THE WISDOM OF HRH PRINCE PHILIP

 HRH  The Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh who has been previously known as HRH Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, HRH Sir Philip Mountbatten, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.

The Prince's full style is:
His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, Baron Greenwich, Royal Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Extra Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Grand Master and First and Principal Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Member of the Order of Merit, Knight of the Order of Australia, Additional Member of the Order of New Zealand, Extra Companion of the Queen's Service Order, Royal Chief of the Order of Logohu, Extraordinary Companion of the Order of Canada, Extraordinary Commander of the Order of Military Merit,[3] Canadian Forces Decoration, Lord of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Privy Councillor of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Personal Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty, Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom*

Now we can add Knight of Australia.

In the interests of community relations one Australian newspaper journalist has shortened his style to

PHIL THE GREEK, KNIGHT OF AUSTRALIA

 and his wise sayings:

“The bastards murdered half my family.”  In 1967, speaking about the Russians.

“If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.” Said to a 1986 meeting of the World Wildlife Fund.

“How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?” Question to a Scottish driving instructor in 1995.

“Do you still throw spears at each other?” Speaking to Aboriginal leader Ivan Brim in Cairns in 2002.

“You managed not to get eaten then?” Question to a British student who had been trekking on the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea in 1998.

“Well, you’ll never fly in it, you’re too fat to be an astronaut.” Said to a 13-year-old while visiting the NOVA space craft at the University of Salford in Manchester in 2001.

“Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed.” Commentary on the deep recession in Britain in the 1980s.

“You are a women, aren’t you?” To a gift-bearing native in Kenya in 1984.

“If it doesn’t fart or eat hay, she is not interested.” On Princess Anne’s love of horses.

Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease.” When asked to pat a koala in Australia in 1992.

“If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.” Comment to British exchange students in Beijing in 1986.

“What do you gargle with? Pebbles?” To Tom Jones after a Royal Variety Performance.

In 1969 the duke was said to have annoyed Tom Jones after the Royal Variety Performance by asking: "What do you gargle with, pebbles?" He added the following day: "It is very difficult at all to see how it is possible to become immensely valuable by singing what I think are the most hideous songs."

Yet some remarks may have been considered less controversial. Thirty years ago, Prince Philip said at a private lunch that he thought Adam Faith's singing was like bath water going down a plug hole.

“Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.” Talking to young deaf people in Wales about a steel band recital in 1999.

“Do you know they have eating-dogs for the anorexic now?” Sharing a joke with a blind, wheelchair-bound woman accompanied by a guide dog in 2002.

“It looks as if it was put in by an Indian.”Describing a fuse box at a factory in Scotland in 1999.

And reported at News Limted Online

To a tourist in Budapest: “You can’t have been here long, you haven’t got a pot belly.”

At a party in 2004: “Bugger the table plan, give me my dinner!”

To a nursing home resident in a wheelchair: “Do people trip over you?”

To a penniless student: “Why don’t you go and live in a hostel to save cash?”

On women in general: “I don’t think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing.”



* Wikipedia

LOST ANCIENT INFORMATION COMING TO LIGHT

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWSFLASH 440a  

A blinding flash of light – a blasting wind – and fallout. Consider, for a moment, the awful possibility that your hometown was forever wiped out. Can you imagine what future generations might find?

Has it occurred to you that our noblest buildings today are scarcely more than facades supported by thin tendons of steel?

Even with no disaster, our main cities would be little more than rubble in a thousand years. Our motorways would be crumpled pieces of hardness beneath vegetation. Our once complex railway network would be red dust blowing in the wind.

Make no mistake about it. Few house chattels would survive the corrosion of time. Generally, paper books cannot last more than a few centuries (hence the need to recopy).Plastics will eventually disintegrate when exposed for long periods outside. The same goes for everything metallic.Yes, that’s right. Hair dryers, automobiles and carpets would be reduced to dust, along with photographic plates and film.

What is more, all iron and steel buildings would rust and crumble to earth. Nothing would be left except a few stone structures downtown and maybe a few statues.Stone is the only indestructible material; it will survive a dead civilization. Isn’t it ironic? Nature allows dressed blocks of stone to survive, but not thick iron girders.Probably there would not be one item left in the suburbs to show that they even existed—except for the odd stone axe-head.In the event of a total catastrophe, the survivors would be driven to the countryside, to live primitively.They might, for a time, be able to salvage and use certain elements of their civilized technology.Eventually the last machine would break down, with nobody remembering how to repair it. The transistors, toasters and x-ray machines, though revered, would be useless.To the grandchildren and their descendants they would become legends.

The "magic mirror" that could see events far away; the metal bird that could fly above the clouds; the room that could move up and down inside big houses — these would become "magical" myths of a people whose survival instinct would direct them back into the rapidly encroaching forests.Archaeologists 4,000 years later could claim that 21st century man was not yet familiar with iron.(If they found cassettes with tapes, these would be a meaningless puzzle to them.) What do you think of that?Texts speaking of gigantic cities with houses several hundred feet high would be classed as myths.Do you begin to see the picture? It is this very situation of meagre clues that confronts us in relation to the original super world.I can think of four reasons for this.

1. MOST PHYSICAL REMAINS WERE WIPED OUT

Numerous ancient cities now lie below ground level; many are covered by desert sands or swallowed by dense jungle; while others still may lie intact under the mile-deep ice of Antarctica.

On the other hand, exposed remains can disappear so fast. Take, for example, the 4,000-year-old ruins of iahuanaco, in Bolivia.As recently as the 16th century there still stood immense walls with massive rivets of silver in the stonework as well as lifelike statues of men and women in a thousand animated poses.

Even until last century, travellers could admire and sketch imposing colonnades.Of these there is no trace today. The Spaniards and more recently the Bolivian government plundered them for building materials.

Again, many scale replicas of ancient apparatuses probably perished when the Spanish conquistadors melted down all the gold artifacts they could find in Central and South America.The scale of destruction over the centuries will never be known.

2. MOST ANCIENT RECORDS HAVE ALSO BEEN DESTROYED

The destruction of printed records has been much greater than 

was originally thought.

The great library of Alexandria once contained one million volumes in which the entire science, philosophy and mysteries of the ancient world were recorded (including a complete catalogue of authors in 120 volumes, with a brief biography of each author).

In a single act of vandalism, Julius Caesar destroyed 700,000 priceless scrolls.In the seventh century, the Arabs completed the wipeout. Do you know how they did it? They used the books as a fuel supply to heat the city’s 400 public baths for six months.

Totally destroyed also were the papyri of the library of Ptah in Memphis.Carthage, with a library of 500,000 volumes, was razed in a seventeen-day fire by the Romans in 146 B.C.

The library of Pergamos in Asia Minor (with 200,000 volumes) likewise perished.When the famous collection of Pisistratus in Athens was wiped out (in the 6th century), surprisingly Homer’s writings escaped.

In the 8th century, Leo Isaurus burned 300,000 books in Constantinople.In China, Emperor Tam Shi Hwang-ti issued an edict (213 B.C.) to destroy innumerable books.Thousands of Druidic scrolls in Autun, France, on philosophy, medicine, astronomy and other sciences, were obliterated by Julius Caesar. Not one survived.Much classical literature was systematically destroyed by the papal Inquisition.

Spanish conquerors searched out and destroyed the entire Mayan literature (except for four documents now in European museums).It was related that Mayan scholars screamed in agony as they saw their life’s purpose go up in flames. Some committed suicide.The Council of Lima (1583) decreed the burning of the knotted cords ("quipas") on which the Incas had recorded their history and that of their predecessors.What a story of carnage, in which the greatest 

depositories of knowledge from the ancient world are lost forever!

(Yet somehow the Indian books escaped.)

Did you know that even of the Greek and Roman literature, less than 1 percent has come down to us? Is it any wonder we are ignorant of our early heritage?

I agree with Andrew Tomas that "we have to depend on disconnected fragments, casual passages and meagre accounts."Our distant past is a vacuum filled at random with tablets, parchments, statues, paintings and various artifacts."The history of science would appear totally different were the book collection of Alexandria intact today."

3. EVEN WHERE NOT LOST, MUCH REMAINS A MYSTERY

Undeciphered still are writings at Easter Island, tablets at Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan, and Mayan scripts. Some finds will remain unsolved forever.There are no inscriptions awaiting us at Tiahuanaco or Machu Picchu.Then there are many museum relics, whose significance may have eluded us.A methodical reexamination of pieces labelled "art objects," "cult objects" and "unidentified objects" would yield much new data.So would a systematic exploration of museum vaults.

It is a well-known fact that museums are in the habit of "burying" objects that do not coincide with current theories, or that are not beautiful to look at.The vaults of the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of Prehistory of Saint Germain-en-Laye are full of crates of incomprehensible objects that nobody is studying.Could it be that many objects we have discovered had a purpose that we do not yet understand? The ancients may have achieved results similar to ours by quite different processes.

(For instance, look at what happened to German technology.It diverged tremendously from that of other countries in just twelve years, from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was progressively isolated from the rest of the world.) Then again, is it possible that some of the antedeluvian artifacts we have found cannot yet be identified, simply because they are ahead of our technology?

A point to remember. As any technology advances, its methods and equipment do not become more complex; they become simplified.(Take, for example, printed circuits, silicon chips. Nano technology.)Such equipment may not be recognizable to a civilization of inferior knowledge.The point is we may be looking at objects—quite exciting objects—without recognizing them.Who would have expected that items in Baghdad Museum, long labelled as "ritual objects," would prove to be components of batteries? Do you see what I mean?

4. OTHER RELICS STILL AWAIT DISCOVERY

Here is a tantalizing thought. Some authentic and incredibly ancient documents are known to be safely locked away. We may never see them.These forbidden treasures are known to be concealed in four places:

1. Catacombs beneath the Potala in Llasa, Tibet

2. Vaults in the Vatican Library, to which even the pope does not have access

3. Morocco, where Moslem leaders are fiercely opposed to making them public

4. A secret place known to a few initiated rabbis (believed to be in Spain)

But this is not all. There must be numerous lost cities undiscovered.Hold it, I hear you say. That’s overdoing things, isn’t it? An occasional ruin, maybe, but numerous lost cities? There aren’t any unknown areas in this day and age!On the contrary, there are many totally unexplored areas left about.Quite a lot of things occur in out-of-the-way corners of the world—and some not so out-of-the-way—that most persons never hear of.Still not explored from the ground are immense expanses of the interior of Central and South America, New Guinea, Asia and Australia.

Although Europeans have lived and worked in India for some centuries, building bridges, railways and modern cities, the jungles have scarcely been investigated.There are remote villages that have never seen a white man.

In the trackless Central Australian desert, a structure from an unknown civilization was discovered when vehicles from a nearby atomic test site drove into it purely by accident.

The largest unexplored jungle area in the world is the Amazon Basin. This region is so little known that a river tributary 200 miles long was only recently discovered —and then only by satellite.

The Amazon system comprises 50,000 miles of navigable "trunk rivers" and an estimated 16,000 tributaries.The jungle on each side of the rivers is almost totally impenetrable, at least for a European.I know of settlers who have lived on riverbank clearings for forty years and never ventured more than a mile back into the jungle.

The Amazon contains some of the most solid jungles and hostile environments to be found anywhere.Surprisingly, this now mysterious region was once the center of a very intense and highly active population.Large cities flourished here, with high volume commercial traffic to the Andes.Despite satellite technology, we face almost insurmountable problems in locating any remains.A pilot over the Amazon may spy towers, villages or ruins, pinpoint them and report them. A few days later, someone setting out to verify the data will find they have already 

vanished—swallowed again by the jungle since that forest fire or whim of weather that exposed them.

Karl Brugger mentions that the "Transamazonica spur of the road between Manaus and Barcellos on the lower Rio Negro, built in 1971, was overgrown by tropical vegetation within a year.

"The technicians even had difficulties locating the approximate direction of the road. It is not surprising therefore that there are no more signs of 'white cities.'"Again, there are vast stretches where the fog never lifts, and in others it doesn’t clear until late afternoon.There is an area in Eastern Ecuador from which natives have been carrying out thousands of artifacts belonging to what they describe as giant pyramids and immense deserted cities.

But don’t get carried away. This is a forbidden region; local Indians still massacre inquisitive outsiders.Intruders in the Matto Grosso region of Brazil can expect a similar welcome. Yes, believe it! Documented accounts are numerous.Once an entire patrol of 1,400 vanished in the jungle without trace.This trackless, unexplored "green hell" swallows visitors. The ruins clasp their secret.Think of it. Five thousand years ago (when our forefathers were supposed to be existing in caves or crude settlements) a highly advanced culture reached over the whole globe — from Siberia to Antarctica, from Greenland to Africa.

This super world vanished so completely we thought it never existed.It is not unlikely a whole empire could disappear like this. The more advanced the culture, the more easily it could vanish without a trace.If it were so advanced, then its powers of destruction must also have been enormous.

What an epic! The wonder is that despite wholesale obliteration of evidence, many thousands of pieces do survive — written records, oral traditions and physical remains.In one book alone (Dead Men's Secrets) I was able to catalogue about one thousand of the more interesting exhibits.Yet these can never be more than a tantalizing peep at this astonishing, unknown world, shrouded in opaque clouds of mystery.

If you appetite is sizzling for another sampling of these amazing wonders of our past, could I suggest you visit http://www.beforeus.com

The War on Drugs Celebration

The War on Drugs Was Born 100 Years Ago

• 

DECEMBER 17, 2014Mark Thornton

When I went to the Oxford Union debates this past summer I was told by a veteran of the debates that I must have a joke in order to win over the audience. My attempt to win over the British audience was a success, but unfortunately my opening remarks are too close to the truth and in retrospect, are really not that funny:

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for the opportunity to debate the War on Drugs in this forum. Mr. Chairman, as you probably know, the War on Drugs was not a response to calls from experts, it was not in response to recommendations from the medical community, or even the law enforcement community. Mr. Chairman, the War on Drugs was started by the agitation of racists, bigots, religious fanatics, believers in eugenics, extremist politicians, and power hungry diplomats. In other words, Mr. Chairman, the average ordinary American.

The War on Drugs was initiated by legislation that was passed not to help drug addicts and protect the innocent, but rather was designed to control and marginalize minority groups and to push the United States into a leadership role in world diplomatic affairs.

The War on Drugs is 100 years old today. It kills thousands of people, destroys untold number of lives, and wastes hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Plus it prevents us from using three of the most miraculous plants on the planet, even for their “legitimate” uses.

The Harrison Narcotics Act

As written, the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 was legislation that established a tax and registration requirement on narcotics and cocaine. Politicians and journalists openly targeted Chinese immigrants, Southern blacks, and Mexicans with outrageous propaganda. The real priority of the legislation, however, was to comply with the first international drug control treaty, the International Opium Convention of 1912.

As implemented, the legislation quickly evolved into an outright prohibition. Enforcement bureaucrats argued that doctors prescribing narcotics for drug addiction was an illegitimate medical practice. The courts ruled in their favor and addict-maintenance medical practices and addiction clinics were forced to close.

Marijuana prohibition went national with the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. It too quickly changed from a measure to tax and regulate into an outright prohibition. Even hemp, the non-intoxicating form of cannabis was banned! When propaganda claiming that marijuana was deadly and caused insanity, violence, and criminal behavior was debunked (aka Reefer Madness), the “gateway theory” was born to fill the void. The gateway theory posits that while marijuana might not be addictive or dangerous, it would lead the user to try the hard drugs, such as heroin. This theory became the prevailing view in the second half of the twentieth century.

Prohibition Encourages Drug Abuse

In my dissertation, I showed that the gateway theory did not explain the movement toward harder drugs. This research was subsequently published in The Economics of Prohibition. I showed that it was actually prohibition enforcement itself that created incentives for suppliers to make drugs more potent e.g., more potent marijuana, and to switch to more potent drug types e.g., smuggling cocaine instead of marijuana.

It was the case that the markets for narcotics, cocaine, and marijuana had problems and concerns, but as Mises Institute Summer Fellow Audrey Redford has shown, it was also the case that these markets were already impacted by numerous state and local regulations and prohibitions, by heavy tariffs, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, and by a host of state and local alcohol prohibitions and restrictions.

What history does reveal is that the initial legislation that became the War of Drugs was clearly the result of bigotry and the desire to suppress minorities, and the desire to become a big player in world diplomatic affairs, not a desire to help drug addicts.

What has the War on Drugs accomplished? It has not reduced access to illegal drugs. It has not reduced illegal drug use or abuse. It has not reduced the rate of addiction. If anything, the rates of use, abuse, and addiction have increased over the past century. Prison population statistics clearly indicate that it has been used to suppress minorities.

It has also greatly increased the powers of law enforcement and the legal system and reduced the legal rights and protections of citizens under the tradition of the rule of law. It has greatly increased the militarization of the police and the use of the military in police work. It has also led to a significant increase in US political and military intervention in foreign nations, particularly in the drug supply nations of Central and South America.

The direct problems caused by the War on Drugs are too numerous to list, but they include crime, corruption, and violence of the black market. Indeed it is the number one cause of crime, corruption, and violence in the United States, as well as many of countries of Central and South America.

Scaling Back the War on Drugs

However, as we pass this miserable milestone, there is great cause for optimism. There is a rising ideological tide against the War on Drugs. Medical marijuana legalization has been passed in twenty states, recreational marijuana has been passed in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, and the District of Columbia, several states and cities have decriminalized marijuana so that the majority of Americans can no longer be put in prison for marijuana consumption.

Demographically, this rising tide is even stronger because only the Silent Generation (ages 69 to 86) strongly supports marijuana prohibition and they are dying off. More generally the “social mood” continues to move in the favorable direction from “government is the solution” to “government is the problem.” This positive change in ideology also seems to be improving in Central and South America, Europe, and elsewhere.

The fact that more people see the solution for the drug addict as not illegal markets, high prices, and the threat of imprisonment, but in education, medical treatment, counseling, and social pressures means that it is possible that we could see the entire War on Drugs ended in our lifetimes.

Image source: image - Image from Reefer Madness (1936).

Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.

81

Is God a Libertarian?

Is God a Libertarian?
How the Bible Established a Country Without an Executive Branch

by Roger McKinney

POSTED NOVEMBER 26, 2014 AT 5:35 PM

Many Christian writers on economics claim that the Bible endorses neither capitalism nor socialism. They cut off the heads of both systems and install their own, often referred to as a “third way,” in which they scavenge through the carcasses for the best parts of each and stitch them together into a new creature. Unfortunately, the creature resembles an economic Frankenstein more than the good doctors care to admit.

Economic systems are nothing but laws concerning how people relate to each other about property. No society has ever existed without an economic system because the things we depend upon to survive are scarce, especially food, clothing, housing, and the land and resources needed to produce them. They are not like the air, of which everyone can have as much as they need. Because the necessities and pleasures of life are scarce, someone has to decide who controls them and uses them.

The form of government and the laws regarding property determine the economic system. God has declared in the Torah the government and economic system he prefers. What God prefers is also what is best for mankind. It will not only encourage godliness and peace, but economic prosperity as well.

The most striking thing about the Torah government is the degree to which it differs from that of ancient Egypt. Moses was raised in the pharaonic school and enjoyed an education in the Egyptian wisdom that awed the Greeks. The children of the pharaoh, nobility, and foreign vassals attended the boarding school that trained them in the knowledge and skills needed to run the country in the future while indoctrinating them in the worship of the pharaoh and Egyptian philosophy. The curriculum included reading and writing in the Egyptian language and Babylonian cuneiform, mathematics, music, and military strategy. It’s likely that Moses lived and went to school with the pharaoh who reigned during the exodus and died in the Red Sea.

Egypt was a theocratic dictatorship. Pharaoh was not only king but a god and the single representative on earth of all the gods. He owned all of the wealth of Egypt, though he allowed citizens to use it. The bureaucracy was overbearing and expensive, as might be expected for projects as massive as the building of the pyramids. Today, the nation most like ancient Egypt might be North Korea where the supreme leader is virtually worshiped.

Moses could have taken advantage of his training to create the Israeli government in the image of Egypt. But, Israel couldn’t have been more different. It had no king, pharaoh, Caesar, president, nor dictator. In other words, it had no executive branch except during war when the judges acted as supreme commander of the volunteer army. After the army had achieved victory, that leader usually became the chief justice and the army disbanded.

When there was no prime minister, and there were no bureaucracies, cabinet heads, or ministers of trade, roads, defense, agriculture, health, environment or the hundreds of other agencies that multiply and clog the machinery of modern governments. Israel had no standing army, police, pentagon, FBI, ATF, NSA, CIA or any other of the alphabet soups of agencies. So Israelis didn’t pay taxes to fund an oppressive executive branch as did ancient Egyptians and US citizens today. Family members performed the police work of catching criminals while service in the military was voluntary, except for peer and family pressure.

The Israel created by God had no legislature. Egypt’s legislative powers resided with the pharaoh as a god. God retained Israel’s legislative authority and only he could make or change laws. He gave the first law to Moses on Mount Sinai and again after the 40 years of wilderness wanderings just before Moses died and Joshua led the nation to conquer Canaan. The second issue of the law contained some minor additions and changes to the first, but from that point on no man could add to or subtract from the law. Moses needed to be a prophet as well as a judge in order for God to give Israel his laws, but he was unique even in that respect because no other prophet in Israel’s history added to the God-given law. One of the most important jobs of the priesthood was to teach the people God’s laws.

Read more at http://affluentinvestor.com/2014/11/god-libertarian-bible-established-country-without-executive-branch/#bxIXdgaEkvhPFbts.99

The Value Of Inflation

Ten Reasons to Condemn Inflation
by Andreas Marquart on September 8, 2014

Inflation, defined as an expansion of the supply of unbacked money, is an elementary evil, always and everywhere that it occurs.[1] It is the ignored and core cause of numerous problems in the economy and in society, including:

1. Inflation Causes Booms and Busts
Increasing the money supply that involves the granting of more credit means that new money is created by credit that is not covered by savings. This causes interest rates to fall more than would be the case without an expansion of the money supply. The result is an artificial economic boom, which politicians and the general public initially welcome. Investments are triggered that would not have been carried out if the invested capital had to be saved up first, prior to such investments. Therefore, there are insufficient resources available to bring all the projects thus begun to completion. In addition, resources — which are by their very nature scarce — are not brought to bear where they are most needed — in the most urgent projects. When interest rates climb again, the malinvestment comes to light, and a crisis — a bust — results. To overcome the bust, the central bank then reduces the interest rate again. A crisis that would clean things up is thus not allowed to happen, because it is politically undesirable.

2. Inflation Redistributes Wealth and Purchasing Power
An un-backed expansion of the money supply causes the prices of goods and services to rise. The parties who first receive the newly created money profit. They are able to make purchases at goods prices that still have not risen, whereas the later recipients of the money will only enjoy the benefits of the new money when the goods prices have already risen. They are put at a disadvantage and lose relative to the initial recipients of the cash. In addition, some market participants don’t gain anything from the newly created money. The initial recipients are the banks, the state, and large enterprises. This effect also occurs when the price of goods remains stable due to money expansion and would otherwise have fallen without an expansion of the money supply. In this instance, inflation is particularly nefarious.

3. Inflation Prevents the Price of Goods From Falling
Higher productivity and a strengthened division of labor in a national economy allow the quantity of produced goods and services to rise. If the money supply were to remain unchanged, or would rise or to a lesser extent than the quantity of goods, this would led to a falling overall price level. Expanding the money supply prevents such price decreases. The European Central Bank (ECB) has defined a reference value by which the most broadly defined money supply, M3, should ideally rise. This reference value is at present about 4.5 percent per year. The argument that is used is to always maintain price stability. Deflation, which is incorrectly interpreted as a sinking price of goods, is said to be broadly damaging to the economy. Broad swaths of the population are thus prevented from taking part in a just share of productivity increases and a strengthened (international) division of labor.

4. Inflation Causes the Welfare State to Grow
The expansion of the money allows the state to go into debt more easily and at lower interest rates than would be the case without monetary expansion. Due to that, expenditures can be financed that otherwise have to be financed by raising taxes. Politicians make use of this, particularly before elections. They thus can promise “benefits” that otherwise would not be able to be financed. People willingly take the bait and want to be the first in line, not knowing, or repressing the fact that they themselves are the ones financing the “big banquet.”

5. Inflation Destroys Families
No one has formulated this better than the economist and philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe in Democracy: The God That Failed, writing:

Every form of government welfare — the compulsory wealth or income transfer from “haves” to “have-nots” — lowers the value of a person’s membership in an extended family-household system as a social system of mutual cooperation and help and assistance. Marriage loses value. For parents, the value and importance of a “good” upbringing (education) of their own children is reduced. Correspondingly, for children, less value will be attached and less respect paid to their own parents.

6. Inflation Corrupts People
Placed before the choice of allowing a crisis that would clean things up after a boom and kicking the can down the road, the majority of the populace accepts the latter option. The debt of most market participants is too high to shoulder the burdens of a deflationary crisis. The fear of the loss of one’s job is just too much. Many people are also too dependent on state money transfers, state subsidies, and/or state projects.

7. Inflation Expands the State Bureaucracy
Every recession that comes after a boom makes bad investments evident. The citizens demand that the state “make things right.” The state is called on to intervene and fix things. Politicians gladly take up this call and can justify their positions in that way. But every intervention results in further state intervention and creates a veritable “thicket” of interventions. In the end, state regulations penetrate and strangle the economy and society in the form of a multiplicity of laws and regulations.

8. Inflation Makes People Materialistic, Envious, and Egotistical
Inflation reduces the purchasing power of incomes and of assets that are saved up. Thus, for example, when people invest their assets, a lot of time has to be used to compensate for the loss caused by the expansion of the money supply. This only happens with great time and effort, but mostly doesn’t. Purchasing power falls through people’s fingers like sand. Everyone literally chases every cent, envies their neighbor and his possessions, not knowing that the neighbor himself is up to his neck in debt. Charity and the willingness to help out falls among people, who are themselves just barely making it. Meanwhile, the sentiment “we already pay enough in taxes, so the state should do the charity work,” becomes more common.

9. Inflation Depresses People
Particularly for those who don’t earn much, inflation makes it increasingly hard or even impossible to accrue assets by saving. Prices, for example for energy and groceries, climb continually. Climbing the social ladder becomes harder and harder. Purchases become, for many, only possible by taking on credit. And paying off the credit becomes more and more of a burden. People are frustrated by their often hopeless situation. Frequently, this path leads to heavy debt and bankruptcy.

10. Inflation Leads to Waste and (Natural) Resources Becoming More Expensive
Resources and time are scarce. The artificial boom caused by inflation leads to investments that otherwise would not occur, or would occur at a later time. If projects have to be interrupted due to insufficient savings and/or rising interest rates, then scarce resources are used up, and — in many instances — can never be recovered. This means that more natural resources are used up than would be the case otherwise. The price of raw materials will tend to rise. In addition, the environment is damaged unnecessarily. Also, for inflation-induced infrastructure projects for which there is no real need, when viewed realistically, the environment is unnecessarily burdened.

The Ten Plagues of Today

Thursday, July 24, 2014

The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

Michael Snyder
Activist Post

Why are so many plagues hitting the United States all of a sudden? Yes, one can always point out bad stuff that is happening somewhere in the country, but right now we are facing a nightmarish combination of crippling drought, devastating wildfires, disastrous viruses, dying crops and superbugs that scientists don’t know how to kill.

And as you will see, we even have a plague of flies down in Mississippi.  So what in the world is going on?  Is this just a case of bad luck, or is something else happening?  At the conclusion of this article, please feel free to tell me what you think.

The following are ten plagues that are hitting America right now…

#1 The Plague Of Flies In The Upper Mississippi River Valley

This is perhaps the least dangerous plague, but it is also one of the most interesting.  Just recently, a plague of flies was so thick in the upper Mississippi River valley that it showed up on radar…

The mayflies were detectable on radar around 845 pm and reports in the towns and cities began rolling in of the swarming and piles of mayflies. Numerous videos and pictures were circulating on social media, some of which are posted below as well.

The radar detected the flies about 845 pm, emanating from the river (the source) with echo values similar to that of light-moderate rain (35-40 dBZ). With a general south-to-north wind flow above the surface, the mayflies quickly moved north once in the air. As the flies dispersed moving north-northeast, they also gained altitude with some of the echo being detected as far north as Black River Falls and as high as 2500 feet above ground.

By late evening, mayflies were swarming in La Crosse, La Crescent, Stoddard and points up and down the river. While the emergence of mayflies from their river bottom mud dwelling can occur at various times through the warm season depending on the species, this particular emergence was that of the larger black/brown Bilineata species.

Here is one photo of the flies that was posted by the federal government…

#2 The Chikungunya Virus

As I wrote about the other day, down in Florida health officials have discovered the very first confirmed cases of the chikungunya virus to be transmitted locally.  In other words, it is now being passed to people that have not even traveled out of the country.


An epidemic of the virus has already been declared down in Puerto Rico, and authorities are deeply concerned about the possibility of one up here as well.

Already, cases of the virus have been reported in 30 different states and the total number of cases in the U.S. is more than five times higher than in any other recent year.

If you live in an area that has a lot of mosquitoes, you might want to be very, very careful right about now because this is a virus that is exceedingly painful…

With illness onset, the person develops high fever, chills, and joint pain, followed in some by a rash on the trunk, limbs and face lasting 3-4 days. Muscle and joint pain last about one week. Joint pain is often severe and in some people lasts longer, up to several months.

#3 The Wildfires Out West

The massive wildfires in Washington, Oregon and western Canada have spread clouds of smoke over vast areas of the northwest United States in recent days.  The following excerpt comes from a recent CNN report…

Wildfires spanning almost 170,000 acres are driving hundreds of people from their homes in Washington state and across the border in Canada, officials said.
Washington authorities say the fires surged overnight to 168,713 acres in the state. The flames have encroached on towns.

Janet Pearce of the Washington state Department of Natural Resources said the four fires had not been contained as of Friday morning. An estimated 80 homes were destroyed and cell phone service was knocked out.

#4 The Drought In California

The nightmarish multi-year drought in the state of California just continues to get even worse.

This week it was reported that 81 percent of California is now experiencing “extreme drought” or worse.

Three months ago, that number was just 68 percent.

And we are being told that downtown Los Angeles is now the driest that it has been since rain records began in 1877.

For much, much more on this, please see my recent article entitled "20 Signs The Epic Drought In The Western United States Is Starting To Become Apocalyptic".


#5 The Virus That Has Killed Millions Of Our Pigs

A horrific pig virus known as porcine epidemic diarrhea came over from China a little over a year ago.

Since then, it has killed about 7 million pigs, andapproximately 100,000 more are dying each week.

#6 Citrus Greening

Have you ever heard of citrus greening disease?

Perhaps not, but it has gotten so bad down in Florida that experts are now saying that the entire citrus industry in the state “could be destroyed”…

“It’s horrible — it’s a disaster,” says Fred Gmitter, a professor of horticulture science at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center.

It might be time to kiss your OJ goodbye, unless science steps in to save the day.
At least 70% of Florida’s citrus trees are already infected by the disease, known as citrus greening, huanglongbing, or occasionally just with an ominous “it,” as in “It’s here.”

Florida’s citrus crop this year is the lowest it’s been in 30 years, and agricultural authorities have continued to lower their production estimates. Orange-juice prices are up nearly 20% this year alone and will continue to rise. The disease was a major factor in the lime shortage that made the price of a box of Persian limes jump from $18 to $85 last December. Prices could jump higher for oranges. Researchers and growers say that if a cure isn’t found, the entire $9 billion Florida citrus industry could be destroyed.

#7 Bananas Going Extinct?

Your bananas are not safe either.

According to CNBC, the TR4 fungus is spreading so rapidly that it could eventually totally wipe out the variety of bananas that we find in our grocery stores today…

Banana lovers take note: The world’s supply of the fruit is under attack from a fungus strain that could wipe out the popular variety that Americans eat.

“It’s a very serious situation,” said Randy Ploetz, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Florida who in 1989 originally discovered a strain of Panama disease, called TR4, that may be growing into a serious threat to U.S. supplies of the fruit and Latin American producers.

“There’s nothing at this point that really keeps the fungus from spreading,” he said in an interview with CNBC.

While there are nearly 1,000 varieties of bananas, the most popular is the Cavendish, which accounts for 45 percent of the fruit’s global crop—and the one Americans mostly find in their supermarkets.

#8 The Number Of Earthquakes Is Increasing

For a long time, scientists tried to deny that the number of earthquakes is increasing.

But now, the USGS is finally admitting that the number of big earthquakes has doubled…

If you think there have been more earthquakes than usual this year, you’re right. A new study finds there were more than twice as many big earthquakes in the first quarter of 2014 as compared with the average since 1979.

“We have recently experienced a period that has had one of the highest rates of great earthquakes ever recorded,” said lead study author Tom Parsons, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Menlo Park, California.

Fortunately, most of the earthquakes in the U.S. so far this year have been relatively small or have been in isolated areas.

But they have been popping up in very unusual areas (such as Oklahoma), and as seismic activity along the Ring of Fire continues to increase, it is probably only a matter of time before one of our major cities gets hit with a major tragedy.

#9 Superbugs

Thanks at least in part to the massive overuse of antibiotics, a new generation of superbugs is arising.  Scientists have no way to kill these superbugs, and according to experts they are finding their way “into healthcare facilities nationwide”…

Drug-resistant superbug infections have reached near-epidemic levels across U.S. hospitals, with an alarming 500% increase now documented in a study just published in the August issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (the journal of theSociety for Healthcare Epidemiology of America).

Lead author of the study, Dr. Joshua Thaden, warned “This dangerous bacteria is finding its way into healthcare facilities nationwide… A CRE epidemic is fast approaching… Even this marked increase likely underestimates the true scope of the problem given variations in hospital surveillance practices.”

The study also found that an astonishing 94 percent of CRE infections were caused by healthcare activities or hospital procedures.

#10 Fukushima

The Fukushima nuclear disaster is the gift that just keeps on giving.


Hundreds of tons of radioactive water are being released into the Pacific on a continual basis, and this could potentially affect our oceans and our food chain for generations to come.

But it is a “slow motion disaster” that is already “old news”, so most Americans don’t think about it anymore.  But the truth is that there is a lot of evidence that it should be taken very seriously in this country.  For much more on this, please see this article.

In Japan, of course, things are even worse.

In fact, one Japanese doctor that was working in Tokyo says that radiation sickness is rampant in that city…

Since December 2011, I have conducted thyroid ultrasound examinations, thyroid function tests, general blood tests and biochemical tests on about 2000 people, mostly families in the Tokyo metropolitan area expressing concerns on the effects of radiation. I have observed that white blood cells, especially neutrophils, are decreasing among children under the age of 10. There are cases of significant decline in the number of neutrophils in 0-1 year-olds born after the earthquake ( less than 1000)  In both cases, conditions tend to improve by moving to Western Japan(Neutrophils 0–>4500). Patients report nosebleed, hair loss, lack of energy, subcutaneous bleeding, visible urinary hemorrhage, skin inflammations, coughs and various other non-specific symptoms. And this Japanese doctor believes that things are so dire that he says that the entire city of Tokyo should be evacuated…

Residents of Tokyo are unfortunately not in the position to pity the affected regions of Tohoku because they are victims themselves. Time is running short. I took an earlier step forward and evacuated to the west. My fellow doctors of medicine, I am waiting for you here. And to the people in Eastern Japan still hesitating, all my support goes to facilitating and enabling your evacuation, relocation, or a temporary relief in Western Japan.

Just like with Chernobyl, this radioactive material is going to silently make people sick and kill people all over globe for years to come, and most of them will never have any idea what is really happening to them.

So what do you think about all of this?

Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below…

This article first appeared here at the American Dream.  Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here.

7 Secret Ways We Are Being Poisoned

Are we really being poisoned? Surely not!

We are told the following seven categories of elements are for our benefit.

1. GMO Foods -- Monsanto started as a chemical company that brought the world poisons like Agent Orange and Roundup. Now they are more well known for their domination of Genetically Modified agriculture, owning nearly 90% of staple GMO crops such as corn, soy, and cotton. In independent studies GMO "frankenfood" has been linked to organ failure, and a recent Russian study has concluded near-total sterility in GMO-soy-fed hamsters by the third generation. Despite these and many other legitimate health concerns, it is unlikely that the Monsanto-controlled FDA will curb the growth of GMO foods, while the USDA's biotechnology risk assessment research arm has a paltry $3 million at its disposal.  Of course the industry-funded studies show that the effects GMO on human health are "negligible."

2. Food Additives -- When most of us think of harmful food additives we think of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) which is still in many processed foods, but unfortunately MSG appears to be the least of the poisons now found in our food. In 2008 Melamine was found in infant formula and some food products from China; the FDA went on record to say it was OK, despite sickening tens of thousands.  Dangerous food additives appear in nearly all processed foods with even the most common food dyes Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 being linked to cancer.  Most recently 92,000 pounds of frozen chicken was recalled because it contained "blue plastic pieces," while McDonald's Chicken McNuggets have been found to have "silly putty" chemicals in them.  In fact, some researchers estimate that today's chicken is so full of chemicals that it only contains 51% actual meat.

3. Fluoride -- Not all fluoride is bad; only the type promoted by dentistry and added to our water and food supply.  Calcium fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral, while its synthetic counterpart, sodium fluoride (silicofluoride), is an industrial-grade hazardous waste material made during the production of fertilizer.  Its past history includes patented use as rat poison and insecticide.   There are many blind- and double-blind studies that show sodium fluoride has a cumulative effect on the human body leading to allergies, gastrointestinal disorders, bone weakening, cancer, and neurological problems.  In this case, the EPA's Union of scientists issued a white paper condemning fluoridation of drinking water.  However, as a hazardous waste, it is extremely expensive to dispose of as such.  And here might be a clue as to why this chemical, more toxic than lead and almost on par with arsenic, has been disposed of for our consumption.

4. Mercury -- A dangerous heavy metal in its natural quicksilver form, but more so as the neurotoxin, methylmercury, released into the environment by human activity.  In both organic and inorganic form, mercury wreaks havoc with the nervous system -- especially the developing nervous system of a fetus.  It penetrates all living cells of the human body, and has been documented most as increasing the risk for autism.  This calls into question mercury's use in dental fillings, vaccines, and just about anything containing high fructose corn syrup -- a near staple in the American diet . . . including baby food.  But the Corn Refiners Association naturally supports this chemical that is "dangerous at any level."

5. Aspartame -- The king of artificial sweeteners was allowed to the market in 1981 when the U.S. Commissioner of Food and Drugs, Arthur Hull Hayes, overruled FDA panel suggestions, as well as consumer concerns.  Aspartame is a neurotoxin that interacts with natural organisms, as well as synthetic medications, producing a wide range of proven disorders and syndromes.  So who installed this commissioner that would rule against scientists and the public?  Donald Rumsfeld, CEO of G.D. Searle; the maker of Aspartame.  Rumsfeld was on Reagan's transition team, and the day after Reagan took office he appointed the new FDA Commissioner in order to "call in his markers" with one of the most egregious cases of profit-over-safety ever recorded.  Aspartame is now nearly ubiquitous, moving beyond sugarless products and into general foods, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and even products for children.  It recently has been renamed to the more pleasant sounding AminoSweet.

6. Personal Care and Cleaning Products -- Everyday household items and cosmetic products are applied directly to the skin, absorbed through the scalp, and inhaled.  The Story of Cosmetics uses an animated video to tell a haunting tale of industrial violations and complicit "public safety" groups . . . and still only tells half of that story.   The list of common products and their chemical components is encyclopedic.  The sum total of the overwhelming presence of these chemicals has been linked to nearly every allergy, chronic affliction, and disease known to man.  Most recently, household cleaning products have been linked to breast cancer and ADHD in children.

7. Airborne pollutants -- In a NASA article titled "Airborne Pollutants Know No Borders" they stated that, "Any substance introduced into the atmosphere has the potential to circle the Earth." The jet stream indeed connects all of us. There is one category of airborne pollution that has been conspiracy theory despite a voluminous number of unclassified documents from 1977 Senate hearings:  chemical spraying (chemtrails) by both private and commercial aircraft.  Recent admissions by public officials strengthen the case.  Fallout from these chemical trails has been tested and shows very high levels of barium and aluminum