Persuasion Insider

Former co-worker and all-around NYC-based super witty copywriter extraordinaire Matt O’Rourke has called me out. Tour predictions, here we come. This is a crazy tour, right? Right. I mean Astana has a cluster-f#@* of internal politics going on and no one is happier about it than the media (that may actually be the point). Then there’s the returning champ, Carlos Sastre, whom absolutely no one is even thinking about at the moment. Bring in the Schleck brothers, Denny-the-stubborn-Russian

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Author: Neil Gaiman Originally Published: 2001 Courtney’s Edition: 2002 Publisher: Harper Collins In Neil Gaiman’s American Gods , all of the gods who people have ever believed in have a physical presence in every land where they have had believers. (So, for example, there is an Odin in Iceland, but there’s also a different incarnation of Odin in America.) Shadow, a typically normal man, is released from prison after serving three years. On his way from prison to his wife’s funeral, he

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Hey-o, Independent people! Welcome to a totally free and brave and amber-waved Wheel of Time Re-read post! In honor of the holiday weekend, please pretend that this entry is hung about with red, white, and blue crepe paper. And that it occasionally explodes. Or, if you are un-American, you can alternately pretend it will be covering Chapters 39-40 of The Fires of Heaven . Though actually the title is very appropriate for the occasion! Previous entries are KA-BOOM! This and all other BAN

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REMIXED MESSAGES What happens when an artifact of persuasion encounters the modern marketplace A blunt slogan and a simple image: these basic elements of persuasion, protest, propaganda or making a point have been used in tandem and to great effect for as long as anyone reading this has been alive. Presumably, these messages have always been received in a variety of ways. But these days, it seems, when a slogan and an image reach a significant audience, that’s not the end of the p

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By Kathleen DuVal , an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina, the author of The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent and a forthcoming book on the American Revolution on the Gulf Coast (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 03/07/09): From the perspective of 2009, democracy in the United States is a great success. This makes it is easy to imagine that the march to democracy was the only path — that there is a clear line from the Declaration of Indepe

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IRAN UPDATE: U.S., U.K., ISRAEL, ANGLO-AMERICAN-ISRAELI EMPIRE-AXIS OF EVIL Posted: Friday, July 3, 2009@ 12:56:17 PM (Pacific Time) By Tom Usher Last Edited: Friday, July 3, 2009@ 12:56:17 PM (Pacific Time) This is part of the series:IRANIAN VOTER OR ELECTION FRAUD? HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL, U.S., INDEPENDENT POLLSTERS SAY OTHERWISECONTRARY TO REPORTS BY MAINSTREAM U.S. MEDIA, AHMADINEJAD DID NOT WIN IN EVERY REGION OR CITY: PROPAGANDA WILL PROVE EMBARRASSING FOR CIA MEDIA OUTLETSHERE’S STRATFOR’S G

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I haven’t had a chance to parse through and offer some thoughts on the debate we hosted between Conor Friedersdorf and Dan Riehl, nor the unfortunate fall out that transpired after the exchange. There was a lot going on in that debate and the resulting blow back and so it might be a bit ambitious, even for blogger of my verbose persuasion, to attempt to capture everything in one post. However, experiences of the morning have brought a particular element of the whole foofaraw back into focus

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Account of Shreveport resident Robert Baillio, who got pulled over for having two pro-gun bumper stickers on the back of his truck — and had his licensed gun confiscated. According to Cedric Glover, mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, his cops “have a power that [. . .] the President of these Unites States does not have”: His cops can take away your rights. And would you like to guess which rights he has in mind? Just ask Shreveport resident Robert Baillio, who got pulled over for having tw

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An Introduction: America, the last refuge of freedom on Earth, is in great danger today. The philosophical political-divide, seems to be growing wider by the day too. It makes me wonder sometimes … Is there a united-front large enough anymore, to actually bring the Leviathan to its knees? In other words: Is the American population even interested in bringing it to its knees? Or has the American Creed been trumped by “whose Big Government is best?” The right-side of the political

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By Ray B. Williams Can a positive frame of mind and emotional state improve an individual’s performance on the job and in relationships? Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, a distinguished psychology professor and author of Positivity, believes so. She argues that our emotions are connected to our outlooks via a cause-and-effect relationship. As positivity (as defined as love, joy, gratitude, serenity, hope and optimism) flows through our hearts, it simultaneously broadens our minds, allowing

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