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Writing the English language is risky business. I enjoy the little misconstructions people inadvertingly make. These are funny because error is often invisible to the author. Here are some actual misconstructions made by students:
1. The President of the United States, in having foreign affairs, has to have the consent of the Senate.2. The difference between a king and a president is that a king is the son of his father, but a president isn't.3. A fossil is an extinct animal. The older it is, the more extinct it is.
4. To be a good nurse you must be absolutely sterile.5. When you breath you inspire. When you do not breath you expire.6. Heredity means that if your grandfather didn't have any children, then your father probably wouldn't have any, and neither would you, probably.7. Last year many lives were caused by accidents.8. The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't have history.9. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns – Corinthian, Ironic, and Dork.10. In the Olympic Games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the Java.(and my personal favorite):11. The government of Athens was Democratic because people took the law into their own hands.Source: Anguished English, Richard Lederer -
As soon as you decide to lead you open yourself up to assault. This is because leadership itself is an assault on the status quo. Living a life of peace and affluence is a hollow goal, and an unobtainable one, anyway. There is no way to get through life safely; we'll all get battered around and bruised up in the process.
Deciding to lead, however, adds another dimension to the equation. When you stand out from the rest, stick your head up above the crowd, and generally head in the opposite direction of the herd, you will meet resistance. Expect it.
I never cease to be amazed at the amount of people who want to either coddle themselves or others in the vain hope to keep things easy. As if struggle and challenge were bad things. Excellence has a cost, plain and simple. There is no shortcut to it. Greatness demands wholehearted effort, stamina, honor and character, and a massive dose of tenacity. Wimps need not apply.
One of the greatest lies ever told is that success is not worth the price. I got that from Canadian Claude Hamilton, who thinks more like an American than most Americans I've met! Thanks Claude, for putting it so clearly! And a hearty salute to all of you out there who have the guts to pursue your dreams, build your character, live with honor, and push yourselves toward excellence. There is no sweeter victory than the one dearly bought. Be willing to pay the price and be bold enough to expect greatness as a result! The world needs it!
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Have you been wondering just how the mortgage bubble got started in the first place? Remember how I said that the government being in such a hurry last fall to "bail out" the lending industry indicated complicity in the problem? Read this short Times article from 1999 and see the genesis of the problem. Government should not be meddling in the markets. Plain and simple. And these are the same people that want to take over health care! We are crazy to even let them say the words! (If they succeed, we will have a medical system with the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of the Department of Motor Vehicles! alas, but that's fodder for another article).
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Although I agreed with him on very little, I have to give credence to a term used by John McCain to describe the financial behavior of our government: "Generational theft." With every "bailout" or "stimulous" package of bullets Washington sees fit to shoot into the corpse of our murder-victim economy, we are living off the prosperity of those to follow. We are not only eating our own seed wheat, but that of our children and grand children.
"What was it like, grandpa, when America was free?"
"You mean you guys actually voted for people who thought that way?"
"Didn't they know that what they were doing had never worked, anywhere, in any country, ever?"
"You mean you didn't do anything to prevent it?"
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Ok, me sorry. It's just so hard choosing winners! All three of you readers out there are clever and make these competitions difficult to judge. However, in the interest of fairness in advertising I have finally forced myself to select, by my totally fair, secret, and unassailable methods, the winners of both Caption Contest 2009.3 and 2009.4. As usual, each of these clever winners will receive a free, signed copy of the Launching a Leadership Revolution book (simply give me your mailing info as a comment to this article and I will get the elves working on it immediately). Congratulations!!!!
Caption Contest 2009.3
Winner: Gerard LaFleche Caption: "Don't be fooled, that car is the notorious '2012 Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition' and ranges just under $700K. Here it is seen being tested on the roads of Europe against a worthy adversary. The Pelosi's blue metalic sheen is standard Government issue."
Caption Contest 2009.4
Winner: Nate C. Caption: "What an eye (headlight) opener!" CORRECTION: This winner was actually Sophie Cleary (who is the writer of that caption). Sorry about the confusion. Thanks for letting me know, Nate!
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"The only solution the US government seems to have for all the financial troubles is borrowing more [money] and throwing [it] at the problems. It also wants its citizens to borrow more…It is not going to work. Too much debt is the problem. We had the boom, and now we are getting the inevitable bust. Because debt is the problem, it is impossible for more debt to also be the solution."
— James Turk
“By further encumbering the economy with burdensome regulation, and by transferring business decisions to vote-seeking politicians who will bail out the irresponsible, reward failure and punish success, the government will create a society destined for misery.”
–Peter Schiff
"All of the gold stock in the world would fit into a cube 20.5 meters to a side. Due to high amounts of industrial usage, the silver stock is even smaller, less than 14.5 meters to a side."
—Jake, the Champion of the Constitution
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I picked up a newspaper on the plane this weekend. I wish I hadn't. After about a half hour with the thing, I was disgusted with how many false presuppositions permeated the articles. I was predominantly reading the finance pages, and here the assumptions made about economics were astounding. At one point in a financial book review the writer asked the book author whether Capitalism could still be considered a good system because of all the economic woes in our country these days. The author's response was something like, "Well, Socialism and Communism haven't been proven to work too well, either."
That's it? That's the defense given by a supposed 'expert' on economics? Where do they find these guys?
Blaming Capitalism for our bad economy is like saying a murder victim is at fault for consuming bullets. The economy would be just fine if someone, namely our over-reaching, meddlesome government, would stop torturing it to the point of near fatality. Talk about a water board!
Yet, such a ridiculous false presupposition was printed in an otherwise intelligent looking article. Why are so many (and let's just say it like it really is) false ideas allowed as though they are verified truths? Why do wrong assumptions stand as the foundation of arguments that are preposterous to begin with? Why do these (prounounced with nose in the air) intellectuals get away with being so incorrect?
I believe it's because most Americans don't really realize what's being said. Also, they are too busy trying to survive the bumps and bruises of their own lives to dig into the falsity of people who have nothing more to do than sit around and pontificate wrongly about things they've never actually done. All this while the "doers" are out doing it.
Our only defense against rampant falsity and its tragic consequences in our land is to make the time to get educated. A population that knows what's going on, that takes the time to peer behind the curtain at the scared man at the controls who is messing up our nation and trampling on its Constitution , is the only way to guard against the loss of liberty.
I leave you with two of my favorite quotes from Thomas Jefferson:
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
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