Posted by Aquinox on 04/23/09

Well, good news. As of Tuesday night, I'm officially on the ballot for the Syracuse Common Council, District 5.  Our fair city is 18% registered republican, and I've got (from what I hear) one of the largest districts.  It was pointed out that since we have 2 candidates entering a primary for the mayorship, that'll only make the challenge a bit tougher.

Always open to any advice or assistance anyone could offer.  Trying to come up with this website is a beastload of work, but we all know how pivotal the digital aspect of everything is nowadays.

Anyways, I'll be sure to keep you all updated on how everything goes.

As always, feel free to email (contact@tristandaedalus.info) and let's spread the message of limited government and a sound economy.

Posted 04/23/09 Fu Manchu Belleville, MI

That is good news, I'm pulling for you!

Posted by Aquinox on 12/06/08
Last updated 12/06/08

Americans today love chanting about their rights. Sadly though, few Americans actually understand how they work. Sure, we know we have the right to freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. We also know that the 'right to bear arms' shall not be infringed. There isn't to be any quartering of soldiers, no unwarranted search and siezure, no self-incrimination, a trial-by-jury, and privacy-- as of 1791 at least. Then there was the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th, which corrected the few (I believe everyone can agree) hypocricies of our constitution. And then the 26th, which happily let me vote at 18.

So much has gone into 'protecting' these rights, but what of the flip side? What must we give to keep them? This is never talked about, and yet it's their most important part. Right is equal to responsibility, and without the latter-- the former is void.

Take for example, Jury Duty. Everyone wants to get out of Jury Duty. Most likely because they view it as an unnecessary intrusion onto their time but I'm sure the reasons vary. To the man who stands accused though, they are his last refuge; convincing or failing to convince them will determine his future. If anyone was denied the Right to Trial by Jury, we can only imagine how quickly the Supreme Court would have an ACLU-backed case on their desks. When someone manages to dodge Jury Duty though, they feel a sense of accomplishment; they've outsmarted the system.I've always felt, with the first amendment for example, that because I have the right to speak freely, I have the duty to speak freely. I know in these times, I wouldn't curtail my thought for any man, company, or government on the earth. Many feel the same, but many more think that limiting what they say is appropriate, that 'being patriotic' includes always supporting your government, and that if someone is offended by what you say, you should refrain from it in future.

It's this problem that's bring America to its knees. This sense of take without any give. If your company is going to go under, you should be bailed out by the government. If the places were reversed though, and government were to go ask the Big 3 for a 'loan' I wonder how fast they'd be laughed out of Detroit.

The beauty of the amendments is their reciprocity. If I need a trial by jury, you serve. If you need one, I serve. Everyone is equally protected because everyone serves to protect. In modern America though, we like getting a whole lot more than we give, if we even give any at all. And for as long as that persists, we'll have far bigger issues than the American auto industry's pending failure.

Posted 12/08/08 Son Of Liberty Erie, PA

well put

Posted by Aquinox on 12/02/08

In the news today...

Somali pirates chased and shot at an american cruise liner with more than a thousand people on board in an attempt to hijack the vessel. The cruise ship successfully outran the pirates, and no injuries were reported. It is important to note a couple things which make this outragous.

First, "International warships patrol the area and have created a security corridor in the region under a U.S.-led initiative, but the attacks have not abated." What exactly are these warships doing creating an insecure security corridor? That false sense of safety is more damaging than the ships knowingly trudging through pirate-infested waters.

Second, "The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said it was aware of the failed hijacking but had no further details." The US Navy was aware of this failed hijacking, and still did as much as me-- thousands of miles away. What purpose does the Navy serve again? If protecting American ships abroad comes after launching cruise missiles at technologically inferior nations we intend to invade, I think they need to check their priorities.

Story Here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081202/ap_on_re_af/piracy

Also important to note is the New York Times, reporting on the real nature of the pirates.

Quotes such as, "“We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”" riddle this expertly crafted piece, apparently attempting to justify piracy and theft as acceptable.

I guess nobody told this makeshift Somali 'Coast Guard', that international waters end 30 miles from their coast. Not 200. Nice try. You're still pirates.

Story Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/africa/01pirates.html?_r=1&hp

Posted by Aquinox on 11/17/08

I recently wrote a paper for a Sociology class in which I analyzed the collapse of the housing bubble and associated economic implosion and tried to determine their causes. Ultimately, I settled on certain instances of government regulation (Community Reinvestment Act) and the desire for government officials to be able to point to 'home ownership' being at all time highs (regardless of the true facts), among other things.

Well, I was shot down miserably. That's irrelevant though, because I'm curious as to what the true causes are. No, I'm not having you all do the research for me, because I can't turn in the paper again. I just figure that anywhere I search on the internet (as has happened) is going to cite 'too little regulation' or 'predator lenders' as the source of all of America's problems, and I'd really like an unbiased (or conservatively biased) opinion on the matter.

So, what caused the economic collapse?

Posted 11/17/08 sweetliberty San Rafael, CA

Elimination of the free market to accurately perceive values, and therefore accurately asses risk. Here's an example: Two sweaters both cost $50 each. One is cheaply made, of poor quality, and is already coming apart at the seams -- a poor value. The other has exquisite craftsmanship and is cashmere -- a great value. Being able to assess what, exactly, you're getting for your money (value assessment) is absolutely necessary to assess the financial risk involved (i.e. can I afford to buy it?). Now let's say every Saturday, you go shopping, and every Saturday, the prices change, seemingly randomly. One weekend, the sweater is $50, the next it's $250. You never know exactly what the prices are based on (because they're being manipulated by entities outside of market forces, i.e. government, unions, price-fixing, etc.). Your ability to assess the value of that sweater is gone. You now no longer know what you're buying, and are therefore more apt to make poor purchases. With sweaters, probably not a big deal. But when non-market forces manipulate the prices of property, it is a huge deal. Consumers need to know the value of the property they're purchasing, when they are taking the risk to go hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to buy it. Government manipulation of interest rates, government backing of "bad" or high-risk loans that the banks made, and lender/assessor manipulations of sale prices (as well as pushing "predatory" loans like sub-primes) completely eliminated the consumer's ability to accurately assess the value of the property, therefore negating the ability to assess the risk involved. Poor decisions ensue. There are great articles at cato.org that deal with predatory lending and too little regulation. There are also good ones at aynrand.org.

Posted 11/18/08 mudhoney Cedar Falls, IA

Maybe you've already been there, but mises.org has a great list of articles and books related to the economic crisis and government bailouts. http://mises.org/story/3128 As sweetliberty already touched on, manipulation of interest rates was the root cause. When the dot-com bubble busted and 9/11 happened, the Fed did some drastic manipulation of interest rates as economic stimulus, which caused yet another boom and bust. I think an important thing to know is that there are no regulations that can prevent the malinvestment caused by artificial interest rates and easy money. The boom/bust cycle will continue with bad investments in some other new and risky venture. On top of it all, the government intervention in the markets (bailouts) only result in further diversion of resources into less productive companies and ideas.

Posted 11/22/08 cmohr Elkhart, IA

The entire boom bust business cycle is the root cause of the economic trouble we see, but the boom bust cycle is an artificially created phenomena. This artificial cycle is the result of the centrally planned reserve banking system that has been taking over our nation since its inception to the United States in 1913. Since that year the federal reserve has been manipulating the monetary system in such a way that the true wealth of this country has been stolen by the world central bank by inflating the money to near worthlessness compared to a solid commodity based currency. If you truly want to see what has caused this economic crisis, almost all of them to this point, and probably many more in the future, watch the movie "Money as Debt". It will open your eyes to the fraud of Central Banking and you will see who truly rules the world. "We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years... It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries." -- David Rockefeller, Speaking at the June, 1991 Bilderberger meeting in Baden, Germany (a meeting also attended by then-Governor Bill Clinton and by Dan Quayle

Posted by Aquinox on 11/04/08

Remember remember, the fifth of November,

The gun powder treason and plot.

I know of no reason, the gunpowder treason,

Should ever be forgot.

It's coming... are you ready?