowing us to address them and increase our
understandings.
In fact, should we
not be as thankful for pain as we are for so-called 'gems'
(vexing persons that appear to give us pain)? If not for pain how can we know we are walking
in the wrong direction, with our habits, values, and ways of thinking askew? Look around, what it is
that really gives us pain shall be our greatest uplifter if we open our hearts to it and act and
address it in the proper way.
Of course, it is
easiest to blame the outside world for pain in order to temporarily ignore or suppress these
negative thoughts and feelings. These maneuvers are undertaken as true self revelation about the
nature of the pain would cause much angst and violently shake our egos and worldviews, causing great
further discomfort in the short term. It is not human nature to ponder and philosophize and think of
long term happiness during a painful experience, rather we become emotionally fixed and attached to
our immediate experience and seek to relieve it through any means necessary. It requires great
concentration and strengthening of the higher thought processes to detach from the immediacy of
painful sensual experience and emotion. Indeed, much of our conscious experiences could be said to
resolve around this constant mental battle between short and long term pleasure. The simplest
example is one we've all experienced: eating those chocolates and feeling immediate gratification vs
long term tummy ache and accompanying mental cloudiness. The way we feel after such a sugary gorge
tells us many things if we care to listen.
If viewed correctly
and carefully pain could even become a central plank of spiritual and emotional development. It is
sought out joyously (although not sadistically), for each new discovery means more eventual healing, greater enlightenment and
increased emotional maturity. But these advances are only possible if pain is viewed as almost
a form of pleasure, an apparent oxymoron except that one attempts to witness the pain as third
party, to detach from suffering in order to appreciate beauty in its meaning. In other words,
when the intellectual joy, the higher thought processes overcomes the natural emotional fixation of
pain, true learning and permanent happiness unfold.
Phobias are the
easiest pains to cure because they are obvious and blatant, as by definition we understand their
nature. Most people with phobias understand their sufferings are irrational and so the higher mind
already has a decent jumpstart. It is the deeper fears which are tricky enough to entice the logical
reasoning part of our mind into believing we are justified in our fear (or that our fear comes from
an external event). It is necessary to cure these phobias not because of the inconvenient avoidance
of said phobia, but because the emotion of fear itself, our emotional wrong understanding of the
world is rooted in our phobias. Better said, a phobia is worth eliminating because the very idea of
fear in an external event is incorrect and strongly perpetuated (emotionally) by a phobia.
One proven method
of curing phobias is by desensitization. What is your phobia? Heights? Force yourself to the tallest
place you can tolerate and embrace the fear as it envelops you. Observe it as a scientist would
observe electrical fear impulses in a brain on a machine. It will soon lessen. Bugs, insects,
bees, wasps, spiders? Seek out these creatures and meditate upon them, observe the mind as it
recoils in abject terror; think, 'silly mind, bless the fear in thee'; laugh at the mind as you
would a young child. Such phobias are more disturbing and their effects more widespread then we
realize. They invade even our dreams, unsettling the subconscious, enabling nighterrors, and ruining
countless hours of sleep.
I recall a story by
a lecturing psychologist about a woman who had been in a horrible car wreck and thereafter had a
panic attack every time she sat behind the wheel. He put her in his car and said, "we're going
to stay here until you can drive." She immediately had a panic attack, but didn't leave the car. She had another one when she started to drive. His response, "go ahead
wreck it!". She pulled over and recovered and then drove and drove. It took them all afternoon,
but she was cured. It felt as if a great weight had been lifted and her whole emotional state
shifted, better sleep, and sense of well being ensued. That she is now able to drive is somewhat
irrelevant, the improvement of her life and PTSD symptoms is the real story.
Dislikes are
more insidious than phobias because there often appears to be some valid reasonings for them. In
other words, the higher thinking mind will often concur with the lower emotional mind. When we smell
putrid milk, we actually feel emotions of disgust. These emotions are painful (smelling putrid milk
is not fun!), yet we reason this pain is natural and is there to tell us not to drink the milk. Now
this is true, from an evolutionary perspective, but why can't we function without being consumed by
these negative emotions arising? There is nothing intrinsically 'bad' or 'negative' about putrid
milk. It simply is what it is. The qualities we assign it are false, arising from imperfections
within us. In fact, could one not experience the beauty of spoiled milk, and still refrain from
drinking it? Certainly there is something beautiful about the unique sensation of spoiled milk as it
percolates through our consciousness. Indeed, there is something glorious about the very nature of
consciousness itself, regardless of origin and flavor.
Upon reflection, we
might even find our sensation of the spoiled milk, negative though it may be, highly dynamic, with
our given experience greatly dependent on our immediate mood. For example, if we are already
stressed and late to work vs on the phone with a loved one sharing a happy moment, our discovery of
the spoiled milk will manifest quite differently. If we could raise our base happiness to a certain bar,
we might even find our experience of the spoiled milk not painful at all. In fact, we might find
very little actual pain in life, a goal only achievable by the embrace of the very pain we seek to
eliminate. In fact, theoretically, pain and suffering cannot truly cease and joy, knowledge, and
understanding cannot permeate in everything we do until our desire to eliminate pain is
extinguished, along with, finally, even our joyous desire for pain to show us the nature of
ourselves.
Similar to phobias,
taming our likes and dislikes involves some manner of desensitization technique, going against the
grain, prodding our stubborn minds, until we realize our dislikes are also our own creations. People
we dislike reflect things about ourselves we dislike. When we judge or insult or slander, we really
judge, insult, and slander ourselves, and stain only our own character. Practically there exists
much difficulty in how the mind processes an attempt down this path. For example, consider 'Dharma',
an Hindi yogic term, which can be defined as a combination of individual fate, duty, and talents (and which
will be subject of a future essay :)). We like what we are good at, are drawn to do our part in the
world, and are naturally attracted to people who help us facilitate beneficial information exchange,
ie aid us in accomplishing various physical and mental tasks. How one can walk this razors edge,
this fine line, between discomforting the mind to awareness of its fallacious dislikes and the
danger of straying from one's Dharma, really has no logical answer. Increased discernment and
perceptions of the finer points in this balancing act will surely become clearer with judicious
meditation and spiritual practice.
Some of those
versed in western psychology and psychiatry have arrived at many of these conclusions independently
of our friends to the east. For example, Dr Frattaroli in the previously reviewed
'Healing the Soul in the age of the Brain', describes depression as the body/subconscious telling
the conscious mind something relevant and important. He describes cases where a change in job,
relationship, or other major ( or even occasionally minor) life adjustment completely cured a
patient's depressive state. In effect, listen to the pain, what is it telling you, where is it coming
from? When the mind is calm, ideally after consistent meditation/prayer, or even purposeful sleep,
the answers may be more perceptible.
Major depression
and other more serious cases of mental illness are much more difficult. These cannot be cured simply
by changing relatively superficial aspects of one's life. These states may indicate pathology of an entire worldview, emotional circuitry, and value system, notwithstanding possible biomedical
components. Part of the mind has strayed so far from what leads to long term happiness and thus
major depression, also described as self loathing, is the body's way of alerting the mind to these
transgressions. Yet even this depression, horrible though it may be to experience, should be
approached and appreciated in the same fashion as minor pain. It will be far more difficult to
assess from whence and where the sufferings originate from and the mind will likely have to undergo
major reprogramming over a long period of time before positive results are seen. Certainly
anti-depressants along with major lifestyle changes can give one a temporary or permanent helpful
crutch in these cases, especially if the cause is more organic, stemming from an underlying medical
condition.
We often get caught
up in futile intellectualization of the reasons for what we
interpret as 'senseless pain': the death of a family member, a random car accident, a freak illness,
the suffering of a young child. However, this line of reasoning starts with the premise that
something is 'bad'. But is not this attempt at objectivity clouded by subconscious arrogance? How
can we know every effect of a particular event which transpires? After all, even the most painful
and horrendous events must have some benefits; perhaps hidden due to societal bias against analysis
of human growths stemming from tragedy and suffering. Or, perhaps these gifts are selectively given
to those who quietly view the event from the proper perspective.
If we are to travel
down this path of skewed intellectualization, it may be best to instead start with the premise that
the world and humanity are constantly evolving towards the positive. It is certainly true that
humanity, as a collective, is spiraling towards ever greater and more positive economic, political,
technological, social, and, most importantly, spiritual/religious development. Perhaps it is better
to trust in this than dwell on the 'unfairness' of a particular event or causes behind our
particular mental state or a mental shockwave ricocheting through a particular community.
Which brings us to
a final point, our roll in this interacting network, this computing living biological matrix of
humanity. When we face and learn from our pain, our discomfort, and our dislikes, we alleviate not
only our own suffering, but also the sufferings of others. Consider, again, the case of 'gems',
persons who we dislike, loathe, or are even treated badly by. If the higher mind is able to overcome
the illusions of rising negative thoughts and emotions, we help not only ourselves but also our
'adversary'. By an 'unwarranted' gracious or generous act or manner the offending person is faced
with a perfect mirror, and the nature of their own actions and thoughts suddenly loose camouflage
and finally percolate into consciousness. In fact, circumstances permitting,
great positive learning can transpire if one makes a special habit of forced interaction with people
the mind perceives to dislike or disapprove of. A dark brooding person who lashes out at those
around them is begging for this type of treatment from those more advanced souls floating around the
network. Serving others in this way not only enlightens the self, it benefits
the entire world. Aligning oneself with God's will in such a selfless
manner will surely bring forth the greatest glory and happiness.
|
Posted
2/27/08 (By Kyle Hunt)
Technology
in the Age of Big Government
2/27/08
neoperspectives.com by Kyle Hunt
The United States government's involvement with technological innovation is long and convoluted. Throughout history, every successful military power has relied on innovation to defeat its enemies. Cell phones, video games, the internet, and nuclear power are just a few examples of current technologies that were originally developed and are still used by the United States government for militaristic purposes.
Innovation has not always required governmental sponsorship, however. Before the federal government grew into extraordinary size in the 20th century, our best and brightest were able to fund their own research and only needed the government to enforce patent laws. Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and the Wright Brothers were all able to flourish in this open and free environment.
But as the government became bigger and its ambitions grew, it needed the aid of the smartest scientists to achieve its goals. The problem is that anyone smart enough to be at the forefront of innovation is also able to understand the implication of his work. More often than not, the government is investing the taxpayer's money in researching and developing methods for killing large amounts of people most efficiently. During WWII, Werner Von Broun was forced into working for Hitler to develop the V-2 rocket that pummeled the British landscape. He was against the war and was eventually extracted to the United States, where his work became integral in the development of our space program. Another immigrant inventor, Albert Einstein, provided the knowledge and foresight crucial to the success of the Manhattan Project, which provided the United States with the world's first nuclear weapon. Einstein would later rail against nuclear testing and the development of further bombs. In this cause he was joined by Bertrand Russell, Linus
Pauling, and Albert Schweitzer. These men possessed the great minds that could see the big picture implications of the Unites State's government's short-sidedness. Unfortunately, they were ignored.
As the government cannot always attract the best and the brightest directly, they rely on other means. In recent years, DARPA and NASA have held open competitions pitting independent groups of engineers against each other to develop the next generation of autonomous vehicles and spacesuit equipment. Engineers do not want to responsible for creating technology that brings about the destruction of countries and their peoples, so the government finds creative ways to leech off of their work.
Today, our biggest concerns should focus on the relationship between the internet and our government. What was once only a small project under DARPA has now become an inextricable part of today's society. It is redefining almost every aspect of our working, social, and emotional lives. It also appears that the internet has finally caused a drastic change in the politics of our country.
The internet has re-defined what "grass-roots" means. It is a tool through which truly populist movements can take hold in a country that has been so long divided. People have been given a new medium for education and unbiased truth, which has allowed for more people to gain a more full understanding of the underlying politics of our country than ever before. People who have been enlightened through free and open sources are no longer able to accept the lies and misinformation promoted through our history books, mass media, and most of our presidential candidates. The internet has allowed people to spread these "radical" ideas through their social networks, both online and in the real world. This revived interest in our history and current state of affairs could result in a government much more responsive to the will of the people, as they are able to organize and gather much more freely than ever before. If the two-party system (an obvious misnomer) is unable to adapt, then its very existence is put in a precarious position.
Although the internet has provided us with great possibilities, there is also a darker side to it and the future it may provide for us is dim. Any corporation willing to do business in China is required to comply with the country's regulatory policies and ban any information that is deemed illegal. The government of China does not want its people to have access to certain ideas and historical events, because providing people with truth and the means of disseminating it across such a large populace would be very dangerous for the continued one-party rule. Watching the
CNN/Youtube debates some months ago, one could see a very similar form of censorship under the guise of letting the "people" have a voice. (This is not very surprising, as
Google, owner of Youtube, is actually a Federal government contractor.) If the government was to further regulate what information is to be considered legal, certainly all of our big corporations in the US would have to comply, probably without the people of the United States ever being aware of it.
The ambitions of certain technology companies become rather scary when viewed in conjunction with our government's actions and plans for the future. The technology industry was abuzz for a long time about the
GPhone, but some months ago we learned that instead of actually releasing a handset like Apple did, Google would actually be releasing an operating system. Google worked with over 30 other companies to create an open and free mobile platform, Android, that can run on any handset. Additionally, Google is going to be bidding large amounts of money in the FCC's 700 MHz auction. Google engineers have also recently showed that they can accurately triangulate the position of any cell phone (even if it does not have GPS). All of this coupled with the fact that Google has bought a massive amount of "dark fiber" (unused fiber optic cable that was laid before the bursting of the tech bubble) means that telecommunications as we knew it might soon be coming to an end. Google will be able to provide incredibly fast, easy, reliable, and cheap service to anyone who is running Android on his or her phone. However, this would also provide one company with unprecedented amounts of personal information.
But we should not have anything to fear though, because Google's motto is "Don't be Evil" and seems so user-friendly, right? Well, even if Google maintains its integrity and never hands over private information to our government, the danger for abuse is still there. The government can piggy-back on the innovative work of Google engineers to serve its needs. The CIA and military use the internet to combat
Al-Qaeda, which they created and which also uses networks for means of organization, planning, and recruitment. However, I fear more and more that our government will be turning its eyes inward in the name of national security. The implications of this are tremendous, especially when one considers that our government has a "torture first, charge later – if at all" policy. The idea of a pre-emptive strike against our enemies, which was used to invade Iraq, could quickly be applied to American citizens whose data indicates that they might be a threat against the government. Someone who has never committed a crime against this country, but stands in opposition to its policies, could secretly be interrogated and detained without trial. The groundwork for this action has already been laid by the notorious federal legislation that has destroyed our civil liberties and ripped apart our Constitution. Currently, the powers that be are seeking legislation that would give immunity to telecommunication businesses that have illegally complied with the government's spying on its own citizens.
This would be just another instance of how the government hijacks technology that was created with the most benign of intentions and turns it to serve its own agenda.
Technological innovation could certainly prove a great ally in the spreading of truth and democracy. Unfortunately, it could also be the means by which fewer people are able to oppress and enslave ever more of the world's population. Let us all make sure it is used for the former. The world of George Orwell's imagination provides for interesting literature, but is most certainly not a desirable future.
|
Posted 2/26/08 (By
Travis)
Study
finds immigrants commit less California crime
Reuters
on Yahoo ^ | 2/26/08 | Duncan Martell
People born outside the United States make up about 35
percent of California's adult population but account for about 17 percent of the adult prison
population, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California showed.
According to the report's authors the findings suggest
that long-standing fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified. The report
also noted that U.S.-born adult men are incarcerated at a rate more than 2 1/2 times greater than
that of foreign-born men.
"Our research indicates that limiting immigration,
requiring higher educational levels to obtain visas, or spending more money to increase penalties
against criminal immigrants will have little impact on public safety," said Kristin Butcher,
co-author of the report and associate professor of economics at Wellesley College.
The study did not differentiate between documented
immigrants and illegal immigrants.
(Added to 'Amnesty
from Government')
|
Posted
2/26/08 (By
Travis)
Venezuela
fights use of English words
AP
via Yahoo! ^ | 02/26/08 | AP
English has spread not because of any innate linguistic superiority, but because of the relative
economic freedom here in the United States. Chavez's attempt to control common
culture is doomed to failure, as well as demonstrating his belief in the power of central
planning. Also:
A
lesson from Venezuela (Thomas Sowell)
Jewish
World Review ^ | February 27, 2008 | Thomas Sowell
(Added to 'Chavez')
|
Posted
2/26/08 (By
Travis)
Google
to Store Patients' Health Records, Raising Concerns
Associated
Press ^
This story is
interesting because it entertains the possibility of revolutionary advances in patient care.
What a great way to empower patients: give them access to their own records instantaneously on the
internet. It would
certainly facilitate their ability to look up the latest treatments for their health issues and even
such
details as the interpretations of various lab values. Perhaps, with the proper motivation and study, medically savvy
patients might even make diagnoses their healthcare provider(s) might miss. I can
tell you from personal experience the constant frustrations and delays occurring as patients are
unaware of what
medications they take, as docs struggle to get that latest Xray or MRI report, or have the report and
want to view the image. Patients, docs, and medical staff spend hours on the phone trying to
access and receive this or that. If patients information was stored on the internet, this content
would be easily accessible by tech savvy docs and patients.
However, this is
not a new idea. There are
current internet programs which seem similar to google's proposals, but just haven't caught on in sufficient popularity.
There already exists a plethora of non internet based electronic medical record programs in use, especially in HMO's,
one of their inherent advantages of scale. HMOs also have been utilizing programs like e scripts, electronic
prescriptions.
But I mostly disagree with
the 'concerns' of those expressed in this article. I think one of the fundamental rights of
privacy must be the right to give up that privacy. For instance, I would willingly give up my privacy to attain
personal
advertisements on TV. I enjoy gmail, and have even, on occasion, clicked on some of
the links (targeted advertisements) that appear on the sidebars of my emails. For example, I would
love to see political candidate commercials, drug advertisements, and maybe some yoga and health
food ads :) while watching TV, as opposed to the junk that normally spews forth. It's both more
beneficial and efficient for me and the advertisers!
Much of the time technology is in place to deliver these 'privacy violations' to those who want them, but, as is
their want, the
do-gooders in congress put a stop to the attempts and innovations of these private companies with various privacy acts. The one I am most familiar with
is HIPPA, the health privacy act, which was aptly described, "as about as effective as the post office in a snow
storm", by a retired
family practice doc of 20+ years at our school. We've heard the act denounced in many a doctor office.
IMO, privacy is an
important concept; after all, the core of libertarian thought is self ownership. All our medical records,
our mail
records, and all our private activities belong to us. But it is also our right to sell, barter, or
give away these rights as we choose with no strings attached. And it is our right to seek out
programs that explicitly violate our privacy.
Where those
concerned with the vast amounts of information being acquired and acquiesced by google and other
private companies in the digital age have a valid point is regarding the constant danger of government coercion,
corruption, and malevolent corroboration of these private companies and, even worse, independent
government stockpiling and fishing for information.
A funny thing is it not? Those passing the laws limiting
our right to give up our own privacy are themselves the biggest dangers and current thievers of our
privacy, not withstanding the rest of our precious freedoms.
|
Posted 2/25/08 (By
Travis)
EU
Antitrust Chief Speaks Boldly, Wields Heavy Hand
The
Wall Street Journal ^ | February 25, 2008 | Charles Forelle
Asked how the ruling would affect Microsoft's dominance, she said she hoped Microsoft's 95% market
share would decline -- conflating Microsoft's near-total share of operating systems on desktop PCs
with its share of computer servers, which is what the case centered on and which is lower.
Asked what share she thought would be better, she suggested a major fall -- well more than "a
couple of percentage points."
What business is it
of government what percentage a private corporation holds in the market?
|
Kyle Hunt, guest
author, and hopefully a future regular contributor has penned the following, exclusively for
neoperspectives.com:
Posted 2/19/08 (By
Kyle Hunt)
Ezekiel
for an Hour
2/19/08 neoperspectives.com by Kyle Hunt
The recent months
and years of my life have been spent in deep contemplation. I have studied as much as possible from
as many different sources as are available. The reason for this is that it had become apparent to me
that the most fascinating questions cannot be answered, let alone even asked, by specializing in one
field alone. Attempting to synthesize broad amounts of data from thousands of years of histories and
beliefs can be rather difficult, but the knowledge that can be gleamed is well worth the effort.
This journey through the collected information of the world is leading me to some
“non-traditional” views and beliefs.
This particular
story starts some months ago with a renewed interest in politics. Since I first registered to vote
some years back, I have been a Republican. I am a believer in minimal government,
non-interventionism, and personal freedom. The problem was that no candidate proposing those things
was ever offered to me, and as such, I had not been able to vote. I do not believe in choosing
between two evils, as there is no “lesser” in my mind.
But then along came
Ron Paul! I was fascinated with this man, his ideas, and most significantly the spirit that he was
able to awaken in the hearts of people all around the world. In a fit of inspiration, I penned some
predictions for the future and sent them to Lew Rockwell, the famous libertarian scholar. He omitted
some of the more controversial and long-term predictions and posted the article on his website as The
Political Earthquake.
Almost as soon as
the article was published, emails started flooding my inbox. People from a wide range of locations,
professions, and beliefs reached out to me. Some gave me suggestions for future articles, others
told me stories, and a few thanked me for putting words to that which they felt deep down, but could
not express. It was an overwhelming feeling to have been able to affect so many people.
I continued to write
about my visions for the future and my analysis of the past, but nothing was able to affect as many
people so intimately as my thoughts on Ron Paul. This became ever more evident a few weeks later
when I searched the internet for the article I had written and saw that my words had made their way
to the many corners of the information universe. But it was not because I am a good writer,
prescient, or an astute political analyst. To quote the man himself, “It’s the message!”
So I attempted to
explore the message and how it has appeared throughout the ages. The history of humanity is full of
mystery, especially as we are only left with only a few relics and artifacts. The average human is
left out all together in many instances, as they were slaves, and mostly an afterthought. For most
of our time on the earth, the collected wisdom of the ages has been guarded from public view.
Although the internet has started to swing the advantage in our favor, institutions like the Vatican
keep a tight grip on the assuredly controversial texts in their possessions. When the Dead Sea
Scrolls were unearthed in the last century and forced into the public sphere, our understanding of
Christianity needed a complete rethinking.
In Kabbalah, the
Torah is studied at many different levels to achieve incredibly deep and secret understandings of
the nature of God. As the Jews had long been persecuted, they were forced to hide these teachings in
coded texts, lest it be used in ways considered unfit (sound familiar?)
Even though most of us speak English, have limited access to unadulterated religious texts, and lack
the time and will to devote to pure study, we should still look at the stories and scripture we have
with a more discerning eye as they are rife with meaning.
Thus began my own
continual reanalysis of the world around me. I considered the nature of evil
and what causes people to act against their human(e) natures. Patterns began emerging as I saw how
easily corruptible man truly is under certain circumstances. Next, I looked at the literal,
symbolic, phonetic and hidden significance of three letters: X,
Y, and Z. As most will not have the chance to read all 4 pages of the study (if you do - the
meat is at the end), one of the discoveries I made while considering this topic was that the
pronunciation of “Xy” is a very important clue to understanding religion and existence. For
example, “Xy Zeus” = Jesus, “Xy O la Xy” = Geology, “Xy Netics” = Genetics, and “Xy”
= Z. Although these assertions might sound ludicrous to the amateur observer, they actually make
more sense when we consider the very nature of the spoken word as compared to written language.
There is much that is “lost in translation.”
What never occurred
to me until later was to try putting “Xy” before my own name. When I did, I came up with “Xy
Kyle” or “Z Ky L.” This name should sound familiar to anyone who has studied religion or seen Pulp
Fiction. Interestingly, one of the emails I received after writing about Ron Paul had asked me
to write about Ezekiel, but I had not yet done enough research. Ezekiel was a prophet who one day
came across a pile of dead bodies. He stopped to ponder upon the bodies and God/Allah came upon
Ezekiel and asked him if he would like to see the dead brought back to life. Ezekiel, of course,
said yes and God/Allah told him that all he had to do is command the bones to rise and come back to
life. Ezekiel did so and the bones rose up in unanimous praise of God/Allah. Most scholars do not
consider this a literal story and offer it as metaphor or prophecy.
Prophecy is
something that has been studied by the people in power throughout the many phases of humankind.
Armageddon is often the most widely discussed topic, especially when the world is in peril. All
prophets foresaw it. They all described it. And it sounds eerily a lot like right now. We can see
what man has done to this Earth and her inhabitants and the future looks grim for many. But there
are a variety of interpretations as to what to expect for the eventual outcome of all of this
violence and hatred. (That’s why it is a good prophecy!)
As astrology is the
source of much of the information used by prophets, I began to look more closely at stars. They have
played an integral part of every person’s life since birth. Stars are all over the products we
buy, the clothes we wear, the flags of our Fathers, our night’s sky, and of course our day’s
sky. Needless to say, the cycles of those pretty lights shining in the sky correlate very strongly
with the events that play out here on our beautiful planet. Never before one to “read my
horoscope,” I had not considered how much being born under the sign of Scorpio had influenced my
life. Nor had I understood the implications of being represented by Pluto in our solar system and
the Hanged Man and Death in the Tarot.
With an eye on the
stars and a mind on the future, I decided to look at a video on Youtube, Surviving
2012 and Planet X (link – not needed) The
film explains how for many years scientists have been trying to find the body in our solar system
that is disrupting the orbits of our planets and making. In this vein of research, Jupiter, Neptune,
and Pluto were all discovered. But the calculations were still off. In comes Planet X.
Conveniently, Pluto
was recently demoted from being a planet, so Planet X will be the 10th body of our solar
system. But we already know about the return of X as it had caused the Great Floods and Deluges of
the past. This is when the war of the gods takes place as lightning bolts are hurled from the sky,
fires boil up from hell, and angels fall from heaven. This heavenly body might well be Shiva the
Destroyer, Jesus (the son of the Sun), and even Lucifer the Fallen Angel (Star). The sun meeting
with its shadow could be the greatest example of Gog
and Magog.
Curiously, the film
in question also seems to be overt government propaganda. It lets us know that the best and the
brightest from among us will be taken by the government and brought to underground bunkers where
they will be safe to later repopulate the world. But we should not worry because humankind will
survive and we should wish our “lucky” loved ones well on their journeys. Of course the elite of
the world would assume the right to use the slave’s (or taxpayer’s) money in an attempt to
survive the coming Apocalypse. Even if Planet X is approaching, as it very well could be, I would
prefer to watch our world collapse and eventually reborn rather than spend the rest of my time in
these dimensions underground with the likes of the reptiles and trolls. Or maybe Planet X is just
another false threat being offered to distract us from the real evil facing the world.
In any event, this
interest in the more literal heavens is what inspired me to sit outside on the evening of February
13 (described here). The
fantastic sight left me with more questions than answers, but I knew that I should take a sign from
the sky seriously. Now I do not purport to be anyone of any particular significance, but I believe I
can feel and “see” things many others cannot. As my acts of prophecy started with Ron Paul, so
shall they continue:
The march on
Washington, D.C., proposed by Ron Paul, shall be the most momentous event to take place in the
history of the United States since its inception. It will be when the emperor truly realizes that he
has no clothes. Not because Ron Paul is going to win the presidency; indeed, we know he will not.
But remember, this is about so much more than this one man. This struggle transcends politics, race,
and religion.
When the people of
this country learn that there is going to be a march on Washington, they will join in. Many will
want to witness the most significant event in American history in person, as it will likely not be
televised. Many will feel the need to present their frustration with the leviathan, finally as a
united front.
We are all sick of
the lies, corruption, and death that have resulted from evil men pulling the strings of morally
corrupt institutions. We have allowed them to reside in power, hidden in the darkness, for far too
long.
The worst of times
are still yet to come, but this event shall be of utmost importance for the world. It will be the
largest count of the remnant to date!
But do not take my
word on any this. Wait and see if I am right or explore these things for yourselves. We as humans
are only able to glimpse a small portion of what is truly going on around us, but it does not mean
that we should not grasp for as much truth as possible.
Whatever may befall
us, I believe that peace is the only logical step forward in our evolution. The bones have risen and
taken flesh. And now they march.
_________________________________
I see problems down
the line
I know that I'm right.
There was a dirt upon your hands
doing the same mistake twice
making the same mistake twice
Come on over and be so caught up
its not about compromising.
I see problems down the line
I know that I'm right
I see darkness down the line
I know its hard to fight.
There was a dirt upon your hands
doing the same mistake twice
making the same mistake twice.
Don't let the darkness eat you up
Jose Gonzalez – Down
the Line
|
Posted 2/19/08 (By Travis)
Dwight
Howard Superman Dunk
I'd like to see
someone shoot a three like this. :)
(Added to 'humor')
|
Posted 2/18/08 (By Travis)
Happy Presidents
Day!
No
More Great Presidents
Mises
Institute ^ | 2/19/2007 | Robert Higgs
American liberty will never be reestablished so long as
elites and masses alike look to the president to perform supernatural feats and therefore tolerate
his virtually unlimited exercise of power. Until we can restore limited, constitutional government
in this country, God save us from great presidents.
|
Posted 2/17/08 (By Travis)
Congress
Should Worry About Its Own Business Not Baseball's
Townhall.com
^ | February 15, 2008 | Mike Gallagher
No,
politicians love to pander. They enjoy showboating in front of the TV cameras; they like to pretend
to be concerned about an issue like steroids in baseball that isn’t really any of their business.
If
Major League Baseball feels it has a problem with players taking steroids, let Major League Baseball
handle it.
At
least there wouldn’t be any taxpayer money involved.
Apparently
at least some folks agree with this author:
Now, the chairman of the committee, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), regrets
holding the hearing, The New York Times reported.
"I'm sorry we had the hearing. I regret that we had the hearing. And the only reason we had
the hearing was because Roger Clemens and his lawyers insisted on it," Waxman said.
Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, disputes Waxman's claims, calling the congressman's statements,
"unbelievable, disingenuous and outrageous."
"He
is the one who created this circus in the first place," Hardin said.
Who do you trust? Roger Clemens or Henry Waxman?
(Added to 'Social
Conservatism')
|
Posted 2/17/08 (By Travis)
Boston
Man Receives Postcard From 1929
2/12/08
Associated Press
Nearly 79 years after it was sent, a postcard of Yellowstone National Park's Tower Falls arrived in
a Boston mailbox recently with the one-word message, "Greetings."
A U.S. Postal Service spokesman says it's impossible to know what happened with the card. It somehow
got into the mail and was sent with a one cent stamp from Seattle earlier this year.
(Added
to 'The Post Office')
|
Posted 2/17/08 (By Travis)
Another
Massacre At A "Gun Free Zone" College Campus
kxmb
^ | 2/15/08
One gun. That’s all it would have taken. But that campus, like all the others, is a “gun free
zone”.
To everyone except the killer.
See also,
'A Tale of Two Tragedies' (VA
shooting)
(Added to 'Guns
and Crime')
|
Posted 2/17/08 (By Travis)
War
hero told: You can't have jabs to save sight until you are blind in one eye
The
Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 16th February 2008 | GLEN OWEN
Mr Tagg, 88, suffers from "wet" macular degeneration, the main cause of sight loss in
Britain, affecting a quarter of a million people. It can lead to blindness in as little as three
months - but with prompt treatment it can be reversed.
Now he and his wife Gabrielle, 77, are selling their house to pay for an £11,000 course of
injections.
Last week, Mr Tagg was told by a consultant at Torbay District General Hospital in Torquay that a
course of injections of the Lucentis drug could save his sight.
But at £760 a shot, for a course of between three and 14 injections, he was told that under
Government guidelines it was regarded as "too expensive" unless he was already blind in
one eye.
Mr Tagg, who was a member of the RAF Balloon Command during the war and flew Wellington bombers,
went for his first privately-funded injections on Friday.
Readers may recall, we've visited this drug
before during our critique of the FDA's
belated approval of it. Amazing how many layers of international government incompetence it takes
for it to actually reach patients.
(Added to 'British
Healthcare')
|
Posted 2/11/08 (By Travis)
Some
Observations on Four Terms in Congress
(required reading)
Ron
Paul 1984
By clicking on the above link you can read one of the best 'big picture' political commentaries I
have ever read. It is lengthy, but even written in 1984 it is still more than relevant today and
even prophetic in certain ways. It comes from 'A Foreign Policy of Freedom', a newish book by Ron Paul
and was transcribed onto the freerepublic website by yours truly. :)
(Added to
'Ron Paul 2008' and 'Required
Reading')
|
Posted 2/10/08 (By Travis)
Two
stories, similar in that 'public health' masquerades as a chance for established businesses to put
down their competitors.:
Secret
Nightclubs Open As Strip Club Restrictions Go Into Effect
NewsNet5.com
^ | 02-03-08 | AP
"They have succeeded in creating this underground, sleazy, cash-only
business that cannot be regulated, taxed or secured by police," said attorney Skip Lazzaro, who
represents legal nightclubs.
The
Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog: So Good It's Illegal
LA
Times ^ | 2/6/08 | DANIEL HERNANDEZ
Last
May, she was sentenced to 45 days in county jail for repeatedly violating food codes. Once out,
Palacios and her companeros on the streets of the Fashion District formed an advocacy group
to protest what they call harassment on the part of police and inspectors, fully aware that they are
fighting an uphill battle.
Not that Palacios would mind more enforcement against the unlicensed vendors who are her primary
competition. You see, the typical bacon-wrapped hot-dog enthusiast, as Palacios points out, isn't
likely to notice that there are two tiers in L.A.'s hot-dog-vendor community.
"If
somebody comes in with no overhead and no bills and no sanitary counters and starts selling hot
dogs," Smith says, "you certainly can't complete with any of that."
|
Posted 2/5/08 (By Travis)
Due to technical difficulties Dobber was unable to blog during the past month, apologies to readers.
Hopefully we can figure out the problem and he will continue to add his commentary.
For
those interested, I was attending a Yoga
retreat course in the Bahamas for the past month and was without email or phone contact. It was
a wonderful experience and I have a lot to write about regarding this. This was my second month long
yoga retreat, readers may recall some writings on the first one, I'll group those together and tiddy
some things up here ASAP...
By
the way, what happened to Ron Paul?! I leave for a month and the whole campaign goes to pots! :)
|
Posted 1/6/08
(By Dobber)
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Happy New
Year from Neoperspectives. Travis will be spending some much deserved and needed rest and
relaxation
in an undisclosed location for the
next few weeks. In the meantime I will be guest blogging here at Neoperspectives. For
those that don't know,
my name is Geoff Dobson, nicknamed
Dobber. Travis and I met in July of 1999 while we were both spending our summer break
lifeguarding at
Ocean City, MD. We spent a
couple summers as roommates and have since discovered we share a similar political and philosophical
ideology.
That is, we believe that limited
government and free markets are the best systems of association mankind has ever come up with.
So, thanks for
having me and I hope you enjoy the
site while Travis is gone.
|
Posted 12/24/07 (By Travis)
State
blocks Muslim Celebration Involving Animal Slaughter
12/16/07 WRAL.com
State officials said mass slaughters conducted any other way are unsanitary and threaten an outbreak
of disease.
You see, mass slaughter is a delicate and complex activity
that can only be done by experts with
lobbyists, I mean, experts with expertise.
|
Posted 12/23/07 (By Travis)
Big
Venezuela refinery crippled by parts shortage
12/14/07
Reuters
Years of shoddy maintenance and mounting shortages of spare
parts have left Venezuela's second-largest oil refinery barely capable of functioning, three sources
at the refinery told Reuters.
State oil company PDVSA's 300,000 barrels per day Cardon refinery is currently operating at minimal
rates because four of its six steam boilers are out of service, leaving the facility without enough
steam to keep units functioning, the three sources said.
"They don't have the equipment. There are no spare parts, and they don't have them because they
are not experienced enough to get them," said one of the refinery sources, all of whom spoke on
condition of anonymity.
This year alone
there have been 12 major outages, almost half of which have been blamed on power failures. At least
nine workers have been hurt in refinery accidents in 2007.
PDVSA has struggled with operational problems at its refineries since hundreds of refinery workers
and engineers were fired after they joined an anti-government strike meant to force President Hugo
Chavez from power in December 2002.
Chavez purged the company of his political opponents in 2003 and turned it into the financial engine
of a social development campaign that has built up his political support.
Is this right out of Atlas Shrugged or what? This is the result of the state kicking out private
companies and further politicizing the state owned companies.
In other news, Venezuelans voted to
deny Chavez dictatorial rights a few weeks ago. Democracy is a flawed system, but it appears to
safeguard certain rights, even while trampling on the rights of the individual and placing the
minority under sway of the majority. Has the oil boom helped Venezuela? Their economy is tanking.
Speaking of oil:
God
is Brazilian?
5/12/07 EnergyBulletin.net
This title of this
article stems from Brazilian president Lula da Silva invoking the almighty in thanks for the
discovery of massive oil deposits off the coast of Brazil. But, if history
is any guide, this discovery will surely prove to be a pox upon the people of Brazil. The feedback
loops of freedom and capitalism and revenues to the voracious government will become unbalanced with
this new influx of money and it is likely socialism and tyranny will expand and freedom
retreat.
This project will
be a technological challenge to
Brazil's lethargic state owned company :
About
70 percent of Petrobras' oil production comes from deep-water wells, making it the world's biggest
oil producer at such depths. But the Tupi deposit is deeper than Petrobras has ever drilled —
under 7,000 feet of ocean water and more than 16,000 feet of rock, sand and salt, including a
1.2-mile-thick layer of rock-hard salt.
What if it were
left to the private sector?
In 2005, U.S.-based Chevron and its partners drilled the deepest offshore oil and gas well in
history at 34,189 feet below sea level in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Transocean, the
world's largest offshore drilling contractor, which completed the well. The deepest onshore well, at
37,016 feet, was completed earlier this year on Sakhalin Island, off the Russian coast, for ExxonMobil.
Additionally, we see the same pattern with Brazil's state owned oil companies
as Venezuela's. The article concludes:
"This discovery... proves that God is
Brazilian," Mum's the word as far as God goes, but here on Earth it is apparent that Petrobras
may struggle to meet their 2011 production target, let alone their goal for 2015.
(Added to 'Middle Eastern Governments and Causes of
Terrorism')
|
Posted 12/18/07 (By Travis)
Following Ron Paul's record $6
million day money bomb last Sunday, he gave this great interview with Glen Beck tonight. An
amazing articulation of conservatism and libertarian principles, which I cannot believe we are lucky
enough to find stemming from a major candidate for president of the United States. I find it hard to
believe even people opposed to Ron Paul's candidacy could come away not respecting and admiring
Paul's beliefs after seeing this interview.
Complete video HERE.
In segments:
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pme20JHPkwk
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y4j4m90-XM
3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNjnvp5z6kM
4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGrlZTlD-Sc
5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF_92PpCyUs
6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnm1nPHdATQ
7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD1qMXMOjfo
8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kze69_lmGmA
(Added to 'Ron
Paul 2008')
|
Posted 12/15/07 (By Travis)
Ron
Paul Boston Tea Party Money Bomb (Tomorrow!)

On December
16th, 1773, American colonists dumped tea into the Boston Harbor to protest an oppressive tax. This
December 16th, American citizens will dump millions of dollars into the Ron Paul
presidential campaign to protest the oppressive
and unconstitutional inflation
tax - and the IRS, which sanctions government theft by proxy
ownership on an individual's labor! (my addition) Please
join us this December 16th 2007 for
the largest one-day political donation event in history. Our goal is to bring together 100,000
people to donate $100 each, creating a one day donation total of $10,000,000.
Imagining
a Ron Paul presidency
12/14/07 National Review Online
So a Democratic, or even Republican Congress completes the appropriations process, and sends
President Paul the funding bill for, say, the Commerce Department. Ron Paul doesn’t think we
should have a Commerce Department, so he vetoes it.
Congress either overrides it, or maybe with enough folks to sustain veto. Suddenly the appropriators
of both parties find themselves constantly bumping up against a president who forces them, for the
first time in anyone's memory, to justify the existence of this federal department and its attending
bureaucracy, much less the size of its budget. In the meantime, Paul may not appoint a Commerce
Secretary, since he thinks we don’t need a department. Or any of the undersecretaries. Or
Department of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development…. <.>
But if you think Washington is big and bloated and unresponsive and voracious in its appetite for
ever-larger, ever-more intrusive government, Ron Paul is the guy who would throw a monkeywrench into
the gears. Official Washington would grind to a halt; it’s hard to imagine any big expansion of
government with a president who made Tom Coburn look like Robert Byrd. Four to eight years, of a
broken record, “No, I’m vetoing it, it’s not in the Constitution… no, I’m vetoing that
too, it’s not in the Constitution.”
You think about that scenario, suddenly every other guy in the race looks like the candidate of the
status quo.
Two other good
quotes in recent articles:
1)
Paul wants the government
out of health care, and opposes Medicare, Medicaid, and federally mandated children's health
insurance.
2)
“If we reduced federal spending to the levels of just a decade ago we could
get rid of the income tax and replace it with nothing. There is only one candidate for president,
Ron Paul who is committed to ending the income tax.”
Plus, regardless of what the
unconstitutional FCC and campaign finance reform laws might
say, the Ron Paul blimp is up!

(Added to 'Ron
Paul 2008' plus more blimp pics added)
|
Posted 12/11/07 (By Travis)
Lack
of Mirror Neurons may help explain Autism
7/22/07 Scientific America
This article was
the first I had heard of a 'mirror neuron'.
Here is the basic idea:
These
neurons are active when the monkeys perform certain tasks, but they also fire when the monkeys watch
or hear someone else perform the same specific task.
..when a person observes another person's action, their motor cortex becomes more excitable
The existence of these mirror neurons quantifies what we already know
from our own experience and further illustrates the broad degree to which we are influences by our
environments. Mirror neurons are likely very active in learning processes like infantile
modeling,
But some form of 'mirror neurons' or their equivalents are present in our language, behavioral, and emotional centers,
and will form an integral part of any cultural/societal theory.
For example, when a large audience sees an event on TV, like the superbowl, or a blockbuster movie, or
listen to a presidential address, they all undergo similar subtle neurologic changes stemming from
the same environmental input, which aggregately form the common ties that bind us as a people and influence our
environmental output. Not a bad thing, if freely chosen.
We can quickly shift this into a political field. In communism,
the attempt is through state control to influence culture and indoctrinate (called educate) the
population in a controlled way, increasing the commonalities of culture, creating a uniformly good
populace, and attaining the ideal culture and society. This, of course,
presumes the state (and the those learned individuals who run it) know what is the best end result
and the most feasible path to this enlightenment.
However, most societies today only do this partially; they have 'state owned media', and regulate
the culture (like France and Venezuela
who mandate a certain percentage of their media must be from in country). These actions send an
energy wave (negative we assume), pardon the brief divergence to eastern terminology, through the
populace and the mechanism is in part demonstrated by the pathophysiology of described mirror
neurons.
It should also be of interest to examine the same phenomena on an individual level. When one sees
a horror movie, fights with a friend or family member, or hears about or witnesses people acting
unkindly, mirror neurons are firing and changing the brain in subconscious ways. When we see anger,
whether in film or in real life, or even read about it, a tiny bit of this negative energy is
incorporated into our psych via said neurologic mechanisms, with the result being 'suffering', ie a more
negative and less happy conscious experience in life.
But, on a positive note, this also lends both credence and importance to the goals of living a good life and improving oneself. If one
lives a life of goodness and honor, besides the aforementioned
direct benefit to oneself in the form of increased happiness, one spreads positive energy, as others
view your example and their mirror neurons fire to their subconscious and/or conscious.
Additionally, this positive influence on the environment will indirectly provide self benefit in the
future, fulfilling the karmic theory.
It can be argued
that this post really doesn't say anything new, simply rehashes old theories in a new light, and
I'll certainly accept that. A scientific mechanism based explanations for philosophy and
spirituality is often sorely lacking or, worse, even discounted by the very proponents of such
ideas. Different ways of saying the same thing should be pursued and elucidated; after all, all
roads lead to Rome, but one can only travel one road to get there.
(Added to 'A
Theory of God')
|
Posted 12/9/07 (By Travis)
Everything
is Caused by Global Warming (600+ links)
11/29/07 American Thinker
Dr. John Brignell, a
British engineering professor, runs a website called numberwatch.
He has compiled what has to be the most complete collection of links
to media stories ascribing the cause of everything under the sun to global
warming. He has already posted more than six-hundred links.
The site's stated
mission is to expose all the "scares, scams, junk, panics and flummery cooked up by the
media, politicians, bureaucrats and so-called scientists and others that try to confuse the public
with wrong numbers" Professor Brignell's motto is "Working to Combat Math
Hysteria."
This list is rich,
especially the contradictions such as the following:
Atlantic
less salty, Atlantic
more salty
avalanches
reduced, avalanches
increased
bananas
destroyed, bananas
grow
coral
reefs dying, coral
reefs grow
desert
advance, desert
retreat
Europe
simultaneously baking and freezing
fish
catches drop,
fish catches rise
glacial
retreat, glacial
growth
harvest
increase, harvest
shrinkage
hibernation
ends too soon, hibernation
ends too late
Mt
(Everest) shrinking; Mont
Blanc grows
plankton
blooms, plankton
destabilised, plankton
loss
rainfall
increase, rainfall
reduction
rivers
dry up, rivers
raised
snowfall
increase, snowfall
reduction
trees
less colourful, trees
more colourful
So, as we can see global warming has become the new 'fad' amongst reporters, blamed for everything,
even oppositely occurring phenomena. Amongst researchers, it increasingly appears what they find is less
important than what is to blame for their findings; academia
and science is just as politicized, if not more so (due to state funding/control) than other
sources. Science follows the (state) money, not the other way around.
(Added
to 'The Environment')
|
Posted 12/9/07 (By Travis)
Right
to Medical Self-Defense, The
12/9/07 NYT
If laws banning the use of force are relaxed when an intruder crawls in your window and you’re
home, shouldn’t stringent F.D.A. regulations bend when you’re backed into a dark corner by a
terminal illness? That was the gist of an argument made by the U.C.L.A. law professor Eugene Volokh
in the May issue of The Harvard Law Review. Citing the concept of “medical self-defense,” Volokh
contended that a dying American should have the right to buy any drug that has passed the F.D.A.’s
preliminary safety tests. Currently, the F.D.A. insists that most terminally ill patients await,
like everyone else, full proof of a drug’s safety and efficacy.
(Added to 'FDA
Tyranny')
|
Posted 12/6/07 (By Travis)
Sales
tax on services to become a reality
11/30/07 WNDU.com
Reprinted in full:
Michigan
will impose a new six-percent sales tax on non-essential services starting Saturday, December 1st.
The move is catching many business owners by surprise.Some thought the tax had been repealed, in
light of the headlines a repeal bill in the State Legislature has made lately.
Despite all the talk, the last time the repeal bill was considered was Wednesday, when it was
defeated by the State Senate.
That means, in all likelihood, Michigan’s sales tax will officially go to the “dogs,” on
Saturday.
“Honestly I think there's probably better areas to tax than dog grooming,” said Greta Dalrymple
of Top Notch Grooming in Niles.
While dog groomers will be subject to the six-percent tax, people groomers will not. “I honestly
think that human haircuts should be charged along with the four legged haircuts,” said Dalrymple.
"It's both a service, so I think part of this is unfair the way they're singling out some
industries versus others.”
Some in the carpet cleaning industry also feel singled out.
“I’ve only been in the service industry now a couple of years, but what I see is most service
businesses are one-man operations,” said Steve Rutherford of Care
While carpet cleaners are subject to the tax, chimney sweepers are not.
While financial advice will now be taxable, karate lessons will not.
And while manicures and pedicures will be subject to the new tax, haircuts won't.
Tanning is also on the list of taxable items. At Maui Tan in Niles, they worry about the impact the
service tax could have, given “Maui’s” proximity to the Indiana border.
“They'll probably end up going where its cheaper,” said Amber Valentine, “they'll end up
tanning somewhere else if they're paying more here.”
Michigan State Representative Neal Nitz today apologized for the way the tax has been handled.
“We had always been telling the public that we were going to repeal it,” he said, “it was a
bad idea.”
“I really am quite ashamed of being a part of the process,” said Nitz. “it’s something I’m
not proud of, or happy the way it’s running.”
The following is a list of items that will be subject to the six percent sales tax:
Bail bonding
services
Tattoos and piercings
Carpet cleaning
Dating services
Financial investment counseling services
Gift wrapping services
Lawn care services
Locksmith services
Manicure and pedicure services
Private detective services
Skiing
Sun tanning
Here is a
partial list of services are that exempt from the tax:
Chimney cleaning
services
Chiropractor’s services
Dry cleaning services
Hair care (trimming, styling, shampooing, coloring, or waving)
Karate instruction services
Real estate services
Snow plowing services
As you can see all of these exemptions and nonexemptions are completely arbitrary. So why did it
happen? So politicians could shake down industries, generate campaign contributions and lobbyists
could tell their respective industry groups what a great job they did representing them. Everyone
wins, well, except those who didn't make the exemption status. And it is not a conspiracy, most
likely many of the politicians and lobbyists are unaware of how the system works and how
things turn out the way they do. Or, even more likely, they recognize the system for its
imperfections, but are unable to recognize their own subconscious failings and see the solution.
|
Posted 12/2/07 (By Travis)
In
Hospice Care, Longer Lives means money lost
11/27/07 NYT
Hundreds
of hospice providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial consequence of what
would otherwise seem a positive development: their patients are living longer than expected.
Over the last eight years, the refusal of patients to die according to actuarial schedules has led
the federal government to demand that hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay hundreds of
millions of dollars to Medicare.
Just another example of the perverse incentives resultant of government
control of healthcare. Here
is another previously posted instance of this sort of thing occurring over in Britain.
For reasons that are not fully understood, problems with the cap have
been most prevalent at small, for-profit hospices in Southern and Western states like Mississippi,
Alabama and Oklahoma.
This may not be what is occurring in this case but, from an ideological point of view,
it would be interesting to do a study comparing
death rates of patients with similar conditions in for profit vs non profit vs state owned
hospices. I wonder if patients live longer in the private for profit hospices simply on the basis of
their private for-profit nature?
(Added to 'US
Government Healthcare')
|
Posted 11/30/07 (By Travis)
Taking
Marriage Private
11/26/07 New York Times
WHY
do people — gay or straight — need the state’s permission to marry? For most of Western
history, they didn’t, because marriage was a private contract between two families.
A great history of marriage follows, with the ominous conclusion:
But
governments began relying on marriage licenses for a new purpose: as a way of distributing resources
to dependents.
The
authors suggestion?
Perhaps
it’s time to revert to a much older marital tradition. Let churches decide which marriages they
deem “licit.” But let couples — gay or straight — decide if they want the legal protections
and obligations of a committed relationship.
(Added
to 'Social Conservatism' and 'Secondary
Problems of Socialism')
|
Posted
11/26/07 (By Travis)
Benton
County: Hispanic moms often unmarried
Arkansaw
Democrat Gazette
Nearly half of the babies delivered by Hispanic mothers in
Benton County last year were born out of wedlock. That was double the rate for white, non-Hispanic
mothers in the county. The statistics mirror national trends that have the attention of advocates of
all persuasions. Immigration critics warn of looming consequences, from persistent poverty to
welfare dependency. The Bush administration also makes the connection:
As demonstrated, teen and out of wedlock marriage, along with child
poverty, has plummeted since welfare reform was enacted in the late 90s. This article demonstrates
welfarism has not been reduced enough; that it is still prevalent enough to cause these sorts of scourges
in the Hispanic communities. Not because they are 'Hispanic', but because the newly arriving
immigrants are poorer. This article does not mention any of this.
Preventing out-of wedlock pregnancies is a key to its $100 million “healthy marriage” strategy
for curbing welfare.
A $100 million dollar 'healthy marriage' strategy? LOL This is the first I've heard of this. Of
course, this sort of social engineering propaganda can only be doomed to failure, probably just as
effective as the governments attempt to influence 'drug
use'.
An easier strategy to strengthen marriage would be to eliminate socialism in the United States, and
further cut welfare. Incidentally, it might even lessen some of the immigration
angst percolating out there.
(Added
to 'Welfare; History,
Results and Reform')
|
Posted
11/26/07 (By Travis)
Cancer
Lottery
11/25/07
News of the World
The United States, despite our own pervasive healthcare socialism, is often accused of vast health
disparities. What happens with fully socialized medicine? Won't everyone be more 'equal' in single
payer systems? We've found that in Canada this is
certainly not the case and Britain is no exception:
CANCER
patients across Britain are facing a life-or-death postcode lottery which decides whether they get
vital drugs and treatment.
EACH cancer sufferer in bottom-of-the-table Oxfordshire is allotted just £5,182 a year—while in
top-ranking Nottingham the spending is TREBLE that at £17,028.
PATIENTS in high-spending areas such as Birmingham or Knowsley, Liverpool, have a 20 PER CENT better
chance of surviving than those in low-spending Dorset or parts of Yorkshire.
EVEN neighbouring towns differ wildly, with Hounslow (£11,726) in the Home Counties spending almost
DOUBLE Ealing's £6,650; and Solihull (£6,405) in the Midlands being OUTSTRIPPED by Wolverhampton (£10,797).
(Added
to 'British Healthcare')
|
Posted
11/21/07 (By Travis)
Book
Review
Healing the Soul in the
Age of the Brain
Elio Frattaroli, M.D.
This
was a very interesting book, although I'd agree with his editors, various parts were longish,
somewhat irrelevant, and a bit out of scope. As the author himself says:
Every
time I tried to rewrite a passage or section of the book that was overly academic, I discovered that
the reason I had lapsed into academic jargon was that I really didn't know what I was talking about.
I hadn't fully worked out the details and implications of whatever theory I was trying to explain,
so I felt insecure about the explanation and tried to hide that security under a cloak of big words.
We can respect his honesty here, because there appears few ideas so
complex that the basic tenants cannot be explained in simple concise terms over a reasonable amount
of time.
Yet in certain areas he may be guilty of violating his own premise. The history of psychotherapy,
the philosophy of consciousness and will, and the conflicts between the medical and psychoanalytic
model, were three areas heavy on jargon and citations, yet with little substance. In stark contrast,
his stories, examples, and analysis of current psychotherapy, how and why it works, and his
interpretations of both his patients and himself were absolutely fascinating and the highlight of
the book.
An interaction between two human beings has a number of components. First, both human beings are
conscious of various feelings and thoughts, and they recognize their particular state is a result
(chosen or otherwise) of the interaction with the other individual. Each person also has a
particular 'personality' or 'pattern of life', which influences both the input (people's reaction to
them) and output (their reaction to others). Of course, the terms are not mutually exclusive,
someone who is angry towards others will often receive that anger back, possibly causing even
further anger output. This leads to perpetuating cycles, patterns which can be seen throughout a
persons life. Dr. Frattaroli really does an excellent job of explaining that there are very
fundamental unique energies/emotions or reactions to a life experience which become ingrained deeply
enough in our psych to effect nearly every aspect of our lives. Unfortunately, these patterns often
repeat over and over without our conscious awareness, as they often require indirect reasoning,
extrapolation, emotional courage, and the difficult ability to step outside oneself to judge more
objectively.
Especially interesting is how widespread and pervasive these patterns become. Say, for instance, one
has a conflict with a boss at work. Instead of blaming the boss, it is more instructive to look
within oneself and view the conflict with the boss as only one of of many many symbols stemming from
a deep underlying problem within oneself. The same issue likely manifests in relationships with
friends, one's spouse and family, and every other aspect of life, even perhaps in relatively arcane
subsets like eating, sleeping, and sexuality.
To
view the fundamental of what actually is, rather than just what we see ourselves as, can be
especially difficult because the subconscious may contain opposite emotions than how we view
ourselves, may engage in internal power struggles, and attempt to fulfill unhelpful emotional or
sexual desires. An important part of a therapists job is to act as a mirror, as a blank slate, from
which the patient is forced to become aware that their negative emotions are coming from inside
themselves, and do not originate from an external source. Readers may recall, this sort of idea was the
premise of 'Personal
Responsibility, Mental Responsibility', regarding the root of all thoughts and emotions. While Frattaroli
doesn't go this far; he emphasizes the makeup of the therapist as key; if a therapist is consumed by
the constant cauldron of desires, jealousies, and other negative emotions and animal cravings, the
therapist and client relationship will soon degenerate into an emotional squabble with no favorable
outcome for either party. A common criticism of psychoanalysis, from popular culture and scientific
quarters, is its seemingly overemphasis on human sexual natures. While the constant Freudian
references to parental and childhood sexual associations is likely very much overplayed, the general
idea of unconscious sexual tension between two individuals is surely quite powerful. Sexual desires,
attractions, and fantasy's make up such a fundamental portion of human psych (bear in mind it was
Buddha who reportedly said, "If there were one more vice as strong as the vice of lust I should
never have become enlightened") that it can offer great insight into the aforementioned life
patterns and likely plays a huge role in the therapist/client relationship.
A
great story Frattaroli tells is one of a young girl from a brothel who comes into a hospital with
all kinds of various sicknesses, refusing to talk and refusing to take medication. The resident
attempts to reason with her and politely tries to spoon feed her, but she slaps the medication into
his face and he leaves irately, with her glaring at him as he leaves. The chief attending hears the
report, assesses, and enters only to have the same thing occur, but this time when she slaps the
medicine in his face he just wipes it off, smiles and refills the spoon and tries again. She
looks at him in astonishment, and in a rage, slaps the medication even harder back in his face. He
again smiles and repeats the action. Suddenly she breaks down in an intense emotional outburst of
crying and sadness, but eventually she takes the medication and begins a remarkable recovery
process. The key part of the story is when the chief attending did not feed into the cycle she had
likely created as a protection from the horrors of the brothel. Through his actions, the chief
attending forced her to recognize that he was not the problem, that the interaction between the two
of them was negative entirely because of her. He was, in essence, the transparent window, allowing
her to view herself objectively. He was only successful because he was able to stymie the intense
negative counter reaction he had to her cursing him and splashing the medicine in his face.
Perhaps the best lesson found in this book is Frattaroli's assertion, 'the patient is always right'.
In other words, the mind protects itself the best way it is able. There is a reason for peoples'
behaviors. In the above example, the girl may have even gotten sick or refused to take her medicine
because she didn't want to go back to the brothel; it is perfectly logical, provided one starts from
the proper perspective. However, because of the power of the subconscious, the patient himself will
often not be able to articulate the reasons for her actions, only a clear and undiluted mind of a
therapists relatively free from personal conflict can attempt to piece together these reasonings.
This view also allows the therapist to view the patient without judgment.
Another example of this is Frattaroli's postulation that the Schizophrenic brain separates the upper
cognitive functions of the frontal cortex from the lower subthalmic emotional and survival neuronal
firings. He states the mind undergoes this change as a protection, to shield the higher processes
from disturbing emotional pulses, but the result being that a gulf widens between the two and
neither function properly thereafter. It has often been stated, perhaps correctly, that
psychoanalytic theory collapses when dealing with more serious biologic physiologic illnesses and
this Schizophrenic theory is interesting as it puts this to the test. I would have liked to see more
psychoanalytic explanations for a wider variety of psychiatric and physiopsychiatric conditions.
I
thought his constant references to both his editors and his own personal life were a complimentary addition to his book. It is only fitting after all, that a psychoanalytic book, indeed
any book, must be intertwined with the mental psych of the author. I can respect his intimate
disclosures and honest attempt to 'bare all' to his audience. His mention of his past political
railings did fit with his admittedly similar over passionate zest to crusade against the medical
model.
In
conclusion, I think neither the medical nor psychoanalytic model are mutually exclusive, a
conclusion Frattaroli also appears to accept, at least in part. Patients may be best served with the
ability to choose either one, both, or neither. My only hope is that one day market forces will
return to healthcare to truly allow patients their choice of treatment and specialist, at an affordable price. As
Frattaroli himself might opine, I think they will choose correctly. :).
(Added to 'Book
Reviews')
|
Posted 11/19/07 (By Travis)
Ron Paul rally in Las
Vegas 11/19/07
11/19/07
Neoperspectives.com
Republican
Presidential candidate Ron Paul rocked Las Vegas today drawing a raucous crowd of 1200-1500 people
into UNLV's Ham Hall.


The days events
began with a fundraising luncheon, attended by roughly 70 people. With a $1000 dollar recommended
donation and $500 minimum donation the event likely raised in excess of $35,000 for Paul's
campaign.

Dr
Paul spoke at both the luncheon (15 minutes) and UNLV rally (45min-1hr) and signed autographs, posed
for pictures, and mingled with the crowd at both events.
His
speeches touched on liberty, freedom, and personal responsibility. Some highlights (paraphrasing):
"I don't pretend to know answers. I don't want to run the world, I don't want to run the
economy, and I don't want to run your lives."
"The good thing about these speeches is that I don't say things to different groups depending
on where I go like some other candidates, I never have to think about where I am or who the audience
is."
However, he did tailor one specific for Nevada. At UNLV he brought up his vote on Yucca mountain,
one of only 3 congressmen (the other two from NV) he said, to vote against the nuclear waste being
stored here because (paraphrasing), "I don't feel people in other states should be able to vote
problems onto other states. People in a given state should decide what they want in their
state".
He
also mentioned the money bombs, both past (Nov 5th) and future (Dec 16th), and how the press the Nov
5th bomb generated was worth millions.
Paul
got his biggest cheers, standing ovations, plus plenty of hooting and hollering for his "the government should have no claim on your life, liberty, or property, which includes your
income," "abolish the IRS", statement, as well as his "I'd just like to get the
US out of the UN" quip.
More
pictures of rally found here.
More
pictures of luncheon found here.
We
had 3 out of 4 major Las Vegas news media channels attend the rally, you can see their live coverage
of the events here:
http://ktnv.com/
estimated approximately 2,000 attendees
http://kvbc.com/ estimated approximately 1,300
attendees
My estimate of 1300-1500 was arrived at by the fact that Artemus Hamm Hall seats
approximately 1800, and is divided into a top and bottom section. The top section was not opened for
our event, but only holds 1/4th to 1/5th the total number in the bottom segment, which was almost
entirely filled.
In
their coverage, the
media also mentioned the many signs around town and his plan to eliminate the 'tax on tips' (radio
ads now playing in NV emphasize the Paul 'no
tax on
tips' plan).
In contrast, Romney drew approximately 200 attendees to his event when he was
here on Saturday. Today was a Monday with the rally at 3pm and also despite the Ron Paul campaign's unintentional
lesson on the merits of central economic planning via the printing of two full page ads in the Las Vegas
Review Journal with the wrong times for the rallies.
Also
of note, Hans Gullickson, hired by the Republican party of NV to run the primary Republican caucuses
gave a seminar to Ron Paul supporters the previous day (Sun 11/17), which was attended by over 100
people. This was more than who showed for the entire Republican party seminar weeks earlier.
Although Ron Paul is only currently polling at 8% in Nevada (up from 1% just a few months ago), the Ron
Paul supporters here in Las Vegas are enthusiastic, growing, motivated, and determined to win
NV. I think we will.
Paul
is headed to Pahrump tonight and to Reno tomorrow for more fundraisers,
rallies, and interviews.
My personnel
highlight of the day was meeting Ron Paul (for the second time).
I only had a second to say, "Abolish the FDA!" and he
replied, "There ya go." I'll take that as an affirmative. :)

Update:
Another Las Vegas meetup member wrote on Ron
Paul forums:
It was simply amazing! Prior to the rally, there was a
fundraiser with Ron Paul at $500 - $1,000 a plate. I didn't bother counting because I was too
distracted by all the fancy people, and the good food. I estimate anywhere between 50-80 people
showed up for that, but don't quote me on that.
The rally took place at an auditorium that seats approximately 1,800 people. It
was close to capacity. The estimates from the news channels ranged between 1,300 to 2,000 people.
For comparison, Romney drew approximately 200 attendees to his event when he was here on Saturday.
The audience was extremely loud. My ears are still ringing. The intensity
matched that of the SLC rally; the crowd even went nuts during the video presentation prior to Ron
Paul's speech. We passed out free yard signs prior to the event, so the footage will show a sea of
Ron Paul signs.
Tucker Carlson was there, I presume to interview Ron Paul, but it just looked
like he was hanging out. He seemed to really enjoy being there with all the volunteers and fans of
Ron Paul. He interviewed and chatted with the volunteers for 45 minutes. Tucker was very friendly,
but asked a ton of tough questions that covered every conceivable issue relating to Ron Paul. The
45 minute chat session with Tucker Carlson was RECORDED, and he gave us permission to release it
on youtube or google video.
We recruited 90 Ron Paul supporters to run as precinct delegates, and
registered 80 Republicans. We sold a ton of shirts, and took in a ton of campaign contributions
for the campaign.
We had about 9-10 prosumer cameras there. 3 television stations covered the
event. Also, one of the volunteers happened to own a 20 foot boom apparatus that flew around the
stage. We probably got the best campaign footage to date, of the most boisterous campaign event.
I will post pictures, videos, and other comments later. Right now, I'm
exhausted, and I need to sleep.
RON PAUL 2008!
Update 2, from
a Las Vegas meetup member in Pahrump:
The Pahrump rally a great success!!! The room was
absolutely packed and it was SRO. There was no video introduction at this rally and there were a
few differences in the speech. For example, he did not mention the war on drugs in Pahrump and
he emphasized private property and 2nd amendment. He also emphasized how the message of freedom
is resonating with young people and talked about the enthusiasm at the UNLV rally!!! (I really
think we made an impression on him.) He also said that we the supporters excite him and how the
campaign has been influenced by the internet. I liked his joke about how troops had been in
Korea since he was in high school and it was about time they got out!!! He spoke for about 40
minutes in Pahrump too.
The crowd demographic was different from the UNLV rally. People were
older, but RP's message does not discriminate, so that didn't surprise me one bit! ;)
Update 3, an estimate has been thrown out that some 600 people attended the Pahrump
rally:
We counted two sections of 160 seats each. All
filled. So 320 there.
All the sidelines were filled with standing room only, so maybe another 100 or so.
The back of the room, they were 10 or so deep, standing in a thirty foot wide room, so another
couple hundred?
Hard to tell, just a guestimate, but it was great!
News articles:
Las Vegas crowd
roars for Ron Paul
11/20/07 RJ
(Added to 'Ron Paul 2008' and 'Nevada
Politics')
|
Posted 11/15/07 (By Travis)
Kidney
Shortage Inspires a Radical Idea: Organ Sales
11/13/07 Wall Street
Journal
"There's one clear argument for sales," Dr. Matas told a gathering of surgeons earlier
this year. The practice, currently illegal in the U.S., "would increase the supply of kidneys,
save lives and improve the quality of life for those with end-stage renal disease."
Here is the basic plan, notice it is still not a completely 'free market' plan, but nonetheless
moves in the right direction:
A
set price, he says, could be established by the government and paid by the recipient's insurance,
typically Medicare. The kidney would go to whoever is at the top of the waiting list, rich or poor.
Potential sellers would be medically and psychologically screened to make sure they are suitable
donors. Afterwards, they would be tracked by the government to see what impact the kidney sale had
on their life and overall health.
Interestingly, the government would even save money by embracing the freemarket:
In February 2004, he and a colleague published a paper calculating that the government could spend
$95,000 to evaluate and compensate a donor and still break even. The reason: Medicare pays for
dialysis for all Americans who need it. Transplant recipients no longer need the costly procedure,
which translates to huge savings.
![[Chart]](http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AJ574_PAYMEN_20071112193244.gif)
"Every time I hear this talk, it makes me think a little bit more about it and question why I
had such a gut-wrenching reaction against it," she told him after his presentation.
Probably public skrewls... :)
|
Posted 11/12/07 (By Travis)
Venezuelans
scramble for food amid oil opulence
11/11/07
Reuters
The
37-year-old father-of-two has for months scrambled to find basic products like cooking oil, beef and
milk, despite leftist President Hugo Chavez's social program that promises to provide low-cost
groceries to the majority poor.
"It takes a miracle to find milk," said Arteaga, who spent two hours in line outside a
store in the poor Caracas neighborhood of Eucaliptus. <.>
Businesses say
price controls on staple foods are so low they discourage investment and force stores to sell at a
loss.
(Added to 'Chavez')
|
Posted 11/12/07 (By Travis)
U.S.
Aid Policy For Musharraf: Buckets of Cash
11/7/07 Out Side the Beltway
..the U.S. gives Musharraf’s government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million
monthly in the form of direct cash transfers. Once that money leaves the U.S. Treasury, Musharraf
can do with it whatever he wants. He needs only promise in a secret annual meeting that he’ll use
it to invest in the Pakistani people.
This is to a
country which is currently under martial law due to 'terrorism', pretty ironic considering
Pakistan's past
support for terrorism in India and Afghanistan. A country which is run by a socialist military
dictatorship with Al Qaeda hiding around its territory for a number of years.
Granted, we are
'allies' and the criminal Musharraf is said to be doing his 'best' to 'counter terrorism' and,
besides, since Musharraf is apparently an enemy of Al Qaeda (as evidenced by their multiple
assassination attempts), shouldn't he be a friend of ours? This is like saying Stalin was a 'friend
of ours' (uncle Joe) during WWII and that Osama was on our side against the Soviets in
Afghanistan.
Better, IMO, call a
spade a spade, and stop wasting American tax money, alienating the citizens of Pakistan, spreading
socialism, and working against American's foreign policy interests.
How is US aid to
Pakistan helping spread socialism? Well, since Pakistan is a poor country, we might expect it to be
highly socialized, and therefore corrupt, with heavy government interference and ownership
of industries. Indeed, this is the case, with the military (the same entity which receives cash US
aid) owning large sectors of the economy:
From
Guns to Cereal, Military Dominates Pakistan
So
if you go to Pakistan, the best neighborhoods are the military neighborhoods. They're called defense
housing estates. Nowhere else in the world does the military get involved in large-scale business as
the Pakistani military has.
In fact, the only Pakistani-made cereal is made by a company that is run by a foundation that is
under the military. It's supposed to benefit army veterans. But the fact remains that they manage
that by not allowing competition in the cereal sector. They're in the cinnamon sector, they
manufacture sugar, they have a bank, they have insurance companies. Because the military is running
the government, these business institutions can have privileged conditions. And so they are not open
to free-market forces and competition, which undermines the growth of Pakistan's economy as a
free-market economy.
Military
Inc. — it's big business in Pakistan
|
Posted 11/11/07 (By Travis)
Intel
Official: Say Goodbye to Privacy
11/11/07 Associated
Press
A
top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of
privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of
national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards
people's private communications and financial information.
Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence
Act.
Privacy doesn't
mean you have privacy, is what he appears he saying, minus the newspeak.
Mark
Klein, a retired AT&T technician, helped connect a device in 2003 that he says diverted and
copied onto a government supercomputer every call, e-mail, and Internet site access on AT&T
lines.
I think this illustrates further the growing divide in the Republican
party, not just on spending, not just on nationbuilding and foreign policy interventionism, but also on personal
liberty. The current so-called GOP 'front runner', Rudy Giuliani doesn't appear to be deviating much
from Bush's line, as the following quotes illustrate:
"I don't remember a constitutional amendment that gives you the right not to be
identified."
"What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want,
be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every
single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."
|
Posted 11/6/07 (By Travis)
Ron
Paul w/ Tucker 11-6-07
Great Ron Paul interview with Tucker
Carlson on the record $4.3 million dollars raised in 24 hours by some 37,000 individuals with an
average donation of $103. His present total this quarter (each quarter is 3 months) of almost $7.5
million raised likely puts him in the lead of all Republicans candidates for this quarter.
What a historic day for liberty and
limited Government!

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. ... What country
before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its
liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms."
-Thomas Jefferson
(Added to 'Ron
Paul 2008')
|
Posted 11/2/07 (By Travis)
Ron Paul
on Jay Leno
10/30/07
YouTube
A great video of Ron Paul on Jay Leno.
Also, on November 5th over 15,000 people have signed
up to contribute $100 to Ron Paul's presidential campaign in a massive 'money bomb'. Others have not
officially 'signed up' but have said they will contribute on that day. It will be interesting to
rock the political world and see what news coverage we get from this event, not to mention a massive
cash infusion to the campaign.
The reason November
5th was chosen varies depending on who you ask, but is most likely related to the V for Vendetta
movie (whom I can thank Dobber for recommending), which is set in a 'big brother' like society, with
an all intrusive, powerful, and (of
course) corrupt government. Characters with Ayn Rand type personalities outfox and outflank the
tyranny, and ordinary citizens come together wearing Guy Fawkes masks on November 5th, Guy Fawkes
day in England, to restore their liberty.

One can see why
such rich symbolism would appeal to the Ron Paul campaign, pardon me, I mean the individuals
supporting Ron Paul, the official 'Ron Paul campaign' does not, after all, control the campaign, a
fact most Paul supporters wear as a badge of honor.
(Added to 'Ron
Paul 2008')
|
Posted 11/2/07 (By Travis)
Gene
Master - How a private researcher won the race to decode the human genome
10/31/07
Wall Street Journal
...three years
ahead of the government's schedule and at a tenth of the cost.
Another example of government incompetence in research. IMO, funding
research is not a proper role of government. The money is better off spent in the hands of people
like Mr Ventor and his financial backers.
|
Posted 10/31/07 (By Travis)
Iowa
Tax on Pumpkins
10/30/07 DesMoines register
The Iowa Department of Revenue, often accused of trying to squeeze blood out of turnips, is now
searching for pennies in pumpkins.
Happy Halloween!
|
Posted 10/31/07 (By Travis)
Utahns
Can Vote for School Choice Tuesday
10/31/07 John Stossel (RCP)
Next Tuesday, Utah voters go to the polls to decide if their state will become the first in the
nation to offer school vouchers statewide. Referendum 1 would make all public-school kids eligible
for vouchers worth from $500 to $3,000 a year, depending on family income. Parents could then use
the vouchers to send their children to private schools. <.>
But wait. Arrayed against the vouchers are the usual opponents. They call themselves Utahns for
Public Schools. They include, predictably, the Utah Education Association (the teachers union), Utah
School Boards Association, Utah School Employees Union, Utah School Superintendents Association, the
elementary and secondary school principals associations, and the PTA. No to vouchers! they
protest. Trust us. We know what's best for your kids.
(Added to 'A
Charter School Tale')
|
Posted 10/29/07 (By Travis)
Ron
Paul: The Perfect as the Enemy of the Good
10/29/07 The Club For Growth
Wow, a detailed and
fair summation of Ron Paul's record in Congress. The Club For Growth nails another one!
When it comes to limited government, there are few champions as steadfast and principled as
Representative Ron Paul. In the House of Representatives, he plays a very useful role constantly
challenging the status quo and reminding his colleagues, despite their frequent indifference, that
our Constitution was meant to limit the power of government. On taxes, regulation, and political
free speech his record is outstanding.
This article is
great because it illustrates why Paul may not have exemplary ratings from various 'conservative'
organizations that people use as benchmarks. He votes against 'conservative' bills because they
don't go far enough, or believes that fixing unconstitutional measures with lesser unconstitutional
measures doesn't address the root problems.
Paul may, upon
occasion, vote with Democrats, but this is mere coincidence; he arrives at his conclusions from the
opposite side of the ideological spectrum.
(Added to 'Ron
Paul 2008')
|
Posted 10/29/07 (By Travis)
Hard
Work and Dedication Yield Big Results
10/29/07
freedomsphoenix.com Brock Lorber
There
are no boundaries to what a single person or group can do without filling out a single government
form.
This
past Saturday, some of us put in an 18 hour day to finish 'er up! It's a three story sign clearly
visible on the I15 between Vegas and LA. 7 million cars a month pass through here:
A previous
group laid the groundwork for this and even got a story in the Washington
Times.
On a similar note, a
video came out of the Las Vegas Ron Paul meetup vegas strip run!
(Added to 'Ron
Paul 2008')
|
Posted 10/26/07 (By Travis)
Senate
Committee approves $286 Billion Agriculture bill
10/26/07 The Modesto Bee
But
the Senate's farm bill, spanning some 1,300 pages, also reflects competition between its
agricultural and its social welfare priorities. The bill's nutrition and rural development sections
total 275 pages. The crop subsidy section totals 278 pages.
And what a congress of stinks!- Roots ripe as old bait, Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich, Leaf
mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks, Nothing would give up life: Even the dirt kept
breathing a small breath.
- Theodore Roethke
(Added to 'Farm
Subsidies')
|
Posted 10/26/07 (By Travis)
Why
I quite the D.C. Schools /
I
Just Couldn't Sacrifice My Son
10/21/07
Washington Post
This article is a great read that mimics much of 'A Charter School Tale'.
I
visited public schools that were scenes of barely controlled chaos. I walked halls that teemed with
students 15 minutes after the bell had sounded for the start of class. I choked on the smell of
marijuana in the stairwells. Little had changed when I visited a District high school last year.
I've listened to teachers and principals talk about students with barely disguised contempt, heard
teachers gossip about students' sexual activity and had others refuse services or accommodations
that they were legally obligated to provide.
When some neighbors considering the school called to schedule a visit, however, the receptionist was
genuinely puzzled.
"Visit?" she said. "We don't do visits."
My neighbors and I kept calling. Two or three weeks later, school staff members agreed to let us in.
I found the building clean and well-maintained. The classes were quiet and students attentive.
The next step was meeting with the principal. That took more letters and calls; so many, in fact,
that Fenty -- then our Ward 4 council member -- offered to call on our behalf. I thanked him but
said no. It shouldn't take a council member's intervention to get a principal to meet with parents.
<.>
We thought we were going to be able to when our son won a lottery spot in a bilingual Montessori
charter school that was just starting. For three years, from preschool through kindergarten, we
watched him thrive with the same teacher, who truly valued him. Early in his first-grade year,
however, it became clear that while energy and passion were important in starting a school, they
were poor substitutes for teaching and administrative experience.
The problems began when the school finally moved into a building of its own. Pepco and Verizon
wouldn't start services because a clerk in the District's notoriously inefficient Department of
Consumer and Regulatory Affairs hadn't completed the paperwork for the certificate of occupancy.
Staff
members worked to correct this, but it took parents' writing the utilities (I asked Verizon's
president how it would look if something happened to a child because no one could call 911) to get
the lights turned on and the phones working.
(Added
to 'A Charter School Tale')
|
Posted 10/26/07 (By Travis)
I
won't let Daddy die: Girl of six raises £4,000 for life-saving drugs the NHS won't provide
10/26/07 The Daily Mail (UK)
The drug Mr Hill needs is called Tarceva. It is available for free in Scotland but not in England,
as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence found it was not "an effective use
of NHS resources".
It has been welcomed by cancer specialists around the world and is used extensively in Europe and
the US.
The £4,000 Chantelle has raised will pay for only two months of treatment, but she is determined to
keep going and raise more, Mrs Hill said.
(Added to 'British
Healthcare')
|
Posted 10/23/07 (By Travis)
Prestige
or Education
10/23/07 Thomas Sowell
You
may never have heard of Harvey Mudd College but a higher percentage of its graduates go on to get
Ph.D.s than do the graduates of Harvard, Yale, Stanford or M.I.T. So do the graduates of Grinnell,
Reed, and various other small colleges.
Of the chief executive officers of the 50 largest American corporations surveyed in 2006, only four
had Ivy League degrees. Some -- including Michael Dell of Dell computers and Bill Gates of Microsoft
-- had no degree at all.
Apparently getting into Prestige U. is not the life or death thing that some students or their
parents think it is.
My only clarification would be that having a 'Ph.D' is not necessarily reflective of 'education'
either. :)
(Added to 'college')
|
Posted 10/23/07 (By Travis)
California
cities turn off lights
10/20/07
Reuters
Water
may be more limited / Georgia
considering options almost unheard of for metro areas
10/15/07
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Both of the above stories share the commonalities of having their problems stem from statist control
over important commodities, socialized electricity and water respectively. The results are no
different than the Soviet
breads lines, bare shelves in Zimbabwe,
healthcare in Canada and Britain,
or even 'traffic' here in the US.
|
Posted 10/18/07 (By Travis)
Plan
Would Ease Limits on Media Owners
10/17/07 New York Times
The
head of the Federal Communications Commission has circulated an ambitious plan to relax the
decades-old media ownership rules, including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a
newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city.
This
would be great news for media freedom, diversity of opinion, and improving the quality and quantity
of news. A good first step that would ideally end in the abolition of the FCC itself. :)
Currently,
a company can own two television stations in the larger markets only if at least one is not among
the four largest stations and if there are at least eight local stations. The rules also limit the
number of radio stations that a company can own to no more than eight in each of the largest
markets.
But deregulation in the media is difficult politically, because many Republican and Democratic
lawmakers are concerned about news outlets in their districts being too tightly controlled by too
few companies.
Incumbents worried about their jobs? Throw the bums out! :)
(Added to 'Media
Freedom')
|
Posted 10/18/07 (By Travis)
Father
delivered baby after partner was turned away from NHS hospital - TWICE
10/18/07
The Daily Mail
But on the day of the birth, she was twice turned away from
the hospital because it was full - forcing her partner to deliver the baby himself at their home.
A spokesman for the hospital said: "The maternity unit from time to time experiences peaks in
demand and during the last 12 months we have seen an increase in births at the Princess of Wales
Hospital.
"We can confirm that it was necessary for this unit to close recently for a short time to new
maternity admissions due to the unit reaching full capacity."
I wonder if this couple will be reinbursed their tax money taken from them to finance care they did
not receive. Because people are not paying for a service there is no accountability.
Then again, looks like they did ok on their own... :)
(Added to 'British
Healthcare')
|
Posted 10/18/07 (By Travis)
An
interview with Ron Paul about his presidential platform on energy and the environment
10/16/07 Grist.org
A great
articulation of conservative/libertarian philosophy as it deals with the environment. Property
rights (and Federalism, which Paul doesn't mention, but perhaps should have) is a simple and common
sense approach to dealing with these issues.
The only possible
weakness I can see in this general theory, is that if someone was to pollute your property, say
water supply, but then went bankrupt, you’d be stuck with the damages.
I think this is
reflective of the need to tighten bankruptcy laws so that people are accountable for their credit
and the damage they do to others. Actually ‘tightened’ is a misnomer, the current laws should be
repealed to allow contracts to be drawn up between individuals, creditor and lender. Also, people
could buy insurance, both the possible polluter and the individual, sort of like uninsured collision
insurance for the individual and ‘disaster’ insurance for the possible polluter.
On a different
note, here is a great Ron Paul clip
from NBC and Joe Scarborough.
(Added to 'The
environment' and 'Ron Paul 2008')
|
Posted 10/15/07 (By Travis)
A
guest author, 'Maelstrom', has agreed to allow neoperspectives.com to publish an excellent, if
strongly worded, piece on
the nature of conspiracy theories and their theorists. Conspiracies are a somewhat natural consequence of libertarian
type thought, they stem from a distrust of government taken to such an extreme that the distrust and cynicism
become so ingrained in the worldview as to become the most prominent part of it, and are in turn liberally,
pardon the pun, applied to many extraneous facets of life and often expanded to include nongovernmental parties
and private institutions and individuals. Alex Jones, a radio personality, is one individual, who,
although offering unique points of view in some perspectives, frequently errors in this fashion.
For
an extreme example, the 'ultimate conspiracy', if you will, lol, and this one is a hoot, especially
if you have a background in what this guy is spouting about:
Is
Alex Jones an NWO False Flag?
Q
We hear every day on TV about vast right-wing conspiracies and neoconservative cabals and all the
various strings the administration is pulling. And so the question that keeps coming up to me
is, if you guys are so powerful, why in the heck didn't you plant the weapons of mass destruction?
(Laughter.) (Applause.)
SEC. RUMSFELD: (Laughs.) Oh, my. (Laughter.) It's kind
of nice to be out of Washington. (Laughter.)
Two other articles on the 9/11 conspiracy theory:
9/11:
Debunking The Myths / PM examines the evidence and consults the experts to refute the
most persistent conspiracy theories of September 11
March 2005 Popular
Mechanics
I,
Left Gatekeeper / Why the "9/11 Truth" movement
makes the "Left
Behind" sci-fi series read like Shakespeare
10/1/06
Commondreams.org (language warning)
(Added to 'The Conspiracy
Theorists')
|
Posted 10/15/07 (By
Maelstorm)
The Conspiracy
Theorists
10/15/07
Neoperspectives.com
Mr. Jones is one artful conspiracy loon. He is at least an equal opportunity
one who is at least consistent in that he thinks everyone Republicans and Democrats are out to get
him.
Honestly that is the only reasonable stance for someone who chooses to accept
the conspiracy nonsense. The whole of the government at some level right and left would have had to
worked together to pull off something of the magnitude of a 9-11. True conspiracies require so many
co-conspirators that they soon collapse under their own weight of incredulity.
Conspiracies to succeed require an Al Qaeda style commitment. Politicians are
by their very nature not good candidates because they are not very good at keeping their traps shut
and are very self preserving and vainglorious.
They are also quick to back stab each other and exercise leverage against one
another which usually ends up being their downfall. Such type also have a bad habit of writing down
their escapades in diaries and spilling their guts to pretty call girls.
Mr. Jones and his like are right not to trust the government but they are
wrong to believe it capable of genius and cunning that is not evident anyplace within it.
The little kings are too busy wasting money and taking smoke breaks to
conspire to do anything but sneak out early when the tax payer isn’t watching. The great
deceptions are those they make in plain sight. Promising free Health Care, promising to make us
safer, leading us to believe learning requires billions of dollars and teachers paid and trained on
a gold standard, telling us cutting taxes is spending, and that our soldiers are no better than
shock troopers.
I could go on and on at the myths and lies and phony crud that is offered up
on the plate of American politics by the very horrible chefs in Washington. Most are educated
lawyers and that should trouble us only because it should make us truly skeptical of what it means
to be educated. Believing one has special knowledge and attributing a grandness to the buffoons
in Washington that they do not deserve is to confuse a man who is driving drunk with a man who is
trying sincerely to run you down. Those in Washington are drunk with tax payer money and too
busy looking at themselves on TV to conspire to do anything but fall prey to their own weaknesses
and power hungry nature. That it leads to a socialist mommy state is not because great thought has
went into it only that babies are prone to seek what makes them feel safe and those in power wish to
make sure citizens need them to feel safe. They hunger for attention just as their supporters hunger
to be fed and told they really aren’t perverts, baby killers, weak cowards, and lazy dumb asses.
The children of ignorance feed on the comforting breast dripping with pleasant
illusions and snarl and snap at any hand that would take that breast away.
|
Posted 10/15/07 (By Travis)
English
Pull Own Teeth Due To Poor Dental Services
10/15/07 AFP
78 percent of private patients said they were there because they could not find a National Health
Service (NHS) dentist, and only 15 percent because of better treatment.
Overall, six percent of patients had resorted to self-treatment, according to the survey of 5,000
patients in England, which found that one in five had decided against dental work because of the
cost.
Almost half of all dentists -- 45 percent -- said they no longer take NHS patients, while 41 percent
said they had an "excessive" workload. Twenty-nine percent said their clinic had problems
recruiting or retaining dentists.
"These findings indicate that the NHS dental system is letting many patients down very
badly," said Grant.
Readers may recall
previously posted stories on British Dental service see, 1,
2, 3,
4...
(Added to 'British
Healthcare')
|
Posted 10/15/07 (By Travis)
The Ron
Paul Las Vegas Meetup group held two strip drives this weekend, with about 10 cars/trucks and a massive
RV as the kingmaker. Blaring horns, big crowds, flag and sign waving, we were a sight to
behold!:


Interesting
coincidence, we ran across this guy, or he stumbled across us somewhat in his drink, who had never
heard of Ron Paul! The one running for president that is... :)


In other news,
check out what these folks did over the past
weekend. Regardless of one's political persuasion, you gotta give 'em credit, their effort and
diligence is truly a sight to behold.
(Added to 'Ron
Paul 2008')
|
Posted 10/7/07 (By Travis)
G.M.
Pact Calls for a Push for Healthcare Reform
10/6/07 New York Times
A
G.M. spokeswoman, Michelle Bunker, said the company had not specifically called for a single-payer
health care plan, in which a government program would be created to offer health care benefits.
Corporate welfare at its worse, GM, owing some $52 billion in health
care liabilities to its union members will soon try to force socialized medicine upon the citizens
of the United States.
Boycott American! Buy Japanese! It's the patriotic thing to do. :)
(Added to 'US
Government Health')
|
Posted 10/7/07 (By
Travis)
The
Ron Paul phenomenon
10/7/07 OC Register
The
biggest news to come out of the Ron Paul campaign (www.ronpaul2008.com) last week was that the
campaign raised $5.08 million during the third quarter of this year. <.>
Ron
Paul may be the candidate who breaks through. Whatever happens, his campaign has turned into the
most significant pro-freedom mass movement in modern American history, perhaps in all of our
history.
However, things aren't all peachy, Ron Paul has admitted
to some serious vices, which may make him unfit for higher office. :)
Also, Andrew Roth, over at the Club For Growth has told
me (and given permission to announce here) that they are working on a piece, 'Ron Paul's Record on
Economics Issues', due out in a few weeks time, joining those already in existence on Thompson,
Romney, Giuliani, McCain, Huckbee, and Brownback. These reports offer excellent in depth analysis
from, IMO, the most credible freemarket source in existence.
However, it will be interesting to see how they rate Paul, as he is often difficult to pin down by
traditional methods. How many Congressmen vote against CAFTA and NAFTA because it is 'government
managed trade', not free trade. In other words, if you vote against a 'free trade' bill because it's
not free enough are you counted as having an 'anti free trade' record?
We
shall see, but I very much look forward to seeing their report. I suspect many of their members
would be quite thrilled with a Paul Presidency and are, perhaps, unaware of his exemplary record in
Congress. I mean, forget abolishing the 'death tax', a laudable high priority for the Club For
Growth, let's abolish the entire IRS! :)
(Added to 'Ron Paul 2008'
and 'Club
For Growth; Defending Liberty')
|
Posted 10/2/07 (By Travis)
SOMA
Resolution on FDA approval
This past weekend,
SOMA (Student Osteopathic Medical Organization), representing over 14,000* Medical Students, 15%* of
the total medical students in the United States, passed the following resolution (only the final
'RESOLVED' statement was officially passed, the 'WHEREAS' parts are included here only for
completeness):
Resolution:
Subject: SOMA
Resolution on FDA approval
1) WHEREAS,
New pharmacological advances have resulted in major
2)
3) healthcare advances and
enabled physicians to enhance patient care (4),
4)
5) WHEREAS,
This year the FDA has so far approved only 7 NCE (new
6)
7) chemical
entities), down
31% from last year (1),
8)
9) WHEREAS,
It takes an average of 12-10 years and $400-800 billion
10)
11) to bring a new drug from lab to
marketplace, in large part due to legal
12)
13) and current regulatory compliance (2),
(3),
14)
15) WHEREAS,
Generic drugs take over 20 months for approval,
16)
17) increasing cost and
decreasing
access (6), (7), (8),
18)
19) WHEREAS,
Terminally ill patients are routinely denied opportunity to
20)
21) try new or experimental
drugs and therapies (5), (9), (10), (11),
22)
23) therefore be it;
24)
25) RESOLVED,
SOMA recommend agencies investigate ways to: 1)
24)
25) Review, reform, and hasten the
current regulatory processes regarding
26)
27) the current FDA approval
process for NCE
(new chemical entities). 2)
28)
29) Review, reform, and hasten the current
FDA approval
process for
30)
31) generic brands. 3) Review, reform, and ease the FDA rules
and
32)
33) regulations for entry of properly consenting terminally ill patients into
34)
35) clinical trials.
Specifically, the FDA should not be allowed to prevent a
36)
34) terminally ill, properly
consenting, educated, and fully lucid adult, from
35)
36) undergoing experimental treatment(s).
References
1) http://www.physorg.com/news106639362.html
2) http://www.allp.com/drug_dev.htm
3) http://www.fdareview.org/harm.shtml
4) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml
5) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/health/08cancer.html?ei=5088&en=c7d3700569843106&ex=1344225600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1186761090-2nuJMDlO7lIWRhEdEr+MJw
6) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020302598.html
7) http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/421495_3
8) http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2003/503_drug.html
9)http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/05/AR2007070502149.html
10) http://reason.com/news/printer/120763.html
11) http://www.abigail-alliance.org/
This resolution
will be passed onto the pertinent committee(s) at the AOA (American Osteopathic Association), which
represents 52,000 DOs, 5% of the country's physicians, for their review.
(Added to 'FDA
Tyranny' and 'Medical Lobbying')
|
Posted 10/2/07 (By Travis)
Ron Paul raised $1.2 million in the last week of this quarter,
his campaign will release his
total fundraising numbers soon, and those
of the other candidates will roll in shortly. However, there's no question he's on a
roll.
The odds makers have taken note:

Paul
Poses Serious Threat to Hillary Clinton in a General Election Match up
9/27/07 USdaily
This is an
interesting article, as it purports, from a purely political perspective, how Ron Paul's stance on
the war and immigration make him the best choice to beat Hillary.
When I first saw
this article, I'll have to admit I saw it as an interesting but sort of an unlikely possibility,
worthy of nothing more than a abstract intellectual political argument; but now I think present
developments merit it more serious consideration.
The GOP also has to
consider how the +50,000 passionate Ron Paul meetup members, probably numbering some 75-100k by election day
would aid the campaign, plus the piggyback effect on other Republican incumbents. These volunteers
will not be there, at least not in these numbers, for a Fred Thompson or a Mitt Romney.
I've also added
some new Ron Paul pics to the Ron Paul 2008 perm link.
(Added to 'Ron
Paul 2008')
|
Posted 9/23/07 (By Travis)
Farmers
rediscover allure of tobacco No longer subsidized, crop gains acres in U.S.
9/19/07 Wall Street Journal
Three
years after the federal government stopped subsidizing it, the leafy crop is gaining new popularity
among U.S. farmers. Cheaper U.S. tobacco has become competitive as an export, and China, Russia and
Mexico, where cigarette sales continue to grow, are eager to buy. Since 2005, U.S. tobacco acreage
has risen 20 percent. Fields are now filled with it in places like southern Illinois, which hasn't
grown any substantial amounts since the end of World War I.
What an interesting story, isn't it? Government, even when it tries to
help, even when it steals money from taxpayers, ends up hurting those who ostensibly reap dividends
from its help. The free market helps even the beneficiaries of government largeness, which makes it
all the more puzzling that special interests receive vast sums from their respective membership to
spend lobbying government for funds and 'friendly' regulations, when in the end it ultimately comes back to
bite them. True prosperity will come when individuals reject the claims of their representative
lobbyists and trust in freedom.
Readers may recall in 'Amnesty from Government', it was discussed how baring 'illegals' from
government funds will likely actually be a boon to the illegals and a continued harm on the regular Americans that receive
them. Again, in a sense, the reasoning and logic is opposite of the truth.
I wonder what the 'Republican' Senators of North and South Carolina, big tobacco growing states that
were adamantly against eliminating the government subsidy, think of this development? Or are
they already onto the next pork project?
(Added to 'Farm Subsidies')
|
Posted 9/23/07 (By Travis)
Off
The Record With Don Dumsfeld
9/07 GQ
An
long and interesting interview with Sec Rumsfeld.
(Added to 'The
best of Donald Rumsfeld')
|
Posted 9/16/07 (By Travis)
Keep
'Em Out / Higher education has been oversold
9/13/07 National Review Online
When
we hear that more and more jobs “require” a college degree, that isn’t because most of them
are so technically demanding that an intelligent high school graduate couldn’t learn to do the
work. Rather, what it means is that more employers are using educational credentials as a screening
mechanism. As James Engell and Anthony Dangerfield write in their book Saving Higher Education
in the Age of Money, “the United States has become the most rigidly credentialized society in
the world. A B.A. is required for jobs that by no stretch of imagination need two years of full-time
training, let alone four.”
<.>
Sadly, college education is now generally sold as a stepping stone to good employment rather than as
an intellectually broadening experience. Sometimes it manages to do both, but often it does neither.
Meaningless
High School
9/15/07 Bob Circus
An interesting take on the effect of Public compulsory education on family cohesion and
values.
The
only book by Laura Ingalls Wilder I've read is Farmer Boy, her biography of the life
of her husband, Almanzo Wilder, when he was ten years old and growing up on a farm. I was surprised
by his life, which wasn't all that long ago--in the 1860's.
Almanzo had a place and a purpose in the family, and an important one. The functioning of the farm
was very much dependent on him, and Almanzo didn't mind at all. He enjoyed it a great deal. How many
teenagers today can say the same? How many today just live with their families, but don't truly feel
part of them? As for school--ugh.
There was something very interesting about Almanzo's life. He hated school passionately and
apparently only attended a few months at the most in his entire life. Yet he grew up intelligent and
well-read.
So, school, too, is a major part of the problem with teenagers today. Many have little purpose or
meaning in their families, and even less in school. Unfortunately, to borrow a phrase from John
Taylor Gatto, the purpose of government factory schools is indoctrination. That's why it puzzled me
at first why family and school didn't mean that much to me. I especially had no place, or
meaning, or purpose, in school. Indoctrination is not education, and it's always boring and never
has any meaning.
Almanzo had an important place in the family, but no place in school. That's why he hated it. School
meant nothing to him, and it bored him. It isn't any different today. <.>
I've come to the conclusion there is no hope for the public schools. They bore kids, they destroy
their imaginations, they give them no meaning or purpose. I'd shut them down on the spot if I could.
How many kids like school? Almost none. Doesn't that tell people something? <.>
As for families, I do know one thing; the State is the cause of most of their problems.
Interference by public schools, interference in the economy, destruction of neighborhoods and
communities...all of these things are created and exacerbated by the State. Interference by the
State takes away the meaning and purpose of people's lives, and tries to replace it with its
meaning, which is generally bureaucracy, militarization, war and empire.
The State
does a lot of bad things to people. Taking away a true meaning to their lives and replacing it with
false one is one of the worst.
"Some things
are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our
ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the
streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the
rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased,
debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
- 6th Court of Appeals Justice Janice Rogers Brown
(Added to 'College')
|
Posted 9/16/07 (By Travis)
Biologists
trying to save endangered trout used wrong fish
9/5/07
Denver Post
A
20-year government effort to restore the population of an endangered native trout in Colorado has
made little progress because biologists have been stocking some of the waterways with the wrong
fish, a new study says.
Whoops! Readers may recall, this is somewhat similar to when the
government was protecting species like the 'tiny
owl' and 'jumping mouse',
which didn't exist.
In 1998, officials projected it would cost $634,000 to bring the greenback to recovery, with the
money coming from a variety of sources. It wasn't clear how much of that has been spent. Figures
for the recovery project before 1998 weren't available.
Other federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service, have helped with
the recovery program. An overall cost estimate wasn't available.
In sum, not a great track record of success or even marginal
competence in this project.
University of Colorado professor Andrew Martin, the study's principal investigator, said while the
findings might give the recovery program "black eye," the hope is that biologists and
agencies will move ahead on recovering the species before it goes extinct.
"The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan."
-Ronald Reagan
(Added to 'The
Environment')
|
Posted 9/16/07 (By Travis)
Waverly
DUI suspects free to go after $1000 donations to police
9/9/07 Associated Press
Nearly 100 drunken-driving suspects in this southern Ohio town avoided convictions or jail time last
year after making voluntary $1,000 donations to the police department, county records show.
In third world
countries they call it 'corruption' and 'bribery', in the US we call it a 'donation'. :)
|
Posted 9/16/07 (By Travis)
Smoker
Refused Operation on Broken Ankle [UK National Health]
9/14/07 The Telegraph
"I want to warn other smokers. We have paid our National Insurance stamps all our lives and now
we are being shut out of the NHS."
Stronach
went to U.S. for cancer treatment: report
8/14/07 ctv.ca
Liberal
MP Belinda Stronach, who is battling breast cancer, travelled to California last June for an
operation that was recommended as part of her treatment, says a report.
He said speed was not the reason why she went to California.
Instead, MacEachern said the decision was made because the U.S. hospital was the best place to have
it done due to the type of surgery required.
While it is rare for MPs to seek treatment outside Canada, MacEachern said Stronach was not lacking
confidence in the system.
Stronach, who announced last April she would be leaving politics before the next election, paid for
the surgery in the U.S., reports the Star.
"In fact, Belinda thinks very highly of the Canadian health-care system, and uses it when
needed for herself and her children, as do all Canadians. As well, her family has clearly
demonstrated that support," MacEachern told the Star.
(Added to 'British
HealthCare' and 'Canadian HealthCare' respectively)
|
Posted 9/16/07 (By Travis)
Ron
Paul interview on HealthCare
7/19/07 The Kaiser
Foundation
This
is a great interview touching on a couple key points:
1)
healthcare (along with clothing, housing, jobs etc..) is not a 'right' as to attain these 'rights'
you need to violate the life, liberty, and pursuit of
happiness of another
2)
getting the government out of healthcare
3)
liberalizing practice rights for non physicians
4)
explaining how freedom is good for alternative medicine. Actually, this past weekend
Ron Paul had an event in Utah:
Saturday
evening, he will join a small group of supporters for a $2,000-a-plate dinner where he will address
his Health Freedom initiative, which focuses on expanded access to alternative and homeopathic
medicine and to information on dietary supplements.
5)
illustrating how insurance isn't really insurance, that the Kaiser Foundation's premises about the
unaffordability of insurance are skewed because they don't separate the most common 'social
planning' type of insurance from true 'medical disaster' insurance.
6) promotion of health savings accounts, decreasing the influence of of 3rd party payers, and the gradual weaning of Americans off the dependency of
government programs. Here is a previous
article by Dr. Paul on health savings accounts.
Additionally, the above site is a high tech construction marvel, has 'Ron Paul TV' of highlighted
Ron Paul videos that play continuously. Here was a funny one I ran across.
(Added
to 'Ron Paul 2008', and 'US
government HealthCare')
|
Posted
9/9/07 (By Travis)
SIGNING
UP FOR A REVOLUTION / Ron
Paul supporters going to great lengths to get word out promoting long-shot candidacy of Republican
presidential candidate
9/9/07
Las Vegas Review Journal (front page)
The local Las Vegas Ron Paul meetup group generates some
pretty good press coverage for Ron Paul, even if parts
of the article are a bit bizarre... :)
BTW, Ron Paul will be on the O'Reilly factor tomorrow!
(Added
to 'Ron Paul 2008' and 'Nevada
Politics')
|
Posted
9/9/07 (By Travis)
The
Raw Milk Inspectors Come Calling, Again, at California's Largest Raw-Milk Dairy
9/9/07 The
Complete Patient
From this article is appears that a shutdown and recall was issued after 5 children became ill from
a type of bacteria that this particular farm routinely tests all its milk for. Additionally, it was never
proven the five children were ill due to the milk and even so, the milk in question came from a different farm.
Still, the state came in, tested for different bacteria and found 'subclinical'
levels and shut the place down. The article ends with this quote:
“We are in a place that is politically incorrect…I am in the business of producing good
bacteria…But every opportunity they (government regulators) have they will stick a knife in our
back.”
(Added
to 'Milk,
It Does A Government Good')
|
Posted
9/9/07 (By Travis)
New
OBL Tape: Iraq, Democratic Control
7/9/07 CNSnews
Osama, Tax Cutter?
He also speaks to recent issues grabbing headlines in the United States, referring to "the
reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate
mortgages; global warming and its woes..."
"To conclude," bin Laden says, "I invite you to embrace Islam." He goes
on to say: "There are no taxes in Islam, but rather there is a limited Zakaat [alms]
totaling 2.5 percent."
Lol, a 2.5% tax rate sounds pretty appealing. But no such caliph of paradise ever existed in
practice; I recall reading that Mullah Omar sat on a sort of throne and dolled out cash to
impoverished supporters for various projects from treasure chests. And what up with the 'not taxes, but
'fees''?
Sounds like Mitt Romney's Massachusetts record... :)
|
Posted
9/6/07 (By Travis)
Patients
suing province over wait times (Canadians flee to US for care)
9/6/07
Toronto Star
An
MRI in May 2005 revealed a tumour in her brain. Her family doctor couldn't expedite appointments
booked with specialists for July 19 and Sept. 19, 2005. As the tumour pressed on her optic nerves,
her vision deteriorated. Afraid to wait any longer, she went to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.
<.>
Worried the tumour might be cancerous, McCreith and his family wanted an MRI. He was given an
appointment date four months later. McCreith went to the U.S. and paid $494.67 (U.S.) for an MRI.
Armed with the scan, he saw his Ontario family doctor, who referred McCreith to a neurologist. He
was examined on Feb. 8, 2006. He was referred to a neurosurgeon but would have to wait three
months.Unhappy with this, he returned to Buffalo. In early March, during a biopsy, the tumour was
found to be malignant and surgically removed.
(Added to 'Canadian
Healthcare')
|
Posted
9/6/07 (By Travis)
H.
R. 1146 To end membership of the United States in the United Nations.
Some much needed legislation
introduced by Ron Paul.
Ron
Paul Appears on Hannity show After Debate 9-5-07
Abolish the IRS and department of
education he says! :)
Hugh
Hewitt Interviews Ron Paul supporters 2
There are 5-6 of these segments with
various Ron Paul supporters, pretty interesting and passionate group!
(Added to 'Ron Paul
2008')
|
Posted 9/3/07 (By Travis)
Man
gets jail time for home improvement projects (no permits)
8/27/07
Daily Breeze
He built a fence, a retaining wall, a patio and a few cement
columns to decorate his driveway and now Francisco Linares is going to jail for it.
Little
League baseball practice field under fire for lack of permit
8/28/07
San Francisco Chronicle
A
man built a baseball field for his 11-year-old son and his son's Little League team, but this is not
some fairy tale where the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson emerges from a cornfield to join the game.
This is Danville, not Iowa. Someone did arrive to check out the Field of Dreams, but it was a city
building inspector.
|
Posted 9/3/07 (By Travis)
Thirty-day
plan for a smaller government (Required Reading)
8/30/07
SmallGovTimes.com
DAY ONE: The
federal income tax is abolished and April 15th is declared a national holiday. The 40% reduction in
federal revenues is matched by a 40% cut in spending. The budget is still almost twice as big as
Jimmy Carter's.
DAY TWO: All other federal taxes are abolished, including the corporate income tax, the capital
gains tax, the gasoline tax, "sin" taxes, excise taxes, etc. Businesses boom, and the few
legitimate federal functions are funded with an inexpensive head tax. People who choose not to vote
need not pay it. (Note: this was a mainstream view in the 19th century.)
DAY THREE: The federal government sells all its land, freeing up tens of millions of acres for
development, mining, farming, forestry, oil drilling, private parks, etc. The government uses the
revenue to pay off the national debt and other liabilities.
DAY FOUR: The minimum wage is reduced to zero, creating jobs for ex-federal bureaucrats at their
market wage. All pro-union laws and regulations are scrapped. The jobless rate falls dramatically.
DAY FIVE: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, like the rest of the Labor Department, is sent to that big
hiring hall in the sky. Without detailed economic statistics, future economic planners will be blind
and deaf.
DAY SIX: The Department of Commerce is abolished. Big business has to make its own way in the world,
without subsidies and privileges at the expense of its competitors and customers.
DAY SEVEN: The plug is pulled on the Department of Energy. Oil and gas prices plummet.
DAY EIGHT: All regulatory agencies, from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the Federal Trade
Commission, are deep-sixed. Competition is legalized.
DAY NINE: HUD is squashed like a bug. There's a building boom in cheap, private, apartments.
DAY TEN: The interstate highways reopen as private businesses. Road entrepreneurs price travel
according to consumer demand. Using modern technology, drivers get bills once a month. Credit risks
– and drunks and dangerous drivers – aren't allowed on the road. Non-drivers no longer subsidize
car owners.
DAY ELEVEN: Government welfare is wiped out. Bums work or starve. The deserving poor find a
cornucopia of private services designed to make them independent. Private charity explodes, as the
American people, already the most generous in the world, find their incomes almost doubled, thanks
to the tax cuts.
DAY TWELVE: The Federal Reserve closes its open-market operations and stops protecting the banking
industry from competition. But banks can now engage in all the non-bank financial activities
previously forbidden to them. The business cycle, which is caused by monetary expansion through the
credit markets, is liquidated.
DAY THIRTEEN: Federal deposit insurance is scrapped. All insured deposits are redeemed from federal
assets, which include the personal assets of high-level government employees. The threat of bank
runs forces banks to keep 100% reserves for their demand deposits, and prudent reserves on all other
accounts. There are no more inherently bankrupt banks propped up by the government, at taxpayer
expense, and no more bail-outs.
DAY FOURTEEN: The shaky fiat dollar is defined in terms of gold, with the ratio determined by
dividing the government's gold stock by all existing dollars on that day.
DAY FIFTEEN: The federal government sells National and Dulles airports to the highest bidder, and
stops all subsidies to other socialist airports around the country. All constraints on airline
prices and service cease. It costs more to fly during peak hours than off-peak, but overall, air
travel drops in price.
DAY SIXTEEN: All government regulations that create and sustain cartels are abolished, including
those for the post office, telephones, television, radio, and cable TV. Prices plummet, and a host
of new and unforeseen services becomes available.
DAY SEVENTEEN: Centrally planned agriculture, as imposed by Hoover and Roosevelt, is repealed: there
are no more subsidies, payments-in-kind, marketing orders, low-interest loans, etc. Farm prices
drop. Entrepreneurial farmers get rich. Welfare farmers go into another line of work. The poor eat
like kings.
DAY EIGHTEEN: The Justice Department shutters its anti-trust division. Companies, big and small, are
free to merge – up, down, or sideways. Stockholders can buy any other company, or sell their stock
to anyone else. Marginal producers can no longer battle their competitors with bureaucratic weapons.
DAY NINETEEN: The Department of Education flunks the constitutionality test, and is kicked out.
Private charities set up remedial reading and writing programs for the former bureaucrats. Federally
subsidized sex education and other anti-family programs go out of business. Local school districts
become responsive to parents or close, pressured by a fast-growing private school sector (which many
more parents can now afford).
DAY TWENTY: All federal monuments are sold, in some cases to non-profit groups based on the Mt.
Vernon Ladies Association, which owns and runs George Washington's home. The VFW buys the Vietnam
memorial. There is much bidding for the Jefferson and Washington monuments. Nobody wants FDR's, so
it's torn down and the land sold to a farmer. (With the federal government cut back to its
constitutional size, much of Washington reverts to productive uses like agriculture, as in late 18th
century.)
DAY TWENTY-ONE: The computerized financial and political dossier maintained by the government on
every American is erased. The public wanders through the federal offices to make sure, in a reprise
of the East Berliners' visits to Stasi headquarters.
DAY TWENTY-TWO: Equal rights are granted to all Americans, even members of non-victim groups. There
is no affirmative action, no quotas, no set-asides, no public accommodations laws. Private property
and freedom of association are fully restored.
DAY TWENTY-THREE: The EPA is cleaned out, with all "clean air" and similar big-government
laws repealed. Ten thousand lawyers leap from their balconies. Private property is established in
air and water. Americans harmed by pollution are free to sue the polluters, who are no longer
protected by the federal government.
DAY TWENTY-FOUR: Americans are given complete freedom of contract, restoring rationality to
malpractice and product liability law.
DAY TWENTY-FIVE: Government scrambles for more assets to sell (i.e., the National Zoo, also known as
Washington, D.C.) to pay off the liabilities of the privatized Social Security system.
DAY TWENTY-SIX: Porno artists have to earn their own livings, as the National Endowment for the Arts
tries to raise its budget through sidewalk painting sales.
DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Foreign aid is outlawed as unconstitutional, unjust, and un-economic. Foreign
politicians have to steal their own money. The World Bank, IMF, and United Nations close their
super-luxurious doors.
DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: The American people are given the unrestricted right to keep and bear arms.
DAY TWENTY-NINE: The Defense Department is reoriented towards defense. American troops come home
from all around the world. We adopt a policy of armed neutrality, remembering the Founding Fathers'
teaching that we could not have an empire abroad and a constitutional republic at home.
DAY THIRTY: All tariffs, quotas, and trade agreements are put through the shredder. Americans can
trade with anyone in the world, without barriers or subsidies. Japanese car prices drop an immediate
25%.
In just 30 exhilarating days, we have established the outlines of free market. Radical? Maybe so.
Me, I can't wait until Month Two.
(Added to 'Required
Reading')
|
Posted 8/30/07 (By Travis)
The
Big Easy's Billion Dollar Boondoggle (Required Reading)
8/30/07
Townhall.com (Larry Kudow)
All divvied up, that $127 billion would come to $425,000 per person!
This is an outrage. The entire GDP of the state of
Louisiana is only $141 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. So the cash spent
there nearly matches the entire state gross GDP. That's simply unbelievable. And to make matters
worse, by all accounts New Orleans ain't even fixed!
You might be asking: Where in the hell did all this
money go?
Meanwhile, according to an article by Nicole Gelinas at the Manhattan Institute, New Orleans has
earned the distinct honor of becoming the murder capital of the world. The murder rate is 40 percent
higher than before Katrina, and twice as high as other dangerous cities like Detroit, Newark, N.J.,
and Washington, D.C.
Think of this: The idea of using federal money to rebuild cities is the quintessential liberal
vision. And given the dreadful results in New Orleans, we can say that the government's $127 billion
check represents the quintessential failure of that liberal vision.
I suppose the current Bush administration would like to label this "compassionate
conservatism." But guess what? That failed, too.
|
Posted 8/30/07 (By Travis)
Bringing
Politics Back to the People - The Do it Yourself Campaign of Ron Paul
8/28/07 American Chronicle (Sean
Scallon)
Article posted in full:
In 1964, just before the New Hampshire primary, an
average Joe named Paul Grindle didn’t particularly care for the choice of candidates running for
the Republican nomination for President.
So he decided to run his own candidate for president.
With the help of a few friends and using the most
sophisticated marketing techniques at the time, Grindle created a boomlet for Henry Cabot Lodge,
former Massachusetts U.S. Senator, 1960 GOP Vice-Presidential candidate and then the U.S. ambassador
to South Vietnam. Lodge wasn’t running for anything, his name wasn’t even on the New Hampshire
ballot. Grindle and his friends mailed out postcards to New Hampshire Republicans to find out if
there was support for Lodge which they found out there was. Then they mailed out fliers for Lodge,
letters for Lodge and pamphlets demonstrating how to write Lodge’s name on the ballot. They even
opened a headquarters for him in Concord.
All that postage spent for eventually paid off. Lodge
won the New Hampshire Primary with a write-in vote, beating out that year’s eventual GOP nominee
Barry Goldwater and former Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller despite all their money, all their TV
ads and vast campaign apparatuses deployed in the Granite State.
Of course it helped Grindle that so many New Hampshire
Republicans wanted someone other than Rockefeller and Goldwater, he just simply provided another
candidate. But Grindle’s effort also goes to show that politics does not have to be “game”
played only by a few professionals, or the hacks or even the wealthy. Sometimes, even the “average
Joe” can play too if they have the knowledge, the gumption and a little luck.
It’s that same “do-it-yourself” spirit that
Grindle showed 43 years ago that’s a part of Congressman Ron Paul’s run for the White House
today.
Forget the all internet activity, You Tube videos, or
Facebook pages for a moment and focus on meat-and-potatoes politicking. Out of all the candidates
running for President in 2008, who among them has supporters willing to hang signs on freeway
overpasses, to stand with signs outside events whatever the weather, who will volunteer their time
to make phone calls or write letters to voters or do lit drops as well? Who among the candidates has
supporters willing to pay for advertising in newspapers and radio out of their own pocket or are
willing to write scripts for cable TV ads? Who among the candidates has supporters so dedicated that
they attend his rallies thousands of miles from home?
The Ron Paul campaign isn’t spending a lot of money
right now because they don’t have to. The spending time, money and talent coming from Ron Paul
supporters across the country is cash one cannot measure but has become important to the credibility
of the campaign. You cannot write off Ron Paul because he has thousands of supporters in all 50
states willing to do things on their own initiative while other campaigns simply spend money on TV
ads or give handouts to voters like free bus trips, straw poll tickets and meals. Indeed, former
Massachusetts Governor Willard Romney’s campaign has become a literal welfare agency in order to
win votes.
Ron Paul supporters don’t need handouts to vote for
him at local straw poll. They don’t need orders from the central campaign office either. Much of
what is done for Ron Paul by his supporters is done upon their own ideas and their own initiative.
For example, two weeks before the Iowa Straw Poll, Ron Paul supporters set up an account through Pay
Pal.com to pool their money to buy advertising on Iowa radio stations and newspapers. One person
made the ads buys, a few enterprising fellows came up with the idea for the ads (including a
beautiful mosaic ad of Ron Paul’s head made up of pictures from thousands of supporters across the
country with the Constitution itself as a backdrop.) and before the official campaign came up with
their own radio and TV ads, Ron Paul’s message was being heard on the airwaves and in the pages.
Plans are afoot to do the same in New Hampshire and Iowa again and to expand to television as well.
All on their own they did this. That’s how devoted they are. As Ron Paul himself said. “I
didn’t start a campaign, I joined a campaign.” Like the Minutemen of Lexington and Concord of
old, Ron Paul supporters do not need “orders” to shoot the Redcoats. All they needed were their
rifles.
Candidates for President aren’t elected in vacuums.
Powerful cultural forces pull them towards the White House. If Ron Paul wins the GOP nomination,
goes on to win the Presidency itself, it will be because American voters begin to admire the plucky
resolve and selfless determination of Ron Paul supporters, who created a campaign virtually from
scratch of their own time, effort and resources and want to capture that spirit for themselves and
recapture it for the nation.
Since 9-11, a whole nation wanted to do something,
anything to help with the war efforts. A whole nation wanted some sense of pulling together and
working together to help a country in distress. They wanted time to go back to World War II, where
food was rationed, gas was rationed, rubber drives organized, scrap drives organized, where people
joined the Red Cross or the USO, or civil defense organizations, all of this done to help with the
war effort in any way possible. To be a slacker back then - if you weren’t fighting or doing
something to help our “boys” overseas – was as bad a form of treason as “loose lips sink
ships.” And yet did we go back after 9-11? No. Care packages, yellow ribbons pen pal letters to
troops and greeters at the airport are important and nice gestures, but one doesn’t get the sense
a whole nation has been mobilized to do so. No, instead, after 9-11, President Bush II told
Americans they ought go out and buy more stuff. No calls for sacrifice were made. War wasn’t
declared in Congress; just a resolution calling for military action was passed. They also pass
resolutions on Capitol Hill to the declare National Pickle Day as well. That’s how much importance
they gave to this cause. No draft of any kind was issued, so the many millions who could fight
instead stayed at home to watch the war on TV while those who did volunteer fought the war in their
stead. Or when things weren’t going well, they could ignore what was happening overseas completely
and go back to whatever it was they were doing on Sept. 10, 2001 as if time simply skipped over that
day.
People wanted to help. They waited for orders to come
from on high and yet such orders never came. Instead all they saw was a war turning sour because of
the incompetence of the people in charge. Then they saw a great city destroyed by a natural disaster
and saw that same government bumble the aftermath and reconstruction. That made it hard to help
those who needed it and only wasted the energy of those who gave of their time and effort to help
with the clean-up. So where does all that energy go when its not be used? When it’s being left to
dissipate on the sidelines and all that’s left is anger and bitterness at the authorities for
their incompetence and their mismanagement? Well some have decided they aren’t going to wait for
“orders” anymore. Some have decided on their own that they are going try and elect a man they
believe is going to change things for the better. And whether or not Ron Paul could make such
changes if he was elected President or get them through Congress really doesn’t matter when you
think about it. Just getting to that point will show that the nation has recaptured the
do-it-yourself spirit that helped to found the country in the first place.
Many books have been written about how alienated the
average voter is from politics with detailed explanations as to why. Yet all of them miss this
essential point: People feel alienated to something when they believe that nothing they do
concerning it matters because they are removed and remote to it. As politics has become a “game”
played by rich people and slick hustlers and where the game board is a television screen, voters
just watch it all from a distance. They’re no longer a part of the process, just stage props for
photos ops. Once upon a time an “average Joe” could be a precinct captain. He could stuff
mailers or put up signs in his neighborhood working for the political machine or his wife could host
a coffee klatch or baby-sit at campaign headquarters. Now people are paid to do things like this.
Politicians all like to talk about grassroots support but very few campaigns use volunteer labor
like they once did. Once upon a time the presidential campaigns of Barry Goldwater and George
McGovern and Ronald Reagan were made possible by such grassroots support but in this day and age,
only the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone really had an “army” of average people volunteering
their time for him with their undying loyalty. If more campaigns were as volunteer orientated as Ron
Paul’s, perhaps voters would feel that connection with politics again and would use that untapped
energy for a cause they believed in and one they didn’t need to be “directed” at. And if all
that happened in the future, then Ron Paul’s campaign will be a success well past 2008.
For some examples of this:
Ron
Paul Revolution, Memphis Style
Jacksonville
Paint the Town Ron
In the above videos, 15-30 meetup members worked to cover their respective towns in Ron Paul signs and both
got good local news coverage for it.
These volunteers are growing exponentially at a rate far surpassing the other campaigns:

(Added to 'Ron
Paul 2008')
|
Posted 8/26/07 (By Travis)
Cancer
Survival Rates Highest in US
8/24/07
Telegraph
England
is on a par with Poland despite the NHS spending three times more on health care. Cancer experts
blamed late diagnosis and long waiting lists.
Experts
push NHS to use US-style cancer care
8/26/07 Telegraph (UK)
LIKE
many other British cancer sufferers before him, Rob Ellert travelled to one of America’s leading
hospitals to give himself a better chance of survival.
Anni Matthews, 53, who is fighting breast cancer, was told by British doctors in February 2003 that
she would be lucky to live until the Christmas of that year. Matthews, a former property company
director, increased her chances of survival by travelling to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in
Boston, Massachu-setts, where her treatment was helped by new “wonder drugs”.
These two stories give us some things to be hopeful about. Despite the fact that the US system
suffers from intensive government interference and regulation, we still have enough of a free market
component to give advantage in certain aspects of medical care.
It also illustrates a misfixiation on certain statistics, such as the number of
US 'uninsured' as many of these European countries have so-called 'free/universal healthcare'.
(Added to 'British
Health Care' and 'US Government Health')
|
Posted 8/25/07 (By Travis)
Three
Generations of America to the Rescue
8/23/08 The Daily Show
Heh heh... pretty
funny and interesting compilation by the daily show. Is government really as incompetent at foreign
policy as it is with other matters? Should we be following the words
of George Washington who warned against entangling alliances and adventurism with the European
powers? Could this be applied today towards the Middle East?:
The nation which indulges toward another an habitual
hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its
affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy
in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of
slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of
dispute occur.
So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for
another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of
an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one
the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the
latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite
nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the
concessions by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting
jealousy, ill will, and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from whom equal privileges are
withheld; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the
favorite nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without odium,
sometimes even with popularity, gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a
commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good the base or foolish
compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation....
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I
conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly
awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of
republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the
instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive
partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to
see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other.
Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and
odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their
interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign
nations is, in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection
as possible.
Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have
none or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of
which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to
implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary
combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables
us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period
is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an
attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected;
when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly
hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by
justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation?
Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any
part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship,
interest, humor, or caprice?
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But
even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand, neither seeking nor granting
exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying
by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers so disposed,
in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the
Government to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances
and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied
as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one
nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its
independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance it may place
itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached
with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon
real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride
ought to discard....
|
Posted 8/23/07 (By Travis)
How
Rove Directed Federal Assets for GOP Gains
8/19/07 Washington
Post
The
key point of this article is not that Rove's actions were 'unprecedented', a claim I find highly
unlikely, but the sheer power of the Federal Government and how those excessive powers were and will
be used to
hurt, not help the American people.
Contrast this with:
Political
Power and the Rule of Law (Required Reading)
2/5/07
Ron Paul
|
Posted 8/23/07 (By Travis)
Two
Major Airlines Admit to Price Fixing
8/23/08 Associated
Press
Two
major airlines were fined $300 million apiece Thursday after admitting they conspired to fix prices
on international flights and agreeing to help prosecutors investigate other airlines. British
Airways PLC, Britain's largest airline, and Korean Air Co., South Korea's national carrier, pleaded
guilty to antitrust conspiracy charges. They acknowledged colluding with rivals over cargo rates and
fuel surcharges, which were added to fares in response to rising oil prices. That meant higher costs
for international shippers and passengers. As part of their plea deals, the airlines acknowledged
they colluded with other unidentified companies from 2000 to 2006.
Another anti-trust, monopoly story. By raising the price of tickets these companies are only hurting
their own business in the long term because it decreases the number of passengers and opens
opportunity for other carriers to break into the market for a cheaper deal. The market itself could
easily sort out this so-called 'monopoly' without government coerscion, which only serves to stifle
competition and will, in the long term, raise, not lower, the very ticket prices they seek to
lower.
The largest antitrust fine, $500 million, was against vitamin giant F. Hoffman-La Roche in 1999 in a
price-fixing case.
Lol, 'the vitamin monopoly'; I can't wait to look that one up...
FTC
loses appeal to stop Whole Foods deal: company
8/24/07
Reuters
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman's 93-page opinion rejected the
government's argument that the deal would be anti-competitive in two dozen markets and hurt
consumers.
The Consumer Federation of America also filed documents with the court saying that the merger would
lead to higher prices and fewer choices for buyers of organic products.
Whole Foods contends that it competes against larger supermarket chains such as Safeway Inc and not
just small, premium stores such as Wild Oats.
Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods operates nearly 200 stores in the United States and Britain, while
Wild Oats of Boulder, Colorado, runs about 110.
Well, this is some good news for Whole Foods and US consumers; despite what our government may feel
is good for us.
The judge also ignored Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's e-mails expressing a desire to crush the
smaller company.
Why should a
company CEO not want to beat its competitors?
|
Posted 8/23/07 (By Travis)
Pork
Buster in Chief
8/23/07 American
Spectator (Stephen Moore)
What
a great article on Senator Tom Coburn.
He
ran into his fellow Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the then powerful chairman of the
Senate Appropriations Committee and chief Senate sponsor of the Alaska Bridge to Nowhere. "He
strolled up to me and said: 'Well, Tom, I hope you're satisfied for helping us lose the
election.'"
evens was
evidently still infuriated by Coburn's nationally publicized crusade against runaway pork-barrel
spending over the past two years. To that, Coburn, never the shrinking violet, replied: "No,
Ted, you lost us the election."
What a gall!
(Added to 'Club
For Growth; Defending Liberty')
|
Posted 8/21/07 (By Travis)
The
Politics of Prohibition
7/31/07 Reason.com
The standard, schoolbook history of alcohol prohibition in the United States goes like this:
Americans in 1920 embarked on a noble experiment to force everyone to give up drinking. Alas,
despite its nobility, this experiment was too naive to work. It soon became clear that people
weren't giving up drinking. Worse, it also became clear that Prohibition fueled mobsters who grew
rich supplying illegal booze. So, recognizing the futility of Prohibition, Americans repealed it in
1934.
This popular belief is completely mistaken.
Despite pleas throughout the 1920s by journalist H.L. Mencken and a tiny handful of other sensible
people to end Prohibition, Congress gave no hint that it would repeal this folly. Prohibition
appeared to be here to stay — until income-tax revenues nose-dived in the early 1930s.
From 1930 to 1931, income-tax revenues fell by 15 percent.
In 1932 they fell another 37 percent; 1932 income-tax revenues were 46 percent lower than just two
years earlier. And by 1933 they were fully 60 percent lower than in 1930.
With no end of the Depression in sight, Washington got anxious for a substitute source of revenue.
That source was liquor sales.
An interesting
opinion stating that government greed, not sympathy to liberty by politicians or changing opinion of
the citizenry finally felled prohibition. Will the WOD (War on Drugs) meet a similar
fate?
(Added to 'Guns
and Crime' and 'Social Conservatism')
|
Posted 8/20/07 (By Travis)
Senator
Clinton Announces Initiative to Address Growing Crisis Facing Subprime Mortgage Holders
3/15/07 Press Release
I didn't realize
the government was so intricately involved in the lending process until reading about all of
Hillary's proposals to 'tinker' and expand current government rules, regulations, policies
etc...
She also talks
about 'predatory lending':
Underscoring
the need to make the rules clear and level the playing field for homebuyers, Senator Clinton
outlined a plan to break down barriers to owning a home and build up protections against unfair and
unscrupulous lending practices.
This is an interesting statement considering it is the lenders that are
going belly up, filling for bankruptcy etc... How can the lenders be 'predatory' when they are the
ones bankrupt?
The conclusions we can draw is are admittedly ideological ones:
1) Reinstating the inalienable right to contract will allow the market to set conditions that will best benefit the 'subprime'
borrower and lender.
2) It is likely the current government interference played a significant or leading role in the
current subprime trouble.
3) Hillary's solutions are the opposite of what is needed.
Another article describes FOUR
other agencies involved:
The
proposed guidance issued by the Federal Reserve and the other four federal agencies that regulate
banks, thrifts and credit unions, comes in increasingly troubled market for subprime mortgage loans.
<.>
In addition to the Fed, the agencies issuing the proposed guidance are the FDIC, the National Credit
Union Administration, and the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and
Office of Thrift Supervision.
|
Posted 8/16/07 (By Travis)
Chavez
eyes power for life as he rips up constitution
8/17/07 Scottsman.com
Mr
Chavez, 54, plans to overturn the decree of his 1999 constitution which laid out a maximum of two
six-year terms for any president. The new constitution calls for seven-year terms with indefinite
re-election.
The new constitution will fix the working week at no more than 36 hours. The Central Bank will also
lose any vestige of independence, simply becoming the presidential piggy bank.
(Added to 'Chavez')
|
Posted 8/16/07 (By Travis)
Fast
Passport Service Gets Slower
8/16/07
Associated Press
People
can expect to wait about three weeks for expedited service, and the government indicated Thursday
they should get used to it. A regular application now takes 10 weeks to 12 weeks.
It will cost nearly $1 billion over three years to handle the surge in applications created by
post-Sept. 11 security rules for travel.
Pentagon
Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers
8/16/07
Bloomburg.com
The
company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines
in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape
Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.
And our friends on the left would trust the government to run healthcare...
|
Posted 8/16/07 (By Travis)
The
New Privatization
States and cities are selling their roads, bridges, and airports for eye-popping sums.
|
Porter's Score on the RePORK Card
8/14/07 Club For
Growth Press Release
Porter’s Score on RePORK Card Speaks for Itself—And it’s Not Pretty
Washington – Yesterday, Republican Rep. Jon Porter (NV-3) defended his record of
fiscal responsibility despite scoring a pathetic 10% on the Club for Growth’s 2007 RePORK Card.
Fiscal responsibility, my foot.
“Porter’s staff claimed the RePORK Card is ‘misleading,’ but the Club for Growth’s
RePORK Card speaks for itself,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “Either you stand
for American taxpayers by voting against pork projects, or you stand for parochial special
interests. With a score of 10% on the 2007 RePORK Card, Jon Porter backed up the special interests
90% of the time. Porter also scored a humiliating 26% last year, voting for only 5 of Jeff
Flake’s 19 anti-pork amendments. If anything, Jon Porter is sinking further into the pit of
fiscal recklessness with each passing year.”
The RePORK Card documents all fifty anti-pork votes during the 2007 appropriations process.
Over the course of this process, Jon Porter voted to keep such outrageous pork projects as:
-
$34,000,000 for the Alaska Native Education Equity program and other programs (RC #654,
07/18/07)
-
$300,000 for the On Location Entertainment Industry Craft and Technician Training project at
West Los Angeles College in Culver City, CA (RC #667, 07/18/07)
-
$150,000 for the American Ballet Theatre in New York City for educational activities (RC
#668, 07/18/07)
-
$150,000 for the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston, S.C. (RC #669, 07/18/07)
-
$100,000 for the Kansas Regional Prisons Museum in Lansing, Kansan (RC #670, 07/18/07)
-
Bars funding of $2,000,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City
College of New York in New York City (RC #678, 07/19/07).
-
$50,000 for the National Mule and Packers Museum in Woodlake, CA (RC #700, 07/24/07)
Thanks Congressmen Porter for spending Nevada tax dollars on the above projects and much much
more...
(Added to 'Nevada
Politics')
|
Posted 8/12/07 (By Travis)
Daughter
Dies while waiting for a Scan
8/8/07 Norwhich Evening
News
A
woman who had complained to her GP of severe headaches for almost a year collapsed and died of an
undiagnosed brain tumour.
Jennifer Bell, 22, had been told she was suffering from stress but after months of illness had
finally been referred to a neurologist.
She then faced a 13-week wait before a 'relatively urgent' MRI scan could be carried out.
Three days before the longawaited appointment she collapsed at home and died later in hospital.
Yesterday at an inquest in Norwich, Coroner William Armstrong agreed that an early scan would have
led to much faster intervention.
As
far as I know, there is no such thing as a '13 week wait' for an MRI anywhere in the United States.
Would this patient have survived if she had been in the United States? We don't know the answer; but
it is likely she would have been diagnosed earlier... even if she didn't have insurance.
(Added to 'British
Healthcare')
|
Posted 8/10/07 (By Travis)
My Rep, Rep John Porter (R, NV), doesn't get high marks at
all on his porkbarreling record (compiled
by the Club For Growth).. No surprise to us!
| Porter (R-NV-3) |
10% |
5 / 50 |
(Added to 'Nevada
Politics')
|
Posted 8/10/07 (By Travis)
Judge
rules it's too hot to play
8/10/07 Memphis Commerical Appeal
In a move with wide-ranging implications, a North Mississippi judge Thursday banned outdoor school
activities in DeSoto and five other counties in his district because of the searing heat.
"It is our duty to protect the minors from harm when at all possible," Lundy said in his
two-page order banning outdoor activities between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. "We protect them from
others as well as from themselves."
"I think the judge needs to stay out of the school business," said Sammy Higdon,
superintendent of the Water Valley School District in Yalobusha County.
"Without looking it up, I couldn't guarantee that it's unprecedented," Rychlak said,
"but it certainly sounds unusual. Judges are supposed to handle cases and controversies, but
not legislate.
A related
story.
|
Posted 8/10/07 (By Travis)
Court
Rejects the Right to Use Drugs Being Tested
8/8/07 New York Times
The 8-to-2 decision by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit came in a closely
watched and emotional case that pitted desperate patients willing to try unproven, even risky,
therapies against those arguing that drugs should be proved safe and effective before they are
made available.
The decision preserves the current regulatory system. If it had gone the other way “it would
have undermined the entire drug approval process,” said William B. Schultz, a former deputy
commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who wrote an amicus brief arguing against the
early access to drugs.
If only we could
be so lucky...
In
a dissent, Judge Judith W. Rogers wrote that it was “startling” that the “right to try to
save one’s life is left out in the cold,” not protected by the due process clause of the
Constitution, “despite its textual anchor in the right to life.”
Remember that even in the 'land of the free' you are not allowed to try to save your own life, even
when terminally ill. It's simply too dangerous.
(Added to 'FDA
Tyranny')
|
Posted 8/8/07 (By Travis)
Terrorists
Teaming up with Drug Cartels
8/8/07 Washington Times
Islamic extremists embedded in the United States — posing as Hispanic nationals — are partnering
with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug
Enforcement Administration report.
WOD (War on Drugs) again
effecting our national security alert.
(Added to 'Guns
and Crime')
|
Posted 8/8/07 (By Travis)
Hawaii
Supreme Court Blocks Voter-Passed Property Tax Relief
8/7/07
Pacific Legal Foundation
But
instead of implementing the charter amendment, Kauai officials sued each other to invalidate it,
with the county attorney representing both sides of the case. The officials claimed they alone had
power to decide property tax issues, and hired private attorneys with over $250,000 of public funds
to litigate the lawsuit.
I don't know what happened here, but it seems beyond bizarre and deserves explanation.
|
Posted 8/8/07 (By Travis)
Worst
Excuse. Ever.
8/6/07 crooksandliars.com
LOL! (language warning) The comments
are funny too...
(Added to 'humor')
|
Posted 8/7/07 (By Travis)
Publix
to offer 7 popular prescription antibiotics for free
8/6/07 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Fourteen-day
supplies of the seven drugs will be available at all 684 of the chain's pharmacies in five Southern
states.
"It can't be any more affordable than free," Crist said.
With health care costs one of the biggest challenges facing many Americans, Crist
said that the private sector's involvement in the solution was "a great trend."
Wal-Mart last year started offering hundreds of prescription drugs of all different kinds, ranging
from diabetes medication to high blood pressure drugs, for $4.
Kmart, a unit of Sears Holding Corp., began last month offering a 90-day supply of generic drugs for
$15. Now, more than 300 drugs are included in that program.
An example of private industry, the market economy, lowering prescription prices for consumers.
The lower prices and resulting increase in access occurs without government expansion, regulation,
or taxes. This sort of cost cutting would occur in other areas of healthcare except for the
stifling conditions imposed by government.
Yet, the intentions of the Publix company are rooted in the profit motive, while government attempts
to better healthcare are, ostensibly, rooted in what is considered relative purity. It is important
to differentiate between intention and result. Ideally, the two can be matched, once the realization
occurs that the profit motive, the market economy, and freedom can provide the best healthcare to the
poorest of the poor. Once those without financial interest advocate for such policies, when those
advocating positive agendas are not just those with direct business interests, only then will
'compassionate conservative' be correctly defined.
(Added to 'US
Government Healthcare')
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Posted 8/6/07 (By Travis)
Zimbabwe
passes eavesdrop law
8/3/07
AFP
The government defended the new law saying it was necessary to protect the country from
international terrorism and espionage.
Of course, the true 'terrorists' in Zimbabwe can be found in the government
of Zimbabwe; the very ones who passed the law! Having destroyed and looted the country, they
apparently find themselves needing protection from a
restless, rebellious, and increasingly desperate population.
The lessons here can be extrapolated to a lesser degree here in the US;
whether it is 'terrorism', 'poverty', 'drugs', or 'drug
safety', political aims and power expansion cannot be concocted without a reason.
Upon occasion, the actions and 'fears' of those in power are in
response to legitimate concern, or perhaps even they believe in the cause they are are legislating
in favor of. Yet far too often the result of misplaced perspective is a more powerful and expansive
government which either fails to solve the original problem, makes it worse, or creates new more
critical quandaries from their actions. Only strong action, education, involvement, and discernment by citizens keeps relative
freedom intact.
Speaking of perspective:
Road
kill: Why worry about terrorism more people are dying on our highways
5/8/07 LA
Times
The statistics are
noteworthy in the United States, 245,00 road deaths since 9/11. Unfortunately the author digresses
into promoting more rules and regulations of our already burdensome
transportation system. However, of great interest are some global trends described:
Traffic
deaths are the fastest-rising cause of death in the world. Yet you've heard far more about H5N1
avian influenza, which has killed 192 people worldwide since being detected five years ago,
than about the 6 million people who have died in traffic accidents in the same period. Last year
alone, 1.2 million people were killed on the world's roads, versus about 100,000 dead as a result of
combat. The last decade is believed to be the first time in history that roads posed a greater
danger to human beings than fighting (which is partly a reflection of the decline of war).
Global prosperity is rising fast, which means that global car ownership is
rising fast, and both of those things are good -- but they also mean that global traffic deaths
are rising as well.
Global prosperity is rising, war is receding, and bird flu is a phony baloney myth. The only thing
that can stop this unfettered optimism, this continual exponential expansion of human goodness and
happiness are those who would swing sledgehammers at cracks, and throw stones in glass
cages, seemingly ignorant of the shimmering, spiraling, sparkling structures growing around them.
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Posted 8/2/07 (By Travis)
Some Ron Paul pictures to be added to 'Ron
Paul 2008'. Some of these are real hoots:






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Posted 7/29/07 (By Travis)
Wind in the Windy City (SOMA, AOA Chicago Convention)
7/24/07 Neoperspectives.com
So, I thought for this piece I'd mix the personal and the political and write about my trip last
week to Chicago. Retrospective apologies, I started out intending to touch mostly on medical/health
policy, but soon gave into the tempting digression of wading into the cesspool of Chicago
politics.
Upon landing,
literally the first thing I saw, and a rather fitting greeting at that, was:

'Daley' is the notoriously corrupt mayor of Chicago, who runs a tight political machine, using 'big
government' as a tool to maintain power and, like all big city liberal mayors, as a side effect of
such policies and those of his precessors, is hemorrhaging citizens. In fact, Chicago has lost 1/3rd
of its citizens, nearly a million people, since the 1950s.
Case in point, after exiting the airport I became stuck in the following:

The above is a picture of a massive hour long que for taxi cabs.
Now, we've always maintained that shortages are generally caused by government policies; even traffic,
for example, is little more than a shortage of roads. The situation is no different here. Readers
may recall a recently posted story
describing the government policies in New York and how a taxi cab 'license', aka a 'medallion', is
now worth $500,000. Upon inquiry, a Chicago medallion is 'only' worth $80-90k, still
prohibitive enough to discourage any upstart taxi entrepreneurs.
Even more interesting were the responses I received upon discussing this with my fellow waiting citizens. One lady, while somewhat sympathetic to my views,
said she thought getting rid of all
oversight without any regulations was, "sort of extreme and would lead to chaos." I
pondered the meaning of this response as I stood in the disorganized hour long line, with shouting
government workers herding us here and there, blaring horns, irate cab drivers, and exhausted and
exasperated pedestrians.
When I finally got a cab the first thing I noticed was that those responsible for the disaster at
the airport were taking responsibility, by laying out some of the regulations they were burdening
the taxi industry with and attaching their names in bold letters.

But, on second
thought, maybe this wasn't the intention. Perhaps mayor Daley and some government commissioner were
plastering their names all over the cabs in an act of political nepotism, simply to garner
importance and name recognition. Of course, the latter is what was actually occurring and such acts
are rather common and, IMO, one of the worst abuses of power a government official can engage
in.
For a recent
example, we need look no farther than the chair of the powerful house 'ways and means committee'
Charlie Rangel (D, NY). Last week Rep Rangel inserted an earmark for $2 million dollars to create:
...the CHARLES B
RANGEL Center for Public Service. That's right, this left wing Democrat who has probably never
voted against a tax increase in his life wants to appropriate millions in federal tax dollars to go
towards a building named after... HIMSELF!
But wait, there's more.
According to the marketing materials provided by Rangel himself to his colleagues, this center
includes a library to house the Congressman's future papers, a "well furnished office" for
him, and an endowment. There is even mention of a librarian to work on the organizing of his
papers. Apparently this last part is worded thusly in the paperwork: "The Rangel
archivist librarian will organize, index and preserve for posterity all documents, photographs and
memorabilia relating to Congressman Rangel's career."'
In any event, the main reason for my arrival in Chicago was the AOA (American Osteopathic
Association) Convention and SOMA (Student Osteopathic Medical Association) Convention.
I can say it was quite a sight to behold; hundreds of physicians filling a vast hall and voting on
issues effecting the entire profession, the medical field, and patient care. I was happy
to see many, many issues affecting DOs were decided by a private entity, the AOA, rather than the Federal
Government. Unfortunately, the Federal and State governments often usurp or negate the powers of national and state professional associations,
and equally disturbing, in many cases artificially enhance what powers professional organizations do possess by granting said organizations monopolies over sectors of the service economy.
At one meeting we viewed a video describing the AOAs involvement in Chinese health policy, training,
and advice. It described how the Chinese government was 'retraining' thousands of specialists as
'primary care docs', relocating physicians, and pursuing various other what I would characterize as
'top down big government policies'. I was disappointed
to see this; one would hope that the AOA would seize such an opportunity to advise the Chinese away
from such statist approaches and promote a more American market economy approach to medicine. Then again, perhaps the video was misleading, or I was inferring something that was
not implied.
There were also some good discussions regarding residencies and
the rapid growth of the Osteopathic profession. It is projected that the percentage of physicians
who are osteopathic physicians (DOs) will rise from the current 6% to over 20%. It is interesting to note
there is not a shortage of residencies in the lower paying specialties; in fact, in some areas there
is a glut. One speaker even, wisely in my opinion, asked whether certain struggling DO residencies should be
opened to MDs (the reverse is true). It is probably the case that scare residencies
are competitive in large part because they are 'high paying'. But why are they high paying? Is it because the
'public interest and safety' necessitate the attraction of impeccably 'qualified'
applicants, or because the policies/regulations intrinsic to those subspecialty societies make the
residencies scarce, thus raising the salaries of those in the field? In my mind, the latter
possibility is most likely and certainly worthy of investigation, as the negative repercussions reverberate
through the entire profession and indirectly harm patient care by increasing the cost of healthcare,
thereby decreasing access.
Doctors and residents in those subspecialties have little incentive, if we consider the unconscious
permeating feedback loops, to change the present system; in fact, it is medical students who gain
the most from advocating a fix; therefore it seems this issue is one meriting student led
discussion and investigation.
This trip also solidified, in my mind, the usefulness of continued political involvement, even in
organizations which may not share many of your own ideals and values. I was happy to discover there
are many likeminded freedom valuing individuals within the AOA and the various student groups. I
often wondered why people like Rod
Paige and other conservative blacks remained members of the NAACP, or why anyone with
conservative/libertarian values would stay a member of certain unions,
especially teacher's unions. Now I understand why. By
leaving various groups you are, in effect, conceding the ideology of those organizations to beliefs
in conflict with your own. Every group is, to some effect, a product of the opinions of its members,
even if those at the top give into the temptation to abuse or hijack their derived power.
Individuals can make differences and the infusion of the ideals of freedom into organizations by
active individuals more than offsets any financial or personal reluctance implied by membership
support.
To end, a pic with
myself and the newly elected AOA president, Peter B. Ajluni, DO. He seems like a
great guy!

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Posted 7/26/07 (By Travis)
Dying
for Lifesaving Drugs
Aug/Sep Reason
A
great and thorough article makes the case against the FDA.
"The prerogative asserted by the FDA...impinges upon an individual liberty deeply rooted in our
Nation's history and tradition of self-preservation."
(Added to 'FDA
Tyranny')
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Posted 7/26/07 (By Travis)
Slapping
down 'The Entire GOP Establishment'
7/18/07 The Nation
Is
there a new Dr. No (Aka Ron Paul) in congress?
The
frontrunner in the primary voting in north Georgia's 10th district, former state Sen. Jim Whitehead,
was the consensus choice of the Republican establishment. Whitehead essentially promised to
be a rubberstamp for the Bush White House and Republican leaders in Congress.
As evidence of his independence, Broun
emphasized a Ron Paul-like committed to "work to restore government according to the
Constitution as our Founders intended." While the Georgia appears to be a more cautious
constitutionalist than the maverick Texas congressman who is making a longshot bid for the party's
presidential nomination in 2008, Broun borrowed one of the most popular of Paul's principles,
promising that if elected he would assess any new legislation by first asking: "Is it
constitutional and a proper function of government?"
No one was going to confuse Broun with a liberal, but he did display a Paul-like
libertarian streak, suggesting that the federal government ought to stay away away from issues gay
marriage and legalizing marijuana -- matters that the candidate suggested are best handled at the
state level.
Even better:
...his past positions (which have included supporting the eradication of
"unconstitutional" programs like Social Security and Medicare)...
And finally:
The pro-free market Club for Growth, which helped knock off at least one pro-spending GOP House
incumbent in a 2006 primary, should feel encouraged by Dr. Broun's victory.
I hope they are licking their chops! :)
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Posted 7/26/07 (By Travis)
Dem
Eyes Breast Test 'Wait Woe'
7/22/07
New York Post
Mammography
centers in New York City are closing at an "alarming" rate, causing a 171 percent increase
in wait times for the cancer-detecting procedure, according to a study by Rep. Anthony Weiner.
Since 1999, 67 mammography sites, more than a quarter of the city's supply, have closed, the
Brooklyn Democrat found.
The problem is that Medicare pays only $83 for a procedure that costs $125 to provide, said
Weiner, who will introduce legislation to increase payments.
"Increasing access to mammograms clearly saves lives," said Weiner. "Raising the
reimbursement rate will ensure that women have increased options to protect their most important
asset: their health."
Most women wait at least five weeks for a routine mammography appointment, the survey found,
with waits in Brooklyn and The Bronx averaging two months.
Another illustration of the dangers stemming from top down statist
control over medicine. Notice the root solution, removing government from setting the prices in the
first place, is not considered or mentioned in this story. What is the new reimbursement rate Rep
Weiner will choose and how will he choose it? Probably no different than how our friends on the left
set the 'minimum wage', arbitrarily and capriciously.
Better to let market forces set the price; not only is the 'right
value' reached, but wait times will be reduced and access to care increased.