Set aside time for "big picture" thinking....

Basic blueprint for sucess:

1. Write down your ideal scene, set five years in the future.
2. Write down your goals (extracted from ideal scene).
3. Turn your goals into positive, personal, present-tense affirmations.
4. Deal with doubts and fears effectively.
5. Write simple plans for your goals on paper.
6. Take the most obvious first action right in front of you, and keep going from there.

“First you build your castles in the air, then you build the foundations under them.” - Henry David Thoreau

Amazing home remedies and advice...

Here are some important and useful "just in case" things to remember:

1. If you are choking on an ice cube, don’t panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto, the blockage will be almost instantly removed.
2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.
3. Avoid arguments with the Missus about lifting the toilet seat by simply using the sink.
4. For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use a timer.
5. A mousetrap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives. Then you will be afraid to cough.

Ever wonder which tool to use? Just remember this - You only need two tools: WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn’t move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn’t move and does, use the duct tape.

Yet another example of the left's schizoid behavior

A group of GA Tech students have once again shown everyone the true nature of the left's ideas regarding "tolerance" and "diversity." Interesting blog/article from Professor Mike Adams (go here for the whole thing; it's frankly unbelievable - or maybe all too believable) ......

Currently, the Pride Alliance at Tech receives funding from the SGA. The College Republicans do not. Now that Tech has been sued by a Republican over the funding issue the tension is palpable. Gays and their allies are calling the suit “intolerant” because, among other things, it seeks to allow the Republican group to be funded on an equal footing with Tech’s homosexual group.

But the gays and their allies don’t want that. They want two things: 1) For the school to keep funding the Pride Alliance and 2) For the school to keep denying the Republicans equal funding.

The fact that the gays and their allies (a) see themselves as open-minded for supporting a one-sided presentation of gay issues and (b) see the Republicans as narrow-minded for supporting a more diverse presentation of viewpoints speaks volumes about both their intellectual prowess and emotional stability.

How is it the leftist/liberal/Democrats can pretend they're all for "tolerance" and "equal rights" and "choice," then do/say/act in this manner? This sort of thing is far from unusual. It just boggles my mind .

How to fix the immigration problem....

Well said by the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler (I've "edited" a few of the more colorful comments:

Oh, and the next bloviating boob to say “we can’t deport 11 million illegals” gets a shiny, boot in the butt.

At least be honest and say it like it is: “I WON’T deport 11 million illegals.” You’ll still be on the wrong side of the issue, but at least you won’t be guilty of wrapping up your opinion in unsubstantiated, unproven nonsense in order to avoid having to answer for your TRUE opinion.

Listen very carefully, because I’ll say this only once (today): Nobody is suggesting that we round up 11 million criminals tomorrow and ship them off in box cars tomorrow or somewhere before Thursday next (although I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to an attempt to do so).

What you DO is:
A): Shut down the borders. No moronic “virtual fences” (which, in Washington DC, means “no fences, but still a vague promise of something that sounds like it that we can then let die in committee and blame the other side for at a later date”). Build the darn wall and do it NOW.
B): Throw the book at employers who hire illegal aliens. At the same time, give the employers the tools that they need to investigate prospective hires and give them the right to use said tools. Tell the ACLU and assorted other "activists" that they can either shut up about it or accompany the pendejos on the next box car to Tijuana.
C): No bennies of any sort to anybody unless they can prove that they’re either a permanent resident or a citizen.
D): Watch illegal aliens self-deport due to sudden and complete loss of their “free” (to them, the rest of us are paying through the nose for it) ride. If necessary, help them along a bit. No need to round them all up in one afternoon, do it as resources allow. Start a reward program paying citizens for information that leads to arrests and deportations.
E): Patiently drag anybody calling this “racist” aside and explain to them, slowly and while carefully avoiding words with more than two syllables as much as you possibly can (use simple drawings as well, if necessary), that the rules apply to EVERYBODY entering the country illegally and then, when they predictably refuse to exercise their two limp brain cells and scream “RACIST” instead, hit them in the face with a sledgehammer.

Some of this might sound a little harsh but, increasingly, I don't think so. Perhaps we (the US) should re-visit our legal immigration strategies and procedures to update them (I think the last major review/change was in the 1960s or '70s; for example, why is there such a relatively low number of advanced degreed/critical occupations immigrants "allowed" while we simply refuse to restrict, in any fashion or manner, the flood of limited education illegals?). Regardless, entering the country illegally is, well, illegal, as is hiring illegals. There's also the whole matter of restraining terrorists and such, too.

Just what is so difficult about all this?

Ideas from Newt ....

Excerpted from Newt Gingrich:

The future cannot be left to chance. The future must be won. Today, in order to win the future, there are five challenges that America must meet:
1. Confronting a world in which America's enemies, including the irreconcilable wing of Islam and rogue dictatorships, could acquire and use nuclear or biological weapons;
2. Defending God in the public square;
3. Protecting America's unique civilization;
4. Competing in the global economy in an era of the economic rise of China and India, which will require transformations in litigation, education, taxation, regulation, and environmental, energy and health policies for America to continue to be the most successful economy in the world;
5. Promoting active, healthy aging so more people can live longer, which will require dramatic transformation in pensions, Social Security and health care.

For 400 years, in the spirit of freedom and entrepreneurial pioneering, we have defined a better America that has overcome every challenge. It is in this tradition that I will regularly share my thoughts here on the solutions necessary for our generation to meet these challenges and win the future.I can make only one promise: It will be challenging and engaging, and it will never be dull. But then again, adventures never are.

With the way our elected "leaders" think and the care and "bold stances" they take with difficult &/or controversial issues ...... good luck!

Disease awareness or disease mongering?

Ya' know, I've seen quite a few ads (mostly on TV) that talk about various medical conditions that either I'd never heard of until recently or never really considered to be "diseases," etc. Now it seems there's a term for this: disease mongering .....

Recently, some pharmaceutical companies have stepped up their use of unbranded ads whose messages focus only on the medical condition -- e,g., erectile dysfunction (ED) -- that the branded product treats with no mention of the brand. The industry calls these "disease awareness" ads. Some industry critics, however, call it "disease mongering."
"[Disease Mongering"] is exemplified mostly explicitly by many pharmaceutical industry-funded disease awareness campaigns - more often designed to sell drugs than to illuminate or to inform or educate about the prevention of illness or the maintenance of health."

What is "Disease Mongering"? "Disease mongering" -- according to a paper written on the subject in the PLoS Report above -- is "the effort by pharmaceutical companies (or others with similar financial interests) to enlarge the market for a treatment by convincing people that they are sick and need medical intervention." Some "diseases" that the authors of the report consider "mongered" include:

Restless leg syndrome - Prevalence of rare condition exaggerated
Irritable bowel syndrome - Promoted as a serious illness needing therapy, when usually a mild problem
Menopause - Too often medicalised as a disorder when really a normal part of life

One of the authors (of the report) -- Ray Moyniham, visiting editor and contributor to the British Medical Journal -- is also co-author of the book "Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning Us All into Patients."

Nice to see some confirmation from the medical community that it's not just my imagination - they really are trying to make me feel bad or "inadequate," mainly to sell me more of their high-profit margin drugs. Jus' don't seem right to me ....

(quote above from the "Pharma Marketing Blog")

The difference between Republicans and Democrats

While this is certainly not new, it's still entertaining:

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am"

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican." "I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met. But somehow now it's my fault."

Think you're done paying taxes?

Just because you sent in that check to Uncle Sam (or you are expecting a check), you think your dealings with taxes are over for the year, right?

Wrong.

While it's true you've paid your Federal income taxes, then there are lots of other taxes. Gas taxes, property taxes, wheel taxes and so on. I hope you're sitting down, because your knees will get weak after this one.

If you were to pay all of your taxes up front, 100% of your income would go to paying taxes from January 1 until this date I'm about to tell you (this will tell you your true tax burden).

Ready?

If you paid everything to the government - Federal, State and Local - up front, you would be working for them until: June 3rd.

That's right. 154 days. 22 Weeks. 42% of the year, you are paying taxes. How does that make you feel? And look at it this way, if you are getting a big refund check back from Uncle Sam, that means you're sending him too much money. You're loaning it to him on an interest free loan. Say you're getting a $1200 refund. If you adjusted your withholdings so you didn't get a refund (and didn't have to pay anything on April 15th) that would mean you could have an extra $50 each paycheck. What would you rather do? Get a "bonus" check that you will likely blow on something frivolous, or have an extra $50 a paycheck to pay the day to day expenses of life?

It's your money, it should be your choice.

Be careful when looking at that new car ...

Ah, another great auto commercial; take a look ....

Redneck high dive - - -

Wonder if he lost any more teeth ..... "Hey! Watch this!"

Who said this?

“There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs. Partly because they want sympathy, and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”
“There is a certain class of race problem-solvers who don’t want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.”

(Give up? Click on the comments section below for the answer. Thanks to Bob Griggs for the quote.)

I'm really getting annoyed .....

I think of myself as a reasonably generous and hospitable kind of guy, but, to be honest, several things about our illegal immigrant "crisis" are really starting to get under my skin (notably the complete and apparent lack of understanding &/or concern - other than lip service - from our elected officials, particularly those in the US Senate). I appreciate and, frankly, admire the work ethic of many/most of the guys I see daily sweating and working their backsides off. However, that doesn't diminish my increasingly strong feelings about the "wrongness" (dare I say illegality?) of their being here in the US. Couple that with the more recent protests, demanding their "rights" (which, being illegal, they don't have or qualify for anyway) and it really makes my blood start to boil .... We are (or were) a nation of laws. Illegals (and their enablers with their own agendas, like Ted Kennedy, et.al.) have, I think, made a big mistake by drawing attention to themselves by protesting. Not only have they flouted our laws and systems while simultaneously making a mockery of those who've come to the US legally, they are igniting a backlash among the US citizenry. This is a huge strategic mistake. My hope is our elected officials will finally hear/see that backlash from the "silent majority" and take note of it. Clearly, something has to change, and fast.

On a lighter note, you may get a laugh out of this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1fj0J3J-jM&search=illegal%20alien

Enjoy! (If only more people had this idea!)

[As a point of clarity: I do not advocate the actions depicted in this video. It is, however, very funny.]

A little English test ....

I read about this site on Conservative Musings; I did pretty well, but am a little disappointed that I didn't score 100% across the board. My results ......

English GeniusYou scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 93%

Expert! You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!
Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

Quote of the day ...

"Taxation with representation ain't so hot either." - Gerald Barzan

Building habits to feed dreams...

Stopping bad habits is, frankly, pretty difficult for me (and many others, I suspect). Here's a better & simpler way to accomplish both stopping bad habits while beginning new, good habits. (Thanks to this excerpt from http://curtrosengren.typepad.com/.)

A couple years ago I interviewed Juliet Draper and Pam Jones. Juliet is an incredible athlete who had recently won the World Firefighter Combat Challenge. As the conversation turned to the challenge of making a positive change in life, Juliet compared it to creating a healthier lifestyle.

"I don't want to tell people, don't drink sodas, don't smoke, don't eat junk food," Juliet said. "What I tell them is add a glass of water a day. Walk for thirty minutes a day. Add a piece of fruit. And as a result, you're adding all these positive things, and all of the negative things will just naturally fall by the wayside because you don't have room for them any more."

What if you committed to developing one new positive habit that feeds your dreams each month? What kind of difference would that make over the course of a year? I'm willing to guess it would be huge.

Now I just have to decide which bad habit to get rid of first and with what I'd like to replace it; hmmm...... (the choices are, sadly, endless ).

More on our stupid immigration mess ....

Columnist David Limbaugh has some good comments about immigration:

...we must also address the legality issue (somewhere between felony and amnesty), otherwise we undermine the illegals' essential respect for the rule of law (and ours).

I'm far less sympathetic to the economic concerns, believing that whatever benefits we are reaping are offset by the drains on our entitlement programs. It is unfortunate that some view the immigration issue, like they do everything else, from a purely economic perspective. Economic growth and prosperity are wonderful, but they are not a panacea, and are an unacceptable tradeoff for the disintegration of our culture and the implosion of our constitutional system.

It is even more regrettable that some choose to tar all those who are serious about immigration as racists or nativists. It is a vicious and dishonest ploy mostly by those who are willing to subordinate almost everything good and decent to partisan politics. We have no unique ethnicity in this country. What makes us unique are the God-fearing, egalitarian principles embodied in the Constitution and sustained by the rule of law.

I pray this growing crisis will finally heighten our awareness and motivate us to take the necessary action to preserve the republic.

My thoughts? I have little problem with immigration, but when those who've entered the US illegally start demanding "rights" that they, as "illegal" immigrants don't or shouldn't have, it really rankles my generally sympathetic leanings. Take those feelings of mine and couple them to the fact that the US "caps" legal immigrants with advanced degrees (PhDs, etc.) and expertise in "key jobs" at somewhere between 65,000 to 95,000 per year .... that just seems nonsensical to me. So, it's okay to allow millions of uneducated (though hard-working) illegal immigrants into the US, but not okay to accept/encourage a greater number of highly educated legal immigrants, huh?

Who's the little guy holding up the one in glasses?

A little "personal pride" now. Here's an image of my son and grandson (Alex, the big dude, and Asa, the little dude), taken while we visited with them and his in-laws in Greenville, SC last weekend. We were able to take in game 2 of the new Greenville Drive's opening season series. The Drive is the "A" league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox (sadly, Greenville lost the "AA" Braves to Mississippi last year); the city has done a great job of constructing a new baseball field for the Drive that has lot of the "look and feel" of Boston's storied Fenway Park, down to a slightly smaller version of "the Green Monster" in left field and a manually operated scoreboard, too. All in all it's a great place to take in a ball game; convenient to get to and affordably priced. We had a great visit with Alex, Keri, and Asa, as well as enjoying our time with Keri's family (Rex, Linda, her sister Katherine and her beau, Jim). Ah, yes ... awaiting Alex's impending move to Greenville soon!

Hard to imagine this was "really done" ....

Honda's latest commercial is quite the production, and speaks well to the "Team effort" concept. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film. Everything you see really happened in real time exactly as you see it. The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it was over, they were ready to change professions.

The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence. In addition, it's two minutes long so every time Honda airs the film on British television, they're shelling out enough dough to keep any one of us in clover for a lifetime. However, it is fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in Internet history. Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for itself simply in "free viewings" (Honda isn't paying a dime to have you watch this commercial!). When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation - including the costs.

There are six and only six hand-made Honda Accords in the world. To the horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make the film. Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) is parts from those two cars. The voiceover is Garrison Keillor.

When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics have gotten. They fell off their chairs when they found out it was for real. Oh. and about those funky windshield wipers. On the new Accords, the windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet. It looks a bit weird in the commercial.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2VCfOC69jc

This ad must might make me buy a Chevy ....

I realize that this is certainly not politically correct, and may even be a little, well, "unseemly." However, it's certainly scandalously entertaining. Check it out .... this ad just might make me buy a Chevy.

Stop complaining & start offering some ideas about immigration ...

Newt Gingrich has an interesting and thoughtful article regarding our current immigration mess (read the whole thing at http://www.newt.org/articles/default.asp?ci=55 ). Here are a few excerpts:

... While U.S. immigration policy has clearly failed to keep up with the millions of migrants who have come to the U.S. in search of economic opportunities, it must be readily acknowledged that this failure is owed in substantial part to the failed economic policies of their home-country governments. For too long, these governments have placed too much reliance on foreign remittances from the United States to sustain their economies.

... Latin America in general, and Mexico especially, has tremendous natural resources, hard-working populations and wonderfully rich cultures. Mexico has a free trade agreement with the United States and has the largest economy in the world as its neighbor and market for its products. Its economy must be made to work. As U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said in a May 2005 speech in Mexico City: "Let's be honest with each other. Reliance on remittances from the U.S. and windfall revenues from high oil prices is simply not an economic policy."

... It is altogether reasonable that the United States pursue an immigration policy that makes sense to our citizens and is sensible economically. Part of that orderly rational immigration policy is a systematic, effective and enforceable temporary worker program. ..... Enforcing compliance must be focused on holding American employers accountable to the law. Any new proposal should sanction severely employers who willfully break the law by hiring workers without verifying legal status or by failing to pay employment taxes on them.

... At the same time we develop solutions for our immigration policy, we must find ways to work with our Latin American neighbors to seek solutions and economic opportunities for their citizens.

As is often the case I find myself agreeing with much of what the former Speaker has to say. While I generally have little idea about "how do we do that/where do we start," at the very least he offers concrete ideas and thought-provoking suggestions, something that most of our so-called pundits and politicians seem unable to do, preferring to pass off sound bites, political posturing and demagoguery as "reasoned commentary."

Tax-a-chusetts Adds Universal Health Care....

I figured some state would attempt to be the first at Universal Health Care. My guesses were California or Massachusetts. Well, the New England state lived up to my expectations first, it seems. Considering how well it isn't working due north of us, I'm not holding my breath for great news from Massachusetts either. Sure, there'll be some intial good news. Followed by tax hikes and eventual job losses. The intial legislation may look better than Hillarycare (although I haven't read it to know). My fear is that, in the long run, the commonwealth's health care will follow most governmental programs and become bloated beyond recognition.

The "Gospel" of Judas?

Gimme' a break .....

"The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week, three days before he celebrated Passover."

One feature of the gnostic gospels is that they always announce their supposed author to establish their bona fides. They are always full of wink-wink, nudge-nudge secret knowledge, to which yes! now you too! can be privy! You can be in with the in crowd. Contrast that with the matter of fact story-telling, parables, and sayings in the standard gospels.

The Gospel of Judas is only one of many texts discovered in the last 65 years, including the gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene and Philip, believed to be written by Gnostics.

The Gnostics' beliefs were often viewed by bishops and early church leaders as unorthodox, and they were often denounced as heretics. Well, yes; because they were,in fact, unorthodox heretics. They (the Gnostics) came a generation and a half after the standard gospels were in common use. Had these woo-woos come first, the "orthodox" would have been heretics.

Finally, there's this bimbo who I've seen featured on at least one "news" show .... Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton who specializes in studies of the Gnostics, said in a statement, "These discoveries are 'exploding the myth' of a monolithic religion, and demonstrating how diverse ? and fascinating ? the early Christian movement really was." I'm not sure who had this myth. It was well known since the beginning that there were disagreements, some broadening into heresies and schisms. Otherwise, why were there the Ancient Churches of the Orient, the Orthodox Church, the Armenian Church, the Coptic Church, the Roman Church, etc? Monolithic, she says. A "professor of religion at Princeton" ought to know better than that.

Seems that way to me, too.

Illegal immigration and increasing health care - & insurance - costs....

Yet another often overlooked consequence of illegal immigration, as put forth by an emergency room doc (found on Jerry Pournelle's blog, Chaos Manor in Perspective.

Subject: Hospital ER Costs
Due to the nature of the volunteer work I do I often spend several hours a weekend in the ER. In my area there are a few illegals, but plenty of people who are using the hospital for routine medical care. While there is some cost for the supplies that I am sure is not trivial, the greater expense is on the people. People who are qualified to work in a trauma center, but are needed to deal with ear infections and babies running a mild fever. People who demand assistance but will never pay a dime of their bill.

Some hospitals have opened "minor emergency" rooms that attempt to deal with these issues. But they require space and the staffing is not that much less money. And of course they have to be careful. If you miss a problem with someone, who for years has neglected their personal health care, and you will face the lawyers.

The result of all of this is trauma centers with gurneys in the hallway and more people arriving. Staff that is overworked, tired and wanting to find another job. Hospitals look at the cash flow, consider the risks from litigation and would rather turn the space over to an orthopedic group to process hip replacements.

.. and the beat goes on ...

If You Read Nothing Else Today .....

This is sorta' long (rather like a "short story") and, frankly, just a little scary. Sometimes fiction or novelization can put real "legs" beneath current events. Worth the time, I think, to read ...

…then make sure you read this (the server is somewhat overloaded, so it may or may not pop up on the first attempt).

Thanks to the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler for finding this.

This is simply too well done to pass up ...

Fair warning, though: time trap !!

I won't even attempt to describe what you are about to experience:

http://www.planetinneed.com/

(N.B.: Be sure to click all the links, including the top right.)

Subject: More TSA Hijinks!

This from Jerry Pournelle's blog, "Chaos Manor in Perspective".....

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn
/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4585114,00.html


Dean Riddlebarger

Daughter: DIA security roughed-up mom, 83 Bogart Family ©

By Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News
March 31, 2006


Sally Moon had to cool off for the better part of this week before she could see straight enough to write a complaint about a security agent's treatment of her elderly mother at Denver International Airport.

At first, she couldn't settle on the right words to use. "Horrific," "mind-boggling" and "outrageous" were a few that came to mind.

Anyone could see that Bernice "Bea" Bogart, 83, was a fragile woman, Moon said. Bogart had breast cancer surgery in 1997, a total hip replacement after a fall in 1999, a major stroke in 2004 that caused dementia, and is hard of hearing.

It will always be this way: TSA is a jobs program. It does little to nothing to increase security and we all know it. But the jobs for the TSA people are Civil Service which means entitlements. See Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, which predicted this situation.

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

Anybody surprised? 'nuff said.....

Cultural customs; ours should be as valid as theirs....

Found this in the Kobayashi Maru blog this evening .....

Mark Steyn in the Chicago Sun Times last Sunday:

In a more culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of "suttee" -- the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural:

"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

Brilliant. Flippin' brilliant. The point, of course, is about our timidity in standing up for our own culture and values and legal frameworks and even religious heritage. In the rush to uncritical political correctness, what's often overlooked is that, in order to be consistent and meaningful, respect and tolerance must encompass and include the culture that gave birth to those ideas. If all other cultures but mine are exempt from criticism and any effort to change them then the very foundation of respect and tolerance falls apart.

Amen, brother.