Was Newtown Really a Movie Set?
My son sent me a You tube video yesterday (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx9GxXYKx_8&feature=youtube_gdata_player) which portrayed the school in Newtown, CT as a movie set, alleging that the entire shootings there were all fabricated. He wanted my opinion about it. Here is what I told him:
I don’t have a difficult time believing stuff like this. Fast and Furious failed and everyone knows what the government tried to do with that: to make the public cry out for gun control. If this doesn’t succeed, watch for more and pray we are never a victim.
How Close is a Cashless Society?
RFID chip pulled from new credit card (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As my habit is I pay cash for everything that is not business related and use a credit card for everything that is. My wife does the same. It makes our annual accounting a lot simpler. I go through a lot of Ben Franklin’s and at the end of the day give most of the smaller denominations to my wife. The older I get the less I see anyone else using cash for their transactions.
During my service in the United States Armed Forces from ’67-71 I was stationed in Bayonne, N.J. Whenever a bunch of us took Liberty (time off) we would usually go to Times Square or Greenwich Village. I can remember sitting on the can in a public restroom at the Port Authority reading a torn page from a magazine on the floor which had the Chase Manhattan logo on it. The article was about “The Cashless Society.”
The only thing close to credit card that I had access to then was my father’s telephone credit card number which I would use to call my mother from the Philippines or somewhere in the Mediterranean. (Who would have ever thought that someday I would work for a Merchant Services company processing credit cards!) In 1966, the ancestor of Mastercard was born when a group of banks established Master Charge; it received a significant boost when Citibank merged its proprietary Everything Card (launched in 1967) into Master Charge in 1969. Soon after this thousands of credit cards were mailed to people thought to be of good credit. The blanket mailing of these cards was ended in 1970 after 100 million had been sent out.
There used to be lines at the grocery store for “Cash Only,” but not anymore. It seems that as time went on fewer and fewer people carried any cash. Now, when I pull out my $100 bills I feel like a Dinosaur! The cashier looks at it, holds it up to the light, draws a line on it with a pen with special ink in it and eventually gives me the change. I use to be welcomed in the cash only line yet now am suspect in the regular lines.
Years back when the housing bubble first burst, we thought it would be a good idea to have some cash on hand. When we went to the bank to withdraw a large amount of money we were told that we would have to make an appointment at least a week in advance to make such a withdrawal. We were amazed at the scrutiny were were put through to process the transaction. They wanted to know why and what the intended purpose was. We even had to sign waivers releasing the bank from any liability when we walked out the door with it. I almost felt like a bank robber. Ha!
Someday the need for cash will become completely obsolete. Things that don’t get used are generally replaced by things that are used. How easy would it be in this day and age to be arrested as a suspected counterfeiter in your grocery or department store line? Very few people are using cash and counterfeiters are some of them. During the process of withdrawing money from one bank and putting it back in another a counterfeit $100 bill was discovered. And of course I was once again suspect. Cash used to be King as the saying goes but soon anyone who has it and tries to use it in a commercial application could find themselves in a bind.
Soon, no one will be able to buy or sell anything with cash. Sound far-fetched? Consider this: “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Rv 13:17 The mark, charagma, is something engraved, stamped or etched (in or on your body; most likely your hand or a fingertip.) Rv 13:16. This word is akin to grapho, from which the English word graphic comes. Basically this mark could be imprinted, encoded on your right fingertip. How convenient would that be?! You would never need a wallet again; never have to fumble through your purse again looking for your Visa ’cause they won’t accept American Express! What a relief it will be.
Receiving the mark of the beast is going to be subtle and most people are going to be standing in line to get it. It is going to be the newest, most technologically advanced payment and identification system in the world. People will be lined up around the block at the Apple Store and eventually Best Buy. It won’t be called “the mark of the beast,” that’s for sure. Most people will love the False Prophet who precedes the Antichrist by 3.5 years. Neither of them will be known by these names. The former will be known by the signs, miracles and wonders they perform.
See more in Chapter XI of my new book, pages 119-29, at http://www.fredswolfe.com
May God bless you and keep you.
A Clear Choice between the Left and the Right.
A gold-standard 1928 one-dollar bill. It is identified as a “United States Note” rather than a Federal Reserve note and by the words “Will Pay to the Bearer on Demand,” which do not appear on today’s currency. This clause became obsolete in 1933 but remained on new notes for 30 years thereafter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
America is in the deepest hole it has ever been in “debt-wise.” For every dollar our government spends (invests), about 50% is borrowed from China. Invests is the word our current administration uses instead of spending. When I recently bought a boat, I knew it was not a monetary investment in my future. When I published my new book I thought it might be an investment, but have learned that it will cost me as much as the boat, each of which will return little if any of my money. Americans know the difference between money spent down the drain and money invested. The government doesn’t seem to know the difference.
Without getting into the exact numbers of how indebted our nation is, especially to China, there is little we can do to turn the tide. There is little either candidate in this election can do to change things. This election is a clear choice between the Left and the Right. The Left wants more government and more spending while the Right wants just the opposite. The Left, represented by the current administration, will get our nation to its demise sooner than Governor Romney. At least with Gov. Romney we will feel like we have a fighting chance to stave off financial Armageddon.
China is the world’s number one superpower and the United States of America is responsible for the shift. China has 600,000 more active duty personnel in their military than the U.S. China owns more of our debt than all the debt of all the European nations combined. We all knows what happens when we, personally, don’t pay our bills, our mortgages, our rents; we lose our right to have electricity, or to have a place to live. Can you imagine what it would be like if we each had a secret source of money than would seemingly never run dry? Well, (npi) this is exactly what our government has: a Printing Press that can print money it doesn’t have.
I don’t know about you, but if I could use someone else’s money to pay my bills I would feel pretty guilty doing so and I would come to expect that to continue. The Federal Reserve, who seem to act completely independent of our government, makes most people believe that they are acting in our best interest. All they are doing is digging the hole we are in deeper and deeper.
In Larry Edelson’s blog “Uncommon Wisdom,” which I have been following for years, he states that the only way we can get out of the mess we are in is by the establishing of a new World Reserve Currency. Right now, the U.S. Dollar is the world Reserve Currency; every commodity in the world is priced in U.S. dollars. As the value of those dollars fall the price of those commodities rises. There are many factors that are affecting the value of the dollar to keep it bouyant or artificially higher than where it should be. Many countries like China and Russia are pushing to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
The primary reason our government is pushing China to quit holding down the value of its currency, the Yuan, is not so our manufactured products, our exports will have a fighting chance to compete with China’s, but to devalue the dollar so our debts can be paid off (to China) with cheaper money. To help you understand this, let’s say we devalue $100 by 30%. We would now have $130, but that $130 would still only buy $100 worth of anything. This is what we are now experiencing at the grocery store and at the gas station.
Workers in China get paid an average of 6.5 times less than workers here in the U.S. China could double or even triple the value of the Yuan and still make its products cheaper than we could here! We still would not be able to compete with them. A good way see the value of the dollar as measured against a basket of major currencies is with the ETF symbol UUP. It is currently sitting at $21.93 a share and has seen a 52 week high of $23.10 on July 24th. It hit a low of $21.64 on Sept. 14th. On the other hand, the value of the Yuan as tracked by the symbol CYB is at its 20 year high! The yuan has risen 0.4% against the dollar since the start of 2012, following its 0.3% gain last week.
I hold out little hope for America returning to its once proud position in the world. But, if it has any chance at all of regaining that position it is with Gov. Romney at the helm for the next 8 years. Regardless of our financial condition, there is more godliness in its peoples than anywhere else on earth. No other nation exalts the One True God Of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the United States of America does. Keeping God first and loving our neighbors as ourselves in our individual lives as well as in our government, will go further to preserve and protect “this greatest nation on God’s green earth” (as Michael Medved says) than “all the tea in China!”
God bless you and God bless America!
Related articles
- Ron Paul: How Long Will the Dollar Remain the World’s Reserve Currency? (margotswebnews.wordpress.com)
- Why The U.S. Dollar’s Reign As World Reserve Currency Is Ending (etfdailynews.com)
- China To Challenge US Dollar Reserve Currency Status (blacklistednews.com)
DEMOCRACY……….NEVER
English: Portrait of American political scientist John Burgess (1844–1931). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
James Madison, Hamilton’s major collaborator, later President of the United States and “Father of the Constitution” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
DEMOCRACY…..NEVER
Democracy is not a form of government to be desired by anyone. In a Democracy authority is derived through mass meeting, the initiative, the referendum, instructed delegates or any other form of direct popular expression. Democracy represents one of the two extremes among types of governing; Autocracy being the other extreme. Aristotle was the first establish these 2 extremes.
In an Autocracy authority is derived through heredity, regardless of character, capacity or conduct. Rulers are chosen by virtue of their membership in a “royal” family. The populace has no choice in their selection.
The George Bush’s were the first I can remember who promoted making the “world safe with Democracy.” This is an impossible task since “safety” and “democracy” have nothing to do with each other. In “The Federalist,” James Madison wrote:
“Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their professions, their opinions and their passions.”
In contrast, in a Republic, authority is derived through the election of public officials by the people to represent them. The keyword for republicanism is representation. The Republican form of government was established as The Golden Mean or the way that is golden. Confucius wrote about the mean; Horace gave expression to the phrase “aurea mediocritas.”
The mean that is golden is that middle point in any quality, state or activity which avoids the dangers or errors of either extreme by the striking of a well balanced medium.
Article 4, section 4 of The Federal Constitution says, “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a Republican form of government….”
On Sept. 18, 1803 Alexander Hamilton wrote to Pickering saying, “The plan of a constitution which I drew up………..was predicated upon these bases:
1. That the political principles of the people of this country would endure nothing but republican government.
2……….that the republican theory should have full and fair trial.
John W. Burgess believed “it was not utopian to predict that the republican form will live after all other forms have perished.” And “it seemed evident to him that the destiny of history is clearly pointing to the United States as the great world organ for the modern solution of the problem of government as well as of liberty.”
To illustrate these 3 Forms of government
AUTOCRACY REPUBLIC DEMOCRACY
in food: Starvation Nourishment Gluttony
In drink: Thirst Temperance Drunkenness
In music: Monotone Harmony Discord
In thought: Ignorance Intelligence Insanity
In Soil: Drought Moisture Flood
In Marriage:Polygamy Monogamy Promiscuity
In Religion:Skepticism Reverence Fanaticism
One of the main differences is representation by a relatively small elected number and self-representation; Limited representation vs. mob representation.
Democracy results in demagogism, license, impulse, agitation, discontent, anarchy and chaos. Do these characteristics sound like things that will make “the world safe?” It is impossible to make anything safe with democracy. Democracy produces Chaos and chaos is exactly what is being experienced throughout the Muslim world today. It should be obvious to anyone with half a brain that this form of government is not something any nation should desire. Making the world safe for Democracy is equal to:
- making alcohol safe for drunkenness,
- making food safe for gluttony,
- making justice safe for lawlessness.
Democracy and the rule of Law are opposites; you either have one or the other, but you can’t have both. The Rule of Law belongs to the Republican form of government:
“The attitude democracy towards Law is that the will of the majority shall prevail, regardless of whether it is based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences.” The attitude of democracy to the minority, is “too bad, so sad, I’m glad.”
The ignorance (ignoring the true meaning of words) of so many well-educated people in our society never ceases to amaze me. Once words lose their true meaning our downward spiral is inevitable. Words Matter.
Much of what I am relating today was taken from a book written by Harry Atwood in 1918 called “Back to the Republic.” The 10th edition was printed in 1934. It was out of print for 25 yrs, then the 11th edition was printed and called, “Our Republic.”
Related articles
- Keep America From Becoming a Democracy (lewrockwell.com)
Home of the Rightly Divided Word 