Out This Week

On vacation, back next week.  See you all.

Have a Safe and Happy Memorial Day

Enjoy your time out and about, sun burning, barbequing, boating, biking, and the rest.  Don't forget, though, that this is a time to remember those who sacrificed, people like John N. Reese, Jr., born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, June 13, 1923.  John Reese might be celebrating his ninetieth birthday in a couple of weeks, except for one thing:  he died in Manila on February 19th, 1945.

His Medal of Honor citation reads:

He was engaged in the attack on the Paco Railroad Station, which was strongly defended by 300 determined enemy soldiers with machineguns and rifles, supported by several pillboxes, 3 20mm. guns, 1 37-mm. gun and heavy mortars. While making a frontal assault across an open field, his platoon was halted 100 yards from the station by intense enemy fire. On his own initiative he left the platoon, accompanied by a comrade, and continued forward to a house 60 yards from the objective. Although under constant enemy observation, the 2 men remained in this position for an hour, firing at targets of opportunity, killing more than 35 Japanese and wounding many more. Moving closer to the station and discovering a group of Japanese replacements attempting to reach pillboxes, they opened heavy fire, killed more than 40 and stopped all subsequent attempts to man the emplacements. Enemy fire became more intense as they advanced to within 20 yards of the station. From that point Pfc. Reese provided effective covering fire and courageously drew enemy fire to himself while his companion killed 7 Japanese and destroyed a 20-mm. gun and heavy machinegun with handgrenades. With their ammunition running low, the 2 men started to return to the American lines, alternately providing covering fire for each other as they withdrew. During this movement, Pfc. Reese was killed by enemy fire as he reloaded his rifle. The intrepid team, in 2½ hours of fierce fighting, killed more than 82 Japanese, completely disorganized their defense and paved the way for subsequent complete defeat of the enemy at this strong point. By his gallant determination in the face of tremendous odds, aggressive fighting spirit, and extreme heroism at the cost of his life, Pfc. Reese materially aided the advance of our troops in Manila and providing a lasting inspiration to all those with whom he served.

Remember.  Remember Pfc. Reese and thousands more who fell as well as those who lived and continued the fight. 

Offensive Offenses

I don't play golf, don't watch golf, follow golf, know anything about golf, but apparently Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods do not get along too well, and it goes way back.  So somebody made a remark to Garcia, and Garcia responded with a rather weak offer to provide fried chicken.

Woods thought this was racially insulting and offensive, and Garcia apologized.  Then in the context of sort of defending Garcia, Euro Tour CEO George O'Grady said that some of Sergio's best friends are "colored". 

When I was a kid, "colored" was a polite and acceptable reference to black people then black came in vogue, then "Afro-American" -- which is monumentally dumb -- back to black, African-American which is still stupid, and, apparently acceptable in some cases, "person of color".  So if O'Grady had said "athletes of color", would that have all right?  Is there really that much difference between "of color" and "colored"?  How about "The Color Purple"?  Is that racist?  "Colored" in South Africa refers, I think, to mixed race or non-Africans who are darker, like Indians.

First, Tiger Woods has no sense of humor and neither does any other black person offended by a joke referencing fried chicken, chitlins, watermelon, Moon Pies, etc.  It's part of southern culture.  It's not about the pigmentation of anyone's skin.  Does an Italian get offended if a host offers to make him some cannoli (cannolo is the singular) or spaghetti?  Should hillbillies sue if someone jokes about moonshine?  Grow up.

Next, I may be called a white person, a Caucasian, a redneck, a hick, a cracker, a hillbilly, honky, hoosier, or even a son of a bitch as long as -- like the Virginian said -- you smile when you say it.  Again, if black people or Indians or Muslims or any group want to get along, learn to wear your britches like the rest of us and man-up a little.

It's time this little game of control by being offended was called out for what it is.  It's a way to intimidate and gain power over others.  I do not care for it, and I ain't inclined to play.

Trayvon Martin and Fight Club

The Orlando Sentinel reports what was on Martin's phone.

Martin's mother kicked him out of the house because he was cutting classes.  My guess is that means that the mother was frustrated and cutting classes was evidence that Martin was not changing his ways. 

He was evidently growing marijuana as well as using it regularly.  He was also apparently interested in acquiring a handgun.  I'm sure he planned to submit to a background check beforehand.  He was involved in fights and had acquired a reputation in his neighborhood of being a thug:

His reputation came, he wrote, because of "Duh way I fight nd duh golds (teeth) I had last year."

All this is consistent with George Zimmerman's depiction of Martin as the aggressor who attacked him and attempted to beat him to death.  See the slideshow at the Sentinel link.

Cuomo Flogs Weiner

Breitbart's title -- Cuomo Flogs Weiner:  'Shame on Us' If We Elect Him

Will it ever end?  Will Weiner change his name to Johnson?  Will the Wiener and Son of Mario get it on like Donkey Kong? 

The Wiener wife -- who may be the first person to become pregnant via Twitter -- I remind you, is Huma Abedin, the former aide-de-camp (or aide-de-something that begins with 'c') of Hillary Clinton and has close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.  But gun-grabber Cuomo -- who wiped his butt tears with the Constitution by shamelessly exploiting murdered children --  is ashamed because the Wiener "accidentally" sent pictures of his very modest underwear bump to basically everybody with electricity. 

I am ashamed because a perfectly good country is being run into the ground by idiots. 

Assault Machetes -- UPDATED

I just don't see how this could happen in the UK where the people are civilized and don't have handguns or assault weapons.

Piers Morgan should check this out since I'm pretty sure people can only be killed by firearms. 

This is the nation that is a cornerstone of western culture, that gave half the world a shot at decency and civilization.  Britain has abandoned Christ, allowed itself to be overrun by third-world barbarians, disarmed its citizens and made self-defense of almost any kind illegal, and shut down free speech by calling criticism of thugs a hate crime.

We all know you reap what you sow, but don't forget that it takes time for the crop to come in, and you reap more than you sow -- as in, "sow the wind; reap the whirlwind".

UPDATE:

The victim was a British soldier.

It could have meat cleavers according to witnesses on the Telegraph site.   And the attackers shouted, "Allah Akbar". 

18.22 One witness, who declined to be named, tells Jasper Copping the attackers were "praying like it was a sacrifice" and "making people take videos".

Clinton State Department Supplied Arms to Al Qaeda?

Supposedly that is what a whistleblower is going to assert. 

Steve at America's Watchtower has a very readable and cogent analysis of what Simon reports.

If this turns out to be true, and if General Ham was ordered to stand down and removed from command because he was reluctant to go along with LEAVING AMERICANS TO DIE, this story might get big enough to get the attention of low-flow voters.  I still have my doubts. 

College Costs: Back to Econ 101

This Yahoo News article about college sticker shock offers a couple of explanations, as to why college costs have risen so dramatically -- 250% since 1982.  One possible explanation that the author, Liz Goodwin, offers is that colleges choosing to spend their money on administrative staff and various facilities and services has driven up the cost of an education.  The alternative theory is that because professors still need to spend a certain amount of time in face-to-face contact with student, despite all the technological advances, which costs that much more than it did in 1982.

They argue that a college’s hefty price tag isn’t actually surprising at all, given that it depends on the performance of its workforce—highly educated professors and teachers who provide a face-to-face service, not a material good.

Larger economic trends have jacked up the salaries of highly educated workers across the board in recent decades, while the cost of face-to-face services has also remained high, since technological advances do not necessarily make these services cheaper.

Feldman used the example of the cost of a haircut, which has also outpaced inflation in the past 30 years.

While technology has made factories vastly more efficient at producing goods for less money, technological advances have not been able to make the time a haircut takes shorter or replace the skilled person who has to give the haircut. College is like a haircut on steroids, since the barbers have PhDs.

Without analyzing in detail, this seems seriously flawed to me.  I interacted with professors on occasion in college, but mainly I talked to graduate student TAs.  Professors can lecture as quickly and easily to 500 students as to 50 for the same price.  Though perhaps one could argue that the professor who has 500 in the auditorium should get paid more than the professor who has only 50, somehow I don't think that is how it works.
 
I think Goodwin does hit upon some factors that influence the costs, but I also think there is an underlying and very basic concept that is missed.  Because of the easy availability of guaranteed student loans, there is much more money available to many more potential college graduates than was the case in the past.  When I went to college, it was either private funding or scholarships available to cover the costs.  Student loans and grants were around, I suppose, but I knew very few people who borrowed money to go to college.  Plus, there were many alternatives for people who where not academically-inclined.  The comment about factories quoted above is telling -- industrial production has become much less labor-intensive.  Machines and chips allow fewer people to produce more than ever before.

Tuition inflation is being driven by supply and demand.  Increasing demand for higher education requires colleges to increase the supply of personnel which increases cost.  Access to "free" money, in the form of student loans, makes potential college students out of the upper two-thirds of any graduating high school class.  If loans were based on the capacity for academic success as evidenced by (uninflated) grades and test scores, the college pool would be much smaller.  Also, if we were at all serious about higher education, we would be encouraging students to take courses and major in fields that have some potential for productivity.

I was at a high school graduation over the weekend.  The salutatorian is going to an engineering school to pursue aerospace engineering; the valedictorian is going for an MBA.  I would venture to guess that half the remaining students in that class who go to college will major in pre-law, pre-med, nursing, or education.  I'm glad the salutatorian is going to major in engineering,  but there is hardly a pressing demand for aerospace engineers.  I know for a fact we do not need any more MBAs right now, and that we should declare a moratorium on law degrees for at least the next hundred years.  Health care and education might be "noble" fields, but they are too rife with government intervention and too tied up in bureaucratic Gordian knots to be efficient or particularly productive.

Kids think they have technical skills because they can take pictures on their smart phones and post them to Fakebook.  Maybe they should be encouraged to learn to program computers -- not necessarily get a degree in computer science.  I'd like to see students in agriculture rather than agribusiness learning how to make farming less dependent on petroleum while maintaining or improving quality and quantity.  I'm all for distributed production of power and a computer-controlled lathe and 3-D printer in every workshop, thorium reactors, welders, makers, unique local products, while learning calculus and reading Plato on the internet.

What the system is really admitting is that they don't know how or don't want to educate people without the big system and the big money to feed it.  The education complex is like any overgrown, institutional officialdom.  It eventually loses sight of its purpose and simply exists to feed itself and continue to grow. 

Satire Goes the Way of Buggy Whips

Obama would really like to tell the truth.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Obama "has talked longingly of ‘going Bulworth,’ a reference to a little-remembered 1998 Warren Beatty movie about a senator who risked it all to say what he really thought."

“Probably every president says that from time to time,” the Times quoted longtime Obama adviser David Axelrod as saying. ''It's probably cathartic just to say it. But the reality is that while you want to be truthful, you want to be straightforward, you also want to be practical about whatever you're saying.'' [link embedded in original]

In other words, it would be nice to be truthful, if the truth were just more convenient and less devastating to one's agenda and political values.  It's too bad we have to lie, but, you can't handle the truth. (I can't verify that link from where I am.  I'll check it later.)

I always liked Jack Nicholson better than Warren Beatty anyway -- except for Bonnie and Clyde.  No, wait, that was because of: 

Essentially, Axelgrease and the Obamanation admit that they are not telling the truth -- which is, to most of us, lying.  This is the same NMP Obama who accused the NRA of lying about the Manchin-Toomey background check bill.  Because, of course, you can trust a guy who admits he is lying to you when he tells you someone who disagrees with him is lying. 

No one is surprised when politicians lie.  We are a little surprised when they come out and admit it.  They should not be surprised if we do not believe them.

Imagine that your spouse or a friend came to you and said, "I'd like to tell you the truth and be straightforward, but that would be impractical."

Yes, they are that stupid, but they are not as stupid as the people who voted for them. 

The Declaration of Reascendance

Go read Van's declaration here, and sign up.

The IRS is the muscle for Obamacare.  Anybody who thinks this is not a problem is not thinking clearly. 

I fully expect to hear at some point something on the order of "the system worked" because the corruption has been exposed.  This is not true.  A symptom has been recognized.  Evidence of corruption has been found, but the source of that corruption remains hidden.  Cut off the top of a weed, and it grows back.  Fire a few figureheads and the mechanism that abuses the power of taxation remains in place. 

Our byzantine tax structure itself needs to be reformed.  The IRS is something everyone dreads because it can ruin lives.  That's the kind of power that the government has.  It is way past time to take it down.  Dismantling the massive, intricately knotted system that has developed like a tumor since 1913 is going to be unpleasant. 

Another Day, Another Obama Scandal

Where do we begin?  Obama is "outraged" about the IRS.  The story is that the agency is "independent", and, besides, George Bush appointed the current director.  So -- altogether now -- IT'S BUSH'S FAULT.

If the IRS were targeting Planned Infanticide Parenthood or the Southern Poverty Law Center or the NAACP, I might take that somewhat seriously.  As it is, they are targeting groups that Obama opposes.  Just a coincidence, I'm sure, that the new policy began when Obamacare was passed, and that it was very specifically aimed at "Tea Party", patriot, and 9/12 groups.

The IRS does often investigate political speech by tax-exempt entities.  There was an investigation of the NAACP related to the 2004 election.  That's fairly standard stuff, though often applied rather unevenly.  Democrat politicians speaking in traditionally black churches generate a lot less interest than pastors of predominately white churches speaking out on candidates and issues. 

The IRS is a part of Treasury.  It is not independent, and it is a political tool.  One of the charges in Nixon's articles of impeachment was that he had had the IRS go after his enemies.  Clinton likely targeted right-wing churches and non-profits for audits and persecution, and Obama is lying when he says he didn't know about this policy.

Next we see Holder's Justice Department subpoenaed phone records of AP reporters, supposedly looking for a "leak".  This is the Justice Department that has been covering up its gunrunning for years and is now tasked with investigating the IRS abuses.  Seems to me like it would be a really good idea to get a special prosecutor to look into all these issues.  That's what would be done for a Republican president wading around in all these accusations.  

So, we have "Fast and Furious" which was an attempt to "prove" that American guns were going to Mexican drug cartels by making sure they went to the cartels where they were used to kill hundreds of Mexican citizens, an American ICE agent, and Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry.

Then there is Benghazi where the administration got involved in helping remove Gaddafi by arming and supporting Al Qaeda-linked rebels.   For weeks, Obama, Clinton, Susan Rice, and Jay Carney insisted that this "horrific video" had caused a spontaneous protest to erupt into "inexcusable" violence.  They lied and denied because of Obama's very upfront support for the "Arab Spring", and, possibly, because of arms-trafficking.  Clinton and Obama held back support while four Americans were left to die.

Next is the IRS audit scandal which Carney said the White House was informed of "several weeks ago" while Obama said he found out "Friday".

Finally, and this may be it for the week, but it's only Tuesday - we have the Justice Department doing what may be questionable investigations of Associated Press reporters and their phone records.

No one has died in those last two.  Yet. 

But remember, the IRS is going to be the "troops" for implementation of Obamacare.  Why does anybody trust the government to do anything?

Media is the Message

Regarding Benghazi, again, I don't think anybody will be impeached or even held accountable.  However, I do agree with Ben Shapiro that the media may have damaged their credibility in the long term.  Shapiro is optimistically overstating his case, but he is on the right track.  The mainstream, broadcast news outlets fell out of favor in the late '90s and early 2000s as talk radio, Fox News, and then the internet surged.  Forums and news sites, dominated early on by bright people on the right, that exposed collusion and blatant deception in the leftist government-media complex made people skeptical. 

The counterattack by the old alliance was, however, effective.  Fox News has been the object of one snipe after another and has surrendered much of its early high-ground influence.  Leftists have learned how to saturate the web with counterpoints and dominate the attention-deficit crowd on Twitter and the eternal high-schoolers on Fakebook.  Most news outlets never call the "official" statements of the big government crowd into question, because they are sympathizers.

Now the truth about Benghazi is exposing, not so much Obama or Clinton, but the left in general and its media partners in particular to new scrutiny.  The LowFlow voters and media consumers out there will not erupt in demands for network accountability or openly question why accurate and thorough reporting on such a tragic event was neglected.  But anybody who can fog a mirror will have some question, whether consciously considered or not, about the integrity of news readers.

That would be an improvement.

Kitco Spot Copper Charts

Take a look at these historic copper charts. 

I was especially intrigued by the five-year chart of warehouse stock levels and the five-year price chart. 

Current levels of warehouse stock are very, very high compared to any point over the last few years.  Prices have not followed stock too closely since 2009 -- due, primarily, I would guess to Federal Reserve money-pumping.  In fact, during late 2010 and most of 2011, copper prices were at the high point even as warehouses had an abundance of stock.

Now we see prices moderating, even threatening to plunge, while warehouses are sitting on a lot of metal.  Being no expert, I have no idea what this portends.  It just looks ominous.

Charges Considered Against "Unarmed" Teen

How awful, right?  Except this 17-year-old soccer goalie punched a referee in the head resulting in coma and death. 

I wonder why this homicide has not been in the news?  Should we outlaw goalies or fists?  I'm okay with outlawing soccer.

In a way, I feel bad for the kid.  He was wrong to strike the referee and should have been charged with battery, but I am certain he did not mean to kill Mr. Portillo.  Now, because of an outburst of uncontrolled anger, a family is grieving and a young man's life is in ruins.

In a way, it's very reminiscent of the Zimmerman case, two lives destroyed by a culture of violence.  George Zimmerman's life is being wrecked by a judicial system poisoned by politics and racism.  If Trayvon Martin had been white, Zimmerman would never have been charged.

I'm glad the prosecutor in the referee's case is being reasonable and not seriously considering a murder charge.  "Homicide by assault" -- which is will likely carry a penalty similar to manslaughter -- sounds appropriate.  One wonders what the charge would have been against Trayvon Martin had his intended victim been "unarmed". 

Mike Huckabee, Prophet?

Huckabee predicts that Obama will be removed from office over Benghazi.

I think Governor Huckabee is right about the nature of the cover-up but very, very wrong about the consequences.  If this were a Republican president, he could have started writing his resignation speech on 9/12.  As it is, Obama is a black Democrat.  He is going nowhere, and the odious Hillary Clinton is still the best bet to be elected in 2016.  The people who vote for these parasites simply do not care about things like Benghazi.  Obama and Clinton are cool, and they give them stuff.

There is no question in my mind that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty would be alive today if Clinton and Obama had made the right decision and authorized military action.  Stevens and Sean Smith might have died anyway.  The point, however, is that it was clear early on this was not a protest.  The Obama Administration and the State Department had been advised of a need for increased security.  They ignored these warnings.  They neglected to up security on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks -- a day of celebration in the Islamic Middle East.

In the wake of the loss of four American lives and a diplomatic disaster tied to Obama's support for militant Islamic groups with ties to Al Qaeda, the Administration attempted to cover up the incident by making a big deal out of a YouTube trailer.  No doubt local law enforcement was encouraged to arrest the maker of this "anti-Islamic" video, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian, for allegedly violating his probation on a check-kiting charge.

Still, even if there is testimony that counters and invalidates everything Obama and Clinton have said regarding Benghazi, about the worst thing that will happen is that they will be regarded as uncaring and incompetent.  It is highly unlikely that sufficient proof of intent, malfeasance, or dereliction of duty will come to light for any kind of impeachment or even a public demand for accountability.

To me, this is sad and sickening, but it is the real world of politics.  The media is simply the propaganda ministry of those who support ever-bigger government.  

Know Your Enemy

I don't know much about Angry White Dude.  I followed the link from Gerard.

AWD says:  Liberal whites are our enemy. Period. Everything else is a mop-up job.

I disagree.  My enemy is anyone who seeks to sustain government and certainly anyone who seeks to expand government.  This includes many, many conservatives, including Christians and social conservatives.  If one cannot understand that government is anathema to personal and individual liberty, one is at best not too bright.  At worst, such a person is evil. 

I am not an anarchist.  I understand some government is necessary, but it is much, much less than we have today.  I also know that good, moral Christian people need almost no government.  The more genuinely Christian one is, the less government one needs.  Most laws become superfluous to Christians because we are trying to please God.  Man should have no complaint about us at all.       

He goes on to say: 

We must learn to lie. We must learn to deceive. We must learn to hate. We must learn to destroy.

We must improve our finances. We must get better educated. We must relentlessly pursue power.

This comes awfully close to being -- to use a hillbilly term-of-art, bullshit.  I don't want power over anyone except myself.  I have no trouble destroying something that needs to be destroyed, whether it's a rabid skunk or a revenoor -- but I repeat myself. 

I think the system will destroy itself.  It is unsustainable.  I would suggest that a better approach would be to focus on low-level, local community-building.  The central powers have limited resources.  It looks big when it is concentrated, but if there are thousands of Concords and Lexingtons across this nation, the central forces will be overwhelmed.  Get your pastor involved.  Or, if you are a pastor, get your congregation involved.  Give up your tax-exempt status if you have to.  Pull in the VFW or the Knights of Columbus, the Lions Club or the board of aldermen or your county commissioners, and especially your county sheriff.  If we can get upstanding citizens in a community to back one another, the Feds can go pound sand in places like Boston where they seem to like being slaves. 

It is not wrong to lie to protect the innocent -- as people may have lied to the Nazis to Jews.  Nobody needs to learn to lie -- it usually comes pretty naturally.  Most of all, we don't need to encourage "our" politicians to lie in order to be elected.  People who lie for selfish gain cannot be trusted.  I don't care which side of the political spectrum they are on.  

I understand the point AWD is making, and I'm not unsympathetic.  I just think we have to be careful.  Becoming the enemy is not a particularly good tactic. 

Late to the Party

Governor Nixon stated repeatedly that no sensitive information was being given by Revenue to the federal government.  When his own department heads admitted they were providing names and data on MO CCW holders, Nixon stuck to his denial. 

As Dana Loesch explained last week, Nixon was commended by Janet Napolitano for compliance with REAL ID requirements as far back as March 2010. 

Now I don't know that REAL ID compliance violates the Missouri law against information-sharing which Nixon himself signed, but it is certainly an indication that Missouri bureaucrats were indeed sending data to that "magic database" up in Washington.  Nixon was fully aware of that and made a mockery of himself and his office by his refusal to acknowledge so much as the legitimacy of Missourians expressing concerns about this.

Nixon needs to be forced to testify under oath before a joint session of the Missouri House and Senate.  If he lies or has lied and covered up his involvement in an illegal activity, he should be impeached and removed from office, bereft of all the benefits his overly long political career has given him.  This SOB was Missouri Attorney General for years and years.  He knows the law, and he likely knows he was breaking it.  His plan is to run against Roy Blunt for the U.S. Senate when he is term-limited out of the Governor's Mansion in 2016.

We cannot allow this to happen.

The Third Day of May

Fahrenheit 451 (Photo credit: Witer)

I would post a picture of the snow falling, but it is too depressing.  It is now 3:00pm, and my thermometer is registering a balmy 32.9 degrees Fahrenheit.  One could resort to burning books to keep warm.  I think we should start with Al Gore's books.

Now I understand that the climate change advocates will say that global warming can result in more snow.  Really cold air doesn't hold much moisture.  The Antarctic is a frozen desert.  But I don't think global warming is going to make it frost in May.

The old folks had a saying, "Thunder in February; frost in May."  Things out of the ordinary happen.  Sometimes they happen -- for various reasons, several years running.  The average for 20 years is not the average for 100 years -- not usually.  Temperatures fluctuate in relation to solar activity.

Does man effect the climate?  Of course.  So do fire ants and armadillos, plankton and whales, beavers and elephants, wildfires, volcanoes, and earthquakes.  Anything, including floods and storms, that can modify a portion of the planet's surface or that exhales or inhales carbon dioxide or oxygen is naturally going to change the world.  If flora and fauna had not altered the atmosphere and conditions here on Earth, humans as we are now could never have survived and prospered.  Every living thing upon this globe is product and producer.

For an idea of what I am talking about, Stephen Bodio has a couple of recent posts on passenger pigeons  -- Passenger Pigeons #1  and the equally sensibly-named Passenger Pigeons #2.

Man or passenger pigeon -- both modified the environment by their existence and habits.  Things change.

Update:  I was joking about the book burning.

Schlichter Reveiws The Great Deformation

h/t to The Circle Bastiat

Detlev Schlichter reviews the new book by former Reagan OMB-head, David Stockman, called The Great Deformation. While I usually avoid books like this, I may have to make an exception for Stockman, who has been getting some attention with his promotion of this book via opinion pieces around the internet.  Since I almost never watch television and listen to talk-radio less and less, I don't know if he has been making the rounds of the various shows or popping up on Fox.

From Schlichter's review, it appears that Stockman demolishes several systemic falsehoods (I love "myths" too much to have it sullied here) about the free market, the Federal Reserve, the gold standard, and sound money.  Stockman documents and highlights what some of us sense and perhaps have trouble articulating.  We are not operating in a "free market" system.  The financial markets and the Federal Reserve are joined at the hip.  Since the Fed is essentially funding and enabling the growth of government, we operate under a Frankenstein-like government-corporate amalgam which really does allow the gap between rich and poor to widen while decimating the productive middle and working class.

Giving "more control" to the government is simply moving the cattle prod from the right hand to the left. 

Anyway, read the review.  If I can pick up a copy of The Great Deformation, I may post some thoughts on it here.  No promises, though, my free time is rapidly dissipating as the weather finally warms up.