JoshWilson.org

Excerpt from: The Life of Colonel David Crockett by Edward Sylvester Ellis

Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some members of Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great light over Georgetown. It was evidently a large fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we could. In spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many families made houseless, and besides, some of them had lost all but the clothes they had on. The weather was very cold, and when I saw so many children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for them. The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating $20,000 for their relief. We put aside all other business and rushed it through as soon as it could be done. Read more»

When offered the choice between a warmonger who’s a reluctant socialist, and a socialist who’s a reluctant warmonger, I’m going to choose “neither” every time.

I found the term from a series of videos at Vimeo (via Coudal), but it seems to fit. In any case, welcome to The New Depression. I have to imagine that this is about what things looked like in 1929.

During the Senate discussions about the impending bailout of the banking system, Ron Paul questioned Bernanke’s authority to create money to purchase bad debt and take a gamble that they can get rid of it later. Bernanke’s response was that the Congress “is given the authority to coin money, and to regulate its value, and they delgated that to us [the Federal Reserve].” (in this video, at the 6:20 mark) Bernanke’s right, but he’s also very, very wrong. Here’s why. Read more»

I may be mentioning this fine woman in the future, but there’s a great interview with Naomi Wolf over at Democracy Now! about her book “The End of America.” In short, in the book she details the ten steps that are common in all downfalls of democracies.

Pay attention.

I’ve been struggling for some time trying to decide how best to tackle politics in my writing. So far I’ve been stumped. It seems that the best way to get noticed, or to at least be considered a legitimate source of commentary (if there is such a thing in the blogosphere) is to cover everything under the sun. I’d call this the “Shotgun Approach.” This can be a really good way to do things, so long as you’re interested in buying into the 24/7 news cycle and churning out as many articles as possible. There’s no need to worry about a slow news day because you can always find something to write about even if you have to make it up. Observe Rush Limbaugh. Or CNN. Or Mises.org. Or, well, almost anyone.

Frankly, I find the news cycle sort of boring and unhelpful. I’m sure you do too. You have way too much garbage to sift through as it is. So, I’ll be taking the other extreme - the “Sniper Approach.” I’ve got a sinking suspicion that most of the problems we face are only complex because they’re made that way on purpose. We’re drinking from the firehose because someone pointed it at us. So let’s turn it off. Let’s get to the core of the issues, cut through the veil of confusion, and start talk about things you can actually understand. That’s it.

Just a quick heads up, the banking situation here in the US is not getting any better. In fact, the FDIC just closed it’s eighth bank for the year. Now, that may not seem like many, but consider the banks that have closed:

Bank::FDIC Payout::Uninsured desposits

First Priority::$200 million::$13 million
IndyMac::$4 billion
Hume Bank::$12.5 million::$1.1 million

In all, eleven banks have failed between Feb 2007 and August 2008. To put things in perspective, before Feb 2007 the FDIC hadn’t closed a bank since 2004 (see sources). We’re gonna have big problems here.

Sources
Bank Failures, Should You Be Worried?
Coming Bank Failures
FDIC Bracing for Bank Failures

No doubt, the politicians who came up with the idea of subsidizing the diversion of grain to the production of bioethanol did not intend to starve the world’s poorest people; but the fact that the consequences were unintended does not absolve them of responsibility.

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Now I know it’s getting bad. My favorite technology pundit is writing about the price of gasoline and the breakdown of society. Here’s an excerpt from the discussion in the comments: 

During the Depression, when “ordinary decent people just like you and me” numbering in the millions were being utterly killed by the economy and DC was turned into a homeless encampment for war veterans and (ironically) being attacked by the National Guard…it was a time when people were seriously open to radical change. It was a time when the US could have taken an insane swerve towards Communism or national Socialism. 

Right now, if I want to visit a friend of mine who lives just an hour’s drive away, I drive over there and see him. If gas went to six bucks a gallon, I’d first do some math and realize that okay, the visit will cost me about forty bucks. And instead of an evening of dinner and conversation and some Wii, I’d stay home instead and iChat him.

THAT is a major shift, and it’d make me re-think my views towards how the country is being run.

Go, therefore, and read the article.