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    September 30, 2008

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    The Ant and The Grasshopper

 

   

Malkin With what looks like imminent passage of the Mother of All Bailouts (following on the heels of a year's worth of government-funded rescues of private homeowners, lenders, insurers and automakers), Washington has turned Aesop's famous fable about prudence and hard work on its head. The time is ripe for a revised 2008 edition of "The Ant and the Grasshopper:" In a meadow on a hot summer's day, a Grasshopper was chirping and carousing his time away. He watched scornfully as an Ant nearby struggled to store up large kernels of food and build a secure nest. The Ant pulled overtime shifts to pay off his loans and accumulate retirement funds for the future. "Give it a rest," the Grasshopper said. "Why bother saving and slaving and toiling and moiling? Let's party!" The Ant demurred: "I am planning ahead for winter, and you should do the same." The Grasshopper blew off the Ant, squandered his supplies the rest of the season and abandoned his home while on vacation (paid for by tapping every last cent of his home equity gain) instead of holding down a job. Read On

 
 
   

 

  
   

Fireproof — the new pro-marriage movie from the folks who made Facing the Giants — wowed Hollywood by opening at No. 4 over the weekend. The movie, which cost less than $1 million to make, brought in $6.5 million. Fireproof also boasted the year’s second-best opening weekend of any film released on 1,000 screens or fewer. "I was hoping and praying for at least a Top 10 opening," said Bob Waliszewski, director of Focus on the Family's Plugged In magazine and Web site. "I'm very excited to see it's No. 4. "It does send a message that there's still pent-up demand for good, wholesome family entertainment." Even the mainstream media have been forced to add their accolades. The New York Times called Fireproof "a decent attempt to combine faith and storytelling that will certainly register with its target audience." The Los Angeles Times went so far as to call it "a mainstream relationship flick." Steven Isaac, who reviewed the movie for Plugged In, said anyone "in the middle of ugly emotions driven by marit al neglect,

 
   

apathy and  want, will surely be compelled by Fireproof to … break out the survival gear right away, putting into practice some of the principles they've just seen brought to life."

    
 
 
 Protect us, don't expropriate us As regular folks around the country watch Washington power brokers ram through the financial industry bailout plan, what I think most find deeply troubling is seeing so clearly how insecure our property is. As our presidential candidates drone on about our current financial crisis being caused by greedy Wall Street CEOs, a study just released by Canada's Fraser Institute points to what the real problems are in the United States.  This is an annual compendium called Economic Freedom of the World, which the Fraser Institute produces, in cooperation with an international network of free-market think tanks.  Of central interest here is the fact that there is a direct correlation between the extent to which a country is economically free and how prosperous it is. The more economic freedom, the more prosperity. The less economic freedom, the less prosperity.  What is economic freedom? The study provides ranking in five areas: size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labor, and business.  The troubling news in this year's report is the precipitous drop in the economic freedom ranking of the United States. The U.S. has dropped from No. 2 in the world in 2000 to No. 8 in 2008.  According to the study's press release, only five other countries -- Zimbabwe, Argentina, Niger, Venezuela, and Guyana -- experienced a greater decline in economic freedom over the same period. Read On
 
 

INDIANAPOLIS —  A convicted sex offender died Sunday during a struggle with a father who found the naked man in or near his 17-year-old daughter's bedroom, police said. Police responding to a call from the city's northwest side about 3:20 a.m. found 64-year-old Robert McNally on the hallway floor with his arm around the neck of 52-year-old David T. Meyers, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Police spokesman Sgt. Matthew Mount said Meyers had a heart condition and may have had a heart attack. An autopsy was planned. Police said Meyers was naked except for a mask and latex gloves and had entered the home through a window near the girl's bedroom with rope, condoms and a knife. He was familiar with the home's layout because it belonged to a relative, police said. The girl awoke and screamed when she saw the man in her room, police said. The father responded and struggled with the intruder while the girl's mother phoned 911. Police did not anticipate any charges against McNally. "If a person breaks into your home, you are justified in using deadly force in defending your family," said Mount. "In this situation, I don't think he was trying to kill him, he was trying to hold him down." Meyers had served 10 years in prison for criminal confinement and sexual deviate conduct and was wanted in Boone County for failure to register as a sex offender. He was registered as a sex offender in Marion County. Police said Meyers lived with his mother and had recently lost his job. The death is under investigation and will be reviewed by a Marion County prosecutor. "Nobody wins," McNally told The Indianapolis Star. "It's a lose-lose situation for everybody. He has family also." He said his daughter went to church Sunday after the incident.
 
 

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