I know you may be filled with my grumbling, even though I have cut down the blog. So, here is a lecture announcement that has induced major axioms from the sort of thing I have been grumbling about. I recommend reading the scary stuff in the beginning. 


Yes, the TSA is running traffic stops....

Dear Spectator reader, Thank you for your continued support of The American Spectator. Occasionally, we send emails like this one to introduce our readers to advertisers and other organizations. Below you will find an important message from the organizers of FreedomFest 2012. – The American Spectator

FreedomFest *   July 12 - 14, 2012   *   Bally's Las Vegas  "the annual meeting place for freedom lovers from around the globe" Act Fast! — Register before May 18th and receive a FREE Silver Dollar! Attend the special FreedomFest sessions: "Crisis in America:  A Call to Action" Dear over-taxed and over-regulated citizens, At last year's FreedomFest, we warned a record crowd of 2,400 attendees that the new ObamaCare law imposed new draconian rules requiring businesses to issue a form 1099 to all persons who bought more than $600 in goods during the year.  It threatened to destroy most small businesses in America. Because we and other concerned citizens sounded the alarm, Congress passed and the president signed H. R. 4 repealing the new 1099 requirements. FreedomFest can make a difference! But now something more sinister is developing. The Department of Homeland Security just ordered 450 million rounds of special "hallow point" .40 caliber ammunition from defense contractor ATK.  The high performance HST bullets are designed for law enforcement and ATK says they offer "optimum penetration for terminal performance." In addition, the Department has an open bid to stockpile rifle ammo, up to 175 million rounds of .223 caliber ammo, the same used by NATO forces. Why?  The answer is clear:  The Federal government is gearing up for the unprecedented social unrest (worse than Greece) when Washington is forced to impose "austerity" plans next year after the November elections.  Either that or face runaway inflation to pay for the costly welfare programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and massive unfunded liabilities. Protestors could be denied basic civil rights.  The new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) takes away basic rights of American citizens who are considered "terrorists" or "enemy combatants"  — they can be held indefinitely without trial and without legal representation.  (President Obama later said he would "never" impose this act on Americans.  Don't bet on it.) The Obama administration is getting desperate.  As part of the federal-aid highway bill, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) has added a provision that denies anyone who owes the IRS more than $50,000 to be denied a passport. (Senate Bill 1813 is now in the House.) The TSA is expanding rapidly its power.  It's not enough for swarms of government agents to invade our privacy with enhanced pat downs at airports, but they are also now engaging in random car stops on highways in America. And this just in:  What if you go to jail as a dissident or enemy of the state?  In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled last week that police can strip search anyone who is taken to jail.  According to the High Court decision, jailers may perform invasive strip searches on people arrested even for "minor offenses."  This travesty of justice was made in the case of Albert Florence, a black man who was arrested in New Jersey on a warrant for an unpaid fine, even though he had paid it and had proof on him when he was arrested.  The guards force him to strip naked and expose his mouth, nose, ears and genitals to a visual search in case he was hiding anything. Who cast the deciding majority vote? Justice Anthony Kennedy, the man who will decide the fate of ObamaCare in June. "Crisis in America:  A Call to Action." These are scary times, and that is why we are having a special "emergency" session at FreedomFest entitled "Crisis in America: A Call to Action." We expectanother record crowd (over 1,000 have already signed up) and are on our way to selling out. Register Now for Freedom Fest! Now, more than ever, your freedoms and hard-earning wealth are in danger. As Benjamin Franklin warned in 1776, "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." Friends of liberty, we have reached the tipping point, where the burdens of being over-regulated, over-taxed, and over-indebted will kill the golden goose.  Heritage's Index of Economic Freedom shows the United States steadily declining — and now it may go into free fall, unless we act. That's why we're holding a special "private" emergency session at this year's FreedomFest to address the on-going financial and political crisis. Leaders of all the major freedom organizations, free-market think tanks, and media will be there:  Cato, Reason, Heritage, FreedomWorks, Fox News, Heartland, FEE, Newsmax, Atlas, Mises, Hillsdale, Liberty Fund, Students for Liberty, Human Events, etc. Top Experts who will Address The Coming Storm To assess the dangers ahead, we have the following experts: Judge Andrew Napolitano (Fox News legal and political analyst) will bring you up to date about the latest assault on our liberties and our rights, and what we can do about them.   Last year his private VIP luncheon sold out, and he has agreed to do it again. Note:  Judge Napolitano's private VIP luncheon is limited to only 100 hundred attendees:  If you want to attend, please call Tami Holland immediately at 1-866-266-5101.  His remarks will be off the record — no recordings will be allowed so he can speak freely to attendees about what's really going on in Washington, New York, and at Fox News.   Steve Forbes will introduce the judge. Steve Forbes will return this year after having prostate surgery (thankfully he has fully recovered).  His topic:  "How to Find Freedom in an Unfree World:  Why This 2012 Election Will Make a HUGE Difference!"  Mr. Forbes is our official co-ambassador, and attends all 3 days! Mr. X, Washington's #1 insider, will address "How to Starve the Beast (Big Government)."  CNN and CBS 60 Minutes named Mr. X "Washington's #1 Power Broker," and Fox News "The Most Hated Man in Washington" — the man who singlehandedly stopped Obama's tax-and-spending "super committee" from reaching an agreement in November.   His name and topic will be revealed when you register.  Steve Moore, the most influential member of the Wall Street Journal board, will talk about "How Barack Obama is Bankrupting the US Economy, and What You Can Do About It."  This Year's Mock Trial: The Journal vs. The Times! "Wall Street on Trial" Every year we host a mock trial, and this year will be "Wall Street on Trial,"pitting the Wall Street Journal's editorSteve Moore (defending attorney) against the New York Times columnist Robert Frank (prosecuting attorney), with star witnesses Steve Forbes, John Mackey, and Peter Schiff. The sparks will fly! John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market and official co-ambassador to Freedom Fest, will join our panel with Steve Forbes and Yaron Brook, on"Creating a New Brand of Capitalism in the 21st Century."   NEWS ALERT!  Fortune magazine just named John Mackey #7 in its "Top 12 Entrepreneurs of Our Time"! (Others on list include Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Sam Walton.)  We are honored to have John speak at our conference.  Like Steve Forbes, he attends all 3 days; he especially loves our debates.  Yaron Brook, the fiery president of the Ayn Rand Institute, on "Why We Are Losing — and How to Turn Things Around." Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, the political organization behind theTea Party success, on "Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government's Stranglehold on America."   Richard Rahn (Cato) and Warren Coats (former IMF official) will lead a special session on "The Crisis Panel: Real-Life Cases of Survival a Financial Crisis."  Rahn, Coats and other experts describe times when they personally faced currency controls, shortages, and social unrest in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.  Not to be missed. Tom Woods, senior fellow at the Mises Institute and author of the bestseller, "Meltdown:  A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse." We will also call upon the expertise of international CEO Alexander Landia(with offices in London, Berlin, and Moscow), Keith Fitz-Gerald (editor of Money Map and top expert on Japan and China), Roberto Salinas of Mexico Business Forum, and Joel Stern, CEO of Stern Stewart and professor of finance at five top universities (Chicago, Columbia, Carnegie-Mellon, University of Cape Town, and University of Singapore).  Stern will update us on "Dangers Ahead in China and New Opportunity in Emerging Markets." Tom Palmer, director of the Atlas Global Initiative for Free Trade, Peace, and Prosperity, will bring us up to date on the "Arab Spring" in the Middle East.  Historian Jeffrey Hummel and economist Steve Horwitz will lead a "FEE Day" on "Why Government Inflation No Longer Works:  Watch Out for New State Powers." Nick Gillespie, Matt Welch and Lisa Kennedy will host a "Reason Day."  Jeffrey Tucker, new president of Laissez Faire Books (our official bookstore), will lead a panel on "Liberty that Works: New Approaches in New Times" withRobert Murphy, Wendy McElroy, Jacob Hubert, among others. Anthem Film Festival, organized by Jo Ann Skousen, will host the latest top libertarian films and documentaries, including "Closing Bell," a short narrative about the day the bubble burst on Wall Street in 2008.   The first libertarian film festival was a huge success last year. FreedomFest is not just a big tea party to protest the loss of our freedoms and our hard-earned wealth.  It is a serious "how to" meeting of the minds to learnnew strategies and take ACTION to preserve our liberties and secure our assets. As George Gilder says, "FreedomFest is THE mandatory meeting for all freedom lovers."  (Yes, he'll be there as a speaker.) Top Financial Gurus Gather We will feature a special 3-day "financial freedom" conference at FreedomFest, with top experts on how to protect and profit from the coming financial storm. Four years at FreedomFest, financial experts Bert Dohmen, editor of the Wellington Letter, and Peter Schiff, author of "Crash Proof," warned attendees of the impending financial crisis of 2008 — and they were spot on.  Both are returning to this year's All-Star Prediction Panel.  Peter Schiff, Chief Global Strategist for EuroPacific Capital, will speak on"Why the Dollar is Doomed: What's the Next Crisis?" Plus the Oxford Club's team of experts have agreed to do a one-day seminar on"Bullet Proofing Your Portfolio in Chaotic Times" with Alexander Green, Karim Rahemtulla, Marc Lichtenfeld, and Steven McDonald. According to the Hulbert Financial Digest, the Oxford Club Portfolio is ranked #5 in investment newsletter performance in the past 10 years. Jeff Berwick, The Dollar Vigilante, will be joining the always irreverent and challenging financial guru Doug Casey at a special luncheon address on "Escape from America: Don't Get Mad...Get Even!" Lenore Hawkins, founding partner at Meritas Advisors (San Diego), and Fox Business contributor, on "Investing in the Face of Widespread Market Perversions and Faulty Economic Ideology." We are also holding sessions on "Escape from the Coming American Tyranny: The Five Steps to Financial Freedom," with David McAlvany President of the McAlvany Financial Group, Dan Mangru,Senior Market Strategist, Joseph Glenn Commodities (Florida), Martin Truax, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Morgan Keegan, and Ty Andros, CEO, Traderview.  Ty will speak on "Absolute return investing during times of economic chaos, G7 debt spirals, collapsing economies and unfolding crack-up booms." Major financial organizations will be there, such as Rick Rule of Global Resource Investments™.Frank Holmes of US Global Funds™. Frank Trotter of Everbank... Sign up Now I urge you register now.  Already over 1,000 concerned citizens have signed up.  Conference fee is only $495 per person/$795 per couple.  Luncheons, special events, and the gala Saturday night banquet are extra. Share This Email Link to This Email Forward to a Friend »» Share on Facebook Send to Twitter Account Options Subscribe Give a Gift Subscription Manage Email Preferences Click Here to Unsubscribe Find Us Online This PAID ADVERTISEMENT was sent to getgene@gmail.com. If you feel you have received this email in error, or if you would prefer not to receive such emails in the future, click here. The American Spectator | 1611 North Kent Street, Suite 901 | Arlington, Virginia 22209