Get Happy, Be Happy, Stay Happy

So much to blog about, so little time. I could blog about the ongoing media blackout of Ron Paul, which I predict will be a huge story in a few months (but other bloggers have got it covered). Or I could talk about the interesting books I’ve read recently (but that would take way too much effort). Or rant about the shortcomings of evidence-based medicine (but then I’d probably get involved in a debate friendly discussion with Citizen Deux).

Or I could simply point y’all to my business blog in case you have nothing else to read…

Holy SEO, Batman!

Always, always provide and communicate value

Don’t worry, keep marketing!

The ultimate secret to business growth

Who’s talking about you?

Let’s give them something to talk about
How to improve natural search performance

Online Spin… spinning, spinning, spinning

Copywriting tips for online marketing success

“I am an Australian and I made this video in support of all American patriots.”

As the U.S. media tries to snuff out Ron Paul, the rest of the world is watching. Amazing.

Watch the video

You heard that right. Second place.

Breaking News: A Ron Paul surge in Nevada

Boy, oh, boy! Hidden behind all the hoopla, headlines and the Nevada caucus victories of Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton is one little-noticed but stunning political development and number:

Ron Paul, the one-time Libertarian candidate and 10-term Republican congressman from Texas, was in second place. That’s right, Second Place. The 72-year-old ob-gyn who’s always on the end of the line at GOP debates or barred altogether, was running ahead of John McCain, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, in fact, ahead of….

all other Republicans except Romney, who easily captured his second state in a week after Michigan.

Now, Romney and Paul were basically the only Republicans who actively campaigned and advertised in the desert state. But a win is a win. And second place is second place. When Romney won Wyoming a couple of weeks ago, Paul won zero there.

In Iowa, Paul also beat Giuliani and he topped Thompson in New Hampshire, where Paul was excluded from the Fox News debate, which only energized his fervent followers. His jump in GOP election standings comes despite recent reports about a long series of newsletters from the 1990s carrying Paul’s name and numerous racist and anti-Semitic remarks. Paul has denied writing them and denounced their contents.

Thanks to those passionate and tireless supporters, Paul, the only Republican to oppose the Iraq war and favor significant dismantling of the federal government, won about 10% of the vote in Iowa and 8% in New Hampshire, coming in just behind the former New York mayor in the Granite state.

Read the entire Los Angeles Times blog post

Addendum 01/19/08:

The Guardian asks:

Does America really want a return to the gold standard? Concealed weapons to become commonplace? We know you Ron Paul supporters are online. Tell us what you think of the man’s coup earlier today.

Read the answers. “Faux News” LOL!

People want to know how to control their world so they can be happy. Period.

And a lot of people aren’t happy, and they don’t know why. They want answers. Thus the phenomenal success of The Secret, which purports to give the answers. In this WebProNews article, Jason Lee Miller calls The Secret “that marketing genius.” Others have said that many times before, of course. Hard work, hooking up with well-connected people, and the power of viral marketing aimed at easily influenced people hungry for answers is the secret to its success.

Now ideas popularized by The Secret, such as “putting energy out there,” are seamlessly woven into mainstream media stories. Some of the most unlikely of sources are using the buzz to grab attention. As I noted in an earlier post, 2008 will be a year of all-things-Secret. (You’re right, I’m capitalizing on it too with this post!)

Here’s Jason’s entire article, in which he suggests an experiment to use our thoughts to stop the recession.

Searchers Want To Know About The R Word
Jason Lee Miller | Staff Writer

It should be the Frau Blucher of words and if we believe in that marketing genius that was “The Secret” we shouldn’t dare throw it out there. Nonetheless, the braver the media gets at using the “r” word, the more people are searching for it. Thus, they’re all putting the energy out there like seeds and are waiting to reap the harvest.

Recession. There, I said it, now let’s get on with it.

Yahoo’s Molly McCall at The Buzz Log reports that Yahoo searches have spiked in the past week regarding that rather unpleasant term. See, put it out there it just grows.

She writes:

“Over the past seven days, searchers propelled queries on ‘economic recession’ and ‘recession’ upwards. Lookups like ‘last u.s. recession’ and ‘recession proof jobs’ spiked. Even ’stagflation’ - a term not normally found strolling the Buzz aisles-more than doubled its numbers.”

The phrase “definition of a recession economy” is up 500%; “what is a recession” is up 260%.

Concern, according to McCall’s color-coded map, is heaviest in places you might expect, where the real financial centers are like New York, Illinois, and California. Strangely, the recession-related searches are extra-heavy in Tennessee, too.

As the for square states, the nobody-lives-there states, and the-economy’s-always-bad-anyway states, they don’t seem to be all that alarmed.

Maybe we should try an experiment. Everybody think super hard about economic expansion, repeat the words, and then go search for it. Maybe The Secret works.

(Yes, I know he’s not being serious. I hope.)

To all who stumble upon my blog while searching for answers to why your life is now a royal mess after faithfully following the laws to obtaining health, wealth and happiness promoted in The Secret film or book:

Steven Sashen over at The Anti-Guru Blog has coined a new term, manifrustration.

1) The unhappiness associated with not getting what you want after attempting to influence the universe with your thoughts

2) The displeasure that occurs when the manifestation “master” says you haven’t gotten what you want because there’s something wrong with you

2a) The added confusion when this alleged imperfection is some unprovable or vague theory, such as: the level of your intention or “vibration”; unconscious “resistance”; or the type and/or number of certain thoughts that spontaneously arise in your mind

3) The depression that follows the times when, if you do somehow manage to get what you want, you find that you’re not actually any happier

4) The sadness arising when, after not getting what you want through the use of a particular manifestation technique, you go into debt to take another manifestation course that promises better results — but only delivers one or more of the 3 states listed above

Thanks, Steven!

The Internet is enabling transparency and truth to have free reign, that’s how.

The really big story unfolding about the presidential election campaign is how some in the news media, including Fox News and The New York Times, are working hard to push Ron Paul out of the running. And, thanks to the Internet and Web 2.0, their methods and tricks are being exposed.

Read these posts and see for yourself.

Unbelievable! When Fox Can’t Exclude Dr. Paul, They Cut Him

Shame on the New York Times

Shameful, indeed.

Unbelievable? Not really. People in power have been doing this for ages. But now we have ringside seats and nothing obstructing the circus acts.

Some people just don’t get blogging.

If you don’t got nothin’ new to say, don’t say it! And fer cryin’ out loud, stop linking to other blogs, ya bunch of inbreds!

Seriously. I’ve read this sentiment many times on blogs and Web sites. Saw one yesterday almost identical to the blurb above, on a blog which shall remain unlinked.

One of the best things about blogs is the rich network of links and connections. One thing leads to another, which leads to another, and another, ad infinitum. For an information nut, this dynamic is sheer paradise.

Yesterday a blogger found my blog, wrote a blog post about life coaching that included a link to one of my blog posts, which led me to her post on BlogHer.com, which led me to a whole new world of women bloggers and a bunch of great new resources to explore. For example, here’s a post that grabbed my attention: Tools for Voters Who Want to Separate Facts From Spin.

(Go ahead. I dare you to see what you can find out about Ron Paul at FactCheck.org! And you’ve got to see the Truth-O-Meter at PolitiFact.org.)

So to all my fellow bloggers, blog on!

I just cast my vote at the straw poll on AOL. Ron Paul is in the lead (among the Republican candidates). Just thought y’all would like to know.

The new year isn’t shaping up very well economically. We recently learned that in 2007 wholesale prices rose at their fastest rate in 26 years. Retail sales growth for 2008 is expected to be the weakest in six years. More home foreclosures are on the horizon. Gas prices are around $3 per gallon.

What to do, what to do?

Hey, here’s a great idea! Let’s pay more fuel taxes! Are you with us?

If you’re not, consider supporting Ron Paul for President to help straighten out this mess.

Paul Blasts Gas Tax Proposal as “OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE”

January 15, 2008 11:30 am EST

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says a proposal to raise the federal gasoline tax is the last thing the American people need in a slumping economy. The recommendation comes from a panel made of corporate executives and government bureaucrats commissioned by Congress in the 2005 transportation bill. Congressman Paul was one of nine votes in the House against the bill.

“This is a great example of how out of touch big government and big business are with the American people,” Paul said. “With gas at three dollars a gallon and a slowing economy, the last thing we need is a tax increase to be paid by Americans who can least afford it.”

Paul called on the other presidential candidates to join him in opposing this and any other tax increase proposals that come down in the future.

I watched this video of Ron Paul confronting Ben Bernanke over inflation. I’m curious about the look on Bernanke’s face. He’s slightly smiling. What does his smile mean?

Better late than never. Yesterday I watched the four-part documentary The Century of the Self, produced by British filmmaker Adam Curtis. According to Curtis, “This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.”

The film blew me away.

Of course, the 2002 documentary itself might be propaganda. I’ll be pondering the implications for quite awhile.

From Wikipedia:

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly. His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud’s theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their “engineering of consent”.

Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the “father of the public relations industry”. Freud’s daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as well as Wilhelm Reich, one of the main opponents of Freud’s theories.

Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.

The business and, increasingly, the political world uses PR to read and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the intentions and roots of this fact. Where once the political process was about engaging people’s rational, conscious minds, as well as facilitating their needs as a society, the documentary shows how by employing the tactics of psychoanalysis, politicians appeal to irrational, primitive impulses that have little apparent bearing on issues outside of the narrow self-interest of a consumer population. He cites a Wall Street banker as saying “We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.”

In Episode 4 the main characters are Philip Gould and Matthew Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund, a PR consultant. They were part of the efforts during the nineties to bring the Democrats in the US and New Labour in the United Kingdom back into power. Adam Curtis explores the psychological methods they now massively introduced into politics. He also argues that the eventual outcome strongly resembles Edward Bernays vision for the “Democracity” during the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

To quote the BBC site:

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

Watch the documentary:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

It seems so, huh? Especially if you know what goes on in the Internet marketing world. Most of these marketers sell nothing but nicely-packaged crapola, and many rake in millions of dollars doing so. What is their secret? Are people really that stupid?

And what about those who play the stock market every day, and end up losing their shirts? Are these people stupid too?

Maybe not. Blame it on our brain wiring.

Researchers have found that the fear of a loss has twice the psychological impact as the lure of a gain. Marketers exploit that fear. If you don’t act now, they say, you’ll lose your chance forever to get this fabulous product at such a ridiculously low price. Listen, we’re serious, they warn, you’ll never see this offer again! And what’s worse, you may never again get the chance to buy this life-changing thingamabob!

Kaching.

And you can blame apparent stupidity on the good old nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that goes bonkers when you think you’ve detected a meaningful pattern. James Geary, a former editor of Time Magazine, explains:

Neuroeconomics mixes brain science with the dismal science — throwing in some evolutionary psychology and elements of prospect theory as developed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky — to explain the emotional and psychological quirks of human economic behavior. To take a common example — playing the stock market. Our brains are always prospecting for pattern. Researchers at Duke University showed people randomly generated sequences of circles and squares. Whenever two consecutive circles or squares appeared, the subjects’ nucleus accumbens — the part of the brain that’s active whenever a stimulus repeats itself — went into overdrive, suggesting the participants expected a third circle or square to continue the sequence.

The stock market is filled with patterns. But the vast majority of those patterns are meaningless, at least in the short term. The hourly variance of a stock price, for example, is far less significant than its annual variance. When you’re checking your portfolio every hour, the noise in those statistics drowns out any real information. But our brains evolved to detect patterns of immediate significance, and the nucleus accumbens sends a jolt of pleasure into the investor who thinks he’s spotted a winner. Yet studies consistently show that people who follow their investments closely earn lower returns than those who don’t pay much attention at all. Why? Because their nucleus accumbens isn’t prompting them to make impulsive decisions based on momentary patterns they think they’ve detected.

Read the entire blurb at Edge.org.

So the moral of the story is, go do something else before pulling out your credit card or pressing the Buy button. Give your brain time to shift to a less aroused state. Then see what you feel like doing with your money.

The Ron Paul campaign just launched The Daily Dose HQ campaign blog to keep his supporters up-to-the-minute. The campaign recruited Daniel McCarthy to write the blog.

A quick post just to introduce myself: I’m Daniel McCarthy, new Grassroots Communications Coordinator for Ron Paul, and I’ll be blogging here regularly to bring you news from both inside and out of the campaign on the progress we’re making in taking back our country. I’ve been literary editor of the American Conservative and a freelancer for magazines like Reason and Chronicles, but I’ve never been as proud to be associated with anybody as I am to be working for Ron Paul. Dr. Paul’s message of Constitutional government, liberty, peace, and commerce — the values upon which this Republic was founded — is spreading by the day, and I’m honored to fight, and write, for the cause.

Go to the blog and get the transcript of South Carolina debate. See Ron Paul’s answer to the electability question.

And be sure to read this LA Times Top of Ticket blog post and all the reader comments.

Who else wants to cash in on The Secret and The Law of Attraction?

I do, I do! But can I do it without selling my soul?

We all knew that 2008 would bring a fresh batch of all-things-Secret. I just received an email from a group touting Happy for No Reason, a new book by Marci Shimoff. I actually sat a few feet away from her at a seminar, where she was a “no name, no position” attendee like everyone was asked to be (yet somehow she got conspicuously noted, along with other high-profile people there). She and the presenter would go on to appear in The Secret. Too bad I didn’t get autographs to sell on ebay. (Too bad I know far more about the presenter’s life than he’d like.)

Anyway, I have such an aversion to The Secret and the so-called Law of Attraction, that my first reaction to reading about Marci’s book is a big WHATEVER!

Rhonda Byrne, creator of “The Secret” wrote:

“I want to let you in on a secret to ‘The Secret.’ The shortcut to anything you want in your life is to BE and FEEL happy now! It is the fastest way to bring money and anything else you want into your life.”

You may have seen Marci Shimoff in “The Secret” movie. Marci is an undisputed expert on the Law of Attraction.

Like Rhonda, she knows that Happiness is a powerful attractor. She knows — and she teaches you in the book and on the free recordings — that happiness helps draw to you whatever you want.

That’s how she became a #1 New York Times best-selling author. People have purchased more than 13 million copies of her books. That is extraordinary considering that most books never sell more than 2500 copies. She is a mega successful author who knows that happiness is the secret to life.

And she knows how to help anyone — YOU! — quickly become happier, and remain happy for the rest of your life. And that’s what you get in her book and in the special bonus recordings that you will receive right now when you order her book.

Why was Marci on NBC’s “The Today Show” this week? Because as one magazine just declared, “Happiness is the newest fashion.” People are finally figuring out that it isn’t the new flat screen TV, or the iPhone, or the new wardrobe that makes you happy.

It’s the old chicken/egg thing. And happiness definitely came first. Marci figured out how to get happiness to naturally bubble up from within, which is why the national media is clamoring to get her attention. She figured out that to be happier all you need is your brain — and simple instructions on how to use it. And, you should, because:

Unhappiness brings early death

Ugh.

Of course I’m all for happiness! But please oh please don’t get this wonderful thing all mixed in with a gang of marketers who may be more interested in filling their bank accounts than your blessed happiness.

(Oh, and what about all those cranky old farts that live forever?)

Everyone has a natural action mode. A way of “doing” that is instinctive. And, according to Kathy Kolbe, your patterns of action are measurable. I’ve talked about the Kolbe A Index a couple of times on my blog. This week CNN.com posted a 2006 article from Oprah.com about the Kolbe Indexes. Martha Beck wrote the article based on her own experience with the assessment. Once you get past the cutesy intro about likening yourself to an otter, mole, squirrel or mouse, you’ll find some interesting stuff.

I’m a Fact Finder/Quick Start, which has a primary mode called Manager. This assessment really did shed light on the way I will naturally do things when left to my own devices. It also illuminated one of my main strengths — the ability to take in a ton of information (Fact Finder), combined with the ability to act quickly on information (Quick Start), and easily switch gears based on new information. This action style drives my husband crazy, but at least now we know why!

Addition 01-11-08

I found this article, Go With Your Gut Instincts, written by a doctor — and a fellow Fact Finder/Quick Start I love this stuff!

I don’t like drugs, and they don’t like me. So when a doctor wanted me to take Paxil to treat anxiety and depression, I declined. I had spent hours on the Internet researching Paxil and other SSRIs. I felt that the potential side effects I read about were too severe to risk. I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place.

So I returned to the Internet to search for “natural” ways to deal with my problem. I didn’t have time to waste barking up the wrong trees, and I was really scared. But, thankfully, I found something right away that sounded safe and effective. The cure was as simple as tweaking my diet. (More about this later.)

Millions of people take SSRIs. I don’t know how many suffer from side effects, but the numbers of people telling their stories on Web sites, message boards and blogs is alarming. Last week I ran across the new film, Uncomfortably Numb, which is getting close to release. Produced by film maker Phil Lawrence, who took Paxil for social anxiety for ten years, the documentary explores the repercussions of SSRIs.

Watch the trailer:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG6IAV5VBD0[/youtube]

Visit UncomfortablyNumb.com

(By the way, the second expert shown in the clip is Dr. Stuart Shipko, author of Surviving Panic Disorder, mentioned in this post.)

“When thinking changes your mind, that’s philosophy.
When God changes your mind, that’s faith.
When facts change your mind, that’s science.

WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?

Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?” (The Edge Annual Question — 2008)

Find out what 164 leading scientists and thinkers said.

For example, Todd Feinberg, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, writes:

For most of my life I viewed any notion of the “soul” a fanciful religious invention… I have come to believe that an individual consciousness represents an entity that is so personal and ontologically unique that it qualifies as something that we might as well call ‘a soul’.

And from neuroscience researcher Sam Harris:

Like many people, I once trusted in the wisdom of Nature. I imagined that there were real boundaries between the natural and the artificial, between one species and another, and thought that, with the advent of genetic engineering, we would be tinkering with life at our peril. I now believe that this romantic view of Nature is a stultifying and dangerous mythology.

Every 100 million years or so, an asteroid or comet the size of a mountain smashes into the earth, killing nearly everything that lives. If ever we needed proof of Nature’s indifference to the welfare of complex organisms such as ourselves, there it is. The history of life on this planet has been one of merciless destruction and blind, lurching renewal.

Care to comment about YOUR change of mind based on science?

“The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?” (The Edge Annual Question — 2006).

Check out dangerous ideas from 119 fascinating contributors.

Then post your dangerous idea in Comments! (I’ll be working on my answer.)

Several posts ago, I talked about the fluoride controversy. A few days ago I bought the January issue of Scientific American so I could read Dan Fagin’s article, “Second Thoughts about Fluoride.” The debate is far from over.

Long before the passionate debates over cigarettes, DDT, asbestos or the ozone hole, most Americans had heard of only one environmental health controversy: fluoridation. Starting in the 1950s, hundreds of communities across the U.S. became embroiled in heated battles over whether fluorides–ionic compounds containing the element fluorine–should be added to their water systems. On one side was a broad coalition of scientists from government and industry who argued that adding fluoride to drinking water would protect teeth against decay; on the other side were activists who contended that the risks of fluoridation were inadequately studied and that the practice amounted to compulsory medication and thus was a violation of civil liberties.

The advocates of fluoride eventually carried the day, in part by ridiculing opponents such as the right-wing John Birch Society, which called fluoridation a communist plot to poison America. Today almost 60 percent of the U.S. population drinks fluoridated water, including residents of 46 of the nation’s 50 largest cities. Outside the U.S., fluoridation has spread to Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and a few other countries. Critics of the practice have generally been dismissed as gadflies or zealots by mainstream researchers and public health agencies in those countries as well as the U.S. (In other nations, however, water fluoridation is rare and controversial.) The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even lists water fluoridation as one of the 10 greatest health achievements of the 20th century, alongside vaccines and family planning.

Buy the online article

Key Concepts:

• Researchers are intensifying their scrutiny of fluoride, which is added to most public water systems in the U.S. Some recent studies suggest that overconsumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland.

• A 2006 report by a committee of the National Research Council recommended that the federal government lower its current limit for fluoride in drinking water because of health risks to both children and adults.

Here is, in my opinion, the biggest question that needs to be answered:

The much more important question is whether fluoride’s effects extend beyond altering the biochemistry of tooth enamel formation. Says longtime fluoride researcher Pamela DenBesten of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry: “We certainly can see that fluoride impacts the way proteins interact with mineralized tissue, so what effect is it having elsewhere at the cellular level? Fluoride is very powerful, and it needs to be treated respectfully.”

Is enamel fluorosis the tip of an iceberg?

“On the morning of October 30, a large group of people gathered outside The Tonight Show’s Burbank studio. According to GloZell, a local eccentric who attends every taping of the show, only the lines attracted by Hollywood heartthrobs such as George Clooney, Justin Timberlake, and Daniel Radcliffe had ever come close to matching the crowd’s size and enthusiasm. But this throng had gathered to cheer Ron Paul, a 72-year-old obstetrician and Air Force veteran turned Texas congressman. Paul was there to hawk not a movie or a record but his long-shot campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

During the broadcast, host Jay Leno respectfully attended to Paul’s calls for hard money, withdrawal from Iraq, and a flat income tax of zero. Offstage, Leno got Paul to autograph his copy of the congressman’s recent book, A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship.

Later in the show, while performing “Anarchy in the U.K.” with a reunited Sex Pistols, punk icon Johnny Rotten gave Paul a thumbs-up and a “Hello, Mr. Paul,” later adding, “When are we getting out of Iraq?” In between, more ambiguously, he waggled his ass in Paul’s general direction. But he shook hands with the congressman afterward, and according to Paul supporters on the scene he expressed respect to him privately. Paul, watching the broadcast with supporters at a Hollywood Hills fundraiser that evening, shook his head at the aging punk’s antics, noting, well, we do promote tolerance.…

That day encapsulated Paul’s surprising campaign. It featured a powerful show of grassroots support, respect from unexpected places, and an infiltration of radical ideas into American mainstream culture. There was the aging iconoclast Rotten, mixing the anarchy he stood for as a kid and the market capitalism he lived out as an adult (the Pistols had reunited to help promote the video game Guitar Hero III), symbolizing the range of liberties Paul represents to a movement that includes both Christian homeschoolers and heathen punks. And there was the question so many Americans want answered, the question central to Paul’s campaign as the only Republican candidate opposed to the war: When are we getting out of Iraq?

When the Paul campaign began, most of the political cognoscenti considered it a quixotic joke. Now it’s one of the hottest stories of the season. The reason for the turnaround is money. On November 5 alone, Paul took in a gigantic haul of $4.3 million. His third quarter 2007 draw nearly matched that of the far more famous John McCain, and his net cash on hand going into the primaries exceeded that of everyone but front-runner Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson (though millionaire Mitt Romney has his personal reserves to fall back on). As of press time, in the fourth quarter of 2007, Paul had collected $10.7 million, generally in amounts well below the legal $2,300 maximum for individual donations.

By November, Ron Paul was getting respect from surprising and prominent places. Conservative bigthinker George Will called Paul “my man” on ABC. Texas singer-songwriter-novelist Kinky Friedman told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Paul is “probably telling the truth.” Singer-songwriter John Mayer was caught on video informing a pal that “Ron Paul knows the Constitution, and I’m down with that.” Even Eleanor Clift, conventional wisdom on the hoof, said on The McLaughlin Group that “Ron Paul with his antiwar libertarian message will be the story coming out of New Hampshire for the Republicans.”

Read the entire article, “Scenes from the Ron Paul Revolution, The rise of an eclectic anti-statist movement” at Reason Magazine

More and more Americans are waking up and taking note of Ron Paul. Check out this endorsement from broadcasting and Internet personality Adam Curry.

More endorsements