Bad news, everyone: the panda cam at Washington zoo has fallen victim to the US government shutdown.

Where before, US taxpayers (everyone else too: thanks US taxpayers!) were free any time of day or night to watch the pandas do exciting things like pacing around, sleeping and chewing bamboo on special government-funded spy cameras, now all they see is a black screen and an error message.

Sad, isn't it?

But I don't mean sad as in "Oh no you can't see the pandas." I mean sad that Western civilization has reached such a pitch of decadence that we consider it normal, acceptable even, for the government to confiscate our earnings through the tax system and squander it on fripperies like panda-viewing web cams.

Thus one of the most delicious ironies of this latest shutdown is that it's a curious inversion of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

A fellow I know, Dave Marlett, answered yes to this question and has come up with a real way to do so.  A real way any individual American can.

It happened when he wanted to get his house painted last spring.  He couldn't find, out of all the house painting businesses that he called, one that could guarantee it didn't employ illegal alien workers.

There have to be companies who follow the law and refuse to hire illegals, he told himself.  But how would he or anyone find them?  What if there was a way to find them, a sort of clearinghouse enabling customers all over the country to locate companies that have pledged to hire only legal workers?

That's how Dave conceived of ProAmericaCompanies.     http://rebelholiday.biz/    rebel holiday

It was a sobering dinner party last night (6/16).  Hosted by a London billionaire in his exquisite home - a Boccaccio hung on the wall behind me - the wine flowed liberally, but the conversation between the ten of us was stone-cold serious.

There were lighter moments, as when I proposed a toast to "a great hero of Europe - Geert Wilders."  Every one raised their glass in a smile, but the biggest smile was that of a spectacularly gorgeous super-model (you've seen her in many a high-fashion ad).  She was from Holland.

Then a well-known Hollywood producer raised his glass to toast his hero - Ronald Reagan.  "We need him again," he commented.  I guarantee you've watched one of his TV shows.

But when a self-made billionaire with an 11-figure private equity fund and a clear grasp of Austrian economics starts to talk about America's prospects, you listen.  So we all listened.

Folks, I just can't adequately express what a wonderful time we had at the To The Point Summer Rendezvous last weekend in Colorado Springs. 

The friendship, with everyone so obviously enjoying each other's company, was such a marvelous experience.  We ate well - the buffalo steak was fabulous - drank good wine, had endless scintillating conversations, hiked in the Garden of the Gods, and all of us can hardly wait to get together again.

I owe a lot of thanks - to Miko Reyes, TTP General Manager, who put everything together while I was on the other side of the world.  To Joan Johnson, John Nehring, and Bill Gregory, without whose help Miko tells me he couldn't have succeeded.

To Joel Wade, Jack Kelly, and Dagny D'Anconia, who so copiously shared their insights with us.

And to all TTPers who attended, for the more I got to know them, the more interesting and fascinating they became.  Their skills, intelligence, values, patriotism, and just plain likeability were really overwhelming.

Of all the myriad of questions during the weekend, the one most asked was:  When do we get to do this again - when and where's the next Rendezvous?

It'll be mid-January, and as we've had two now in the West (Vegas and Colorado), it should be in the East.  But warm - forget winter in, say, Boston or DC.  Also historic, memorable, and fun.  So we're thinking Charleston, maybe Savannah.  Let me know what you think.

So thanks to all for a great Rendezvous.  Don't miss the next one.  I can hardly wait for it myself.