Ron Paul on the Bailout

The bailout didn't pass...apparently Ron Paul was on the floor, and here's a post and video from him (URL and beyond all from the Ron Paul site):

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog/?p=642

Dr. Paul’s House floor remarks on the bailout
Dr. Paul gave a quick speech on the House floor this morning concerning the bailout. Due to the nature of the debate today, he didn’t have time to read his full remarks, which were put into the congressional record and are featured below:

The process of this bailout reminds me of a panic-stricken swimmer thrashing in the water only making his situation worse. Even a “bipartisan deal”—whatever that is supposed to mean— will not stop the Congress from thrashing about.

The beneficiaries of the corrupt monetary system of the last three decades are now desperately looking for victims to stick with the bill after they have reaped decades of profit and privilege.

The difficulties in our economy will continue because the Legislative and the Executive branches have not yet begun to address the real problems. The housing bubble’s collapse, as was the Dot Com bubble’s collapse, was predictable and is merely a symptom of the monetary system that brought us to this point.

Indeed, we do face a major crisis but it is much bigger than the freezing up of Wall Street and dealing with worthless assets on the books of major banks. The true crisis is the pending collapse of the fiat dollar system that emerged after the breakdown of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971.

For 37 years the world built a financial system based on the dollar as the reserve currency of the world in an attempt to make the dollar serve as the new standard of value. However since 1971, the dollar has had no intrinsic value, as it is not tied to gold. The dollar is simply a fiat currency, which has fluctuated in value on a daily, if not hourly, bias. This worked to some degree until the market realized that too much debt and malinvestment existed and a correction was required.

Because of our economic and military strength, compared to other countries, trust in America’s currency lasted longer than deserved. This resulted in the biggest worldwide economic distortion in all of history. The problem is much bigger than the fears of a temporary decline on Wall Street if the bailout is not agreed to.

Money’s most important function is to serve as a means of exchange—a measurement of value. If this crucial yardstick is not stable, it becomes impossible for investors, entrepreneurs, savers, and consumers to make correct decisions; these mistakes create the bubble that must eventually be corrected.

Just imagine the results if a construction company was forced to use a yardstick whose measures changed daily to construct a skyscraper. The result would be a very unstable and dangerous building. No doubt the construction company would try to cover up their fundamental problem with patchwork repairs, but no amount of patchwork can fix a building with an unstable inner structure. Eventually, the skyscraper will collapse, forcing the construction company to rebuild—hopefully this time with a stable yardstick. This 700 billion package is more patchwork repair and will prove to be money down a rat hole and will only make the dollar crisis that much worse.

But what politicians are willing to say that the financial “skyscraper”—the global financial and monetary system-is a house of cards. It is not going to happen at this juncture. They’re not even talking about this. They talk only of bailouts, more monetary inflation, more special interest spending, more debt, and more regulations. There is almost no talk of the relationship of the Community Reinvestment Act, HUD, and government assisted loans to the housing bubble. And there is no talk of the oversight that is desperately needed for the Federal Reserve, the Exchange Stabilization Fund, and all the activities of the President’s Working Group on financial markets. When these actions are taken we will at last know that Congress is serious about the reforms that are really needed.

In conclusion, there are three good reasons why Congress should reject this legislation:

a. It is immoral—Dumping bad debt on the innocent taxpayers is an act of theft and is wrong.

b. It is unconstitutional—There is no constitutional authority to use government power to serve special interests.

c. It is bad economic policy—By refusing to address the monetary system while continuing to place the burdens of the bailout on the dollar, we can be certain that in time, we will be faced with another, more severe crisis when the market figures out that there is no magic government bailout or regulation that can make a fraudulent monetary system work.

Monetary reform will eventually come, but, unfortunately, Congress’ actions this week make it more likely the reform will come under dire circumstances, such as the midst of a worldwide collapse of the dollar. The question then will be how much of our liberties will be sacrificed in the process. Just remember what we lost in the aftermath of 9-11.

The best result we can hope for is that the economic necessity of getting our fiscal house in order will, at last, force us to give up our world empire. Without the empire we can then concentrate on rebuilding the Republic.

Update - Here’s the video of the remarks Dr. Paul delivered this morning:

2008 NaNo

It's almost that time of year again. I guess this year, the site opened early. Woot! Looking forward to November 1 and getting started. I just hope Liquid Story Binder has a word count function...or I'll be doing a lot of cutting and pasting after NaNo.

*Contented Sigh*

(This was from last Friday when Chris took them to miniature golf on the way home)

Our Favorite Dog Park

Foothills Community Dog Park (if you look reeeeeeal close, you can see the fence/perimeter). It also has a dog drinking fountain, which is super cool (and works for humans in a pinch). Skyler loves bug hunting at this place.

Aftermath.

Well, the boys made it through the ordeal. What could've been many, MANY times worse - wasn't. However, in the aftermath of the whole thing - the person that we wanted to protect the most - the director of the site - is hurting the worst. He's got two people that work with him. One of them was responsible for the boys when they left. When the dust settled, we of course wanted her head. Due to HR laws and all that crap, of course, I'm *guessing* they can't just FIRE her for losing our kids. Whatever. (Although in the Y's defense, I think they've handled it great so far, and have assured me she won't be on site with my kid again, EVER). But you know what? A little REMORSE from the girl responsible would be nice. I don't give a shit what her story is - the bottom line is, she showed NO emotion when we were frantically looking for our kids, she NEVER spoke to us or apologized - NOTHING.

The director - who is a wonderful and amazing person with our kids (and he seems to be quite cool and nice personally, too) is heart broken over the whole thing. He has been since the second he found out they were missing. It falls on his shoulders, because he's the boss at that site. I don't think that's fair, given what he has to work with - a ton of kids (within the legal adult/child ratio, of course) in three different areas, doing three different activities. This is what I love about the program - the kids have choices, etc. However, the way things're laid out, there's no way for him to REALLY monitor the other employees, that I can figure, anyway. It seems like he has to just have faith that they're doing what they're supposed to be on all levels.

The media is a whole 'nother thing. I spoke with a reporter from the Daily Camera, and told her specifically that we held the girl responsible, and that we adored the director. Did she include that? No. She included where I said something to the effect of "How can they let a kid walk away?" MEANING - the girls on duty outside. NOT the director. So much for her promising me that she'd run my quotes by me before publication. Additionally, in the police report, there's portions where Skyler says Gav hits him to keep him going. PLUS there's the counter-point to that. Did they include the other side to the story? Of course not. They made it sound like Gav beat the shit out of Skyler to FORCE him to leave the school. No. It was Gav's idea, but I'm sure Skyler was all for it. So the media has lynched both the director, and Gav, because they can't print sufficient info. It really pisses me off. Sure, people should know to know there's another side to the story - but it doesn't matter. The media is a voice that reaches a LOT of people - but people that know what really happened, and who want to correct the story are only a few small voices without the capability to reach the many that the media does.

Pisses me off.

Bottom line, the boys are okay (and the Y so far is handling it really well - the program and most of the people involved IS wonderful) - but the director is not okay, and it's NOT fair. It's also not fair what was published about Gav, and I'm really upset on Gav's behalf. It's so unfair.

Awwww....

Weekend.

After starting out rough by going through the worst 2+ hours of our lives on Friday evening (Skyler was lost, was talked into leaving school grounds by a friend, the Police and Sheriff's departments were looking for them, as well as dozens of parents and kids, the Bloodhound team was on the way - and they were found by a passer-by on the HIGHWAY at the Eldorado Springs turnoff), the rest of the weekend was pretty great.



The Humane Society of Boulder Valley's annual Cause for Paws. The only bummer was we didn't have time to go to breakfast with everyone (after I suggested it and we agreed on a place) because the flag football game was less than an hour from the time we finished. Flag football was a blast, and we totally won - the kids (on both sides) had a great time:

IKEA. Hallelujia!!

(Did I spell that right?) IKEA IS COMING TO DENVER!!!!! What Target?

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/17439464/detail.html

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- IKEA is coming to Colorado.

While the opening date has not yet been determined, officials announced Tuesday that the new store will be located in Centennial, just west of Interstate 25 and north of Park Meadows Mall. The building will be located south of Dry Creek and north of County Line Road.

The iconic blue and yellow complex will occupy 400,000 square feet on 13.5 acres and will have two levels, a restaurant and 1,700 parking spaces.

Currently, the nearest IKEA stores are located in Draper, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City and in Tempe, Ariz., so officials think the Denver-area store will draw thousands of people from all over the Rocky Mountain West.

"This will be a multistate draw and folks will be coming from all over, which adds a different dimension, not only to the city but to the region," said Centennial Mayor Randy Pye.

IKEA said it gets phone calls on a daily basis from Colorado residents asking for a store in Colorado.

"We are thrilled to submit plans for IKEA Centennial where we can build upon our western U.S. presence," said Doug Greenholz, U.S. real estate manager for IKEA. "This proposed IKEA store would bring existing Colorado customers a store of their own and would introduce other Coloradans to the unique IKEA product selection and family-friendly shopping experience."

The Colorado store will be IKEA's 36th store in the United States.

The store would employ 900 people. It will take 500 people to construct the store and IKEA will hire 400 employees to work inside.

Store officials said because of its benefits, wages and flexible hours, IKEA has been ranked in FORTUNE's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list three years in a row and Working Mother magazine's annual list of "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" for four years in a row.

The Swedish company is the world's leading home furnishings retailer and known for stylish, affordable, assemble-yourself furniture.

Happy Birthday, Nick!!

Nick is 14 today! And Dad is...a year older today. They share the same birthday, and Dad was born on HIS gradfather's birthday. How cool is that? Nick is getting a new phone for his birthday. He's very excited.

Nick took this picture this morning, outside our apartment:

Momo. And God.

This weekend I parted with $250 to get Momo's (basic) vaccines topped off and get him microchipped. During the appointment, we found out he's got an ear infection. It wasn't bad - they scoped his ears (and we saw them ALL HUGE and GROSS on the TV screen) and they weren't red or anything, but the exam of the gunk came back that there was stuff in there that shouldn't be. Enter the ear wash and the medicine. Medicine 2x a day, wash once. I wind up wearing 95% of it. He flings it on my clothes, the walls, in my eyes. It's not a pretty process. Poor dude.

Chris saw a bumper sticker today: "When you understand why you reject all other gods, you will understand why I reject yours." What a thing of beauty. I looked into it, and it's a quote by Stephen F. Roberts: ""I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." This webpage is where I found the original quote: http://godisimaginary.com/i28.htm Very interesting.

Taking the Plunge :: Pet Sitting

Here we go. I did it. Ordered (free, for postage) business cards, and a basic website: The Urban Critter Pet Sitting, LLC. We'll see how this goes...once the cards come in, I'm planning on taking them to various pet-oriented business in the area - vets, Whole Pets, etc. There's a Pet CPR class in Denver on September 19 - hoping to get certified there, and then insurance ($174!!), and as soon as I can put the "Insured" and "Pet CPR Certified" qualifications on my site and cards, I'll feel as though I'm truly official (and competitive).

Love it.

Labor Day Weekend

Amidst long, lazy days at the dog park, we also did this:



This was last night at Kent's cousin's restaurant in Broomfield (at least, I think it was Broomfield...maybe Northglenn...he went the wrong way a couple times...).

Kelli had called Friday and said "Guess what?" and I said "Chicken butt?" and she said "No! We're on our way!" and I was like "WOOT!!!!" and we saw them on Saturday night, and went to Red Robin together (after Kent had Benadryl from hanging out at our house), and then last night we went to Li's restaurant and then to Dairy Queen in Louisville.

It was very fun. We found out that Kelli has a thing for Gene Simmons-like tongues. Very memorable.