Posted by peters on 09/13/09

There's countless jokes on Obama, but it takes the Onion to make this:

White House Reveals Obama Is Bipolar, Has Entered Depressive Phase

Rhymes with the economical Depression quite nicely.

Posted 08/20/10 Americanliberty Barnhart, MO

We wi=finish off the Cold War, seemingly successfully, only to have a stinking socialist become our president. Obama does not know his @ss from his elbow.

Posted by peters on 08/07/09

Just in case if you haven't noticed, but Penn and Teller had a great, and as usually, vitriolic episode on taxes. They also happened to guest star Gandalf... oh wait: "Gandalf wouldn't say that, maybe it's Ron Paul." :)

Enjoy!

Posted by peters on 07/29/09

Sometimes it just hits you, an expression or lucky choice of words, that you have to consider or just laugh about. And this is one:

Bushbama and the continuing message of nope, by Idle Worship.

I heard some versions of it before ("the message of dope") and countless versions of "Yes we can" and "Change you can't believe in". But the simple wording of 'the message of nope' brought me immediately great pleasure. The picture blending Bush and Obama into one person is just the icing on the cake.

---

The reason I found the blog in the first place, is that I am considering to rename my private blog, just note that subtitle. 'Slightly Political' doesn't seem that great, now that I'm posting here with some regularity.

Comments and ideas are very welcome.

Posted by peters on 05/25/09

For the past month or so, I have been working on a little project of mine, the Austrian Economics wiki at http://austrianeconomics.wikia.com/.

There have been attempts to make something like this before, but they don't seem to have gotten very far. Maybe they were missing a good seed - and that's what I hope to provide.

Of course, it is a seed, a beginning; there are a few pages about a few random concepts, some (semi-)complete articles and a bunch of definitely incomplete topics. But it's a start - they are quite well referenced and there are some comfort features, so it's not just bare walls. It starts to grow beyond just a one-man project.

What it needs? Why, Content, of course!

And to have that, more people are necessary. So if anyone out there is interested in this topic, please stop by. I know for a fact that there is much to improve - maybe you'll find something of interest. In time, it could grow into a valuable resource.

Please help the wiki to grow.

Posted by peters on 05/01/09
Last updated 05/29/09

One of practical things to have are arguments, that are easy to use and metaphors, that approach the subject in a compact, witty, way. Let's start a little collection of sayings on the topic of fiat money.

A good one is the regularly used analogy to a drug addiction, where the junkie really feels good some of the time, at least until he needs another fix. When the inevitable health issues arrive, increasing the dosage may  'help', for a time, until something worse happens. This also points out that the amazing growth of the boom period has been fake; and that it will hurt to get over the addiction. Calling for a painless way out of it is only calling for more drugs.

A similar argument can be done with steroids, an athlete breaking all the records, then suddenly collapsing, etc.

On the relationship of the Fed and the free market, it is like saying "You are a perfectly free person, you can do what you want. Please don't mind that guy over there, he controls how much blood circulates in your body, it's all for your own good. If you were to have minor complications, like, say, feel dizzy, get nosebleeding, or suffer a paralysing stroke and fall into a coma, well, it's all your lifestyle, because you are such a free person. Don't blame us.

And no, you are not allowed to know what they do or how they do it."

Update: found this in a nice article: A memorable cartoon of the period (1970s) showed a balding Wall-Street banker having a heart-to-heart with his errant teenage son: "Think of it this way, Timmy: Taking drugs is kinda like increasing the money supply. ..."

(Please add more of your own, or refer to other good short stories about fiat money.)