He was a dedicated isolationist on world affairs. Of German ancestry, he always remained an admirer of all things German. That admiration included a near slavish devotion to elitist philsophy of Nietzsche. It also extended to German militarism, even during two World Wars.

At same time, Mencken had a passionate, unbending devotion to individual liberty and an undying hostility to those who, from whatever motives, sought to control others' lives or limit their freedom. His opposition to middle class conformity may have had its roots in an elitist worldview, but it was nonetheless liberating for anyone who did not wish to conform. Mencken was almost solely responsible for transforming term Puritanism from a brag to a condemnation.

Teachout finds greatest weakness in Menckens thought to be his "extreme skepticism" and "permanent opposition." This excess of skepticism resulted in his often failing to acknowledge genuine cultural progress. Furthermore, Teachout argues that it renders Menckens thought ultimately "incoherent" as any sort of consistent whole. Given that Mencken was a journalist and not a philosopher, this incoherence doesnt seem like such a terrible failing to me. Do we care if Walter Chronkite’s thought was coherent as a body or is it enough that he reported facts as best he could at time?

The epilog of book goes a long way toward explaining peculiar position that Mencken occupies in American letters. His is a curiously ambiguous reputation -- accepted by neither conservative nor liberal establishment, despite his strong affinities with both. Teachout takes view that Mencken’s success was a "triumph of style." Form and content, he asserts, are "inseparable" in Mencken’s work. The result of this marriage of content with style ultimately expresses fundamental characteristics of "American temperament," which is "witty and abrasive, self-confident and self-contradictory." Certainly, I must agree that Mencken had style and that whether he was expressing ideas that I find admirable or ones I find repulsive, he did so with remarkable energy and with great mastery of English (or as he would prefer, American) language.

http://commonplacebook.tripod.com/home/id45.html

3) Product:

If you are selling PDF(Portable Document Format) ebooks then better not keep it for download as PDFs, that is keep it in zipped format.

There are two advantages of this:

a) The file size reduces, so, in turn bandwidth saving for you when so many people are downloading file from your site.

b) Search engines are now indexing PDF files, that is if someone searches your site and if you have not blocked access to PDF files on your site by specifying in robot.txt (this is file that Search engine spiders read when they visit your site), then it is very easy to find out and download file, but if it is in zip format then no one will find it on Search Engine! You can download Winzip for FREE from: http://www.winzip.com

4) Download Location:

Never ever reveal your actual download location to people. You can use several options for preventing your download location from getting circulated.

The two main options are:

a) Use some password protected area where user has to login to download product. Here system of delivering product doesn't remain instant as you will verify order and then send user her user name and password.

b) Use server side language e.g. CGI, PHP, ASP etc. for download page where download location is specified in page as a variable and user won't even know actual download location by doing view source of page. This method will allow you to do instant delivery which is most desirable method of delivery on net. Won't you like something delivered to you instantly over something you have to wait for?

In conclusion,

- Encrypt source of your Order page to prevent user from knowing your download location.

- Never give common names to your Download page that can be easily guessed.

- Keep your product in zipped format, saves bandwidth while downloading and prevents from getting indexed on search engines.

- Use server side language like cgi, ASP, PHP for protecting your actual download location from prying eyes.

I hope these 4 strategies are useful to you in protecting your online business from those illegal downloaders.

Amar Mehta.

======================================== Amar Mehta is Online Business Protection spcialist. You can subscribe to his F-R-E-E Online Protection Black Belt eCourse: "The Shocking Truth About How You Are Getting Ripped Off Online And How To Protect Yourself !" by going to: http://www.onlineprotectionsuite.com/ecourse.html Subscribe his to newsletter: netnsoftmkt-subscribe@topica.com