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POPS High Drama & High Finance Not only has Ferguson been described as 'the most brilliant historian of his generation' by The Times, he's been rated as 'one of the world's 100 most influential people' by Time magazine. From the first coins of ancient Mesopotamia to the rise of China and the credit crunch, via the Medicis of Renaissance Italy, the Scottish clergymen who created the first insurance company and the dynasty started by the first Nathan Rothschild, Ferguson provides a clear and masterful financial history of the world. He shows, for example, how the high-financial scam of a Scottish murderer resulted in the French Revolution, how the bond market settled the outcome of the American Civil War, and, chillingly, how a previous era of globalisation and prosperity was ended almost overnight by the surprise catastrophe of World War I.
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POPSStop Blaming Capitalism For Government Failures stagnation had Americans looking for an alternative. That’s what Reagan offered, denouncing big government and promising a new “morning in America.” Under Reagan, some taxes were reduced, inflation was subdued, a few regulations were relaxed--and the economy roared back to life. But while markets were able to function to a greater degree than in the immediate past, the regulatory and welfare state remained largely untouched, with government spending continuing to increase, as well as some taxes. Later administrations were even worse. Bush Jr., often laughably called a champion of free markets, presided over massive new governmental controls like Sarbanes-Oxley and massive new welfare programs like the prescription drug benefit. None of this is consistent with capitalism. As the economic system that fully recognizes and protects individual rights, including the right to private property, capitalism means, in Ayn Rand’s words,
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POPSBut maybe we're learning... It seems like a group of people still long to be led by the ignorant... but those amongst us who don't know what they don't know: the scariest of all. The world is a complicated place... we face real problems that aren't solved by chanting "free market" ... but some still cling to the belief that intellectualism is the real problem.
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POPSAhmadinejad Offers Obama Landmark Congratulations That policy, Ahmadinejad claimed, was "based on warmongering, occupation, bullying, deception and humiliation, as well as discrimination and unfair relations" and has led to "hatred of all nations and majority of governments toward the U.S. leaders." Ahmadinejad also said that Obama is expected to replace such a policy with "an approach based on justice and respect, as well as lack of intervention in the affairs of others." Iranians will welcome such changes, Ahmadinejad added. Saeed Leilaz, an independent analyst in Tehran, said Ahmadinejad's message was a "positive step" that now leaves Washington with the responsibility for the next one. Leilaz added he believes Obama's victory will "weaken radicalism" in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
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POPSBecause of Barak Obama Now I Understand My "Affliction" After extensive research and consultation,I finally stumbled upon a physician who was able to accurately diagnose but sadly not treat my condition.It seems that my particular condition is incurable and leads to a perpetuated and traditionally free and capitalistic American society with all of its freedoms...Dr. Obama deals in brain reshaping and societal revolution and was therefore not able to "correct" my condition.May you be as fortunate and reject the condition of "Obamunism" on Nov.4!
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POPSTop 10 Radical American Thinkers (1-4) EMMA GOLDMAN Image "Anarchy stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraints of government." —Anarchism, 1917
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POPSSalt Comes In Gourmet Flavors & Designer Colors 
Mahatma Gandhi used salt to launch his first major campaign of non-violent civil disobedience. By picking up a pinch of salt left by the tide, he broke the British law making it a crime to possess salt not obtained from the government monopoly. Salt wasn't always readily available or cheap. In medieval Europe it represented a third of the income of Poland's kings. The ancient Egyptians salt-cured their fish. The Romans were big salt-users. They paid the soldiers in salt." Which is apparently where the term "worth his salt" came from, and the word "salary" and "soldier. You may not know this, but salt is used in the manufacture of some 14,000 different products. "SALT, A World History" is a book that shows how an item of food becomes a commodity of trade, so it becomes economically important, then it becomes politically important and eventually it becomes culturally important" I Highly recommend Kurlansky's book . It put history into a different perspective for me & I enjoyed
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POPSRevolution Been Going On, but AGAINST Us! I have been looking forward to the rise of a strong minority to revolt against the insane American government. But now I see through this article the Revolution began some time ago against me, you, and the people. I believe it to be so; we are in the midst of a revolution; hence all these injuries and usurpations against us. I already feel the hunger pains. I must resist for conscience sake.
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POPSIn Virginia, Palin crowd believes every myth This sounds like The Onion, but it's a New York Times story covering a race-track rally by Sarah Palin. How have we failed, that Americans could be so poorly educated as to be vulnerable to such tripe?
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POPS October Surprises In History During October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union came to the brink of war over nuclear-armed missiles that Nikita Khrushchev had shipped to Cuba. Those who believe that this month's collapse of global financial markets is an unprecedented disaster need to study history. In 1987, Oct. 19 became known as "Black Monday," as Wall Street investors watched the market nose-dive 22 percent and lose $500 billion in value in a single trading session -- still the biggest one-day loss of value in history. The 23rd of this month is the 25th anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Marine headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon -- a radical Islamic suicide attack that killed 241 Americans. Fifteen years ago this month, there was a 19-hour gunfight in Mogadishu, Somalia, which claimed the lives of 18 U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force personnel.
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POPSSchoolhouse Rock - lyrics & links to videos on YouTube I got an urge to hear the Preamble again: In 1787 I'm told Our founding fathers did agree To write a list of principles For keepin' people free. The U.S.A. was just startin' out. A whole brand-new country. And so our people spelled it out The things that we should be. And they put those principles down on paper and called it the Constitution, and it's been helping us run our country ever since then. The first part of the Constitution is called the preamble and tells what those founding fathers set out to do. We the people, In order to form a more perfect union, Establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, Provide for the common defense, Promote the general welfare and Secure the blessings of liberty To ourselves and our posterity Do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
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POPSOpen the Presidential Debates... or we will! Sounds like real American government to me! The internet is like the printing press was in the 1500s. It can bring much needed reformation and revolution like the press did back then. But we have to USE IT. "A computer terminal is not some clunky old television with a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface where the mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits of it about." ~ Douglas Noel Adams
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POPSDaniel Boone (1734-1820) 
the following says something we all know is true. While His status is Legendary, He was as are all of us Human. Something he would have been glad to admit. He had the same humanity as we all do, and beside the victories there were defeats as will be the course, but. He was prepared to venture into the unknown. and what he found can now be taken for granted, but it should Never be that way. Boone remains an iconic, if imperfectly remembered, figure in American history. He was a legend in his own lifetime, especially after an account of his adventures was published in 1784, making him famous in America and Europe. After his death, he was frequently the subject of tall tales and works of fiction. His adventures—real and legendary—were influential in creating the archetypal Western hero of American folklore. In American popular culture, he is remembered as one of the foremost early frontiersmen, even though the mythology often overshadows the historical details of his life.
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POPSColonel David Stern Crockett AKA Davy Crocket Served in the house of Representatives. He Died at The Alamo Shunned the title davy and referred to Himself Exclusively as David
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POPSSocial welfare programs do not keep a country from prosperity
The Nordic states have also worked to keep social expenditures compatible with an open, competitive, market-based economic system. Tax rates on capital are relatively low. Labor market policies pay low-skilled and otherwise difficult-to-employ individuals to work in the service sector, in key quality-of-life areas such as child care, health, and support for the elderly and disabled. The results for the households at the bottom of the income distribution are astoundingly good, especially in contrast to...American social policy. The U.S. spends less than almost all rich countries on social services for the poor and disabled, and it gets what it pays for: the highest poverty rate among the rich countries and an exploding prison population. Actually, by shunning public spending on health, the U.S. gets much less than it pays for, because its dependence on private health care has led to a ramshackle system that yields mediocre results at very high costs.
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POPSFirst President could teach the 44th a few things. As we race toward another election and we consider our votes for the next occupant of the White House perhaps it would do us all well to travel back in time and remember the virtues that made this country great. Avoid political factions and entangling alliances sounds like good advice to me. Perhaps our current bunch of political leaders would do well to heed the words of America's founding father George Washington. Washington went on to say that popular government depended on virtuous citizens and that only religion, which in the American context meant Christianity, could inspire such selfless behavior. He frequently asserted that religion helped promote virtue, order, and social stability, and praised the efforts of churches to make people "sober, honest, and good Citizens, and the obedient subjects of a lawful government." What say you?
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POPSThe Joke's On Presidente Hugo Chávez "Lo Sentimos" The holdings are part of a strategy by which the Venezuelan government infuses dollars into its dollar-starved, overheating economy. The system -- which relies on selling structured notes made up of the sovereign debt of other South American nations -- allows Venezuelan banks and individuals to buy dollars at the official exchange rate of 2.15 bolivars, about half the black-market rate. With annual inflation at 34.5%, analysts say the bolivar would be considerably weaker without the structured note sales. The Finance Ministry could hold the notes to maturity instead of unwinding them in the hope the underlying bonds recover in value. But there is a high risk that they depreciate further. The fund in which the notes are held, Fonden, finances many of the projects that Mr. Chávez touts as part of his socialist "Bolivarian Revolution."
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POPSThe Trouble With Saakashvili Still, if Georgian democracy needs Saakashvili to survive, it also needs, eventually, to reckon with him. If and when the Russian occupation can be ended and the imminent threat to the country overcome, the test for Georgians will become whether they can use democratic institutions to investigate and challenge their president's behavior and hold him accountable for the huge reversal he has inflicted on the country. That point was made in Washington last week by Nino Burjanadze, the former speaker of the Georgian parliament who helped Saakashvili lead the Rose Revolution of 2003. Burjanadze broke with her old ally last spring and created the Tblisi-based Foundation for Democracy and Development to address the glaring weaknesses in Georgia's new politics. She's been advocating for a freer press, more independent judges, and a more powerful and independent parliament -- the absence of which arguably opened the way to Saakashvili's Ossetian blunder.
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