Liberty Unchained

While looking for writings and products similar to a project that I am currently working on, I stumbled upon a report called “How to Survive Hospital Costs Without Insurance” by Gregory Allan of The Lawful Path.

He offers the first few chapters for free so that you can get a sense of his writing and see if you might be interested in the full book.

I found his book to be clearly written and the process he lays out to be very simple and easy to follow. Being a student of practical application of law, his process is very similar to the ones I use for dealing with debt collectors, finance charges, late fees, and the occasional municipal agent that I have to deal with.

He provides the full index at the front of the free section, so that you can see what you are getting. Some of the most critical sections ( though they all tie together nicely ) are those on the very basics of dealing with hospitals, contract law, getting debt collectors to stop calling, establishing a record, and making debt collectors go away.

The information in his report is not only applicable to those with no insurance, but it can help a great deal when you find your health insurance refuses to cover something in particular.

In the full (paid) version he includes flow charts as well as pre-written letters for dealing with both hospitals and debt collectors. I know that the debt collector part works as it is very similar to how I have dealt with a couple in the past.

This report is well worth the fifty dollar price tag. And no, i get nothing for recommending this. It is simply something that could be of great help to a large ( and growing ) segment of the population.

If you do nothing else, read the free report as it has a wealth of very good information in it. You can get it via the big yellow box on the right side of The Lawful Path.

Subscribe to blogs to get quality information you are interested in

One way to save time scouring the internet for information is to setup a feed reader and subscribe to news or blog feeds on sites which interest you.

A feed is simply a method by which people publish lists of thier posts in a format that a specialized reader can pick up. Once you get and install a program to keep up on feeds that interest you, you can simply open it and see all new posts / articles from those sites you subscribe to.

A quick, simple way to set this up is as follows:

1. Download a feed reading program ( FeedReader ).
2. Once the download completes, run the installer ( feedreader.exe )
3. Select the language you wish to use.
4. Choose whether or not you want it to run when you turn on your computer.
5. Select any of the default feeds you would like to import ( I do not choose any, but you might browse them and see if there are any which interest you ).
6. Once the program is open, subscribe to the feeds you are interested by entering the web address of the feed or selecting the feed on a web site and selecting feedreader as the application to read it with.

For example, if you were to subscribe to this site, you would select the orange rss feed image at the top right of the site ( or the blue feedburner image next to it ) and choose to subscribe with feedreader ( or the feed reader or your choice ).

Once you do so, the recent articles from this site will show up in your feed reader and as I publish new articles, they will show up there as well.

Do that with most or all of the sites you find interesting and you can simply open your feed reading program ( or web site ) and see what has been published on your favorite sites. This can save quite a bit of time even if you actively manage your bookmarks.

Save your time by joining newsletters.

If you tire of wasting time searching the internet for information, perhaps you should consider joining newsletters if you do not already do so. There is a wealth of newsletters online for just about anything you can think of…and all you have to do is find them and weed out those you are not interested in to start getting what you seek delivered to your email account.

Step one: Find newsletters you might be interested in.

To do this, just open your favorite search engine ( I tend to use clusty ) and do a search for your topic and the word newsletter (e.g. kung fu newsletter). Go through the results and sign up for any interesting newsletters you find. There are a lot of free newsletters out there, so chances are you will find at least a few.

Step two: Weed out the newsletters you do not like.

Simply read the articles sent to you by email and see what you think of them. Unsubscribe from those you do not like and keep the rest.

Step three: Spend your time reading instead of searching.

Once you are left with the newsletters you like, you might find yourself with more to read on a topic and you have time…and no need to spend your valuable time seeking out the information you are looking for.

How to Read a Book

The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

By Mortimer J. Alder & Charles Van Doren

How to Read a Book is, as the title notes, a book about reading books in an intelligent manner.

The authors start out by covering what they believe to be the purposes of reading: Reading for information and reading for understanding.

From there, they give a quick summary of what they classify as the four levels of reading:

• Elemental Reading
• Inspectional Reading
• Analytical Reading
• Syntopical Reading

Elemental reading is the most basic level of reading, consisting of 4 stages itself. Often, those who are considered to read well never progress past elemental reading and a good percentage of people do not even get to the fourth stage of reading, which simply consists of developing the first three stages.

Inspectional reading consists of being able to quickly determine various information about the book via a quick inspection or skimming. Some people learn aspects of this type of reading, though it is not often taught in schools. It is a good way to quickly analyze a book so that you can tell whether it might be worth your time to read it.

Analytical consists of categorizing a book, distilling its message, considering the author, constructing criticism, agreeing or disagreeing with the author, and using a variety of aids in ones reading as necessary. While those who read quite a bit tend to eventually develop these skills, I found the straight-forward method of laying these items out to be quite refreshing.

Syntopical reading is the art of reading about a topic via a variety of sources, considering the arguments and ideas with them, and then using that information to make ones own decisions on the topic, perhaps even one that is different from all of those offered. It relies heavily on inspectional reading for paring down sources to a manageable list of books that have something meaningful to say.

The authors provide excellent insight into areas of reading into which those of us familiar with them have generally figured out via trial and error while using good amounts of time to do so. Had I read this book when I was ten, a lot of school assignments would have become quite a bit simpler. Indeed, a lot of the learning I have done on my own through the years would have taken less time as well.

I learned a few new things from this book even though I have been an avid reader since an early age. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to improve their reading as it covers a lot of ground that is rarely, if ever, taught explicitly in the public schools.

As I am in the process of placing the final touches on this site, it occurred to me that I aught to at least replace the silly “hello world” article with a quick introductory article in case someone actually wanders across this site.

Going forward, I will be placing my thoughts on a variety of related topics ( and the occasional not so related topic ) as well as occasional book reviews, product reviews, and experiences related to my experiments with law.

The topics?

American Law:

In the interest of being able to stand up and claim my rights, defend myself from authoritarian public servants, and help those who know me with the occasional run in with the law, I spend quite a bit of time studying the law.

As a result of my studies so far, I have been able to get rid of the couple of debt collectors that have come after me and my family, make a mid sized town government back down on a couple of occasions, convince a few major companies that it would be in their best interests to drop onerous fees, and quite a bit more.

It is true that I have not yet been faced with legal problems of major import, but it is important to me that should such a time ever come, I be able to defend myself rather than trust some lawyer to care about more than my money.

Home Schooling:

I want my children to have a good education, but my views of a good education differ quite drastically from the views of those who run our public education system. In addition to the basic levels of reading, writing, and arithmetic typically conveyed in the lower and middle class public schools, I want my children to:

• Be capable of reading multiple books on a topic, compare and contrast them, and discern bias and fiction while gathering useful information
• Be capable of writing in a manner that can convey new information to others
• Be able to hold their end in a debate with others while questioning what others claim and using new information to alter their own views intelligently
• Have their own private enterprises running before they leave my house so that they are never stuck with a dead end job simply because they know of no better way
• Stand up for themselves physically and mentally, and know how to properly use law to defend themselves from those who would coerce them.

Hopefully my thoughts and musings on the occasional topic related to educating my children will give someone at least a good laugh. Perhaps such writing will also give my parents better insight into why I feel that our school systems are designed to churn out employees rather than educate self reliant people.

Self Education:

The last primary topic that I will be sharing my thoughts on is self education. What free time I do not spend studying law, playing with my children, doing things with my wife, or visiting friends is typically spent improving my own education on a variety of topics.

Occasionally I find new and interesting ways to teach myself things or improve the efficiency by which I do so…and when I do so, I shall share them.

Other topics:

Knowing me, I will likely place random thoughts on a variety of topics here. I have a good deal of interest in working less and enjoying life more which prompts me to look into such things as reducing utility bills, cooking from scratch, improving my poker game, and a large variety of other topics that one might not readily consider to be related to frugality.