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  • The Power of Fun

    I believe one weapon in a leader’s arsenal ought to be humor and the ability to laugh. I have seen my team-mate and co-author Orrin Woodward do this on numerous occasions; lighten a tense situation with humor.

    The most effective kind of humor is laughing at one’s self. The least effective is sarcasm (unless directed aginst self, of course). There are many types that are in between. Realize that humor can also be dangerous, as in those situations where it puts someone on the spot or makes someone feel uncomfortable. 
     
    The key to good humor is a good heart.  Good-hearted cheer and laughter enhances moments and makes for more lasting memories.  In fact, there are few ways of connecting with others more powerful than a good laugh.
     
    So lighten up a little bit, and be sure to lighten the load of those around you with a well-placed laugh. 

  • A Thesis

    I have been thinking a lot recently about the challenges to liberty and how it seems a society like ours is bent on destroying itself from the inside out. In words I've used before the question is, "How did we get here?"

    In an attempt to answer this question I have posited four reasons:

    1. People are too quick to trust their government.

    2. People don't notice the creeping infringement upon their freedoms by their government.

    3. People don't understand or appreciate their freedom adequately, nor truly realize how it came to be, or how bad things would be without it.

    4. Many are more interested in their own personal advantages than in justice for all, resluting in a "justice for us" mindset.

    In future posts I hope to delve deeper into each one of these categories. 

  • A Question on Government

    I think it's time for another collaboration between all three of you readers out there! I always enjoy the intelligent and thoughtful comments to this blog, and have particularly enjoyed the collaborations we've done. So here's another, in the form of a simple question:

    Does the U.S. government fix our problems, or cause them?

    Tell me what you think and thanks for participating!

  • Freedom and Liberty

    "It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you."  – Dick Cheney


    "We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls." ~Robert J. McCracken

    "For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?"  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

    "There are two freedoms – the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought."  ~Charles Kingsley

    "Nations grown corrupt
    Love bondage more than liberty;
    Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty."
    ~John Milton

  • A 40 Year-Old Quote From Alan Greenspan – Buyer of Big Government Beware

    Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, made an intersting quote some forty years ago. It is interesting because it is increasingly relevant today, and appears to indicate that Greenspan was aware of where his and the Fed's policies might/could lead us. As related by Richard J. Greene of Thunder Capital Management:

    "In his own words, "In absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation of wealth. There is no safe store of value. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for confiscation of wealth." There it is. No one can say it better than the man himself, even if he said it 40 years ago. Well, this is exactly what is transpiring today. It is probably a good thing that Greenspan is of an advanced age; for when the masses understand what he has done, they may well call for his neck as has happened in ancient times to a central banker. Clearly, Greenspan has assisted the banks and the Government in confiscating the wealth and savings of the people."  - – Richard J. Greene

    Re-read that one particular part: "Deficit spending is simply a scheme for confiscation of wealth," then ask yourself what is going on in Washington right now. 

    And don't be misled by the term "wealth."  In this sentence it doesn't mean what some politicians would like you to believe it means, namely: money that belongs to people richer and luckier than you, money for which if they had less of you'd have more. No, my friends. It means a transfer of the buying power of any dollar held by any person from out of their hands and into the pork-barrel government special-deal giveaway programs that are packed all throughout these new 'bailout programs.' It means they are taking your money out of your pocket without having to tax you for it.  

    Hey, don't take it from me. Greenspan himself said it!

    Buyer of big government beware!

  • Caption Contest 2009.5 and 2009.6 Winners Announced, and Contest 2009.7

    Alas and finally and about time! Announcing the Caption Contest winners for contests 2009.5 and 2009.6. These talented contributors will each receive a free, signed copy of team mate and co-author Orrin Woodward and my book, Launching a Leadership Revolution. Congratulations to the following (their winning captions are included next to their names this time!)

    “That there is an RV!” Bryan Rogers | March 11, 2009 at 04:26 PM


    Exactly why a Government spending stimulus will never work… Posted by: BJ Baker | February 19, 2009 at 09:15 AM

    Image017

    And Here's Caption Contest 2009.7   Good Luck!! 

  • Gun Control is Still CONTROL

    I am not a hunter. I am not a woodsman. I am not a conspiracy-theorist. I am not a vigilante. However, I do like to shoot guns, and I strongly believe in the freedom granted by the Second Ammendment to the Constitution of the United States that gives us the right to bear arms. 

    1. Part of the reason is that guns are a fun sport, and when operated safely and handled properly, they are statistically less dangerous to human life than driving a car or flying an airplane (which each need to be handled with respect as well). If you don't believe me, check the statistics. One of the biggest risks you will ever take in your life is to drive your car across town.  Car accidents are so common, and even fatal ones are so common, that they are barely newsworthy. On the other hand, gun-related deaths are much rarer, and are almost always headline news. But on any given day, there are drastically more car deaths than gun deaths.

    2. Another reason I believe in the right to bear arms is that criminals don't adhere to federal laws, such as those stipulating that guns are illegal. However, honest people do obey the law. As soon as guns are eliminated by law, the only people that will have them are the criminals, who, at that point, will be smart enough to realize that the victims of their crimes will be defenseless! Does the phrase "waving red at a bull" mean anything to you?  

    3. Another reason is that governments just cannot be trusted. Throughout the history of mankind governments have used their power to infringe upon the freedoms of "their people."  An armed populace is a populace that is protected against tyranny and state-sponsored genocide. 

    Just as with my comments concerning the economy lately, I will ask the same question: Must we force history to repeat itself?

  • What Does Freedom Mean to You?

    Never forget that our freedom was purchased with the blood of those who have gone before us. We should be ashamed to surrender it so willingly to our own government an inch at a time.

    Someone recently gave me a rundown of some of the legislation that is already moving through the U.S. Congress or is expected to be soon. To say that I am appalled is an understatement. To summarize: the government seems to feel it has the right and the authority to infringe upon our freedoms on a host of different fronts. Laws to increase governmental control and eliminate personal freedoms are rampant. Government meddling, government regulation, government control, government tracking, government nationalization, government limitations, government redistributions, government taxation, government stipulations, government interference, government privacy invasions, government hubris, government arrogance, and government bureaucratization. 

    I don't know what the word FREEDOM means to you, but to me it means that I get to live my life my way, raise my children as I see fit, educate them the way I determine is best, worship my God as I interpret my Bible, defend myself and my family as I deem sufficient, store my wealth the way I want, travel as I please, earn my living and actually get to enjoy the fruits of my labor, obtain the service that I can afford without stipulation or regulation, and have the right to perform to whatever level of ambition I choose. I rely upon my country through MY taxes to protect life from those who would take it or harm it, to defend against enemies domestic and abroad, and to preserve the general societal order. Most everything else I prefer to do within the private sector and not the public, government-controlled sector.
    I would like to hear from all three of you out there! What does freedom mean to you? 

    After commenting with your answer on this blog, allow me to recommend an interesting exercise. Ask this same question to someone else you know. I predict you will discover two things:

    1) most of us agree on the basic precepts of freedom, once we stop to consider them
    2) people are massively uninformed about just how much our freedoms are under attack

    Try the exercise and report back here to this blog. I look forward to your responses! 
     
    "A nation of well informed men who have been
    taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be
    enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins." –
    Benjamin Franklin

    Zzzzzzzzzzz
       

  • A Fundamental Change in Thinking

    They were raised during the Great Depression and were therefore hardened by struggle and want. When the world needed them to intervene to help stop Fascism they were ready and able, tough enough and of sufficient character to pass the test. Some have taken to calling them the "Greatest Generation." From everything I can tell, they have earned the name. 

    During the course of World War II, 35,946 United States military pilots lost their lives in accidents. In just one year, 1943, 850 died while on home soil training to fly just one airplane, the B-24 bomber. But that's just one category within one country. Experts now cite the total number of World War II deaths at around 72 million!
    WWII pilots
    Deaths are one statistic, but suffering is another category that statistics can't really measure. How many families lost loved ones? How many homes were destroyed? How many starved, became orphaned, or became refugees? Can anyone truly count the cost of such a calamitous time?

    In America, the World War II generation came home and tried plugging back into normal lives. Only what they found was anything but normal. The catastrophies around the world depleted the globe of its industry, and the United States quickly filled the void. As a result, the economy boomed. TImes got very good. Luxuries were invented almost daily. Conveniences abounded. The children of the Greatest Generation had quite a different life from their parents, and when "their war" came (Viet Nam), the Hippie movement began. Politics and just-war theories aside, it is unarguable that the mindset of the sixties generation was radically different from that of the forties. America had somehow fundamentally changed.

    This new generation then grew up and took their turn at the helm of society. The most radical among them, those whose thoughts and world-view were as far as possible away from those of the Greatest Generation, tended to fill positions in universities, journalism, the arts, Hollywood, government, and education. In large part, they bacame the thought-shapers for the next generation. We are now reaping the harvest of that sewing. 

    The Founding Fathers of America believed very strongly in education. In fact, some of them went so far as to say that our Republic would not stand if not run by an educated populace. If you read their works closely, however, you will discover that education for education's sake isn't what they were talking about. They weren't concerned with the amount of education, but the quality of the thinking that resulted from a proper education. In other words, they knew that if the American people ever got to where they didn't understand the fundamentals of freedom, they would lose it.

    In an earlier post I gave a paraphrase from Thomas Jefferson. The actual quote is, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." 

    We now have a voting public that has drifted so far away from the basic understandings of the principles of freedom understood by our founders that we are in the red zone. Even the father of Communism, Karl Marx, was smart enough to see what would happen. He said, "Democracy cannot long survive, people will vote themselves all the money in the treasury." Only he was off the mark. In the United States (which was founded as a Republic but is now called a Democracy by most of its people), the "people" have figured out how to vote themselves Trillions of dollars that aren't even in the treasury! And we've elected politicians who are only too happy to keep the printing presses running to feed our sloth.

    We have somehow crafted a national mindset largely opposed to the thought processes that shaped our nation and supported the heroics of the Greatest Generation. We have indocrtinated almost two generations with a weak, socialistic mindset. If mis-education got us into this mess, proper education can get us out of it. We must once again teach the truth of freedom and develop an understanding of its principles. We still have a choice, but time is running out.

    In the words of Sage Francis, "The waterline is rising, and all we do is stand there."
         

  • Production and Savings Needed

    My business partner and co-author Orrin Woodward recently posted on his blog a very interesting video of investment advisor Peter Schiff. Schiff has consistently predicted the current economic malaise and continues to clearly teach the basics of economics as violated by our government. The attached article is extremely clear, interesting, and unsettling. Read it here and share your comments. It's time to educate our citizens before we are blindly led over an economic cliff. 

    One of Schiff's clearest sentences bears calling out here in summary: "Consumption is made possible by production and credit is made possible by
    savings."