BIG XII PICKS

Week 4: Straight Up 5-0 vs. Line 2-3
Season: Straight Up 31-5 vs. Line 18-17-1

WEEK 5

Texas -14.5 @Missouri
UT/UT

@Texas A&M -23.5 Baylor
A&M/A&M

Colorado -3.5 @Oklahoma St.
COL/COL

@Nebraska -3.5 Iowa St.
NEB/NEB

@Texas Tech -18 Kansas
TT/KAN

@Oklahoma -6.5 Kansas St.
KST/KST

Real Poverty

Fred Reed explains shiftlessness.

"Poverty is a condition characterized by a lack of money. Shiftlessness involves a lack of backbone, morals, independence, self-respect, and drive. They are not the same thing. Of course, if you are shiftless, you are likely to be poor."

"You don’t have to be helpless, nor useless, nor immoral because you were born poor. If this were not true, the Irish, Italians, Jews, the Chinese of railroad coolie days, the Poles and the Czechs would still be in slums. They aren’t."

Posse Comitatus

"The average American is likely to think that "posse comitatus" is the entourage of a top rapper or NBA star. Little do they know (or likely care to know) that The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 has done more to preserve their liberty than any piece of legislation since the Bill of Rights." - C.T. Rossi

It's Not My War!

by Laurence M. Vance

If there is anything this war is not, it is not my war. I have opposed it from the beginning. I have denounced it from the beginning. I have never wavered in my disagreement with the president who instigated it, my disgust for the Congressmen who funded it, my loathing for the conservatives who promoted it, my abhorrence of the Christians who defended it, and my pity for the soldiers who were duped by military recruiters to participate in it.

This is so true:
The typical conservative is not opposed to war at all as long as it is launched by a Republican president who claims to be one of them.

Antiwar Rally

Lew Rockwell gave a short speech at a left-wing antiwar rally.

The US believes that it can use its weapons of mass destruction to threaten any country in the world on the very suspicion that it might be trying to defend itself. The US can then phony up intelligence, overthrow a leader, and install a regime of its choosing. Not to worry: its magical military Midas touch will transform that country into a paragon of democratic freedom – just as soon as all political opposition is silenced or destroyed.

So I say to you: Keep making the sacrifice. Believe in peace. Proclaim peace. Stand up to the state. Be a dissident. Tell what is true. And do not fear the emperor-pirates. They, after all, fear you. For you help tilt the balance of history against their barbarism, and in favor of peace and freedom.

NFL PICKS

Week 2: Straight Up 8-8 vs. Line 6-10
Season: Striaght Up 15-17 vs. Line 10-22

WEEK 3

@St. Louis -6.5 Tennessee
STL/STL

@Philadelphia -8.5 Oakland
PHI/PHI

Cincinnati -3 @Chicago
CIN/CIN

@NY Jets -2.5 Jacksonville
JAX/JAX

@Minnesota -4 New Orleans
NO/NO

Carolina -3 @Miami
CAR/CAR

@Indianapolis -13.5 Cleveland
IND/IND

@Buffalo -2.5 Atlanta
ATL/ATL

Tampa Bay -3.5 @Green Bay
GB/GB

@Seattle -6.5 Arizona
SEA/ARZ

@Pittsburgh -3 New England
PIT/NE

Dallas -6.5 @San Francisco
DAL/DAL

@San Diego -5.5 NY Giants
SD/SD

@Denver -3 Kansas City
KC/KC

New Orleans:

Paving the Streets With Gold

"For two hundred billion dollars, the federal government could almost pave all the streets of New Orleans with gold. But the public would see the waste and be outraged. So instead, the federal government will pour the gold into the pockets of political cronies."

Hurricane Katrina Part II

See this if you didn't catch it the first time around.

THE US GOVERNMENT DID NOT FAIL ITS MISSION
IN THE WAKE OF HURRICANE KATRINA
Analysis by G. Edward Griffin, updated 2005 September 21

Music Capital of the World

New Orleans Voodoo Fest coming to Austin.

BIG XII PICKS

Week 3: Straight Up 9-0 vs. Line 4-4-1
Season: Straight Up 26-5 vs. Line 16-14-1

WEEK 4

Iowa St. -17 @Army
ISU/ISU

@Miami -14 Colorado
MIA/COL

@Kansas St. -24.5 North Texas
KST/KST

There is no line posted on the following Big 12 games, so I'm approximating the line and picking against that.

@Texas A&M -31.5 Texas State
A&M/A&M

@Texas Tech -54.5 Indiana St.
TT/TT

Great News for Aggie Fans

Hurricane Rita! Now the big showdown with Texas State will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest at 7:30 Thursday night.

Interview with Lew Rockwell

Local Austinite, Scott Horton, recently interviewed Lew Rockwell on his Weekend Interview Show. If you have any interest in economics, I highly recommend downloading the MP3. The interview is about 45 minutes and it's excellent.

Football Factoid

Officially, Fort Valley State (Ga.) holds the single-game NCAA scoring record with 106 points against Knoxville (Tenn.) in 1969. In Division I-A, Houston put up 100 points against Tulsa in 1968. The NCAA did not begin record keeping until 1937, although for historical purposes Georgia Tech is listed with 222 points in a win over Cumberland in 1916.

This weekend Texas Tech plays Indiana State who is ranked 208th out of 239 teams in Division I & II.
"I think if we play well and we capitalize on every drive, we can score 100 points," Tech quarterback Cody Hodges said.

The Constitution

We Are Revolutionaries

by Charley Reese

Some people seem to be under the erroneous belief that the Constitution grants us our rights. It does no such thing. To understand the Constitution, you have to remember the Declaration of Independence, which preceded it by several years. It is the Declaration that contains the philosophy of the American Revolution. The Constitution merely implements that philosophy.

The philosophy of the American Revolution contains three basic premises. One is that rights come from God and are unalienable. Two is that men create governments to protect those rights. Three is that when government fails to protect those rights and becomes abusive of those rights, men have a right and even a duty to overthrow that government and create a new one.

The Bill of Rights, which is a set of amendments added after ratification to reassure opponents of the Constitution that the new government would not usurp their rights, simply forbids the new federal government from abusing or abridging already-existing rights. The right to free speech and all the others existed prior to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

It is also good to keep in mind that the Constitution is a textual document, not a "living document." That was a false metaphor intended to provide cover for judges to legislate and amend by interpretation so that the Constitution would mean whatever they said it meant. Not so. It means what it says. It cannot be amended by interpretation or by Congress ignoring it, though modern politicians have committed both sins.

Military Recruiters...

Are Professional Liars

by Fred Reed

Wars seem important at the time, but they usually aren't. Five years later, they are history. About sixty thousand GIs died in Vietnam. We lost. Nothing happened. It was a stupid war for nothing. Today the guys who lost faces and legs and internal organs back then are just freaks. Nobody gives a damn about them, and nobody will give a damn about you. A war is a politician's toy, but your wheelchair is forever. If you want adventure, try the fishing fleet in Alaska.

Think about it.

Real Deal Reggie McNeal

McNeal named National I-A Offensive Player of the Week

NFL PICKS

Week 1: Straight Up 7-9 vs. Line 4-12 (Ouch!)

WEEK 2

Baltimore -4 @Tennessee
TEN/TEN

Pittsburgh -5.5 @Houston
PIT/PIT

@Indianapolis -9 Jacksonville
IND/IND

Detroit -1.5 @Chicago
DET/DET

@Cincinnati -3 Minnesota
CIN/CIN

@Philadelphia -13.5 San Francisco
PHI/PHI

@Tampa Bay -2 Buffalo
BUF/BUF

New England -3 @Carolina
NE/NE

@Seattle -1 Atlanta
ATL/ATL

@Arizona -1 St. Louis
STL/STL

@NY Jets -6 Miami
NYJ/MIA

@Green Bay -6.5 Cleveland
GB/GB

@Denver -3 San Diego
SD/SD

Kansas City -1 @Oakland
KC/KC

@NY Giants -3.5 New Orleans
NO/NO

@Dallas -5.5 Washington
DAL/DAL

Just Say NO to Federal Corn

The Wild and Free Pigs of the Okefenokee Swamp

Hurricane Katrina

I haven't posted anything about Katrina yet, not because I haven't been paying attention, but because I haven't been able to find anything worth posting, until now. Now it all makes sense. Leave it up to G. Edward Griffin. The following is a must read.

THE US GOVERNMENT DID NOT FAIL ITS MISSION
IN THE WAKE OF HURRICANE KATRINA
Analysis by G. Edward Griffin, 2005 September 16

excerpt:
The primary job of the military, FEMA, and Homeland Security is not to protect the American people in times of emergency but to protect the government in times of emergency and keep it functioning. Their primary assignment is, not to rescue people, but to control them. Their directive is to relocate families and businesses, confiscate property, commandeer goods, direct labor and services, and establish martial law.

Silver Lining

A Dow Jones MarketWatch commodity analyst Friday suggested silver could hit $50. “After suffering from a huge supply deficit for more than a decade, silver may be primed for a big rally,” wrote Myra P. Saefong.

Golden

Gold is at a 17-year high.

BIG XII PICKS

Week 2: Straight Up 8-3 vs. Line 6-5
Season: Straight Up 17-5 vs. Line 12-10

WEEK 3

@Texas A&M -27.5 SMU
A&M/SMU

@Missouri -20.5 Troy
MIZ/MIZ

Baylor -5.5 @Army
BAY/BAY

@UCLA -6 Oklahoma
UCLA/UCLA

@Nebraska -10 Pittsburgh
NEB/NEB

@Texas -41 Rice
UT/UT

@Kansas -14 Louisiana Tech
KAN/LT

@Oklahoma St. -24.5 Arkansas St.
OK ST/OK ST

There is no line posted on the following Big 12 game, so I'm adding what I think the line should be and I'm picking against that.

@Texas Tech -33 Sam Houston St.
TT/TT

Big 12 Newcomers

Thomas Clayton looks pretty solid. Here are the others.

Failure

Go to Google, type in failure, and click I'm Feeling Lucky.

Iraqi Gas

Iraqis can buy gas for as little as five cents per gallon, courtesy of American taxpayers! - Ron Paul

70 Years of Welfare

by Vin Suprynowicz

"Self-sufficiency has survival value. Applied over a period of generations, the welfare state can breed self-sufficiency out of a people."

NFL PICKS

WEEK 1

@New England -7.5 Oakland
NE/NE

Denver -4.5 @Miami
DEN/DEN

Cincinnati -3.5 @Cleveland
CLE/CLE

@Buffalo -5.5 Houston
BUF/HOU

@Pittsburgh -7 Tennessee
PIT/TEN

@Washington -6 Chicago
WAS/WAS

@Carolina -7 New Orleans
CAR/CAR

@Minnesota -6 Tampa Bay
MIN/MIN

@Jacksonville -3 Seattle
JAX/JAX

@Kansas City -3 NY Jets
KC/KC

@NY Giants -3 Arizona
ARZ/ARZ

St. Louis -6 @San Francisco
STL/STL

@Detroit -3 Green Bay
GB/GB

@San Diego -4.5 Dallas
SD/SD

Indianapolis -3 @Baltimore
IND/IND

Philadelphia -1.5 @Atlanta
PHI/PHI

Air Guitar

Fot those of you who are in to this kind of stuff.

Air Guitar USA

BIG XII PICKS

Week 1 Results: Straight Up 9-2 vs. Line 6-5

WEEK 2

Oklahoma St. -14 @FAU
OK ST/FAU

Kansas St. -9.5 @Marshall
KST/MAR

@Oklahoma -31 Tulsa
OU/OU

Iowa -9 @Iowa St.
IOWA/IOWA

@Missouri -10.5 New Mexico
MIZ/NM

@Nebraska -6.5 Wake Forest
NEB/NEB

@Texas Tech -34.5 Florida International
TT/TT

@Ohio St. -1 Texas
OSU/OSU

@Colorado -24 New Mexico St.
COL/COL

There is no line posted on the following Big 12 games, so I'm adding what I think the line should be and I'm picking against that.

@Kansas -10 Appalachian St.
KAN/KAN

@Baylor -24 Samford
BAY/SAM

Tonight's Picks

I'll be posting all of my picks for this weekend later today. This is just in case I don't get them out before gametime tonight.

Oklahoma St. -14 @FAU
Ok. St./FAU

@New England -7.5 Oakland
NE/NE

BIG XII PICKS

Favorites on the left, Underdogs on the right, and the line in the middle. Below, the first team listed is my pick straight-up and the second is vs. the line.

WEEK 1

@Oklahoma 26 TCU
OU/TCU

@Missouri 25 Arkansas St.
MIZ/Ar. St.

@Kansas St. 33 Florida Int.
KST./KST.

@Colorado 7.5 Colorado St.
CO/CO St.

@Kansas 23.5 Florida Atlantic
Kan./FAU

@Texas 39.5 La.-Lafayette
UT/UT

Texas A&M 1.5 @Clemson
A&M/A&M

Baylor 2.5 @SMU
BAY/BAY

There is no line posted on the following three Big 12 games, so I'm adding what I think the line should be and I'm picking against that.

@Oklahoma St. 27.5 Montana St.
Ok St./Ok St.

@Iowa St. 28 Illinios St.
Iowa St./IL. St.

@Nebraska 22.5 Maine
Neb./Neb.

The State and the Flood

by Lew Rockwell

There are some gems in this article:

Mother Nature can be cruel, but even at her worst, she is no match for government.

Only the public sector can preside over a situation this precarious and display utter and complete inertia. What do these people have to lose? They are not real owners. There are no profits or losses at stake. They do not have to answer to risk-obsessed insurance companies who insist on premiums matching even the most remote contingencies. So long as it seems to work, they are glad to go about their business in the soporific style famous to all public sectors everywhere.

The 10,000 people who had been corralled into the Superdome were essentially under house arrest from the police who were keeping them there, preventing them even from getting fresh air. A day later the water and food were running out, people were dying, and the sanitary conditions becoming disastrous. Finally someone had the idea of shipping all these people Soviet-like to Houston to live in the Astrodome, as if they are not people with volition but cattle.

The problem here is public ownership itself. It has encouraged people to adopt a negligent attitude toward even such obvious risks. Private developers and owners, in contrast, demand to know every possible scenario as a way to protect their property. But public owners have no real stake in the outcome and lack the economic capacity to calibrate resource allocation to risk assessment. In other words, the government manages without responsibility or competence.

Can levees and pumps and disaster management really be privatized? Not only can they be; they must be if we want to avoid ever more apocalypses of this sort. William Buckley used to poke fun at libertarians and their plans for privatizing garbage collection, but this disaster shows that much more than this ought to be in private hands. It is not a trivial issue; our survival may depend on it.

Football Finally Here

It all starts tonight.

The 10 Most Intriguing College Football Games of 2005

In a Crisis, Markets More Than Ever

by Lew Rockwell

This is a great column to read if you have time. It's about what happens in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

From the article:

You can learn so much about human nature, the workings of society, and the functioning of markets by looking at the aftermath of a natural disaster. It is a fascinating laboratory for observing how society functions under the worst conditions.

If you have ever been through a natural disaster, and paid attention to how the preparation and clean-up takes place, you know precisely what I am referring to: the splendid creative power of human energy to cooperate to overcome the most astonishing barriers.

Such settings can teach us so much about politics and economics. If society can function in these radically abnormal settings, if markets can work well, we discover so much about the power of the same forces and institutions to manage under normal conditions.