The Empire Has No Name

Author : Paul Freynet
The main message of the story about the emperor who had no clothes is the fact that having power means you can get away with things most folks wouldn't think of trying. If the emperor says he has clothes on, better to agree with him.No matter how attached the emperor becomes to the comfortable suit of nakedness though, sooner or later, someone will tell him the truth.A name resembles clothing in some ways because it is something you wear.The world's only reigning superpower, some would say the greatest empire of all time, has no name. Regardless of how attached that nation has become to its descriptive term, as demonstrated by the song "America the Beautiful" for example, this is the simple truth.A name is something people use in part to wield control over a person, animal, object, concept. It identifies, objectifies, locates. In a way, the thing named becomes available for manipulation through its name."The United States of America" is not a name. It's a descriptive term with an approximate location."The term "united states" is used throughout the world by many countries because many countries are made up of states that have united. But in the case of all other countries, when using the term "united states", reference is then made to the country, such as "the united states of Indonesia" meaning "the united states which together make up the country of Indonesia". The "of" has a completely different meaning from the "of" in "United States of America" where it means "the united states which are located in America."And, if "United States" had been intended as a proper noun by that country's founding fathers, then it would not be necessary to add "of America". "Of America" means that of all the states that have united into a country, this particular one is located in America.So, the "of America" part of the designation means the "United States" part is not intended as a proper noun.Over the past two centuries or so, the entire world, or almost, has used the term "Americans" to refer to the inhabitants of that country, you know, the one squished in between Mexico and Canada. In doing so, they've been more or less unaware that they are using the term by default because the country has no name. "America" is the name of the western hemisphere comprising North and South America, it is not, never has been, the name of a country.The entire world that is, except for other Americans, such as me. As a Canadian, I was never really able to put a finger on the reason for the niggling feeling that something wasn't right whenever I, or anyone else used the term "American" when speaking of someone from the US.I felt oddly gratified to learn that South Americans refer to "Americans" as "United Statesians" in Spanish. The term, however, just doesn't fly in English. Besides, it's no more accurate than "Americans".To my mind, there is no question that a thing of this magnitude happened by oversight or accident, as if the founding fathers of that great country had not thought it through properly, any more than the symbolism on the American one dollar bill happened by accident.Paul Freynet is a writer by vocation and a thinker by nature. Visit his web site at:
http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/towerview/
Category : Arts-and-Entertainment

Save Your Money, Don't Give to Charity Scammers

Author : Dawn Cadwell
**If it's Spam, it's a Scam!- If it sounds too good, if it shows up in your bulk folder or your spam folder - don't touch it, just delete it**Check out the charity- You can find some charity info at the BBB site www.give.org** There is no deadline to give- Take you time. Charities don't have deadlines, but scammers do to stay under the radar. Tell them you will think about it. If they use high pressure tactics, they aren't worth it and more than likely aren't legit.**Ask Questions- Found out the location of the charity, how much of the money is for Administration use and how will the money be used for the needs. If 50% or more of your donation goes to executives’ salaries, administrative cost and fundraising, skip them.**Get information in Writing- Have them send you a brochure, a graph of their previous divisions of money, and their 990 tax form information that they file with the government.Charities are required to provide Form 990 information on request (This excludes churches, synagogues and other places of worship. Don't be fooled by their 'tax-ID number' these are only needed to for employer verification.**Check out all charities for Police and Fire Departments- Check them out first, get the name, address and phone number to contact them back and do follow up.**Get a Receipt- Preferably one with the charity name on it. A paper trail is always a good thing.** Don't donate with cash- Again the paper trail idea, check or credit card is best.**Be protective with information- Don't give information out over the phone like credit cards or personal information, unless you have checked them out or dealt with them before.**Get the exact name of the organization- Many have names similar to legit organizations. They may change the wording slightly to throw you off.**Contact the authorities- Police and or FBI can be contacted, have as much information as you can with you to give them. Even recording a call can be helpful if you get regular calls, make sure it is allowed in your state or if you have to let them know you are recording them.The BEST way to give to charities is to contact them after you have done your own research. Don't let the scammers scare you off, Please do give of yourself, time or money. Print out or email these tips to others who may not be aware.Dawn writes for the site FrugalforLifecom and is a resource for those looking to live frugally, save money and live below their means in a materialistic society.
Category : Clothing

Tips and Tricks To Making BIG Money by Selling Domain Names!

Author : KC Smith

Would you like to be that lucky person who sells their domain
for thousands or even a million dollars? It IS possible to find
quality domains and resell them for huge amounts of money. The
time is ripe for acquiring top domains and selling them. Now
that the Internet Boom is behind us, valuable names expire
everyday. The best way to find these domains is to use services
on the Internet such as DomainsBot to weed out the bad names. Or
just check out Hot Lists on sites like Namewinner or Pool. So
what makes a "good" domain name? Usually short, single word
domains and 2-3 letter .coms, .nets, and .orgs are the best. The
more specific the better. These can be hard to come by but when
you find them, you can almost guarantee that you can make good
money from them. Once you have purchased a nice domain name, get
a good appraisal of the name to get an idea of the possible
worth. In order to sell your newly appraised name, you have to
find a buyer. Here are your basic options for selling your
domain name in a nutshell:

1. Sell it on Ebay

This is the easiest and quickest way to sell your domain name.
There are several tricks to landing a good sale at Ebay. One is,
start your price low. People want a bargain. Once you have
received an initial bid, it will draw peoples attention to your
name and create more bids. You may want to set a reserve price
if you want to make sure you get X amount of dollars. When
selling your domain on Ebay, make sure your domain name is in
the title of the description. Also, include an appraisal to show
to possible buyers the value of the domain. Keep your
description short, clean, and really emphasize how important and
rare your domain is. For example, if your domain is 3 letters
and ends in "I", stress how most 3 letter domains that are
highly valuable end in "I" because it usually stands for
"Incorporated". If it ends in "E" it could stand for
"Enterprise". A little bit of marketing saavy can go a long way.
I once sold the domain 0pp.com for over $200. It even has a
number in it making it worth very little. But I emphasize its
possible uses and potential. Also, spend the extra $1 for the
Bold Listing and make sure your auction ends on a Sunday
afternoon or evening. This is when most people are browsing
Ebay. It will make a big difference.

2. Sell it on Domain Sites

The only sites you should even consider putting your name up for
sale is on ebay.com, Afternic, or Sedo. These are the most
popular and where some huge sales have taken place. The only
downside is that there are high numbers of domains already for
sale and usually the site will get a commission of something
around 10%. There also may be a small fee to join. Appraisal
Blast charges a minimal fee but no commission. Your domain will
get more exposure there just because there aren't hundreds of
domains for sale. You may also have luck selling it on forums
such as DomainState. The prices of sales there seem to be lower.

3. Contact Large Businesses with Deep Pockets

This approach takes some time and patience. Let's say you have
acquired a great domain name that would work great for any
business in the field of the stock market. You may want to
locate some of the bigger sites or businesses and make an offer
to sell your domain name. Make sure the name you own doens't
have any elements that are already trademarked because you may
be forced to give up the name. You may want to go on the
Internet and look up current websites that deal with stocks and
find ones that don't have the greatest domain names. Make offers
to these sites stating how your domain is much better and will
HELP them. If you get a company to bite, the rewards are usually
very generous!

In summary, selling domains for high amounts of cash depends on
two key elements. First you must have a quality domain, one that
doesn't have numbers or isn't too long. It must be clear and
easily recognizable. ".com" is the best, but even domains such
as the ".us" are gaining popularity. The second key is
Marketing, Marketing, Marketing! I can't stress that enough. You
have to create a good reason for someone to buy your domain. How
can THEY benefit from it. When these two steps are fulfilled, a
sale is almost guaranteed!

Category : Traffic Generation

Search Engine Placement

Author : MoneyMadam

You have probably heard a lot about Search Engine Optimization or the phrase like "make your site search engine friendly". But how exactly can you go about doing that?!Here you'll discover this search engine optimisation information to be much unlike than what is presently provided on the web. I have been in your position and given by my experiences I'll tell you like it is, no ugly tactics, no hype, just direct facts so you could have your own determination about what is best for your site. To begin with, I suggest you understand Google's FAQ and search engine guidelines. Google is the search engine market leader so you may find that most of the other search engines mimic many of their techniques. If you study how to do well in Google, you will do good in virtually all of the other second tier search engines. To gain your site's page rank is one of the key to enhence the site position in search engines. To increase page rank Your best two options are writing articles that get published, and requesting links from vendors and other business partners . Remember to make sure the links you get into your site is for your keyword. Also link to your blogs/articles from each other to increase your network.Another thing, if you wish to get indexed faster you can submit your RSS feed to MSN, Yahoo and Google. This works great and will save you a load of time.The above is your first hint... while this won't increase your search engine position immediately, but it might tempt Google to spider your site on a regular basis keeping your web site listings a bit more current on Google. MoneyMadamhttp://www.treasuryland.comhttp://treasuryland.blogspot.com

Category : General Business: Advertising / Marketing