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Posted on 09.05.08 by Thomas L. Knapp
Update, 09/05/08 – Thanks to subscribing contributor GB, whose $10 payment early this morning saved us from the shame and ignominy of a second consecutive zero-dollar day and brought our running total to $1,782.50 against our goal of $5,000! What GB didn’t save you from is a sample of the dreaded statistics that I’m going to start unleashing with increasing frequency if readers other than our existing base of subscribing contributors don’t start weighing in. Here goes: According to my handy, dandy word processor “word count” tool, yesterday’s edition (which was of fairly average length, if not a bit under) came to 9,208 words. Even at our lowest subscribing contributor level of $2.50 per month, assuming an average of 20 issues per month, that comes to such an incredibly low cost per word that my calculator spits out one of those numbers ending in “e-5.” The average length of a novel is allegedly between 60,000 and 100,000 words. At a $7.99 consumer paperback price, that means you’re paying the comparatively exorbitant price of somewhere upward of 79 thousandths of a cent per word. I don’t know how much more that is per word than yada, yada “e-5,” but c’mon … you have to be impressed with the intensity of my obsession, anyway. Let me say this again: We are $1,782.50. We are going to reach $5,000. I don’t see any reason why that should have to involve weird statistics, claims that Ayn Rand just might call me home if we don’t, etc. It’s really just a simple matter of returning value for value, as a couple of hundred of RRND/FND’s thousands of readers consistently do (and, as I can’t say too often, we greatly appreciate those who do). As I’ve pointed out before, we’re pretty much small potatoes as these things go. Pound for pound, I think we deliver as good or better than any libertarian project out there. Not to pick on anyone, but the Cato Institute comes to mind: Our wildest-dream revenue goals, per year, come to somewhere in the neighborhood of their budget for ONE DAY. Our CURRENT fundraising goals … well, let’s just say they’d never make it to day one’s lunch break on those numbers. Like I said, not to put Cato down, but I hope you find what we do to be at least 1/730th, and maybe even 1/365th, as valuable to you as what they do. Enough statistics for the day. PLEASE help us get this fundraiser in the bag — I’m even throwing in a free subscription my new newsletter to anyone who contributes in any amount. Have a great weekend! - TLK —– Dear readers, Earlier this year, I told you that RRND/FND would be moving to a “twice-a-year” fundraising schedule — and we’re keeping our word. We’ve even waited almost a month past mid-year to start our first 2008 drive. But now it’s time. The goal is $5,000, and we’ll keep plugging until we reach it (even if that means extending into our year-end fundraiser, which we’d certainly prefer not to do!). You can support “the freedom movement’s daily newspaper” (and our offshoot publications — 2nd Amendment News Digest, Liberty Action News Digest and Progressive News Digest) in any of several ways: One-Time Payments Online
Become a Subscribing Contributor! [Note: All subscription payments received during the fundraiser will be credited toward its total]
Other Options If you prefer to support RRND/FND through the International Society for Individual Liberty, to target your contribution to this project. Please drop me a line so that I can thank you and add your contribution to our total (ISIL doesn’t send us a daily report). If you’d like to send a check, money order, cash or other valuable thing via US Snail, again, write me so I can send you the address and instructions. And Now For Something Completely Different Would you like to see NO MORE RRND/FND fundraisers for nearly a year? So would we … so here’s a “side bet.” Up-front disclaimer: This mid-year fundraiser WILL continue until the goal is met, even if that’s some time next year (hopefully it will be some time next month!). But, we’re running a simultaneous “contingent pledge drive” through Fundable.Com to raise ANOTHER $5k … and if we make it, our next fundraiser won’t be until at least mid-2009. It’s a simple concept: You pledge the amount of money you’re willing to contribute to that second $5k. If we raise $5k in pledges like yours, you pay. If we don’t, you don’t. That simple. Click here to make your pledge. Yours in liberty, Filed under: 2AM News and Feature Articles and LAND News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Posted on 08.31.08 by J. Neil Schulman
Let’s start with my voting history, so you’ll know where I’m coming from. In my first eligibility to cast a ballot in a presidential election — in 1972 — I could not bring myself to vote either to re-elect Republican Richard Nixon or replace him with Democrat George McGovern. I cast a write-in vote for the 19th century libertarian, Lysander Spooner, for president. In 1976 I was one of the activists in the “Vote for Nobody!” campaign, and did not vote either for Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter. In 1980 and 1984 — even though I liked him better than any other major-party candidate for president since I’d become eligible to vote — I refrained from voting for Ronald Reagan. I remained a non-voter on the Jack Parr principle that “voting only encourages them.” In 1988 without even a major-party candidate on the ballot as appealing to me as Reagan, I again refrained from voting. By 1992 I’d argued myself into becoming a voter again, on the principle that if I believed in self-defense with a gun, I could believe in self-defense with a proxy gun — the ballot. But unable to vote for either George H.W. Bush or Bill Clinton, I voted for Ross Perot. Filed under: Guest Columns | |
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Posted on 06.09.08 by Thomas L. Knapp
Guest column by Barry Klein. How free market activists can achieve a pattern of victories ———————————————- … Recognize that money to fund an organization office with staff is critical. The following package of ideas probably cannot be done well without a budget of This is a strategy to reach the small number of opinion setters in each urbanized area. I call this group the “political village.” They are the civic activists and members of business groups who are watching the issues, developing opinions and sometimes trying to shape policy. It is much more affordable to reach and educate this relatively small number of people than a whole population of voting adults. I estimate 10,000 people fit this description in the Houston area where I live, and people are entering and leaving the village continuously. Filed under: Feature Articles and Guest Columns | |
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Posted on 06.01.08 by Michelle L
I have recently heard from many wonderful folks in the Libertarian Party that support the Barr-Root ticket; people that say we need to rally round the candidates and that I’m committing the cardinal sin of “cut and run” rather than putting the Party first. While I have utmost respect for all members of the Libertarian Party, I am having a very hard time believing that these particular leopards can change their spots. Filed under: Guest Columns | |
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Posted on 05.28.08 by Michelle L
“IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU” Please don’t act surprised, we both know it’s been over for a long time — it’s just that now, after Denver; I can’t pretend otherwise. Some people are thrilled when their exes make fools of themselves — fortunately for you, I am not one of them. That was, until you decided to announce to the world that your new BFF is Bob Barr; that he is the one you’d rather been seen around town with and who is being marketed as the chosen one to finally put you into the mainstream of political parties. I mean, seriously … Bob Barr?? And to think, I put your signs in my yard for all the world to see. I can’t honestly say that the warning signs weren’t there — the way you seemed to disregard my loyalty in favor of the prospect of national coverage; the way you looked at other parties when you thought I wasn’t looking, the way you were never there for our children; Liberty, Freedom and Values like you once were — just paying them enough lip service to make it appear that they (and I) were still important to you but really only using us for photo ops. I felt betrayed because of how much I had believed in you; how honorable you seemed compared to the other parties — how, when all the cool kids asked how I could possibly stand by you when you had zero chance of winning, I defended you and told everyone that you were different — that you had real values! (more…) Filed under: Guest Columns | |
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