Populist: My idea of conservatism does not include some guy with an MBA gaming the financial system.

Conservative: What do you mean gaming. Someone thinks it will go up; the other thinks it'll go down. That's how you make a market.

Populist: Wait a minute, the guy who says "its gonna' go up!" is betting on down.

Conservative: That's how money is made. Every one has a right to get rich. Its the American way.

Populist: So Big Money grows by screwing the small guy.

Conservative: If they don't understand the risk, they don't belong in the market.

We wanted to believe that our publisher would be interested in selling books and maximizing his healthy markup. The sad reality is that there's more money to be made from NOT selling books before you've gotten all the money that the author is willing to spend. "Mr deMartelly, you have to spend more money on marketing," they kept saying. All of the marketing services were heavily marked up, and our own low cost marketing produced ten times the result. It appears that "subsidy publishers" have found that the author is the market - not the book buyer. New authors are more than willing to put good money after bad.

To avoid being scammed check out the following:
1. How many return authors do they have?
2. How many of their books are on Borders' shelves? Barnes & Noble?
3. What is their revenue from book sales (as opposed to author fees)?
If you can't get verifyable answers to these, keep your money.

The Christian Science Monitor featured a news item on the web about The Tea Party group being disorganized and unable to identify extremists. We must be careful not to damn the movement because some of the people are less restrained. Extremists are fed up too, and they will go where they can be heard. Its too easy to cracterize the majority by the actions of a few. Its like saying all Congressmen are crooks. (maybe not the best example)

The Tea Party movement is a reaction to the frustration of voters in trying to effect a government that has become increasingly controled by special interests and insensitive to the people who voted it in. They are being heard, and its about time.

We need to staff the House and Senate with people who write concise bills, publish them with enough time to read them, and understand just what they vote on. More importantly the people need to speak louder than the lobbiests who have the ear of congress. November is a good time to start.

We're announcing the availability of our computer limericks in a FREE TRIAL version. No time limit; use 'em enjoy 'em, and nail your geek friends with em. The Trial version has a sample including some of our favorites. The full version is available for a ridiculously small fee. They're eaqsy to use and hyper indexed for quick access in a technical situation. They're all certain to zing a techie braggart. Copy 'em, share 'em, only don't publish 'em (without permission from us, or course). The trial version carries a full index but only the first few limericks. Download it from this link.

LOUS REVIEWS

Bounty Hunter: A neat can't stop laughing movie with Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler teamed up as estranged mairied pair, Nicole a reporter and Milo a temporarily ex cop bounty hunter. She jumps bail on a minor offrence to chase a big lead and he gets the assignment. Chase scenes almost love scenes, gunshots the whole range of marriage problems and then some. The ctitics said "auful"; Lou says "Great, should be a series." They work well together and against each other. You'll love it!!

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past: Rent it! This is a neat story which follows Dickens closely, but instead of Christmas its a wedding, and the ghosts are, well, you know. Jennifer Garner is an almost true love. Matthew McGonaughey is a womanizing photographer, btother of the groomb. The ghost of his womanizing uncle Michael Douglas appears to him in the mans room and warns him to change his ways. Three ghosts appear to him and take hime to girl friends past present and future. If you know Dickens (A Christmas Carol), you know the plot, but the twist is a ball.

Support Your Local Sheriff: This 1970 movie with James Garner and a host of comedy actors is quite probably the funniest movie ever made. It's a spoof on the standard western with a saterical twist that'll keep you laughing with every scene. Rent it, or better still, buy it. It's one of movies that grows on you each time you watch it.