A Great Video From "Back in the day"

This is worth watching all the way to the end. In fact, this video might be the iconic symbol of the Fading Fringe. Milton Friedman might be the first Fringer!

For Jersey Girl

Read this, and let's discuss:


In my more cynical moments, I think that we Americans deserve what we get from our politicians, many of whom can be generally described as nothing less than loathsome. You say, "Williams, that's a pretty heavy putdown." My question to you is how else would you describe these congressmen who are now blaming the financial mess on the failure of the free market? Starting with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, that was given more teeth during the Clinton administration, Congress started intimidating banks and other financial institutions into making loans, so-called subprime loans, to high-risk homebuyers and businesses. The carrot offered was that these high-risk loans would be purchased by the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Anyone with an ounce of brains would have known that this was a prescription for disaster but there was a congressional chorus of denial.
Five years ago, Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) vouched for the "soundness" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and said, "I do not see any possibility of serious financial losses to the treasury." In 2004 congressional hearings, where the Bush administration sought greater oversight over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said, "We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac and particularly at Fannie Mae," adding that "the GSEs have exceeded their housing goals." Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said, "There's nothing wrong with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." In these hearings Barney Frank said that he doesn't see "anything in the reports that raises safety and soundness problems." Earlier this year, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) praised Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for "riding to the rescue" to help people get home mortgage loans, adding that they "need to do more" to help high-risk borrowers get better loans.
The financial collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is not a failure of the free market because lending institutions in a free market would not have taken on the high-risk loans. They were forced to by the heavy hand of government. The solution is not a taxpayer-financed bailout. The solution is to let them fail and allow the people who invested in them, as well as the people who purchased homes they couldn't afford, suffer the losses. Of course that takes a level of political courage that is in short supply. There are other measures that should be taken as part of a second-best solution.
In 2002, when the Enron and WorldCom scandal broke, the Congress held hearings and some chief executives were jailed. Who did what was the big story in the major news media almost every night. Congress rushed to enact the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. The act placed unnecessary, onerous and costly accounting standards on American businesses. The Enron and WorldCom debacle is a drop in the bucket compared to the financial mess that Congress has created through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in the name of "affordable" housing. Have you heard Congress calling for hearings? They haven't called for hearings because many of them, both Democrats and Republicans, receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars, were in cahoots with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If Americans are going to be on the hook to bail out these government-sponsored enterprises, at the minimum congressional hearings ought to be held to find out who did what and when.
Corporations employ accounting practices promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) that established Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and government agencies have accounting practices that don't come close to, and never did, the honesty of private accounting practices. Accounting fraud and deception are the dominant features of government agencies. If a private business kept and cooked the books, like government agencies do, the top executives would go to jail. Shouldn't the accounting standards businesses have to meet be applied to Washington? My answer is yes and if a congressman says no, I'd like for him to tell us why.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

No More Bailouts!

That's enough! The first ones were too much. Let the car companies that can't make it close (it is really unions that killed them --let them reap what they sow). No more banks. No small towns. No big states. Now more insurance companies. Nothing. Let them fail. If we do not we are creating the very problem we are seeking to fix --the federal government is overextending itself and will itself fall.

101 Reasons Why Obama is Wrong. #4

The tests have begun. Obama sent all the signals needed to despots, Muslim leaders, communists and dictators that he would be easier to talk to and work with than Bush.

How have they reacted? Now that Obama has won the election, the first major bombing in Irag since the summer has occurred. Now, the president of Russia is scheduling a trip to Cuba to strengthen those ties. Iran is testing rockets near Iraq.

Expect this to continue. So far, by his friends and his words, Obama has shown he is a safe man to anti-semites, Muslim regimes, dictators, and marxists. Until he changes his stripes, they will take every bit of ground that they can get.

101 Reasons Why Obama Is Wrong. #3

Obama has no class.
In a private meeting with president Bush yesterday, the president and president elect discussed issues and other things. The next day, the New York Times published details of that conversation, showing Obama opposing president Bush.

Now, there were only two men in the room, Bush and Obama. No one knows what was said except these two men and who ever they told. The paper said it received the info from Obama aids. Which means he reported the conversations and then they were leaked.

Obama, the great messiah, a low class gossip. Grow up, Barry. I know you are getting all the power, but that doesn't make you respectable.

101 Ways Obama is Wrong. #2

Obama Zombies Believed It --Smart People Don't
What caused our current economic crisis? If you are an Obama Zombie, your answer, (all together now) is "Bush's failed economic policies." Of course, you have no idea what that means because you were only taught the mantra, not the realities.

The economic crisis came because of liberal government. Period. Pressure was brought to bear on banks to lend money to people who couldn't pay it back. "Prime" lending rates get that label because they are the reduced rates that banks offer only to their best customers. "Sub-Prime" is below that. Now, banks would not lend money that cheap unless they could make it back.

Here's how the scheme worked: The liberals in government pressured banks to make housing loans to people who couldn't pay back, thinking it was the right thing to do to help the poor buy houses. As good as those intentions might be, it was foolish. The banks then were promised that someone would buy those bad loans from them. Who would do that? Government backed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. These institutions that Barney Frank said were "in no danger" and which Bush and McCain said, needed to be controlled. The banks, greedy for the money, gave into the pressure, sold the loans till freddie and fannie ran out of money. Then the tax payers had to step in (for the record, No More Bailouts! there's been too many already).

That's where our crisis comes from. What to the Obama Zombies say it comes from? "Bush tax cuts to the wealthy!" Of course, libs don't do real economics --only theoretical economics that work in socialist classrooms, so these silly explanations are all they offer. And the Bush haters (there are many) are ready to take that answer and leave it at that.

What does this mean will happen when Barak solves the problems by raising taxes on the rich and our government continues the stupidity of bailing out banks? More disaster. But those details will have to wait for another post...

For a good summary of the sub-prime mess, click here.

101 Reasons Why Obama Is Wrong, #1

Obama is wrong about the value of human life.


The exact words, "if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."
I'm glad I'm not his daughters having to learn morals and values from such a defective moral teacher.

First, he says, when they make a mistake. If his daughter is pregnant, it is not a mistake. It is a choice to have sex. He is teaching them that it is not their responsibility to handle what they did. Instead, they can abort.

Second, he refers to a baby as "punishment." The Bible says that children are a gift from the Lord. Who is right? The Bible or Barry? I choose the Bible, for God never lies. No matter how it is conceived, a baby is a gift from God. Not a punishment.

I think I saw some people I know in this video

via videosift.com

Because He is Delightful: Walter E Williams

The following is a column that can be found here, along with others by the same author.

For the U.S. Congress, news media, pundits and much of the American public, a lot of economic phenomena can be explained by what people want, human greed and what seems plausible. I'm going to name this branch of economic "science" wackonomics and apply it to some of today's observations and issues.
Since July this year, crude oil prices have fallen from $147 to $64 a barrel. Similarly, average gasoline prices have fallen from over $4 to a national average of $2.69 a gallon. When crude oil and gasoline were reaching their historical highs, Congress and other wackoeconomists blamed it on greedy oil company CEOs in their lust for obscene profits. But what explains today's lower prices? The only answer, consistent with wackonomic theory, is easy: Oil company CEOs have lost their lust for obscene profits. Or, maybe, since many of these CEOs are getting up in years, they might have begun to heed Matthew's warning (19:24), "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."
Speaking of CEOs, there's the "unconscionable," "obscene" salaries they receive, in some cases over $10 million a year. Wackonomics has an easy answer for these high salaries: it's greed. However, CEOs don't have the corner on greed. There are other greedy people we don't scorn but hold in high esteem. According to Forbes' Celebrity 100 list, Oprah Winfrey receives $275 million, Steven Spielberg gets $130 million, Tiger Woods $115 million, Jay Leno $32 million and Dr. Phil $40 million. I need to talk to these people and learn their strategy. I've been making every effort to get that kind of money. I go to bed greedy, dream greedy dreams, awaken greedy and proceed through the day greedy. Despite my heroic efforts, it's all been for naught; I earn a pittance by comparison.
Wackonomics can help us understand what some people call the income distribution. The logical extension of wackonomic thought is that the unequal or unfair distribution of income is the handiwork of a dollar dealer who distributes dollars. The dollar dealer might deal one person a million dollars a year while dealing most others a mere pittance like $10, $20 or $30 thousand a year. Thus, the reason why some people are wealthy while others are poor is because the dollar dealer is a racist, sexist, a multi-nationalist, or just plain mean. Economic justice requires a re-dealing of the dollars, income redistribution or spreading the wealth, where the government takes the ill-gotten gains of the few and returns them to their rightful owners. Wackonomics might have a greed-based explanation for income inequality. There is a pile of money called income and greedy people got there first and took their unfair share. Similarly, economic justice requires a redistribution of income.
Wackonomics isn't just practiced by the uninitiated. This year's Nobel Laureate, Princeton University Professor Paul Krugman, after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, gave one rendition of wackonomics in his column "After the Horror," New York Times (9/14/01). Krugman wrote, "Ghastly as it may seem to say this, the terror attack -- like the original day of infamy, which brought an end to the Great Depression -- could do some economic good." He went on to point out how rebuilding the destruction in New York and Washington, D. C., would stimulate the economy through business investment and job creation. For practitioners of non-wackonomics, this reasoning doesn't even pass the smell test. If Professor Krugman's vision is correct, and extending his logic, the terrorists would have made an even larger contribution to our economic well-being had they been able to fly a plane into the White House and destroyed buildings in other cities.
Wackonomics isn't all bad. There's an upside to it. It spares people the bother of having to understand the complexities of the world.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. --Thomas Jefferson

McCain says we all need to get behind our president now. Wrong. I am behind my country and its constitution. So I am stuck with this man as president, but I oppose him, for he opposes our constitution as far as I am concerned.

He is wrong on the economy (wants to raise taxes, redistribute wealth, nationalize healthcare, and spend another trillion dollars and continue to increase the government hog). These policies will make the recent "crisis" in the stock market look like Christmas by comparison.

He is wrong on energy. He wants to, in his words, bankrupt any who try to build coal burning electric power plants. He will not drill for our own energy. He is for subsidizing ethanol which will continue to inflate the price of food all over the world (leading to more hardship for the poor) and will produce a gas product that gets poor mileage. He will see us weaker economically and weaker worldwide because of this.

He is wrong on foreign affairs. He is pro-plo, anti-Israel as he has shown and will show. His desire to be friends with the dictators of the world will backfire on him. He wants to slash military spending (as he said) and this will make us weaker. He wants to undo all our progress in the middle east,etc.

He is wrong on life. He is willing to kill the unborn and even the born without remorse, as is shown by his record.

He is wrong on the constitution, wanting judges that will help him redistribute wealth which is(pay attention second-grade level civics students, aka Obama voters) socialism and it has failed every where it has been tried (capitalism and free market have been our approach for . . . 300 years, and we are the wealthiest nation on the planet --facts are facts).

As far as I am concerned, Obama is a nice man, but not an American in ideology and he needs to be opposed at every step. I shall do this as much as it lays in my power.

Americans seem to have a sheep-like quality these days. They would trade their freedoms for the promise of comfort and safety. We were in this same position in 1776. I have the same response to the oppressors now as I did then, "I know not what course other men may take, but as for me, give me freedom (liberty) or give me death."

Obama, you are still an empty suit and a meager little snipe. Sorry, you can't be my messiah and can never take away the true freedom within me.

From this day forward, the Fading Fringe Blog will be subversive to the powers that be, and hopelessly American. Watch and see . . .

Back When Presidential Candidates Were Also Americans

* You cannot help the poor, by destroying the rich.
* You cannot strengthen the weak, by weakening the strong.
* You cannot bring about prosperity, by discouraging thrift.
* You cannot lift the wage earner up, by pulling the wage payer down.
* You cannot further the brotherhood of man, by inciting class hatred.
* You cannot build character and courage, by taking away men's initiative
and independence.
* You cannot help men permanently, by doing for them what they could and
should, do for themselves."

- Abraham Lincoln

Not Fringe Enough

Although it is way too "non-political" and "non-fading fringe" to do so more often than once a year, I suppose the state of PA and all my homeys from the state do deserve some love. I remember the last time the Phillies won the series --I was a senior in high school. Some people say that was a long time ago, but it seems like yesterday. I remember Kruk's team. How could you not like those guys? They fell short. Hats off to the 2008 Phils.

And, don't forget those Lions. (Pray for them if you will. Three more wins and a little luck and they have a shot at all the marbles).

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programs...