James L. Paris's Blog, page 180

Ex-Marine���s Wearing of Unearned Medals Deemed 'Protected Speech'

Elven Joe Swisher is the latest beneficiary of the courts��� discomfort with so-called ���stolen valor��� legislation. Several years ago, Swisher, an ex-marine, was convicted of violating the federal Stolen Valor Act for wearing medals he had not earned. His conviction came about after he wore a Purple Heart medal to a murder trial where he was a witness, presumably to enhance his credibility. His conviction was recently overturned by a federal appeals court, however, when that body ruled that his wearing of unauthorized medals was protected speech.

The matter of stolen valor is a sensitive one to present and former members of the military and their families, with many of those folks believing that the misrepresentation of service should be criminalized. The Stolen Valor Act has been federal law for years now, but it has undergone several changes since it was first passed, largely out of deference to reviews of the statute that have taken issue with what some have seen as its inherent���and unconstitutional���First Amendment limits.

I am a military veteran, both of my parents were veterans, and I have a son presently serving in the Air Force; additionally, my uncle was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions at the Battle of Iwo Jima, and my late father-in-law was awarded a Silver Star during his service in the Vietnam War. However, all of this said, I basically do not disagree with the court���s decision in this case. I realize that my position puts me at odds with a lot of my brethren in the veteran community, but, in cases like this, I try to see past my own personal interests and look toward broader implications with respect to liberty, which is absolutely something the courts must do.

No, I do not like people lying about military service, but I am not prepared to travel the awfully slippery slope that begins with deciding that simple lying, devoid of a connection to fraud, is a crime. ���Mere��� lying, as unappealing a behavior as I���m sure most of us find it to be, is, in the end, speech.

The point at which lying becomes a crime is when it is done for the purpose of committing fraud ��� that is, to separate people, companies, agencies, etc., from their money under false pretenses. If some guy who���s never served wants to wear a military uniform to the local bar to impress girls, although I don���t like that he is doing so, I don���t think it should be a crime. However, if that same guy fabricates documentation to represent himself as a serviceman in order that he can receive a special credit on his property taxes available only to service personnel, then he has committed fraud, and that should be against the law.

Admittedly, where the particular case on which this verdict was based has me in at least a little bit of quandary is that the guy was wearing the Purple Heart in court, presumably in an effort to enhance his credibility with the jury; in other words, while he may not have been wearing the medal in this case for the purpose of realizing undue financial gain, wearing it in court like he did is not exactly the same thing as wearing it around town while running errands. Maybe there should be a special category of fraud that applies in situations like court trials, where the credibility and status of plaintiffs, defendants, and witnesses is a big part of how cases are decided.

I don���t know, and perhaps even such a special exception, if it were to be made a part of law, would not withstand challenges on the basis of constitutionality. In the end, free expression should, as much as humanly possible, be subject to our highest, best, and most liberally-applied protections.

 By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Are Your Home Appliances Spying On You?

*** Related Article - Legally Become Invisible Click Here

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, it became painfully clear to those of us concerned about Internet-based privacy and safety that things in that realm are clearly getting worse.

One of the ���highlights��� of the show, but something many of us see more as a frightening development, was to learn how many previously-conventional home appliances like clothes dryers and refrigerators have become ���Internetted;��� called ���smart��� appliances, these have the ability to receive and transmit data and information to you on smartphone apps. While, on the one hand, it seems like a glorious thing to be able to control your appliances from smartphones, and to even have the appliances think for you and make adjustments based on your habitual behavior, there are extremely ominous implications of such ���benefits.���

Take, for example, a ���smart��� bathroom scale. Seems fairly innocuous, right? You could use it to receive data that would help you more effectively track your weight and perhaps make even better food choices, but where else might that information potentially go? To your health insurer? Perhaps to an employer?

What���s more, it is not at all out of the realm of possibility that an aggressive hacker could penetrate your home network through a ���smart��� appliance and gain access to all that you have, including your smartphone and even a home webcam you might have set up for, ironically enough, personal protection. There have already been documented instances of baby monitors being hacked, and parents even hearing the voice of the hacker speaking to the child as they race to his side inside of their own home. Wow!

As much as the Internet offers, it may be the consummate example of the double-edged sword. It is revealing to me that although one leading security expert, Tom Kellerman, chief cybersecurity officer of Dallas software firm Trend Micro, recommends better-protecting yourself against these possible intrusions by strengthening the passwords of both your Wi-Fi router and any connected devices, his answer to defeating ���smart��� appliances is to simply not own any; and this is from a cybersecurity expert!

The privacy threats are real, and they are growing. To help stay safe, I regularly consult an ebook that I have found to be just great, called The Patriot Privacy Kit. It provides a wealth of useful information on how to stay safe online, including how to secure your computer hardware and software platforms, how to be a good steward of your all-important passwords, and how to use email more securely. This ebook also looks at what you need to know to be safe as a regular user of social media, including the ubiquitous Facebook, and also includes great information on how to secure your sensitive information offline (even in this ���Internet age,��� most ID theft still takes place that way, from the compromise of documents in a physical form). Additionally, one of the bonuses that comes with the Kit is a great, easy-to-understand guidebook to help you regain your life if your identity is stolen; called The Patriot Identity Recovery Guide, this ebook provides information that reveals how you can tell if your identity has been stolen, the steps to take if your identity has, in fact, been compromised, as well as how you can manage your liability in the wake of an identity breach ��� really great information.

The Patriot Privacy Kit comes with a fantastic money-back guarantee, which means you can read and use the information through and through���and if you���re still not satisfied, you can get all of your money back, with no fuss. If you want to learn more about The Patriot Privacy Kit, which I would heartily suggest in light of the ever-worrisome privacy and security climate in which we find ourselves now living, Click Here. 

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Insider Secrets Of Leveraging LinkedIn

 

Of all the social networks out there, LinkedIn may be the one that offers the greatest potential for professional and financial reward to careerists, but which remains the greatest mystery in terms of how it can be best utilized. My guess is that if you are a professional, you have a LinkedIn profile, and, if that is the case, my further supposition is that you do very little with your LinkedIn presence, just as it does very little for you.

This much about LinkedIn you surely know: it is about business, which means it is about money. I tend to think of it as a business to business, or B2B, social network. This is not to say that only companies have profiles on LinkedIn, of course, but, rather, that the reason people are on LinkedIn, whether they are employees, business owners, or genuine entrepreneurs, is because of business, in one form or another.

As I alluded to earlier, however, LinkedIn, for most people, is like an eternal mystery that can never seem to be unlocked. As you know, having a profile on LinkedIn, in the most generic sort of way, is of practically no value. In order to truly benefit from LinkedIn���to maximize its potential���you have to become well-versed in the ���ins��� and ���outs��� of the platform.

That is where Howard Yermish and his terrific course Powerful Social Sales with LinkedIn comes in. Unlike other tutorials that ���teach��� you how to maximize your opportunities with various social media outlets, but which, in the end, provide very little in the way of actionable direction���Power Social Sales walks you, step-by-step, through growing your influential circle through the LinkedIn social mechanism. After the ���Introduction��� and ���System Overview��� modules, the bulk of the educational units are divided between the modules entitled ���Your First Three Weeks��� and ���Weekly Cycle.��� Although the other sections provide invaluable information, these sections are where you will find the most important information Yermish dispenses. After a brief overview, Module Three begins with the presentation ���Week A: Connect with People ��� Inner Circle,��� which shows you how to be sure you���re not missing any of those no-brainer connections you should absolutely have at LinkedIn. From there, your ���Week A��� tasks will include beginning the process of communicating with your contacts and endorsing their skills on LinkedIn. ���Week B��� and ���Week C��� instruction includes demonstrating how to start expanding your inner circle, finding groups to join, following company pages, and much more.

The ���Weekly Cycle��� is the part of the program where you will be instructed on just how each of your work days, going forward, will ideally be configured, from the standpoint of working at your LinkedIn strategy. This is where you learn not just what to do, but how to stay organized, so that your efforts result in functional progress. I believe that the inability to stay organized and to adhere to a discipline is one of the very biggest reasons why people fail at their entrepreneurial efforts, whether on behalf of the corporate position of which they have ���taken ownership,��� or on behalf of their own business venture(s). To this end, the wisdom offered up here by Yermish is excellent.

The instructional portion of the program is contained in 48 units of instruction, presented in both video and text transcript formats, spread over eight modules, but that is not all. By getting lifetime access to the program, which all purchasers receive, you will be privy to any and all course updates that are made, going forward. Additionally, you receive access to the downloadable progress tracking workbook (PDF), as well as to the private course forums where Howard Yermish will answer any course-related questions you may have. The unlimited email Q&A feature of a product like this cannot be overrated. I have always felt, personally, that such a feature by itself is usually worth the entire cost of a quality information product, even if you received nothing else (which is obviously not the case).

To be clear, this is a product for the serious networker ��� the highly-motivated salesperson, Internet entrepreneur, offline entrepreneur (who uses the Internet to grow his business), etc. In other words, if you see yourself as doing no more than ���dabbling��� in your own entrepreneurial/sales efforts���then this product is, to be honest, a little too high-end for you. This said, if you are serious about growing your network and taking your sales and professional achievement results to new level, then Powerful Social Sales with LinkedIn is definitely worth your attention. To learn more about this very comprehensive program, Click Here.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Legal Scholar Says Cruz NOT Eligible to be President

Legal scholar Mary Brigid McManamon, a constitutional law professor at Widener University���s Delaware Law School, is making waves with an op-ed piece in The Washington Post that declares Ted Cruz is ineligible to be president, based on the fact that he was born outside of the U.S.

The matter of Cruz���s eligibility to be president has been vigorously raised by fellow GOP candidate Donald Trump in recent weeks, likely due in no small way to the fact that Cruz has been making inroads into Trump���s overall lead among Republican candidates, and particularly in Iowa, where the caucuses will be held on February 1.

The consensus among legal eagles (although NOT the Supreme Court, which has never directly weighed in on the issue) has been that the ���natural born Citizen��� requirement to be eligible to run for the office includes those who were born to at least one domestically-born American parent, even if they were physically birthed outside of the United States (like Cruz). However, McManamon takes issue with that idea, citing several historical details that indicate the clear intention of the framers of the Constitution was that for anyone to be qualified to run for president, he has to be born in the U.S. Among several examples, she points out that James Madison, regarded as ���the father of the Constitution, stated, ���It is an established maxim that birth is a criterion of allegiance. .���.���. [And] place is the most certain criterion; it is what applies in the United States.���

Additionally, McManamon points out that if we���re going to look at prevailing wisdom and behaviors, it should be noted that, for many decades in the 19th century, the benefit of being born outside the U.S. but naturalized at birth out of deference to American parentage was not available, and that those born thusly at that time still had to undergo a naturalization process. In other words, enjoying the status of ���natural born Citizen��� at birth by virtue of having at least one American parent, regardless of where one is physically born, was not always the standard in the U.S.

Although I recently wrote an article outlining the reasons why Cruz likely would have no eligibility issues, there does remain one glaring problem for Cruz that did not exist for President Obama: Bottom line, Cruz was born outside of the United States, while Obama was not. Furthermore, the consensus opinion that says Cruz is in the clear is not the result of a decision made by the Supreme Court on the matter of the ���natural born Citizen��� provision, because they have never directly ruled on an eligibility case, but, rather, a preponderance of legal interpretations that have seen fit to more liberally apply the definition of ���natural born Citizen.���

Two things seem clear: The matter of a ���birther��� challenge to Ted Cruz may actually have a grain of legitimacy, and the Supreme Court may finally be asked to rule on the matter of ���natural born Citizen��� as it pertains to eligibility to be President of the United States.

 By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

How Some People Are Making Millions On YouTube

If you���ve ever wanted to know how to make money on YouTube, or if you���re in your 20's and wondered what you can do to stand out and get a great paying job, ChristianMoney.com friend and business coach, Glory Borgeson, has two new online courses that cover both of these topics. Glory is offering special discounts to these courses for our readers!

Have You Ever Wanted To Make Money On YouTube? Making money on YouTube is both simple and complex. It���s as simple as opening a YouTube account and uploading your videos.

The complexity comes into play when you want to get more people to watch your videos, increase their watch time, and subscribe to your channel. That involves better videos and better ways of setting up the background details of your videos and your channel to increase the likelihood that people will find your videos, watch them, and come back to watch more.

Joining the YouTube Partner Program in order to monetize your channel is simple and complex, too. Sometimes YouTube denies a monetization request and then you have to wait to request it again later. Glory���s channels were approved for monetization within hours and she shares how she made it happen.

In more than 80 lectures and 5 hours of video, this course takes you through the entire process without making you feel as if you���re drinking water from a fire hose.

The price of the course is $129. But with this special rate for ChristianMoney.com readers, the discounted price is only $13.

Check out the details of the course, ���YouTube Success ��� Make Money From Your Videos���, by clicking this link. The discounted price will be reflected on the Udemy.com page.

The $13 coupon price expires soon. If you buy the course before that date, you���ll get that price and you���ll have lifetime access to the course, the discussions about the course topics, and any updates Glory makes to the course.

Learn what making money from your YouTube videos is all about!

In Your 20���s and Looking for a New Job?

Good jobs have a lot of competition these days with many job candidates going after one position. This is especially true for people in their 20s.

If you're in your 20s, you might already know that your age group has the highest rates of unemployment and underemployment. There might be 100 job candidates (or more!) pursuing one job in your career field.

How do you stand out as the job candidate they should hire?

Glory���s course on Udemy.com helps you beat your competition and get the job AND she���s offering a coupon to readers of the ChristianMoney.com blog that greatly reduces the price!

Designed especially for people in their 20s, ���Beat Your Competition to Get That Great Job!��� will help you:

Meet more people who hold the keys to great jobs in your career field.
Get people in your network to connect you to VIPs.
Update your LinkedIn profile so that it draws people in.
Use LinkedIn strategically to help you get introductions to people at companies you're interested in.
Have meaningful conversations with people you've just met so that people at key companies (& especially the hiring managers) become interested in you.
Ace different types of interviews!
Ask for the job.
Beat your competition to get the job!

In more than 65 lectures and nearly 5 hours of video, this course takes you through an entire process that is designed to get the attention of hiring managers (and the people who know them) in a positive way.

As of January 1, 2016, the price of the course increased to $179. But with the special coupon offered to ChristianMoney.com blog readers, the cost is only $13 for the entire course.

Click here to take advantage of this offer (the coupon is embedded in the link and the $13 price will be reflected on the course page when you click that link). You can read more about the course on that page and preview a few of the lectures.

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By ChristianMoney.com Staff Writers

Ted Cruz Born In Canada, But Can He Be President?

On this episode - Jim discusses the controversy about Ted Cruz's eligibility to become president, Puerto Rico wants to file for bankruptcy as the island runs out of money, Yellow Cab is filing for bankruptcy as ridesharing services take more market share, which cities have the most credit card debt?, how one woman dealt with the theft of her credit card by a Starbuck's employee, a new scam that steals your money right from the closing table when buying a home, a website that uncovers the lowest airfares you will find anywhere, and how you can gain free access to thousands of books, videos, audio, and photos for free through the New York Public Library's public domain digital collection.

Murders And Rapes On Cruise Ships

The president of the International Cruise Victims Association, Jamie Barnett, joins Jim Paris Live to discuss the epidemic of crimes on cruise ships. Barnett shares the story of her own daughter and how she died after taking a Carnival Cruise in 2005 (the subject of a CBS 48 Hours Mystery). The shocking truth about how cruise lines can get around U.S. law and taxes by incorporating in foreign countries, the reality that most workers on cruise ships are not background checked, one third of sexual assaults on cruises are against minors, how the industry has bought Congress with millions in campaign contributions, why even law enforcement looks the other way when it comes to crimes on cruise ships. The shocking truth that will change forever the way you look at cruises.

Could Hillary Lose To Sanders In Early States?

The campaign of Bernie Sanders, once seen as little more than a novelty (perhaps even to Sanders himself), is being viewed far more ominously by Hillary Clinton insiders in the wake of poll numbers that show the senator from Vermont to be a genuinely legitimate challenger to not only Clinton herself, but to whomever is ultimately declared the Republican nominee.

Clinton has publicly questioned Sanders��� electability since the outset of his campaign, but recent polls show that in prospective match-ups with likely Republican challengers in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders performs better than does Mrs. Clinton. In fact, in head-to-head matchups against each other, recent poll numbers show Clinton���s lead over Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire to be anything but overwhelming: The results of an NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey released Sunday show Clinton presently maintaining just a three-point lead over likely Iowa voters���48-45���while the same poll revealed that likely New Hampshire primary voters prefer Clinton by almost as small a margin, 50-46. The Iowa caucuses will be held on February 1, and the New Hampshire primary on February 9. Given Clinton���s long-standing position as the Democrat party���s presumptive nominee, even razor-thin victory margins over Sanders, let alone outright losses to him, could spell doom for her chances to emerge as the party���s eventual nominee.

Observers believe that Hillary is falling victim to a variety of negative perceptions among her party���s electorate, ranging from an overall weariness of Clinton and Clintons, in general, to genuine dissatisfaction���and even anger���over issues like the email scandal and her perceived complicity in Bill Clinton���s alleged sexual misconduct. Bernie Sanders is plagued by no such baggage, and, furthermore, seems to be, like Donald Trump, the beneficiary of an embrace by voters this year of outside-the-beltway populists.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Millions Will Have Their Medical Information Stolen This Year - How To Stop Medical ID Theft

In a startling article that appeared at Forbes at the close of 2015, Dan Munro reveals a recent disclosure by the Department of Health and Human Services��� Office of Civil Rights that data breaches in the health care industry in 2015 totaled over 112 million records. The news for the immediate future is not good, either; according to the article, the International Data Corporation���s Health Insights group is reporting ���that 1 in 3 health care recipients will be the victim of a health care data breach in 2016.��� 1 in 3!

This information is another reminder that whatever convenience we enjoy from the use of the Internet medium can be substantially offset by the ubiquitous threats of hacking and identity theft. While the protection of your sensitive information is largely out of your control when it is stored by service providers like health insurers, that reality should in no way discourage you from implementing protective measures on behalf of your own personal presence on the Internet, which is constantly at risk; this includes the activity in which you engage on very popular, but very vulnerable, social media outlets.

To help you stay safe, a resource you may find helpful is an ebook called The Patriot Privacy Kit. It provides a wealth of useful information on how to stay safe online, including how to secure your computer hardware and software platforms, how to be a good steward of your all-important passwords, and how to use email more securely. This ebook also looks at what you need to know to be safe as a regular user of social media, including the ubiquitous Facebook, and also includes great information on how to secure your sensitive information offline (even in this ���Internet age,��� most ID theft still takes place that way, from the compromise of documents in a physical form). Something else - The Patriot Privacy Kit comes with a fantastic money-back guarantee, which means you can read and use the information through and through���and if you���re still not satisfied, you can get all of your money back, with no fuss. If you want to learn more about The Patriot Privacy Kit, Click Here.

Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Ted Cruz Was Born In Canada, Can He Still Be President?

We all remember it well: the informal, cacophonous challenges to Barack Obama���s eligibility to run for President of the United States based on what many saw as his questionable citizenship standing. His Kenyan parentage on his father���s side was the primary reason for the inquiries, but Obama���s eventual production of both his short-form and long-form birth certificates, showing he was born in Hawaii in 1961, has quieted all but the most strident doubters and conspiracy theorists.

Now, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is facing the same broad questions about his own eligibility to run for president. Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada in 1970, and admits as much. To many, that fact means he is ineligible to be POTUS. But is that really true?

The reason these questions come up is because while the Constitution uses the term ���natural born Citizen��� to establish who is eligible to be president, the document does not further define the term, and, importantly, the Supreme Court has never ruled (directly) on the singular issue of citizenship and eligibility for presidential candidates (or presidents). Because of this, any candidate who was not physically born on U.S. soil finds himself open to ���birther��� charges leveled by political opponents.

However, these challenges tend not to gain any real traction, because those who run for office���at least of the ���mainstream��� candidates���all seem to have birthright claims that meet the standard of ���natural born Citizen��� as it has come to be viewed. Legal authorities have maintained that ���natural born Citizen��� refers to someone who is a citizen from the time of his birth, and does not otherwise have to go through a naturalization process in order to become a citizen. Cruz meets that standard by having been born to an American mother.

Further underlining that standard is the Naturalization Act of 1790, passed by the first Congress of the United States, which declared children born outside the U.S. to U.S. citizens were natural born citizens. The 1790 legislation has since been followed by other pieces of law dealing with the issue of naturalization, but that provision has essentially remained intact.

Nevertheless, given that the original use of the term ���natural born Citizen��� in the Constitution has never been clearly defined, along with the fact that the Supreme Court has never ruled directly on the issue, it is likely that candidate Cruz and others with something other than the most straightforward ���natural born��� claims to citizenship will continue to find themselves on the receiving end of various ���birther��� challenges.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large