Cherry battle...
Here comes the sun...
Avatar soon coming to Mars?
Plan for freedom...
Chemical Brothers -- Swoon...
You can run...but you can't hide!
The 7 coolest G-rated webcams you are not watching...
Who are the Illuminati?
The 100 most influential people of 2010...
High five etiquette...
13 plants that can kill you...
Are you hap-pea?
Ahhh the power of vinegar!
Da Vinci portrait made of nails?!
Smart dust is all around you... (props to Pops)
A gentlemen's duel...
got milk?
Vintage tech ads...
Noah's ark has been found...
Top secret plane has America's enemies scared...
Star Wars -- Shadows of the Past...
Here comes instant death...
Why I follow Alex Jones...
A national biometric card...could this be the mark of the beast?
Fast forward to 1:21...
Graphically and numerically...why we are economically fucked...
10 countries ruining the planet...
Pas De Deux...
How to live to 100...
We Have Band ~~ Divisive
Polish plane crash truth video...
2010...the year we make contact?
The Bilderberg Connection...
Today's Message
by Dr. Tony Alessandra
You’re squirming in your seat, wondering if the next speaker can possibly be less inspiring than the preceding one, when, suddenly, the room falls silent. Looking poised and confident, the next presenter smiles and then begins.
Instantly, it’s clear that he’s good:
His strong, measured voice, his relaxed tone, his precisely articulated and well-chosen words, even his classy but understated appearance seem to fixate the crowd. You think, “Wow! Who is this guy?” And then you realize it’s just not what he is saying, or how he looks. It’s his whole being. As his voice and gestures signal that he’s nearing the high point of his remarks, you feel yourself soaring, rationally as well as emotionally, along with the ideas he presents so passionately… so much so that you know you’d probably follow him to a convention of cannibals if that’s where he wanted to lead you. This guy has it!
But what does he have? What do real leaders have that can inspire you and draw you to them and can cause you to perform beyond expectations to accomplish goals? Is it speaking well… or being socially adroit… or projecting an attractive, exciting image? Actually, it’s all that—and more.
For lack of a better term, we often group such qualities under the term charisma. I’ve been studying, teaching, and writing about human behavior, especially in business, for more than 20 years now. As a result, probably like you, I know charisma when I see it—even if it’s sometimes hard to pinpoint. But here’s my definition: Charisma is the ability to positively influence others by connecting with them physically, emotionally and intellectually.
In brief, it’s what makes people like you and enjoy being around you… even when they don’t know much about you. This personal magnetism can exist at the level of mass movements—such as politicians and evangelists—or in the small-scale encounters of everyday life, such as the shop owner who makes you feel so comfortable and valuable that you cheerfully drive a few extra miles to her store.
I’m convinced that, contrary to popular wisdom, charisma is not something you’re born with, like having blue eyes or brown eyes. Instead, I think our personalities consist, let’s say, of a series of containers, like cups or glasses. Some are nearly empty, some brimming, yet others are partially filled to varying degrees. Together, they constitute our potential charisma.
If all the glasses were filled to the top, you’d be so charismatic people would think you were a god—and you’d probably think so, too. But nobody has a complete set of totally full glasses, although some really gifted people—JFK or, say, Churchill—may have come close to this ideal. But, for most of us, the glasses are filled a bit erratically, though we can add to them. Here, as I see them, are the seven main components of charisma—or, the “glasses,” if you will:
1. Your silent message…
You unconsciously send out signals to others. Maybe you look them right in the eye, or maybe you stare at your shoes when you talk. Perhaps you slump your shoulders, or maybe you square them confidently. You may fail to smile naturally or shake hands firmly, or you might dress in a way that’s not you. All these shape your image and affect the people you want to lead.
2. Your persuasive talent…
No idea, however great, ever gets anywhere until it’s adopted. Charismatic executives can distill complex ideas into simple messages so that even the guy who sweeps the floor understands what the company stands for and why that’s important.
3. Your ability to speak well…
You may have a zillion terrific ideas, but who will know if you can’t articulate them?
4. Your listening skill…
Rarely taught and infrequently practiced, listening is nonetheless a key to communicating and making others feel special in your presence.
5. Your use of space and time…
Again, though it’s often overlooked, use of spatial and temporal territories can make or break relationships.
6. Your ability to adapt to others…
Building rapport means understanding other people’s personalities, then adapting your own behavior to increase compatibility.
7. Your vision, your ideas…
Regardless of how strong and persuasive a speaker you are, how adept you are at connecting with others, how well you listen, use your space or time, or send out silent signals, you’ve still got to have something to say… or you’ll just be an empty suit.
So, it’s not a single ingredient that makes a person charismatic, and, more important, charisma isn’t based on IQ, genetics, social position, wealth or luck. Instead, it can be learned.
Why Charisma Matters
Learning to improve your charisma is more important than ever. Why? Change calls for strong, mesmerizing leaders.
In our age of startups, acquisitions, turnarounds, mergers, downsizing, and all other sorts of rapid, unpredictable change, especially in business, that’s more true than ever.
Television and our general emphasis on the visual make charismatic people more effective. (Remember: The physical is a big component of “the silent message” glass.)
Our expectations have risen. We’ve come to demand more from people than mere competence. When even the local car dealer or supermarket manager can be seen as articulate, personable, and persuasive in a slick TV ad, we no longer readily accept those who squirm, stumble over their words, and don’t quite look us in the eye.
The old-fashioned kind of hierarchy, the command-and-control environment, is passé. Even the highest-ranking officials need more than their title to get people to accept their ideas. Instead, in this era of “empowerment,” when empathy and support are revered, charismatic people stand out because they’re communicators who are able to see things from another’s perspective and, thus, continually seek to find the common ground.
Those with personal magnetism, or charisma, are usually self-confident optimists. Viewing almost all problems as solvable—focusing on desired results rather than possible failures—helps encourage people to step forward and convert fear into challenge.
All of these are reasons for you to try to greatly improve your charisma. Remember that even if you never get a chance to head a corporation, spearhead a movement or even hold office in the local PTA, you can use your charisma, present or future, to do good for yourself and others, to make for positive change in ways large and small.
Connecting with People
A person who develops his or her charisma is likely to do well in all aspects of life. That’s because, on several different levels, they better connect with people. By definition, the charismatic person is more other-directed, more empathic. That gives them more personal power—and that’s a big plus for anybody.
Take basketball star Michael Jordan—certainly one of the most charismatic athletes of all times. Despite being the most-heralded professional player of his era, he quit the hardwoods to play minor-league baseball for a time. He didn’t make it to the big leagues, but he didn’t strike out with his millions of fans, who may have thought his ill-starred tenure with the Birmingham Barons made him, if anything, more human.
As you seek to improve you charisma and personal power, remember that when people feel someone is making them do something, they’re often frustrated and resentful—and as a result, they dig in their heels. The truly charismatic person strives to create feelings of collaboration and equality. They approach others interactively and try to give them a choice.
Be aggressively optimistic and willing to be the first to do something and to take the heat if it doesn’t work out. Charismatic people have heard all the bromides about why you can’t rock the corporate boat (“We’ve never done it that way before.” “It’s too radical a change.”), but they just pay less attention to them.
Instead, they relish a challenge, not just for themselves but for their followers, too, who wish to take risks and be allowed to make some mistakes. So if you give your people some control over resources and influence over how to do a task, you’ll help them build self-confidence.
In fact, the charismatic person often good-naturedly challenges, prods and pokes as he or she encourages others to stretch themselves. Again, take Michael Jordan. It was said, even in practice, that he was the loudest, most demanding player on the court, goading the other Bulls to give their all. It was his way of being inspirational; he never stopped competing, even when no one was keeping score.
The potential to be charismatic leader is within you, too. And the payoff for doing so has never been higher.
| Knowledge Live Science |
 |  | Grub: FoodPair
A "metasearch engine" that finds recipes based on whatever you've got on hand, simply type in a combo of ingredients and FP'll locate potential dishes from sites like Food Network and Epicurious, then let you award dishes a thumbs up/down and even save your favorite recipes, so you'll never forget how to prepare a delicious terrine of Frankenberry and chilled YooHoo. Quit wasting food in your fridge and make something good with help from FoodPair.com |
 | | Compile: Memolio
Play the sentimental card by creating a super-portable photo album via Mem's super-simple app: upload up to 24 pics, crop 'em, drag & drop them in any order, choose a color theme, and they'll print each one on durable, ~4x2" polyester cards bound together with a plastic ring for easy flipping, in case you have a face even a mother couldn't love. Order yours right this second at Memolio.com |
Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body
Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body is the classic publication on the 'study of body structure.' The Bartleby.com edition of the 20th edition Gray’s 'features 1,247 vibrant engravings - many in color - from the classic 1918 publication, as well as a subject index with 13,000 entries ranging from the Antrum of Highmore to the Zonule of Zinn.' Many of these illustrations are in color and unchanged since the first edition in 1859. The search feature gives you direct access to the information and illustrations. Students of anatomy will find the material fascinating, and with the aid of the technology be able to browse easily with the click of the mouse!
Muzic
A site that scans music blogs so you don't have to
 |
Could This ‘Humble’ Vitamin Hinder Future Cancers?
Posted by Dr. Mercola
People who have the highest intakes of vitamin K2, not vitamin K1, may significantly lower their risk of cancer and cancer mortality, according to results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study.
After analyzing data from over 24,000 participants who were followed for over 10 years, those who had the highest intakes of vitamin K2 were 14 percent less likely to develop cancer and 28 percent less likely to die of cancer compared to those with the lowest intakes.
A separate study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic also revealed impressive anti-cancer effects from vitamin K. Those with the highest dietary vitamin K intakes had a 45 percent lower risk of developing Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, than those with the lowest.
Vitamin K is sometimes referred to as the “forgotten” vitamin because it is often overshadowed by more well-known nutrients. However, vitamin K is not only essential for many bodily functions, it also offers an impressive array of benefits, not the least of which is lowering your risk of cancer.
These two new studies, the first of which connected vitamin K2 with a nearly 30 percent reduction in your risk of cancer mortality and a 14 percent lowered risk of cancer altogether, add to a growing arsenal of research highlighting vitamin K’s cancer-fighting potential.
Vitamin K: Your Ally in the Fight Against Cancer
Vitamin K is emerging as a powerful player in cancer prevention, and it may soon join the ranks of vitamin D for its health-boosting potential.
Most recently, the Mayo Clinic study noted above found a massive 45 percent lower risk of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma among people with the highest dietary intakes -- and the association held true even after accounting for other cancer influencers like smoking, alcohol use, obesity, and eating lots of foods that are high in antioxidants.
Vitamin K has also been found beneficial in the fight against other cancers, including liver, colon, stomach, nasopharynx, and oral cancers, and some studies have even suggested vitamin K may be used therapeutically in the treatment of patients with lung cancer, liver cancer, and leukemia.
One 2008 study by the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) also found that increased intake of vitamin K2 may reduce your risk of prostate cancer by 35 percent.
Interestingly, the potential benefits of vitamin K2 were most pronounced for advanced prostate cancer.
Are You Deficient in This Important Vitamin?
Many people in both the United States and the UK are not getting the currently recommended intakes, which are likely already too low to begin with. In fact, according to What We Eat In America NHANES 2001–2002, only one in four Americans are meeting the recommended levels of dietary vitamin K.
Further, the Institute of Medicine’s recommended daily intake of 120 micrograms for men and 90 for women are based on levels that will ensure adequate blood coagulation. But vitamin K is important for more than just blood clotting; it impacts the health of your bones, arteries and immune system as well.
Well, emerging research, including the “triage theory” from Joyce McCann, PhD and Bruce Ames, PhD, suggests that these other non-clotting functions that depend on vitamin K may need higher levels than are currently recommended.
Although the exact dosing is yet to be determined, one vitamin K expert, Dr. Cees Vermeer, recommends between 45 mcg and 185 mcg daily for adults. You must use caution on the higher doses if you take anticoagulants, but if you are generally healthy and not on these types of medications, I suggest at least 100 mcg of vitamin K2 daily.
Which Type of Vitamin K is Best?
There are three types of vitamin K. Vitamin K1, or phylloquinone, is found naturally in plants and vitamin K2, also called menaquinone, is made by the bacteria that line your gastrointestinal tract. Vitamin K3, or menadione, is a synthetic form that is manmade, and which I do not recommend.
You should strive to include both vitamin K1 and vitamin K2 in your diet.
K1 is found in dark green leafy vegetables, and makes up about 90 percent of the vitamin K in a typical Western diet. The following table lists some vegetable sources of K1 that you should consider eating frequently:
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The best natural source of vitamin K2 is derived from an ancient Japanese food called Natto. Natto is made from fermented soybeans and significant amounts of vitamin K2 are produced during the fermentation process.
Although natto would be the highest source, other fermented foods like cheese are also loaded with it. If you find yourself not consuming enough fermented foods, you will certainly want to consider taking a supplement, especially if you have osteoporosis. Vitamin K2 is probably one of the least appreciated supplements to regain bone density.
It’s important to note that vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin. This means that in order for your body to absorb it effectively, you need to eat some fat along with it.
So please do make a point to increase your intake of vitamin-K rich foods, including fermented varieties. Given all the new research coming in, ensuring your body has adequate levels of vitamin K is too important to pass up.
6 Astonishingly Smart Ways to De-Junk Your Life
Posted by Dr. Mercola
Unhealthy relationships, too many unused belongings and negative habits can all eat up your precious time and space. Lifehack has listed six tips you can get started on right now that will greatly help to “de-junk” your life:
- Be honest
You don't need lies in your life, and being honest only gets easier with practice.
- Make a list of just 7 things that are irreplaceable
Once you know what's important to you, you’ll probably get rid of some things that aren't.
- Make a list of just 5 people who matter the most to you
Once again, keeping in touch with the people who really mean something to you will help you realize your true priorities.
- Move into a smaller living space
You'll throw out some stuff during the moving process, and a small home means you'll be faced with clutter on a daily basis until you get rid of more.
- Quit your job
Or just pretend and make some plans. You might be surprised by what you come up with.
- Train for an endurance race
This can provide an amazing amount of stress relief as well.
Insight
PURPOSE
We can’t float through life. We can’t be incidental or accidental. We must fix our gaze on a guiding star as soon as one comes upon the horizon, and once we have attached ourselves to that star we must keep our eyes on it and our hands on the plow.
Ossie Davis
The biggest threat to our well-being...is the absence of moral clarity and purpose.
Rick Shuman
Birthday Miracles...
All of his life Len from Cape Breton had heard stories of an amazing family tradition. It seems that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been able to walk on water on their 21st birthday. On that day, they'd walk across the lake to the boat club for their first legal drink.
So when Len's 21st birthday came around, he and his pal Corky took a boat out to the middle of the lake. Len stepped out of the boat and nearly drowned!
Corky just managed to pull him to safety. Furious and confused, Len went to see his grandmother. 'Grandma, it's my 21st birthday, so why can't I walk across the lake, like my father, his father, and his father before him?'
Granny looked Len straight in the eyes, and said, 'Because, you idiot, your father, grandfather and great grandfather was born in January, you were born in July.'
WHAT'S THE TIME? ...
... WHATEVER YOU DECODE IT TO BE
The David Icke Newsletter Goes Out On Sunday
We are in the process of changing 'yugas' from a time of suppression and ignorance to one of far greater enlightenment. To Consciousness, these are merely two very different experiences and we can choose what experience we have by where in the vibrational cycle we choose to enter this reality.
There is no-one with a gun in another dimension saying get in that body or I shoot. We make the choice, from the expanded awareness of out-of-body Consciousness, to have different experiences.
That may be hard for the experiencing level to comprehend - 'You say I chose to experience this shit, no way' - but life looks very different in the realms of pure Consciousness than it does in the perceptional confines of the body-computer, especially in a world specifically manipulated to entrap humanity in purely five-sense reality.
For whatever reason, we all chose to be here for this time of the great transformation of human awareness and experience as we change vibrational epochs. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves at all the challenges that have to be faced in this period, we need to focus and get on with what we have chosen to come here to do.
There are, and will be, so many challenges because the world created by the dying vibrational construct must collapse as its informational foundation is replaced by a new and higher vibrational era. If you change the software in a computer it is not going to decode the same images - 'world' - on the screen that the previous one did because the information is not the same. So it is with what is happening today with Planet Earth and the wider Universe.
One of the biggest challenges as we proceed will be coming to terms with the changing nature of time, because as the base resonance quickens, so will its decoded expression - time.
What we call 'time' is getting quicker
| The Daily Reckoning Presents | ||
| A Free Market in Chains | ||
Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig is one of the few policymakers who appear to grasp the following simple economic truism: There is no free lunch. In his April 7 speech "What About Zero?" Hoenig says, "Low rates, over time, systematically contribute to the buildup of financial imbalances by leading banks and investors to search for yield." In other words, Hoenig doesn't want to be complicit in the ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) experiment the Fed is currently conducting. "The search for yield involves investing in less-liquid assets and using short-term sources of funds to invest in long-term assets, which are necessarily riskier," Hoenig continues. "Together, these forces lead banks and investors to take on additional risk, increase leverage, and, in time, bring in growing imbalances, perhaps a bubble and a financial collapse." Hoenig has the courage to speak up about long-term consequences. This is a refreshing contrast to what passes for judgment among other Fed governors, whose votes reflect short-term thinking and ignorance of the long-term consequence of ZIRP. The rest of the Fed's academics point to the alleged benefits of zero interest rates and deficit spending, while remaining either blissfully unaware of - or intellectually dishonest about - the unseen costs of these policies. A good example of this myopia was on display when Alan Greenspan testified in front of Congress last week. Even after the 2008 crisis, Greenspan still refuses to acknowledge the destructive economic distortions that his Fed policies nurtured. The unseen costs of "easy money" policies are hard to identify or measure, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. By definition, the Federal Reserve is giving a subsidy to someone anytime it provides credit that costs less than the private-market cost of capital. And, by definition, a subsidy is an expense that someone else must bear. In today's post-crisis economic environment, the Fed's ZIRP policy provides a very direct and obvious subsidy to the nation's largest financial firms. These firms borrow from the government at low rates of interest, then loan the money back to the government at much higher rates of interest. In the first instance, only a handful of privileged financial firms may borrow money from the government at low, preferential interest rates. But in the second instance, we, the taxpayers, must bear the cost of the high rates of interest the government pays back to the financial firms. Meanwhile, in order to fund our growing national deficits - which are caused partly by the subsidies our government provides - political leaders in the US are making up for the lack of domestic savings by importing the excess savings of the rest of the world. Foreign creditors are financing our deficit-spending by buying Treasuries. But global savings don't come free; they come in exchange for claims on the future productive capacity of the US economy. The US is selling claims on its assets in exchange for propping up an unsustainable status quo. Academic economists come up with overly simplistic reasons why this process can continue indefinitely, including the old standby, "Japan has done it for 20 years, and its bond market yields are still low." Not all countries have the productive captivity and competitiveness that Japan has. Greece does not, and its government debt hasn't turned out to be sustainable. China has its problems and bubbles, but at least its government's make- work projects are adding to the productive capacity of its economy (physical and intellectual capital that will exist, even after the world abandons its unworkable currency and government debt systems). In China, politicians try to do everything they can to promote economic growth that adds to its productive base. In the US, politicians are doing everything they can to redistribute wealth, no matter the economic consequences. And all the while, the line of phony capitalists seeking subsidies in Washington, DC is growing longer. The more corporate subsidies the US government hands out - whether it be to banks, health insurance companies, or auto makers - the faster the government undermines its own creditworthiness. Treasury yields could rise sooner than most investors expect. Not because of inflationary pressures, or because of the Fed hiking rates, but because of the simple mechanics of overwhelming Treasury supply and falling creditworthiness. Bond investors know that a surging supply of Treasury securities is on the way. So these investors might become much less eager to pay high prices (low yields) at future bond auctions. In short, the federal government's eyes have become much bigger than the taxpayers' stomach. The illusion that the US government has unlimited resources will come to a painful and decisive end in the form of higher Treasury yields...and much lower profitability in the US financial sector. |
Whiskey & Gunpowder
by Nelson Hultberg
April 23, 2010
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Saving America from Corporate-Statism
As America sinks deeper into the tyranny of bureaucratic corporatism via today's incestuous relationship between Washington and Wall Street, it is inspiring to see thousands of Tea Parties spring up to express outrage. Unfortunately the "new deal" campaign approach still works as it has been malefically doing for over 70 years since FDR came to visit us. Every election season artful political pitchmen hit the hustings to call for "change" and "more prosperity for the people," in which millions get swept up.
The promise of change is, of course, a con. Legitimate change from the burden of big government would necessitate a move toward smaller government. But this is not what the statist mentalities have in mind when they preach change. They wield the word "change" as a shrewd angler wields an alluring fly. It's a deceptive hook that works because much of humanity is always looking to get more out of life than it is willing to put in. Both Democratic and Republican regimes realize this. Consequently both promise the voters more entitlements, more pork, more privileges.
Slouching Toward Gomorrah
Thus the politics of usurpation proceeds as usual. Mendacity and decadence win out. The abomination of government health care is forced upon us. Our borders become more porous with each passing month. Amnesty for 20 million aliens looms over the horizon. Washington's imperial overreach stretches to 140 countries throughout the world. Our society slouches toward Gomorrah and the death spiral of ancient Rome. Yet incredibly neoconservatives congratulate themselves with annual celebratory dinners paying tribute to their "successful stand against the enemies of freedom and high-minded culture."
Our schools, our churches, our publishers, and our entertainment industries are being infested with the serpents of Cultural Marxism. Political correctness dominates the herd mentalities and philistines who overwhelm the perceptive and productive at the polls every other November. The ignominious despotism that Tocqueville warned would come from "unbridled democracy" is stealing over our lives like the debilitating paralysis that invades the bodies of the arthritic. Yet our pundits revel in hosannas to their phony "engineered economic recovery" and how the upcoming century will finally bring us that "heaven on earth" that Rousseau, Marx and Keynes so naively promised, and that the huckster economists and social engineers of the West have been trying to stuff down our throats for 100 years now.
This is certainly not the governing philosophy in which Jefferson and the Founders meant for us to engage. Gushing hundreds of billions of tax dollars to slimy Wall Street bankers so they can puff up their bottom lines and appear to be rightful entrepreneurs is an unspeakable outrage; and it is not the way to bring about legitimate economic recovery. If we want a legitimate recovery, we need to let these dinosaurs go the way of Joseph Schumpeter's "creative destruction" so that real productivity (rather than debt induced stimulation) can come about.
In the cultural arena, giving amnesty to 20 million Central Americans, who have been indoctrinated under socialist / fascist regimes into believing they have a right to cradle to grave security, is hardly the way to restore the American Republic of self-reliance and free enterprise. It is, however, the way to pound the final nails into freedom's coffin, which is what Obama, Reid and Pelosi understand very clearly.
Allowing our leaders to get away with this kind of political-economic quackery is what the novelist Ayn Rand meant in Atlas Shrugged when she spoke of the "sanction of the victim" being the harbinger of dictatorship. It is what Aldous Huxley meant in Brave New World Revisited when he wrote that a "really efficient totalitarian state" would be comprised of "a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced because they love their servitude." They have been taught to love it b y society's reigning intellectuals in the schools, the churches, and the media.
Signs of Hope
Yet despite the insidious decadence confronting us at every turn, there are signs of hope, significant signs of an awakening desire to face up to the truth -- in other words, to face the root causes of our problems.
The response to the Ron Paul campaign was the first such sign. The Tea Party revolts were the next sign. And now we are beginning to see a few intrepid MSM pundits speak openly about the corporate-statist collusion of Washington and Wall Street and its connection to our economic problems. The reason why this is grounds for optimism is that if ever MSM catches on and begins to venture out from the "politically correct" statist herd, then the jig is up for the corporate-statist authoritarians and their Machiavellian hold over us.
A promising example of the new MSM intrepidity can be found in a recent 12-minute report, The Great Con Job, by Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC. This is a powerful attack upon the banking / bureaucratic con game that has been orchestrated over the past 15-20 years in America. Ratigan is one of MSM's more fearless TV journalists. How deeply he grasps the root causes of our political-economic problems I don't know. It is doubtful that he has connected the dots all the way back through the fraudulency of Keynesian economics and FDR in the 1930s, and then to 1913 where the root causes were laid for America's destruction with the inception of the Federal Reserve and the progressive income tax. But Ratigan is sharp and amazingly articulate, and he has demonstrated throughout his career that he will not play lackey to the establishment as 90% of his journalistic brethren are doing. This is why I maintain there is room for optimism.
We must remember that the Berlin Wall did finally fall. The monster state of the Soviet Union came crashing down with it -- all because the ideological monopoly (which must always precede any political monopoly and dictatorship) became impossible for the communists in the Politburo to maintain. The ideological / political monopoly here in the West is not the same kind as that which plagued the USSR. Ours is voluntarily accepted by the journalistic and political players, rather than coercively enforced through legislation and police suppression. Our submission is more of what Rand and Huxley wrote about 50 years ago. It has been ingrained into us through intellectual sophistry over the decades in the schools and then reinforced by a compliant priesthood and media. Thus it will be more difficult to discredit because it is self-imposed. But unlike the Soviet patriots, we have the Internet which will help immensely.
The Ratigan Report is a very hopeful start toward building that awareness among the intelligentsia that is necessary for statism to be thwarted. Dictatorial government cannot be brought down without such an awareness among the perceptive and independent of the populace. The herd will do as it always has done throughout history -- obey its masters. But the rebels, the doers, the dissidents are a breed apart. They will do the right thing once the truth has been shown to them. Then the revolution begins. And I think it has now dawned upon great numbers of American intelligentsia that the Emperor in Washington is naked, and that its rapacious godfather on Wall Street is equally and despicably devoid of legitimacy.
A Grassroots Uprising
This awareness can be built into a major grassroots uprising throughout America. This is what I have written about in The Conservative Revolution: Why We Must Form a Third Political Party to Win It. The oppressive rule of the statist elites cannot maintain itself if we will muster the backbone to stand up to it. But this will take a far more rational approach than the present level of political activism in America. It will take an exposition of the root causes of our despotism, which are the institutions of infamy enacted into law in 1913 -- the Federal Reserve and the progressive income tax. But most importantly, it will take an effective third-party political strategy that can circumvent the corporate-statist elites and their control over our two major parties in America.
Such a plan is outlined in The Conservative Revolution, and is the foundation of the newly formed Conservative American Party. It is called the "Two Pillars Strategy." It is a unique, never before envisioned approach to politics that will go to the root of our problems and bring back sanity to our country. The key to its success will be its genuine reform of our tax and monetary systems. It will lower tax rates to 10% for everyone, simplify tax preparation to 10 minutes every April, neuter the Fed, and reduce inflation to zero. The "Two Pillars" reform plan will bring back millions of jobs from overseas, dramatically restore the productivity of our nation, and because of the way the tax plan is designed, it will stop the growth of the Federal Government cold and begin its automatic reduction.
A second key to the plan's success will be because of its universal appeal, the "Two Pillars Strategy" will easily get the Conservative American Party 15% in the polls, which will qualify it's candidate for the National TV Presidential Debates. This will get a vital third voice -- a true limited government voice -- in front of 70 million voters that can challenge the corruption and obtuseness of our two major parties. This has never been done in the 48-year history of the debates. It will electrify the country.
Conventional pundits scorn the concept of a third-party as "unworkable in America," but they are oblivious to the two major mistakes of "marginalization" and "cloning" that all third-parties have made for the past 150 years, which when corrected will allow a third-party to succeed. The Two Pillars Strategy corrects these two major mistakes. The Conservative Revolution demonstrates that a third political party (espousing freedom and headed by a candidate with gravitas) can indeed work, and that those who think otherwise are immersed in a fallacious darkness that is greatly contributing to the stultification of America.
Is this all a pipe dream, "delusional rantings of reactionaries that refuse to accept modernity," as the leftist establishment will surely try to portray it? Not at all. It is a thoroughly researched, powerfully designed, revolutionary plan to take back America starting in 2012 with the two pillars of tax and monetary reform, combined with two additional pillars of immigration and foreign policy reform. Eminent scholars and pundits have endorsed the "Two Pillars Plan." A 90-minute documentary is presently being made about it by the acclaimed film maker, James Jaeger, of Matrixx Entertainment. It is titled Spoiler: How a Third Political Party Could Succeed. To give the reader an idea of the exciting potential here, Jaeger's film, Fiat Empire, has been viewed by over 5 million people. If we can get the same numbers for Spoiler, the Demopublican establishment and their destructive grip over America will be ended.
In a front page USA TODAY article, Tuesday, April 20, 2010, Richard Wolf writes that, "The nation's fastest-growing political party is 'none of the above'….For the first time since Gallup started asking in 1992, both major parties are viewed unfavorably by most Americans. Nearly four in 10 voters call themselves independents, Gallup says."
It is from this rising sea of discontented independents (40% of the electorate), combined with fed up Republicans and Democrats (probably another 20%), that the impetus will come for the third-party revolution necessary to save America. All it takes is 35% of the vote to win in a three man race.
If we as citizens want to stop the runaway freight train of debt and delusion that is consuming our myopic politicians in Washington, if we want to stop the suicidal immigration policies and imperialistic militarism that are destroying the last vestiges of the American Republic, then we must challenge the monopoly that corporate-statists have over our politics. We must open up the system by injecting a rational third voice into the process.
Breaking the Monopoly
Democrats and Republicans will not tell the truth to voters; they are bought off by the corporate-statists. Our schools will not tell the truth; they are controlled by the corporate-statists. Our media will not tell the truth; they are owned by the corporate-statists. Only a third political party can break this monopolistic grip. But it has to be a REAL third-party that can garner the necessary 15% in the polls so as to qualify for the National TV Presidential Debates where it can forcefully contest the philosophical fraud and political perfidy of the Demopublicans in front of 70 million viewers. This, the Conservative American Party can do because its revolutionary "Two Pillars Strategy" will circumvent the two flaws that have doomed all conventional third-parties for the past 150 years.
Imagine Ron Paul (representing Constitutional conservatism) and Patrick Buchanan (representing cultural conservatism) -- one as Presidential candidate and the other as Vice-President -- on a Conservative American Party ticket in 2012. Imagine them confronting the Democratic-Republican monopoly in front of 70 million viewers on nationwide TV during the 2012 Presidential debates. Imagine them giving half-hour lectures on the major TV networks prior to each of the three debates like Ross Perot did in 1992. Imagine a Paul / Buchanan ticket campaigning throughout the heartland. It would inspire conservatives, libertarians, independents, blue dog Democrats, and Tea Parties everywhere. Imagine the potential! They wouldn't win, but they could launch a true patriot party that could win in the next two election cycles. What's important is that the restoration of the Republic could begin in 2012. The ground is being laid right now. A passionate book has been written, and a galv anizing film is being shot. The grassroots of our country are being sown for a momentous paradigm shift in American politics. The Conservative American Party is, in the words of Victor Hugo, "an idea whose time has come."
Whiskey & Gunpowder
By Paul Galvin
May 3, 2010
Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Eliminate Public Schools
The following is a fictionalized scenario of what might result if the public schools were eliminated. At the moment this idea has a near-zero, if not zero, chance of happening, particularly in those states whose constitutions now contain or have been construed to contain provisions enshrining a “positive right” to an education, meaning a positive claim upon the labor and property of others, a claim backed by the left’s stock-in-trade, the coercive force of the state. As resistance to ever-bigger government increases, with a commensurate greater appreciation for individual liberty, state constitutions will be re-examined, perhaps even amended. What follows is not a prediction, only an exploration which in turn may lead to better ideas. Finally, readers should bear in mind that eliminating public schooling is not the elimination of education, but rather the expansion of both freedom and education.
“Alright, George Bailey, you’ve got your wish. The public schools were never invented. Now stay calm, and don’t fret about the many strange but freedom-affirming phenomena you’ll encounter as you stroll through a re-invigorated Bedford Falls. Ready?”
Freedom for Taxpayers. Property taxpayers would no longer support a system which even its supporters readily admit must be “structurally improved” [Statist-ese for, “Give us more money”]. Anything in constant need of major improvements, not just routine adjustment, which produces uneducated “graduates” year after year (JayWalking anyone?), for decades on end, is irredeemable, netting very poor investment returns for taxpayers despite huge outlays. Since a sizable percentage of local municipal budgets (usually well over 50%, typically with supplemental “help” from state capitols) is dedicated to school funding, the elimination of this line item will give meaningful property tax relief.
Freedom for Municipalities. In the view of some – though at this point in time not nearly enough – all education is intrinsically coupled with morality, religion, and the reason of life itself. Necessarily it cannot then lawfully be a proper function of government if we’re to be serious about individual liberty and separating church and state. Governmental involvement in matters with religious overtones and nuances including differing worldviews conflicts with the Establishment Clause and state constitutional counterparts. Freed of school budgets, cities and towns will confine themselves to matters within their appropriate purview, generally subjects associated with public safety.
Freedom for Parents. Parents, relieved of a portion of their property tax burden, will have greater disposable income with which they may choose a private school appropriate for their child. Including a home school. Today, families wanting alternative schooling for their child/ren pay two tuitions, one to the chosen school directly, another to the municipality to support the public schools.
Freedom for Students. Relief to students who simply do not want to spend time in school for whatever reason (e.g., attitude, disinterest, safety concerns). Relief from One-Size-Fits-All-ism. How these now-emancipated students will choose to spend their newly-acquired time and freedom will be left to them and their parents. For the student willing to learn there will be choices galore as a thousand points of light evolve following the demise of the public schools. Throughout their history Americans have shown themselves to be both generous and ingenious. From scholarships and tuition assistance (remember, property tax relief will enable all citizens to spend their property tax relief as they see fit, not as government sees fit) to an array of different school types, all manner of ideas will come forth on “what to do with all those children.” To believe otherwise is to concede that we have lost our way as well as our senses of freedom and personal responsibility, and that only overseeing superintendent-esque nannies can save us.
Repealing the truancy and compulsory attendance laws frees students enabling but also requiring them to become personally responsible for usefully filling their time, simultaneously serving as a sobering means of correcting immature attitudes via a dose of reality. Students and parents will of necessity become discerning consumers of those educational services which they desire. Consider this example. A parent/s believes that comprehensive sex education, including awareness of all different perspectives of human sexuality, is an important educational value and that such information should be taught, at all grade levels, to his/her/their child. These parents will choose, through free association and without compulsion, schools accommodating their expressed wishes. While acknowledging the rights of those parents to choose as they may, other parents might avoid those choices, preferring instead other educational values which for them may include emphasis on math & science, fine arts, building trades, mechanics, religious instruction, and so forth. They too will decide through free association and without compulsion. Open choice aka freedom aka liberty will enable each educational consumer to receive the specific educational values which he/she/they seek/s without the application of governmental force upon others who do not share or want those educational choices.
Freedom for Teachers. To those who tsk-tsk the viable idea of doing away with the public schools, they should know that eliminating the public schools will not be the end of education. To the contrary it will encourage genuine learning. In an atmosphere of non-compulsion students who want to learn a chosen curriculum will present themselves before teachers who want to teach. The discipline problems of which teachers complain, including bullying, will largely disappear. Teaching to willing students is a joy unto itself. Having been a teacher in several venues – as seminar instructor on tax law matters to other accounting, tax & legal professionals; as host of numerous client seminars; as a homeschooling parent – I am keenly aware of how fulfilling it is to teach receptive students.
Freedom from Incompetence or Indifference. Every large public school system has its “rubber rooms” (search, “rubber rooms Stossel”) to which incompetent, insubordinate, or dangerous teachers are assigned, at full pay, while their cases for dismissal wend their way through a labyrinth of union contract provisions. Why such rooms? Because in the perverse world of public schools it is next to impossible to get rid of bad teachers. Despite the overriding concern, stated endlessly by politicians, bureaucrats and unions, of how much they all want to “educate the children,” the game is really about protecting government and its employees. Big government types, invariably “led” by Democrats and lapdog teachers’ unions, are the biggest offenders. Bureaucrats and union members have little concern whether children learn or not; their principal worry is their own paycheck. And please, let’s not hear about the m any fine, dedicated teachers, blah, blah, blah. Even if true, these teachers are like students and parents: trapped in the grip of the union–big government vise. The fine intentions of these teachers will never loosen this grip; only an adherence to limited government and a commitment to personal responsibility will do that.
Freedom for the Uninvolved. Elimination corrects an inequity visited upon those who have no current direct stake in the educational system. Why should those who have no school-aged children be burdened with the schooling costs of those who do? If you choose to raise children, your obligations include clothing, sustenance, housing, and education. Before setting out, the cost is to be counted. The decision to start a family was yours, not that of your elderly, childless, or empty-nest neighbors. It doesn’t take a village to raise a family: it takes a responsible mom and a responsible dad. As matters now stand your neighbors, not exercising any influence in your family-raising decision, are sent the bill for educating your children. All sorts of rationales are given for continuing this unfairness. They reduce to one: We benefit when all citizens are educated, or in bumper sticker language, If you think public education is expensive, try ignorance. This sl ogan’s encapsulated arrogance assumes that people are incapable of acting in their own best interests and would forever remain inert until the Nanny State intercedes and affects a rescue, all for their own good you must understand. Who else but leftists sell people for such short money? If those who are inadequately prepared understand that the principal difference between themselves and others who have better prospects, employment, or social standing, is education, common sense says that the former will know what to do.
Freedom to Choose. Each of us has different driving wants and needs; we choose cars accordingly, based on factors which include cost, safety, options, color, type (sedans, wagons, SUVs, minivans, pickups, light & heavy duty trucks, et alia). Yet the choice of schooling, also subject to a variety of factors, is far more determinative of an individual’s life direction than the choice of a car whose life span is a matter of mere years. Freedom prevails when parents and students, acting as consumers, make thoughtful choices for their purposes among competing alternatives with funds that would otherwise have been taken from them and wasted on a scheme that has failed for decades. Even leftists endorse educational choice, but only for themselves. When given the chance, leftists never choose the public option. Obama’s daughters go to private schools, as did Chelsea Clinton, as did Ted Kennedy’s kids. If this is leadership by example, then the people too should be able to choose. “Do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do.”
What is more, genuine educational choice (without a public option) will defuse, at least in the school setting, many of society’s divisive issues, issues brought into the public schools through raw political power imposed on students, a captive, generally powerless audience. Without forced public schooling there would be no more of the seemingly endless battles on church-state separation and courses on human sexuality. Gone and unmissed will be battles over religious songs and symbols, whether religious days special to a particular faith should be recognized as school holidays, refusals to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, prayers at games or graduations. Mandatory sex education and associated hot-button topics such as abortion counseling, creationism, evolution, environ-ism, and countless other subjects which at best are only marginally tangential to core academic subjects, will be dealt with in a manner agreeable to students and parents since they as consumers will be freely choosing schools compatible with their wishes and expectations in these areas.
Tuition will be reasonable as schools will no longer be forced by law to deal with the selfish demands of public employee unions. Rather than serving the interests of their employees and administrators, schools will compete as every other successful consumer service competes, by placing the customer, here parents and students, not employees, as Priority #1. Sometime in the 1980s I heard Lane Kirkland, a then important union leader, speak at an American Federation of Teachers function. After his prepared remarks he took some questions one of which touched on the declining academic achievements of students. His blunt and forceful answer remains with me to this day. Paraphrased, “When children become union members paying union dues, then I’ll care about children’s education.”
Ending educational compulsion will bring freedom and freedom will bring responsibility and accountability. Schools in the post–public school era will be burdened to please their customers, parents and students, if they wish to succeed. Today, failing public schools are neither punished nor eliminated; rather, in the eccentric world that defines the “public domain,” they’re rewarded by being allowed to continue, often with increased funding, in order to “self-correct.” Bailouts may be new to Wall Street & Detroit carmakers, but bailouts have long been a part of failed public school systems.
Bits & Pieces
FAMILY VALUESWhen I grew up, I leaned that you must respect the elders. You were supposed to understand that you are young, and the elders were supposed to give you the relevant rules and regulations.
Esther Mahlangu
I think a lot of what I was taught, gathered, and learned is worth keeping. Heritage and “wisdom” and simply personal family and local history enrich the one able to tap such information. As it is I wish I had garnered more from my grandparents and parents.
Gary Gygax
Peace, love and happiness...until next time...
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