links to stories provided, as always.

So before I start one of my rants, I have had a few of you ask me what its like with the new job and what I am doing for the summer. I have to say, I really like living here in Lewes Delaware. The people are nice, a bit taken back by the way I talk but I expected that. I get lots of grins, a few girls have said it is "cute" (but no guys, damn it...LOL). I am thinking about extending my contract, and staying here another 13 week term, that would keep me here until August. The hospital is great, their staffing is incredible and I couldn't ask for a better hospital to work at. They have had me working in ICU/CCU, Chest pain, Cardiovascular step-down, Progressive care (not political..LOL) and I have been impressed with all the units. I was shocked to find out though that nursing assistants here get paid what I did in Kentucky as a RN. That kinda pisses me off at my last employer. Not to mention that at least this company lets me put my partner on my health and dental insurance (that kept us in a financial hole back home). The cost of living isn't THAT different.

But those are probably my plans, more time in Delaware. My little sister and her fiance stayed with me for the past 3 days, took over 200 pictures, and left out this afternoon for home. When she puts them up on the computer and sends me some, I'll post a few of them. We even went to Washington D.C. and checked out the Smithsonian (my first time in D.C., I kept making hissing sounds toward the capital. LOL)

Anyways, on to my usual stuff. I have read several things today on the economy, even though it is not my favorite subject by any stretch. But, to fully understand politics, even that becomes required reading. So anyway, I have read many on here who say the Recession worry is "hoopla". Well, tell that to the 63,000 who just lost jobs last month, up from 22,000 cut jobs before that. Or tell that to the world bank President. Also Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein may want to know that he is over-reacting as well. And while you are sending out the "don't worry, be happy" memos, send one to Venezuela, Argentina & Brazil, who are dropping the dollar as their trade currencies or as their oil trade currency (see articles for specifics). In the middle of this mess, the Chief U.S Auditor has decided to resign, and even upper middle class communities are feeling a pinch. I am not trying to insult or debunk those of you on here that are saying "stop worrying and spend" but simply saying just because it isn't happening to you doesn't mean it isn't happening. I luckily am not being hurt at the moment, being in health care and being one of the better paid professions in health care has it's advantages. But, I am not blind either, and it bothers me to see this happening to others, rather I know them or not. Seeing homeless in Washington the past two days reminded me why I feel the need to blog on this stuff. It is not right...

But still, with all this debt, you have to wonder, "what is going on?" Perhaps the answer is a form of slavery...

March 17 is St. Patrick's Day, when people of all national origins raise a glass and declare, "Today we're all a bit Irish!" This may be truer than we know. The Irish were driven to America by debt, and they are leading the Western world in household debt today. The London Daily Telegraph reported on March 13, 2008 that household debt in Ireland has reached 190 percent of disposable income, the highest in the developed world; and that the Irish banking system is suffering such acute strains from the downturn in the housing market that it may have to nationalize its banks.1 The same may soon be happening in the United States, and for much the same reasons.
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This form of "debt slavery" or "debt peonage" was not just an accidental development of history. It was a deliberately-planned alternative to the slave arrangement in which owners were responsible for the feeding and care of a dependent population, and it is still with us today. Although European financiers were in favor of an American Civil War that would return the United States to its colonial status, they admitted privately that they were not necessarily interested in preserving slavery. They preferred "the European plan": capital could exploit labor by controlling the money supply, while letting the laborers feed themselves. In July 1862, this ploy was revealed in a notorious document called the Hazard Circular, which was circulated by British banking interests among their American banking counterparts. It said:

Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power and chattel slavery destroyed. This, I and my European friends are glad of, for slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of the laborers, while the European plan, led by England, is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages. This can be done by controlling the money. The great debt that capitalists will see to it is made out of the war, must be used as a means to control the volume of money. To accomplish this, the bonds [government debt to the bankers] must be used as a banking basis. . . . It will not do to allow the greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any length of time, as we cannot control that.3

A system of "debt peonage" is inextricably linked to a banking system in which money is issued privately by bankers and lent to the government rather than being issued as "greenbacks" by the government itself Today the "European plan" has evolved into the private central banking system, and it has come to dominate the economies of the world. A private central bank creates money simply by printing it or entering it as an accounting entry, then lends it to the federal government in exchange for government bonds or debt. Private commercial banks create many more dollars in the same way, advancing money created as accounting-entry loans without even incurring the cost of a printing press. Except for coins, the entire U.S. money supply is now created as a debt to private bankers.4 Banks create the principal but not the interest necessary to pay back their loans, so more money is always owed back than was put into the money supply in the first place. More loans must therefore continually be taken out to cover the interest, spiraling the economy into increasing levels of debt and inflation, in a futile attempt to repay principal and interest on a debt that is actually impossible to repay. The result is "debt peonage," and it has systematically reduced the people to working for the company store, bound to their corporate masters for the food, shelter and health care formerly provided by slave owners under the old physical-slave system.

Makes sense, when you look at it all, doesn't it. More on that in the link provided.


And if you have not noticed, the crisis in Tibet is getting worse, more than 80 killed, and the conflict is spreading. If you are not familiar with the history, this may help you...



Peace all.