Dr. Ron Paul - On Three Issues

Dr. Ron Paul - On Three Issues

This time around I decided I wanted to take a good, close look at where Dr. Paul stands on a few of the issues that litter the American political landscape. To some degree I’ve tried to keep my politics and my “voice” out by not providing commentary beyond the information. I don’t know how successful I’ve been, but I have put forth the effort. We’ll get started with a bang and jump right into his position on:

Dr. Ron Paul on: Abortion

First of all the Doctor in Ron Paul’s title is NOT an honorarium. He is in fact a licensed doctor who just happened to be a OB/GYN while he was in practice. Which of course means he has more than laymans knowledge of the whole process of birth.

The right of an innocent, unborn child to life is at the heart of the American ideals of liberty. My professional and legislative record demonstrates my strong commitment to this pro-life principle.

In 40 years of medical practice, I never once considered performing an abortion, nor did I ever find abortion necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman. Source

He is the primary sponsor of H.R. 300, a bill designed to limit the influence of the federal courts in state affairs. This came about in order to try and block the feds from making ruling on state issues as some states have begun to really crack down on the abortion industry and put a lot of regulations in place that Roe v. Wade seems to indicate are unconstitutional.

Dr. Ron Paul on: Taxes

Ron Paul is probably one of the last, if not the last, “dictionary definition” (if there was such a thing) conservatives left in American politics at the federal level. Essentially he’s about lowering taxes, AND lower spending. Something which no politician has been successful in doing at a presidential level. They’ve all done one or another or they’ve done them both but it’s never worked out very well for one reason or another.

Whether a tax cut reduces a single mother’s payroll taxes by $40 a month or allows a business owner to save thousands in capital gains taxes and hire more employees, that tax cut is a good thing. Lower taxes allow more spending, saving, and investing which helps the economy — that means all of us. Source

He also takes a shot at the Federal Reserve (aka “The Fed”) which if you don’t know anything about you should really do some reading about it and see exactly what they are and what it does.

Dr. Ron Paul on: Gun Control

While Dr. Paul’s website has nothing directly regarding gun control he does have a very public and very prominent record as voting against more restrictive gun control and in many instances he actually seeks to repeal current gun control laws. Here is a list from the Ron Paul library with a record of speeches and documents which spells out Dr. Paul’s position on the issue. In a speech to Congress he stated -

Mr. Speaker, I rise to restore the right the founding fathers saw as the guarantee of every other right by introducing the Second Amendment Protection Act. This legislation reverses the steady erosion of the right to keep and bear arms by repealing unconstitutional laws that allow power-hungry federal bureaucrats to restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

Specifically, my legislation repeals the five-day waiting period and the “instant” background check, which enables the federal government to compile a database of every gun owner in America. My legislation also repeals the misnamed ban on “semi-automatic” weapons, which bans entire class of firearms for no conceivable reason beside the desire of demagogic politicians to appear tough on crime. Finally, my bill amends the Gun Control Act of 1968 by deleting the “sporting purposes” test, which allows the Treasury Secretary to infringe on second amendment rights by classifying a firearm (handgun, rifle, shotgun) as a “destructive device” simply because the Secretary believes the gun to be “non-sporting.”

Thomas Jefferson said “The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; …that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.” Jefferson, and all of the Founders, would be horrified by the proliferation of unconstitutional legislation that prevents law-abiding Americans form exercising their right and duty to keep and bear arms. I hope my colleagues will join me in upholding the Founders’ vision for a free society by cosponsoring the Second Amendment Restoration Act. Source

For something a little more current we have-

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 2640, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Improvement Amendments Act, and I urge caution.

In my opinion, H.R. 2640 is a flagrantly unconstitutional expansion of restriction on the exercise of the right to bear arms protected under the Second Amendment.

H.R. 2640 also seriously undermines the privacy rights of all Americans–gun owners and non-gun owners alike–by creating and expanding massive federal government databases, including medical and other private records of every American.

H.R. 2640 illustrates how placing restrictions on the exercise of one right–in this case, the right to bear arms–inevitably leads to expanded restriction on other rights as well. In an effort to make the Brady background check on gun purchases more efficient, H.R. 2640 pressures states and mandates federal agencies to dump massive amounts of information about the private lives of all Americans into a central federal government database. Source

It should be clear what Ron Paul’s position is on gun control from both of these statements which are matters of public record before the Congress of the United States of America.

There as I promised a brief overview on three issues two of which always prove divisive and one of which (taxes) everyone seems to agree on in one manner or another. I encourage everyone to consider Ron Paul as a viable candidate for the Presidency of the United States. I’m still undecided, but I believe he deserves as much consideration and as much scrutiny as any other candidate out there. Don’t simply cast you ballot based on his position on one issue and if it is in agreement with or in opposition to your own position. Take a look at the entire package and then make that decision.

Posted in News and Politics | 19 Comments »

Lessons from the blogosphere - Week 1

Lessons from the blogosphere - Week 1

This is the first installment of my new weekly endeavor in the world of blogging. That is to bring you the reader the best tips and information I have run across over the course of the past week on other blogs. This will serve three purposes. First and foremost it will provide my readers with additional information they may not have seen for themselves. Second it will drive traffic to other blogs out there. Third it will provide more exposure for this blog via trackbacks and pingbacks. In general I will be focusing on things relating to blogging, writing, monetization, plugins, and search engine optimization. If from time to time I stray from that I beg your indulgence and if necessary your forgiveness.

Wordpress Plugins

This week I was introduced to two plugins which I’m very pleased with. The first one called No Self Pings prevents you from pinging your own blog when you link back to a previous post. It was driving me crazy because I tend to do a fair amount of internal linking and it was pretty annoying see all the pingbacks to my own site in the comments. This plugin does a good job of eliminating them. I found this plugin through a search so I have no blog to give credit to.

The second plugin is called Ad Rotator and it allows you to serve multiple ads of the same size on the same piece of screen real estate. It does this by selecting from a list of ads you provide in an external text file each time a page is loaded. It keeps things fresh and allows you to use multiple partners that you would not have been able to use. I was introduced to this plugin by Maki over a Dosh Dosh in his post about reducing banner blindness.

Text Link Ads (TLA)

If you didn’t know TLA has been having a bit of a problem with Google lately. TLA is a link broker bringing together websites and advertisers. As a website owner I decide I want to offer some screen space to advertising. TLA hooks me up with the advertiser and I put the ad on my site and everyone is happy. Everyone except Google that is. At some point in the not so distant past Google decided that the selling of links should not be condoned because they believe it lowers the value of the links which of course they use as part of their algorithm for the (in)famous Google search engine.

Google, the mighty monopoly that it is terms of search and advertising decided to penalize everyone who uses TLA ads on their site. I’m not certain how this punishment manifests or if it is even a true story, but I do know that TLA has taken matters into their own hands by running their links through tinyurl.com to shorten *cough* cloak *cough* the link from prying eyes.

Good on them I say. Google while a great service really needs to come to terms with the fact that they don’t actually control the internet. Not yet at least. If you’re a TLA affiliate you should have recieved an email with this information. If you didn’t just go to your affiliate account and check out the links and banners.

On the other hand if you are not currently a TLA affiliate I strongly encourage you to join. For each FREE signup that people complete using your affiliate link you will get paid $25.00. I don’t know about you but for the 1.5 minutes it will take someone to signup I’m willing to bet a few people will sign up for TLA’s affiliate program.

I was made aware of the change by the TLA email I received as mentioned above. Blogging Experiment brought it to my attention why this is happening.

Improve your writing skills

Many bloggers are great sales people, but when it comes to finessing their words they are lacking something. I know to many this isn’t a big deal, but to those who want to improve I’ve rounded up a few websites that have helped me over the years. Before that I have a few tips of my own that I have learned (though I don’t always use them).

• Edit down - You should be editing so concisely that you turn one full printed page into a third of a page. This gets all of the “fluff” out leaving us with the essentials.
• Writers block - Get out of the house and go for a walk. The blog will be there when you get back. While you’re on the walk pick up something, anything at all and think up a story about it. If you find a clod of dirt think of a story that will make it your spouses most prized possesion when they hear it. Once you have that story in your mind, go home and get to work. On your blog not the dirt clod. The objective is to get your mind thinking about something aside from blogging so it “stretches” a little bit from time to time.
• Down time - Spend at least one full day a week NOT writing anything at all. Not even comments. Trust me your adoring public will wait a day for you. Perhaps not two, but one day they will wait.

Websites: writing.com, writing-world.com, oneofus.co.uk, writingforums.com

Eye exercises

Pick up this little tid-bit from April over at Natural Health Remedies. It seems with a little bit of eye exercise, don’t laugh there seems to be something to this you can actually strengthen your occular muscles and improve your sight! I’m going to begin my eye exercises at the conclusion of this post and see how things go. Beyond on that you get to watch Paul McCartney demonstrating eye yoga on a clip from Youtube that April has linked.

That’s it for this weeks installment. Thanks for reading. If anyone else tries those eye exercises I’d be interested in knowing how things improve (or don’t) with your eyesight.

Posted in Blogging | 6 Comments »

Update on burned Iraqi child

Update on burned Iraqi child

The other day I posted an article about a five year old Iraqi boy who was set on fire. According to CNN the outpour of support since .they broke the story has been huge and he is now heading stateside to a specialized non-profit burn clinic in Sherman Oaks California called The Children’s Burn Foundation

If you feel moved to make a donation either in general or to this case in particular you can do so at the foundation’s online donation page. If you want to specify it for him look for the section labeled Honor/Memorial Gift Information: and in the drop-down menu be sure to set it on “Youssif’s Fund”. As always with non-profits it is tax deductible so it’s not like you’ll be losing out on much.

Since I’m moved to act but don’t have extra money at the moment I’d like to “partner” with anyone who wants to make a donation. As you can see there is an advertising spot available at the top of each post. I will give this spot free for 3 months to the first person who donates $75.00 to the “Youssif Fund”. That means that you’re text link ad will appear on each and every homepage load of A Blog about Nothing for 3 months. It will appear 8 times (one time on each visible post on my home page) This is a $100.00 value. If you donate $150.00 I will give you the spot for 6 months. 6 months is $190.00 value. It is first come first serve so the first one to donate will be given the spot. Anyone else who donates will have made a worthwhile contribution, but sorry I can’t put you in the ad slot nor will I be responsbile for refunding you your money. Obviously the clinic won’t be either.

I am currently in the process of figuring out a way to verify the amount donated and when. For the moment this offer is NOT ACTIVE, it is pending. I will update you as soon as I know the deal and activate this offer. In the meanwhile please feel free to donate, but it will not count towards the advertising space.

Normally I don’t ask for stumbles or diggs from my readers but in this case I’m going to be blatant and ask that you take a moment to click on the link that says “Share This” just below here and Digg and/or Stumble it. Thanks a lot!

Posted in News and Politics | No Comments »

Pit Bulls for the novice

Pit Bulls for the novice

With the Michael Vick fiasco in full swing a few things about fighting dogs, especially Pit Bulls, is coming to the fore that some of us have known for a while and some of us haven’t. You can walk into nearly any animal shelter in any town or city in America and be greeted with a disproportionately large number of pit bull type dogs. We can blame the popularity on the “tough guy” stigma these dogs give the people who have them. I can spend 10 minutes walking in my neighborhood and see at least 3 “thugs” standing on a corner, mangy pit bull with it’s monsterous spiked collar sitting happily by its owners feet. For some reason these guys think that having a dog that looks like a pit bull makes them look tough.

That’s unfortunately also the preception that the general public seems to have of these dogs. “Uh oh it’s a pit bull we better be really careful.” First of all chances are it is not a true American Pit Bull Terrier. It’s likely a mutt with so much pollution in it’s lines that it retains less than a third of it’s true American Pit Bull Terrier heritage. For the most part you can tell simply by looking. The fighting lineage of the breed is relatively thin and wiry weighing as little as 25 pounds. The show and conformation is more muscular and bulked up and weighs around 60 pounds.

Then you have the monstrocities that are popular today. These dogs often weigh in excess of 100 pounds, have absurdly large heads (to the point that as new born pups their heads rival the size of normal confirmation Pit Bulls), and have a myriad of health problems caused by their over breeding, cross breeding, and line breeding. For more information about the types of breeding look here.

The next time you see a “pit bull” take a good look at it. If you take a moment you’ll be able to tell a true American Pit Bull Terrier from a “pit bull”. The difference is astounding both in terms of their physical looks, but more importantly in terms of their disposition. A real Pit Bull is outgoing, friendly, affectionate, gentle, trusting, and loyal. To such a degree that breeders will often get German Shepherds, Dobermans, Rottweilers, or other similar breeds to guard their Pit Bulls. This because a Pit Bull will literally walk off with anyone that scratches behind it’s ear.

All that said they are still a fighting dog. Aggression towards other animals, especially dogs is normal and to be expected. Aggression towards people is not acceptable and not to be tolerated. That said keep a few things in mind to keep your dog safe from Pit Bulls it might come across on your walks.

• Be aware of people and dogs around you.
• Don’t let your dog and the Pit Bull sniff each other. Normally this is something you want a dog to do, but with a Pit Bull the situation is different.
• At the slightest indication of agitiation FROM YOUR DOG get them well separated. I say “from your dog” because a Pit Bull getting ready to fight sometimes goes into a posture called a “stand”. They stand neck to neck with the other dog looking down the other dogs back. The Pit Bulls tail will be wagging, no their whole hind end will be wagging, at a billion miles per hour. If you see this posturing don’t scream, don’t panic, simply get your dog away. Fast.
• As you can see from the above you can’t depend on signs of aggression from the Pit Bull to know if it will attack your dog or not. You have to be very aware of what your dog is doing. A retriever is happy when it is retrieving balls, a heeler is happiest when it is nipping at the heels of livestock. A Pit Bull is happy when it is fighting. Every manner in which it carries itself when it comes to aggression goes against our preconcieved notions in nearly all cases. If you’re thinking snarling vicious see it coming from 100 miles away display you’re dead wrong.
• A truly responsible Pit Bull owner will carry a break-stick with them at all times. Period. A break stick is a flat tapered piece of wood which can be inserted in a dogs mouth at the jaw line to get them to release a hold. Again, despite what the popular media and ignorant district attorneys call dog fighting paraphernalia a break-stick is an essential safety measure that all Pit Bull owners should have on them at all times. It can literally save another dogs life.

One last thing to address before closing. A Pit Bulls physiology is exactly the same as every other dogs in the world from tea-cup poodle to great dane. This means they CAN NOT lock their jaws in some kind of morbid death grip. It is simmply impossible. When you hear stories of the “lock-jawed pit bull” what that speaks of is their gameness. And gamesness is what we would call heart and determination in a human being.

I hope this provides at least one person with a little bit of information regarding Pit Bulls that goes beyond the cookie cutter press and the popular media. They aren’t the dogs for everyone as they take a lot of care, but they’re also not the monsters that our society has villianized them as. There is after all a reason why they were called nanny dogs at one time and why today they are used as search and resuce, and therapy dogs.

Posted in Potpourri | 6 Comments »

Ruining relationships - One reader at a time

Ruining relationships - One reader at a time

The other day I wrote a piece titled Building relationships - One reader at a time in which I detailed some practical methods to gain a readers trust. The objective was to get people to begin looking at different ways to build relationships with those who read their blogs, and start working at the methods they came up with. This time around I’m going to examine a few ways to ruin the relationship you have with your current readers. I’m also going to teach you some “tips n’ tricks” that will assure potential new readers run as fast as they can away from your blog.

I hope I gave you some ideas to help you in your efforts to lose readers. More importantly I hope that you will take a look at your own roll in the bloggin community and see what you might be doing that is costing you readers. Remember that if you lose one you’ve probably lost 100 viewers by proxy along with that person. No doubt there are many more ways to lose readers, but these three areas should give you a good starting point. Before we close I’d just like to ask what you have done within the past week to lose some of your audience? As for myself I posted a comment on another blog that had absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. I had clicked on the wrong tab and wasn’t paying any attention so there I was responding to something very specific on one blog in another blog. And of course for good measure I made sure to include my link that way people would know exactly who had done it. What about?

Posted in Blogging | 6 Comments »