Some of my friends have asked me about buying gold, so I decided to post this here if it would benefit any of my readers.

I got the bulk of my research on gold from Lew Rockwell's website, primarily the articles of Burt Blumert and Mark Thornton. Here are some of my notes:

1. Never use borrowed money to buy precious metals.
2. Buy the most traded items: American Gold Eagles, Canadian Gold Maple Leafs, South African Krugerrands, etc.
3. Store it in a safe place: not the Bank!

Thornton recommends 50% of your liquid assets in gold.

I bought my gold through Camino Coins, LLC. This was Blumert's company (now retired). While I had intended to purchase American Gold Eagles (just seemed patriotic if all were equal), I learned that, while the AGE does include 1 oz. of gold, it is not pure. There are other metals mixed in.

I bought the Canadian Maple Leaves because they are 100% pure gold, nothing else. You'll notice that Camino Coins does offer smaller denominations (1/2 oz, 1/4 oz, 1/10 oz), these have a much higher mark up. Your best value is to buy in full oz.

Also, silver is not as stable as gold. For example, if gold drops 25%, silver might drop 50%.

Here's another tip. When you call Camino Coins, they will lock in your price when they give you an invoice number. So, if gold goes higher (or lower) you still get it for the price at the time of your invoice. You can monitor the price of gold here. In the last five days, gold has fluctuated between $856.20 and $925.20 per ounce.

If you have a Mac or can use Yahoo's widget engine, you can download a handy widget here. This is a very neat widget, as you can set it to sound an alarm if the price of gold goes above or below a certain level. Ok, all that to say, if you can take the time to monitor the price of gold, or use this widget to monitor it for you, you could wait until gold hits around $855 or $860 and call then. (It fluctuates throughout the day - it's been as low as $853 and as high as $909 today). That way you can get the best price.

Even if the government won't accept a gold standard, we should accept a personal gold standard.

John McCain never loses an opportunity to trot out his credentials as a POW who spent five and a half years in Vietnam. Then why is he trying to hide information about the POWs who were left behind?

The House voted down the Bailout. That's good news. Here's who needs to go home:

---- AYES 204 ---
(Democrats in roman; Republicans in italic; Independents underlined)

Ackerman Allen Andrews Arcuri Bachus Baird Baldwin Bean Berman Berry Bishop (GA) Bishop (NY) Blunt Boehner Bonner Bono Mack Boozman Boren Boswell Boucher Boyd (FL) Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brown (SC) Brown, Corrine Calvert Camp (MI) Campbell (CA) Cannon Cantor Capps Capuano Cardoza Carnahan Castle Clarke Clyburn Cohen Cole (OK) Cooper Costa Cramer Crenshaw Crowley Cubin Davis (AL) Davis (CA) Davis (IL) Davis, Tom DeGette DeLauro Dicks Dingell Donnelly Doyle Dreier Edwards (TX) Ehlers Ellison Ellsworth Emanuel Emerson Engel Eshoo Etheridge Everett Farr Fattah

Ferguson Foster Frank (MA) Gilchrest Gonzalez Gordon Granger Gutierrez Hall (NY) Hare Harman Hastings (FL) Herger Higgins Hinojosa Hobson Holt Honda Hooley Hoyer Inglis (SC) Israel Johnson, E. B. Kanjorski Kennedy Kildee Kind King (NY) Kirk Klein (FL) Kline (MN) LaHood Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Levin Lewis (CA) Lewis (KY) Loebsack Lofgren, Zoe Lowey Lungren, Daniel E. Mahoney (FL) Maloney (NY) Markey Marshall Matsui McCarthy (NY) McCollum (MN) McCrery McDermott McGovern McHugh McKeon McNerney McNulty Meek (FL) Meeks (NY) Melancon Miller (NC) Miller, Gary Miller, George Mollohan Moore (KS) Moore (WI) Moran (VA) Murphy (CT) Murphy, Patrick

Murtha Nadler Neal (MA) Oberstar Obey Olver Pallone Pelosi Perlmutter Peterson (PA) Pickering Pomeroy Porter Price (NC) Pryce (OH) Putnam Radanovich Rahall Rangel Regula Reyes Reynolds Richardson Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Ross Ruppersberger Ryan (OH) Ryan (WI) Sarbanes Saxton Schakowsky Schwartz Sessions Sestak Shays Simpson Sires Skelton Slaughter Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Snyder Souder Space Speier Spratt Tancredo Tanner Tauscher Towns Tsongas Upton Van Hollen Velázquez Walden (OR) Walsh (NY) Wasserman Schultz Waters Watt Waxman Weiner Weldon (FL) Wexler Wilson (NM) Wilson (OH) Wilson (SC) Wolf

(An excerpt from John T. Flynn's As We Go Marching (Doubleday, 1944), p. 161-162)

[Fascism] is, put briefly, a system of social organization in which the political state is a dictatorship supported by a political elite and in which the economic society is an autarchial capitalism, enclosed and planned, in which the government assumes responsibility for creating adequate purchasing power through the instrumentality of national debt and in which militarism is adopted as a great economic project for creating work as well as a great romantic project in the service of the imperialist state.

Broken down, it includes these devices:

1. A government whose powers are unrestrained.
2. A leader who is a dictator, absolute in power but responsible to the party which is a preferred elite.
3. An economic system in which production and distribution are carried on by private owners but in accordance with plans made by the state directly or under its immediate supervision.
4. These plans involve control of all the instruments of production and distribution through great government bureaus which have the power to make regulations or directives with the force of law.
5. They involve also the comprehensive integration of government and private finances, under which investment is directed and regimented by the government, so that while ownership is private and production is carried on by private owners there is a type of socialization of investment, of the financial aspects of production. By this means the state, which by law and by regulation can exercise a powerful control over industry, can enormously expand and complete that control by assuming the role of banker and partner.
6. They involve also the device of creating streams of purchasing power by federal government borrowing and spending as a permanent institution.
7. As a necessary consequence of all this, militarism becomes an inevitable part of the system since it provides the easiest means of draining great numbers annually from the labor market and of creating a tremendous industry for the production of arms for defense, which industry is supported wholly by government borrowing and spending.
8. Imperialism becomes an essential element of such a system where that is possible—particularly in the strong states, since the whole fascist system, despite its promises of abundance, necessitates great financial and personal sacrifices, which people cannot be induced to make in the interest of the ordinary objectives of civil life and which they will submit to only when they are presented with some national crusade or adventure on the heroic model touching deeply the springs of chauvinistic pride, interest, and feeling.

Where these elements are found, there is fascism, by whatever name the system is called. And it now becomes our task to look very briefly into our own society and to see to what extent the seeds of this system are present here and to what degree they are being cultivated and by whom.

From the Mises Institute:

The events taking place in the financial market offer an illustration of the soundness of the Austrian theory of money, banking, and credit cycles, and Mises.org is your source not only for analysis of these events but also the economic theory that helps explain what is happening and what to do about it. There are many thousands of articles available, and also the full text of thousands of books as well as journal articles. It is impossible to draw attention to the full range of literature one can use to understand the crisis.

However, below we offer a brief look into the topics most discussed in these times, with extended treatments of each in the sidebar. Mises.org also offers both a blog and a community forum for reading and discussing them all.

It's never been more important to spread a sound view of money and banking, not only as a protection against the fallacies of "stabilization" and "reflation" but also as way to see what kind of reforms are essential now.

The Bailout Reader

My grandmother came to visit the other day. As we were chatting while my children were playing with my mother, the conversation turned to the economy. Soon she mentioned, "Well, you know, oil is going to get more important the closer we get to the end times. That oil is what the Antichrist is going to be after and he's going to be able to solve all the financial problems so people will follow after him."

Hmmm.... which verse is that? What does the Bible say about antichrist? I'm going to use Green's Literal Translation for this one:

1 John 2:18-27: "Little children, it is a last hour, and as you heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, from which you know that it is a last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they left so that it might be revealed that they all are not of us.
"And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I did not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because every lie is not of the truth. Who is the liar, except the one denying, saying that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one denying the Father and the Son. Everyone denying the Son does not have the Father. The one confessing the Son also has the Father. Then what you heard from the beginning, let it abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you will abide both in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise which He promised us: everlasting life. I wrote these things to you concerning the ones leading you astray. And the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you. But as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and as He taught you, abide in Him."

1 John 4:1-3: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone forth into the world. By this know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God; and this is the antichrist which you heard is coming, and now is already in the world."

2 John 7-9: "Because many deceivers went out into the world, those not confessing Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh, this is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that we may not lose the things we worked out, but that we may receive a full reward. Everyone transgressing and not abiding in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. The one abiding in the doctrine of Christ, this one has the Father and the Son."

The Church in the first century had been warned that antichrist was coming ("as you heard that the antichrist is coming" 1 John 2:18; "the antichrist which you heard is coming" 1 John 4:3). The term antichrist does not refer to an individual as there were more than one ("many antichrists have risen up" 1 John 2:18)! Also, they were already at work ("even now many antichrists have risen up" 1 John 2:18; "concerning the ones leading you astray" 1 John 2:26; "many deceivers went out into the world" 2 John 7.) These antichrists were active in the first century, not being predicted as two thousand years into their future.

John also defines very clearly what these first century antichrists were doing: they were "denying, saying that Jesus is not the Christ" and "denying the Father and the Son" (1 John 2:22). They were operating with the false prophets ("many false prophets have gone forth into the world" 1 John 4:1). They denied the incarnation ("does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh" 1 John 4:3; "those not confessing Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh" 2 John 7; "everyone transgressing and not abiding in the doctrine of Christ" 2 John 9).

Here is a very important point: they had come from the Church ("they went out from us" 1 John 2:19). These first century antichrists had been in the Church, apostatized and were then leading others astray from the doctrine of the apostles ("leading you astray" 1 John 2:26; "many false prophets have gone forth into the world" 1 John 4:1; "many deceivers went out into the world" 2 John 7; "anyone comes to you and does not bear this doctrine" 2 John 10.)

Any search for an antichrist outside the Church is ruled out by this passage. In the 16th century, the usual suspects were Pope Leo X, Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, Pope Paul III, Pope Julius III, English Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, English Bishop Grindal, English Bishop Whitgift, or Pope Paul IV. All churchmen. All valid suspects, although I have to personally disagree with the options of Luther and Zwingli. In the 17th century, English Bishop William Laud, King Charles I of England, Oliver Cromwell, John Robins, Tsar Alexis of Russia, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Nikon. In the 18th century, Peter the Great of Russia, King Louis XIV and King Louis XV of France, King George III of England, Lord Bute of England, Pope Clement XIV, Napoleon Bonaparte and Napoleon III of France.

Of course, we've had the most fun in the 20th century. We've had Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. Henry Kissinger and Moammar Qadhafi. The Popes. JFK, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. But, apart from the popes, these aren't figures recognized for having come out of the Church. Granted, Jimmy Carter teaches universalism in his Sunday School class, but as far as I know he hasn't denied the incarnation. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.

As much as I'd like to offer Joel Osteen as an antichrist, I'm not aware of his denying the incarnation, even though his message does directly contradict the message of Jesus Christ in Luke 14:25-33 (and many others). If you need some antichrist options for today, you have the Oneness Pentecostals, most famously represented in T.D. Jakes and Tommy Tenney (The God Chasers), and musicians the Katinas and Phillips, Craig and Dean. Consider John's warning not to even let them into your house.

Jesus had predicted in Matthew 24:11, "And many false prophets will be raised and will cause many to err." This was a sign of the end. And note how John opened the passage in 1 John 2: "Little children, it is a last hour, and as you heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, from which you know that it is a last hour." The KJV, ASV, NKJV, ESV all translate this "the last."

John clearly stated that the antichrists had apostatized from the Church and were leading others into apostasy. As Jesus had predicted this sign, it was all the evidence he needed to declare it the Last Hour, with not one mention of oil.

Congress is poised to vote on a $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill late this week.

Congress must decide between:

* Voting NO and allowing the destruction of the global financial system; or
* Voting YES and saving the global financial system by empowering the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve to bailout troubled financial institutions up to a cost of $700 billion (more likely trillions of dollars ultimately).

Congress must decide between:

* Voting NO and allowing the free market to liquidate bad debts and unviable companies through allowing market prices to prevail; or
* Voting YES and empowering the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve to bailout troubled financial institutions with $700 billion (more likely trillions of dollars) created out of thin air, leading to rampant inflation of the dollar at best and the destruction of the dollar at worst.

Email and/or phone your representative and senators immediately and tell them to stand up for the Constitution, the free market, and the dollar by voting NO on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill.

From Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty:

The press conference at the National Press Club had a precise purpose. It was to expose, to as many people as possible, the gross deception of our presidential election process. It is controlled by the powerful elite to make sure that neither candidate of the two major parties will challenge the status quo. There is no real choice between the two major parties and their nominees, only the rhetoric varies. The amazingly long campaign is designed to make sure the real issues are ignored. The quotes I used at the press conference from insider Carroll Quigley and the League of Women voters strongly support this contention.

Calling together candidates from the liberal, conservative, libertarian and progressive constituencies, who are all opposed to this rigged process, was designed to alert the American people to the uselessness of continuing to support a process that a claims that one’s only choice is to choose the lesser of two evils and reject a principle vote that might challenge the status quo as a wasted vote.

In both political education and organization, coalitions are worthwhile and necessary to have an impact. “Talking to the choir” alone achieves little. I have always approached political and economic education with a “missionary” zeal by inviting any group in on issues we agree upon.

This opens the door to legitimate discourse with the hope of winning new converts to the cause of liberty. This strategy led to the press conference with the four candidates agreeing to the four principles we believe are crucial in challenging the political system that has evolved over many years in this country.

This unique press conference, despite the surprising, late complication from the Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate, hopefully will prove to be historically significant.

This does not mean that I expect to get Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney to become libertarians, nor do they expect me to change my mind on the issues on which we disagree. In the meantime, why can’t we be friends, respectful of each other, and fight the corrupt process from which we suffer, and at the same time champion the four issues that we all agree upon which the two major candidates won’t address?

Many practical benefits can come from this unique alliance. Our cause is liberty —freedom is popular and is the banner that brings people together. Since authoritarianism divides, we always have the edge in an intellectual fight. Once it’s realized that the humanitarian goals of peace and prosperity are best achieved with our views, I’m convinced we win by working with others. Those who don’t want to collaborate are insecure with their own beliefs.

In the past two years at the many rallies where I talked and shook hands with literally thousands of people, I frequently asked them what brought them to our campaign. There were many answers: the Constitution, my consistency, views on the Federal Reserve, the war, and civil liberties. The crowds were overwhelmingly made up of young people.

Oftentimes I welcomed the diverse groups that came, mentioning that the crowd was made up of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Liberals and Progressives with each group applauding. Even jokingly, I recognized the “anarchists” and that, too, was met with some applause. In conversations, many admitted to having been Democrats and members of the Green Party and supporters of Ralph Nader, yet they came to agree with us on all the issues once the entire philosophy was understood. That’s progress.

Principled people are not shy in participating with others and will defend their beliefs on their merits. Liberals and progressives are willing to align themselves with us on the key issues of peace, civil liberties, debt and the Federal Reserve. That’s exciting and very encouraging, and it means we are making progress. The big challenge, however, is taking on the establishment, and the process that is so well entrenched. But we can’t beat the entrenched elite without the alliance of all those who have been disenfranchised.

Ironically the most difficult group to recruit has been the evangelicals who supported McCain and his pro-war positions. They have been convinced that they are obligated to initiate preventive war in the Middle East for theological reasons. Fortunately, this is a minority of the Christian community, but our doors remain open to all despite this type of challenge. The point is, new devotees to the freedom philosophy are more likely to come from the left than from those conservatives who have been convinced that God has instructed us to militarize the Middle East.

Although we were on the receiving end of ridicule in the reporting of the press conference, I personally was quite satisfied with the results. True revolutions are not won in a week, a month, or even a year. They take time. But we are making progress, and the momentum remains and is picking up. The Campaign for Liberty is alive and well, and its growth and influence will continue. Obviously the press conference could have been even more successful without the last-minute change of heart by the Libertarian Party candidate by not participating. He stated that his support for the four points remains firm. His real reason for not coming, nor letting me know until forty minutes before the press conference started, is unknown to me. To say the least, I was shocked and disappointed.

Yet in the long run, this last-minute change in plans will prove to be of little importance. I’m convinced that problems like this always seem bigger at the moment, yet things usually work out in the end. Recovering from the mistakes and shortcomings of all that we do in this effort is not difficult if the message is right and our efforts are determined. And I’m convinced they are. That’s what will determine our long-term success, not the shortcomings of any one person.

The Libertarian Party Candidate admonished me for “remaining neutral” in the presidential race and not stating whom I will vote for in November. It’s true; I have done exactly that due to my respect and friendship and support from both the Constitution and Libertarian Party members. I remain a lifetime member of the Libertarian Party and I’m a ten-term Republican Congressman. It is not against the law to participate in more then one political party. Chuck Baldwin has been a friend and was an active supporter in the presidential campaign.

I continue to wish the Libertarian and Constitution Parties well. The more votes they get, the better. I have attended Libertarian Party conventions frequently over the years.

In some states, one can be on the ballots of two parties, as they can in New York. This is good and attacks the monopoly control of politics by Republicans and Democrats. We need more states to permit this option. This will be a good project for the Campaign for Liberty, along with the alliance we are building to change the process.

I’ve thought about the unsolicited advice from the Libertarian Party candidate, and he has convinced me to reject my neutral stance in the November election. I’m supporting Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party candidate.

Just a reminder that today, September 19, is the annual Talk Like a Pirate Day!

President Bush actually wants a Communist government to register underground churches? He believes that will give them a chance to flourish? He thinks that a church will flourish if they sign in with the government? The underground church is already flourishing because of God's grace.

President Bush does not believe that the church poses any threat to Communism. No, it's not like the church has ever been described as "turning the world upside down." It's not like any church members have ever left a tyrannical regime to seek religious freedom in a new country. I mean that would be preposterous.
Perhaps that was the topic of that morning's worship at the communist state-sponsored protestant church he attended?
If only President Bush had read the August 7 press release from China Aid, he would have known that "China’s embracing of Kuanjie Church is a misleading and deceptive ploy used by China to deceive the international community into believing the CPC is no longer persecuting Christians."
I'm sorry, but I only have one response to President Bush:

The social imperative of sound money
LewRockwell.com
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

This past week, the government announced that it would take Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the mortgage giants, under conservatorship, which is a nice way of saying that they will be nationalized.

We don't use the word nationalize any more. We can try an experiment and read the new term 'conservatorship' back into history. In fact, we might say that Stalin and Lenin put Russia's industries under a kind of conservatorship. Or we might say that Mao pushed a kind of land conservatorship, or that Hitler's policy was one of national conservatorship. Marx's little book could be re-titled: The Conservatorship Manifesto.

You see, the government keeps having to make up new names for these things because the old policies, which were not that different in content, failed so miserably. The old terms become discredited and new terms become necessary, in an effort to fool the public.

Continue reading here

Two U.S. Border Patrol Agents are serving decade long prison terms for attempting to apprehend a known drug smuggler for illegally crossing our border with more than 700lbs. of drugs!

Almost as outrageous is that the illegal alien drug smuggler, who was given free medical care, and immunity for testifying against the agents is now suing the U.S. for $5 million--claiming his civil rights were violated!

I have just signed a petition calling for the President to pardon these two Border Agents and I'm asking you to join with me by clicking here for the full story and the petition: You can sign here.

This morning, as I was just about to awaken, I had a dream.

My supervisor at work approached me in my cubicle and asked me if I had made "my list." I asked him, "What list?"

He said it was the list of what I would have to learn to do if anything happened to my wife. The list that would tell me if I could survive on my own?

That's a heavy thought for waking up.

I'm a lot more thrifty now than I was when we were first married. I think I could handle the family economics.

Of course, I'd have to figure out the shopping. How to clip coupons. Figure out which stores double coupons and when to go to one store over another - does the cost of gas counterbalance the discounts on the sale. That crazy stuff that she does without having to think about it.

I can heat up a can of Dinty Moore beef stew with the best of them. But I don't know what to do with all that xanthum gum, rice flour, etc. to make gluten free food. I wouldn't starve, but I wouldn't get to enjoy cobblers, biscuits, or any of the other things worth getting out of bed in the morning.

I would have to learn to get by on 1 1/2 hours of sleep. So far I need about 9 to feel good. So that would be a huge adjustment.

I would have to find out what exactly is supposed to be growing in the garden and how I'm supposed to tend them and when to pick them.

Hopefully the church wouldn't want me to take over providing meals for funerals. Otherwise, I'd have to learn how to organize meal plans.

Oh, I'd have to learn how to shop for clothes for the kids. Where to get the best deals. When to get the best deals. Which thrift stores have the best clothes. The kids' sizes. How much to buy.

Of course, the kids would be the real issue. She homeschools. I couldn't homeschool while working. I would have to put them in school. I would want to put them in Christian school. So that would actually cancel out any economic worries. There would no longer be any economics to worry about!

Not a list I wanted to consider. But a list, I suppose, we should all consider.

It's funny that she wonders why I love her.

Of course, I didn't mention the real skills I would need to learn: How to talk to myself. How to cheer myself up. How to rub my own back. How to change my whole attitude with a wink and a smile. How to bounce ideas off myself. How to speak wisdom to myself.

So, I suppose that's my list.

Lew Rockwell at the Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on September 2, 2008.

From Gospel for Asia:

Mob violence in India's Orissa state continues to escalate, and reports coming from Gospel for Asia leaders in Orissa say that as many as 20 GFA-related churches were destroyed and hundreds of Christian families have been burned out of their homes. At least a dozen members of GFA-related churches have been murdered, but no one knows the overall death toll.

"The Christians in Orissa have fled for their lives into the forests," GFA President K.P. Yohannan said, "and some have been in hiding for three days without food or water.

"Several of our pastors are in the forest along with their church people, and one said that he could have escaped, but would rather die with his people than leave them."

Dr. Yohannan called the situation "unprecedented in his 30 years of ministry in South Asia."

Read more here