Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.'

'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.'

'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.'

I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different.

What is the difference between a man and a parasite? A man builds, a parasite asks, 'Where's my share?' A man creates, a parasite says, 'What will the neighbors think?' A man invents, a parasite says, 'Watch out, or you might tread on the toes of God...'

I believe in no God, no invisible man in the sky. But there is something more powerful in each of us, a combination of our efforts, a great chain of industry that unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interests that the chain pulls society in the right direction. The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide. Any man who tells you differently either has his hand in your pocket or a pistol to your neck.

-Andrew Ryan

Check it out: AwesomeStart.com

You may have noticed some small changes to your startpage in the last week or so. We’ve begun implementation of two highly requested features. Users will now be able to search Images, News, Maps and more directly from the search box on their page. If you use Google technologies (which can be changed in preferences), you can now click on a link to change what you want to search. For instance, if you’d like to search for an image, click “Image” and type in your query. Then search, just like you would have for the web. No more leaving the page first!

In addition to this feature, we’re also including a new drop down menu to give you more search options. It can be accessed by mousing over the small arrow to the right of the Email link. You can now search Amazon and Wikipedia in the same manner described above. Just select one from the drop down menu, type in your search, and away you go. Popular Google search technologies for Video, Books, Scholar, Finance, Shopping, and Blogs are all also available.

These new features are now available on all Movies, TV, Videogame, and “Other” startpages. At the time of writing, they’ve also been added to our twenty most popular movie startpages. Adding the new features requires a complete overhaul of each startpage. We’re recoding each page from HTML to XHTML using a new standard template. While this will make new updates easier to add in the future, it’s certainly a lengthy process. More pages are being updated with these features every day, and we hope to have the rest of the music startpages finished in the coming weeks.

Go try out the new features. Let us know what you think!

If you don't vote . . .

You still have a right to complain.


I know this is a project blog, but I haven't gotten political all election season. I have to get this off my chest.

There's this MTV idea that comes around every vote rocking season that if you don't vote, you're somehow no longer a valid voice in the American consciousness. Rather than vote two years ago, I went with a group of people to see Michael Shermer speak in Wisconsin. I came home from that lecture with my citizenship intact. In fact, years passed since I found something better than voting to do on that fine day, and I'm STILL a US citizen. Not voting in this coming election will also have no impact on my citizenship. I don't understand where this silly idea that not voting somehow gives your voice less weight. You're still a member of the United States. You still pay your membership dues - taxes - and you still submit to it's laws.

I'm a libertarian - I'm not a democrat, I'm not a republican. I go extremely "left" on issues of personal, social, and sexual freedom. I'm the "right" extreme on tax and spending issues. I also feel just as strongly in opposition to war. I disagree with Obama and McCain on their most fundamental issues. I think socialized medicine will open the floodgates for government invasion into the most private areas of our lives - once the government helps pay your medical bills, they can tell you what you can put in your body and what they see as a threat to your personal safety. I think war and capital punishment are two of the most disturbing acts a government can be responsible for. I have SERIOUS hang-ups with both of these candidates.

I know a lot of people who vote based on character - I don't care what a politician does in their free time, what they do in their home life, or what private businesses they stand to capitalize on. I care about issues. I want to know how they're going to do their job. I want to know what their voting record is.

This year, I was going to vote libertarian. I'm a little iffy due to the questionable candidate they've nominated, but for the sake of what I'm getting at here let's go back to a pre-Bob-Barr mentality. I find very strong parallels in libertarian philosophy. I agree with the core ideas of the party and it's usual pick of candidates. I know voting libertarian this year won't get a libertarian president into office. My vote serves only to strengthen the statistic on the increase in third party interest, and I'm fine with that. If you think your vote for the right or left has any real impact, it might be time to do some reading anyways.

It's not that your vote doesn't matter . . . it just matters in a different way than the "it doesn't matter who you vote for, just vote" crowd is telling you it does. Among other things, your vote sends a message about your satisfaction with the system. Don't like the two parties? Don't vote for them. Don't like a third party? Don't vote for it either. Don't like anyone? Don't vote. I think not voting sends just as strong of a message. We have low voter turn out in this country, and that's a very real number people can look it. People aren't staying home because they're lazy, or because they don't care about the country. We all choose to live here. We all care. People aren't voting because they know they can't make a change. They know there is corruption and overhead much larger than their tiny vote at work here, and rather than telling those people they need to "vote or shut up" I think it's time the leaders of this system legitimately address their concerns.

Now back to your regular scheduled updates.