During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films

BOOK ONE: 1805
CHAPTER I

　　”Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don’t tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist- I really believe he is Antichrist- I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my ‘faithful slave,’ as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened you- sit down and tell me all the news.”
　　It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception. Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for some days. She was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the elite.
　　All her invitations without exception, written in French, and delivered by a scarlet-liveried footman that morning, ran as follows:
　　”If you have nothing better to do, Count [or Prince], and if the prospect of spending an evening with

These are some powerful words!! Correct as well! Our kids will have to live with out debt. Why not try and make it as little debt as possible. I know we cannot completely eradicate our debt but we can try to make it as little as possible.

“Yesterday was a holiday in the US. Little news from that quarter. But while Americans were enjoying their backyard barbecues, the rest of the world turned.

“Obama plans ‘leaner’ car industry,” says the BBC.

While most readers will focus on the last three words of that sentence, we direct your attention to the first two. The subject is the important part…not the predicate.

That the car industry may or may not get ‘leaner’ is of little interest to us. It will do what it needs to do. But that the president of the United States of America is now creating the business plan for an automobile company is surely a sign of something big. The world has already turned…perhaps more than we realize.

It was only a few months ago…we’re almost sure…that a private company figured out for itself how it would compete. If it was well- managed – and lucky – it would grow. If it made a serious mistake, it would go out of business…leaving the premises vacant for another entrepreneur.

Americans not only accepted this model, they applauded it. They thought the “free enterprise” system was the best in the world. They believed it was responsible for their wealth…their progress…and their place in the world.

Now, the Obama team is calling the shots itself.

The role of government is commonly misunderstood. It is thought to be an impartial judge…an objective arbiter between competing interests, always asserting the common interest over the narrow interests of the competitors themselves. It is nothing of the sort. It has its own interests…its own delusions of competence…its own lusts for power and money.

When the pendulum swings towards Washington it is always bad news. For no matter how big a mess GM’s owners, managers and workers made of the auto business…Washington is sure to make a bigger one.”