Saturday, February 28, 2009

From a business owner in LA to his employees:


Subject: TO ALL MY VALUED EMPLOYEES
To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this
company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has
changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good
news is this:The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten
your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.
However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you
decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against
employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a
back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what
you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my
big home at last year's Christmas party. I'm sure all these flashy icons of
luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life. However, what
you don't see is the back story.

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300
square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was
converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company,
which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went
back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a efective
transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on
weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was
married to my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a
modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy
cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of
hitting the Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling
through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn't look
like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and
lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and
my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will
be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at
about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for
me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to
yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this
company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend.
There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip
like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of
that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... you never
realize the back story and the sacrifices I've made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right
decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't.
The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the
same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits, but the price I've paid is steep
and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the cost of running this business,
and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal
benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I
have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes.
Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on
taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess
what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and
regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of
my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for
quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada.
Zilch.


The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy
who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people
per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home
pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check?
Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this
country.

The fact is, if I deducted (or stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and
you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to
get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is
why your job is in jeopardy. Here is what many of you don't understand
... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had
suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess
what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole,
I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial
economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax
cut in the form of promotions and better salaries.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate
and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or,
do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and
always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it.
Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are
the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be
further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes
are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple.

I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government
to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it
isn't my problem any more. Then, I will close this company down, move to
another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country
that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to
work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my
citizenship.

So, if you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it
will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country,
steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever.
If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no
employees to worry about.

Signed,
Your boss

Stimulus Watch: Keeping an Eye on Economic Recovery Spending

FYI
Here are the projects state by state in the stimulus bill:
Stimulus Watch: Keeping an Eye on Economic Recovery Spending

Friday, February 27, 2009

Have you ever heard of this Federal radio station. Notice that the President will be addressing, online only, at 11:15 our military presence in Iraq. Just the beginning, folks.
Federal News Radio 1500 AM: Home Page

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

This is Vanderleun's original all around apology which is what I meant to post the other day when I posted "The Rules" instead which call for these words:
"I come to you today penitent, conscience-stricken, regretful and contrite. I have been touched by your pain and deeply regret my words. I repent them with every shred of my soul. I am, for having hurt your feelings and bruised your tender buttons, a base and abject man mortified by my cheesy, contemptible, insignificant,. shabby, small, and pathetic being. I know now the low things I have said and I am filled with remorse, melancholy, and self-reproach. If I could have myself flogged fleshless by an flock of Carmelite nuns on Methamphetamine I would so. But I can't locate those sisters right now, so I must continue to apologize.

I therefore continue to apologize.

I am so wretched to have said the bad words to you. They may well have been true, but I forgot that your feelings, no matter how puerile, always trump the truth in this world. So I admit that even though they were true, my words were unworthy of me and hurtful to you. I see your raw suppurating feelings oozing to the top of your mind and erupting from your mouth wrapped around your screams. I shall carry that Polaroid with me for the rest of my days right next to the organ donor card in my wallet. Can I fill one out for you?

But I digress.

I am compelled by my inner idiot to say that I bleed for you, wish only to console you, empathize with you, and open my heart in an anguished lament that my words, wittingly or unwittingly, have raised upon your soul these unlanced boils of your metaphysical angst. It is my hope you will allow me to lance them and to bandage them in the saline soaked cloth of a this apology.

I come before you today an abashed, chagrined, conscience stricken, guilty, shamed, demeaned, crestfallen, humiliated, penitent and mortified man. I can only seek, humbly, that one thing that will make me whole again after ripping the flesh of your feelings so senselessly. That one thing is the infinite balm of your acceptance of this, my guilty apology, and your forgiveness.

In this I hope to be resurrected to the realm of the acceptably human. I live in this hope because I have a deep and abiding faith that although I am really, really sorry, you are the one person in the universe who is a sorrier son-of-a-bitch than I am.

Thank you for letting me share."

Monday, February 23, 2009

YouTube - The T-Mobile Dance

Liverpool Street Station ( London ) was an energized place to be at recently while T-Mobile filmed a new advertisement during rush hour! It took 8 weeks of planning, 8 sound tracks of 60s thru 90s music, 10,000 who auditioned, 400 chosen, 10 hidden cameras, and a terminal full of unsuspecting commuters...some of whom obviously missed their trains!

YouTube - The T-Mobile Dance
Dumbing down America:
Ken Blackwell : Dumbing Down America - Townhall.com
"And who is formulating such policies? It varies from institution to institution but a look at the funding of Fair Test is troubling. Writer and college educator Mary Grabar revealed in her recent article that Fair Test is funded by men like liberal billionaire George Soros and the Woods Fund, who counts among its board members Bill Ayers, the former domestic terrorist who admitted complicity in a series of bombings from New York to Washington, D.C. during the 1970s."

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Here are the first and last paragraphs of this informative piece from American Thinker:

"From Hell, Saul Alinsky looks up in awe..."


" Eat your heart out Jack Abramoff. President Obama looks forward to a guaranteed supply of Democrat campaign money which will make the imprisoned Republican fundraiser look like the small time operator he was. And better yet, Obama's multi-billion dollar nationwide scheme to circumvent campaign spending laws comes neatly disguised as a Hawaii-only deal for "reconciliation" and "justice". "Campaign finance" isn't even in the bill's description. It is called the Akaka Bill...




... as it is in Indian Country, poverty, corruption, and petty dictatorship will be the legacy of the Akaka Tribe and any other Apology Tribe. In that sense the establishment of tribes out of political interest groups is only an extension of the already atrocious conditions created in Democrat-run minority communities such as Barack Obama's South Chicago, Illinois Senate District. Because of the Tribal exemption from campaign finance laws, and the billions of dollars of real estate at question, the apology movement threatens to place American politics under the financial control of the suddenly-wealthy petty-dictatorial political bosses who run such communities. This scam is a dagger pointed at the very heart of the American political system.




American Thinker: The Akaka Bill: A Cash Cow for Democrats

The List @ AMERICAN DIGEST

In case any of my friends missed the opportunity of printing copies of Vanderleun's apology, here is your opportunity. Rolled up and tied with a little ribbon it is the perfect gift item for just about any guy.
The List @ AMERICAN DIGEST

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Klavan On The Culture Misconstruing Miss Coulter: Read it all.
"But the whole way liberals work is to redefine manners and morals in such a fashion that conservative common sense automatically becomes hateful. If you note that women and men are different, you’re misogynistic. If you denounce the destruction of marriage in black communities, you’re racist or moralistic. If you call for the defense of America against the world-wide Islamist menace, you’re a bigoted warmonger. If we take this garbage seriously even for an instant, we spend our whole lives playing catch-up, saying sorry, going on defense."

VDH's Private Papers::Pause and Take a Deep Breath

VDH's Private Papers::Pause and Take a Deep Breath:


"I think we are seeing the most marked redistribution of wealth in our recent history. The erosion of home equity and, especially, the 20-30% decline in 401(k)s — followed by nearly $1 trillion in additional entitlement spending (“stimulus”) — mean essentially that much of the capital in the hands of those who owned property and had stocks and mutual funds was destroyed and will be recreated by transferring monies to others. How odd that the printing of billions of new paper dollars to spread the wealth is offset by the virtual destruction of billions of old paper dollars in savings and home equity. Maybe that will slow inflation (e.g., some of us figuratively had money burned up at about the same amount that more was printed afresh). In any case, we live in the age of the debtor — low interest, soon to be high inflation, all sorts of plans to alleviate debt, and government transfers favoring those who owe rather than those who saved."

Friday, February 20, 2009

`For those of you young people who have been educated in the Koran and the religion of peace at your local public school perhaps listen to this fair minded young man. HT GDB

Hot Air Blog Archive Video: The Koran challenge

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Headless Body in Legless Story - Mark Steyn - The Corner on National Review Online

More on head chopping in Buffalo.

Headless Body in Legless Story - Mark Steyn - The Corner on National Review Online
Ahh, Vanderleun, read it all.

AMERICAN DIGEST Essays, News, Notes, and Quotes: "hoa, dude, shut the fuck up, already! You've lost that loving feeling. You are bumming us out, harshing our mellow, killing our buzz and, in general, just bringing us down every time you open your mouth."

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

District Attorney Office Releases Names Of Tea Fire Suspects
Video Video High
Santa Barbara, CA-- The names of ten individuals who are facing misdemeanor charges in connection with the devastating Tea Fire were released Tuesday morning.

The Santa Barbara County District Attorney's office says the 10 people will appear in court on March 2nd for their arrangement on charges of trespassing and building a campfire without a permit.

Those facing charges are Mohammed Alessam, Joshua Grant Decker-Trinidad, Hope Sjohnet Dunlap, Fahad Al-Fadhel, Hashim Ali Hassan, Casey James Lamonte, Natalie Rose Maese, Carver William McLellan, Stephen Reid and Lauren Elizabeth Vazquez.

Nine of the ten suspects are currently enrolled at Santa Barbara City College.

Story Created: Feb 17, 2009 at 3:47 PM PST

Story Updated: Feb 18, 2009 at 8:42 AM PST
Community organizing by ACORN - where your tax dollars are spent.

Family Security Matters Publications ACORN and Obama: Together Again

Monday, February 16, 2009

Was Candidate Obama's "Civilian National Security Force" just established by Directive 1404.10?

Here is the new Civilian Expeditionary Workforce. My, the President has been quite busy. Read on.

Was Candidate Obama's "Civilian National Security Force" just established by Directive 1404.10?
Here is another a little item that you taxpayers might be interested in that I hadn't heard about until my friend Heather emailed it to me.

Obama Signs Presidential Determination Allowing Palestinians Loyal to Hamas to Resettle In US
Posted on Sun Feb 8 14:18:31 2009 by NoLibZone
"President Barack Obama has signed an executive order presidential determination allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to resettle in the United States. Sure, what can go wrong when we allow hundreds of thousands of people who have been, as Mark Steyn memorably described, "marinated" in a "sick death cult," who voted for Hamas, and 55% of whom support suicide bombings live here and at the American taxpayers' expense:

By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in migration assistance to the Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.

The "presidential determination" which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States was signed on January 27 and appeared in the Federal Register on February 4.

President Obama's decision, according to the Register, was necessitated by "the urgent refugee and migration needs" of the "victims."

Few on Capitol Hill took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.

Let's review some of Barack Obama's most recent actions since he was inaugurated a little more than two weeks ago:

* His first call to any head of state as president was to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.

* His first one on one interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.

* He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.

* He ordered all overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.

* He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and 9/11.

* Today we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to and live in the US at American taxpayer expense.

Anyone else seeing a pattern here?
Here is the document:[Federal Register: February 4, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 22)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 6115]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr04fe09-106]

Presidential Documents
[[Page 6115]]


Presidential Determination No. 2009-15 of January 27,
2009


Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs
Related To Gaza

Memorandum for the Secretary of State

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and
the laws of the United States, including section
2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of
1962 (the ``Act''), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I
hereby determine, pursuant to section 2(c)(1) of the
Act, that it is important to the national interest to
furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to
exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency
Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose
of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration
needs, including by contributions to international,
governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and
payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of
Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department
of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian
refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.

You are authorized and directed to publish this
memorandum in the Federal Register.


(Presidential Sig.)

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, January 27, 2009

[FR Doc. E9-2488
Filed 2-3-09; 8:45 am]

Sunday, February 15, 2009

"...Just asking, but are beheadings common in western New York? I used to spend a lot of time in that neck of the woods and I don't remember decapitation as a routine form of murder. Yet the killing of Aasiya Hassan seems to have elicited a very muted response.

When poor Mrs Hassan's husband launched his TV network to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims, he had no difficulty generating column inches, as far afield as The Columbus Dispatch, The Detroit Free Press, The San Jose Mercury News, Variety, NBC News, the Voice of America and the Canadian Press. The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle put the couple on the front page under the headline "Infant TV Network Unveils The Face Of Muslim News".

But, when Muzzammil Hassan kills his wife and "the face of Muslim news" is unveiled rather more literally, detached from her corpse at his TV studios, it's all he can do to make the local press - page 26 of Newsday, plus The Buffalo News, and a very oddly angled piece in the usually gung-ho New York Post, "Buffalo Beheading: Money Woe Spurred Slay".

Oh, really? He beheaded her for some goofy clause in the insurance policy? Not exactly:

An upstate TV exec who set up a channel promoting Muslims as peace-loving people was stressed about his failing business in the days before he allegedly chopped off his estranged wife's head, a friend of the couple said today.

Ah... "
Headless body in gutless press - Mark Steyn - The Corner on National Review OnlineRead it all, then go to Froth from Waltwhich is one of my cyber stops for Beauty and Truth.

JammieWearingFool

"Forget protecting and aiding our allies. Obama is ready to throw Poland and the Czech Republic under the bus with the delusional notion Russia will be able to keep Iran from getting nukes, when Russia is the one helping them get there.

Are these people nuts or what?" . . .

JammieWearingFool

Saturday, February 14, 2009

"...Most of us imagine the transformation of a free society to a tyrannical state in Hollywood terms, as a melodramatic act of violence like a military coup or an armed insurrection. Tocqueville knows better. He foresees a slow death of freedom. The power of the centralized government will gradually expand, meddling in every area of our lives until, like a lobster in a slowly heated pot, we are cooked without ever realizing what has happened. The ultimate horror of Tocqueville’s vision is that we will welcome it, and even convince ourselves that we control it.

There is no single dramatic event in Tocqueville’s scenario, no storming of the Bastille, no assault on the Winter Palace, no March on Rome, no Kristallnacht. We are to be immobilized, Gulliver-like, by myriad rules and regulations, annoying little restrictions that become more and more binding until they eventually paralyze us.

Subjection in minor affairs breaks out every day and is felt by the whole community indiscriminately. It does not drive men to resistance, but it crosses them at every turn, till they are led to surrender the exercise of their own will. Thus their spirit is gradually broken and their character enervated…"

Faster, Please! We’re All Fascists Now II: American Tyrannyhist

Friday, February 13, 2009

HT Mary Belle
Here is the summary of what your hard earned dollars are going. Read it and weep.H.R. 1 Conference Report: Conference Report—The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - Legislative Digest - GOP.gov Read it anyway and then go have some artistic distraction at Joan's place:Primordial Slack: Oh, Like You're Getting Any Work Done Today

American Thinker: Alinsky-ites at the Gates of Talk Radio

It seems to me that the radicals of the sixties and seventies are now mainstream and conservatives are the new radicals so perhaps it is time to look at "Rules for Radicals" and take up the offensive. Just sayin' . . .
and do read it all.

American Thinker: Alinsky-ites at the Gates of Talk Radio

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Hardly the Best and Brightest by Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online

"...Financial wizards like Robert Rubin at Citicorp, Richard Fuld at Lehman Brothers and Franklin Raines at Fannie Mae—all of whom made millions as they left behind imploding corporations—had degrees from America’s top universities. They had sophisticated understanding of hedge funds, derivatives, and sub-prime mortgages—everything, it seems, but moral responsibility for the investments of millions of their ordinary clients..."

Hardly the Best and Brightest by Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online

Monday, February 09, 2009

Family Security Matters alerted me to the lawsuit that has been filed by 16 illegal immigrants conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his Arizona ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border. How can one break the law and still file a lawsuit expecting the law to protect?
Roger Barnett 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home".

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Raise a bit of sympathy and compassion for this guy . . .after all, he is the American father of five, a lowly used car salesman, a poor oppressed muslim. Read on:
Infidel Bloggers Alliance: Taqiyya in Action

Friday, February 06, 2009

AMERICAN DIGEST Essays, News, Notes, and Quotes

Vanderleun has some good ideas about how to deal with this , ahem, created crisis these United States are experiencing. They do knock them off legally in compassionate Washington State. Do you suppose that is why he has hit the road?

"...Yes, it's time for mom and pop and granny and grand pop to go. All 37 million of them must be transformed from codger to compost if the American dream is not to become a new-age nightmare. It's time for a government program from coast to coast to make sure that every American over the age of 65 takes one for the team -- in the form of a government approved and delivered .22 bullet in the back of the head..."

AMERICAN DIGEST Essays, News, Notes, and Quotes..."

Slogans on buses? | The Spectator

"Would Darwin have put atheist slogans on buses?

The more I see of the intellectual world and its frailties, the more I appreciate the truth of G.K. Chesterton’s saying: ‘When people cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing. They believe in anything.’ It is one of the tragedies of humanity that brain-power is so seldom accompanied by judgment, sceptical moderation or even common sense. The vacuum left by the retreat of formal religion is most commonly filled, today, by forms of pantheism. Zealots devote their lives to ‘saving’ the rain forests, deserts or habitats of endangered species. They believe, passionately, in pseudo-scientific myths like climate change, global warming and the greenhouse effect. Some worship science as a faith and a way of life. Others hate it. Occasionally on the Quantocks I see fierce young men in semi-military kits, often crudely armed, who vary their activities between physically attacking staghound followers and besieging laboratories where animals are used for experiments. In appearance and behaviour they resemble the original zealots or Sicarii of the time of Christ, who met nemesis at Masada. I do not exactly fear them, any more than I fear the Muslim suicide bombers whom they so much resemble. But their appearance, on the heath once tramped by those gentle nature-lovers Coleridge and Dorothy and William Wordsworth, adds to my concern about what is happening to the world."


Slogans on buses? | The Spectator: "."

Act! for America 92691 - Education

How about this? * * BREAKING NEWS * *

Members of the Mission Viejo Chapter have produced a report that exposes how it came about that publishers and schools fell prey to deception about Islam and gives preliminary recommendations on how to recognize and stop this deception.

Click on report ISLAM in America's Classrooms: History of Propaganda?

Please share what you've learned with family, friends, neighbors, teachers,
school board members, local leaders...
________________________

How Islam was introduced into our elementary schools:

The Clinton and Islam Partnership
Evidence of Negotiations using America’s Public School Children

Much of this post researched and confirmed by Wes Vernon of NewsMax , Paul Sperry of WND and now Bob Unruh 10/19/06
Sources thoroughly provided

Abdurahman Alamoudi, President of the American Muslim Council, supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and accused of ties with Osama bin Laden, helped develop "Religious Expression in Public School" which was launched by Clinton in 1995. These "Presidential Guidelines" greatly impact public schools today. Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, refers to these guidelines as the authority to support the ACLU’s lawsuits restricting Christmas celebrations and removing Nativity scenes from public schools. Meanwhile all practices of Islam are encouraged.

School districts are pressured to utilize these dubious guidelines, which Clinton sold to America as "issued by 35 religious groups," including the American Muslim Council/Alamoudi/suspected terrorist.

Act! for America 92691 - Education

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

American Thinker Blog: 'Daniel Pearle and the Normalization of Evil'

It has been seven years this week when those who could bear it witnessed the taped decapitation of journalist Daniel Pearle most probably by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed now held in Gitmo.
American Thinker Blog: 'Daniel Pearle and the Normalization of Evil'

Monday, February 02, 2009

Check out the Nubian babies that were born of one of the miraculous survivors of the Santa Barbara Tea Fire at this little oasis of a blog:
Garden Grit: Introducing Phoenix and Morninglory

Before this trauma they lived happily at Carla's Goat Paradise.
President Hamlet by Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online: "Obama, unlike Bush, is an adherent of the therapeutic mindset. The recession was caused by “them”—Wall Street greed mostly—and never “us,” we who borrowed too much for houses we could not afford and things we did not need. The solution will be the European socialist model, in which a few thousand well-trained elites, educated at our best Ivy League law and business schools, will form partnerships with private enterprise. These Guardians will make major economic decisions and redistribute wealth through high taxes and massive entitlements—albeit with the understanding that the managerial class in both business and government will enjoy lifestyles similar to those they led in the past."