Thursday, September 19, 2013

Thursday, September 19, 2013

The Fed's Funny Money 

Fed boss Ben Bernanke shocked financial markets yesterday when he announced that the Federal Reserve had decided not to "taper" the "funny money" it was pumping into the economy. The Fed is currently creating $85 billion a month that is then used to buy U.S. Treasury bonds, thus funding our debt. 

This is the equivalent of your family being $10,000 in debt and you saying to your spouse, "No problem. I just drew $10,000 on a piece of paper and cut it out so you can take it to the bank." 

How bad is this? By some estimates the U.S. government may be the only purchaser of U.S. bonds. So one government building in D.C. is transferring funny money to another government building in D.C., and this is what is paying for entitlements of all kinds, including Obamacare, record numbers of folks on food stamps, reckless debt and wasteful spending from one end of Washington to the other. 

Many economists believe, and I agree, that when you create money out of thin air unrelated to the production of any goods, that money will eventually cause runaway inflation. It hasn't so far because the Obama economy is so weak that there isn't enough growth in demand to cause significant inflation. And that is the real message behind yesterday's Fed decision: Obamanomics still isn't working. 

One final point: Artificially low interest rates are obviously good for homebuyers and others taking on debt. But it is essentially a government-induced penalty, almost a punishment, for Americans who followed the best economic advice and saved money. They are getting next to nothing on their savings, which is a tragedy for millions of retired Americans and those living on a fixed income. 

25 Years For Homosexual Activist/Domestic Terrorist 

Floyd Lee Corkins II was sentenced today to 25 years in prison for attempting a mass shooting last year at the Family Research Council, an organization I was privileged to lead for ten years. 

Corkins entered FRC's building planning to shoot as many people as he could and then leave Chick-fil-a sandwiches on their bodies. He was thwarted by the heroic actions of a security guard, Leo Johnson, who, despite being shot in the arm, managed to wrestle Corkins to the ground. 

In addition to other charges, Corkins was charged as a domestic terrorist after admitting that he intended to kill FRC's employees because of their stand in support of normal marriage. Corkins told the FBI that he targeted FRC because it was on a so-called "hate map" produced by the far left, anti-Christian Southern Poverty Law Center. 

As we noted yesterday, the liberal media's obsession with conservatism causing violence is completely misguided. Corkins is one more example of the propensity of so many on the totalitarian left to engage in violence in order to achieve their political goals. 

"My ELF Weapon" 

There is a lot of speculation today about the meaning of phrases Aaron Alexis reportedly carved into the shotgun he initially used during Monday's rampage at the Washington Naval Yard. One phrase, "Better off this way," seems tragically obvious. The second, "My ELF weapon," has investigators and commentators scratching their heads.

Most reports are suggesting that "ELF" stands for "extremely low frequency." That is one possible explanation given that Alexis recently called the police to complain about "some sort of microwave machine," which he said was tormenting him. 

But only a few commentators have pointed out a more obvious explanation. There is a radical eco-terrorist group called ELF -- the Earth Liberation Front. It has a long rap sheet of mindless violence. Shouldn't someone look into whether the Prius-driving Alexis was linked to that group? 

The Truth 15 Years Later 

Do you recognize the name Matthew Shepard? If not, I bet your children or grandchildren do. Shepard, a homosexual, was brutally murdered in Wyoming in 1998, and his murder quickly became a cause celebre among the left. It was held up as an example of the hate for homosexuals that was supposedly pulsing through America. 

Predictably, Christians who resisted the legislative and political demands of the militant homosexual rights movement were blamed for Shepard's death. Some left-wing sites accused Dr. James Dobson and me of having blood on our hands because we opposed same-sex marriage and the teaching of homosexual behavior in our schools. 

Matthew Shepard is in a lot of history books, and his tragic death is taught to many children with that politically correct angle. Now a new book, written by an award-winning journalist, who is also a self-described homosexual, debunks the whole narrative of Shepard's murder. 

In The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard, Stephen Jimenez argues that, after exhaustive research involving more than 100 interviews, it is very likely that Shepard's murder was the result of drug dealing and a homosexual love triangle gone bad. In other words, Shepard was murdered by other homosexuals! 

Here's a prediction: None of it will matter. Matthew Shepard will still remain a homosexual "martyr," and a symbol of right-wing Christian hatred even though conservative Christians had nothing to do with it.