World News Korner

Courtesy of the LA Times:

Every author wants a bestselling book -- and those who can pay for the services of ResultSource Inc. just might get one. The company describes itself as "a boutique marketing firm that works with today’s thought leaders to build bestsellers," which it has.

In 2013, the Wall Street Journal talked with authors of two books who paid thousands of dollars to ResultSource and subsequently landed on the Journal's own bestseller list. "Precisely how [ResultSource] goes about [its business] is unclear," Jeffrey Trachtenberg wrote.

Now, a new report about the sales numbers for "Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together" by evangelical pastor Mark Driscoll and his wife, Grace, reveals some details of how ResultSource gets books on bestseller lists. Driscoll heads Mars Hill Church, a megachurch in Seattle.

The church paid an estimated $210,000 to ResultSource to make "Real Marriage" a bestseller, according to a document obtained by World Magazine, a Christian periodical. Warren Cole Smith writes in World that the magazine obtained an agreement between ResultSource and Driscoll's Mars Hill Church that was signed by representatives of both in October 2011.

According to the article, the contract was for ResultSource "to conduct a bestseller campaign for your book, 'Real Marriage' on the week of January 2, 2012. The bestseller campaign is intended to place 'Real Marriage' on the New York Times bestseller list for the Advice How-to list."

"Real Marriage" topped the New York Times' hardcover advice bestseller list on Jan. 22, 2012. The following week, it was gone.

The spike onto a bestseller list and then disappearance -- as opposed to an up-and-down arc, or a high debut followed by a decline -- can indicate something other than typical consumer book-buying behavior.

The report in World reveals what ResultSource did to get "Real Marriage" on the list. First, it bought a lot of books all at once. "RSI will be purchasing at least 11,000 total orders in one-week," the agreement states.

Then the company went to great lengths to make that purchase of 11,000 books appear to be made by individuals or small groups, according to the article.

The World's report continues, "The contract called for the 'author' to 'provide a minimum of 6,000 names and addresses for the individual orders and at least 90 names and address [sic] for the remaining 5,000 bulk orders. Please note that it is important that the makeup of the 6,000 individual orders include at least 1,000 different addresses with no more than 350 per state.'"

So now we know where SarahPAC spends all of that Unclassifiable consulting money.

Because you know if something like this is possible, Sarah Palin has definitely taken advantage of it. And besides it really IS the only viable reason for why any book of hers would ever be considered a best seller.

I think most of us have already known that this is how they do it, however it is good to see mainstream journalism confirming what we already know.

I swear everything about this bitch is phony.

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Courtesy of Newsmax:

A state senator says he doesn't think access to contraception is a problem in Alaska.

In a floor speech, Republican Sen. Fred Dyson said he researched the issue after a colleague suggested the number of abortions could be reduced by improving access to contraception.

The issue of the state providing expanded family planning services has arisen during discussion on a bill that would further define when the state would pay for abortions under Medicaid.

Dyson says condoms cost a dollar apiece and for the price of four or five lattes, a woman could get birth control pills for a month.

Dyson says sexual activity is largely "recreation" and the public shouldn't be required to finance "other people's recreation."

Okay now my head hurts again.

For one thing the state of Alaska spends a fortune financing "other peoples' recreation."

From maintaining hiking trails, to providing traffic control for concert events, to maintaining state roads that take us to our fishing and camping destinations, the state invests quite heavily in supporting numerous recreational activities.

However the important point is that the costs of purchasing birth control pale in comparison to the cost to the state of having another child born.

If the child has parents who are not financially stable, the state may end up paying for medical needs, nutritional support, education, foster care, and the list goes on and on.


It should come as no surprise that Dyson is a Republican, a curmudgeon of the first order, and clearly is not somebody who gets a great deal of recreational sex.

Speaking as a lifelong Alaskan, who has been hiking, fishing, camping, and snowmachining, I would have to say that my very favorite Alaska recreational activity has always been the one that DIDN'T require goggles, hip waders, or a helmet.

(The Huffington Post has more here.)

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Big problem for GOP. Most important #CPAC2014 panel. Topic: minority outreach. View: largely empty room. pic.twitter.com/LQKQ0QwwVc
— John Hudak (@JohnJHudak) March 6, 2014

Yep that is about as much as the conservatives care about minority outreach.

I am dying to see just now small the crowd is by the time that Sarah Palin finally speaks late Saturday.

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Courtesy of Think Progress:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) laid out a new plan that would tax millionaires and use that revenue to help students refinance their student loans.

Delivering the keynote address at the Higher Ed Not Debt Campaign launch event on Thursday at the Center For American Progress, Warren argued that America faces a choice: “Do we invest in students, or millionaires?” Warren plans to introduce a bill that would create an “America that invests in those who get an education” by revising the tax code and enacting the Buffet rule.

The Buffet rule is named after billionaire Warren Buffet and would establish a minimum tax on income in excess of $1 million. The measure, which never got out of Congress, raises approximately $50 billion in revenue and ensures that millionaires do not pay lower tax rates than middle-class families.

Congress acted to lower the federal unsubsidized student loan interest rate to 3.86 percent for the 2012-2013 academic school year. But unless it acts again, the rate will increase back to its original 6.8 percent for the next school year.

Warren’s plan would maintain the 3.86 percent rate for the federal unsubsidized student loan. The cost of the change would be covered by a “dollar for dollar” effort where for “every dollar the Buffet rule brings in, we use that dollar to refinance student loan debt,” she explained. She estimated that recent graduates who borrowed the maximum in undergraduate loans could see their payments drop by $1,000 a year and total interest paid over the life of the loan could be cut nearly in half. Students with graduate loans or borrowers from private lenders would save even more, Warren projected.

You know sometimes it feels as if Elizabeth Warren is the last real liberal standing in this country. Or at least the last one who openly embraces the liberal ideals at every opportunity.

I am not one of those who think she will, or even should, run for President. But I have to say that if she did she would have the youth vote all tied up.

(Here is the video of Warren's remarks.)

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8 year old Cayden Taipalus

Courtesy of IAcknowledge:

8-Year-Old Raises Thousands of Dollars to Pay Off Past Due Lunch Accounts of Classmates Jameson March 6, 2014 Class Warfare Exists Let it never be said that even young children can’t see injustice in the world, nor are they powerless to do anything about it.

When 8-year-old Cayden Taipalus saw that some of this fellow classmates at school were forced to forgo hot meals because their lunch account balances had dipped into the negative, he came home upset. His school’s policy was to allow students to go $5 into the negative before replacing their regular hot meals with cheese sandwiches and milk, according to Tom Gould, director of public relations for the Howell Public School District where Cayden attends.

“Like a lot of districts, we use accounts where parents add money to their students’ accounts,” Gould said, explaining that parents are notified when their child has a negative balance.

But it’s a problem that faces many students, with some children’s parents unable to afford to ever get them out of the negative. When he got home from school that day, he told his mother that he felt like it was unfair that some kids weren’t being served hot meals and instead had to eat cheese sandwiches because their lunch accounts had no money in them.

“I just want to make kids have a better lunch,” he told TODAY.com.

So he decided to do something about it. First, he and his mom began to collect empty bottles and cans and exchanging them as part of a recycling program. That got him about $64, and bought about 150 lunches. Pretty impressive for an 8-year-old, but Cayden was just warming up.

After he got a little local press for his act of kindness, people began contacting his family asking what they could do to help. Seeing an opportunity to make a bid difference, he started a campaign on an online fundraising site that got money to put towards his schools lunch program. The dollars began pouring in.

Hundreds of people from across the United States and abroad have donated, pitching in a staggering $10,800 to the cause so far. That’s enough money to pay for well over 4,000 school lunches. Cheese sandwiches will be a distant memory. Cayden probably just got a lot more friends around the school yard.

Whenever I hear anybody say they worry about the future of this country, I always tell them not to.

If this represents the generations to follow ours then I think we are in good hands indeed,

I wish I could express the same confidence in the grownups who think that denying children a hot meal because their parents are a few dollars light in their accounts is teaching these children a valuable lesson.

Well at least they taught one 8 year old boy a lesson he will never forget.

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Made me laugh.

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I thought for my last post today I would simply post an open thread for those of us who are going to be riveted to our televisions this evening while watching Rachel Maddow's documentary investigating the REAL reasons why this country went to war with Iraq.

I have plenty of my own theories, many of which have been posted right here on this blog. However I am completely open to examining whatever new evidence that Rachel has managed to unearth, and changing my views accordingly.

I was completed blown away by the documentary "Hubris" last year, and if this new documentary is just as good I imagine we will be talking about it for several days, weeks, or even months, to come.

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