Lindsay, don’t you know people can’t wait to bring anybody down who is in the spotlight?

See the pictures here: New York Magazine

From the Ebay boycott site: Boycott Victoriously   LOL

SELLER STRIKE FEBRUARY 18TH-25TH. No Buying. No Selling. No Activity.

Welcome fellow feebay refugee.

This site is designed to be a listing of the sellers that are either completely leaving eBay for good or have expanded into other venues and marketplaces. Currently, this site only has listing functionality. It will allow you to list your username, email, the category you sell in and up to five websites. You can put personal webpages or links to your auctions on other sites.

I believe this site will prove some use to you. Even if you are just protesting the recent eBay changes, this is just another way for us to be heard. Besides this, you can even direct your old customers here so they will have all of your information about the new venues you are exploring.”

The Libertarian party was only founded in 1971, yet it has been the most successful of the third-parties, with more members in office than the rest of the alternative parties combined. It has mayors, county executives, county-council members, school-board members and other local officials, all filling current seats.

The Libertarian point-of-view encompasses many points left out of the Liberal and Conservative platforms. Basically, it favors taking the concept of government that we know, and shrinking it. Less regulation of markets, less regulation of society, abolishing many laws, and being non-interventionist in foreign policy as well are all typical attitudes of the Libertarian party. If a citizen ever wonders “What is the government doing sticking its nose into so many places where it doesn’t belong?”, then they might want to give the Libertarian party a try.

Here are the key points of the Libertarian party’s policies:

* Reducing the state’s role in the economy. This means things like privatizing (or even abolishing) social security and welfare, but also less regulation of business and industry.

* Strong civil liberties. A sweeping “butt out” to the government, leaving the individual with the highest possible freedom of speech, association, and sexual choice.

* Reduction of gun-control laws, and the general freedom to defend oneself and personal property in any permissible fashion. Lumped in with this is protection of property rights.

* Abolition of laws against consensual, victimless crimes. Basically this would make drugs legal, plus other activities such as prostitution, gambling, driving without a seatbelt, and so on. Generally, the idea is that if it’s not going to hurt anyone but the people involved and they’re willing to take that risk, then it should be theirs to take.

* No military draft.

* No intervention in foreign affairs. This would put a stop to the global occupation of the countries of the world by military bases, no embargoes or other impediments to free trade with other countries. In other words, minding our own business.

While the main tenets of the Libertarian party have a mixture of ideas that appeal to both Liberals and Conservatives, Libertarians assert that they are neither Conservative nor Liberal, but have a unique philosophy that is all their own.

There are certainly pros and cons to the Libertarian way of managing a country, and for this reason many voters shy away from parts of it. Of course, as with the Republicans and Democrats, not every Libertarian politician votes straight down the party line. Variations are present, most commonly in the two areas of abortion rights, with some otherwise Libertarian members staying “pro-life” (or “anti-choice”), and in fiscal policies such as welfare and social security, which is commonly referred to as “having an economic safety net”. The variations are often referred to as “Conservative Libertarian” and “Liberal Libertarians”. However, critics variously refer to Libertarians as “right of right” or “left of left”, representing a meeting of the extremes of both parties.

A more grave accusation from critics is that Libertarians are great at throwing out parts of the government they don’t like, but not so good at coming up with alternative solutions. For instance, deregulating industry is all very fine, but what will we do when we have a massive monopoly that dominates our lives, as has been the case with Microsoft corporation? Giving permission to responsible individuals to “party” with all the drugs they want may seem like a great liberty, but what is society to do with all of the overdosing drug addicts putting a burden on the health care system? And replacing welfare with private charities sounds good, but who’s going to pay for the charity, and who’s going to make sure that they really help those who come to them for aid?

In conclusion, it is not to be said that Libertarianism is perfect or that it solves all problems, and not even it’s most vocal partisans claim that this is so. However, increased liberty does sound like at some point, it could be a welcome breath of fresh air into our stodgy two-party system which has gone on virtually unchanged for more than a century. Especially for those who detest having the government be a “nanny state”, Libertarianism might be worth a try.

In fact, the United States of America is actually a Republic. The other terms bandied about amongst political scientists are “Representative Democracy” and “Constitutional Republic”. And this isn’t just a dictionary-zealot splitting hairs here; there are very important distinctions between a pure Democracy and what we have in the USA. And confusing the issue can actually lead to gross mistakes.

For instance, in the 2000 Presidential election, if you (hypothetically) didn’t like George Bush but didn’t trust Al Gore, you might have cast a vote for Ralph Nader on the belief that you were at least voting against the other two candidates. In fact, what you actually did was throw your vote away, because of the Electoral College system. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes, and the candidate who gets the most votes in a state gets all the electoral votes for that state, even if they only win by one vote.

Your electorate would have just counted the votes in your precinct until a clear winner emerged, then gone to the Electoral College and voted for the winner. That’s what it boiled down to: one vote from each precinct. A vote for Ralph Nader did not cancel out a vote for George Bush.

In the more general scheme of things, the United States is a Republic because we have a representative government. Individual citizens do not get to directly vote on every detail, from whether we go to war to whether we have a seat-belt law. All we can do with a vote is appoint Congress members, Governors, Mayors, Senators, and yes, Presidents, too.

Once elected, those representatives can do whatever they please. They can say whatever they want when they campaign to get elected, but after you’ve voted them in, they aren’t bound to represent you in the slightest. You can get them impeached for breaking a law or an oath of office, but there is no specific rule that says they have to keep every promise they made when they got elected.

Furthermore, in a direct democracy, the laws which are passed must be obeyed. In a Republic, the laws get interpreted by a third branch, which is the Judicial System. The court is free to throw out, rule against, or even just ignore a law if it finds the case is just and the law unfair. This is why everybody who commits adultery in California isn’t in jail - there is a law against that, though, but it’s ignored.

You’re probably asking yourself, why is it that we don’t have a direct democracy, then? Well, when the country was founded a mere 230 years ago, the device you’re reading this on hadn’t been invented yet. The same goes for cars, telephones, television, telegraphs, and radio. Where was communication technology when the Declaration of Independence was signed? The Gutenberg printing press. Ships on the ocean were sending signals by firing cannons and raising flags. On land, we had pen, paper, and the Pony Express.

Now imagine how long it would take to get anything done if we were to insist on collecting the informed opinion of every single citizen across the country in order to do every single thing, using only letters delivered by horse. You’re right, it would be impossible!

You might now ask, “Well, now we can transmit information everywhere at the speed of electricity. Why can’t we change to a direct democracy and throw out all of this red tape?” Not so fast! There are experimental ideas being tossed around about this already - one of them is the Unity08 party and another one is the National initiative to allow for ballot initiatives at the Federal level, being proposed by Congressman Mike Gravel, who is running for President in 2008.

However, even the boldest of these isn’t proposing to implement a pure and full Direct Democracy right away. Do you, as a citizen, want to travel the world meeting with foreign leaders to decide if you want to do business with them or grant their request for aid? Would you have had the time to read every page of the hundreds of bills passed by Congress last year? And most of these on trivial matters such as how much funding to grant a program, what to name a bridge, whose face goes on the next commemorative coin, or who to appoint to the Spotted Owl Conservation Commission.

There’s a lot to organizing ourselves as a group of 300 million people than you’d at first think. Simply put, we aren’t built like ants or bees; nature didn’t intend for us to act as a hive-mind. Humans are great in small groups, but even getting all of us together, such as in a Nationwide census or even in the Board of Directors at a corporation, is beyond us. Humans don’t scale.

Humans don’t scale. That’s why we have the closest thing to a Direct Democracy - a Constitutional Republic!

iPeerX Directory

The fact is, when you have a tendency and habit to shove junk food in your mouth, you will tend to gain weight. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this logic out. Parents let their children overeat junk food. I’ve seen parents let their kids eat lots of unhealthy food and then expect their child to eat a healthy dinner. That doesn’t happen.

Eating junk food can be healthy and normal – if it is kept to certain restrictions and levels. Letting your child survive on cookies and candy isn’t going to result in anything but higher dentist bills and larger clothing. But, giving your kids healthy meals and allowing junk food as in-between snacks isn’t anything horrible, provided it isn’t in excess. Giving your child a handful of Oreo cookies isn’t terrible but allowing them to eat as many as they want can be rather unhealthy.

Kids today, as well as adults, use food as a method of soothing themselves. I will include myself in that statement. When I’m depressed or hating the world, I find myself reaching for a candy bar or a bowl of ice cream. Is that healthy? No. Does it taste good? Absolutely. So, how do we solve this issue? I’ve recognized the fact that I utilize junk food in this manner. While I’m not unhealthy, I’m not exactly getting any skinnier in my years. So, I have tried to find junk food that has less calories, reduced fat or seems to be less detrimental to me. Instead of ice cream, I might look for frozen yogurt. I’ve tried to buy crackers with less fat. I’m not sure if I can credit some of my weight loss to eating junk foods that seem to be less evil, or if I need to credit the fact that I’m more aware of what I eat. But, if you can prevent some calories or trans fat from entering your body, that’s a positive thing. Even better, if your children see you eater snacks and junk food that has less fat and calories, they
will follow your lead. Of course, they have to follow your lead if that’s all that is in the house for them to munch on.

You don’t need to give up the junk food that tastes incredibly good, you just need to be more conscious about the junk food and make wiser choices.

I have been reading alternative political blogs for about three years now, and I feel like they have really enhanced my understanding of current events. We live in such a  society that much of the real news of what is going on is censored by the mainstream media. In these free political forums, however, the news can finally be heard by the public that is hungry for it. Unfortunately, political blogs don’t have the budget to do some of the things that the more mainstream news outlets do. They cannot have correspondents all over the world, for example, ready to report any event that happens. What they can do, however, is access a wide range of different media and try to put together a more complete picture than any single publication does. News analysis is a valuable service, and one that is completely neglected by the mainstream media. Thanks to political blogs, we can get beyond the the facile analysis provided by most of the news pundit shows.

Of course, the problem with personal blogs is that they do not have the same standards of proof as some of the media outlets do. While most political blogs are at least as dependable as Fox news, when they are compared to legitimate media outlets, many of them falls short. This is why you have to pick and choose carefully when you are reading blogs. Anyone can write anything they want on a political blog, and it is very hard for someone to call them on it. After all, free speech is a right, and posting on the Internet is simply an extension of that right. People have just as much right to blog political fiction as fact, and rumormongers abound. As always, it is up to you to separate the wheat from the chaff.

There are numerous books written on the subject and courses and workshops are conducted to teach us the methods and benefits of time management. The Filofax, so popular with go-getters in the 1980s, brought the first stirrings of laying down a format for dividing up time. Some people prefer software applications that follow the same principles. A lot of people have things to do lists but it needs to be more refined than that.

Prioritizing is the key; otherwise there are too many paths to wander down in a forest full of waiting tasks. It’s a good idea to have an end goal in sight; otherwise specific tasks lose their sense of identity. Ask yourself, where would you like to be in five year’s time or ten or fifteen? Also, the benefits of time management will be lost if the set targets are not in sympathy with work colleagues or family members. Are you all singing from the same hymn sheet?

Once a clear goal is formalized, there are targets to decide and placed in order of chronology and importance. It’s the most satisfying feeling in the world to tick off those boxes. Daily, weekly and monthly tasks should be set out in detail. Not everything always goes to plan of course and a bit of flexibility needs to be built in. The benefits of time management will only work if the targets are realistic. Neither underestimate nor overestimate what can be achieved.

Everyone likes to be in control but you will never leave the office on time if you don’t delegate. It will soon become apparent, who can be trusted and who can’t. Another important aspect of the benefits of time management is self discipline. Procrastination won’t get the job done. This is especially significant if you are working from home, an increasing activity these days. It may be a sunny day and the golf course is calling but that monthly report won’t write itself. When the weekly targets have been met, that’s the time to reward yourself with a little rest and recreation. After all, all work and no play makes Jack or Jill a dull boy or girl.

Of course, broadband has a lot to do with it. Can you imagine downloading MS Office on a dialup connection?

Check it out here:

The social aspect of knowing the ways to improve memory might not be readily apparent. However, we have all been in a situation where we are required to remember names and faces. This can be a real challenge for those of us who don’t have the skills or ways to improve memory.

Following are a handful of strategies that my help you develop your own ways to improve memory. Most of these suggestions involve making connections between different things. When you make associations you are working with your prior knowledge.

Think of it this way. You have a collection of information that you already have earned over the years. Adding new information will be easier if you take a scaffolding approach in ways to improve memory. Your foundation of knowledge can link together with new information to build a solid structure.

Enough with the metaphors. Let’s use an example. We all know how to rhyme and most of us have favorite songs. One way to improve memory is to use rhyme and music to make a connection between the information and the pattern. For example, “i before e except after c.” This rule of grammar is far easier to remember with this little rhyme.

You can also try different approaches as well. One great way to improve memory is to make connections. This is really effective when you are trying to remember names and dates (two very challenging things for us to recall). Following are a couple examples of associations used as ways to improve memory.

When you meet a person you might want to repeat his name right after the introduction. While this is somewhat effective, you are better off to use ways to improve memory thorough association. For example, Fred could be associated with Fred Flinstone. While this may seem silly at first, it really works.

Dates are very difficult for some of us to retain. Try using some associations with this subject as well. For example, my niece’s birthday is October 4th. This is a tough thing to remember when you have 16 nieces and nephews. I remember it with “Ten-four good buddy.”

We all have different experiences and different foundations of knowledge. Why not use what you know as ways to improve memory?