GE, Halliburtan and their business with Iran

From Captain Capitalist

Despite US sanctions against doing business with Iran, GE, Halliburton and other companies have continued to do business with that country and others such as Syria and Libya.

While they don't do it directly, they go through foreign subsidiaries and have defended the practice by stating that they are in compliance with current US law.

That may be the case, but how do you morally and ethically justify doing business with a regime that we know is supplying weapons that are being used to kill Americans in Iraq and Afganistan? The companies believe they are looking after the best interests of their shareholders. I would submit that supporting state sponsors of terrorism against US citizens is a bigger concern to their shareholders than an extra couple of cents in their dividend payment.

Capitalism at its best is not all about cash. It's about improving your quality of life by finding ways to improve the quality of other people's lives. It's about creating value. Providing support and stability for regimes that want to kill us is not providing value.

Claiming a legal responsibility to honor existing contracts is complete BS. The minute the Iranians and others decided to sponsor the killing of Americans they voided any legal rights they may have had. No legitimate court in the world would hold GE or Haliburton to those contracts if they terminated them tomorrow, which is what they ought to do.

In the meantime, I would highly recommend that US citizens refrain from patronizing any company or its subsidiaries that continues to do business with our enemies, regardless of existing contracts.

Designing and Decorating a Child's Bedroom

From Aritcle City
by: Dave Rowe
When it comes to decorating, your Childs bedroom is one of the areas where you can really have fun with design ideas and if your child is old enough you can involve him in the design process. Although you may have to water down some their ideas to fit within your budget!

The key to designing a pleasing child’s bedroom is to plan ahead. In no time at all your baby will become a toddler and then not long after that he will be starting school and soon become a teenager. So what seemed like a good idea to paint 6foot high murals of ‘Winnie the Pooh characters will not be appropriate when your 10 ten year old brings home his friends from school for the first time. Getting the basic structure correct at the beginning will save you having to do major changes every time you re-decorate. So this involves getting enough electric sockets and lights setup. If you have the opportunity get dimmer switches fitted and use a combination of main lighting and downlighters so the mood in the bedroom can be varied depending on the activity.

When designing a theme room, it is probably better to decorate one wall with the chosen theme and paint the other three walls with a plain colour, rather than have all four walls wall-papered with the same design not only does this give a feeling of more space but it is also cheaper when you need to re-decorate or change the theme due to your child growing older. Design for fun and keep it practical. Keep decoration simple and easy to look after are the key messages. Paint needs to be hard wearing and washable, sticky fingers and even worse crayons and pens are the main enemy here. If you include a blackboard at the height of your child and encourage him to use that, it will save many hours washing or painting over your child’s latest Picasso!

On the plain walls you can always use posters and pictures to expand on the required theme. Storage is probably the major requirement for the bedroom. As children get older they seem to accumulate more and more toys so space under beds or cabin beds should be considered. Take a look around at what your child’s has and you will probably find that you need to fit in: · A bed. · A wardrobe. · A desk and chair. · A bookshelf · Storage for toys. · Storage for out of season clothes i.e. winter or summer. · An area to display models and prizes from school. Wardrobes and chest of drawers or dressing tables are also useful. Giving your child a work area such as a desk are also good for encouraging children to do their homework as they grow older. Choose furniture which is also hard wearing and washable. Plain white furniture will work for almost any theme and will last for many years. There are many specialist sites on the web which focus just on children’s furniture such as http://www.furniture-4-kids.co.uk/ are good sites to see a range of different furniture from different suppliers.

When the children are toddlers there are many ranges of small tables and chairs which can be purchase relatively cheaply to give your child the feeling of his own special space. When fitting out the inside of his or her wardrobes position the rails near the bottom to encourage them to select their clothes and dress themselves. It also hopefully will help to keep the room tidy. A large toy box is also an excellent way to clear up a mess quickly before bedtime. Shelves for storing books and displaying special toys and also their latest creations they may have made at school are a good idea

When you know what budget and what the basic rules are, ask your child to share their thoughts on what their dream room should look like. In the beginning remind your children that you will not be able to deliver everything they ask for, but that you are sure you will be able to achieve something, which will be satisfactory for you and the child. Try to include: · Their favourite colours. · Their favourite hobbies/interests. · Their favourite objects. · Their Favourite cartoon or story characters or football teams · Which one item they would like in their room more than anything else.

Once the theme is decide upon a site such as http://www.Pricerighthome.com contains some superb themed accessories based upon cartoon characters or football teams with curtains duvet covers and wallpapers which will help add the final touches to the perfect room. By planning at the beginning and involving your child in the design process you will probably find it the most enjoyable room to decorate and also a room which will be easy to decorate in future years as your child’s tastes and needs change.


About The Author
Dave Rowe has written many articles on DIY and home design. He also runs several websites including http://furniture-4-kids.co.uk http://www.buy-bratz-toys.co.uk and http://www.searchforgifts.co.uk

Affiliate SEO Tricks by Len Hutton

From Article City

The majority of the world’s working population perform their jobs in offices and most of the world’s working population do not like their jobs because, well, who wants to work? So, if you don’t like to work but have to work anyway, why stick yourself into a job with low pay? The best solution would be to find a high-paying job, work hard and then start your own business if you can. The problem is, even with a high paying job, you can’t earn enough money to start a business.

The World Wide Web, being an economy in itself, offers a variety of opportunities for making money. You can try your hand at freelance jobs like data encoding, medical transcription, article composition and programming. There are a number of freelancer websites that you can join so you may work at home and put some extra money in your pocket. Start-up capital = $0

There are supposedly expert moneymakers who, for a small fee of $100 to $200 will teach you how to earn $2,000 to $10,000 a month. You can try out their system for free, but, you will have to place a deposit to be able to get the free trial. Start-up capital = $49 to $100 depending on deposit requirements.

Finally, you can be a passive internet salesperson. I call it passive because all you have to do is establish a base of operations in the internet. Once that base has been established, you have the potential to earn from $0 to unlimited income. All you have to do afterwards is maintain or update that base once every three months. And yes, this advice is free. No trial offers, and no deposits required. Read on please.

Vendor sites like amazon.com offer internet surfers the opportunity of earning additional income in exchange for the promotion of their website and products. This is how it works. You will need to sign-up for affiliate membership. Most vendor sites that offer affiliate programs do not charge you for this. This is only fair since you will be selling them to people. Be wary of vendor sites that charge fees for membership to their affiliate programs. Once you join-up, they will give you a reference number or an ID number that you will paste into your html scripts. Your vendor site will give you instructions on how to paste them. Normally, an affiliate will have to have a website where they can promote the vendor site. You will promote the vendor site by adding links to the site’s home page and some specific products which you think will sell more.

You will need to design your website to accommodate these links as well as alter some of your websites graphics to make way for banners, or picture links. Don’t forget to add the ID or reference number to the link so that the vendor can identify your referral. Once you have the links in place, you will need to write some 250++ words about the product you are selling. I recommend allotting 1 web page per product as this will help you in search engine result rankings. The content you write will have to be relevant and filled with keywords that pertain to the product itself.

Once everything is done, you need to find out if your website shows up in search engine queries when browsing for your product. If you think this is too much work, you can try writing newsletters about a product on a vendor site that contains links to the product. You then post the newsletter on the internet and hope that a search engine indexes it. Mind you, this isn’t a get rich quick scheme. Times are hard and we need all the financial assistance we can get. This is just one option where you can possibly earn a lot more than your current income.

The problem with most affiliates is that they don’t last long because they fail to maintain and update their product links. Some of the products that you have linked to before may have already been discontinued. You need to check on your links at least once every 3 months or once a month at optimum. Finally, don’t be content with what you have. Look for additional products to sell.


About The Author
Len Hutton is an information publisher specialising in helping people start their own home based business. You can read up on how to create your own info products in one day without writing a single word by going to http://www.nicheresidualincomes.com/ How To Turn Other Peoples Hard Work Into A Part Time And Instant Internet Business http://www.nicheresidualincomes.com/underground.htm

Death and Taxes

From Captain Capitalist

Taxes are no doubt going to be a key issue in this presidential election once again. The tax cuts put in place after 9/11 are due to expire soon. Some want to make them permanent. Others want to allow them to expire. Which way to go?

The tax cuts in question probably spared the US from falling into a deep recession after the 9/11 attacks. Still, as some have suggested, they would have done better if they had been accompanied by spending restraints. Spending control is a must going forward, but I don't believe the case can be made that the US would have been better off if more money had been put at the government's disposal and less in the hands of the private sector over the past several years.

Yet the same people who point to the deficit as "out of control" want to give the government more money, and even use the deficit as justification! It's like pumping more water into a broken pipeline. How is that productive?

One of the worst tax policies in this country is the estate tax. This is a tax on money and assets that have already been taxed. The amount is irrelevant. Even if they raise the minimum to 100 trillion dollars, there is no justification for taxing it twice just because the producer has passed away. The person who created and/or accumulated the wealth, and paid his or her taxes while doing so, has earned the right to decide where it goes, all of it, when they die. This is a private property issue. Is what's yours really yours, or is it just on loan from your government? It's easy to see why politicians would like to fully reinstate the "death tax". As the baby-boomers age, this county is going to undergo the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the planet. Politicians are licking their chops and don't want to think about all that capital going from point a to point b without them getting a cut.

We are at a critical point in our economic evolution. We can proceed to new heights as technology, communication and innovation enable more and more individuals to share their ideas, products and services or we can pull the "emergency brake" of higher taxation, bringing about a more sluggish, perhaps even stagnant or backwards economy in the name of "fairness".

Government is supposed to enable a free society, not dominate it. It is there for the protection of individuals, not their enslavement or indentured servitude. Society is a mutual convenience to be voluntarily participated in, not a master to be served. To fund government at levels appropriate to its legitimate functions we've got a long way to go, and it's all downhill.

My favorite 5-letter word

From Bliss Sawyer's Marketing Blog

GOALS. Have you set yours for 2008? I'm not talking about jotting down a few numbers your manager asked you for and then putting them in a drawer - never to be looked at again.

I'm talking about goals that you take time to determine and then review daily. Goals that guide your actions. Goals that you will actually meet or even exceed.

If this isn't your usually mode of operation.. you'll have some habit-changing to do. But that's ok since you probably have some time to work on this over the next week or so.

First, block out an hour for a "goal setting session." Quiet, uninterrupted time. (Turn off the email and phone.) Let your mind go and decide what's really important and how you can keep your goals centered on those pieces of your life. Make monthly, quarterly, 1-year, 3-year and 5-year goals.

Second, develop a plan to consistently review and work on the goals. Keep the goals visible and on your mind. This is the easiest way to accomplish anything. All your daily tasks should be moving you towards these goals. Remember - you become what you think most about.

Lastly, don't get discouraged. There will be many times during the year when you will need to refocus and recommit yourself to your goals. I recommend you revise goals quarterly. Your journey will needs adjustments every so often. A regular review will keep you on the path you want.

Happy New Year!

Do You Need A New Hobby? Start Collecting Rare Coins.

by: Perry Corman

from ArticleCity.com

Rare coins are one of the remaining investments which can be accumulated with privacy and transported easily. Coins are classic appreciating assets with a history of long-term price increases. Old and rare coins are worth far more than face value (the value on their surface) - and more than just their metal composition - as collectibles. Rare coins are a hobby, as are they a good investment. Rare coins are the most liquid of all collecting hobbies.

Silver and gold coins are fast becoming a new American icon because they give investors economic stability, profit potential AND privacy. You may shop 24/7 for rare coins, gold coins, silver coins, 2007 bullion gold coins, gold coins and more at http://www.coinsale.org among other places. If at any time our paper money is threatened, rare coins can protect wealth much like an investment in gold bullion. You can buy with confidence from several coin dealers. The heaviest coin to be minted is the 1000Mohur, a gold coin weighed almost 12 kilograms.

Buying rare coins for own profit has been a good choice for investors for many years. Buying rare gold coins can be done from coin dealers, special auctions such as http://www.coinsale.org (http://www.coinsale.org). By the year 2015, experts believe that there will be some 140,000,000 coin collectors/investors, an increase of over 3 times that of today's buyers. Some collectors have made a lot of money buying and selling rare coins, others have lost fortunes. For instance, there are no reporting requirements for the buying or selling coins, so your own privacy can be easily protected.

Rare coins stand out as a great investment compared to other collectible items, especially for someone looking to diversify their investment portfolios into the world of collectibles for the first time. As for other collectible items, nothing performs as well as rare coins when it comes to pure investing: coins are virtually indestructible, they are easy to store, easy to insure, and rare coins are portable commodities that can be easily converted into liquid assets. Unlike paintings, sports memorabilia, or other forms of collectible items, the old coin market is characterized by well-established standards for deciding the quality of any given coin and a stock market like infrastructure for ensuring the liquidity of the investment.

Rare coins are totally immune from bankruptcy and virtually immune from dilution. Coins are not only good investments, they can be fun too. Rare Coins are trading at half of their market highs of the late eighties. Rare coins are very interesting because their rarity makes them both precious and fascinating. Thousands of rare coins are regularly bought and sold sight-unseen on an electronic numismatic exchange and auctions, like http://www.coinsale.org.

About The Author

Perry Corman is a curious soul, researcher and author. He has a wide range of interests, ranging from politics to astronomy. If you have an interest in rare coins, take a look at http://www.coinsale.org (http://www.coinsale.

Atheist "Religious" Principals

From Atheist HQ

In thinking about what it is that people really fear about death, it occurred to me that the biggest fear may be of being judged. Not only, being judged, but being judged by someone you can't BS that has your future in his/her/its hands. This would be especially disturbing to someone who has lived their life in a deceitful or dishonest manner. All of their secrets are about to be exposed and sentance is to be passed.

Being an atheist to me, does not rule out the possibility of my continued existence once this body is through. From a purely scientific standpoint, until we identify and completely understand the nature of the individual consciousness, we can't rule the possibility in or out.

Religion is a means of establishing the terms of an afterlife before the fact. Atheists need to get in on this, but in a more logical manner. Let's start with the premise that you will continue to exist in some form after your human body dies. What can we safely assume other than that? Well, you probably wont carry much memory forward, since memory is physically stored in the brain, and you wont have access to that anymore. You may carry forward a unique method of processing input or something akin to a "motherboard" , but not much else. We don't know what the environment will look like, or even if the physics will be the same. We don't know what type of vehicle or body you'll be housed in. Logically, to be best prepared for such an unknown situation it's best to focus on those ideas and ideals that will be of good use in any circumstance where individuals interact in some form or another.

The primary principal to carry forward should be the right to "self" . That is, that you exist primarily for your own benefit/entertainment/pleasure and not for someone or something else's. Freedom of association, freedom of thought, freedom from coercion and aggression should all apply regardless of the environment. You promote this principal by practicing it. You recognize these rights and freedoms among others and do nothing to violate or inhibit them, while demanding the same for yourself. The golden rule "Treat your neighbor as you would have them treat you" is OmniVersal.

What action should you take? You've just been thrown into a totally new and foreign environment. You don't speak the language, you don't have any knowledge of the place or mastery of anything in it. You don't know anyone here yet. A good rule of thumb is to always think: "How can I make this better?" In any given moment, is there an action you can take that will make the next moment more enjoyable, interesting, comfortable, etc, without violating the primary principal?

These are a couple of good ones to start with. I don't want to list a bunch of guidelines, just for the sake of having more guidelines.

What's the point? Well, as I said, if there's an afterlife, you probably don't get to keep your memory. Therefore any useful ideals or methods of operating must be ingrained in your self to be carried forward. The best way to accomplish that is to live by those parameters now. Everyday. All the time, until you don't have to think about it anymore. It's just who you are. OmniVersal principals are meant to be advantageous in any universe, including this one, even if this turns out to be the only one and there is no life after your human body expires.

Also, if there is an afterlife, you'll be dealing with individuals for whom different afterlife ground rules may have been established. Any delay in getting your self oriented and prepared to make decisions could leave one vulnerable to deception and manipulation. Best to be somewhat ready in advance. After all, if there is an afterlife, there's no reason think I wont be in the minority again. I'm going to need allies in the next phase, if only to keep from being burned at the proverbial stake.