You cannot delegate your personal safety or preparedness. YOU are responsible. Accept The Challenge to prepare yourself - and your loved ones - for any threat or emergency that may come your way.
Noun: An agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions.
Verb: Settle a dispute by mutual concession.
Sounds about right.
We have been hearing the Democrats and their press corps - ad nauseam - hammering the Tea Party members of Congress to compromise on the debt limit. It's for the good of the country. It's for the good of the world. It's for the good of THE CHILDREN!
Lumped into that ad nauseam crowd are the old-school Republicans like John McCain who liken the Tea Partiers with trolls and hobbits. Really? One reason I could never make it in politics is that I would have called out "Bought and Paid" McCain. I would have publicly told that corrupt SOB to shut his pie hole.
"Hey, John. Compromise is what you've done your entire career. Look what that's done to your bank balance and what it's done to the country. You're rich, we're toast. Thanks, but your input is no longer required or desired. Now STFU."
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How about this -
prin·ci·ple/ˈprinsəpəl/Noun
1. A fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.
2. A rule or belief governing one's personal behavior.
It seems that very few in either house of Congress understand principle. They understand re-election. They understand corruption. They understand compromise. But principle? Not so much.
The screeching press won't get off the compromise bandwagon. Principle is secondary to getting the deal done. They just can't understand why these Tea Partiers are such sticks in the mud. Principle is irrelevant.
If the Republicans had two brain cells to rub between them, they'd be hammering the Dems on compromise vs principle.
"Hey Senator Harry. Here's some compromise for you. You compromise and do away with the Department of Education, most of the EPA, the NLRB, and the NEA, and we'll compromise and and give you a 1 year debt limit increase. Koom-bye-yah, baby!
"Oh, and Harry - you go first. Once we see them being dismantled, we'll give you the debt limit increase. You see, we've been fooled before into giving up our half first, and somehow, your half never comes to pass. Not this time, cupcake."
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Of course, it's not really about compromise. It's about protecting turf, paying off constituencies, growing government, and continuing down this path to national destruction. The idea of compromise is the hammer and the weak spine of the Republicans is the anvil.
Save compromise for the little stuff. The kind of pizza you're going to order. The color of the accent wall when painting your house. You don't compromise when principle is involved.
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"Anytime we want to borrow, it's going to cost us more." Regardless of the TV or radio station I listen to, or blog, website or periodical I read, this seems to be the mantra.
Really? Why's that? Yes, if the government wants to borrow more money, then those NEW borrowings will be more expensive. But the interest payments of currently outstanding debt is already locked. If we don't borrow more as a country, we have no worries. Problem solved.
And can someone out there explain to me how the credit rating of the US will affect me wanting to get a car loan or home loan? Seriously, if someone can explain why this would affect consumer credit costs, I honestly want to hear it. MY credit rating and loan demand determines the rate I pay, not the credit rating of the US.
The only way the government actions affect my loan rates is the artificially manipulated rates charged to banks by the Federal Reserve Bank. The INDEPENDENT Federal Reserve loosens or tightens credit, NOT the Treasury Department. They expand or contract the money supply as they see fit. What the Treasury Department does is irrelevant.
If the federal government has to shut down, say, HUD, and gets out of the "Anyone who wants a home can get one" business, this will result in even MORE homes being available for sale, pushing prices and loan rates down, saving buyers money. Supply and demand.
If the government stops subsidizing behavior, the market will set the proper price, usually lower. In cases like ethanol/corn subsidies, the market would say, "Uhm, that ethanol crap is not as efficient as gasoline. Without nanny subsidies, it is not cost-effective to run in my car. No thanks." The ethanol market would evaporate overnight.
And what would happen to the price of all that formerly subsidized corn? It would drop like a rock.
Johnny cakes, anyone?!
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Now, if I were a bettin' man, if Barry doesn't get his way, I'd bet he'll instruct "independent" Bernanke and the Fed to tighten credit and raise rates. Gotta punish them thar Tea Party bastards. He'll run on the, "I Told You So" plank of the Democrat platform.
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ABC news and their affiliates are all running with teasers of, "X days until default".
Lord, give me strength. I'll say it again: Default is a choice. If King Barry decides to not pay the interest and principal payments, that's his CHOICE. Same goes with Social Security, Medicare, etc. Barry gets to decide how the pie is sliced. If he wants to choose to not pay granny, or China and instead keeps the entire federal government intact - and all of those dues paying union workers - so be it.
Why isn't the press pointing this out?
Oh. Never mind.
--- Copyright 2011 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com
I swear, I think I saw Barry's lip quivering on Monday night as he was pleading with the nation to get behind his, "same ol', same ol'" form of government - keep growing governement regardless of the cost.
Apparently, there is some real concern in the government. The SOBs are running TV commercials trying to sell the public on why they should exist. Seriously.
I just watched a commercial for the EPA. To be clear, this wasn't a commercial telling people not to eat arsnic or the evils of radon. It was a commercial touting the value of the EPA.
Of course, they went to the tried-and-true approach of, "it's for the children". Without the EPA, evil businessmen would be feeding your baby toxic waste.
Subtle.
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The EPA may be the poster child of why so many Americans are finally pushing back against this big, bloated growth in government. I think most Americans could live with having the original EPA. It is probably even Constitutional, in that it fits the original intent of the "general welfare" clauses. It was doing something to help all Americans - keeping our water, soil and air clean.
Who could object to that?
Look what they've become. Coal is evil. Oil is evil. For God's Sake, carbon dioxide is evil. Like every single government agency ever created, it is always looking to grow and gain more control.
If you go to the administrator's page [link], her A-Number-One top priority is Climate Change. There's a shocker.
I think the racial pandering is what burns my ass the most. On Sunday, the administrator had a pander-palooza with the racist NAACP. She was making some comments [speech link] on the summer heat wave that has been hitting a big portion of the country -
On Friday, the vast majority of the country had air quality rated Good to Moderate. But some communities we were seeing air quality that was rated Unhealthy or Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.
She acknowledges that the "vast majority of the country" had good, clean, healthy air. She spent one whole sentence with the good news, and the remainder of her speech on how blacks are being targeted - somehow - with dirty, unhealthy air.
The Unhealthy air quality was recorded in both Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Washington is 55 percent African American, while Baltimore is 63 percent African American and has a median household income almost $13 thousand below the national average. In Richmond, VA the air was reported as unhealthy for sensitive groups, meaning that children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups were at a higher risk of health effects. Richmond is 51 percent African American. Their median household income there is also $13 thousand below the national average. The city of Cleveland – where the air was unhealthy for sensitive groups – is 50 percent African American and has 25 percent of its families living below the poverty level.
Funny how she didn't mentioned Oakland, California. Or neighboring Richmond, California. Or other predominantly black communitites located in the "vast majority" of the country that had great air quality during the summer heat wave. Why wasn't she pimping those communities?
She continues with her, "you're a victim" speech -
I know this issue is a focal point for the NAACP. Your recent report about coal plants and pollution found that 8 million people live within three miles of coal power plants. That helps explain why African Americans enter emergency rooms for asthma treatments at three-and-a-half times the average rate than whites do.
WTF?!? OK, 8 million people live near coal plants. Great. Since you're clearly traveling down Racist Road, how about you tell us what their ethnicity might be?
Obviously, that's not important. The Professional Propagandist knows she merely needs to present two facts in close proximity - in this case (1) the number of people living near coal plants and the fact that (2) blacks have more asthma - and the mouth-breathing public assumes a connection between the two of them.
Whites own most of the guns in America. Most young black males are killed by guns.
The soft-headed public assumes whites are the ones killing young blacks. Never mind that the actual facts show that most blacks are killed by blacks. Inconvenient for the race baiters and government growers.
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After an hour or so of listening to the Professional Propagandists, the group will be sufficiently convinced that More Government Is Needed. It must be expanded to protect us from the evil Republican businesses that have somehow gotten the sun to shine more intensely on the black communities of America.
Welcome to Mission Creep.
That's how it begins. One department administrator wants to expand the size of his or her department. They do good works for the public, so how about we do MORE good works for MORE of the public? Sure, the areas they expand in to may only be marginally related to their original mission statement, but hey, who really cares? You can't put a price on good public works, right?
Then another administrator sees that his buddy in the department next door is growing and gaining more power, and he'd like a little of that for himself. He expands his charter, and starts to spread out like an oily cancer as well.
You end up with a department like the USDA - that was chartered to make sure America's meat and vegetables were safe - that is now conducting tactical raids on dairies that dare to sell unpasteurized milk products to willing, knowledgeable buyers.
Side note: How many of the salmonella outbreaks, mad cow outbreaks or botulism outbreaks we've seen in the news have come from USDA inspected farms and ranches? 100% To put it another way, how many of the outbreaks originated at small, mom-and-pop, too-small-to-bother-with operations? Zip, zero, nada.
Feel safer with all of that government "protection"?
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Government should regulate and inform, not operate and dictate.
I love the idea of the government requiring food processors to have to list the ingredients of their products. It provides an uninformed public with what kinds of stuff are hidden in that Twinkie you want to eat. Hostess can continue to make Twinkies, and you can now choose to eat it or not.
I even like the nutritional and calorie stuff. I think it's great that cigarette companies must put the warning on their packs of cigarettes. "Smoke this stuff and you're virtually guaranteed to shorten your life. Have a nice day!"
It's when they operate a company or industry - or dictate behavior - that I push back. I can't choose the kind of light bulb for my own house? Really?! You're going to tell bakeries the kind of fats they can use in their cream puffs? What?! If I own a bar and everyone in there wants to smoke cigarettes, we've all broken the law if we choose to do so? How about letting the non-smokers open their own business that prohibits smoking? What business is it of the government to try and control this behavior?
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And that's the point. It's the business of government to control.
The twisted logic goes something like this: Well, if we let you smoke, you're more likely to come down with lung cancer. If you come down with lung cancer, you're going to cost Obamacare/Medicare/Medicaid more than your "fair share", so we need to keep you from harming yourself, 'cause that harms us all.
"If we let you eat that fat..."
"If we let you ride that motorcycle without a helmet..."
"If we let you smoke that joint..."
"If we let you use that tanning booth..."
"If we let you eat that unpasteurized yogurt..."
"If we let you smoke that cigarette..."
"If we let you buy that gun..."
"If we let you plant that vegetable garden...[link]"
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The "collective you" is more important than the "individual you". It's about government substituting its judgement for yours.
Like most Americans, that's not what I signed up for. When I was a kid, I took all of that personal freedom, personal responsibility and liberty nonsense to heart.
Silly me.
So it leaves me with few options. I know that government will never shrink of its own accord. It's not natural for any entity to want to kill itself off.
When you've got over half of the population not paying any taxes but still reaping the benefits, how are you going to get them to vote against their best interests? You just won't get enough of the population to vote to take a cut in pay/benefits. It ain't gonna happen. The recipients simply won't voluntarily downgrade their way of life.
So, it's gotta happen the hard way. The involuntary way.
It could happen sooner if the handful of Republicans in the House stick to their beliefs and don't vote for a debt limit increase. This will cause the Administration to make choices on how to spend the available tax dollars. No way will everyone be happy with the choices.
It could happen later if the Republicans either cave in, or the next congress provides Obama or his successor with enough votes to get the debt limit raised at will. We will eventually crash from debt overload, and we'll be back to the same choices of, "who gets the available cash"?
Accept The Challenge
Let the debt downgrade begin!
I don't know about you, but I have no desire to be dependent upon any government entity for my survival. Food, health, housing - no thanks.
You've got to store and hide assets - the more you've got going into a depression, the more likely you'll have something when we emerge on the other side. Equipment, precious metals, supplies, guns, ammo, tools. Anything you'll need during tough times that also will have value to others.
Hiding your stuff from the prying eyes of your government and neighbors can be tough. Cash in a bank account/IRA or PMs in a safe deposit box are as good as confiscated. A public storage shed full of food or guns would probably be toast as well. If you need to use these, use them judiciously. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.
Now, you can only store so much food, and stash so much equipment. It will eventually be depleted if you're looking at your stores like a baby chick views the yolk sack. You need to be able to provide for yourself for the long-term. If you have skills that others find valuable, you can emerge from this mess quite well off. Position yourself to produce more than you consume.
Forge tools from scrap metal. Sew clothes. Weld/braze/solder. Brew/distill. Can/preserve/smoke/pickle. Repair stuff. Create stuff. Convert stuff. Repurpose stuff.
Food is obviously a bigee. If you have a bit of land, grow veggies. Look into "secret gardens" planted in forests or public lands. Learn to forage wild edibles. Catch fish, shoot or trap birds and other small game.
If things get really ugly, I can very easily see farms and ranches being nationalized as we (effectively) did during our Great Depression, and as has happened in virtually every country in the world that has gone over the socialist edge.
Black market, unconventional, under the table skills and knowledge are what will separate those that survive a downturn and those that thrive during the downturn.
--- Copyright 2011 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com
Two Saturdays ago, when I got back from a gun class, my wife mentioned to me that a young black guy had been shot by San Francisco PD. It was something about this kid not paying a bus fare, and the cops just shot him down. He was unarmed and just gunned down in the street.
My first thought was, "This is going to blow up." Police shootings have been getting a lot of press, and killing a young, black kid for not paying a bus fare was unconscionable.
Then some more information started coming out. First, it seems that the kid wasn't unarmed. The police said they were returning fire as the kid was running from them. The problem was, there was no gun.
Oops, yes there was. There was video of some guy picking up a gun at the scene, and reports that the police had recovered it.
Oops again: the video of the guy picking up "the gun" doesn't look much like a gun. It could just be the angle of the grainy video, I don't know. And the gun is still officially unrecovered.
Now, the SFPD is saying their officers didn't even kill the guy. He was hit with one bullet in the leg (sounds like it was a through-and-through shot) and with another in the back of the neck that then entered his brain. The fatal wound was caused by a .380 caliber bullet. The SFPD is VERY carefully pointing out that it was not fired by a department issued gun, as those are all .40 cal. I've yet to hear anyone ask if any of the pursuing officers had a personal back-up gun chambered in .380....
The police investigation is saying that the fatal shot was self-inflicted. From the back of the neck?
Now, the kid wasn't some innocent fare skipper. As it turns out, he had recently been paroled from a Washington state prison. For child rape and child prostitution. He was also wanted for questioning in the murder of a 19 year old pregnant woman.
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So, on one hand, the SFPD has either rid the world of a maggot that would have likely continued in his evil ways - or he did it to himself.
On the other hand, this is very disturbing to me. The idea of someone committing suicide by shooting themselves in the neck just doesn't pass the smell test. Who else but the SFPD would have shot him?
And where's the gun? The object that was picked up was done so right in front of an SFPD officer (go to Youtube and search "Bayview shooting" to see all the different "takes" on what happened).
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Now for the point of this post - I think this is the kind of event that can very easily set things spinning out of control. Ye olde Civil Unrest.
A few days after the shooting, there was a large demonstration that resulted in over 40 arrests. The Chief of police then held a meeting with people from the neighborhood, and he got shouted down, and ended up walking out.
People are pissed. And anxious.
If you listen to a number of the Youtube videos, at least in this one predominantly-black, poor, crime-riddled SF neighborhood, there is a LOT of anger towards the police, the media, Jews and whites. Lots of anger.
Right or wrong, it's there.
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Tinfoil hat or just connecting the dots? I was listening to the radio coming home late last week, and the subject was the recent crack down on illegal aliens by the administration. Earlier in the week, they had done a number of raids and arrested a bunch of illegals.
A black guy called in and was saying this was a bad idea. The host was saying that the jobs taken by the illegals were the kinds of jobs that were historically taken by teenagers, and black teenagers have a horrible unemployment rate.
The black guy said he didn't care. He said that right now, we didn't need a NEW class of unemployed (the illegals) who had an additional problem in that they wouldn't have the money to get back home. He said he believed you'd just end up with a bunch of very pissed off, very poor people that would erupt into violence.
Hmm, sound familiar?
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Both the caller and the show host were discussing how surprised they were that THIS administration was taking THIS action at THIS time.
I must admit, I was surprised as well.
Is it just a coincidence that the administration is taking actions that could lead to violence, right at a time when they are getting their butts kicked at the budget table, their popularity numbers are in the tank, and the economy is in a shambles? If the angry blacks and the angry Hispanics erupt at the same time (the two groups have no love lost for each other) does this give the administration cause for some sort of martial law? Or is that getting too tin-foily?
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I've mentioned in the recent past how my gun classes are all getting sold out, and how they are trending towards husband/wife or whole families taking the class. Perhaps this has got me being a bit more sensitive to this subject.
Also, there have been a rash of robberies at coin shops, banks, grocery stores and other businesses. One of the coin shops was our primary competitor across town. Their front door was kicked in at 5am and the bad guys grabbed over $2000 in silver.
I was shocked to learn that every piece of their inventory isn't put in a safe each night, and that they apparently don't have a camera system. We empty every display case each night, and leave them lit so the bad guys can see that there's nothing to take.
Accept The Challenge
Keep on your toes. We've got politicians on both sides of the aisle screaming at each other in public over the public debt deal. Tensions are high.
The administration sends their stooges on TV to tell everyone how great things are, and how we've "turned the corner," yet they trip over their tongues when asked for specifics. We're getting weary of their lies.
If this debt thing isn't extended, and cuts start happening to social programs, I fear we're going to have spontaneous violent outbursts, followed by staged large-scale demonstrations by unions, community organizations and similar socialist organizations.
If this happens, figure banks, police stations, state/federal government buildings and similar places to be the early targets. If the unrest is extended, any business with anything of value is a target - grocery stores, Big Box stores, jewelry/coin shops, gun shops, liquor stores, etc.
You know the drill: Have some cash, have some guns and ammo, have some food and water. Be prepared to be mobile. If a riot sweeps thru your area, be ready to move at a moment's notice. Can you live out of your car or truck for a few days while things blow over? If your only plan is to "bug in," that's not much of a plan.
Flexibility and adaptability are the keys to survival, and that's the primary goal, right?
--- Copyright 2011 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com
If you haven't gotten a chance to hear Ron Paul destroy Uncle Ben Bernanke in recent Congressional testimony, you've to give this a glance (these transcripts are from the second video where Uncle Ben gets reamed) -
Paul: The price of gold today is $1,580 the dollar during these last few years the dollar was devalued almost 50%. When you wake up in the morning, do you care about the price of gold?
Bernanke: Well, I pay attention to the price of gold but I think it reflects a lot of things. It reflects global uncertainties. The reason people hold gold is its protection against what we call tail risk ... they have gold as a protection.
Paul: Do you think gold is money?
Bernanke: [Long pause] No.
As we stand right this second, gold is up over $1600 and silver is back over $40. Also, interestingly, the gold and silver technical charts are still showing a bull market.
Be sure you read the entire article.
"Gold, if you pick up a coin minted 6,000 years ago, you'd still have your money. If you pick up a piece of paper printed a year ago, it might be worth half its value. So history is on my side of the argument," says Paul.
If a true gold standard were to go into effect, meaning that every dollar was replaced with gold, then the gold price would have to skyrocket to $5,000 or the government would have to extract $9 trillion out of the system. Paul concedes that might happen but that it would be worth the pain.
Amen, brother. Gold (and silver) doesn't so much act as an investment, it acts to maintain your purchasing power. The only problem with "correcting" the system by pulling all of that fiat currency from the economy is that it would cause ugly, horrific deflation.
And when's the last time you saw a government voluntarily reduce the amount of cash it had available? LOL!
--- Copyright 2011 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com
Have ya seen that ol' Al "My home uses 20 times the energy of your home" Gore is trying to resurrect his, uhm, Climate Change creds? Yep, he's got a new website called Climate Reality (ClimateRealityProject dot org - I won't give him a direct link) where he's pimping "24 Hours of Reality".
He's got a cutsie video that explains the whole thing. The phrase, "Global Warming" isn't even whispered. Climate Change is the spin nowadays.
While he doesn't come straight out and say that climate change is man-made - at least not in the video - he bashes the usual suspects. Big Oil and Big Coal.
The message is unmistakable.
CO2 is bad. Oil and coal produce it. They have lots of money. We need YOU to do something about it.
After his big bash in September, you can bet we're going to hear about how we need to get the carbon tax back up and running. Gotta save the planet, dontcha know?
Short version: A woman is arrested for speaking during a city council meeting. During the Public Comment period. While she had been granted the floor.
But wait, there's more! After this video went viral, the city has declared a State of Emergency (WTF?). The police chief has been granted emergency powers and has become the de facto mayor. The real ELECTED mayor was the dissenting voice when the woman in the video was arrested.
The far western Arizona town of Quartzsite was in disarray Monday after the town council ousted the mayor from power and declared a state of emergency, all over an online video that shows a woman being arrested.
Mayor Ed Foster told The Associated Press on Monday that the town council held a last-minute meeting that was closed to the public Sunday night, declaring a state of emergency in the 3,600-person town just east of the California city of Blythe.
The council's declaration put police Chief Jeff Gilbert in charge, making Foster the "deputy chief executive of nothing right now," he said. It also allows the five-member council to meet without public notice and suspend all public comment at the meetings until they declare the state of emergency over.
Not surprisingly, it looks to all be about money. Dirty money. The mayor has been screaming about corruption of the city officials, has asked for the city books to be audited, and has been rebuffed at every turn. Pleas to state and federal agencies, up til now, have gone unanswered.
Youtube and the Internet are wonderful things. I wonder if this video would be allowed if the Fairness Doctrine were in place.
We gotta get them damned "Internets" under control. How's a corrupt politician supposed to make a living if all his tricks are unearthed?
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Moody's rating service dropped Ireland's sovereign debt down to "junk" status. Ouch.
American stocks took a beating, the dollar advanced, but surprisingly, gold advanced as well. Usually, if the dollar goes up, gold and silver go down.
Buried in the Irish story was this...
Stocks advanced after the Federal Reserve released the minutes of last month’s meeting, as the report said policymakers continued to debate whether additional stimulus will be needed if the outlook for economic growth remains weak.
“The market rallied on the news that the Fed is certainly not ruling out further stimulus to further inflate the economy,” said Burt White, who helps oversee $330 billion as chief investment officer at LPL Financial Corp. in Boston. “We think it’s probably more hope than reality,” he said. “The backdrop is still difficult with the mess in Europe and a bumpy start to the earnings season with Alcoa.”
The rally fizzled late in the day as Ireland’s credit rating was cut to non-investment grade by Moody’s, joining Portugal and Greece to become the third euro-area country to be lowered to junk.
Hmmm. Let's see. If the Fed is going to provide more "stimulus", how might they do that? Well, they could print up more money and call it QE3, though they probably need something snazzier - something with some POP! While that would hurt the dollar, it would be glorious for gold and silver.
Hey! Maybe that's why gold jumped so much...
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A bit of a follow-up to last Friday's post - particularly the part about Obama raping and pillaging the Fourteenth Amendment as justification for unilaterally raising the Debt Limit.
Article I, Section 8 — the same part of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to tax, appropriate, and “regulate commerce . . . among the states” (long the Left’s justification for any regulation of activity, or in the case of Obamacare, the inactivity of not buying health insurance) — also explicitly states: “The Congress shall have power to . . . borrow money on the credit of the United States.”
The 14th Amendment doesn’t affect this power one bit. It applies only to debt “authorized by law,” and as Catholic University Law School distinguished scholar John S. Baker wrote recently in NRO, “Only Congress — not the president — makes law.”
Read the whole article, it's really quite good. It goes into past SCOTUS cases that support the position that the president must pay the debt, but only Congress can increase the debt.
Still, if the debt limit isn't raised, I'm guessing Barry & Company will pull some unconstitutional rabbit out of their hat to get their money.
Pay attention, folks. It's getting hairy in DC. Things don't usually go so well for us stupid, common serfs when our superior, enlightened leaders start getting nervous...
--- Copyright 2011 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com
Where are the Republican voices? Perhaps I should say, where are the Fiscal Conservative voices?
I keep seeing stories like this one, and they're driving me bat sh#t crazy. In summary, it's saying that if we don't raise the debt limit, the only outcome is a default on our debt.
WTF?
How our obligations are paid from the available funds is 100% driven by the Executive office. They are the ones that can pull some bucks from this program to pay for that program. They are the ones that get to choose which bills are paid, and which ones are not. They are the ones that can shut down federal programs or keep them open.
Yet somehow, they've got the majority of the mouth-breathing press and a good chunk of the public believing that if the Administration doesn't get the limit raised, we'll default on our debt, OR we won't make our Social Security and Medicare payments.
Why aren't the fiscal conservatives screaming at the top of their lungs, BULLSHIT! The administration could choose to stop 100% of payments to the FDA, the DOL, the EPA, the DOE, the NEA, the DOT - pick any (all?) three lettered agencies not authorized by the Constitution, and shut them down first.
Then move on to the "We're here to fix your poor choices" departments. All of HUD (why is it MY responsibility to subsidize the housing for my neighbor?), and every loan program subsidized by the federal government - college, homes, small businesses - whatever.
If you chose to get pregnant, impregnate, not get a college degree, not get a skills certificate or even if you had some dirt-poor bad luck, it's not my responsibility to get you back on your feet or give you a lift-up. Especially when my taxes are taken from me at the point of a gun. I really abhor coercion, and taxation is the epitome of it.
When I give of my own free will, I get a great warm feeling towards those I'm helping. When my money is stolen, I am resentful. Guess which feeling I have the most?
Look at this: The Office of Child Support Enforcement. It's part of the Department of Health and Human Services (SHUT IT DOWN!!). It's mission is as follows -
The mission of the Child Support Enforcement Program is to enhance the well-being of children by assuring that assistance in obtaining support, including financial and medical, is available to children through locating parents, establishing paternity, establishing support obligations, and monitoring and enforcing those obligations.
Ahh. It's For The Children. Gag me with a spoon. The federal government has no authority to delve into whether some scumbag mother or father is not keeping a roof over their kid's heads. None. It may be assumed by a state or a local community, but the federal government is Constitutional prohibited (tenth amendment - again) from doing this.
Yet there it sits.
So cut all of this crap out first, then start cutting to the bone if need be.
Seriously, you want to fund Big Bird before grandma gets her check? OK, but it's YOUR choice, Barry. YOU live with the consequences.
But the Republicans and the Fiscal Conservatives have got to sell it that way. And fast.
This is typical of the clap-trap being spewed by the Administration and their Government Scribes -
The gap between spending and revenue is much too big to be closed by budget cuts alone. With fervent conviction but zero evidence [bite me - .ed], Tea Party Republicans believe otherwise — and Establishment Republicans, who know better, are afraid to contradict them.
Hey, Stuck-On-Stupid-dude: They're afraid to contradict them because they know they'll have their butts thrown out of office if they do so. There's even a chance they actually believe in the Constitution and are upholding the Oath Of Office they took. Crazy, huh?
“I’ve met with the leaders multiple times,” Obama said, referring to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “At a certain point, they need to do their job.” The job he means is welcoming fantasy-loving Republicans to the real world, and it has to be done.
They need to do their job? Barry, Barry, Barry. You're clueless about what that means. You envision your job as doing whatever ass-kissing and favor-granting as is necessary to get re-elected. Nothing more.
At least some of the newly elected representatives - with a handful of stalwarts that have been around for a while - want none of this. They see their job as making the federal government once again Constitutional. The first step is to balance the budget. The next is to shrink this bloated behemoth down to a manageable size.
And do you believe THIS crap? -
The stakes are perilously high, but Obama does have a doomsday option: If all else fails, he can assert that a section of the 14th Amendment — “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law . . . shall not be questioned” — makes the debt limit unconstitutional and instructs him to take any measures necessary to avoid default.
How in God's Name they can read this portion of the 14th Amendment and twist it around to mean that Barry can borrow as much as he likes, is beyond any logical concept.
Seriously, this may be the back-breaking straw. If he essentially anoints himself King Barry and proceeds to writing checks, it may be enough for Americans to FINALLY push back with physical violence.
Hell, he may just do it. Why not? He has thumbed his nose at Congress with his war in Libya. They kinda told him to stop, and he pushed their faces in the dirt. And laughed. He said the law doesn't apply to him.
Sounds kinda Kingly to me...
--- Copyright 2011 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com
Over the past couple of months, I've given periodic updates on the potato patch I helped a buddy put in his back yard. The last pix [link] were of big, luscious potato plants sucking in the sunshine, and preparing for a veritable spud-a-palooza.
Uhm, not so much, anymore.
About a month ago, I dropped by to check on the crop, as my friend had said that the plants were getting pretty tall. I dropped by to see if it was time to perhaps start mounding some of the plants to increase the yield.
The plants looked generally healthy, but I noted that a number of them were getting chewed on by something. Not horrible, but something certainly liked the taste of the 'tater leaves.
I told my buddy he should get some sort of spray to knock down whatever was munching on the plants. It seemed that whatever it was also liked a number of his other plants.
He was stuck on doing his plants organically. No commercial pesticides.
He now has a full garden of stubs. Not a leaf to be found.
My guess is that it was a massive earwig infestation. When I gathered up some radishes, there were TONS of earwigs in the ground. According to Wikipedia, potato plants are one of the plants they like.
We're considering doing a late crop, but I'm not too enthusiastic. The earwigs (or whatever) are still there, and I don't feel like feeding another batch of bugs!
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My younger son works for a company that sprays Line-X on bedliners. Great stuff. It protects the bedliners from dents and dings, and generally prolongs the life of the truck. They do a number of commercial applications as well, such as construction cranes and ship decks.
They have a business divisions that also does security applications, mainly for the government. It seems that this stuff is great for reducing or eliminating the impact of bullets and bombs.
Go Here to see a video of this stuff in action. Pretty impressive.
The site says that the stuff is approved for private buildings, so I guess that could include a private retreat or other similar building. I know nothing about the cost or the practicality, but it caught my attention.
BTW, a national TV show is doing a story/demonstration of this stuff. That's all I'm going to say, as I went to their website, and they had yet to announce the show.
My son did some of the application and was there during the shooting of the episode. When it is announced, I'll give you a heads-up on when it will be aired. Sounds very cool...
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A quickee update on my bout with Bell's Palsy - 17 days after the "attack" - or whatever it's called - I got a small bit of movement in my left cheek. Each day, it progressed where I was getting a little bit more movement.
Last week, I had an appointment with a neurologist, and he all but threw me out of his office (after looking me over). He said that I was progressing nicely - actually a bit ahead of expected results.
I've now ALMOST got my full smile back, my forehead is almost fully wrinkled when I lift both eyes, my speech is totally back to normal, my ears both wiggle, and I can flare my left nostril about half as much as my right nostril. About the only thing I can't yet do is whistle. My left lips just don't pucker quite as tightly as the right side.
He said he sees no reason I shouldn't have a complete recovery. Yeah, baby!
This past weekend, I taught my first Introductory pistol class since this happened, and it went flawlessly. I was worried I might have a bit of "tongue tripping" as I haven't done 4 straight hours of talking since just before this happened.
No problem!
--- Copyright 2011 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com
