Quote: "Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Article: Nationalization: It's Not Just for Communists Anymore: It used to be synonymous with authoritarian regimes, now politicians threaten it and media call it a 'necessary evil.' Jeff Poor.
"In America, “nationalization” used to be a dirty word. But that was prior to this era of government intervention to save industries and institutions deemed “too big to fail.” Now, state involvement in – and even ownership of – certain sectors of the national economy is called a “necessary evil.”"
Guest: Dan Gainor, the T. Boone Pickens Fellow and the Vice President of the Business & Media Institute. They met at CPAC. "Nationalization: It's Not Just for Communists Anymore". Nationalized police and fire departments. Sarah Palin issuing checks from Alaska's oil. Government seizure of private property. Fifth amendment, eminent domain. Even if government only takes a stake. Savings and Loan. Bill Siedman. Throwing out bad management. Reprivatization of banks. Government having no path to get out. Loose speech about nationalization affecting the market. Tim Geithner. One hour before FDR was sworn inn, many banks failed. He took over the banks for a time, and the government ended up with a profit. Breaking them up. Many of the mortgages may turn out not to be bad.
Article: Treasury Loan-Modification Guidelines.
The difference between money and wealth rant. Wealth is something of real value. The banking money, and bubbles, are money not wealth. You create wealth be converting raw materials into things of value. The problem is Reaganomics. "Making Home Affordable" details.
Bumper Music: You Learn, Alanis Morissette (video). She endorsed Thom's book The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight on her web site.
Article: Space Rock Swoops by Earth.
Book: Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, Kevin Phillips.
Can't we sort out the good and bad debt?
Clip:
"It was proposed that there, regulation or at least disclosure be required and the industry fought it and the Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan vehemently opposed. And they made the argument which you hear all the time, and I can remember Alan saying, "look, these are sophisticated contracts between knowledgeable buyers and knowledgeable sellers; no regulators can do as well as they'll do, so what do you need a regulator for? The market will regulate these." And he won the day. And so among the list of our friends along with me and others, Alan was clearly, I'd say, the key person responsible for the fact that we didn't even know how many of those contracts there were, And they were up in the trillions.
So, when AIG got in trouble, it turned out that they had one division with 400 people in it, they had 80,000 employees, they had 400 people in one division, they wrote all these contracts. They didn't report any of them. So they were, you'd say, gambling by writing these contracts. and when things started to go bad and they had to pay on these contracts, the whole monster, the largest insurance company in the world went under.
"
L. William Seidman at Grand Valley State University in Michigan 9 October 2008 (there are 7 videos on YouTube).
Bumper Music: Shake It Up, The Cars.
Thom got out of the market about four and a half years ago. Think what would have happened if George W Bush had had his way with privatizing Social Security.
Alexander's Hamilton’s industrial policy was based on Henry VII’s Tudor Plan. Alexander Hamilton's "Report On Manufactures". Tariffs rant.
The 7th year of this show begins this week.
Book: Unequal Protection.
Solar activity in 2012.
Worms rant.
Video: part 1, part 2. Transcript.
Book: "Threshold", Thom Hartmann.
Salem International.
Dr. Joel Weinstock
The Worm Turns, Moises Velasquez-Manoff.
Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
Article: Out of nuggets? Woman at McDonald’s calls 911 three times.
Wealth vs. money. Capitalism should be called monetarism.
Cooperation is natural in nature; the finch and the nut; predators and parasites that kill off too many of their hosts die. Cooperative agriculture: don't kill the plant, for example eat only the greens off the horse radish. Cooperative medicine: leeches, maggots. Hunter gatherers leaving part of a tuber so that it will sprout again.
Allergies after a spell in very sterile conditions in hospital. Relief of allergies after picking up a stomach bug. Parasites for weight loss, historically.
Dogs and parasites, allergies. They do live longer so get more problems. So do we.
Bumper Music: I'm A Nazi, Rush Limbaugh / WNNX-FM (Atlanta, GA) (video).
Article: I'm Sorry Rush, DCCC.
Article: Limbaugh Travels to Canada for Surgery.
Natural foods. Victory gardens. Goodbelly. Small businesses.
Book: "Patient Heal Thyself: A Remarkable Health Program Combining Ancient Wisdom with Groundbreaking Clinical Research", Jordan S. Rubin.
Taking strong remedies for harmful parasites can strip all the good ones too and lead to problems. Giardia. Flagyl. Coeliac disease.
Book: "Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food", Jan Chozen Bays.
"Here is an accessible and encouraging exploration of how and why to apply the Zen art of mindfulness to transform our “issues” with food. Whether we are overweight (as are two-thirds of American adults today) or suffer from an eating disorder, learning to eat mindfully can liberate us from the suffering we experience with food. Practiced for centuries in the Zen tradition, mindful eating is an approach that involves bringing one’s full attention to the process of eating—becoming fully present to the tastes, smells, thoughts, and feelings that arise during a meal. Preliminary research funded by the National Institutes of Health indicates that mindfulness is effective in treating eating disorders.
Dr. Bays, a physician and Zen teacher, offers a wonderfully clear presentation of what mindfulness is and how it can help us create a healthier relationship with food. In Mindful Eating she shows us how to rediscover the simple act of eating, thereby gaining control of our eating problems from the inside out. Along the way she reviews the relevant research, offers medical information, and presents numerous practical exercises drawn from her workshops. Through mindful eating we not only overcome our issues with food, but we can reawaken our sense of pleasure and satisfaction. This book shows us how.
Mindful Eating also includes a 70-minute audio CD containing guided exercises read by the author.
"
Guest: ”Everything You Know is Wrong”: Dr. Jan Chozen Bays. Author, "Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food". Symbiotic organisms in food. We have more bacteria in our body than we have cells in our body. Being present with our food. When eating just eat. Being in the present.
Sweeteners. Stevia.
Public Health Alert. Klinghardt Academy.
Bumper Music: Gotta Be Somebody, Nickelback.
Slide show: The Men Who Made Millions As Merrill Lost Billions.
697,000 jobs lost in February. States have hired up to 400,000 as a result of the stimulus package.
Guest: Larry Scott, founder and Editor of VA Watch Dog. "The American Veteran's On-Line News Magazine". Veterans' issues. Joint Congressional hearing on VA document shredding and mishandling. An amnesty at one of 57 offices produced 16,000 documents. In New York 6 managers were relieved from duty because they told staff to change dates on documents. Others have been terminated elsewhere. There is being a special division to monitor being set up. Supreme Court decided not to decide on Agent Orange claims, including from Vietnam civilians. Justice John Paul Stevens recuses himself on Agent Orange cases; his son who was a Vietnam vet died of cancer.
Bumper Music: The Sky Is Cryin, Stevie Ray Vaughan (video).
Bumper Music: I Hate Wal-mart, Dave Lippman.
Article: Teeth Found In Wal-Mart Wallet Puzzle Police.
What is the government doing for people who own manufactured homes? The bounty to lenders for refinancing.
What is a small business?
Randy and Louella sent Thom a $2 United States note.
Bumper Music: It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), REM.
Article: Ex-Bush lawyer talks about torture memos. Visiting Chapman professor wrote opinions on interrogation methods.
Q: Is there anything you would have done differently?
John Yoo: These memos I wrote were not for public consumption. They lack a certain polish, I think – would have been better to explain government policy rather than try to give unvarnished, straight-talk legal advice. I certainly would have done that differently, but I don't think I would have made the basic decisions differently. ...
And sometimes, what's legal and not legal is not the same thing as what you can do or what you should do. ...
Q: The Department of Justice is looking into the legality of some of the memos you wrote. Is this a possible cost?
John Yoo: I wish they weren't doing it, but I understand why they are. It is something one would expect.
Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. John Yoo interview. Thom saw Bob Barr debate John Yoo at CPAC; Yoo was cheered, whereas Barr was booed for standing up for the constitution. Yoo is not an intellect to be in awe of; Bush had no legal training either. Obama was a professor of Constitutional Studies. Robert Gibbs was asked about the international criminal court issuing a warrant for Sudanese president Omar Bashir. He said those who have committed atrocities should be held accountable, but he refused to comment specifically. Charities have people in Darfur, so it is wise not to criticize Bashir.
