I've been slothful in my maintenance of The Liberty Quiz for the past few weeks. I'm happy to tell you that it's back. Check out the first sidebar to the right for the new quiz. If you're a blogger, cast your vote, leave a comment stating how you voted and the URL of your blog, and if you voted correctly I will list your blog among the winners on the Liberty Quiz Results post next week.
All Men are Created Equal"That all men are born to equal rights is true. Every being has a right to his own, as clear, as moral, as sacred, as any other being has....But to teach that all men are born with equal powers and faculties, to equal influence in society, to equal property, and advantages through life, is as gross a fraud, as glaring an imposition on the credulity of the people, as ever was practiced by monks, by Druids, by Brahmins, by priests of the immortal Lama, or by the self-styled philosophers of the French Revolution."
~John Adams
"The goal of society is to provide 'equal justice,' which means protecting the rights of the people equally:At the bar of justice, to secure their rights.
At the ballot box, to vote for the candidate of their choice.
At the public school, to obtain their education.
At the employment office, to compete for a job.
At the real estate agency, to purchase or rent a home.
At the pulpit, to enjoy freedom of religion.
At the podium, to enjoy freedom of speech.
At the microphone or before the TV camera, to present views on the issues of the day.
At the meeting hall, to peaceably assemble.
At the print shop, to enjoy freedom of the press.
At the store, to buy the essentials or desirable things of life.
At the bank, to save and prosper.
At the tax collectors office, to pay no more than their fair share.
At the probate court, to pass on to their heirs the fruits of life's labors."
~W. Cleon Skousen (The Five Thousand Year Leap, pg. 105)
Source: The Five Thousand Year Leap; W. Cleon Skousen
My typical morning routine places me at my desk at around 8:50 AM, with coffee, reading the morning newspaper. I typically scan the stories from front to back, only pausing to read items of strong interest. Today there were a few different items that caught my eye and I thought I'd briefly share them with you here.
The first was an Associated Press story with the headline, "Energy tsunami near, top ex-officials warn."
A bi-partisan group of 27 elder statesmen is sending an open letter to both presidential candidates and every member of congress saying that the country faces "a long-term energy crisis" that threatens the security and prosperity of future generations if swift action isn't taken.
The group includes Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and six other former secretaries of state or defense, former senators of both parties, and a half dozen former senior White House advisors and other cabinet officers for both Republican and Democratic presidents.
"We must re-examine outdated and entrenched positions. Foremost we must rise above partisan differences and be united in our efforts," they wrote.
I actually wanted to write an editorial in the paper (I serve on the editorial board) saying much the same thing, but it was voted down. It seems I'm in good company with an opinion shared by men called "elder statesmen."
The second item was a great quote by Thomas Jefferson offered by letter-to-the-editor writer Ray James of Columbus.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Hopefully we are not in need of a new bloodletting to preserve our liberty. But sometimes the actions of our increasingly tyrannical government make me wonder.
And finally, another Associated Press story with the headline, "Leaders running out of economic options."
The nation's leaders are running out of answers to America's economic crisis.
The Federal Reserve has no more practical room to push interest rates lower; there's only so much taxpayer money for shoring up housing, and if depositors lose confidence there's little officials can do to stop a run on banks.
Bernanke warned that the U.S. economy faces "numerous difficulties," that the outlook for inflaton is unclear and that "financial markets and institutions remain under considerable stress."
I think this story finally brings to light the reality that the government should stop trying to fix things and simply get out of the way of Main Street Americans who have historically been the ones to come up with free-market solutions to America's worst problems.
Interesting news day indeed.
Music has always had the power to stir my soul, to take me back in time to moments fading from memory. I've collected some of what I consider to be the best music from the 1950's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's and offer them to you here with the playlist below. Just click on the song you want to hear. Enjoy! I'll be setting this up as a separate page with a navigation button on the sidebar so you can return to it easily.
Every time I see Nancy Pelosi on television I shake my head at the ignorance and hypocrisy. A July 10th Associated Press story reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on President Bush to release oil from
the government's emergency reserve to knock down gasoline prices she
says "are helping push the economy toward recession."
Pelosi, D-Calif., in a letter to Bush noted that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been used three times before and each time the action has served to stabilize oil markets and lower gas prices.
Action is needed "to assist consumers and strengthen the economy," Pelosi said.
The threats to the economy and national security from high oil prices "are the kind of circumstances ... in which utilization of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is more than justified," Pelosi wrote in the letter sent late Tuesday.
It appears to me that Nancy Pelosi is saying more oil released into the market will lower prices at the pump, and such a decrease is a critical step toward our economic recovery.
On the same day as the above Associate Press story, a story at TheHill.com reported,
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday shut the door on expanding oil and gas drilling beyond areas that have already been approved for energy exploration, drawing a clear distinction from her counterparts in charge of the Senate.
“This call for drilling in areas that are protected is a hoax, it’s an absolute hoax on the part of the Republicans and this administration” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference. “It’s a decoy to punt your attention away from the fact that their policies have produced $4-a-gallon gasoline.”
So let me get this straight. Pelosi and her Democratic henchmen will
not allow discussion about getting more oil onto the market by drilling
millions of barrels a day out of our own ground. But, to lower gas prices through putting more oil on the market, she will begin
depleting the national reserve that is in place to get us through
military or natural catastrophes.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Obama said in a June 13th interview with Gannett media in Wisconsin,
"If we reduce our consumption of oil, that's what will reduce gas prices. There's really no other way of doing it," the presumptive Democratic nominee said in a one-on-one interview Thursday with Gannett Wisconsin Media during a campaign stop in Kaukauna. "We can't drill our way out of the problem because there's just a finite amount of oil out there, and you have got increasing demand from countries like China and India. (Source: Green Bay Press Gazette)
Pelosi says more oil on the market will reduce gas prices, but only oil from the strategic reserve, not oil from the ground. Obama says that more oil on the market will do nothing to lower prices, we just have to use less.
Are they just stupid? Or is there a bigger agenda at work here? I think it's an agenda, because neither of these two people are stupid. There is an agenda coming from environmentalists to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. And there is an agenda coming from the Democratic side to, through all possible means, blame Republicans for an energy crisis that is really the fault of the Democratic environmental lobby.
Is it any wonder that the Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid congress has achieved the lowest approval rating in the history of the Rasmussen poll. Just 9 percent of the American people approve of the job Congress is doing.
A huddled mass, confused and afraid gathers at the entrance. Worried faces press against the glass of locked doors that separate them from their money. There are people inside. But nobody responds to a woman pleading at the door, "Please, please, I want to take out a portion." At first, the scene described is likely to take your memory back to the Bailey Building & Loan of "It's a Wonderful Life." But you would be wrong. This scene took place on Friday at not just one, but 33 IndyMac banks in California. And none of these depositors were greeted by a bank president willing to doll out his life savings to make sure that they were cared for.
The Los Angeles Times paints the picture for us of the second largest bank failure in U.S. history.
The federal government took control of Pasadena-based IndyMac Bank on Friday in what regulators called the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.
Citing a massive run on deposits, regulators shut its main branch three hours early, leaving customers stunned and upset. One woman leaned on the locked doors, pleading with an employee inside: "Please, please, I want to take out a portion." All she could do was read a two-page notice taped to the door.Schumer said in a statement that the cause of IndyMac's failure was "poor and loose lending practices" that should have been prevented by more active regulation.
There are many threats to American liberty. Extremist regimes around the world long for the day of our destruction as a nation and support any and all activities to bring about that destruction. An international agenda of leveling the global economic playing field by stalling the U.S. economy is afoot. An internal shift away from free market capitalism toward socialism is gaining momentum. And a greed-inspired, debt-driven society will never avoid collapse for long. Time is running out (and perhaps it has already) to turn this ship around.
In light of what's happening, the best course of action for the average you-and-me is to pay off all personal debt as quickly as possible, live on a personal budget that spends less than you earn, and begin building an emergency savings fund that could get you through at least 3 months of unemployment. Another good idea, if you have the cash on hand to do so, is to stock up on food staples, household items, and clothing. Stockpile as much as you can now because the price you will pay on all of these items right now is much lower than what you will pay on these items six months or a year from now. For example, buy now enough toilet paper to last for a year at $1.49 per package. In six months, when everyone else is paying $1.99 for that same package, you won't be.
These are tough times. And it will get worse before it gets better. If you still have grandparents living who were in their teens or twenties in the 1930's, sit down and have a long talk with them about life during that time.
Image Source: Annie Wells/Los Angeles Times
A related developing story you need to watch (Fannie & Freddie)
A tribute to everyone who survived from 1920 to 1979:
We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
We survived being put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets.
We survived riding our bikes without helmets, and the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants and children we rode in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts, or air bags. And riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was a special treat.
We survived sharing a soft drink with four friends from the same bottle. We ate cupcakes, white bread, and real butter. We drank Kool-aid made with sugar, be we weren't overweight because we were always outside playing.
We survived leaving home in the morning, playing all day, and coming home before the streetlights came on. Nobody was able to reach us all day, and we were okay.
We survived building our go-carts out of scraps and riding down the hill only to discover that we had forgotten the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We survived without Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, cable television, DVDs, surround sound, CDs, cell phones, personal computers, and internet chat rooms. We had friends because we went outside and found them.
We survived falling out of trees, getting cut, breaking bones and teeth. And there were no lawsuits because of these accidents.
We survived eating worms and mud pies mad from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We survived getting BB guns on our 10th birthdays, playing games with sticks, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We survived riding bikes, walking to friends houses, and walking into the house without knocking.
We survived not making the team during Little League baseball tryouts. And we learned to either get better or find another game.
We survived when our parents didn't bail us out after breaking the law and instead sided with the law.
We are the survivors who have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors ever. We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility. And we learned how to deal with it all.
If you are one of the survivors, I salute you.
The Publisher of the newspaper for which I work sent a story to those of us on the editorial board about new, tough driving laws being passed by the state of California. The New York Times article, written by Jennifer Steinhauer, comments on the following laws now in place:
My publisher laughingly remarked in her e-mail, "Gotta love California, however, Bill (me) the Libertarian will hate this oppression."
I surprised her, and my colleagues on the editorial board, with a reply stating my affirmation of these laws. The nexus of libertarian concern is the inalienable rights of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. We who wear this label (if one must wear a label) believe that we own our lives and we are owned by nobody else. We may freely offer ourselves in the service of others, but no person has claim upon us. Because we uphold this principle as the zenith of our own personal existence, integrity demands that we also uphold this principle in the same regard toward those around us. Which brings me back to these traffic laws. And to begin, we must remember that driving is not an inalienable right. It is a privilege mutually agreed upon by society with mutually agreed upon rules.
Just as we hold that no person has the right to infringe upon our life, liberty, property, or pursuit of happiness, neither do we have the right to infringe upon those same rights held by those around us. A driver who smokes in a vehicle with a child present is essentially subjecting that child, against their will, to the inhalation of poisonous gas. And a driver engaged in chatting on the phone, putting on makeup, shaving their legs, texting, or petting their dog is creating the potential for a scenario that could lead to the destruction of property, and at worst, the destruction of life.
Unlike anarchists, sensible libertarians understand that our individual freedom does not include the freedom to willingly cause harm, or the potential of harm, to our fellow citizens.
TimesOnline
David Charter, Europe Correspondent
Russia tonight threatened to retaliate by military means after a deal with the Czech Republic brought the US missile defense system in Europe a step closer.
The threat followed quickly on from the announcement that Condoleezza Rice signed a formal agreement with the Czech Republic to host the radar for the controversial project.
Moscow argues that the missile shield would severely undermine the balance of European security and regards the proposed missile shield based in two former Communist countries as a hostile move.
“We will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
As we hurdle toward the day of decision on which we'll choose the next president, we need to do so with the understanding that this new president could very well inherit a new war unlike any we've fought. I'm going to share with you today's "Flash Traffic" e-mail from Joel Rosenberg who is an expert on global conditions that are building toward a massive world conflict. I do so not to be a fearmonger, but to once again underscore the necessity of choosing a president and congress who are prepared for what is coming.
WAR IN NOVEMBER?
A military showdown with Iran may be fast approaching.By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., July 8, 2008) -- War clouds continue to build in the epicenter. Last month in Rome, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that the United States and Israel would soon be "annihilated," language he had not used so explicitly since October 2005 when he promised to wipe Israel "off the map" and urged Muslims to "envision a world without the United States." This week, his regime authorized a new series of Iranian war games. He ordered the digging of 320,000 graves to bury the enemies of Islam. He is calling for the unification of the Islamic world politically and economically, including the creation of a single currency.
What's more, Iranian TV is running a new anti-Semitic documentary film series entitled, "The Secret of Armageddon." Setting the stage for a coming apocalyptic war that will usher in the Islamic Messiah known as the Mahdi or the "Twelfth Imam," the series focuses on a series of Bible prophecies that inform Jewish and Christian End Times theology. While the presentation is grossly distorted, some facts do emerge. Iranian scholar Dr. Ismail Shafe'i Sarustani , for example, tells viewers that the word "Armageddon" is "originally a Hebrew word" and "is a real geographical region, situated south of Haifa," noting that "the place was shelled by Hizbullah during the 33-day [July 2006] war." Iranian historian Mohammad-Taqi Taqipour notes that "these [Evangelical Christians], along with the Jews, believe that the War of the End of Days will take place in the desert of Megiddo, in Palestine. They believe that Jesus will return, and that then there will be a millennium of happiness."
The series, however, accuses Jews who were victims of genocide -- during the very Holocaust Ahmadinejad denies ever happened -- of actually planning to commit genocide. "There is a genocidal Zionist Jewish plan for the genocide of humanity at the hand of the Zionist Jew-boys," claims one Iranian researcher interviewed for the program. "The Zionist Jew-boys talk about a 'Greater Israel' -- from the Euphrates to the Nile -- but their actual goal is world domination." At one point, Iranian researcher Shams Al-Din Rahmani argues that "the goal of the Zionists is the total destruction of Islam."
During the June 7th episode, the narrator embraces anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and proceeds to try to justify Iran's own war plans. "Today, there are many indications that the 'hidden hands' of world Zionism were involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack. According to a large group of Western intellectuals, the Zionists are the real rulers of the United States. According to irrefutable documents published by independent American media outlets, the Zionists used intelligence agents and spies, with the full cooperation of agencies with the country, to carry out this terrorist operation in full view of the world, in order to prepare the ground for taking over Afghanistan and Iraq, and to realize the dream of a greater Israel."
Top Israeli intelligence officials, meanwhile, increasingly believe that time is running out. They believe that Iran could have nuclear weapons within a year and one former Mossad chief is urging his country's leadership to launch a massive series of air strikes against Iranian nuclear and other military facilities before it is too late. Israel's Air Force just conducted a test run of such a bombing mission.
John Bolton, the former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., says he believes Israel may strike Iran sometime in late fall or early winter, after the U.S. elections in November but before the inauguration of the next American President on January 20. A senior Pentagon officials told the Washington Post several days ago he is worried about the same scenario -- a November surprise -- prompting both President Bush and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to make strong public statements warning the Israelis not to take such actions. Until just a few weeks ago, it was widely believed in Israel that new parliamentary elections would be held in November. But at the last moment, Defense Minister Ehud Barak withdrew his threat of voting to bring down the Olmert government for a few more months, leading some to speculate that Barak may be calculating that Israelis couldn't be fully immersed in an electoral campaign and a bombing campaign simultaneously.
The U.S. does not want Israel to strike. After all, the repercussions of such a war with Iran would be global in nature. Israel would face tens of thousands of incoming missiles not just from Iran but likely from Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza and possibly the West Bank. Some of these missiles could have chemical and/or biological warheads, even if the nuclear warheads in Iran are not yet ready. Ballistic missiles would also be likely fired from Iran at the oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, at oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and the Straight of Hormuz, and at U.S. bases and forces in Iraq. Tens of thousands of suicide bomber cells could be activated in the region -- especially in Iraq and Israel -- and perhaps even in Western Europe and the U.S. and Canada. Iranian efforts to topple Jordan's King Abdullah II and/or Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in favor of radical Islamic regimes friendly to Tehran could also be set in motion. Oil prices could shoot from $140 a barrel to $300 a barrel or more. U.S. gas prices could spike to $7-$10 or more, with horrific domestic and global economic repercussions.
No wonder Washington doesn't want a war with Iran. No wants such a war. I certainly do not, and neither do the Israelis. Yet, the U.S. does not have a convincing plan to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program in time. Nor does the U.N., or the E.U. Diplomacy isn't working. Economic sanctions have been imposed on Iran since 1979 to little strategic effect. Unfortunately, the words of Sen. John McCain keep echoing in my head this week. In April 2006, the senior Senator from Arizona appeared on NBC's Meet the Press. He said, "there's only one thing worse than using the option of military action, and that is the Iranians acquiring nuclear weapons." For if Iran gets the Bomb, he said, "I think we could have Armageddon."
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