You Can't Eat Gold When You're Hungry

Everyday I hear advertisements on talk radio about the purchase of gold as a hedge against the coming demise of the dollar.  One radio ad even goes so far as to claim that "gold will be around long after the dollar is a footnote in history."  So what's going to happen to poor Ecuador, which uses the US dollar if the buck does go down the economic tubes?

Sounds pretty ominous doesn't it?  But think about it, what are these goldmongers accepting in payment for their gold? Is payment in Euros, Pesos, Pounds, Renminbis, Riyals, or Dollars?  My point is that paper continues to be the meduim of wealth transfer. Besides, gold is unwieldy and impractical.  What pocket change would you get, say if you had to buy a roll of toilet paper on the black market with a Kruggerand? 

Often times, gold is held in the form of gold certificates. Examples of gold certificates include the US currency that was in circulation from 1882 until 1933, when America's first fascist dictator, Franklin D. Roosevelt decreed gold ownership to be illegal.  Until 1964, it was illegal to possess US gold certificates.  I have a five dollar gold certificate that I received as change in 1972 from a liquor store. (I don't think that the clerk realized what he was handing me in change.)  The gold cerificate is in safekeeping more as a historical item than as a hedge against hyperinflation.  A 2003 IMF article on hyperinflation suggested that despite falling inflation rates worldwide, hyperinflation could happen again.  It looks like the IMF analysts may have been more prescient than they realized.

In a PBS Commanding Heights website essay by "Adam Smith" (George J.W. Goodman), "Adam Smith" states that the German Hyperinflation of 1923 was a shock to the German people and gave examples of the results of the monetary crisis:

Before World War I Germany was a prosperous country, with a gold-backed currency, expanding industry, and world leadership in optics, chemicals, and machinery. The German Mark, the British shilling, the French franc, and the Italian lira all had about equal value, and all were exchanged four or five to the dollar. That was in 1914. In 1923, at the most fevered moment of the German hyperinflation, the exchange rate between the dollar and the Mark was one trillion Marks to one dollar, and a wheelbarrow full of money would not even buy a newspaper. Most Germans were taken by surprise by the financial tornado... 

...The price increases began to be dizzying. Menus in cafes could not be revised quickly enough. A student at Freiburg University ordered a cup of coffee at a cafe. The price on the menu was 5,000 Marks. He had two cups. When the bill came, it was for 14,000 Marks. "If you want to save money," he was told, "and you want two cups of coffee, you should order them both at the same time...

... The flight from currency that had begun with the buying of diamonds, gold, country houses, and antiques now extended to minor and almost useless items -- bric-a-brac, soap, hairpins. The law-abiding country crumbled into petty thievery. Copper pipes and brass armatures weren't safe. Gasoline was siphoned from cars. People bought things they didn't need and used them to barter-- a pair of shoes for a shirt, some crockery for coffee. Berlin had a "witches' Sabbath" atmosphere. Prostitutes of both sexes roamed the streets. Cocaine was the fashionable drug. In the cabarets the newly rich and their foreign friends could dance and spend money. Other reports noted that not all the young people had a bad time. Their parents had taught them to work and save, and that was clearly wrong...

My only gripe with Adam Smith's article is that he suggests that it was "right wing" activity that was mostly responsible for the problems in the German economy.  What is more historically accurate is that it was the right wing Socialists, i.e., the Nazis that were causing the unrest in Germany.  The inference in the context of the rise of Nazism which many Liberals mistakenly draw is that right wing refers to Conservatism.  In reality there are several varieties of Socialism.  They are Communism, Fascism, and Nazism.  It's that simple.

On the other hand, the root causes of the 1923 German hyperinflation were complicated.  It would be easy to blame the hyperinflation solely on the the draconian German reparations, as required by the Treaty of Versailles, to the victorious Allied nations.  To be sure, the reparations contributed to the hyperinflation, but "Adam Smith" points out another critical factor--heavy government borrowing:

In retrospect, you can trace the steps to hyperinflation, but some of the reasons remain cloudy. Germany abandoned the gold backing of its currency in 1914. The war was expected to be short, so it was financed by government borrowing, not by savings and taxation. In Germany prices doubled between 1914 and 1919. [Emphasis added.]

The major concern with the out-of-control hyperspending by the current Democrat controlled Congress and the Obama Administration is that it will probably result in hyperinflation not unlike the German Hyperinflation of 1923. The toxic asset bailouts that we were told in October of 2008, were necessary to keep us from an economic Armageddon ("too big to fail"). These bailouts are being financed in large part with borrowed money. It became pathetic in February 2009, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Red Chinese to keep buying American debt. In an article entitled Why The Toxic Asset Program Is Such A Waste Of Money, And a Way Forward, Mikkel Fishman states that:

By issuing massive amounts of debt, we are testing the will of the world to continue their political support for our exploits, and I think that is a test we will fail at the moment.  In order to pass that test we must start implementing a cultural and political roadmap to become a net exporter of goods and technology. The most pressing issue in the next fifty years will be energy, especially as it appears that we are very close to peak oil production. Intrinsically linked with oil are food supplies, and a few decades of current policy will seem (sic) [see] them reach critical levels.  [Emphasis added.]

One thing that many Americans have always been confident of was our ability to produce food.  However, I am saddened when I go into the grocery store now.  Hansen's apple juice which I thought came from American apples, e.g., Washington State apples, is now is a blend of American and Chinese apple juices.  I tried to find American pine nuts in local grocery stores.  But all they had were Chinese pine nuts.  The same is true for avocados.  I live in California's San Diego County where the North County region allegedly produces some of the finest Hass avocados.  So what do I find in the local store now?  I found that all that's available are Mexican and the really tasteless Chilean Hass avocados.  Add to that the fact our manufaturing sector is shrinking in favor of cheap (forced) Chinese and third world laborers.  With the Democrat control of all branches of government, including the judicial branch, we can no longer exploit our own natural resources such as our offshore oil fields because of bans on offshore drilling or to protect insignificant wildlife like snail darters or smelt fish.  Thank you eco-Nazis for selling out human beings. In effect, we are commiting economic seppuku by disembowling the American economy through overregulaton and excessive taxation.  America is rapidly becoming an economic dsytopia.

Gold is an archiac concept in an unstable economic world.  You can't eat it.  You can't plant it to grow food.  It won't protect you during civil insurrection, because you really can't buy your way out of trouble.  A physically powerful and armed thug will take your gold from you and probably kill you anyway.  Gold is a frivolous luxury that is best indulged in during stable economic and political times. The best thing to do is to follow the example of the Mormons.  Mormons believe that there will be a seven year famine and store food accordingly.  I have childhood memories of a Mormon neighbor, a school principal, stashing large stores of food.  My sister and I used to think that we could hear him burying food at night. In the good times of the early 1960s, such behavior seemed crazy if not downright paranoid.

But upon further reflection and in consideration of the fiscal recklessness of our current leaders (sic), I've started to store canned food with a long shelf life and bottled water. I buy lots of coffee (only on sale and with coupons).  Coffee is good thing to barter for toilet paper or soap. And I don't have to worry about having bulky change in my pocket.

Where has the Assimilation Gone? (Corrected)

With the heavy influx of immigrants to this country it's clear that we may have not done a good job of getting these folks assimilated. Things that we took for granted 50 years ago such as learning to speak, read and write the dominant language are no longer necessary to become a citizen. Assimilation means little or nothing to these new citizens and in some cases long term resident aliens.  Our political process has been diluted by the printing of ballots in Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, Chinese, Tagalog, Laotian, and any other language that the ACLUseless thinks should be represented in the political process.

Until Teddy Kennedy bollixed up the Immmigration Law in 1965, 1980, and 1990, the chief goal of the immigration process was to teach people how to assimilate into the culture and political process of this country--legally.  Now it seems that the United States must adapt to the immigrants.

In 1965, the American people were guaranteed that immigration would never exceed its then low level of 250,000 a year. Today, it is at an all-time high: nearly one million a year and growing. Because of persistent congressional miscalculations, immigrants and their descendants will fuel a massive increase in the population of the United States for the foreseeable future. Immigration continues unabated, without regard to changing U.S. labor markets, conditions in the inner cities, or the growing costs to state and local taxpayers. Kennedy's role in creating this situation has been enormous.

But the impact of this unabated diversity seems to be the flavor of the month. The US is not the only country that faces the problem of adapting to immigrants. A London Times opinion piece suggests that the UK has adopted Sharia Law that is enforceable in English courts.  Under the UK Arbitration Act 1996, sharia law courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The London Times quotes Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal as saying,

"The Act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”

So the nation that spawned the Magna Carta will now enforce laws which discriminate against women.  In fairness, the Times article points out that the Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same Arbitration Act and resolves civil cases, such as divorce and business disputes.  But what are we to do in the face of overwhelming waves of immigrants--change our way of life to suit a foreign nation's culture, laws, and religion?

Theodore Roosevelt put it best in an address that he gave on October 12, 1915, at Carnegie Hall to the Knights of Columbus.

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.

The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.

I've personally known people that are naturalized US citizens that have their cars adorned with a window sticker flag of their former country.  What's up with that?  It's a lot like permanent transplant living in one city with a major league baseball team and yet the transplant is still rooting for the baseball team of the city that s/he left.   Apart from a mandatory job transfer, it's likely that the migrant left the old city or the old country for a reason, be that economic, social, or religious reasons.  Chances are that there were no real opportunities for a good life there. But this doesn't mean that one should ignore the wonderful memories of the old city or the heritage of the country that you came from.  Nor is it a matter of being provincial.  As the cliché goes, when you are in Rome you do as the Romans do.  Comedian Carlos Mencia has a funny bit in which he points out how former Mexican citizens that are now here in the United States get insulted if you say something negative about "Mexico Lindo."  To paraphrase and clean it up a bit, Mencia points out that "Mexico is a sh*t-hole!  No wonder you left."

When I go the local organic food store, the place is jammed with diverse peoples--both as customers and as workers.  The common denominator seems to be a universal rudeness amongst the apparently unassimilated and the "native born Americans."  Workers push food pallets carts that nearly run me over without so much as a "Pardon me" or "Excuse me" to soften the rude carelessness.  Other shoppers carelessly bang into my cart and glare angrily at me as if I was the one that hit their cart. Having grown up in Texas in which men addressed women as "Miss ________" until the woman gave you permission to use their first name without the Miss; this rudeness is offputting. But all this rudeness really goes to the general coursening of our culture. Now that I think about it, perhaps the rudeness accurately reflects how well the immigrants have integrated and assimilated into American culture.

Two news items point to the general ineptitude, childishness, and arrogance of the Manchild President:

1. 
   
   "Broke" Obama turned down an invitation by German Chancellor Angela Merckel to celebrate the anniversary of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. "Broke" said that he was too busy to attend the ceremony.  Doing what? Thinking about sending more troops to Afghanistan while we've suffered the bloodiest month of the war?  Shooting hoops with his cronies? Going out on dates with Michelle Antoinette to New York at taxpayer expense?  Of course he was not "too busy" to pick and go to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago's Olympic bid at Mayor Daley's command.  But the real reason for his non-attendance may be that he would want to offend his fellow Marxist travelers by celebrating one of their most humiliating historical moments. 
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Instead of watching the election returns, the ultimate narcissist watched an HBO documentary about himself.  This story has been corrected by FoxNews. The APWP apologizes for any misunderstanding that may have resulted from this item.
   
   
   

Dr. Strangevote or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Vote Fraud II/ Killing the Golden Goose.

Those of you that read my Saturday, October 10th post may recall the extensive discussion on the Minnesota Senate race in which Al Franken was fraudulently installed as a US Senator. The Roman Emperor Caligula must be smiling from Hell. Caligula allegedly appointed his favorite horse—Incitatus—a Roman Senator. Obama now has a horse's ass, Al Franken in the Senate. As was the case with Rome, the decline and fall of America is now imminent.

For those of you that also think that I'm bringing up old news, think again.  The Minnesota Senate race was the beta program for stealing close elections.  In my blog entry I quoted a Fox News opinion piece in which Al Franken's progession from apparent "loser" to "winner" was chronicled.

When voters woke up on Wednesday morning after the election, Senator Norm Coleman led Al Franken by what seemed like a relatively comfortable 725 votes. By Wednesday night, that lead had shrunk to 477. By Thursday night, it was down to 336. By Friday, it was 239. Late Sunday night, the difference had gone down to just 221 -- a total change over 4 days of 504 votes. Amazingly, this all has occurred even though there hasn’t even yet been a recount. Just local election officials correcting claimed typos in how the numbers were reported. Counties will certify their results today, and their final results will be sent to the secretary of state by Friday. The actual recount won’t even start until November 19...Virtually all of Franken’s new votes came from just three out of 4130 precincts, and almost half the gain (246 votes) occurred in one precinct -- Two Harbors, a small town north of Duluth along Lake Superior -- a heavily Democratic precinct where Obama received 64 percent of the vote. None of the other races had any changes in their vote totals in that precinct.

The gubernatorial election today in New Jersey is too close to call.  No one disputes that the plutocrat, Democrat, political hack Governor Jon Corzine is wildly unpopular.  Moreover, the former Wall Street executive has spent $23 million of his own money into his campaign. (What's this I heard about rich Republicans?  Didn't Hillary Clinton "loan" her Presidential campaign $5 million?) What complicates the race is that there is a third party candidate, Independent Chris Daggett that may draw votes away from Republican Chris Christie.  As in Minnesota, the final outcome may be determined by recounts in heavily Democrat-controlled voter precincts.  If the Democrats succeed in stealing this election, then you have an emboldened and very corrupt political party using the tactics of a Hugo Chavez stealing election for years to come.  America is on the verge of becoming a banana republic.

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Killing the Golden Goose

Killing the golden goose is a metaphor for any short-sighted action that may bring an immediate reward, but ultimately proves to be disastrous. The metaphor is from Aesop’s fable, “The Goose that laid the Golden Eggs.” To extend this analogy further, gavage is the technique of force feeding a goose with a tube containing corn mash about 12 to 18 days before slaughter to produce foie gras—an alleged delicacy. This feeding process causes a form of fatty liver. We are now being force-fed the faux science of alleged Global Warming despite scientific evidence that the planet has been cooling. (A January 13, 2009 segment on CNN’s “Lou Dobb’s Tonight” discussed this cooling trend.) The alleged delicacy to produced is an economy fueled by green jobs. Spain's experience with a Green Economy is less than successful. The illogical extension of Global Warming is the so-called “Cap and Trade” legislation pushed by the American Mugabe, "Broke" Obama.

Our economy is a carbon based one, e.g., oil and coal. A "Cap and Trade" law means that the level of carbon emissions would be capped for EVERYBODY. For those lucky ones that can afford to buy them; carbon credits would be used to offset excess emissions. In reality, "Cap and Trade" legislation will “bust a cap” into the ass of the American economic goose.

Yet, leftist trust fund radicals like Al Gore continue to push the Global Warming scam and its ugly sister “Cap and Trade.” Why?  It’s the same old answer—greed. Scam artists like Al Gore are looking forward to making a financial killing selling carbon credits. Already, there is Chicago Climate Exchange to sell and buy carbon credits.  So now, whenever Gore’s carbon footprint gets too large because of the excess amount of electricity used to run his Tennessee mansion he buys carbon credits—from himself.  It’s a pretty nifty little scam, eh?

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This and that

The Power of One...

For those that think that they can have no impact on those around them take a gander at these recent news items.

News Item: 1 

A major freeway was shut down for about eight hours Tuesday morning as officers negotiated with a suicidal woman sitting on a freeway overpass, which backed up traffic for miles and created a nightmare for commuters. The woman was taken into custody shortly before 10 a.m. and the lanes were reopened.--Debbi Baker, San Diego Union-Tribune Staff Writer

From 1:30 a.m. until 10:00 a.m., a city was brought to a standstill by a suicidal woman. Every freeway artery was clogged and adjacent surface streets became busy.

News Item 2:

After threatening suicide, a woman slipped and fell off the Lemon Grove Avenue bridge over state Route 94 about 3:30 p.m. yesterday [NN: October 29,2009].  Traffic had been stopped on the busy freeway for about two hours as officials tried to talk her down.  Last week, another distraught woman on an Interstate 5 overpass near Balboa Park created a major traffic tie-up for thousands of San Diego commuters during the morning rush hour. After more than seven hours Oct. 20, the woman voluntarily came down from the bridge.--Breaking News Team,  San Diego Union-Tribune

Far too often, people say, "I want to make a difference."  When what they really mean is that I want to be "famous."  In the case of the two suicidal women they got their several hours of fame. 

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Why I Despise Leftists...

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal and equal men are not free--sign-off for the 1960s radio show The Voice of Americanism.

For those of you that wonder why I despise leftists, I offer the following tidbits. The Obama administration will first offer H1N1 vaccines to Gitmo detainees.  While long lines of Americans wait for limited supplies of the vaccine for their children, the human chancres at Gitmo are given first preference over citizens of the United States. To quote a Gitmo spokesmouth:

 "JTF Guantanamo conducts safe, humane, legal and transparent care and custody of detainees. As such, we must provide detainees the medical care necessary to maintain their health." CNN.com

Under pressure from  loony left, these murderers and thugs are treated better than the children that the Leftists claim to love and want to protect so much. (Ignore the fact that they are all for the murder of children in the womb.) But that's only one example of leftist radical stupidity.

In California there is a Stage 3 water emergency.  While it partially due to a lack of rain, the primary reason for the water shortage is a court ordered reduction in water delivered to municipal water districts because of a court protective order for the Delta Smelt, Delta Smelt fish are preyed upon by larger fish, especially striped bass and largemouth bass which are invasive species in the Sacramento Delta.  Well, something "smelt" pretty bad when a fish comes before food production by farmers in California's Central Valley.  State Water Contractors sued in March 2009 claiming that the United States Department of the Interior and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), challenging regulatory restrictions placed on the state's water operations.

Long ago Herman Kahn warned of the dangers of the radical environmentalist movement.  And we've seen the results of radical leftist environmentalist meddling.  While the Chinese move to drill for oil in US territory, the Obama administration and their cohorts in the Democrat-controlled Congress are standing in the way of drilling for badly needed oil.

We've essentially stopped building nuclear power plants because of a movie, The China Syndrome. Twelve days after its release the incident at Three Mile Island happened. Coincidence?  Maybe or maybe not, but it seems strange that the movie came out right before the the incident and made a lot of money.  Propaganda that pays is the hallmark of modern Leftist propaganda especially in the Hollywood Lefist community.  Most of the plum roles and work go to Hollywood lefties like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Tom Hanks.  Political correctness has its benefits.  

 In January of 1969, Union Oil's Platform A blew up and spilled 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil onto the shores of Santa Barbara County in California.  Since then there are no more offshore platforms within view of the beach homes of many wealthy liberal elitists. Coincidence?

This brings me to my favorite topic--bashing the flawed philosophy of socialism.  My problem with socialism is that it tries to turn men and women into equal, mediocre worker bees.  Meanwhile, the elitists, i.e., those with Ivy League degrees and the old line plutocrats will run things because you the average citizen doesn't understand how things work.  They will call you teabaggers, absolutists, or extremists when they're being polite.  You'll find the Marxist Neanderthals of the Democrat (sic) party plying their irrational intellectual vomit in the hate-filled Daily Kos, which is not exactly a repository of moderate thinking (sic).  But that is the base of the Democrat Party. Village idiot-in-training, Joe Biden said, "This has never been a place that has embraced extremism on the left or the right."  Right you are Joe, except that two of Obama's Czars have recently quoted noted philosopher and über humanitarian Mao Zedong. If you really want to get a picture of what life would be like under a liberal plutocracy/technocracy read Brave New World. If you want to know what life in America will "perfect" into after eight years of the Obama Captivity just look at the mess Robert Mugabe has made of Zimbabwe. 

It turns my stomach to know that it can happen here and is happening now.