Daniel Harmon

Hillary Clinton gave us a nice little one-liner the other day. “It is time for a president who is ready on day one to be commander in chief of our economy,” she proclaimed. Good one, Hill. Sounds like she snatched the term from one of Ron Paul’s responses in the final debate (go about 5:00 into the YouTube) and tried to twist it into a “positive” thing.

As Paul points out in the video, Article II. Section 2 of the Constitution clearly states that “the President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States.” However, it doesn’t say anything about the President commanding the economy. That’s what dictators try—and eventually fail—to do.

As any good economist will tell you, in a truly free society, only the market commands the economy, with the principles of competition, supply and demand, self reliance and innovation and as the chief underpinnings.

Hillary went on to say that “sometimes the phone rings at 3 a.m. at the White House and it’s an economic crisis and we need a president who is ready, willing and able to answer that call.”

Hate to break it to you, Hill, but I’m afraid that phone’s been ringing off the hook for years. The “crisis” is the ongoing abandonment of sound money (a Constitutional gold standard) and free markets. Yet almost no one in Washington has been willing to heed the call (except for Ron Paul, of course).

Since Hillary already wants to extend her “commander in chief” power to the economy, if elected, where would she stop? Commander in chief of health care? (Actually, we already know she’s going for that one.) Commander in chief of education? (How I cringe at the thought.) How about commander in chief of energy? Or of agriculture? Or maybe even the environment? And while we’re at it, let’s just top it off with transportation, recreation, communication and the arts—then throw in a scepter and a tiara and call it a day.

If you’ve ever wanted to watch a water balloon explode in slow-motion (I know I have), now’s your big chance. The most incredible thing about this ad is that they did it all sans CGI; they used a camera that shot 10,000 frames per second instead.

The result? A very elegant and imaginative way of communicating what I love most about soda (or pop, if you’re from Idaho): the tongue tickling bubbliness. And I have to admit, the shots and song are so beautifully mesmerizing, it makes me want to expunge my memory of everything I know about carbonated water’s adverse health effects. Strong bones, joints and muscles? Who needs ‘em! Gimme some of that fizzy drink!

My techie friend, Duane and I have started a grassroots fundraising campaign for BJ Lawson’s North Carolina congressional race: BucksForBJ.blogspot.com. If you’re a Ron Paul fan, or if you want our government to return to Constitutional principles, please check out BJ Lawson’s website. I blogged about him here, too. If you like what you see, go to BucksForBJ.blogspot.com and pledge. We’re asking for small donations and for you to spread the word to some buddies. We call it a Money Ball—not to be confused with a money bomb.

I wasn’t always like this. Previously, I was about as politically active as a fence post. I never donated a dime to any politician (I thought they were already doing a good enough job of taking away my money). And I certainly never dreamed of campaigning for anybody.

But then along came Ron Paul. After my brother introduced him to me, I wanted to learn everything I could about him—and more importantly, the principles he stands for. As my closest friends and family can attest, I turned into a walking, interactive, encyclopedic, Ron Paul billboard.

I even donated to him. We didn’t have any extra money at the time, so I asked my wife to give my Christmas money to Ron Paul’s campaign fund. Ever since then, I’ve made a personal commitment to get more involved in the fight for freedom.

By the way, I’d love your ideas for improving BucksForBJ.blogspot.com. So leave a comment here if you have any thoughts. Thanks.

My oldest brother was in town visiting about a month ago. He’s a big fan of architectural design. I’m pretty partial to it as well. He told me about the Chicago Spire (now under construction). Ever heard of it? It’s an incredible structure! Once completed, it will stand 150 stories high. In comparison, the Sears Tower, the tallest building in North America, is only 108 stories.

The website is definitely worth a gander. It says the building is “inspired by nature.” Sounds like they’re just trying to vamp up its green appeal. I submit they change it to, “inspired by an industrial-strength tapered drill bit.” Now that’ll attract the tenants.

The Caterpillar corporate site I’ve been working on for the past few months went live today. Check it out here. There’s a link on Cat.com’s homepage too. The site focuses on the progress Caterpillar is making possible around the world.

I wrote a lot of the copy (an advertising term for text) on the pages. And I even helped with the writing on some of the scripts for the videos (voice over stuff). The designers did a great job, don’t you think? If you see anything that would improve the site, leave me a comment. Thanks.

Thanks to the Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, I’ve taken a keen interest in the preservation of our freedoms. I believe that the key to establishing the limited government that closely resembles our founding is to establish representatives that are committed to upholding the ideals of the Founders.

That said, I’m increasingly interested in learning about anyone that’s willing to stand up to the status quo and fight for a foreign policy of peaceful friendship, a monetary policy backed by a gold standard and a stance of unrelenting protection of our civil liberties.

On Lew Rockwell’s blog, I found one: his name is BJ Lawson. Haven’t heard of him? He’s running for congress in North Carolina’s 4th District. And he’s the spitting image of Ron Paul…minus about 40 years, the receding white hair, the Texas drawl and about $35 million in raised campaign funds.

OK. So they obviously have their physical and financial differences. But when it comes to political ideology, they’re almost identical twins. In fact, on his site, BJ says, “I was drawn back to politics by Ron Paul’s tireless and principled work to restore a Constitutional federal government.” It looks like he’s even adopted a fund-raising strategy from Ron Paul’s play book: posting his numbers in real-time on his homepage. Nice move.

I don’t know everything about him. But from what I’ve read on his site, he seems sharp, passionate, personable, logical and principled. I can’t cast a ballot for him, but (hopefully) I can cast a few supporters his direction with this blog—and maybe even some donors to boot.

It’s encouraging to see the fruits of Ron Paul’s labors already starting to take root. I’ve often wondered who would emerge as the key figures to lead the fight for freedom when Ron Paul is no longer in the picture (he’s 72 after all). Whether or not he wins his 4th District race, BJ Lawson may very well surface as an influential national figure in the cause of liberty. Regardless, he’s a patriot; and to that I tip my hat and raise my voice of encouragement.

I recently read a Wired article called “Clive Thompson on the Age of Microcelebrity: Why Everyone’s a Little Brad Pitt” (in the printed version, it’s titled “Almost Famous”). Intriguing stuff. It was my first exposure to the term “microcelebrity,” but from the sounds of things, it probably won’t be the last.

Thompson’s premise is simple: with the flood of social networking sites, blogs, personal web pages and photo sharing sites, anyone who has stuff on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, a blog, etc. may have a mini following—a micro fan base, if you will. So a “microcelebrity” is someone that is “extremely well known not to millions but to a small group…maybe only a few dozen.”

According to Thompson, the pundits worry that the omnipresent scrutiny of online admirers (or haters for that matter) will result in everyone talking “in the bland” to avoid ruffling any feathers. However, Thompson doesn’t agree with that bleak outlook. I don’t either. Like Thompson concludes, I think people will just better learn how to behave “in front of a crowd.” We already do that in real life when we’re with our friends and colleagues; now it just extends to the virtual world.

Personally, I’m not too worried about having info out there that I don’t want others to see. I save all that for my personal journal that I keep on Pyxlin.com—part of FamilyLearn.com—my brother’s site. The public can’t view any of my private stories, life lessons or personal secrets on Pyxlin. They’re encrypted (call me crazy, but I don’t want the whole world knowing the details of the time my baby sneezed in my mouth). And I can have all those personal stories published into a hardbound book. Yes, I’m saving the private me for my posterity. Not for superhottie17 or HobbitKiller2193.

So, my beloved fans, I welcome you to my virtual life—at arm’s length of course. No offense.

The other day, my wife had WGN Radio on in the car while she was running errands. Though she wasn’t intently listening to the radio, she heard something that made her stop and crank up the volume. It was an ad for a new documentary film called The Business of Being Born. Seeing as how she’s pregnant, the title of the film fascinated her. When she got home, she googled it and we watched the trailer together. I was blown away that a film had been made about this! One of my biggest considerations when choosing a hospital is the percentage of C-sections they perform. If it’s high, I get very uneasy about using their services.

I applaud Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein for grabbing this issue by the horns. You can watch the trailer here (I apologize for the abuse of God’s name at the end). It played in Chicago’s Music Box Theater this past weekend. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go, but we plan to rent it when it’s released on DVD.

Any thoughts on the trailer?

First Bernanke cut the interest rate today (the second time in eight days) and now the Senate is passing an economic stimulus bill for $157 billion in tax rebates. Both these efforts are just inflation enhancing band-aids for an economy suffering from a cannonball wound of poor monetary policy.

But not all is lost. You can take your fat rebate check and give it all to Ron Paul who supports sound money. That’s your best bet to turn this bill into some real economic stimulus.

The ads inside the train always add a little flavor to my often-insipid morning commute. During my 12-minute ride, I can take in every ad (within legibility) that canvases the walls of my train car. However, only the good ones stay with me. And sometimes, when they’re really good, they command my attention for nearly the entire ride.

A few days ago, this ad for the Financial Times kept me staring.

It communicates one clear message with a captivating visual concept completed by the tag line, “World Business in one place.” It took me a minute to figure out what city I was looking at. The illustration is fantastic. And I think it’s an appropriate concept for getting their message across. You can find an interactive version of this ad on the Financial Times site.

Any thoughts on this ad? Have you ever seen a similar concept in an ad?