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ChefGuy89

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ChefGuy89 last won the day on April 15 2011

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About ChefGuy89

  • Birthday 01/24/1989

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  1. I've got a back piece of Atlas Shrugging - though it has been stylized so it's more like Atlas Smashed
  2. Given the scope and size of the fiscal mess we are in, I am much more concerned about how we are going to solve this issue than whether or not illegal immigrants will be able to contribute to the tax system or if marijuana should be legalized. While Johnson is calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve - what steps would be taken afterward? He is certainly not as much of an outspoken critic of the Fed - nor is he for the abolition of said institution. Facts of the matter are that our central bank is by and large responsible for the economic predicament we find out selves in, a mere audit - if it even happened - is unnecessary. An institution with that kind of power over the affairs of a nation has no place in a free country and should be disbanded, immediately. It's only a matter of time before the dollar finally loses it's reserve currency status and all the inflation we have pumped into the global economy comes home to roost. We are facing a Depression, there is no doubt about that. No politician can stop it, however steps can be taken to minimize it's duration and severity. I'm not sure if Johnson's line up is enough.
  3. I've never heard Ron Paul say that if here were elected he would mandate that abortions are illegal, nor that he has claim over the uteri of the nation. It's his personal belief that abortions are immoral, while I disagree with this belief on principle, as long as he keeps it a personal belief then what's the sense worrying about it? When the economy is teetering on the edge of the abyss and you have a man who understands the situation and would take the steps to undo the mess, is the fact that he is against abortion really going to disqualify him for the job of presidency? More over do any other candidates - except Johnson- have a legitimate idea as to how to undo this house of debt we've built around ourselves? I'm not advocating a compromise of principle, if abortion is really that important to you that you wouldn't vote for Ron Paul, I get it. But if we get another Obama or somebody of his cloth into office, and the fiscal crisis isn't truly addressed - Americans may not be able to afford the basic necessities. I believe that the financial collapse we as a nation are facing is going to make the Great Depression look like a Sunday picnic by comparison. With that being said, it's much more important that Americans as a whole come together on the issue of solving our fiscal crisis, no other candidate that I have heard speak has highlighted as comprehensive of a plan to do so as Ron Paul. If the economy goes to hell in a handbasket and the dollar with it, how significant is the issue of abortion really going to be?
  4. Thanks Alfa, appreciate the input. I've pretty much come to terms with what happened, as far as I can tell. In the end I am much better off on all fronts, having gotten rid of two relationships which weren't necessarily helping me. I just wanted some input from a community I respect as to whether I was turning into a hermit or if the level of disinterest I feel towards others was part of the rebuilding process.
  5. Thanks for the feedback gents, I appreciate it. I have gravitated more towards what is important to me since for the longest time I felt like I couldn’t fully pursue what was in my self interest. Furthermore it’s nice to only have to consider myself when making decisions, and not have to factor in how it will affect a close, personal relationship. While I don’t think I am at the point of distrusting new comers entirely it has certainly made me a bit weary of people in general. Before I was a bit too naïve or trusting – I assumed that people I dealt with were equally as rational as myself – which may have been the error in my thinking. I would like to establish a few new relationships with people but at the same time it doesn’t make a terrible difference to me right now if I don’t.
  6. I have a circumstance which I would like some constructive criticism/feedback on. I have found myself at a point in my life where I am unconcerned about potential relationships with members of the opposite sex. It’s not that I find them unattractive, I recently moved to NYC from a relatively small town in upstate NY and the number of beautiful women here is staggering. My thoughts are that my most recent serious LTR left a particularly bitter taste in my mouth. It was a relationship more of comfort than of mutual understanding and compassion for one another. Initially I viewed the relationship as something I would undertake to try and make her life better. I actually remember having that explicit mental debate with myself a few weeks into our relationship. Something of a flawed start to begin with, looking back but let’s continue to the point of my musings. Initially everything was great, we got along superbly, I was immensely attracted to her physically as well as intellectually all throughout my senior year of HS. Following HS we moved into an apartment together and this was where things began to take a turn for the worse. I was essentially pampered with material things in exchange for me staying in this relationship, and I got comfortable. I had a cushy life, a nice apartment, an appealing girlfriend. I thought I had it sweet. I felt like I was an object which had to be paid for with material things and I resented this from the start. These were the first cracks in the foundation of our relationship. I had always been interested in doing things my way and there were things I couldn’t do while tied down. So gaining my independence was a huge plus at the end of this relationship but.. It was at the end of said relationship when I suffered a serious blow to my view of the integrity of people, as my ex girlfriend and best friend of 6 years/roomate at the time had slept together and neither of them had the strength of character to tell me until 6-7 months after the fact, and it was only by me asking that I found out. The shock of being lied to by two people who couldn’t have been closer to me for the better part of 7 months was overwhelming. Living with two people everyday whom I trusted with my life, all the while being lied to every single day kind of warped my perception of people. So I’m not sure if I’m still coping with this system shock, but I am largely indifferent to the pursuit of women and of people in general. I’d much rather just do things that I enjoy and further my life/career and exposing myself to that sort of risk again just doesn’t seem worth it. Thoughts?
  7. Sorry about the time delay on this response. I do believe that we will be seeing a combination of both, though foreign acquisitions in this nation may result largely in real estate, and possibly infrastructure - given the state of the municipal bond markets. And other nations are already weary of buying more U.S. Treasury debt given the state of our economy and that we couldn't even cut 1% of our yearly expenditures in the recent budget charade. Ultimately though I believe that both of these considerations are but blips on the radar screen in terms of what we are looking at. I do believe that we will see a world wide collapse of the fiat/debt based monetary system. A huge housing bubble is getting ready to burst in China, debts in terms of paper currencies are at unprecedented levels, governments are quite simply unwilling to cut spending to the levels necessary to reel in spending and to make the this fiasco manageable. Flawed premise? I'd say the only flawed premise or idea in this argument is paper currency. Hands down, fiat money and central banking are at the heart economically of our problem with Keyenes being the commandant in chief. Our house of cards is standing in the way of a tornado. I am not certain what is going to trigger the collapse, with so much uncertainty on the economic and geo-political level it is hard to say what is going to be the trigger for the next Black Friday. I don't know if the world understands the scope of what we are looking at. I believe that the next major correction is going to make the Great Depression look like a beach party by comparison. I am not trying to be a pessimist or Mr. Gloom - but the situation has never looked more dire than it does now. The dependency of so many governments on loans from the other with central banking making a penny off the whole story is disgusting to say the least. Bankers by and large will profit from the coming collapse while every day people will lose everything. We live in a debt based society. Money doesn't exist in our current system without a debt obligation held by somebody.
  8. I am of the opinion that the Fed will have to continue QE. China has recently become a net seller of U.S. Treasuries and the government is hard pressed to find other nations that will continue to buy our debt - especially with Japan currently destroyed and irradiated. The Fed HAS to continue monetizing the debt in order for the government to continue spending to the magnitude that it is. A dose of reality, a real correction would involve raising interest rates significantly, not just cutting but slashing government spending across the board - eliminating whole wasteful departments, reducing our military presence abroad and allowing people the choice of paying for things with real money. This doesn't even address the issue of Medicare/caid and Social Security, but good places to start. I don't predict we will see any of this done. The masses are too compliant, fewer than 5% of Americans own physical precious metals, public education has truly left it's mark, socialism is being viewed as acceptable these days and public hand outs as a gravy train by most. If I were anybody on this forum I'd be buying the following in this order: 1. Silver and Gold 2. Firearms 3. Any books about economics, gold as money, the Fed, works by the Founders, farming 4. Food that will keep for a few years time (dried beans, pasta, rice, tomato sauce, etc.) And just do your best to tell as many people as you can about what is happening. Will you find a large audience? Likely not, people don't want to hear that the world is on the brink of disaster and that the 500 dollars they just spend on their new Ipad could have been spent in a better fashion. But your close friends, family - do what you can with what you have. I think that Americans have taken a lot of shit from this present and previous administrations, but I do not believe that we will allow our freedoms to be stripped from us - the Tree of Liberty has been looking ever more shriveled and dried up. I know plenty of tyrants, now how about patriots?
  9. Further more, all currencies are fiat and aren't based on anything. Hedge against paper.
  10. Well if the Federal Reserve stops quantitative easing, what is going to keep the stock market looking positive and thus "reinforcing" any perceived strength in the dollar? The Fed has very few options, the U.S. economy is between a literal rock in a hard place. The 3rd largest buyer of our treasury debt was recently rocked by a natural/nuclear disaster, 12% unemployment or more, 50 trillion in debt liabilities - I don't need to give you all a summary of what we are looking at. We have been here before, and to save the dollar from an inflationary collapse Volker had to raise the interest rate to around 18%. Our economy is so frail right now that I doubt it could withstand a 250 basis point increase on interest rates. I'm sure the number of defaults on housing, student and auto loans would jump through the roof at the same time. If the Fed implements QE3 it will increase the prices of everything. Furthered QE will only demonstrate to the rest of the world how dire the straights are here in the U.S., countries will move even faster to transact outside of dollars and buy less of our debt. How does expanding the money supply result in the prices of things staying the same or decreasing? I do believe that we will continue to see deflation in luxury goods. Ipads, Flat screen T.V.s, cell phones, game consoles, computers etc. However when you look at the prices of food and energy - there will be continued inflation. Inflation is unlikely to be around for the next few years? Have you gone grocery shopping lately, how about put gasoline in your car? The only reason Americans haven't really felt the effects of inflation is because we have the worlds highest standard of living. I think Americans only spend about 12% of their income on food - which isn't too much. We can offset a marginal price increase in everyday goods thanks to our standard of living. But when you see the prices of gasoline jump from 3.30 to 4.00 a gallon in the course of 5 months, you see the prices of onions, rice, pork, eggs, milk, wheat increasing across the board - that my friend is inflation, and although prices haven't been increasing enough in this country to cause alarm, the same can't be said for the rest of the world (China). How about the prices of gold and silver? Silver prices were up 80% last year!!! Gold prices were up around 24%. That's not inflation? What would you call it? Not a bubble, that's for damn sure. http://www.zerohedge.com/article/marc-faber-everything-going-only-federal-reserve-there-no-inflation Peter used this metaphor in his radio show a few days ago about how inflation hits an economy. He likened it to when you get in the shower and you want to turn up the temperature. You turn it up a little and the water doesn't get any hotter, you do it again, and again, and again until finally the water is boiling and you burn yourself. Look at how hyper inflation hit the Weimar Republic in Germany, it wasn't a gradual controlled course over a few months. Things were going a long just fine, we had some deflation, then prices were increasing a little here and there until BAM hyperinflation. http://dollardaze.org/blog/?post_id=00546 I hope you all have been buying gold and silver or firearms. If not I work with Euro Pacific Precious Metals, I'd be happy to help you all position yourself to protect your purchasing power and to educate you if needed - PM me if intereted
  11. Well very few films precisely reflect Objectivism, that wasn't the point of me mentioning 300. In the context of the story, Greece represented a beacon of reason and freedom - with the antagonist being the forces of Xerxes who claims himself to be an embodied God. Reason/Freedom vs. Mysticism? Quite Oist oriented if you ask me, not a verbatim representation of the philosophy but it does bode a homage to it. On top of that the protagonists are presented as heroes. Strong willed, principled men in near perfect physical condition. I believe man being presented as a heroic being is part of of Rand's romantic manifesto and thus in line with her philosophic outlook, no?
  12. That was taken when the tattoo was relatively fresh - I'd say thats 2-3 weeks after it finished healing. That was two years ago this summer, while I don't believe it is as luminous as it once was, the colors still pop and the contrast is very defined against my normal skin tone. As long as you do your best to keep it out of sunlight, and to make sure you get plenty of suntan lotion on it when you are in the sun or lounging on the beach - you shouldn't be too worried about the colors fading dramatically. That being said I will likely get it touched up in a year or so to keep it looking brilliant. Colorful tattoos are just a lot more appealing to the eye than the traditional solid black pieces that a lot of people have. Outside of that, just be sure you get a really good tattoo artist. When I went to the gentleman I used, I gave him an idea of what I wanted and he came back with something totally different but even better than what I had envisioned. I looked at his sketch and was blown away that something so freaking epic was about to be a permanent part of me. Make sure he/she understands the significance of your piece and they will do amazing work for you.
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