But Mr. President, we listened to what you said…

 

Apparently the President doesn’t expect his own family to take his advice.

The trip came just days after the President tried to sell his cost-cutting budget to the American people by asking them to stay at home.‘If you’re a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, or you might put off a vacation,’ he said.

via Obama accused of ‘double standards’ as family holiday after telling Americans not to | Mail Online.

For reasons that are our own, my family had already decided to skip our annual trip to the beach this year.  You see, we understand the economic times and understand that there are choices to be made.

Unlike the President who thinks the country can spend its way out of this financial mess.

Look, it’s not just the President, or the Democrats in Congress.  Republicans in Washington are guilty as well.  It’s time they all started looking at the reality that we just don’t have all this money they want to spend.

There need to be cuts, more than the $100 billion smoke and mirrors cuts the Republicans said they gave us.

As for the President?  He should practice what he preaches.

I Won’t Write Your Blog for Free

I have a goal to establish myself as a freelance writer.  With a significant freelance income.  I’m off to slow start, and with this economy it may stay slow for a while.  Thankfully, I have a day job. 

So I spend some time most days searching for writing opportunities.  There are many out there.  I don’t always fit the requirements.

But I stay away from any that make statements like:

– No pay (yet) but you’ll share in profits as our business grows! (Meaning use your time and talents to make MY business grow)

– We can’t pay you, but this is a great opportunity to have others read your work. (Meaning put your stuff out there so others can steal it for free)

– We’ll pay you based on readership. (Meaning don’t expect to make much)

I’ve followed up on a couple of those types of “jobs.”  In the early days of the web and writing, I actually was paid repectably for a few articles I had on Themestream.  But Themestream (pay per click) couldn’t keep up with that model and eventually folded.

My writing is my work.  If I want to give it away from free, I’ve got my own blog.  If linking here builds your traffic, and mine, then go for it. 

But when I spend my time researching, writing and editing and article, I expect some benefit.  Either it’s for a cause or promotion in which I believe.  Or it’s for an addition to my bank account, also in which I believe.

Your ability to go to WordPress or Blogspot or a number of other places and set up a free website doesn’t make you an established publisher.

And it doesn’t give you the right to my work.