Yet another metric of the success of lower tax rates? I suspect so.... 

WASHINGTON — Black-owned businesses are among the fastest-growing segments of the American economy, the government said Tuesday.

The number of black-owned businesses grew by 45% from 1997 to 2002, more than four times the national rate for all businesses, according to a Census Bureau report

Revenues from black-owned businesses increased by 25% during the period, to about $89 billion.

However, nearly all black-owned businesses are small: 92% had no employees other than the owners. By comparison, about three-fourths of all U.S. businesses had no employees.

"We do have challenges. We are making progress," said Ronald Langston, director of the Commerce Department's Minority Business Development Agency. "This is the real challenge: to move these smaller businesses into the next step of growth."

The report is the third in a series of Census reports on businesses owned by women, Hispanics and blacks.

Together, the reports show that the three groups are underrepresented in business ownership but are narrowing the gap with white men.

My friends at Star 102.1 are holding a radiothon to benefit East Tennessee Children's Hospital. It runs for another 2 hours or so, until 6PM tonight. I just gave a 12 by 12, which is $12 a month for a year, and I'm challenging all the members of the RTB to donate whatever you can.

The number to call is 656 KIDS (5437). Call now and give what you can.

ETCH does great work. I've been lucky enough that none of my 6 kids have had to go there, but I went twice as I was growing up. First time was for a hernia repair, and the second time was for a brain malfunction. They fixed the hernia, but the brain is the same as it came from the manufacturer, so don't hold my strange behavior against them. (Besides, my Momma says I'm not strange, I'm unique. So there!)

Call and donate. Even if you're not from Tennessee, even if you don't agree with anything else I've ever written, this is a cause we all should be able to get behind

Thank you.

BBC news is reporting a fascinating development in the history of the Battle of the Atlantic.  Three messages encoded in 1942 using a new version of the infamous Enigma machine have resisted all efforts to decipher them . . . . until now.

By running code-breaking software on a “grid” of internet-linked home computers, one of them has been solved.

Read more here.

No, it's not an obese stranger at some buffet downtown; it's an actual blob in downtown L.A.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3529716

A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman said investigators had yet to identify the ``black tarry substance'' more than 24 hours after it erupted at Olive Street and Pico Boulevard. But he said there might be ``a correlation'' with a petroleum company drilling operation nearby.

Anybody seen Batboy lately?

Well, tonight is the State of the Union address. Tonight we gather by custom and by law, and drink, by George...

If you want to play along, the link below sets the "rules". But if you want to play according to Calvinball rules, I don't think you'd be found guilty by any war crimes tribunal.*

Link...

*As a side note, I wonder if Ken Lay is drinking tonight?