Gays, Gold, and Ganja
Great: The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) characters on prime time U.S. television is growing, with 58 regular LGBT roles on network and cable shows this season. Link. The reason? "The recent critical and commercial success of shows like 'Modern Family' and 'Glee' clearly indicate that mainstream audiences embrace gay characters and want to see well-crafted stories about our lives." Yeah, right. And Norman MailerLear never expressly told fellow producers to start making gay characters in order to mainstream homosexuality. This is nothing less than a battering-ram effort by Hollywood, and I fear it might be working. * * * * * * * BTW: I remember hearing (or reading) that Lear anecdote years ago, but please note that I haven't been able to verify it since. There's a chance it's not true, but I'd bet $5.00 that it's substantively accurate. * * * * * * * Whatta treat: One of my favorite columnists contributes a piece to one of my favorite blogs: Thomas Sowell at Lew Rockwell yesterday. I've always considered Sowell a conservative with libertarian leanings, but after reading this piece about government and gold, I suspect he's more libertarian than I realized. Sowell says what history knows: government hates gold (and silver). Gold hems in government, keeps it honest with its expenditures--whether it's restricting the printing of money or making it hard to shave the edges off coins. Three great excerpts from the piece:
“One of the many slick tricks of the Obama administration was to insert a provision in the massive Obamacare legislation regulating people who sell gold. This had nothing to do with medical care but everything to do with sneaking in an extension of the government's power over gold, in a bill too big for most people to read.” . . . .
“Whether gold is a good investment for individuals, and whether the gold standard is the right system for a country, are much more complicated questions than can be answered here. But what is clear is that the Obama administration sees people's freedom to buy and sell gold as something that can limit what the government can do.” . . .
“Indeed, freedom in general cramps the government's style. Those on the left may not be against freedom in general. But, at every turn, they find the freedoms granted by the Constitution of the United States hampering the left's agenda of imposing their superior wisdom and virtue on the rest of us.” . . .
Want even more Sowell? His most-recent book (I think he writes one a year), is reviewed at American Spectator. Worth the cyber-trip over if you have a few extra minutes today. * * * * * * * There's fierce disagreement about the causes of the Great Depression, but most everyone agrees: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff played a large part. The U.S. passed it, and then the rest of the world fought the protectionist game . . . thereby worsening the situation for everyone. Well, it looks like countries are doing the same thing again, but this time they're doing it via currency devaluation. Check out this piece by Randall Forsyth at Barron's: "This currency race to the bottom effectively constitutes 'Smoot-Hawley Redux.' Aren't governments now using currencies doing the same thing as the infamous tariff passed in 1929, which contributed greatly to the Great Depression?" I can't put my finger on it, but the currency debasing really has me intrigued. Maybe it's because I have a lot of money with the folks at Merk Mutual. It'll be interesting to see how they handle these turbulent international money times. * * * * * * * Funny Craig Ferguson: "A 3-year-old boy in Florida showed up to school with 20 ounces of pot. The school board was outraged but the kid's teacher was like, 'Hey, it beats an apple.'"
