The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude by Etienne de La Boetie

The complete text to the original Etienne de La Boetie's masterwork: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude can be found Here: http://www.mises.org/rothbard/boetie.pdf

Excerpts:

It is incredible how as soon as a people becomes subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and so willingly that one is led to say, on beholding such a situation, that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement. It is true that in the beginning men submit under constraint and by force; but those who come after them obey without regret and perform willingly what their predecessors had done because they had to. This is why men born under the yoke and then nourished and reared in slavery are content, without further effort, to live in their native circumstance, unaware of any other state or right, and considering as quite natural the condition into which they were born. There is, however, no heir so spendthrift or indifferent that he does not sometimes scan the account books of his father in order to see if he is enjoying all the privileges of his legacy or whether, perchance, his rights and those of his predecessor have not been encroached upon. Nevertheless it is clear enough that the powerful influence of custom is in no respect more compelling than in this, namely, habituation to subjection. It is said that Mithridates trained himself to drink poison. Like him we learn to swallow, and not to find bitter, the venom of servitude. It cannot be denied that nature is influential in shaping us to her will and making us reveal our rich or meager endowment; yet it must be admitted that she has less power over us than custom, for the reason that native endowment, no matter how good, is dissipated unless encouraged, whereas environment always shapes us in its own way, whatever that may be, in spite of nature's gifts. …

…I am of the opinion that one should pity those who, at birth, arrive with the yoke upon their necks. We should exonerate and forgive them, since they have not seen even the shadow of liberty, and, being quite unaware of it, cannot perceive the evil endured through their own slavery. It is truly the nature of man to be free and to wish to be so, yet his character is such that he instinctively follows the tendencies that his training gives him.

Let us therefore admit that all those things to which he is trained and accustomed seem natural to man and that only that is truly native to him which he receives with his primitive, untrained individuality. Thus custom becomes the first reason for voluntary servitude. Men are like handsome racehorses who first bite the bit and later like it, and rearing under the saddle a while soon learn to enjoy displaying their harness and prance proudly beneath their trappings. Similarly men will grow accustomed to the idea that they have always been in subjection, that their fathers lived in the same way; they will think that they are obliged to suffer this evil, and will persuade themselves by example and imitation of others, finally investing those who order them around with proprietary rights, based on the idea that it has always been that way.

There are always a few, better endowed than others, who feel the weight of the yoke and cannot restrain themselves from attempting to shake it off: these are the men who never become tamed under subjection. These are in fact the men who, possessed of clear minds and far-sighted spirit, are not satisfied, like the brutish mass, to see only what is at their feet, but rather look about them, behind and before, and even recall the things of the past in order to judge those of the future, and compare both with their present condition. These are the ones who, having good minds of their own, have further trained them by study and learning. Even if liberty had entirely perished from the earth, such men would invent it. For them slavery has no satisfactions, no matter how well disguised.

Dollar falls as Sweden slashes holdings in half

Complete Financial Times Story Here.

Excerpts:

The US dollar fell against the euro in European morning trade on Friday as Sweden’s central bank said it had slashed its dollar holdings almost in half.

The Riksbank revealed that it had cut the proportion of dollars in its reserves from 37 to 20 per cent, as well as selling off all its holdings of yen, which previously amounted to 8 per cent of its reserves.

The central bank balanced these disposals by increasing its holdings of euros from 37 to 50 per cent, as well as building a new Norwegian krone position of 10 per cent.

Although Sweden’s reserves are small, at around $21bn, and the Riksbank said its re-weighting was complete, the news thrust the ongoing issue of potential central bank diversification out of the dollar back into the limelight.

“Today’s announcement will merely add to market fears that the end to the Federal Reserve tightening cycle will encourage more diversification away from the dollar, and into the most liquid alternative of the euro,” said Chris Turner, head of FX strategy research at ING Financial Markets, who reiterated its view that the euro will return to $1.35 by the end of the year.

The dollar slipped 0.2c to $1.2334 against the euro, Y0.15 to Y117.31 against the yen and 0.3c to $1.7811 versus sterling.

Another country diversifies away from the dollar. This is going to be bad. Remember where you heard it first. - Etienne

Bill Maher's Advice to George W. Bush

"Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you anymore. There's no more money to spend--you used up all of that. You can't start another war because you used up the Army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.

Listen to your mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit cards' maxed out. No one's speaking to you: Mission accomplished.

"Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man?

"Now I know what you're saying. There're so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

"But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly! I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes.

"On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky.

I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

"So, yes, God does speak to you. What He is saying is, 'Take a hint.'"

Fischer vows to "spend every ounce" in defense of the "faith-based" US Dollar

DALLAS, April 11 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve will do what it takes to maintain its credibility, which is central to preserving the integrity of the U.S. dollar, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said on Tuesday.

Alluding to the Fed's dual role of ensuring inflation doesn't "raise its ugly head" while still promoting the fastest possible noninflationary growth, Fisher said, "We seek to get it right. And the answer to your question is we will do what gets it right."

The Fed has raised interest rates in 15 consecutive quarter percentage point steps to 4.75 percent and warned that further policy firming may be needed -- language that financial markets bet means that rates will reach 5 percent by mid-year.

Answering audience questions after a speech to the Dallas Friday Group, Fisher said the U.S. dollar is a "faith-based currency" dependent on the credibility of a central bank.

"In addition to a faith-based currency, we are the currency of the world and we must maintain its integrity. As far as my involvement is concerned, I will spend every ounce of energy doing that. I have no doubt that my colleagues will do exactly the same," Fisher said.

Looking over Fisher's Resume it appears that the Federal Reserve Board Member from Brown Brothers Harriman is part of the problem at the Central Bank. Jimmy Carter Economic Advisor, Kissenger Partner, NAFTA negotiator, loose-liped clown. I thought these guys were supposed to be subtle when they spoke? I can't wait until these guys are doing the perp walk on CNN trying to explain away their Enron-style market manipulations and "faith-based currency" to a pissed-off American public. - Etienne

Dr. Steven Jones Fingers Thermite as the Explosive Used to bring down the Twin Towers and WTC7

Find the complete article Here: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635198488,00.html

Excerpts:

EPHRAIM — A Brigham Young University physicist said he now believes an incendiary substance called thermite, bolstered by sulfur, was used to generate exceptionally hot fires at the World Trade Center on 9/11, causing the structural steel to fail and the buildings to collapse.
"It looks like thermite with sulfur added, which really is a very clever idea," Steven Jones, professor of physics at BYU, told a meeting of the Utah Academy of Science, Arts and Letters at Snow College Friday.
The government requires standard explosives to contain tag elements enabling them to be traced back to their manufacturers. But no tags are required in aluminum and iron oxide, the materials used to make thermite, he said. Nor, he said, are tags required in sulfur.
Jones is co-chairman, with James H. Fetzer, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, a group of college faculty members who believe conspirators other than pilots of the planes were directly involved in bringing down New York's Trade Towers.
The group, which Jones said has 200 members, maintains a Web site at www.st911.org. A 40-page paper by Jones, along with other peer-reviewed and non-reviewed academic papers, are posted on the site.
Last year, Jones presented various arguments for his theory that explosives or incendiary devices were planted in the Trade Towers, and in WTC 7, a smaller building in the Trade Center complex, and that those materials, not planes crashing into the buildings, caused the buildings to collapse.
At that time, he mentioned thermite as the possible explosive or incendiary agent. But Friday, he said he is increasingly convinced that thermite and sulfur were the root causes of the 9/11 disaster.
He told college professors and graduate students from throughout Utah gathered for the academy meeting that while almost no fire, even one ignited by jet fuel, can cause structural steel to fail, the combination of thermite and sulfur "slices through steel like a hot knife through butter."
He ticked off several pieces of evidence for his thermite fire theory:
First, he said, video showed a yellow, molten substance splashing off the side of the south Trade Tower about 50 minutes after an airplane hit it and a few minutes before it collapsed. Government investigators ruled out the possibility of melting steel being the source of the material because of the unlikelihood of steel melting. The investigators said the molten material must have been aluminum from the plane.
But, said Jones, molten aluminum is silvery. It never turns yellow. The substance observed in the videos "just isn't aluminum," he said. But, he said, thermite can cause steel to melt and become yellowish.
Second, he cited video pictures showing white ash rising from the south tower near the dripping, liquefied metal. When thermite burns, Jones said, it releases aluminum-oxide ash. The presence of both yellow-white molten iron and aluminum oxide ash "are signature characteristics of a thermite reaction," he said.
Another item of evidence, Jones said, is the fact that sulfur traces were found in structural steel recovered from the Trade Towers. Jones quoted the New York Times as saying sulfidization in the recovered steel was "perhaps the deepest mystery uncovered in the (official) investigation." But, he said, sulfidization fits the theory that sulfur was combined with thermite to make the thermite burn even hotter than it ordinarily would.
Jones said a piece of building wreckage had a gray substance on the outside that at one point had obviously been a dripping molten metal or liquid. He said that after thermite turns steel or iron into a molten form, and the metal hardens, it is gray.
He added that pools of molten metal were found beneath both trade towers and the 47-story WTC 7. That fact, he said, was never discussed in official investigation reports.

Dr. Stephen Jones' PowerPoint Slide Deck on the Collapse:
http://www.checktheevidence.com/911/February1bFinal.swf

WhatReallyHappened.com's Evidence of Thermite Page:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/thermite.htm

911Research.com's Metallurgy Page:
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/metallurgy/index.html

Smartest Corporate Officers I Have Seen In Years

Two St. Louis companies move to hold cash reserves in physical silver rather than fiat paper dollars.

St. Louis, MO, April, 3, 2006 – Holt & Shapard Capital Management in conjunction with Missouri Coin Company purchased approximately 20,000 ounces of silver, with a market value of over $225,000, on Friday, April 1. “Silver continues to embark on a long term secular bull market with many years to go,” says Portfolio Manager Wistar Holt. This move allows both companies to benefit from the secular bull market in precious metals while avoiding the debasement of the US dollar due to the massive budget and trade deficits. These deficits force the government to print massive amounts of dollars causing inflation.

Holt & Shapard Capital Management, an investment advisor registered with the SEC, has placed clients’ assets in precious metals mining companies since January 2001. Since then, the precious metals mining sector has been the top performing sector in the entire market 4 of the 5 years and according to the Wall Street Journal, was the top performing sector for the 1st quarter of 2006 with a 52.2% appreciation.

Missouri Coin Company, Inc., is a coin and precious metals dealer whose owner, Dennis McCormick, has been a professional numismatist for over 20 years.

With an exploding and now hidden M3 I think that any corporate officers that aren't moving to protect their retained earnings against inflation with precious metals are negligent in their fiduciary responsibility. Kudos to Wistar Holt and Charles Shapard: Trendsetters! - Etienne