A sentence is often more adequate (and effective) than an essay.

My girlfriend got a sample box of this Curves Cereal in the mail. Can you spot what’s wrong in this picture? (sorry for the lack of quality, that’s what I get for shooting this with a RAZR phone)

Here’s what I found to be wrong:

Bad advertising. Lesson learned: be sure to request a proof before going to press or you may have a partially albino black woman without a belly button in your promotional materials.

*EDIT* I found another photo of the box. It appears that the original model was indeed white, and wearing a light green undershirt. Looks like the ad was a case of an unfortunate color choice for the undershirt.

I read this on JohanNorberg.net today

About one hundred Swedish companies have been threatened on Islamist websites in the last few days. Jihadist websites call for Muslims to boycott companies like IKEA, H&M, Ericsson and Electrolux, and in several cases to attack them. This is evil times two. They attack people who have nothing to do with what they are fighting against, and they do it because they want to put pressure on the Swedish government to stop artists like Lars Vilks from mocking religion.

This has dangerous potential. When the Danish Mohammed cartoons were published Danish companies like Arla were hurt by boycotts. This probably didn´t have an effect on the Danish government, but it did on other countries´ governments. They could see that if they forcefully defended freedom of speech their companies would also be hurt. And since politicians often care more about industry interests than about democratic principles they started to appease opponents of free speech.

So what do we do to save our liberties from Jihadists and unprincipled politicians? It´s easy. The opponents of freedom and democracy are fewer than the supporters and their purchasing power is smaller. The only thing that makes them influential is that they act in unison. But we can do that too.

Why don´t we decide to try to buy goods from companies that find themselves in the middle of free speech conflicts like this? If we, thousands of bloggers and writers and our readers do that, the effect of every boycott will be diminished. Spread the word now, around the world, that we are buying Swedish if we need beer, food, furniture or phones this week. And then, if Canadian or Georgian companies are the next targets, we´ll buy Canadian and Georgian goods next.

Perhaps we can institutionalise this as well, and turn it into a Break the boycott- and Buy for freedom-website and a movement that looks at what happens next and informs us on the next victims that need our help. I am sure that there is talent out there, who could do it. Perhaps you are the one? We need it, because this will happen again and again unless we do something about it.

Just wanted to give this some publicity, since it is something that most Americans probably will not hear about.

The New York Times released an article on Ayn Rand’s influence:

One of the most influential business books ever written is a 1,200-page novel published 50 years ago, on Oct. 12, 1957. It is still drawing readers; it ranks 388th on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. (“Winning,” by John F. Welch Jr., at a breezy 384 pages, is No. 1,431.)

The book is “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand’s glorification of the right of individuals to live entirely for their own interest.

I am floored that The New York Times even published this. Spread of ideas… take notes from Ayn Rand.

My girlfriend pointed out to me that this story was even on Drudge!

I’ve decided to start a new feature on this blog, to help reward and encourage discussion.  This feature will be the Roll Call.  I have created a page that will be an extensive list of my most frequent commenter’s websites/blogs.  Of course, this list is fully at my discretion, but if you would like me to add your website to this list, just add a comment to this post or the Roll Call and I will go ahead and do so.  All that I require is that you participate somewhat regularly in the discussions on this site.  This will benefit you, because a link from my website to yours will help boost your blog’s search engine ratings and generate clickthroughs from readers of my website.  Here are the requirements again, just to make it clear how this works:

• Requirements before you even ask to be added:  You participate in discussions on this site with relevant and regular comments.  This participation level is completely up to my discretion.  If you are banned (or getting on my nerves), do not expect a link or expect to have your link removed.
• If you meet these requirements, comment on Roll Call with the following:
  • Website title
  • Website URL
  • SHORT Website description
  • Link to an image/avatar no bigger than 25×25

Any questions?  Leave a comment.