Glenn Beck And The Housing Boom

Glenn Beck giving some perspective on the housing boom.

I think this video could start some really good conversations about the American Dream, and what kind of standard of living we have come to expect.

I hear people at work say things like:

” well Obama has to pass these bailouts, to save the economy, things are bad and even if we don’t think it’s the best thing to do, he has really smart adviser’s telling him what to do.”

I don’t think think these bailouts are to save the economy, I don’t have time to get in what I see. But the simple picture is this, these bailouts aren’t to save us, it’s to save the government. The stimulus bill bloats government and makes it even bigger, Obama is restructuring Homeland security and the NSA to give them more power. We are expanding social welfare programs like food stamps and medicaid, and Obama says he will restructure health care in the next year.

History tells us, the bigger government is, the harder it is to get rid of.

The End of Food

The End of Food by Thomas Pawlick

Not to be confused with “The End of Food By Paul Roberts”, which I haven’t read, but suspect is similar in nature.
If you haven’t read the End of Food by Thomas Palwick, good luck finding it. Amazon had used copies for $128. I couldn’t even find a couple at my local library, I had to have them transfer it in from another town, with a big sticker on the front, that states if I damage this book they will charge me $125!

Palwick begins with a story about a tomato that didn’t seem right. It had the texture  of a tennis ball, not a vegetable. Being a former farmer and current journalist, he decided to look into the modern farming industry to get a better grasp at how our food is grown.

The results, obviously, were not good. Are farming industry is growing at  a unsustainable rate. every year it takes more chemicals and more land, and more technology to grow our food.

The result is that the nutritional value is lower, big time.

One example about Tomatoes are that they are picked while they are still green. Before they have flavor or any nutrients. Then they are artificially ripened with “ethylene gas in” transit to their location. Tomatoes naturally make ethylene gas, that changes the color from green to red, but leaving them on the vines until they are ripe, doesn’t give super markets enough time to sell them before the go bad.

Because of globalization, we no longer buy tomatoes from local farmers, we buy them shipped in from over a thousand miles away, if not more.

This is causing the nutrient level of our food to suffer. You’d have to read the book to get all the facts. But vitamin C is disappearing from supermarket vegetables, along with Iron, and fiber, and vitamin A, etc…

Palwick goes over all of the modern farming techniques that are depleting the nutrients from the earth, the chemicals that damage the vitamins, and the gmo seeds that are changing our foods DNA.
A good read if you can find it.

Ohio’s Unemployment Fund Is Bankrupt

Ohio’s unemployment compensation fund is Bankrupt!

The state has been forced to borrow $500 million in federal funds, and they requested $50 million right away just to pay this weeks benefits.

What the article doesn’t tell you is that Ohio has already borrowed $550 million in November, that was suppose to cover December, January, and February! …… oops.

The last time Ohio borrowed money for unemployment was in the 2003 recession, we borrowed $342 million.

This time around the State has already borrowed over a billion, and that should only last until April, unless unemployment keeps going up, which it is.

Tack on that Forbes is reporting “Liquor sales in Ohio at all-time high”

And that equals Obama coming to Ohio to push support for his economic plan today.

This is going to get ugly

10 Important News Articles for 2008

National Debt From 1940

Maxing Out the National Debt Clock

Reported by U.S. NEWS

As of December 29, The National Debt stands at 10.6 Trillion. Thats almost $35,000 for every person!

Madoff was arrested for running a $50 billion “Ponzi scheme”

World’s Biggest Swindle

Reported by TIMES ONLINE

The former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market is best known as the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the closely-held market-making firm he launched in 1960. But he also ran a hedge fund that U.S. prosecutors said racked up $50 billion of fraudulent losses.

Mr Madoff told them that he was “finished”, that he had “absolutely nothing”, and that “it’s all just one big lie”. He said the investment arm of his firm was “basically a giant Ponzi scheme”, and that it had been insolvent for years.

A Ponzi scheme, named after the swindler Charles Ponzi, is a fraudulent investment operation that pays abnormally high returns to investors out of money put into the scheme by subsequent investors, rather than from real profits generated by share trading.

The financial crisis and climate change are pushing national governments towards global solutions

. . . and now for world government

Reported by Financial Times

An article by editor Gideon Rachman says “I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible”

According to Bloomberg the cost of the Bail out will hit $8.5 Trillion

Bailout Hits 8.5 trillion

Reported by San Fransisco Chronicle

Most of the money, about $5.5 trillion, comes from the Federal Reserve, which as an independent entity does not need congressional approval to lend money to banks or, in “unusual and exigent circumstances,” to other financial institutions.

That sum represents almost 60 percent of the nation’s estimated gross domestic product.

Shocking proposal urges military leaders to attack major foreign power.

RAND Lobbies The Pentagon To Start New War To Save U.S. Economy

Reported by Pakistan Daily

According to reports out of top Chinese mainstream news outlets, the RAND Corporation recently presented a shocking proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American economy and prevent a recession.

If this is not reason enough to close down the whole biotech industry once and for all, I am not sure what kind of disaster we are waiting for.

Why eating GM food could lower your fertility

Reported by Mail Online

Genetically modified corn has been linked to a threat to fertility in an official study that could deliver a hammer blow to controversial ‘Frankenstein Food’.

GM expert at Greenpeace International, Dr Jan van Aken, said: ‘Genetically Engineered food appears to be acting as a birth control agent, potentially leading to infertility.

according to an internal client note from the US bank Citigroup, gold could hit $2000 an ounce in 2009

As the World unravels

Reported by Telegraph

The bank said the damage caused by the financial excesses of the last quarter century was forcing the world’s authorities to take steps that had never been tried before.

This gamble was likely to end in one of two extreme ways: with either a resurgence of inflation; or a downward spiral into depression, civil disorder, and possibly wars. Both outcomes will cause a rush for gold.

A New York Times reporter obtained the call-in phone number for an Oct. 17 conference call

Morgan Chase Exec Brags Bailout Is for Takeovers

Reported by Executive Intelligence Review

In an internal bank conference call last week, a JP Morgan Chase executive, unaware that his conversation would be heard and published by a reporter, confirmed exactly what Lyndon LaRouche has said about the Hank Paulson bail-out: It has nothing remotely to do with extending lending to the U.S. economy, but is concerned with the Mussolini-like corporatist restructuring of the U.S. banking system, turning over the “smaller banks” to the totally bankrupt big banks, so that they can digest the smaller banks’ assets, and survive perhaps a few more weeks.

More than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition denying that man is responsible for global warming

Scientists deny man-made global warming

Reported by Telegraph

The academics, including 9,000 with PhDs, claim that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are actually beneficial for the environment.

It added: “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of … greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the forseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments.”

Combined that with Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe that challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former Vice President Al Gore. The U.S. Senate Minority Report — updated from 2007’s groundbreaking report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” — features the skeptical voices of over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

Fed Considers Issuing Their Own Debt

Reported by Telegraph

To show the gravity of the financial crisis we are in the middle of, and yes we are in the middle, not the end. The Fed has already slashed interest rates to near 0%, given out $2 trillion in disclosed loans, then got sued by Bloomberg for not telling the American public who got the money.

The Federal Reserve is desperate, and they are running out of options on how to avoid a depression. One Option is to issue their own debt, something that has never been done.

Of course this debt would have no congressional oversight, and ends up on the back of American Tax payers.

The Financial Meteorite That Is Coming

Most of us planning for the next few months are building the economic equivalent of bomb shelters: 2009 will be treacherous

We’re all still plunging hither and thither, guzzling wine and wondering what preposterously expensive electronic toys the children will want to smash on Christmas morning this year. We can’t see the meteorite coming either.

I think mainly this is because the government is not telling us the truth, Says Jeremy Clarkson of the Times Online.

The crisis will turn out to be more significant for us and other developed economies than the collapse of communism.

If an enormous meteorite was heading our way and the authorities knew it couldn’t be stopped or diverted, why bother telling anyone? Best to let us soldier on in the dark until it all goes dark for real.

Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles.

I’m starting to see more and more experts make predictions about huge increases in violence, riots, and crime.

Gerald Celente backs this up, everyone should listen to this interview, as well as Dr. Doom,Nouriel Roubini.

Then theres Bloomberg predicting food riots in 2009, The internal memo from Citigroup, that predicts civil disorder, and possibly wars in 2009.

And you can’t forget the Russian Professor (video) that predicts things could get so bad that the US will break up into six parts – the Pacific coast, the South, Texas, the Atlantic coast, the Central states; and the Northern states.

And of course the RAND Corporation, a NGO that is lobbying the pentagon to start another war to stimulate the economy to avoid a recession.

And the LA Times that states the real cost of the bailout is up to 8.5 trillion. Yes, Paulson suckered us into passing an open ended bailout that did not limit the amount to $700 Billion, but thats the part the media left out of the news reels.

I know some of this stuff sounds crazy and unrealistic, I’m not validating what these people are saying, just stating the fact that more and more people on main stream media are saying things like this. 5 years ago we were talking about how great everything was.

Eventually, of course, the system will reboot itself, but for a while there will be absolute chaos: riots, lynchings, starvation.

I would urge people to start paying attention, and actually start to make some sensible preparations for the complete breakdown in society.

Look at it this way, if you take the time to prepare now, stock up on some food and water, and batteries etc… and in a year nothing happens and we pull out of this, then you can use all the things you stocked up on.

It’s not crazy to be prepared, it’s crazy to think you’ll never have to.

We are headed towards a sharp increase in inflation, If you haven’t been paying attention to Zimbabwe and you want to see what a 231 million% inflation increase looks like check this out.

I realize we are not Zimbabwe, but I bet they didn’t think they would wake up one day and pay $20,000 for a loaf of bread.

Frankenfood For Thanksgiving

Your corn is sweeter, your potatoes are starchier and your turkey is much, much bigger than the foods that sat on your grandparents’ Thanksgiving dinner table.

Reports Wired

I’m honestly not sure how to feel about this. Wired plays it off like it’s a great thing that we are mutating the DNA of crops, and genetically engineering our animals.

Doesn’t anyone think that all these hormones and chemicals are also increasing the cancer rate?

What about things like autism, ADHD, aspergers, and all the learning disabilities that have sky rocketed in the last 30 years.

What about the obesity problem, take the corn example for one. Corn has gone from 5% sugar to 35% sugar! Doesn’t that worry anyone?

Screwed, The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class

Last week I took a trip to half priced books looking for Mac System admin books. But i ended up checking out the clearance shelve and found some real gems.

I picked up this book by Thom Hartman, Screwed, The undeclared war against the middle class for $2.

A great read, I’d give it 4 out of 5, so it’s not quite a must read.

Some of his ideas are to liberal for me, and Hartman (writing this book during the Bush 43 administration) seems to think that just electing democrats will turn the country around.

But his ideas about creating a middle class and why it’s crucial to the health of a nation are brilliant. He gives historical example after examples of how the decisions by Nixon,Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 have intentionally killed our middle class and moved our industry overseas to prevent the majority from pulling themselves out of poverty in the United States.

To have a true middle class, a majority of the people in a nation must be educated and economically secure and must have full and easy access to real news so they can make informed decisions. page 9

Home Schooling Banned In California

The San Francisco Chronicle reports

“California courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” Justice H. Walter Croskey said.

The decision stunned parents of the state’s roughly 166,000 homeschooled children. While the court claimed that it was merely clarifying an existing law and not making a new one, the decision leaves the parents of homeschooled children at risk of arrest and criminal prosecution!

“We’re happy,” said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. “We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting.”

…unbelievable

The Downward Curve of Marraige

“Hard times are always marked by a downward curve in the percentage of marriages”

- Walter Rauschenbusch

Rauschenbusch says in 1900 in Rochester, NY 29% of men between the age of 25-44 were unmarried. This was cause for concern back then.

In Franklin County which includes Columbus, Ohio 57% of men between 25-44 have never been married.

In my office 74% of the guys between 20-40 have never been married.

We have had a 50% drop in marriage since 1970.

While cohabiting has double since 1990, despite research that show cohabiting couples have twice the breakup rate of married couples. That puts them in the 75 to 80% chance they will break up, and the longer they cohabit the higher the percentage is.

Only 70% of high school senior boys said that a good marriage was important to them.

Marriage has been fallen apart in the United States for as long as I can remember. I began to notice in the late 80’s that not everyone was raised like me. And there were plenty of people to tell me I was crazy for getting married at 19.

I personally think your view about marriage says a lot about who you are.

Just something to think about.

*A lot if data was provide from The National Marriage Project

Important Documents!

Founding Documents

Bill of Rights [download]
The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.

U.S. Constitution [download]
United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was adopted on September 17, 1787

Magna Carta [download]
Issued in 1215 The Magna Carta was the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today and is considered one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy.

Mayflower Compact [download]
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was drafted by the Pilgrims Atlantic aboard the Mayflower, seeking religious freedom. It was signed on November 11, 1620

The Federalist Papers [download]
A series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution.

The Declaration of Independence [download]
Declaration of Independence was an act of the Second Continental Congress, adopted on July 4, 1776, which declared that the Thirteen Colonies in North America were “Free and Independent States”

The Virginia Declaration of Rights [download]
The influential document drafted in 1776 to proclaim the inherent natural rights of men, including the right to rebel against “inadequate” government. It influenced a number of later documents, including the United States Declaration of Independence (1776), the United States Bill of Rights (1789), and the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789).

Historical Documents

Two Treatises of Government [download}
This worthy work served as one of the underpinnings for the U.S. Constitution. It was produced in 1690 and had a tremendous influence upon the founding fathers. In it Locke clearly explains the need for limiting government.

The Stamp Act 1765
The act required all legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, newspapers, wills, pamphlets, and playing cards in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp. Once in effect, the tax met with great resistance in the colonies. For over a century the colonists had insisted on their Rights of Englishmen to be taxed only with their consent – consent which could only be granted through their colonial legislatures.

The Sedition Act 1798 [download]
Four laws enacted by the Federalist-controlled U.S. Congress, allegedly in response to the hostile actions of the French Revolutionary government on the seas and in the councils of diplomacy, but actually designed to destroy Thomas Jefferson’s Republican party, which had openly expressed its sympathies for the French Revolutionaries.

Other Documents

John Warner Defense Act [download]
Posse Comitatus Act [download]
Military Commissions Act [download]
The Nuremberg laws [download]