Archive for July, 2010

Conspiracy theory conspiracy

Over the past few months, I have lowered my ear to the ground to listen to the pitter-patter of the tiny footbeats of the angry and disheartened, with their teeth gnashed eyes clinched shut, who fight some insidious and hidden foe. I have always been sympathetic to their merciful pleas, with their wild and unfocused viewpoints that often make sense because they are just so intricate and well-thought.

I would even mull over these theories in my head on my drives to and from work and over lunch. I have shared a few that I thought interesting on this blog.

The common denominator in most of these is that some powerful, unseen force is working against us, to enslave us in a new fiefdom called “The New World Order” or some other fearful moniker. Is there any truth to this? Perhaps. Who really knows?

What is the “silver bullet” to slay this beast, if it does exist? Why, action, of course.

Let’s look at a couple of these theories of note:
1. 9-11 was an inside job, and was perpetrated on the American people to wrest power from them via the “Patriot Act” and to conceal the fact that the Pentagon, only the previous day had been pinged for “misplacing” 2.3 trillion dollars.

Well, chances are this was, in fact, a power grab. I can’t think of the Patriot Act without getting severely pissed off. This is the anti-Bill of Rights, and was over and done quickly and painlessly because the people were scared. Whether it was purposely perpetuated by someone or just an opportunity, the fact is our government took advantage of our fear. And why did we not right this after we wised up? It was as if as a collective we said, “Aw shucks, you got us this time…” You know what they say: you can’t be fooled again.

The fact that 2.3 trillion dollars was misplaced is mind-boggling. There is only about $625 billion in circulation, or a little over 1/2 of a trillion dollars, which means most of this was theoretical money. I can’t blame people for being suspicious about such bad accounting practices, since we would be up-in-arms if a company did it, right?

Obviously not, which brings us to #2.
2. A large international banking cartel and/or large multi-national corporations have taken over control of most of the world.

Maybe, maybe not. The attention that the Bildeberg Group has gotten in the past few years is intriguing, especially that it never makes public news, only conspiracy journals. How can these “heavy hitters” meet and it not be news?

All of the problems on Wall Street have been ridiculous. We SHOULD NOT EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER bail out a company…no matter what. Most of the large companies that are “too large to fail” are not…but that perception enslaves us. Why? Because the current mindset of these companies is to “socialize losses and privatize profits.” Did you get a check back from GM, or get any stock certificates in the mail? No? How about the large banks that got payouts last year? Probably not.

I tend to come back a lot to Ron Paul’s books “The Revolution: A Manifesto” and “End The Fed, as the solutions he offers make sense when looking at the big picture.

1. End the Federal Reserve Bank. Most people do not understand the significance and the evil of our economic system. It is basic supply and demand: the more of something in supply, the less it is demand (the less valuable it is.) The 2.3 trillion lost by the Pentagon and all of the money given to bail out GM, Ford, Chrysler, and the banks is created by ledger entries by the Federal Reserve Bank, or Fed. There is no oversight by the population (Congressional or other) into the Fed, as the Fed claims it works as an independent organization, and oversight would stifle their ability to remain neutral. Are they neutral? So, how about all of the people without houses and shitty credit? It only works as an instrument to favor the rich. Basically, with the time value of money, those who get the money first (ahem, *BANKS*) get to enjoy it before it gets very far into circulation. By the time we get it, inflation has set in. Our money is based on squat. It used to be on the “Gold Standard.” Want to see something shocking? The supply of gold has remained almost constant since 1973, but look what money has done against it. (Basically, I am implying that since the supply of gold is constant, then money has lost value in comparison.) The fact that the Fed claims to be independent but keeps giving money to people and businesses without accountability or public oversight is incredible. If most people understood how this worked, the Fed would have already been abolished.

2. Return to a gold standard. If money is backed by something, rather than just by its reputation, people will really start to care where their monies go. FDR and Nixon each had their parts in destroying our gold standard. The people let it happen and now we see our money being used against us by fancy economics that most people do not understand.

3. Be active politically! One of the things lacking with most of these conspiracy theories is an impetus to action. (Of course, Zeitgeist has this nebulous “Let’s create a resource-based economy” action, but isn’t very realistic.) Our political system is flawed by being composed of fallible humans. Most people behave when they feel they are being watched. Make sure you check up on your public servants. At a minimum, keep an eye on how they vote. Ideally, email or call them and tell them how to vote! Make them do your bidding!

3. Never vote to bail out businesses! A free-market economy can not co-exist with the Keynesian capitalism crapola! Oligopolies and monopolies pay for special interest favor to keep competition down. Like in a forest, when the taller trees die or fall, it gives opportunities (sunlight) to the smaller trees and allows them to flourish. The more opportunity in a market, the more innovation in the market, usually while having to stay competitive on price. Instead, we get these industrial behemoths that have no real competition and still look for price-cutting and innovation via off-shoring and acquisition. Allow these large businesses to fail!

I could probably go on for at least another hour about this. Be an active constituent! Find a site, such as Campaign for Liberty or one to your liking and get involved! Find out who is holding the strings to your puppets and hold them accountable!

Meat quality and the apathy of the bureaucrats

Since I have to read the labels of everything we buy at the grocery store, I have the ingredients of several thousand products keyed up in my head…mainly what these products contain that we don’t want or can’t have rather than a complete list of ingredients.

However, some things are a little trickier due to the pure apathy of the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food & Drug Administration. As with all government, these two entities are large and ineffectual, with the USDA employing 105,778 (2007) and a budget of $95 billion (2009) and the FDA employing 9,300 (2008) and a budget of $2.3 billion (2008). What I mean by apathy is that I cannot, with any confidence, go into the store and arbitrarily buy quality meat. These companies do less and less to manage the quality of what we eat. Nowadays, most meat is raised in large factories owned by 3 or 4 companies and slaughtered in 3 or 4 large processing plants. Words like “Prime” and “Natural” are allowed to be put on labels when they don’t really mean anything. About the only label you can trust is “USDA Certified Organic.” Most of these cows stand knee-deep in a collective pool of their own waste and get fed corn to fatten them up quickly (though cows don’t naturally eat corn.) Most of these techniques were used for supplying to fast-food restaurants, but now includes the stuff you buy at the supermarket and the stuff you buy at restaurants.

Couple all of this with the fact that the food pyramid is bullshit, and you start seeing statistics like “it is estimated that with children born after 2000, 1 in 3 will have Type II Diabetes before adulthood.”

Previously, I could get acceptable beef and chicken at the supermarket at which I shop…until yesterday. The beef I normally bought that was “grass-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free” was gone. I asked and they said I could buy it but it was as expensive now as the “prime aged” and the “Kobe” varieties of meat and I had to pre-order it on Monday to get it the following Monday. What? Just a week prior it was $1 more a pound than the “Natural” stuff they were offering now. How did the demand drop so fast? What the f*** is going on here?

I thought we as a society had made progress in this area. People demand and stores carry a variety of organic fruits, vegetables and meats. Besides, the store I go to is a little ritzier than most, comparable to a Harris Teeter or similar.

I am going to try to make it to a local farmer’s market this weekend and see what they have to offer. I hope it isn’t as expensive as what the supermarket offers…even if so, I will buy it…just to send a message to the supermarket. I hope to take a couple of you with me. Who’s in?

When we finally get our own house again, should mine sell this time, I am going to get a deep freezer and “cowpool.” This term means you go in with some family/friends and buy a share of a steer. You get a much better deal on the meat, and you usually get it from the place that raised the cow.

Here is some information that may be useful:
Mark’s Daily Apple and Eat Wild

Just remember, you are what you eat. Also remember that you, in effect, vote when you make your food purchases by affecting the demand of said products. If you don’t buy the crap, then eventually these businesses that produce crap will either have to offer quality or risk going broke.

For you activists, or if you need a little convincing, rent “Food, Inc” and watch it.

Food

Over the past couple of years, and doubly so the past few months, I have become more aware of the food offerings at the grocery store. Let me just say I am not very pleased with some of it, but outraged at most of it.

Because our daughter, Sophia, cannot have milk, we have to read the labels of everything we buy. Again, for clarification, it is not because she is lactose-intolerant, but rather she is “allergic” to the protein in milk called Casein.

There are many things that I don’t buy, even if I like them, because of their questionable content. Add to that list mystery meat…I only buy organic meat for reasons that are too numerous to divulge here. I was flipping through the documentaries on Netflix, and decided to watch “Food, Inc” last night. Most of the information was not new to me, but the stuff that was just reinforced what I already suspected or knew about food. Some of this information was unfair labor practices and unsanitary conditions which are far more compelling when you see it for real. The makers of the film also have a site out on tha’ interwebs. At that site, you can learn more about current affairs and help take action on forcing our government to do the right thing.