It's a Wonderful Life (With Capitalism)!

I haven't posted anything on here for a long time, but I needed a place to put this video, so it's going here.  I've been spending the past couple of years studying free market economics, and I'll be teaching a class to home schoolers next semester.  I'm really excited about it, because there is such a lack of understanding about how the free market works and why we must regain and then preserve our ability to freely exchange with anyone we want to.  This country is being flushed down the toilet because voters keep electing people whose rhetoric sounds good, but which, in reality, translates into policies that lower our standard of living and attempt to take us back to the dark ages.

Schiff: Mortgage Bankers Speech, Nov. 2009

Here's another speech by Peter Schiff, given to over 1000 bankers at that time, telling them why many of them were about to lose their jobs. For a transcript, go here:  http://www.csaba.se/2009/09/26/peter-schiff-mortgage-bankers-speech-2006-complete-transcript/

Why The Meltdown Should Have Surprised No One

I've been enjoying listening to Peter Schiff lately.  He's a very pro Free Market Economist.  I'm putting a couple of his lectures on here. This is the Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, Austrian Scholars Conference, March 13, 2009.  I love his way of making things clear enough that even someone like me can understand him.  He also uses the best analogies and can be quite funny.  Go here: http://mises.org/daily/3493  for a transcript and a link to the speech in downloadable mp3 format.

Diary of a Former Communist

I just came across this free book, offered online.  Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be in a pdf format that can be downloaded, so it has to be read online, but some of you might find it interesting.  It's an autobiography based on the author's diary, which he kept from 1946-2004, and spans the countries of USSR, Poland, France, and the U.S.
Diary of a Former Communist: Thoughts, Feelings, Reality
                                                          by Ludwik Kowalski 

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html

All You Ever Wanted to Know About Economics

I just wanted to share a link to one of my favorite places to learn about Free Market Economics.  The Mises Institute has many, many resources to help us understand the seemingly incomprehensible world of economics.  They have videos, audios, articles and seminars about this complex topic, and the fun part is, their information is quite accessible and understandable.  If you are a homeschooler, and would like to provide economics classes for your high schooler, they have free recorded online seminars directed specifically to high schoolers, and even more specifically, to home schooled students.  Here's a link that will put you on the page to their introductory seminars, but don't stop here.  The site is full of great information. 

http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=202

I took an economics class in college, and I honestly can't even remember if I finished it, or dropped out.  I just remembered being bored to the point of screaming.  I probably dropped it. I only have so much tolerance.  Since I have started using the Von Mises Institute to study the subject, I can't seem to get enough.  The speakers are very often enjoyable and even humorous, if you can imagine that, and the information just rings true. 

Check it out and see what you think! 

Why Do We Bother?

Though the following article references the pro-life movement, specifically, I believe that it accurately reflects the ideals of so many of us who find ourselves caught up in the movement to defend freedom on all fronts.  As long as we keep remembering why we are doing what we are doing, we will continue to have the motivation necessary to persevere in the face of setbacks.  In the end the war will be won, but the prize will only go to those who stayed in the fight to the end.

 

 

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

This Week's Feature
Dr. Charmaine Yoest and Dr. Alveda King co-authored an op-ed that appeared in The Washington Times this week on Elena’s Kagan’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, why it was worth opposing her nomination, and why the pro-life movement will – over the long haul – ultimately win in the struggle to restore a culture of Life. 

Rights for the unborn

Pressing on for 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'

President Obama's selection of Elena Kagan, the most demonstrably pro-abortion Supreme Court nominee in recent memory, presented a daunting challenge to pro-life leaders, as her 63 Senate votes during Thursday's confirmation attest.
Not unreasonably, observers have asked: Why then, do we bother?
The question resonates for this particular political confrontation but applies equally to the larger issue as a whole as we near four decades of abortion on demand in America post Roe v. Wade.
We bother because, in the end, we will win.
Think of "Rocky" and "Rudy." In a universally favorite movie plot, the unsung and discounted hero defies great odds, ignores the naysayers, perseveres in the face of overwhelming obstacles and emerges triumphant just when it looks impossible.
Tenacious persistence has been part of the American fiber since the beginning.
After all, our nation's founding was the impossible dream of the 18th century. America's founders had the audacity to believe that the people could govern themselves, and they agreed to take on the world's greatest military power to earn the right to try.
But in our modern, 24/7 drive-thru microwave Twitter culture, we often forget that great victories for the betterment of humankind don't happen instantly. Real, substantive change doesn't take place in the course of one election, one year or as the result of one political battle. It is achieved through a long march that can span many lifetimes.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech was not the launching point in the struggle for civil rights and equality. Rather, Dr. King's genius was his dedication to carrying a well-weathered baton that was handed to him by a long list of committed visionaries. The struggle to make all Americans truly equal regardless of race, which predates our republic, took more than a century and a half.
In 1773, Benjamin Franklin wrote "a disposition to abolish slavery prevails in North America" while Thomas Jefferson, in another letter, castigated King George for his "cruel war against human nature itself" because the king opposed efforts to prohibit the slave trade in the American Colonies.
President John Quincy Adams - the "hellhound" of abolition - was a strong opponent of slavery in America's early years and had hoped to see its end. Realizing near the end of his life that victory would not be achieved on his watch, he noted that in spite of this, "my conscience presses me on."
But Adams, in his later years, befriended a one-term congressman from Illinois. Young Abraham Lincoln, who went on to become the 16th president of the United States, later based his Emancipation Proclamation on Adams' anti-slavery arguments.
As decade stretched into decade, Americans from Harriet Tubman to Rosa Parks pressed on in the defining human rights struggle of their time. And, after fighting a bloody war, staging protests at lunch counters or walking into a hostile school escorted by armed paratroopers, hundreds of thousands of people eventually moved the nation to do the right thing.
Finally, on July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson - with King present - signed the Civil Rights Act, a law that put into practice the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection for all Americans.
Today, in poll after poll, Americans are trending more and more pro-life. They want to see abortion restricted, support parental involvement laws and want an end to taxpayer-funded abortion. On the issue of judges, Americans are also very clear. In a recent poll, 87 percent said they support judges who "interpret the law as it is written" and 70 percent said they think elected officials should make policy and not the courts.
In spite of this opposition to an agenda-driven judiciary, Washington elites continue to defy the people. Elena Kagan's nomination is a prime exemplar of this vast contradiction.
After months of dedicated opposition to her nomination, Ms. Kagan's confirmation is a difficult setback in our long march to ultimate victory.
Justice Kagan's agenda-driven philosophy, her advocacy of abortion without any restrictions, and her record as a White House aide who manipulated medical evidence to achieve political ends has caused a stir among the electorate.
In 1857, when the Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sanford that black Americans essentially had no protection under the Constitution and therefore virtually no rights, abolitionists may have felt that their cause had been dealt a serious blow - yet they continued to press ahead.
They pressed ahead, as we do now, not because victory was immediate but because they were compelled by duty to do what is right. And in America, land of the second chance, we know there will be another opportunity.
When opportunity comes, we will take on the challenge to the best of our ability. We take that challenge knowing that maybe on our watch, or maybe on our children's watch, 1964 will come again. We are, after all, one human race on an unending quest to secure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.
Remembering this, may our consciences press us onward.
Charmaine Yoest is president and chief executive of Americans United for Life.

Alveda King is director of African American Outreach for Priests for Life and founder of King for America.

When the Music Stopped

The following incident apparently happened a few years ago, but for some strange reason, the story never appeared in my inbox. I just got it tonight and wanted to pass it along to others who may have missed it. Let's pass it along to our children!

WHEN THE MUSIC STOPPED

For those who are unaware, at a military theater, the National Anthem is played before every movie.
From a Chaplain in Iraq :
I recently attended a showing of ‘Superman 3,’ here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorium we use for movies, as well as memorial services and other large gatherings. As is the custom back in the States, we stood and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way through The National Anthem the music stopped.
Now, what would happen if this occurred with 1,000 18-22 year-olds back in the States? I imagine there would be hoots, catcalls, laughter, a few rude comments; and everyone would sit down and call for a movie. Of course, that is, if they had stood for the National Anthem in the first place. Here, the 1,000 Soldiers continued to stand at attention, eyes fixed forward. The music started again. The Soldiers continued to quietly stand at attention And again, at the same point, the music stopped. What would you expect to happen?
Even here I would imagine laughter, as everyone finally sat down and expected the movie to start. But here, you could have heard a pin drop. Every Soldier continued to stand at attention. Suddenly there was a lone voice, then a dozen, and quickly the room was filled with the voices of a thousand soldiers, finishing where the recording left off: ‘And the rockets red glare, The bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night That our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.’
It was the most inspiring moment I have had here in Iraq . I wanted you to know what kind of Soldiers are serving you here.
Remember them as they fight for you!
Pass this along as a reminder to others to be ever in prayer for all our soldiers serving us here at home and abroad. For many have already paid the ultimate price.

Written by Chaplain Jim Higgins