Ron Paul Only GOP Primary Candidate Who Calls For Eliminating Federal Departments | CNSNews.com

(CNSNews.com) – For the four Republican primary candidates still in the race, only Ron Paul’s budget proposal, “Plan to Restore America,” calls for the elimination of specific federal departments, which is a policy view that many conservative candidates used to hold, including Ronald Reagan.

Paul’s plan calls for the elimination of five Cabinet departments: Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education and Housing & Urban Development. In the 1980 race, Reagan called for eliminating the Department of Education. In addition, the elimination of the Departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, and Housing & Urban Development have long been advocated by conservatives.

Ron Paul Only GOP Primary Candidate Who Calls For Eliminating Federal Departments | CNSNews.com

Heckling Washington | CNSNews.com

Heckling Washington | CNSNews.com

US General: "Iran a Rational Actor", but is US one?

US General: "Iran a Rational Actor", but is US one?

HuffPo on Iran Nuclear Coverage: 'Haven't we seen this movie before?'

NEW YORK -- Military strikes expected! Weapons inspectors called in! A murky al Qaeda connection! And Cheney says time's up for Ira...

Wait. Haven't we seen this movie before?

It's already been a decade since the media hyped bogus WMD claims prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But it sure feels like 2002 for anyone who was around then and is now scanning newspaper headlines or watching TV talking-heads discuss a possible Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities -- an act which could pull the U.S. into another thorny Middle East military conflict.

Some of the media's more overheated Iran coverage bears an eerie resemblance to Iraq coverage, but instead of former Vice President Dick Cheney we have his daughter Liz Cheney making the Sunday show rounds.

"A nuclear weapon in the hands of the world's worst sponsor of terror, one of them, is something we can't stand for," Cheney said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Iran Nuclear Coverage Echoes Iraq War Media Frenzy || Huffington Post

Ron Paul calls Santorum a 'fake' at GOP debate - The Hill's Video

Ron Paul, when asked why he was running an ad of his calling Rick Santorum a "fake" at Wednesday's GOP debate, didn't miss a beat.

"Because he's a fake," Paul said to laughs.

Ron Paul calls Santorum a 'fake' at GOP debate - The Hill's Video

GOP Rep.: ‘There are Better Ways to Protect the Health of Women Than by Killing Their Children’ | CNSNews.com

(CNSNews.com) – Responding to critics who claim proposed legislation to outlaw abortions at 20 weeks or later in the District of Columbia is an attack on women’s reproductive rights, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that abortion was not about women’s health.

“The bottom line is, there are better ways to protect the health of women than by killing their children for them,” Franks, the bill’s author, told CNSNews.com.

GOP Rep.: ‘There are Better Ways to Protect the Health of Women Than by Killing Their Children’ | CNSNews.com

'X Factor' Teenager Crow Signs TV, Record Deal | CNSNews.com

This girl is awesome!



'X Factor' Teenager Crow Signs TV, Record Deal | CNSNews.com

USA Today: 'Only Rep. Ron Paul of Texas would keep the national debt in check as a percentage of the economy'

From the article:

Leading the way with the most expensive plan is former House speaker Newt Gingrich, followed by former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, says the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Only Rep. Ron Paul of Texas would keep the national debt in check as a percentage of the economy, the group found, because he has proposed by far the largest spending cuts.

Budget watchdog: Most Republicans would increase debt || USA Today

Ron Paul: 'I am the only one who predicted the economic meltdown'

(GoinsReport.com) -- While issuing a response to the Congressional Budget Office's latest report, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) also took time to tout his clairvoyance on the economic crisis.

"Of the five men seeking the presidency in the major parties – President Obama, Governor Romney, Speaker Gingrich, Senator Santorum, and myself – I am the only one who predicted the economic meltdown," Paul said.

He continued: "and the only one who has proposed a serious plan to balance the budget, reduce taxes, and create jobs."

On the House Floor on September 6, 2001, Ron Paul, speaking on the expansion of credit into the housing market, said the following: "Instead of the newly inflated money being directed toward the stock market, it now finds its way into the rapidly expanding real-estate bubble."

"This, too, will burst as all bubbles do," Paul continued. "The Fed, the Congress, or even foreign investors can't prevent the collapse of this bubble, any more than the incestuous Japanese banks were able to keep the Japanese "miracle" of the 1980s going forever."

In mid-2006, the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to discourage inflation. By first quarter 2007, subprime foreclosures were becoming more frequent. The housing bubble had burst.

To read the rest of Ron Paul's speech, "The US Dollar and the World Economy," given on the House floor, click here.

Read the rest of the statement on the CBO report here.

Video: Martin Luther King on being the 'policeman of the world'

Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America "you are too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God. Men will beat their swords into plowshafts and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore." I don't know about you, I ain't going to study war anymore. ~Martin Luther King, Where Do We Go From Here? (1967)

President Obama’s ‘balanced’ budget - TheHill.com

President Obama submitted his fiscal 2013 budget proposal to Congress a week late this year. Some might have expected that the delay was due to the president wanting to include some major new proposals. Sadly, other than some new debt-financed “investment” proposals, that does not appear to be the case. The president’s budget proposal is largely a reprise of the recommendations he gave in the fall to the so-called “supercommittee.”

President Obama’s ‘balanced’ budget - TheHill.com

Video: Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell on Poverty

This is the video I was referring to in the second paragraph of this blog post.

Two US Drone Strikes Kill Up to 21 People in Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com

Two U.S. drones strikes in north-west Pakistan have killed up 21 people on Thursday and wounded several others, according to Pakistani officials.

Pakistani officials said that the first attack launched two missiles and killed at least five “militants,” and wounded several others. A second attack in the same area in North Waziristan, killed 15 Uzbek fighters, the officials said.

Two US Drone Strikes Kill Up to 21 People in Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com

Panetta: Iran is Not Developing Nuclear Weapons -- News from Antiwar.com

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that Iran is enriching uranium in a peaceful nuclear program but that Tehran has not decided to develop an atomic bomb.

Top U.S. military and intelligence officials gave separate testimonies in congressional hearings on Thursday regarding Iran, and while they all reiterated the consensus that Iran’s nuclear program is purely civilian in nature, they also kept up the tough talk, hoping to satisfy hawks eager to preemptively strike Iran.

Panetta: Iran is Not Developing Nuclear Weapons -- News from Antiwar.com

'When You Hear the Word “Collapse,” Ignore It,' says Gary North

This advice is so useful. I remember when Gary North first debunked the National Inflation Association on his subscriber-based website a few years ago.

It was a relief.

However, the NIA's fear mongering was useful in a sense because it produced real concerns--the fear of hyperinflation--that I had to address. I brought those concerns to someone who spent a good deal of his lifetime studying economics.

Part of the reason I joined North's Specific Answers site was because I was terrified of hyperinflation after seeing NIA "Hyperinflation Nation" movie and needed my concerns addressed. But after they were addressed and time passed, I publicly distanced myself from the NIA.

Most people who use the word "collapse" have the right intentions, but they're economics are misplaced.

North's recent article doesn't address the NIA but someone else.

From the Tea Party Economist Blog:

We hear the word “collapse” all the time. The word does not make sense in a free market economy. Collapses come all at once. Prices on a free market change, forcing people to adjust. We can get erosion. We can get recession. Short of a war scenario, such as biological pandemic, we cannot get a collapse.

I will cite an article that promotes collapse. I do not believe it for a minute. It is representative of what you should ignore.

When You Hear the Word “Collapse,” Ignore It. || Tea Party Economist

Why you technically may be an extremist

I put two and two together a long time ago. But Gary North tells it on his news site/blog.

From the Tea Party Economist Blog:

This article indicates how far the U.S. government has gone to define “Constitutionalist” as militia extremist.

Are You a Militia Extremist? Technically, You Probably Are. || Tea Party Economist

The “Underwear Bomber” Had Help from the U.S. Government

From the Tea Party Economist Blog:

In the hoopla about the so-called underwear bomber, this got little publicity. One of the people on the plane has gone public with an amazing account. This is from his blog site.

The “Underwear Bomber” Had Help from the U.S. Government || Tea Party Economist

State and Local Sales Taxes in 2012

From the Tax Foundation blog:

Introduction

Retail sales taxes are a transparent way to collect tax revenue. While graduated income tax rates and brackets are complex and confusing to many taxpayers, the sales tax is easier to understand: people can reach into their pocket and see the rate printed on a receipt.

Less known, however, are the local sales taxes collected in 36 states. These rates can be substantial, so a state with a moderate state sales tax rate could actually have a very high combined state-local rate compared to other states. This report provides a population-weighted average of local sales taxes in each state in an attempt to give a sense of the statutory local rate for each state.

State and Local Sales Taxes in 2012 || The Tax Foundation

Rabbi Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel || Line of Fire Radio

Dr. Michael Brown, author of the Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus series, talks about the greatest rabbi to have ever lived.

Rabbi Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel || Line of Fire Radio

Bernanke Points to 'Increased Possibility of a Sudden Fiscal Crisis' | CNSnews.com

(CNSNews.com) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the current trajectory of the federal budget – marked by large annual deficits – was “clearly unsustainable” and that “serious economic consequences” could result.

“Having a large and increasing level of government debt relative to national income runs the risk of serious economic consequences,” Bernanke told the Senate Budget Committee Tuesday.

Bernanke Points to 'Increased Possibility of a Sudden Fiscal Crisis' | CNSnews.com

Video: Tom Woods Interviews Walter Williams on Peter Schiff Radio

One of the guys who helped me get into economics got interviewed by the guy who is keeping me in it. (Really, my own desire to understand what is going on around me is keeping me interested. But hey, it sounded nice!)

Update 2/18/12:

In the first paragraph below, I accidentally wrote Thomas Sowell instead of Walter Williams. The error has been corrected. I think I wrote Sowell instead of Williams because I was listening to this interview before I updated the page on 2/8/12.

Update 2/8/12:

In the above interview, Walter Williams mentions a report or paper that one of his colleagues wrote about Jim Crow laws in New Orleans. If I remember correctly, he said that private industry was actually pushing back against those laws which were being forced upon them by the government.

After doing some digging, I found out today that Thomas Sowell wrote about Rosa Parks a few days after her death in 2005. The column "Rosa Parks and History" is worth the read and piggybacks on the report mentioned above. Secondly, it shows that free-market's solutions to racism aren't just academic theories, they reflect something that happened in the real world.

As Walter Williams wrote, "When white solidarity is confronted by the specter of higher profits by serving blacks, it's likely that profits will win."

Upon some further digging, it didn't hit me until now--because I read the column when it first appeared in 2010--that one of my other favorite economists, Walter Williams, wrote about this exact topic then, and it may indeed reference the paper that Thomas Sowell was talking about (although he doesn't mention New Orleans so there is a chance it isn't).

For more reading into this topic, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism (which is one of the first books on capitalism I read a few years ago) by Mises scholar Robert P. Murphy has a section dedicated to the free market and racism.

George Reisman, who studied under Ludwig Von Mises himself, has a paper taking a slightly different angle called "Capitalism: The Cure for Racism" and it is pretty short.

South American-born Jewish American on U.S.-Israeli Relations: It should be a 'relationship of equals'

Mommy, where do taxes come from?

Who Pays Taxes || The Peter G. Peterson Foundation


Where Taxes Come From || Peter G. Peterson Foundation

How to Have a Healthy Heart (Free PDF download)

Sometimes I veer off from economics and theology to recommend something to read. This is one of those times.

Heart disease, stroke, and heart attacks all concern me. That's why I'm linking to this book about heart cures.

You can download it here.

Ron Paul Campaign Demands Newt Gingrich to Rectify Damage Done to Ron Paul Supporter

(GoinsReport.com) – For the second day in a row, the Ron Paul campaign has called on GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich to rectify the damage caused by Gingrich’s campaign staff when they injured a Ron Paul supporter on Tuesday.

The incident happened Tuesday morning in Windermere, Florida.

Read about the incident here.

The press release can be read here.