Rimworld? That's what the Grand Canyon river runners call the Earth above the rim of the Grand Canyon.

As you may know, Belinda and I, along with our spouses and ten friends, spent the last week rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Last Monday morning we hiked from the Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim, down Bright Angel Trail to the Pipe Creek beach on the Colorado. We then spent the next five days with an amazing crew from Wilderness River Adventures rafting world-renowned rapids such as Granite, Crystal, Hermit, Upset and Lava Falls. The sixth trip for me! A trip like this can be a real culture shock. For five days there is no contact whatsoever with Rimworld. It wasn't until late Friday evening that I heard the first word of Obama's Supreme Court appointment. For someone who is used to keeping up with the news from minute to minute during the entire waking day ... this is quite a shock.

Over the next days I'll share some Canyon stories with you, and I'll post a few pictures and videos. You'll want to hear about the rattlesnake in the camp latrine one evening. Then there's the time Belinda smelled hay .. and former Georgia Head Coach Ray Goff's reaction to a little itty bitty rattlesnake.

Here's one quick story .. one that amazed me. On the second morning of the rafting trip we were tied up at a side canyon so we could all take a hike to see a waterfall and take a dip in a cold, clear pool. When we finished and were heading back into the river I was re-applying my Bullfrog sunscreen. Oops! Sunscreen overboard! So ... the very next afternoon and several miles down river we see a green bottle floating by. Yup - my sunscreen. Now how in the world do you drop a bottle of sunscreen into a Colorado River rapid on one morning, only to see it go floating by the next afternoon. Maybe that was God telling me to wear sunscreen. So I did.

Oh ... and you folks ought to see me with eight days of beard. George Clooney, even if I do say so myself. The bruises? No public showings scheduled.

Weight gain ... three pounds. Most of it muscle.

Boortz & Belinda take a shift piloting the "S-Rig" Grand Canyon river runner somewhere on the Colorado. They could only differentiate between upriver and downriver.

Gotta study this one. Didn't hear about the appointment until I reached civilization late Friday. I do know this. If I was to say that my status as a white male would give me any advantage at all as a Supreme Court Justice - say, for instance, because white males wrote the constitution - I would be dog meat. But ... Sotomayor is a minority. Different rules.

No matter .. she should be confirmed. She's Obama's choice, and unless something criminal or truly horrendous shows up, there should be no filibuster and the Senate should confirm her. Let's hope Republicans don't act like Democrats on this one.

By the time this nuze is posted, GM will have filed for bankruptcy protection. Sadly, there are more Americans that can explain the intimate details of the American Idol finalists, but they cannot explain why GM is going bankrupt or what effect this will have on our economy and the future of American capitalism.

This arranged bankruptcy filing essentially hands GM over to the government. When all is said and done, the government will own 72.5% of General Motors. The United Auto Workers union will own another 17.5% of General Motors. Major bondholders will essentially own 10% of the company. GM stock will probably not be traded for at least six to 18 months. If you are a current GM stockholder, say goodbye to your shares. The taxpayers will make back the $40 billion loaned to GM if shares of the new GM increase dramatically in value. This is change you can believe in.

Sometime this morning, around 11:30 EST, we will be addressed by GM's CEO Barack Obama. The Looter-In-Chief. He will explain why GM's bankruptcy and government ownership will be the best route for this nation. He will do it in a way so that the government educated will understand just enough to nod their heads in agreement and then go back to reading their People magazines. They won't question the Constitutionality of it all. They won't question the free market implications. All they need to know is that their right to watch a big screen TV hasn't been "taken" away from them.

By the way, if we had Mitt Romney in charge right now, GM and Chrysler would have been pushed into bankruptcy months ago. But either way, he says that now the government should immediately turn around and distribute its 72.5% stake to the taxpayers and the UAW should do the same for its members.

Are we encouraging companies to turn to the government? GM is going to save more than $12 billion in tax breaks .... If it ever becomes a viable company again. But these new tax rules don't apply to companies that don't turn to the government for help but are taken over by other private companies. Chrysler, for example, could lose the value of its tax write-offs if it merges with Fiat.

The AP explains:

U.S. taxpayers are about to become majority shareholders in GM, acquiring more than 70 percent of the company in exchange for billions of dollars in aid. Under ordinary circumstances, an ownership change like that would trigger a big tax hit for a money-losing corporation like GM, severely limiting its ability to use current losses to lower future tax bills.

But these are far from ordinary times. The Treasury Department has, in effect, suspended long-standing tax rules for companies that receive bailout money, providing benefits not available to firms that don't receive government help. New Treasury rules could provide GM billions in tax breaks once it becomes profitable and starts paying taxes again, which could be years away.

The value of those savings, however, would be dramatically reduced if GM is taken over by another company. Decades ago, Congress severely restricted the ability of money-losing companies to cash in on the tax breaks if they are taken over by other companies.

The goal was to discourage corporate takeovers for the principle purpose of avoiding taxes, Willens said.

The government, however, doesn't want to penalize firms for taking part in the taxpayer-financed bailout, so the Treasury Department has issued several notices in recent months creating exceptions for firms that receive bailout money. Under the new rules, corporations can keep their tax breaks if the government becomes a majority owner.

OK ... let's put this in language that even the purposely dumbed-down government educated myrmidons in this country can understand. If you are running a substantial private business and if you decide that it is your responsibility to weather this economic storm and keep your business viable without using taxpayer's money and submitting to more authoritarian government control, you will then have to pay your taxes just like everyone else. Wait ... NOT like everyone else. That would be because if you decide that you can't make it on your own, and government intervention with taxpayer's money would be helpful, you will be rewarded with corporate tax breaks. Got it on your own, no help. Play footsie with government control, financial benefits await. Not the way to run a free enterprise economy.

Clearly, our concerted effort to crack down on North Korea has done wonders ... the Gargoyle launched a second nuclear test, which is said to improve North Korea's ability to make a more compact nuclear bomb. Then it proceeded to launch several short-range missiles. The test is, again, in violation of a UN Security Council resolution. After the UN sent its stern letter to North Korea back in April, the Gargoyle demanded an apology from the Security Council. I wonder what he is going to want this time ... a dozen roses?

What is clear is that love letters from the United Nations isn't going to do a darn thing to stop the Gargoyle launching more missiles or conducting more nuclear tests.

For this section of Nealz Nuze, let's focus on the Massachusetts Teachers Association. This would be the largest teachers union in the great state of Massachusetts. Now keep in mind that the goal of a teachers union is to maintain union jobs power, not to educate children. So when the teachers union comes up with ways for its teachers to develop professionally, you can guarantee that this will have little to do with student achievement.

According to this article from the Boston Herald, the Massachusetts Teachers Association offers professional development like "Lessons through Balloon Twisting" where each participant can learn to make at least two different balloon animals. Another like "Easy Tie-Dye" will "awe your friends and family" by creating a "groovy tie-dyed T-shirt." That's not all, folks ... these teachers can learn Native American Bead Weaving, silk screening, folk dancing and more.

These are the people you put in charge of educating your child. School choice is the great civil rights struggle of the era. Are you paying attention? Read this next bit to see what some Russian writer has to say about our education system.

Did you catch this story from the Russian Newspaper Pravda over the weekend? How about "American Capitalism Gone with a Whimper" for a title? Here's a quote from the article:

"It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people."

Wait a minute! Read that quote again! Here is a columnist in a Russian newspaper talking about America's decent into Marxism, and he doesn't sound all that happy about it. How do you like him calling us "passive" and "hapless?" And then there's that "sheeple" reference.

Rodina, the author, says that the American population was "dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture." Well ... you know that to be true in your heart, but it took this Pravda columnist to spell it out for you.

Fact is, the author isn't fond of Marxism. That means he isn't fold of Barack Obama. He writes "The final collapse (of capitalism) comes with the election of Barack Obama."

Just read the column .. then go outside and drive around town so that people can see your Obama bumper sticker on your car.

I encountered a flight attendant on a regularly scheduled airline this past week who actually uttered these words: "In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure ... we're screwed." The same applies to the election of Barack Obama.

Elections have consequences, folks.

Here's a "must read" by Andrew Stuttaford in the Weekly Standard. America's real power struggle is the super rich liberals vs. ordinary plutocrats.

This is another "must read" from P.J. O'Rourke on why Americans fell out of love with the automobile.

Ok, one more "must read" ... by far the most emailed article to the show was this from Pravada on America's whimpering capitalism. We covered it above .. so this is just to remind you.

Want to know how politicians are spending your tax dollars? The Wall Street Journal has a roundup for the latest examples of government waste and abuse ... digital cameras, cars, calendars, you name it.

A bipartisan coalition of36 Congressmen has asked Obama to return authority over the auto bailout to the Congress, but the White House insists that it is not overreaching its power.

This story has been getting a lot of press, but San Diego County officials backed down after warning a couple that they needed a government permit in order to hold Bible studies in their home.

When I tell you that the government ordered the takeover of several large iron makers last week, then snapped up a large bank and vowed to further limit the private sector .. we could conceivably be talking about the United States nowadays. In this case, we are talking about Venezuela.

Obama will be giving a speech this week from Cairo University, and Muslims apparently want respect for Islam, a prescription for Palestinian statehood and assurances of a speedy U.S. pullout from Iraq.

With this cap-and-trade legislation, Obama has managed to convert a former opponent -corporations -- into a powerful ally and constructed a win-win situation for the liberal-corporate axis.

What is the White House doing to restrict criticism of stimulus projects and is this a violation of the First Amendment?

A bill making its way through Congress could make the Jimmy Carter National Historic a full-fledged park owned and operated by the National Park Service.

Our government is going to set up Gitmo detainees with computer classes and laptops so that they can learn how to use email and "reintroduce them into a modern society."

Speaking of Gitmo, Obama has now asked Australia to take our detainees from Guantanamo.

Apparently the big news over the weekend was the fact that Barack Obama took Michelle to New York City to see a Broadway show.

A freeze warning for New Yorkers in June ... must be all that global warming.

Here's a PJTV video you might want to watch. Titled "Elizabeth Edwards Publicity Tour." Quite good. This Sonja Schmidt is a trip.

You'll probably hear a reference to Lava Falls in the Grand Canyon today. Belinda really enjoyed this ride last week. Here's some video of what Lava is really like.