Interview with Thomas Sowell

Way back before there was an internet, I used to subscribe to Forbes primarily to read Thomas Sowell's columns.  He only gets better with age.  This is one of the best interviews I've seen him do.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

The Fed's Love Affair with Debt. Is There an Answer?

I'm adding a new blog to the list, Market Skeptics.  There are plenty of interesting posts there by Eric deCarbonnel and he seems to know what he's talking about.  One in particular, *****FRAUD: Federal Reserve Is Selling Put Options On Treasury Bonds To Drive Down Yields*****, is extremely intriguing.

Ron Paul has been forever critical of the Fed's fast and loose monetary policies to help Congress to continue to spend bucks like a drunken sailor on shore leave, but I say that with all due respect to sailors for their many monotonous days at sea protecting our country, at least they deserve to let their hair down now and then, not so Congress.  He raised the warning, long before it was cool.

Professor Jacobson over at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion now writes about Sarah Palin's similar criticism of the Fed's policies and the left's attacks on her.  She's starting to get it, but how much does she really get?

Ron Paul says the founding of the Tea Party was encouraging and there is still a healthy element within the movement, but he is also critical of the fact that conventional candidates moved in and that many are not attuned to the full picture of the budgetary battles in terms of the revolution for freedom by defining just what the role of government should be.  You can see what he's talking about in this list of videos where he answers questions from C-SPAN callers.  No one says it better.

Smoking Bans - The Continued War on Smokers Takes a Strange Turn

Dr Michael Siegel continues to take on businesses that refuse to hire smokers.

Of course tobacco control advocates like Dr Siegel are opposed to such discrimination towards smokers by extremist anti-smokers, but I just have a feeling it's not entirely because it's simply unfair to smokers.  What else is there then?  Quite simply because it illustrates the concept of free association which undermines the reasoning legislated smoking bans were able to be forced on business owners in the first place - to protect the rights of the non-smoker.

Now I respect Dr Siegel even though our opinions differ on a number of issues.  He has always been willing to discuss issues, to include his own research with us laymen on the other side of the debate and listen to our concerns with some of their proposals and positions.  Even though he is currently at war with the mainstream anti-smoker extremists who have taken over the business, it's only because he now sees their irrationality as undermining what he considers to be legitimate progress that he has been a part of from the beginning.  He still is very much a tobacco control advocate supporting things like smoking bans which I view as an illegitimate abuse of authority.

The Most Important Video You Will Ever See.

Way back when, before they started allowing things like "The Story of Stuff" into classrooms, I was taught stuff similar to what people like Dr Albert Bartlett teaches in this 8 part video of one of his lectures:

Here is the complete list of the rest of the videos:

(part 2 of 8)
(part 3 of 8)
(part 4 of 8)
(part 5 of 8)
(part 6 of 8)
(part 7 of 8)
(part 8 of 8)

Ann Coulter's (not so) Brilliant Take on Wisconsin, NPR

A couple of videos of an interview between Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity are on Breitbart.tv titled as  Coulter's Brilliant Take on Wisconsin, NPR.

Coulter asks, "Where has Scott Walker been?", then goes off lambasting Walker's actions and the fact that she hadn't seen him on TV in two weeks and apparently she was upset because he wasn't on the night before the interview gloating over his victory in getting the bill passed.

"A little harsh", Hannity says at the end and "You're making a mountain out of a molehill here"?  That was an understatement. 

Yes, it was over the top.  In actuality there is little difference between Coulter's harsh words against Walker and those of the demonstrators in the capitol and the streets of Madison.

Scott Walker exhibited something throughout this ordeal which eluded Coulter in this particular interview - Class.

Why now? Why not?

There are so many awesome blogs out there that until now I had previously been happy to just wander along and leave an occasional comment here and there.

But...  Something seemed to be missing.  I never could quite place a finger on it. 

What could it be?

I still don't have an answer for that and perhaps I never will.  However, after several months of considering a recommendation of at least one blogger at mindnumbedrobot.com that I start my own blog, I started wondering if perhaps that might be a way to help me find it.

So here it is, Bot.  Your blog and your comments inspired me, even with the title of this blog itself.  I hope you can live with the consequences.  ;)