- I was always skeptical about Liberty Dollars. But counterfeiting? Terrorism? That’s insane. Kent McManigal has a fervent rant on the guilty verdict against Bernard von Nothaus. (Tip o’ hat to Rational Review News.)
- OMG. All the embarrassing coincidences!
- As with nearly everything else, attitude turns out to be more important than tools when it comes to saving energy.
- Obama is a war monger as well as a war mongering criminal. And a liar. But you knew that. Nothing new here. But if the Nobel Peace Prize committee had any shame (which they don’t and never have), they’d be voting on a recision right about now.
- Utah makes it official. I love the fact that that they chose a Browning model that’s best known today as a civilian gun despite its military origins. (Tip o’ hat to PT.)
I think that the main problem with the liberty dollar case is that you can’t call non-offical money “dollars”.
Really sucks that they rammed them so hard for that…any civilized justice system would have just sent them a cease and desist letter telling them to change the name. They really can’t stand the idea of ordinary citizens using real money not subject to the same regulations as FRN “money”…
Good point, winston. Calling the thing a dollar was indeed risky. And it also didn’t make sense; it never was a dollar, and the name tied it to a discredited currency, which just seems like bad marketing.
I didn’t trust the NorFed business model from the moment I heard of it (when I received a PR kit before Liberty Dollars went public). When I asked several questions and got responses that were more emotional than informative, that cemented my mistrust. Still, I thought of Liberty Dollars sort of the way I think of Amway — sincere, something more attractive to true believers than to skeptics, but totally harmless. Never in a million zillion years did I ever imagine that the feds would go after poor Bernard von Nothaus for counterfeiting — let alone call him a terrorist. It’s completely insane and completely cruel. A good illustration of gangsters crushing perceived competition.
Isn’t amazing how often you can find out controversial information (such as the link for Utah’s state gun) from overseas sources before we find it in our own?
Just caught this:
“it never was a dollar, and the name tied it to a discredited currency, which just seems like bad marketing.”
Now that’s really funny, Claire!
I believe the only reason they came after him was that he had a semi-serious alternative to what is rapidly becoming an embarrassment to the Powers That Be. If I understand correctly, he had lobbied marketers in his state to accept his currency as legitimate tender, and apparently didn’t have any problems doing so. I think it scared ’em. Bad.
He would have set a precedent. So They had to, too.
Claire:
I have seen a few liberty dollars here and there…in some places around downtown Ashville you can (could) sometimes find small “we accept libery dollars” signs in businesses. Never really payed it much mind. I read a discussion about the whole thing in a forum…as I understand it, if they had designed them to be unique from FRNs (No dollar signs, similar slogans, etc.) and just called them trade units or whatver…they would have been totally untouchable. Hope it at least serves as an example for similar businesses on how to cover ass properly.
Way back when I was working as a cashier at the local grocery store, someone tried to pay with a $10 Liberty dollar. The manager wouldn’t accept it, but we worked around it (I bought the coin for a $10 FRN, which he then used to pay for his frozen pizzas). Then I got home and weighed it. It had nowhere near the amount of silver that was stamped on it, no matter what kind of ounces you used. I guess that kind of soured me on them.
Ellendra — Yep, that’s exactly it. They never tried to hide it; it was always part of the marketing plan. (Example only and I’m going by memory) You’d buy a “$10” face value Liberty Dollar, which would have $5 worth of silver in it, and the rest of what you paid was supposed go toward unspecified political purposes. Then you were supposed to be able to go to businesses and talk them into letting you make a $10 purchase with $5 worth of silver.
I don’t recall anybody ever trying to hide the facts. And I know it was a little more complex than what I just described. But it always seemed strange to me and not a good deal. Freedom lovers were expected to support Liberty Dollars because they were an attempt to reintroduce real metal currency. But Gresham’s Law aside, it appeared to me that people were expected to subject themselves to a losing arrangement and put a lot of money into NorFed’s coffers for purposes that were never made clear.
BUT … It was all disclosed and there was no attempt by NorFed to deceive anybody.
Which is why I’ve never liked what NorFed tried to do. I’m not interested in “converting” my hard earned money to get only half of what I can pay a coin dealer for silver coins.
Now for something off topic that I think you might be interested in.
The First Man in Space.
Actually died on re-entry while cursing the country that sent him up in a “Government Ship”. Something that he and his friend Gagarin both knew was completely unfit for flight, with HUNDREDS of defects. Unbelievable.
http://gizmodo.com/#!5783825/the-sad-tragedy-of-a-russian-cosmonaut-who-was-sent-into-space-knowing-he-would-die
Gagarin should be considered the first man to SURVIVE a trip into space.
What a way to die.
Jim B. — Beat you to the punch on that one (http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/ClaireWolfe/2011/03/19/weekend-miscellany-4/). Terrible story. But Gagarin did go up and survive before him.
I suspect, though, that we still haven’t heard everything about dead cosmonauts.
Horrible miscarriage of justice. Claire, I wanted to order a book from Amazon, but I wanted to do it through your blog. How?
Hi, hangman. Let’s hope that’s the worst miscarriage of justice the world sees today.
Thanks for using my Amazon links. Using either of these any time you enter Amazon will help me out and support this blog:
http://www.amazon.com/?tag=livifree07-20
http://www.amazon.com/?tag=clairewolfeco-20
Basically, what this case comes down to, is the gov claiming that certain forms of mutually voluntary barter are terrorism. Not just illegal, not just discouraged — but actual terrorizing of a populace.
I make a living private contracting for home re-modeling and construction. In the last year or so, thanks to the shit economy, I’ve worked for barter quite often: a year of eggs and a side of beef for fixing a roof, a winter’s worth of firewood for painting, etc. When will THAT become terrorism? The idea is no sillier than two people trading goods for honest metal being considered so.