Making Blowguns and Darts Rating = Bad General Comments = needs more pics More pictures of what? - Carl August Freedom History Rating = Bad General Comments = get pictures of the whisky rebellion! Wll you be providing the time machine and camera? - Carl Funding Poll hi, I truly enjoy your website. However, I work a part time job and go to college full time; I have little money to contribute. I surf the net all the time looking for like-minded people and interesting things to read, and one common thread many of them have: they all want money! But I have an idea. There are SO many great libertarian and liberty-loving sites on the net, that your average surfer is absolutely SWAMPED with the many options they have while surfing! So what if there were one MAIN site, that was owned by ALL member sites. It would be a start page, and it would have one major web-server that was paid for by a pool of all of those sites. Because web services prices go down when purchased in bulk. All sites individually would have to struggle to pay for their upkeep and storage, bandwidth, etc, but TOGETHER, it would be easy. There are many other benefits to joining forces... such as the non-duplication of effort of the many freedom-oriented sites out there. You could still even get donations or memberships, but such a membership would support the main site. It would be like an index fund: instead of buying a stock you'd be buying a part of each. to recap: - Cheaper for the sites - Easier for the reader to navigate/find what they want - non-duplication of content/effort - easier for freedom-lover to support - and maybe, it would create a force that is impossible to ignore. Anyway, I guess this was long-winded. But out there in the world, I see SO many things taking our freedoms away, and it's hard to keep track of them all. A coalition like this could go far towards protecting the future of us all, and I would make a point of donating to an organization like this. Thanks alot, Adam PS if you're not interested in this idea, please forward it to anyone who might be! Before the demise of the Henry Hazlitt Foundation, Free-Market.Net provided the gateway functions you describe quite well; it's already sorely missed. Jointly purchasing server space can work for some groups, but not all. Some more mainstream groups, for instance, might not want to risk sharing resources with an anarchocapitalistic-oriented publication like DF!; if we got ourselves shut down, it could take them down, too. There's something to be said for redundancy (DF! uses a server in one country, and is mirrored on a server in another country, compliments of Bill St. Clair). - Carl Hi, Carl one suggestion, over on pirate, funding is voluntary, but it buys you some extra privledges, mostly no popups and ability to upload pictures to the web server. the latter is irrelevant here, but perhaps those who are willing to pay can see it as it remains, but the cheapskates and JBT's would have to deal with the ads? Joe -- ... Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think. - Ambrose Bierce http:\\tigger.tmcom.com\~josad nqs@kfalls.net For security reasons, DF! isn't going to give upload privileges to just anybody. And I hate pop-ups, so you weren't going to be seeing them here anyway. - Carl Principles Rating = Excellent General Comments = You are right. It is far easier since 9/11 to deliberately fail to support freedom-oriented foundations, newspapers, businesses and the like. And it marks those who claim to be libertarian as just as false-faced as all the others who say one thing and do another. I don't particularly like the political, economic, domestic, environmental and foreign policies espoused by the President and party in 'The American President' but there is a line in there that all of us, as Americans, should be able to make. That claim is the one where the President claims to be a card-carrying member of the ACLU. And this should be especially true of all libertarians. Sure, it's uncomfortable to be surrounded by thousands of screaming wardoves and peacehawks, all of whom want the President and the US government to protect each individual and destroy the Muslims, and to ask these people to calm down and take the time to review the situation and to respond calmly and logically. But, uncomfortable or not, if we can't do this, then who will? The same is true for supporting your organization. It has always been easier for a foundation or group to gain media access and political attention than it is for individuals acting alone. So it behooves us to support these organizations in order to get the most value for our money. Otherwise, with the everincreasing number of laws similar to the USA PATRIOT Act, we will find ourselves without any voice or freedom whatsoever. Derek Benner Rating = Bad General Comments = making dollar contributions is not a sign of support, and even if it were, other thing can take money away when it was expected to be there -- like the stock market crash -- the author whines over gibberisb steve Money to keep an operation running isn't support? Let me guess: You're one of the persons who selected "would not donate" in our funding poll. We do not live in an imaginary (and totally unrealistic) communist paradise where resources magically appear out of nowhere for your uncompensated use. It cost money to provide resources. Where do you think that money comes from? While I wasn't part of FMN, I know a little of what was going on: People and organizations promised money. When things got tight, some worked to fulfill their pledges. Others did not; often enough to make a hash of FMN's books, the ones who did not come through never let FMN know that they would be witholding the promised support. Don't make promises you don't mean to keep. When you do make a promise, try to follow through. When - for reasons beyond your control - you can't follow through, let the folks know, so they won't think they're covered. Excrement happens, but orgaizations relying upon voluntary contributions need to know when it does, to plan around it. Igniters Rating = Good General Comments = i think the descriptions are great (i read flash-bang articale), but i dont know where to get pistol powder! "Pyrodex or improvised black powder (potassium nitrate 75%, charcoal 15%, sulfur 10%) may be substituted for the pistol powder." can i use that recipe in flashbang as well? Black powder ought to work fine. If you're in America, and over 18, you should be able to buy pistol powder in most decent gun stores. I think you can still mail order it (or on-line) from outdoors suppliers like Cabelas. - Carl Plea Rating = Excellent General Comments = Mr Bussjaeger: I am afraid you have fallen afoul of one of realities of libertarianism and, despite having many similar beliefs, a major reason I avoid being associated with it. They're mostly talk. Their dedication to freedom is almost always accompanied by endless excuses for inaction. They seem to think that all that is needed to be saved from the perdition of oppressive government is faith in the NAP (Non Aggression Principle) or the ZAP (Zero Aggression Principle). No work. No sacrifice. Mere faith in the correct principle will magically save the day. Well, as one letter writer to the Libertarian Enterprise noted, when reality comes a knockin' at the door, that faith is really just a load of CRAP (Completely Rejecting Aggression Principle). Once upon a time men pledged life, fortune, and sacred honor to the cause of freedom. Now those who cry for freedom the loudest will not part with the price of a hamburger and fries. Perhaps freedom simply cannot survive in the free market. Fortunately for the short term survival of DF!, there are some few who still pledge their honor and follow through. I can't... won't ask more of those people, but they are just a tiny fraction of a percent of DF!'s readers; if more would kick in, we could make this magazine truly spectacular. In a period when DF! is setting new records in numbers of visitors and hits, my funding poll shows that just a couple of dozen people are willing to subscribe or otherwise contribute financially. One person even specified that he won't kick in. - Carl I'm certainly sorry to hear about your troubles. Don't feel alone, there are many others either in the same situation or about to be. I apologize for not being able to help support your site although I have enjoyed the articles. This site seems to be more about what to do than just what to think and I appreciate that. There's not enough discussion about things we could be doing to protect our individual freedoms so I'd hate to see this journal fall by the wayside. That said, however, it is not possible for me to help out at this time. I am also in dire straits and haven't worked for a month now. As a self-employed contract engineer, I've seen the work dry up and blow away for quite some time. Way before the general populace was aware and I've never swallowed the propaganda that the gubmint crooks have been preaching. I've barely been able to work enough to cover our monthly expenses as it is and have not bothered to send any of it to the crooks. Probably end up in jail but my family's welfare comes first. In good years, I've not been as reluctant to send part of my hard earned money to the crooks but the past several years it has been particularly difficult. Anyways, don't know what prompted me to write. Guess I'm feeling a little guilty that I can't help your site and some others that I'd like. I'm convinced that the only reason we are not in another depression is that nobody wants to call it that. -- Hasta! & 73 de KD7OWI -jet- Your own survival - and your family's of course - must come first. You'll do freedom little good if you're in prison, bankrupt, or starved to death. My plea is directed to those who are in a position to help (and haven't already done their share). - Carl In lieu of asking members for donations straight from their Paypal accounts, why not have them sign up for a "get-paid-to-click" service. The best one I have found is http://www.linkburst.com . It doesn't send spam (well, it hasn't to me and four other folks that I have subscribed to it, and it never gets mentioned in any paid to read forums as a spammer) which I knwo you hate, and in fact didn't even send any emails to me at all (well, excepr my member info, but that was needed and welcome), as one has to go to the site to click on paid to read links, so they need not send emails (spam OR opt-in) to one's email account. Now one can only earn about $0.30 to $0.90 per month with this, but since it doesn't cost any money, just a few minutes of someone's time per day, then DF's readers would have to be pretty pathetic to not give you or Sunni their monthly earnings via Paypal (and this site has no minimum payout, so they can get their money every month), since it doesn't cost them a thing financially, and thus is "painless" dollar-wise, which should mean that more than just the one percent or so you mentioned could contribute. Heck, you could even have them sign up under you (should you yourself choose to sign up) and get even more money. I could ask you to sign up under my referral ID (I'll email it to you if needed), but this isn't required or even requested, just a nice thing to do if one really believe sin trading value for value (should you choose to use this idea and it gets DF a bit of money). All in all, this site has gotten very good reviews on paid to read forums, never spams, and could enable quite a few more people to contribute (and that's not counting the potential earnings from the many DF readers who sign up under you as "downlines". However, just because I say "downlines" doens't mean it's basically an MLM, it isn't; the referrals just sweeten the deal, the main focus is paid to click.). I guess that's about it. I can donate my earnings (and I'll ahve lts more to doante if you and many DF'ers sign up under me; hell, you ought to orchestrate it so one DF'er signs up under another, then under another, and so ad infintium..) when I get a Paypal account (right now I have Linkburst paying me by check). Hope this helps, and keep up the good work. Sincerely, a DF reader My experiences with such earn-per-click services is that the amounts paid were much less than the value of the time required. But if someone wants to give DF! the proceeds from LinkBurst, or any browse-to-earn program, I doubt I'd refuse it. - Carl Flame-thrower Rating = Average General Comments = You are one sick MF Mr. O'Leary says, "Thanks, dude!" Spam=Boycott Rating = Average General Comments = Hi Carl, Just consider how much time and money spam is costing you if you were to contact the sender every time you received unwanted email. Instead of getting angry with spammers, I developed www.bluebottle.com which has rid my inbox of the 60+ pieces of spam I was receiving on a daily basis. Try it for yourself, and if you like the service let me know and I will arrange a complimentary subscription for you. Kind regards, Robert Pickup rbpickup@bluebottle.com I thank you for the generous offer, but such a screening system wouldn't work well for me. I expect a lot of one-time mails from complete strangers. Comes with editing a magazine or two. The point of my suggested procedure is selectivity; you don't reply to every spam. The vast majority can't be addressed through this technique, and is usually screened out by my filters. The remaining spam is often of the sort I mentioned in the article, and can be attacked. The entire problem of spam isn't just that it clogs my in-box. I could handle that with frequent downloads and spam filters. But with some estimates of spam claiming that 40% of Internet packets are spam, this crud is clogging the network. Unless advertisers come to understand that spam not only doesn't work, but loses them money and business, they'll just keep going. Ignoring spammers via automated filters and registration services never gives the idiots the needed negative feedback. - Carl Blowguns Rating = Average General Comments = I liked the article, I found that by wrapping rubber cement and magician flash paper around the tip them tying it by a couple peices of string gives you a nice fire dart also, and evens the dart out more than the way explained above. Justa suggestion... Rating = Good General Comments = The article was good but I would have liked to see more detailed diagrams or photos of the blowguns and darts, or even a section on making them. Take a look at last month's issue; we aim to please. - Carl Please rate this article! Knowing what you like will help us provide the content you want. Bad Poor Average Good Excellent If there's anything specific you'd like to say about this article, please do so here. Comments may be used in an upcoming Letters to the Editor.