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I awoke to the sounds of earth-shattering screaming in the foreground and the background music was uncontrollable sobbing.

"... late for soccer ...gotta tell Angie to let coach know", I thought.

Lights were flashing and I slowly realized that I was laying on the side of a road. Everything look familiar, I knew where I was but not why I was there. Recent memory slowly slipped into my consciousness and then my thoughts were violently ripped from my head when when I saw a young woman screaming while being restrained by cops. She was clearly trying to get to a car that was enveloped in flames.

"... my babies .. my kids .. help me"

I saw my car. My car was flipped. "Annie, where is Annie, my sister?"

The next thing I remember is a hospital room. My Aunt Jill was in the room. "Where are my parents? Where is Annie? Where am I?"

And then came the most horrifying moments of my life. The life that I will never know again. I had been driving to soccer practice with my sister. She was driving shotgun. We were rushing to get to the field on time. A text message came in on my phone. I glanced down to see who it was and the next thing I knew, I was here with my sobbing Aunt.

My parents were at the morgue and Aunt Jill was telling me that my sister was dead and so were two other children that were passengers in the car that I drove in to. My sister was 15. The children that died were 2 years old and 5 years old. The driver of the other car, a Mother, had survived and one of her children (aged 7) was in critical condition.

The excruciating pain that enveloped me is indescribable. It is a pain that I feel will eventually send my mind to the brink of insanity - because it will never leave. The pain remains as a core of my being, four years later.

I was a good kid. I volunteered every Christmas at a local soup kitchen. I got mostly A's in school. I was a coordinated athlete. I was a good driver. This could not have happened to me, but it did.

Everything I had read and learned in driver's training and from the adults around me was about how "I could kill myself". "You could kill yourself speeding", they said. "Car crashes are the No. 1 killer of teens", they added. No one told me that I could LIVE through a car crash, cause a death or multiple deaths, and have to face living with myself for the rest of my life.

I am tormented by guilt and remorse - the kind that is gut-retching.

I am writing this to help other teenagers and in memory of my sister and the two children that will never have a life. I think of Annie and these kids every day. If my story can make one teenager out there pay attention to the road, I will feel that I have partly redeemed myself. Lock your cell phone in your book bag, in the trunk of your car. Turn the radio down and don't
speed.

Here are facts to remember:

• Speeding is a factor in 35% of crash deaths involving young drivers.
• Cell phone use increases the crash risk by 300%.
• Adding one passenger increases the fatal crash risk by 48%.
• A second passenger increases the fatality risk by 158%.
• 87% of teen deaths involve distracted drivers; radios rank as a top teen distraction.
• Eating at the wheel causes 2% of teen crashes.
• Nearly half of teens are sleep-deprived, and young drivers cause 55% of fatigue-related crashes.
• Teens are three times more likely to die in a crash at night.

Please God, give me the strength to eventually forgive myself
and move on with my life. God, you are the only one that knows the depth
of my suffering - based only on a bad decision at the age of 17.

This story was donated by an Anonymous friend of The Michigan Business Directory.

Labels: car accident, teen driving

With the holidays approaching quickly, holiday advertising is already in full swing. We have noticed a significant increase in traffic across all of our websites in the last ten days - with the largest increases on the retail websites.

The beauty of the Internet is that you don't necessarily have to have your entire marketing plan completed in the middle of the summer. You still have time for developing and changing online and e-mail campaigns since production turnaround is quicker - especially if you use a program like Constant Contact. If you do not have a program in use, try Constant Contact's Free 60 day trial by clicking here.

Before you start blasting out emails, make sure that your client and prospect list is clean! The last thing that you need now is to be banned from many of your customer inboxes because of a few bad apples on your list.

Think Web 2.0 when planning your email campaigns this year. Consumers have grown used to sharing and minimal clicking. Offer one-click checkout for customers that already have accounts with you. Make it easy for the email to be forwarded and offer an online version that can be bookmarked at social sites or onto facebook profiles.

With the amount of spam recieved by people now, it is important to be colorful, original and festive in your design. Catch thier eye and interest with a great subject line. The inbox is getting more crowded and spending is expected to be tight during the holidays due to our weak economy. Be a stand out in a dull world!

Highlight products in the email that are top sellers so that your readers can see what other customers are purchasing this holiday season. If they know which products are hot (or you say are hot), you can create urgency and alter demand. Remember to allow your customers to bookmark pages on your website also!

For non-retailers, remember to use email to nurture your prospects and current customers.

Give Constant Contact a whirl this fall and watch your 4th quarter sales or leads increase substantially.

Labels: email marketing

Summarized from an article by the Editors of the National Catholic Register

It’s important for Americans to know exactly where Barack Obama stands on abortion, because abortion is more than just a "Catholic issue." It's one of the fundamental issues Americans should be most concerned about.

The United States was founded on the rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and Americans have spent the two centuries since trying to live up to those founding principles. First came disagreements over the pursuit of happiness — religious and economic liberty. Then, over slavery. Today’s big battle is over the most important right: the right to life.

Obama’s votes and official positions deny the right to life to three categories of human beings: the unborn, the “accidentally” born and, at least in one case, the adult “unfit.” Let’s look at each.

The Unborn

Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr., understood how the right to life is fundamental. “I and my deceased children are victims of abortion,” she has said. “The Roe v. Wade decision has adversely affected the lives of my entire family. I pray often for deliverance from the pain caused by my decision to abort my baby.”

Obama's position on the question rejects her view.

When the Supreme Court, citing experiences like King’s, decided that a federal ban on partial-birth abortion would not violate the Constitution, Obama said he “strongly disagreed” with the court. Partial-birth abortion is the barbaric procedure in which a doctor kills a child with scissors while the child is being born. Obama vows to keep the practice legal.

Obama once described why he thinks abortion should be legal through all nine months of a woman’s pregnancy.

“Whenever we define a pre-viable fetus as a person that is protected by the Equal Protection Clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a child, a 9-month old child that was delivered to term,” he said. “That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place.”

How could Obama be so opposed to the right to life? He may have let slip one reason at a March Town Hall meeting in Pennsylvania.

“Look, I’ve got two daughters, 9 years old and 6 years old,” Obama said. “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

He thinks “unwanted” children, by their very existence, are an unacceptable imposition.

‘Accidental’ Infants

This brings us to the next category of human being Obama says has no intrinsic right to life: Babies born “accidentally” while a doctor attempts to kill them by abortion.

This is a necessary consequence of Obama’s embrace of abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Most of us know parents who have cared for preemies — premature babies, born too soon. With the abortion industry’s wide-scale attempts to kill American premies and nearly due children, some will be born alive accidentally.

Whistleblower Jill Stanek, a Chicago nurse, described the practice of killing babies in what is now known as “live-birth abortion.” Illinois tried to stop the practice. But in 2002, as state legislator there, Obama voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act, which would have protected babies who were “accidentally” born alive during attempts to abort them.

“I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone in a soiled utility room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived,” Stanek told the U.S. Congress, describing one such case. “He was too weak to move very much, expending any energy he had trying to breathe. Toward the end he was so quiet that I couldn’t tell if he was still alive unless I held him up to the light to see if his heart was still beating through his chest wall.”

After Stanek’s testimony even N.Y. Democrat Jerrold Nadler, who says he is “as pro-choice as anybody on earth” supported and spoke in favor of the bill.

But for the abortion industry and Obama, opposing the right to life has meant uncompromising dedication to a counter-principle. For Obama, protecting the unstated principle “unwanted children do not have the right to life” is the only way abortion can remain legal. That has led him to exclude another category of human being from the right to life: the unfit.

Terri Schiavo

In a recent debate, Obama said the vote he most regrets was his vote to save Terri Schiavo’s life. Her husband, Michael, wanted Terri dead, even though she was alert and responsive to nurses and family members. He had a new child with a new woman, and he wanted Terri dead.

When a judge granted his request, Congress and President Bush attempted to intervene to save her life, and not just to save her life, but to stop the dangerous precedent. They failed. Now Obama says they shouldn’t have tried.

Thus, he started by rejecting the right to life of unwanted children and now rejects the right to life of an unwanted woman.

Obama not only opposes the right to life, his opposition is his highest priority. “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” he told Planned Parenthood last July. That would make America more friendly to the abortion industry than any other country in the world.

America's Creed

The idea that there is a creed at the heart of America was best expressed by Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address. “Four score and seven years ago,” he said, “our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” He called the Civil War a test as to whether “any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

America is still undergoing that test.

But, like a reverse Lincoln, a new man from Illinois seeks the presidency, one who is engaged in a battle against the proposition that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with the right to life.

Labels: Presidential Campaign

A precurser to the Presidential Election - I think not (and I hope not)

That's not to say that I am stating my political views on this blog .. just that I do not believe that the sale of Halloween masks will predict the election outcome. Primarily because of the demographics that would buy Halloween masks to begin with.

Political candidates have been going door-to-door Trick or Treating for decades, but you'll likely see more Barack Obamas than John McCains this Halloween say the local store owners and online retailers.

Vinyl masks of Democrat presidential candidate Obama are reportedly selling better nationwide, and locally, than those of Republican McCain. Visit Costume Craze for Political Costumes

The real question is how the costume sales for Sarah Palin are selling? We saw a mask online of Sarah Palin at BuyCostume - but I think that you can do Sarah without a mask.

• The key to the Palin makeup look is the glossy mauve lipstick. Pick up a bottle of Wet and Wild at the local drugstore. Add some Gray eyeshadow and a bit of bronzer and you are good to go :)
• Sexy Librarian Glasses: Palin’s rectangular glasses are flying off the shelves according to some sources. Get a pair at any drugstore like CVS or Rite-Aid in the reading glass section.
• Get a great pair of dangle earrings. (she loves those dangles)
• Get a power suit at a local thrift store. Knee length in a conservative color like gray or black and add a little color with a red blouse.
• Poof your hair up in back and wear bangs (or get a good wig at BeautyTrends)

According to many polls, Sarah's popularity is skyrocketing. The pro-life, devoutly Christian, happily married mother-of-five has emerged from the political margins to become the most intriguing woman in America. Go Palin!

Labels: Costumes, Halloween, Presidential Campaign

Just as we get through the horrendous scandal of Palin's daughter being pregnant, Obama is tied to ACORN. If you detected a bit of sarcasm in my tone, you are correct.

The huge disparity between the Republican "scandals" and the Democratic "scandals" in this year's election are ludicrous. You can't compare a teen pregnancy with the ties to an organization that registers dead people to vote for your candidate. They shouldn't be in the same sentence.

Barack Obama's ties to a controversial voter registration group -- responsible for signing up more than a million new voters nationwide this year -- whose employees have been accused of illegal activity -- are coming under increasing scrutiny.

Did I mention that the election is only 3 weeks away and this is happening?

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also known as ACORN, is in trouble again for voter fraud. The keyword here is AGAIN. Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama got his community organizer experience working for ACORN.

Right now, there are allegations that ACORN is targeting underage voters. Its seems that studies have shown that the demographic the democrats are targeting are often not on college campuses, which they have focused on in the past.

So now they are targeting high school students?? in an attempt to get more of their demographic registered …. apparently regardless of age.

Did I mention that the Obama campaign recently gave ACORN $800K to do “voter registration” for them. This, in itself, should create a lot of commotion. How can a political figure give money to an organization that has not only been indicted on voter fraud, but convicted in certain states?

Oh yeah .... but all I hear on the radio and in advertisements is that Palin's daughter is pregnant.

And to make things worse, ACORN has stated that Obama lied in the debates last night.

Let the drama continue!

Labels: Obama and Acorn

An interesting read that I found. Reflects great intelligence:

The crisis is not just a crisis on Wall Street. If left unchecked, it will worm its way into Main Street. What is Main Street; it is the credit market that directly affects the working man’s car loan, mortgage rate, and credit cards. It also affects the business he works for. A small business has to have the cash to pay bills and payroll on a weekly basis while they wait for their money from sales to come in on a monthly basis.

Very few people pay with cash anymore. Businesses hardly ever pay with cash. Every time a credit card is used or a check is written, someone is using money from some bank to make that transaction.

How did the problem start? Well, it started over 20 years ago when credit requirements for everything from credit cards to mortgages started changing. Believe it or not, there used to be a time when a home mortgage required a credit score over 700, income equal to four times the house payment and 20% down. This means that a home could devaluate 20% before the bank loaned your more than a house was worth.

A person could never get a credit card without having a job. Now the typical unemployed student receives mailings several times a week offering a credit card. As you can see, it does not take long for the economy to be full of loans and extended credit with nothing to back it.

Boom and Bust: When things are booming, values and incomes go up. A 90% loan on a house can turn into a 75% loan in just a few short months when prices are sky rocketing. Bad loans become good loans. But what happens if there are a bunch of bad loans out there and houses stop selling for more money each month? The reverse happens, 90% loans become 110% loans. In a short time, a bank finds themselves holding a bunch of loans that are greater than the whole of the assets they represent.

Writing off bad loans is when a bank of financial institution fesses up and tells their stock holders and the world that the loans they hold are of greater value than the property they represent. It also means that people and companies decide for one reason or another NOT to pay back the loans. The financial institutions take back the assets and now own a piece of property they are not able to manage and take care of that is most likely worth less than the amount of money they loaned in the first place. When this happens they are unable to loan money to others, they do not have enough capital to meet the minimum requirements by law, people hear about this and stop putting their savings in the institution. As the savings they hold drops, it compounds the problem creating a run on the bank. At a certain point, the government must step in and take over the bank and guarantee all the money in the bank over $100,000 (now it is $250,000) per individual and the government then takes the loss.

Because as a nation we are buying more goods from other countries than we are selling them we have created a trade deficit. This means that those countries end up loaning back all their extra trade surplus money to the US government lowering interest rates. This allows people to borrow lots of money at low interest rates while the banks loan this money with little regard for the risk.
Banks got sneaky. They took all those loans they were giving out and bundled them into Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) and put loans and other debt into them. They then got even more creative and started borrowing money on the short-term commercial paper markets to fund the SIVs and made as profit the difference between the low short-term rates on commercial paper and the higher long-term rates on the loans in the SIV. These SIV’s had a AAA rating making them sound safe. Everyone from around the world caught on to this idea and the stage was set for a disaster.

The boom turned to bust and because of a new accounting rule enacted after the Enron Scandal called FASB 157, banks had to value their long term investments (SIVs) to the most recent market price of a similar security that actually had a trade. Once the word got out about the quality of these SIV’s tied to mortgages and other long term debt, investors backed away from purchasing them. Who wants to buy a mortgage on a house in California that is more than the value of the home?

This chain reaction virtually stopped the transfer of short term debt to cover long term debt. At the same time, banks were unable to raise capital to cover these SIV’s that were losing money on a daily basis. With the Mark to Market (FASB 157 rules) they were getting hammered every day with less value even though they were not selling the bundled mortgages (SIV’s). The bust of SIV’s froze the movement of cash between banks causing a credit freeze.

Who had the power to fix this and who has the power to stop the bust cycle?

First of all, a capitalistic free market is very good for our country. It has served us well over the last 100 years. Most other systems have failed or stunted the growth of their economy. In fact the US economy is the driving force in our world and even in this crisis, after all the grumbling from over seas, the US is where people put their money with they are looking for a safe bet.

Over the last 10 years, the government has not updated the lows that monitor investment banks as they have with regular banks. As we know, man is basically evil, so when left un-checked, man will do bad things with power and be self serving when the opportunity arises.

What we need is a Stabilization Plan and a review of our regulations governing capital requirements and leveraging in the markets. What we DON’T need is government intervention in the free markets. The government needs to act as a regulator of the markets. In the short term, the government needs to step in with some long term money and buy up SIV’s at current auction prices and hold them for a while until they can sell them back into the system once the housing market bottoms out and starts to be bullish again. Only the government has the
staying power to hold SIV’s until they return to a reasonable value.

The government also needs to establish capital requirements and limit leveraging for ALL publicly help financial institutions. These requirements would then filter down to Main Street and although for the short term, people will feel the pain; in the long term money will not be loaned without sufficient collateral or income support.

Lastly, the government needs to reduce legislation the acts as social engineering. For example, the congress decided that everyone should be able to own a home. Thus, they set up systems to loan money to prospective first time home owners that allowed them to purchase a home that they would normally be unable to purchase. This legislation promoted by the Democrats sounds on the surface warm and fuzzy but in the end, if you loan money to people who can’t pay it back, eventually someone will have to take away the property they owned or write down the bad debt on their books.

In conclusion, as you walk to the polls to elect the next president, remember that a free market with capital and leverage regulations is the fastest way to get our country back on track. Watch out for anything close to a free ride for anyone. The best way to continue on our course is to allow the free markets to correct themselves with oversight.

Lastly, remember that if you see any politician blaming another for the problems we currently have. Remember that the Democrats have controlled the House and the Senate for the last two year. Why didn’t they see this coming and why didn’t they propose bills that included oversight of these risky investments? Well, the truth is that they were sleeping on the job.

I have not heard why the Democrats did not propose legislation to solve this problem and it makes me nervous that they are blaming a lamb duck president for a period of time in our great history when they controlled what landed on his desk. I am even more nervous when their solution is a man whose only experience in the real world is two years in congress working with a party that did nothing to prepare our nation for today.

Labels: Presidential Campaign, Wall street crisis

I read an article about a teen prank that almost resulted in an unthinkable disaster.
Parents read on and warn your kids!

Five teens were toilet-papering a home over in Kent county about 1 a.m. Sunday when the homeowner awoke and saw them. The homeowner fired three shots from a 12-gauge shotgun. Luckily only one injury and no deaths - but one has to worry about this situation especially with Halloween coming up.

A 14-year-old was struck. He was taken to the Hospital, where he is recovering from wounds to his chest, stomach and leg.

Granted, the toilet paper incident happened in the country - (one of the neighbor's said that the backyard's are dark in the area and people are frightened of predators)

Don't let your kids out on Devil's Night!

Labels: Halloween, Local News

LANSING -- Opponents of a recently imposed ban on feeding and baiting deer in Michigan's Lower Peninsula are set to make their case in a Lansing courtroom.

The state Department of Natural Resources issued the emergency rule after Michigan's first case of chronic wasting disease was detected at a captive deer operation in the Grand Rapids area.

Pictured to the right is a popular Deer Attractant - Buck Jam

Critics of the ban sued and a hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon before an Ingham County judge.

Plaintiffs include a vegetable farmer and a store owner who say the ban is hurting them financially. The DNR defends the policy as a necessary precaution to prevent the spread of the disease.

The baiting ban also may be discussed at Natural Resources Commission meeting.

Labels: Michigan Deer Baiting

Got this through email today and thought it was worth a post:

SARAH PALIN

Fishing is good here at Wildman and I rarely have time for politics, but many of our friends are asking us "Who is Sarah Palin?" Of course, as Alaskans, Kathy and I are extremely proud of her. We just want to let you know that Sarah "Barracuda" Palin is a straight shooting, hard charging, get it done gal. She knows when to listen, how to analyze the facts and how to make a decision, then implement the plan. She doesn't do a poll before jumping in with both feet like too many of the Washington types.

She has little legislative experience because she has always held the EXECUTIVE position; in private life, as mayor of Anchorage 's largest bedroom community or more recently as Governor of our State. She is a smart, attractive home grown Alaska girl with excellent moral and family values. She can see what needs to be done and does not hesitate to get it done.

One of our State's major problems is that its Capital is in Juneau , 500 miles from the nearest road and 800 air miles from the population base which is Anchorage , Wasilla and Fairbanks .

Our legislature and most of the State government is in Juneau and they ALL behave like a bunch of freshmen in a college town. It has been this way since Statehood in 1959. When Sarah moved to Juneau , so did accountability and responsibility When the oil revenue started flowing and a barrel of North Slope Crude hit $23.00, these people began spending money like drunken sailors. You can only imagine what was happening when oil hit $100.00 a barrel, about the time Sarah took command. My wife Kathy has first-hand experience with this fiasco, as her father and also her ex-husband were Alaska Legislators who served in Juneau as Senators, Senate President, or members of the State House for a combined period spanning nearly three decades.

About the time Sarah took the HELM as Governor of Alaska, about half of the State legislature was in the pocket of big oil companies or contractors doing big projects for Native Corporations around Alaska, all funded by State oil revenue.

Alaska government was nothing but a good old boys club riding the perpetual wave of prosperity. This filtered down from the legislature, through the Department of natural Resources, Department of Labor and even spilled in to the Public Safety who are supposed to "preserve and protect". When Sarah walked into the Governor's Mansion, she promptly dismissed the State Trooper detachment assigned to Governor and had her and her husband's gun case brought in from Wasilla. Then, she got rid of the former Governor's STATE Jet and told legislators that there were no more free rides, they would have to fly Alaska Airlines, just like her and her family if they wanted to travel.

Next came the nut cutting (the Barracuda part.) The heads that rolled were too numerous to name, but when Sarah finished cleaning house, a number of our legislators ended up in jail or on corruption charges, or tendered their resignations long with numerous department heads and those who have been riding the gravy rain for way too long, AND THEN SHE HAD LUNCH.

By the end of the day, Sarah Palin had saved the people of Alaska millions and has not yet slowed down.

She has truly brought CHANGE to Juneau . I personally know several persons in the private sector in Alaska , that hold her in high esteem. She surrounds herself with mart people, many from my hometown of Anchorage . She listens to them but makes her own decisions. Sarah Palin is a no B.S. politician. It is refreshing that there is such a thing anymore. You want to talk about CHANGE? You should see a before and
after picture of the State government in Alaska . That's CHANGE!

Sarah will bring a number of things to the election. I am sure she will appeal to many voters who may otherwise could have gone the other direction on election day. The conservative block will not be for Barack. We have their vote. We need what Sarah will bring, first to the election and second, what she will bring to Washington D.C.

McCain has been advised well, Let's just hope the American people can get the straight scoop on her in the weeks ahead. This is just the opinion of one Alaska Bush Pilot and Guide, who pays attention to national politics, watches the news and is eathly afraid of the direction our nation is headed. I guarantee that if Sarah gets a chance to dig her spurs into the flanks of the liberal Washington types, they will know that she is in the saddle.

Labels: Politics, Presidential Campaign