In the summer of 1969 Professor Percy Graves, a close friend and student of Professor Ludwig von Mises, gave a series of 7 lectures in Buenos Aires to overflow crowds at the Centro de Estudios sobre la Libertad on the dollar crisis. One of those lecutures dealt with the specifics of the 1929 Depression in some detail. Apparently there were Argentinians concerned enough about that crisis that they were willing to invest 7 nights of their life so as not to repeat that economic calamity in their country.

Would that Americans were so inclined.

The great irony is that if one changed 1929 to 2009 and added 80 years to the other dates, Professor Graves could have given the same lecture today word for word and been right on the mark. The only difference at this point is that we don't yet have the diaries and papers of the key players of the 2009 crisis.

The biggest and most dangerous misunderstanding regarding both of these economic crises is that they somehow represent a failure of the free market instead of the failure of government management of the economy.

Mises was once asked by a graduate student at his University of New York seminar what he thought the government should do during a depression. Mises replied in his quiet manner by presenting his free market position in a few well chosen words. Aghast, the student replied, "You mean the government should do nothing?"
Mises leaned back as he frequently did and said, "Yes, but I mean the government should start doing nothing much sooner."

You can download a transcript of the entire lecture at Understanding the Dollar Crisis

Third Party Voting & The Lesser of Two Evils

The intramural debate among Christians over third party candidates is underway once again. When I first voted outside the Demoblican party, I don’t remember any serious discussions about such things among Christians. Their response to my third party comments, if there was any at all, was simply, “Huh ???”

But over the 6 intervening presidential election cycles the debate has matured considerably. Now I hear Christians contemplating complicated electioneering strategies (like switching parties to vote for the other party’s worst candidate in the primary in the hope they will win the nomination and set up an easier race in the fall) or asserting that a vote for a good third party candidate is really a vote for the worst candidate. To which my response was, “Huh???”

So in an effort to catch up to my more articulate brothers and sisters on this quadrenially important topic, I sat down yesterday, after spending the day painting a large sign for my favorite candidate which will be mounted on the main traffic artery through our town, and tried to improve my contribution to this discussion.

On voting for the candidate who can’t win …

• Elections are not a horse race where voters try to pick the winning ticket.


• Elections are a wheelbarrow race where voters make the winner.


• Not voting for a good candidate because he is not expected to win is giving up before the
  wheelbarrow race is over.


• Choosing the lesser-of-two-evils over a good candidate because no else is voting for him is being controlled by peer pressure like a junior high socialite.

On voting for the lesser of two evils …

• If you vote for the lesser of two evils for President, you’ll always have an evil President.
  
• You can’t expect God to provide you with a good President when you vote for an evil one any more than you can expect God to provide you with daily bread when you sleep all day instead of working.


• Voting for the lesser of two evils disobeys the admonition in Exodus 18:21 to choose good men (i.e. able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness) to exercise civil rule.
  
• A vote for the lesser of two evils is doing evil in the hope of stopping evil.
  
• A vote for the lesser of two evils is a wasted vote in getting a good candidate elected.
  
• Voting for the lesser of two evils in the hope of avoiding a greater evil is like stealing food in order not to starve.
  
• Defining an election in terms of the lesser of two evils is like falling for the false dilemma of values clarification exercises where 5 people are stranded in a lifeboat with supplies for 4 and thinking that one person should be thrown overboard (regrettably, of course) in order to keep the other 4 alive.
  
• Voting for a good candidate instead of the lesser of two evils is not a vote for the greater of two evils, anymore than keeping 5 stranded people on a lifeboat for 4 is choosing to kill 5 people.

A vote for a good candidate is, as should be obvious, simply a vote for a good candidate.

Of course, I suspect the real issue is that lesser-of-two-evil voters do not really believe they are choosing the lesser to two evils. They believe they are choosing a basically good candidate who, while qualified for office, is simply not everything they might desire in an ideal candidate. ...
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Faith and the Banking Crisis

Should bad private banking decisions be paid for with your tax dollars? According to a recent Rasmussen survey, 25% of Americans think so. Does the Bible, as the timeless, cultureless, foundation of absolute truth and pure wisdom, have any insights regarding money and banking, debt and taxes that might help us know what is right and wrong in this situation? It sure does, here is a taste of these insights:
Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15) does apply to the situation where the government takes from one taxpayer and gives it to benefit someone else, such as private bankers, and is condemned as stealing and wrong.

Thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow (Deut 28:12) is a promised blessing to people and nations who obey God. The Federal Reserve System has been creating money as debt since 1914, when congress transferred the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof to the FRS (US Constitution, Article 1:8). North Dakota also stopped using constitutional (biblical) money when it left Article 1:10, “No state shall.. make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts. As a result of not obeying God (or the Constitution) in our monetary policy, we now have a group of independent international bankers manipulating the value of our money using “confidence” rather than real tangible value. When the bankers print 10% more money, inflation goes up by 10%. Real inflation is now at 12% and aimed toward 16% in 9 months based on the M3 money supply. Inflation is a hidden tax and is stealing our economic liberty.

This is an abomination to the Lord according to Proverbs 11:1 which states that A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. The price for a pound of chicken would only vary according to the market forces, not the unjust devaluing of our currency in the Biblically and Constitutionally sound money system that we once had.

Forced taxation at a rate more than voluntary giving to God (i.e.,tithe of 10%, Malachi 3:8) finances the government to usurp the role of God and the church in areas such as helping those in need. Using tax money to bail out international banks means there will be less money for charitable giving, as well as less capital to grow businesses.

Reading the timeless wisdom of the Bible in light of current affairs can both help find the root of our finanical problems and point to a solution, even if those solutions can only be implemented slowly and incrementally. At least we can know what is right and wrong as we watch the present financial circus!

I Smell a Rat - Documentary Video on the US Constitution

PRE-RELEASE SALE – Save 15%! "I Smell a Rat – An anti-Federalist Interpretation of American History". Challenges Christian Constitution Thesis.

This long-awaited documentary on the anti-Federalist/Bible Covenant interpretation of United States history and Constitution is only about a month away from release. This documentary is a bombshell. Produced by a team of Evangelical Christians, it seeks to demonstrate that historical revisionism is a more serious problem among Christian authors than among secularists.

Readers of most contemporary authors on American Christian history are in for a shock. The video challenges almost everything they've been taught about the meaning of American history. The documentary takes issue with the “baptized Federalism” which is common to many, if not most of today’s “Christian America” authors. Too often strong Christians have allowed their patriotism to cloud their biblical discernment on this vital issue.

Approximately 35 minutes in run time, this DVD challenges the prevailing opinion among Christians that the U.S. Constitution represents the epitome of biblical civil government. It explores why Patrick Henry and other strong Christians of the founding era opposed ratification of the Constitution so vigorously. The legendary Patrick Henry argued almost single-handedly against ratification for 23 days in the Virginia Ratifying Convention. Many of his prophetic warnings have transpired: an imperial Supreme Court, two levels of oppressive taxation, a bloody civil war.

Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is expensive. Ignorance is deadly.

And now another anti-Federalist prediction fulfilled – Muslims in the U.S. Congress and maybe our next President. Discover why Patrick Henry explained his rejection of James Madison's invitation to the Constitutional Convention with the pithy retort, "I smelt a rat." What was the rat that Patrick Henry "smelt"? Get the truth now -- don't let them pull the wool over your eyes one more minute! Includes interviews with radio personality Larry Pratt, author Dr. George Grant, Author Dennis Woods, and Dr Bartlett of the ND Home School Association and Biblical Concourse.

Order before December 10th and save 15% off the $17.50 retail price -- only $14.85 with free shipping. Mail check or money order to the Biblical Concourse, 1854 107th St NE, Bottineau, ND 58318. Makes a great Christmas gift and or home school/college reference.

FREE BONUS DVD: The book Discipling the Nations – The Government Upon His Shoulder analyzes the theme of the Ismellarat documentary in great detail. Dr. George Grant has stated that, “Dennis Woods has done us all a great service by writing this balanced, comprehensive, easy-to-understand, and intensely practical handbook to the subject of civil government from a Christian perspective.”

Purchase a copy of the Ismellarat documentary ($14.85) and Discipling the Nations for $19.20 (reduced 20%) and you'll get a second copy of the DVD absolutely free!

A Minority View Walter Williams Colleges' intellectual thuggery

A Minority View Walter Williams Colleges' intellectual thuggery

By Walter Williams, Ph.D. [a black professor]


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58176

Wednesday, October 17,

The average taxpayer and parents who foot the bill know little about the rot on many college campuses. "Indoctrinate U" is a recently released documentary, written and directed by Evan Coyne Maloney, that captures the tip of a disgusting iceberg. The trailer for "Indoctrinate U" can be seen online.

"Indoctrinate U" starts out with an interview of professor David Clemens, at Monterey Peninsula College, who reads an administrative directive regarding new course proposals: "Include a description of how course topics are treated to develop a knowledge and understanding of race, class, and gender issues." Clemens is fighting the directive, which applies not just to sociology classes but math, physics, ornamental horticulture and other classes whose subject material has nothing to do with race, class and gender issues.

Professor Noel Ignatiev, of the Massachusetts School of Art, explains that his concern is to do away with whiteness. Why? "Because whiteness is a form of racial oppression." Ignatiev adds, "There cannot be a white race without the phenomenon of white supremacy." What's blackness? According to Ignatiev, "Blackness is an identity that can be plausibly argued to arise out of a resistance to oppression." Bucknell professor Geoff Schneider agrees, saying, "A lot of our students, I think, are unconsciously racist." Both Ignatiev and Schneider are white.

(Column continues below)

The College of William & Mary and Tufts and Brown universities established racially segregated student orientations. At some universities, students are provided with racially segregated housing, and at others they are treated to racially separate graduation ceremonies.

Under the ruse of ending harassment, a number of universities have established speech codes. Bowdoin College has banned jokes and stories "experienced by others as harassing." Brown University has banned "verbal behavior" that "produces feelings of impotence, anger or disenfranchisement" whether "unintentional or intentional." University of Connecticut has outlawed "inappropriately directed laughter." Colby College has banned any speech that could lead to a loss of self-esteem. "Suggestive looks" are banned at Bryn Mawr College and "unwelcomed flirtations" at Haverford College. Fortunately for students, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, has waged a successful war against such speech codes.

Central Connecticut State College set up a panel to discuss slavery reparations. All seven speakers, invited by the school, supported the idea. Professor Jay Bergman questioned the lack of diversity on the panel. In response, two members of the African Studies department published a letter criticizing Bergman, saying, "The protests against reparations stand on the same platform that produced apartheid, Hitler and the KKK." Such a response, as professor Bergman says, is nothing less than intellectual thuggery.

For universities such as Columbia and Yale, military recruiters are unwelcome, but they welcome terrorists such as Columbia University's invitation to Col. Moammar Gadhafi and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yale admitted former Taliban spokesman Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi as a student, despite his fourth-grade education and high school equivalency degree.

On other campuses, such as Lehigh, Central Michigan, Arizona, Holy Cross and California Berkeley universities, administrators banned students, staff and faculty from showing signs of patriotism after the 9/11 attacks. On some campuses, display of the American flag was banned; the Pledge of Allegiance and singing patriotic songs were banned out of fear of possibly offending foreign students.

Several university officials refused to be interviewed for the documentary. They wanted to keep their campus policies under wraps, not only from reporters but parents as well. When college admissions officials make their recruitment visits, they don't tell parents that their children will learn "whiteness is a form of racial oppression," or that they sponsor racially segregated orientations, dorms and graduation ceremonies. Parents and prospective students are kept in the dark.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has published "Choosing the Right College," to which I've written the introduction. The guide provides a wealth of information to help parents and students choose the right college.

Mortimer Adler - A Transformational Marxist

Mortimer Adler is known by many as the author of "How to Read a Book" (1940) which he coauthored with Charles Van Doren. It is considered the classic guide to intelligent reading. I have read the book recently and was recommending it as helpful preparation for home based college studies. My reasons, and the reasons other Biblical minded people recommend this book is based on its practical ideas for getting the most information and learning out of a book. "How to Read a Book" also includes a list of the classic works considered the foundation of western civilizations, which is helpful to the Christian toward understanding our times.

Last Friday, Dean Gotcher (AuthorityResearch.com) and his wife Karen were having supper at our home when I mention this as a book that I found helpful. Dean then pointed out that Mortimer Alder is a Transformational Marxist, which I later learned is a "slow march through the institutions" as a strategy for changing the world, popularized by Marxist Antonio Gramsi.

Dean also pointed out that Mortimer Adler founded the Aspen Institute

According to the Apen Institute website: Paepcke created what is now the Aspen Institute. He was a trustee of the University of Chicago, and his participation in its Great Books seminar, led by philosopher Mortimer Adler, inspired the Institute's Executive Seminar. The seminar is a forum based on the writings of great thinkers of the past and present. Through reading and discussing selections from the works of classic and modern writers, leaders better understand the human challenges facing the organizations and communities they serve. "The Executive Seminar was not intended to make a corporate treasurer a more skilled corporate treasurer," said Paepcke, "but to help a leader gain access to his or her own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and more self-fulfilling."

Understanding the history of western civilization does give people the tools to help transform society, toward their preferred worldview. Mortimer Adler apparently viewed having a Great Books understanding of western civilization as important for slowly implementing Marxism. Many Christians today see some of that same historical body of knowledge as valuable for Biblically discerning the times clearly enough to implement Biblical truths where errors have dominated.

I therefore see a need for someone, perhaps a home school or home college student interested in writing and worldview issues, to analyze "How to Read a Book" to discover and list any of its Marxist features and redeem the value of the book by taking its thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.

Here is the entire book free online: How to Read a Book

Regarding the Tension between Home Schoolers and Public Schoolers

Home schooled parents and children sometimes feel a tension or unspoken resentment when in the presence of public schooled parents or children. If words were put to the thoughts occurring, the public schooled parents and children think: “You poor home schoolers just don’t know what you are missing with all the academic and social opportunities that are free at the local school! Your children are going to be social misfits and not be able to get good jobs. Who are you to think you can provide a real education when you haven’t even been to teacher’s college? You say you want freedom to teach your children, so you must be hiding something evil, because I’ve heard about child abuse and besides there is no other reason you could have for wanting such freedom.”

On the other hand, home schoolers may think with regard to their public school counterparts: “I am better than you because home schoolers do better on achievement tests. My son is smarter than your son and my school choice is better than your choice because my son is graduating from high school and starting college at age 16. We are also better than you because we are spending more time with our family.”

If you are familiar with 2 Corinthians 10:12, then you can see the root of the problem already.

For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. 2 Corinthians 10:12

Both sides with the above thoughts are guilty of the sin of comparison. The Bible does direct parents to home educate and all the statistics demonstrate the good fruit of home schooling in the areas of academic performance, and social behavior as well as success in college and careers. This success confirms the value of the underlying Biblical truths and the constitutional liberty understood by the founders of our country. However, this knowledge when coupled with comparisons and pride is destructive to individuals, families, churches and society, as evidenced in this tension and unspoken resentment between home schoolers and public schoolers.

Knowledge that is not thought, spoken, and presented through the Holy Spirit, in a loving context with the beauty of personal testimony (as gold in settings of silver) defaults to prideful comparisons and results in strife.

We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. 1 Corinthians 8:1

By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom. Proverbs 13:10

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Proverbs 25:11

If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. 1 Peter 4:11a

With pride revealed as a cause of the tension between public schoolers and home schoolers, then the first step toward resolving this tension becomes personal repentance and humility before God. The truth is that one’s educational choice does not make one person better than another. In fact, the truth is that we are equal in God’s eyes and have nothing to boast about except our infirmities and Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The philosophies operating in the government school system are satanic at the root and destroying our country, which is an expected curse on a nation which has forsaken God. This has happened repeatedly in history as illustrated in 1 Kings and 2 Kings. It is the responsibility of Christians to understand our times, speak this truth in love, expect persecution if living godly, make disciples to Christ, and pray for Christians to awake to righteousness, which will necessitate home or Christian schools and an exodus from the public schools.

Home schoolers don’t need to compromise their convictions, they simply need to let Christ live through them, mind their own business and watch God answer their prayers. There will always be a tension and unspoken resentment between God and Satan as well as those following them and their agendas. As Dean Gotcher (AuthorityResearch.com) pointed out, the natural desire for peace between people with conflicting positions is understood by social engineers and is being deliberately used as a technique to lead Christians to compromise.

There will be true peace only when all people are in Christ. In the meantime, we have a secret to personal peace in the midst of the cultural conflict. That secret is to simply reckon our selves dead to the sin of comparison or other evil thoughts. The tension between home schoolers and public schoolers in the churches or the legislatures won’t bother any such “dead” homeschoolers as they teach and live the truth in love and allow their light to shine.

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:11

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16