Well said!

The future isn’t going to be exactly like the past, but enough so that you shouldn’t delude yourself that high tech toys will stick around. Be ready to devolve. And not in a hippie commune tree hugging windmill powering the boom box playing a CD of bongos serenading unicorns kind of way but a nastier serfs starving amid Thirty Year Wars while dying of Plague kind of way.

James Dakin at jamesmdakin.blogspot.com

Rudyard Kipling is awesome:

Dane-Geld
A.D. 980-1016

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night-- we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"

Theo Spark: Money IN the Bank? Loser!......................fro...

 Welcome to the New Normal.  Ain't the future grand?  I am not in the isolationist camp at all, and I think generally globalization provides all kinds of opportunities.  Unfortunately (I now realize) it puts us into a game with a bunch of sovereign governments whose general premise is "all my citizen's stuff belongs to me".  If they play this (bail-in) game then the US is involved in a game where that is acceptable.  Not only acceptable, apparently, but already established as law.

Theo Spark: Money IN the Bank? Loser!......................from Rico...:

We have all been conned. hoodwinked, bamboozled into thinking that "money in the Bank" is a good thing.

It is not. - Remember Cyprus?

Money IN the Bank potentially makes YOU a loser.

The 'guidance' of the BIS, BoE, and FED re: the Cyprus situation was purposely vague, misleading, and overly 'technical' because to plainly cite the legal situation would send everyone running to their Bank with their hair on fire to immediately withdraw 'their' funds. [Read: Bank Runs]

In summary, this is exactly how "money IN the Bank" works:

- When you deposit YOUR money in the Bank, you transfer ownrship of that money To the Bank. It becomes THE BANK'S MONEY and as a 'depositor' you instantly become an unsecured creditor.

- You have a 'claim' on an equal sum of money and can ask for it back.

- If the Bank won't return an equal sum to you, it can be sued under tort law, so long as the Bank is solvent...providing you 'ask' for your money back.

- If the Bank is 'broke' then as an 'unsecured creditor' you wind up with pennies on the dollar or even zero since 'secured creditors' of the Bank get paid first.

This is the LAW. For reference, it was established under UK law in 1848 by 'Foley vs. Hill'...once a desposit has been made into a Bank, the Bank becomes a debtor and the depositor a creditor.

- The Bank has NO trusteeship or fiduciary duty to depositors, and cannot be prosecuted under criminal law (bet you're surprised that (a) Eric Holder was RIGHT on this point, and (b) not surprised that he did not cite the exact legal reason in his statement - Banks cannot be held liable to depositors for gambling [think 'OTC derivatives' and 'swaps'] or misusing [think risky loans, bad investments, sovereign bonds like Greece, or huge bonuses to themselves] with THEIR OWN MONEY).

Almost universally, depositors 'think' that money in the Bank is THEIRS. It is NOT. Almost no depositor thinks of themselves as a 'creditor'...much less an 'unsecured creditor.'

This is the 'scam' in plain sight. It's almost as funny as the saying 'sound as a dollar.'

In closing, with a respectful hat tip to Mr. Jim Sinclair, it's time to start getting out of the system.

- As Bank depositors learned in Cyprus, that 'money IN the Bank' isn't really there for them when things 'go South.' How many of them do you think now wish they had their assets outside the system before it blew itself up?

Your government at work...

Nuff said.

Roy Roger's Prayer

I became a Roy Rogers fan later in life.  To me he is what Hollywood stars ought to be:  a good role model to folks who pay to see his movies.

Anyway, I just came across this, Roy Roger's prayer, which he asked to be said at the beginning of each Roy Rogers Riders' club meeting :

Lord, I reckon I'm not much just by myself,
I fail to do a lot of things I ought to do.
But Lord, when trails are steep and passes high,
Help me ride it straight the whole way through.

And when in the falling dusk I get that final call,
I do not care how many flowers they send,
Above all else, the happiest trail would be,
For You to say to me, "Let's ride, My Friend."

Amen

The Roy Rogers Riders Club Rules

1. Be neat and clean.
2. Be courteous and polite.
3. Always obey your parents.
4. Protect the weak and help them.
5. Be brave but never take chances.
6. Study hard and learn all you can.
7. Be kind to animals and take care of them.
8. Eat all your food and never waste any.
9. Love God and go to Sunday school regularly.
10. Always respect our flag and our country.

Good stuff.  Roy Rogers site here, at RoyRogersWorld.

I had a conversation with some anti-gun folks the other day.  They were wildly misstating and misinterpreting the 2nd amendment, and then saying "you're interpreting that using 20th century understanding of those words... I'VE looked into it and know really what they meant back then."  I explained that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were argued at length in what are now known as the federalist papers, by folks who actually lived in the 18th century and who actually wrote the Constitution, and so probably had a better understanding of what they meant than this individual who was trying to twist their words into pretzels 200+ years later (e.g. "by 'right of the people', they meant 'right of the states to form militias'").

Anyway, I saw this on Patriot Post (patriotpost.us), and it reminded me of that conversation.  Incidentally, the founding fathers were a pretty amazing bunch of guys.

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positives forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers, may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual state."

--Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28, 1787

Which was 18th century language for "gird your loins".

National Socialism redux

Very interesting - Abortion Icons change their perspective

Well this is cool.  Roe v. Wade is the iconic abortion case where the US Supreme Court held that abortion pre-viability was a right.  There was another case released the same day, Doe v. Bolton, that said abortion anytime during the term was legal.

So, the 40th anniversary of those cases is coming up.

 In the midst of this flurry of media coverage a woman named Sandro Cano has quietly issued a media release on a Christian newswire service calling for the two Supreme Court cases to be overturned. This in itself might seem unremarkable, until you learn Cano’s other name: Mary Doe.

Yes, that Mary Doe.

Good for her.

Meanwhile, another women, Norma McCorvey, briefly captured headlines during last year’s election cycle when she released a pro-life ad featuring graphic pictures of aborted children and accusing President Obama of “killing babies” by his support for abortion.
Most won’t recognize McCorvey’s real name, but will instantly recognize her pseudonym: Jane Roe. Yes, that Jane Roe.

 Read the whole thing here.

Bad taste is the new measure of discernment

Here's a thought on the appeal of asceticism and bizarre aesthetics as a "keeping up with the Joneses" kind of excercise:

Capitalism made luxury hard work by making everything cheap. Suddenly it wasn't enough to just lie in bed and order the butler to bring you exotic pomegranates from the Orient and champagne from the vineyards of France. Those things could be found in any supermarket courtesy of the jet plane. Status stopped being a lazy man or woman's game and became a frenzied rat race. Fat was out and hyperactive workouts were in. Anyone could afford good art, so those with discerning taste chose bad art. Anyone could vacation abroad, so they bought old farm houses, restored them and painted bad art while trying to grow their own food.

 Things that make you go Hmmm.  Whole thing is here.

A nation of adolescents

I have been thinking of the prevailing zeitgeist as the rise of the un-serious, but I think Laura Hollis got it more right:

America has become a nation of adolescents The real loser in this election was adulthood: Maturity. Responsibility. The understanding that liberty must be accompanied by self-restraint. Obama is a spoiled child, and the behavior and language of his followers and their advertisements throughout the campaign makes it clear how many of them are, as well. Romney is a grown-up. Romney should have won. Those of us who expected him to win assumed that voters would act like grownups. Because if we were a nation of grownups, he would have won.

Yep.  I have no idea what to do about it, except gird your loins, but there is another look at the same phenomenon.

Read it all here.

The decline and fall...

Yeah, me too.   Read it here.

Some of my libertarian friends think that a financial or societal collapse will lead to a better understanding of the importance of freedom, and that a new flowering of liberty will bloom in the aftermath.

That’s a foolish and stupid idea.

What will actually happen is what happened when Rome fell: a period of barbarism and tyranny and darkness will sweep over us at worst, or at best, people will demand that a man on a white horse punish the appropriate scapegoats and make the trains run on time again. Sure, I hope I’m wrong, but history is on the side of pessimism. As nearly as I can tell, all we can do is hold on tight, because we’re getting ready to ride this puppy down in flames.

...

But, maybe, in 500 years or so, a confident, adventurous people will once again step onto the surface of the moon. No doubt they will be amazed to learn that the mythical figures of Buzz Aldrin, Alan Shepard, and their companions actually did exist, and set foot there once upon a time, and left behind six beautiful, red-striped banners, spangled with white stars on a field of blue.

I have no words...

... but Mark Stein found some appropriate on this, the morning after the Unites States gleefully embraced marxism:

I appreciate the sterling if pitiful efforts of my comrades to clutch at straws these last few hours, but, on this grim morning after, I fear the most salient analysis comes from Sir Richard Mottram, Her Britannic Majesty’s former Permanent Secretary for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, albeit speaking in another context:

“We’re all f***ed. I’m f***ed. You’re f***ed. The whole department’s f***ed. It’s been the biggest c**k-up ever and we’re all completely f***ed.”

Words to ponder.

I like Sir Mottram's words so much, I'll appropriate them and say it myself:  We’re all f***ed. I’m f***ed. You’re f***ed. The whole department country's f***ed. It’s been the biggest c**k-up ever and we’re all completely f***ed. 

A disgrace

There are simply no other words for it.   I never liked Obama; I thought he was a hyper-partisan socialist/communist whose policies were misguided.  I thought he was hyper-political, running focus groups on what shoes to put on in the morning.  But it never occurred to me that he would deliberately paralyze the national security apparatus for what has to be political reasons.  

While American diplomats and personnel fought the terrorists for seven hours, Obama's crack national-security team and the U.S. military simply watched and listened. U.S. fighters could have been on the scene in an hour offering support, and U.S. commandos within 3 hours, but no orders were given. A military-loathing, anti-American commander in chief sat on his hands while U.S. territory was attacked, a U.S. ambassador assassinated, and three other Americans murdered, and team Obama then devised a phony story to cover up for the disaster.

I say deliberately, because I have to believe that in the absence of orders to the contrary, there is someone in the US military chain of command in Africa or Europe that has the authority to make the call to go in and secure the facility and save the embattled US personnel. 

Then, a BS story or excuse is not only thought up, but sent around to the State Dept. et al and told that this is the official word, even though individuals in State and elsewhere knew perfectly well it wasn't.  All for polling reasons.  Disgraceful. That alone is worth throwing the bum out, and once he's out, pressing charges.

Original is here, but you have to dig down a bit.

Thoreau the libertarian

I've never read much (like any) Thoreau.  I understand Walden Pond was like 1.5 miles from his house, so On Walden Pond as a definitive treatise on back-to-nature is a bit, well, overblown. That said, this quote is supposed to come from him, which raises him up in my estimation:

There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.

 --American author and poet Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Mixed feelings

I saw a guy on a street corner socializing his "dog" on my way into work this morning.  The pup was wanting to run and hide as each car came by, and the guy would bring it back (it was leashed) and reassure it.  As I drove by I saw that it was a wolf pup, probably 6 months old.

My first thought was "you dickwad, wait until that twitchy animal is 120 lbs, still twitchy, and you can't control it".  My vision was of someone's 5 year old kid running by that wolf, surprising it, and the wolf removing the kids face with one bite.

That said, I'm generally opposed to people putting their noses in where they aren't involved.  So now I'm conflicted.  Is it OK for that f'n genius to raise a wolf in town or not?  My gut very much says no, its not OK, but I'm trying to reconcile that rationally.

Quote of the day

Quote of the day, from Richard Fernandez :

Nils Pratley at the Guardian is impressed. “Bailouts in the eurozone used to generate relief rallies that lasted at least a week. The Spanish version couldn’t even manage a full morning.”

The yield on 10-year Spanish government debt, which had fallen to 6% soon after the start of trading, ended the day at 6.5% – an astonishing turnaround. Worse, Italian bonds followed the same pattern, closing a whisker above 6%, the highest since January. Far from calming nerves, the grant of €100bn (£81bn) or so of cheap loans for Spanish banks seems only to have hardened investors’ analysis that the eurozone debt crisis is getting worse.

 ...

The bitter truth is that the European collapse is simply the consequence of Leftist fantasy politics.  It is what happens when people realize that the ‘paradise’ they’ve been building is nothing but a deconstructed, demographically collapsing, hollowed-out and bankrupt shell of lies.

Pax Americana is not the way the world normally operates

Richard Fernandez gets it right again:

The idea that the office on the corner will always be able to dispense Government Cheese does not reflect the normal historical experience. Rather it reflects that peculiar period of stability and prosperity which followed the end of the Second World War: the Pax Americana, which the Left hates. Our civilizational attitudes have been formed on the basis of the exception, not the rule.

We in the first world have been on a global vacation from history since the 1960's.  I fear its time to get back to work.

Whole article here.

An excellent point

"Who killed the 20-30 million Soviet citizens in the Gulag Archipelago -- big government or big business? ... Who deliberately caused 75 million Chinese to starve to death -- big government or big business? ... Would there have been a Holocaust without the huge Nazi state? Whatever bad big corporations have done is dwarfed by the monstrous crimes ... committed by big governments." --radio talk-show host Dennis Prager

You'd better run...

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the
wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to
work because the other half is going to take care of them;
and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work,
because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.