The main people that I think that these laws are trying to target are web sites like Pirate Bay, who facilitate a lot of theft of copyrighted material. While ending blatant, purposeful theft is admirable, the law looks like it goes a little too far. However, if they soften this bill just a tad before publication, there is a small chance that this bill could help honest content producers. We’ll have to wait to see whether this will have a positive or a negative effect, but a podcast that I was listening to today made me realize that there could be some beneficial effects to honest people.

The podcast that I was listening to normally uses a song in its intro. They refer to a web site that visits other sites and cuts and pastes large sections of other people’s articles into it. All that is gone now. They have a new web site that has many links and shorter paragraphs describing the links. The podcast begins with some music that is not identifiable as any copyrighted song that I know of.

Since I set out to make money through content production, I’ve been pretty careful about not using other people’s copyrighted work without permission. I use a lot of Creative Commons work, a smattering of my own photos, and works that are in the public domain. On occasion, I do use an image under the “fair use” provision, such as when I’m writing about a company and use a logo. There have only been a few times that I have knowingly used copyrighted material without asking. I do my best to be honest.

As a result, I don’t have to change much if/when the upcoming law is passed. In addition, the people that at one time were cutting and pasting articles from other places now have to do exactly what I am doing, which puts us more on an even playing field.

There are many things that cannot be copyrighted. For example, you cannot copyright a list of ingredients, like what you would find in a recipe. Me and my lawyer-to-be husband had an argument about using a clownfish and a Dory-like fish in an aquarium together. The list of fish, I argued, cannot be copyrighted, but if you decided to arrange the tank like the one at 42 Wallaby Way, then you could have an argument for copyright infringement there. Similarly, summarizing a news story in your own words also cannot be copyrighted.

I’m not in favor of something that can put me out of business, or even bite into my earnings, obviously. However, if SOPA in it’s final form is written so that it makes it harder to shut down a web site (investigate complaints and give infringers a chance to fix any copyright issues that they might accidentally have a problem with), then there is a small chance that SOPA may not be as bad as it looks like. I’m not getting my hopes up, but if everybody that is trying to be legitimate but changed their ways as far as copyright infringement goes, then that might be a good thing for legitimate content producers in the end.

Interestingly enough, the last time that the entire East Coast was pummeled with snow this early on in the year was during the Civil War. We were also in the Little Ice Age back then. So we’re repeating weather conditions that haven’t been seen since the Little Ice Age, but we have to worry about Global Warming. More interesting about the connection than that is that the economic conditions, the ideological split, and the division that we are seeing resemble the time before the Civil War – except that it is on a global scale.

That being said, I think that tomorrow’s project that I need to accomplish is to write a free eBook about preparation. If you can’t get GBTV, then my eBook will be available. I usually would make a web page about topics like these, but this document is going to probably be several pages long – much more than I can comfortably handle on a web page. You can’t copyright ideas, so I should be safe with creating a book from today’s notes – especially since I have more to contribute than was in this show today.

I have difficulty finishing some of the larger projects that I’ve been working on, but I should be able to finish this one in about a day. If you’ve been looking for information about how to prepare for the last days, then look for my book in the next few days. I know that a lot of us Christians are hoping that the Rapture occurs before things get too bad, but things could potentially get REALLY bad before the Tribulation starts. Back in 1995 when I first learned about all the stuff going on, I estimated that it would be about 10 years before things got really chaotic and the rapture occurred. My estimated date was six years ago. We can’t count on the disappearance of Christians to spark the Tribulation. We may see it get so bad before we leave, that when the Christians are taken from the world, nobody notices.

There is nothing to fear as long as you stay with God. While we may have trouble on this Earth, nothing will happen to us that God doesn’t allow. I’ve seen so many instances where God miraculously protects people, even from certain death, because he has more for them to do.

1. Start with yourself. It won’t do you any good to change the world, even to gain the whole world, if you lose your soul. Evidently, Steve Jobs didn’t do this, as he claimed to be a Buddhist, but if you don’t repent of your sins and develop a relationship with Jesus Christ, you will find out that everything that you do in life amounts to nothing in the end. Sure, you might still change the world, but you’ll regret not taking care of your soul first. Just like the pilot will tell you to put your air mask on first before helping a small child, it’s important to take care of yourself first. In addition, becoming a follower of Jesus will help you prevent making ethical mistakes that can bring all of your hard work down in the end. Ask Bernie Madoff, or any politician whose adulterous relationship was discovered.

2. Take care of your family. Families might not be glamorous like being on television can be, but like the proverbial butterfly whose wing flaps cause a hurricane halfway across the world, creating a strong family can change the history of the world forever. For example, a girl recently traced every president’s ancestry (except one) to John of Lackland. Even President Obama’s ancestry goes back to him. Some people see this as a conspiracy, but millions of people (including myself) can trace their ancestry to him. Think about what would have happened if John of Lackland didn’t take care of his kids and let them camp out in front of the palace instead of teaching them to work hard? While John’s career did have quite a bit of corruption, at least he had enough sense to make sure that his kids were taken care of.

One person that didn’t take care of their family was Eli in the Bible. He may have been a great mentor to Samuel, and might have been a wonderful High Priest, but he didn’t take care of his kids. They turned out so rotten, in fact, that God killed them. On the other hand, the Pilgrims have some pretty successful descendants (they are not in my family tree, but I can trace my ancestry to Jamestown).

3. Serve others. This may seem like it’s backwards, but it’s true. People didn’t buy iPads because they liked Steve Jobs; they bought iPads because they are a good product. People watch Glenn Beck because he entertains them and provides them with information. While you can fool some people for a short time through manipulation, in the end, people will see through it.

Serving others can start with small things, like doing the best at whatever job you are in. Make it a point to smile, even if you’re the check-out person at Wal-Mart. You never know how you will affect someone. If you have time, help someone at your church or volunteer at your local school. Again, you never know how you’re going to change someone’s life.

If you’re doing these things, you never know what opportunities may await. Rosa Parks never meant to stir up trouble when she refused to move on the bus. Steve Jobs might not have imagined how much the computer would change the world. If you’re doing the right thing and the opportunity presents itself, seize the day. You never know what will happen.

I’ve been reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged over the last few days and it’s been hard to put down. I don’t know why, but it seems like I often read the right books at the right time. Rand is almost prophetic in some of the things that she says. Right now, her book seems to fit in nicely with the whole Occupy Wall Street crowd.

In Atlas Shrugged, there are two kinds of people: the looters and the producers. I’d have to guess that most of the people occupying Wall Street, Los Angeles, Seattle, and wherever they’re occupying, are looters. They think that they have the right to other people’s work. They’re unhappy not because the government is taking too much from them, but because they aren’t receiving enough from the government.

There are some services that it makes sense that the government provides. Roads. Courts. The military. We all benefit from them; we all need them. Should the government provide schools? I know that they started out with good intentions in mind, and perhaps it makes sense that local communities get together and provide local schools (or at least provide financial assistance for those families that can’t afford private schools), but this doesn’t have to be done on a national scale. Do we really need the FDA telling us that aspartame and vaccines are good but raw milk is going to make us sick? Couldn’t we create a private organization, like Consumer Reports, to do that sort of work?

I was struck by one chapter in the book where one of the main producers, Dagny Taggart, quits her job and goes to live in a cabin in the country. She quit because the government passed a set of laws that basically took away all of her freedom of choice about whether to work or not (just wait, I can see situations where that could be coming to the United States).

In isolation, her character remained the same. She saw problems at her little house and decided to fix them, repairing shingles, creating a walkway, and planting flowers. The nearby town didn’t receive a grocery store shipment because it had rained, and every time it rains the road becomes impassable. She asked, if the road always washed out when it rained, why didn’t they just fix it? Not being one to just sit and complain, she started thinking about fixing the road herself, after she fixed up her little cabin a bit.

While Dagny might have been a railroad heiress, her success didn’t come because her family was rich. Even without all of her monetary possessions around her, she was still getting things done and making improvements to her surroundings.

So what are you? Are you a looter or a producer at heart? You can’t tell by how much money you have now. When you face a problem, do you whine because it’s hopeless, or do you do your best to fix it? Do you want to rely on yourself for the things you need, trading your hard work with others fairly, or do you want others to provide things for you? I realize that sometimes people need a little help, especially in this economy, but when you receive help, is it your goal to get to the point where you can make it on your own and perhaps pay it forward, or are you happy right where you are at?

After I left the military several years ago and time had passed for a few years, things were looking pretty dim for me, in my eyes. My husband’s job wasn’t paying that much, and it didn’t look like there was ever hope to get paid anything above mediocrity. We were having trouble paying bills. We had a string of job losses and our house caught on fire. It was a very difficult time in my life.

Things started to look up. Dh started going to college (he’s now in law school). I started my own business. Dh helped start a business. Good things have started happening to us. Dh was accepted into the Alliance Defense Fund’s Blackstone Fellowship, and today he received an email from somebody asking if he would like to apply for a student assistant position at a law office. I don’t know if he will get the job or not, but the fact that someone is seeking him out asking if he wants to apply for a job is pretty good.

In the past few years, I’ve seen so many ways where people can create incomes, even if they can’t find a job. Maybe they’re not high paying, but they help out, and you can put them on your resume if you still want to work for someone else (I put my Epinions experience on my resume when looking for a writing job; I did get the job). Often, you don’t even need money to start out. Perhaps, if you’re crying for someone else to come save you financially, you might want to think and try to figure out ways that you can start producing.

In the last week, the AP published a series of sob stories about poor people who were having trouble making it in today’s economy. It received a lot of criticism from Blaze readers (I personally like the Blaze, although not all the commentators).

Stop painting the poor with some broad brush. The “poverty” level is just a number. Do people realize that two different families with the same income can live completely different lifestyles?

It is true that there are people that spend years on welfare and never do anything about it. It’s also true that for some, “poverty” is just a bump in the road between years of prosperity. In my family’s case, we used to make the equivalent of six figures… and I expect, between my business, the business that my husband helped found, and the law degree that my husband is in the process of getting, that we will not be among the “impoverished” several years from now.

What makes Stuart Varney think that I am “poor in spirit” because I don’t earn much money? I go to church… in fact, I give to the church when I can, even though that means that I might have to put in a little extra hours working. I spend a lot of time with my kids – that usually happens when you homeschool. I read books by Gibbon and Geoffrey of Monmouth, and can converse with you on topics like the Little Ice Age and how to protect your emergency equipment from an EMP blast. I didn’t vote for Obama and I support the Tea Party. I don’t support the RINOs that seem to be the media darlings for the Republican presidential nomination either. I support small government, and support massive cuts in entitlements. I don’t use the entitlement that most people take to send their kids to a public school. So from where am I lacking this “richness of spirit” that Mr. Varney seems to think comes with a massive income?

People with the same incomes can live completely different lifestyles. We’re not in debt. We couldn’t afford credit cards even if we wanted them, because we couldn’t afford the payments. We own our two cars outright – one of my cars is 24 years old (I didn’t even have a driver’s license back then). The other car we once had a payment on, but I’m glad to get rid of that, because it was hard to afford. If there’s any way possible, I’d like to pay cash for our next car. I’ll have to save up for that one.

We cut back in many areas that most people spend a lot of money on. My cell phone is for emergencies only and is prepaid, so it’s pretty cheap. Cable and internet are free with our apartment, which is relatively inexpensive since it’s student housing. Those savings, combined with not having car or credit card payments, allow us to live fairly comfortably, even though we live below the “poverty line”. When we first lost the majority of our income, it was hard, but we’ve learned to live with it. I’d like more wiggle room, but we’re okay. We’ll be wealthier someday, more than likely. My main complaint is with people who think that “poor” people are Obama-supporting, high-school dropout, idiotic welfare cheats that don’t have jobs, just because their income happens to be under a certain level. That’s just not the case all of the time.

In some ways, I’m better off than when I was raking in the dough. Back then, we didn’t pay much attention to our spending because the money was always coming. I would spend a $20 like it was nothing. We constantly overdrafted our bank account as a result. That doesn’t happen now. I pay attention to my money. When dd accidentally dropped her tennis shoes in the water, I told her that I couldn’t replace them, and that she needed to pray for shoes. Well, we did, and God provided about 10 pairs of shoes within a week.

So please save your judgements for people based on their income levels. While I do know people who are having financial troubles because they made stupid mistakes, we are not in financial trouble. I know of other people who make less than me that are also not in financial trouble. Money is not a measure of how smart or kind someone is.

Hillary Clinton rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange today. The Dow Jones fell several hundred points. Is she bad luck? Gold and silver didn’t go up either.

Mexico, Southern California and part of Arizona had their power knocked out last night. Does that have anything to do with the solar flares that I wrote about the other day?

Speaking of power, my power is out. My dh has a phone with mobile wi-fi broadcast capability. I normally hate the amount of money he spends on that thing, but right now it is coming in handy. Until my laptop runs out of juice. Then I guess there’s not much to do except read. This power outage doesn’t have anything to do with solar flares though. I’m sure it was knocked out in the lightning storm.

There are armed security forces in New York City running around with machine guns because of the suspected terrorist threat. I’ve never seen military threats like those in the United States. I’ve seen them in Mexico, in Ecuador, in Colombia, and in Italy, but never in the United States. I guess that the times are changing.

Things are interesting. Hopefully the power will come back sometime tonight so I’ll be able to be productive tomorrow (because this battery will not last).

In it, Gibbon describes how Rome went from this powerful society with the most advanced roads and technology on the planet, to being a society which we know of as Medieval Europe. I personally don’t even think we know the half of Rome’s greatness at its height. We are still discovering some of the things they did. Medieval Europe was just so low that nearly everything was lost. The people were so desperate (or something) that they would tear apart the old structures of Rome in order to rebuild their own buildings. The Colosseum at one point was used as a garbage dump.

Rome declined gradually, but I’m sure that the people felt something. Where once the army was practically invincible, it starts getting defeated on the battlefield. While the road system once allowed people to travel from one end of the empire to another, the paths started to crumble. The aquaducts that carried fresh water started to break down, and the sewers started to back up.

Today, America seems to be in decline, just like in Gibbon’s history. Shows like Inspector America and The Crumbling of America talk about how America’s infrastructure is breaking down. I witnessed it myself a couple of years ago as I drove up the California coast. Our educational system is flawed, and our politicians are corrupt. We aren’t winning our wars in a decisive manner like we did in World Wars I and II. America no longer supports a space shuttle program.

The rest of the world isn’t off the hook either. Riots abound nearly everywhere. Famines plague some of the poorer countries. Europeans are having a self-inflicted energy crisis just like the United States: countries are closing nuclear plants and don’t want to use coal or fossil fuels, so Germany and England may face blackouts. We may abandon the International Space Station because of problems with one of Russia’s shuttles.

Although we live with technology that makes our lives better, the society that we live in is fragile. We need educated people to keep things running. We need energy. We need people to work in all of the industries that we depend on for our lifestyle.

I do believe that the Lord is coming back soon, but if he didn’t, then I think that we would see a serious change in the way that we live.

Last night, I saw an article about a grandpa who was in some legal trouble for forcing his grandkids to go on a hike at the Grand Canyon. My first thought was, “what’s wrong with that?” I made my kids go hiking while we were on vacation.

There’s a little more to the story than the headline mentions. First, it was an 18 mile hike. That’s a little excessive for unwilling participants. I personally think that many kids can go on 18 mile hikes, but unless the kids’ family is hiking all the time, that’s a little much. Secondly, it was 108º outside. I like to hike, but I personally would pass on an 18 mile hike in that kind of heat.

The story doesn’t end there. The grandpa wasn’t giving the kids food or water on the hike. I don’t care if it’s 58º or 108º outside, if you’re hiking for 18 miles, you need to have something to drink. Plus, grandpa was hitting the kids with towels or something.

So it makes a little more sense that people would be upset that grandpa would force his grandkids to take a hike.

Ever since I became interested in real-food nutrition about a year ago, I’ve noticed that a lot of people that are interested in health often seem to be supporters of the Democratic party. Not all, of course. Some would like the government to pass laws to tell the unhealthy masses what they can and cannot eat.

I do not support that, of course. If you have read much of what I write, then you would probably guess that I’m conservative. I’m not a Republican; I consider myself a Constitution Party member (I voted for the Constitution party Candidate in 2004, in fact). I do support much of what the Tea Party supports (although it’s not a real party). While I don’t support passing laws telling us what we can and cannot eat (I prefer education), I do think that there’s something that both real-food advocates and conservatives can agree on: farm freedom.

While large-scale agriculture doesn’t seem to have a problem with governmental regulations (many of these companies help influence the regulations), small farms are increasingly the target of governmental raids. Amish farms have been raided for selling raw milk. One person was fined over $90,000 for selling rabbits (making about a $200 profit before the fine). Another person was fined thousands of dollars for giving food away. In some ways, we’re not much different from the Tunisian fruit vendor that set himself on fire because he was tired of the government interfering in his life and making it difficult for him to earn a living.

I don’t care if you like to eat healthy, clean foods, or love to eat Ho-Hos and Coke every day at lunchtime. If you’re an American, I hope that you can at least agree that small farmers should be free from excessive governmental interference. If there’s a true health hazard, then perhaps the government might want to warn us; however, in many cases, there is no reason to take away a farmer’s livelihood. I’d prefer freedom, even if it means there is a little risk involved.