The Sudden Curve

Snicker

Posted by Bob Wallace, who once swallowed a bug.

The Federal Reserve Bank vs. my Shoes

When I was in college the best salesman in the world talked me into buying a pair of Allen Edmonds shoes -- specifically the Malverns. They cost $75.

They were the best shoes I ever had. Unfortunately I didn't take particularly good care of them. I wore them every day, I once dried them on the heat register (the toes curled straight up), and I didn't moisturize them enough. Still, they lasted ten years.

Had I take proper care of them, and have the company rebuild them, I'd still have them. Maybe they wouldn't look so great, but I'd still have them (I wish I still had my '67 Pontiac Tempest slant-4).

Then I bought another pair of Malverns. By then they were up to $150. They lasted about 13 years. I still didn't take very good care of them, specifically wearing them every day, which is a big no-no for shoes.

A week for so ago I checked on the price of Malverns.

$325.

I blame this almost exclusively on the Federal Reserve Bank, which is not federal, has no reserves, and is not a bank. It is in fact a legal counterfeiter which has 100% control over our money supply.

Of course, the Fed is thoroughly unconstitutional. The Constitution forbids anything but gold or silver being money On top of that, it also forbids Bills of Credit, i.e., paper money.

Central banks were tried in the U.S. in the past. Andrew Jackson, for one, swore eternal enmity against them.

"The bold effort the present (central) bank had made to control the government ... are but premonitions of the fate that await the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or the establishment of another like it," he once said. "You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God, will rout you out."

Jackson engaged in a lot of duels. Perhaps we need dueling to be legal today, especially for traitors.

Since the creation of the Fed in 1917, the dollar has lost 99% of its value. That means what cost one penny is 1916 costs one dollar today. In 1890, for example, one silver dime would get you a seven-course meal at a fancy hotel. Today, a quarter will get you a piece of bubble-gum out of a machine.

Perhaps without the Feds Malverns today would cost..maybe a quarter? Fifty cents?

This acceleration of this loss of value really took off in 1973, two years after Richard Nixon went completely off the gold standard in 1971.

Not surprisingly, wages stopped going up in 1973, and have been flat or declining ever since. Except for course, for the one percent whose income has been skyrocketing -- and they accomplished this by using the State to enrich themselves at everyone else's expense.

Fortunately, Allen Edmonds is still an American company. And thank God for that. They haven't fled to China, where the workers make a dollar day, work 12 hour shifts, and live in dormitories.

Lots of American workers appear to make good money -- in nominal wages. If the Fed had never existed, the average wage might be $10,000 a year -- and houses might cost $10,000 (my parents told me they rented a two-story farmhouse in '67 for $60 a month, and they paid $141 a month for a 30-year mortgage).

American companies wouldn't be hemorrhaging jobs to foreign companies if it wasn't for this huge disparity in wages.

Sooner or later, the Fed will go. The first two American central banks had 20-year charters, and then they were gone. The current one needs to go. Sooner or later, it will go.

Unfortunately, I expect pretty much a complete collapse of the economy before the Fed is eliminated.

Posted by Bob Wallace, who is not happy about all of this.

Sometimes it was creepy in Camelot

Maybe my youth made me idealistic, but growing-up in the ‘50’s we understood right was right, and wrong was wrong. The bad guys never won, and no matter what happened, after thirty minutes Ward Cleaver always reminded us of where the bar was set, and we didn’t compromise our values to meet objectives.

Life was good in the ‘50’s, but when reality slaps us in the face it can cause our starry-eyed ideals to fade.

As the hands of time slowly lifted the fog from my youth I learned:

What JFK really did in the White House pool.

That June Cleaver Smoked like a chimney, and swore like a longshoreman.

That Dan Gurney, no matter how wholesome wasn’t old enough to be president.

Why “The Rifleman” wasn’t married. (Eeuwww… and I even had a “Rifleman” gun!)

I didn’t chew gum in school, nor did I run in the halls. I behaved myself because I wanted to grow-up to be like mom and dad. Then I saw this ad and wondered just what mom and dad did behind closed doors:

A good many decades have passed and yes, maybe now I can imagine Ward spanking June, and I’m starting to wonder did June like it? Well…it would have boosted the ratings. “Leave it to…” a title change might have been in order.

Guest Posted by Max Speedwell who seems to have misplaced his filter.

Tim Hawkins : The Government Can

When you tell the truth you better make them laugh or they'll kill you ...

posted by Tom Novak who shamelessly lifted this video from Wally Conger.

Ricardo Montalban R.I.P.

What a great career. And this is the clip we just have to watch in memorium. From Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan ::

posted by Tom Novak, who knows wrath ... and that is it, baby. Right there!

You never see The Sudden Curve until it's way too late :: R.I.P. 2008

posted by Tom Novak, who really didn't want to post this at all.

The Sudden Curve's 2008 year in review list

Yeah, right. Lists - HA!

posted by Tom Novak, who says the worst sites have the most lists.

Scott Sigler's "Contagious" ~ on sale now!

TSC old timers will recall how we helped launch the now famous Mr. Sigler's first audio-novel, the incredibly good, Pellucidarian, Earthcore, right here at The Sudden Curve. Well now he is an established author publishing hardbacks and they are flying off the shelves - Zooomg!

Here's the trailer for Contagious ::

Contagious is the sequel to Infection which is about how an alien life form(s) gets into a likeable ex-football player turned computer nerd .... and goes bad. So does he and a lot of other people.

Like all of Sigler's work, the result is fascinating, genre-bending, sci-horror stuff that's waay better than all the typical horror-schlock out there.

YOU can even listen to Contagious and Infection and a lot of other Sigler audio *free* and *easy* and *now* from Podiobooks and you can get Contagious from Amazon even though they are selling out of them in lame book stores where clueless, dweeb managers didn't order enough copies::

posted by Tom Novak, who is a Rocktopi

MV Babes in Danger on You Tube

Uh - oh gang. No more music videos on You Tube next year? Warner Music Group and Google are no longer playing nice. Obviously, Warners wants more money to license it's videos and obviously Google is losing money on them.  So this seems like an impasse considering that BIG Recording still has no understanding of how the internet works. So Warners' music videos are now coming down from You Tube.

More significantly - Google's musical label contracts with not only Warner Music Group, but it's deals with Sony, BMG, BMI and Universal Music Group ALL will expire in March 2009.

Which means we ought to post a bunch more of them while we still can. Woooooo!

posted by Tom Novak, who says President Heston was right about Time Warner.

Beverly Garland R.I.P.

posted by Tom Novak, who says Hail and Farewell to another of TSC's first and favorite sidebar babes (sigh).

Star Wars Multiple Kill Vehicle Explained and Tested.

This is the anti-multiple warhead 21st century Star Wars technology under development explained:

... and here is the 2008 hover test mentioned above (this is real!)

"Holy crap!"

posted by Tom Novak who remembers when they had Woody Woodpecker explain these sorts of things.

We got interactive commenting

Okay, hell hath frozen for the 3rd time in one week here (and it's only tuesday). We got news, mobile posting and now Interactive Commenting.  Which means the comments are threaded. Something I told Six Apart to do years ago.  They ignored me then ... natch.

posted by Tom Novak who now, iconically, is a Sidebar Babe when he comments and is pondering the ramifications of this ... 

We got news

Well, we have a news service anyway.  

Curtesy of the SF Crowsnest Site, news is now posted over there on the right sidebar below the Tweets O' Mars and way down on the left sidebar.  

After years of deliberately not doing this it seems that Resistance is Futile.  There is just so much constant buzz to wade through now that we may as well let it crawl itself down the page.  It's interesting but most of it is ... meh.  It's hollywood stuff,  "new" media, book publishing and assorted PR things.  

We'll scrape out the interesting things and eventually do something about them - like we've been doing now for more than FIVE years.  Gee. 

Posted by Tom Novak, who feels like it was five years in hyperdrive.

Charlton Heston, R.I.P.

Most people don't know it, but Charlton Heston's birth name was...John Carter!!   

Posted by Bob Wallace, who knows these things because he's highly evolved.

Al Gore and his energy-efficient office

Posted by Wally Conger, who wishes he knew what the heck Al's working on in there!

Thanks, Stupid Coppers

Believe it or not, I still put together models.

Not long ago, I put together one of Ben Grimm, the Thing. A woman I know thought he was funny, because he had blue underwear instead of running around naked, just the way the Hulk always wore purple cut-off jeans.

So I send him to her to where she now lives, in Alaska.

He takes forever to show up, so long in fact I thought he was lost.

He wasn't.

Apparently the postal coppers thought there was drugs in him, so they rip the package open, tear the Thing apart, thinking he was hollow, I suppose, then crudely tape the package up with all the Thing's parts just lying loose in the box. No note, no explanation, nothing.

That's why superheroes have always been so popular, to fight crime and corruption, whether, as the Constitution says, "foreign or domestic."

Posted by Bob Wallace, who is going, GRRR GRRR GRRR.

45,000 Hits in One Day

Two years ago I wrote an article, "How Propaganda Works," for The Libertarian Enterprise. I posted it on my site, The Bob Circus, and have probably gotten about 500 hits on it.

Someone found the article and posted it at Digg.com and Reddit.com. Next thing I know, within one day the counter on my site had shot up to 45,000, and right now stands at a little less than 50,000. I've received several emails, including ones from Greece and Australia.

I have no idea what caused this. An article I wrote two years ago -- and now it's all over the Internet.

Posted by Bob Wallace, who sez, this is as weird as when I wrote the Urban Legend about the grandma beating up six airport security guards/

Masters of Science Fiction ~ on TV

Now when's the last time I watched TV? About eight years ago, maybe?

But I'll watch tonight, Saturday. I was listening to NPR Friday, and a critic said a new program, "Masters of Science Fiction," was equal to the best of the original "Outer Limits" and "Twilight Zone." That's all I need to hear.

I quit watching when "X-Files" and "Futurama" went off the air. So far, for this new program, there are four episodes, so at least I'll be watching until September!

Posted by Bob Wallace, who misses Beaver and Dobie and Gilligan, but has never seen any reality show.

Ron Paul @ Google

Here's the video of republican candidate for president of the USA, Ron Paul giving a Q&A deep inside the bowels of the Googleplex.

posted by Tom Novak who's thinking that the Huge Ass Beers Party will have to endorse Ron Paul ...  unless Milla Jovovich decides to get into the race.  Then it's NO contest, yea, go - Milla.

now entering ... Meximerica

posted by Tom Novak, who is toolin' up Amnesty Avenue