No, we’re not talking hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons or other “natural” disasters; nor are we dealing with human terrorists, of whatever ethnic stripe. Welcome to the world of The Immune, a fascinating near-future adventure novel by Doc Lucky Meisenheimer. Taking one part H. G Wells, several bits of Robert Heinlein and a few echoes of Orwell, Huxley and other dystopian visionaries, he’s created an allegory that encompasses the 09/11 attacks, environmental mutation fears, government corruption and man-against-the-State, producing a stunning page-turner in the process.

The book opens innocently enough: Dr. John Long is having a meal on Grand Cayman Island with the woman he loves, Cassandra Shelly. (It’s all so sweet: He pops the question, along with the ring, during dinner; the next day they’re diving together off a coral reef.) Within a few pages, however, this idyllic setting of bliss turns into the televised horrors of an attack in Nigeria, and the adventure begins. In this case, though, the attack-force is not terrorist Muslims or other human elements, but a number of gigantic floating jellyfish (imagine a genetically mutated cross between a Portuguese Man o’ War and a blimp).

These “airwars” float across the sky, their tentacles drooping down with lethal stings, gathering up and digesting any organic substance along their paths. Nobody’s safe, and thousands die in the first attack. As more “advanced” societies attempt to fight back, the next surprise unfolds: killing an airwar by puncturing its air-sac only causes it to reproduce, releasing thousands of smaller versions of itself! The reaction of the nation-states (and the power elites who run them) is instantaneous: if you can’t beat them … lie down and let them pass in peace! Within a matter of days, the sole officially accepted response to an airwar attack is “run, hide, do no harm.”
(more…)

The recent attempts by Republican Congressthings to let people exempt themselves from paying taxes for abortions SHOULD have prompted a movement to make ALL aspects of government “opt in”; instead, it has led only to “progressive” pundits from all over that realm of the political spectrum saying things like, “We pay taxes for a lot of things that we don’t agree with. Why should this be any different?”

In light of the legacy of war-tax resistance, along with so many other examples of civil disobedience in the leftist heritage, it’s amazing to see such weak-kneed justification for cracking down on anti-abortion sentiments as something evil and nefarious (and dare I say it, implicitly ‘un-American’?). After all, the convictions of those who consider abortion to be “murder” are no less valid than those who consider wars (or at least the vast majority of them) or the death-penalty to be such, and who object to funding those atrocities.

It’s also kinda strange to see “progressives” so openly advocating the statist-quo. One would think that these allegedly forward-looking (hence the name?) folks would see this as an opening to create voluntarism in government, starting with its weakest point: the funding! Instead of marching in the streets, we could indeed be ‘voting with our wallets” and refusing to pay for wars, corporate bailouts and other things considered anathema to progressive/liberal/whatever-ya-call-it-these-days intentions.
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SHORT ANSWER: As of today, it (Raid on Liberty Dollar, Gov’t attack on LD) has not played out fully.

LONG ANSWER:

NORFED was run by Bernard von Nothaus. The trial is still pending.

This was von Nothaus’s most recent “public” communication:

http://www.masslpa.org/content/message-bernard-von-nothaus-liberty-dollar

The Liberty dollar website was ordered closed by a judge pending the trial in June 2010, which Bernard agreed to in exchange for bond and bail leniency.

http://www.libertydollar.org/

I don’t want to talk too much about the case, but the basic charges are:

http://charlotte.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/ce060309.htm

(1) Conspiracy to undermine the stability of the US Dollar. Which is Ironic given count #2

(2) Making and Possessing likeness of coin. His shiny stuff vaguely resembles their shiny stuff.

(3) Mail fraud — essentially they accuse him of a ponzi scheme, because his coins would be ‘restamped’ as inflation grew.

Actually having Liberty dollars and Ron Paul coins are legal — the Fed only raided his stash; it’s perfectly legit to own yours, which kind of kills #2 but I don’t want the Fed to get any new ideas.

Note from Nic Leobold:

It was great to see the latest Liberty Dollar News from December, which I had not even received. The Liberty Dollar is a brilliant product and Bernard von NotHaus is a monetary genius. Liberty Dollar has a bright future as soon as we dispense with the unprincipled prosecution the Justice Department is pursuing. In fact, the prosecution has very little chance of succeeding, because the charges are simply immoral, dishonest and contemptible on their face.

I look forward to working with Liberty Dollar once the prosecution ends, and I hope that Kevin Innes is released as soon as possible from jail. In fact, this is another instance of our national media and news organizations totally failing in their responsibility to educate and inform the American public. There should be a national expose of what has been done to Liberty Dollar and the LD4. But rest assured, our day will come, very soon, when the government’s case falls flat on its face, and currency liberty is established in America, the land of the free and the brave.

Nic Leobold

Goal: $800
Current total: $479

Thanks to subscribing contributors MF and SW! Their payments yesterday advanced us another $5 toward our $800 goal.

It’s been a loooooong week, folks. Lots of extra hours put in — but I think you’ll agree those hours were worth it when we show you the results. Expect a “weekend special edition!” Along with a special announcement that I hope you’ll like a lot, I’d love to be able to announce that we wrapped up this fundraiser on Friday. That part is up to you, though.

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review

PS: “One-time” donors of $50 (or more) get a signed first edition copy of Bill Branon’s Let Us Prey. For your convenience, here’s a $50 “one-time” contribution link:

Wrights forms presidential exploratory committee

BURNET, Texas (July 4) – R. Lee Wrights, a former Libertarian Party national vice chair and the editor and co-founder of Liberty for All online magazine, announced today he is forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for a possible bid to seek the Libertarian nomination for president in 2012.

“The Libertarian Party faces a critical test in 2012 and I want to make sure that we’re up to the challenge,” Wrights said. “The Libertarian message in 2012 must be loud and clear – Stop the Wars! Stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop the war on drugs and alternative lifestyles, stop the war on civil liberties.”

Wrights said that it’s time to stop supporting politicians, regardless of party, who don’t even come close to fulfilling their campaign promises.

“President Obama was elected on a platform of ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Wrights said. “Instead of supporting the troops by bringing them home, he has sent thousands more young men and women to die needlessly to prop up a corrupt government in Afghanistan.”

“Now he’s wavering on his promise to bring the troops home by July 2011,” Wrights said. “He calls the war in Afghanistan a ‘war of necessity.’ It is no such thing. It is unnecessary, irresponsible and a dishonor to the founding principles of our republic.”

The president has also reneged on his promise to reverse the trampling of civil liberties which began under the Bush Administration. “He’s done just the opposite,” Wrights said. “He’s expanded federal power to invade our privacy and curtail our rights. He might not call it the ‘war on terror,’ but President Obama still uses 9/11 as an excuse to justify voiding the Bill of Rights.”

Wrights said he is most appalled by the way the president turns every issue he faces into a war by labeling anyone who opposes him as an enemy.

“Not content with just warring with the Republicans in Congress, the president has turned the Gulf oil spill into a war on oil companies. He’s used the financial crisis, which was largely caused by government regulation, interference and incompetence, to continue waging war on banks and financial institutions,” Wrights said.

“Even after his major victory in ramming through a massive health care bill which imposes federal government bureaucrats into our most intimate and personal health care decisions, President Obama continues to wage war on insurance companies and health care providers,” Wrights said. “Now, he’s opened a new front in Arizona over that state’s attempt to deal with an illegal immigrant situation his administration has failed to address.”

“Where will it end?” Wrights asked. “Is anything or anyone safe from being labeled an ‘enemy of the state’ and incurring the wrath of the federal government’s war-making power?”

Wrights pledged that 10 percent of all donations to his campaign will be given to the LP for ballot access. “Whoever is the 2012 Libertarian nominee for president, we must take our message to all 50 states and our message must be clear and unequivocal – Stop the Wars,” Wrights says.

-30-

The 4th of July is a dedicated day of remembrance. A day not only to remember the sacrifices our forefathers endured to free us from the yoke of tyranny, but also for us to recall how significant our Declaration of Independence and Constitution were for all of humanity. These documents, even with all the flaws of human nature self evident, were the strongest declaration of individual freedom ever created. Because of the freedom these documents provided, America became the wealthiest nation in the world.

Look at us now. A people in fear of their government, a government that has striped away our freedom, and makes us fear being kidnapped and tortured for any form of dissent, a government that places itself above the rule of law, but takes 1200 pages of legal mumbo jumbo to explain to its citizenry its Health Care policy, a government that no longer listens to the wishes and hopes of its people, a government that creates for its people a reputation for oppression and injustice internationally that makes us all ashamed, a government which feels no shame in indebting our children and our children’s children to the few making vast profits from war.

A government that totally disregards the wishes of its citizenry only does so thru tyranny and although their attempts to shred our most sacred documents has been aggressively blatant, our Constitution and Declaration of Independence still stands.

All Americans need to recall one of the most profound messages contained in that document which reads:

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government.

Well, we tried to do this thru elections and it hasn’t worked.

Perhaps it is time to try what the French people did to their government, after we successfully overthrew the tyranny of England. Now I’m not suggesting, this 4th of July, we place guillotines on the steps of Congress or the White House lawn; our consciousness has grown, ever if their’s hasn’t, over the past 200 years, and would not allow us to behave in such a barbaric manner. So perhaps “A Water Boarding Setup” would be appropriate. I mean it’s not like it’s torture or anything, right? Just a little fun and games, for those who oppose our wishes, by voting against our best interests. People should not be afraid of their government, governments should be afraid of their people.

Follow this link:

http://www.wwl.com/View-all-12—Spill-Cam—video-feeds/7381402

This is the link from WWL radio to all 12 robot cameras being used by BP. As you can see, oil is GUSHING out in humongous amounts.

The federal government gave a lowball figure of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day gushing out of the well. Then, BP puts this cap on and claims they are getting 10,000 barrels a day. If all these numbers were correct, there would be a noticeable diminution in the amount of oil that we see.

But, in fact, for those of us who are living this shit every day, we cannot tell ANY difference in the flow.

There are several possibilities:

1) Our eyes deceive us.
2) BP’s numbers are a lie.
3) The Feds’ numbers are a lie.

I pick #3. It is entirely possible that BP is getting 10,000 barrels a day from their cap. But there is no way in hell that well is putting out only 17,000 barrels a day. Independent analysts have reported they believe as much as 100,000 thousands barrels a day is coming from this well. If this is the case, then BP is retrieving only about 10% of the oil that is gushing out. I believe that such a rate is a total failure.

BP and the government are totally scamming the media. Here in South Louisiana, we aren’t buying it, not for one damned second. Please don’t send out stories with these idiotic numbers, or at least put in an editorial blurb. These flow rates are complete and utter bullshit.

Elizabeth Higgs

editor’s note: We try not to make a habit of buying government or corporate promo numbers here at Rational Review. I’m posting this letter from one of our readers/supporters for our readers’ benefit and so that I have a handy link reference to append to our future links to stories related to the spill - TLK]

Thanks to a comment he made to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last week (one apparently in line with a similar observation before the Louisville Courier-Express Editorial Board back in April), Dr. Paul may have endangered his chances of being the next U.S. Senator from Kentucky, despite his victory as GOPer in Kentucky, a state that hasn’t had a Demoncrap in the Senate since… Wendell Ford retired in 1999. (Thankee, Wikipedia; I’d thought it much further back!)

When asked about his opinion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, prohibiting discrimination against Black people by ANYONE – including restaurants, bars, hotels or other establishments serving the public, Dr. Paul made the mistake of assuming some degree of enlightenment on the part of his interviewer(s). He said that, although he supported the intention of that legislation, as well as the main of its results, he was concerned about the encroachment it represented on the First Amendment right of individuals to freedom of association, encompassing as it did the PRIVATE sector of both business and housing.

The comment, while perhaps somewhat ill-advised politically speaking, was (I believe, as does Dr. Paul seem to, if you bother to read his follow-ups) delivered with the honest intention of provoking serious consideration of the limits of government power in the lives and conduct of peaceful citizens in this alleged free republic. It was emphatically NOT intended to present Dr. Paul (or his supporters) as “racists” or as bigots in any sense of the term.

Unfortunately, thanks to the mainstream-media jackals (at both ends of the alleged political spectrum?), the comment was presented in exactly that way. Ms. Maddow (sadly, in this writer’s estimation, since she often does show promise, in spite of her biases and agendas) chose to pursue the more unsavory implications of the statement, rather than to consider the larger questions involved: (1) how far should the scope of government extend into the lives of peaceful individuals? (2) should not the First Amendment apply to even the most distasteful opinions, as well as those we approve of? (3) Is enforcing equal treatment truly equivalent to creating equal opportunity?

That’s the gist of the Rand Paul situation. Why then, you may ask, do I feel such empathy with the man? I take you back, some 30-plus years, to 1977. I was at the time not only a Libertarian Party (of Mass. mostly) activist, heading for San Francisco as a delegate to that year’s LP National Convention (back then they happened pretty much every year). In addition, I was also Managing Editor (by title; Editor in Chief by actual duties, assisting the semi-literate Publisher) for a biweekly Boston tabloid by the name of Esplanade. This periodical served the Boston gay community, covering entertainment both local and regional, promoting gay-community businesses and boasting a staff of writers and photographers who created a variety of features both verbal and visual. I was mostly in charge of overseeing that lot, as well as penning my own feature articles, interviews, reviews and most of the paper’s editorials.
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There have been tax revolts as long as there have been taxes. They go back to Roman times in England, and are part of the history of every era and place. The tax revolts that we have won gave us the Magna Carta, The Declaration of Independence, and the independence of India.

What labor organizing is to the Left, taxpayer organizing is to us. They are the most important tool or weapon that we have in making or protecting a free society. Why is this? The reason is that this mythos, tactic, organizing ground (or market), has worked well and gloriously and is our heritage. We have never thought of ourselves as having a revolutionary strategy, as the Marxists and Left anarchists has. But actually we do. We’re just not aware of it or really used it. That is until now.

(more…)

Thanks also to those of you who gave earlier, or who have given in the past. We deeply appreciate your support and I, for one, am happy to get off the fundraising stump for a couple of months! - TLK

Our latest (and most welcome) addition is a group blog, On ALLiance. The “ALL” in the title refers to the Alliance of the Libertarian Left. ALL isn’t a formal organization, but rather a “multi-tendency coalition” — see the link for more details.

On ALLiance is edited/administered by Chris Lempa, with a mix of other left-libertarian authors weighing in. Check it out!

Thanks to all who bid on the ad space!

Now, however, there’s going to be a lot more action elsewhere on the site. Starting with three names you’ll almost certainly recognize, we’re setting up as a blog home for prominent libertarian authors who’d just as soon leave the admin stuff to someone else. They get web space, a content management “back end,” and someone they actually know to yell at if things don’t work properly. We take a small piece of screen real estate for advertising. Win-win deal!

Earlier this year, L. Neil Smith opened The Moratorium. He’s blogged a few excellent pieces there, and plans to get back to it after November (which he’ll spend on NANOWRIMO).

As of last week, Tibor R. Machan is blogging at A Passion for Liberty.

And as of this morning, J. Neil Schulman is publishing at J. Neil Schulman @ Rational Review.

These authors aren’t writing “for” Rational Review — they have their own independent blogs “@” Rational Review and enjoy complete editorial and artistic freedom. And that’s just the way we like it; we’re exchanging value for value with the authors, and bringing new value to what we offer our (and their) readers. Enjoy, and look for new names in the “@ Rational Review” blogosphere in the near future.

Best regards,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review

If you resemble that remark — if you’ve ever sent us money, that’s you — and would like to participate, please apply to join the Virtual Evenings email list here (we don’t automatically sign up contributors — they may not be interested in the events and they may not want the email!). The only email messages you’ll receive from this list will be event announcements with access details … a message or two a month.

If you don’t resemble that remark, see the right sidebar of this page and consider making a one-time contribution or becoming one of our “subscribing contributors” with a monthly payment. That’s what makes it possible for us to publish “the freedom movement’s daily newspaper.”

So, what’s a “Virtual Evening?” It’s actually “A Virtual Evening with [insert name here].” That name will be a libertarian/freedom movement person or persons whom we believe our readers and supporters would like the chance to listen to and speak with. A Rational Review editor will act as emcee, introducing the keynote speaker/honored guest, who will deliver a brief speech, presentation or opening statement. Then the “floor” will be opened up for questions, comments and discussion. We’ll ask our honored guests to make themselves available for least 60-90 minutes for their “Virtual Evenings,” but if they can stay longer and if the participants want to keep things going, that’s fine too.

The first “Virtual Evening” events will be held by teleconference, starting in November or December of 2009, at a rate of one or two events per month. In the future, we may add video and Internet chat capabilities as well. Enjoy!

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review

The Libertarian Press Club will conduct events — telephone-based “virtual press conferences,” for example — to bring libertarian journalists, bloggers, podcasters, etc. together with newsworthy “freedom movement” people and projects. Check it out!

The next two projects should be interesting as well. One is a general “activism facilitation” project, the other is a premium/gift to Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily’s financial supporters. They’re both on the way, Real Soon Now.

Update, 10/01/09: Thanks to subscribing contributor HW, whose $5 monthly payment arrived yesterday. Also SPECIAL thanks to KAW, who first suggested the phrase “returning value for value to me.” She does so on a monthly basis as one of our subscribing contributors, too, and added an extra $10 right after the ChipIn widget went dead, “officially” ending this fundraiser. Finally, thanks to HH and RW, who got their contributions in before the widget said “closed.”

Our actual final total (barring any checks that are on their way) is $1,806.32, which is more than the ChipIn gadget says, since some payments arrived by other routes.

So, first, the bad news:

When we started this fundraiser, we played the “going out of business card” for the first and hopefully last time in our history. Specifically, I wrote:

Will RRND/FND blink out of existence on October 1st if we don’t make our goal? No. But unless we receive a substantial infusion of money in the next two weeks, I will go to my fellow editors and propose that we start winding it down, with an eye toward ceasing publication at the end of the year.

The good news:

I will be going to my fellow editors with several ideas, but at this time none of them involve shutting down RRND/FND.

While we didn’t make our goal, or even come close, there was “a substantial infusion of cash” both into RRND/FND and — from other sources — into my personal/family situation.

We’re also entertaining a tentative offer from a new entrant into our very market niche. Not exactly a buy-out, but a possibly lucrative arrangement which would enable us to bring in more money for the work we already do, without running constant fundraisers to scrape by.

So, not only can we keep going, my fellow editors have already told me that they want to keep going, and I agree. While the percentage of RRND/FND readers returning value for value is still low, it’s growing; and our long-time supporters continue to be there for us. I enjoy my job, and I prefer to honor our past and present supporters by continuing at that job for as long as I can possibly justify doing so financially.

So: RRND/FND will continue at least through the end of the year, and quite likely beyond that. There won’t be any more “daily fundraising pitches” until January 1st or after.

I will, however, create a new Chip-In with a goal of $5,193.68 (the portion of our $7k goal not yet raised) and run it in the sidebar and as a “sponsor ad” in our email editions through the end of the year. You won’t hear about it day in and day out, but we’ll certainly appreciate it if our readers put a ding in the amount, which represents, more or less, a “deficit” in our assessment of what constitutes a reasonable return on our investment of time and effort.

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review

If you’re looking for me to put the Holocaust of European Jewry or Jihadis being responsible for 9/11 on this list, look elsewhere.

I’m 56 years old, born in April 1953. So I’m limiting myself to Big Lies present in my own lifetime.

Here we go, not in any chronological order.

(more…)

Isn’t it bad enough that Barack Obama wants to force healthy people to buy health insurance to subsidize the coverage to people with pre-existing conditions the insurance companies will be forced by law to give? That’s a straight socialist wealth transfer scheme — and fascistic to boot, since for the first time ever it requires people to buy a commercial product or face government punishment. And the forced auto liability insurance argument isn’t accurate; nobody is forced by law to drive or own a car. They could ride with friends or take the bus. How do you decline forced health insurance — kill yourself?

That this is evil and contrary to American values of independence — and unconstitutional to boot — is getting far less coverage on blogs, talk radio, and Fox News than all these distractions about Obama lying, whether Joe Wilson should apologize, and whether the roots are grass or astroturf.

Update, 07/01/09: Thanks to HW, who became final new subscribing contributor to sign on during this drive! HW’s $5/month commitment brings our total recurring revenues to $412.50 against our goal of $2000 (I’ve been accidentally misreporting our numbers $5 to the low side for several days, and just caught it on the wrap-up).

This drive is now OVER, which means you’ll stop seeing daily updates, etc. Thanks to everyone who supports the freedom movement’s daily newspaper!

Here’s what comes next:

- Because we didn’t reach our goal of $2000 per month in recurring revenues, we’ll continue to run lower-impact monthly fundraisers in an attempt to make up the difference between what’s coming in and what we’re trying to bring in. Our July goal is $1587. You can see our progress (and click through to help) at rationalreview.chipin.com.

- We’ll also be focusing on how increasing advertising revenues. This may mean that you see more ads, or that those ads are more prominently placed. Once we get those ad revenues up to $100 per month, we’ll start reducing our fundraising goals by the previous month’s ad revenues.

Thanks again to all of you who continue to support RRND/FND! - TLK

—–

Dear readers,

As promised, I’ve tried to keep RRND/FND’s fundraising activities “low visibility, low pressure” for the last few months. I was even hoping to push this particular fundraiser farther down the road, but recent events have forced my hand. If my smooth sales pitch has already sold you, click here to skip the dirty details and go directly to the part where you send us money.

The dirty details

Since late 2004, Rational Review News Digest has “re-branded” itself as Freedom News Daily for a separate audience, on behalf of the International Society for Individual Liberty. We intend to continue doing so.

Since some time in 2005, ISIL has paid us — to the tune of $1,000 a month — to produce FND. Due to its own financial requirements and fundraising imperatives, ISIL has had to at least temporarily cease that support.

Repeat after me three times: This is not a divorce. It’s not even a breakup. We remain on good terms with ISIL. We intend to continue serving up daily helpings of Freedom News Daily to ISIL’s web, email and Facebook readers.

But, as you can see, this puts a big dent in our already very understated revenue model. Here’s how it breaks down:

Our current revenue model calls for us to bring in $2,000 a month. Before transaction fees, web hosting, etc., that would come to $720 per month in pay for our one full-time staffer (me), $360 per month for our three part-time editors (R. Lee Wrights, Mary Lou Seymour and Steve Trinward), and $200 per month for our tech support guy (Brad Spangler). As you can see, we’re not in this to get rich. But, as I’ve mentioned before, we have to eat.

Of course, we generally don’t bring in $2,000 a month. Until lately, we brought in $1,000 a month from ISIL, $237.50 per month (as of right now) in recurring payments from our beloved “subscribing donors,” an average of, oh, $25 per month in advertising commissions, and whatever else people send in “one-time” or “occasional” payments that aren’t tied to our “subscribing donor” system (another amount that fluctuates). On average, call it $1300-1500 per month — total.

That amount just went down to $300-500 per month with the ISIL developments. Time to get it back up, and moreover on a reliable basis. That means increasing our number of “subscribing contributors” … those of you who are willing to commit to sending $2.50, $5.00, $10, or $20 every month.

Goal: Get our “subscribing contributor” number from $237.50 per month to $2,000 per month by the end of June.

Does that sound hard? It shouldn’t. Our total readership via email, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter comes to nearly 7,100 readers. That’s excluding web edition readers. RRND’s web statistics say we exceed 2,000 unique visitors per day; I don’t have stats for ISIL’s web edition of FND.

I could make a good case for there being 10,000 daily consumers of this newsletter. Even excluding all duplicates, I think it’s a fair bet that we’re talking about more than 5,000 daily readers. If only 705 of you were to sign up at our $2.50 per month level, we’d be there.

So, I’m going to drag out the dreaded “thermometer” graphic and start hectoring you on a daily basis to get us there. Sound familiar? Let’s not have another one of those six-month ordeals.

The sweetener is this: If we can make this goal and stay within shouting distance of it (e.g. we don’t drop down below, say, $1,800 per month in “subscribing contributor” revenues), we’ll be content to do a short (probably one week long) “push it up a little” fundraiser once a year instead of coming back at you again and again with short-term goals that end up taking months to meet.

[Note: I’ve moved the thermometer graphic “up top”]

And here’s where you click to make things happen:

The Buck Starts Here Club ($1/month, billed quarterly)
RRND Daily Reader ($2.50/month)	RRND Subscriber ($5.00/month)
RRND Supporter ($10/month)	RRND Patron ($20/month)

I’ll be back with daily updates and neat little factoids (”our lowest subscribing donor level costs less than a large iced white chocolate mocha latte at Starbucks^TM” and such) … when you get tired of seeing them, you know where to click.

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review

Over time, we’ve tried to make it easy to contribute to RRND/FND in an automatic/recurring way, with optional levels ranging from $2.50 per month to $20 per month.

There’s a reason for the lowest level being $2.50 instead of, say, $1.00: PayPal charges transaction fees of 30 cents plus a small percentage of the total. From a $1.00 payment, less than 70 cents would actually reach RRND.

However, I’ve always wanted to offer a $1.00 per month level.

PayPal’s subscription function got more flexible awhile back — or maybe it’s always been that way and I just missed it until recently — and by George, I think I’ve got it.

Welcome, Ladies and Gents, to the miracle science of quarterly billing! Our new level of recurring support — The Buck Starts Here Club — lets you support RRND/FND to the tune of one dollar per month without transaction fees eating up more than 30% of that dollar before it ever reaches us.

The long and short of it is $3, billed every three months. I’ve already added this level to our standard “subscribing contributor options” menu, but here it is a la carte for your convenience.

This level of support is recommended for those who:

- Value RRND/FND at one dollar a month; and/or

- Can only afford one dollar a month; and/or

- Can’t, or prefer not to, fork over $12 in one swell foop.

Thanks, of course, to all of you who financially support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper at any level or frequency. We’ll continue to look into new and more convenient options to encourage that support.

Yours in liberty, Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review