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Persuasion Power Point #365
by Michael Cloud
How to Strengthen Your Voice and Prevent Hoarseness
If you're a libertarian candidate, public speaker, or seminar leader, you need a strong, reliable speaking voice.
Not just for two or three 20-minute talks. But for six hours to nine hours of speeches, conversations, and questions and answers each campaign day. Each seminar day.
How do you protect or treat your voice against raw throat, hoarseness, and voice fatigue?
For years, professional speakers have used throat lozenges, cough syrup, throat spray, and other over-the-counter remedies. Results? Temporary, minimal relief.
"Not nearly good enough," thought Steve Chandler, a longtime public speaker and seminar leader.
He looked for and finally found an all-natural, reliable and free solution.
What is it?
"Sing... for an hour a day," urges Mr. Chandler. "Before I started my singing practice, I didn't have much of a voice at all. Now I never have a problem with my voice. I can always fill the auditorium with it, even if the AV system goes down and the microphone goes out."
When does he practice? When he runs errands, he plays music CDs in the car — and sings along with them. Sometimes when he works out, he plays the music on his iPod — and sings right along.
Skeptical? I was. So I put it to the test. For the last 20 days, I've sung along 60 minutes each day — to my favorite rock and pop singers. My voice has gotten stronger, more clear, and I have NO rawness or hoarseness.
Try it yourself. You'll love the results.
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Michael Cloud's latest book Unlocking More Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion is available exclusively from the Advocates, along with his acclaimed earlier book Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion.
In 2000, Michael was honored with the Thomas Paine Award as the Most Persuasive Libertarian Communicator in America.
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Unlocking More Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion
Transform your libertarian outreach!
Click cover to see more and order.
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Ask Dr. Ruwart
Dr. Mary Ruwart is a leading expert in libertarian communication. In this column she offers short answers to real questions about libertarianism. To submit questions to Dr. Ruwart, see end of column.
The FDA Vs. the Health and Safety of Amercans
QUESTION: Which problem is the greatest: the FDA's approving unsafe drugs, or the FDA's delaying the approval of life-saving ones?
MY SHORT ANSWER: In 1992, Congress passed the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), allowing drug companies to voluntarily pay about $100,000 to get a speedier review. The money went to hire new reviewers.
The fee has grown steadily; it's now over one million dollars per drug. The part of the FDA that reviews drug applications now receives about 50% of its funding from drug companies. FDA employees (e.g., Dr. David Graham, the whistleblower on Vioxx) have reported being told by supervisors that the drug companies — not the American public — are the FDA's clients. This should be expected, as he who pays the bills makes the rules.
Does this mean that the FDA now approves unsafe drugs? It depends on how you look at it. Withdrawal rates (the percent of approved drugs removed from the market) from 1962-1992 and 1993-2013 are virtually identical at about 3%. As time goes on, however, more drugs approved during 1993-2013 are likely to be withdrawn. The differences may be small, though, as most withdrawals occur quickly. On the other hand, Vioxx, approved post-PDUFA, was by far the biggest drug disaster in history.
Does the FDA still delay approval of life-saving drugs? Yes! It does so by demanding that companies perform studies taking an average of 13-plus years. Prior to 1962, the average time was about 4 years. I suspect that these delays are still more costly, in terms of lives lost, than approvals of unsafe drugs.
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Got questions? Dr. Ruwart has answers! If you'd like answers to YOUR tough questions on libertarian issues, email Dr. Ruwart
Due to volume, Dr. Ruwart can't personally acknowledge all emails. But we'll run the best questions and answers in upcoming issues.
Dr. Ruwart's previous Liberator Online answers are archived in searchable form.
Dr. Ruwart's latest book Short Answers to the Tough Questions, Expanded Edition is available from the Advocates, as is her acclaimed classic Healing Our World.
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Click cover to check out Dr. Ruwart's latest book!
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One-Minute Liberty Tip
by Sharon Harris
Word Choice: Blowback — Foreign and Domestic
“Blowback†is a term that originated in the CIA in 1954. It originally referred to the unintended consequences of a covert foreign operation — consequences that are often suffered by the civilians of the nation whose government instigated the covert operation. This “blowback†may take the form of riots, demonstrations, hostage-taking, terrorist attacks, and similar hostile actions. The civilians on the receiving end of the blowback don't realize that it was their own government's secret activities that caused the anger and violence being directed against them.
Blowback is a term heard more and more when discussing foreign policy. And its definition is often expanded to include overt as well as covert foreign interventions that have negative consequences.
Ron Paul helped popularize the concept of blowback, as well as the word itself, during his GOP presidential campaign runs. For example, in the 2008 Republican presidential primary debates in South Carolina, he introduced it this way:
"I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about ‘blowback.’ When we went into Iran in 1953 and installed the shah, yes, there was blowback. A reaction to that was the taking of our hostages, and that persists. And if we ignore [blowback], we ignore that at our own risk. If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem. They don't come here to attack us because we're rich and we're free. They come and they attack us because we're over there. I mean, what would we think... if other foreign countries were doing that to us?"
Scholar Chalmers Johnson also popularized the term in an influential trilogy of books: Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (2000); The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (2005); and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (2006).
Johnson defines the term and tells about the operation that led the CIA to use it:
"’Blowback’ is a CIA term first used in March 1954 in a recently declassified report on the 1953 operation to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. It is a metaphor for the unintended consequences of the U.S. government's international activities that have been kept secret from the American people. The CIA's fears that there might ultimately be some blowback from its egregious interference in the affairs of Iran were well founded. Installing the Shah in power brought twenty-five years of tyranny and repression to the Iranian people and elicited the Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution. The staff of the American embassy in Teheran was held hostage for more than a year. This misguided ‘covert operation’ of the U.S. government helped convince many capable people throughout the Islamic world that the United States was an implacable enemy.â€
Blowback is a useful word in describing the unintended, but often terrible, consequences of foreign intervention.
But it is a very useful term for discussing domestic policy as well.
Just like foreign intervention, domestic government intervention has many unintended negative consequences. As the word “blowback†becomes a familiar, popular, colorful pejorative in foreign policy discussions, it is also beginning to be used to describe the unintended destructive consequences of domestic government activities.
Libertarians — who are very aware of the negative unintended consequences of government domestic policy — can use the word blowback to add power and color to our discussions of domestic issues.
Some examples:
“An increase in the minimum wage would lead to blowback in the form of the loss of hundreds of thousands of desperately needed entry level jobs. This blowback would hit the most vulnerable people in our economy: the low-paid, the unemployed, the under-educated, minorities, and the young.â€
“Blowback from the War on Drugs includes crowded prisons and wasted law enforcement resources, overdoses from impure street drugs, the spread of AIDS and Hepatitis B and C from shared needles, drugs peddled to children, loss of fundamental Bill of Rights civil liberties, the enriching of violent criminal gangs, the funding of terrorism, drive-by shootings by warring drug gangs... and more.â€
“The blowback from government welfare programs includes the break-up of families, multi-generational poverty, dependence on government, and a weakening of the vital role that voluntarily-funded charities play in our society.â€
There are innumerable further possibilities.
Blowback is a powerful, provocative word that quickly and colorfully conveys a vital concept. Many people realize its significance in the foreign policy realm. Their ears will perk up, and they may reach new understanding, when you apply it to domestic policy as well.
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Sharon Harris is president of the Advocates for Self-Government.
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What's Happening with the Advocates
NEWS AND UPCOMING EVENTS
ADVOCATES LIBERTARIAN COMMUNICATION EVENTS:
Advocates President Sharon Harris will be speaking at the following events:
March 8: Keynote speaker at the Libertarian Party of Georgia's state convention.
March 15: Speaker at the Libertarian Party of Tennessee's state convention.
March 29: Speaker at the Libertarian Party of Colorado's state convention.
March 30: Half-day Communication Workshop co-sponsored by LP-CO.
April 5: Banquet speaker at the Libertarian Party of Maryland's state convention. Liberator Online columnist and author Michael Cloud will also be speaking.
June 26-29: National Libertarian Party convention. The Advocates will have a booth, and Sharon will be speaking.
August 8-9: Featured speaker at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)'s "Communicating Liberty" conference.
Attendees will learn how to dramatically increase their effectiveness at communicating the ideas of liberty.
Email us now if you'd like us to send you further information on these events.
Email Sharon to find out how you can have a communication event near you.
ONGOING
FREE OPH KITS FOR LIBERTARIAN STUDENT GROUPS: Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we're giving our acclaimed OPH (Operation Political Homeless) outreach kits to libertarian student groups FREE — if they simply promise to use them a minimum of three times a year and send us photos documenting their OPH activity. OPH — praised as the best recruiting tool in the libertarian movement -- normally sells for $50.00.
If you're in a student libertarian group, click here for more information on getting your free OPH kit.
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