The End

Dane's Music 2009 - Part III

Merry Christmas!

I wrap up my my 2009 music list looking forward to 2010.

The most important music discovery for me in 2008 was the Athens, Georgia band The Whigs. Unfortunately, they have been touring all year and won’t have a new album until 2010. The good news is they pre-released a couple of tunes, so I include Hundred/Million to my list and hope to see more of their stuff on next year’s list.

Fortunately for me, the Whigs did their tour with a band called The Features. They have been around awhile, but were new to me. I skipped over a lot of great songs from their new album so I could include Now You Know (2009). I also had to pick a couple more from earlier material, Wooden Heart (2006) and Guillotine (2006). I have a few of their older albums to aquire yet, so you can probably expect to see another song from them on next year’s list.

Speaking of next year, have a good one and here’s to finding tons of new music to make your 2010 memorable.

Music 2009 -- Part II

Obviously, some of the best music I ran into this year couldn’t fit on one simple list, but one unique tune that did make the cut was Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts’ 2007 tune Diamond Ring. It was something I found on a Paste Magazine sampler which prompted me to download the whole album.

On the other hand, some of my favorite stuff was from bands I have been listening to forever.

Echo and the Bunnymen’s Songs to Learn and Sing was in the tape deck of my ‘74 Impala when I made the move from Minnesota to Arizona back in ‘87. They released a new album in ‘09. Included from this was Think I Need It Too and Do You Know Who I Am? (2009).

Another staple in my collection is Cracker. Funny, quirky, intelligent alt/country, this stuff has been making me laugh for almost two decades. Their latest release is represented here with Turn On Tune In Drop Out With Me and Show Me How This Thing Works (2009). The latter is a song about some strange contraption that falls from space and can apparently do just about anything:

Will it make me rich, will it get me high, Will it look good with the rest of my furniture, Will it make a soft and pleasing tone at night (oh, oh, oh), Will it heal the sick, will it feed the poor, Will it give me everything I ever dreamed of....Show me how this thing works...

On the mellower side, there is another old favorite of mine that put out a new one in ‘09. David Gray is represented on the list with Stella The Artist (2009) and one from his Greatest Hits a couple years back that I had over-looked, You’re The World To Me (2007).

In my next and final post about my 2009 music list, I will wrap things up with a rundown on my absolute favorite finds of 2009.

Dane's Music List 2009

Well, another year, another “Best of” music list. I put one together every year, but mine is decidedly different than most. My list is more representative of what I was listening to over the course of the year, rather than an exclusive list of what was “best” in 2009, so I include stuff that I missed when it originally came out. This year’s list is decidedly mellower than usual as well. I must be getting old.

The oldest selection on my list is Nuclear Love Machine (1995) by The Ugly Americans. I came across this while looking for something Cracker-ish. There is a great Southern feel here and this tune has some Allman Brothers sounding guitar licks in it.

The Ugly Americans were fronted by Bob Schneider. I include his 2009 release 40 Dogs on my list as well.

The next oldest tune on my list is John Mayer’s City Love (2001). I may have overlooked him in the past because he was a bit too mellow for me back then. Not so much anymore. I love the jazzy feel of this song and some great lyrics: “She keeps her toothbrush at my place, as if I have the extra space.”

Not to get too serious, I also included a great new one from Philadelphia’s Canadian Invasion, Standing on the Shoulders of the Carcass of John Mayer (2009).

Another older tune included is the Candyskins’ Monday Morning (2004). I knew these guys from their Wembley tune, but digging deeper, I cannot figure out how these guys didn’t get bigger than they did.

I have always been a Hothouse Flowers fan, but kind of forgot about them after the ‘90’s. I rectified that by finding a new one from this decade and included Your Love Goes On (2004) to this year’s list.

Another ‘90’s favorite, The Wonder Stuff, has also been rediscovered. I include Tricks of the Trade (2006). It is impossible to listen to this song without hearing Cheap Trick.

Another "older" tune is from Nik Kershaw, Already (2001).

The last song to make the list that didn’t have some kind of 2009 connection is the Shout Out Louds’ Tonight I Have To Leave It (2007). I stumbled on these Scandahoovian popsters earlier this year. They have a catchy Cure kind of sound.

Well, not to get too long-winded, I will chat about the newer stuff from my 2009 music list in my next post....

Merry Christmas everyone.

The Great "Rowdy" Roddy Piper

Sometimes I wake up at four in the morning with the weirdest things on my mind. Today, it was the movie They Live, starring "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, the great Canadian pro wrestler. The movie contains the greatest six minute fight scene ever put on film. It is spurred on by Roddy's opponent's refusal to put on a pair of sunglasses. If you refuse to see anything less than Academy Award material, this movie is a must-see.

Learning to Learn

Sorry for repeating myself, but I love these "Did You Know" videos. These videos shed a light on the fact that we must be open to change or risk becoming obsolete. Learning to learn is more important than knowing, because what we don't know is more important than what we already do know. The world is about to get much crazier as knowledge expands exponentially.

Also, India and China may be the largest English speaking countries in the world, but we would being doing your children a favor by having them learn Mandarin.

The Dismantling of Tiger Woods

Why are people so obsessed with Tiger Wood’s infidelities? Sure, it’s hard to turn your head away from a train wreck, but why? In large part, we tend to measure ourselves by the actions of others. We watch someone go down in flames -- especially if they seem to have it all -- and we feel a bit better about our own miserable existences.

I tend not to watch the news, so I have been able to stay away from most of the sordid details. With that in mind, my thoughts on the topic are pretty limited.

When the story broke, one of my friends made a post on Facebook about how disappointed she was with Tiger’s discretion. Another friend commented that Tiger’s wife should have seen it coming. After all, Tiger is famous and his wife obviously must be a gold digger and couldn’t have been so naïve. Tiger must have women throwing themselves at him constantly, he argued, and no man could resist that constant temptation. I have never been rich, famous, or that good-looking, so I guess I will never know.

I think many people overlook the obvious nugget in this story, though. It is the question of integrity. Tiger’s mistake wasn’t that he was sleeping around on his wife -- if people want to have a open marriage, that’s their business -- it was that he didn’t have an honest conversation with his wife going into the marriage. Granted, people can also have a change of heart during their marriage (I speak from personal experience on that one), but Tiger was too small of a man to have an honest conversation even then.

If Tiger wanted to sleep around, he should have been man enough to tell his wife, allowing her to decide whether she wanted to stay with him or not. Tiger should have been honest with her. The value of honesty doesn’t change just because fame and a large bank account are involved. If you don’t respect the most important person in your life, how can you respect yourself? And without self-respect, where is the integrity? In the toilet.

Most people think the opposite of honesty is dishonesty. Really, the more accurate antonym is chicken-shit. People who are not honest are scared -- scared of the consequences that honesty may bring. True alpha males aren’t scared. Even with all he has and all he is, Tiger was a chicken-shit. I guess that just makes Tiger another beta.

The World is Changing

One of my bosses shared the original version of this video with us. This is the second in the series, but I think they may be up to 4 or 5 now. I have not verified any of the facts presented here -- and I hate sharing things without having a good feel for their accuracy -- but this is thought provoking regardless.

If you find this interesting, I recommend spending a few minutes on You Tube tracking down the rest of them...

You Weren’t Born Here, The Police Brought You

I was preparing for a road trip to California recently and was looking around for something different to pop into the CD player when I ran across an old Bill Cosby bit I remember listening to with my buddy Scott when I was a kid.

I only had time to download To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With, but after listening to it, the consensus in the car was that I should download more Cosby for next time. Mr. Cosby’s stuff is classic, and with a ten year old around, being able to listen to a comedian that can pull off his craft without resorting to adult language and themes is a bonus.

The truly awesome thing about this album is you can download it in it’s entirety off of Amazon for $4.95. Better still, you can just get the best part, the 27 minute title track for a mere 99 cents. Well worth your buck. Or if you are dirt cheap, you can listen to it now on iLike.

On Global Warming

The politics and pseudo-science behind the issue of global warming (or is it politically correct to call it climate change?) make it almost impossible to have an opinion on the issue without “picking sides”. If you believe man is making the polar ice caps melt by using gas-powered leaf blowers, then, it is assumed you must logically conclude that all governments must join together to ban fast food hamburgers. On the other hand, if you ignore the glorious wisdom of our great spokesmen on this subject, you must be a quack. After all, who can argue with the man who invented the internet.

I have concluded -- like what the Republicans and Democrats are to politics -- so are the scientists on both side of this debate. They are all wrong.

First of all, both sides twist the data to verify their own conclusions. For every one of those charts scientists claim as conclusive evidence, there is someone on the other side that can re-configure them into opposite conclusions. On top of that, we, as humans, are very bad at determining cause and effect and are even more inept at accurately defining correlations between complicated phenomena. We also tend to arrogantly think we know more than we really do. If all the knowledge we have about global warming could fit on a grain of sand, what we don’t know would encompass the entire earth. Yet we continue to spew at facts as if we have some omnipotent insight into them.

Secondly, we ignore that every generation conjures up it’s own earth-ending disaster scenario. There was communist global domination, the population bomb, various world pandemic hysterias, and -- one that may actually still deserve some real attention -- nuclear annihilation.

We live in a dangerous world. We calm ourselves by thinking we -- or more dangerously -- our fuhrers can do anything about it. Treaties don’t work. Ask the Native Americans. It is simple arrogance to think that we can mandate away global warming any more than we can world hunger. Giving up sovereignty for safety has never worked. But fear works. Real or not, political power depends on it.

So, what to do? The science on both sides is iffy and the potential political solutions are even worse. And even if you do believe one side has the monopoly on truth, that does not mean that side's solution shouldn't be scrutinized.

How about this? Let’s all agree that we don’t know it all. Let’s not shoot first, ask questions later. Let’s not put guns to people’s heads and tell them what vehicle they can drive, whether they can travel, or that they can’t eat red meat. Let's not create new carbon taxes and regulations to stick it to the productive people of this world.

Here’s a novel idea, let’s agree that we all like clean air, water, and land and start showing some respect for those things -- regardless of where one may stand politically or scientifically. Even if you are on the side that doesn't believe man’s activity is in some way responsible for climate change, let’s be prudent and take care of our resources, stop buying crap we don’t need and casting off our used consumer goods haphazardly.

And finally, let’s stop picking sides and just do what is right in our own households. Let’s start there before using our governments to self-righteously demand others half way around the globe to bow down to our version of justice. After all, those people on the other side of the world are the ones buying up our debt, allowing us to continue our over-consumption, debt-ridden lifestyles.

We ain’t that holy.

Greatest Appetizer Ever

Whenever there is a party, I request that Nicole make these. She generally makes at least 48 or so, just in case someone other than me wants some, too. I guess I have inherited my Brother Bubba's taste for spice. The Parmesan cheese creates a great golden crust.



Jalapeno Poppers

4 oz. cream cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
2 Tbsp. Mayonnaise
8 medium jalapeno peppers
Shredded Parmesan cheese to top poppers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat large baking pan with cooking spray. In medium bowl, combine cream cheese, cheddar cheese and mayo. Halve jalapenos lengthwise and remove seeds. Stuff halves with cream cheese mixture.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese to cover (this will brown and create a cover to keep everything inside). Bake until bubbly, about 30 minutes.


Enjoy!

Cranberry Chicken

Variations of this Cranberry Chicken recipe can be found all over the internet, but this is the one Nicole makes at our house. The first time she said she was going to make it, I didn't think I would like it. Now I am addicted and can hardly go more than a week without it.

You can serve it with rice, noodles, or our favorite standby, mashed potatoes.

It is so simple, anyone can make it -- even me.

Cranberry Chicken

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 - 16 oz can of whole cranberries
1 cup Catalina dressing
1 package onion soup mix

Mix the cranberries, dressing and soup mix together in a baking dish. Add chicken breasts. Spoon sauce over chicken to keep moist while baking. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour.

Richard P. Feynman

Recently, my sister cleaned off her bookshelf and sent me a box of random books. The first one I am working my way through is a collection of short works by physicist Richard P. Feynman called The Pleasures of Finding Things Out.

Not being all that bright myself, I can become obsessively fascinated by the thinking process of smart people. (My daily life is still influenced by Nicolas Taleb's works. See my Black Swan post from 2007.) There always seems to be some common themes with smart people (not to be confused with people who want you to think they are smart).

They are naturally humble. They have to be. They are so smart that they understand how much they don't know. That makes them humble.

They are funny. When you are smart, apparently absurdities present themselves everywhere. People, especially those that take themselves too seriously -- or think they do actually understand something they don't -- make for easy targets.

They have a skeptical outlook on anything or anyone pretending to be an authority. Anyone wearing a suit, uniform, or gown are all to be distrusted -- even disrespected.

And finally, they are more interested in truth than in being right. We mere mortals always have to have "the answers". We need to justify our existence. We need to have explanations for everything -- a why for every what. Smart people don't suffer from this affliction. Where Taleb eloquently explains that we are fooled by randomness and suffer from a need to have to make it all make sense -- even at the point of making up half-truths to placate ourselves, Feynman explains his total comfort with the unknown.

"You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about..."

Now I am off to get a little smarter. I think I will go pick up another Feynman book, maybe Surely You Are Joking, Mr. Feynman.

Well, That Is A Deep Subject

I better log on and write something before I forget my blog's password or my writing skills deteriorate beyond redemption. I missed the month of August completely and, if it hadn't been for my current bout of insomnia, I would have probably missed writing anything in October as well.

So what things of great importance have I stumbled upon in my bloglessness? Nothing really. It is just that, for some unknown reason, I tend to have little interest in writing right now and what I do have to write about seems hardly blog worthy. I guess that shouldn't stop me. I generally use this blog more as a personal journal than a useful site for the dissemination of any kind of relevant information anyway.

In fact, I am frequently reminded of a story told by a guest speaker at one of my technology networking group meetings. While many people over-hype the importance of the blogosphere as the rise of some kind of "new" journalism, he likened it to being more of a masculine version of scrapbooking. The more I think about it, the more I think he is right, except of course that scrapbooking tends to include more accurate information.

Anyway, I am off to bed for now. Come to think of it, I do have some books, movies and charity stuff to blog about, so I will be back soon. After all, it ain't scapbooking, but it's still a hobby...

Reading, Listening, Not Writing

I haven’t written much lately, but I have been very busy burying myself in a cornucopia of books and audio educational information.

I am currently reading a best seller from a couple of years ago: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. Having recently read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, I was pressed to find another book relevant to the world outside of the central corridor of Phoenix, Arizona.

Ishmael Beah’s book is an autobiography of his life as a twelve year old in war-torn Sierra Leone, from innocent child to ruthless killer and eventual redemption. It is a great read and insight to a familiar theme. The stark contrast of innocent child versus the stark utter evil of war reminds me of other reads, in particular, The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski or even Cormac McCarthy’s novel (and soon to be movie) The Road. If you need a break from the “great” difficulties we face today in America, A Long Way Gone will help put them into perspective.

In fact, all this has reminded me of another book my Grandma Em made me read as a kid, Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place. Somewhat reminiscent of The Diary of Anne Frank--and also set in WWII Europe--this book also deals with the evils of war.

I will have lots of other reading to do as well. I haven’t read a political/economic book in months. I am also looking forward to receiving my collection of books from cousin-in-law author Cindy Thomson. More on that later.

I have also been working my way through an audio Yale Political Philosophy course I stumbled on in iTunes. I whipped through Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Machiavelli, but have stalled a bit on Hobbes. I am guessing I am just losing interest because I am so looking forward to the lessons on Locke and Tocqueville coming up.

I have also downloaded a free Yale course on The Civil War, but haven’t started that yet. So much to do, so little time...

I am astounded at all the free audio podcasts and books you can find on iTunes and other places and will be chronicling more on that later as well.

The Housing Bubble Explained

Clarity in decision making requires that you first accurately define the problem. When it comes to the housing bubble, no one does that better than Peter Schiff.

Episode 104. Peter Schiff: Why Was Anyone Surprised By the Crash?
(scroll down to episode 104)

In this podcast from a couple of months ago, Peter Schiff explains the bubbles (Internet and Housing) that created our current economic collapse. It is over an hour long, but if you find the time to listen to it, you will never see your home in the same way again.

This podcast has also left me scratching my head over what the current administration is doing.

How can they think they can fix something without understanding why it failed in the first place?

What happened to the grand idea of "change"?

Our current government's only answer to our economic woes is to prop up the failed policies of past administrations...

Re-inflating the bubble will not work.

Politicians Will Not Save This Economy

I have often been accused of being “idealistic” and even “Utopian” in my libertarian beliefs that an individual’s self-interest can steer our economy without the superior hand of government regulation. Humankind is inherently evil, after all, isn’t it?

Greed exists in all systems. Why then do people erroneously believe that once elected to government, politicians some how become pure “angels” with no ulterior motives but to do what is right? I believe, very un-Utopian-like, that government bureaucrats are every bit as greedy as their fellow citizens, those they propose to regulate.

This clip of Milton Friedman on the Donahue Show a few decades ago goes a long way to sum up why I believe those who question my idealism are really the one’s possessing the “Utopian” view. After all, an individual’s self interest -- or greed, as some may call it -- is self-regulated by fear and and the task of managing risk. Beyond that, there are already laws to throw those who commit fraud or theft into jail, and therefore, no need for further regulation that does not directly address protecting the individual rights of others.



As for those who propose more government over site, imperialistic regulation, and czar-like central planning as a way of "stopping" greed, “where in the world do you find these “angels” who are going to organize society for us?” I am sorry to report, but these uber-human beings (who are somehow excluded from the common mortal’s desires and process no greed or self-interest) do not exist. It is indeed, Utopian to believe one person can understand, much less fairly regulate, another person’s desires.

AIG and the Blame Game

A friend posted a great article from Vanity Fair about the insiders at A.I.G. on Facebook.

Though it may be accurate, the article seems to miss the forest for the trees. I can't help but feel the article blames the players, rather than the game itself. Here are my thoughts on it:

In his efforts to rightfully exonerate Jake DeSantis's role at AIG, Lewis wrongfully shifts the blame on the insecurities of Joseph Cassano. Cassano was a dupe, just a sucker unlucky enough to be holding the bag in the end. Whether AIG took on all these credit-default swaps themselves or, as Lewis points out, someone else did-- “There was no real reason that company had to be A.I.G.; it could have been any AAA-rated entity with a huge balance sheet. Berkshire Hathaway, for instance, or General Electric. A.I.G. just got there first.” --isn’t the issue now that it is time to assess blame for the “greed” that created this. These were all just players playing a game created by someone else. That “someone else” is the Federal Reserve.

And Lewis does touch on the real culprit in all this mess. “In the run-up to the financial crisis there were several moments when an intelligent, disinterested observer might have realized that the system was behaving strangely. Maybe the most obvious of these was the effects of U.S. monetary policy on borrowing and lending. The combination of the dot-com bust and the 9/11 attacks had led Alan Greenspan to pump money into the system, and to lower interest rates.” Low interest rates created the atmosphere in which these institutions had to operate.

The Federal Reserve--an unregulated, unauditable private entity, kept interest rates artificially low to “stimulate” the economy, which forced financial institutions to seek out higher risks to make profits. The only thing that can truly “regulate” greed is fear. The Fed removed that up front. Higher interest rates would have “slowed” the economy, but given financial institutions the opportunity to make their profits on more quality investments.

Now out of fear of systemic risk the government continues to subsidize this greedy behavior by backing these (“too big to fail”) bad investments. What incentive does anyone have to fear risk, knowing the government will be there to put them on life support when things go bad? If something is rotten, it should be allowed to fail. Then next time, fear will actually be allowed to do it’s job: regulating greed.

And if those in congress are truly upset by these people getting huge bonuses, they should stop taking the contribution checks THEY receive from these institutions. They are all hypocrites pointing fingers at each other. Wall Street, The Federal Reserve, and government intervention all deserve the blame for this crisis and, just as importantly, it’s future continuation. None of these groups want to “fix” anything. They all get their money from this faulty system and we, the common citizens are left paying for it.

BTW- the three biggest recipients of cash from AIG in the last election cycle? Obama, Dodd, and McCain.

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/toprecips.php?id=D000000123

Be Independent

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." -Mark Twain

Happy Independence Day

The Upside of This Economy

I have been thinking about my brother Bubba's column (and post from a couple of weeks ago) about how we spend too much time worrying about money, but I can't say I completely agree. Although it is not something to be obsessed about, neither is it something to be ignored.

Money is, simply put, a tool.

Money, when not wasted on things you do not need, is an instrument to be used to attain one's own personal freedom. In Timothy Ferriss's book, The 4-Hour Work Week, he explains people don't want to be millionaires, they want to live like millionaires. Big difference. (And more on that book on future posts -- I just started reading it.)


Like any good tool, if you want it to work for you, it must be taken care of, even respected. A great place to start? Saving. Here is a great eHow blog I stumbled upon this morning. I especially like Step One, Step Seven, and Step Ten. Check 'em out.

The best thing about this economy is that it has gotten people away from mindless consumption. People are now actually stepping back and evaluating the things that are really important.

Money is not something we should spend our lives pursuing, but something we should use to pursue the lives we want to live.

And Now For Something Really Important

The President

Whether you are a fan or foe of Bush or Obama -- or like me -- think they are virtually one-in-the-same, you have to find this pic a bit creepy. I found it as someone's profile picture on Facebook.

While on the subject of "sameness", I came across this Jon Stewart bit from a couple of months ago. Talk about creepy...

I refuse to let money define my life

I ran this in my column this week. Thought I drop in here as well.

All this news about the sagging economy finally went over my head.

It's not that I can't understand it, or at least try to understand it. And it is not that the economic situation we find ourselves mired in is not important. I just decided I don't care!

Maybe its a bad attitude, and maybe it's a wrong approach, but I just grew tired of it all and trying to keep up with it. One day, recently, I just sat there thinking, "what difference does all of this make on a personal level".

The conclusion that followed was - none!

I have never been a big fan of money. It's not that I would throw it a way if I had it, but it has never really been the most important thing in my life. Where cash is concerned, I have only focused on it enough to allow me a comfortable life, rather than a posh life. I found family, friends, and nearly every other aspect of my life much more important than amassing piles of cash in bank accounts.

I wouldn't throw it away if I had a lot of it, and it would be nice now and then to be able to buy all those things that I don't need but can't live without. But I'd have to make a major change in my lifestyle to go after that kind of money, and frankly, I'm not willing to do that.

I have a philosophy, one that has been with me since high school, that would allow me to keep any windfall that comes my way, but won't allow me to chase it as the sole purpose of my life. That philosophy actually speaks to a time when I will be gone. What will be the legacy I leave for the life I have lived?

If, when we die, I hope we all get an opportunity sit back an look at what we left behind. I know what I want to see.

I don't want the sum total of my life to be measured by a bank account. I want to know that my life touched others, that my legacy speaks more to my actions as a person, than my ability to amass wealth. If I die with nothing but a large stack of dollars, how long will that be remembered, and who, other than those I leave behind to spend the cash, will have benefited from the fact that I once lived. That is not how I would like to be defined.

This late in my life, there is little threat of that happening.

This is how I would like to leave this world:

I would like people to remember the things I wrote, maybe some humor that I brought into their lives, or even something that angered them (there have certainly been a few of those).

I want to leave knowing I had a hand in making my community a better place for those who follow.

I want a lot of people to miss me when I am gone, because that means I was loved.


I want to know that I have touched somebody, made them think, moved them at times, and in a rare case, even made a difference in someone else's life.

I would find any of these things far more substantive than leaving my kids a few bucks.

Peter Schiff on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 6/9/09: "The Economy"

Okay. Nicole is sick of me always talking about politics and the economy on here, but this is just too good not to post. Peter Schiff has been calling things right along, especially concerning our housing bubble. And it is fun to watch Jon Stewart's wit amplify the stupidity of our consumer/debt-based economy. I guess, deep down, there is a little Austrian Economics in all of us, even at the Daily Show...

Pay Your Bills? Have Good Credit? Too Bad.

In this totally ass-backward, government-knows-best, debt-based economy we live in, the United States Congress has apparently decided they need to penalize you for paying your credit cards.

According to this NY Times article, "Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit."


What is so wrong with asking people to be responsible for their own spending habits? And when did it become a bad thing to leave the fate of risky borrowers to the natural regulation of the free market? Instead, we push our politicians to "regulate", to "protect", to "make things fair". And why do people assume politicians know best???

In reality, all this government regulating ever does is penalize the wrong people, creating the illusion that even MORE regulation is needed. After all, when the credit card companies try to recoup their revenues elsewhere, you know government will step in again, claiming to protect us from the "greedy" credit card companies.

Don't want to pay 23% interest on your credit cards? Pay your bills...or just lobby big brother to penalize the people who actually do...

After all, people who pay their bills, refuse to spend money they don't have and fail to get caught up in government-endorsed consumerism are evil and should be punished.

With that kind of thinking, it is pretty obvious why our economy tanked.

University of North Dakota No Longer "The Fighting Sioux"

Letter from University of North Dakota President Robert O. Kelley Concerning Today's Decision by the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education

Dear Campus Community:

Today, Thursday, May 14, the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education passed the following unanimous motion:

"Consistent with the terms and conditions of the October 26, 2007 Settlement Agreement entered into with the NCAA, the Board directs UND officials to retire the 'Sioux' nickname and logo, effective October 1, 2009. Full retirement of the nickname and logo shall be completed no later than Aug. 1, 2010. In the event a new nickname and logo is adopted by UND, they shall not violate the NCAA policy regarding Native American nicknames, mascots and imagery.

UND is further directed to undertake actions consistent with the Settlement Agreement to protect its intellectual property rights in the 'Fighting Sioux' nickname and mark. UND is further directed to address the imagery at Ralph Engelstad Arena and other venues pursuant to the terms, conditions and timelines set forth in the Settlement Agreement.

This directive shall be suspended, if, prior to October 1, 2009 the following should happen:

1. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe give namesake approval consistent with the terms of the Settlement Agreement; and
2. The namesake approval be binding upon the tribes for a period not less than thirty (30) years."

We are mindful that there is a nearly 80-year tradition with our nickname and related logos. We honor that tradition, which has brought us national honor and distinction, as well as national championships and an outstanding record of student athletes as scholars. I want to be clear that I believe our athletes and our athletic teams -- athletic directors, coaches and related staff -- have used the nickname and logo with great honor and respect, and with a tremendous sense of pride.

Many alumni and fans have been staunch supporters of our athletic programs, and many have been proud of the nickname and logo. Among those was Ralph Engelstad, a former UND hockey goalie, who, with his wife, Betty, made many gifts to UND and built a magnificent arena that bears his name. We appreciate their legacy of generous support, which continues through The Engelstad Family Foundation and the management team of the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Now is the time for all of us-- no matter what our previous or current position -- to come together for the benefit of the University, for our students, and for our student athletes.

If an agreement is not reached with the Standing Rock Sioux and the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribes prior to Oct. 1, I will call on ALL members of the University community -- both on and off campus -- to work with me, administrators, faculty, staff and students, to create new traditions based on our continued and shared vision of academic and athletic excellence and success.

Sincerely,

Robert O. Kelley
President

turn on tune in drop out with me-cracker

Cracker's new album is out! David Lowery is a musical genius!

1976 Swine Flu Propaganda

OMG! We are all going to die!

Swine Flu and Some Perspective

The Department of Homeland Security is now in the medical business?

Arlen Specter To Become Reborn As A Democrat

After more than 40 years as a Republican, Arlen Specter recently announced he will run as a Democrat in his 2010 re-election bid for the Pennsylvania Senate seat. Here again is proof that the difference between the two parties is so incredibly slight that a career politician has no problem switching sides.

In a statement, Senator Specter explained his change of heart was due to his support of the stimulus package.

“When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.”

Seriously, who could be against putting our children and grand children into debt to pay for our debt-driven lifestyles? Who else can we turn to but government to keep our housing over-valued? Our houses have become our piggy banks, after all.

Interestingly, the CBS News is reporting that, according to a January poll, Specter “was trailing Republican Congressman Pat Toomey 41 percent to 27 percent among (Republican) primary voters in the state.” So has Specter had a change of heart? Or did Specter just be jump ship to save his political career?

How could I be so skeptical?

We lost something along the way

As I get older, I find my mood tends to swing more and more to the nostalgic. More "personal history" keeps popping up in my weekly newspaper column, I have gotten very involved with the Kittson County Historical Society and the museum, and I just tend to reminisce a lot more than I used to.

I am not sure if this is a good thing, or just another sign that I am sliding into the "Senior" generation. More likely the latter. The thoughts that occupy my mind today are directed at things like ending a career for more leisure, staying on top of social security (which is financed by Libertarians like Dane, of course), and managing my cash to make it all possible. I haven't got to the point of worrying about Depends yet, I think that comes much later in the process.

But in the course of all of this I tend to recall the days of my youth, growing up in Karlstad at a time where kids had more freedom to roam and get into minor trouble without their parents directing them to remain dirt and germ free.

Things have changed. Not that I would like to go back to those times, the present has a lot of positives, but there aspects that I do miss. Today, parents do have a lot more to worry about than did mine. However, at least some of their worry, I believe, is misdirected. For instance, my folks worried very little about the germs I came in contact with on a daily basis, they bathed us every Friday whether we needed it or not, and food labels did not even contain ingredients.

And somehow we not only survived, but remained fairly healthy as well.

We had the run of the town as kids, and roamed wherever the day took us. When I was five years old, I walked across town to the movie theater each night, then walked home in the dark once the movie was over. No one would dare allow a child to do that today. But it was a more innocent time, people were less mobile, and all the nuts lived in the big city, so it was okay.

We have, out of necessity, become more protective of our children, and even ourselves, and we have had to give up a lot. Although my children got a little taste of that freedom, my grandchildren will never know it at all.

I feel a sense of loss in all of this.

Food That May Kill You

The other day, while reading the ingredients to the lunch I was heating up, I began to ponder the wisdom of consuming it. I almost always feel better when I limit my eating to something containing only three or four all-natural ingredients. I try to stay away from packaged and canned foods. You never know exactly what you may be dumping into your body.

This lunch was a great example why. Here are the ingredients (with nothing added, edited, or left out):

enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: canola, cottonseed, palm) preserved by TBHG, salt, soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt) potassium carbonate, sodium (mono. hexameta, and/or tripoly) phosphate, sodium carbonate, turmeric...salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, maltodextrin, hydrolyzed corn, wheat and soy protein, dehydrated vegetables (garlic, onion, chive), spices, natural flavor, turmeric, powdered cooked chicken, cabbage extract, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, lactose. Contains wheat, soy and milk ingredients. Manufactured in a facility that also processes shellfish and fish products.

Can anybody tell me what disodium guanylate is? Or even what these crazy ingredients are suppose to resemble when all mixed together and cooked up?

Anyway, after much self-deliberation, I was hungry, so I ate it. Honestly, I am not sure if my internal organs are rapidly dissolving or are now preserved to out-live the rest of my body for centuries to come.

Kind of Blue (In A Happy Way)

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the best selling jazz album of all time, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. 1959’s classic is a great starting point for someone getting to know Miles Davis for the first time. I, on the other hand, started with a bit more than I was ready to absorb.

My Miles Davis journey almost ended before it started. A couple of decades ago, I decided to “expand” my musical tastes by randomly picking up some old jazz albums. At the time, I was feeling my tastes were pretty limited--alternative, punk, college radio, an occasional classic rock album--typical middle-class, white college kid stuff. One of the first jazz albums I picked up was the Miles Davis Bitches Brew album. Hated it. Listened to it once, then exiled it to the bottom of my musical pile.

Ten years later, I ran into it again, dusted it off, and put it on. Over the preceding decade, I had forced myself to listen to more and more jazz, so I was ready for it this time. In fact, it was almost a religious experience. For some reason, I just got it. To this day, Bitches Brew is one of my all-time favorite albums.

Miles had a lengthy career and evolved through many styles, but the albums he put out starting in the late sixties have always been my favorites. 1969’s In A Silent Way, although more subtle than the albums to come, was his first full blown jazz fusion album. John McLaughlin, who may be my favorite guitar player of all time, met Miles the night before they went into the studio. Miles was so impressed he invited him to show up.

And if you think jazz is not for you, check out Right Off (listen to it here) off of 1970’s documentary soundtrack A Tribute to Jack Johnson. It opens with John McLaughlin improvising riffs on his guitar. Awesome stuff.

And finally, Miles released 1970’s Bitches Brew, which was greeted much like Bob Dylan’s foray into electric, with mixed enthusiasm, to say the least. But over time, it became one of his best selling albums and recognized as a turning point in modern jazz, influencing musicians of all genres for decades to come.

If you don’t know Miles, check him out. And if you are as slow as me, stick with him. You will understand him eventually. And Happy Anniversary Kind of Blue.

Life Is Not Fair

My family and I are in the process of selecting this year's recipients for The Dane and Jean Nordine Memorial Scholarship Fund. We are sorting through applications, reading essays about community service, and, ultimately, selecting two winners.

Going through this process every year, I can't help but remember some sage advice about some rules that kids won't learn in school. The list used to circulate on the internet about a decade or so ago and was often falsely attributed to a Bill Gates graduation speech. The actual author is Charles J. Sykes, who wrote the book Dumbing Down Our Kids.

It is still very acute advice, even if "a $40,000 salary", a "Gap label", and a "car phone" date it a bit...

Some Rules Kids Won't Learn in School
By Charles J. Sykes

Rule No. 1: Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the phrase, "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized Rule No. 1.

Rule No. 2: The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as much as your school does. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated self-esteem meets reality, kids complain it's not fair. (See Rule No. 1)

Rule No. 3: Sorry, you won't make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won't be a vice president or have a car phone either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn't have a Gap label.

Rule No. 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait 'til you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's not going to ask you how you feel about it.

Rule No. 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grand-parents had a different word of burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They weren't embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend.

Rule No. 6: It's not your parents' fault. If you screw up, you are responsible. This is the flip side of "It's my life," and "You're not the boss of me," and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you turn 18, it's on your dime. Don't whine about it, or you'll sound like a baby boomer.

Rule No. 7: Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom.

Rule No. 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life hasn't. In some schools, they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped, lest anyone's feelings be hurt. Effort is as important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. (See Rule No. 1, Rule No. 2 and Rule No. 4)

Rule No. 9: Life is not divided into semesters, and you don't get summers off. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight hours. And you don't get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on. While we're at it, very few jobs are interesting in fostering your self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to self-realization. (See Rule No. 1 and Rule No. 2.)

Rule No. 10: Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs. Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston.

Rule No. 11: Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.

Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now.

You're welcome.

Numbers

I know I may be boring people with all these unthinkable numbers, but I can't help shake my head every time I see something like this. I can only ask you this, when you have put too much debt on your credit cards, what do you do? Get more credit cards? Well, that is exactly what your government is doing. We have become a debt-based economy. What is government's answer to fix it. More debt.

The exact figures in this video can be challenged. But those details do not change the reality. The Republicans and Democrats have come together to financially ruin this country.

Dirty Socks and Unnecessary Harassment

Everyone needs to take heed of this video. Give up a little liberty here and there and the next thing you know, these are the kind of idiots that will be "guarding" our safety...

Many see the TSA as a bunch of bumbling idiots that make people remove their shoes in the name of security. That is how it starts, seemingly harmless and just an inconvenience. As time goes by, these idiots start to think they have more authority than they really do. They abuse people's liberties out of their own sense of importance and growing power.

The TSA needs to be eliminated before it evolves into an American version of the Nazi's Gestapo. They are an unnecessary and incompetent bureaucracy. The only thing they are successful at is getting people's socks dirty...

How I Feel Today

So, I really haven't contributed at all to the blog since late January. It has been a heck of a year so far, and there is more to come, both good and bad.

Anyway, this is how I feel today - summed up in some of my favorite little verses.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by.
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.

I would not sit in the scorner's seat,
or hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man. -Foss

Try to be more sympathetic toward your fellow humans. Be less quick to anger or judgement. As very adeptly written in this blog, life for many has become more difficult. Sadly, it will likely get worse before it gets better. Look beyond yourself and see if anyone needs a hug, a meal, a buck or two, some kind words, or simply a smile. At times, throughout the various trials that are placed in front of us, a small act of kindness just might make the difference to someone. Remember that you might be the one chosen - you might be the catalyst. One can never be too busy to live unaware. I feel pretty calm and happy today. I hope that you do, too! Have a good day!

The Dangers of Fear and Apathy

I have always been fascinated by how people react politically in society. As the saying goes, people tend to vote with their wallets. In other words, they vote for whoever they think is going to make them "better off" financially. I am not saying this is a bad thing. After all, I believe in personal responsibility. I believe people need to do what is best for themselves. After all, you can not help others if you do not take care of yourself first. But short term financial gain should always be viewed with it's long term consequences.

The federal government is spending over a trillion dollars to artificially prop up housing prices (and silly me, I thought affordable housing was a good thing), so that Americans can continue their debt-driven consumerism. As I have stated often, debt is slavery. We are allowing our government to enslave our children and grand children so we can continue to live beyond our means today.

Our economy has collapsed because a housing-based debt bubble has burst. Rather than recognize the errors of our ways--namely, basing our economy on consumer debt rather than American worker productivity--our government is trying to re-inflate the bubble by keeping interest rates artificially low and dumping tons of tax-payer money into failed institutions and poorly run companies.

More importantly, by looking to the government to "save" us from bad economic times (and terrorists), we become blindly willing to hand over our liberty for some kind of ill-perceived "security".

I know this may be melodramatic, especially to those who know my almost paranoid distrust of the Bush/Obama big government mob-rule mentality, but I can't help but look back at history's lessons from pre-WWII Germany.

The German people did not allow Hitler to come to power because the general population was somehow "evil". Hitler came to power because people wanted a government solution to the economic devastation their country had endured for over a decade. Hitler seemed like just the charismatic leader the country "needed".

Martin Niemoller, a German pastor and ardent anti-communist, originally supported Hitler's rise to power, seeing him as being good for setting Germany's economy straight. Although Hitler was anti-communist, he was a nationalist, and soon consolidated all economic power under the government's control. (He even had the power to fire CEO's of private auto makers! Unthinkable, I know.)

When Hitler expanded the government's power beyond the economy, it was too late for Niemoller and his fellow clergymen to do anything about it. Hitler's power was irreversible by that point. Martin Niemoller was imprisoned and remained so until freed by allied forces in 1945.

Niemoller became a prolific speaker after the war and is credited with a poem that I remember seeing displayed at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC a few years ago:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

The lesson is simple. We need to stop seeing ourselves as special interest groups that can be politically divided and start seeing each other as individuals. It is not us (as groups) versus each other. It is us (as individuals) against them.

More government spending not only exasperates this current economic situation, it means more taxing, more debt creation, more slavery of the citizenry for generations to come, and ultimately, more power for the government. We can solve our economic crises, but more power to the government means less power to the individual. That is the wrong answer to our problems.

As Bush used the fear of terrorism to rescind our personal liberties, Obama now uses our fear of economic security to deplete our economic liberties.

Our country doesn't need a "leader" (German word is "fuhrer") to get us out of this economic mess. Our country needs a free market and a government that respects individual liberty above all else. We the People are the solution. The government needs to get out of the way.

Do not let the powers that be use fear and apathy against you. Freedom requires personal responsibility. Be wary of where you seek help, because the best answer is yourself.

The North Dakota Flood

If I am ever trapped in a natural disaster, FEMA can stay home, send me a few thousand North Dakotans...

I found these Boston Globe pictures on my friend Carolyn's FB page...

Levels should be cresting today.

Meet Adam Kokesh

In his blog today, former Marine Adam Kokesh explains his anti-war stance:

We should all, as human beings, be "anti-war." What is war but the widespread, systematic destruction of human bodies by machinery? Who could be for that? Only those who are missing a part of their humanity. Sometimes the experience of war or the bloodlust of the military can take that away, but it is always ours to reclaim.

I am against this war because it is bad for America. It is bad for our security, it is bad for our military, it is bad for our economy, it is bad for our reputation abroad, and it is bad for our brothers and sisters who continue to loose their lives for lies. I am against war because I am a human being. I believe in the right to self-defense, and even collective self defense, but we should never take joy in even the most righteous acts of causing pain and suffering for fellow human beings.

(italics mine)

Check out: http://www.kokesh.blogspot.com/ when you get a chance.

Monday's Quiz

I think it is important to do an occasional self-examination of where one stands politically. Here is a quick little quiz from the Advocates for Self Government:

http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html

BTW--I frequently claim that both the right and the left are for big government. That chart above clearly illustrates why I come to this conclusion.

The Medicine Is Making You Sick

The problem with President Obama's solution to our economic woes is that his "cure" is what made us sick in the first place: over-spending and too much debt.

The Business Insider Blog had a great post explaining how Treasury Secretary Geithner's plan to fix the banks is totally ass backwards and full of totally false premises. I believe the administration knows this, but is following through because it is in the best interest of their banking buddies. Here are the five misconceptions they have:

The trouble with the economy is that the banks aren't lending. The reality: The economy is in trouble because American consumers and businesses took on way too much debt and are now collapsing under the weight of it. As consumers retrench, companies that sell to them are retrenching, thus exacerbating the problem. The banks, meanwhile, are lending. They just aren't lending as much as they used to. Also the shadow banking system (securitization markets), which actually provided more funding to the economy than the banks, has collapsed.

The banks aren't lending because their balance sheets are loaded with "bad assets" that the market has temporarily mispriced. The reality: The banks aren't lending (much) because they have decided to stop making loans to people and companies who can't pay them back. And because the banks are scared that future writedowns on their old loans will lead to future losses that will wipe out their equity.

Bad assets are "bad" because the market doesn't understand how much they are really worth. The reality: The bad assets are bad because they are worth less than the banks say they are. House prices have dropped by nearly 30% nationwide. That has created something in the neighborhood of $5+ trillion of losses in residential real estate alone (off a peak market value of housing about $20+ trillion). The banks don't want to take their share of those losses because doing so will wipe them out. So they, and Geithner, are doing everything they can to pawn the losses off on the taxpayer.

Once we get the "bad assets" off bank balance sheets, the banks will start lending again. The reality: The banks will remain cautious about lending, because the housing market and economy are still deteriorating. So they'll sit there and say they are lending while waiting for the economy to bottom.

Once the banks start lending, the economy will recover. The reality: American consumers still have debt coming out of their ears, and they'll be working it off for years. House prices are still falling. Retirement savings have been crushed. Americans need to increase their savings rate from today's 5% (a vast improvement from the 0% rate of two years ago) to the 10% long-term average. Consumers don't have room to take on more debt, even if the banks are willing to give it to them.

In the end, you can not fix a problem unless you accurately define it's cause. In this case, the medicine the administration is administering is going to create an even bigger future economic disaster. Getting people to borrow more is not the answer to fixing our economy. We need to become a nation of producers again, not a nation of debt-ridden over borrowers...

Can You Say Inflation?

The BBC reports the US government is unveiling a plan to spend up to one trillion dollars to unload "toxic" assets. Why not let these assets drop to their true market value, the price at which they are not artificially propped up by government and the price which they are no longer "toxic"? Let the assets be bought up at fair market value? No. That is not how government works. Government must protect it financiers.

How will the government pay for this? The government creates nothing. They can only raise money by taxing, or, since no one has anything left to take, they will just print more money.

How will you pay for it? Inflation...

Who Doesn't Love a Good Earmark.

Thought it was worth sharing this nugget. Six of the top 10 Senate earmarks? Yeah, those came from Republicans.

1. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.: $474 million
2. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.: $391 million
3. Mary Landrieu, D-La.: $332 million
4. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa: $292 million
5. David Vitter, R-La.: $249 million
6. Christopher Bond, R-Mo.: $248 million
7. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.: $235 million
8. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii: $225 million
9. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.: $219 million
10. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa: $199 million

For more, check out the full story on Slate:
http://img.slate.com/id/2213556

How Much Is A Trillion

I stumbled on this thing called The Crash Course by Chris Martenson. If you can't fathom what a million dollars looks like, check this out:

www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse/chapter-11-how-much-trillion

Chapter 10 on Inflation is also simple, but enlightening.

Many people complain about the government diminishing wealth through taxes, but the government impoverishes it's citizens much quicker (and more deviously) through inflation. The more money it prints, the poorer you become.

Grand Ol' What?

Last week, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) got together to make the American public (at least the ones watching C-SPAN or CNN or ...) continue to question the GOP's existence.

A friend of mine e-mailed me this:
Watch this video ...
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219518&title=cpac-after-party
... and then ask yourself the following question: If you could've blown up this entire building, killing everyone inside -- except maybe for Ron Paul -- and no one would ever find out, wouldn't you at least have to consider it?

Hmmmmm.

So, what happened to this once-grand party? They seem at a loss. But to me, it's so simple: A complete loss of what they stand for. Even if you disagreed with their platform, there was a day when you knew what it was.

I have a confession to make: I'm a registered Republican. I have been since the day I turned 18. I espouse Libertarian views, but have resisted registering LIB because I can't vote in the AZ primary without a major party affiliation.

When I registered, I felt I had a choice of foregoing economic freedom or social freedom. A the time, I opted to retain my economic freedom through supposed lower taxes and took my chances with the social freedoms.

Since that time, I've seen my party of fiscal responsibility pass measures that achieve anything but. I've seen a Democratic president be the only leader capable of balancing our budget and a Republican squander a budget surplus and drive our country into massive debt and near economic ruin. Our own Republican governor in Arizona just suggested the Legislature raise taxes because of the state's "economic situation," completely ignoring the "economic situation" of our state's businesses. Meanwhile, I continue to see government encroach deeper and deeper into our communities, homes and bedrooms.

Thus, my recent voting track record has included Obama (OK, after a Ron Paul vote in the primary), Gov. Napolitano and even John Kerry. The GOP can't endure if it permanently loses a younger generation of voters ... Yet, the rebranding brain trust that's been called in to save the party is led by the same gas bags who've brought it to this point and a new leader who's spent most of his time in his new position arguing with none other than Rush Limbaugh -- one of the many reasons the GOP's devotees have dwindled, I suspect. And still, there is no coherent position: What does party stand for? My best guess is anti-gay-marriage and anti-abortion. That seems to be the only platform of consistent messaging. Can they bring along an entire cohort of voters on these two issues alone? My gut says no, especially now. At least out of the deep south, where those cornerstone issues carry more weight than I can comprehend.

Not that I aspire to see the Republican Party do well in 2012, but for them to do so, a re-branding is in order as well as a massive communications effort to let the country know where they stand and an effort to act on that message. Curious what you think ... Is there a future for the Republican Party, and what does it look like?

Follow the Money

Your country, bought and paid for by lobbyist dollars. Here is another example of why I hate the Democrats and Republicans.

This week, AIG reported $61.7 fourth-quarter loss, the largest quarterly loss in U.S. corporate history. The US government is now going to give them $30 billion dollars and is going to ease the terms on the $150 billion it already dumped down that toilet.

So why do we keep flushing the money? Well, who were the biggest recipients of AIG lobbyists? 1. Chris Dodd, 2. Barack Obama, 3. John McCain, 4. Hillary Clinton, 5. Max Baucus, 6. Mitt Romney, 7. Joseph Biden.

If politicians really care about the middle class, why do they dump trillions down these failed institutions and stick us for the bill?

The Numbers Are Staggering

If every person in this country would take a moment and write a personal check to the government for $35,436, we can be back to even. (Of course, those of you with families are going to have to multiply that by the number of people in your household. Sorry about that.)

These numbers compiled by AP yesterday are unthinkable. I think I am going to be sick. I guess ignorance really is bliss.

A Word From Our Future President

I have hope for the future. His name is William ‘BJ’ Lawson.

His blog at United Liberty yesterday, aptly titled Recovery Through Debt Slavery, hit on some great points about our current economic crisis. While Obama supporters want to put partisan politics aside so they can spend our way out of this crisis, Lawson points out:

The root of our problem isn’t partisan politics — it’s high school math that is lost on our economists and central bankers...

Obama has mastered bank-centric newspeak. Isn’t it odd that the President of the United States cannot conceive of saving money to buy a home, car, or college education? Isn’t it strange that we’re dependent on the “lifeblood” of new debt...

Please, take a moment to educate a friend on the unsustainable nature of our debt-based money system. Economic recovery cannot be accomplished by tightening the chains of debt slavery.

Before you dismiss his comments because he is a Republican, consider this from his bio:

You see, we have a nation that is increasingly divided. People appear to enjoy sports like Democrats vs. Republicans, Liberals vs. Conservatives, Straights vs. Gays, Blacks vs. Whites, Spanish vs. English, and so forth… when the fundamental problems we face together as Americans don’t discriminate.

Limiting our discussion to labels like "liberal" or "conservative" prevents real discussion about the issues. You see, these words we use to describe schools of thought are exceedingly dangerous. They confuse instead of enlighten, and divide instead of unite. At worst, people stop thinking entirely.

Take myself, for example: I’m a registered Republican, fiscally conservative, but personally strive for generosity. I consider myself “tough on crime” when crime is defined as one person hurting another person, but with my medical training I question why we criminalize and incarcerate people with addictions who have hurt no one except themselves. I’m very much in favor of supporting our troops, maintaining a strong defense, and appropriate use of force, but pre-emptive war and nation building in developing countries doesn’t sound all that defensive to me. I understand that my household budget demands certain discipline, and I am uncomfortable pretending we can borrow as much money as we want from foreign investors and our own Federal Reserve. While my family and I strive for moral ideals based upon our Christian faith and resulting understanding of desirable behavior, we believe that our role is to encourage and not stand in judgment of others. (italics mine)

I am not, nor do I ever see myself being a Republican, in particular because they are dominated by the big government, socially conservative neo-cons. I disliked the Bush administration even more than the current Obama administration. They are, in most ways, one in the same as far as I am concerned. Both want big government to control you.

Lawson is different. He leans libertarian and brings an anti-war, pro-personal responsibility, pro-individual liberty agenda to the Republican Party. I hope the Republican Party accepts his ideas or dies of irrelevancy. Although Lawson lost a challenge to uber-tenured North Carolina Congressman David Price in the last election, his ideas ring too true to be ignored. Both Republicans and Democrats need to take heed of his message.

Out Curing The Cure

Tonight I Have To Leave It - by the Swedish indie pop band The Shout Out Louds.

...just another thing I found on emusic...

A Need For A Second Party

I stumbled on this almost year old Op/Ed piece from the LA Times while checking Google to see what searches showed up for The National Party Times (the first two items were this blog, btw).

As many of you know, I have much personal regret about how I have handled my personal finances over the last few years, and am very upset to see our government following in my foot steps, ie., spending money they do not have, creating debt they can not absolve.

Most people believe that this country has always had two parties, one for big government and one for smaller government, but as I frequently like to point out, we really have a one party system in this country, both Democrats and Republicans are for Big Government. The best part about this article is how it points out that our original two party system was made up of those who favored small government (Hamilton and his Federalists)and those who favored tiny government (Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican Party--something ironic in that party name, btw).

Even Hamilton would be distressed at how our current government uses debt to forever enslave future generations just to satisfy the current “needs” of every interest group imaginable.

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On a scarier note, I was tracking down my favorite philosopher and investment guru Nassim Nicholas Taleb on You Tube and came across these comments he made about our economy a few months ago.

I did a post about Taleb’s book The Black Swan over a year ago. This book, in many ways, changed the way I view the world...

We Don’t Think. We React.

I am a few books behind on my reading list and today, my list just got longer. Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug is a practical guide on how people really use the web. The book is geared toward web designers, advising them to take people’s viewing habits into consideration when creating sites.


Thing is, I don’t design web sites, so why am I interested? And more importantly, why should you be interested?

The book’s key point is that people don’t read websites, they scan them. This premise, I believe, is not only true of the internet. I think it is how most of us engage all sources of information. We get the gist and move on.

This book may not be for you, but check out this chapter and I think you will agree that it is an incredibly insightful and entertaining look at how we view the world.