As well as my blog I also like to use Pinterest to record images and themes of the seaside. Pinterest gives me how I feel about the seaside in one ‘pinboard’ of pictures collected from around the net. Take a look at my Beach Talk pinboard to get a better idea of my style.

for fifty years, the lighthouse

message, “You’re too near!”

Image via Wikipedia

End the Fed The Federal Reserve System, brought to you by Chuck Madere. The Fed, is the most important financial institution in the nation. Yet few Americans understand the Fed’s real purpose for existence and the dangers it presents to our nation’s financial well-being. However, Congressman Ron Paul’s book End the Fed, a New York Times bestseller, is changing that.

Simply, the Fed is a central bank, which has the legal authority to “create money out of thin air.” As Congressman Paul notes, as have other critics of the Fed have noted, it is an inflation machine. Rising prices across the board are not—and have never been—the fault of OPEC, unions or greedy corporations. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon that lies primarily at the door of the Fed. Fractional reserve banking deserves its share of the blame for inflation, but fractional reserve banking is exacerbated by the very existence of the Fed.

First elected to Congress in 1976, Ron Paul became a thorn in the side of the Fed, annually introducing a bill to dismantle the Fed. In no year could the Congressman find even one cosponsor to his bill. The Fed is held with such esteem by members of Congress that no one will stand alongside Dr. Paul on this issue. He was a voice crying in the wilderness, and I don’t doubt but that many members of Congress ridiculed him for his position on the Fed. Now, Ron Paul may be David, about to slay Goliath.

When the Fed created literally trillions of dollars to bailout large financial institutions and Ben Bernanke, Fed Head, had the audacity to tell Congress that he was not going to reveal who got the money much less how much they got, there was an uproar across the country. For perhaps the first time ever, the Fed was the focal point of public criticism, and Ron Paul called for a real audit of the Fed with HR 1207.

So intense have been the attacks on the Fed that for the first time it hired a lobbyist to defend its position on Capitol Hill. Paul’s Audit the Fed bill has 55 cosponsors and passed out of the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 43 – 26. The Senate companion bill, S 604, has 31 cosponsors. Suddenly, Congressmen and Senators climbed on board the Ron Paul wagon. Undoubtedly, cosponsors climbed aboard not because they suddenly saw the evils of the Fed but because they saw the handwriting on the wall.

For nearly a hundred years, the Fed pretty much successfully concealed that it was the beast that its critics had said it was. To this day, most Americans do not know that the Fed, with its loose money policies of the 1920s, was the cause of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In the 1970s, when prices rose at double digits rates, only Austrian economists correctly saw the Fed as responsible. The media, which by then had become fairly much the Fed’s lapdogs, blamed the “oil shock.”

Other times, rising price levels were attributed to “cost-push inflation,” a spurious theory that blamed businesses. When the CPI and GPI rose “only” 2%-3%, Americans were told “a little inflation is good.” Now, though, Ron Paul has told the truth.

The Fed is not a beneficent organization established for the good of mankind but exists solely for the benefit of big banking. End the Fed is Ron Paul’s assessment of an institution whose machinations he has sought to expose since before becoming a member of Congress. He relates how he came to realize the immorality of the Fed and the inflation it creates. And, he tells of his conversations with Fed Heads Greenspan and Bernanke when they appeared before House committees.

Paul pulls no punches. He lays the blame for the financial crisis of 2008 and the housing crisis squarely at the feet of Alan Greenspan. “History will show that Greenspan, during his years as Fed chairman (1987-2006), planted all the seeds of the financial calamity that erupted in 2007 and 2008.”

Further, Paul declares Obama’s “solution” to the problem not a solution at all. “. . . the inflation and debt accumulation of the Obama years will not inflate our way out of it. This depression will likely last and last. (Note that Paul calls our present economic woes a depression, not a recession.) If the depression lasts a decade or more, its length cannot be blamed solely on Greenspan. That blame will be placed on the current Federal Reserve Board, Congress, the President, the Treasury, but above all on Keynesian economic policy, the same philosophy that gave us the Great Depression of the 1930s.

” Many persons familiar with Ron Paul’s assessments of our problems are quick to point out that he is a doctor, “not an economist.” To that, I would remind them that Ron Paul has studied economics his entire adult life. Further, he has hobnobbed with some of the foremost economic thinkers of the Austrian economic school, such greats as Murray Rothbard, Hans Sennholz, F. A. Hayek and the master himself, Ludwig von Mises.

Additionally, Ron Paul has authored at least ten books on economics and political thinking. The Revolution, a Manifesto, like End the Fed, became a New York Times bestseller. With Lewis Lehrman, Paul coauthored The Case for Gold, which was a minority report to the 1981 U.S. Gold Commission, a Ronald Reagan initiative to study the role that gold should play in our monetary system. (The commission was stacked with anti-gold members and the minority report was one of only two benefits to come from the commission’s work. The American Eagle bullion coin program was the other.)

Ron Paul’s grasp of economics and understanding of the political process make him eminently qualified to write about economics and to make economic forecasts. Sadly, Paul is not optimistic about the immediate outlook for our economy.

End the Fed is only 210 pages, divided into fifteen chapters. Although Paul’s explanation why this depression likely will “last and last” is scary, his Chapter 4, Central Banks and War, is a shocker. Simply put, central banks facilitate war and give politicians fewer reasons to seek political solutions to differences with other nations. “It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking.” Before the days of central banks (European as well as our Fed), wars resulted in higher taxes and shortages as resources were diverted from the domestic economy to the war effort.

When politicians have to tell the people that the wars they are about to embark upon will raise taxes and create shortages, political solutions become viable alternatives. When the costs of the wars can be hidden through the creation of new money via central banks, political solutions are less likely. Sadly, many investment banking houses actually agitate for war as they stand to make billions of dollars issuing and trading in the bonds and securities that are sold as a nation gears for war.

Ron Paul’s End the Fed is must reading for anyone seeking to survive today’s financial turmoil. Understanding the problem is the first step toward solving it.

Thank You All For Reading

Chuck Madere

Self Improvement from SelfGrowth.com- – SelfGrowth.com is the most complete guide to information about Self Improvement on the Internet.

Brother Suppenkraut (he’s the one on the right, with the cigarette) is apparantly in charge of security nowadays. He would like you all to get to know him and his lovely wife Muse Myrtle (she’s the one on the left, in the kimono) since, in his own words, it’s such a pleasure to know them.

Here you see them, more or less relaxing on the porch of their home at Rastafairy Beach.

Big ups to DD for a great set with to-the-point announcements and the best of mixes, to Nad Gough for sweet tunes and particles, and to all the contestants who put in a shitload of work on their outfits. FYI: Sevenarts Dreamscape won the jury prize, Arduenn Schwartzman was elected by the audience. May they wear their Beach Queen 2009 tags with pride!

Wer didn’t crash the sim, though. Better luck next year!

Located on the Northern shore of the island, the Rastafairy Beach Art Gallery has opened its gates! We plan to change the exhibitions regularly, so it sure can’t hurt to take a regular peek at all the eye-candy!

Gone are the days of red fences in neigbouring lands and of Grid Gremlins causing lag! We have relocated to an island! There, we built four stages to satisfy all your musical desires, you can take a rowing boat tour of the land to enjoy the fresh air and maybe discover some of those special little places, and you can of course hang out in general, enjoying a cold drink and listening to the music stream.

The SLURL is in the link list!

(click on the image to go the website)

And this is what you see when you look up! It’s situated in a pine forest, you know. Fyrm Fouroux played the opening gig on Sunday, June 1, and man did he pwn the house! You better make sure you’re there as well on the first Sunday of July, at Noon PDT!

And what to think of the cozy Artist Room, where you can entertain your friends and groupies, watch television, have a drink and/or use controlled substances without having to explain it to your mom?

Is it the money? Don’t be silly! You can rez a tipjar and haul in that Lindy Love! Is the lack of traffic a problem? Who cares? Our crowd is a music loving one – the best audience to play for!

And let’s not forget the gorgeous pyro we throw in on occasion, provided by none other than Brimstone & Fire, the metaverse’s one and only ambient pyromaniacs! Plus you can of course always use our stream, so no worries there!

To cut a long story short: contact hexx Triskaidekaphobia and set that gig up!

Down at Rastafairy Beach, we love to do fireworks. Ha! We even take it abroad when we get the chance! This clip features one of our absolute favourite artists, the notorious Mr. Silas Scarborough, tearing it up at Luxor Stage and at The Tropics.

Then the Sunday brought Lyn Carlberg, laid back and smooth, creating just the vibe one needs on a Sunday – also because of his fans, a veritable bunch of friendly people. Major props to all of you for turning this show into a rezday party to remember!

And last but not least: the good Rev. Silas T. Sasquatch. He never fails to inspire with his wisdom and choice of music – half an hour flies by like a leaf on the wind! Each and every time, we face the new week with a cleansed heart and soul, and are sure we will survive yet another week of deviant behaviour. More power to the good Reverend, that’s what we say!

Now we know that many of you are too busy with important matters to spend a mere half hour at 11 AM PDT on a Sunday for your spiritual growth. That’s why we’ve made the services available in MP3, so you can still listen to them at a time that’s more convenient. You can find the link in the list to the right of this page.

Needless to say, we are nevertheless looking forward to greeting you in person!

And as far as businessplans and marketing concepts go: we r in ur spreadsheets eating ur return on investment! And loving every second of it!

“It’s a band, Jim, but not as we know it.”

Better come over soon and check the event calendar at the landing point, people. You definately wouldnt wanna miss any of those concerts!