From THINK PROGRESS:
Conservative lawmakers across the country seem determined to crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. In the past week, a string of articles have exposed how once-fringe conservative economic theories have migrated into the political mainstream — with alarming consequences.
Perhaps the most obvious example is the conservative gold craze, which is based on apocalyptic beliefs that the U.S. dollar is on the verge of collapse, runaway inflation is imminent, and gold is a more stable and reliable currency than paper money. The tough economic times have spurred many Tea Partiers in particular to rush to invest in gold, pushing its price to a record high. Glenn Beck and other talk show hosts frequently advertise gold on their shows — along with fallout shelters — “as a way to weather the end of the world as we know it.” And presidential contender Ron Paul (R-TX), who was made chairman of the House committee overseeing federal monetary policy, has long advocated returning to the gold standard and abolishing the Federal Reserve.
This month Utah became the first state in the country to officially recognize gold and silver coins as legal currency:
Utah legislators want to see the dollar regain its former glory, back to the days when one could literally bank on it being “as good as gold.”
…snip…
The idea was spawned by Republican state Rep. Brad Galvez, who sponsored the bill largely to serve as a protest against Federal Reserve monetary policy. Galvez says Americans are losing faith in the dollar. If you’re mad about government debt, ditch the cash.
The law is a toned down version of a bill introduced in Georgia last December that would have required that all transactions with the state, including paying taxes, be paid with gold or silver coins.
…snip…
The U.S. officially went off the gold standard under President Nixon. Most mainstream economists agree that it never worked in the first place and reimposing a gold or silver standard now would have disastrous consequences. The U.S.’s failure to abandon the gold standard in the 1930′s was one of the main causes of the Great Depression.
Republican politicians have increasingly pandered to the far-right base by endorsing loony gold schemes, such as when presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty derided the U.S. dollar as a “fiat currency” — “a signal to a narrow constituency of voters who believe that America’s woes began when it abandoned the gold standard.” Minnesota also moved one step closer to adopting gold and silver coins as legal tender this month, and North Carolina, Idaho, and at least nine other states are considering similar legislation.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
I just don’t get this people. … but why not South Carolina and Texas?
i’ve been trying to find out which states are among the 9, but the only one i could find that had a bill proposed to go back to the gold standard is new hampshire. i haven’t been able to find out if that’s still in consideration. i wouldn’t be surprised if south carolina and texas are among the 9.
Isn’t this unconstitutional? Doesn’t the Constitution give the Federal Government the sole authority to issue currency?
May be an amendment? I could look but don’t feel like it LOL
I know banks in the 19th century used to issue their own currency because I used to collect coins and notes. You can imagine how disastrous that was. The bank goes under, and suddenly your money isn’t worth anything.
i just googled trying to find the answer, mad, and all i got were websites for ron paul and for fringe groups that want the gold standard back.
i would think so. however, i am not a lawyer, so i might be wrong. now, you can’t tell people what you can accept for payment. if a merchant wants to accept roach turds in exchange for goods, he has the right to do so. however, then there’s the matter of taxes. if he accepts roach turds for taxable items, how does the customer and the merchant pay the taxes? if it’s a state tax, i guess it’s up to the state.
what’s really stupid is that, if there’s a gold standard, we’d never know what the price of anything is, as gold prices change all the time.
If it weren’t for this trumped up gold standard, they would have no standards at all !
(Doing my best Groucho Marx impersonation).
have a cigar!
So if I go down to the store with a gold ounce coin worth $15oo and buy something for five bucks, are they going to give me bullion change back? One of the reasons paper money came about shortly after the revolution was the fact that weathy people hoarded specie leaving no money in curculation. Another interesting comparison is the situtation in 1830 era China where after buying mass amounts of opium from the brits, all the money was leaving the country. This made the emperor ban the importation of dope, leading to the two Opium Wars that guaranteed the crown their narcotics monoply. Now my problem is, there is gold out there, in the yard, the creeks, all those hills around me. Back in 1850 when this area got the 49ers showing up, for the first year they just roamed around finding nuggets of placer gold laying on the ground like easter eggs. Damn, you think they would have left me a few!
if you have a coupon, you get a couple of spoonfuls of gold dust back in addition to the bullion. just think of the boon to the economy when millions of people get hernias from schlepping around gold bricks when they go shopping, not to mention the increase in wheelbarrow purchases.
It just goes to show you that their stupidity knows no limits.
First, it will wreck us internationally. Have they never heard of the global economy? How about the electronic economy? Can I buy crap online using gold? How does that work?
In the meantime, these traitors are running around talking down the dollar. Talk about your self-fulfilling prophecies.
There is nothing too devastating to our nation that they won’t do in their own narrow self-interest and greed.
they hear a sound byte, and they run with it. no research, no delving into what it might mean. they have something new to be pissed off about (because ron paul or glenn blechhh told them to be), and some asswipe comes along, sets up a website, and has the idiots send money.
It’s a new low in lunacy. These morons are so brainwashed in their end of the world religious theories and so morally corrupted in their quest for wealth. They believe the dollar will become worthless, and they’re the only ones who will have the means to participate in commerce because they’ve been accumulating gold.
The nuts will reap their reward when the price of gold tanks.
jesus got more than gold when he was born, so stay tuned for when they insist that frankincense and myrrh are legal currency. 🙄
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a fool and his money……
i really want to let texas, utah,south carolina and arizona just leave already –
that would be fine with me. kansas and a few other states can go, too.
I have one word for this idea–goldbuggery.
That said, the next time this subject comes up, I have a suggestion for a poster.
i considered goldfinger, but i couldn’t figure out what to do with the gold-plated broad in the bed. i doubt that bozo from utah has ever seen a woman in a bed, let alone a gold-plated one.
“i doubt that bozo from utah has ever seen a woman in a bed”
As someone with deep family roots in Utah (my dad went to what was then the only Catholic HS in the state, my middle sister lives there, my mom spends half the year there, and I have lots of LDS cousins), I can tell you that you’d be surprised. A culture that encourages early marriage and lots of children allows dorky people increased access to sexual experience.
As for gold dusted women, I found evidence that Sarah Palin is a gold bug. Turn her face a metallic yellow, paste it on the body, and watch her wingnut fanboys drool all over the photmanip.
Speaking of Princess Sarah, I just ran across a pair of articles you might find interesting.
Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann size each other up
Bachmann, Palin Coverage Playing Out Like a Bad ‘Bridesmaids’ Scene
Up for doing a Bridesmaids poster?
actually, i wouldn’t be surprised at all. in fact, i bet men like brad galvez probably stay in the morman church only because they’re more likely to get laid. they wouldn’t stand a chance elsewhere.
oops! i already picked another movie for the twisted sisters. actually, i wasn’t even going to post today. the stats last week were dismal. i’m tired, and when i see the stats, i wonder why i’m bothering. i’ll have to see how things go, because i would desperately miss the raisinettes.
We’d miss you, too. As for stats, it’s a holiday weekend, and a lot of regular readers are away. My stats are down a from last weekend, too. See how things look on Tuesday, when people are back home and resuming their regular routine.
Just to make sure, I’ve tweeted your two most recent and posted them to Facebook. I’ll also use the Palin/Bachmann poster to illustrate a post on a some political communities on two journaling services, being sure to link back here. That should help traffic.
you’re so good to me, neon vincent, and i hope you know that it is very much appreciated. i’m sorry for being so whiny. i just get down in the dumps sometimes, because i put so much time and effort into this. when it’s starts to be stressful instead of fun, maybe it’s time to take a break. of course, every time i say that, one of the rethugs does something so stupid that i have to make a poster! i guess i’ll just play it by ear.
Glad to be of service.
I followed through with my promise to post the poster and the National Journal story to LiveJournal. It’s here. The first thing the young female readers did was complain about the sexism in the poster. Sigh. Can’t make everyone happy.
On the other hand, my dirty old man friend on LiveJournal promptly reposted it. Those two women make him hot, even though he thinks their politics and religion are vile (he’s a pagan).
glad i could make the dirty old man happy! that hasn’t happened in years! 😆
funny how nobody here complained about sexism. i knew that someone along the line would complain about that. however, i think the movie i chose was the right one. romy and michele were vacuous women who never achieved much, so they lied to their ex-classmates in order to aggrandize themselves. if that’s not the perfect analogy for princess and batshit bachmann, i don’t know what is. i won’t even mention the makeovers the 2 of them have had since they’ve been getting so much attention.
p.s. if you want, you can quote me over there as to my thinking behind the poster.
Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think it will be necessary. After I said I couldn’t fix the formatting, which is true (I really should uninstall Internet Explorer 9 and install Firefox 4.0), and then said that I probably couldn’t delete the image, they generally stopped kvetching about it.
for the record, i didn’t have a problem with the page at all, but i use firefox.