Ways of Making Money

Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You
Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political
management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from
both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public
policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country,
including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco
Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science
Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

PRAISE FOR POLITICAL WIRE

"There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand
politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them."



-- Chuck Todd, NBC News political director




"Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all."



-- Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report




"Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every
day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news
and developments.”



-- Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report





"The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?"



-- Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia





"If I were on the proverbial
desert island and had only one web site to access, Political Wire would
be it."



-- Dotty Lynch, CBS News political consultant




"Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too
often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the
latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes
his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don't want to kick."



-- Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post



"Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere."



-- Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit



"I love Political Wire. It is a one stop shopping site for all the political information I need. It makes me sound brilliant so naturally I like it!"


-- Dick Morris, political consultant



"I rely on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It's an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading."


-- Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

Maybe I’ve been wrong all along. Maybe it really is time for a third party.

Though Mr. Kirk and other Republicans thundered against pork-barrel spending and lawmakers’ practice of designating money for special projects through earmarks, they have not shied from using a less-well-known process called lettermarking to try to direct money to projects in their home districts…

Lettermarking, which takes place outside the Congressional appropriations process, is one of the many ways that legislators who support a ban on earmarks try to direct money back home.

In phonemarking, a lawmaker calls an agency to request financing for a project. More indirectly, members of Congress make use of what are known as soft earmarks, which involve making suggestions about where money should be directed, instead of explicitly instructing agencies to finance a project. Members also push for increases in financing of certain accounts in a federal agency’s budget and then forcefully request that the agency spend the money on the members’ pet project…

[A] New York Times review of letters and e-mail to government agencies from members of Congress shows that the practice is widespread despite the fact that both President George W. Bush and President Obama have issued executive orders instructing agencies not to finance projects based on communications from Congress.

According to the Times, there’s basically no way to track these requests short of using FOIA to demand correspondence between Congress and various agencies. Another fun fact: Both Obama and Bush issued executive orders instructing agencies not to fund projects based on requests from individual congressmen — and yet, oddly enough, the Times claims the practice is “widespread.” Why do you suppose that is? Why might an agency head, whose budget depends on congressional appropriations, feel compelled to comply with “requests” from individual representatives for a few million dollars of pork here and there?

What’s most depressing about this, I think, isn’t the betrayal of transparency or even the hypocrisy of being loudly anti-earmark yet quietly pro-lettermark, it’s that it’s yet another example of government trying to do an end-around recently imposed limits on its own power. In this case, that limit was self-imposed by the GOP’s pledge to end earmarks; in the case of last night’s post about countermeasures to executive regulations, that limit was imposed on the White House by voters who chose divided government in November. And yet the GOP presses ahead with lettermarks and Obama presses ahead with pursuing his agenda by ignoring Congress to whatever extent he can. Nothing illegal about either, but they’re proof that not even a giant midterm landslide is enough of a signal to convince some pols to change their ways. Some “representation.”

Incidentally, since we’ve been arguing lately about whether the House of Representatives should be expanded, take a minute to read this smart Jay Cost post about how a bigger House could also mean more pork. The more districts we have, the smaller and more parochial they’ll get, which could be a huge benefit to incumbents who are willing and able to deliver lucrative earmarks back home.

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Great <b>news</b>: Careerist RINO certified as winner of Alaska Senate <b>...</b>

Great news: Careerist RINO certified as winner of Alaska Senate race.

Keith Olbermann: &#39;Fox <b>News</b> Is 100% Bullshit&#39;

Keith Olbermann is anything but hesitant when it comes to a battle with Fox News, and the MSNBC anchor took to Twitter Wednesday to share his views on the TV network he probably wouldn't even call a rival. "Fox News is 100% bullshit," ...

Larry Kramer: This Is Why Fox <b>News</b> Continues To Roll

People are getting lazy about forming their own opinions.

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Moms Making Money

@MikeBulger Read this article in French



The Health Benefits Of Raw Milk

From Grass-Fed Animals

By Ron Schmid, ND



In 1970, I went to live on the island of Martha's Vineyard. I was quite ill with gastrointestinal problems. I began living mostly on seafood, fresh vegetables and salads, and raw milk and eggs purchased from a local farmer, with a little meat and whole grain bread. My health problems, which had been intractable for years, disappeared.



Raw milk remained a mainstay of my diet. Since 1981 I have strongly recommended raw milk to thousands of people who have seen me in my practice as a naturopathic physician. I practice in Connecticut, where we enjoy the right to purchase certified raw milk throughout the state (with the exception of the town of Fairfield, where a fascist local health board has instituted an unchallenged-for-lack-of-funds town ordinance prohibiting the sale of raw milk.)



The raw milk available in the part of Connecticut where I live is from Debra Tyler's farm in Cornwall Bridge, called "Local Farm." Debra has nine cows on fourteen acres. Eight health food stores in central and northern Connecticut pick up milk regularly at Local Farm. There are about a dozen other certified raw milk dairies among Connecticut's 210 dairy farms.



Debra has Jersey cows. Most farms have Holsteins, which provide large quantities of milk, but milk that is lower in protein, fat and calcium. Jerseys were originally bred by the French to produce milk for cheese making. The fat content of Debra's milk during the warm months is about 4.8 percent, well above the normal 3.5 percent for whole milk. Debra's cows eat mostly grass in the spring, summer and fall, and mostly hay in the winter (each cow consumes a forty pound bale a day!), with a few pounds a day of ground corn and roasted soybeans (five to one corn to soybeans ratio).



Local Farm milk is certified organic. Certification costs several hundred dollars a year in fees and considerable paperwork. It also means that Debra must sometimes pay more for certified feed from faraway places than for locally produced feed she knows to be organic but which is not certified. This raises the question-if you know and trust the local farmers who produce your food, does it really have to be certified?



TESTIMONY ON RAW MILK

The last time the right of the people of Connecticut to purchase raw milk was seriously threatened was in 1994 when the state Environmental Committee held public hearings on the certification of raw milk, before voting almost unanimously to continue licensing new farms and allowing raw milk to be sold. I testified at those hearings. My testimony was framed to respond to objections to raw milk raised by the state health department and to document the benefits of raw milk. To quote from that testimony:



"The state epidemiologist writes that 'It has yet to be demonstrated that raw milk has any beneficial health effects. . . ' He cites articles attached to his letter. In one article, 'Unpasteurized Milk, The Hazards of a Health Fetish' (Journal of the American Medical Association, 10/19/84), the authors make a series of misstatements about the research of Francis Pottenger before concluding that raw milk has no health benefits. I detail these charges as follows in the paper I've given the members of the Committee.



"Now what Pottenger actually did in some of his experiments is this. He used four groups of cats. All received for one-third of the diet raw meat. The other two-thirds of the diet consisted in either raw milk or various heat-treated milks. The raw milk/raw meat diet produced many generations of healthy cats. Those fed pasteurized milk showed skeletal changes, decreased reproductive capacity and infectious and degenerative diseases.



"Now just who was Francis Pottenger? He was the son of the physician who founded the once famous Pottenger Sanatorium for treatment of tuberculosis in Monrovia, California. He completed his residency at Los Angeles County Hospital in 1930 and became a full-time assistant at the Sanatorium. From 1932 to 1942, he also conducted what became known as the Pottenger Cat Study.



"In 1940, he founded the Francis M Pottenger, Jr. Hospital at Monrovia. Until closing in 1960, the hospital specialized in treating non-tubercular diseases of the lung, especially asthma.



"Dr. Pottenger was a regular and prolific contributor to the medical and scientific literature. He served as president of several professional organizations, including the Los Angeles County Medical Association, the American Academy of Applied Nutrition and the American Therapeutic Society. He was a member of a long list of other professional organizations.



"Pottenger's experiments met the most rigorous scientific standards. His outstanding credentials earned him the support of prominent physicians. Alvin Foord, MD, Professor of Pathology at the University of Southern California and pathologist at the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, co-supervised with Pottenger all pathological and chemical findings of the study.



"One particular question that Pottenger addressed in his study is one that modern science has largely ignored. It has to do with the nutritive value of heat-labile elements-nutrients destroyed by heat and available only in raw foods.



"In his article 'Clinical Evidences of the Value of Raw Milk,' Pottenger writes: 'Some of the factors transmitted by milk are thermo-labile [sensitive to heat]. Though their destruction may not produce death, their deficiency may prevent proper development of the child. This may show in the development of an inadequate skeleton or a decrease in resistance. . . . delay in development of osseous centers is noted more frequently in those children. . . receiving heat treated milk. It is particularly absent from the raw milk fed children. . . . I am basing this discussion on analysis of 150 children whose parents have consulted me because of respiratory allergies. Many other workers. . . have also shown that treating milk by heating interferes with its proper assimilation and nutritional qualities. . . . The best milk from a nutritional standpoint is raw milk. . . . Heat-treating milk interferes with calcium metabolism causing. . . delay in bone age and small bones. . . . The interference with calcium metabolism as shown in the bones is only a physiological index of disturbed metabolism throughout the body.'



"I have prescribed raw milk from grass-fed animals to my patients for nearly fifteen years. Time and again I have seen allergies clear up and dramatically improved health. Particularly in children, middle ear infections usually disappear and do not recur on raw milk. Both children and adults unable to drink pasteurized milk without problems have thrived on raw milk. In hundreds-perhaps thousands-of my patients using raw milk, not one has ever developed a salmonella, campylobacter, or other raw-milk-related infection.



"In the letter cited above, the state epidemiologist states that 'The processes of certification and/or inspection do not guarantee that raw milk will not be contaminated with pathogenic organisms.' He also lists a host of microorganisms that are alleged to be transmitted by raw milk, not mentioning that, as the literature accompanying his letter makes clear, the only organisms even potentially associated with the consumption of certified raw milk are salmonella and campylobacter. And in one of the articles he cites, 'The Hazard in Consuming Raw Milk' (in The Western Journal of Medicine), the authors actually state that 'Salmonella and campylobacter diseases in humans are generally not serious. But in persons with compromised health (particularly those with malignant conditions and immunosuppressed by disease or therapy), these infections may be serious.'



"So, the gist of the state's argument against certified raw milk is that it might possibly on isolated occasions cause serious disease in some people whose immune systems have been compromised by the toxic effects of chemotherapy. And because of this very slight risk, those of us who might choose to drink certified raw milk for the benefits I have catalogued should be denied that right."



Fortunately, the members of the Environmental Committee saw through the shallowness of the state's argument and voted in favor of raw milk.



Milk in History and Evolution

Not everyone agrees that milk should be part of the human diet after infancy. The argument is made that just as all other species drink no milk after weaning, neither should we, especially that of another species. Many adults have difficulty digesting pasteurized milk, and allergies to pasteurized milk products are common. While this lends credence to arguments against milk, such reactions are usually due to pasteurization itself and the poor quality of conventionally produced milk and milk products. While for some individuals genetic influences play a role, for most people, the body's reaction to milk depends largely upon the quality and state of the particular milk used.



The Swiss of the Loetschental Valley were one of the few native groups Weston Price studied that used milk. (The others were certain African tribes, including the Masai.) The Swiss valley-dwellers used raw whole milk, both fresh and cultured, cheese and butter, all in substantial quantities. The milk was from healthy, grass-fed animals and was used unpasteurized and unhomogenized. Such foods clearly can play a major role in a health-building program for the individual genetically enabled to utilize these foods well. They are a rich source of fat-soluble vitamins A and D and other crucial nutrients in short supply in diets lacking in high quality animal fats. (Contrary to popular opinion, liberal amounts of animal fats, particularly from grass-fed animals, are essential for good health and resistance to disease.)



Yet it is possible to attain optimal health without dairy foods. Price discovered groups using no dairy foods that had complete resistance to dental decay and chronic disease; their diets invariably included other rich sources of animal fats, calcium and other minerals. The soft ends of long bones were commonly chewed, and the shafts and other bones were used in soups.



Modern medicine has discovered the importance of a substantial intake of calcium. Several recent studies have linked high blood pressure and other problems to chronic subclinical calcium deficiency, including increased incidence of colon and prostate cancers in men and osteoporosis and osteoarthritis in both men and women. Paradoxically, other problems are associated with high consumption of dairy foods; this has not gone unnoticed by researchers, nutritionists and holistic physicians.



The difference between fresh raw milk from grass-fed cows and processed milk explains the paradox. This concept has not been considered in attempts by today's medical community to explain the health effects of dairy foods.



Domesticated animals were first used for milk eight to ten thousand years ago, as a genetic change affecting mostly people in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa enabled them to digest milk as adults. Milk from domesticated animals then began to become important as a human food. With domestication and settlement, fewer wild animals were available; as groups of people roamed less, they hunted less, eating more grains and vegetables. In some cultures, milk replaced animal bones as the chief source of calcium and some other minerals.



In indigenous cultures where adults used milk, often it was used as cultured or clabbered milk. This is similar to homemade raw yogurt, and it is partially predigested-much of the lactose (milk sugar) has been broken down by bacterial action. This process must be accomplished over a period of several hours in the stomach when one drinks fresh milk; yogurt or clabbered milk is much more easily digested than fresh milk.



Adaptations in evolution are always the effects of particular causes. Humans developing the ability to digest milk into adulthood possessed a survival advantage; such changes are the basis of evolution. Put simply, many human beings evolved the ability to easily digest raw milk because raw milk from healthy, grass-fed animals gave them an adaptive advantage; it made them stronger and more able to reproduce. Such milk remains a wonderful food that provides us with fat-soluble nutrients, calcium and other minerals that are by and large in short supply in the modern diet.



In the six years since I presented the testimony quoted above, I have become more convinced than ever of the value and importance of raw milk in the diets of people of all ages. For many of the people who eat in the manner I recommend, raw milk is the chief source of enzymes. I believe enzymes are a critical component in recovering from disease and establishing and maintaining health. Hundreds of people I've seen have used Local Farm raw milk as an essential part of their naturopathic treatment.



There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not thankful that I live in a state where bureaucrats and medical monopolists have not stripped us of what should be an inalienable, constitutional right. I mean the right to purchase raw milk and other healthy, locally produced foods directly from the people who produce them.



It's impossible to overestimate the importance of the work Debra Tyler and farmers like her are doing. I long to see the day when all Americans have the right to purchase locally produced raw milk, meat, fowl and other farm products directly from the farmers who produce them. I hope to see the day when the current yoke of prohibitions and bureaucratic red tape will be thrown off, and we once again will be free to produce and consume truly healthy foods. The men and women who founded this country did not intend for commercial interests to control the food supply and thus our health. These are rights of the people, and they are rights that have been stripped away. We need to work together to regain them.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



About Ron Schmid

Dr. Ron Schmid has practiced as a licensed naturopathic physician in Connecticut since graduating from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in 1981. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well, he has taught courses and seminars in nutrition at all four of the accredited naturopathic medical schools in the United States. He served for a year as the first Clinic Director and Chief Medical Officer at the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine. He is a member of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians and the Connecticut Society of Naturopathic Physicians, and is on the Honorary Board of the Weston A. Price Foundation. He is also the manufacturer of 100% pure, additive free nutritional supplements. Dr. Schmid is the author of Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine, first published in 1986.

  ...read more

The movie, Race to Nowhere, has brought new attention to education and student motivation. I hope that this film inspires dialogue about what school could become.

As Seth Godin says in his 2010 book, Linchpin, Are you Indispensible?, the sign outside school could read, “We teach people to take initiative and become remarkable artists, to question the status quo and to interact with transparency. And our graduates understand that consumption is not the answer to social problems.”

I want to work at a school like that! What child does not want to go to a school as Godin describes: “What they should teach in school: Only two things: 1. Solve interesting problems. 2. Lead.”

Kierkegaard once said, “We create ourselves by our choices.” Our children and our students are making choices based on our examples.

In Terry McMillan's 2010 sequel to Waiting to Exhale called Getting to Happy, 15 ½-year-old Sparrow tells her mom, “Most of the kids at my school get their meds from their parents’ and grandparents’ medicine cabinet."

We are aware that some children are doing homework until late in the night and taking pills to stay up. How big of a problem is it? Another character, 14-year-old Taylor says, “I looked in your side table and I saw your little pharmacy ....all of [my mom’s] scripts were on display in the medicine cabinet. This is where most of my friends get their stash to sell at school for spending money.”

Jason McDonald, an instructional designer, and academic researcher states that "for high school and college there is evidence that the race we've entered our kids in is damaging them in important ways." 

For college student information, he recommends reading My Freshman Year, the report of an anthropologist who went "native" as a college freshman and recorded her experiences.

Continued on the next page


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CBS <b>News</b> airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush&#39;s &#39;Decision Points <b>...</b>

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CBS <b>News</b> airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush&#39;s &#39;Decision Points <b>...</b>

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CBS <b>News</b> airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush&#39;s &#39;Decision Points <b>...</b>

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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CBS <b>News</b> airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush&#39;s &#39;Decision Points <b>...</b>

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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CBS <b>News</b> airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush&#39;s &#39;Decision Points <b>...</b>

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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CBS <b>News</b> airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush&#39;s &#39;Decision Points <b>...</b>

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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Moms Making Money

From Claire Berlinski in City Journal:

You see, about a month ago, I asked my mother to bail me out. I knew she’d do it. She’s done it before. She sent me money she’s been saving toward my retirement. I resolved to stop spending money on stupid things. (There was really no excuse for that lamp, Mom, I know. Sorry! In my defense, I was sure there was a genie in it.)

With my mom paying my rent, I’ve been able to charge less for what I write and stay in the black. Voilà, I’m selling a cheaper product (for now) than Reuters and AP. That will teach them where to stuff their “good investment decisions” and their “economies of scale.” I fired the guy who does my odd jobs—it was painful, but it had to be done. So, congratulations to me! I’m making it in this tough business climate, with a little help from Mom. America’s back! And if I’m broke again in a year, I’ll hit her up again. (Don’t forget, Mom, that you really have no choice: no matter what you do, I’m still going to be a huge financial drag on you. If I fail, I’ll end up coming home with all my cats. You don’t want me sleeping on your couch, do you? And you sure don’t want to see what my cats would do to that couch. Antique, I believe it is?)

All of this is, alas, a perfectly accurate description of my financial life. The reader may wonder about my mom’s wisdom in going along with this plan. That’s between me and her—she loves me, and it’s her money, not yours. The money that went to GM was yours, however. And I suppose you must love GM as if it’s your profligate kid, because surely you could not be so credulous as to believe these reports about the spectacular success of the bailout.

There was a rush to buy GM shares last Thursday, when the company, which emerged from bankruptcy restructuring last summer, held an IPO. The company has been drowned in taxpayer cash. It’s going to be fine in the short term. No one should be surprised by this. Anyone—and any company—can get back in the black in the short term if someone gives it a ton of money. And who wouldn’t want to invest in a company that everyone knows won’t be allowed to go down? All the merchants in my neighborhood would lend me money, too, if I asked, confident that their loan would be repaid. A “generous American mom” sounds pretty good to them.

Of course, GM is paying back its new loans, though this doesn’t help investors who hold old GM stock; that’s worthless. By the way, I’m also considering stiffing my creditors. The GM example proves that it will result in an immediate improvement of my balance sheet. GM’s production numbers have been increasing, and mine have, too: it’s a lot easier to write when you’ve got peace of mind. Whether anyone will buy the stuff I’m writing, God knows, but my word count is definitely up, and that, apparently, is the number that matters.

Note that GM is still producing those gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs that no one seemed to want before. Great news for me: I’ll just keep writing about the arcana of Turkish constitutional politics. It’s what the market should want. Turkish politics are fascinating. I don’t know what’s wrong with Americans. If they understood what was good for them, they’d want to be better informed about Turkey. (They’d want that Volt electric car, too. I hear it’s much better for the environment.)

Naturally, I’ll pay my mother back. Here’s how: I’m going to have her put a small percentage of all the money she’s given me in an escrow account, which I’ll call a “working capital” account. Then I’ll transfer the rest of my assets to her. (Good news, Mom: you own seven cats and seven litter boxes.) Then I’m going to use the money from that escrow account to pay her back at an interest rate no one but my own mother would give me. As soon as I empty the escrow account, I’ll declare the loans repaid. What do you mean, that makes no sense? That’s just what the U.S. governmentdid for GM, and no one finds that problematic, do they? Never mind that the cash part of the loan has been repaid from TARP, or that this in fact represents only about 15 percent of the total bailout, or that the rest remains tied up in the automotive equivalent of cats and litter boxes. By the way, I’m thinking of bundling all my liabilities into a separate company, just like GM. I’ll call the company “Some other Claire who can deal with the creditors, never heard of that Claire.”

Read the whole thing here.

The Halo franchise's quest to produce a feature-length film has been almost as epic as the games themselves, with Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp and Steven Spielberg all making appearances as the real-life drama has unfolded. Even though Bungie and Microsoft are parting ways post-"Reach," finding a way to turn Halo into a success outside of games is something Microsoft wants to see happen, whether it means working with a studio or bringing it to HBO as a TV series.

"There will be a Halo movie. We don't need a movie. But we'd like a movie," Halo franchise development director Frank O'Connor told Harold Goldberg of the New York Videogame Critics Circle. "We'd like the moms of gamers to see the movies because they would love our characters. Maybe we’ll even fund it ourselves."

O'Connor explained that Microsoft is keeping their options open, too.

"We'd love to see Halo as a television series," he said. "Look what HBO did with Band of Brothers or even Rome. Something like that would work because the Halo universe is so vast."

O'Connor was reportedly approached by a high-level network executive the Future of Television East conference in New York last week, and though the exec agreed to bring large amounts of money to the table, he wouldn't be the first to try securing the rights to Master Chief.

In the post-Bungie era, there's going to be a lot of pressure on MS to make sure they do right by Halo, whatever happens. Either a film or a "Sopranos"-sized TV series would be fine by me as long as they make it look good, but I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering where that exec was from.

Would you rather see Halo become a film or a TV series? Do you trust Microsoft to make the right choices? Share your opinions with us in the comment section below.

Tags halo, halo movie, microsoft, microsoft game studios

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<b>News</b> Corp. Digital Sell-Off Continues With Fox Mobile Group <b>...</b>

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<b>News</b> Corp. Digital Sell-Off Continues With Fox Mobile Group <b>...</b>

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<b>News</b> Corp. Digital Sell-Off Continues With Fox Mobile Group <b>...</b>

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<b>News</b> Corp. Digital Sell-Off Continues With Fox Mobile Group <b>...</b>

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<b>News</b> Corp. Digital Sell-Off Continues With Fox Mobile Group <b>...</b>

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<b>News</b> Corp. Digital Sell-Off Continues With Fox Mobile Group <b>...</b>

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<b>News</b> Corp. Digital Sell-Off Continues With Fox Mobile Group <b>...</b>

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Making Money Through

"Your children are not your children; they

come not from you but through you for they

are but the sons and daughters of life's longing

for itself." ~ Gibran

Ma worried. The majority of her energy was consumed by this endeavor. I often thought her anxieties were her finest possessions. They were frequently justified. I was a teenager but understood very clearly that every important decision Ma had made had led her closer to a kind of ruin. She seemed to be uncanny at making bad choices and when destiny presented her with options she usually picked the course to do her the most harm. My mother's great ability, though, has always been her capacity to love.

We were standing at the edge of the June sun during a Michigan morning. There was hardly room for Ma and me on a narrow slab of concrete that served as a modest porch to our tiny tract house. A shadow kept us chill and I saw where the light was already hitting the corn and squash in the garden. We did not grow things for pleasure; we planted seeds and waited for them to become food. We also went to neighbors and tried to sell them the extra corn or tomatoes for money to buy other food or school clothes. But I was trying not to think about these things because I was 17 and leaving home after high school. In fact, a part of me was already gone through the split in the hedgerow that lined our neighbor's yard and across the weedy baseball diamond where I had chased fly balls. I was already seeing myself hitching down Hill Road to where it intersected with the recently completed stretch of Interstate 75. I had not chosen a destination but was thinking vaguely of California and Colorado. There was nothing more important to me than adventure and I wanted to see the country and sleep under the sky. I suppose I was sufficiently smart to feel an obligation to my youth but not intelligent enough to be afraid.

"Son, I just don't understand." Ma looked up at me as I lifted my pack and slipped my arms through the shoulder straps. "Where are you gonna sleep? What happens when you run out of money?"

She was squeezing her fingers and alternately pinching them together with the opposite hand. This was a habit she had acquired years earlier when she feared an unexpressed rage of Daddy's that she sensed might become violence.



"I've got my sleeping bag, Ma," I told her as I patted the cotton bedroll hanging from the bottom of my backpack. "And when I run out of money, I'll do odd jobs. There's always some kind of work."

"I don't see why you can't just stay around Flint," she said. "There's lots of good jobs for young men your age. You could make some real money on the line or a road crew or something."

She was right. It was 1969 and the Chevrolet truck plant, Buick Motor Division of General Motors, Fisher Body, and every other business associated with the automotive industry in Flint, Michigan was hiring. They did not mind taking on college students for a few months because they were desperate for laborers to build the cars America had become fascinated with in the decades after World War Two. I had friends who were making over $400 a week with overtime by hanging doors as car and truck frames rolled past them on the assembly line. But I had always believed the factory had done something to my father that was not worth the wages.

"We've been through this, Ma. We can't keep having this conversation. This is what I am going to do. I don't need that much money. I've got the grants and scholarships I need for college. I've got to go now. I want to go see Lake Michigan before dark."

"Oh son, just look at you."

"What?"

She leaned in my direction with her short arms and reached around to hug me in a way that had always made me feel safe as a boy but just then I was starting to feel trapped. Ma pressed her head against a spot near my lower chest. She was only 4' 10" tall. I felt her hands grab the metal frame of my backpack and take a grip that was tight enough to prevent me from leaving.

"I'm so sorry, Ma," I said. "But this is what I have to do. What I need to do. Please don't cry."

I shifted the pack slightly on my hips and thought she might ease her grasp. The nylon and aluminum frame rig was loaded with all of my clothes and some camping gear. When the $18.95 item had come in the mail I had felt the kind of excitement that kept me from sleeping at night. I had leaned the frame against the foot of my bed and lay awake looking at the tan fabric and contemplating myself wearing the pack in the midst of rugged scenes in national parks and great deserts.

"I love you, son."

"I know that, Ma. I love you, too. But I've got to go now."

She released me and I kissed the top of her head. No matter how many times she washed my mother always had the faint scent of fried food in her hair. She worked for eighty cents an hour at a short order restaurant just off the Dixie Highway and every night when she came home, her white, seersucker uniform and her hair gave off the aroma of fried fish and grilled burgers. Ma had come to America for both love and money and had ended with a job that provided nickel and dime tips from truckers and factory workers.



I quickly stepped back off the porch and said good-bye again and I was unable to avoid seeing her tears. I had never hurt my mother before and I did not like the feeling. She had so little and now one of her most cherished things, her eldest son, was simply walking away into the distance. She had no idea where I was to sleep that night or any other night nor when she might get a call or a post card. Ma must have thought she had no control over any events in her life and suddenly even her children were becoming losses.



I turned around at the hedgerow. She had both hands over her mouth and was crying. None of my four sisters nor my brother were anywhere in the vicinity. My departure was of little consequence to them. Maybe they simply did not believe I was going anywhere beyond the neighborhood grocery store. But Ma knew. And it was painful for her. There had been many times when the boys I ran with had urged me to join them in law-breaking schemes like break-ins or theft and I had backed out. There was no good reason for it except that I knew there was a risk of getting caught and I did not want to shame or hurt my mother. She worked too hard to give me chances. But I had to leave and travel regardless of her hurt and fears.

I turned back again on Westdale and saw her short profile outlined against the white doorframe. She was determined to watch me until I disappeared because I am sure she did not believe I was truly going. Our house appeared even smaller than the 850 square feet of space where Ma was raising her six children. The faded cedar shake shingles had been painted black a few years previously and she had planted a few flowers and bushes around the property. I had decided she was trying to suggest to neighbors that we were moving in the direction of respectability and that no more police cars or emergency vehicles were going to disturb their nights. Daddy had been sent to an institution down in Pontiac and Ma had gotten a divorce before he was released. He did not live any more in our house.

My only view of Lake Michigan that day was from the back of a pickup as patches of blue water flashed between factory buildings in Gary, Indiana. I slept my first night on the road beneath a highway overpass along an Illinois cornfield and listened to a soft rain. Ma was likely sitting at the small table in her kitchen and chewing on the nails that she had long ago bitten to nubs. Her stubby fingers had never appeared feminine and her hands were coarsened by years of restaurant work but her children did not go hungry or stay too cold. I wondered if she had ever felt as hopeful and excited as I did lying there in the rainy darkness.



Ma still lives up in Michigan in a house where people care for her but she wishes she were back in Newfoundland. She complains that the people around her are all old and the woman who walks all day and takes tiny steps annoys her. Ma and I were in the living room and I watched the walking woman with the frail neck and papery skin until she stood next to my chair.

"I just came here to see if I could get someone to help me," she said. "Can you help me?"

"I would if I knew how," I answered. "But I don't."

Ma was staring at the front door. She spends much of her day now looking in that direction and I think she is convinced her youth and health are on the other side of that house's wall. In her mind she continues to come and go as she pleases but her body is still and failing.

"Son?" She touched my forearm. "If you can just get me out that door and down to the border, I'll be okay."

"What do you mean, Ma?"

"Just get me to Canada. I'll get back to St. John's as soon as you get me over the bridge."

"Ma, how would you ever get there?"

"I'll just use my walker and I'll walk and walk and walk until I flop over and then I'll start again and I'll keep doing that until I get there."

"Even if you do get there, Ma, who will take care of you?"

"What do you mean who will take care of me?" She raised her voice. "I'll take care of me that's who will take care of me. I always have haven't I?"

"But Ma, you're......."

"Don't tell me anything, son. I'll get me a job at one of those restaurants down on the harbor and rent me a room off of Water Street. I just need you to get me to the border. Don't you worry about how I'll get home. You never let me worry about you."

"I know, Ma. I'm sorry."

Ma's turn had finally come to say good-bye. And I did not want her to go.

Also at: www.moorethink.com

“You wanna know what the mother of all bubbles was? Us. The human race.”

That’s Gordon Gekko in the distinctly-mediocre Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

This weekend brought a rush of stories about a “bubble” that may or may not be re-inflating in Silicon Valley. The New York Times kicked it off, venture capitalist Fred Wilson (who is featured prominently in the story) quickly responded, and then Newsweek weighed in just to make sure the “Bubble 2.0″ moniker was secure. Uh oh, right? Not so fast.

One giant nugget of information in the NYT piece (co-written by TechCrunch alum Evelyn Rusli) is a bit buried:

For starters, this is not a stock market bubble. None of the companies are publicly traded.

In other words, if this “bubble” were to pop, it wouldn’t be the mothers and fathers of the world hoping to put their children through school who would be getting screwed. It would be the private investors. It would be a handful of (mostly) rich people who would be out of some of their money.

I suppose the employees of the collapsing startups could also be screwed somewhat. But they’d undoubtedly find work again quickly. And the founders would start new companies. Just like after the first bubble.

Business Insider has a good rundown of the actually public tech companies — you know, the kind mom and pop can and do actually invest in. The consensus there? Pretty wonderful, actually. Not over-the-top outrageous, just very solid for the most part.

Now, that doesn’t mean a “Bubble 2.0″ couldn’t pop and adversely affect the overall ecosystem. In fact, I’m sure it would to some extent, mainly because less money coming in would mean less innovation across the board. But it wouldn’t cause everything to collapse.

We all just lived through a very real bubble. The housing bubble. The results of it popping almost completely brought down not only our own economy, but much of the world’s economy as well. Real people lost their life savings. People went to jail. More people should have been locked up forever. It’s almost insulting to mention this supposed new web bubble in the same breath as that.

Again, this “Bubble 2.0″, if it does exist, is mainly just troublesome for investors. Smaller angel investors, in particular, are getting squeezed out of deals because early stage valuations are getting ridiculously high in some cases.

Undoubtedly it’s true that some of those startups should not be accepting so much money at such valuations, but that’s on them. If they fail, it will be a lesson to other startups. Maybe the motto is: go big and go home (at least in the early stage).

Another underlying current here is that many private investors aren’t comfortable with the state of the startup ecosystem. And yet many of them continue to do deals that they may not be comfortable with. Again, that’s on them. They’re all doing due diligence. If they don’t think a deal is worth it, they obviously shouldn’t do it. But some don’t seem to be able to turn down their name being attached to a high-profile investment — even if projections have it panning out to be a 2x exit. (The horror!)

Maybe some of them would actually be more comfortable investing in what Wilson calls “The Mess“. That is, startups in their awkward years. They’re neither new and sexy nor mature and money-making. Not surprisingly, no one seems to want to invest in those, besides current investors. But maybe those are where some deals are to be found.

In the press, there are two kinds of sexy stories to write: over-exuberance and death. We just got done with a week’s worth of over–exuberance surrounding the Google/Groupon deal. Holy shit, $6 billion dollars for a company that has only really been at it for a little over a year? That’s awesome! Let the good times roll.

The deal ultimately fell apart and in came the death stories. There needs to be balance in the world, after all. We know this just as well as anyone. The $6 billion Groupon deal made web investing as hot as the sun for a few days. And now it’s a bubble.

But wait. “Bubble 2.0″ has existed before. Here it is in 2005 — with Wilson worrying about some of the same things he’s still worried about. And here it is again in 2007 — with John Dvorak worrying that social media among other things would pop the bubble. And wasn’t it for sure a bubble later that year when Microsoft invested in Facebook at a $15 billion valuation? I was sure I heard that over and over and over again. Turns out, that was a pretty damn awesome investment, strategic or not.

There are dozens of other examples as well.

So maybe this is actually “Bubble 4.0″ or “Bubble 5.0″. Or maybe it’s not a big bubble at all. After all, if it pops and gum gets over only a few faces, will anyone do anything other than point and laugh, then go on with their lives?

[image: 20th Century Fox]

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?

bench craft company scam

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Fox <b>News</b> “scandal”: They called the public option the “government <b>...</b>

On Oct. 27, the day after Senate Democrats introduced a bill with a public insurance option from which states could opt out, Bill Sammon, a Fox News vice president and Washington managing editor, sent the staff a memo. ...

Leaked email reveals FOX <b>News</b> boss banned reporters from using the <b>...</b>

Did FOX news slant its coverage of health care reform toward the Republicans?