Vision
As said by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address, “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” citizens of the United States believe that our republic is safeguarded by the democratic roots of the Declaration of Independence. By utilizing these guidelines, the aim of this blog page is conceived through wisdom and dedicated to the proposition that all opinions are created equally and holds the opinion that a media of the people, by the people, for the people, shall birth a new medium to ensure we freethinkers shall not perish from the earth.A News from Me, You, and US How-to guide: Blog Participation
1. What it Means to Speak Freely
When speaking freely: speak about a topic without censorship or limitation while avoiding hate speech. No other rules apply.
2. Why Speak Freely
Without the ability to express oneself, he or she ultimately loses his or her ability to obtain wisdom or spark change. In essence, speaking freely about opinions and ideas offers opportunities for an individual to collaborate with others of like opinions, as well as, offers opportunities of peers to express discontent with a message. Overall, speaking freely allows for all to pool resources resulting in better decision making with solutions that are more suitable to all.
3. What to Speak Freely About
Anything and everything that does not include circumstances that no one individual or group of individuals can change without the help of a higher power not of this earth.
Examples
Good Example
Examples
Good Example
Bad Example
4. Benefits of Speaking Freely
As stated previously, offers opportunities for an individual to collaborate with others of like opinions in efforts to insight agreement or change, or both.
5. Consequences of Speaking Freely
Collaboration is simply not the same as cooperation! Remember that when someone criticizes you, it doesn’t mean they are simply a disagreeable person, they are simply speaking freely about issues and expressing their opinions to hopefully persuade others to spark change.
6. Most importantly, Think Critically
Thinking critically when posting will help to secure the newsworthiness of the content provided. Without thinking critically, your emotional maturity is illustrated and viewers will kindly ignore what you have to say. For beginners in this duty, as required by News from Me, You, and US, we recommend The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking to formulate thoughts prior to expressing one self.
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A News from Me, You, and US How-to guide: Blog Paarticipation
Speaking Freely: Analysis of A.P. Blog Fair Use Guidelines
Thinking critically when posting will help to secure the newsworthiness of the content provided. Without thinking critically, your emotional maturity is illustrated and viewers will kindly ignore what you have to say. For beginners in this duty, as required by News from Me, You, and US, we recommend The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking to formulate thoughts prior to expressing one self.
Please click the following to view and post comments:
A News from Me, You, and US How-to guide: Blog Paarticipation
Speaking Freely: Analysis of A.P. Blog Fair Use Guidelines
News from Me, You, and US, as our followers are quite aware, is an effort to create a free media platform for topics of a wide variety. To accomplish this mission, our news must be created by ourselves with one caveat: the information provided should be accurate and realistic. Thus, a News from Me, You, and US is in a quandary of how information should be developed. On one hand, the followers of this blog page, making the assumption that most of our followers are not oversupplied with breaking news and lack a staff to follow breaking news stories; on the other hand, if we utilize outside media sources to provide content for our blog, are we simply repeating the same old news with the same spin as the source providing the information? If the answer to the previous question is yes, and, if this blog page is created by the alleged, then our site is a focus of the Associated Press and its efforts to impose guidelines to regulate fair use of information.
So, what exactly are the guidelines A.P. is proposing in its Fair Use Guidelines? Well, the primary complaint, according to Saul Hansell of the A.P.:
“The A.P.’s effort to impose some guidelines on the free-wheeling blogosphere, where extensive quoting and even copying of entire news articles is common, may offer a prominent definition of the important but vague doctrine of ‘fair use’…”
In an analysis of a fellow blog site Outside the Beltway, James Joyner discusses this issue in great detail. Joyner explains his position in the following:
“While most of my blogging brethren are outraged at this and there is an organized effort to boycott AP content on blogs, I’m actually surprised that this action is so late in coming. I’ve worried for years that the lengthy excerpts I use on OTB could be ruled to exceed ‘fair use’ but relied on the notion that I was adding enough commentary to create a transformative work. Practically speaking, however, few bloggers have the deep pockets to fight a massive organization like the AP in court.”
Though the statement above proves that Joyner is clearly not in favor of an individual simply copying the blog posts and pasting it into his or her own blog page, we need to question the reason that drives this issue? As a blog site, for the most part, information is provided free of charge and open to whomever has internet accessibility and can find the page. Ah ha! The bolded text is the answer in this discussion. Joyner provides further detail in the following:
“Quite often, blog posts — including those at OTB — that build from content created by the AP, NYT, WaPo, and others will wind up ranked higher in Google than the original content. This is due to the inter-linking that blogs do, the nature of permalinks, and a variety of factors that I don’t truly understand. It’s not hard to see why the AP would be irritated by that fact. If someone looking for information on the latest breaking news winds up at a blog that’s excerpting AP content rather than on a site displaying advertising that the AP is getting paid for, we’re costing them money.”
So, the point behind these blogging outlets isn’t simply to post information or to be a freethinker, it all boils down to the money money money! Yet another question left to be answered: if the blog page is providing information to the public as a free service, why shouldn’t they get paid; furthermore, if an individual is stealing market share by simply copying information and warehousing this information in their own blog page to move up on the search engine list, why should they be targeted by ads and earn the cash for simply copying and pasting information? Well, as successful as Outside the Beltway has been, Joyner says it himself, “I’ve worried for years that the lengthy excerpts I use on OTB could be ruled to exceed ‘fair use’ but relied on the notion that I was adding enough commentary to create a transformative work.”
This all leads me to the solution to the News from Me, You, and US dilemma, though at first may be quite difficult to stomach, is that information from other media outlets must be analyzed and compared with information from various media sources. Once the information is obtained, we proceed with the process of critical thinking utilizing wisdom, experience, prior knowledge, and overall intellectual maturity to develop our own unique information. Furthermore, the content provided by this page, as far as the financial aspect is concerned, (as little as it is) provides links to materials that suit the content provided for the purpose of gathering data and, in essence, supports our vision.
The final message here is: read about ways to make your site appealing to viewers. When viewing the blog by Joyner, Outside the Beltway has convenient links adjacent to its blogs such that the reader can find blogs that may be of similar interest. Also, imbedded in the text are advertisements as well as editor picks at the bottom of the page for users to further navigate the blog page. While the information provided is superior to the information you find at many blog sites, simply copying and pasting articles and source code does not necessarily mean you will achieve greater success than a site like OTB. We believe at News from Me, You, and US that the success observed by Outside the Beltway has been achieved by the overall content provided and reputation. Thus, the financial success of OTB does not hinge upon losing a few pennies as a result of another blogger copying information and pasting it into their own page and therefore will not require blog fair use regulation.
Please click the following to view and post comments: Speaking Freely: An Analysis of A.P. Blog
Tomorrow's release of the movie version of "Atlas Shrugged" is focusing attention on Ayn Rand's 1957 opus and the free-market ideas it espouses. Book sales for "Atlas" have always been brisk—and all the more so in the past few years, as actual events have mirrored Rand's nightmare vision of economic collapse amid massive government expansion. Conservatives are now hailing Rand as a tea party Nostradamus, hence the timing of the movie's premiere on tax day.
When Rand created the character of Wesley Mouch, it's as though she was anticipating Barney Frank (D., Mass). Mouch is the economic czar in "Atlas Shrugged" whose every move weakens the economy, which in turn gives him the excuse to demand broader powers. Mr. Frank steered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to disaster with mandates for more lending to low-income borrowers. After Fannie and Freddie collapsed under the weight of their subprime mortgage books, Mr. Frank proclaimed last year: "The way to cure that is to give us more authority." Mouch couldn't have said it better himself.
But it's a misreading of "Atlas" to claim that it is simply an antigovernment tract or an uncritical celebration of big business. In fact, the real villain of "Atlas" is a big businessman, railroad CEO James Taggart, whose crony capitalism does more to bring down the economy than all of Mouch's regulations. With Taggart, Rand was anticipating figures like Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial, the subprime lender that proved to be a toxic mortgage factory. Like Taggart, Mr. Mozilo engineered government subsidies for his company in the name of noble-sounding virtues like home ownership for all.
Still, most of the heroes of "Atlas" are big businessmen who are unfairly persecuted by government. The struggle of Rand's fictional steel magnate Henry Rearden against confiscatory regulation is a perfect anticipation of the antitrust travails of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. In both cases, the government's depredations were inspired by behind-the-scenes maneuverings of business rivals. And now Microsoft is maneuvering against Google with an antitrust complaint in the European Union.
The reality is that in Rand's novel, as in life, self-described capitalists can be the worst enemies of capitalism. But that doesn't fit in easily with the simple pro-business narrative about Rand now being retailed.
Today, Rand is celebrated among conservatives: Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) insists that all his staffers read "Atlas Shrugged." It wasn't always this way. During Rand's lifetime—she died in 1982—she was loathed by the mainstream conservative movement.
Rand was a devout atheist, which set her against the movement's Christian bent. She got off on the wrong foot with the movement's founder, William F. Buckley Jr., when she introduced herself to him in her thick Russian accent, saying "You are too intelligent to believe in God!" The subsequent review of "Atlas Shrugged" by Whittaker Chambers in Buckley's "National Review" was nothing short of a smear, and it set the tone for her relationship with the movement ever since—at least until now.
Rand rankled conservatives by living her life as an exemplary feminist, even as she denied it by calling herself a "male chauvinist." She was the breadwinner throughout her lifelong marriage. The most sharply drawn hero in "Atlas" is the extraordinarily capable female railroad executive Dagny Taggart, who is set in contrast with her boss, her incompetent brother James. She's the woman who deserves the man's job but doesn't have it; he's the man who has the job but doesn't deserve it.
Rand was strongly pro-choice, speaking out for abortion rights even before Roe v. Wade. In late middle age, she became enamored of a much younger man and made up her mind to have an affair with him, having duly informed her husband and the younger man's wife in advance. Conservatives don't do things like that—or at least they say they don't.
These weren't the only times Rand took positions that didn't ingratiate her to the right. She was an early opponent of the Vietnam war, once saying, "I am against the war in Vietnam and have been for years. . . . In my view we should fight fascism and communism when they come to this country." During the '60s she declared, "I am an enemy of racism," and advised opponents of school busing, "If you object to sending your children to school with black children, you'll lose for sure because right is on the other side."
If anything, Rand's life ought to ingratiate her to the left. An immigrant woman, she arrived alone and penniless in the United States in 1925. Had she shown up today with the same tale, liberals would give her a driver's license and register her to vote.
But Rand was always impossible to pin down politically. She loathed Dwight Eisenhower, whom she believed lacked conviction. And in 1975 she wrote, "I urge you, as emphatically as I can, not to support the candidacy of Ronald Reagan," primarily on the grounds that he didn't support pure laissez-faire capitalism. But she endorsed Richard Nixon in 1968 because he supported abolition of the military draft. Rand was especially proud of her protégé Alan Greenspan for serving with Milton Friedman on Nixon's Gates Commission, the findings of which led to today's all-volunteer army.
Rand was not a conservative or a liberal: She was an individualist. "Atlas Shrugged" is, at its heart, a plea for the most fundamental American ideal—the inalienable rights of the individual. On tax day, with our tax dollars going to big government and subsidies for big business, let's remember it's the celebration of individualism that has kept "Atlas Shrugged" among the best-selling novels of all time.
Please click the following to view and post comments: Remembering Ayn Rand
Please click the following to view and post comments: Speaking Freely: An Analysis of A.P. Blog
Remembering the Real Ayn Rand
Tomorrow's release of the movie version of "Atlas Shrugged" is focusing attention on Ayn Rand's 1957 opus and the free-market ideas it espouses. Book sales for "Atlas" have always been brisk—and all the more so in the past few years, as actual events have mirrored Rand's nightmare vision of economic collapse amid massive government expansion. Conservatives are now hailing Rand as a tea party Nostradamus, hence the timing of the movie's premiere on tax day.
When Rand created the character of Wesley Mouch, it's as though she was anticipating Barney Frank (D., Mass). Mouch is the economic czar in "Atlas Shrugged" whose every move weakens the economy, which in turn gives him the excuse to demand broader powers. Mr. Frank steered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to disaster with mandates for more lending to low-income borrowers. After Fannie and Freddie collapsed under the weight of their subprime mortgage books, Mr. Frank proclaimed last year: "The way to cure that is to give us more authority." Mouch couldn't have said it better himself.
But it's a misreading of "Atlas" to claim that it is simply an antigovernment tract or an uncritical celebration of big business. In fact, the real villain of "Atlas" is a big businessman, railroad CEO James Taggart, whose crony capitalism does more to bring down the economy than all of Mouch's regulations. With Taggart, Rand was anticipating figures like Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial, the subprime lender that proved to be a toxic mortgage factory. Like Taggart, Mr. Mozilo engineered government subsidies for his company in the name of noble-sounding virtues like home ownership for all.
Still, most of the heroes of "Atlas" are big businessmen who are unfairly persecuted by government. The struggle of Rand's fictional steel magnate Henry Rearden against confiscatory regulation is a perfect anticipation of the antitrust travails of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. In both cases, the government's depredations were inspired by behind-the-scenes maneuverings of business rivals. And now Microsoft is maneuvering against Google with an antitrust complaint in the European Union.
The reality is that in Rand's novel, as in life, self-described capitalists can be the worst enemies of capitalism. But that doesn't fit in easily with the simple pro-business narrative about Rand now being retailed.
Today, Rand is celebrated among conservatives: Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) insists that all his staffers read "Atlas Shrugged." It wasn't always this way. During Rand's lifetime—she died in 1982—she was loathed by the mainstream conservative movement.
Rand was a devout atheist, which set her against the movement's Christian bent. She got off on the wrong foot with the movement's founder, William F. Buckley Jr., when she introduced herself to him in her thick Russian accent, saying "You are too intelligent to believe in God!" The subsequent review of "Atlas Shrugged" by Whittaker Chambers in Buckley's "National Review" was nothing short of a smear, and it set the tone for her relationship with the movement ever since—at least until now.
Rand rankled conservatives by living her life as an exemplary feminist, even as she denied it by calling herself a "male chauvinist." She was the breadwinner throughout her lifelong marriage. The most sharply drawn hero in "Atlas" is the extraordinarily capable female railroad executive Dagny Taggart, who is set in contrast with her boss, her incompetent brother James. She's the woman who deserves the man's job but doesn't have it; he's the man who has the job but doesn't deserve it.
Rand was strongly pro-choice, speaking out for abortion rights even before Roe v. Wade. In late middle age, she became enamored of a much younger man and made up her mind to have an affair with him, having duly informed her husband and the younger man's wife in advance. Conservatives don't do things like that—or at least they say they don't.
These weren't the only times Rand took positions that didn't ingratiate her to the right. She was an early opponent of the Vietnam war, once saying, "I am against the war in Vietnam and have been for years. . . . In my view we should fight fascism and communism when they come to this country." During the '60s she declared, "I am an enemy of racism," and advised opponents of school busing, "If you object to sending your children to school with black children, you'll lose for sure because right is on the other side."
If anything, Rand's life ought to ingratiate her to the left. An immigrant woman, she arrived alone and penniless in the United States in 1925. Had she shown up today with the same tale, liberals would give her a driver's license and register her to vote.
But Rand was always impossible to pin down politically. She loathed Dwight Eisenhower, whom she believed lacked conviction. And in 1975 she wrote, "I urge you, as emphatically as I can, not to support the candidacy of Ronald Reagan," primarily on the grounds that he didn't support pure laissez-faire capitalism. But she endorsed Richard Nixon in 1968 because he supported abolition of the military draft. Rand was especially proud of her protégé Alan Greenspan for serving with Milton Friedman on Nixon's Gates Commission, the findings of which led to today's all-volunteer army.
Rand was not a conservative or a liberal: She was an individualist. "Atlas Shrugged" is, at its heart, a plea for the most fundamental American ideal—the inalienable rights of the individual. On tax day, with our tax dollars going to big government and subsidies for big business, let's remember it's the celebration of individualism that has kept "Atlas Shrugged" among the best-selling novels of all time.
Please click the following to view and post comments: Remembering Ayn Rand
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