Peace

"Veterans have and will continue to fight on for peace and the rights of his or her country men until there is no need for war."


I believe that peace isn't something you can fight for, not violently, I would hesitate to even say that one can metaphorically fight inorder to achieve peace.

Peace is not meerly the absence of coercion, it's something much more, and therefor couldn't be a state one achieves though violence. When one engages in a war (no matter what scale) it implies a vanquisher and a vanquished, the vanquished is then expected to submit (by force) to the new situation that they are now (made unwillingly to be) in. Can the state of the now vanquished really be called peace even though there is no longer a war taking place?

There is always conflict, shouldn't be seen as war, conflict is the process of knowledge growth - the growth of society, it's how you solve the conflict that is necessary. Conflict can be between ideas, choices (which hat do I buy?), decisions between people, etc.

There ought not be nonvoluntary conflict resolution (war)- in other words, all trade and communication ought to be voluntary. A made action, is a decision made about which was the best choice between any number of options you had before you made the action, implys value.

Could peace be seen as two people making choices that are mutualistic? ( Mutualistic by unintintionalyI may add, for the doll maker and the doll buyer have diffrent reasons for doing their particular action, yet they both support each other and them selves- voluntary actions actually creates wealth! How beautiful is that! It's not the doll that holds the wealth[ the material objects] it's the value one gives to said object that is the wealth the exchanges of diffrent values makes people more wealthy because people trade things becaues they value the thing they are trading for more than what they have [i.e. I value Ice cream more than 2 dollars, sometimes]).



I would say, yes, I honor and respect all humans for the daily choices they make- because all people have reasons and intentions for action, that spring forth from their values. We are all individuals with values, when two individuals meet and agree on something or disagree there is a growth of knowledge to the individual and therefor to the society. (For a society ought to be defined as a group of individuals). "True peace ... suggests the triumph of justice and love among men; it reveals the existence of a better world wherein harmony reigns." (Peace and education Montessori Page 7)

The globe is sphericalish

Rachel Milner
The world is spherical (in as close to relation you can come, disregarding small irregularities such as that the globe is kind of squatty).


What assumptions do I rely upon when I agree with the concept of a spherical earth, and where are my flaws in said assumptions?


Proposition One:

+ If I were to take a reliable mode of travel, such as a ship or plane, and follow in any one direction a compass, I would make a full rotation around the earth, finding myself where I began; therefor, the world is spherical.

1. Assumption One
My senses and efforts to discern the truth of the matter are not thwarted by any outside influences, dependent perhaps upon the assumption that I exist as an independent thinking and experiencing entity at all. That I am able to accurately judge my direction in relation to the earth, where I’ve come from, and where I’m headed.

2.Assumption Two
A compass is constant in the direction that it points towards without significant enough miscalculation to divert me from the circumvention of the globe.

3. Assumption Three-
Once I have circumvented the globe that it is safe to say that it is a sphere and not merely a circle.


Proposition Two:
+The world is spherical because when you go high enough from the surface of it you can see curvature beyond where if it were a circle you would have seen the end.

1. Assumption- the world is not a dome.

Proposition Three:
+Because there is graduating day and night on both “sides” of the globe it is not flat.

1. Assumption One-
The world is rotating very quickly, too quickly to discount the idea that the earth rotates slowly enough to create graduated night and day

2. Assumption two-
That if the earth were to rotate as significantly slower the temperature would be drastically hotter.

So it goes.

You get so used to the numbers, the numbers of people voting, the numbers on your lottery ticket, the numbers for your phones, your bills, your checks, the number of people in your family; all the sudden one person doesn’t seem like anything. One person died in a fire tonight, luckily it wasn’t more. One person was stabbed to death, at least not the whole family was. Why is the loss of one life so damned insignificant, eventually, even 135,000 doesn’t sound like much, even if the entire city of Dresden was wiped clean by American bombers. It’s war, who cares. So it goes.

What a Brave New World

So I was wandering through various, mostly random, ideas about culture and one thought grabbed me. Have you ever noticed how in American Football there seems to be a central leader, yes all the other players on the particular team knows the routine but there is still the man who decides to throw the ball, or not. Does this guy decide the plan? is he the planner? or is there another man who tells him what to do? In football does each man stand on his own, depending on the angle you look at it from, each has his purpose, which creates a whole (like any sport, or thing in general). But he's being told what to do in this sport, which hopefully supports the goal of the individual; to have his team win. I think that American Football, at least to me (not knowing the intricacies), dictates very very clearly a mindset very much present in todays America...

"PLAN" "DICTATE" "PLOW" "DESTROY" "WIN"

. My question is, in the larger arena, what is it that we are trying to win? In "planning" for everyones future, what they should know, "dictating" how they get to that end, "plowing" all that stands in the way of the collective ""altruist"" (which I spoke of in an earlier post), "destroying" the I,



WHAT IS THE PRIZE?


and that's just the team I was speaking of, the crowd gets? Beer, Violence, Sex Appeal (players, cheerleaders, and your fellow fans body heat), Comradarie, Pride.


It's not all bad, I'm not here to say that it is., I do look at some strange parallels between sports and the way governments run themselves.



What a Brave New World, what will its Anthem be?.

Living in a democracy.

What are my responsibilities as I attain adult age of living in a democracy?

I believe that my responsibilities depend upon my values and standards. I value freedoms so I should uphold the right for everyone to have those same freedoms. Living in a democracy the responsibilities that I hold rely solely upon how content I am with going along with a flow. I don’t believe that my responsibility comes in the form of a vote, it comes in the form of understanding what I believe in order to vote, if possible, for those who uphold my beliefs. My responsibilities are to be clear with what I currently believe when asked, to ask questions of my self and others, to educate myself with the truth.

“ Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” (Declaration of Independence, 2nd paragraph).

It is my responsibility to be aware and act in light of those few sentences. I have a responsibility to become comfortable with myself, but not necessarily with my surroundings. I hold myself accountable for those responsibilities because I am the only one that I can control.

Saving vs Spending. MARKET TRENDS

In the past few months I've been talking to my father about how now is not the time to save, "there is no set, or true, value to the dollar, so we should buy things that have true value, like...gold or silver." Of course, my suggestions have not been heeded but, it's worth the breath to say it again.

"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold…The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves." - Alan Greenspan

"But that was before he turned to the dark side. His name? Alan Greenspan. The above quote is from his 1967 essay Gold and Economic Freedom, long before he ever became Fed Chairman." - C.F.LIBERTY

It's all been a joke. Even the value of gold was fiddled with when we did use the standard, though it was certianly better than it is now.


"You know, no nation that abandoned the gold standard has remained great," said Reagan...."would really have stabilized the economy"
Regan, the Gold Standard, and Ron Paul


We naturally have boons and busts, or "spending and saving periods" the problem is not that American's are missing the natural signals, the problem is that the Government is covering THESE United States with unnatural and harmful signals.

So, stay sharp. Buy value.

World Peace?

How do I want to contribute to world peace?


Well, what is “world peace”? When thinking of world peace, does one think of all mankind “singing the same song.” Possibly, but what is the song being sung? Is it the song of the collective or of the Individual? As Ghandi said, "The first step in peace for all is to reach out to the person next to you." Here, the important person is not yourself but your fellows; your responsibility lays in the service of others, how does that create peace? To speak of World Peace is almost detachment of self-responsibility, of course you serve others, but if you yourself are not whole and at peace then in reality you are not doing your true part.

Fighting for world peace can be much like fighting in a bloody war, you are nameless, and in some ways your responsibility of the deaths you have caused now lay as a collective whole on everyone. World peace, I believe, is an abstraction of the true goal, that is, individual peace; the task of true individual peace is more arduous. Now we come to the question, what is peace? I believe peace comes from knowing your own wants and needs and being at peace with the process you choose to achieve such things. To look yourself in the eyes and be comfortable, no doubt that you are at “one” with yourself, your self-purpose. How can this be achieved “peacefully”? To peacefully achieve your own ends you must be conscious of every individuals right to do so, and be wary not to encroach upon the rights of others. In reality, world peace is found in a candy shop, where the child buying candy wants what he’s buying and the man selling the candy values the return. Or, at the street corner at the hotdog booth, the balloon salesman, the hug, honest smiles between any individuals. Humankind is nothing without the individual, and so the world should be regarded as a place of individuals that through striving for their own ends support others in achieve their separate ends, and for the most part, peacefully.

FILMS !

Films

+ American Beauty
+ Brazil
+ Blade Runner
+ Benny and Joon
+ But I'm a Cheerleader
+ Boys Don't Cry
+ Casablanca
+ Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
+ A Clockwork Orange
+ Eraserhead
+ Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
+ The Favour the Watch and the Very Big Fish
+ Firefly (Tv episode - with great symbolisms and connections to US history)
+ Fight Club
+ Garden State
+ Girl Interrupted
+ Gone with the Wind
+ The Graduate
+ The Kite Runner
+ The Matrix 1, 2, and 3
+ My Summer of Love
+ The Meaning of Life
+ Notorious
+ Psycho
+ Pulp Fiction
+ Requiem for a Dream
+ Rushmore
+ Slaughterhouse-five
+ Spun
+ The Sound of Music
+ Thirteen
+ The Virgin Suicides
+ Waking Life
+ Wings of Desire
+ The Yellow Submarine
+ Young Frankenstein

Foreign Films
+ Amelie - Fren.
+ Everything is Illuminated - Ukrainian
+ Mar Adentro - Span.
+ Machuca - Span.
+ Man Facing Southwest - Span.
+ Pan's Labyrinth - Span.
+ Life is Beautiful - Italian and German
+ Wild Strawberries - Swedish

Ghandi and collectivism

Why is he revered as so great?
"I claim to be a humble servant of India and humanity..."

I am just now attempting to learn of what this man did, I was always told that he was a "champion" of the poor- fighting to raise taxes of the few to close the gap between poor and wealthy, that life is about compromising, not your values or religion, but into submission for majority. Doesn't seem something that I revere.



"Lovers of peace at any price save that of Truth."

He deigns even the breath of man as a violence, honoring (?)ahmisa as truth as A is A. He honors non-violence as the path- are not taxes a violence, are not being self-sacrificers a violence of the self? What good are you as a lost entity - with only a purpose to serve your brother whom holds his only purpose to serve his brothers- you have lost the only thing there to save.

"Non-violence in its dynamic condition means conscious suffering...It does not mean meek submission of the will of the evildoer, but it means putting of ones whole soul against the will of a tyrant. ...[to]lay the foundation for the empires fall or regeneration."

"Before I can preach Universal non-violence, I must be wholly free from passion, I must be wholly incapable of sin."

His opinion of God is that we are all representations of God - so he serves God by serving Humanity.

"And is this Power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent. For I can see, that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is the Supreme Good."


Yet he only holds that divinity when we are together as a whole:
"I am a part and parcel of the whole, and I cannot find Him apart from the rest of humanity."

Which makes me think of another such belief, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20. "We must guard our faith, and one of the keys to arming ourselves in the world is to remain in fellowship with others. A Christian is called ... to fellowship."Life as a Christian woman (Blog)

"We must ever fail to perceive Him through the senses, because He is beyond them. We can feel Him if we will but withdraw ourselves from the senses. The divine music is incessantly going on within ourselves, but the loud senses drown the delicate music, which is unlike and infinitely superior to anything we can perceive or hear with our senses." (H, 13-6-1936, pp140-1)

Is Ghandi presenting "the delicate music" as being whole and one with humanity and that you must drown ones own wants/needs in order to achieve such a feat?

Criticize by creating

Critique by creating or, criticize by creating.


Criticizing by creating is literally the creation of a standard for what you are attempting to change and how, in the context of the whole. In other words, when you create something new you imply, or expect, that what you have created has potential to satisfy a group of individuals more than what is already in existence. Example- Clayton (need last name) created a company in Austin, Texas called Sweet Leaf Tea on the claims that

“he and his friends couldn’t understand why bottled tea never tasted as good as homemade. Inspired by the homemade tea that Clayton’s grandmother used to make, he began tasting teas from all over the world and brewing countless batches in his kitchen. With all $10,000 of Clayton’s savings and an old delivery van, Sweet Leaf Tea was born. Soon after David Smith… joined him in their quest to create the best tasting, highest quality bottled tea on the planet.”

(sweet Leaf Tea “Our Story”). A business that has now been, according to the same source previously given, steadily increasing in its profits over the past few years. Though Clayton’s ends may not be to achieve better tea for himself, he has provided it for those whose wants are better tea in return for something he may value more highly. Clayton is a great example of criticizing by creating. When you branch out with your ideas and standards of quality for anything, you are making the assumption that because you have searched for something “better” than what was already around you, that you will succeed in fulfilling the social need. Thousands of entrepreneurs do this everyday (I hope!), creating market competition- it is how a society continues to grow upwards in quality and expectation. It is how the peoples of America achieved and live the change “luxuries into necessities”. The market, rather, the people making up the market of consumers will let you know if you have succeeded in creating something more valuable (“meets their [an individuals] myriad values best”: Dylan Miller) then what is already out there (even if it’s a niche just large enough to sustain you). I spoke with a local, Dylan Miller, in regards to his opinion on “Criticize by creating”:

“…a clever title for a method or process for meeting social needs as an alternative to non-profit…With the aid of the incentive and communication system of the market; you are able to create a sustainable, accountable, effective institution that can operate whether or not all the people involved share your values or goal….It’s more sustainable and has the ability to allow people with local knowledge regarding the problem to play a role in the solution…at this point, [those working in the institution] their social goal, and the (clerk’s) self-interest and knowledge and possibly his social goals as well, coincide to effect change. … Social entrepreneurship has an end goal in addition to, or other than profit; the social need is the reason for the institutions existence.” (Interview source)

“Profit won't cure those ills, but it's becoming a bigger part of more solutions.” (Social Entrepreneurship “The 2008 Social Capitalist Awards”).

Interacting with creation is the most powerful tool of feedback in our nation. Your interactions: your dollar votes, over-coffee-conversations, your questions, are the tools that create the world you live in. You are the answer to question: "Why are things this way and how can they change?"

Life

Life most certainly does not suck, the fact that you can think and reason and pass judgments is as beautiful as you make it. Life is wow - life is more than the ability to reason, yet even the ability to reason is above the laws of physics- life is seeing the world through your subjective values and goals. Life is all the meaning that you give it and get from it. What you say, think, and do affects what life is to you. I utterly abhor the comment above mine and completely disagree with it. If you think about how cool it is that I can send words to you, representations of sounds and concepts, and that you read them and glean meaning from them. Not only that but! You are attempting to grasp the intentions behind the meanings. If I were to say I am a round square- I would be making a statement and attempting to imply that there is a linguistic rule that would back up that statement but infact! aha! it is nonsense that sentence actually means nothing, how cool right?

yeah.

to go on, :). Sensitive is a wonderful thing to be - it means you should listen. Listen to the way your heartbeats, the wind flows through the air and throats, listen to the pain, listen to the worship, listen to each voice attempting to create an existence that they can understand. The pain, the horror- it's an attempt to understand, it's how some rationalize. We are all so awful and flawed compared to our intentions and goals, and in someways it is, and it is beautiful. The sick and the perverse come from not understanding, from not being logical and loving. Love is simplest thing in the world, it is above even reason, which as I stated previously, is above all laws of physics, love is somehow above all things and yet is completely experiential and observable. Or is it? It's this vague and concrete concept all at once...

Love is the free trading that happens between two individuals, and somehow I don't mean to say love between two people that love each other- I mean selling toys to a mother that wants toys for her child. Love is in loving yourself and understanding the un-understandable it's in providing for your wants and needs and somehow in the exact process fulfilling others wants and needs- no one to tell you what to do, not stepping on anyone else's process.

yet, how can love be all things that fall into such a category? How can it not be?

If love is not freedom in all, then what is love? If love is not acting on peacefull understanding and forgiveness, then what is love? If love is not letting yourself feel and act, then what is love?

And if love is not living, then what is living?

p.s. I do think that people have the right to observe other people and judge others actions- "I can see sin in all the world. And I may well hate that sin, but never the sinner."- John Logan. Judgments are totally rational and reasonable they are how we as people understand and categorize information into usable pieces.

p.p.s oh and to be more analytically clear: The purpose to life is self-derived. I hope there is no purpose to life because that would imply fate and fate implies that there is predestination, and predestination implies that I am not a rational choosing person. It also implies that your friend is right in her conclusion that we have no right to pass judgment, because actions wouldn't be connected to the individual and then Ghandi and Hitler would be one in the same, and! then also those judgments I was passing really wouldn't be me at all because I would infact just be predestined to think those very thoughts and writing these very responses.

A sad cynical independent depriving life to live.

All Readers

You are few, if at all :).

I really apologise for only posting Ron Paul's work the past few postings, I wanted to get the message out and didn't have the time, or will, to do it myself.

So I will be back with my own intellect sometime soon, I am exhausted - after having a cold, not reading enough, and standing on a street corner for an hour with a large paper hand painted poster for Ron Paul (unfortunately I didn't take picture of it, seeing as I hand painted it.) I did get two yay! honks, it made standing for the other silent pavement pacers worth it. Oh and the rest comes later


goodnight

Interventionism? Isolationism? Actually, both. :Ron Paul

Interventionism? Isolationism? Actually, both.

A few months back, I wrote back-to-back weekly messages regarding globalism and isolationism. In writing those columns, I focused on the fact that our nation’s interventionist foreign policy was precisely what was isolating us from other countries.

Turkey’s recall of their U.S. ambassador in the wake of last week’s resolution, passed in the House Foreign Affairs Committee in condemnation of Turkey, is a perfect example of what I wrote in those columns, as well as what I have been saying for years.

The House has passed similar resolutions for years, praising some foreign countries or political groups while chastising others. It is my policy to vote against resolutions of this sort whenever they have the impact of placing our country in the middle of an internal political problem of some other nation, or involving us in some regional conflict. In fact, this is almost always the specific intent of resolutions of this sort. Often, I am the only Member of Congress to vote against these resolutions.

Some have questioned these votes, arguing that they are meaningless statements of opinion. However, I have always been more skeptical, and careful, about voting for these measures. Last week’s reaction by Turkey , a long term ally and NATO member, shows that Congress should be a lot more restrained in sticking our government’s nose into the affairs of other nations.

Even though I am no fan of the war in Iraq , keeping positive relations with Turkey is important to protecting our troops who have been sent to fight this war. We are likely to need cordial relations with Turkey so that we can get our troops out of Iraq as quickly and safely as possible, when the time comes.

As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, my office has been contacted both by the White House and the Turkish Embassy. They know I oppose these types of interventionist resolutions and they know I will not support the current resolution. They also know full well that this particular resolution will only serve to strain an important international relationship our country should be seeking to strengthen.

In this instance, the problem is that many of my colleagues in Congress are more interested in seeking to score political points and proclaim their moral superiority, instead of worrying about our nation’s best interests. Also, in most of these situations, those who oppose the resolution regarding Turkey all-too-often fail to realize that similar resolutions dealing with other nations have the exact same effect. Namely, they isolate our country from the rest of the world.

Even if other countries do not take the rather extreme step of recalling their ambassador, this kind of meddling by Congressional resolution almost always serves to offend governments and political leaders in other counties.

Last week’s events make clear that Congress, and our foreign policy establishment, must reconsider the entire policy of interventionism if we are to avoid further isolation of our nation.

Hillary Clinton and her Promises

"Hillary Clinton talked about how she would work to rebuild the economy. She promised that as president, she would create jobs, provide universal health care and create an education system that works, including affordable college tuition.
She said that this would be paid for when troops begin to return from Iraq, bringing money back to the U.S."[1]

OKAY, QUESTION TIME:

Q: What does demanding universal health care create?

A: Bingo! More taxation. (see here for a point of view)

We have two problems—we have the problem of the uninsured and the problem of the underinsured. My American Health Choices Plan would insure every single person for what they need.

It's simple: If you have insurance you like, you keep it. There is no disruption. If you have a good policy through your business or through a union or through a municipality, nothing changes. But if you don’t have insurance – or you don't like the insurance you have – you can choose from the same menu of private plans available to members of Congress. And we will provide tax credits to help you afford it.

My plan also bans insurance company discrimination, so you will never be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions or risk factors that you might have. And we don't require small business to do anything but it does provide tax credits to help small businesses if they choose to afford to buy health care for their employees.

Does it sound nice- someone doing all the work for you? A ‘them’ having the ability to steal from your pocket to create a ‘greater good’ a more Utopian society. Maybe to a select few, or maybe to those who haven't studied the flaws of macro-economics. Honey, the Leviathan is acommin.

Q: What in the world does she mean by 'create jobs'?

A: Sounds completely scary and empty to me. What does an political head figure mean with those two words? She says we are “rebuilding the road to the middle class” who is? My answer, the people are free individuals of trade and intellect, they make choices that reflect their highest values and jobs do arise continually. Her answer is that the government should help, “Hillary will finance her investments in innovation without increasing the deficit by devoting a portion of the revenue from ending tax breaks for companies that shift jobs overseas.” Clinton’s Proposal

“As president, I will lead our nation to create millions of new jobs by investing in clean energy and doubling investments in basic and applied research. I’ll implement a national strategy to bring broadband – and the information economy – to every corner of our country. I’ll improve math and science education, and open up science and engineering to more of our people. And I’ll end the assault on science waged by the Bush Administration.
“As we enter this new world of economic, technological, and social change – our dedication to innovation will be more important than ever. It will be the key to creating new jobs, to harnessing globalization and to rebuilding the road to middle class prosperity.”

This is one of the frustrating myths, her idea encompasses the government allocation of taxes will create something that if the government didn't do, wouldn't happen, if it was wanted/needed, would be made just as well or much better by the entrepreneurs of the people. Not only would the power of the people directly influence the wants and needs of itself, but it would create the honest reflection of the market. [1], [2], Job creation, Government VS The People, What the UN has to say.


Q: REBUILDING THE ECONOMY?

A: In that case! She must be invading the mind and choices of each individual because WE ARE THE ECONOMY- our individual interactions, Micro-Economics. Okay, I’m asking for honesty, is she being very genuine and honest? Because I don't what in the heck she could possibly mean by this statement in a, true way- what does her plan entail and HOW COULD THAT POSSIBLY CREATE LIBERTY?
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/speech/view/?id=5466

We live in a complex, interconnected, global economy. All of our challenges are all together now. We can't just put band-aids on one and expect to solve our problems. What we have to do is have a plan to create good jobs and restore fairness to the economy. We need to renew the promise of America that if you work hard, you can get ahead. We need to return to fiscal responsibility, so that Washington once again lives within a budget, just like you and your family has to do.

It sounds pretty right? But what does it mean to 'restore fairness to the economy?' or to 'create jobs' ? It sounds to me that she has a tiny voice in her head that knows what America is, because she continually states that it's the Peoples place, that the government needs to implement new jobs for us and help us jump start the economy, it sounds pretty but unfortunately, or rather fortunately, it doesn't work that way.

Q: Educational system that works?

A: For whom and who pays, and why not just cut taxes instead of for certain people, and who and what regulates who gets what? That's a whole new unneeded, yucky, job.


Q: Creating affordable college tuition?

A: Who is that hurting? Is she mandating more taxes? Have you ever heard of scarcity? Or the freedoms of private institutions? What about making them all private, how would that compare to her -hopeful- results?

Bring more women and minorities into the math, science, and engineering professions. Increasing the educational attainment of women and minorities, particularly in math, science and engineering, is critical to our future as an innovative nation. Women comprise 43% of the workforce but only 23% of scientists and engineers. Blacks and Hispanics represent 30% of the workforce, but only 7% of scientists and engineers. Unless women and underrepresented minorities develop strong math, science, and engineering skills, the average educational attainment of the American worker will decline. Hillary will direct the federal agencies to adopt criteria that take diversity into account when awarding education and research grants. She also proposes that the federal government provide financial support to college and university programs that encourage women and minorities to study math, science, and engineering.

I feel this as an awful unnecessary perception on who colleges are to admit as students, a very Keynesian way of looking at education. end.

No matter where or when, the essential prerequisite for economic growth is capital accumulation in a framework of freedom and sound money. The consequence of price control is shortage and surplus. The effect of money expansion is inflation and the business cycle. The effect of every form of intervention is to make society less prosperous than it would otherwise be.

Austrian VS Keynesian and Bastiat
That is a GREAT place to go, it has a lot of information in fewer words than many other texts, I recommend.

A prime example of the people doing things that you might not think they would, have faith in humanity, we do work as free individuals, we do. (Providing free RP stickers)

I don't particuarily favor this at all but it's one way to see what she's doing from a surprisingly rising majority of the ex-apathetics Here.

And, Thank You for taking your time to care about your freedoms and reading daunting things in order to fully educate yourself, I say, always carry with you your Constitution and Bill of Rights, we are American Humans, we are humans of democracy and justice.

Controling the Economy? A Laugh- A plea for Change

Here I will list a number of sites YOU REALLY OUGHT TO VISIT:

Election Polling "Results"
Results

Truth News Presents Google's outcome (it's a super short article)-
HERE

A man switched his party from Demo. to Republican to vote for Ron Paul and was Harrassed


Relatively objective standpoint on who Ron Paul is and what his goals are- this is a truly 'awesome' article.NY Times (Christopher Caldwell)
A quote to start your interest in reading this article:

This side of Paul has made him the candidate of many people, on both the right and the left, who hope that something more consequential than a mere change of party will come out of the 2008 elections. He is particularly popular among the young and the wired. Except for Barack Obama, he is the most-viewed candidate on YouTube. He is the most “friended” Republican on MySpace.com. Paul understands that his chances of winning the presidency are infinitesimally slim. He is simultaneously planning his next Congressional race. But in Paul’s idea of politics, spreading a message has always been just as important as seizing office. “Politicians don’t amount to much,” he says, “but ideas do.” Although he is still in the low single digits in polls, he says he has raised $2.4 million in the second quarter, enough to broaden the four-state campaign he originally planned into a national one.

Rep. Ron Paul: I advocate the same foreign policy the Founding Fathers would
Here is an excerpt:

It is not we non-interventionists who are isolationists. The real isolationists are those who impose sanctions and embargoes on countries and peoples across the globe because they disagree with the internal and foreign policies of their leaders. The real isolationists are those who choose to use force overseas to promote democracy, rather than seek change through diplomacy, engagement, and by setting a positive example…

A Paul administration would see Americans engaged overseas like never before, in business and cultural activities. But a Paul administration would never attempt to export democracy or other values at the barrel of a gun, as we have seen over and over again that this is a counterproductive approach that actually leads the United States to be resented and more isolated in the world."

Ron Paul: an absolute faith in free markets and less government

The 10-term congressman from Texas has been a strict constitutionalist since he came into public life some 30 years ago.
"His message is basic: freedom and limited government. Repeal the welfare-warfare state. Get out of Iraq, now. Abolish the income tax. End the war on drugs. Put the dollar back on a more solid footing."Christian Science Monitor

"While Paul was a leading 2008 presidential candidate in GOP straw polls, he saw substantially less support in landline opinion polls and in various early primaries. He has strong grassroots support, facilitated by the Internet, where he leads other candidates in Web searches and YouTube subscriptions. On December 16, 2007, Paul had the largest one-day fundraiser in U.S. political history, raising over $6 million in 24 hours through an independently organized effort." wiki

"During his early days, Paul was influenced by Friedrich Hayek’s Road to Serfdom, which led him to read many works of Ayn Rand and Ludwig Von Mises while still a medical resident in the 1960s. He came to know economists Hans Sennholz and Murray Rothbard well, and credits to them his interest in the study of economics. He clearly remembers August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon closed the "gold window" by implementing the U.S. dollar's complete departure from the gold standard, as the day phe realized what the Austrian school economists wrote was coming true.[32] That same day, the young physician decided to enter politics, saying later, "After that day, all money would be political money rather than money of real value. I was astounded.""[26]
wiki

-In his House farewell address, Paul said, "Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare. Vote trading is seen as good politics. The errand-boy mentality is ordinary, the defender of liberty is seen as bizarre. It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic."

Ron Paul's Freedom Report in April 1978:
Freedom Report


views of Ron Paul and other Libertarians on Education and other issues

Advocate.com

The Daily Paul- individual perspective

"Great Ron Paul Interview"


Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE) is an American non-profit, non-partisan, educational foundation dedicated to public education on the principles of free-market economics, sound money and limited government. It was founded in 1976 by Congressman Ron Paul whilst he was serving on the House Banking Committee as a vehicle to increase understanding of the economic principles of a free-market society.

FREE publishes monographs, books and a monthly newsletter, The Freedom Report, which seek to create a greater public awareness of the principles of limited government and in 1989 FREE established the National Endowment for Liberty (NEFL) in order to develop programs that take advantage of electronic media. NEFL developed and produced the At Issue television series that was seen on the Discovery Network and CNBC.


Hillary VS Ron Paul
What is the Free Republic Afraid Of?


George Washington says it all:
Washington's Farewell address 1796

Tingling in the palms of my hands- Life Lessons

I do not just follow popular trend, or absent mindidly make decisions. I make choices after hours of honest studying with genuine resources-and makes decisions based on the morality and ethics I have developed through my studying. I don't see how I could be accused of not making my own decisions or thinking genuinely for myself. Yes, I happen to have a good professor that does not teach to a test…. rather he provides an environment for us to hone skills the skills crucial in dissecting texts and provides us with critiques and classes designed to developing dialogue skills: in order to prepare me to comprehend- he "teaches" to my intellect. I'm never once told what to believe or why I should agree with anything.
The world is a wide place of resources and amazing literature. I, in class and out of class, study philosophy and economics. I am so grateful to have a professor and friends that have inspired me to become intellectually competent. The debate team I am a member of is Lincoln Douglas debate, it is called value debate - debates based on ethics (morality) and philosophy. It takes effort to comprehend texts and the concepts and beliefs that uphold what the writer is speaking of. Many texts take other texts to decipher because they use other concepts to defend their statements. To be able to read Rousseau’s Social Contract and know exactly why I disagree and what philosopher and or reasoning upholds my belief. These things are backed up with reason -and it's rewarding all in itself to me, every AHA I achieve makes breathing my next breath all the more worth it. I am a slave to reason and intellect, I'm happy for that.
During a large part of my life I felt as if things were pointless and held no basis for existing. I held on to living in hope that things would magically get better. I was obviously so stuck in the nonage of my surroundings, and wanted so badly to be lead. I didn't want to have to think for myself- in even further laymen’s terms: I had my own thoughts but I didn’t know what to think of the government or anything beyond what I had encountered in my life and just wanted someone that was “right” to tell me how everything should be, fortunately, for my own sake, no one was ever right enough to latch onto- I admit to that. I was mostly into thinking about the emotional realms of life and death and such. In 8th grade I began to accept myself as a valid human being that deserved to be treated kindly and as a human- healing some damage I had held onto so now my focous was less on the emotional realms. Well, I became SLIGHTLY restless around 9th grade with this way of being- letting others think for me. I really didn't let others think for me, I just didn't really have strong basis for my beliefs and simply didn't do much at all besides busy myself with thoughtless actions. Actually, I was always very strong in believing in my individual rights and the respect of other individual rights I was just plain lazy and didn't purse many things besides companionship and pursuit of hiding from my own loneliness. As I said beforehand, I became restless in not being able to reasonably justify why I though MY means to the ends I wanted achieved things better than, my parents (emotionally I was rebelling in an intellectual way to them rather than with drugs and such). So I would frequently get very upset with society and my family and my schooling- that I didn’t learn anything and that no one would teach me- and blame my feelings on other people- when really it was my lack of letting myself educate (that sentence sounds weird but it is typed correctly to what I am saying there). I began a slow and painfully (made by myself) activity of gnawing off the chains that I had bound myself in by attaching myself to laziness and reliance(dependence on others). Freshman year I tentatively peeked into a few debate classes and felt inspired and still VERY fearful of the possibility that I was responsible for my own education; (I was still coming to this awareness and still very much wanted to “be taught”) so I didn't go to debate much. In sophomore year, I again took steps into the “realms of knowledge” (I now call the cave) and was frightened… this time my understanding of myself, I knowing that I wanted to know more and be able to tell my mom what I thought -without just yelling that I hated the world and that I hated the “stupid government that was ruining my life and forcing me to attend school”, held me there in debate class. Because I knew that I could not ignore that want to change this time, because I had started knowing that I had possibility at my fingertips to change my own resistance and soon I would begin to understand my ignorance- this scared me so much, I felt even more lonely as if I would never understand these things. Well I wouldn't attend a debate tournament and I was still fairly fearful and focused much on what I didn't have and what I didn't like and how fucked up the world is and how I'm hopeless and I "just want to stop existing". The more you learn, the smaller you become to your own self. Well skipping over my many groans all spurred from my fear of responsibility and freedom- we come to Junior year.
This year, I felt ready and excited- having come to terms with my reasons for not wanting to be my ultimate potential- I was ready to over come the stupidity of them all (I’m still working on becoming the best I can be- that’s a daily thing).
First day of Theories of Knowledge Class- we all came in and sat down quietly at the table… waiting for instructions of what to do (!) exciting, my first day of this class I had been waiting and waiting for! Well… Professor Loan didn't say anything- he sat there for about 10 min. we asked him a few times like "hey, what's up?" "What are we doing in class today?" the like. He eventually stood up and going to the white board wrote a quote or some collaboration of a quote (I’ll update this Monday when I find the exact quote) "I am a public school teacher, I teach the lesson of dependency, ...skipping parts because I left my notebook at school...Good people wait for those better educated than themselves."

from this article - although most likely it was from the actual book. (http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt) I've been reading some of the PROFOUND things that this guy has written and wow!

"Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die."

– John Taylor Gatto
(http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_john_taylor_gatto.htm)

This one is so so so good- http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/john_gatto.html

I'm going to look into the library system and if they don't have any of his books I will order "dumbing us down" because I am genuinely interested.
Any ways back to Junior year and that first day of class, well it really put pressure back on that idea that I am insanely crucial in my role of learning, regardless of what I had previously let myself fall into -of wanting to be taught. The teacher is not good unless the student realizes that teachers aren't there to do the learning for them. As Twain stated, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." and "A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. " Well the next few weeks we worked on reading Mark Twains- Corn-Pone Opinions and Kant's "What is Enlightenment" (not the complete article on Enlightenment). After a few hours spread over about 3 weeks-dialoguing and reading over the articles we had to write a short paper and then revise and make it longer and then make it longer again….and then again finally ending about 1,500 word essay on whether or not Mark Twain and Immanuel Kant agreed or disagreed.
Well to say the least, those first few months of school, have been the best experience of my life and it's only gotten better since then. (I highly recommend those two readings- btw Brittany I need my Twain back please). My passions for the intellect this year have been the pivotal point in almost all of my decisions.
In my sophomore year I decided that I wanted to do film as a college graduate school program and since I did then appreciate to some extent the intellectual realm, I said I wanted to learn about it all and be able to use these amazing concepts in my films. Well this has been becoming more and more evident as the path that I want to choose, if I am not competent as a film producer or something sad like that - I will still most certainly be able and happy in my passion of economics and philosophy. I have read so little, and have so much to read - it's inspiring and exciting: despite the let downs of the fact that many people are unaware of all of these beautiful resources I over come that- and love talking about anything intresting..haha with anyone. So here I am in January 2008, a little over half way through an amazing school chapter in my life.

I love people, I love being challenged and challenging beliefs, that's why I do debate- so coming back to debate (seeing as I never finished that thought here are some things about a passion of mine.) I'd like to proudly announce that this past weekend I made a new leap in becoming who I want to be and attended a debate tournament, I lost all three rounds and I'm so glad that I did- I learned a lot more about how much work and effort I need to start giving myself. But none the less, I did attend and I am happy that I did so. Not only were the rounds important to me but the interactions with the people I met and my perceptions on education- I met a few debaters that didn't know how to use reason in their arguments and would say things like "being gay is just...nasty...well why?...."because it just is...". I am glad my team attended, because we challenged someone beliefs and maybe changed something even if it's just that they have now met people that challenge what they are used to in their groups of friends.

The reason LD debate is named after Lincoln and Douglas is because their debates were centered around slavery and the morals, values, and logic behind it. Unlike policy debate, Lincoln Douglas does not require vast amounts of statistics or other empirical data. LD is a logical debate divided into a central Value that the debater claims his case achieves, a value criterion (way to achieve the Value), and commonly 2-4 logically developed contentions that back the value and criterion.

" I have been debating for a long time. In fact, sometimes I sit back and think about how long I’ve been involved in this activity and I almost faint. The reason I’ve done it so long is because I love it. Although I now debate CEDA, I still really care about L.D. I coach it and judge it and I want to see it develop into a debate form that is respected. The person who taught me L.D. influenced the way that I perceive the event. To me, L.D. isn’t about squeezing a policy round into forty-five minutes. It isn’t about research, it isn’t about speed---it’s about thinking. I have debated policy and I sincerely believe that it is far easier than L.D. The preparation for policy may be intense, but the actual round is not as hard. L.D. requires you to think about the assumptions of what you say and what you believe. It also forces you to analyze both sides of a value claim. In this way, L.D. is incredibly important. There is no question that the way(s in which) people perceive the world is very different. In many cases, people’s refusal to attempt to understand these differences is the cause of much conflict. The kind of questions that I believe L.D. should address are the kinds of questions that everyone should think about because it is these questions that call into mind the fundamental assumptions that make us see the world in the way that we do. By calling into question these assumptions, people are better equipped to understand that there are different ways of viewing the world, none of which is fundamentally more legitimate than another. By placing these issues into the framework of debate, L.D. forces young people to expand their own thought processes."
- Leah Castella
Pi Kappa Delta National Lincoln-Douglas Champion, Fifth Place Winner and Third Speaker at the CEDA National Championship
(http://www.wcdebate.com/2ld/7values.htm)

Humanity, uphold our freedoms (it’s this revolutionary thing called thinking, questioning, and listening that I’ve noticed needs to happen more often-even in myself),

• http://www.reason.com/


• http://www.cato.org/


• http://www.independent.org/


• http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/


• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kkNyMmjDWU


• http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/debates.htm


• http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/cornponetwain.htm


• http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Gatto.html

P.s. I attended the Mises talks on many interesting things that I'd love to share with people that are interested in economics.

about about EYE CATCHER.

Something to tell you what this blog is about (not that the definition under my blogname doesn't ENTICE YOU ENOUGH!). I'm a cool cat of some various age, born in some not very innocuous decade. This blog is like...an exploding sun- supernovae of supernaturally small proportions that travel from your blinking electrical object (be it a computer of some type or a small portable object that fits in your pocket) all the way to your eyes that see this upside down...your brain flips it "upside" and you continue to read on! I plan to .. write of the things dwelling among other things inside of the walls called my skull. Honestly your adventures (hopefully) on this blog should be some what of a "liberating experience". . . I'm taking the liberal arts approach (as best as I can).

1. Musical endeavors- sounds, lyrics etc.
   
2. Essays and the like from what I am reading or what I have stumbled upon - hopefully accompanied by questions and paragraphs of my own.
3. Photography
4. Movies I'm interested in (I'd like to have a list accumulate of the films you ought to see in your life).
5. Class notes - because some of my classes really just are that good.
6. RANDOM OOZE from lots of sources that make my soul itch (that's good of cource)
7. political, economical, philosophical articles and opinions (political specials particularly between now and the 2008 elections). Hopefully those political articles where I highlight each person (or a select few) will expand your understanding of things and lead me to write more segments on the individual aspects of the things that they support.
   
8. Quotes per post
9. Poetry/literature/short stories
10. Comics
11. Inventions
    
12. more eye catching, grab your brain and pull things out types of topics/things
13. and maybe a few links to other sites.

I'm going to like the comments, they are something that will help influence some of the directions that I take and expand upon- so leave them.

Peace.

"The unexamined life is not worth living."- Socrates in Plato, Dialogues, Apology
Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC - 399 BC)