Questions for the 2012 Presidential Debates Which Won’t Be Asked

Questions not to be asked of the Presidential nominees:

• Would you kill a 16-year-old boy with a drone strike if the CIA considered him a potential threat and possible future terrorist due to his familial relations?
• What classifies an American citizen as a terrorist?
• You have received numerous donations from various international banking and investment companies.  Do they have more influence on your decision making than the average American citizen?
• Should Kim Dotcom be allowed to set up a new Megaupload website?
• Recently, French scientists discovered that GMO corn causes cancer in rats.  Should further studies be conducted and should the Monsanto Corporation be investigated?
• Al-Qaeda has been shown to be behind the rebellion in the various Northern African and Middle Eastern countries.  Should the rebels continue to be supported?
• The United States’ national debt is now around 16 trillion.  Do you have a plan to pay this off along with serious mathematical models to back up your claims?
• Recently, the Bilderberg group met in Chantilly, Virginia.  What was your role in attending or sending one of your officials to attend?  What did you all agree on at that meeting?
• If Israel were to attack Turkey, a NATO ally, would the United States remain neutral or come to the aid of its longtime ally Turkey?
• Do you agree with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s decision to proceed with indefinite quantitative easing?
• In August of 2012, Brandon Raub was committed to a mental institution for posting inflammatory comments on his private Facebook page.  Were the Federal, State, and Local police force correct to do this?
• Do you support the Department of Homeland Security providing grants to local towns in order to purchase law-enforcement tanks and other assorted armored vehicles?
• Do you support the continued use of the Transportation Security Agency to perform pat downs?
• Given that the full body scanning machines has been shown to cause cancer in people, do you support their continued usage?
• Given that the full body scanning machines have been show to not keep people from getting metallic objects and bombs on airplanes, do you support their continued usage?
• Should the United States continue with all of its foreign aid programs?
• Should the FBI and various other Federal law enforcement agencies be allowed to continue its policies of entrapment in order to ensnare potential criminals?
• Should the House of Representatives be increased to its Constitutional size of 1 House member per 30,000 people?
• Is the Federal Reserve a private organization or a public organization?  If it is public, should they then be audited?  If it is private, should they be shut down as only Congress can print and coin money under the Constitution?
• Can you explain how the Gross Domestic Product is calculated?
• Can you explain how the Consumer Price Index is calculated?
• Can you explain how the unemployment rate is calculated?
• Given that Federal defense spending, national debt interest, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security all constitute over two-thirds of the budgetary needs, which of these would you cut in order to reach a balanced budget?
• What is the President’s role in resolving the abortion debate?
• What is your stance on State Nullification?
• If your wife asks you if she is getting fat, what is your response? (yes, this one is important)

The Real Reason for QE3 And How to Fight Back

So recently, Federal Reserve Chairman (and bankster puppet) Ben Bernanke has announced quantitative easing round three.  Though the public reasons about about stimulating the economy back into shape, it is clear that this new round, which will last forever and really has nothing to do with fixing the economy.

I know that is not what is publicly stated, but since when have any of these elitist snobs ever been straight with all of us dumb masses?  The interests of Joe Public has never aligned with their interests and it never will so long as they do not fear us.  But that’s another blog post for another time.

In any case, the real reason for the massive influx of the supply of money, along with interest rates staying at zero percent for those of us who want to save, is actually quite simple once you peel away all the confusing mathematics, charts, and economic jargon (or bullshit wording): to prevent the major banking firms in the world from collapsing under their weight of bad investments.

The major international banks, you see, made some risky get-rich-quick schemes through malinvestment.  A major one was, of course, the housing market, but that is not the sole one.  There are others, such as student loans and government debt itself.  The point is, they made a lot of bad bets and they do not wish to accept the consequences of their failure.  Basically, the banksters are trying to beat the natural laws of economics and get rich in the process.

The fact is, the central banksters and their private banksters compatriots wish to inflate the currency in an effort to curb the debts they have acquired.  In an inflationary market, debt is not a huge issue as it can be paid down with the larger money supply.

What this means for us, though, is that if they succeed in creating an inflationary market, then the rest of us will be boned.  Our savings will be virtually meaningless and the cost of goods and services will skyrocket.  Wages and salaries will be the last thing to rise with inflation as that is always the last things to be taken care of in this kind of market.  Remember too that not all professions or companies will do this evenly either.  Some may get their inflation-adjusted wages earlier than others.  The immediate result of this is a lowered standard of living for everyone.

However, there is a way to prevent this.  I know that the powers that be are going to stop at nothing to keep the dollar machines going, both the paper ones and the digital ones.  And it is clear that there is very little that we can do at the moment to deter or dissuade them to continue to do so.  And no, I don’t believe that voting for either Obama or Romney will stop this madness.  Both men are either too stupid to see what is obviously going on or they are in cahoots with them for some personal benefit (like playing Leader of the “Free” World).

What we can do, however, is actually just a few simple things in our own lives that will deter the banks and bring about real reform and change much faster than a ballot box ever could.  The first thing we must do is to become debt free.  I know that many people have huge debts on their cars, houses, and college education.  My wife and I started with probably around 60K ourselves in car and student loans.  But we paid it all off.  It took some time and careful planning.  Many times it appeared hopeless to both of us.  But we did it in five years time.  We probably could have gotten it done sooner too if we decided to live on much less than we had too.  Getting out of debt means you will no long be feeding the bank machine with interest payments.  The dollar supply will only increase with the expansion of debt.  Not only that, but if you are debt free, you will be better equipped for any economic crisis.

The second thing you need to do is to not take on any new debt.  Cut up your credit cards and don’t take out any more loans.  As I said, inflation happens when the money supply is increased and the only way it gets increased in our financial system is when banks loan money.  If there are no debtors, then no new money is created.

The third thing is to move your money out of the major banks and into local banks and credit unions.  Or to none at all.  While the little ones may have more restrictions on their accounts, at the same time they are probably not big players in the ongoing bankster swindle.  Also, local banks and credit unions will invest in local businesses, which may provide more stable situation for your community.  They are also less likely to take your money like MF Global did when their bad investments hit the fan.

The final thing you can do is to stop using Debit Cards for most of your purchases.  My wife and I use cash for just about everything we spend money on.  The few exceptions are when we pay online bills and make online purchases or for one-time major purchases.  For our regular business, we use cash.  Try and keep the type of cash in the lower numbers, such as Ones and Fives, because retailers are starting to accuse people of counterfeiting if they bring in 20s and 100s.

I know that these are big things and will require large changes in your own lifestyle, especially if you are use to regularly swiping a credit card.  I know that it hard to do and that our consumption-based culture is one that is difficult to break.  But the fact is, we are not powerless when it comes to monetary policy.  All it really takes is a little discipline.

The Lost C.S. Lewis Trilogy

I just finished reading C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy (look at the Amazon book list widget for the various books) and it was thoroughly enjoyable this time around as it was the last time around.  I discovered some new things in this books that I must have missed in the previous read or simply glossed over.

The first book, Out of the Silent Planet, starts us off with the introduction of Elwin Ransom, who is the protagonist in the first two books and plays a huge role in the latter half of the third book.  He is abducted by Professor Weston and an old school acquaintance Dick Devine (why would you choose the name Dick as your nickname, I’ll never know) and transported to Mars.  The book brings up many important themes about life on other planets and questions, given his fallen nature, whether or not we are supposed to travel into space and colonize other worlds.

Ransom himself manages to escape from his captors shortly after arriving and, being an expert philologist, is able to quickly pick up the language of the natives, of which there are three distinct species.  Much of the focus here is his interaction with the natives and how the habits of humans seem to confound them and shock Ransom into realizing the full gravity of the Fall and what was truly lost as a result.  For the longest time, Ransom assumes that the three specifies are organized into a caste-type system when the reality is that each species is simply doing what it desires to do.

The character of Weston is most intriguing as he exemplifies a warped sense of progressivism where humanity must survive beyond their own death, even if that means Earth itself is destroyed.  While the forces that are backing Weston are not made fully clear until the third book, along with the larger motives, it is made clear that Weston is out of his element on Mars.  He fails to recognize that the natives there are just as capable as humans are, just have had no desire for massive technological advancement that humanity has undergone.  Because of the apparent lack of technological advancement, Weston assumes them all to be dupes and dunces.  He cannot conceive of other possibilities.

Devine is merely an opportunist and he has traveled there in order to collect gold.  He is mostly Weston’s lackey throughout the novel, despite being a much more astute observer of the reality of the situations they find themselves in.  He plays a much bigger role in the third novel.

The Martians are, however, ruled by an Oyarsa, which is a kind of energy being, barely visible to the human eye.  It is made clear that the Oyarsa is not some kind of angel, and that they live in the heavens with the planets being more like a stop on the way.  Still, they are sometimes assigned to watch over some planets where sentient life exists.  The Oyarsa of Mars is annoyed with Weston as he tries to find the man behind the curtain, so to speak, but eventually Weston realized that there are higher beings than man and that he has just met one.

It is important to note that the Oyarsa of Mars lets Ransom know that the Oyarsa of Earth is “bent” or evil.  It was banished to Earth and is more than likely the Devil or Satan that we often hear about, although it is never explicitly stated, as far as I can remember.  This highlights the main theme of the novel in that it is Earth which is silent, or cut-off, from the rest of the universe because of its bent Oyarsa.  But calling Earth Thulacandra, or “Silent Planet” also highlights how much of the real world is hidden from the eyes of men.  On Mars, or Malacandra as they call it, the Martians regularly speak with eldila (lesser Oyarsa), and are aware of the supernatural world.  But on Earth, man is unable to discern such things, especially in the modern age.

The second book, Perelandra, takes place some time after the first one.  Here, Ransom is assigned to travel to Venus, or Perelandra.  His mission is not made all that clear at first, only that Earth’s Oyarsa is attempting a covert invasion of the new world.  Venus, you see, is just starting to be filled with life and it is believed that the bent eldila, along with Thulacandra’s Oyarsa, wish to take it over.  However, they are not willing to risk outright invasion as they would be crushed by the combined might of the rest of the universe’s eldila and Oyarsas.  So they send Ransom, largely because he is the only human who has mastered the language of the universe which he learned on Mars and because being a human and a Christian, he would know right from wrong and probably be better equipped to deal with the problem.

Ransom learns that Venus is to be a new Eden with a new Adam and Eve.  He meets the “Eve” of this world but his joy is short-lived as Weston arrives in his own ship.  It becomes quickly clear that Weston himself has become possessed by the dark eldila (how many is not certain and it is not clear if the Oyarsa of Earth possesses him either)  and has effectively eliminated Weston the man from existence.  What follows is a battle of wills, with “Weston” tempting the Lady to disobey God’s command while Ransom struggles to stop him.  Of course, “Weston” does not play fair, intertwining lies (a concept currently unknown to the Lady) and stories as well as keeping Ransom awake into the night.  “Weston” himself does not require sleep.  Eventually, the situation becomes desperate and Ransom is given a difficult task that ultimately determines the planet’s fate, as well as the fate of the King and Queen of that world.

The final book, That Hideous Strength, is my personal favorite.  This one can be read separately from the others, although there are few things you may miss if you haven’t.  The main focus of this book is on the struggles of Jane and Mark Studdock, two newlyweds.  Both characters through the course of the novel undergo a conversion to Christianity, but it does not come easily as both are secular progressives at the beginning.

Mark is a vain man who wishes merely to fit in.  He is a man who spent his entire life trying to get in on the secret circle of friends.  Throughout the novel, we have him thinking he is wanted or desired by the nefarious NICE (National Institute for Coordinated Experiments) when the reality, which is obvious almost from the start, that they are playing him.  While I won’t speak of their true motives, Mark finds himself in a very unfortunate position toward the end, largely because of his own foolishness and vanity.

Jane is a modern wife, who desires equality, yet cannot bear the emptiness she feels in her marriage.  She gets offended when the good side suggest she talk with Mark about certain decisions and much of her story focuses not only on St. Anne’s, the good side opposing NICE covertly, but her role as a wife to Mark.  Throughout most of the novel, Mark and Jane do not interact with each other.  It is interesting to see how that side of things plays out.

I won’t go into too much detail about the NICE but I will say that Lewis probably wrote the most accurate portrayal of New World Order-type organizations I have ever read about.  Even today I see a Fairy Hardcastle running a police force and a Filostrato trying to rid humanity of its organic limitations.  Dick Devine shows up as a member of NICE, but is quite clear he is only in it for himself and not the higher cause to which NICE represents.

As for St. Anne’s, it is merely the polar opposite of NICE.  I don’t want to talk too much about this group as I would give away too much about it.

It is shame that I will probably never see these novels portrayed on film.  The problem with these books is that while they are great adventures in science fiction and fantasy, they are also overtly Christian and, in some places, violent.  Hollywood barely tolerates Christian stories being made into films, unless they are implicit references and are children’s films.  They barely could get out The Book of Eli, with many of the people demanding less Christian references.

So your only alternative is to simply read these lost classics.

Oh, and one other thing: the third book indicates that this storyline occurs in the same universe of J.R.R. Tolkien's  Middle-Earth, only much later in time.  Of course, this is probably a superficial crossover, as the trilogy was written around the same time as The Lord of the Rings, but still an interesting fact nonetheless.

The Origins Of Bad Ideas

How a man lives matters.  Character matters.

Well, it matters in the sense that the man in question is producing “new” ideas out there to be picked up by other people.  There has been no shortage of such philosophers in the whole of human history.  I suspect that there were plenty in prehistoric times as well.

But how they live is the best metric you can use to both understand their ideas as well as make a more accurate judgment as to what their ideas are worth.  In many cases, you’d be surprised at the lifestyles of the progenitors of the current mainstream ideas.

John Maynard Keynes, for example, who wrote The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, has had a huge influence on the economic policies of Western civilization.  Like it or not, most politicians follow Keynes’ ideas over all other.  Even many of Milton Friedman’s ideas grew out of Keynes’ own ideas.

But if the mainstream media highlighted Keynes’ personal life, I’m sure a good number of people would be rejecting his ideas flat out.  John Maynard Keynes was a bisexual who preferred relationships with men over women and a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group.  He was known to have funded their arts through his own investments and, as such, funded a lot of perverse and controversial things in his day.

Now, I’m not saying that his ideas about sex and sexuality were incorporated into his economic ideas, but I have to say that he was most certainly influenced by them.  You don’t live a life of perverse hedonism and then turn around and not produce a work, a theory, or an idea that is not influenced by it.  In Keynes’ case, it was clear that he believed that debt did not matter, that the investment would pay off over time if applied properly.  This perfectly reflects a life of investing and profiting off a predictable market in order to fund his more unsavory personal life.

Karl Marx was a big moocher in his day.  And not a common beggar who would get money from friends but a man who would literally blow the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a few months, all of which was other people’s money.  He must have been a very charismatic man as more than once he bankrupted so many suckers with his extravagant lifestyle.  This was a man who probably never earned an honest dollar in his life.  Note that I am well aware that Marx did not deal in dollars in his day, but it is easier for me to use such terms.

It is no small wonder that Karl Marx would write a book that emphasized communalism and the shared used of resources among the people.  In truth, he knew that his political and economic theories would ensure that someone like him would always have the best stuff without the effort of working for it.  What a despicable man he must have been and his good friend Friedrich Engels was a huge fool to boot, allowing Marx to take advantage of him is so many ways.

Alfred Kinsey loved to shoved objects down his urethra (I apologize for such imagery but I must be honest) in order to gain some kind of sexual gratification.  It is no wonder that this professor of bugs would then write a flawed set of books detailing his warped studies on human sexuality.  Now that we have properly tallied the population, it turns out that the homosexual population is not 10% as Kinsey once said, but closer to 1.5% with the whole of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender being probably no more than 3% of the general population.

But Kinsey wanted to be seen as normal.  He wanted to put his perversions, of which not even many homosexuals engage in, to be generally accepted as normal and he hated the world for rejecting his lifestyle.  So he produced a study, of which he was know to have thrown out his own research.  In other words, he produced works designed to influence the public into deviant lifestyles.

I know I’ve picked on a few prominent men, so I think it is high time I at least tell you that I live in a condo with my wife and that I don’t lead an extravagant or overly hedonistic lifestyle.  But that doesn’t make my ideas any better than others as I don’t know much myself.

But I’m not so dense as to not see the origins of bad ideas.

The Will of the Majority vs. The Constitution

No, they should not

This video illustrates an important point to remember when discussing politics: is the government allowed to do it?

In the mainstream media and in every major campaign outlet, it is assumed that the government can do anything it pleases, provided that the majority of people have voted on it, either directly or indirectly via representation.  This is prevalent among both parties, just that both have different ways of saying it.

For Republicans, as an example, they believe that the Federal government has unlimited authority when it comes to war-making powers.  More specifically, they believe that the President is allowed to make all the wars he wants, so long as Congress approves it within 90 days.  Of course, they argue that this is perfectly constitutional, never-mind that they probably could not cite the article or section in the Constitution that grants these powers.

The Democrats, as an example, tend to argue that the government can do whatever it pleases with regards to economic matters.  They might cite constitutional precedent, but they have, by and large, not done much of this as of late (Republicans have not either).  The fact is, they feel that the government is allowed to set wages, force us to buy products we might otherwise not buy, and generally control commerce.  Never mind that the whole lot of them (and by them I mean Republicans too in this case) are nothing but a bunch of failures in their own lives.

It is astounding that nobody in the mainstream media even bothers to say that the Federal government has specific limits and that no majority of vote can overturn it.  Instead of regarding the Constitution as a document that sets boundaries for the government, we are instead told that I merely defines the structure of our government and that’s about it.

It is sad that the majority of voters believe in the latter while neglecting the former implication of this basic concept.  And then they hoot and holler when a freedom is taken away by the very same people they voted into office.

Of course, the Constitution is only as good as the people sworn to uphold it.  I’m not impressed with my options.