Thread: The Jackass Whisperer

A neat video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K99LvfeW ... re=related

Words of the Past

Free up your minds to words of the past,
like winds on the sea, fill up the mast.
Sure as signs on the horizon, plots for their use,
Chambers of powers pass down their abuse.
Songs sold as praise, of men of deceit,
Liberties wane, when blood fills the streets.
Storms and rough seas are of Heaven's design,
fools and chalatans paint Leviathan benign.
Men left to shudder after slumber and sleep,
find freedoms have vanished, and widows left to weep.
O sons of Liberty, free up your minds,
their words have been twisted and sold by design.
God's wisdom and knowledge, fill up the mast,
Fathers and Mothers, and their words of the past.

Some lines from DeFoe's Jure Divino,

"Nature has left this Tincture in the Blood,
That all men would be Tyrants if they cou'd
If they forbear their Neighbors to devour,
'Tis not for want of Will but want of Power."

"By documents submitted to Congress at the present session it appears that on the 1st of January, 1832, of the twenty-eight millions of private stock in the corporation, $8,405,500 were held by foreigners, mostly of Great Britain. The amount of stock held in the nine Western and Southwestern States is $140,200, and in the the four Southern States is $5,623,100, and in the Middle and Eastern States is about $13,522,00. The profits of the bank in 1831, as shown in a statement to Congress, were about $3,455,598; of this there accrued in the nine Western States about $1,640,048; in the four Southern States about $352,507, and in the Middle and Eastern States about $1,463,041. As little stock is held in the West, it is obvious that the debt of the people in that section to the bank is principally a debt to the Eastern and foreign stockholders; that the interest they pay upon it is carried into the Eastern States and into Europe, and that it is a burden upon their industry and a drain of their currency, which no country can bear without inconvenience and occasional distress. To meet this burden and equalize the exchange operations of the bank, the amount of specie drawn from those States through its branches within the last two years, as shown by its official reports, was about $6,000,000. More than half a million of this amount does not stop in the Eastern States, but passes on to Europe the dividends of the foreign stockholders. In the principle of taxation recognized by this act the Western States find no adequate compensation for this perpetual burden on their industry and drain of their currency. The branch bank at Mobile made last year $95,140, yet under the provisions of this act the State of Alabama can raise no revenue from these profitable operations, because not a share of the stock is held by any of her citizens. Mississippi and Missouri are in the same condition in relation to the branches at Natchez and St. Louis, and such in a greater or less degree, is the condition of every Western State. The tendency of the plan of taxation which this act proposes will be to place the whole United States in the same relation to foreign countries which the Western States now bear to the Eastern. When by a tax on resident stockholders the stock of this bank is made worth 10 or 15 per cent more to foreigners than to residents, most of it will inevitably leave the country."


The above passage is a part of a veto message presented to the Senate by the President, Andrew Jackson July 10, 1832

"I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude." Thomas Jefferson

http://www.youtube.com/user/campaignfor ... b1n1X0Oqdw

A great video about inflation.

But what Madness must it be to run in Debt for these Superfluities! We are offered by the terms of this Vendue, Six Months' Credit; and that perhaps has induced some of us to attend it, because we can not spare the ready Money and hope now to be fine without it. But, ah, think what you do when you run in debt; You give to another Power over your Liberty. If you can not pay at the Time, you will be ashamed to see your Creditor; you will be in Fear when you speak to him; you will make poor, pitiful, sneaking Excuses, and by Degrees come to lose your Veracity, and sink into base downright lying; for as Poor Richard says, The second Vice is lying, the first is running in Debt. And again, to the same purpose, Lying rides upon Debt's back. Whereas a freeborn Englishman ought not be ashamed or afraid to see or speak to any Man living, But Poverty often deprives a Man of all Spirit and Virtue; 'T is hard for an empty Bag to stand upright, as Poor Richard truly says. What would you think of that Prince, or that Government, who should issue an Edict forbidding you to dress like a Gentleman, or a Gentlewoman, on Pain of Imprisonment or Servitude! Would you not say, that you are Free, have a right to dress as you please, and that such an Edict would be a Breach of your Privileges, and such a Government tyrannical! And yet you are about to put yourself under that Tyranny when you run in debt for such Dress! Your Creditor has authority at his Pleasure to deprive you of your Liberty, by confining you in Jail for Life, or to sell you for a Servant, if you should not be able to pay him! When you have got your Bargain, you may, perhaps, think little of Payment! but Creditors, Poor Richard tells us, have better memories than Debtors; and in another Place says, Creditors are a superstitious Sect, great Observers of set Days and Times. The Day comes round before you are aware, and the Demand is made before you are prepared to satisfy it. Or, if you bear your Debt in Mind, the Term which at First seemed so long will, as it lessens, appear extremely short. Time will seem to have added wings to his Heels as well his Shoulders. Those hath a short Lent, saith Poor Richard, who owe Money to be paid at Easter. Then since, as he says, the Borrower is slave to the Lender, and the Debtor is the creditor, disdain the Chain, preserve your Freedom, and maintain your Independency. Be industrious and free; be frugal and free. At present, perhaps, you may think yourself in thriving Circumstances, and that you can bear a little Extravagance without Injury; but, For Age and Want save while you may; No Morning Sun lasts a whole Day, as Poor Richard says. Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever while you live Experience is constant and certain; and, 't is easier to build two Chimneys than to keep one in fuel, as Poor Richard says. So rather go to bed supperless than rise in Debt. Get what you can, and what you get hold. 'T is the stone that will turn all your Lead into Gold, as Poor Richard says. And when you have got the Philosopher's Stone, sure you will no longer complain of the bad Times, or the Difficulty of paying Taxes. This Doctrine, my Friends, is Reason and Wisdom; but after all, do not depend to much on your own Industry, and Frugality, and Prudence, though excellent Things; for they may all be blasted without the Blessing of Heaven; and therefore, ask that Blessing humbly, and be not uncharitable to those at present seem to want it, but comfort and help them. Remember Job suffered and was afterwards prosperous. - Benjamin Franklin

Not sure what the Huffington Post is trying to pull here, but,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/721294

New design for our money?

The truth of the facts stated in these reports is not, I presume, questioned by anyone. The higher character and standing of the citizens by whom they were made prevent any doubt upon the subject. Indeed, the statements have not been denied by the president of the bank and the other directors. On the contrary, they have insisted that they were authorized to use the money of the bank in the manner stated in the two reports, and have not denied that the charges there made against the corporation are substantially true.

It must be taken, therefore, as admitted that the statements of the public directors in the reports above mentioned are correct, and they disclose the most alarming abuses on the part of the corporation and the most strenuous exertions on their part to put an end to them. They prove that enormous sums were secretly lavished in a manner and for purposes that cannot be justified, and that the whole of the immense capital of the bank has been virtually placed at the disposal of a single individual, to be used, if he thinks proper, to corrupt the press and to control the proceedings of the Government by exercising an undue influence over elections.


The above two paragraphs are part of a letter to the Senate from President Andrew Jackson March 11, 1834

The letter is a long one and has much scattered throughout it. Much of which could pass for a letter written today to the Senate.

"The 'boodlers' came down like the wolf on the fold,
And scooped in the silver, and greenbacks and gold;
From the town on the lake to the town by the sea,
They raked in the 'boodle' from A unto Z.

"The people were stupid, and silly and green,
And the 'boodlers,' the cheekiest thieves every seen;
In the street, in the office, by night and by day,
They grabbed what they wanted and took it away.

"They laughed when the newspapers gave them a blast,
And they winked in the face of the judge as he passed;
For they knew while this land should be peopled with men,
That 'boodlers' who'd boodled would boodle again.

People put them in prison, but then all the same,
Elected new boodlers to keep up the game;
From Tweed to McGarigle--who, but believes,
It's the fate of the land to be governed by thieves.

"Pickpockets and gamblers, thieves, drunkards and toughs,
Ex-convicts and sluggers, bartenders and roughs,
Forgers, fencers and liars and confidence men,
We've elected to office again and again.

"And we'll do it again; we'll let people see,
There's a chance for the thief in the land of the free;
Long live St. Barrabas! a pledge let us borrow--
To the health of good Sodom and righteous Gomorrah."

by R. J. Burdett 1870's?