In the realm of legislation that fails to receive sensationalized media attention, Ron Paul’s HR 1207 has largely been ignored by the mainstream media.  However, the legislation has garnered the cosponsorship of over half of the representatives in the house, and a companion bill in the senate has enjoyed similar success.

So what is HR 1207?  HR1207 is a bill to audit the Federal Reserve; the quasi-governmental agency responsible for managing the money supply of the United States.  Despite the word “Federal” in the name, they are no more a part of the government than a Federal Bank.  The Federal Reserve’s website lists their goals as Influencing Monetary and Credit conditions, supervising and regulating banking institutions, maintaining the stability of the financial system, and providing financial services to depository institutions and the US Government.

Many people find fault with the Federal Reserve through the inflationary tactics it uses to accomplish its goals.  Inflation, the expansion of the monetary supply causes price increases and makes money worth less.   Since the Federal Reserve’s inception in 1913, the worth of an American dollar has fallen 97%; what one could buy for three cents in 1913, one now has to spend one hundred cents in 2009.

The rampant inflationary tactics have taken a new turn in the past decade, as the inflation creates boom and bust cycles within our economy, as evidenced most recently by the housing bubble that spawned our current recession.  Furthermore, the Federal Reserve has increased the monetary supply by buying assets of struggling companies, which results in a hidden tax on the average American consumer.

This issue becomes relevant to students as we progress through college and seek employment in the workforce.  A Federal Reserve that manipulates the financial markets has the ability to bring widespread panic and ruin to the population.

HR 1207: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1207

NBC and their Olympic coverage team generally provide some of the most extensive sporting event coverage in the world. With literally thousands of hours of footage, it is small wonder that the coverage becomes impersonal at times. Once such instance, found here: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=d344b6d1-b25e-442b-b06c-cf2452e122f7.html depicts a very painful crash of American Stacey Cook in a practice run. Viewers see the terrifying crash, and then see Stacey Cook slowly try to sit up but then fall back down. NBC then flashes the rather obvious fact that she did not finish the race, and proceed to show the crash again, this time in slow motion. In the end, viewers are left with no idea how badly she was injured.

She's not moving, but I'm sure she's fine.

Update: Stacey Cook did, in fact, recover from the crash in practice, and ended up finishing in the top 10 overall in the Women’s Downhill event. This was quite an accomplishment, as at least four of the women racing in the finals crashed during the actual race, and did not finish. It was the quickest and most dangerous women’s downhill course in recent Olympics.

As any Lehigh Student will tell you, there are an excessive number of New Jerseyans attending our school. The Bergen County area is particularly well represented amongst the Lehigh student body. These students should be aware of the fact that local police in their home area are arming with military style weapons and vehicles. This excess on law enforcement’s part is something that local residents of North Jersey should be aware of and protest.

Read article here.

Update: The link is fixed and now will work properly. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Cornell is similar to Lehigh in many ways, and the former is considered to be an “aspirational peer,” of Lehigh – a gentle way to admit academic superiority to another school without damaging one’s own ego.

The “aspirational peer” technique has been one of the ways that Lehigh has looked to justify the creation of a Chief Diversity Officer (CDO), as evidenced in Lehigh’s VPEC benchmarking report. While Cornell wasn’t a school included in the report, they have gone through a similar process.

Cornell created the office of Chief Diversity Officer in 2007. The result? From the looks of things, they have created both a University Assembly (equivalent of our Student Senate) and a school paper so terrified of Free Speech that they would each suggest willingly that Cornell should not have such freedoms.

For commentary on that story, check out the Cornell Review’s post on the subject, which also links to the editorial of the Cornell Daily Sun which so stunningly denounces free speech.

No one is advocating hateful speech, or harmful discrimination, but Free Speech is a cornerstone of our society and, quite ironically, journalism. Cornell has clearly done a good job on crafting a student body and especially a journalism wing so inline with school policy that they would openly denounce the first amendment.

With President Gast seemingly following this path as quickly as she can and with our dear Brown and White seemingly unwilling to go near controversial issues, it seems we could see a similar Lehigh within a few short years.

N.B. This article was not actually censored in any way. The message is in parody of what might happen to things written at Cornell in a year or two.

Hillary Clinton shared a laugh this week with Saudi Arabian college students over the prospect of Sarah Palin being elected president. If Palin was elected, Clinton declared she would not emigrate to Canada, but would, in fact, visit often.
NYT Article: Clinton Enjoys a Laugh Overseas About a Palin Presidency
While it may be entertaining to envision Palin as president, why are Americans not more unnerved at the proximity Palin achieved to the vice presidency in 2008?

Each Sunday, the Patriot will provide a look at some of the news issues that you should know about. We know it is tough for college students to keep up-to-date on current events. The Patriot’s Sunday News Beat is your answer to that. This week’s column will be mainly an aggregation of links, due to time constraints.

George Will describes the Demorat’s attempts to prematurely end a school choice program in Washington D.C. designed to help lower income families, and how it demonstrates the Democrat’s consistent approach to make citizens dependent on the government. Article here.

Walter Mead takes a look at the New York Times attempt to cover the latest climate controversies, and details the extensive level of bias reporting within the article which leaves readers still without an adequate scope of the issues at hand. Article here.

Salena Zito takes a look at the current Congressional landscape, and discusses the crucial role that many Pennsylvania races are poised to play in 2010: Article here.

Mark Landsbaum of the Orange County Register has the most comprehensive list of falsifications and scandals perpetrated by climate “scientists.” There will be more to come on this later in the week. Article here.

Additionally, The Times (UK) covers the research of Dr. John Cristy, former head of the U.N. IPCC. His research has found that much of the warming reported at multiple stations worldwide was due to issues in the immediate area, and do not serve to explain the climate at all. Article here.

Karen DeYoung and Joby Warrick, of the Washington Post, expose the fact that the Obama Administration has preferred killing terrorists to capturing terrorists in overseas operations. They discuss some of the possible reasons for this radical policy, as well as the possible implications: Article here.

In addition to all of that, the Winter Olympics have begun in Vancouver, Canada. Unfortunately, the start of the games was marred by the horrific death of a luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died while making a practice run on the course. Samantha Shields of the Wall Street Journal describes some of the aftermath of the terrible death: Article here.

You can follow the results of the 21st Winter Olympics at: http://www.nbcolympics.com.

That’s everything for now. Until next time, have a good week.

“The Pentagon’s most recent inventory of bases lists a total of 716 overseas sites. These include facilities owned and leased all across the Middle East as well as a significant presence in Europe and Asia, especially Japan and South Korea…

The count also does not include any sites in Iraq where, as of August 2009, there were still nearly 300 American bases and outposts. Similarly, U.S. bases in Afghanistan — a significant percentage of the 400 foreign sites scattered across the country — are noticeably absent from the Pentagon inventory.”

In a continuation of cold-war era politics, The United States has increased her projection of power across the globe, deploying military personnel throughout the globe in ever-greater numbers, with mind-boggling arrays of equipment; 1.5 million pieces in Iraq alone.

What are your thoughts on the deployment of the U.S. military? Discuss them here.

The following link to a Huffington Post article highlights the reasons why men all over the world die earlier than women.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/myles-spar-md/why-do-men-die-younger-th_b_457660.html

However, this article calls into question our societies aggressive support for heteronormativity. Should men in our society rule? Should we continue to take excessive risks on wall street? Is our encouragement of sport teams best for Lehigh?

Sodexo, the company responsible for feeding the bulk of the student population recently conducted a survey by e-mail and claimed that the survey taker would be rewarded at the end of the survey. (What follows is the actual e-mail recieved)

Dear student, faculty and staff,

Today we are requesting your participation in an important online
survey about your recent dining experiences on campus. You will
be rewarded at the end of the survey in return for your participation.

We are collecting this information on behalf of Sodexo. At no
point will pass your information on to any marketing
company. No personally identifiable information will be collected in the survey; we will only use
your responses in conjunction with those of other survey respondents.

This survey should only take approximately 7 minutes to complete.

I have no issue with Sodexo doing a survey; gathering information is a vital part of 21st century business. What I do have an issue with is the reward at the end of the survey. (Screen shot of actual survey end)

Sodexo Decides to Spend My Tuition Dollars

For your participation, Lehigh University will donate $1 to The WORLD FOOD PROGRAM – earmarked to providing needed food supplies to the people that have just survived the tragic earthquake in Haiti on your behalf.

Why is LEHIGH UNIVERSITY donating money on my behalf? I pay them for an education, not to provide philanthropy. Furthermore, the choice of charity offends me. As I have previously discussed, I disagree with the disproportionate aid for Haiti.

Looking into the charity benefiting from my “donation,” the Better Business Bureau reveals they are an outreach of the United Nations. Why is my money going to such a cause, besides to give Sodexo a very nice tax write-off?

As a service to both conservatives and liberals, the Patriot is proud to provide accurate commentary on some individuals who position themselves as Conservative thinkers but are, in fact, anything but. One of those polarizing figures is Sarah Palin, or “Failin” if you prefer.

While Palin is idolized by an undue number of conservatives, the blunt truth is that this woman rarely has any idea what she is talking about. Despite that this has been demonstrated virtually any time she talks, some people still refuse to admit that she is a walking disaster.

So, while we will eventually get around to detailing some of her past displays of incompetency, we thought we should begin with a current one, to be labeled Case #001 by the Lehigh Patriot. This is Palin answering a question at the Tea Party Convention about how Congress should change.

In this clip, Palin says that elected U.S. leaders ought to become “god fearing” again, and “ask for divine inspiration” to help make the U.S. safe and prosperous again.

As effective as that may be, this is a woman positioning herself for a run at the White House, and her answer to our problems is to ask her American God to give us some miracles to solve health care, immigration, deficits, unemployment, excessive taxation and Middle East turmoil?

Better yet, pictures taken during the event show she was reading off of her hand while answering the question, and photos taken by the AP clearly show the notes on her hand. That brings us to a quick session of “Life Lessons with Sarah Palin.”

How to answer questions from the “Gotch-ya” Media by Sarah Palin

Step 1: Wink, Smile, and talk about God. Step 2: Know questions in advance.

Step 3: Write notes on the inside of my hand.

Step 4: "Discretely" read the notes off of my hand.

(Photos 1 and 2 AP)

(Photo 3 http://tweetphoto.com/10644777)

If Palin used notes to identify the three things this country should do to improve, we may finally have an answer to how she finally received her degree in communications. For those who don’t know, it took Palin almost six years at four different colleges to eventually obtain her degree in communications finally from the University of Idaho. Based on these revelations, it seems the University of Idaho should investigate whether or not Palin used this technique during some of her exams.