anarky102

The US & Israeli governments operate in a state of lawlessness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yswEJ81hnWA For the record, I am not really a fan of O'Reilly, actually found this on karl denninger's market ticker website(whom I also have disagreements with, but still like some of it's content) The part that makes me chuckle in this video: "When a politician talks about having a conversation about (fill in the blank), some bloviating is about to come"

Doesn't this mean assigning value though? That is what dr. eldstein is arguing against, whereas EVERYTHING, is in a state of flux. As always, values can be objective or subjective, true or false. The only survival-value of false values is that of being accepted by others, which has nothing to do with an objective appreciation and experience of success, achievement, fulfillment... Michael is arguing against an idea of self esteem based on these false, social or aesthetic values, which is the usual misconception – and a very sad misconception. To follow Stef's own example in the video. I'd say Isabella experiences high self esteem when playing the piano so "badly". On the other hand, skilled and successful piano players (whom I have met many) generally lose their basic ability to think and be connected to reality – as a result of having to compulsively meet the non-objective standards of others in their career – and so experience a low self esteem regardless of their reports and achievements. What Isabella would call self esteem (Nathaniel's definition) is not what the piano player – or Michael or Stef – would call self esteem. While I can appreciate your saying, I think value, or things such as isabella feeling happy are key words, whereas eldstein is stressing no evaluation at all. I sense that your making an argument for "nathaniel branden's" self esteem, if I interpret correctly here. Frankly though, if you are talking about task orientation, then I really like the book "Flow". The interviewees in that book make mention, that they would do what they do, even if you were not paying them. I think it is a good companion to eldstein's book, not that I am affiliated in any way with either. The only place where I would part company with eldstein though, is with regard to discussing early childhood experiences. In his book, he deems this as unnecessary, and perhaps at a point, because you do have to take responsibility for your life, but I feel the same way as stef, that it IS about relationships, and those things should be explored and resolved. Please correct me if I misquote anything here, but this is my understanding.

Doesn't this mean assigning value though? That is what dr. eldstein is arguing against, whereas EVERYTHING, is in a state of flux.

http://www.sparknotes.com/ For anyone whom has had a tough time, as I have had sifting through nietzsche, and getting to the meanings of his writings, this is a really awesome website that offers a cliffnotes style breakdown of what is going on in his books, as well as other books.

Martin Armstrong has a good article relating to this: http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/05/11/irs-has-always-been-a-political-tool-against-the-press-individuals/ I firmly agree with him that part of caging the beast known as government needs to consist of eliminating the IRS Agency, putting term limits for politicians in place, eliminating the income tax, and forbidding the government to take out loans. He does not mention this in his article BTW, but I like his writing(obviously!).

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Geography-of-hate.jpg Just shows the US. Would be interesting to see how other tax farms look, but I can only think that perhaps canada is a bit more civilized.

Good Michael Hudson discussion on how students are being treated like debt serfs. Found out about this one on a gordon t long podcast, ty andros talks about how the financiers try to financialize everything.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/02/getting-rid-of-comments/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBigPicture+%28The+Big+Picture%29

Wonder what the stefbot thinks on this one. Although I think the only thing that george michael could ever be hated for is not procreating and having some attractive kids!

She is very articulate and has an interesting take on the economy.

Ditto on this comment. People also generally like gold and silver because it is portable and their is no counterparty risk. Their has been commodities such as lumber that have outperformed the metals in the seventies. While I do follow technical charts, and see potential trouble for value when priced in dollars at times, I also look at the absurdity known as public discourse that we have these days, granted the government has the guns and can do whatever the heck it wants. The toughest part about these times at the moment, is that it is really more about CONSERVING money versus making a windfall. The irony is that if you discuss metals with your average joe bag of donuts american, they will think even worse of you then some bankster that has looted millions in wealth. But like Henry Ford once said, "If the average person recognized the truth of america's banking system, their would be revolution in the streets tomorrow." However, this is certainly much less of a likelihood given the overwhelming amount of force big brother has at it's disposal. Not that I would even advocate revolution anyway, which is precisely why governments love gun control, in the guise of saving lives, despite billions and billions killed to the contrary.

http://www.mises.org/daily/6314/Why-Bankers-Avoid-the-Public-Eye Interesting article to me from the perspective of introducing the term collective corruption into my vocabulary. Also makes me think of the excellent, "Road to serfdom" book, this article is in a similar vein. My bias of course is that I am a precious metals buyer and think this article vindicates my purchases. But I am always pondering and reconsidering my positions too, especially if my thinking seems to creep into believing that something is a sure thing.