Peaceful trade and economic freedom win wars better than bombs

If we ever woke up to the fact that government creates the problems it offers to solve, we'd be less taken in by their image of protectors.

I agree that the situation with terrorism had gotten so bad we needed to take military action, and our military is the best in the world, but we could have avoided the terrorism situation long ago if our government had not grown so big and had not interfered with private enterprise  and involved itself in the affairs of other nations where it had no business. But because some countries are still ruled by thugs, we felt the need to try to protect our interests and "help" the world.

Perhaps we had to be involved, perhaps not. But now it's clear that our dependence on unstable countries for oil is the biggest problem we face. We need to continue our military operation to a successful conclusion, but it is a symptomatic solution to a symptomatic problem -- what we need is a fundmental solution to a fundamental problem.

The fundamental problem is energy need. We can't cut back to solve the problem -- that's another symptomatic solution that will not solve the fundamental problem. We need to declare "war" in a different, peaceful way -- drilling, and finding innovative alternative solutions to our energy needs. Our government can not do this. Government is neither innovative nor does it produce. Government simply needs to get out of the way and allow free enterprise to win the war for the future by providing fundamental solutions to our energy problem.

By lifting regulations on drilling to begin producing the oil we need to start the process of gaining independence, and using all sources of energy production available without the chains of government meddling, we will send a message to the world that we are going to solve this fundmental problem, and in this process we will discover energy alternatives  -- immediately the whole game will change.

Good on Microsoft

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/search/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209601153&subSection=Enterprise+Applications

Good listing agents love good buyer agents

  When I first started in real estate in Savannah GA as an exclusive buyer agent I worked with an EBA franchise out of Memphis called The Buyer Agent. The agents in Savannah didn't know what to make of it -- I always received the question "Why don't you list?" - to which I would say "Because we are buyer agents". They would then say "Well, I'm a buyer agent, too, when i work with buyers". Then I would say "Yes, but we work only with buyers." Then the agent would walk away.

They didn't know what we were up to, so they were suspicous. Then a couple of the good listing agents had an epiphany after they dealt with us a couple of times. The agents had gotten the listings and had marketed them very well -- Either Jerry, Dottie or I had a buyer and we sent in an offer. We negotiated and came to terms, than we took care of everything on through closing.

Richard, a good listing agent, started coming by our office and telling us what he had just listed. He told me one day he loved us. He said when we came by with a buyer he knew that if a deal was struck, he could forget about it and then go work on getting another listing. He knew the buyer was qualified, that we knew the lender and had prequalified the buyer ourselves upfront and pulled a credit report from our office -- all before putting the buyer in the car and showing the first house. Richard knew that we were going to follow up and shedule inspections and work closely with the lender and attorney to make sure everything was on track -- Richard knew we would be answering all concerns with the buyer and dealing with cold feet issues. Richard loved us because it freed him up to go back to getting and getting rid of listings.

Our transactions closed and they closed on time. Richard and smart listing agents like him were never overly concerned with getting both sides -- they actually preferred the buyer have representation and even began referring buyers to us. With 30-50 listings they never tried to make it all on one or two listings, they did volume -- get the listing, get rid of it and go for another one - no conflicts of interest. We freed up their time and we got rid of a lot of their listings.

In a way we were partners with the better agents -- it was a very good relationship -- they knew we would always be representing the buyer's best interest and they respected that -- they had good listings so they were comfortable with what they had to offer. Win-win, everybody has representation and everything goes smoothly - what a concept.

One headline would win the war on terrorism for good

Congress Lifts All Restrictions on Drilling For Oil and Developing Nuclear Power Plants

The Media is Dead

The media is struggling to be relevant, and I'm sure they still have an effect on a portion of the country, but with most people who have learned how to think for themselves, the media is dead.  They have become irrelevant because they try to make news rather than report it, and this type of manipulation is an affront to most discerning Americans.

We have reached a Kantian truth by consensus whereby the truth is dependent on its number of adherents. Whichever gang can muscle their version of the truth to the top of the world's conciousness wins, until another gang muscles their version to the top. There is no standard for objectivity, not even in the blogosphere -- objectivity has no standard-bearers.

The scattered individual bloggers who are dedicated to searching facts and getting to the truth are too small to have an effect. No one yet in the blogosphere has the power to fill the vacuum and become the next great source of objective news reporting. Much of the blogosphere is balkanized into warring camps of ideology rather than objective searchers for the truth.

I still don't buy, and never will, that truth is relative. There might not be a once and for all capital letter Truth that applies to all aspects of reality, but at any given time there are facts that can be presented straight-up with no spin, especially numbers that have to do with the our economic reality. Numbers can be spinned to prove biases, but there are raw numbers that don't lie and represent the truth of what they relate to. Yet, knowing which numbers have been manipulated and which ones are raw, real numbers is almost impossible given the state of the media

The media is more concerned with politics, sensationalism and entertainment. than with reporting facts, and this makes it difficult for a businessperson to calculate and plan. Researching the net and finding facts is time consuming and for a small business person it's almost impossible. What I would like to see is a company emerge dedicated to solving this problem. A company that researches all the manipulation and cleans the information for good use by small businesses. I would be willing to pay a subscription for such a service. And if anyone knows of such a service, I would appreciate a heads up. 

It's great that we are in the Information Age -- now, culling that information and making the service affordable and useful would be wonderful. I know there are companies that offer this kind of service, but the ones I've seen are geared toward large enterprises -- are there any for small businesses an individuals that are trustworthy?