What is important?

The July 26th issue of Fortune magazine has an article on Ted Fortsmann. He was a man who became very rich in the 1980s and early 90s by financing leveraged buyouts. He kept his company small and worked with his brother as a business partner. He adopted two sons from South Africa but never married.

In the late 90s things fell apart. Ted Fortsmann made some bad business deals (although he is still rich) and in 2001 he lost his brother to cancer. His star has faded.

Now that he is considering retirment, he seems to be a lonely man.

He misses his little brother so much that sometimes he wanders into Nicky's office -untouched since the day he died, on Teddy's orders - just to sit for a while. He acknowledges that the lifelong bachelor routine has grown old...he [says] he wishes he had married.

This man was a titan of investing. He had all the success he wanted and still has influence with $2 billion in assets under management. In spite of all his accomplishments, he realizes he has no one to share them with.

Work is important, but not the most important thing.

Clergy of every faith have said to me: "I have been with many men approaching death; and not one has ever said, 'I only regret that I didn't spend more time at the office.'"-Dennis Prager

Michael Moore Loves America?

Reuters reports that Cuba is showing Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" on state run TV. Does anyone really believe he loves this country?

Castro airs Moore's movie to all of Cuba. He quoted Moore's book "Stupid White Men" in disparaging President Bush.  When our country's enemies use Moore's movies and books to support their agenda, isn't it safe to say Moore is anti-American?

Cuba is a country that thousands of its citizens try to flee from every year, most of them to this country.  Yet Moore's propaganda is helping Castro to villify the United States.

The Death Cult

Planned Parenthood is selling a shirt that bears the slogan "I had an abortion".

They claim that the shirt will "assert a powerful message in support of women's rights." The only thing missing is an accompanying message on the back saying "you should have one too!"

The slogan isn't about women, it is about ending life.  The slogan does nothing to protect women's rights. It only promotes death.

Planned Parenthood is a death cult.

Free speech for us, not for you

First there was the Whoopi Goldberg's vulgar show for John Kerry. When she got fired by Slim Fast who didn't want to be associated with her crude antics, she complained her rights of free speech were violated.

Then there was Linda Ronstadt. She got kicked out of the Aladdin Hotel after making political statements about Moore and his movie during her performance. Now Michael Moore has written an open letter (I guess it's his way of saving the 37 cents on postage) to the Aladdin Hotel claiming Ronstadt's rights were violated.

Moore believes that Ronstadt's comments are free speech people who disagree with those views are required to be associated with them. It doesn't work the other way around. Liberal activist groups NEA and NOW demanded that Rush Limbaugh be fired from promoting Florida orange juice.

Now we find out that Ronstadt is a bigot. Here is what she said in an interview before the Aladdin show:

It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know."

If you are a Republican or (horrors!) a Christian, she doesn't want to perform for you. Lefties want to you to accept and even support their views no matter how offensive you believe they are. Criticism is not allowed.

Remember, there are none so intolerant as the tolerant.

Another interview

Tomorrow I'm interviewing Kevin Anderson, author of various sci-fi novels, for an article. Today I went out and bought a digital voice recorder. It's an Olympus DS-330. It even has a docking cradle so I can download recordings to my computer.
 
I figure I can also use it for college classes if I can get into the program. Four months after I submitted my paperwork, I'm still trying to get a couple of recommendation letters to them (one of which had previously been mailed). It makes me wonder if they really want students or not.
 
Oh, so anyway, I'm interviewing Kevin Anderson tomorrow. Did you know he recently signed the largest book contract ever for a science-fiction writer?
 

Now this is scary

Thirteen Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives have sent a letter to the U.N. asking it to send election observers to monitor the November 2004 Presidential elections.
 
So much for Democrats wanting our country to remain a sovereign nation.

It's bad for you

I learned on The History Channel today that Florida death row inmates are not allowed to have tobacco. The reason: smoking is a health hazard.

We sure wouldn't want those inmates dying early.

What a great country

Michael Moore thinks America is a bad place.

This past weekend, the LA Times published a (negative) opinion piece by Moore which James Lileks thoroughly debunks.

One of the examples that Moore uses in claiming America is a bad place and that people who display the flag are evil is this 1976 photo showing a white man using a flag pole to attack a black man. Lileks points out that as usual, Moore doesn't state the full story.

The full story points out that Booker T. Washington was right in his autobiography Up From Slavery when he says that racism is more harmful to the racist than to the one he attacks.

What Moore doesn't say is where the two men in the photograph are today. The attacker's name is James Rakes. In 2001, he was working as a laborer on the Big Dig highway project in Boston.

The man who was attacked is Ted Landsmark. At the time of the attack, Landsmark had already earned a BA in political science. Since then, he has been the dean
of graduate and continuing education at the Massachusetts College of Art. He also served as the director of Boston's Office of Community Partnerships and is is currently the president and CEO of the Boston Architectural Center. In the meantime, he also completed a Ph.D. at Boston University.

Moore thinks this is a horrible country. I think it a great country. Only in this country did Ted Landsmark have the opportunity achieve the success he has gained. James Rakes reaped the rewards his actions and attitudes have inevitably led him to. What's wrong with that?

Fortune Cookie Curse

A few weeks ago, Honeybun and I went to our favorite Chinese food restaurant. Well, my favorite. She doesn't like Chinese food. At the end we opened our fortune cookies. I forget what mine said, but hers sounded ominous:
"You will soon be crossing the great waters."

That doesn't sound promising. Crossing A great water sounds like it could be fun. Crossing THE great waters sounds like a final destination.

OK. So one rogue fortune cookie shouldn't get you down. Then this past Sunday we went to Breckenridge, Colorado for a family reunion with my Dad's family. For lunch we went to another Chinese restaurant. At the end of the meal, Honeybun opened her fortune cookie and it said, "You will soon be crossing the great waters." The same damn fortune!

What sick bastard puts that in a fortune cookie.....twice!

Stupid fortune cookies.

Life before birth

A new type of ultrasound scan shows how complex a fetus has developed as early as 12 weeks.

From the article:
From 12 weeks, unborn babies can stretch, kick and leap around the womb - well before the mother can feel movement

From 18 weeks, they can open their eyes although most doctors thought eyelids were fused until 26 weeks

From 26 weeks, they appear to exhibit a whole range of typical baby behaviour and moods, including scratching, smiling, crying, hiccuping, and sucking.
Until recently it was thought that smiling did not start until six weeks after birth.

Wow. Check out the link to see images from the scans. This scan confirms that an child in the womb is more than a collection of tissue. I think it proves the pro-life argument; it's not a choice, it's a baby.