Mountain Views News          Saturday, September 1, 2012

15

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, September 1, 2012 

HAIL Hamilton My Turn

STUART Tolchin..........On LIFE

Mountain 
Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

CITY EDITOR

Dean Lee 

EAST VALLEY EDITOR

Joan Schmidt

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

PRODUCTION 

Richard Garcia

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lina Johnson

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

CONTRIBUTORS

Jeff Brown

Pat Birdsall

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Stuart Tolchin

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Hail Hamilton 

Rich Johnson

Chris Bertrand

Ron Carter

Rev. James Snyder

Bobby Eldridge

Mary Carney

La Quetta Shamblee

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Greg Wellborn

Dr. John Talevich

Meaghan Allen

Sean Kayden


My topic for this 
week’s column 
may seem to some 
readers that I’ve 
just returned from a 
trip to Wonderland with Alice. Let me 
assure it is not. What follows are some 
thoughts I gleamed from reading “The 
Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second 
Look At the Federal Reserve,” by G. 
Edward Griffin (4th ed., Reality Zone, 
1998). A friend of mine loaned me the 
book awhile back.

 Although Griffin is a lifelong 
member of the John Birch Society (an 
organization whose views I deplore) and 
Despite Griffin’s extreme conservative 
credentials (of which I definitely don’t 
share), I found Griffin’s discussion of 
the inflationary role of fiat currency 
(worthless paper money backed by 
nothing of value). Griffin’s book is also 
a good history of the failure central 
banking, both here and abroad. 

 A boring subject? I was hooked in five 
minutes. It reads like a detective story-
-which it really is. But it’s all true. This 
book is about the most blatant scam in 
history. It’s all here: the cause of wars, 
boom-bust cycles, inflation, depression, 
prosperity. My view of the Fed and 
the all-mighty dollar was definitely 
changed.

 Tyranny is defined as the dominance, 
oppressive, abusive rule of government, 
and cruelty and injustice it creates. 
What better definition than this fits the 
Federal Reserve System and its role in 
creating what Griffin calls the “hidden 
tax” -- inflation.

 According to Griffin, America is using 
a private credit system wherein the 
medium of exchange are the Federal 
Reserve Notes that we call “Dollars”. 
Hence, the so-called “Income Tax” is in 
reality nothing more than a disguised 
“User Fee” that Americans must pay 
to the Federal Reserve Bank for using 
their private credit system. [see Title 12, 
USC]. 

 The legal definition of “dollar” is “a 
gold or silver coin of a specific weight 
and with specific markings”. Thus, a 
Federal Reserve Note, is not and cannot, 
ever be a dollar. A Note is not “money”, 
see Blacks Law Dictionary. The Federal 
Reserve Notes in use are mere evidence 
of a debt. 

 The Federal Reserve Banking system is 
not a Federal government agency, there 
are not “reserves” and there is no real 
money. The Federal Reserve Banking 
system is a private cartel that has 
usurped the authority of the Congress 
to coin Money. Federal Reserve Notes 
are just as worthless or just as valuable 
as Monopoly Money used in the game 
“Monopoly”. 

If we go to this Constitution for the 
United States, Article I, section 8, we 
find that only Congress was given the 
authority “To coin money, regulate 
the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, 
and fix the Standard of Weights and 
Measures”. This authority given to 
Congress by this Constitution was not to 
be delegated to any private corporation 
for that corporation’s private gain. And 
this is the problem: regardless of its 
quasi-government characteristics, the 
Fed is really a banking cartel run by the 
nation’s largest banks from its New York 
branch.

 The authority to coin money was 
usurped by the unlawful enactment 
of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. 
The Federal Reserve Act is a “private 
law” sponsored by four Congressmen 
rammed through Congress just before 
the Congressional session closed in 
December of 1913. Congress can pass 
both private laws and public laws. 
Congress does not have to tell the 
American Citizens which law is private 
and which law is public. We are simply 
led to believe that all laws are public. 
This is propaganda at its best. 

 This was a silent coup d’ e-tat wherein 
the American People became the slaves 
of the Federal Reserve Bank. The 
“Killing Blow”, the coup de grace, was 
delivered upon the American people 
by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 by 
removing the Gold Standard from 
the American economy. This is my 
only criticism of the New Deal which 
I think was what the nation needed 
by its creation of demand by putting 
millions of Americans back to work 
building roads, bridges, and damns 
with programs like the WPA, CCC, and 
FWA. 

 Since then, however, no American 
Citizen has actually paid for anything, 
we have just exchanged worthless 
Federal Reserved Notes for more 
worthless Federal Reserve Notes. All 
we do is lease the property we think we 
own from the banks to whom we pay 
our worthless federal “dollars” for the 
privilege of the possession and use of 
that property whether it be a house, a 
car, or a “whatever.” 

 Think about it: We are perpetual 
debtors spending our lives working for 
nothing, owning nothing, just for the 
privilege of being financial field slaves 
for the banking slaveowners who run 
the Fed! I don’t know about you, but for 
me this is a very sobering thought. 

Editor’s Note: Last week’s column about 
the conversation with the young cashier 
by Hail inadvertently failed to include 
the following: “This story was found on 
the internet but was worthy of sharing 
with you.”

 While growing up 
in Chicago, when I 
was six or seven years 
old and listening to 
baseball games on the 
radio, I always rooted 
for the Dodgers. Why and who cares? I 
think it is important to understand that 
for lots of people like me, who always 
felt on the outside, that it was and is 
important to root for the underdog. The 
guys on top have already got theirs and 
they did it without my help. They don’t 
need me and I don’t need them. It’s 
always the underdog that I root for. If 
that underdog comes through, maybe it’s 
because of the little extra help he or she 
received from my caring.

 It wasn’t just that the Dodgers were the 
first team to put a Black Man in a major 
League uniform; although that’s a big 
part of it. It was also because they were 
called the “Bums” and came from some 
town that wasn’t a big city like Chicago 
or New York or Philadelphia or Detroit. 
Who ever heard of Brooklyn? And where 
was it on the map? Also, everybody knew 
that every one of the other 15 teams had 
won a World Series, except for Brooklyn. 
For those of you who don’t know or 
don’t care, the Major Leagues in the 
early 1950’s consisted of 16 teams - eight 
in the National League and eight in the 
American League. The furthest teams 
West were the St. Louis Browns and the 
St. Louis Cardinals. Most of the Big Cities 
like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St 
Louis, and Boston had two teams while 
the remaining teams were in the big 
cities of Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, 
Cleveland, and in the nation’s capitol. The 
familiar saying describing that last team 
was Washington - first in war, first in 
peace, and last in the American League. 
I couldn’t root for them.

 I’m not the only one who roots for 
the underdog. It is only a certain kind 
of person who roots for the established 
winner. I call these people Yankee Fans 
and they generally are fans of authority 
who favor strict punishments and have 
little compassion. They look down on 
people who have not achieved and enjoy 
feeling better than other people. They 
like to associate with “winners” and have 
very strict rules for proper behavior, 
proper dress, and proper etiquette. 
They know the rules and have the 
connections and often benefit from these 
connections. Another name for these 
folks is Republicans and their ex-wives 
and widows who are often abandoned for 
younger and more compliant models of 
themselves. This description originated 
with a Republican Woman describing her 
observations at a Country Club function. 

 I am aware that this is an overly 
generalized, stereotyped, and possibly 
inaccurate description of a great portion 
of America’s population. Still I think 
it’s more right than it is wrong. I think 
the great political divide now existing in 
America is a reflection of the distance 
between these old “Yankee Fans” and 
the rest of us. The Yankee Fans are 
influential and have persuaded other 
less-privileged people to maintain these 
same attitudes. What these people see 
when they look around is CHANGE. 
White Male Protestant’s strangle hold on 
power is weakened. The U.S. has a Black 
President and females and young people 
are increasingly visible in places of power.

 The old “Yankee Fans” want to stop this 
change and to do that they are using the 
one thing they have - MONEY. Our poor 
electoral system has become just a contest 
over who has the most money to spend. 
What an obscene waste of resources! I 
am thankful to the God, in whom I do not 
believe, that there seem to be indications 
of a hurricane that will shorten the time 
that the Yankee Fans, I mean Republicans, 
can use to present their non-sense to 
the Public. Of course these old White 
Male Protestants are trying to attract the 
super-wealthy of other persuasions as 
they pander to supporters of Israel and 
nominate a Catholic for Vice-President. 
Yes, I know the Democrats do the same 
thing as they pander for money and select 
a Catholic Vice-President. I am not the 
first to say that both sides are controlled 
by the financially super-wealthy and that 
both sides are similarly supportive of 
a foreign policy that allows the rich to 
profit. 

 The point is that we really are in a Time 
of Change, and money and pandering 
cannot stop that change. All of us have 
to be prepared to adjust to the changing 
currents or be swept under. The old 
American population centers that once 
were the privileged owners of one and 
often two Major League teams have been 
largely abandoned and are mere shadows 
of their glory days. They are now in 
the process of Change and are trying to 
rebuild. 

 The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired 
new ownership and new moneys and are 
attempting to become the Yankees of the 
West. Certainly, I cannot root for these 
bullying billionaires. I believe the force of 
change is so strong that Romney cannot 
win and neither can the Dodgers. 

 Perhaps baseball itself will completely 
fail to sell itself to new generations 
and perhaps new political parties will 
form and the power of money will be 
eliminated from the electoral process. 
That’s about as likely as finding water on 
Mars; but maybe Dan Quayle was really 
a prophet?


WHY I CAN’T BE A YANKEE (OR A 
DODGER) FAN

THE TYRANNY OF THE 

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OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder


WAYMISH

SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF 
PICKING A PRESIDENT 

RICH Johnson

Before I 
tackle the topic of 
Waymish, I want 
to apologize for 
being a phantom 
and submitting no 
column last week. I 
thank those of you 
who noticed and 
said something. Especially Linda and 
Holly (who offered up suggestions on 
how to not miss another week).

Onto Waymish. I have a very dear (and 
now departed) friend by the name of 
Ray Considine. He was a gifted author 
and professional speaker. He wrote 
two books that I know of: “The Great 
Brain Robbery”, and “W.A.Y.M.I.S.H.”. 
WAYMISH, the topic of this column is 
a book on customer service.

So what does WAYMISH mean? If 
you guessed it to be an acronym you 
get a cookie. It means “Why Are You 
Making It So Hard…for me to give you 
my money”. What makes the book a 
great read is it is chock full of what we 
call “War Stories”; examples of horrible 
service toward customers. And haven’t 
we all been there?

I have a couple of personal WAYMISH 
stories. I remember being in a near 
empty restaurant once. After waiting for 
an interminable time, the waitress came 
up to us and said, “I may not look busy, 
but I really am”, and then continued 
to offer slow service. When we finally 
received the check I put the money on 
the little tray and said to her, “This may 
not look like a big tip, but in this case it 
really is.”

Vacationing in Australia I found myself 
one day in one of Sydney’s many malls. 
Near lunch time we found the food court, 
picked our vendor and proceeded to wait 
in line to order. While we were waiting 
an elderly man got up from his table (he 
left the half eaten tray of food on the 
table), 
walked up to the counter and demanded 
his money back saying that was the worst 
food he had ever eaten. The manager, 
smartly returned the money to the man. 
At which point the man returned to his 
table, sat down and finished his lunch.

Another personal WAYMISH at the 
national chain sporting goods store. 
My then wife, Helen, purchased a pair 
of swimming goggles. You know to 
keep the water out of her eyes during 
lap swimming? Wouldn’t you know it: 
She could’t get the goggles to not leak 
water (despite spending an hour trying 
to adjust the band). Helen attempted 
to return the goggles to the sporting 
goods store explaining the goggles 
were defective as they leaked water no 
matter what she did. She came out to 
the car with the goggles in hand. They 
wouldn’t take the goggles back because 
the package had been opened. As 
Homer Simpson would say: “DOH!” 
I grabbed the goggles and went in to 
remedy the situation. I should add at 
this point that the manager of the store 
was about 6’8” and weighed well in 
excess of 350 pounds. I made my case 
to the Sasquatch, Abominable Manager 
who ignored me. Finally exasperated 
at listening to me (I get that a lot) the 
manager patronized me and said, oh all 
right, he would take them back. At that 
point I said “no you won’t”. And asked 
for the name and address of the CEO 
of the company. After a menacing look 
(and I ain’t whistling Dixie) he gave me 
the information. I forwarded this story 
along with the defective goggles to the 
CEO and received an apology and a 
refund. 

I bet you have some fun war stories. 
If you want to enjoy those kind of war 
stories visit Waymish.com. My friend 
Ray is gone, but his book lives on.

 The Gracious 
Mistress of the 
Parsonage and 
I were casually 
sitting on the back porch enjoying our 
evening coffee together. Suddenly, the 
conversation turned to things political. 
This does not happen very often, so at 
the moment I was a little surprised by 
this turn of current events.

 My wife does not spend much time 
keeping up with political news or events. 
Therefore, I was a little surprised when 
she made some comments in this area. 
It began when my wife said, “Why is it 
every politician running for president 
insists that Washington is broken and 
they are just the ones to fix it?”

 Well, she had me there. Most politicians 
worth their pork barrel payment have 
the audacity to believe they are political 
prophets able to see what is wrong with 
everything in this country, particularly 
those things in Washington, DC. Not 
only can they see what is wrong but 
also they know the exact way to fix it. 
However, no two solutions are alike.

 They look at the Washington, DC area 
and view it as a fixer-upper. Then they 
go around the country hammering away 
with the promise that they can fix it and 
fix it for good. All these politicians have 
“fixed” our government for sure, but not 
in the way they think. It is more along 
the line of when you take “Lucky” to 
the veterinarian to have him fixed. The 
results are the same in both situations.

 Then my wife made this observation. 
“If these politicians are so all fired up 
about fixing problems, I would like to 
show them our plumbing problem.”

 Of course, what my good wife does 
not realize is politicians can only fix 
hypothetical problems not real ones. 
And the more hypothetical the more 
eloquent they are in their speeches about 
it. Whenever you hear a politician waxing 
eloquent in his speech you always know 
you are listening to an airbag.

 It was my turn to astonish my wife.

 “I have solved the mystery of picking 
the president of the United States,” I said 
rather arrogantly. I was waiting for her 
response. And I did not have to wait 
long.

 “You what?”

 Then I laid out for her my scheme for 
picking the president.

 “It’s very simple. People pick a 
president about the same way they pick 
their nose.”

 I knew from her astonished look I 
would have to explain what I meant. 
But it is true, nevertheless, picking a 
president is like picking your nose.

 The first thing is that nobody gets to 
select the nose they will have for the rest 
of their life unless, of course, they submit 
to plastic surgery. I have seen some noses 
that if it were mine, it would not be mine 
for long. We may owe plastic surgeons 
quite a lot for saving the on-looking 
public the excruciating pain of looking 
at ugly noses.

 It is the same way nobody gets to 
choose the list of potential presidents 
they will have to decide on in the 
upcoming election. We all have to learn 
to live with the one or the other that has 
been given. Sad to say, in both areas, 
most of us have truly blown it.

 In this area of picking, some do it 
openly and unashamedly. They do not 
care who sees them or hears them for that 
matter. They firmly believe as Americans 
they have the constitutional right to do 
this plainly and blatantly.

 Of course, there are always those who 
deny they even have a nose, let alone 
stooping to picking it in public. Some 
things, according to them, are better 
done in private, behind closed doors. 
Whoever invented “closed doors” has 
probably done society more benefit than 
any other invention. I must admit with 
some people it is quite hard to ignore the 
fact that they have a nose. It is the most 
prominent feature of his or her face, but 
everybody has the right to live in the 
wonderful land of denial.

 Then I come to the more technical 
aspects of this matter of picking. Some 
prefer the left over the right while others 
prefer the right over the left. Then of 
course there are those who do both at the 
same time, thus confusing everybody 
watching them.

 It is very confusing talking with these 
people because one time they are on one 
side and the next time they are on the 
other side. I know both sides are equally 
significant, but I hate being confused.

 These, I think, would be called “equal 
opportunity pickers.” They do not prefer 
one side to the other but both sides, in 
their opinion, are good. It is hard to 
argue with logic like that. It is the same 
kind of logic that your wife uses when 
she asked you, “Does this dress make me 
look fat?”

 No matter if you are picking the 
president of the United States or your 
nose, you always end up with the same 
thing.

 There is only one selecting process 
that is devoid of any frustration at all. 
Jesus mentioned it, “Ye have not chosen 
me, but I have chosen you, and ordained 
you, that ye should go and bring forth 
fruit, and that your fruit should remain: 
that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father 
in my name, he may give it you.” (John 
15:16 KJV).

 God’s choice has eternal ramifications.

Mountain Views News

Mission Statement

The traditions of the 
community newspaper 
and the concerns of 
our readers are this 
newspaper’s top 
priorities. We support a 
prosperous community 
of well-informed 
citizens. We hold in 
high regard the values 
of the exceptional 
quality of life in our 
community, including 
the magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our 
guide.