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Monday, May 17, 2010

1 gram gold bars


http://bullion.nwtmint.com/gold_grambars.php

Vienna Philharmonic Coin


The Vienna Philharmonic coin[3] is struck in pure gold, 999.9 fine (24 karats). It is issued every year, in four different face values, sizes and weights. It is used as an investment product (bullion coin), although it inevitably ends up in private collections. According to the World Gold Council, it was the best-selling gold coin worldwide in 1992, 1995 and 1996.[3]

A design of musical instruments representing the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the text Wiener Philharmoniker ("Vienna Philharmonic"), can be seen on the reverse of the coin.

The subject of the obverse is the great organ in the Golden Hall in Vienna's Musikverein, the concert hall of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The face value in euros, the weight, alloy purity and year of issue are also inscribed on this side of the coin.

Since 1 February 2008, the coin has also been minted in silver. The design of the silver coin is identical to that of the gold coin, except for its face value of 1.50 euro.



Silver Vienna Philharmonic bullion coins are available from Monex in units of 100 one-ounce coins, for personal delivery only. (About $2,000 USD)

100 ounce silver bars

Sunday, May 16, 2010

William J. Bernstein

William J. Bernstein is an American financial theorist. He is known for his research in the field of modern portfolio theory and for his self-help finance books for individual investors who wish to manage their own equity portfolios.[1] He lives in North Bend, Oregon.
[edit] Biography

Bernstein is a proponent of the equity or index allocation school of thought, believing that all equity selection strategies should be focused on allocating between asset classes, rather than selecting individual stocks and bonds, or from the timing of their sales. Bernstein's first book, The Intelligent Asset Allocator, makes this case in detail; his second book, The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio (McGraw-Hill, 2002; ISBN 0071385290), is aimed for those less comfortable with statistical thought. It also puts asset-class returns into long-term historical perspective.

Bernstein is a proponent of modern portfolio theory, which stands in stark contrast to the view that skilled managers can succeed in picking particular investments that will outperform the market, whether through market timing, momentum investing, or finding assets whose future value have been underestimated by the market. He argues that the financial research literature shows that most return is determined by the asset allocation of the portfolio rather than by asset selection.

Bernstein's third book, The Birth of Plenty, is a history of the world's standard of living; it proposes four conditions that have historically been necessary for it to rise. His fourth book, A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World, published in April 2008 by Grove Atlantic, is a history of trade.

Bernstein holds a PhD in chemistry and an MD; he practiced neurology until retiring from the field.

Jim Rogers

* 1995: Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers. - ISBN 1-55850-529-6
* 2003: Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip. - ISBN 0375509127
* 2004: Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market. - ISBN 140006337X
* 2007: A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market. - ISBN 1400066166
* 2009: A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons For Life And Investing. - ISBN 1400067545

The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Second Edition

The ABCs of Gold Investing: How to Protect and Build Your Wealth with Gold

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Niall Ferguson




http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/category/video/

Philip Dru: Administrator

Monday, May 10, 2010

Neapolitan pizza (pizza napoletana)

Neapolitan pizza (pizza napoletana): Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are made with local ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius, and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, made with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio in a semi-wild state (this mozzarella is protected with its own European protected designation of origin).[3] According to the rules proposed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of Italian wheat flour (type 0 or 00, or a mixture of both), natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water. For proper results, strong flour with high protein content (as used for bread-making rather than cakes) must be used. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other machine, and may be no more than 3 mm (⅛ in) thick. The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire.[4] When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant. There are three official variants: pizza marinara, which is made with tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil (although most Neapolitan pizzerias also add basil to the marinara), pizza Margherita, made with tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil and extra-virgin olive oil, and pizza Margherita extra made with tomato, mozzarella from Campania in fillets, basil and extra virgin olive oil.
The pizza napoletana is a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (Specialità Tradizionale Garantita, STG) product in Europe.[5][6]

Info for future job applications

Last 3 jobs (in America)


September 2009 - Present - Unemployed
July 2007 - August 2009 - Taught English in Thailand and China



1.) Oaks Christian High School - Emergency Substitute Teacher
Karen Coyle Dean of Students
31749 La Tienda Dr.
Westlake Village, CA 91362
(818) 575 9900
Feb. – June 2007



2.) 2K Games – QA Technician
Greg MacCauley Lead Tester
4373 Park Terrace Drive
Westlake Village, CA 91361-4631
(213) 707-7063
August 2006 – January 2007


2003 - July 2006 - Taught English in China
2001 - 2003 - Attended College in TN



3.) Best Records - Cashier
Albert Coscia Owner/Manager
1725 Moore St,
Simi Valley, CA 93065
(805) 526-7180
Feb. 1999 – 2001

JAMES DOOLEY

Wikipedia Article about Jiao Zi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiaozi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_sauce

I need to find a place that sells Soy Vinegar Dipping Sauce or a good recipe on-line.

Sichuan Chile Sauce for Jiao Zi

Here is a classic chile sauce from one of the hottest regions--foodwise--in China. It can be used in stir-fry dishes, added to soups, or sprinkled over rice.
Ingredients:

* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
* 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
* 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
* 6 fresh red chiles, such as jalapeños, deseeded and finely chopped
* 1/4 cup Chinese red rice vinegar
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
* 2 tablespoons Chinese yellow rice wine
* 2 teaspoons salt
* Water as needed

Preparation:
Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan, add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the onion and stir-fry for another minute.

Add the chiles and the vinegar and simmer for 10 minutes, adding water if it gets too dry.

Add the remaining ingredients except the water and simmer for 5 more minutes.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Transfer the mixture to a food processor or blender and process to a fine puree, adding water as necessary to achieve the desired consistency.

Place the sauce in bottles and refrigerate.

Yield: About 1 1/4 cups

Calzone Recipe

CALZONE DOUGH:
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast - regular or fast acting
- 1/2 tablespoon honey
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon olive oil - to brush on dough

FILLING:
- 1/2 cup marinara sauce - purchased or home made
- 12 slices pepperoni - more if desired
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese - shredded
Serving Description: 1 calzone
Servings: 3 (Original Servings: 6)
Enter desired servings: Change Servings
Container: baking sheet, large skillet, large bowl
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

CALZONE DOUGH:

* Place water in a large bowl.
* Sprinkle yeast on top and whisk in the honey until everything is dissolved.
* Use a whisk to stir in the salt and flour.
* When too thick to mix with the whisk, mix with floured hands.
* Knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes.
* Shape into a smooth ball and place back in the bowl.
* Brush with a little olive oil and cover the bowl with a towel.
* Set the bowl in a warm place for 1-2 hours so the dough can rise.
* The dough should double in size.
* You can make the filling for these while the dough rises.
* The dough may be made in advance and refrigerated or frozen until ready to use.
* Allow it to come to room temperature before using and knead a few times to warm it up.
* Punch down the risen dough.
* Divide it into 6 equal portions.
* Roll out the dough one at a time on a floured surface into a 6-8 inch circle.

FILLING:

* Preheat oven to 450° F and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray
* Spoon a couple teaspoonfuls of marinara sauce on half of the circle of dough, leaving 1/2 inch rim around the edge of the dough.
* Place four pepperoni slices on top of the marinara. Can use more if you like.
* Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
* Moisten the outside rim of the dough with water using your finger or a small pastry brush.
* Fold the dough over the top of the filling and crimp the edges. This will make a half moon shape.
* Go around the edges with the tines of a fork to seal.
* Prick the top of the calzone with a fork to let the steam escape while baking.
* Arrange assembled calzones on the baking sheet and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until they are golden brown.
* Brush the tops with butter or oil during the last five minutes of baking.
* Serve warm.

铁板牛肉



I need to look up the Chinese word for 'recipe'

Not only am I craving Chinese food but also Italian (CALZONES) and PITA SANDWICHES !!

In the United States, calzone are typically made from pizza dough and stuffed with cheese (usually mozzarella cheese and ricotta, but some varieties contain Parmesan, Provolone (or a locally substituted cheese), ham or salami, vegetables, or a variety of other stuffings. It is typically served with marinara sauce on the side for dipping, or topped with garlic and parsley infused olive oil. The dough is folded over, sealed on one edge, salted, then baked in an oven.

铁板土豆片 - I need the recipe !




I am really craving Hunan food....I like Hubei food too but not quite as much as Hunan food....

Khao Phat Kai Recipe # 2

INGREDIENTS :

Left over rice, at room temperature 1 1/2 cup
Vegetable oil 1/2 cup
Egg 1 whole
Spring onions, chopped 6
Fish sauce 2 - 3 tbsp.
Ground white pepper 1 tbsp.
(1 servings)

preparation

1. Heat oil in a wok or saute pan. While the oil is heating, beat the egg in a bowl.

2. Add the beaten eggs to the hot oil and scramble to a soft scramble stage by stirring constantly.

3. Add cold (left over) rice to the wok or saute pan and stirfry to heat up the rice and spread the scrambled egg evenly over the rice.

4. Once the rice is hot, add chopped spring onions. Toss and season with fish sauce and pepper. Serve this fried rice with sliced cucumber and spring onions. This dish usually accompanies other main dishes which are eaten Thai style.

Another Passage from TRAGEDY AND HOPE

Financial Capitalists Focus Entirely on Wealth

As we have said, the stage of financial capitalism did not place emphasis on the exchange of
goods or the production of goods as the earlier stages of commercial capitalism and industrial
capitalism had done. In fact, financial capitalism had little interest in goods at all, but was
concerned entirely with claims on wealth—stocks, bonds, mortgages, insurance, deposits, proxies, interest rates, and such.

Financial Capitalists Discover New Ways to Make Money Out of Nothing

It invested capital not because it desired to increase the output of goods or services but because it desired to float issues (frequently excess issues) of securities on this productive basis. It built railroads in order to sell securities, not in order to transport goods; it constructed great steel corporations to sell securities, not in order to make steel, and so on. But, incidentally, it greatly increased the transport of goods, the output of steel, and the production of other goods. By the middle of the stage of financial capitalism, however, the organization of financial capitalism had evolved to a highly sophisticated level of security promotion and speculation which did not require any productive investment as a basis. Corporations were built upon corporations in the form of holding companies, so that securities were issued in huge quantities, bringing profitable fees and commissions to financial capitalists without any increase in economic production whatever. Indeed, these financial capitalists discovered that they could not only make killings out of the issuing of such securities, they could also make killings out of the bankruptcy of such corporations, through the fees and commissions of reorganization. A very pleasant cycle of flotation, bankruptcy, flotation, bankruptcy began to be practiced by these financial capitalists. The more excessive the flotation, the greater the profits, and the more imminent the bankruptcy. The more frequent the bankruptcy, the greater the profits of reorganization and the sooner the opportunity of another excessive flotation with its accompanying profits. This excessive stage reached its highest peak only in the United States. In Europe it was achieved only in isolated cases.

Finance Capitalism Opened the Way for Centralization of World Economic Control in the Hands of the International Banking Fraternity

The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and a use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups. This concentration of power, however, could be achieved only by using methods which planted the seeds which grew into monopoly capitalism. Financial control could be exercised only imperfectly through credit control and interlocking directorates. In order to strengthen such control, some measure of stock ownership was necessary. But stock ownership was dangerous to banks because their funds consisted more of deposits (that is, short-term obligations) than of capital (or long-term obligations). This meant that banks which sought economic control through stock ownership were putting short-term obligations into long-term holdings. This was safe only so long as these latter could be liquidated rapidly at a price high enough to pay short-term obligations as they presented themselves. But these holdings of securities were bound to become frozen because both the economic and the financial systems were deflationary. The economic system was deflationary because power production and modern technology gave a great increase in the supply of real wealth. This meant that in the long run the control by banks was doomed by the progress of technology. The financial system was also deflationary because of the bankers' insistence on the gold standard, with all that this implies.

The Money Power Creates an Ingenious Plan to Create and Control Giant Monopolies

To escape from this dilemma, the financial capitalists acted upon two fronts. On the business
side, they sought to sever control from ownership of securities, believing they could hold the former and relinquish the latter. On the industrial side, they sought to advance monopoly and restrict production, thus keeping prices up and their security holdings liquid.

The efforts of financiers to separate ownership from control were aided by the great capital
demands of modern industry. Such demands for capital made necessary the corporation form of
business organization. This inevitably brings together the capital owned by a large number of persons to create an enterprise controlled by a small number of persons. The financiers did all they could to make the former number as large as possible and the latter number as small as possible. The former was achieved by stock splitting, issuing securities of low par value, and by highpressure security salesmanship. The latter was achieved by plural-voting stock, nonvoting stock, pyramiding of holding companies, election of directors by cooptation, and similar techniques. The result of this was that larger and larger aggregates of wealth fell into the control of smaller and smaller groups of men.

Phat Thai (Stir Fried Noodles) ผัดไทย

1 pack rice sticks
½ cup dried shrimp (or 1 cup fresh shrimp, if one likes)
½ cup finely cut hard tofu (⅛ by ⅛ by ½ inch)
½ cup ground peanut
1 cup bean sprout
½ cup Chinese chives (cut about 1" in length) Could be substituted by green onion)
1 pound of cut white chicken meat (only half if fresh shrimp is also used)
6 eggs
2 teaspoon of pepper powder
½ cup fish sauce
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup cooking oil
2 tablespoon smashed garlic
2 tablespoon smashed onion

Soak the rice sticks in warm (room-temperature) water for about 15 minutes. Cut it into about 3" in length. Drain and leave it on the drainer.

Heat the wok. Add the oil. Add garlic, onion, and tofu. Stir them well for a minute or two. Add the dried shrimps. Stir. Add peanut. Stir. Add fish sauce and soy sauce. Stir. Add sugar. Stir. Add pepper. Stir. Add the chicken (and/or the fresh shrimps). Stir. Add eggs. Stir. Add some water (about ½ cup). Stir. Add the soaked noodle (rice sticks). Stir.... stir...and stir...or the noodle may get burnt. Add some water if necessary. Stir. Taste if it tastes right. Add fish sauce, soy sauce or sugar if needed. Otherwise, add bean sprout and the chives...stir...Put the wok out of the heat. Serve it with siding vegetable (e.g. cabage, fresh beansprout). The batch should feed at least ten eaters (of medium hungry!). Encourage them to add anything to their tastes (peanut, sugar, lime juice, pepper).

Note:
The right taste should be a combination of saltiness, sweetness, and hotness. The whole cooking should not take more than 12 minutes.

Khao Phat Kai (Chicken Fried Rice) ข้าวผัดไก่

Khao Phat Kai (Chicken Fried Rice) ข้าวผัดไก่

Recipe from: Jun
Servings: 6 to 8

1 pound boned skinned chicken breast
½ pound (2 cups) yellow onions, sliced
1 bunch green onions
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons finely grated garlic
¼ cup nam pla (fish sauce)
¼ cup granulated sugar
6 to 8 eggs
8 cups steamed rice, chilled or at room temperature
1 cucumber, sliced diagonally ⅛" thick
6 green onions
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
fresh chiles, as many as give you the heat you want, sliced into rings
Phrik Manao

Slice the chicken across the grain into strips ⅛ inch thick and 1 to 2 inches long. Peel the yellow onion, remove the stem and slice vertically into thin strips. Set aside separately. Slice the green onion diagonally into ⅛ inch pieces and set aside.

Heat a wok, add and swirl the oil, add the garlic and stir-fry until lightly golden. Add the chicken and chiles and stir-fry until the pink color disappears. Add the yellow onion and stir-fry until the slices are translucent. Add the nam pla and sugar and mix them in thoroughly. Stir while you add the eggs, one at a time, breaking the yolks. Continue stirring 'til the eggs begin to set. Add the rice and stir until the eggs are almost dry and the mixture is well combined. Remove the mixture from the heat and add the green onions, mixing them in well.

Transfer to a warm serving platter. Arrange sliced cucumbers, green onions and tomato wedges over the rice in a decorative pattern. Serve immediately with Phrik Manao on the side.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Awesometown - FOX Cut

Jizz In My Pants

Murray Rothbard

Commercial banks—that is, fractional reserve banks—create money out of thin air.

Essentially they do it in the same way as counterfeiters. Counterfeiters, too, create money out of thin air by printing something masquerading as money or as a warehouse receipt for money. In this way, they fraudulently extract resources
from the public, from the people who have genuinely earned their money. In the same way, fractional reserve banks counterfeit warehouse receipts for money, which then circulate as equivalent to money among the public. There is one exception to the equivalence: The law fails to treat the receipts as counterfeit.

– Murray Rothbard

Susumu Hirasawa - Vistoron

Tekkonkinkreet - NEW TRAILER!

First Squad Trailer English Subtitles (Sept 2009)

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Fifth Passage from 1984

Winston turned around abruptly. He had set his features into the expression of quiet optimism which it was advisable to wear when facing the telescreen. He crossed the room into the tiny kitchen. By leaving the Ministry at this time of day he had sacrificed his lunch in the canteen, and he was aware that there was no food in the kitchen except a hunk of dark-colored bread which had got to be saved for tomorrow's breakfast. He took down from the shelf a bottle of colorless liquid with a plain white label marked VICTORY GIN. It gave off a sickly, oily smell, as of Chinese rice-spirit. Winston poured out nearly a teacupful, nerved himself for a shock, and gulped it down like a dose of medicine.

Instantly his face turned scarlet and the water ran out of his eyes. The stuff was like nitric acid, and moreover, in swallowing it one had the sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club.

The next moment, however, the burning in his belly died down and the world began to look more cheerful.

Fourth Set of Passages from 1984

"Sometimes, indeed, you could put yout finger on a definite lie. It was not true, for example, as was claimed in the Party history books, that the party had invented airplanes." (Page 36)


"The process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound tracks, cartoons, photographs -- to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance....All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary". (Pages 39 - 40)


"There were occassions when Big Brother devoted his Order for the Day to commemorating some humble, rank-and-file Party member whose life and death he held up as an example worthy to be followed. Today he should commemorate Comrade Ogilvy, It was true that there was no such person as Comrade Ogilvy, but a few lines of print and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring him into existence....Big Brother added a few remakrs on the purity and singlemindedness of Comrade Ogily's life. He was a total abstainer and a nonsmoker, and he had taken a vow of celibacy, belivieving marriage and the care of a family to be incomaptible with a twenty-four-hour-a-day devotion to duty." (Pages 46 - 47)

Third Set of Passages from 1984

"The aim of the Party was not merely to prevent men and women from forming loyalties which it might not be able to control. Its real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy, inside marriage as well as outside it....The only recognized purpose of marriage was to beget children for the service of the Party. Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema.....There were even organizations such as the Junior Anti-Sex League which advocated complete celibacy for both sexes."

(Page 65)

"The Party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort it and dirty it. He did not know why this was so, but it seemed natural that it should be so. And so far as the women were concerned, the Party's effors were largely successful." (Page 66)

Second Set of Passages from 1984

"...she had without exception the most stupid, vulgar, empty mind that he had ever encountered. She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it to her. "The human sound track" he nicknamed her in his own mind." (Page 66)


"The women of the Party were all alike. Chastity was as deeply ingrained in them as Party loyalty. By careful early conditioning by games and cold water, by the rubbish that was dinned into them at school and in the Spies and Youth League, by lectures, parades, songs, slogans, and the martial music, the natural feeling had been driven out of them."
(Pages 67-8)


"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after the have rebelled they cannot become conscious." (Page 70)


"The ideal set up by the Party was something huge, terrible, and glittering -- a world of steel and concrete, of monstrous machines and terrifying weapons -- a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting -- three hundred million people all with the same face. The reality was decaying, dingy cities, where underfed people shuffled to an fro in leaky shoes, in patched-up nineteenth-century houses that smelt always of cabbages and bad lavatories." (Page 74)

Excerpts from "The Open Society and its Enemies Volume 1" - Karl Popper

"The choice of conformity with 'nature' as a supreme standard leads ultimately to consequences which few will be prepared to face, it does not lead to a more natural form of civilization, but to beastliness."

- The Open Society and its Enemies page 72

"Totalitarianism is not simply amoral. It is the morality of the closed society - of the group, or of the tribe; it is not individual selfishness, but it is collective selfishness."

- p. 114 - 115

"A certain amount of state control in education...is necessary, if the young are to be protected from a neglect which would make them unable to defend their freedom, and the state should see that all educational facilities are available to everybody. But too much state control in educational matters is a fatal danger to freedom, since it must lead to indoctrination."

- p. 117 - 118

"...those who are not sufficiently educated, and thus not wise enough to know their deficiencies, are just those who are in the greatest need of education. Readinessto learn in itself proves the possession of wisdo, in fact all wisdom claimed by Socrates for himself; for he who is ready to learn knows how little he knows. The uneducated seems thus to be in need of an authority to wake him up, since he cannot be expected to be self-critical."

- p. 137

"The true teacher can prove himself only be exhibiting that self-criticism which the uneducated lacks."

- p. 138

"...the secret of intellectual excellence is the spirit of criticism; it is the intellectual independence."

- p. 143

"...many things have been realized which have once been dogmatically declared to be unrealizable..."

- p. 171

1984 Passage

"A Party member is expected to have no private emotions and no respites from enthusiasm. He is supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors, triumph over victories and self-abasement before the power and wisdom of the Party. The discontents produced by his bare, unsatisfying life are are deliberately turned outwards and dissipated...and the speculations which might possibly induce a skeptical or rebellious attitude are killed in advance by his early acquired inner discipline, which can be taught even to young children, is called, in Newspeak, crimestop. Crimestop means the faculty of of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimi al to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity. But stupidity is not enough. On the contrary, orthodoxy in the full sense demands a control over one's own mental processes as complete as that of a contortionist over his body. Oceanic society rests ultimately on the belief that Big Brother is omnipotent and that the Party is infallible."

1984
George Orwell
Signet Classic Edition
Pages 211 - 212

The Paradox of Tolerance

"Unlimited Tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

...for it may easily turn out that they (the intolerant) are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal."

Karl Popper

VOID

"Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite - there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living void because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all beings."

BRUCE LEE

Edward Said and Karl Popper

"There is always a measure of the purely arbitrary in the way the distinctions between things are seen. And with these distinctions go values whose history, if one could unearth it completely, would probably show the same measure of arbitrariness. This is evident enough in the case of fashion. Why do wigs, lace collars, and high buckled shoes appear, then disappear over a period of decades? Some of the answer has to do with utility and some with the inherent beauty of the fashion. But if we agree that all things in history, like history itself, are made by men, then we will appreciate how possible it is for many objects or places or times to be assigned roles and given meanings that acquire objective validity only after the assignments are made. This is especially true of relatively uncommon things, like foreigners, mutants, or "abnormal" behavior.

It is perfectly possible to argue that some distinctive objects are made by the mind, and that these objects, while appearing to exist objectively, have only a fictional reality. A group of people living on a few acres of land will set up boundaries between their land and its immediate suroundings and the territory beyond, which they call "the labd of the barbarians". In other words, this universal practice of designating in one's mind a familiar space which is "ours" and an unfamilir space beyond "ours" which is theirs is a way of making geographical distinctions that can be entirely arbitrary. I use the word "arbitrary" here because imaginative geography of the "our land-barbarian land" variety does not require that the barbarians acknowledge the distinction. It is enough for "us" to set up these boundaries in our own minds; "they" become "they" accordingly, and both their territory and their mentality are designated as different from "ours". To a certain extent modern and primitive societies seem to thus derive a sense of their identities negatively.......The geographic boundaries accompany the social, ethnic, and cultural ones in expected ways. Yet often the sense in which someone feels himself to be not-foreign is based on a very unrigorous idea of what is "out there," beyond one's own territory. All kinds of suppositions, associations, and fictions appear to crowd the unfamiliar space outside one's own."

Edward Said


"...there are no natural boundaries to a state. The boundaries of a state change, and can be defined only by applying the principle of a status quo; and since every status quo must refer to an arbitrarily chosen date, the determination of the boundaries of a state is purely conventional.

The attempt to find some 'natural' boundaries for states, and accordingly, to look upon the state as a 'natural' unit leads to the principle of the national state and to the romantic fictions of nationalism, racialism and tribalism. But this principle is not 'natural', and the idea that there exist natural units like nations, or linguistic or racial groups, is entirely fictitious. Here, if anywhere, we should learn from history; for since the dawn of history, men have been continually mixed, unified, broken up, and mixed again; and this cannot be undone, even if it were desirable."

Karl Popper

Large gold mining companies

Barrick Gold, Goldcorp, AngloGold Ashanti and Newmont Mining Corporation are the world's four largest gold mining companies.


http://www.newmont.com/

Lord Acton Quotes

And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.

Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the table of eternity.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality.

Socialism means slavery.

The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.

Irving Fisher Book

Fisher, Irving Norton, 1961. A Bibliography of the Writings of Irving Fisher (1961). Compiled by Fisher's son; contains 2425 entries.

* Primary
o 1892. Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices.
o 1896. Appreciation and interest.
o 1906. The Nature of Capital and Income.
o 1907. The Rate of Interest.
o 1910. Introduction to Economic Science.

o 1911. The Purchasing Power of Money: Its Determination and Relation to Credit, Interest, and Crises.
o 1911. Elementary Principles of Economics.
o 1915. How to Live (with Eugene Lyon Fisk).

o 1921, The best form of index number, American Statistical Association Quarterly.
o 1922. The Making of Index Numbers.
o 1923, "The Business Cycle Largely a `Dance of the Dollar'," Journal of the American Statistical Society.
o 1926, "A statistical relation between unemployment and price changes," International Labour Review.
o 1927, "A statistical method for measuring 'marginal utility' and testing the justice of a progressive income tax" in Economic Essays Contributed in Honor of John Bates Clark .
o 1930. The Stock Market Crash and After.
o 1930. The Theory of Interest.
o 1932. Booms and Depressions available on FRASER.
o 1933, "The debt-deflation theory of great depressions," Econometrica. available on FRASER
o 1933. Stamp Scrip.
o 1935. 100% Money.
o The Works of Irving Fisher. edited by William J. Barber et al. 14 volumes London : Pickering & Chatto, 1996.

Money as Debt II Promises Unleashed (1 of 8)

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Tragedy and Hope

The Currency Dictator of Europe

This power of the Bank of England and of its governor was admitted by most qualified
observers. In January, 1924, Reginald McKenna, who had been chancellor of the Exchequer in 1915-1916, as chairman of the board of the Midland Bank told its stockholders: "I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can, and do, create money.... And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people." In that same year, Sir Drummond Fraser, vicepresident of the Institute of Bankers, stated, "The Governor of the Bank of England must be the
autocrat who dictates the terms upon which alone the Government can obtain borrowed money." On September 26, 1921, The Financial Times wrote, "Half a dozen men at the top of the Big Five Banks could upset the whole fabric of government finance by refraining from renewing Treasury Bills." Vincent Vickers, who had been a director of the bank for nine years, said, "Since 1919 the monetary policy of the Government has been the policy of the Bank of England and the policy of the Bank of England has been the policy of Mr. Montagu Norman." On November 1l, 1927, the Wall Street Journal called Mr. Norman "the currency dictator of Europe." This fact was admitted by Mr. Norman himself before the court of the bank on March 21, 1930, and before the Macmillan Committee five days later.

Montagu Norman's position may be gathered from the fact that his predecessors in the
governorship, almost a hundred of them, had served two-year terms, increased rarely, in time of crisis, to three or even four years. But Norman held the position for twenty-four years (1920-1944), during which he became the chief architect of the liquidation of Britain's global preeminence.

Norman Viewed Governments and Democracy As Threats to the Money Power

Norman was a strange man whose mental outlook was one of successfully suppressed hysteria or even paranoia. He had no use for governments and feared democracy. Both of these seemed to him to be threats to private banking, and thus to all that was proper and precious in human life. Strongwilled, tireless, and ruthless, he viewed his life as a kind of cloak-and-dagger struggle with the forces of ... [sound] money .... When he rebuilt the Bank of England, he constructed it as a fortress prepared to defend itself against any popular revolt, with the sacred gold reserves hidden in deep vaults below the level of underground waters which could be released to cover them by pressing a button on the governor's desk. For much of his life Norman rushed about the world by fast steamship, covering tens of thousands of miles each year, often traveling incognito, concealed by a black slouch hat and a long black cloak, under the assumed name of "Professor Skinner." His embarkations and debarkations onto and off the fastest ocean liners of the day, sometimes through the freight hatch, were about as unobserved as the somewhat similar passages of Greta Garbo in the same years, and were carried out in a similarly "sincere" effort at self-effacement.

Montagu Norman's Devoted Colleague in New York City


Norman had a devoted colleague in Benjamin Strong, the first governor of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York. Strong owed his career to the favor of the Morgan Bank, especially of Henry P. Davison, who made him secretary of the Bankers Trust Company of New York (in succession to Thomas W. Lamont) in 1904, used him as Morgan's agent in the banking rearrangements following the crash of 1907, and made him vice-president of the Bankers Trust (still in succession to Lamont) in 1909. He became governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York met Norman for the first time, and they at once made an agreement to work in cooperation for the financial practices they both revered.

These financial practices were explicitly stated many times in the voluminous correspondence between these two men and in many conversations they had, both in their work and at their leisure (they often spent their vacations together for weeks, usually in the south of France).

Norman and Strong Seek to Operate Central Banks Free from Any Political Control

In the 1920's, they were determined to use the financial power of Britain and of the United States to force all the major countries of the world to go on the gold standard and to operate it through central banks free from all political control, with all questions of international finance to be settled by agreements by such central banks without interference from governments.

Norman and Strong Were Mere Agents of the Powerful Bankers Who Remained Behind the Scenes and Operated in Secret

It must not be felt that these heads of the world's chief central banks were themselves substantive powers in world finance. They were not. Rather, they were the technicians and agents of the dominant investment bankers of their own countries, who had raised them up and were perfectly capable of throwing them down. The substantive financial powers of the world were in the hands of these investment bankers (also called "international" or "merchant" bankers) who remained largely behind the scenes in their own unincorporated private banks. These formed a system of international cooperation and national dominance which was more private, more powerful, and more secret than that of their agents in the central banks. This dominance of investment bankers was based on their control over the flows of credit and investment funds in their own countries and throughout the world. They could dominate the financial and industrial systems of their own countries by their influence over the flow of current funds through bank loans, the discount rate, and the re-discounting of commercial debts; they could dominate governments by their control over current government loans and the play of the international exchanges. Almost all of this power was exercised by the personal influence and prestige of men who had demonstrated their ability in the past to bring off successful financial coupe, to keep their word, to remain cool in a crisis, and to share their winning opportunities with their associates. In this system the Rothschilds had been preeminent during much of the nineteenth century, but, at the end of that century, they were being replaced by J. P. Morgan whose central office was in New York, although it was always operated as if it were in London (where it had, indeed, originated as George Peabody and Company in 1838). Old J. P. Morgan died in 1913, but was succeeded by his son of the same name (who had been trained in the London branch until 1901), while the chief decisions in the firm were increasingly made by Thomas W. Lamont after 1924. But these relationships can be described better on a national basis later. At the present stage we must follow the efforts of the
central bankers to compel the world to return to the gold standard of 1914 in the postwar conditions following 1918.

Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: Reflation and Inflation 1897-1925

The Money Power Seeks to Create a World System of Financial Control in Private Hands Able to Dominate Every Nation on Earth

In addition to these pragmatic goals, the powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank, in the hands of men like Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Charles Rist of the Bank of France, and Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank, sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.


International Bankers Seek and Make Agreements on All the Major Financial Problems of the World


In each country the power of the central bank rested largely on its control of credit and money supply. In the world as a whole the power of the central bankers rested very largely on their control of loans and of gold flows. In the ... system, these central bankers were able to mobilize resources to assist each other through the B.I.S., where payments between central banks could be made by bookkeeping adjustments between the accounts which the central banks of the world kept there.

The B.I.S. as a private institution was owned by the seven chief central banks and was operated by the heads of these, who together formed its governing board. Each of these kept a substantial deposit at the B.I.S., and periodically settled payments among themselves(and thus between the major countries of the world) by bookkeeping in order to avoid shipments of gold. They made agreements on all the major financial problems of the world, as well as on many of the economic and political problems, especially in reference to loans, payments, and the economic future of the chief areas of the globe.

The Bank for International Settlements Becomes the Mechanism for Allowing the Three Financial Centers of the World to Act As One

The B.I.S. is generally regarded as the apex of the structure of financial capitalism whose remote origins go back to the creation of the Bank of England in 1694 and the Bank of France in 1803. As a matter of fact its establishment in 1929 was rather an indication that the centralized world financial system of 1914 was in decline. It was set up rather to remedy the decline of London as the world's financial center by providing a mechanism by which a world with three chief financial centers in London, New York, and Paris could still operate as one.

The B.I.S. was a ... effort to cope with the problems arising from the growth of a number of centers. It was intended to be the world cartel of ever-growing national financial powers by assembling the nominal heads of these national financial centers.

Montagu Norman Was the Commander-in-Chief of the World System of Banking Control

The commander in chief of the world system of banking control was Montagu Norman,
Governor of the Bank of England, who was built up by the private bankers to a position where he was regarded as an oracle in all matters of government and business. In government the power of the Bank of England was a considerable restriction on political action as early as 1819 but an effort to break this power by a modification of the bank's charter in 1844 failed. In 1852,Gladstone, then chancellor of the Exchequer and later prime minister, declared, "The hinge of the whole situation was this: the government itself was not to be a substantive power in
matters of Finance, but was to leave the Money Power supreme and unquestioned."

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Anglo-American Establishment by Dr. Carroll Quigley

Preface

The Rhodes Scholarships, established by the terms of Cecil Rhodes's seventh will, are known to everyone. What is not so widely known is that Rhodes in five previous wills left his fortune to form a secret society, which was to devote itself to the preservation and expansion of the British Empire. And what does not seem to be known to anyone is that this secret society was created by Rhodes and his principal trustee, Lord Milner, and continues to exist to this day. To be sure, this secret society is not a childish thing like the Ku Klux Klan, and it does not have any secret robes, secret handclasps, or secret passwords. It does not need any of these, since its members know each other intimately. It probably has no oaths of secrecy nor any formal procedure of initiation. It does, however, exist and holds secret meetings, over which the senior member present presides. At various times since 1891, these meetings have been presided over by Rhodes, Lord Milner, Lord Selborne, Sir Patrick Duncan, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, Lord Lothian, and Lord Brand. They have been held in all the British Dominions, starting in South Africa about 1903; in various places in London, chiefly 175 Piccadilly; at various colleges at Oxford, chiefly All Souls; and at many English country houses such as Tring Park, Blickling Hall, Cliveden, and others.

This society has been known at various times as Milner's Kindergarten, as the Round Table Group, as the Rhodes crowd, as The Times crowd, as the All Souls group, and as the Cliveden set. All of these terms are unsatisfactory, for one reason or another, and I have chosen to call it the Milner Group. Those persons who have used the other terms, or heard them used, have not generally been aware that all these various terms referred to the same Group.

It is not easy for an outsider to write the history of a secret group of this kind, but, since no insider is going to do it, an outsider must attempt it. It should be done, for this Group is, as I shall show, one of the most important historical facts of the twentieth century. Indeed, the Group is of such significance that evidence of its existence is not hard to find, if one knows where to look. This evidence I have sought to point out without overly burdening this volume with footnotes and bibliographical references. While such evidences of scholarship are kept at a minimum, I believe I have given the source of every fact which I mention. Some of these facts came to me from sources which I am not permitted to name, and I have mentioned them only where I can produce documentary evidence available to everyone. Nevertheless, it would have been very difficult to write this book if I had not received a certain amount of assistance of a personal nature from persons close to the Group. For obvious reasons, I cannot reveal the names of such persons, so I have not made reference to any information derived from them unless it was information readily available from other sources.

Naturally, it is not possible for an outsider to write about a secret group without falling into errors. There are undoubtedly errors in what follows. I have tried to keep these at a minimum by keeping the interpretation at a minimum and allowing the facts to speak for themselves. This will serve as an excuse for the somewhat excessive use of quotations. I feel that there is no doubt at all about my general interpretation. I also feel that there are few misstatements of fact, except in one most difficult matter. This difficulty arises from the problem of knowing just who is and who is not a member of the Group. Since membership may not be a formal matter but based rather on frequent social association, and since the frequency of such association varies from time to time and from person to person, it is not always easy to say who is in the Group and who is not. I have tried to solve this difficulty by dividing the Group into two concentric circles: an inner core of intimate associates, who unquestionably knew that they were members of a group devoted to a common purpose; and an outer circle of a larger number, on whom the inner circle acted by personal persuasion, patronage distribution, and social pressure. It is probable that most members of the outer circle were not conscious that they were being used by a secret society. More likely they knew it, but, English fashion, felt it discreet to ask no questions. The ability of Englishmen of this class and background to leave the obvious unstated, except perhaps in obituaries, is puzzling and sometimes irritating to an outsider. In general, I have undoubtedly made mistakes in my lists of members, but the mistakes, such as they are, are to be found rather in my attribution of any particular person to the outer circle instead of the inner core, rather than in my connecting him to the Group at all. In general, I have attributed no one to the inner core for whom I do not have evidence, convincing to me, that he attended the secret meetings of the Group. As a result, several persons whom I place in the outer circle, such as Lord Halifax, should probably be placed in the inner core.

I should say a few words about my general attitude toward this subject. I approached the subject as a historian. This attitude I have kept. I have tried to describe or to analyze, not to praise or to condemn. I hope that in the book itself this attitude is maintained. Of course I have an attitude, and it would be only fair to state it here. In general, I agree with the goals and aims of the Milner Group. I feel that the British way of life and the British Commonwealth of Nations are among the great achievements of all history. I feel that the destruction of either of them would be a terrible disaster to mankind. I feel that the withdrawal of Ireland, of Burma, of India, or of Palestine from the Commonwealth is regrettable and attributable to the fact that the persons in control of these areas failed to absorb the British way of life while they were parts of the Commonwealth. I suppose, in the long view, my attitude would not be far different from that of the members of the Milner Group. But, agreeing with the Group on goals, I cannot agree with them on methods. To be sure, I realize that some of their methods were based on nothing but good intentions and high ideals—higher ideals than mine, perhaps. But their lack of perspective in critical moments, their failure to use intelligence and common sense, their tendency to fall back on standardized social reactions and verbal cliches in a crisis, their tendency to place power and influence into hands chosen by friendship rather than merit, their oblivion to the consequences of their actions, their ignorance of the point of view of persons in other countries or of persons in other classes in their own country—these things, it seems to me, have brought many of the things which they and I hold dear close to disaster. In this Group were persons like Esher, Grey, Milner, Hankey, and Zimmern, who must command the admiration and affection of all who know of them. On the other hand, in this Group were persons whose lives have been a disaster to our way of life. Unfortunately, in the long run, both in the Group and in the world, the influence of the latter kind has been stronger than the influence of the former.

This has been my personal attitude. Little of it, I hope, has penetrated to the pages which follow. I have been told that the story I relate here would be better left untold, since it would provide ammunition for the enemies of what I admire. I do not share this view. The last thing I should wish is that anything I write could be used by the Anglophobes and isolationists of the Chicago Tribune. But I feel that the truth has a right to be told, and, once told, can be an injury to no men of good will. Only by a knowledge of the errors of the past is it possible to correct the tactics of the future.

Carroll Quigley
1949

Wikipedia Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_condensation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_and_Grow_Rich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Getting_Rich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Law_of_Success

John Dewey, Woodrow Wilson, J. Keynes, B.F. Skinner

http://books.zcommunications.org/chomsky/ni/ni-contents.html (Necessary Illusions - Chomsky)

Howard Zinn

It was the potential combination of poor whites and blacks that caused the most fear among the wealthy white planters. If there had been the natural racial repugnance that some theorists have assumed, control would have been easier. But sexual attraction was powerful, across racial lines. In 1743, a grand jury in Charleston, South Carolina, denounced "The Too Common Practice of Criminal Conversation with Negro and other Slave Wenches in this Province." Mixed offspring continued to be produced by white-black sex relations throughout the colonial period, in spite of laws prohibiting interracial marriage in Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Georgia. By declaring the children illegitimate, they would keep them inside the black families, so that the white population could remain "pure" and in control.

What made Bacon's Rebellion especially fearsome for the rulers of Virginia was that black slaves and white servants joined forces. The final surrender was by "four hundred English and Negroes in Armes" at one garrison, and three hundred "freemen and African and English bondservants" in another garrison. The naval commander who subdued the four hundred wrote: "Most of them I persuaded to goe to their Homes, which accordingly they did, except about eighty Negroes and twenty English which would not deliver their Armes."

All through those early years, black and white slaves and servants ran away together, as shown both by the laws passed to stop this and the records of the courts. In 1698, South Carolina passed a "deficiency law" requiring plantation owners to have at least one white servant for every six male adult Negroes. A letter from the southern colonies in 1682 complained of "no white men to superintend our negroes, or repress an insurrection of negroes. . . ." In 1691, the House of Commons received "a petition of divers merchants, masters of ships, planters and others, trading to foreign plantations .. . setting forth, that the plantations cannot be maintained without a considerable number of white servants, as well to keep the blacks in subjection, as to bear arms in case of invasion."

A report to the English government in 1721 said that in South Carolina "black slaves have lately attempted and were very near succeeding in a new revolution ... and therefore, it may be necessary ... to propose some new law for encouraging the entertainment of more white servants in the future. The militia of this province does not consist of above 2000 men." Apparently, two thousand were not considered sufficient to meet the threat.

This fear may help explain why Parliament, in 1717, made transportation to the New World a legal punishment for crime. After that, tens of thousands of convicts could be sent to Virginia, Maryland, and other colonies. It also makes understandable why the Virginia Assembly, after Bacon's Rebellion, gave amnesty to white servants who had rebelled, but not to blacks. Negroes were forbidden to carry any arms, while whites finishing their servitude would get muskets, along with corn and cash. The distinctions of status between white and black servants became more and more clear.
In the 1720s, with fear of slave rebellion growing, white servants were allowed in Virginia to join the militia as substitutes for white freemen. At the same time, slave patrols were established in Virginia to deal with the "great dangers that may ... happen by the insurrections of negroes...." Poor white men would make up the rank and file of these patrols, and get the monetary reward.

Racism was becoming more and more practical. Edmund Morgan, on the basis of his careful study of slavery in Virginia, sees racism not as "natural" to black-white difference, but something coming out of class scorn, a realistic device for control. "If freemen with disappointed hopes should make common cause with slaves of desperate hope, the results might be worse than anything Bacon had done. The answer to the problem, obvious if unspoken and only gradually recognized, was racism, to separate dangerous free whites from dangerous black slaves by a screen of racial contempt."

Monday, May 3, 2010

Allan Bloom Quote

...the Constitution does not promise respect for blacks, whites yellows, Catholics, Protestants, or Jews. It guarantees the protection of the rights of individual human beings. This has not proved to be enough, however, to what is perhaps by now a majority of Americans. - Allan Bloom

I lost the source for this....

How does this bargaining of workers to the lowest level play out in the cities and towns of Florida and all across America? Let's say there's an influential businessman who has a grass-cutting or carpet-cleaning or fast food business or one of many other enterprises. And let's say he gets work permits for 10 migrant workers whom he lodges in a 2 bedroom house. He then goes to his 10 lower middle-class American workers, each of whom has a wife and children and small houses with mortgages, and tells his workers that they are being let go because he can pay his migrant workers a lot less because they share expenses (each would pay only $10 per month on a $100 electric bill, for instance). All it takes is for one businessman in an industry in a community to do this, and others in the same industry in the community are forced to do likewise if they are to remain competitive. This type of thing is happening all across America, and the consequences for American workers and their families are traumatic.

Are these charts "racist" ?


Saturday, May 1, 2010

Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500 to the Present

How Abolishing the Fed Would Change Everything | Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Wikipedia: 50 Cent Party / 五毛党

China is known for using internet "spin doctors", specially trained internet users who comment on blogs, public forums or wikis, to shift the debate in favor of the Communist Party and influence public opinion.[35] They are sometime called the "50-cent party" - named so because they are allegedly paid 50 Chinese cents for each comment supporting the CCP they make.[37]

An internal government document released by the BBC outlines the requirements for those employed as spin-doctors, which include having "relatively good political and professional qualities, and have a pioneering and enterprising spirit", being able to react quickly, etc.[37]

It is believed that such government-sponsored Internet commentators have now become widespread and their numbers could be in the tens of thousands;[37] Bandurski suggests the number may be up to 280,000[35] while The Guardian puts the estimate as 300,000.[38] According to The Guardian, the growth in popularity of such astroturfing owes to the ease with which web 2.0 technologies such as Twitter, Wikipedia and YouTube can be employed to sway public opinion. The BBC reports that special centres have been set up to train China's 'army of internet spin doctors'.[37]