At least three people have asked me what I think about the new FTC guidelines dealing with Bloggers who accept freebies. For those of you who didn’t know it, the rules went into effect on December 1, 2009 in the US, so if you have a blog you better be aware of what we’re talking about.

Here is the video summary, straight from the horse’s mouth:

Now, let me be as clear as I can possibly be: the people behind these “updates to the guidelines” are 100% dead wrong, exhibit a complete and total lack of understanding of the Blogosphere, and have just wasted a whole lot of time and taxpayer money focusing attention on an issue that they neither can, nor should, enforce.
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Twitter Comments

	cehlers RT @justincarmony: Dear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging... http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers -- Wow, GG Government...
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	jonjensen0 RT @JustinCarmony @johnpoz: Dear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging... http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers -- Wow, GG Government...
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	JustinCarmony RT @johnpoz: Dear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging... http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers -- Wow, GG Government...
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	Jayveedub RT @lorelleonwp: RT @johnpoz: Dear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging Ass! - http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers #Rant
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	blogtipz RT @lorelleonwp: RT @johnpoz: Dear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging Ass! - http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers #Rant
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	TiaSharon Retweeting @lorelleonwp: RT @johnpoz: Dear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging Ass! - http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers #Rant
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	lorelleonwp RT @johnpoz: Dear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging Ass! - http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers #Rant
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	dugdale A must read for anyone on the web from @johnpoz http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers This law needs some fine tuning.
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	si1very Fantastic! @johnpoz riffs on new FTC rules requiring bloggers disclose commercial endorsements: http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers
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	rhedpixel RT @johnpoz: Dear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging Ass! http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers -- AWESOME POST -- STUPID RULES
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	brettmorrison Newspapers are exempt even on their websites WTH?!?! RT @johnpoz \nDear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging Ass! http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers
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	johnpoz @si1very I just wrote a blog post to respond to your earlier query. ;-) http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers
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	johnpoz Dear FTC, You Can Kiss My Blogging Ass! - http://onemansblog.com/ftcbloggers #Rant
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Here is a question: There is a couple that wants to get married. The guy is a satanic priest with body modifications including piercings all over his body, horns implanted under his skin on his shaved skull and tattoos from head to toe. Let’s also imagine he’s also a convicted rapist, wife abuser and pedophile. He has been legally married and divorced 18 times, he is 44 years old, and he’s a crack dealer.

It is the girl’s 18th birthday today. She has a 6th grade education and was from Mississippi before running away and living on the street as a prostitute in California. She is utterly addicted to crack (and he’s her dealer). Legally can they wed?

Of course the question is rhetorical! They are two “consenting” adults. The fact that most people would agree this marriage is doomed to failure and divorce is of no legal consequence. The law is blind to all circumstances other than the fact that one man and one woman may wed.

The Quandary

How about this scenario: There is a couple that wants to get married. The woman is 33 years old, holds a PHD from Stanford, is a renowned scientist and educator and runs marathons and volunteers at a women’s shelter in her spare time. The other woman is 32 years old, holds a PHD from Harvard, and recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in a third world country which brought about the end of hostilities. They have been living together for 8 years and are deeply in love with one another in a committed monogamous relationship. Legally can they wed?

Although their relationship has already outlived the national average life of a traditional marriage, and although they are both brilliant women who are stellar contributors to society, of course they cannot wed. Because again, the law is blind to all circumstances other than the fact that one man and one woman may wed.
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	DynamicSheep RT @johnpoz: A Philosophical Look at Marriage. http://onemansblog.com/marriage
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	scootette RT @Typhona: RT @johnpoz: A Philosophical Look at Marriage: Straight, Gay, Polygamy... Who Cares? http://onemansblog.com/marriage
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	Typhona RT @johnpoz: A Philosophical Look at Marriage: Straight, Gay, Polygamy... Who Cares? http://onemansblog.com/marriage
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	radmoose RT @johnpoz: A Philosophical Look at Marriage: Straight, Gay, Polygamy... Who Cares? http://onemansblog.com/marriage
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	johnpoz A Philosophical Look at Marriage: Straight, Gay, Polygamy… Who Cares? - http://onemansblog.com/marriage
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Have you ever been to the zoo? I was at the Dallas Zoo the other day, staring at the primates. Don’t worry, they were staring right back. Anyway, this big male gorilla, who had been sitting quietly with a couple of females laying around nearby, suddenly just got up and freaked out.

Now, I should emphasize, nothing caused this. Seriously. He’s a gorilla. There is nothing to piss him off. But all of a sudden, he got in a bad mood and started taking it out on all the other gorillas nearby. They are all running in fear, the people staring at them are freaking out, and I’m just thinking… you big, dumb ape.

Well, I expect that creatures who lack the ability to use a spoon might be wild and unpredictable. But you know what drives me crazy? Humans who do the same damn thing!
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Twitter Comments

	tlcolson Just found this guy - he's GREAT. Customer Service and Jerks http://onemansblog.com/ahole @johnpoz
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	frankzupan RT @johnpoz: Hey, How About NOT Being an A-Hole? http://onemansblog.com/ahole
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	gwalter johnpoz: RT @blairwilli: Hey, How About NOT Being an A-Hole? http://onemansblog.com/ahole http://ff.im/-bJ0dM
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	tiddlytwinks RT @LisaMarieMary: How about NOT being an a-hole? by @JohnPoz http://onemansblog.com/ahole "U coulda heard a McNugget drop" (my new FAVE ...
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	gwalter Can't hear you! La-la-la!!! RT @johnpoz: RT @blairwilli: Hey, How About NOT Being an A-Hole? http://onemansblog.com/ahole
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	justdevin RT @johnpoz Hey, How About NOT Being an A-Hole? http://onemansblog.com/ahole
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	blairwilli RT @johnpoz: Hey, How About NOT Being an A-Hole? http://onemansblog.com/ahole (new, better link)
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	johnpoz RT @blairwilli: Hey, How About NOT Being an A-Hole? http://onemansblog.com/ahole
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Just a few weeks ago my beloved dog Sandy came to the end of a long and debilitating struggle with kidney failure. My wife and I did everything we could to prolong her life and make her happy and comfortable, but none of us can cheat death, and eventually it was upon us.

One of the most difficult decisions of my life came when I was forced to choose to euthanize my faithful companion of more than a decade. It was compounded by a feeling of guilt – not that I had acted too soon, but that perhaps I had waited too long out of grief and a sense of personal loss. I remember wishing for days that she could tell me if it was worth living, or if she merely wished she could die.

When we finally had our vet come to the house and put her to rest it was a traumatic experience for the family, yet the death was so quite, fast and peaceful that not only did it remove any feeling of lingering doubt that we had done the right thing, but it made me consider my own mortality and caused me to realize that ultimately I would rather be able to go like this, than be imprisoned in a body stricken with ailments, waiting for death to take me.

Well, this is the situation that Sir Edward Downes, and his wife of 54 years, Lady Joan, found themselves in. And luckily for them, they were able to make the decision to leave this world on their own terms. I only wish that we had the freedom to choose for our selves here in the USA.
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Fantastic video on the progression of information technology, researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Bronman, remixed. I actually thought I posted this video previously, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Even if I did, it’s worth taking another look.

The concept of the video is to throw out statistics at you which are shocking, enlightening, or just plain make you think. For example:

• If you are one in a million in China, there are 1,300 of you.
• The number of text messages sent daily exceeds the population of Earth.
• By 2013 supercomputers will be more powerful than the human brain.

So, what are we to make of all this?
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So what have we learned in two millennia?

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

– Cicero – 55 BC

…Evidently nothing.

Mark Cuban pitched an idea over on his blog in which he offers to fund business plans for people, but only if:

• People completely detail out their business plan in public.
• The businesses must show a profit within 90 days.
• You use the bank of Mark’s choice and allow him control over expenditures.

Unfortunately, I believe Mark is off base with this concept, and left the following comment over there on his blog. I doubt he’ll respond, but he did at least get people talking – even though he might have done more harm than good.
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Wow! I’m not sure if the letter below is legitimate or fabricated. It sounds like it could be from a real Marine, and so I’m going to publish it just in case. Either way, it gives you a lot to think about…

It’s freezing here. I’m sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains along the Dar ‘yoi Pomir River watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.

I also glance at the area around my ass every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I’ve actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but them scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod. Hurts like a bastard. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.

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Today The United States of America took a profound step forward. I don’t believe that any of us can yet comprehend the gravity of the day, but I am certain that we witnessed an event that will be forever etched in history. We, the people, freely elected Barack Hussein Obama as our leader, and today he took control of the most powerful and prosperous nation, perhaps ever, on the planet.

The video below captured this historic event, including both the presidential inauguration and President Obama’s address to the nation. If you were unable to see it previously I suggest taking a look at it now. President Obama’s address was meant not only for the citizens of the United States, but for the people of the world.
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I have a very close friend (who shall go unnammed) that seems to admire Fidel Castro. Well my friend, I came across this post at IBD editorials about Cuba’s 50 years of failure, and I just had to share it!

Spare us the fireworks and media-parroted claims of Fidel Castro’s dictatorship bringing universal health care and education to Cuba. The real story is that a prosperous Cuba was turned into ruins in just five decades.

Its inflation-adjusted gross domestic product is a mere 5% of what it was in 1958, the year before Castro took over, according to Jorge Salazar-Carillo of Florida International University.

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Bill Maher seems to be following in Michael Moore’s footsteps by putting out a movie called Religulous. This film, which I’m certain will prove to be extremely divisive, makes the case that the most dangerous force on earth is religion.

Maher’s ultimate message is simple: Abandon religion… or we’ll all die.

In the clip that follows, Maher lays out the foundation of this statement. Here are a few choice quotes which I believe pretty much sum things up:

• “If one believes that the world is going to come to an end, does it not drain one’s motivation to improve life while we’re here?”
• “Religion must die for man to live.”
• “Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking.”
• “Those who preach faith and enable and elevate it are intellectual slaveholders.”
• “Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings, who don’t have all the answers, to think they do.”
• “The only attitude for man to have about the big questions is not the arrogant certitude that is the hallmark of religion, but doubt.”
• “The solace and comfort that religion brings you, actually comes at a terrible price.”

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Here we are on the eve before we discover who will become the next President of the United States. Already it is set to be a historic election.

• We will either have the first African-American as Commander in Chief, or the oldest ever President and the first woman in an Executive office.
• We will see record voter turn out all over the US (California, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Louisiana, Minnesota and more…)
• We’ve been on the election trail for nearly two years… the longest and costliest campaign in US history.
• The next President follows Bush’s historically low approval ratings and many difficult challenges.

But what happens after tomorrow?
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