Running 'Cause I Can't Fly

"The Door in the Wall..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:31:00 +0000

"The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.”

– Aldous Huxley

The Universe

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:18:00 +0000

"Often having what you want is a function of letting go

of what you have. Odd, huh, the stuff people cling to?"

“If you know what I mean.”
The Universe

"Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!"
www.tut.com

"A Look to the Heavens"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:56:00 +0000

"About 40,000 light-years across, pretty, irregular galaxy NGC 3239 lies near the center of this lovely field of galaxies in the galaxy rich constellation Leo. At a distance of only 25 million light-years it dominates the frame, sporting a peculiar arrangement of structures, young blue star clusters and star forming regions, suggesting that NGC 3239 (aka Arp 263) is the result of a galaxy merger. Appearing nearly on top of the pretty galaxy is a bright, spiky, foreground star, a nearby member of our own Milky Way galaxy almost directly along our line-of-sight to NGC 3239.

Click image for larger size.

Still, NGC 3239 is notable for hosting this year's first confirmed supernova, designated SN 2012A. It was discovered early this month by supernova hunters Bob Moore, Jack Newton, and Tim Puckett. Indicated in a cropped version of the wider image, SN 2012A is just below and right of the bright foreground star. Of course, based on the light-travel time to NGC 3239, the supernova explosion itself occurred 25 million years ago, triggered by the core collapse of a massive star."

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120127.html

"A Video Moment With Nature"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:51:00 +0000

R. Carlos Nakai & Nawang Khechog, "Wisdom"

•
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the

wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
- Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator

"10 Commandments for a Good Life"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:41:00 +0000

"10 Commandments for a Good Life"
by Marc

"A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, need less, smile often and realize how fortunate you are right now. It’s about the simple pleasures that make you happy, the compassionate deeds you perform, the personal goals you strive to achieve, the relationships you nurture and the legacy you leave behind. So starting today, choose to take control. Here are ten commandments to help you live a good life.

    "And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.
    It’s the life in your years."
    - Abraham Lincoln

I. I am not perfect and I will not try to be. Think of how many things don’t get done in this world simply because people are waiting for the perfect time, place and circumstance. The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists. It rewards people who get things done. And the only way to get things done is to be imperfect 99% of the time.

ll. I cannot, and will not try, to please everyone. No matter what you do or how you do it, there will always be people that disagree with what you’re doing. That’s life. So don’t try please everyone. Simply do what I know is right. And remember, it doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it, it matters how many people do.

III. I will take part in something I believe in. This could be anything. Some people take an active role in their city council, some find refuge in religious faith, some join social clubs supporting causes they believe in and others find passion in their careers. In each case the psychological outcome is the same. They engage themselves in something they strongly believe in. This engagement brings happiness and meaning into their lives.

IV. I will prioritize my obligations and do important things first. Set priorities for yourself and act accordingly. It’s the only way to get things done. It’s the only way to turn a dream into a reality.

V. I will choose my friends wisely. Your friends are family you choose. So make sure you choose friends who are worthy of your time and attention. Surround yourself with people who reflect the person you want to be. Choose friends who you are proud to know, people you admire, who love and respect you – people who make your day a little brighter simply by being in it.

VI. I will help others when I am able. In life, you get what you put in. When you make a positive impact in someone else’s life, you also make a positive impact in your own life. The more you help others, the more they will want to help you.

VII. I will focus on the positive. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. The mind must believe it can do something before it is capable of actually doing it. The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful. Listen to your self-talk and replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Regardless of how a situation seems, focus on the next positive step forward.

VIII. I can only be me. Judy Garland once said, “Always be a first rate version of yourself instead of a second rate version of somebody else.” Live by this statement. There is no such thing as living in someone else’s shoes. The only shoes you can occupy are your own. If you aren’t being yourself, you aren’t truly living – you’re merely existing. And ask yourself this: If you don’t like who you really are, why should I like you? Trying to be somebody you’re not is not sexy. Be you. That’s when you’re beautiful.

IX. I will be here now. Life is happening right now. Instead of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, practice being and living in the present moment. Remember, right now is the only moment guaranteed to you. Right now is life. Don’t miss it.

X. Life never gets any better, only my perception of it does. The world around you changes when you change. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right. The opposite is also true. The choice is yours to make."

- http://www.marcandangel.com/

"My Privilege..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:30:00 +0000

"This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and, as I live, it is my privilege – my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

~ George Bernard Shaw

The Daily "Near You?"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:39:00 +0000

Malmö, Skane Lan, Sweden. Thanks for stopping by.

"I Insist..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:36:00 +0000

"I love America more than any other country in this world; and,

exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."

~ James Baldwin

"Tax Laws, Corruption and Other Reasons to Expatriate"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:07:00 +0000

"Tax Laws, Corruption and Other Reasons to Expatriate"

by Joel Bowman

"Here’s a meaningless abstraction for you, Fellow Reckoner. You ready? US GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.7% for 2011. Now, what does that sentence actually tell us? What does it reveal about life or the quality of it; about the long arc of history and where we are along it; about the Heavens above us, the Hells below and our place in the present somewhere in between? What useful piece of information does this arrangement of letters and numbers divulge that has this morning’s news wires so abuzz with excitement? What, if anything, does it really say?

Nothing. Well, nothing important anyway. It simply tells us that a measurement with no meaningful connection to reality has, in an attempt to quantify the size of something that does not exist, moved in a direction that does not matter. Frank Shostak, an adjunct scholar at the Mises Institute, sums the GDP fraud up nicely: “The GDP framework gives the impression that it is not the activities of individuals that produce goods and services, but something else outside these activities called the ‘economy.’ However, at no stage does the so-called ‘economy’ have a life of its own independent of individuals. The so-called economy is a metaphor — it doesn’t exist.”

But let us imagine for a moment that there was such thing as an economy independent of the individuals who comprise it. The GDP metric still provides, at best, a shoddy way to measure “it.” There is no accounting, for example, for the immense time, effort and natural resources that go into building a good/providing a service that nobody actually wants. Consider the infamous Cash for Clunkers disaster that goosed 2009’s GDP reading…or the payroll numbers of Census employees that pumped up 2010’s read.

According to the first example, the more goods that get destroyed prematurely…the higher GDP goes up! Likewise, in the second example, the more people are employed to perform meaningless tasks…the higher GDP does soar! Following this twisted logic, why not simply bulldoze every house in America and put the population to work rebuilding them from scratch?

Sure, nobody would have a roof…but everybody would have a job fixing one! Plus, GDP would be sky-high. Welcome to your workers’ paradise, comrade! But we’ve been down this rabbit hole before. And it’s Friday. The sun is shining here in Argentina’s capital city and the pretty people have already taken to the plazas for their afternoon cafés and cervezas. We’re not in the mood for tussling with statist newspeak jargon, for disentangling the government’s web of misleading euphemisms and dysphemisms, for straightening out crooked statistics and setting right wrongheaded theories.

We’re in the mood for some good news today…something to welcome the weekend along a bit. Thankfully, this world is rich with uplifting stories. Ah, why here’s a piece of news that brought a smile to our dial earlier in the week: "According to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson, approximately 4,000 people gave up their [US] citizenship from fiscal year 2005 to FY 2010. Numbers were up sharply since the Great Correction began in 2008, “from 146 in FY 2008 to 1,534 in FY 2010” said the article we read. The rate quickened further last year, with 1,024 Americans ditching their citizenship during the first two quarters of FY 2011 alone."

To be sure, the number of Americans “making the chicken run” is, in absolute terms, still very small. But the trend is still young…and, in our opinion, likely to continue to gather pace as the empire crumbles. Not that we have anything against one or the other government in particular. They’re all comprised of thugs and phonies. Only to say that, as a general rule, people find themselves treated much better as guests in one country than slaves in another. Besides, freedom takes small victories when and where she can find them these days.

The study cites the “confusing complexity” of the US tax code and “bait and switch” tactics used by the IRS to lure in victims behind on “payments” as the primary two reasons for the uptick in permanent expatriation. As to the first reason, we harbor no doubts. Last year’s US tax code weighed in at 71,684 pages in length. According to the website, Political Calculations, that’s up from roughly 500 pages too many (read: 500 in total) in 1940. We have no idea if those numbers are correct…but they seem sufficiently absurd to be at least approaching the truth. Which causes us to wonder, as it did a Fellow Reckoner earlier in the week… If something that takes the equivalent of 55 "War and Peaces" to explain does not satisfy the qualifications of void for vagueness, we’re not sure what does.

“As a business owner who has survived 2 IRS audits,” writes our tortured reader, “I can personally attest that no one person alive on this earth understands the entirety of the IRS code; no lawyer, tax advisor, IRS agent or justice of the court. Literally thousands of terms and conditions in the code are so convoluted and confusing to the point that 5 accountants (or agents, or judges) considering the same point in question come to 5 differing conclusions proves my point. “After both of my audits I received a nominal refund from Uncle Sam, and wrote a larger check to my CPA. The US tax code is completely corrupt, and certainly should be ruled ‘Void for Vagueness’.”

Nor do we doubt, for a moment, the second reason cited for the increase in citizenship renunciations. Apparently, reads the article, the naughty boys and girls at the IRS have been “telling Americans they can resolve their unpaid taxes under…‘older voluntary disclosure programs with the promise of reduced penalties, only to find themselves subjected to steeper penalties.’”

Well, what did you expect, Fellow Reckoner? It’s called honor among thieves, not honorable thieves. These are people who would turn in their own grandmothers if they found a dotless “i” or a crossless “t” on the ol’ dear’s tax return. You have to be among them if you don’t want your own pockets picked. But then, what kind of horrible fate is that…where one becomes the very evil they despise in order to protect themselves from it? Hmmm…we don’t know. Try writing your congressman. He surely will.”

- http://dailyreckoning.com/

"Best Places in the World to Retire (Or Escape To), Part II"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:59:00 +0000

"Best Places in the World to Retire (Or Escape To), Part II"

by Daily Reckoning Contributor

"In the States today, most Americans are on the verge of retiring are much more likely to talk about their fears than their dreams. The cost of everything from healthcare to food is rising, while incomes, pensions and nest eggs are shrinking… or at least not growing nearly as much as expected — leaving baby boomers with fewer and fewer options for retirement at home. But all hope is not lost! If you look at the right places beyond our borders today, you’ll find you have more good choices than ever for a comfortable — even pampered — retirement. In any one of our “Top 19” havens for 2012, a lifestyle well beyond your reach in the States could be yours for pennies on the dollar.

In the 2012 Global Retirement Index we bring you the top choices available on the planet today. From beachfront hideaways to arts-rich colonial cities, from cosmopolitan capitals to small highland villages, there’s an overseas haven to fit your fantasy… and your budget. For our Retirement Index, we only measure the very best havens against one other. So the country last on our list is still the 19th best in the world. In each of our 2012 top retirement destinations, you’ll find thousands of ordinary folks who’ve not simply salvaged their retirements overseas… but upgraded them.

The Most Exciting Retirement Haven: Let’s get this out of the way…none of our picks are boring places, it’s just that some have more to offer than others in terms of the range of amenities and entertainment options to keep you busy. If variety is the spice of retired life, then Paris, Panama City, the expat communities of Mexico, Medellin in Colombia, and Bangkok, Thailand, should be top of your list. Here you’ll find something different every night… Choose from catching a concert, seeing a movie or eating out with friends for a fraction of the cost back home. “Thai food is amazing,” says Jason Gaspero, “But if you get tired of it, you can find restaurants with food from all over the world.” In Medellin’s El Poblado district you’ll find Japanese, French, seafood and Italian restaurants within a block of each other.

In Malaysia you’ll catch a movie in English for $4…before it comes out in the US. In Punta del Este, Uruguay, artists like Shakira don’t just perform there, they live there, too. If you love the sea, then Placencia and Amergris Caye in Belize, Roatan, Honduras, and Panama’s Caribbean Coast make sense. Scuba diving, fishing, sailing, kayaking and snorkelling, they’ve got it all. And if surfing is your passion, catch the best waves on Nicaragua and Costa Rica’s Pacific Coasts.

For foodies in love with culture, Spain and Italy offer a menu of delights unmatched anywhere else, even the smallest villages ooze history, and art is everywhere. You’ll find delicious three-course meals for less than $20 in both countries, too. Of course, you might be content with amazing new views, meeting friends down the boardwalk and a homecooked meal. “If you’re looking for exciting night clubs, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or a night at the opera, Bahia, Ecuador, is not for you. But for peace, simplicity, a dish of Pingüino ice cream, and soothing natural beauty, this is heaven,” says Patricia Farmer. “You would be hard-pressed to find such tranquility in any beach resort town in the US. Even the wealthiest people inhabiting fortress-like beach homes on the hills of Malibu have to spend much of their lives sitting in rush hour traffic, breathing in smog, and feeling the crush and pressures of a type-A culture.”

Healthcare in our Havens: In each of our 19 havens you’ll find first-class hospitals and clinics where care is second-to-none, and the staff are often US-trained. But while the care is similar to the US in many places, it’s a lot cheaper than back home. You’ll literally save thousands on procedures if you need them, and hundreds on prescriptions and doctors’ visits. For example, a visit to the doctor in Nicaragua is $15, in Panama its $10 and in France house calls are standard. In fact, in many of our choices, doctors put a value on the personal touch. “Our doctor in Nicaragua speaks English and we have his personal cell number for emergencies. Hard to imagine that happening in the US.” says Darrell Bushnell.

In many of our picks the public health care systems provide wonderful low-cost care. In Costa Rica, the public health care system, called the Caja, is part of a socialized medical system. Living in the Central Valley, Sharon and Lee Harris are members. “It provides economical and excellent medical care as well as prescriptions for only $40 per month for both of us. There is a Caja clinic in every neighborhood. There are also many excellent private hospitals in the Central Valley and state-run Caja hospitals in every province,” says Sharon.

The Ecuadorian government guarantees senior citizens access to free health care and medication and exemption from notary and registration fees. “All expats are able to participate in the Ecuador Social Security medical program,” explains Jack Moss who, with his wife Debbie, retired to Cotacachi two years ago. “The premium is about $57 a month, and there is no co-pay or deductible for physician visits, hospitalization, medications, or dental visits.” Even just living overseas can improve your health, as Lucky and Erin Ivy point out on page 11 of this issue. On the sandy beaches of Placencia, Belize, they found a stress-free life that means they sleep better, and feel healthier, than ever before.

The Best Retirement Infrastructure: These days, you can have a US phone number ring in your home overseas for less than $20 a year. Through online services like Skype, you can video chat with friends and family back home every day if you want to — for free. The world is more connected than ever, and that makes exploring it so much easier than it ever has been. Good Internet coverage is a necessity most expats today are reluctant to do without. In all our havens, rest assured: You can get online. Malaysia, Italy and France have higher levels of Internet penetration than other countries — but there’s access in all of them. Quality roads and good cell phone coverage matter, too. Now, you may not want to drive, and in that case, you’ll want access to a good public transport system.

In Paris, expat Jim Leavy says he’s delighted by the great public transportation…in Cotacachi, Ecuador, IL editors Dan Prescher and Suzan Haskins get by with taxis and buses. When the mood strikes, Patricia and Ron Farmer can explore the sandy beaches of the Ecuadorian coast by taxi — $35 for the whole day. And what about direct, cheap flights home to the US to visit family? You don’t even have to fly to get to Mexico; you can drive. It takes less time to fly from Houston to Quito or to Panama City than it does to fly from New York to Los Angeles.

The Best Climate: You’ll find lots of climate choice in our top retirement havens. Sharon Hiebing says she practically lives in tank tops and shorts now, and only occasionally needs a light jacket or close-toed shoes. Ever since her move to San Ignacio, Belize, Sharon has been enchanted by the climate. She’s not alone. Thousands of expats have turned in their snow shovels for good. In places where the weather is warm year-round, not only do you eliminate the need for heavy winter clothes, but you gain in quality of life. Better weather means you’re outside more. And that often translates to “healthier.” Plus it usually means lower utility bills, too. In Belize you’ll find an average temperature of 80 F, and it isn’t even one of our highest scoring havens in this category. Because pretty much all of our picks offer a perfect climate for part of the year, we concentrated on the ones that are the best year round.

But you could opt for the part-time strategy — capitalizing on good weather in different parts of the world. That’s what Kelly and Angela Grams do. They live lakeside in Canada May to September, then head south to their second home in warm-weather Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, October to December. Then every January to April they rent out their Mexican condo to cover their costs and spend those three months traveling.

How to Know You’re Safe Overseas: The expats living in each of our top havens report they feel safe. In fact, often they say they feel safer than they did back in the States. That’s not to say there’s no petty crime or that nothing bad ever happens. But just as you wouldn’t dismiss the idea of owning a condo on Chicago’s upscale Magnificent Mile because of the crime stats on that city’s south side…you shouldn’t reject a town we recommend in a country where you can retire well for less…because you remember hearing something about that nation being “dangerous.” Old stereotypes die hard. You’re best served by seeing a place for yourself. Talk to expats on the ground. See how comfortable you feel there. We predict: You’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

- http://dailyreckoning.com/

"How It Really Is"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:23:00 +0000

"The Three Biggest Government Lies"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:19:00 +0000

"The Three Biggest Government Lies"

by Charles Goyette

“Government lies are legion. So many are its lies, that narrowing them down to three of the most important is a demanding task. But our current crisis has been chiefly enabled by monetary policy, fiscal policy, and the global military empire. So I have chosen to focus on lies about each: the Federal Reserve, the orchestrator of monetary policy; the U.S. budget, the accounting of government fiscal policy; and a few of the Empire’s war lies. I am sharing just a smattering of this astonishing record of duplicity in these areas, for life is short, or at least far too short to recount all of the state’s lies about each.

Lie #1: The Federal Reserve Is a Bank: Practically everything the government says about banking is a lie. Central banks are not banks. The Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, is not a bank. A bank is a company in the free economy that competes with other banks offering willing customers a safe place to make deposits and earn an interest rate return, while also competing to offer loans from those deposits to willing borrowers.

Central banks are government-created bureaucracies that do nothing of the sort. The Federal Reserve is typical of central banks. It is not a free market institution in which people willingly make deposits. Instead, it wields monopoly power over actual banks. In place of managing deposits and loans of its own, it creates money out of nothing by a variety of means including debt monetization, in which it buys government debt by simply creating a credit in the account of a commercial bank with nothing more than a booking entry. This is an act made possible only by the state’s grant of a legal monopoly empowering the central bank to do what, if done by a private bank, would be a crime called counterfeiting. Central banks thus have the ability to unilaterally boom and bust their economies at will. And they have done so throughout their history, either to the benefit of the commercial bank cartels, in response to political pressure, or because of outright economic ineptitude .

Writing at Lew Rockwell.com about the myth that the Federal Reserve is a "bank," and independent, finance professor Michael Rozeff describes a central bank as a government’s "fiat money bureau." "It is held up by the force of government law and power. It is imposed on the public." The representation of them as actual banks produces confusion in which central banks are said to earn "profits." For example, a January, 2012 Federal Reserve press release reporting its "earnings," announced $76.9 billion in 2011 net income. This was described in the New York Times and the Financial Times as the Fed’s "profits," just as though it were the annual report of any commercial bank’s profits.

Yet in what sense does the Fed show a "profit" or have "earnings"? It is as inappropriate as describing the collections of the Internal Revenue Service as "profits." Where are these Federal Reserve "profits" derived? They are the result of printing new dollars to buy assets; that is, they are the result of diluting the purchasing power of every dollar you or anyone else has. It is not any different than a dairy watering down 100 gallons of milk to sell 110 gallons. It is fraud. But it is a fraud legalized by act of Congress.

But the Federal Reserve is not alone. Another non-bank is the World Bank which loans money to governments and government enterprises. The World Bank has been a useful place to pasture failed U.S. government warmongers like the disastrous Vietnam War Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara and Iraq war co-author Paul Wolfowitz. Both were named World Bank presidents even as their deadly wars raged on.

The World Bank gets almost all of its money by way of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD),( also not a bank), which gets its money from taxes, the largest share coming from the American people. The IBRD also sells World Bank bonds, but they too are guaranteed by taxpayers. American tax dollars go to other multi-national organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. None of which are banks.

Lie #2: War Lies: Governments and politicians lies incessantly about war. They lie about the cause of war. They lie about the threat of war. They lie about the cost of war. And they lie about their lies about war. Governments lie relentlessly about war. Just in the last fifty years the people have been lied to about U.S. government wars from Vietnam to Iraq.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident, a purported attack on U.S. ships by North Vietnam off its coast, was used by President Johnson (an "unprovoked" attack he told the nation) to win legislative authority, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, for a war in Vietnam. But it was an incident that did not happen and Johnson knew it even as he escalated Vietnam into the full-blown blood bath it became. "Hell," he told his secretary of state just a few days after the resolution passed, "those dumb, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish!"

Lying is so intrinsic to the nature of government, that even the truth about old lies is concealed to protect new lies. In 2001, a National Security Agency study found that officials had actually doctored documents in covering up the truth about the Tonkin Gulf incident, the bogus war pretext that led to the needless deaths of millions of human beings. But the new report of that old cover-up was itself delayed for years for fear that it’s release would cast doubt on the intelligence that the Bush administrations was using to justify an invasion of Iraq.

In the case of the Iraq war, not only did defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lie about knowing where the non-existent weapons of mass destruction were in Iraq ("We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."), in a later exchange with my friend former CIA senior analyst Ray McGovern, Rumsfeld even denied he had made such a claim. "Simply stated," Dick Cheney said of the mythical WMDs in August of 2002, "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." "We know for a fact," said White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer in January of 2003, "that there are weapons there." "We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction," said Colin Powell in February of 2003, "is determined to make more."

The government can be counted on to lie about the costs of war. Lawrence Lindsey, a Bush administration economist, was fired for suggesting in advance that the Iraq war would cost $100 billion to $200 billion. Although estimates in the trillions of dollars would have been closer, Rumsfeld called Lindsey’s estimate "baloney." The government tries to conceal spending by keeping it off the budget books with supplementary, appropriations and emergency measures. It even spreads war costs off of the defense department budget and into the budget of other departments such as state and energy.

I have written more about government’s war lies in my new book "Red and Blue and Broke All Over: Restoring America’s Free Economy," but must finish the point here with a reminder of the government’s lies about the case of Jessica Lynch, and about the way the government lied about the killing of Pat Tillman and even lied about lying about its lies about his death. Private Lynch was a 19-year-old clerk when her company was ambushed in Iraq after taking a wrong turn. She suffered injuries when her Humvee overturned and was taken by Iraqi soldiers to a nearby hospital. Although she suffered injuries when her Humvee overturned, "U.S. officials" reported that Lynch had gone down fighting and had been both shot and stabbed in action, and later even slapped around as he was interrogated on her hospital bed. The truth is she had no such wounds. She had never fired her weapon, and, by her own account, was well cared for in the Iraqi hospital. Although the Iraqi doctor who had cared for her tried himself to turn her over to the Americans, the Pentagon, with a propaganda campaign in mind and camera’s rolling, staged a dramatic raid from helicopters to "rescue" Lynch. The video was edited up in no time and released by a Pentagon anxious to have a heroic feel-good war narrative to relate. But of course the Pentagon refused a request to release the full video of the "rescue" to clear up discrepancies in its account.

While the Pentagon is perfectly capable of lying on its own initiative, members of congress pressured the Pentagon to award Lynch the Medal of Honor, even before an investigation was complete, saying it would be "good for women in the military." Pat Tillman, killed in action in Afghanistan, was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, a combat honor given for valor in action against an enemy. But there was no encounter with the enemy. Tillman was shot to death by his fellow soldiers. This was carefully concealed with fraudulent accounts of the incident.

Senior commanders’ prints were all over the cover-up about Tillman’s death. General John Abizaid approved the Silver Star despite knowing within days of Tillman’s death that he had been shot by "friendly fire." Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal cited Tillman for actions "in the line of devastating enemy fire," but the very next day sent a confidential memo about the fratricide to senior government officials including Abizaid warning them to protect themselves and President Bush from embarrassment in the episode. Tillman’s family charged the military with repeatedly lying to them about his death and about its investigation, as it delayed accounts of his friendly fire death until after a nationally televised memorial service orchestrated by the Bush administration. By one account, his fellow soldiers were even told to lie to the family at Tillman’s funeral.

Tillman’s enlistment in the army after the 9/11 attacks was a national sensation. A good looking NFL player, Tillman gave up a multi-million dollar football career to join up. Thanks to his popularity, he was like a recruiting poster for the military. His father claimed that it was this usefulness to the military that helped drive the cover-up. "They purposely interfered with the investigation, they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."

Apparently the original cover-up, in which his comrades even burned the evidence of his body armor and uniform, was itself covered up. Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger was censured by the army for lying to investigators about Tillman’s death. Pat’s mother, Mary Tillman, said that Kensinger was just a scapegoat. "There are a lot of people who played a role in this and they are getting off without any punishment." She singled out Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Gen. John Abizaid by name. The government not only lies about war, it routinely lies about its lies about war.

Lie #3: The Real U.S. Debt: This may be the most brazen and transparent lie of all, the one about the U.S. national debt, now over $15 trillion dollars. It is a number that hides the severity of our situation. Washington acts as though that is the real debt of the nation. Politicians posture for weeks at a time about it, devoting long debates to raising the ceiling on this visible portion of the national debt. And yet the real federal debt is much, much larger and like an iceberg below the water line, most of it is hidden out of sight. And like the Titanic, Republicans and Democrats have the country headed for a tragic collision with economic reality.

Each year the federal government makes new promises and takes on trillions in new financial obligations that do not show up in the visible, official national debt. The persistent growth of these hidden debts each year far outpaces the increases in the visible debt. In 2010 for example, the visible federal debt grew by an astonishing $1.5 trillion. But the hidden debt – out of sight and without debate – grew by more than $5 trillion!

When a private business takes on an obligation to pay something, it is required to report it as a liability. It shows up on the books. Not so for the state. This allows politicians to blithely make promises without adequate revenue to pay for them. It is easy to understand why this practice should persist. Giving things to constituents feels good. Making them pay for those things causes politicians to suffer pain. Like most living creatures, politicians like to feel good and avoid pain. So when they add to the obligations of the state, when politicians make commitments for the future or promise entitlements like Social Security and Medicare to win re-election, the means to pay are often inadequate. But there is no such thing as a free lunch, which is to say, that the cost will have to be borne eventually by somebody. For the time being though, the preferred political expediency is keeping the costs, the liabilities, off the books.

Unfunded liabilities are the difference between a program’s projected costs and its projected revenues, both valued in today’s dollars. Medicare and Social Security both have promised benefits that outrace revenue streams. They are the largest components of the government’s unfunded liabilities, the hidden debt of the nation. But there are other federal retirement programs with not merely inadequate funding like Medicare and Social Security, but with no revenue streams of their own at all. Among them are retirement programs for military and federal workers.

In September 2011, USA Today analyzed dozens of overlapping programs for retired federal workers. It reported that despite the existing debt crisis, Congress continues to add to the promised benefits, so that retirement programs now have a $5.7 trillion unfunded liability. The newspaper sums up its report on the retirement programs this way: "Private employers are legally required to put money into pension funds to match retirement promises. Private pensions have $2.3 trillion in stocks, bonds, real estate and other assets. State and local governments have $3 trillion in retirement funds. The federal government has nothing set aside. The total unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government have been calculated with a number of present value and discount models. Results of the shortfall from these methods range from about $70 trillion to $120 trillion dollars. For a family of four this represents a liability between $900,000 and $1.5 million. (You can follow the debt as it adds up at www.USdebt.org.)

What does the state say about its unfunded liabilities? Here’s a response from the Congressional Budget Office, which answers, "… no government obligation can be truly considered ‘unfunded’ because of the U.S. government's sovereign power to tax – which is the ultimate resource to meet its obligations."

That is utter hooey. It conjures up an absurdity in which the government could meet its obligation by sending you a Social Security check, even as it raises a tax to take 100 percent of everything you get from Social Security. The reason that is an absurdity is that it is a two-step process to do what the government will do in just one step. By means either overt (legislative act) or covert (currency destruction), it will unilaterally reduce its "obligation," leaving millions of people betrayed. Because it is the government. And it lies about its obligations. Just like it lies about everything else.”

- http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article32836.html

The Economy: "Accelerating Great Collapse & Hyperinflation"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:37:00 +0000

"Accelerating Great Collapse & Hyperinflation"
by John Williams

“The U.S. economic and systemic-solvency crises of the last five years continue to deteriorate. Yet they remain just the precursors to the coming Great Collapse: a hyperinflationary great depression. The unfolding circumstance will encompass a complete loss in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar; a collapse in the normal stream of U.S. commercial and economic activity; a collapse in the U.S. financial system, as we know it; and a likely realignment of the U.S. political environment.

Outside timing on the hyperinflation remains 2014, but events of the last year have accelerated the movement towards this ultimate dollar catastrophe. Following Mr. Bernanke‘s extraordinary efforts to debase the U.S. currency in late-2010, the dollar had lost its traditional safe-haven status by early-2011. Whatever global confidence had remained behind the U.S dollar was lost in July and August. That was in response to the lack of political will—shown by those who control the White House and Congress—to address the long-range insolvency of the U.S. government, and as a result of the later credit-rating downgrade to U.S. Treasury debt.

Those latter circumstances triggered something of dollar selling panic, particularly as reflected in the corresponding buying of gold and Swiss francs, but various interventions, misdirection and manipulations helped to quell the currency disorders. Still, many financial markets were left rocking with the aftershocks of a major shift in the global view of the U.S. dollar.

The economy has underperformed and likely will continue to underperform consensus forecasts by a significant margin. In turn, weaker-than-expected economic growth will mean significantly worse-than-expected federal budget deficits, Treasury funding needs and banking-system solvency conditions.

With the U.S. election just nine months off, political pressures will mount to favor fiscal stimulus measures instead of restraint. The Fed should be forced to provide new “easing” in an effort to continue propping the banking system (the explanation will be an effort to boost the economy). Given the Treasury‘s funding needs, the easing likely will in the form of renewed buying of U.S. Treasuries, with the Fed remaining lender of last resort there.

Consistent with the precedent set in 2008, the Fed, and likely the Treasury, also will remain in place to do whatever is needed, at whatever cost, to prevent systemic collapse in the United States. All of these actions, though, have costs in terms of higher domestic inflation and intensified dollar debasement.

The U.S. dollar remains highly vulnerable to massive, panicked selling, at any time, with little or no warning. The next round of Federal Reserve or U.S. government easing or stimulus could be the proximal trigger for such a currency panic and/or for strong efforts to strip the U.S. currency of its global reserve currency status.

As the advance squalls from this great financial tempest come ashore, the government could be expected to launch a variety of efforts at forestalling the hyperinflation‘s landfall, but such efforts will buy little time and ultimately will fail in preventing the dollar‘s collapse. The timing of the early days—the onset—of full-blown hyperinflation likely will be coincident with a broad global rejection of the U.S. dollar, which, again, could happen at any time.

With no viable or politically-practical way of balancing U.S. fiscal conditions and avoiding this financial economic Armageddon, the best action that individuals can take at this point remains to protect themselves, both as to meeting short-range survival needs as well as to preserving current wealth and assets over the longer term. Efforts there, respectively, would encompass building a store of key consumables, such as food and water, and moving assets into physical precious metals and outside of the U.S. dollar.”

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

•

The above was just a small portion of a 75 page special report from John Williams titled, “Hyperinflation 2012”, available by subscription here:

http://www.shadowstats.com/subscriptions

Greg Hunter, “Weekly News Wrap-Up 1.27.12”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:26:00 +0000

“Weekly News Wrap-Up 1.27.12”
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

“The Federal Reserve announced, this week, that it was keeping interest rates at near zero percent until at least 2014. It sure doesn’t look like the so-called “recovery” is going very well. The Fed also said it may “stimulate” the economy soon. Print baby print—you wonder why gold has been rising in price? Billionaire investor George Soros is scaring the heck out of everybody with his dark comments about the economy’s possible collapse, and riots in Europe and the U.S. he thinks are coming. He actually said he’s worried about “survival.” Things must be getting pretty bad if he is saying this type of stuff publicly.

The Middle East is a mess with ongoing revolts in Egypt and Syria. More sanctions are hitting Iranian oil, and Iran is, once again, threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s crude oil is shipped through this narrow passageway every year. Closing it will most certainly bring chaos to a very fragile world economy. Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com brings you these stories and more on the Weekly News Wrap-Up.”

- http://usawatchdog.com/weekly-news-wrap-up-1-27-12/#more-6922

"A Damn Fool..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:21:00 +0000

"Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day;

wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit."

- Elbert Hubbard

Feeling Your Soul: "Sea of Dreams"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:41:00 +0000

"Sea of Dreams"
“We all have a sea of dreams. This song by 2002 is from their album “Land of Forever.”
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMkzdVrgQ68

Alex Noble, "They Said"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:23:00 +0000

"They Said"

by Alex Noble

They said: “He did not feel anything.”

They said: "Please stop crying, Ma'm."

They said: “He would have seen a blinding light, and then, nothing.”

They said: "His death was instantaneous. You can be grateful for that."

They said: “No Ma’m, there is no body. There were too many fragments.”

They said: "Please, Ma'm. Your tears will not bring him back."

They said: “We have brought you this flag, anyway.”

They said: “You should be proud, Ma’m. Your husband died serving his country.”

They said: "Your husband died protecting freedom and democracy."

They said: "Your husband died for freedom loving people everywhere."

They said: "Please stop crying, Ma'm. We only have a few minutes."

They said: “You will get about $1,154 dollars a month to compensate you for the

loss of your husband, but we cannot pay funeral expenses when there is no body.”

They said: "We cannot guarantee you Food Stamps at this time."

They said: "We will have to deduct certain fees from your check each month."

They said: "Yes, we are sure the remains are those of your husband."

They said: “We will provide government grief counseling services at a

discounted cost for you and your son and daughter.”

They said: “We have to go now, Ma’m. We have twenty other widows to visit in your city today.”

They said: “We are sorry.”

They said: "Goodbye."

- Alex Noble

The Universe

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:17:00 +0000

“What do you now fear? How will you use this? Every fear is a gift,

though every gift needs unwrapping. "Oh look, it's me, only more!"

“You're welcome,”
The Universe

“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”
www.tut.com

Jim Valvano, "3 Things..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:36:00 +0000

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.”

- Jim Valvano

Musical Interlude: Simon & Garfunkel, “Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:25:00 +0000

“Through the corridors of sleep
Past the shadows dark and deep
My mind dances and leaps in confusion.
I don’t know what is real,
I can’t touch what I feel
And I hide behind the shield of my illusion.

So I’ll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall.

The mirror on my wall
Casts an image dark and small
But I’m not sure at all it’s my reflection.
I am blinded by the light
Of God and truth and right
And I wander in the night without direction.

So I’ll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall.

It’s no matter if you’re born
To play the King or pawn
For the line is thinly drawn ‘tween joy and sorrow,
So my fantasy
Becomes reality,
And I must be what I must be and face tomorrow.

So I’ll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall.”

Simon & Garfunkel, “Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall”

"A Look to the Heavens"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:53:00 +0000

“A mere 12.5 million light-years from Earth, irregular dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 lies within the confines of Canes Venatici, the constellation of the Hunting Dogs. About the size of our Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, NGC 4449 is undergoing an intense episode of star formation, evidenced by its wealth of young blue star clusters, pinkish star forming regions, and obscuring dust clouds in this deep color portrait. It also holds the distinction of being the first dwarf galaxy with an identified tidal star stream, faintly seen at the lower right. An inset of the stream is resolved into red giant stars.

Click image for larger size.

The star stream represents the remains of a still smaller infalling satellite galaxy, disrupted by gravitational forces and destined to merge with NGC 4449. With relatively few stars, small galaxies are thought to possess extensive dark matter halos. But since dark matter interacts gravitationally, these observations offer a chance to examine the significant role of dark matter in galactic merger events. The interaction is likely responsible for NGC 4449's burst of star formation and offers a tantalizing insight into how even small galaxies are assembled over time.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120126.html

"The First Law Of Nature..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:47:00 +0000

"What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity.

We are all formed of frailty and error;

let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature."

- Voltaire

"I Once Was A Little Child..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:36:00 +0000

"I once was a little child who longed for other worlds,
but I am no more a child for I have known fear,
I have learned to hate, how tragic then is youth
which lives with enemies, with gallows ropes.
Yet, I still believe I only sleep today, that I’ll wake up,
a child again, and start to laugh and play.”

- Hama Herchenberg, 14 years old.
Died December 18, 1943, Auschwitz concentration camp.

Don't look away, this is what we have done, all of us...

"Even Darkness Must Pass...”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:32:00 +0000

Sam: "It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something."

Frodo: "What are we holding onto, Sam?"

Sam: "That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."

- Samwise Gamgee,
"Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"

The Daily "Near You?"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:30:00 +0000

Rosemère, Quebec, Canada. Thanks for stopping by.