the 9-12-13 Penny Press

Penny PressNevada, USA Volume 11 Number 1 SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 2www.pennypressnv.comPennyPressLogotypePointedlymadlicensed from:Rich GastCredits:Publisher and Editor: Contributing Editors:Fred Weinberg Floyd Brown Al ThomasDoug French Chuck MuthJohn Getter Pat ChoateRon KnechtThe Penny Press is published weekly byFar West Radio LLC All Contents © Penny Press 2013Letters to the Editor are encouraged. They should beemailed to: pennypresslv@gmail.com No unsigned orunverifiable letters will be printed.775-461-1515 eFax: 201-304-0355

Penny PressNEVADA USA 16 PAGES VOLUME 11 NUMBER 1 SEPTEMBER 12, 2013Being Prepared When Complex Systems FailBy FLOYD BROWNContributing EditorLast June, I wrote about theailure of complex systems, andmentioned Joseph Tainter’sroundbreaking 1988 work, TheCommentaryollapse of Complex Systems.ell, this Labor Day weekend, Iatched the failure of a complexystem up close and personal.My plans had been simple: Maryeth and I had decided to relaxt home for the holiday weekend.n Friday night, we popped aelebratory bottle and were feastingn cheese and crackers when ourhone rang. On the other end of theline was my son, who had recentlyjoined the ranks of fatherhood. Heand his wife, along with my onlygrandchild, were on a Labor Daydriving trip and had just pulled into Albuquerque, New Mexico. Asthey unpacked their bags at theMarriott Pyramid North, his wife(my daughter-in-law) crumpledover in pain.My son quickly loaded his wifeand baby back into his Ford Escapeand headed to the nearest hospitalemergency room. After they arrived,his wife was quickly diagnosed…and she needed surgery. My son’scall for help shattered our plans torelax, and my wife and I quicklypacked our bags and were off toAlbuquerque.What followed was nothingshort of a disaster.Twenty minutes after myson arrived at Albuquerque’sPresbyterian Hospital, a section ofdowntown suffered a power outage.The outage immediately turned thewindowless hallways of the traumacenter pitch-black. The backuppower generators groaned, and thenthey failed.My son, his seven-week-oldbaby, and my daughter-in-lawwere trapped in what the hospitaladministration later called an“internal disaster.”Unfortunately, a lack ofoverhead light was the least ofthe hospital’s problems. You see,today’s hospitals can’t dispense apill, check a patient’s temperature,or pump an IV without electricity.When the power went out, medicineregressed 50 years in the blink of aneye.Mary Beth and I arrived aboutfour hours after the power outagebegan, and we were met by firemenand hospital security who refusedus admittance. By then, the 90degree outside heat had convertedthe brick and glass building intoan oven. My son struggled downseven flights of unlit stairs to handhis son to me from an emergencyexit door.Living on the Edge of CollapseNow, I tell this story to illustratethe fragile nature of the complexsystems we as Americans haveembraced (and take for granted).At the hospital, we laterlearned that a power surge friedthe hospital’s redundant back-upsystems. Without backup power,doctors and nurses were left withonly flashlights to see the criticallyill. It was over 24 hours beforeContinued on page4The Conservative WeeklyVoice Of NevadaInside:All Americans AreHeroes In WaitingSee Editorial Page 6Penny WisdomI can hear you. The rest ofthe world hears you and thepeople who knocked thesebuildings down will hear allof us soon!—George W. BushLUKE HAMILTON PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6DOUG FRENCH PAGE 7JOHN KIRKWOOD PAGE 9AL THOMAS PAGE 10MATT BARBER PAGE 11CHUCK MUTH PAGE 14

THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 4www.pennypressnv.comA Near Medical DisasterContinued from page 3emergency electrical systems began the long process of re-booting. Mydaughter-in-law desperately needed an MRI before surgery, and shewaited over 24 hours before the test could go forward. Then, she learnedthe operating rooms weren’t up and running either. Fortunately, hersituation wasn’t life or death.And the more I thought about it, the more I found the situation to be afitting microcosm of the sort of collapses Tainter was discussing in 1988.It’s a perfect illustration of just what he was attempting to explain. Hewanted to emphasize that complex and successful societies could collapsein a short time.This simple power outage brought many questions to my mind – whatif the outage had been from an EMP attack and the systems couldn’t berestored in 24 weeks, let alone 24 hours? How many would have died?As systems become more complex, relatively minor glitches have thepossibility to spin out of control. As inventories shrink and just-in-timedeliveries increase, we have fewer margins for error.Sadly, the arrogance of our political leaders has kept our country frompreparing adequately for systemic crisis. We depend on the private sectorto provide food, water, and medicine; yet the government hamstringsour private system with nonsensical and often outdated regulation andcontrols.Tainter believes that systemic collapse happens when the complexityof the current order spontaneously seeks less complexity. But politiciansare too fixated on making war and seeking more control to notice that theorder they’ve created is too complex to operate under the stress.

THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 5Commentary: Chris FaulknerThe FailedEnergy Promiseof the ObamaAdministrationPresident Obama just erected yetanother roadblock to Keystone XL.He now says the State Departmentwill only approve the 1,200-milepipeline connecting oil sands inCanada and northern U.S. crude oilto refineries in Texas if it does notsignificantly boost carbon dioxideemissions.Obama’s position on the pipelineis increasingly unpopular. In recentweeks, two more DemocraticSenators — North Dakota’s HeidiThe Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:Heitkamp and Louisiana’s MaryLandrieu — have publicly signaledthey support Keystone XL.The President needs toreconsider his position. Fullapproval of Keystone XL wouldgenerate huge economic returnsand put this country on a path totrue energy security.Back in 2011, Obama bemoanedthe fact that “politicians of everystripe have promised energyindependence, but that promise hasso far gone unmet.” He vowed tobreak that trend.Approval of Keystone XLwould do more to wean Americaoff oil from hostile or unstablenations than any energy project indecades. Yet in the two years sinceObama first made the vow, he’sdone nothing but drag his feet onTips Of Our CapandBronx CheersFormer Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman who has ruled out going to Broadwayand playing himself in a one-man show. “They want me to play myself, but I justdon’t want to leave Las Vegas,” Goodman said. As for “Oscar: The Musical,”there still will be “some back and forth,” along with some challenges, he said.If Oscar actually said anything on a Broadway stage that he learned as a defenseattorney, they’d whack him from the orchestra pit.Bill Nye, the “Science Guy”; who will be on the cast of Dancing With the Starson ABC this season. That should bring new converts to the student of science.The Penny Press Sends A Bronx CheerAnd A Bouquet of Weeds To:Las Vegas for hosting a “Gaydays” promotion. OK, why is that OK if live sexon the strip would be frowned upon. C’mon people. We don’t care if you’requeer. Just do us a favor and keep it to yourselves and behind closed doors.Gay? Hell, we didn’t even know these people were happy.the pipeline. At some point, we haveto wonder whether the president iscreate an estimated 20,000 wellpayingjobs. By 2035, it’s estimatedputting a narrow political agenda that the pipeline could support asabove America’s energy security many as 500,000 jobs.needs.It’s estimated that fullIt’s no surprise, then, thatorganized labor has been highlydevelopment of North America’s critical of Obama’s opposition toenergy reserves, plus a smallcontribution from biofuels, couldsupply all of America’s liquid fuelneeds within 12 years. An essentialthe project.The U.S. Energy InformationAdministration (EIA) predicts thatdespite massive public investmentselement of that strategy is full in green energy sources, a scant 13approval of Keystone XL. percent of America’s energy willKeystone XL would deliver come from renewables in 2035.830,000 barrels of oil to Americanrefineries every day. Of that total,There’s no getting around thefact that America will continueroughly 700,000 barrels per day to need energy from traditionalwould come from Canada, our close sources. The question is, do we wantneighbor and staunch ally. That’s to get that energy from Canada andabout as much crude oil as we domestic sources — or do we wantcurrently import from Venezuela.By itself, Keystone could endto import it from unstable regions?There are also many additionalour need for oil imports from acute environmental problemsOman, Chad, Algeria, and Iraq, that come from producing oil inaltogether. Imports from those countries with less exacting safetycountries amount to $70 million standards and then shipping it halfsent overseas, daily. With KeystoneXL, that money would be redirectedto Canada, our largest foreign oilsupplier, which is losing almost $15billion per year because of limitedaccess to global markets for its oil.way around the world.The truth is that Keystone XLhas been under regulatory review atthe state and federal level for nearlyfive years. While the environmentalimpact of a project of this scopeKeystone XL also will boost should absolutely be considered,Canadian oil sands development, Keystone XL’s environmentalwhich could generate demand safety is now beyond reasonablefor U.S. goods and services and doubt.add hundreds of thousands of There’s just no excuse forskilled, well-paying jobs in U.S. delaying construction of themanufacturing, engineering, Keystone XL pipeline. Evenconstruction, and related services.This will add roughly $86 billionthe President’s own party andsupporters are frustrated with histo U.S. GDP by 2035, according inaction. The time for approval isto the Canadian Energy Research now.Institute.As for the domestic economicCHRIS FAULKNERChris Faulkner is the CEO ofbenefits,www.pennypressnv.combuilding Keystone would Breitling Energy Companies.

THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 6OPINIONFrom The Publisher...We Were All Edward R. Murrow Saying, "This Is London."It was early in the morning 12 years ago today (if you’re reading thison Wednesday, the 11th) that I got a phone call from an old collegefriend of mine who happened to be a pilot. “Turn on the TV,” she said,knowing she had awakened me from across the country.I did, just in time to see United Airlines 175 crash into World TradeCenter tower number two.The day before, I had agreed to sell my Las Vegas radio station, KRLV,and taken a very large check as the earnest money.But, whatever was three or four months down the road, we were stillin the radio business that morning and, with a live morning show, wehad some serious work to do.The first thing that happened was that I tuned into the station, and Iheard a young lady on a radio network that shall go nameless say thefollowing on MY radio station.“America was brought to its knees this morning by. . .”I called Rodd Stowell, my morning man, and told him to take thenewscast off the air and come back directly to us, at which point Isaid that this nation is far too big to be “brought to its knees” by someterrorists. In fact, I said that the only people who can bring this nationto its knees are us.And then, we proceeded to cover the story.Some things you do without thinking about them. That was one ofthem. Of all the things I did and said that day—and it seemed like aday which would never end—I can look back with the most satisfactionon that.I am as proud of my former staff today—all of them—as I was on thatday because we did what we were supposed to do, which was keepcompany with a large group of listeners while we confronted a newnormal. Radio has become more and more just a business since 2001;but on that day, for just a small point in time, we were all Edward R.Murrow telling our listeners “this, is London.” And we probably hadmore listeners that day than any day since.Twelve years has given us some perspective.I was right then and am still right that a bunch of terrorists cannotbring this nation to its knees. If you don’t believe it, get into your carand drive a lap of America. You’ll believe it when you get back.More importantly, I was right that the only people who can bring thisnation to its knees are the people who, as Clint Eastwood famouslysaid, own it. You and me.This is the oldest experiment in self-government in our world.A true patriot understands that this experiment has been passed, handto hand, from its founders to us since 1776, and our job is to preservethat experiment and the values that came with it.We’re certainly not perfect as a nation. And we’ve had, over the years,some fierce debates as to exactly what those values are. Thosedebates are hardwired into our national DNA.But, even when we disagree, we should always uphold the goal ofremaining free to govern ourselves and make government work for itsowners.When we occasionally forget that, we should remember what the goalof those 19 hijackers was.They wanted then—and their successors still do—to impose upon usan inflexible, one-religion regime that uses words like “infidels” and“nonbelievers” to describe anyone who disagrees with them.Here are some secondary truths from 12 years ago.It is NOT true that if we just leave them alone, they will leave us alone.The only thing they understand is a hard target. But it is also truethat if we make ourselves too hard a target, they will have also wonbecause we will have taken our own freedoms away.The American public is really, really smart.Those yahoos hijacked four planes. By the time they had crashed thefirst three planes, the folks on the fourth plane had discovered theirtrue mission and, at a sacrifice of their own lives, stopped it.The real heroes of 9-11 were the people on United 93, who very calmlysaid to themselves and each other, “not on my watch”. The last wordswe heard from that flight, on a cell phone, were from a young mannamed Todd Beamer asking his fellow passengers if they were readyand saying, “Let’s roll.”We don’t know exactly what happened, except to say that Beamer andhis fellow passenger made the score USA 1, Terrorists 3 in a comefrom-behindgame.There were a lot of heroes on that day and the days the followed, butthe truth is that the biggest of them were just ordinary Americansdoing what they thought was right. It is a fact that most Americans areheroes just waiting for the opportunity to make it official.Radical Islamist terrorists can never defeat America because we havethe Todd Beamers of the world on our side. They have clowns like thesehijackers who swear off alcohol and other vices and then spend someof their last days in Las Vegas indulging themselves.We often need intellectual trauma centers to treat ourselves when weshoot ourselves in the foot. But those wounds are usually inflicted withwhat we thought at the time were good intentions. And 237 yearssince we declared that we no longer had a king, we still do not haveone.If 9-11 taught us anything, it taught us that we need to concentrateon keeping it that way.FRED WEINBERG

THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 7Commentary: Doug FrenchSweet Crony CapitalismSugar prices continue to get hammered as the sweet stuff piles up in silos.The sugar price has been cut in half over the past two years. This wouldn’tbe a big deal except sugar processors borrow from the U.S. Department ofAgriculture. As we pointed out back in March, quoting the Wall Street Journal,The USDA makes loans to sugar processors annually as part of a programthat is rooted in the 1934 Sugar Act. The loans are secured with some 4.1 billionpounds, or 2.05 million tons, of sugar that companies expect to produce fromthe current harvest. That comes to almost a quarter of total U.S. output that theUSDA forecasts for this year.The latest news is the USDA just loaned American Crystal Sugar Co. $71.2million. It’s very late in the season for a company to be taking out a loan. Thecrop year ends October 1st. Until this loan was made, the government had lent$1.1 billion to sugar processors, secured with 2.6 million tons of the sweetener.As of a couple weeks ago, 27% of those loans remained outstanding.The USDA is doing all it can to raise prices. Alexandra Wexler reported forthe WSJ last week, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture bought sugar from adomestic processor and sold it to an ethanol producer at a loss of $2.7 million,the latest move by the agency to boost prices and stave off defaults on federalloans.”While Bernanke’s buying bonds to elevate financial asset prices, the USDAis buying sugar to prop up the price of sweetener. Here’s the plan: “By buyingthe sugar, the USDA aims to boost prices to a level where sugar processors willbe able to repay $298 million in outstanding federal loans that come due at theend of August and September.”The USDA needs a price of 20.90 cents a pound to prevent defaults. Thegovernment has already spent $53.4 million buying sugar and will likely becoming up with more. The sugar program guarantees processors a minimum pricebecause lord knows the American people can’t live without….domestic beet andcane farmers. That must be it, there’s plenty of sugar produced worldwide.Sugar futures are up since June because speculators know the USDA mustbuy. “Sugar brokers and refiners say the government needs to remove another300,000 to 500,000 tons of sugar from the market before October to prevent anyloan defaults.”As far as American Crystal, who can blame them? As the WSJ points out,the company has nothing to lose. They posted 300 million pounds of sugar at23.93 cents a pound. If the price settles above that, the company sells the sugarand repays the loan. If the price falls, it defaults and sticks Uncle Sam with thesugar at a price they couldn’t sell it for in the market.Sweet crony capitalism down on the farm.DOUG FRENCHCommentary: Sally PipesAbuse of Drug Discount Program:Corrosive Crony CapitalismFederal lawmakers are constantly tinkering with the healthcare market.Often, these invasions have perverse consequences.Indeed, one federal initiative designed to provide poor Americans withdiscounted drugs has morphed into an ungainly operation fattening the bottomlines of pharmacies and hospitals.Enacted in 1992, the “340B” program requires drug companies to providesteep discounts on drugs to qualifying hospitals and clinics. The program wasmeant to help institutions that serve large numbers of low-income or uninsuredAmericans.From the outset, however, 340B has been plagued with problems. And now,it often fails to actually help vulnerable patients.The first major flaw is the program’s eligibility requirements for healthcareproviders. The existing eligibility formula does not measure obviously relevantmetrics such as the percentage of uninsured patients a hospital serves or theamount of uncompensated care it provides.A Government Accountability Office report confirmed that even somehospitals that just “provide a small amount of care to low-income individuals...could claim 340B discounts.” And a study by Avalere Health found that stateswith fewer uninsured residents actually had higher shares of hospitals takingadvantage of 340B.Second, the program doesn’t require that discounted medications bedispensed only to people who actually need them. As a result, many hospitalsare selling drugs they purchased on discount at full price to patients with privateinsurance coverage.Finally, the hospitals and pharmacies dispensing these drugs aren’t requiredto pass the savings onto patients.As a result of these gaping flaws, a drug program meant to help the uninsuredhas turned into an arbitrage operation that lets hospitals and retail pharmacies buybillions of dollars’ worth of steeply discounted drugs, bill insurance companiesand patients the full retail price, and then pocket the difference.When Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) looked into the program, he foundthat the Duke University Hospital — where only 5 percent of patients wereuninsured — was able to leverage the discount program to boost its net incomeby almost $50 million last year.“Hospitals are reaping sizable 340B discounts on drugs and then turningaround and up-selling them to fully insured patients,” Grassley wrote in a letterto the agency overseeing the 340B program.340B now represents an unholy alliance between moneyed interests andpublic regulators. The free market has been undermined. Many low-incomepatients genuinely in need of help are being left out in the cold. Drug companiesare being forced to sell a growing volume of products at severe discount —leaving many with little choice but to make up for those lost revenues by raisingprices on other consumers.Congress and regulators have compounded the problem over the yearsby repeatedly expanding 340B. Almost one-third of hospitals nationally nowparticipate.The largest and most troubling expansion came in 2010, when regulatorsauthorized hospitals to contract with an unlimited number of outside pharmaciesanywhere in the country to dispense 340B discounted drugs. Previously,hospitals could only use in-house pharmacies or contract with a single pharmacy.This particular change has led to a dramatic increase in the number ofcontract pharmacies benefiting from 340B. In 2010, there were just under 4,000.Today, that number has jumped to 30,000 — a 700 percent increase.Accordingly, the total value of 340B discounts has also exploded and isprojected to grow significantly in the coming years.These expansions are making a bad problem even worse. 340B is toooften being abused to bolster hospital profits. Healthcare providers shouldbe competing in a free and open market — not exploiting a well-intentionedprogram meant to help low-income Americans.The abuse of 340B represents corrosive cronycapitalism at its worst. Lawmakers need to fix this program.SALLY PIPESSally C. Pipes is President, CEO, and Taube Fellow in Health Care Studies at the PacificResearch Institute. Her latest book is The Cure for Obamacare (Encounter 2013).

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THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 9Commentary: Luke HamiltonThe Right Thing to Do: APresidential Broken RecordIn what is becoming the most pedagogic Presidency in memory,President Obama has demonstrated his fondness for putting on hisrhetorical tweed jacket and lecturing the people who put him in office.His professorial roots are ostentatiously displayed on issues across thepolitical spectrum, but no phrase of his is more threadbare than hislabeling of something as “the right thing to do”. Despite the fact that thisstatement is devoid of meaning in the morally-relativist world in whichPresident Obama believes he lives, he seems to use it daily for one subjector another.We were told that passing his healthcare law was “the right thing to do”.Offering amnesty and federal benefits to the children of illegal immigrantsvia his DREAM act was also “the right thing to do”. As was extending thetax credits for so-called clean energy companies. Right-things-to-do alsoinclude making the tuition tax credit permanent, supporting No Child LeftBehind, the repeal of DADT, re-upping the Payroll Tax, and supportingclean energy initiatives, or at least that’s what we have been told. Mostrecently, he has pontificated to the American people that exerting militarymight against the Syrian government is “the right thing to do”.How trite has this phrase of his become? In a 2010 speech inYoungstown, Ohio, the President used the phrase 18 times in one speech,including 9 times in a 200-word stretch at the end of his written remarks.It’s enough to make one wonder if there is anything which isn’t the rightthing to do, but of course we know the answer to that question. Theunspoken assertion which accompanies the-right-thing-to-do designationis that acting against the President’s suggestion is the-wrong-thing-to-do.So opposition to Obamacare, the DREAM act, repealing DADT, attackingSyria, or really anything President Obama supports, becomes effortexerted for the “wrong thing”. This is a subtle but effective tactic whichhe uses to great effect.It allows him to frame the topic at hand in terms of absolute morality,while he keeps his foot in the camp of moral relativism. If he were amore intellectual man, it could be credited to him as a brilliant politicalmaneuver, but since his particular brand of cunning spawns from theChicago School of Politics it’s more likely that his stance is pragmaticrather than strategic. On issues ranging from abortion to homosexuality,the President has clearly demonstrated that he believes controversialissues are to be determined by one’s own morality which has been shapedand developed by life’s experiences. Certainly his own “evolution” on theissue of same-sex marriage has demonstrated that his view of morality issubject to change. Yet he patronizes the American public with statementsthat blatantly assert that there exists a right thing to do!So which is it, Mr. President? If your innumerable statements aretrue, then it means absolute morality exists. It means that there is indeeda “right” thing to do, which in turn means that there is a “wrong” thing todo as well. So let’s have that conversation. Too often, a fawning mediaand rubber-stamp intelligentsia have given this maneuver a pass, when itshould be acknowledged and questioned:“How do you determine the right thing to do, Mr. President?”“Who’s ‘right’ are we talking about here? Is this the right thing forall Americans? If so, how do you know? What is the source of thisconviction?”“If absolute morality exists, as your position is affirming that youbelieve, can we revisit some of your more ambiguous policy positionswhich seem to be based on the presumption that morality is relative to theindividual?”“For instance, when you state that abortion is a personal choice whichyou support, are you taking the position that a) abortion is only right orwrong according to each individual’s personal beliefs, or b) abortion is amoral good for America? I will advise you that selecting Option A willinvalidate the 3,000 times you’ve called something the-right-thing-to-do.”“ If there is a right-thing-to-do when faced with the choice betweenextending the payroll tax holiday or not, then there is certainly a rightthing-to-dowhen faced with the choice of having a doctor kill a baby ina womb or not.”For too long this type of intellectual dalliance has been toleratedwithout challenge. We have allowed our ideological opponents to dictatethe terms of our engagement and they have done so in a manner whichassures their victory. What choice has the President left those whooppose his proposed course of action? The opposition is forced to choosebetween absconding from their ideological position or affirming supportfor something which has been labeled the-wrong-thing-to-do.It is the equivalent of a baseball team which instructs the umpireto give the tie to the runner when they’re batting and to give the tie tothe defense when they’re fielding. Sadly, the umps in our game areall too willing to allow this arrangement and our team manager is tooincompetent to protest. It’s up to the American people to rail against theinconsistencies of moral relativism and if that doesn’t work, to evict ourmanager in favor of someone who has the stones to do his job.LUKE HAMILTONwww.pennypressnv.com

THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 10Commentary: Albert ThomasTwo Kinds Of Mutual FundsThe “experts” tell us there are all kinds of mutual funds.They put them into various classes such as Large Cap, Mid Cap, SmallCap, Sector, Index, Emerging Market, Value, Undervalued, Balanced,Closed End, etc. etc. Very confusing.The answer is really simple. Don’t listen to those “experts”. The onlyexpert is the bottom line and that divides funds into 2 categories.There are two categories. Those that PERFORM and those that areNONPERFORMERS. How are they differentiated? Again, a very simpletest. The performers are beating the S&P500 Index and the nonperformersare not.When an investor purchases a mutual fund what is he getting for hismoney? He is hiring a mutual fund manager who is supposed to be ableto choose individual stocks for the fund that will increase in value tomake his investment go up. Not down. Not sideways. If the fund managercannot do that he should be fired.The S&P500 is merely a market average and an average job by a fundmanager is staying even with it. If anyone is hired for any job and cannotdo an average job would the employer continue to employ him? Not really.So what do all the categories mean? Basically, nothing. This is moreWall Street smoke and mirrors trying to confuse investors to look at whatthe magician wants them to see while he is fooling the investor with hisact. Investors watch his right hand while his left hand is dipping intotheir wallet. Wall Street hates the truth. They want to work their magicon investors with their convoluted ways. Simplicity is very difficult fortwisted minds.Whatever funds investors now own should be reviewed weekly andcompared to the performance of the S&P. Fund managers run hot andcold. Don’t want to stay with one when he has a cold streak.When investors have your account with a discount broker most havefunds that have no transaction fees or the fee is very small to switch to abetter fund. If you don’t watch out for your money your broker will not.You will be left with a small sum in your bag instead of the riches youdeserve.That is time to switch from the nonperformer to a performer. If agood performing no-load fund cannot be found then cash is the safestinvestment.AL THOMASAl Thomas’ new book, “If It Doesn’t Go Up, Don’t Buy It!”, 3rd edition,has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profits withhis simple 2-step method. The method made 10% during 2008. Read thefirst chapter at mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he’s the man thatWall Street does not want you to know.

THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 11Commentary: Matt BarberAmerica’s Fall: The Modern-DayRoman Empire“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)The Apostle Paul likely wrote his letter to the Romans about 25 yearsafter Christ’s death and resurrection (sometime between A.D. 55-57).Throughout the book of Romans, Paul warned of God’s unfolding wrathagainst the Roman Empire – indeed, all of humanity – for mankind’sembrace and practice of pagan morality.Approach Paul’s words with a modicum of objectivity and the readeris left with this dreadful realization: The words of Christ’s hand-pickedmessenger likewise paint an eerily accurate portrait of America, A.D.2013. The negligible difference is that ancient pagan morality has beensanitized with a new euphemism: postmodern “progressivism.”It is unbridled hubris that presumes America – lest she depart the widepath to ancient Rome – will not suffer that empire’s same fate.“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all thegodlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by theirwickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, becauseGod has made it plain to them,” he wrote. “For since the creation of theworld God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature –have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, sothat people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)Of course, an entire book could be written on this passage alone, but,essentially, Paul is noting that knowledge of God’s existence, eternalpower, divine nature and moral law are self-evident. His truths are writtenon the hearts of every man, woman and child – Jew, Christian and paganalike. Those who deny this reality are “without excuse.”Yet, excuses we make.Pull your eyes from your smartphone, America. Look around you.God’s wrath is “being revealed from heaven” once more.“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God norgave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish heartswere darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools andexchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like amortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore Godgave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity forthe degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truthabout God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather thanthe Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:21-25)Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun. Sexual impurity in all itsugly forms – fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, et al. – iscelebrated by these “progressive” “fools.” American culture revels in thedegrading of our bodies while purity is mocked. God has given us over tosinful desires.Furthermore, while good earthly stewardship is a sound biblicalprinciple, the pantheism and idolatry of which Paul warned (worshipof creation and/or false idols over the Creator) prospers yet today inits contemporary, totalitarian forms: radical environmentalism and newageism.“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even theirwomen exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones (lesbianism).In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women andwere inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful actswith other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”(Romans 1:26-27)Was Paul rebuking “progressives” on the U.S. Supreme Court,President Obama, liberals in Congress and other cheerleaders for these“shameful lusts” and “unnatural relations” – or was he just describing thedisproportionately powerful and “inflamed-with-lust” homosexual lobbythey represent?Probably both.Either way, God’s “due penalty” is non-discriminating. America’sofficial endorsement of “gay marriage,” “gay pride,” homosexualistindoctrination in our schools, “transgender” bathroom bills and bans oncounseling to help with unwanted same-sex attraction will not end well.Ask the Romans.“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain theknowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so thatthey do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with everykind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy,murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters,insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; theydisobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, nomercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do suchthings deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things butalso approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:28-32)Where to begin.We have arrived. Shame on you, America. Our children – our adults –are depraved. They are “occupied” by envy. They attack innocent people,beating and killing them for sport. They murder one another in the streetswithout love or mercy. They disobey, gossip, slander and hate God. Theyare insolent, arrogant, boastful “little monsters.” They invent ways ofdoing evil. Hannah Montana is what America once was. MTV Mileyis America today. She “evolved” because we “evolved.” You saw it ondisplay. It’s ugly. It’s Satanic.It’s “progressive.”Still, though we have become a Romans 1 nation and, absentwidespread spiritual revival, will fall as did Rome, those who embrace andfollow truth – who is Jesus the Christ – are a Romans 8 people:“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in ChristJesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives lifehas set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law waspowerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sendinghis own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so hecondemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of thelaw might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh butaccording to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4)That’s the good news.And that’s a column for another day.MATT BARBERMatt Barber (@jmattbarber on Twitter) is an attorney concentrating inconstitutionalwww.pennypressnv.comlaw. He serves as Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action.

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THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 14Commentary: Chuck MuthThe Truth about the 11th CommandmentConservative Republican candidates wear Ronald Reagan as a badgeof honor. Moderate Republicans use him as a shield.Conservatives embrace Reagan’s “government is the problem, not thesolution” philosophy. Moderates hide behind his 11th Commandment –“Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican” - to duck criticism of badvotes.In case you’ve missed it, there’s a national wave building of viableconservative candidates mounting GOP primary challenges againstincumbent moderates, including right here in Nevada. And the threatis so serious that Gumby Republicans are again using Reagan’s 11thCommandment to discourage and discredit such conservative challenges.Sorry, but that dog won’t hunt.First and foremost, recall that Reagan himself mounted a conservativechallenge to a sitting incumbent moderate, President Jerry Ford, in the1976 Republican primary.As such, conservatives such as Lisa Krasner, who is challengingmoderate Republican Assemblyman Randy Kirner in Reno, andconservative Carl Bunce, who is challenging Republican Sen. “ModerateMike” Roberson in Las Vegas, aren’t violating a Reagan principle; they’refollowing his example!Furthermore, moderates have regularly twisted and perverted themeaning of the 11th Commandment for years, to the point that Reaganbiographer Craig Shirley felt compelled to ink a column for Politico in2011 to clear up the “misunderstanding and misinformation surrounding”it.“The 11th Commandment was created in 1966 by Gaylord Parkinson,the Golden State’s Republican Party chairman,” Shirley wrote. “After thebloodbath in the 1964 California primary between Arizona Sen. BarryGoldwater and New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, Parkinson was tryingto put the party back together.“The commandment never meant that one Republican could notcriticize the policies or philosophies of another Republican. It meantonly that one could or should not engage in personal attacks on anotherRepublican.”So if Ms. Krasner were to refer to Assemblyman Kirner as an amiabledunce or Mr. Bunce were to say that Sen. Roberson’s beard makes himlook like a teenage werewolf, those would be clear violations of the 11thCommandment.However, should both conservative challengers accurately point outthat the incumbent moderates have been serial tax hikers in violation of theofficial Nevada Republican Party platform, that’s fair game.And of course no discussion of how moderates try to hide behindthe 11th Commandment would be complete without noting the completehypocrisy of said moderates when the shoe is on the other foot.Indeed, when a moderate challenges an incumbent conservative in aGOP primary, personal attacks such as “extremist,” “nutjob,” “wacko,”“radical,” “religious kook” and worse are regularly tossed about withreckless abandon.So buck up, conservatives. The next time some Gumby Republicancriticizes you for criticizing or running against them, simply ask yourselfone question…WWRRD? 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THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 15Can Dale Jr. Win?Find Out. Listen To Every Sprint Cup Race.Now On Ely’s Radio StationKELY1230AMOn The Air Since 1950

THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 16SRN News On The Hour6am-9am Glen Beck9am-noon Mike Huckabeenoon-3pm Sean Hannity3pm-6pm Hugh HewittFox Sports 6pm-6am