Orginially posted at FreedomWorks.
Yesterday, a large group of unions including AFSCME, NEA, SEUI, AFT and ATU protested outside FreedomWorks HQ in DC. We were cussed at and called names. A Jewish member of FreedomWorks staff was called a “bad jew.” Here is a video I took of the protest:
WARNING: VULGAR LANGUAGE.
This past weekend, I had the privilege to attend the 2011 International Students for Liberty Conference. While I am no longer a student, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet more than 500 liberty minded young people from around the world. I met students from Canada, England, Germany, Australia and Portugal. It always amazes (and embarrasses!) me how these international students generally know more about American politics and history than the average American. That speaks volumes about our government-run educational system.
As my third Students for Liberty conference, this one was noticeably much larger with more women than previous conferences. I’d say that the average libertarian conference has a 10-1 male to female ratio. This conference may have had 40 percent women in attendance! Since I believe that women are more likely to hold mainstream views, this is a great sign that the liberty movement is growing rapidly. Freedom is popular.
I’ve never ever said this before. You probably haven’t heard this before: some of the guys at the libertarian conference were smooth talkers. For the first time, I saw some guys confidently approach myself and other women without making a complete fool out of themselves. Gasp. They didn’t seem so intimidated to talk to a person of the opposite sex. I barely even saw any stuttering or excessive sweating. At the Liberty on the Rocks social afterwards, Andrew Guevara—one of LOTR organizers— told me to make sure everyone was having a good time. This meant introducing myself to anyone who may have been awkwardly standing in the corner by himself or herself. I looked around the room multiple times throughout the night and I never saw any of those kids.
Bryan Caplan and Ilya Somin have already pointed out that libertarians’ social skills have improved largely due to these conferences. We’ve finally found a reason to escape our parents’ basement and talk to real human beings about our ideas. Caplan says “Twenty years ago, a pack of libertarian students would have been roughly as awkward and freakish as attendees at Comic-Con… or, say, me. Now I see hundreds of students who aren’t just smart, but smooth.”
I’d have to confirm Caplan and Somin’s theory: these conferences have helped my social skills. I’m an awkward kid too. I love conferences with high concentrations of scrawny, socially awkward libertarians like me. One of the keynote speakers Megan McArdle hilariously said “We diagnosed your son with Aspergers, but don’t worry we’re going to send him to DC and have him work in a think tank.” I’ve finally found a crowd that I fit in with that I can be myself around. They’ve taught me to embrace my awkwardness and be able to make jokes about it. Thank God for giving me a sense of humor.
I attended lectures held by professors and scholars of the Institute for Humane Studies, Cato Institute and Foundation for Economic Education. I learned a lot and it revamped my dream of becoming a hip pipe smoking economic professor that rants against the state. Hey, it could happen.
I am often asked “what is your ultimate goal?” I don’t have a definitive answer to that question yet. It’s easy to say Students for Liberty’s slogan “a free academy, a free society.” The question that is less frequently asked is “how are you going to achieve your goal?” While education is vitally important, it is only part of the recipe to change the world. Let’s turn these ideas into political action. Two of the best ways to get involved is to run for office or get involved with a political campaign.
I understand that our ideas are not entirely mainstream. Will they ever be in our lifetime? That’s up to us. The mainstream media is doing their best to marginalize Ron Paul who is one of our spokesmen for liberty. Please remember that geniuses are rarely respected in their lifetime. These are the type of people that mainstream society has called “kooks” at one point. Vincent Van Gogh never lived to see his fame. Only one of his paintings sold while he was alive. Barely anyone accepted Galileo Galileo’s discovery of gravity during his lifetime. He was treated as an outcast. Now people call him the father of modern science. Same goes for Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson who were not respected while they were alive. I firmly believe that mainstream America will one day see Ron Paul as a hero.
Originally posted at FreedomWorks.
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a member of France’s Socialist Party. As one of the 187 member countries, U.S. taxpayers pay roughly 17 percent of the IMF’s total funding. Dominique Strauss-Kahn even unsuccessfully ran for president of France on the Socialist ticket in 2007. Rumors have been circulating that the socialist may be challenging current French President Nicholas Sarkozy in 2012.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has made his political views clear. In April 2010, the IMF released a report called the “Reserve Accumulation and International Monetary Stability.” The report was full of extensive IMF jargon. However, it’s worth a read to discover what the IMF is scheming. The report reads:
A more ambitious reform option would be to build on the previous ideas and develop, over time, a global currency. Called, for example, bancor in honor of Keynes, such a currency could be used as a medium of exchange—an ’outside money’ in contrast to the SDR which remains an ‘inside money’.
The international bureaucracy has proposed a global currency to honor the father of Keynesian economics- John Maynard Keynes. As an influential economist of the 21st century, Keynes was the antithesis of free markets and limited government. He believed that massive government intervention in the marketplace would somehow lead to prosperity. In 1940, John Maynard Keynes first developed the idea of a supranational currency, called the bancor, to be the world’s key currency. When asked about the long-term effects of his economic policies, Keynes famously replied “in the long run we are all dead.”
A global currency would grant even more power to the international bureaucracy while failing to stabilize the global financial system. The IMF fully intends to push for a dollar alternative. Just last week, the IMF released another report praising the idea. In a recent speech, Socialist Dominique Strauss-Kahn said there is “a sense that money sometimes flows around the globe in too-volatile a fashion and that countries need a more stable, more predictable external environment in order to prosper.”
How would the global currency work? In the IMF report it says:
One option is for bancor to be adopted by fiat as a common currency (like the euro was), an approach that would result immediately in widespread use and eliminate exchange rate volatility among adopters (comparable, for instance, to Cooper 1984, 2006 and the Economist, 1988). A somewhat less ambitious (and more realistic) option would be for bancor to circulate alongside national currencies, though it would need to be adopted by fiat by at least some (not necessarily systemic) countries in order for an exchange market to develop.
Who would print and administer the “bancor?” A global bank modeled after the Federal Reserve. The report continues:
A global currency, bancor, issued by a global central bank (see Supplement 1, section V) would be designed as a stable store of value that is not tied exclusively to the conditions of any particular economy. As trade and finance continue to grow rapidly and global integration increases, the importance of this broader perspective is expected to continue growing… The global central bank could serve as a lender of last resort, providing needed systemic liquidity in the event of adverse shocks and more automatically than at present. Such liquidity was provided in the most recent crisis mainly by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which however may not always provide such liquidity.
It sounds like a conspiracy theory. But I urge you to check out the report for yourself on the IMF’s website. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a threat to America’s sovereignty. As Dominique Strauss-Kahn said about the European Union, “the centre must seize the initiative in all areas key to reaching the common destiny of the union, especially in financial, economic and social policy. Countries must be willing to cede more authority to the centre.”A global currency and bank would be a huge step towards a global government.
Views are my own. They do not represent the views of any organization.
Posted at Young Americans for Liberty.
Over the past three days, liberty lovers stormed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with messages of peace, prosperity and liberty. It was an honor to meet so many like-minded young people who are concerned about the future of our beloved country. Many were poor college students who traveled thousands of miles, missed class and spent hundreds of dollars just to attend CPAC.
It always brings tear to my eyes to be in a room of liberty lovers chanting “End the Fed!” Humble Ron Paul always looks so surprised to see our enthusiasm. He signed my End the Fed book right under his dedication which reads “To the young people who powered my presidential campaign and who are the heart of the anti-Fed movement.” I still remember the first day I learned about Ron Paul in February 2007. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that his presidential run would spark a revolution that continues to rapidly grow.
As one should expect, our presence angered the pro-war political establishment. These so-called conservatives were fewer in number than they were in previous years. As I walked by proudly wearing my Campaign for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty stickers, I heard whispers “those Ron Paul are a cult I swear.” We apparently believe in “conspiracy theories” about the Federal Reserve. What happened when I asked about views on the Federal Reserve? I got blank stares. They were even unable to answer simple questions about the purpose of the Fed.
Never mind that most political movements have centered around one person. Back in the day, the establishment laughed at these crazy “Goldwater kids.” Reagan people got the same treatment. Ron Paul was one of the earliest supporters of Ronald Reagan. He led the delegation for Ronald Reagan at the 1976 Republican Convention. In those days, enthusiastic supporters of the Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan were considered “nut jobs.” The establishment somehow considers “Ron Paul people” to be a “cult” since they simply disagree with us. It’s more about the ideas rather than one person. Most of us are willing to admit that Ron Paul is not perfect but he is by far the most principled member of Congress. He can’t be bought by lobbyists.
For the second year in a row, Ron Paul easily won the CPAC straw poll with 30 percent of the vote. Neoconservative blogs are attempting to marginalize the results by calling it “meaningless” and “unfair.” As Tom Woods says “Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll, as you know. But it isn’t fair, they say. He inspired all those people to come vote for him. Um, well, isn’t that the point?” I haven’t heard of one person claiming that Mitt Romney has cured their political apathy. He lacks substance and hasn’t brought any new ideas to the table.
In a desperate attempt to get some much-needed press, Young Americans for “Freedom” announced that they were removing Ron Paul from their board due to his non-interventionist foreign policy. Did it really take them this long to realize Ron Paul has always been anti-war? Ron’s views have never changed but YAF has. I would like to remind YAF that Ronald Reagan endorsed Ron Paul back in the early 1980’s by stating that “Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country.” Ron Paul had already been in Congress for a few terms. Reagan was fully aware of his consistent foreign policy views.
The straw poll also showed that 84 percent of attendees claimed that the main goal should be reducing the size and scope of government. Which is difficult to believe since Mitt Romney came in second place. You know, the same guy who implemented RomneyCare complete with an individual health insurance mandate in Massachusetts. It’s clear that Romney is the antithesis of what conservatism is supposed to stand for: limited government, personal responsibility and free markets. Let’s not make the 2012 Republican primary into a political beauty contest.
We aren’t going anywhere. Our voices are only becoming louder. You can mock and ridicule us but the only thing you can’t do is ignore us. As Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
