Free Republic

Long live PhotoShop and Adobe Illustrator!Let's take a look at some of the Obama funny money now showing up online.From Enter Stage Right:From Conor's Fundraising Blog:From Uptown Flavor:From the People's Cube (may be ordered from the People's Cube, an excellent satirical website):And this one from Light of Liberty seems especially appropriate given that the Obama administration and congressional Democrats conspired to repeal the Clinton era welfare reforms by burying repeal language deep in the February stimulus legislation:But this one which substitutes the ACORN logo for the seal of the U.S. Treasury as posted at the Berman Post is my favorite so far:It...

There is a cleverly constructed sentence in the AP report about the 2009 budget deficit being $89 billion higher than expected, which will raise the projected annual deficit to $1.8 trillion, or nearly four times as much as the previous record. Here’s how AP explained it: “The unprecedented red ink flows from the deep recession, the Wall Street bailout, the cost of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill, as well as a structural imbalance between what the government spends and what it takes in (emphasis added).” In sports journalism, such a sentence is called covering for the home team, which...

I am an amateur economist. But, one doesn't need years of schooling to be a better "economist" than Ben Bernanke. One merely needs to take the blinders off and release common sense. A broad background in law, economics and history helps, but it is not absolutely necessary. Economics is the study of human nature as it applies to money. So, it is precisely those who are narrowly educated, like some professional economists who don't study enough history, take an intensely academic viewpoint on things, and who don't understand fundamental human nature, who get things wrong. A narrowness of outlook and...

"The fed is planning moves that would more than double its balance-sheet assets by September to $4.5 trillion from $1.9 trillion. Whether expressing approval or concern over the fed’s move, most commentators fail to understand the real magnitude of the projected expansion of the US monetary base because they don’t take into account the amount of dollars circulating abroad......................The fed’s planned balance sheet expansion results in a 15-fold increase in the base money supply. 262 Billion = US monetary base as of September 2008 (minus dollars held abroad) 3,818 Billion = projected US monetary base in September 2009 (minus dollars...

I have a theory that nations are like individuals. Those whose leaders are smart, strong and lucky prosper, and those whose leaders are stupid, weak and unlucky suffer or perish. That's why it matters which leaders we choose. There are relatively few people in the United States who actually have the power to make important decisions. The Constitution, for example, vests 100 percent of the power of the federal government in only 537 individuals — one president, one vice president, 435 members of the House and 100 members of the Senate. Everybody else in the entire federal government operates on...

1. Will the collapse be an absolute failure of the dollar and the U.S. economy, or will the dollar retain some value? 2. Regardless of the answer to the last question, will some other form of currency compete with, or even replace the dollar completely? 3. What am I doing to prepare for the events I predict? Am I shorting the dollar, or is there a better way to capitalize on the move?

Doing the kind of investigative reporting we should expect from the major media, a financial research and consulting firm has released a major analysis of the “credit crisis” that concludes that the claims made by Treasury Department Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to justify a socialist takeover of the financial industry were demonstrably false. The analysis, Flawed Assumptions about the Credit Crisis: A Critical Examination of US Policymakers, concludes that the result of the unjustified massive federal intervention in the economy could be similar to the economic crisis in the Weimar Republic of 1922, where disastrous...

The proposed Trans Texas Corridor did not find any fans, or any support, in Fort Bend County this week. At public meetings hosted by the Texas Department of Transportation in both Katy and Rosenberg, speaker after speaker, many in emotional tones, voiced their opposition to the proposed transportation corridor. No one spoke up in support of the proposal at either meeting. The Tuesday night session took place at Katy High School’s Performing Arts Center with over 200 residents in attendance. The evening before at the Rosenberg Civic and Convention Center, a similar crowd showed up to voice their opinions. In...

I've been doing a bit more study and research on the magnificent altar painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Younger, that graces the chancel of the St. Peter and Paul Church in Weimar, Germany. I've found several helpful resources on the Internet for using this painting to proclaim the Gospel and explain the distinctives of the Lutheran Reformation and its continuing importance for the church. First, I'll show the painting, then I'll post an excellent article on this "Painting That Preaches Christ" and finally I'll offer a German web site that goes into greater detail on the painting.A Painting...

ON SEPTEMBER 18, THE Germans will go to the polls. The extraordinary elections are being held a year before the end of the Bundestag's regular four-year legislative term, thanks to an elaborate and, to many Germans, distasteful charade. That price would be well worth paying if it produced a government with the will and mandate for much-needed political and economic reforms. Germany "confronts monumental tasks," President Horst Köhler observed in a televised address on the need for fresh elections. "Millions of people are unemployed, many for years. Federal and state budgets are in an unprecedented, critical condition. The existing federal...

The phrase “Weimar Russia” first appeared about 13 years ago, at the height of the confrontation between then President Boris Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet that ended when Yeltsin’s tanks shelled the parliament. The meaning was clear to all: Weimar Russia, like Weimar Germany, signified a weak republic attacked from within by nationalists yearning to restore authoritarian ways.In the late 1990’s and the early years of this decade, the problems that incited fears of a dysfunctional state seemed to fade. But over the past 18 months, the specter of Weimar has once again begun to haunt Russia.If taken to extremes,...

Europe is in big trouble. It’s economies are stagnant – jobs aren’t being created, and today the unemployment rate in Germany is higher than it was on the day Adolf Hitler took power. The continent’s demographics are catastrophic. The birth rates are so far below replacement that in 30 years there will be more than 70 million fewer Europeans alive than are alive today. And with the exception of Great Britain, Europe no longer has the military power to defend itself. And when Europe is in trouble, it gets very, very nasty. Anti-Semitism is always the canary in the mine,...

I have been arranging my extensive CD collection which lead me to play some of those long forgotten CD. This afternoon it was Mendelssohn "Reformation" Symphony. This might not be the best symphony of this rather underrated composer. The 5th popularity has suffered from being a "heftier" work, more intellectual, less crafted and vital than the "Italian". As if trying to encompass the reformation movement in music were possible. Still, the last movement opening is one of the most stirring moments of the repertoire, and a powerful musical image of the liberation of the spirit, no matter what religious connotation...

Accusations of a mismanaged economy piling up against Chancellor Gerhard Schroder were compounded last week by an official admission that the figures for the number of people unemployed in Germany - four million, itself a post-war record - were at least half a million short of their true figure. The federal labour office in Nuremberg disclosed that an average of 500,000 German unemployed took part in state-subsidised retraining programmes each year, but although they were without a job, they were not counted in the official tally of four million unemployed, 9.4 per cent of the population eligible for work. "It...