Freedom Of The Press?

The vital signs of America are alarmingly weak  Is this nation terminally ill and headed for the dustbin of history?
The parchment protections that I learned about in school once made me feel proud to be an American. I thought that we were unique, something special, a noble experiment that got it right. Today those words are all but ignored by our leaders. Perhaps they are only reflecting the hollowness of an electorate, a culture, concerned about professional sports, other forms of entertainment, and acquiring the latest consumer gadgets. Bread and circuses, get the picture?

Reporters Without Borders has recently ranked America 47th out of  179 countries in terms of freedom of the press. We are just ahead of  Argentina, Romania, and Latvia.

www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/27/we-are-the-champions-of-the-world/

Regarding Intrinsic Value

Issac made a good point. On the other hand, perhaps I was wrong to say that gold or any other commodity has intrinsic value. Gary North established that point some months ago. The marketplace with its ever changing supply and demand relationships may say that it a certain weight or volume of a substance can be purchased for a certain amount of a given currency at a given point in time. One also could say that some things have historically been worth more than others when compared on a weight or volume basis. Perhaps only the air we breath and those political conditions within society that are proper to our nature - conditions we refer to as natural or individual rights -  can be said to have intrinsic value. But even there I am sure some will disagree. Let it suffice to say that units of gold and silver of a known weight and purity have worked well as a medium of exchange over time for reasons that most who read this blog are familiar with. They are not perfect, few things are, but have been found preferable to most other things as mediums of exchange.

In Search Of A Windshield

I bought a new Bonneville toward the end of 2010 just before winter hit. I had four accessories installed at the dealer but held off on a windshield or fairing. I wanted to make sure that it had the right look for the bike and did a good job of deflecting wind too. I eventually found a roughly mid sized universal type at Dennis Kirk that fit snugly between the speedometer and fly screen. For added stability I drilled through both the fly screen and windshield and bolted the two together. Rubber washers were used to reduce vibration and the potential for of cracking.

Rocket Man And The Acabion

While America was busy turning foreign lands and its own economy into rubble, the Swiss gave us Rocket Man and the Acabion. The internal combustion model of the Acabion pictured here is apparently no longer being produced. They are now making pure electric vehicles of varying power. The top of the line 200 KW model has a top speed of 341 MPH. If they allow test drives I promise to keep it under 300 MPH, honest.