In my early years, I remember my parents and their friends talking about the Depression and hoping that "one day" it would end.
I was born 3 years before the USA got into World War II. The Depression was still oppressing a large number of Americans, all across the country.
FDR has been widely credited with ending the Depression, when in fact, he made it both worse and longer than it would have been had he not tampered with the economy through his "New Deal" policies.
I try to watch and read news and commentary from a number of sources and with varying political points of view. I've been concerned for several months that a few leading economists -- among them Arthur Laffer and Stuart Varney -- have been forecasting economic "collapse" for the US economy. Their consensus is that economic affairs will come down around our years no later than mid-2011!
That's SOON!!
It's been the conservative news media that have been warning of this for months. Now I see that the rest of the media -- not wishing to be perceived as ignorant of financial matters -- are now beginning to point with alarm at future events. In case you can't link to the link at the beginning of this post, I strongly recommend you read this article: http://www.benzinga.com/10/08/426718/will-quantitative-easing-by-the-federal-reserve-unleash-economic-hell
While I'm not exactly sure what "economic hell" is, I know it is not good!
You and I are riding this train, and they won't let us anywhere near the throttle in the engine room, so, what do we need to do in order to ride out this coming "economic hell".
Many financial advisors recommend converting any cash assets you have into precious metal coins -- gold or silver US coins. That sounds good to me, but having some experience in those markets, I recommend Silver Eagles from the US Mint. Those are worth somewhere near $20 today, and will have some value as a medium of exchange even when the paper dollars in your pocket are worthless.
Gold coins are OK, I guess, if you have a large amount of cash to stash, but because of their relative value, they might be too valuable to worth very much as a medium of exchange in crisis except for "big ticket" items, not for every day commerce. If you do decide to convert to gold and/or silver coins, I strongly recommend that you invest only in bullion coins from the US Mint. They are of reliable and accurate weight and content. With coins from any other source, you cannot be sure of either.
To prepare for such dire events, there are more urgent needs needing your attention than currency. After all, our parents and grandparents made it through the Depression with very little or no cash at all!
. . . more later. Your comments, ideas, and suggestions are welcome.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
It IS rocket science . . .
Operation Paperclip.
Does that sound clandestine? How about Project Bumper?
As World War II was in its final throes, a race developed which was to foreshadow world events for another 40 years of "Cold War". The falling 3rd Reich was leaving bits and pieces, some of them quite valuable, for the victors to take as spoils of war.
The Russians and Americans raced to see who could claim the prizes at Peenemünde.
As the German nation was disintegrating, and cloaked by its death spasms, many of the men and women who reported for work daily at Peenemünde, scanned the skies and nearby terrain for the troops approaching from both sides.
When it was clear to them that the Russians may arrive first, a number of the brilliant "whiz kids" of early rocket science gathered up their drawings and designs from this top-secret missile test and development facility, and made a near-frenzied dash toward the American forces.
Operation Paperclip was the hush-hush intelligence-directed project to grab up Dr. Kurt Debus and his team of pioneers and bring them safely to the United States. In a carefully, though hurriedly, devised plan, intelligence officers worked to find ways around an edict by President Harry Truman, crafting false identities for more than a hundred scientists, technicians, and managers from the secret base and other places vital to the German rocket program. Under these assumed identities, the team, headed by the brilliant young techno-scientific mind of Werner von Braun, was spirited to places in the United States where they could continue their work, experimentation with rockets, and research.
Along with the team, a number of captured German V-2 rockets, whose predecessors had terrorized Europe, were brought to the States. For more than two years, the team continued working on the projects they had begun in another land, but with some added features and equipment from the American work.
Project Bumper became the code-name for experimentation which mounted an American-made WAC Corporal missile atop the German-made V-2, as an experimental second stage. During 1948 and 1949, from the White Sands Proving Grounds, the team launched at least six "mated" vehicles in test flights, with varying degrees of success.
The team packed up their gear and moved to a triangular spit of land on the central east coast of Florida, and in 1950, on July 24th, completed the first rocket launch over the Joint Long Range Proving Ground, from Cape Canaveral.
A few days ago, we passed the milestone -- 60 years since that first historic launch from Cape Canaveral. Dr. Kurt Debus later became the first Director of the space program facilities based at The Cape - as it came to be known -- and Dr. von Braun became the "father" of the U.S. program to fly men to the moon and back.
Debus, von Braun, Rocco Petrone, and their teams are gone from among us now, but the benefits of their brilliance and dedication are still blessing the world.
A hearty salute to the men and women who pioneered the world's exploration of earth and space with rocket science, and to their successors who have carried on their dangerous, but exciting work.
This old Gentleman Farmer is humbled and honored to have "walked among them", and values his charter membership in the "Aerospace, Missile, and Range Pioneers", begun at Cape Canaveral during the 1960s, to honor those men and women who gave us their dreams.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_H._Debus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_Project
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Von_Braun
Does that sound clandestine? How about Project Bumper?
As World War II was in its final throes, a race developed which was to foreshadow world events for another 40 years of "Cold War". The falling 3rd Reich was leaving bits and pieces, some of them quite valuable, for the victors to take as spoils of war.
The Russians and Americans raced to see who could claim the prizes at Peenemünde.
As the German nation was disintegrating, and cloaked by its death spasms, many of the men and women who reported for work daily at Peenemünde, scanned the skies and nearby terrain for the troops approaching from both sides.
When it was clear to them that the Russians may arrive first, a number of the brilliant "whiz kids" of early rocket science gathered up their drawings and designs from this top-secret missile test and development facility, and made a near-frenzied dash toward the American forces.
Operation Paperclip was the hush-hush intelligence-directed project to grab up Dr. Kurt Debus and his team of pioneers and bring them safely to the United States. In a carefully, though hurriedly, devised plan, intelligence officers worked to find ways around an edict by President Harry Truman, crafting false identities for more than a hundred scientists, technicians, and managers from the secret base and other places vital to the German rocket program. Under these assumed identities, the team, headed by the brilliant young techno-scientific mind of Werner von Braun, was spirited to places in the United States where they could continue their work, experimentation with rockets, and research.
Along with the team, a number of captured German V-2 rockets, whose predecessors had terrorized Europe, were brought to the States. For more than two years, the team continued working on the projects they had begun in another land, but with some added features and equipment from the American work.
Project Bumper became the code-name for experimentation which mounted an American-made WAC Corporal missile atop the German-made V-2, as an experimental second stage. During 1948 and 1949, from the White Sands Proving Grounds, the team launched at least six "mated" vehicles in test flights, with varying degrees of success.
The team packed up their gear and moved to a triangular spit of land on the central east coast of Florida, and in 1950, on July 24th, completed the first rocket launch over the Joint Long Range Proving Ground, from Cape Canaveral.
A few days ago, we passed the milestone -- 60 years since that first historic launch from Cape Canaveral. Dr. Kurt Debus later became the first Director of the space program facilities based at The Cape - as it came to be known -- and Dr. von Braun became the "father" of the U.S. program to fly men to the moon and back.
Debus, von Braun, Rocco Petrone, and their teams are gone from among us now, but the benefits of their brilliance and dedication are still blessing the world.
A hearty salute to the men and women who pioneered the world's exploration of earth and space with rocket science, and to their successors who have carried on their dangerous, but exciting work.
This old Gentleman Farmer is humbled and honored to have "walked among them", and values his charter membership in the "Aerospace, Missile, and Range Pioneers", begun at Cape Canaveral during the 1960s, to honor those men and women who gave us their dreams.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_H._Debus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_Project
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Von_Braun
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
the Blessings of Liberty . . .
The United STATES of America . . .
Why does every generation need reminding that ours is a "federation of free and independent states"?
A group of independent states got together (convened) and in agreement, they created a federation among themselves. They agreed to be bound together and protected by this federation, but only in common needs they could not handle as well individually.
In the vision granted by wisdom from above, people in the states knew they needed to band together for some purposes, making themselves stronger together than they could be acting separately, even in concert.
Any inter-state agreements may have been good, but they recognized their need for a "better" union for common needs and goals. So, in order to form a more perfect union of their efforts they agreed to federate themselves.
Of course, to "form a more perfect union" was not the end result for which they met, but for the blessings that such a federating could bring them all: establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility (peace in their homelands), providing a greater ability to defend themselves than their individual mililtias could provide, and unarguably the most important objective, to "secure the Blessings of Liberty" for themselves and their children.
For these purposes, our Fathers created, ordained, and established the "Constitution for the United STATES of America."
Then, they wrote the design of our federation of states, describing the three branches our government would take, the way the branches would "check and balance" each other, and the areas in which they were authorized to act on behalf of the member States.
To assure that future generations would never have reason to get a wrong idea that the federated government was "in charge" of everything pertaining to this land, in their wisdom, they appended a list of 10 "amendments" to this new Constitution. In them they restated "God-given" rights and freedoms which could not be taken away from the people by this federation nor by any State.
The last of these ten is the most telling: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Representatives of the convened States wanted all future generations to know that this indeed is a federation, empowered by the states themselves and intending to delegate to the more perfect union ONLY certain specific authority the branches needed to carry out the purposes of establishing justice, insuring domestic peace, providing a defense against common enemies, and securing the marvelous blessings of LIBERTY for all of us who have so far succeeded them.
We need to burn these ideas into our minds, and to the minds of our children and their children, else, continually, they will be taken from us.
http://constitutionus.com/
Why does every generation need reminding that ours is a "federation of free and independent states"?
A group of independent states got together (convened) and in agreement, they created a federation among themselves. They agreed to be bound together and protected by this federation, but only in common needs they could not handle as well individually.
In the vision granted by wisdom from above, people in the states knew they needed to band together for some purposes, making themselves stronger together than they could be acting separately, even in concert.
Any inter-state agreements may have been good, but they recognized their need for a "better" union for common needs and goals. So, in order to form a more perfect union of their efforts they agreed to federate themselves.
Of course, to "form a more perfect union" was not the end result for which they met, but for the blessings that such a federating could bring them all: establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility (peace in their homelands), providing a greater ability to defend themselves than their individual mililtias could provide, and unarguably the most important objective, to "secure the Blessings of Liberty" for themselves and their children.
For these purposes, our Fathers created, ordained, and established the "Constitution for the United STATES of America."
Then, they wrote the design of our federation of states, describing the three branches our government would take, the way the branches would "check and balance" each other, and the areas in which they were authorized to act on behalf of the member States.
To assure that future generations would never have reason to get a wrong idea that the federated government was "in charge" of everything pertaining to this land, in their wisdom, they appended a list of 10 "amendments" to this new Constitution. In them they restated "God-given" rights and freedoms which could not be taken away from the people by this federation nor by any State.
The last of these ten is the most telling: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Representatives of the convened States wanted all future generations to know that this indeed is a federation, empowered by the states themselves and intending to delegate to the more perfect union ONLY certain specific authority the branches needed to carry out the purposes of establishing justice, insuring domestic peace, providing a defense against common enemies, and securing the marvelous blessings of LIBERTY for all of us who have so far succeeded them.
We need to burn these ideas into our minds, and to the minds of our children and their children, else, continually, they will be taken from us.
http://constitutionus.com/
Monday, July 26, 2010
I Pledge . . .
I pledge . . .
. . . allegiance
. . . to the flag of the United States of America
. . . and to the Republic for which it stands
. . . . one nation under God
. . . with liberty and justice for all!!
. . . allegiance
. . . to the flag of the United States of America
. . . and to the Republic for which it stands
. . . . one nation under God
. . . with liberty and justice for all!!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Welcome Back !
I was shocked!
Just looked at the date of the gentlemanfarmer's last post. My, how time flies! (I heard that somewhere before!)
For better or worse, for richer or poorer, I promise to post more frequently.
There are campaigns going on all over our Country for who will SERVE us for the next two, four, or six years in various posts -- ranging from the White House to the Outhouse.
Of course, President B.H. Obama's progressive circus has a few more days in town, but much of everything else is up for grabs these days. As I read the newspapers, blogs, emails, and TEA-leaves, I get a sense of "throw the rascals out", ranging from sea-to-shining-sea, and border-to-porous-border.
Our tendency to "throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater" sadly, is going to waste a few good people, because the country is restless and there's a serious uprising from the right. Invigorated by TEAParty rallies and seemingly led by no one yet, the sense of the movement is to take out anyone who appears to be part of the political "system" that has let us down, and led us down, and to replace them with citizen-representatives.
I see new faces and names on campaign posters. Business people who've never been involved are running for office. Doctors. Ranchers. Others. That's very encouraging.
Our founders intended that we have "citizen representation" from the beginning. It's time we returned to that with surveyors, farmers, architects and others, leaving their fields, instruments, and businesses to serve a term or two, then go home.
Allowing our representatives to become "entrenched" and by refusing to challenge the endowed power of incumbents, had gotten us into this mess.
It IS time again to throw the TEA into the harbor and the incumbents into the streets!!
Long live Liberty!!
Just looked at the date of the gentlemanfarmer's last post. My, how time flies! (I heard that somewhere before!)
For better or worse, for richer or poorer, I promise to post more frequently.
There are campaigns going on all over our Country for who will SERVE us for the next two, four, or six years in various posts -- ranging from the White House to the Outhouse.
Of course, President B.H. Obama's progressive circus has a few more days in town, but much of everything else is up for grabs these days. As I read the newspapers, blogs, emails, and TEA-leaves, I get a sense of "throw the rascals out", ranging from sea-to-shining-sea, and border-to-porous-border.
Our tendency to "throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater" sadly, is going to waste a few good people, because the country is restless and there's a serious uprising from the right. Invigorated by TEAParty rallies and seemingly led by no one yet, the sense of the movement is to take out anyone who appears to be part of the political "system" that has let us down, and led us down, and to replace them with citizen-representatives.
I see new faces and names on campaign posters. Business people who've never been involved are running for office. Doctors. Ranchers. Others. That's very encouraging.
Our founders intended that we have "citizen representation" from the beginning. It's time we returned to that with surveyors, farmers, architects and others, leaving their fields, instruments, and businesses to serve a term or two, then go home.
Allowing our representatives to become "entrenched" and by refusing to challenge the endowed power of incumbents, had gotten us into this mess.
It IS time again to throw the TEA into the harbor and the incumbents into the streets!!
Long live Liberty!!
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