The Economist's Cookbook

I'm still planning on taking on TIME magazine. However, as I collect thoughts, notes and source material I realized that I might as well write a novel. So my analysis will be split up into a series of posts on the issue, rather than one giant post.

Cheers everyone and remember "Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help" should signal to you that whatever they are offering is a bad idea!

Posts should begin tomorrow. Tomorrow I want to set the historical stage for much of this mess by putting things in historical context. I want to contrast the moves of political and economic actors with what we should see in a free market.

I just got my copy of the most recent TIME magazine ...

The Economist's Cookbook is going to take on TIME magazine in the near future.

I need to collect more thoughts and data, but yes, a long post is coming in the near future.

Keep in mind that he said this back in April... Hmmmm How many people in Washington are going to listen to him? I'll venture to say none.

It's about time that some of the power players in Wall Street call the Fed and the US government to the carpet for their actions/regulations/bailouts. I want major players in Wall Street to say "No US CONGRESS, we are going to hold our own 'hearings' on what is causing this financial crisis." I want to see guys like Russ Roberts, Tyler Cowen, Chris Coyne, Ron Paul, etc. get a chance to stand up and say the system has been flawed and broken for a very long time and it's time for a massive shift in the way we view our money and our financial system.

Via Wiki:

Volbeat was formed in 2001 after frontman Michael Poulsen split up his former band, Dominus. Volbeat plays a fusion of heavy metal and rockabilly. They are inspired by the rock n' roll legends Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.
...
Volbeat lists their influences in their own recognizable way:

"Everything from Elvis Presley to Napalm Death .. hail: Johnny Cash, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Ramones, Social Distortion, Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Dio, Megadeth, Metallica, Manic Street Preachers, Iron Maiden and bla bla bla bla..."

ENJOY!

No, this is not some sort of cliche reference to The Matrix.

This is about the financial mess the US seems to have found itself in. The house of cards created by the US government and the Federal Reserve, and individuals that were out to pad their own pockets at the expense of their stockholders. These were men and women who were put into positions of power, through political channels rather than actually channels of competency, to "manage" these mortgage giants that I wouldn't trust to cut my lawn!

I've waited to bother commenting about this FreddieMac/FannieMae mess. Well, during this contemplative time I've been reading more and listening and trying to figure much of this out.

Then Lehman Bros. Holdings folded.

Then AIG got a bailout.

And I realized that for the first time in all this mess I'm frightened. How deep does the hole go? Fannie and Freddie were two of the largest lobbying groups in the beltway. They threw around tons of money. And you know who they contributed campaign monies to? Mostly left-wing democrats with a penchant for pushing for more regulation/control/nationalization of certain elements of the market that are "too important" for the market to handle.

I have had enough. Now we're bailing out people left and right. In doing so we're subsidizing people to DO POOR WORK! Essentially we're subsidizing incompetence and risky investments!

I think it was Rush Limbaugh who had a soundbyte from the former President/CEO of AIG who said "Regulation cannot fix or prevent bad management." It's about time SOMEONE came out and said it.

The more I look at this, the more I begin to see the game. And the game is socialism. The more Government can strangle the private sector with rules and regulations and the more they destroy the market for money with inflationary policy and deficit spending, the worse things will continue to get. This leads of course to the economically ignorant masses screaming for yet more control.

We'll get control all right. And who do you think will be in charge? Why the enlightened politicians in Washington of course. After all, central planners know so much more than your average American.

Don't worry citizens, we'll take care of you. Please go back to watching Dr. Phil and American Idol.

Of course this sounds nutty and extreme and "Oh no, he's a conspiracy theorist." A few years ago if I had said Fannie and Freddie were going to collapse like the houses of cards they were, what would the critics have said? Hmmm?

Via Samizdata.net. I don't mean to jack their post, but this is awfully good.

Yes another music post.

Now I don't know if this fits people's tastes.
(Sorry for not using seeqpod, couldn't find it so youtube will have to suffice.)


Brazilian Progressive Dark/Doom Metal. I just love their vocalist's clean vocals and the arrangement of the song is just gorgeous. I recommend the whole album How Innocence Dies very highly!

Ah now what is this weapon you ask?
Was it a gun? No.
A knife? No.
A club? No.
A Molotov Cocktail? No.
A sword? No.
A chainsaw? Cool, but no.
An ice pick? *sigh* No.
A rabid ferret? Okay, now we're getting desperate.
A trained attack Tyrannosaurus? Ummm ... NO.

It was in fact a ... drumroll please ...





A broken pencil sharpener.

Wait ... WHAT?!

A teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School noticed the boy had what appeared to be a small razor blade during class on Tuesday, according to a Beaufort County sheriff's report.

It was obvious that the blade was the metal insert commonly found in a child's small, plastic pencil sharpener, the deputy noted.

Ummmm ... yeah, because this is productive use of the cop's time.

District spokesman Randy Wall said ... "We're always going to do something to make sure the child understands the seriousness of having something that could potentially harm another student, but we're going to be reasonable..."

They will make an example of you to better create passive sheep in their midst. The individual is not important ... all that is important is that the masses get their dose of indoctrination.

Christ, I hate public schools.

"In a country like the United States, where the right to property is placed above the law, there the sole function of the public police is to safeguard this natural right, each person can in full confidence dedicate his capital and his labor to production. He does not have to fear that his plans and calculations will be upset from one instant to another by the legislature."
-Frédéric Bastiat

My how we've fallen.

Behold! I bring you Between the Buried and Me.

Most of you won't like this, and that's okay. I wasn't a fan either when I first heard it, but damn does it grow on you. These guys are Progressive Metalcore. Their sound incorporates many different musical styles: "One minute the band may be playing thrash metal and the next they're flowing into death metal growls and thick guitar riffs... the metal take on things can seemingly change in a flash as lead singer Tommy Rogers fleshes out his vocals and utilizes the keyboards to create something that sounds more like it should be on a Smashing Pumpkins album".On their covers album, The Anatomy Of, the band pays tribute to many of their diverse influences, ranging from King Crimson to Pantera to Pink Floyd and even Smashing Pumpkins.

I bring you: Between the Buried and Me - Selkies: The Endless Obsession

Divinity Destroyed - Sweet Heresy


These guys are kinda cool, really been digging them lately. This is from their Eden in Ashes album. They are obscure and not very well known. Check out their website and see if you can find some of their music online, it's good stuff.

From Wiki:
Bastiat maintained a deep distrust of all government, in any form, and worked all his life to demonstrate that government control of private individuals and regulation of private industry was inefficient, economically damaging, and morally wrong. Bastiat asserted that the only purpose of government is to defend the right of an individual to life, liberty, and property. From this definition, Bastiat concluded that the law cannot defend life, liberty and property if it promotes socialist policies inherently opposed to these very things. In this way, he says, the law is perverted and turned against the thing it is supposed to defend.

I'm currently finishing up his short work The Law. It's very very poignant for the modern world.
Here is a bit from Bastiat's The Law :

But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.

We've built our modern system on this legal plunder. God help us.

You can read the entire text here in html.
or
You can order your own paper copy from FEE here.

So this is kind of cool. Looks like I'll be able to stream music here using this player thingy!
For right now, Opeth - Drapery Falls from their Blackwater Park album. Progressive Death Metal!



Expect more music in the future and I sample, listen, and consume more artists.

I want everyone here to go hug their dog/cat/bird/lizard/large fuzzy spider when they get home today.

Via Reason's Hit&Run Blog which is via an article from the Washington Post.

Internal Investigation: Slaughter of Mayor's Dogs During Botched Drug Raid Justified

The dogs ... were running away from the cops! RUNNING AWAY.

It should be noted for those of you not familiar with the case that one officer remarked the raid was "very exciting" and she "looked forward to more in the future" according to reports from the Mayor.

When was the last time anyone ever saw an aggressive Lab? Hmmm? Those dogs will bark their heads off until they get close enough ... to lick you to death.

This shit makes me fucking sick. Of COURSE the "internal review" found nothing wrong. That, ladies and gentlemen is nothing but cronyism. Gotta protect your brother and sister cops because they can't do any wrong, the system can't appear to be broken so bullshit like this and corruption gets covered up all the time.

So ... Fuck the Prince George Police Dept., fuck their supposed "internal investigation", fuck the war on drug, and please ... go home and hug your pets.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
-- C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis was a Christian writer and theologian. He is responsible for the Chronicles of Narnia series and many other very thought provoking works such as The Screwtape Letters. He was also a friend of J.R.R. Tolkien. Where are the Christians today like this? I may not be very religious, but I appreciate this man. Men and women like him with an understanding of liberty that are willing to talk and openly profess their faith, yet defend it while not shoving their ideas down people's throats via a legislature, are getting harder and harder to find in today's society.

I don't like John McCain. In fact, I don't really like any politicians that I can think of (I exclude Ron Paul because anyone with a Murray Rothbard Picture in their office ain't a politician). So I flipped on the tube and wanted to see what all the hoopla was about over this woman.

Upon hearing her speak and watching her take shots at the opposition ... I can see why the Democrats are scared of this woman. She's everything the modern feminists believe a woman should be, except she hunts, she's not pro-abortion, and ... well she's a Rep. She's well spoken.

I believe it was DailyKos where some asshat commenters referred to her as 'trailer trash'. You're just jealous that the woman on the Republicrat ticket looks good enough to wear skirts.

This doesn't change my feelings on politics or those that participate in it. But she doesn't seem like too bad of a woman ... And she isn't hard on the eyes either. (Hell the website VPilf.com went up right after she accepted the VP slot!)

Who knows, honestly I don't freakin' care anymore, it's a damned circus.

Oh did I mention she's hot?

So according to a CNN interview with the Mayor of New Orleans the national Guard/ local police are simply tossing any looters caught into the federal penitentiary. So much for due process. I mean they might be reading him (as there was only one arrest made for looting at the time of the interview) his rights and just tossing him there for the time being.Still it worries me that in a time of "emergency" the cops/Nat. Guard get to just throw cuffs on you, toss you in a cell, and that's that. There is supposed to be steps that are gone through before a trial.

Here's the thing, it's not that I disagree with this one case so much as I do the idea behind it. In this case such actions might be warranted, but it is still the responsibility of liberty loving Americans to stay vigilant.