Thought and Freedom

There has been a lot of discussion about the dangers in banning books. The idea is that people who want to do evil, need to cut off information flows.

Yes, there could be very bad books. These books are full of bad ideas and should not be taken seriously. However, placing a complete ban on such items only makes it that much more likely to ban the good items as well.

We embrace freedom because it allows us to self-filter. If we have potentially all the information at our disposal, we can make the best decision possible. The theory behind preventing book bans is that restricting access to information only makes us more dependent on our censors and weaker as a society.

Please read Doug Newman’s article on SOPA (Stop online piracy act) and how this piece of legislation is congress’s attempt at a virtual book ban on the internet.

http://foodforthethinkers.com/2012/01/05/will-there-be-a-banned-web-sites-week/

And, if you love your freedom, tell congress that this is a horrible idea. Don’t be fooled by the name, this is an all out assault on the free flow of information. This law is exactly the thing a dictatorship would use to “protect” its people from “bad” information.

I recently ran into a problem transferring GoDaddy hosting from one account in their system to another. It appears that domains must be unique across the entire shared GoDaddy system.  I decided to write a quick article on how to prevent downtime with such a transfer.

So for future reference, it may be beneficial to do this if you need to transfer from one GoDaddy hosting account to another:

1.  Create a new temporary subdomain A record pointing to the new hosting server (i.e. my.domain.com).
2.  Setup hosting on new hosting server for the temporary subdomain.
3.  Setup an apache site on another non-godaddy server for the main domain.
4.  On the non-godaddy server, setup a temporary redirect from the main domain to the temporary subdomain (www.domain.com->my.domain.com).
5.  Modify the DNS record of the main domain to point the non-godaddy server.
6.  After propogation, cancel the original hosting service (or change it to another domain on the account).
7.  After cancellation is finalized (48 hours), modify the main A record to point to the new GoDaddy hosting account.

It is unfortunate the GoDaddy has to enforce uniqueness in hosting names because it forces a massive outage on those wanting to transfer within GoDaddy. As long as your instance is on a different server, it should not matter too much (I know there are technical issues, but it is something that could be fixed with a different setup behind the scenes.

There are a lot of false rumors about Ron Paul. Rumors that can be debunked, and have been debunked, by Ron Paul’s own words and actions. Yet, those who cannot imagine a Republican party without establishment elites in control, continue to propagate these lies. Here are the real facts about Ron Paul:

Thank you to The Libertarian Viewpoint for linking to this video!

I saw this great video posted on the Republican Mother’s site and felt the need to share it.

By the way, what are your thoughts on Karen Kwiatkowski for congress?

It’s hard to pinpoint one law passed in the past couple years that one could argue is “the worst law ever.” However, the National Defence Authorization Act may be on the top of the list. The act was passed overwhelmingly by Republicans and Democrats. It effectively removes accountability and rights proactively to an accused.  This bill was made for abuse and our only hope is a presidential veto at this point.

I received the following email forwarded to my by a former classmate (Becky Lee). Please take action. If your senator voted for this freedom killing act, let them know that you are mad about it as well!

I normally refuse to send batch emails however in the case of the United States’ eroding civil liberties I feel compelled to elicit help from anyone that will take the time to read. We are, as most of you know, at a critical point in U.S. history.

The control of corporations over the Government has strangled the power out of our hands and into theirs. We no longer are viewed as an important factor in elections, law making, or protection. The Government has willingly sacrificed the welfare of millions to the banks and as such have firmly sided themselves with the money pools of this country.

Votes no longer weigh as much a dollars in elections and your rights and liberties are inconsequential in comparison to the well being and progression of major corporations. It is now apparent that the Corporate machine and Government are working hand in hand to subdue the spirit of freedom in this country.

The passing of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 has effectively declared martial law in the United States. This Act closely mirrors the law compelled by Hitler after the Reichstag fire in Germany on 27 February 1933. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire ) Allowing Military forces to detain US citizens under the suspicion of Terrorism. This  act in effect allows the Government to use the Military as a police force within our own boarders.

The suspicion of terrorism is drawn from within their own ranks effectively making anyone a potential Terrorist, Remember how Germany outed all the communists before Hitler consolidated power then using the military declared the Jews a threat to Germany.

We are witnessing the beginning of a fascist regime. This is not a joke, This is not conspiracy, this is not going to go away.

Read:

Forbes Article on the National Defense Authorization Act

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/12/05/the-national-defense-authorization-act-is-the-greatest-threat-to-civil-liberties-americans-face/

Watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrXyLrTRXso
We are losing.
Sign the petition, End the madness.
Whitehouse.gov


https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/veto-national-defense-authorization-act-2012-several-provisions-bill-pose-threat-civil-liberties/GLfhBn6D?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl
Sincerely,
Philip D. Lee

I am very excited to see Tim Ferris’s new book, “The Four Hour Chef” making its debut on Kindle this Winter. You can find out more by going here.

Earlier this year, I tried (and succeeded at) the Four Hour body diet. Tim Ferris did a great job not only developing a system that was easy to do, but also a system that felt good while I was on it. His slow carb method gives enough freedom that you don’t feel constrained by complete lack of carbs. It also, I might add, keeps the cost of the diet to a minimum by allowing slower carb entrees like beans to be part of the diet.

A couple years ago, I read Tim’s book, the “The 4-Hour Workweek.” This was a phenomenal and revolutionary look at how you can simplify workflows, focus on high results areas and come out way ahead in your business.

I would highly recommend checking Tim Ferris out today. See his new book and reserve your copy!

The Republican Mother has posted a good video summarizing the dangers of the protect IP act. Contact your congress person today and tell them to get their hands out of the internet.

Take action right now. Go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and send a pre-written email directly from their site.

An story from Bill, over at “the zen parent,” sums up something that many people do not realize about Christmas…

…We were giving Christmas presents to my two-year-old niece. On Christmas Day, we presented her with a doll and baby carriage. And she was thrilled. She was all smiles and hugging the doll as if it were the only thing that mattered in the whole world. If that had been the only thing she’d gotten that Christmas, she would have been perfectly content.

But it was just the beginning. Gift after gift was laid at her feet. Tearing through the wrapping paper of each successive present, I could see the joy in her face give way to a kind of numbness. Where the doll and carriage had been special, now nothing was, just a growing pile of things and very little time to feel anything special about any of them.

The image haunts me still…

There are a lot of good parents out there. Most are well meaning when they give their kids a lot of toys for Christmas (or birthdays). But, I think we need to look at the amount of gifts we give our children.

We all want our kids to be happy, but sometimes happiness is not “more.” Sometimes, happiness happens by a trip to the sledding hill, a snow fort, or maybe just a big hug from a parent. Happiness comes from fellowship, not from a pile of toys or other items.

Jessica and I will be getting our daughters Christmas presents this year, but we will try to keep it in perspective. After all, this season is not about how much you can get.  This is a season of friendship, socializing, and most of all, of a chance to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Let’s have a wonderful Christmas season and focus on the things that matter most!

Public schools are beginning to venture into the domain of self-produced digital curriculum. Through the advancement of technology, we are able to mass distribute content without the need for a third party publisher that charges high rates for their work.

I applaud school districts who have pursued this option. They save hundreds of thousands by building a reusable curriculum and rejecting the textbook industry model.

One benefit that has not yet been discussed is that schools could provide these books in the public domain. In fact, if you follow the federal president, it would be required that these books be made public domain. Since the creation of these books would be on the taxpayers’ dime, it would be reasonable to assume that members of the community could access the learning materials as well.

This could offer tremendous benefits to the community.

1. Help parents understand their child’s classes- Let’s say a parent was helping their child with a math assignment, but they themselves struggled with math as a child. The parent could brush up on their skills before the child began the class, thereby allowing the parent to support the child in the best way possible.
2. Review – How many times have you read a cookbook recipe, made the food once, then forgot how to make the recipe next time around? It happens to all of us. If we allow children to go back and review the subjects they once studied, they would have the opportunity to replenish ideas that had been forgotten.
3. Auxiliary Education – Suppose a retired couple decides to go traveling, but they know little about the geography of the region. They could view the public school geography curriculum on the area to learn more about it. Furthermore, they could see who authored it, maybe contact the teachers, and possibly present more information on the region to the children in the classroom when they return.
4. Homeschooling – Allowing open curriculum removes one of the major sources of contention between homeschooling families and public school systems. By allowing anyone to access the online curriculum, the homeschool families can reduce the cost of purchasing curriculum when so desired.
5. Community Expertise – Residents may have valuable additions from personal expertise on certain subjects that they could contribute to the school district. This would increase the value of the curriculum over time.
6. Working ahead – Believe it or not, many kids enjoy learning. Allowing communities to openly access the digital curriculum allows motivated students to work ahead and/or cover subjects that they would not have had time to take due to limited availability of classes or conflicts in scheduling.
7. Collaboration with other school districts – Educators could save substantial costs by collaborating across school districts. If school x has two thirds of what school y needs, they could just add on to the good efforts of school x’s curriculum. The favor could be reciprocated when school y needs something. In the end, everyone benefits.

In case you missed the CNBC debate, here were some of the highlights from Ron Paul. The only candidate that has the intellectual authority and will to give these kinds of answers is Dr. Paul. This video shows, in large part, exactly why I will be supporting him for president this time around.