Cornyn's RUSHED, UNVETTED, Process Poisons Gun Debate

"Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me."
Nehemiah 4:18

The spending bill Congress passed this week is awful for any number of reasons, but one particular act of perfidy from John Cornyn stands out: Nobody had a chance to read the legislative language on the gun part.

We've written previously about how, whatever the merits (or lack thereof) of any legislative proposal, our general lack of trust in John Cornyn meant we also didn't trust him on this topic.  This is why.  When someone who has repeatedly demonstrated their lack of trustworthiness makes a policy change of this magnitude with this much secrecy, you have no choice but to assume the worst.

It's a shame.

Nobody objects to keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals.  Natural Law 101 dictates that the only time it's ok to infringe upon an individual's rights is when they are a threat to other people.  But doing so requires a narrowly-tailored mechanism that focuses on dangerous individuals.  It also requires an effective mechanism.  Unfortunately, government at every level has failed to do this in the past, and we have no reason to believe they will do better in the future.  Only a fool would give more power to the same government that has repeatedly failed.  That's how "keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals" morphs into "disarming innocent civilians."

To actually keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals, you need very precise legislative language.  You need a team of lawyers to vet that language for unintended consequences.  You also need very significant reforms to various bureaucracies at various levels of government.  Then, you need an open and transparent process to present the proposal to the public.  None of that happened.  Instead, you had a last-minute cramdown that will lead to who knows what unintended consequences.  And we have John Cornyn to thank for the whole mess.

Again, it's a shame.

Bottom Line: Nobody objects to keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals.  But people rightly object to disarming innocent civilians.  Unfortunately, given both John Cornyn's record and the optics of this week's process, nobody can blame Texans for assuming the worst.

Josh Charles: On Righteous vs. Evil Money

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,But a just weight is His delight."
 Proverbs 11:1

 A fantastic (if verbose) piece from Josh Charles on the Biblical Origins of Sound Money:

The subject of money is far too vast to cover in one blog post, and certainly so when the goal is to expand on principles found both in the Bible, and the writings of the American Founders.  But this Proverb, far from teaching us about long-lost ancient methods of money counting is in fact teaching us about a fundamental principle of money in general, and one which in the 21st century world we have completely forgotten, and which doesn’t even play a role in our banking system any longer: money has an objective value, not the value one man or a small group of men arbitrarily places on it.  In other words, it has an “objective” value because the society, or the market, have agreed on a set value for a set denomination of coin.  In the early days of the United States, this was accomplished by defining a “dollar” as a set amount of gold or silver, an amount that did not change, and which, if altered, could legally result in the death penalty.  So objective money has a value that is the same today as yesterday, and tomorrow it will be the same as today.  “But God never said an ounce of gold was worth a certain amount of money?”  You are correct, but He did say that the concept of money is something which, when put in the “scales” could be measured in truth and justice.  In other words, the God of this universe has said He loves honest money, and money can only be honest when its value is known, accepted, and not secretly altered for private gain.  Honest money, at the end of the day, is inseparable from honest labor, honest business, and an honest society.

So in the ancient days, what would people do with this money and the scales used to measure it to make them “false”?  Well, many things, but for our purposes, I will highlight the two most important ones.  First, the person having his coins weighed could do what is called “coin-clipping,” by which he would clip just a small portion of the coins off (meant to be imperceptible to the one weighing the coins), and then take all the clippings, melt them down, and have “more” of the precious metal.  In other words, it would be like someone hopping on their computer, and printing more dollar bills without anyone ever knowing.  The officials of the Roman Empire famously did this in order to “add” to the treasury of Rome (although the people eventually caught on to their schemes, and the economic results were disastrous).  While it no longer matters (because our coins are no longer made of precious metals as they used to be), you will notice a series of ridges on the edge of our coins.  These ridges were put in place to avoid coin-clipping, so that if the coin was clipped, it would be immediately obvious.  Second, the person who had the scale could alter it in such a way as to make the supposed weight of the coins in question less than they in fact were, thus increasing the amount of coins that the person needed to give him (to enrich himself, or the government on behalf of whom he was collecting the coins).  Is any of this beginning to sound familiar?

....

This turn of events is not only a lie, but it is a spit in the face of justice, for more than any other, it deprives by ever encroaching degrees, and with ever increasing ferocity, the working man and woman’s ability to earn an honest and secure living for their families.  Those who have the least recourse for their financial woes are those who are most at the mercy of such a corrupt system.  We as Christians need to know what God’s Word says on this subject, and we as Americans need to know what our Founders said about it as well.

 Read the whole thing here.

Peter Schiff DEMOLISHES Larry Kudlow

With all due respect Larry Kudlow, you probably shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning:



Highlights:

• Ben Bernanke is not Paul Volcker and President Obama is no Ronald Reagan
• Personal Note: That's the understatement of the year!
• Everything they've done since 2008 has made the situation worse.
• This decline in Gold is a buying opportunity.

• The money printing will continue and the inflation is there; anyone who shops knows that.

• Who cares what the government says in their doctored numbers?!? 

• For the record: This David Goldman character is a moron.

• With all due respect to Larry Kudlow, none of this stuff has materialized...YET!!!

Revised Priorities for the 83rd Texas Legislature

Back in February, Cahnman's Musings published this list of big ticket items for the 83rd Texas Legislature; heading into the final six weeks of the session, these are our revised priorities:

1. Gold, gold, gold - Rep. Giovanni Capriglione has proposed building a depository to store Gold bullion.  Governor Perry supports this effort.  Repatriating our own gold, and creating a safe haven for others' gold, will enable Texas to withstand the coming global economic [REDACTED]storm.  In a world where bank deposits are being confiscated, safety has value.  Accomplishing this task will allow us to live to fight another day.
   
2. School Choice - K-12 education is 40% of state spending.  Keeping long-term education spending under control is essential to keep the budget under control.  Putting the money in the hands of parents instead of educrats will also help pre-empt future CSCOPE's.
   
3. Medicaid - Medicaid expansion is economic suicide; just say no.
   
4. Transparency/Pensions - As we said in February: "Local government debt in Texas is $324 billion.  Pension obligations are a big chunk of that debt.  The interrelated issues of local debt and pension obligations are a time bomb the legislature should defuse before it becomes a crisis."
   
5. Texas Budget Compact - This is Rick Perry's baby.  To our knowledge, he isn't doing bupkus to get it passed.  Cahnman's Musings was an early supporter of the Texas Budget Compact, but if Rick Perry isn't going to do squat to pass his signature initiative, why should we?!?

There's still time to pass every item on this list.  These are structural reforms that will strengthen Texas' economy for the next generation.  If the 83rd Texas legislature delivers on these five items, Cahnman's Musings can live with a lot of other crap.

Kevin Freeman: You can run but you can't hide (except maybe in Texas)

Cahnman's Musings has been familiar with Kevin Freeman since we read his book Secret Weapon last year.  Thus, it heartens us to hear Freeman speak approvingly of Rep. Giovanni Capriglione's effort to establish a gold bullion depository in the state of Texas. Freeman writes:

The most asked question after people grasp that we are in a global economic war is “What do I do with my money?” Now, it is a pretty astounding revelation to understand that the next global war, or more precisely the one we are in now, is not fought with tanks and planes. It is fought with money and computers. It is not a cyber war as so many have thought. It is an economic war and cyber is simply one of the many battlefields.

It wasn’t a cyber attack that doomed Cypriot depositors to lose 10%, 30%, or 80% of their deposits over 100,000 Euro (or however it ends up). No, it was bank failures and the pressures of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the European Union. These were terms “handed down.” No computer needed in this case.

Of course, there is a massive cyber battle underway. In fact, just last week may have been the largest attack in history. Here at home, JP Morgan Chase depositors logged on to their accounts recently only to see zero balances across the board. We have been told that this wasn’t hacking but rather a computer glitch. but, it could have been hacking and that is the point.

Once someone realizes that this is a global economic war they understand that their bank accounts, life savings, stock holdings, and even currency could come under attack. The immediate response is to ask how to protect your money. Unfortunately, there is no “one size fits all” answer. The reality is that no single approach can work.

....

The reality is that gold has been confiscated in the past and could be confiscated in the future.  If the IMF can raid Cyprus-held bank accounts, do you believe gold bars in your home would be immune?


It is interesting to note that the state of Texas may ask for their gold to be held in the state. A new bill sponsored by Giovanni Capriglione and supported by Governor Rick Perry may pave the way for one place to possibly hide. If successful, this bill opens some interesting possibilities as mentioned by Jim Rickards, best-selling author of Currency Wars. [Rickards has been featured extensively warning of the risks of a dollar collapse. He led a war game effort in the Pentagon that showed how Russia and China could destroy our currency.]

It makes us breathe just a little easier knowing that Kevin Freeman favors these efforts.

Update: Apparently, Kevin Freeman helped craft this plan.

Texas State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione on Repatriating Texas' Gold

Texas State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione stopped by GB's radio show to discuss his efforts to establish a Gold bullion depository in the State of Texas:


Highlights:

• Bullion depository in the state of Texas; Perry supports it.

• The law will be passed by May and go into effect on 9/1.

• After the law is passed, the State will determine the location.

• Disconnecting Texas' banking system from the nightmare that is coming.

• Texas' electric grid is independent of the rest of the country.