As 2010 quickly approaches, I can’t help but think what kind of year we should expect: will it be more economic turmoil, will it be more democrat vs republican, left vs right, more global warming alarmists vs deniers, more crises in the middle east, more drought, more floods? Probably.

The world will quickly change, yet stay the same. This is in the grand scheme of things. However, we can do a lot to better our lives and change the lives of those around us. We can continue to seek truth and inform others of the same. I believe that the only way the West will return to prosperity and not get left behind by Asia is to go back to becoming more productive. We need to work harder, we need to save more, we need to push our governments to drastically reduce taxes by becoming more responsible and trimming government programs. Government programs, while beneficial in the very short term, drain revenue and force governments to inflate their currencies, rack up debt, and worst of all increase taxes. Taxes are smothering the economies of the developed world. Taxes are making it hard for our entrepreneurs to set up shop and work on their ideas and innovate. Without this innovation and drive, we can no longer employ our populations in stable, productive, and useful jobs to produce THINGS we can sell to the rest of the world. We need to get our competitive edge back and return to a manufacturing base – this can only happen if the governments get out of the way of small business potential.

This is why I believe that 2010 should mark a start to when we begin to produce quality. We need to encourage the manufacturing and consumption of quality goods that benefit us and the world. With savings and subsequent investment in R&D we can focus on being known once again for making quality goods that will stand out in the global marketplace.

We are really excited to begin work on a variety of new glass pipes and glass bubblers in the coming weeks and months. Although it will cost us more to make these we believe that our superior product quality will stand out even more than before. We are a small business with a lot of happy customers. We do our best to make sure every single customer is happy, and to us this means: quality products, quick and free shipping world-wide, 7 days a week customer service (our customers know that we check our email at all times during the day), and the friendliest service. The bottom line is that we enjoy what we do and it shows.

That being said, enjoy the holidays and be safe and happy – and make sure to give it your all in 2010 and make every experience a quality experience with hard work and passion

By now most of you have had more than your share of hearing about our promiscuous ball whacking friend. Whether what he did was wrong or immoral is not the issue; the real reason for people’s obsession with Tiger Woods and his extracurricular ‘activities’ is not for its immorality or shock but because America is bored out of its mind. Who remembers that Jackson guy that died a few months ago??…everyone was going crazy about his life and rumors surrounding his death. What was his name anyway…it was on the tip of my tongue, was it Lester, or Gary, maybe Bill? No, No, Bill was the president who had his own extracurricular club. right?

We are such a bored, empty, soul-less society that we derive our deepest pleasures from the tragedy, mistakes, and stupidity of others. Think about it: Michael Jackson was a “weirdo” and a “molester” before he died. Two hours after he died he became a national hero and “the most talented man” who ever lived. As the great George Carlin used to say: as a society, we are spoon-fed a daily diet full of bullshit, with a side of more bullshit, with a bullshit shake to wash it all down. We are told how we should feel, who is wrong, who is right, etc. We are told that to get the government deficit down we have two spend two trillion dollars this year. We are told that to bring the American soldiers home we have to send at least 30000 more away from home. We are told that global warming is man-made when we are actually in a period of global cooling. We are also told that government health care is the way to go. Go north and visit your Canadian neighbors: you’ll see the mess the government can make of health care. It’s true that Canada has universal health care, but the “universal” part is a bit misleading. Canada has people sitting in emergency rooms for hours and hours before they can be assessed. We have cancer patients who die waiting for treatment all the time. I know this because I lost a friend to breast cancer because she was not ill enough to get treatment right away. When it was too damn late, then she got all kinds of useless treatment. The Canadian public health care promotes waste: you got a cut? Go to the ER. You got the runs? Go to the ER. Headache? That counts as ER worthy for sure! The motto for Canadian health care is: “It’s free, so use it daily for $#%@ sake” So with Obama telling you health care needs fixing every minute of the day…he doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about. The insurance companies need more competition to drive their prices down, that’s all the fixing it needs. In Canada, health care is paid for by insane taxation…there is no secret formula. You want access to crappy health care and zombie doctors around the clock, be prepared to pay MORE taxes.

Without getting even more off-topic, I have to return to my main point. We have an American president who was elected presumably on the promises of ending two wars, bringing back responsible and accountable government, ending lobbyist influence in Washington, and a slew of others. No one has seen any of these promises come to fruition. The wars are larger and more expensive than before, the government is less accountable, there are record numbers of lobbyists going to Washington and the White House (the list of people visiting the president was posted on theHuffington post last month). He also promised the American people that unemployment would not rise above 8%. It is now over 10% (and only because more discouraged workers gave up looking for work last month). We also get our daily dose of “the recession is over” almost every day. This is being backed up by their claim that we will have a “jobless recovery”. What the hell does that mean anyway? As Gerald Celente puts it: “that’s like saying you are sort of pregnant”.

With that being said, look at the last three president. Presently, we have cool-guy Obama who should get an Oscar for acting most like a president without being one. Before him was a rich boy from the North who pretended to be a Texas rancher, who told us there were weapons of mass destruction, none of which have been found with 8 years of war and trillions of dollars. And before Bush Jr was ‘ol Billy J Clinton who “smoked but never inhaled” and who “did not have sexual relations” with half the women in Washington, who did not send hundreds to their death in Waco Texas, or massacred the people in Ruby Ridge. With that being said, I would like to ask the American people to ask Tiger woods to run for president in 2012 because the man has never sent anyone to their death. He has never run up government debt, he has never made phony promises, or any of the millions of horrible things politicians do daily.

You must imagine our title is being read out loud by “Gold Member” from the Austin powers movie. Otherwise it just makes me sound like a greedy bastard, which I’m not – at least I don’t think so…

The main thing I wanted to mention is that I have been watching gold prices for a long time, well for about 5 or 6 years now. It was always hard to understand what was creating the volatility in the price of Gold until I ran into the Austrian school of economics, Dr. Marc Faber’s work, and other real experts – none of that phony Nobel prize Krugman and Bernanke crap.

It turns out that there is no need for a complex explanation on the price fluctuations in Gold. The main thing to consider is that for nearly a decade, helicopter Ben Bernanke has done nothing but shovel out cheap federal reserve notes, aka US Dollars, not backed by anything. In reality he has been pumping trillions of dollars in to the “fake” economy of banking and financial firms who take the cheap money and speculate. The main thing to remember is that the Federal Reserve has destroyed the economy through its artificially low interest rates. These interest rates are the rates that the Fed lends to banks and financial institutions, who are in return to lend to the economy. With super low interest rates, the big players find it more profitable to put their money in equities (stocks) or commodities and precious metals like Gold, Silver, Palladium, copper, etc. driving their prices up. This is one of the reasons for the over-inflated stock market prices that keep rising. Most people are confused because the stock market keeps going up while unemployment keeps increasing, foreclosures mount, and debt strangles more of the real economy. It is, therefore, important to understand the flow of cash from thin air at the Fed to the speculators and financial firms to assets, equities, and commodities that have yields or value, unlike the US dollar or pretty much any currency around the world.

With money printing gaining speed due to Ben Bernanke’s extraordinary capability as a printer of last resort, we can expect prices of pretty much everything, and of course Gold and other metals, as well as commodities and equities, to go through the roof. Although it may take several years to happen, it is bound to happen because for the first time in history the US and many countries around the world are at risk of defaulting on their loans as there is no real way for them to pay back their loans without inflating their money/currency. We could see gold prices go over $2000/oz or more, but if it doesn’t at least we will have something of value, unlike the dollar which has consistently lost value from day one.

After nearly a year in office, the divide between the American people has become increasingly evident. After promises of a new beginning, accountable governance, hope and change, change and hope, and every other slogan in the hall of fame of modern politics, we have yet to see any real change in America. Unemployment (real unemployment) is at a post-depression record (around 17.5%), food stamp use is increasing rapidly with no end in sight, and millions are near the end of their jobless benefits. That’s just the economy.

In terms of accountability, bankers like Geithner and Larry Summers are still running the show. With Rumors of Obama showing Geithner the door and welcoming JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as new Treasury Secretary, one has to wonder what this government is thinking. In terms of accountability and honest government, even the thought of bringing in the top bankster in the country to head the treasury is akin to asking Charles Manson to watch your kids because you heard he did some babysitting in his day. Obama, love him or hate him, has a knack for surrounding himself with all the wrong people. President Bush had the wrong people surrounding him but he never tried to make them out to be saints. On the other hand, Obama has nothing but “confidence” in the “honest” people he surrounds himself with. Please.

Like I have said before, the only time we will see real change in America is when good, well-informed citizens, stand up and tell their representatives to work for them. America needs more Ron Pauls and Peter Schiffs, and Presidents like Reagan who stood for something real and who knew the dangers of big government.

What are your thoughts on the state of the American and world governments? Do you think we are seeing any real change or is the revolving door working like a dream? What do you see in America’s future?

Just weeks away from the highly controversial Copenhagen summit, a group of hackers have broken into the servers of a UK university holding emails between some of the most well known Global-warming supporters. Some of the hacked emails date back to 1996 and show a progression of how global warming propaganda has come to be. There are emails that show these ’scientists’ contemplating how they can use “tricks” to skew data and graphs to make global warming look alarming and realistic, when in fact there is more mounting evidence that global warming is not man-made.

The UN meeting in Denmark is highly controversial because it can introduce a successor to the Kyoto accord on climate change and can force countries who have signed on to strict climate change standards without the consent of their congress or parliaments. This is essentially governance from abroad if you think about it; it gives power to an international body to punish and tax countries who do not meet targets without the input or consent of the citizens of those countries through their elected representatives.

The full file of hacked emails are available for download all over the Internet now (about 160 MB in size).

It will be interesting to see what response Al Gore will have to this or if he will use his regular BS: “So you don’t believe Polar bears are endangered?” to answer any question from a real scientist.

BTW, if you enjoyed this article please vote on it by clicking the Blog Engage button above, it will help others enjoy it too.

It has only been several months since I started using Linux Mint and I must say it’s absolutely fantastic. It never crashes, it has all the tools and apps I need, it’s fast and sleek, and it runs like a dream. Best of all it’s FREE. There are many, many flavors of Linux, and I have tried several of them since 2002; they all have their strengths but Linux Mint is really the most outstanding Linux distro I have ever tried. The best way to describe it is probably to call it a more customizable OS X, which btw was the last OS we were running. The only beef I have with OS X is that you have to pay a ton for a mac to be able to run it properly. Linux on the other hand runs on pretty much anything, but the new distros do use quite a bit of RAM, which is quite cheap these days anyway.

Linux is pretty user-friendly these days too, you can use the package/software manager to download and install pretty much any type of software you need, be it for video, audio, office, or anything else. If you need anything it’s there, and its FREE. Openoffice is great too. The only issue I have with Openoffice is that it’s a bit slower than MS Office, but that’s because it is written in Java, which is always slow.

If you have time, I definitely recommend checking out Linux mint, give their site a look and try it out. Remember to back up your data though!

Also, if you have enough RAM on your system you should install Compiz Fusion for Linux Mint which adds a lot of cool features to your system like: water effect, animated windows, etc. Here is a video of Compiz in action on an older Linux Mint…

http://www.linuxmint.com/

I heard on the radio today that common sense was found dead. His obituary was read on a morning talk show and I became very emotional. I guess he just couldn’t take it anymore and may have decided to take his own life…we are not sure. One thing is for sure, it was becoming harder for him to keep on going when so many people turned their backs on him. His heart was broken. Its hard to say: common sense is dead.

Year after year society becomes more and more delusional as useless bureaucracies run by morons decide what is good and what is bad; what is right and what is wrong, etc, etc, etc. I heard today that there are pockets of communities trying to rename Halloween to get this: “Orange and Black day”, give me a f%$&*@# break. Apparently, the holiday is not fair to some people, who knows why, and it should have a more neutral name. These are the same people who get mad when you say “Merry X-mas”. “No, no!…they scream, you should say ‘Happy Holidays’ “.

We also recently heard of a little 6 year old boy who kissed one of his peers on the cheek. He was suspended from school for sexual harassment. Another school kid was suspended for packing cutlery with his lunch. We have to call “Native Indians”: “First Nations People”…and “East Indians” have to be called: “South Asians”, “Mentally Handicapped people” formerly known as “Mentally retarded” are now known as “Less-abled”…no, no, you can’t even be poor anymore, you HAVE to be “Less fortunate”. What was once known as a “Barber” is now “Hair dresser” and I just heard the garbage guy is now a “disposal engineer”.

We really need to wake up and realize that we are letting these insane fools let us what to think and what to say. What is right is what I say is right. I don’t need someone else giving me their ridiculous phrases to repeat because it offends some common sense lacking fool like themselves.

I also get irritated by people who have given our glass pipes such a bad connotation. To me it’s a form of art; perhaps one of the most beautiful forms of art. Sometimes I spend hours admiring the cool colors or contours on one of our glass pipes or bubblers. People should just let things be instead of trying to add meaning to everything and try to make everyone else conform. What you want to do with an object is your choice…let us enjoy making them if we want.

Anyway, here is a video of our hero George Carlin to cheer you up…

What are your thoughts on the direction of common sense in society? Do you think we should put up with the “political correctness” police?