Ponder This… Six-Pack #37
1. Well, sadly in a way, Ron Paul officially ended his campaign for presidency of the United States. The real good news, however, is that the Leader for Liberty has created a new organization to combine the vast will-power of the Ron Paul movement freedom-lovers into a united group to pursue limited government and liberty for our future. The new organization is called “The Campaign for Liberty”. Please check out the website and if you are a freedom loving individual, please consider signing up and joining the effort. I think it is safe to say that Ron Paul and those who supported him in the 2008 election will not go quietly into the night. We care about living free and nothing is going to change that, ever.
2. One of the tenets of the philosophy of liberty is the process of free individual interaction in the economic sphere. By free, I mean, lacking coercive force. The tenets of this philosophy have best been known as free market capitalism throughout time. Unfortunately, the term “capitalism” has faced a tremendous smear campaign, which is more accurately aimed at corporatism/fascism. True free market capitalism entails very basic tenets of simply no force or fraud involved in economic transactions. Free people should be allowed to do as they please with their time and the fruits of their labor. This article highlights the traditionally vastly under-analyzed blessings of free market capitalism.
3. The philosophy of liberty is also antithetical to unreasonable search, seizure and surveillance. As we all should know by now, the Bush Administration absolutely had a terrible record on this subject, pushing the envelope on surveillance to truly preposterous and ultimately dangerous levels. Well, it is now being brought to light that the secret courts (I am never a fan of secret courts in a supposedly free society) set up by some of the highly questionable surveillance legislation have indicated that some actions taken by federal agencies may have crossed the already blurred lines. Check out the article.
4. An additional pillar of freedom is free banking, credit and currency. Unfortunately, our society highly struggles in this regard currently. Cartels established by government dictate currently place our “Federal Reserve” banking, currency and credit system in a position to do serious damage to the economy, as well as being generally antithetical to liberty. So with the massive bubbles that have boomed and busted in the past decade-plus, Ben Bernanke is doing a song and dance trying to pass the blame hot potato off his and his Fed cronies’ laps. Mike Whitney provides a damning analysis of the idiocy and/or dishonest perspective placed into the public consciousness by Mr. Printing Press. Whitney aptly points out how long run policy has had the effect of decaying the American middle class.
5. I am not really a big fan of Glenn Beck. Like most people though, I do agree with him on various subjects. On this issue of foreclosures of the formerly wealthy and/or famous, I am right there with him. A man like Ed McMahon, who made millions in his lifetime via entertaining people, while it sucks he may lose his home, really deserves little in the way of sorrow from the public at-large. The fact of the matter is that failures provide the ability to LEARN. If there is one thing a society must have to be successful, it is the ability to learn. Sometimes life throws you off your horse. Don’t scream for government help (meaning, asking for money seized from your neighbors’ pockets), instead get up, work harder and figure out a way to get out of your hole. Living beyond one’s means is a SURE path to pain. Living withing one’s means is a cardinal virtue.
6. Doubling back to the FBI, it looks like all the mortgage shenanigans that predictably rode shotgun with the Fed-inspired mortgage/housing boom and bust will now be a bigger focus of the agency. Memo to the Fed: every time a major irrational bubble is blown due to faulty monetary policy, there will SURELY follow significant revelations of misdeeds in the sector. This is a stone cold guarantee. If you listen to many Fed officials, they would have you think that no one can learn anything from history, ever. Awareness seems to not be their strong suit.
Filed under: Politics, Social Mood, Economics, Entertainment, Six Packs, Current Events


Great post, and that article on capitalism is terrific.
It’s really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that so many people look at capitalism as being a bad thing, and this is happening in one of the most prosperous nations of all time, thanks to capitalism. It’s appalling and ridiculous.