Back in the 2009 Butler commencement, Mitch Daniels punched all of us parents in the nose with the declaration that it's all our fault.
His point was that we're the generation that basically caused all of today's problems. It was a strange speech for a graduation ceremony, but he was telling the truth.
It is pretty much our fault.
I'm not only a member of the guilty generation, I happen to be part of the year that happened to be the peak of the baby boom. I read somewhere a long time ago that there were more people born in America in 1957 than any other year on record.
Take the trip with me down memory lane, and I'll give you my perspective of what life is like for the peak of the baby boomers.
We grew up with intact families. Our fathers tended to hold principles like honor, faith, hard work, honesty, thrift, and responsibility. Our mothers tended to stay home with the kids, teach us those values they shared with our fathers and grandparents, make sure we did our homework, made sure we ate right and got plenty of exercise, and did their best to keep us out of trouble.
Where I grew up, we never locked the house or car, and even left the keys in the car not only in our own driveway, but even in the grocery store or school parking lot.
We went to church every Sunday and every Wednesday night, and the schools made sure not to schedule anything on Wednesday evenings to accomodate that schedule for everyone.
We had close friendships with other families who had children close in age to ours. It was common to have a house full of friends on the spur of the moment, enjoying games or even doing dorky stuff like singing and playing guitar.
Then we started to rebel. The older kids in High School and College were growing out their hair, dressing in ways intended to shock our staid parents, expressing anger and opposition to the war in Viet Nam, playing around with illegal drugs and experimenting with promiscuity.
High School expected criminally little of us. I had maybe two classes in my entire high school experience that asked anything the least bit challenging of me. Even so, I contented myself with a mixture of A's and B's, when all I needed to do to turn the B's into A's was crack a book now and then.
We went to college, where professors told us things like we were just more highly evolved forms of animals, God is a superstitious invention, white males are the root of all evil, communism is really a great idea but just hasn't been implemented right by the Soviets, we Americans are unfairly rich and selfishly taking all the earth's resources by force away from poor victims of other races and nations.
College offered a bit more of a challenge, where on average one class per term required my focused attention. On the other extreme, one class per term was so worthless as to provide no positive results other than pad the coffers of the bursar's office.
We entered the workforce having invented today's most popular form of godless, self-centered, narcissistic, amoral attitudes that tolerate pretty much anything as long as it feels good.
Even though we felt unlucky. I left my overcrowded and run-down "Junior High" school shortly before it got a major facelift. My sports teams in the "Junior High" didn't even have enough locker room space, so we had to dress on the stage in the gym with the curtain drawn until we achieved the seniority to move into the real locker room. I left my decrepit, falling-apart high school shortly before it got remodeled.
I started driving just as we hit the OPEC embargo, seeing gas prices double.
I entered the workforce in the worst economy since the great depression. I'm trying to figure out how it aligns with today's repeat of eerily similar conditions.
We're in charge now. Our president it the king of self-centered narcissism, evident in everything he says and does. We don't care, as long as we get ours. They can take away freedoms from other people, as long as they don't take away ours. They can tax "rich" people as much as they want, because they're just greedy b$^&*s who deserve it. We "deserve" things like free healthcare, tax credits for everything from computers to homes to cars, and even cash handouts from the government. Who cares who is paying for it. Who cares if it bankrupts the country and throws us all into multi-generational poverty.
We don't make anything anymore. GM and Chrysler only exist because the government has absorbed them and props them up with money they don't have. The rest of us don't want to work in dirty, noisy factories anyway. We want to do creative "service" businesses that aren't dirty or noisy or physically hard.
We don't take responsibility for our children. Let the government raise them so we can go out and do what we want to do.
Our last best hope is that our children will figure it out in time to reverse course on this disaster we created.
They will blame us.
We deserve it.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Controlling Others
Something I'm not very good at is getting control over the behavior of people when they aren't meeting requirements.
I think I'm pretty good at setting expectations and communicating requirements. When those who receive such information are motivated and able to complete the tasks, things go very well.
I'm currently experiencing stress over a project with a single resource who does not seem to be interested in accepting those requirements and expectations. Which has caused problems with the project and reflected on me.
So I brought in additional resources - I actually tried to replace the problem child completely, but the company wouldn't go along with that. The additional resources took the requirements and instructions, rolled up their sleeves and got it done.
Meanwhile the original person remained uncommunicative and non-productive. Today I presented for the fourth time the same issue that's been outstanding for 3 weeks. As with the previous three times, I have been promised a fix by morning. It seems I have a daily task of reviewing the "fix", saying "nope, that didn't work", and repeating.
Trying to do my best to understand, I figure there are only a few possible causes of these problems:
1. The person isn't really qualified to do the work, but doesn't want to admit it.
2. There is some sort of negative opinion of me and the result is either conscious or unconscious sabotage.
3. The person just doesn't care whether it gets done right or on time, and just tries to get paid as much as possible.
In this case, my working theory is #1. But it could just as easily be #2 or #3, or maybe a combination of all 3.
What can I do to avoid this problem in the future?
Well, I can guarantee I won't accept this particular person on any project I'm managing in the future.
But every project is a roll of the dice. I know some folks who do an excellent job and I would use them in a hearbeat. But of course, they're also the ones who are most in demand and may not be available when I need them.
So they give me the folks who aren't so busy.
Its a dilemma.
I think I'm pretty good at setting expectations and communicating requirements. When those who receive such information are motivated and able to complete the tasks, things go very well.
I'm currently experiencing stress over a project with a single resource who does not seem to be interested in accepting those requirements and expectations. Which has caused problems with the project and reflected on me.
So I brought in additional resources - I actually tried to replace the problem child completely, but the company wouldn't go along with that. The additional resources took the requirements and instructions, rolled up their sleeves and got it done.
Meanwhile the original person remained uncommunicative and non-productive. Today I presented for the fourth time the same issue that's been outstanding for 3 weeks. As with the previous three times, I have been promised a fix by morning. It seems I have a daily task of reviewing the "fix", saying "nope, that didn't work", and repeating.
Trying to do my best to understand, I figure there are only a few possible causes of these problems:
1. The person isn't really qualified to do the work, but doesn't want to admit it.
2. There is some sort of negative opinion of me and the result is either conscious or unconscious sabotage.
3. The person just doesn't care whether it gets done right or on time, and just tries to get paid as much as possible.
In this case, my working theory is #1. But it could just as easily be #2 or #3, or maybe a combination of all 3.
What can I do to avoid this problem in the future?
Well, I can guarantee I won't accept this particular person on any project I'm managing in the future.
But every project is a roll of the dice. I know some folks who do an excellent job and I would use them in a hearbeat. But of course, they're also the ones who are most in demand and may not be available when I need them.
So they give me the folks who aren't so busy.
Its a dilemma.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Thought for the Day
Heard this today. I think I've heard it before, but it's especially appropriate in these times.
When you rob Peter to pay Paul, you receive the enthusiastic support of Paul.
When you rob Peter to pay Paul, you receive the enthusiastic support of Paul.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Pattern
Taken as a whole, does a pattern emerge from our current government that could be interpreted as even more disastrous than simply an acceleration of the slide into federally-mandated socialism?
Let's take some of the current stories to find out.
Remember Obama's angry insistence that the individual mandates of Healthcare Reform were not taxes? Well, I guess he was lying, because his administration's defense against the lawsuit brought to challenge those mandates is that it's indeed a tax.
Remember his promise to Bart Stupak that Abortion would not be covered by Healthcare Reform to purchase that badly needed vote? That would also seem to be a lie. Indeed, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Mexico have already moved forward to cover abortions under the new bills. Pennsylvania has backed off after their plans were revealed, earning the ire of the left-wing abortion rights crowd.
By the way, remember the whole promise that the plan would be deficit neutral? Did you happen to notice that was repudiated immediately after the bill passed? Besides the massive new taxes and mandates it attaches to the economy, it apparently is still likely to cost Americans another trillion dollars over the decade. And that's before reality sets in, as history proves that every similar entitlement program in the past has busted its projections in short order.
Remember the time when Obama and his fellow angry liberals railed against Bush's program of warrantless wiretaps? Shadowy charges that they engaged in horrible torture of terror suspects? Suggestions that a program called "Redition" sent suspected terrorist sympathizers secretly to other countries for torture? It seems Obama's taken it to the next level with something called the Presidential Assassination Program.
What about the Financial Reform bill? Did you fall for the line that it would fix the problems that caused the financial meltdown? That is another lie. Not only does it permanently entrench the policy of "too big to fail", it also favors the mega banks and disadvantages smaller regional banks. And it does nothing about the true root cause of the meltdown, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.
In the meantime, the massive FinRef bill imposes burdensome regulations on non-financial businesses, with oppressive regulations on small business. And for dessert, it dictates that the army of new bureaucrats created by the bill will be discriminatory in its staffing, requiring quotas of minorities and women.
Have you noticed where the Obama government stands on illegal immigration? They like sanctuary cities, who thumb their noses at Federal immigration laws to obstruct enforcement, but bring a lawsuit against Arizona for simply trying to solve the problem the feds refuse to address.
Irony of ironies, the argument of the administration in the Arizona suit is that it's the Fed's "job" to enforce immigration laws, not Arizona's. Apparently from that we may infer that they're also saying that it's also their priviledge to choose not to enforce federal law at their own discretion. If a judge actually finds in favor of that ridiculous argument, that judge has no business holding so much as a Justice of the Peace position.
The big push continues for "Cap & Trade" legislation. Have you taken a moment to consider who benefits from this other massive new redistributionist program? Certainly not the climate - that's admitted by even those who support it. Not the poor - they won't be able to afford gas for their cars or heat for their homes when this program goes into effect.
Have you guessed yet? That's right, the beneficiaries of "Cap & Trade" are the partnerships between the political class, wall street, and some well-connected corporations like GE (who happens to own NBC; isn't that interesting?).
Combine this with Obama's campaign promise to create a massive new "Civilian Security Force" that is bigger than the military, and does a pattern begin to emerge?
Notice that I went with left-wing links, just in case you think I'm being taken in by righties. All you have to do is read and understand what the articles are saying, and you can figure out the truth.
Frightened yet?
Let's take some of the current stories to find out.
Remember Obama's angry insistence that the individual mandates of Healthcare Reform were not taxes? Well, I guess he was lying, because his administration's defense against the lawsuit brought to challenge those mandates is that it's indeed a tax.
Remember his promise to Bart Stupak that Abortion would not be covered by Healthcare Reform to purchase that badly needed vote? That would also seem to be a lie. Indeed, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Mexico have already moved forward to cover abortions under the new bills. Pennsylvania has backed off after their plans were revealed, earning the ire of the left-wing abortion rights crowd.
By the way, remember the whole promise that the plan would be deficit neutral? Did you happen to notice that was repudiated immediately after the bill passed? Besides the massive new taxes and mandates it attaches to the economy, it apparently is still likely to cost Americans another trillion dollars over the decade. And that's before reality sets in, as history proves that every similar entitlement program in the past has busted its projections in short order.
Remember the time when Obama and his fellow angry liberals railed against Bush's program of warrantless wiretaps? Shadowy charges that they engaged in horrible torture of terror suspects? Suggestions that a program called "Redition" sent suspected terrorist sympathizers secretly to other countries for torture? It seems Obama's taken it to the next level with something called the Presidential Assassination Program.
What about the Financial Reform bill? Did you fall for the line that it would fix the problems that caused the financial meltdown? That is another lie. Not only does it permanently entrench the policy of "too big to fail", it also favors the mega banks and disadvantages smaller regional banks. And it does nothing about the true root cause of the meltdown, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.
In the meantime, the massive FinRef bill imposes burdensome regulations on non-financial businesses, with oppressive regulations on small business. And for dessert, it dictates that the army of new bureaucrats created by the bill will be discriminatory in its staffing, requiring quotas of minorities and women.
Have you noticed where the Obama government stands on illegal immigration? They like sanctuary cities, who thumb their noses at Federal immigration laws to obstruct enforcement, but bring a lawsuit against Arizona for simply trying to solve the problem the feds refuse to address.
Irony of ironies, the argument of the administration in the Arizona suit is that it's the Fed's "job" to enforce immigration laws, not Arizona's. Apparently from that we may infer that they're also saying that it's also their priviledge to choose not to enforce federal law at their own discretion. If a judge actually finds in favor of that ridiculous argument, that judge has no business holding so much as a Justice of the Peace position.
The big push continues for "Cap & Trade" legislation. Have you taken a moment to consider who benefits from this other massive new redistributionist program? Certainly not the climate - that's admitted by even those who support it. Not the poor - they won't be able to afford gas for their cars or heat for their homes when this program goes into effect.
Have you guessed yet? That's right, the beneficiaries of "Cap & Trade" are the partnerships between the political class, wall street, and some well-connected corporations like GE (who happens to own NBC; isn't that interesting?).
Combine this with Obama's campaign promise to create a massive new "Civilian Security Force" that is bigger than the military, and does a pattern begin to emerge?
Notice that I went with left-wing links, just in case you think I'm being taken in by righties. All you have to do is read and understand what the articles are saying, and you can figure out the truth.
Frightened yet?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Defining Racism
Racism could be an ongoing issue in America, and it also would seem to be a bludgeon wielded by those who would silence critics of the President.
This week's news that the NAACP is determined to produce a resolution branding the Tea Party as a racist organization would appear to me to be the latter.
Ongoing charges of Tea Party racism are based on questionably marginal signs that those with hair-trigger race sensibilities might interpret as racist, while others like myself fail to connect them with any overtly racist messages.
Perhaps the only truthful statement about the racism charges leveled at the Tea Party was apparently given recently by a guest on MSNBC. The essential message she shared was that those who oppose liberal policies are inherently racist, because in her alternate universe, black folks are disproportionally benefitted by socialist redistrubution and harmed by capitalism. Ergo, conservatives are racist simply because their philosophies of limited government, low taxes, and free market capitalism harm the black community.
Perhaps the most prominent "proof" being offered by the Tea Party accusers is the outrageous and manufactured charge of black congressmen who accused protesters of spitting at them and using the "N" word as they walked through.
The problem with that widely reported event is that it's an overt lie. There were hundreds of witnesses, plus many video recordings of the event. None of the witnesses actually observed anything resembling what the congressmen charged, nor does a single video confirm it.
The entire incident was staged by a group of black congressmen, who purposely decided to walk through the Tea Party protest crowd after passing the Healthcare bill. The logical assumption behind the reason they chose to take a stroll through the crowd is that they hoped to receive some sort of racial abuse they could exploit.
The fact that the demonstrators certainly were vocal in expressing their opposition to the passage of the bill, but never hurled racial invectives in any way, failed to provide the evidence of Tea Party racism the congressmen hoped for.
So they decided to make it up. And the media has no interest in following up to find out whether or not their charges are true.
Power Line has a whole series of articles on that incident which is the root of the NAACP's resolution. The $100K reward for evidence proving the congressmen's charges remains unclaimed.
This week's news that the NAACP is determined to produce a resolution branding the Tea Party as a racist organization would appear to me to be the latter.
Ongoing charges of Tea Party racism are based on questionably marginal signs that those with hair-trigger race sensibilities might interpret as racist, while others like myself fail to connect them with any overtly racist messages.
Perhaps the only truthful statement about the racism charges leveled at the Tea Party was apparently given recently by a guest on MSNBC. The essential message she shared was that those who oppose liberal policies are inherently racist, because in her alternate universe, black folks are disproportionally benefitted by socialist redistrubution and harmed by capitalism. Ergo, conservatives are racist simply because their philosophies of limited government, low taxes, and free market capitalism harm the black community.
Perhaps the most prominent "proof" being offered by the Tea Party accusers is the outrageous and manufactured charge of black congressmen who accused protesters of spitting at them and using the "N" word as they walked through.
The problem with that widely reported event is that it's an overt lie. There were hundreds of witnesses, plus many video recordings of the event. None of the witnesses actually observed anything resembling what the congressmen charged, nor does a single video confirm it.
The entire incident was staged by a group of black congressmen, who purposely decided to walk through the Tea Party protest crowd after passing the Healthcare bill. The logical assumption behind the reason they chose to take a stroll through the crowd is that they hoped to receive some sort of racial abuse they could exploit.
The fact that the demonstrators certainly were vocal in expressing their opposition to the passage of the bill, but never hurled racial invectives in any way, failed to provide the evidence of Tea Party racism the congressmen hoped for.
So they decided to make it up. And the media has no interest in following up to find out whether or not their charges are true.
Power Line has a whole series of articles on that incident which is the root of the NAACP's resolution. The $100K reward for evidence proving the congressmen's charges remains unclaimed.
Friday, July 09, 2010
Recharge or Overload?
Getting time off without specific vacation plans is not something I'm looking forward to repeating anytime soon.
While there is no question I needed a break; I was on the road about 6 weeks straight, and have been fighting through a particularly troublesome project. But a vacation without specific plans only works for a couple of days, before I get restless.
Getting away to recharge was definitely the right prescription for the week of Independence Day. Even though folks tried their best to pull me back in while I was "away", I studiously worked to avoid or hold them off until my return to work.
One downside to the free time is my natural tendency to pay more attention to the news. Nearly every news item, by which I mean actual serious news, and not what team LeBron will pick or how long Lindsay Lohan is going to be in jail, affects my mood in a most negative manner.
Only one of many stories that cause blood boiling is the one about the New Black Panthers and the Attorney General of the United States. I suppose many people would do no more than raise an eyebrow when they heard (if they heard at all) that the Obama "Justice" department dropped all charges on the voter intimidation case, after the case was already won.
But now it dribbles out that the case is the tip of a frighteningly large iceberg, where the politically-driven law enforcement agency is pursuing an agenda designed to insure that Democrat-friendly voter fraud and intimidation activities are given free rein.
The whistle-blower Christian Adams testified that the DOJ officially goes much farther than simply dismissing an already-won suit against the criminal charges of voter intimidation with threats of violence. The official DOJ policy is to encourage maximum voter turnout by discouraging States from following laws related to purging voter rolls of the deceased, those who have moved way from a precinct, convicted felons, and other registered voters who are no longer qualified.
That's the scandal that is being studiously avoided by everybody but the conservative media. I don't know what's the bigger outrage - the scandal itself or the failure of the journalist fraternity to perform their public duty to expose such corruption as goes to the heart of the continued viability of our democratic republic.
Oops.
See what I mean about the double-edged sword that is too much free time?
Could it possibly be that I'm looking forward to getting back to work on Monday?
While there is no question I needed a break; I was on the road about 6 weeks straight, and have been fighting through a particularly troublesome project. But a vacation without specific plans only works for a couple of days, before I get restless.
Getting away to recharge was definitely the right prescription for the week of Independence Day. Even though folks tried their best to pull me back in while I was "away", I studiously worked to avoid or hold them off until my return to work.
One downside to the free time is my natural tendency to pay more attention to the news. Nearly every news item, by which I mean actual serious news, and not what team LeBron will pick or how long Lindsay Lohan is going to be in jail, affects my mood in a most negative manner.
Only one of many stories that cause blood boiling is the one about the New Black Panthers and the Attorney General of the United States. I suppose many people would do no more than raise an eyebrow when they heard (if they heard at all) that the Obama "Justice" department dropped all charges on the voter intimidation case, after the case was already won.
But now it dribbles out that the case is the tip of a frighteningly large iceberg, where the politically-driven law enforcement agency is pursuing an agenda designed to insure that Democrat-friendly voter fraud and intimidation activities are given free rein.
The whistle-blower Christian Adams testified that the DOJ officially goes much farther than simply dismissing an already-won suit against the criminal charges of voter intimidation with threats of violence. The official DOJ policy is to encourage maximum voter turnout by discouraging States from following laws related to purging voter rolls of the deceased, those who have moved way from a precinct, convicted felons, and other registered voters who are no longer qualified.
That's the scandal that is being studiously avoided by everybody but the conservative media. I don't know what's the bigger outrage - the scandal itself or the failure of the journalist fraternity to perform their public duty to expose such corruption as goes to the heart of the continued viability of our democratic republic.
Oops.
See what I mean about the double-edged sword that is too much free time?
Could it possibly be that I'm looking forward to getting back to work on Monday?
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