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Idiot of the Week - 1st Week of August 2007
By JBC | August 7, 2007
I apologize for my laxity. I should continue to point fingers and name names. OK, on to the show…
I present to you, with great pride and not a little disgust, our newest awardee…drum roll….E. Tylor Claggett. Mr. Claggett is yet another academician (an Associate Professor of Finance in the University of Maryland system) lost in large complex unworkable utopian models of a more perfect world. The only problem with such leather-elbowed tweed jacket types is that they forget to factor in the inverse relationship between the size of government and level of individual liberty.
I think the first cries for an increase in the size of the federal government were heard only seconds after the horrible collapse of the bridge in Minnesota. This is a normal response from those who have no fear of Big Brother or similar Orwellian/Huxleyesque nightmares. The first crack had yet to appear in the dyke at New Orleans, when there was a deafening scream for an increased role from FEMA and immediate and personal help from George Bush. Even though the youngest child could recognize the inadequacy of leadership from Chocolate-Homeboy Nagin and Governor “Shoot-to-Kill” Blanco. The Louisiana White-Chocolate combination set the States’ Rights Movement back about forty years. Geaux Tigers, but I digress.
Mr. Claggett opined, on the 7th of August on the baltimoresun.com website, “Many of today’s societal problems and opportunities seem beyond the scope and consciousness of both voters and elected officials.” Yes, many elitists believe that most of society’s problems are beyond the scope of John and Jane Citizen. We are just too stupid to come up with a solution to the problems in our own backyard. We should leave anything more complex than paying taxes to those who are truly educated and enlightened.
Mr. Claggett continues with a beautiful example of the kind of nanny-state organization which would best serve the serfs, “The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System presents a useful model for setting up a planning authority.” Hmmmm, the BOG of the Federal Reserve System, huh Perfesser Cletus? Now, would this be the same Federal Reserve which has overseen a governmental debt of NINE TRILLION DOLLARS, the loss of America’s silver and gold reserves, and the loss of 96% of the purchasing power of the Federal Reserve printed “monopoly money”. The system which was created to lessen the effects of inflationary periods and recessions oversaw the greatest economic collapse in our history in the late 1920s and 1930s, and helped our “money” to record lows against foreign currencies.
If the BOG of the Fed is the example for the new Imperial Infrastructure Supercommittee, I would avoid crossing rivers until further notice. If this new centralized committee is only half as unsuccessful as the Federal Reserve has been, our bridges will be collapsing by the dozens each week, and we’ll be reading by candlelight within a decade. As scary as a group of idiots making a hash of our highways and public services sound, that is not the real danger of such a decision.
Our present government, to include both major political parties, are beholden to the Federal Reserve. These private bankers can make or break politicians, political parties, and even our beloved federal government. Many of our forefathers warned us, repeatedly, that turning over the control of our money supply to private bankers would be tantamount to handing over the robes and crown to a prince we cannot control. Thomas Jefferson, perhaps the most quoted of the anti-centralists, said, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” If that doesn’t scare you, feel free to include a little extra in your next income tax payment.
Mr. Claggett is very explicit about the fact that we should cede the very little remaining local and state power to Big Brother, saying, “Many existing states’ rights would have to be given up.” Well, thanks but no thanks, Perfesser. While you may wish to trust all power to an unaccountable centralized committee, I have lost my trust in such committees, and the federal government as a whole, to do anything constructive. In fact, I truly believe in the old adage that the more distance there is between a government and its citizens the less responsive it becomes.
Congrats Mr. Claggett, please pick up your award and complimentary copies of the United States Constitution and George Orwell’s “1984″ before departing.
JB
Topics: Miscellaneous, Academia, Idiot of the Week |
