Ron Paul blew it.

The Congress shall have power to[..]
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States; -Constitution of the United States of America, Article one, section eight.



Ron Paul, in a recent speech before Congress, has pointed out that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve in his stated opposition to the bill requiring an audit of that same body that such an audit would "politicize monetary policy" and allow Congress to SET monetary policy. Dr. Paul goes on to say that his bill does no such thing.

Now, even though I think he's tilting at windmills, I usually admire Dr. Paul. He's a believer. A man who thinks that the constitution means what it says, and that a minimal state is both possible and desirable. As an anarchist, I completely disagree and thus could not support him or any other Statist.

But this time he fuckin' blew it. His response SHOULD have been to tell Mr. Bernanke straight out:" CONGRESS ALREADY has that authority, you mealy mouthed, arrogant, scum sucker!"

Of course, Dr. Paul is much more polite than this, but he's never really held back before on issues where congress' mandate is obvious, such as this case. While I suppose it could be argued that Congress made no legal transgression in outsourcing one of their duties, the idea that the contractor can keep itself separate and secret from the body FROM WHICH IT SOLELY DERIVES IT'S AUTHORITY TO EXIST is outrageous.

The moment the Federal Reserve started objecting to this, they should have been fired. Yes, that's right, FIRED. Terminated. Sorry, but your services are no longer required due to demonstrated incompetence and malfeasance, nevermind that part that you've hidden.

Central banking schemes have never worked, even when they are transparent. Secret banking schemes such as the Fed have ONLY one purpose: The absolute denial of the free market.

Some general thoughts on things and such

Ok, so I didn't get to it on Thursday. Life is full of mostly unpleasant surprises and many tasks, none of which ever seem to come when you plan for them. But enough whining.

Some things I've been thinking about, given the disastrous state of the American Dollar and the vacuous state of the American public...

One, if the dollar fails utterly (hyperinflation, loss of faith, Chinese Foreclosure) what will happen?

While I think in the long run, such a thing will be good for the whole world since the collapse of the dollar would take the empire with it, in the short run it will likely be catastrophic.

The United State of America (s deliberately omitted) is ill prepared for individual survival. A great many people are so interdependent and straight up dependent upon the "system" that even a week without officially sanctioned commerce would probably lead to starvation for a lot of people. Ridiculous, but there it is.

So what do you do?

I highly advocate, right now, that as many people as possible (this means YOU) put together an emergency survival kit. Actually, two of them. One portable, one not. Canned goods and water reserves, dry beans, rice, corn and possibly jerked meat. Not foods that depend on refrigeration, as power might fail. This is the non portable, or limited portability.

Portable? TWO good knives. They don't have to be the hyper expensive sport model, just a good long and short knife. A backpack. A sleeping bag. A tent. An endless match (magnesium strip). Some rugged clothes, hiking boots, raingear, and a small cooking kit. First aid kit and sewing kit (I also highly recommend dental floss. It's a fantastic thread for quick and durable repairs to things like your backpack and tent). A good compass, if your knife don't have one. One hundred feet of light gauge rope. A hammer and a multi tool like a leatherman. Do your best to keep it all under 40 pounds. I know that don't sound like a lot, but after a day with it on your back and belt, you'll sing another tune :)

I would add some weapons to that if possible. A bow is probably better than a gun for hunting and defense as well, for two reasons. In a SHTF scenario, you don't want to draw attention to yourself, and guns are noisy, and arrows are reusable. You might not be able to acquire bullets. Nevertheless, a gun is probably good to carry as well, for Mr. Case.

This emergency kit should be with you at all times. In the trunk of your car if you are away from home, or easily to hand while you are. You should check it frequently to be assured that it's intact. This is a good idea even in GOOD times, because things happen without your planning or consent even when you think you got a handle on things. Being the kind of guy that trouble seems to know where I am no matter how hard I try to avoid it, I can personally attest to this.

I had more, but it escaped. Later!

Anarchy is not the answer!

Once again, someone more eloquent than I has said what I'm trying to say better.

Dale Everett, author of the web comic "anarchy in your head" wrote an excellent article on this, linked here, and I encourage everyone to read it!

Also, check him here, where like me he talks about building better humans instead of better empires.

On to other things.

I've moved, and FINALLY have high speed internet access again, so I'm going to try to be a lot more regular on the blog. In fact, I'm now intending to put up a post every other Thursday, starting next week. Why Thursday? Well, why not? Ok, it's not that arbitrary. I'm usually off on Thursday. I'll post more often if the urge strikes.

Further, as soon as I get my basement "hideaway" properly set up, I'll be doing videos again. Hopefully better production, as I've learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know before AND have a dedicated space. I'll probably be posting most of the new ones to filmrookie instead of Youtube, since I don't intend to stay inside the ten minute time limit, nor do I really care for the direction Youtube is taking. I'll probably do the random vlog over there, and trailers to the stuff I put real work in to.

Well, enough babbling for today. L8R!

-Kevin