Legal Counterfeiting?

If I started printing money in my basement and distributing it around town, men in black suits and sunglasses would show up at my front door and I probably wouldn’t be heard from again for a long time. That’s because counterfeiting dilutes the money in circulation making what you have worth less. It is stealing and that is why it is illegal. Why then does the Central Bank get to do it?

We hear almost every day in the news how the Federal Reserve through manipulating the money supply is keeping “inflation” in check. This is another classic example of the news media either being ignorant or downright disingenuous. Price increases are not inflation, they are a result of inflation of the money supply. This is a great article on inflation.

Inflation is a tax. It is probably the most insidious tax. When you think of taxation, you think of income tax, sales tax, property tax, gas tax, telephone tax, utility tax, payroll tax, health care tax, and on and on ad infinitum. I think you get my point. But do you ever consider that inflation is a tax? To explain it in the simplest terms, the government simply prints money to fund whatever program they deem necessary. War and entitlement programs come to mind. When they do that they are counterfeiting. “Wait”, you say, ” I thought that was illegal.” Well, if you do it it is, if the Federal Government does it it’s not. Sound like a double standard? Yup. So they print money, making yours worth less. That’s a tax.

If the government had to fund these massive war and entitlement programs by imposing a direct tax on the people, there would be a revolt! That’s why they use the more subtle inflation tax to derive the funding from. We’ve become conditioned to accept annual price increases as normal. As long as they remain in the low single digits for some reason the people think that is OK. If I put my money in a CD at the bank at 4 percent and the annual price increases are 5%, I have a net loss. Oh, and by the way, Uncle Sam has the gall to charge me capital gains tax on the 4% increase even though I had a net loss. And we consider that to be OK too, since capital gains tax is as low relative to what it used to be.

Are we a bunch of passive sissies or what? Where is the outrage? I for one will not stand idly by while the Federal Government continues to gouge me at every turn. I’m only one person, but I will at the very least attempt to enlighten you as to the deceptive strategies of our “government by the government, for the government”. We have the power to take it back, but do we have the will? That will be evident in November I guess. Will you vote for the lesser of two evils once again? Do you think John McCain or Barack Obama have any interest in reforming the Federal Reserve and restoring a sound dollar? Of course they don’t. Both of them are dependent on the inflation tax.

Whether you vote Republican or Democrat isn’t as important as whether you’re interested in reforming government. Both parties have a status quo to maintain and that is their primary interest. Do we have other pressing issues? Of course we do. But I’m here to tell you, the most basic step in reforming government is restraining government. The Federal Reserve is coal to the Federal Government’s runaway steam locomotive. We must take away the fuel that powers this out of control system before any true reforms are to be had.

Non-interventionism

“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.”

– H.L. Mencken (letter to Upton Sinclair, October 14, 1917)

As I read more about this topic and find out that most of founders and our first presidents opposed an interventionist government in both foreign and domestic policy, I question the collective wisdom of our present leaders. Why is it that hardly anyone is talking about this? We are not sheep as those in Washington would like to think. Do they actually think they can continue to spew the rhetoric that us being in Iraq is somehow making us safer and we will believe it? I for one don’t. But if I dare question the logic behind their position I’m labelled as some sort of anti-war heretic.

George W. Bush originally ran on a humble foreign policy platform. I took him at his word. I guess that was my first mistake. Never trust a politician. I guess 9/11 was a good excuse to switch horses mid-stream.

Don’t misunderstand my position on 9/11. I truly believe we should have gone after those responsible. It’s just that Iraq wasn’t part of that equation. Neither is Iran, but we’re dead-set against them having a nuke. I guess I don’t really want them to have one either, but they are a sovereign nation, so who are we to tell them what to do. If they lob it at us, they’ll miss by a country mile. If they happen to get one to Israel, it will take exactly one day for Israel to wipe them from the map. (If we let them, of course.) Are you starting to see how ridiculous it is for us to stick our nose in everyone’s business? Israel is perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. Why don’t we let them?

A non-interventionist domestic policy is also important. Unless we stop the Federal Reserve from interfering every time there is a blip in the economy, the natural corrections will fail to take place and the dollar gets weaker and we simply stave off the inevitable. Our current politicians would have you believe that the sole reason they were elected was to save us from every little glitch that has a negative affect on our lives. The sad fact is, most of those little (and big) glitches were brought on by failed Federal Government policies. To quote Ron Paul, “As Ludwig von Mises, the founder of the Austrian school of economics in the United States, famously demonstrated in Human Action and other works, one intervention into the market begets another, which begets another, and so on until we have full-blown socialism.” In fact I got that from this article which is a great read on economic bubbles.

Some would malevolently call me an isolationist for holding these views. Being a non-interventionist is hardly the same as an isolationist. An isolationist would be against free trade and travel which I’m not. I believe we should have a policy of free trade (as opposed to NAFTA/WTO style controlled trade) with those who are willing to be friendly to us. I also believe we should be free to travel and have a cultural exchange with other nations.

I find it at the very least ironic that we have 700 military bases in 130 countries around the world, but we don’t even have the wherewithal to secure and defend our own borders. Where have our priorities gone? Could it be that Washington needs an excuse to keep the printing presses running and Haliburton in business? I don’t think that’s too far from the truth. I’m still waiting for someone to give me a constitutional reason we continue to engage in foreign interventionism and nation building. Anyone?

Democracy vs. Constitutional Republic

It never ceases to amaze me how many people believe we live in a democracy. I’ve heard it countless times from McCain, Obama, Hillary, Norm Coleman, Tim Pawlenty, and a myriad of other blathering politicians how great it is we live is such a great “democracy”. The media and the political establishment have been driving that into our heads for years. Do you think it’s great living in a democracy? Well, our founding fathers didn’t think so. In fact they so despised the monarchy and the parliamentary democracy they formed a Constitutional Republic.

Then why do we hear the constant drumbeat of democracy, democracy, democracy? In my not so humble opinion, it’s a subtle attempt to condition the masses. If we hear it enough, we might start to believe it. After all, a democracy is a good thing right? It’s the will of the people that matters, isn’t it? Well, what if you’re in the minority? Fifty percent plus one trumps your vote. That’s called the tyranny of the majority. “But wait”, you say. “There’s no tyranny here. This is the good ol’ US of A”. Well yes, you’re right, it is the good ol’ US of A. There’s no better place on the planet. But that’s not saying much these days. I submit to you that we are fast becoming a democracy and the federal government is tyrannical. Mirriam Webster defines tyranny as this:

1: oppressive power <every form of tyranny over the mind of man — Thomas Jefferson>; especially : oppressive power exerted by government <the tyranny of a police state>

2 a: a government in which absolute power is vested in a single ruler; especially : one characteristic of an ancient Greek city-state b: the office, authority, and administration of a tyrant

3: a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force <living under the tyranny of the clock — Dixon Wecter>

Democracy is mob rule. The minority has no rights. In a Republic the individual has certain inalienable rights and there is a separation of powers. On paper we are still a Constitutional Republic, but in practice I believe we are operating mostly as a democracy. If you were not compelled by the government to do so, would you pay income tax? Of course not. But you do it because the overreaching arm of government has a gun to your head. “Oh come on, Mark, no one has a gun to my head!”, you’re thinking. Oh yeah; try not paying your taxes next year and see what happens.

Google the title of this post and you will find reading on the subject that will keep you busy for hours if not days. There is no need for me to re-invent the wheel here. But, I’ll list my favorite sites that seem to keep the concept fairly succinct.

A great article by Walter Williams

A paper by Ron Paul

An Important Distinction: Democracy versus Republic

Democracy Vs Republic

The difference between a Democracy and a Republic

Next time you hear a politician speak, listen for the words “democracy” and “republic”. My guess is you’ll hear the former a lot and the latter little or none.

Convention Rant

As a delegate to the Minnesota Republican State Convention last weekend, I was disturbed by the top down oppression by the Party leadership under Ron Carey. They blatantly put party above principle once again. The nominating committee basically shut out any national delegate nominees because they weren’t party insiders. They didn’t play by their own rules. (Big surprise) Anyone attending the convention that would dare question the great and powerful Oz (Ron Carey), was immediately shot down by parliamentary maneuvering by the McCainites strategically placed at the microphones. (Which there were only 3 for almost 2000 delegates) Way to go MN-GOP!! We took another giant leap to the left! The blogosphere is humming with every detail about the convention so if you want to know about it all, simply google it. Here is a good blog post by a guy named Joe Repya, also. Click here for a great perspective from an observer.

Now consider our great “conservative” elected officials. Norm Coleman’s speech appealed to the most ardent conservative. The problem is, his speech does not line up with his legislative record. The morning after his speech I read that he was co-sponsoring with Amy Klobuchar the contentious “cap and trade” bill currently being debated in the senate. A recent Wall Street Journal column concludes the Lieberman-Warner bill would be “the most extensive government reorganization of the American economy since the 1930s.” An analysis by the Heritage Foundation estimates a $1.7 trillion to $4.8 trillion loss in U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between 2010 and 2030. U.S. job losses could exceed 700,000 in 2015 alone. At this same time, American consumers would be faced with dramatic price increases in food and energy, putting a significant strain on family budgets. (taken from the Minnesota Majority site) Norm is not a conservative! Remember this in November.

This could very well be the year the Republican Party completely loses its soul. We as a party have endorsed two liberals masquerading as conservatives in John McCain and Norm Coleman. I will give Governor Pawlenty a little latitude since he wielded his veto pen as much as he did this last session. (He could have used it more). But still he has bought into the global warming, I mean climate change hysteria that threatens to bankrupt businesses and taxpayers alike. If he has his way (and he probably will), we will be on the alternative fuel bandwagon at taxpayer expense for the next twenty years. Do you folks really want that?

I don’t know about you, but I am ready to kick these scoundrels out. These people think we live in a democracy. We don’t, we live in a constitutional republic. Or at least we use to. We could elect McCain and Coleman and slowly tip-toe into the icy waters of socialism, or we could simply go with Obama and Franken and plunge in head first. That may be what it will take for people to wake up to the fact that we are giving up our freedoms one election cycle at a time. We are giving up our liberty incrementally people. Every time we get a new entitlement program or start another war, we lose a little more.

All of this stuff is related. To finance our empire building and endless entitlement programs (can you say Socialized Medicine) the Central Bank continues to pump out new money backed by jack-diddley squat. The world is rapidly losing confidence in our fiat currency and when that happens, guess what? We’ll all be billionaires!! The problem is you’ll need $3 billion to buy a gallon of milk. To those of you that have bought into the “war on terror”, I urge you to rethink your position. What is the “war on terror”? No one can define it for me. It’s a war on an ideology. You can’t fight that with guns and cannons. The front is everywhere and nowhere. The “war on terror” is a façade. I don’t think you would like what you see if you peeled it back. Our “leaders” are propping up a system that has already failed. Are you ready for what comes next? It might not be this year; it might not be next year. But if we continue on this path, our children will be the beneficiaries of the largest debacle in history. Had our parents listened to Ronald Reagan we might not be in this mess. But we are. There is a way out, but it won’t be easy.

Will you vote for more of the same? Or will you take a bold stand? God blessed this country more than any in history. Why do you think that is? Could it have been our forefathers created an environment where we were free to worship our God, live our lives as we please, and keep the fruits of our labor? Consider that.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello! My name is Mark Gates. I have spent a considerable part of my adult life observing how our government works and am fascinated by the dynamics in play at all levels, from my family (which I believe to be the smallest form of government) to world government which we have manifested today in the United Nations. I know “freedomwarrior” sounds a little hokey and I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, but I think it’s apropos’, so I went with it.

I have a great love for this country. I have been able to attain a certain degree of success in my own business and have the freedom to do what I want, go where I want to go, and associate with whom I want. That includes worshiping my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am most thankful for His intrusion into my life twenty plus years ago. My desire is to serve Him in all that I do, although many times I have fallen short. I thank Him for his long suffering with me.

Even though I have the freedoms and liberty we share, I believe we are giving them up. With every new government program and every new military endeavor, we have our pockets picked and our liberty diminished. We must stop this. We have morphed from a constitutional republic to a democracy, which would have our forefathers turning in their graves. A democracy is nothing other than tyranny in disguise. It is the tyranny of the majority. Escape from that is what so many that went before us gave their lives and fortunes for. I do not think it is too late, but we are close. A well organized revolt is needed and I would love to be a part of it. In fact, I believe this is my official foray into the revolution.

Probably the foremost reason I started this blog is to vent my rantings. My wife is tired of hearing them all, so I need another forum in which to do so. I hope you will read and consider my thoughts and ideas and if I change one persons mind for liberty or for the cause of Christ, I will consider myself successful.

Stay tuned, I will try to post regularly enough to keep it somewhat fresh. In fact my next immediate post will be about the State Republican Convention held in Rochester, MN last weekend.