Announcing WordCamp Nashville

http://2012.nashville.wordcamp.org/

 

I’d like to let everyone know that WordCamp Nashville is coming April 21, 2012 to Watkins College of Art, Design & Film (9AM-4PM), and you can now get your tickets, apply to be a speaker, or become a sponsor. I’m very excited about this as I love WordPress, am involved with this WordCamp and Nashville meetup group as an organizer/volunteer. Most of the websites I build (including this one) are WordPress based, and I have been involved in this great community for over 5 years now. And did you know:  that as of August 2011 14.7% of the top million websites in the world are run on WordPress, and the latest data shows that 22 out of every 100 new active domains in the US are running WordPress? So come on out for a day of WordPress knowledge in Nashville!

Official WordCamp Nashville Press Release:

 

WordCamp, a one-day event on April 21, will introduce new users to WordPress as well as offer tips for more experienced hands. Tickets are available only from our ticketing page. Tickets are $20 and attendance is limited to 250.

Speakers will address issues for beginners, such as setting up their first site, and advanced users, such as using WordPress for e-commerce.

Local WordPress users and businesses who are partnering with the WordPress Foundation are putting together WordCamp Nashville, one of a series of WordCamps held by fans of the software throughout the world. The local event will be held Saturday, April 21, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in Nashville’s MetroCenter area.

WordPress is among the most popular and powerful publishing platforms available for bloggers as well as companies wanting to make maximum advantage of their online presence. It’s free, and users don’t need to write code to use it.

Recently, with the release of version 3.0, WordPress has moved to help manage and power sites that belong to big, household names, including major brands, country music stars and professional athletes. WordPress powers more than 70 million websites, half of which are hosted on wordpress.com.

For more information on WordCamp Nashville sponsorship or corporate involvement, call John Housholder at 615-618-7287, email him at john@ahsodesigns.com. For camp and speaker updates, check back here and follow @wordcampnash on Twitter.

For more info and to signup to attend, speak, or become a sponsor please visit:

 

http://2012.nashville.wordcamp.org/

 

Also:

Follow @WordCampNash & @WPNashville on Twitter

WordPress Nashville Meetup Group (meets once a month)

WordPress Nashville Facebook Page

Lastly, for a high level overview on how great WordPress is, here is Matt Mullenweg (WordPress Founder) giving his “State of the Word 2011” Keynote at WordCamp San Francisco last August.

Moral Majority

Survivalism
Screen shot from Nine Inch Nails "Survivalism" Video

With all of the political rhetoric about morality these days, the rise of  Rick Santorum, the Christian Right, and it’s proud anti-science, anti intellectual, anti freedom stances, disguised as faith, morality, and freedom of religion…I can’t help but listen to Nine Inch Nails Year Zero and hope Trent’s not right about our future.

http://yearzero.nin.com/

 

Obama vs. The Almighty Reagan on Taxes

Something that always gets me furious is this debate about taxes, debt and the deficit in American politics. The very mention of increasing any taxes or closing tax loopholes for the wealthy is met with a Republican firestorm of accusations about class warfare, socialism, and job killing. Nobody likes paying taxes. That’s a given. But something must be done about our debt and wasteful spending they say. Taxes and other forms of government income is literally the only way these problems can be solved. Spend less tax money. Bring in more tax money. Pay off debt. Simple. A friend of mine on Facebook recently quoted a statistic that the US government pays $2.1 BILLION a DAY in interest on debt. Wow! Let’s take care of that shall we?

I REJECT the idea that asking a hedge fund manager to pay the same tax rate as a teacher or a plumber is class warfare”

-Barack Obama 2012

Compare with:

We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying ten percent of his salary, and that’s crazy. [...] Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver or less?

We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying ten percent of his salary, and that’s crazy. […] Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver or less?

– Ronald Reagan 1985

Further comparison in video form. Note – video does not include the Obama quote above because that is a recent quote and this video was made sometime last year.

So if Obama is on the same page with the almighty conservative Demigod action hero Ronald Reagan 27 years ago during his presidency of legend, then what’s the problem here? Could it be the messenger and the “Goonies never say die!” climate created by Fox News & Conservative talk radio. Nooo…that can’t be it! Now I don’t like Reagan, and you may not like Obama. But can’t we all just pay our fair share and shut up?

– Jeff

Photos & Video from: Think Progress & Being Liberal