Considering the U.S. economy's future, Crash Proof offers steps to avoid diminishing your standard of living

CNBC, the financial network, often lives up to what its critics call it - "Tout TV." All of the guests seemingly are singing from the same hymnal: "buy and hold stocks," "inflation is low," "economic growth is strong," "the Federal Reserve has everything under control," blah, blah, blah.

While fear itself is not always the product of irrationality, once experienced it tends to lead away from reason, especially if the experience is extreme in duration or intensity. When people are fearful they tend to be willing to irrationally surrender their rights.

Thus, fear is a threat to rational liberty. The psychology of fear is an essential component of those who would have us believe we must increasingly rely on the elite who manage the apparatus of the central government.

The statement "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin. It is clear, people seek out safety and security when they are in a state of fear, and it is the result of this psychological state that often leads to the surrender of liberty.

I recently wrote an essay claiming the Randy Barnett was wrong in claiming that libertarians could support our side of the war in Iraq. Most of the response I had to that op ed piece was positive, although there was a small amount of very vicious reaction from several pro-war self-styled "libertarians." However, I also received several very polite letters agreeing with me on Iraq, while sharply disagreeing with me on Afghanistan.

Here is what I had to say about that country in this article:

Last week, I wrote about the ideology of globalism and how it underlies certain government policies. Managed trade agreements, international military adventurism, and amnesty for illegal immigrants all emanate from this ideology.

Yet globalism has a consequence that is, if we are to believe the rhetoric of its greatest proponents, entirely unintended. Globalists often label those of us who resist their schemes as "isolationist." Yet it is, somewhat remarkably, the globalists themselves who promote policies that isolate our nation from the rest of the world.

Suppose Paul Ehrlich was to renounce his views on overpopulation. Or a leading Marxist was to accept the legitimacy of capitalism. Or a rabbi was to claim that eating pork is compatible with the Talmud. Or Dick Cheney was to advocate an immediate US withdrawal from Iraq. There would be great wailing and gnashing of teeth in the environmental, Marxist, Jewish and neoconservative communities, respectively. Charges of "turncoat," and "traitor," would fill the air. Members of each of these groups would reason that while it would almost be acceptable for members of the great unwashed to articulate sentiments of these sorts, it would leave them horror stricken that a prominent member of their own movements could be guilty of so great a defection.

While Americans cheer the imprisonment of Paris Hilton, they have a deaf ear to talk of bombing Iran

Sitting in a room full of well-educated Americans, I was dumbfounded by the unanimous outrage toward Paris Hilton. They were actually cheering the fact that the judge was sending her back to jail, after the sheriff had sent her home because of her illness.

Even Democratic presidential hopeful, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, thrust himself into the Hilton limelight, telling the judge in a letter: "Early release from prison sends the message that drunk driving is acceptable, but we are also concerned that the early release of any drunk driver - high profile or not - poses a risk to the general public."

A hysteria of sorts has been generated by reports that some of China's products lack quality control. Some cat food has been tainted. A few cell-phone batteries have blown up. Cough syrup contained stuff that makes you sick. And so on. In response, the Chinese government actually executed its regulatory head of food and product safety, Zheng Xiaoyu.

How very strange this last point is! In the West, we long ago gave up the idea that these people are actually supposed to carry out their jobs and should be personally responsible for their failure to do so.

The temperature has been especially hot this year in Las Vegas. Day after day, by late afternoon thermometers hit 110 degrees or more. For those of us who have been here a while, we may be annoyed, but resign ourselves to dealing with the dry heat, and congratulate ourselves for not having to shovel snow in the winter.

Before the U.S. House of Representatives on May 2, 2007

Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the Health Freedom Protection Act. This bill restores the First Amendment rights of consumers to receive truthful information regarding the benefits of foods and dietary supplements by codifying the First Amendment standards used by federal courts to strike down the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) efforts to censor truthful health claims. The Health Freedom Protection Act also stops the Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) from censoring truthful health care claims.

The recent defeat of the amnesty bill in the Senate came after outraged Americans made it clear to the political elite that they would not tolerate this legislation, which would further erode our national sovereignty. Similarly, polls increasingly show the unpopularity of the Iraq war, as well as of the Congress that seems incapable of ending it.

Because some people who vocally oppose amnesty are supportive of the war, the ideological connection between support of the war and amnesty is often masked. If there is a single word explaining the reasons why we continue to fight unpopular wars and see legislation like the amnesty bill nearly become law, that word is "globalism."