Eleanor Duckwall's Spotlight

A Message to Congress

Irish Potato Famine Fungus attacks gardens and farms in the U.S.

So far it's only in the Northeast, but this scourge affecting potatoes and tomatoes easily could move in any direction. In addition, basil downy mildew is affecting plants in the Northeast.

Normally a late blight, it is unusual, never known to occur this early and this widespread in the U.S., says Meg McGrath, associate professor of plant pathology and plant microbe biology.

One of the most visible early symptoms is brown spots (lesions) on the stem. They being small and firm, then quickly enlarge, with white fungal growth developing under moist conditions that leads to soft rot collapsing the stem.

Other classic symptoms:

• large (at least nickel-sized) olive-green to brown spots on leaves with slightly fuzzy white fungal growth on the underside when conditions have been humid (early morning or after rain). Sometimes the border of the spot is yellow or has a water-soaked appearance. Spots begin tiny, irregularly shaped and brown. Firm, brown spots develop on tomato fruit.

It can't be stressed enough that a rapid response to protect garden-grown tomatoes and potato plants from this fungus must be made. Also be sure that the plants don't become a source for spores that could infect commercial farms, as late blight spores are easily dispersed by wind.

McGrath also recommends that gardners:

• Examine their tomato and potato plants thoroughly at least once a week for signs of late blight;
• Spray fungicides preventively and regularly, and/or
• Be prepared to destroy plants when late blight starts to become severe.

Start spraying with fungicides before you see the symptoms, and continue regular spraying thereafter. "Use a product that contains chlorathalonil as copper is not very effective on late blight," says McGrath.

Petunias, which are closely related to tomatoes and potatoes, can also be infected and will show similar symptoms.

Late blight is very destructive. Uncontrolled, it will kill plants faster than any other disease. And it affects tomato fruit -- especially green ones. Even with fungicide applied every week, there is no guarantee of success, especially if the rainy weather continues. McGrath recommends that gardeners consider growing more of other vegetables this year.

One source of late blight in New York has been traced to tomato plants imported to garden centers from production facilities in the south. If tomatoes were started from seed by a gardener or a farmer in the Northeast, plants are unlikely to be infected, at least initially, she said. If plants were purchased at a garden center and they show signs of late blight, McGrath recommends contacting a local office of Cornell Cooperative Extension or Cornell's Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic to get confirmation and tell them where you purchased the plants.

Another source of infection is the weed hairy nightshade that acts as a host. Hairy nightside typically grows alongside potatoes and on the margins of farms. It is also a poisonous medical plant.

You can tell is the weed is infected if it shows up with "speckled and suspicious dark and oily spots."

The State of Maine discovered that 55% of fields assessed in 2007 contained the plant, a secondary source of the destructive disease.

The weed can grow anywhere. In fact, after reading this, I noticed some plants growing nearby that I immediately eradicated. But, as I found out with fungus and insects affecting citrus, by the time see them, it's often too late.

Surely the same holds true for the late blight and it's host, hairy nightshade.

Notes:

• Weed Implicated in Potato Blight Persistence
• Late Blight - Irish Potato Famine Fungus -- Attacks U.S. Northeast Gardens and Farms Hard

Is there a difference between money and currency?

You bet there is!

Money is product of markets. Currency is created by governments.

From The Barbarous Relic:

The Distinction Between Money and Currency

It is important to note that money does not really change. Money is the function it performs, so money is still the same thing it always has been from the moment when it first was invented in pre-history.iv Namely, money is a mental tool used for economic calculationv that ingeniously enables each of us to communicate what we value in an exchange. What changes throughout monetary history is currency. It evolves, and the biggest change ever occurred in 1694.

Until 1694, currency was always an asset in the hands of whoever held it, something tangible. Gold and silver were the most popular forms of currency, but history records that other assets also were used, such as cows, food crops, shells, beads, and other tangible items considered to be useful or rare.

The nature of currency evolved as mankind progressed, and various scientific achievements made currency more efficient and more reliable. For example, if you look at the evolution of coins over the centuries, you can see marked improvement.

The improvements were important. As coins became more reliable, the costs of conducting commerce were reduced, and reducing costs is always a good thing. By lowering the impediments to commerce—and the costs of handling currency and making payments are an impediment—commerce itself is promoted, and as commerce expands and develops, our living standards rise. So it was natural that new advancements that improved the currency of the day were welcomed widely, as was the advancement introduced by the Bank of England concurrent with its creation in 1694.

Gold and silver coins had disadvantages that were well-recognized. They were bulky, hard to carry, impractical in large denominations because of the weight that would be required, etc. What is worse, coins wore out from usage, wasting some of the precious gold and silver contained in the coin.

To overcome the shortcomings of precious metal coin, the Bank of England introduced an important advancement that made currency more efficient. That innovation enabled gold and silver coins to remain safe and secure in the Bank’s vault while paper promises to pay weights of precious metal—dubbed “banknotes”—circulated as currency in place of the coins. Paper as a circulating medium had obvious advantages of efficiency and cost and at any time—or in other words, on demand—could be redeemed for coin. What is more, because it was opened under a royal charter, the Bank of England and its paper currency were perceived to be safe, and so they were—for about three years.

By 1697, the world’s first banking crisis was under way. The Bank of England had issued far more paper than it had physical metal on hand,vi primarily silver, because that still was the preferred metal of the day in England. Therefore, the crisis arose because people rushed to convert their paper currency into silver coin, with the result that the Bank of England’s new currency appeared to be a failure.

Despite ongoing monetary upheaval, the Bank of England persevered (even back then, government-sponsored enterprises seemed to take on a death-defying life of their own). But that monetary crisis did have one beneficial and constructive result: It made self- evident to everyone at the time that a paper currency promising to pay metal (a money substitute) was different from money (gold or silver) itself. After all, a bank liability is fundamentally different from a tangible asset.

What the Bank of England had done was to stand currency on its head. Until 1694, currency always had been a tangible asset (mainly gold and silver fabricated into coins). Thereafter, the new paper currency was not money; it was only a money substitute circulating in place of coin. This new currency was no longer a tangible asset; it had become a liability of a financial institution. This difference is as great as that between night and day, or more to the point, between assets and liabilities.vii

The impact of this change was so profound that it had an invasive impact on the economy, with many adverse consequences. The insidious monetary turmoil wrought by the Bank of England’s new currency persisted. To figure it all out, the British monarch, William III, turned for help to the greatest mind of the day, Sir Isaac Newton, who was appointed Master of the Mint in 1699.

Over the next several years, Newton restored order where there had been Bank of England-created chaos. He did this by inventing and putting into practice what we now call the classical gold standard. That was a monetary system operating under rulesviii that Newton established that were followed voluntarily by banks and later by other governments that eventually adopted in their own country the Bank of England’s paper currency innovation.

Newton’s rules resulted in automaticity, which is what made the gold standard so effective. It was reliable and predictable. It was self-regulating when left unhindered, with capital flows over time tending to harmonize trade imbalances that arose from disparate economic conditions in different countries.

Newton recognized that the paper banknote was an important advancement that made currency more efficient. But he also understood that paper currency was not money and, even more so, that paper currency could be created to excess, which would result in monetary turmoil that in turn would have an adverse impact on economic activity. In other words, he realized that paper currency was useful, but only if it had some standard by which it could be measured and controlled. He achieved these objectives with the gold standard that he created.

The Demise of the Gold Standard

Newton’s invention remained largely untouched from its implementation in 1707 until 1914. I say “largely” because the rules of his classical gold standard occasionally were broken. During periods of war, for example, the redeemability of paper into coin often was suspended, and credit was expanded beyond the prudent limits that normally prevailed. But the rules governing the gold standard remained in place, more or less, with the wartime suspensions usually lifted soon after hostilities ceased. Further, redeemability of banknotes into coin was re-establisheddeflated the war-induced credit expansions.

Over time, however, bankers and politicians began to understand that, if they broke Newton’s rules, they could gain an advantage. Bankers would make a greater profit because they could expand credit (make loans) beyond the self-imposed constraints. Politicians could gain greater power because, instead of being restricted to just spending gold, they envisioned creating a seemingly unlimited amount of money-substitutes and spending those instead. Newton’s rules were voluntary and worked only insofar as banks and governments agreed to them. By the 20th century, bankers and politicians were not just breaking the rules—they were discarding them.

Thus, given the powerful interests lining up against it, it is not surprising that the classical gold standard began to be depicted as undesirable, despite its splendid 200-year track record of maintaining relatively stable prices. What was worse, the classical gold standard started to be blamed for things for which it was not responsible. For example, it was not the gold standard that caused the Great Depression but, rather, imprudent credit expansion by banks, which was made worse by the growth of government and the rising expenditures that the burden of government entailed.ix The last vestiges of the gold standard were jettisoned in August 1971,x ushering in the present era of fiat currency regimes.

It should be clear by now why Keynes was taking a potshot at the gold standard. It is not surprising that Keynes—whose iconoclastic theories supported government management of the monetary system—would claim that the gold standard was a barbarous relic. Even though Keynes was no fan of gold, he no doubt understood that it would be foolhardy to attack gold itself. That would come later, from anti-gold propagandists and central bank apologists misusing what Keynes really wrote. But that is not quite the whole story.

The Real Barbarous Relic

There is indeed a barbarous relic, but we now know that it is neither gold nor the gold standard because of the useful role that gold played for two centuries before World War I. Rather, the barbarous relic is central banking itself.

Central banks are barbarous in part because they conspired to put an end to Newton’s brilliant invention that safeguarded sound money for 200 years. It is the process of central banking itself, as it has come to be practiced, that deserves the greatest public wrath.

Central banking is barbarous for the following reasons:

1. Money is a product of the free market. It is a fundamental building block of our society because it allows people to interact with one another in the market process. Money existed long before governments and central banks began to “manage” it. Tragically, instead of being a neutral and unfettered tool in commerce, fair to one and all, money now has become a matter of force and decree, which is disruptive to the market process and therefore harmful to society.

2. Prior to the creation of the Bank of England, every exchange in the trading activity that we call the market process tendered value for value. In other words, gold was exchanged for land, silver for food, etc.—assets were traded for assets.xi The Bank of England changed this process by creating money substitutes. Its banknotes are not a tangible asset like gold or silver. Banknotes are merely money substitutes and not money itself. Money substitutes are a liability of the bank issuing that paper currency, and money substitutes create all sorts of payment risk that one does not have when using tangible assets as currency.

3. Central banks act in secrecy; consequently, they are not held accountable. For example, the so-called “Open” Market Committee of the Federal Reserve is far from “open.” It meets and makes decisions behind closed doors, and the minutes released one month later are thoroughly redacted, leaving outsiders in the dark about the members’ deliberations. Central bankers consider themselves—and act as if they were—above the law. Moreover, this secrecy favors the insiders, and it is this fundamental principle upon which central banks’ market intervention has been constructed, including, for example, their intervention in the gold market.xii

4. Central banks have freed governments from having to ask their citizens—through their elected representatives—for more taxes.xiii Central banks can acquire government debt and use it to create currency out of “thin air” for governments to spend on their latest whims. Even worse, through their policiesgovernments to steal from their citizens.

5. There are several tools in the central banks’ arsenal, and one of them is disinformation, which they regularly practice. For example, central banks have come to make us believe that inflation is “rising prices.” But wet streets do not cause rain. By changing the definition of inflation to one of “rising prices” rather than what it really is—monetary debasement engineered by central banks—the true culprits (the central banks themselves) are masked.

6. Not only are central banks guilty of disinformation, but deception is one of their most frequently used tools. The history of banking is replete with examples that demonstrate not just a lack of disclosure but, rather, outright deception. To give just one example, consider how central banks today account for their gold loans. They carry both gold in the vault and gold out on loan as one line item on their balance sheets.xiv In effect, central banks are saying that they can ignore the truthful disclosure established by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and as a result they can report both cash and accounts receivable as one and the same thing. Accounting like that would make even the fraudsters at Enron blush.

7. Central banks in effect have turned the market into a command, i.e., state-run, economy. The power to create money out of thin air brings with it the much greater power to control a nation’s economy and therefore the economic destiny of millions. Central bankers today act like the former Soviet Union politburo members, who pulled strings and pushed buttons to try making the economy—which means each and every one of us who participate in the economy—bend to their control. But it is not only the economic destiny of millions that is determined by central banks; subtle but potentially more disturbing issues are raised by the exercise of power by central banks.

8. Central bankers and their comrades in government know that the command economy power that they have claimed forces them to walk a fine line between prosperity and economic collapse, given the inherent fragility of the credit-based monetary system that they operate. To try to reduce this ever-growing fragility—in a vain attempt to make it easier for central banks to control the command economy effectively and totally— governments take away peoples’ freedom. Central banks usher in controls like the reporting of bank accounts and funds transfers and policies such as the “too big to fail” doctrine that underwrites bad decisions at banks with taxpayers’ money. Controls perpetuate a central bank’s stranglehold on power regardless of whether they are doing a good or a bad job—and it is usually bad—in commanding the economy.

9. The command economy that central banks operate encourages the growth of debt, rather than savings. Banks want to expand their balance sheets—i.e., to make more loans—in order to earn greater profits, and governments want central banks to accommodate this objective. The resulting credit expansion provides the public with opportunities to acquire new things, which creates an illusion of prosperity that makes people believe that their wealth is rising. The result of this debt-induced, pseudo- prosperity is a complacent populace, the net effect of which tends to perpetuate governmental power and politicians’ perquisites. Instead of following a sound and time- tested, “pay as you go” policy, consumers, businesses, and governments have adopted a new creed—“buy now and pay later.” The mountain of debt that exists in the United States today and the excessive consumption that continues to enlarge that mountain are the direct results of central banks’ activity and their need to grow more debt to avoid the inevitable bust that would follow if the debt growth were to stop. Newsletter writer Richard Russell explains it very simply in just three words: “Inflate or die.”xv That reality explains why Ben Bernanke (currently the chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, but also a former governor of the Federal Reserve who has been nominated to replace Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chairman) has said in effect that he would drop $100 bills from helicopters if necessary to inflate the economy.xvi

10. What central banks do domestically, they also do to the international monetary system. Thus, the inherent fragility and the huge structural imbalances arising from cross-border trading exist today because of central banks’ actions. The automaticity of the classical gold standard ensured that imbalances such as trade deficits were relatively short-lived. In contrast, present central bank policies have perpetuated the long-running U.S. trade deficits, which are now several decades old and still growing.xvii The debt being created to finance these deficits has an impact on the monetary environment of each U.S. trading partner. Thus, central bank-engineered imbalances are not just domestic problems; they also have global implications.

If central banks are so dangerous, why do they still exist?

Having existed now for hundreds of years, central banks have survived not because they advance commerce or contribute to raising mankind’s standard of living but, rather, solely because they are disingenuous, slavish parasites, dutifully serving the omnipotent state, no matter how mindless or harmful the state’s bidding might be. Central banks pursue reckless policies that erode—and in some cases destroy—the value of their currencies. Because of that recklessness, central banking is not only a barbarous relic, it has become dangerous as well.

Read it all here.

Ten Commandments for Entrepreneurs

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. --- Sir Winston Churchill

Now that we have to make our own economies, it would be well to review some principles, this time from the Entrepreneurial 'Evangelist' Guy Kawaski:

When Guy Kawasaki talks about business innovation, as he did recently at a University of Pennsylvania technology conference, he brings more than 25 years of major-league experience to the conversation -- a background that the good-humored investor and entrepreneur calls "my checkered past." After getting a psychology degree at Stanford and an MBA at UCLA, the Hawaii-born Kawasaki became the second software "evangelist" at Apple Computer, where his job from 1983 to 1987 was to convince people to create software for the Macintosh. Kawasaki fondly recalls his colleagues at Apple as visionary, driven and "arguably the greatest collection of egomaniacs in the history of California -- though the record has subsequently been broken by Google."

"How to Achieve Revenue,"an example of an upcoming "Revenue Bootcamp" is announced at his site How to Change the world.

Back to the Ten Commandments for Entrepreneurs via Knowledge at Wharton:

When Guy Kawasaki talks about business innovation, as he did recently at a University of Pennsylvania technology conference, he brings more than 25 years of major-league experience to the conversation -- a background that the good-humored investor and entrepreneur calls "my checkered past." After getting a psychology degree at Stanford and an MBA at UCLA, the Hawaii-born Kawasaki became the second software "evangelist" at Apple Computer, where his job from 1983 to 1987 was to convince people to create software for the Macintosh. Kawasaki fondly recalls his colleagues at Apple as visionary, driven and "arguably the greatest collection of egomaniacs in the history of California -- though the record has subsequently been broken by Google."

Who were the Minute Men?

These re-creators don't look as if they could march into battle and wrest colonies from tyranny: they look so ordinary . But don't be fooled, the resolve and sacrifices the ordinary citizens of the Thirteen Original Colonies eventually won the day. They bravely gave of themselves in order to make a better future, to preserve their ancient rights that were being denied.

Surely we can do as much.

The Fourth of July should be more than parades, a Bar-B-Que, socializing with friends and family, and watch fireworks at the end of the day.

You can still choose to do just those things, or you can choose to attend a Tea Party in your area.

Whether you attend a Tea Party or stay at home, you are still free to discuss the issues. What better time to do so than on the anniversary that the Declaration of Independence was announced.

Here is a winner of the WND Independence Day speech contest:

The Defenders of Liberty

Fastened upon our ancestors by the despots of faraway lands, the Chains of Tyranny were linked by hereditary bondage, undeserved tribute and indentured servitude. By exhibiting gallant resolve and courage – in some cases against the face of certain death – our Minutemen forefathers gloriously threw off these chains just 233 short years ago.

Much has changed since that time. Yet today, we hear again the rattling and clanking of the Chains of Tyranny. The chains we hear are held not by foreign powers. Dreadfully, it is those among us, many of whom are our elected leaders, who possess the chains and toil endlessly to cast them across our backs. Now heavier and longer, the Chains of Tyranny have been wrought with new links – apathy masked by complacency, socialism fueled by internationalism, cults of undeserved celebrity and a reckless belief in the equality of results.

Moreover, they are now deceptively plated in gold. We have been assured, time and time again, by those who hold the chains that they "know better" and that to embrace their shackles would be "for our own good."

The threatened return of the Chains of Tyranny triggers that transcendent call for us to assemble here today.

Who are we?

We are the Defenders of Liberty!

Our hands reach across generations. We do not perceive the value of each other in abstract terms of race, gender, ethnicity or creed. We do not see ourselves as rich or poor. We spurn "identity politics" as a lazy and inadequate substitute for a guarded vigilance balanced by independent thoughts. For we are all individual citizens of America – black and white, man and woman, Mayflower descendent and newly naturalized – and we must all stand united to protect freedom's priceless but delicate charge!

We detest efforts by the holders of the Chains of Tyranny to corrupt the everyday meaning of things and turn us against one another.

Hope is not faith! Change is not reform! Taxation is not charity! Equality is not opportunity! Servitude is not freedom!

To this end, we reject the following confused ideas tinkered in minds that reason abandoned and faith no longer moderates: Inconvenient truths, audacities of hope, carbon footprints, unearned incomes and government-sponsored "recoveries."

We believe there is but one market – the free market – that, if allowed to run unfettered in a free society, can provide all men and women the opportunity to use the results of their work to better themselves, their families and their communities.

We know that public bailouts, no matter the intention, foster dependence, which in turn fornicates with servitude and begets slavery. For this reason alone, we would rather walk than drive a car made by any government! We would rather be paupers than be made rich by "public" money! We would rather drop dead than be cared for by Nurse Fed!

We further reject the guise of "universal health care" and recognize this abhorrent creature for what it is: a brazen attempt to seize illegally our wealth, control how we care for our mortal bodies, limit our access to the best medicines, stifle scientific progress and medical innovation, and transform our doctor's offices and hospitals into DMV-style waiting rooms.

The Defenders of Liberty will never stand by and ignore the attempts of others to cast off their own chains of servitude. We will not strike accords or offer bribes to dictators! We would rather cut off our hands before extending them to the harbingers of evil!

Speaking of evil, we know only those true rights: those that are unalienable and endowed by our Creator. We reject penumbral "rights" as false and dangerous ideas contrived in judicial cauldrons established only to massacre those who permeate the bookends of life.

And finally, we know that our sovereignty shall forever reside in We the People. For this we reassert that any government that limits the God-given right of her citizens to defend themselves automatically ceases to be a government – for such action shall void the social contract from which it was forged.

We are the True Patriots, left to guard perpetually that shining city upon a hill. We know of her, we dream of her, and yes, throughout history she has had a name: AMERICA! Let us rally around her, for we are the Defenders of Liberty! Let us will hoist our flags, wave our banners and bear our arms! Let us be vigilant and fight any attempt to ravage her! For, as the envious eyes of the world are still cast upon us, we vow not to be the last to feel the sweet effervescence of her freedom!

God bless America!

Eleanor: The American Revolution was not fought against George III, one man; he was just the figurehead. The fight was against a system implemented and run by Parliament, and Parliament was ruled by the Prime Minister and his appointed ministers, much like today's Congress and the EU's Parliament in Brussels, both of which are become more totalitarian with every passing day, overbearing governments.

To preserve the liberty we have left, before an "American Gestapo" is set against us, we must raise our voices and put pressure on Congress to let them know that we aren't passive lumps on the couch, flag wavers on the side of the road, afraid to to let our voices be heard, and perhaps, as the Minute Men did centuries ago, take action.

Let's hope it doesn't lead to that.

Don't tread on me!

50 reasons to stop Waxman-Markey: another move toward E.U.-style totalitarianism

Why am I making such a fuss about cap-and-trade and other perceived injustices even though those that do so are called whiners and un-American by the federal government? Here is the reason: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" - Howard Zinn in interview with TomPaine.com (Heaven help me, I never thought I would use a quote from Howard Zinn, but this time he is correct.)

Waxman-Markey is part power-grab, part enviro-fantasty. Here are 50 reasons to stop it by Stephen Spruiell & Kevin Williamson at National Review:

The stimulus bill was the legislative equivalent of the famous cantina scene from Star Wars, an eye-popping collection of the freakish and exotic, gathered for dubious purposes. The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, known as ACES (the American Clean Energy and Security Act), is more like the third panel in Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights - a hellscape that disturbs the sleep of anyone who contemplates it carefully.

Two main things to understand about Waxman-Markey: First, it will not reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, at least not at any point in the near future. The inclusion of carbon offsets, which can be manufactured out of thin air and political imagination, will eliminate most of the demands that the legislation puts on industry, though in doing so it will manage to drive up the prices consumers pay for every product that requires energy for its manufacture - which is to say, for everything. Second, it represents a worse abuse of the public trust and purse than the stimulus and bailouts put together. Waxman-Markey creates a permanent new regime in which environmental romanticism and corporate welfare are mixed together to form political poison. From comic bureaucratic power grabs (check out the section of the bill on candelabras) to the created of new welfare programs for Democratic constituencies to, above all, massive giveaways for every financial, industrial, and political lobby imaginable, this bill would permanently deform American politics and economic life.

Is American industry the only appropriate group to lead the charge to revive the economy at the grassroots?

The image shown is the Confederate Virginia Cavalry, Black Horse Troop, an officially sanctioned group.

That's all well and good. We need business people of this kind, but there also was another kind, the kind that did their duty unofficially, that kept the troops going in the face of harsh criticism, such as the 1st Battalion Florida Special Cavalry, Taylor County, Florida that helped keep feed the Confederate Army.

Now American industry is in same position as the Confederacy, having to both oppose federal government policies and, at the same time, pull itself out of the hold created by years, decades of public and private mismanagement.

The fact is that even American industry is not going to be able to solve this problem. The solution only will come if we all pull together, from the grass roots.

First, here is Tristan Yates at American Thinker:

This is an open letter to America’s managers, executives, and investors.

If America is going to come out of this crisis, it’s going to be up to us to make it happen. The cavalry is not going to ride in at the end of the movie to save us.

We are the cavalry.

It’s critical to understand the situation we are in. We are not in a recession, economic slowdown, demand slump, or any of those other phrases used to describe the normal variations of the business cycle. We are in a full-blown financial and economic collapse brought about by years of public mismanagement.

There is a political narrative being advanced that the current financial crisis was caused by deregulation. In fact, the opposite is true.

Still confused about Cap-and-Trade?

Cap-and-Trade Means Regulate and Subsidize. Call your senator while you still can!

Author and conservative radio talk host Brian Sussman explains the complicated issue. Sussman is a former television meterologist. His upcoming book is titled: "Global Whining: confidence to confront the biggest scam in history."

Last week, prior to voting for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, House Republican Leader John Boehner spent the better part of an hour reading from the 1201-page bill and the associated 300-page addendum, which had been dumped on Congress' door at 3:09AM. He did so, he told The Hill, because he believed "people need to know what's in this pile of s-it."

Congressman Boehner was correct. There may be no better description of what's in this phony legislation, designed to supposed halt global warming.

First, a couple of quick facts:

Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, it's a fertilizer. It accounts for a feeble .038 percent of the atmosphere. According to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, a research wing of the Department of Energy, on 3.2 percent of that thin atmospheric component is created by anthropogenic emissions.

The earth's temperature has only risen 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past 150 years, and most of that occurred prior to the 1940s. The Thirties was the hottest decade on record, with 22 of the current 50 states having established their all-time high temperatures during that sizzling ten years. There has been no warming of the earth's climate since 1998, and in the past 18-24 months there has been a slight cooling.

Too complex to exist

Duncan Watts at The Boston Globe:

ON AUG. 10, 1996, a single power line in western Oregon brushed a tree and shorted out, triggering a massive cascade of power outages that spread across the western United States. Frantic engineers watched helplessly as the crisis unfolded, leaving nearly 10 million people without electricity. Even after power was restored, they were unable to explain adequately why it had happened, or how they could prevent a similar cascade from happening again - which it did, in the Northeast on Aug. 14, 2003.

Over the past year we have experienced something similar in the financial system: a dramatic and unpredictable cascade of events that has produced the economic equivalent of a global blackout. As governments struggle to fix the crisis, experts have weighed in on the causes of the meltdown, from excess leverage, to lax oversight, to the way executives are paid.

Although these explanations can help account for how individual banks, insurers, and so on got themselves into trouble, they gloss over a larger question: how these institutions collectively managed to put trillions of dollars at risk without being detected. Ultimately, therefore, they fail to address the all-important issue of what can be done to avoid a repeat disaster.

China's Makes Its Move on the Dollar

Who can blame them? The dollar has decreased in value in the past forty years in comparison to gold from 35 to 1, then, to a staggering 900 to 1, and climbing.

[Via Real Clear World]

Brad Kelly at CSIS:

At the first formal Brazil, Russia, India, and China summit on June 16 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, reform of he international financial and monetary system topped the agenda of the heads of the world's key emerging economies.

Over the past several months, leaders from Russia, China, Brazil, and other countries have expressed concern regarding the value and stability of the dollar, and the world's dependence on the U.S. currency. Russia, has the summit host and "ideological provacateur" of the group, has issued the most aggressive statements challenging the collar and demanding an increased international role for its ruble. However, the cautious policy pronouncements from China, with its far greater economic weight and financial strength, warrant greater attention. Amidst the international rhetoric, Chinese policymakers have undertaken several small but significant steps to being in the internationalization of the renmibi, limit China's reliance on the collar, and impart their preferences on the internal monetary system.

Continue Reading "China's Challenge to the International Monetary System: Incremental Steps and Long-Term Prospects for Internalization of the Renmibi" at Issues and Insights, Vol. 9 - No II, Honoloulu, HI, June 2009.

Ban the burka? Yes, indeed!

Pat makes some very good points regarding health problems, security problems, and the curious silence of feminists.

And I love Pat's recommendation that Muslim men should be obliged to wear it.

In fact, men should be obliged to wear and do anything that they insist women should do and they should not.

It's only fair, and then, perhaps, they will learn why their insistence is unacceptable.

Unfortunately, empathy for some comes only through direct participation.

Dr. Tim Ball Debunks Global Warming Alarmism

Why is global warming being pushed so hard? In my view, and in the view of a growing number of others, so-called global warming or climate change is a massive business opportunity that will make some fabulously rich at the expense of the rest of us.

And remember, once an industry is created, especially one with government backing, and a regulatory bureaucracy, it will be virtually impossible to stop.

To listen to the podcast,Click here

Why Some Fall Victim to Islamist Rhetoric

Robert Spencer at Front Page:

...This kind of Islamophobophobia especially manifests itself among politically correct types who find themselves for whatever reason in the position of discussing some human rights abuse or terrorist activity that its perpetrators justify by reference to Islamic teachings -- they will discuss it, all right, but will go to any length to make sure nobody thinks that it really has anything to do with Islam, or that it is any different from what those nasty Christians do.

This form of “Islamophobophobia” is in abundant display at the release of the excellent movie The Stoning of Soraya M. Many fall victim to Islamophobophobia not just because they are addled multiculturalists or politically correct cowards, but because they really don’t want innocent people to be victimized, and they think that it is somehow an act of generosity or fairness to downplay the Islamic connection to whatever wrongdoing they are discussing, and to play up the evils of Christianity. What they fail to realize is that by deflecting attention away from the real causes of the phenomena they oppose, they are only helping ensure that those phenomena will continue.

Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates

The unprecedented expansion of the money supply could make the '70s look benign.

Arthur B. Laffer, of the Laffer Curve, and the one who "favors the VAT," writes in The Wall Street Journal:

Rahm Emanuel was only giving voice to widespread political wisdom when he said that a crisis should never be "wasted." Crises enable vastly accelerated political agendas and initiatives scarcely conceivable under calmer circumstances. So it goes now.

Here we stand more than a year into a grave economic crisis with a projected budget deficit of 13% of GDP. That's more than twice the size of the next largest deficit since World War II. And this projected deficit is the culmination of a year when the federal government, at taxpayers' expense, acquired enormous stakes in the banking, auto, mortgage, health-care and insurance industries.

With the crisis, the ill-conceived government reactions, and the ensuing economic downturn, the unfunded liabilities of federal programs -- such as Social Security, civil-service and military pensions, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, Medicare and Medicaid -- are over the $100 trillion mark. With U.S. GDP and federal tax receipts at about $14 trillion and $2.4 trillion respectively, such a debt all but guarantees higher interest rates, massive tax increases, and partial default on government promises.

Kill the VAT Now and Forever

Europeans are familiar with the pesky tax that is added to every purchase. They are so familiar that they have come to expect the expense and no longer see it, much in the same way that Americans pay taxes on gasoline, cigarettes, boozes, restaurant foods, and phone bills.

The taxes have become invisible.

As Bruce Blalosky tells us at Town Hall, some Europeans love it because it simplifies: in some countries they pay a flat rate that includes the tax and a gratuity, whereas here we pay for the product or service, then a tax, and then we may choose to offer the tip.

Hmmm. Where's the incentive to give good POLITE service in that?

Presumably the government can then be certain of the amount of tip revenue a server earns and can tax accordingly.

Excessive Government Involvement Is the Malady in Healthcare

Americans are wondering why their country is "sick." For decades we have infected by a disease of government involvement that begins with the familiar chestnut: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." The problem with "government help" is that it becomes stifling, a permanent overbearing presence that remains like the effect of some terrible disease that leaves a patient weakened, permanently impaired, and dependent upon caretakers.

Some politicos and their backers have planned to create such an America.

The Clintons were such a pair as are other politicians on both sides of the aisle.

The problem with politicians is that can't get into office without a retinue of backers, many of whom are, in my opinion, shady characters with agendas that are toxic to freedom.

ccartaginese at Newsreel Blog explains "Michelle and Barak Obama's Lies about Healthcare. The title implies that they are the only two involved. But don't be fooled. There is a whole raft of groups and individuals with sharpened knives and blunt instruments waiting to prod and bludgeon the American people into line, much as did the Red Guard for Chairman Mao during the Chinese "Cultural Revolution" that eradicated or "re-educated" those that chose to stick to their principles.

Could 'Coal-eating' microbes help solve the energy crisis?

Scientists have long been searching for microbes that could change coal into a liquid or gaseous state. Lab experiments have alternated the genetic make up of various microbes that could do the trick. Craig Venter, the 'controversial' American scientist who helped decode the human genome, has announced the discovery of natural ancient bacterial existing a mile underground that could turn coal into methane, "suggesting they may help to solve the world's energy crisis."

Will They Ever Learn? FBI Replaces Muslim Brotherhood-Tainted Liaison with Another Brotherhood-Tainted Liaison

At The Investigative Project on Terrorism:

A top FBI official met Wednesday with the vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, a move which followed the Bureau's decision "to use ISNA as their official point of contact with the American Muslim community," an email from an intelligence community veteran that was widely distributed Wednesday said.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has previously reported on the depth of ISNA's Muslim Brotherhood ties.

The FBI has not yet commented on the claim. But the IPT has confirmed that the meeting did take place at FBI headquarters. The decision to make ISNA the FBI's contact point came over the objections of case agents and supervisors investigating Muslim Brotherhood activity in the U.S.

Last year, the FBI cut off outreach communication with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), after evidence in the Hamas-support trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) raised questions "whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS." The FBI's case agent testified that CAIR was a Hamas front.

Like CAIR, ISNA was an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF trial. It is listed among "who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood." Jamal Badawi, an ISNA board member, also was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, listed among people who raised money for HLF.

America's Socialist Past: Not What We Are; But What We Should Be?

Obama has said it himself. Paraphrasing, we should create a America as it should be. That's all well and good, but how does his view of what "it should be" mesh with the American spirit ... or even human nature?

The question has always been: What should we be?

Utopia, an idealized society where everyone is equal, where all needs are met, and everyone is happy. Is this even possible?

At more than one time in America's history, men and women have attempted to create utopias ... and failed. A short history of their efforts:

Ryan Siefert at The American Thinker:

There seems to be a need in American society to have to relearn the same hard lessons over and over again, regardless of whether the results were seen on the other side of the planet or suffered through by our own people.

We're living in a country that elected a President that believes in redistributing wealth. He's mentioned this himself, from the "Joe the Plumber" incident[i] to his critique[ii] of the failures of the civil rights movement. Whether you call it Socialism, Communism, Marxism, or by its simpler name, theft, they are all part of the same economic system that destroys private property and puts everything in central control of the state.

The lesson we, and the rest of the world, seems to fail to learn is how socially and economically destructive this sort of system is. The problem is, these lessons don't have to be learned from studying the histories of far off lands, for we have numerous examples of collectivist/socialist experiments here at home.