I’m Not The Only One

Just in case you didn’t see the sidebar, I’m Not The Only One has a Facebook page.  I’d appreciate it if my readers could make themselves a fan of the page.

I also have a Twitter page, both of which will notify you whenever this blog is updated.  Adding yourself to both would be greatly appreciated.

I like to say “social notworking” instead of social networking because my friends usually update their Facebook pages during the daytime, when I know they’re at work.  Then I see the updates like, “So and so just reached level 82 on Cube Crash” (also during the workday) or some other Facebook application, so I know they’re not working!

Lastly, here are some cool libertarian Facebook pages you might want to become a fan of:

Cato Institute

Libertarian Bloggers

 You Know You’re Libertarian When…

 Lou Dobbs is a Racist

Okay, the last one’s not libertarian, but it’s one I definitely like.

As millions of students return to college to prepare to fill jobs that probably won’t exist by the time they graduate, I am reminded of a dubious concept from my own college years: academic integrity.

You can’t take one college course, read one syllabus or even read university literature without coming across that word. It is a concept used to enforce rules on students that prohibit among other things, plagiarism, cheating, using Cliff Notes, Wikipedia or any other act perceived as academic dishonesty.

Unfortunately I’d learned over the years in college that academic integrity only applies to students.  Faculty, text book companies and even entire universities do not have to adhere to any standards of academic integrity. (more…)

For those of you who have never really liked all those visually obstructive ads on this blog, today is your day.

As you can now see, the MSNBC Politics and Amazon.com ads are gone.  My fellow bloggers should pay close attention to what I’m about to say.

I originally put up the MSNBC Politics /huge display ad widget on my blog in May of 2008.  Placing the widget near the top was mandatory in order to participate in their advertising program.  I thought that was a little much, but I tolerated it.

I recently logged in to the website of Syndigo, the third party company that manages these display ad widgets for MSNBC, the Today Show and a host of local CBS affiliates, to see how much money I had accumulated in the 16 months since I’d joined their network and was appalled to see I had only accumulated $3.89.  I was even further dismayed to learn that they had actually lowered their rates of payment per click and per thousand impressions (impressions is when the ad is seen on the browser of someone visiting my blog). Syndigo can keep their lousy $3.89.  The worst aspect of Syndigo is that they don’t pay out until I accumulated $50 on my account, which at the current rate of accumulation would not have happened for me for another 17 years, at which time Syndigo will undoubtedly be defunct.

Amazon was even worse, with no revenue whatsoever.  As much as I like to show my visitors what books I like to read, it was a non-monetizing eyesore that, like MSNBC, had to go.

In contrast, Google Adsense, which is near the bottom and the least visually obstructive, pays out something like $100 a year, which while is a small amount, is far more substantial than anything I’ve gotten from the other two affiliate programs.

To be fair, Syndigo’s rates of payment are based on how many unique visitors come to your site per month.  The lowest bracket, which my blog was in, was for websites that received fewer than 10,000 unique visits per month. So I guess joining Syndigo is not a worthwhile investment unless you have more than 10,000 unique visits per month.  And if you have fewer than that number, be prepared to provide MSNBC or CBS with free advertising.

I never expected to get rich with Syndigo; I only expected to see comparable to or better results than Google Adsense given that the advertising was significantly larger and harder to ignore since it was near the top of the web page.  If I were a liberal, I’d call my Congressmember to tell them to ban such slick advertising schemes and protect us vulnerable bloggers and webmasters.  But I’m a free-market libertarian, so I’m just going to take the assholes off my site.

Last week or so a murderer was put to death.  Not by the criminal justice system but by brain cancer.  All the endearing coverage of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy’s death by the liberal (and strangely enough, right-leaning as well) media cannot cover up the fact that he is directly responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

For those unfamiliar with the subject, Mary Jo was a secretary for Robert Kennedy in the 1960s who became close with Ted, a married man.  She worked on RFK’s Presidential campaign in 1968.  A year later, July 18, 1969, she attended a party thrown for RFK’s campaign workers on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard, where she ran into Robert’s brother, then-freshman U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.  Mary Jo left the party around 11 pm, according to Ted, because he offered her a ride back to the ferry to go back to her hotel.  Oddly, Mary Jo didn’t tell anyone else that she was leaving and left her hotel keys and purse at the party.

Ted did not ask his chauffeur to drive and inexplicably left him at the party.  Ted drove his Oldsmobile off Dyke bridge a narrow, unlit crossing that was not on the way to the ferry dock and they landed into the water below.  Ted escaped the sinking car and swam to safety but Mary Jo remained in the car and died.  He claimed he dove into the water seven times in attempts to rescue Mary Jo, but ultimately gave up and walked back to the party, passing several houses along the way and inexplicably failing to ask the residents to use their phone to call the police.  Instead of enlisting the help of the police, Ted got two of his friends to drive back to the bridge and they all reportedly tried to rescue Mary Jo.  Teddy didn’t report the accident and Mary Jo’s demise to the police until the submerged car and Mary Jo’s body was discovered the following morning.  The local Fire Rescue squad pulled out the car to find Mary Jo in the back seat.  Strangely enough, no autopsy was ordered and cause of death was stated as “drowning”. But later that month the District Attorney ordered her body exhumed and an autopsy performed based on police records reporting blood found on Mary Jo’s skirt and in her mouth and nose “which may or may not be consistent with death by drowning”.  But the DA’s request was turned down. (more…)