Politics and Tea

Those in power- from the White House to the war fetishers at the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute , are up in arms at another “leak” by Wikileaks, saying that the leak of these documents is a breech of federal law and must be punished. Julian Assange, the effective leader of Wikileaks, is being called a “partisan left-wing terror-apologist” by typical right-wingers who think everything is a partisan fight. From all sides the fiasco is being called an irresponsible endangerment of “National Security”. “National Security” is the phrase evoked by the ruling class and those who listen to them as justification for the violation of rights in this situation and many others. The misunderstanding of this term is what I believe is standing in the way of many otherwise critical individuals from critiquing the State’s actions. When most people contemplate the term “National Security”, they imagine it to mean something along the lines of the protection of and ulti...

So I came across this recipe this morning from GreenStyleMom and was very skeptical. All previous experiments with whole grain, or even just homemade pancakes have been pretty dismal failures. Inedible, typically. But these pancakes were an amazing exception. Lucy ate 3 of them. Moses ate a couple with glee. Healthy, with vegetable and whole grain and my kids are eating them? Yes. Of course, it helps that there was syrup on top, but I'm sure next time when I top them with just applesauce, they will still get eaten. Considering we are facing a summer where, if last summer is any indication, we will have more zucchini than I could possibly know what to do with. Good thing I have a deep freezer, and of course the zucchini I used to make these pancakes was frozen shredded that is still lingering in the freezer from our abundant harvest last year. Whole Grain Zucchini Pancakes 1/2 cup rolled oats 1 tbsp of wheat germ 1 tbsp ground flax seed 1 tbsp brown sugar 1/2 cup whole wheat flour ...

100 years ago, in response to a financial crisis only a few years before, the powerful banking elite and powerful political elite met in secret in a remote location to draft a piece of legislation that would "reform" the banking industry and prevent future crises. In supreme irony, in response to a crisis actually caused by the very reforms that legislation 100 years ago implemented, we see again the powerful banking elite and the powerful political players collaborating to impart their vast wisdom on the rest of us and "prevent" future crises with a "financial reform" bill. Same players. Same scenario. Different century. But what is our excuse this time? Simply that the lessons of central banking have not yet been learned. Faced with a mountain of evidence indicting central banking itself for the current financial woes, so-called small government "conservatives" as well as the so-called anti-corporate "liberals" have decided to ignore...

Here is a letter to the editor I sent to the Commericial News and News Gazette today: One wonders what excuse the 64 members of the Illinois House of Representatives who voted against a bill for Medicaid reforms could possibly have, given several known facts. One, that getting and keeping more people on the Medicaid rolls cannot be proven to raise the overall standard of living in the state- in fact, if one knows anything about economics and human incentive they know that it does the opposite- which is to say there is a point where so called ‘safety nets’ make us all poorer and have less opportunities available because money is diverted from productive sectors of the economy that have a chance of creating a job or two and sunk into programs that create dependency and perpetuate poverty. Here in Illinois where we lose 650 jobs a day, but where 1 in 5 residents are Medicaid recipients, it is hard to imagine any other state where this is more true. Secondly, Medicaid is the #1 budget item...

Today cbsnews.com drew attention to the primary challenges that TX Rep Ron Paul is facing in this article. Much has been written recently about the fractures within the "tea party" movement and what is the true ideological split. This story clues us in on an important aspect of that divide when it describes how "Paul's challengers say he is too focused on national ambitions and that he has has not voted in support of federal aid for his district." These are supposed "tea party" people who are saying this. Obviously they don't know the first thing about limited government, and honestly, it is sickening. They like to spout rhetoric about wealth redistribution being socialism, until we are talking about the wealth being redistributed to them, in which case it is good politics. Helloooo, representing a district does not mean that it is your job to secure special funds for that district. This is an issue in Illinois as well as Paul's Texas. Local ...

When Saturday's News-Gazette detailed in this story how many Republican small town mayors have declared endorsement for Michael Frerich (State Senate 52nd District-D), it did not come as a big surprise. Patronage politics are powerful, and it is almost understandable that the leaders of these small towns would be so shortsightedly appreciative of the State perks brought back to the district by State Senator Frerichs. There have certainly been political goodies from Springfield to hand out. All those friendly handouts brought us into the worst budget deficit crisis of state history. For a good primer on pork out of Springfield, see this nifty little report by the Illinois Policy Institute. But other than looming financial collapse, what did those goodies do for us? When Danville mayor Republican Scott Eisenhauer justifies his endorsement of Frerichs by saying: “He has done extremely well for us”, he offers a clue to this mystery. Is he talking about those of “us”...