Monday, October 28, 2013
Was Kennedy's Assassination Partly Due to an Atmosphere of Hatred?
After John F. Kennedy's assassination, The Longines Symphonette Recording Society published a three-record album titled, "The Kennedy Years, 1956 - 1963", providing an audio history of Kennedy's presidency.
The third record of the set was narrated by Chet Huntley, the distinguished news broadcaster.
I am providing here the last few minutes of that recording. I do that because I think it may speak to us today as a warning. Mr. Huntley felt that perhaps a contributing factor that led to the assassination of Kennedy was an atmosphere of hatred. Is that what we have today? What consequences are we suffering from the political atmosphere in which we have surrounded ourselves? Is it possible for us to strive for a more civilized society in which love and respect for our fellow men are ascendant and disrespect and hatred is suppressed?
I start the recording as we are hearing the end of a clip from Martin Luther King's speech during the 1963 March on Washington. Mr. Huntley then talks briefly about Kennedy's thoughts on the March and the Civil Rights Movement. Click here for Mr. Huntley's thoughts: -> Chet Huntley's Comments
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Open letter to Congress about the bailouts
The Honorable Barbara A. Mikulski
Hart Senate Office Building Suite 503
Washington DC 20510-2002
http://mikulski.senate.gov/Contact/contact.cfm
The Honorable Benjamin L. Cardin
Hart Senate Office Building Suite 509
Washington DC 20510-2003
http://cardin.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No government money, whether borrowed or taxed, should ever be used to bailout private financial interests.
No government money, whether borrowed or taxed, should ever be used to bailout private companies of any kind, including the car companies.
What is socialism? It is the ownership by the government of companies and enterprises.
History should teach us that socialism is the most inefficient and ineffective political and economic structure.
In order for an economy to succeed, in order for a country to prosper, government needs to get out of the way and stop trying to manage things.
The government caused the Great Depression. Even Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, agrees. Here's what he said at the celebration of Milton Friedman's 90th birthday in 2002 . ."I would like to say to Milton (Friedman) and Anna (Schwarz): Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it."
Predictably, government schools don't teach this view. Instead, they teach that . . .
The depression became Great because President Hoover was an advocate of laissez-faire economics who did nothing to intervene. In fact, Hoover was the first president to ever make major interventions in the economy.
The economist Bryan Caplan lists 21 Hoover interventions.
Another economist, Murray Rothbard, has described how President Hoover was the true creator of the "New Deal" approach for which FDR later claimed dubious credit.
Caplan and Rothbard are not alone in this. Roosevelt aid Rexford Guy Tugwell was to say years later . . .
"We didn't admit it at the time, but practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started." (Source: Paul Johnson, A History of the American People -- New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997, p.
741)
Even FDR himself agreed that Hoover had intervened, he just disagreed with the interventions. During the 1932 presidential campaign Roosevelt repudiated Hoover's meddling, saying . . ."The doctrine of regulation and legislation by 'masterminds' ... has been too glaringly apparent at Washington during the ."
And during the 1932 presdiential campaign Roosevelt constantly criticized Hoover for his huge deficits, promising instead . . .
* "immediate and drastic reductions of all public expenditures"
* "abolishing useless commissions and offices, consolidating bureaus and eliminating extravagances"
* "reductions in bureaucracy"
* Implied tax cuts
* And a "sound currency to be maintained at all hazards."
We aren't taught that Roosevelt promised these things. Instead, we're taught that FDR's heroic interventions saved the free market from itself.
But what did his interventions actually achieve?
* The depression became Great under FDR's guidance.
* It lasted more than a decade.
* Prosperity never returned while he was President.
* The economy only recovered after Roosevelt was dead and buried
Even FDR's own economic team knew that his New Deal interventions had been a complete failure. Here's what FDR's Treasury Secretary, Henry Morganthau, admitted to Congress in May, 1939 . . .
"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!" It's significant that Hoover and Roosevelt were the first to intervene in the economy. Previous downturns had always been allowed to run their course, lasting from a few months to a couple of years. But the first one the politicians tried to stop is the one that lasted more than a decade, and that really hit hard.
If government intervention worked, then why did the 1929 depression become Great, when none had before?
It ought to make you angry. The injustice is so clear. The politicians caused the problem, blamed it on the free market, and then benefited from the disaster they had created by grabbing vast amounts of power and money.
And now it's happening again. History, sadly, is rhyming.
We're being told that the economic downturn resulting from the housing bubble is a market failure, and that massive government intervention is needed in all directions. But the truth is this . . .
* Government housing policies and easy credit from the Federal Reserve caused the housing bubble.
* Companies and individuals who made bad decisions based on these policies should pay the full price for their mistakes
* None of them should be rescued
* The politicians should not intervene
In short, the politicians should stop pursuing policies that rhyme with those pursued during the Great Depression.
In addition, the advocates of Big Government should be asked . . .
* Why, precisely, was the first economic downturn in which the government intervened the only one that became so bad that it earned the name of the Great Depression?
* And why is it, precisely, that the major areas of American life where the government has intervened to make things more affordable -- such as health care, higher education, and housing -- are exactly those areas where costs have risen the most?
Government intervention does not work. It does not make things more affordable, it makes them more expensive. It does not prevent economic downturns, it causes them, and deepens them.
Please do no support or vote for any bailout of GM or any other private company.
We are already seeing the problems that the bailouts that have already been enacted are causing. Secretary Paulson is having to try to change original plans and bob and weave when things change. No government can react fast enough or smart enough to manage the economy well. Government needs to get out of the way and stay out of the way if this economy is ever going to recover and get back on track.
Thank you.
Mr. Brian Mason
Hart Senate Office Building Suite 503
Washington DC 20510-2002
http://mikulski.senate.gov/Contact/contact.cfm
The Honorable Benjamin L. Cardin
Hart Senate Office Building Suite 509
Washington DC 20510-2003
http://cardin.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No government money, whether borrowed or taxed, should ever be used to bailout private financial interests.
No government money, whether borrowed or taxed, should ever be used to bailout private companies of any kind, including the car companies.
What is socialism? It is the ownership by the government of companies and enterprises.
History should teach us that socialism is the most inefficient and ineffective political and economic structure.
In order for an economy to succeed, in order for a country to prosper, government needs to get out of the way and stop trying to manage things.
The government caused the Great Depression. Even Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, agrees. Here's what he said at the celebration of Milton Friedman's 90th birthday in 2002 . ."I would like to say to Milton (Friedman) and Anna (Schwarz): Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it."
Predictably, government schools don't teach this view. Instead, they teach that . . .
The depression became Great because President Hoover was an advocate of laissez-faire economics who did nothing to intervene. In fact, Hoover was the first president to ever make major interventions in the economy.
The economist Bryan Caplan lists 21 Hoover interventions.
Another economist, Murray Rothbard, has described how President Hoover was the true creator of the "New Deal" approach for which FDR later claimed dubious credit.
Caplan and Rothbard are not alone in this. Roosevelt aid Rexford Guy Tugwell was to say years later . . .
"We didn't admit it at the time, but practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started." (Source: Paul Johnson, A History of the American People -- New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997, p.
741)
Even FDR himself agreed that Hoover had intervened, he just disagreed with the interventions. During the 1932 presidential campaign Roosevelt repudiated Hoover's meddling, saying . . ."The doctrine of regulation and legislation by 'masterminds' ... has been too glaringly apparent at Washington during the ."
And during the 1932 presdiential campaign Roosevelt constantly criticized Hoover for his huge deficits, promising instead . . .
* "immediate and drastic reductions of all public expenditures"
* "abolishing useless commissions and offices, consolidating bureaus and eliminating extravagances"
* "reductions in bureaucracy"
* Implied tax cuts
* And a "sound currency to be maintained at all hazards."
We aren't taught that Roosevelt promised these things. Instead, we're taught that FDR's heroic interventions saved the free market from itself.
But what did his interventions actually achieve?
* The depression became Great under FDR's guidance.
* It lasted more than a decade.
* Prosperity never returned while he was President.
* The economy only recovered after Roosevelt was dead and buried
Even FDR's own economic team knew that his New Deal interventions had been a complete failure. Here's what FDR's Treasury Secretary, Henry Morganthau, admitted to Congress in May, 1939 . . .
"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!" It's significant that Hoover and Roosevelt were the first to intervene in the economy. Previous downturns had always been allowed to run their course, lasting from a few months to a couple of years. But the first one the politicians tried to stop is the one that lasted more than a decade, and that really hit hard.
If government intervention worked, then why did the 1929 depression become Great, when none had before?
It ought to make you angry. The injustice is so clear. The politicians caused the problem, blamed it on the free market, and then benefited from the disaster they had created by grabbing vast amounts of power and money.
And now it's happening again. History, sadly, is rhyming.
We're being told that the economic downturn resulting from the housing bubble is a market failure, and that massive government intervention is needed in all directions. But the truth is this . . .
* Government housing policies and easy credit from the Federal Reserve caused the housing bubble.
* Companies and individuals who made bad decisions based on these policies should pay the full price for their mistakes
* None of them should be rescued
* The politicians should not intervene
In short, the politicians should stop pursuing policies that rhyme with those pursued during the Great Depression.
In addition, the advocates of Big Government should be asked . . .
* Why, precisely, was the first economic downturn in which the government intervened the only one that became so bad that it earned the name of the Great Depression?
* And why is it, precisely, that the major areas of American life where the government has intervened to make things more affordable -- such as health care, higher education, and housing -- are exactly those areas where costs have risen the most?
Government intervention does not work. It does not make things more affordable, it makes them more expensive. It does not prevent economic downturns, it causes them, and deepens them.
Please do no support or vote for any bailout of GM or any other private company.
We are already seeing the problems that the bailouts that have already been enacted are causing. Secretary Paulson is having to try to change original plans and bob and weave when things change. No government can react fast enough or smart enough to manage the economy well. Government needs to get out of the way and stay out of the way if this economy is ever going to recover and get back on track.
Thank you.
Mr. Brian Mason
Monday, September 22, 2008
Bill Maher Puts Things in Perspective
There are so many reasons we should have not gone to Iraq, even if we want to protect ourselves against terrorists. Here is another.
Click on the title to go to YouTube to see this clip.
Click on the title to go to YouTube to see this clip.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Star Simpson gives her side of the story
You may remember the incident at the Boston airport when a young lady was taken to jail after she showed up at the airport wearing a sweatshirt that had blinking lights. Many of the news reporters commented that she was "really dumb" to wear such an outfit to the airport and that airport security had every right to arrest her in the interest of airport safety and security.
As Star says in her comments, it was all theater. The huge inconveniences we have to put up with these days at the airport are just to make us feel safe. It has little to do with actually making us safe.
It is just too bad that Star basically had to deal with the after effects of her misadventure that day for a whole year later.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
NSA Snooping on Cell Phone Calls
From CNet: A recent article in the London Review of Books revealed that a number of private companies now sell off-the-shelf data-mining solutions to government spies interested in analyzing mobile-phone calling records and real-time location information. These companies include ThorpeGlen, VASTech, Kommlabs, and Aqsacom--all of which sell "passive probing" data-mining services to governments around the world.
More proof that privacy is dead. We now need laws that require that any organization using this software be disclosed to the public including their purpose for using the software and whom they intend to "probe".
More proof that privacy is dead. We now need laws that require that any organization using this software be disclosed to the public including their purpose for using the software and whom they intend to "probe".
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Friday, August 1, 2008
U.S. Government Policy for Seizing Laptops at Borders
Amazing. The U.S. government has published its policy: they can take your laptop anywhere they want, for as long as they want, and share the information with anyone they want.
This needs to be squashed and fast. The U.S. does have a Constitution, though it seems to be ignored more and more. And part of the Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. By ANY reading of that provision, the seizure of a person's laptop is prohibited.
A laptop becomes an extension of the person and the person's mind. This is the equivalent of taking a portion of a person's brain for government inspection.
Here's the actual policy:
This needs to be squashed and fast. The U.S. does have a Constitution, though it seems to be ignored more and more. And part of the Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. By ANY reading of that provision, the seizure of a person's laptop is prohibited.
A laptop becomes an extension of the person and the person's mind. This is the equivalent of taking a portion of a person's brain for government inspection.
Here's the actual policy:
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Legislators aim to snuff out penalties for pot use
The U.S. should stop arresting responsible marijuana users, Rep. Barney Frank said Wednesday, announcing a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, almost a quarter-pound, of the substance. "The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business," Frank said. This proposal probably won't get any traction, but one can always hope. Rep. Frank should at least be applauded for his effort.
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