Rebecca Dean, aka Miss Copy, got married in December.

She just posted about it at her blog. Please congratulate her and feel free to check out her wedding photos.

The other day I asked you to leave a comment if you had a blog. 15 of you said you did. Awesome!

I use Google Reader as my RSS feed. I recently deleted all of my rss subscriptions because there were simply too many!

But now I’ve started over.

I’ve added all 15 of you to my RSS reader. So know that I’ll be watching the next time you post! Looking forward to what you guys have for me.

Dear Barack,

I got up earlier than usual yesterday to meet at a friends house to watch your inauguration. The party looked great. Your family was beautiful. I’m convinced it was Roberts’ fault for messing up the oath, but that’s quickly forgotten.

It was a pretty big day for you, and an even bigger day for the country. It’s great to see an African-American elected President when so many people thought it impossible.

Everyone seems to be pretty excited for your Presidency. It’s nice to see people so happy and optimistic… but I really feel left out.

I try not to let it show too much. I don’t want to be a downer at someone else’s party…

But seriously… what’s going to change? Aren’t you promising to take away more freedoms? Despite what you said in the inauguration, aren’t you trying to move us further and further away from our founding documents?

I love the United States of America. But it hurts to watch the country go down this path. It really feels like watching a loved one celebrate a drug addiction that’s killing them.

Many of your supporters tell me Bush was the worst President ever and you’ll bring change. But I’m having a hard time spotting the difference…

The Iraq war is coming to a close without you. And you plan to intensify the war in Afghanistan. That’s the direction Bush was moving in as well.

Are you going to bring troops home from any of the other 130+ countries where they’re currently stationed? Are you going to continue the big government foreign policy dreamed up by the Democrats and now embraced by the Republicans? It looks like it. That’s not change.

You don’t like Bush’s tax cuts. But what’s a 4% tax cut when you’re talking about confiscating 40% of a person’s income? Sure, it may be billions of dollars but I don’t think it’s enough to declare “change.”

And why do you want to take a cut out of someone’s paycheck anyway? I know pimps do that. So does the mob. I guess the IRS thinks it’s OK to join them.

(Question, do you think the income tax is hurting the economy? It seems like when you want to stimulate the economy, you give us money back. I don’t understand why you don’t just stop taking the money in the first place.)

Speaking of the economy, President Bush has proven he’s willing to do “anything necessary” to save the economy. That has resulted in great interventions in the market. You plan to do the same thing. What’s the difference?

You’re still trying to do something that’s not possible: fix a problem of overspending and over-borrowing with more overspending and over-borrowing. Most reasonable people, with their own budgets, usually try to spend less and save more. Shouldn’t that be obvious?

It’s like we’re watching an Alchemist try to turn mercury in to gold. It’s never happened before and it never will.

Didn’t you learn anything from the mistakes of Hoover and FDR? I guess it’s no surprise you wouldn’t. FDR presided over the worst economy we’ve ever seen for more than 10 years… and somehow history has decided that was a good thing.

Hmm…

Back to your inauguration. I wanted to give you the heads up on two factual errors you made in the second paragraph of your speech.

You said 44 Americans have now taken the Presidential oath. I know it’s not that big of deal compared to the issues we’re facing, but actually only 43 Americans have taken the oath. Grover Cleveland is counted twice, as he was our 22nd and 24th President.

I hesitate to even bring it up… but I thought you might be able to learn something from Grover Cleveland. He used his veto power A LOT. Specifically vetoing unconstitutional bills that reached his desk. Since you just took an oath to uphold the constitution, I’d appreciate if you followed his lead.

But that brings me to the second factual error in the second paragraph of your speech. You said that we have remained true to our founding documents.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Declaration said we all have an inalienable right to life and liberty. That meant people should be free to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they don’t step on the rights of others.

But that’s not the type of government we have. And it’s not the kind of government you support.

Do you realize that you force me to pay in to the worst retirement plan imaginable, social security? You know, that system where I pay you 12% of my income for as long as I work… and you decide if I ever get any of it back? If I die without dependents, you get to keep my retirement money?

Surely few people with liberty would ever choose to be part of such a system. Maybe that’s why you don’t give people a choice to opt-out of this system.

There are nearly as many violations of liberty as there are laws that come from the Capital. I can’t possibly list them all.

Of course, that’s just one founding document and the government is not actually bound to it. The Federal government is supposed to be bound to the constitution, however.

What’s up with that?

Maybe it’s my mistake and I didn’t realize that the 10th amendment of the constitution had been removed.

Hmm… I just checked, it is still there. It reads…

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

That means the federal government only has the power to do what the constitution says it can do.

But you want national healthcare? That’s not delegated to the federal government in the constitution.

In fact, most of your ideas seem unconstitutional if the 10th amendment is, indeed, still a part of the constitution.

It seems that the federal government has completely ignored our founding documents.

They call Ron Paul “Dr. No” because he votes down so many bills in congress. But he’s simply living up to his oath of office, upholding the constitution.

Why does he get a special nickname for carrying out his oath of office?

So in the end, Barack, I’m not too excited about your presidency because you’re not bringing change… you’re not planning on obeying your oath of office… and you’re not going to respect our founding documents or even our inalienable rights to life and liberty.

But really, Barack, I don’t give a damn. The only other candidate who got close to your office was McCain and he seemed to hold very similar positions to you.

My only hope is that one day the nation will wake up from this drug-like addiction to big government.

Big government is the enemy of freedom and the cause of our problems. It’s why our schools can’t teach. It’s why our health care is too expensive. And it’s why our economy is falling apart.

If we can wake up from this addiction to big government, and maybe support Ron Paul for President or someone like him, then I’ll join the party and celebrate.

Until then, I’m just a disappointed observer.

Sincerely,
Stephen Dean

Hmmm…

I’m assuming you just read the title of this post. I wrote it, but I didn’t mean it.

I’ve heard comments like “forget the recession” or “ignore the recession” lately. And I think I understand where they’re coming from, but I don’t relate. I feel like I’m coming from a completely different position.

Am I just being a contrarian again? I guess, but I didn’t mean to.

People who suggest ignoring the recession seem to be giving advice to people who are climbing in to a hole and letting the bad economic climate beat them.

I don’t relate to either character. I’m not ignoring the recession, and I’m not ready to take a beating from it either.

The recession doesn’t scare me at all. I think I’ll make more money this year than last year. I have big plans…

…but I’m paying attention to the problems with the economy. I think it’s important.

I’m not going to give investment advice, but if you didn’t pay attention to the economy how would you know how to invest? to protect your assets? to protect your wealth? to prepare?

These are all important things to do in the face of a huge economic downturn.

But if you read those statements again… they’re NOT an excuse for getting beat up by the recession.

A recession should cleanse the market of bad businesses, bad investments, bad bets and bad debts (if the government would let it happen).

But I happen to believe I run a GOOD business that’s going to thrive while others barely survive, or maybe even die. It’s nothing to be worried about. In fact, it’s encouraging me to get MOVING and finally set my plans in to place.

With that in mind, I think the best advice is not to use a bad economy as an EXCUSE to fail… an EXCUSE to get beat up.

But you should pay attention to the economic climate. It’ll help you prepare… it’ll help you invest wisely… and if you’re really on top of it’ll help you vote wisely too.

Ron Paul, 2012.

“Today, this country is in the middle of a recession for a lot of people. Michigan knows about it. Poor people know about it. The middle class knows about it. Wall Street doesn’t know about it. Washington, D.C., doesn’t know about it.” ~ Ron Paul, October 2007

I’ve got another sister who’s checking out the copywriting field. She just got her blog setup and made her first post.

Check it out and maybe leave her a comment?

http://www.sarahjohnsoncopy.com

I’m making some more switches to my business to make it more mobile.

Coinciding with the death of my laptop, I’ve decided to make an extra effort to make all of my business files accessible from the web. And preferably in more than one place.

This way if my laptop suddenly shuts down on me, is stolen, or some other tragedy… not much time will be lost.

Some people put this type of planning off because it will “never happen to them.” Well, I know I’m not the only one who has lost plenty of cash because of system failure.

And having a “mobile” system will help me to be more independent and more free.

Here are some of the most recent changes.

1) The email address associated with my domain now forwards all mail to my GMail account. I’ve had all mail routed through this account to take advantage of Google’s spam filters in the past… but now that I’ve started using Web Mail exclusively I’ve decided to trust Google more than my web host’s shared server.

I may have all mail sent to this email address also forwarded to another free account on Yahoo or MSN to keep backups.

2) If you’ve followed me on Twitter you know that I’m fed up with WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver and NVU. They make me curse loud enough for the neighbors to hear and I need to make sure I don’t get any more notes put on my door.

I’ve created my own text-based editor that allows me to type my sales letter at the speed of thought… and then hit “Generate” to create a web-ready HTML document. Talk about simple.

It’s set up to keep a draft on hand from every saving point to be quickly recalled if needed.

Also, the editor runs on one of my websites so I can work on copy from any computer in the world, at any time. And each saving point is saved to the web-host for easy recall if I need to go back… but it’s also emailed to another free address for instant back up.

This means I’ll be able to get rid of my “First Back Up” service that’s really been annoying me anyway.

3) I’ve started drifting away from applications that need to be saved to my computer. The text-based editor is an example. But I’m also using Google’s calendar to manage my schedule… basecampHQ to manage my projects… and more.

In all, it makes my business very mobile and not tied to just one laptop that could die at any moment (the new one will be here shortly).

Hope these tips will help your business.

I’m a big music fan, but sometimes I’m a little behind the times.

Seth Godin recently posted about stumbling across a collection of albums he had never heard of before… and decided that even though he was an avid album collector, it just wasn’t worth his time to try any of them out. It’d cost much more time to listen to the albums than it would to discover new music in different ways.

That’s a good point, as I’ve got lots of CDs lying around I haven’t gotten a chance to listen too much. Fortunately, since I am behind the times, there are a lot of legendary albums I can listen to for the first time and be blown away… decades after the rest of the world was.

What’s the latest legendary album to impress the heck out of me? Abbey Road by the Beatles. WOAH!

I never thought I’d be making this post. I credit my attitude with much of my success.

When people told me I had to go to college to make sure I got a good job, I laughed. When people told me I’d never make money working online, I pressed on.

Now I’ve worked 4 years full time and they all want to work for me. How things change!

But did positive thinking get me where I’m at? Heck no!

As far as getting things done, positive thinking is worth less…

People who spend all their time talking about “thinking positive” are bound to be poor and unsuccessful. Why?

Because they’re spending all their time thinking instead of acting. (Maybe “thinking” should really be “wishing.”)

Positive Acting gets you a lot farther than positive thinking.

No amount of positive thinking is going to make your chain letter scheme work.

No amount of positive thinking is going to magically make a proven plan execute by itself.

No amount of positive thinking is going to turn a bad opportunity in to a good one.

Consider the Internet Marketing community. Can you tell the difference between the “positive thinking” losers and the “positive acting” winners?

The losers buy all the products and are always in the same spot from one month to the next until they give up. The winners pick a proven plan and implement it. And they’re the ones making all the money!

Bottomline, positive thinking is WORTH LESS than people think. If you’re stuck in “positive thinking” mode, realize you have a problem and make a move towards “positive acting.”