So you’re going to stop calling Kash and me statists and insisting that we think that the government will cure it all? Log in your own eye, there, old man.

Mike: Both Republicans and Democrats are at fault.

On this, we agree. There’s a tendency in this country to see the political parties as opposites. In reality — especially if you compare our politics to those of other countries — they’re more similar than they are different. We don’t have a conservative party and a liberal party; we have two business parties. Governments, including our own, will be corrupt whether they switch to a gold standard or not. But God is capable of administrating the changes He wants in a government, again, whether they conform to a gold standard or not. The way I see it, if God desires to remove corruption in our government, praying for our leaders will do a lot more to protect those they rule than changing the basis of our currency. If God is going to judge this country by driving many into poverty, changing the basis of our currency is not going to change His plans one iota. Maybe I’m too much of a fatalist for my own good, but I tend to think that we should be caring for the poor however we can regardless of the security of the dollar, and that ultimately, making sure people receive good teaching, know how to discern truth from error, and that no confusion stands in the way of our witness to the lost makes a lot more difference than the precious metal that is (or is not) backing the paper in my wallet.

Being honest with you and Kash, my passion is due to the heart break I am witnessing in my community and in my church. A heart break as businesses go under (several in my congregation) and ministries begin to struggle due to lack of funding. People cannot give what they do not have. All this thanks to a greedy bunch of banksters and financiers that made themselves fabulously wealthy while not caring that they would destroy the very economy of their nation. These people have no heart and the politicians that suck on the mothers milk of the contributions from these scoundrels makes me sick. Both Republicans and Democrats are at fault. Both liberals and conservative elites of the Republican party decided to make a deal with the devil and sell out the country.

This is what causes the outrage within me. You don’t have to be a Christian to be infuriated by what has taken place in America the past 2 generations. These people do not care who they destroy…who they kill. Vietnam was not a war we just fell into, it was a war devised to make a small group of corporations (banks at the center) extremely wealthy. How many people died because of the greed of few men in power. How many have died in this decade alone. When Nixon closed the gold window on Aug. 14, 1971, he threw open the doors to seat of government to the banking institutions and the corporations that surround them. The system has supported butchering regimes in different parts of the world while instituting a level of corruption in the US that dwarfs any Banana Republic.

Those that do not see this are either blind or just refuse to believe that our government could behave in such a way. I keep reminding people that Hitler came to power in a democratic republic in the most civilized country in the world. In 1932 no one in Germany could imagine what would take place over the next 13 years.

Those that think “it cannot happen here” in that no catastrophe can befall there great nation just does not understand what history has taught us. I weep for my nation, just as the prophets wept for Israel. BTW, I am not claiming to be a prophet. I just believe what the Bible says God finds abominable and then go about crunching the numbers that tell me we are headed for a series of major storms. Storms created by our very government.

What would it mean if you were figuratively done with us on this issue?

Sorry. Just being a punk.

A state is in decline when the criminals are within the system threatening the citizens of the nation. That is what the Frontline program was all about. OTC derivatives have INCREASED BY 100% SINCE 2006. They now stand at $1.250 quadrillion or $1250 trillion. Naked short selling (basically counterfeiting stock shares) is still in full effect and the SEC cannot even re-institute the Up tick rule which was in effect from 1932 to 2004 and worked quite well to prevent Market Plungers from manipulating company shares. These theives destroy companies killing jobs while they make off with obscene profits and pay no taxes on their ill gotten gains.

Bernie Madoff was KNOWN to be a fraud at least a decade before his Ponzi scheme came tumbling down. The SEC knew it but Bernie was one of the good ole boys having served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and on the Board of Governors of the NASD.

We have had numerous Congressman, Senators, and even the previous NY Fed chairman now Sec. of Trea. as Tax Cheats who received special treatment that no ordinary citizen would even have a prayer of receiving. It boggles my Christian mind that any Christian can support such a system, but I understand the thought process. I have 3 distant relatives in Cuba that still believe in Castro’s communist utopia. We still help them out, (without the family’s help in the US, they would be in terrible shape) because they are family. Statism is a religion for those that embrace it. It sounds great as the average run of the mill statist believes in the goodness of man. What surprises me is that there are Christians that seem to have the same opinion…if only we get some good people in all will be well. The problem with that is that all too often the greedy and power hungry are the ones that gain control so the only hope is to limit their power.

Remember what Mayer Amschel Rothschild said, “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws.” What do you think Mayer meant? It doesn’t matter, your religion is Statism and you are both devout Statists. Like I said, I’m done. The next 2 to 3 years will prove my points. I will continue to pray that a leader will emerge that leads this nation back to limited government and individual responsiblity. A government that insures fair play and fair markets and whose economy is based on honest money.

Sorry. By extension. Sheesh.

My deepest apologies. I’m sorry I hadn’t learned that yet.

Kash: And I agree that Mike has taken what is essentially an approach to investing and monetary policy and made it in his own head into a Biblical Mandate. Smacks of idolatry, in my opinion.

Interesting — this has implications in other areas of Biblical interpretation. Let me cogitate on that one for a bit.

Mike: I know you did not directly accuse me of being a LF capitalist, but the implication was clear as I am the only one challenging you and kash.

Only if you also think, by implication, that I clearly implied that I am a baby-eating atheistic evolutionist because I disbelieve creationism.

I was trying to show the extremity of black-and-white thinking. Would you have been happier if my example had been, “You believe in free-market capitalism, or you’re a dirty socialist who wants big government to take care of everybody”? The extremist danger I was trying to point out is still there.