An Economy of Addiction

When it comes to addictive drugs, most people would be surprised to learn that nicotine (common tobacco) is more quickly addictive than heroin, morphine or crack.  But there’s another drug that even more addictive than nicotine:  free money.
Oooo, we love that free money, don’t we?  More than heroin, coke, crack, tobacco, alcohol, or even ice [...]

What is “Capital”?

Most people assume that “capital” is more or less synonymous with “money”. That assumption is false.
Michael Moore (the controversial producer-director of the movies Fahrenheit 911 and Sicko) recently achieved a little more notoriety by claiming that “capitalism” is inherently “evil”. About the same time an email was banging around the internet concerning Bill Clinton’s 1997 [...]

The Undefined Dollar, Part II

Take a paper $50 bill in your left hand and a one-ounce “Gold Eagle” in your right hand.  Both are defined in law as legal tender.  Both are defined as being worth $50 dollars.  But it currently takes about twenty of the paper “FIFTY DOLLAR” bills to purchase one “50 DOLLAR” gold coin.
So, again, [...]

The Undefined Dollar

If you pick up a paper $50 bill in your left hand, you’ll see a picture of President Grant in the center and text along the bottom of the bill that reads, “FIFTY DOLLARS”.  If you also pick up a recently-minted one-ounce “Gold Eagle” in your right hand, you’ll see an inscription on the coin [...]

Notice vs. Notice Pleading

It’s a regular event for me to find myself somehow “compelled” to read something that I have no desire, energy or intent to read.  Maybe I’m just obsessive-compulsive, but I think the Good LORD sometimes “forces” me to stick my snoot in a book or article until I suddenly discover something that (for me, at [...]

Actions of Account

This may be one of the most important (or perhaps misguided) articles I’ve ever published.  This article describes my theory du jure that virtually all modern court proceedings (from traffic tickets to civil suits to felonies) may be, at base, “actions of account”—and, if so, how those actions might not only be stopped, but stopped [...]

Numbers without substance

The “U.S. National Debt Clock” (http://www.brilling.com/debt_clock) reports that as of today (June 12th) the “Outstanding Public Debt” was about $11.4 trillion.  When divided by the U.S. population, this works out to $37,000 for every American man, woman, and child.  Given that the U.S. per capita income is about $39,000 per year, the previous national debt [...]

Owing It To Ourselves?

An A.D. 2006 article entitled “The Lost Decade—Per Capita Net Worth and Living Standards,” declared in part that “as citizens of the U.S. we own the national debt.”
Technically, that’s correct.  Whee duh pee-pul do “own” the National Debt.  But 40 years ago, when gov-co was first going hugely into debt, it was borrowing from the [...]

Free Market vs. Slave Market

Suppose someone started the “SS Titanic Investment Corporation”. Suppose you could get in now at the ground floor (or perhaps I should say at the “ocean floor”) by investing $10,000 for a 1% interest in the S.S. Titanic. True, that ship is currently “wet docked” at the bottom of the North Atlantic. But—technologically speaking—it may [...]

Legal Tender Treason

Article 3 Section 3 Clause 1 of The Constitution of the United States declares in part,
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

Surprisingly, to understand the meaning of “treason” we must first understand the meaning of the [...]