A Sign of Spring

When you see the "Frost Heaves" signs go up, you know spring is just around the corner. A humongous corner that takes a couple of months to get around, but we do eventually get to the other side.

Decadent Creature

Our ridiculous cat, Henry, otherwise known as "Puff".

Hard money, inflation, and your wallet

Economics can be dry to some people, but there is a serious economic crisis that has been brewing for some time and is rapidly coming to a head, and it already affects us tremendously. Here are a couple of good youtube clips of Ron Paul speaking with the Fed Chairman this morning. He briefly covers some of the concerns that we should all be aware of.

Getting Buried

It's not even March and NH has already had more snow than we've had for over 100 years - nearly 100 inches. (Average is more like 45 inches per year.) Here are a few pics:

I guess it'll be awhile before we can use this door.
The swingset is disappearing!
And the boys are clearing the deck for the umpteenth time.

Stagflation

From an AP article:

Worries grow for worse 'stagflation'
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
1 hour, 9 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - It's a toxic economic mix the nation hasn't seen in three decades: Prices are speeding upward at the fastest pace in a quarter century, even as the economy loses steam.
Economists call the disease "stagflation," and they're worried it might be coming back.

Already, paychecks aren't stretching as far, and jobs are harder to find, threatening to set off a vicious cycle that could make things even worse.

The economy nearly stalled in the final three months of last year and probably is barely growing or even shrinking now. That's the "stagnation" part of the ailment. Typically, that slowdown should slow inflation as well — the second part of the diagnosis — but prices are still marching higher.

The latest worrisome news came Tuesday: a government report showing wholesale prices climbed 7.4 percent in the past year. That was the biggest annual leap since 1981.

But nowhere in the article is there a discussion of one of the fundamental problems: the government's ability to print money out of thin air, rather than have it backed by gold. Yet another issue that Ron Paul stands alone in talking about.

Update (2/28/08): Pres. Bush and Fed. Chairman Bernanke assure us we are not headed for a recession or stagflation. Phew! Okay, everybody go back to watching American Idol. But seriously...I hope they are right, but I'm not comforted by the government's track record on being right.

It's not a test!

The way many people describe voting, it's like they think it's a test. Somehow it's wrong to vote for someone who doesn't look like they "have a chance" to win.

From LewRockwell.com:
More Political Inanities
Posted by Butler Shaffer at February 25, 2008 04:20 PM
A network news channel was interviewing a Texas voter the other day. This man was very troubled by the current state of politics and thought it was time for a change. When he was asked about voting for Ron Paul, this man replied that he really liked what Paul had to say but that he wasn't going to get elected president. Because McCain had the nomination all sewn-up, he added, he concluded that he would be voting for McCain - even though he would have to hold his nose to do so.

This is the kind of mindlessness that politics generates. If this man doesn't like McCain, and prefers Paul, but then concedes that McCain will get the nomination anyway, why on earth vote for McCain? Does this man feel such a need to have voted for the winning candidate that he must "hold his nose" to do so? If so, what's the point? What better opportunity for him to express his criticism of present conditions - as well as his support for Ron Paul - than to vote for Ron Paul?

It's Not Dead Yet!

This picture was taken this past weekend at a rally in Austin, TX
Most in the mainstream media would have you think that Ron Paul's campaign is over, but the funny thing is people keep giving money and showing up in droves to cheer him on.

Prescient

"Under the pressure of fanaticism, and with the mob complacently applauding the show, democratic law tends more and more to be grounded upon the maxim that every citizen is, by nature, a traitor, a libertine, and a scoundrel. In order to dissuade him from his evil-doing the police power is extended until it surpasses anything ever heard of in the oriental monarchies of antiquity."
H.L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1920

Presidents' Day

Here's an excerpt from a different and interesting look at the institution of the Presidency by Anthony Gregory:

Americans shouldn’t look to the president for their self-respect, patriotism and cultural identity. The presidency in its current form is entirely too powerful and thus an inherently corrupting and inhumanely destructive thing. The presidency as it supposedly should be, under the Constitution, is a relatively humble office overseeing the executive branch, one of three composing a radically restrained government with very limited enumerated powers. Today, the presidency overshadows the other branches, the states, and all Constitutional and statutory limits on its power. In any event, why should 300 million people, and to a great extent the rest of the world, have to live under one all-powerful law enforcement official? The whole idea seems like some kind of insanity. How did this become the American way? If we are to restore our freedom, we need our compatriots to snap out of this trance. The silver lining in the Bush administration has been the disgust he has elicited so universally, especially among the left and center. This has constrained his actions somewhat. I am not looking forward to the many Americans turned off by the obvious horrors of the Bush administration once again respecting and trusting the president.

Here's the whole article.

Shiny Trees and the Icicle of Damocles

(Note: These pictures are much more impressive if you click to see the larger view!)
Whenever we have freezing rain followed by a sunny day, we are treated to some particularly beautiful "shiny" trees!

And we had this mighty impressive icicle.

I say "had" because after this photo the kids threw ice chunks at it to break it off.

More Gratuitous Kitten Stuff

This just never gets old for us.


Bubba is no longer the boss of his bed.

Blatant, pt. 4

Ah! Here's someone addressing this directly (see my previous 3 "Blatant" posts about the main-stream media's treatment of Ron Paul's campaign).
From a National Public Radio interview with Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, in response to a caller's question about the media blackout of Ron Paul -
"It raises obviously one of the fundamental questions: is press coverage a self-fulfilling prophecy? Can a candidate who doesn’t get press coverage win votes, or do you need the exposure, the oxygen of attention? Last week, the week before Super Tuesday, the coverage that ended Feb. 3, Ron Paul was a significant or primary figure in zero percent of the stories that we analyzed, 600 stories across 48 different news outlets.

Andrew [the caller] is correct in suggesting that the press has discounted the chances of Ron Paul having any success. The fundraising success that he’s having is one of the traditional metrics that journalists use to test viability. If someone is raising money, usually that translates into some attention.

For a variety of reasons, some of them are obvious and some of them are mysterious, Ron Paul gets less coverage than he does raise money, and he gets less coverage than he gets votes. We can go on and on about this. There is no doubt, it’s an objective fact, that the press has decided Ron Paul is not a viable candidate."

Making Good Friends Around the World

Using our military to "spread democracy" or any other "positive" goal is crazy, in my opinion. The military is good at two things: killing people and breaking things, and should be used only when necessary in our nation's defense.

More than three decades after we left Vietnam, and our impact is still felt:
"Not only are Vietnamese still maimed from treading on unexploded bombs, they are also victims of this insidious scourge that poisons water and food supplies, causing various cancers and crippling deformities. Eighty million litres of Agent Orange were sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam, destroying swathes of irreplaceable rainforest through massive defoliation and leaving a toxic trail of dioxin contamination in the soil for decades. The legacy of this chemical warfare can even be inflicted on the unborn, with Agent Orange birth deformities now being passed on to a third generation."
(Rest of the article is here.)

Evangelicals and Ron Paul

Ron Paul has had the poorest showing in the bible belt states, even though he is a pro-life Christian! Here's an interesting piece by a Christian talk show host about why.

And here's another article about how many Christians are considering supporting the Constitution Party because they are so unhappy with McCain's probable nomination. Ahem - what about Mr. Constitution himself, Ron Paul?!? I suppose they don't approve of his unwillingness to force his morality on others (at home or abroad) using the force of government.

And finally - a bit from Anthony Gregory (who is pro-life and anti-state) in reference to some people's criticism of Ron Paul's stance on the Federal govt's role re: abortion:
"Ron Paul thinks the first step the president should take in his official capacity on abortion is to admit he has no say on it, no jurisdiction — it should not be up to the emperor of the "free world" to eradicate sins even as egregious as Ron views abortion. And yet he does speak out against it — which is an appropriate and completely non-invasive way for politicians to try to influence popular opinion and, thus, change society. And he's indeed the only candidate proposing a way to actually circumvent Roe v. Wade -- through simple Constitutional congressional action -- rather than holding it out as carrot to keep the religious right supporting his campaign. If conservatives were really pro-life, and pro-Constitution, his would be the only candidacy they could back. Of course, they aren't."

Blatant, pt. 3

From a USA Today article:

"Giuliani's departure leaves former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as McCain's only GOP rivals...."

It's not news; it's propaganda.

Why can't we all just get along?

...like my cute pets do?
Queueing up patiently for milk.

Daily late-afternoon cuddle.

Bubba shares his bed.

Nationalized Healthcare

Here's an AP story from last year:
"Rare identical quadruplets born in Montana
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Identical quadruplet girls born to Canadian couple in Great Falls, Montana
Babies, all in good condition, weighed between 2.15 and 2.6 pounds
Doctor: Chances of giving birth to identical quadruplets about one in 13 million
Girls born in Montana because Calgary hospitals were at capacity"

The BBC adds: "Health officials said they checked every other neonatal intensive care unit in Canada but none had space."

So, not only are there incredibly long waits for MRIs, hip replacements, and such - you have to wait to have your babies, too! But babies are notoriously stubborn about waiting for the bureaucrats to accommodate them.

I think a lot of people think that if the US nationalizes health care, the system will be pretty much just like it is now, only free! Are people really that naive? And think of our neighbors to the north - if the US ends up getting nationalized health care, too, where will the Canadians get their urgent care from?

Another Casualty of the War on Drugs

It doesn't often come up in conversation, but a lot of people are surprised that I am against the "War on Drugs" and in favor of decriminalization. One of the reasons is that the Drug War's victims tend to be poor minorities - there is a disproportionate number of minorities in prison for drug-related offenses. Here is a terrible story of the tactics used in the Drug War and a woman who was "collateral damage."

Free Market?

From an excellent article by Jeffrey Tucker of the Mises institute, "How Free is the 'Free Market'?"

begin quote:
The argument goes like this:

Until now we've lived in a world of laissez-faire capitalism, with government and policy intellectuals convinced that the market should rule no matter what. Recent events, however, have underscored the limitations of this dog-eat-dog system, and reveal that simplistic ideology is no match for a complex world. Therefore, government, responding to public demand that something be done, has cautiously decided to reign in greed, force us all to grow up, and see the need for a mixed economy.

All three claims are wrong. We live in the 100th year of a heavily regulated economy; and even 50 years before that, the government was strongly involved in regulating trade.

The planning apparatus established for World War I set wages and prices, monopolized monetary policy in the Federal Reserve, presumed first ownership over all earnings through the income tax, presumed to know how vertically and horizontally integrated businesses ought to be, and prohibited the creation of intergenerational dynasties through the death tax.

That planning apparatus did not disappear but lay dormant temporarily, awaiting FDR, who turned that machinery to all-around planning during the 1930s, the upshot of which was to delay recovery from the 1929 crash until after the war.

Just how draconian the intervention is ebbs and flows from decade to decade, but the reality of the long-term trend is undeniable: more taxes, more regulation, more bureaucracies, more regimentation, more public ownership, and ever less autonomy for private decision-making. The federal budget is nearly $3 trillion per year, which is three times what it was in Reagan's second term. Just since Bush has been in office, federal intervention in every area of our lives has exploded, from the nationalization of airline security to the heavy regulation of the medical sector to the centralized control of education.

With "free markets" like this, who needs socialism?
-end quote
read the whole article here

Blatant, pt. 2

Sunday, Jan. 20
from an AP report on Yahoo news:

"GOP presidential race turns to Florida

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 33 minutes ago
MIAMI - The Republican presidential race turned to Florida on Sunday, ever more chaotic and contentious as four candidates began a 10-day sprint to win the state and momentum heading into the de facto national primary next month.

A fifth candidate, Fred Thompson, weighed the future of his bid after a disappointing third-place finish in South Carolina."

If you keep on reading the article, you'll see no mention of the "sixth" candidate. Apparently coming in 2nd in NV and getting more votes than the "fifth candidate" or even the "fourth" one in other primaries isn't enough to get you a mention.

It's like being in one of those creepy futuristic movies where the government and media collude to hide or distort events from the public. Thank goodness we don't live in a place like that! I'm sure this (like all of the other recent examples from various media outlets) is just some random oversight.

Blatant

There were 6 candidates at the SC debate, but only 5 are mentioned in this AP article. Who is left out? Ron Paul. Even though he got more votes than Rudy in Iowa and more than Fred in NH. The unspoken message by the reporter: Ron Paul is so marginal that he's not worth mentioning. Augh!

Here are the total votes cast so far (in Iowa and NH):
1. Romney 103,755 30%
2. McCain 102,361 29%
3. Huckabee 66,876 19%
4. Paul 29,648 9%
5. Giuliani 24,151 7%
6. Thompson 18,712 5%

Happy Birthday to NCLB!

Wow, you're already 6 years old! I remember when you were just a gleam in President Bush's eye. And aren't you special?! Not many 6 year olds cost their "parents" 24 billion dollars per year.

Says Neal McCluskey of the libertarian Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom:

"Six years of No Child Left Behind, and what do we have to show for it? Stagnant reading achievement, slowed math improvements, declining academic performance versus competitor nations, and narrowed curricula, all for the bargain price of about $24 billion per year, or a 40 percent increase over fiscal year 2001."

Cato education expert Andrew Coulson adds:

"It's the NCLB's birthday, and you can cry if you want to. And if you have kids in school, or about to enter school, you might want to."

"[W]hat do you get for the law that's done nothing? Barely a month ago, two separate sets of international test results were released, allowing us to see how U.S. academic performance has changed since NCLB was enacted. ... The tests were PIRLS (Program on International Reading Literacy Survey) and PISA (Program on International Student Assessment)."

"Across grades and across subjects, student achievement has either stagnated or declined -- and that's despite the infusion of tens of billions of dollars of new spending in each of the past six years."

"Mainstream lawmakers outside D.C. acknowledge the unconstitutionality of NCLB, pointing out the Constitution does not authorize federal involvement in education. In 2005, a task force of the bi-partisan National Conference of State Legislatures declared: "The task force does not believe that NCLB is constitutional."

"But as we know, in the Alice In Wonderland world of DC, failure is rewarded with... more money and more power. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are proposing "reforms" for NCLB that would increase federal power and lavish even more money on this failed, doomed, unconstitutional and idiotic boondoggle."

My, how NH has changed

In 1996, NH republican voters chose Pat Buchanan in the primary. What an independent bunch of of voters willing to look outside the establishment and return to more fiscally conservative government! So I thought surely Ron Paul would fare well here, especially after getting 10% in Iowa, where the voters tend to be much more conventional. Well, despite our best efforts


Ron Paul only got about 8 or 9% of the vote. Wow. What surprise! And one situation has come to light that gives me a sinking feeling - some people in Sutton, a town next to ours, noticed that it was reported that there were 0 votes for Ron Paul, even though they knew they had voted for him. Apparently the town made a mistake in reporting their numbers to the state. That one was easy to catch - but what if there are more "mistakes" like that? It's a depressing scenario.

Here's a new article I read today that describes a lot of the characteristics that I have noted about Dr. Paul, both in watching him in appearances and in conversing with him during lunch (scroll down for that)!

Catnip Duet

Lovey and Jazzy play with their new catnip toys, ignoring Bubba's whining and Scott's - um - percussive noises until it's finally too much.

Talk about commitment

If you've looked through my blog you know I'm an enthusiastic Ron Paul supporter, and I feel like I've made good efforts to spread the word - letters to editor, talking to friends, this blog, etc. Well, I'm a real lightweight. A guy knocked on my door today and handed me a piece of Ron Paul literature - and he's from Colorado! He drove all the way out here to help promote Ron Paul for the primary here next week. Wow.