Basejumper.com - archive

US Elections:

I hate politics but Ron Paul has won me over. Anyone else?

He's the only one who makes any sense whatsoever....

http://ronpaul2008.com

Ron Paul has my vote!

Serious? I have a friend in your area that is a huge supporter of RP. He actually goes around passing info out.

I can can get you in touch with the group in Raliegh if interested... http://ronpaul.meetup.com/


I have a video you might like called

9-11 Martial Law, by alex jones... or on google

http://video.google.com/...-6495462761605341661

http://www.infowars.com/martial_law_911.htm

Alex Jones is ok with spreading his video... just don't sell it...

you all are minions. robots.

its all about Colbert

According to the "Issues" section of his website, he introduced "H.R. 1897 would end the ban on carrying a firearm in the National Park System, restoring Americans’ ability to protect themselves in potentially hazardous situations."

Perhaps we should propose that he lift the ban on Parachutes in National Parks, restoring American's ability to protect themselves from potentially hazardous (falling) situations?

Does anyone have any statistics about National Park mishaps that could've been prevented by carrying a gun vs. mishaps that could've been prevented by wearing a parachute?

Didn't you guys get it when Gore had the majority vote and Bush still attained office?
It is a selection, not an election.
Take care,
space

Ron's the only Repuke I could support, small gov't, fiscal responsibility, meetings before bombs, and all that.

But with FOX Noise calling him a pinhead he won't have a chance.

Current events are heading this country towards another revolution. The very Constitution is hanging in the balance. It's like the basement is on fire, and these morons are arguing about redecorating the living room.

And when the day comes we finally march on Washington with our weapons (the ones we have left) to take back America, it won’t be the Army that greets us, it'll be Blackwater . . .

NickD
BASE 194

the great need for a revolution aside, A revolution would be a lot of fun.

And we are going to make you "General Calvin" of the First Colorado Freedom Force.

Somehow I just think a three sided hat and a horse would complete you . . .

NickD
BASE 194

do you have the hat? I cant deal with the horse. i freaking HATE horses.

Okay, but horseless, you'll never rise above Colonel . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Begin:

Re: Battle Report To Follow:

To: Headquarters, Hollywood, California.

From: 1st of the 3rd Colorado Expeditionary Force, Col. Calvin commanding.

Intense fighting was reported in the Kansas City area as the NASCAR nation forces fell back under the onslaught mounted by Col Calvin's troops. Aided by the special All American Guerilla battalion commanded by Jaybird and his fleet of tow trucks casualties are reported as lighter than expected despite the fact Col Calvin's view of the battlefield was somewhat hampered by the fact he hates horses and he refused to climb any trees.

Col. Calvin is following directive "A" by destroying all breweries and pork rind factories found along his line of march. This tactic has been shown to throw the enemy into disarray. However, several of Col Calvin's latest dispatches have been incomprehensible . . ."

End.

NickD
Corporal Clerk, United States Freedom Forces, Fort Marylyn Monroe, "The Big Two Oh" Hollywood, CA.

anything to get rid of NASCAR. anything.

I hate politics too.

-=Raistlin

Really?

Ron Paul...

wants to outlaw abortion rights

supports the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)

KOS is a commie rag.

Paul Raises More Than $3.5M in One Day

Giggedy giggedy.

Get off your asses and vote tomorrow if your in a super tuesday state!


If you want change then something needs to be done. If you want out of a multi-generational war make your VOTE count! If you want real answers and solutions about the US's falling dollar and economy VOTE!! Wake up and do your own research instead of letting the media tell you who to vote for.......
Want to know what the candidates actually vote for instead of what they tell you they will do if elected. Past performances tell a lot....
http://www.knowbeforeyouvote.com

I agree voting is important and also agree
our dollar has declined in value, just compare
it to the Canadian dollar, which is now worth
more.

However, I DISAGREE that the US economy is
falling or failing. Sure, my Roth IRA and 401K
did not do so well this year but we should NOT
allow media dipshits to stir up the population
to the point of prompting asshole politicians
into doing something stupid... like bailing out
the fu(kin' sub-prime mortgage companies.

I am okay with freezing foreclosures or maybe
giving some assistance to borrowers who were
duped, but the companies themselves deserve
to suffer the losses.

Just as a mentor is supposed to be smarter
about BASE than his or her student, so is a
financial institution supposed to me more
knowledgable than a 1st time home buyer.

Giving any of our tax dollars to a company like
'Country Wide Loans' would be a big mistake!

http://www.countrywidehomeloansucks.com/

I politely snipped the rest of your post, as per your previous request.

Tell me, since you are an economics professor - how does a dollar drop not signify a falling a economy ?

for shits and giggles let's look at EUR to USD chart for 2 years http://finance.yahoo.com/...R&amt=1&t=2y

PS I wouldn't say our dollar DECLINED. I would say it PLUMMETED. I mean, I am ok, I just end up selling alot more for export.

Exactly. My sister also sold more engineer training this January than she had in all of 4th quarter last year. Mostly due to the fact that engineers are getting hired now because of the 'plummeting' dollar.

A weak dollar is good for exports. It is awesome that our dollar was worth less than Canada's for the christmas shopping season.. I live with some canadians at the moment and they said that caused their economy to take a hit (because so many canadians, most of which live near a border with the US, were traveling the short distance to the US to buy all their shit for a little less)

I'm not saying a weak dollar is an indicator of a thriving economy, but it isn't as bad as many people think.

That's my $.02, which is actually now only worth about $.019 canadian

The traditional tools for measuring an
economy are Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) and per capita GDP.

As for the former gets larger the pie
gets bigger, as the latter gets bigger
more people get to eat the pie.

Don't mistake my prior statements to
mean that everything is great with our
economy, it is not.

However, given rising oil costs, devastation
from Katrina, terrorist attacks, the war, the
increasing health care costs, and problems
with the housing/lending markets I think
our economy has shown real resilience.


As for the value of the dollar, I agree that
our unpopular foreign policies, ever growing
national debt, and other factors have helped
depreciate its value.

Regarding the Euro, dude come on, it is a
currency that is only 7 years old, used by
over 320 million people in 15 nations...
of course it is on an up swing.


I thought all jumper were optimists?!

If all jumpers were optimists, the injuries would skyrocket. A successful jumper is a REALIST.

fine, forget EURO to USD. How about GBP to USD ? is GBP old enough ? :)

Yes, the Sterling Pound is old enough, in
fact I was gonna buy the old girl a pint.

Yep, the dollar is not as strong as it once was.
Yeah, personal savings in our country is a joke.
Sure, our national debt is too large in my opinion.

Just as in the old "glass 1/2 full vs. 1/2 empty"
we are not arguing about amount of fluid in the
glass nor about the data, we just disagree on
the simple choice to be positive or negative.

yes, my friend, we are arguing (or I would like to say debating) opinions. and as you know we all have one, and they are all different. Much easier to not state opinions as facts, but as personal conclusions. As far as the glass, i think you mean to say that we are arguing about perception.

I think you must no have enough information or have done the proper research if you cannot see the warning signs that are staring us in the face today telling us that the US economy is failing and it going to continue unless something drastic is done. You cannot talk about the failing economy without talking about the dollar and how the federal reserve is devaluing it by printing more. Here is a quote from Ron Pauls website that helps to explain things better...

Today, the federal government burdens us with one of the most dangerous taxes it can impose — the inflation tax. When the federal government finds that it cannot afford its out-of-control spending, and is unwilling to directly tax the public, it resorts simply to creating the money out of thin air.

Inflating the money supply is the easiest form of financing the government. The Federal Reserve, an unelected and unaccountable private organization, pumps more dollars into the economy whenever it chooses. Because the public is forced to accept these bills, the Fed essentially gets away with legally counterfeiting. We cannot possibly expect the government to control spending when it has a blank checkbook.

This greatly benefits the politicians and special interests — they are able to finance the massive welfare-warfare state. But how does this inflation affect you?

Basic economics tells us that the more there is of a good, the less valuable it becomes. This is also true of money. The dollar is worth four cents of what it was when the Federal Reserve was created in 1913.

Day by day, every dollar you have is being devalued. You pay an inflation tax without even realizing it because you are forced by a falling dollar to pay more for goods and services.

The disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation, are some of the greatest threats facing our nation today. It is this one-two punch — Congress spending more than it can tax or borrow, and the Treasury printing money to make up the difference — that threatens to impoverish us by further destroying the value of our dollars.

By legalizing competing currencies, we can end the Federal Reserve’s stranglehold on our money supply and begin to restore value to the dollar. But Congress will continue to spend extravagantly until we the people make our views known at the ballot box."

Please take my reply with all the respect
due to a fellow jumper and concerned
citizen

One of the first things you learn in critical
thinking is to consider the motivations
of any furthering a position.

Example: If I sell a particular product
then I have a financial incentive to convince
you that it is the best.

I have no party affiliation, I am not running
for office, and I am not selling my economic
opinions.
_________________________________________

1st - The FED does NOT print money. They
control the supply of captial through interest
rates that apply to financial institutions.

The Mint handles making coins and the Bureau
of Engraving and Printing handles paper currency,
both are part of the Treasury.

http://www.usmint.gov/
http://www.moneyfactory.gov/


2nd - YES, scarcity is the basis of economics,
which states the more rare something is the
more valuable and the more abundant the
less valuable.

Anyone who remembers Italy's problems with
the Lira during hyper-inflation understands
that simply prinitng more money does not
work in the long run.

Inflation is a natural byproduct of expansionary
phases of our economy. As things get cooking
sellers and buyers bid up prices. It can also
occur when we monkey with prices, such as
large increases to the minimum wage.


Please note that I am pist about how much of
our tax dollars are spent, such as congress
voting themselves raises and getting really
sweet retirement benefits for life after being
in office only a few years.

I hate how large our national debt is. I hate
how dependant we are on foreign energy and
worry about our economy also... but I do not
want to contribute the 'sky is falling' rhetoric.
Hence I am optomistic.

Oout of curiosity, were you singing the praises
of our economic system when the DOW broke
10,000? I heard idiots at Merril Lynch talking
about how they beat the business cycle. I said
they were full of shit then and say that some
people are over-reacting now.

Gotta teach a class now... More Later.

 

I'm a registered Libertarian, which means that I'm generally in agreement with a lot of Ron Paul's positions (he was, after all, the Libertarian candidate the last time he ran this race).

But, I think that some of those statements on inflation, money supply, and the Fed are a bit misguided, and based on some misunderstanding.

First, I think the "the Fed is a secret conspiracy to take over the world" business that I've hard from some Ron Paul supporters is absolute bunk, and damages both Paul's campaign and the general public view of free market economics. I'm not saying that you are pushing that--just that I've heard it from people who are vocally supporting Ron Paul.

Long term, slow (and here's the key) and predictable inflation is actually a good thing for the economy. It provides "price lubrication" that makes price adjustments to supply and demand easier and less painful. In the long run, a moderate inflation rate of perhaps 1% a year is probably going to serve us better than zero inflation.

Characterizing the Federal Reserve as a totally private organization is also a little misleading. The governors are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, much like Supreme Court justices. Like the judiciary, it's in the long term interest of the people that the Fed be relatively insulated from day to day pressures. Their role (primarily protecting the economy from inflation and bank runs) demands that they not be open to political coercion. If they had to run for office every two years, you'd see all kinds of political pandering going on, which would probably lead to huge inflation (because giving "cheap money" is almost always popular in the short run, and an easy way to buy some votes).



That I'll agree with. But I think the problem is largely one with Congress (and the President) spending money like a drunken sailor (actually that's not fair to the sailor--he at least spends his own money). Abolishing the Fed would not fix that problem. In fact, removing the long term outlook the Fed provides might actually make things much worse.



Again, I agree with some of the principles there, but the conclusion appears short sighted. Having a single unified currency for the nation offers massive advantages in trade standardization. How much of a pain would it be if I had to change money every time I crossed state lines? Now what about if I had to change money every time I went shopping, because one store only takes "wells fargo notes" while another wants "bank of america money"? How much inefficiency (and extra transaction costs) will such a system introduce into my daily life?


Bottom line: I think that Paul supporters are aiming their attacks in the wrong direction. The problem here is the unrestrained spending of our Federal Government. The Fed has (so far) appeared to do a pretty good job managing the money supply and controlling inflation. Congress, on the other hand, has done an abysmal job of controlling spending and has behaved with tremendous fiscal irresponsibility. Dr. Paul's supporters would be far better served to point at the real root of the problem (government spending) rather than trying to cast the Federal Reserve system as some kind of bogeyman (one Paul press release I read almost seemed to compare the Fed to the Bavarian Illuminati, which gave me a good chuckle, but makes Dr. Paul sound like a wacko conspiracy theorist--which he is most definitely not).

I think a typo in the above sentence is preventing
me from getting the nuance of your statement.

I agree BOTH supply and demand do affect the
value attached to any good or service. My 1st
economics professor was also a mountain climber.
He told us a story about getting caught in some
bad weather and having to ride it out in a cave
with some of his climbing buddies.

To pass the time they played poker, but instead
of betting with money, which was useless there,
they gambled with M&Ms since food & calories
were scarce and very valuable.



Agreed. A bottle of douche, even if it is the only
one, is useless for a bunch of guys stranded on
island.

Inflation - a rise in the general level of prices in an economy
(glossary definition from the text book I am teaching this year).

I agree with Tom A. regarding how we as a nation
got to where we are now... and that is the politicians
not the economists.

Spending more than you earn in a month creates
a defecit. Continuing to do this creates debt.
Ours is now over $9 trillion. Per our constitution,
all bills that involve spending must originate in
the House of Representatives, then pass the
Senate, and be signed by the President.

Where in this chain of events does the Fed have
an opportunity to increase our debt?

Ignoring Jesus and abortion for a moment,
lets look at the position of the two parties:
Replublicans want less taxes and Democrats
want more spending on social programs.

Either approach can work, as shown by other
successful countries, but doing both strategies
at the same time is fiscally disastrous!

 

In the end, all currencies are fiat currencies. If we pegged the dollar to gold, for example, the value of the dollar would be created by people's belief that the government would hand them some set amount of gold per dollar. The same problem happens with any other attempt to create a store of value that is not, in itself, intrinsically valuable. What, for example, is the the underlying cause of gold's value? Is it that gold is in particularly short supply? That it is extremely useful in a wide range of applications? Or is it more likely that we think of gold as valuable because some guy a long time ago decided he was going to print his (fiat) currency out of it?

An attempt to abolish any type of fiat currency would probably return us to a barter system. Currency offers tremendous advantages in actual trade simplification.

The problem is not that we have a fiat currency. It's that the agency issuing the fiat (the US government) is generally losing the confidence of the individuals who make up the world economy. Restoring that confidence (by pursuing a sound fiscal policy, eliminating the federal debt, and otherwise showing people that the US government is actually worthy of their trust) will be far more effective, far simpler, and create far less economic shock than simply revoking the current fiat and assigning a new, different fiat that ties the value of the currency to some arbitrarily chosen material.

Tom, I will agree that the conspiracy theorists are not helping Ron Pauls campaign much but the media is pushing that spin on him and his ideas. I think the most damaging thing to Ron Paul's campaign is the total lack of media coverage on his ideas and how he can change our country. He IS talking about runaway government spending, people aren't hearing about it because the media won't report anything but crap on Dr. Paul. Why? The establishment is afraid of his ideas because they will loose some of their power over the population and they won't be able to continue to dupe the American citizens into paying for more war. Look at the candidates we are offered and what they want in terms of the war... Most Americans are against the war but the candidates they give us are all pro war except Ron Paul. He is the only candidate Rep. or Dem. who wants to bring the troops home now.... not in 3 years, not in 10 years, and certainly not in 100 years or more that McCain wants. The unnecessary wars are bankrupting this country so if we want to curb runaway government spending, as you mentioned before, our foreign policy needs to be addressed first. Our foreign policy and military spending is the main reason for our huge deficit and our governments runaway spending.... how many billions or trillions have we WASTED on this undeclared war?? Not to mention many previous military skirmishes that didn't need to happen.

Ron Paul IS talking about this, he is just being censored. Too many political and corporate high-ups will loose too much money if his ideas are broadcast to the populace.

Another issue that Ron Paul talks about is the loss of our freedoms in this country. This is something that we as BASE jumpers experience and frankly I'm wondering why more BASE jumpers do not support Ron Paul. It's either lack of coverage of his ideas or we don't care anymore what will happen in this country.


Adam - nice job explaing the other stuff.... I don't need to add anything there

oh BTW,
a war requires people fighting and since most Americans are against the war, a bill (H.R. 393) was introduced last year reinstating the draft for 18-42 year olds. Compulsory military service for both men and women.

food for thought...

HR 393:
To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make permanent the favorable treatment afforded combat pay under the earned income tax credit, and for other purposes.