Thursday, January 31, 2013

JOHN KERRY

John Kerry confirmed as Sec of State. Good for him. Talk about a guy who, if he is anything, is resilient. A Vietnam vet, the "leader of the band" in Vets Against the War; politics, marries well. Runs for Prez. Sabotaged by the "Swift Boat Vets" who were sold a bill of goods by a sorry bunch of draft dodging Republican lying MFers. I always hated it that the Vets sabotaged Kerry. I really believed that when all was said and done, the Vets would come to their senses and stand up for a fellow vet. They f..king caved.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

INSPIRING

Listening to the president's inauguration speech was very inspiring. He challenged us with America's values and what could be better than that. As a white boy from NC, I am happy to embrace a "land of the free and home of the brave." That being said, let's get real here: What we face in the country is a great divergence of views in any area. An example: NPR interviewed several (I'm sure they try to mix it up). One in particular had travelled from my home state to celebrate. When the Interviewer asked her whether the President should talk about race. Her answer (she was African American) was NO. "No need," she said. There were other comments, one said that his speech indicated that he was committed to the most vulnerable in our society. I liked all of that, fits my views. Then, they moved to some guy in Texas which in my estimation represents what we face in the country, obviously a dyed in the wool Republican. His view was that the President's speech was totally "left wing, could not believe that a president would be so partisan." Do we think we are going to change his mind. F..k NO! Period.

With all the talk about partisanship, working together, it is very simply bullshit. This is one of those things that we talk about but ain't going to happen. The President may have gotten elected for a second term but the roadblocks remain the same. The majority voices of the people that he invoked doesn't really make any difference. Many congressman came to Washington with a mandate as they see it: roll back spending, anti social issues--that and a host of other views are not going to change. The issue is not what is good for the country but what will get them reelected. It is what we call politics. Our system is broken and we have no way to fix it. F..K!!!!!!!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

CONFESSION

The great mystery of many a day to me is Lance Armstrong's confession to Oprah Winfrey. Not that I am losing sleep over it. (I have never even listened to Oprah Winfrey). Why he confessed and to Winfrey, damn weird. Does he think for a moment that by confessing, people are going to forgive? What is he smoking? (Hold it there, maybe he is smoking something). I can tell you that confession won't hack it--Is he that stupid, an ego maniac, what the hell! Personally, I don't give a f..k one way or another. I have thought all along that he had probably doped but no telling how many more.

The confession has made me think. What about Barry Bonds or say, Roger Clemens. We think of course they doped and were looking for an edge. So what! But, they didn't confess. The only one Armstrong's confession is probably going to help is Oprah. She is lucky. Damn. Amazing.

McCHRYSTAL

Listening to Margaret Warner interview retired General Stanley McChrystal was pretty pathetic, really. Throwing him these softball questions didn't do much. There's a side that has to admire the general. Guy runs miles a day, eats one meal, sleeps four hours, an animal. The flip side of the coin is that he represents what is wrong with our recent wars. The generals give these rosy reports and we buy into them. More Americans die and we are further behind.

Some of it has to be with the lack of understanding by the civilian/political community in what has happened to us. They don't get it because they don't know, "military speak." An example:The civilian community talks about the "surge" in Iraq. All the surge did was separate the warring factions. It did nothing to stem the overall level of violence but the military presented it as somehow a magic formula. Bullshit. Then someone like McChrystal moves to Afghanistan and he, along with his fellow general, Petraeus, when Petraeus could separate himself from his paramour, touted counter insurgency. The Prez, to his credit, bought into it until he came to realize that we were talking 10-20 years. What!!! New strategy, let's turn it all over to the Afghans. McChrystal did say one telling thing in the interview: the Afghan people are scared; their government is weak and allies are leaving. I feel really badly but the alternative is worst, staying in Afghanistan forever.

McChrystal is teaching leadership at Yale and touting his book, "My Share of the Task." I hope the Yalie's are smarter than the rest of us. I blame the generals for much of our misadventures over the last 25 or so years. In Vietnam, Westmoreland said send us more troops and we'll be home by Christmas. He neglected to tell us what Christmas. When he made that statement, we had about 7000 dead GIs. A half dozen years later, it was 58,000 plus dead. My question to the General: what kind of, "leadership" is he talking about.

ALAN AND AARON

I personally think us bloggers are about the last remaining vestiges of truth on the digital planet. For instance I have been following the comments about Aaron Swartz. I especially thought the comments from "Wired" were very moving.

Aaron is the second Swartz I've known. The first one was a great character also. Alan Swartz. He had been a newspaper man, tried many things, gone into advertising. I lived a couple of houses down from him. He rode his bike and when he caught me in the yard would stop and talk. Full of stories. Early in my career, I was forced to get one of these "super secret clearances" to do my job. Alan didn't even know I was in the military. We laughed at the absurdity of it all. The government sent out these young guys with a list of questions: mostly benigh but Alan thought a little intrusive. We laughed. He was great family man. His son, as I remember, was into swmming and had Olympic potential. Alan hit me up for a donation to help out with training or something. Later on he discovered that the Olympics frowned upon it and he faithfully came around to give back the money. Great guy.

The funniest story Alan ever told me; according to him, our greatest sense of enlightenment came when we were sitting on the "john" and the moment of elimination came. Given that scenario, Alan developed an entire advertising campaign to go on the back of the stalls--for that special moment when we are contemplating our navel.

So, naturally, it was gratifying to discover another Swartz. Alan, like Aaron left us with some drama. Alan goes off on his bike one morning and has a heart attack and dies. What a loss! I am saddened by both their deaths. Aaron apparently made this statement at some time about his depression, "Someone will say, 'Go outside and get some fresh air or cuddle with a loved one.' You do it and you don't feel any better, only more upset at being unable to feel the joy that everyone else seems to feel. Everything gets colored by the sadness."

Suicide is a terrible thing and it robs us of many things, not the least of all, the great presence and potential of a great mind like Aaron. I don't have a clue how someone like Aaron chooses his causes. If we failed him and I don't know that we did (I didn't know him), maybe it was in our failure to protect and cherish what he brought to the table. I am reminded of Al Pacino's speech in the movie, "Scent Of A Woman." Col. Slade (Pachino's character) says about Charley who is up against enormous odds: money, old school and is about to be disciplined for not "ratting" on his spoiled classmates at an elite prep school. Charley is a scholarship student. The school is assembled and the Colonel is speaking up for Charley and says something like, "I don't know if Charley's behavior here today is right or wrong, I am no judge or jury but you can know this, 'Charley won't sell anybody out to buy his future'...we must protect him, cherish him ...one day he'll make us proud." We have these big "minds" like Aaron who come up against "little" mind's and we need to be more aware of cherishing and protecting those like Aaron Swartz. God bless Him on his journey.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

MY SHARE OF THE TASK

Listening to Margaret Warner interview retired General Stanley McChrystal was pretty pathetic, really. Throwing him these softball questions didn't do much. There's a side that has to admire the general. Guy runs miles a day, eats one meal, sleeps four hours, an animal. The flip side of the coin is that he represents what is wrong with our recent wars. The generals give these rosy reports and we buy into them. More Americans die and we are further behind.

Some of it has to be with the lack of understanding by the civilian/political community in what has happened to us. They don't get it because they don't know, "military speak." An example:The civilian community talks about the "surge" in Iraq. All the surge did was separate the warring factions. It did nothing to stem the overall level of violence but the military presented it as somehow a magic formula. Bullshit. Then someone like McChrystal moves to Afghanistan and he, along with his fellow general, Petraeus, when Petraeus could separate himself from his paramour, touted counter insurgency. The Prez, to his credit, bought into it until he came to realize that we were talking 10-20 years. What!!! New strategy, let's turn it all over to the Afghans. McChrystal did say one telling thing in the interview: the Afghan people are scared; their government is weak and allies are leaving. I feel really badly but the alternative is worst, staying in Afghanistan forever.

McChrystal is teaching leadership at Yale and touting his book, "My Share of the Task." I hope the Yalie's are smarter than the rest of us. I blame the generals for much of our misadventures over the last 25 or so years. In Vietnam, Westmoreland said send us more troops and we'll be home by Christmas. He neglected to tell us what Christmas. When he made that statement, we had about 7000 dead GIs. A half dozen years later, it was 58,000 plus dead. My question to the General: what kind of, "leadership" is he talking about.

GUNS

The gun debate is f..king stupid. We are gun crazy but most of it is fairly benign as we have guns. However, nobody needs assault or military weapons. And for an organization like the NRA to see everything as an attack is f..king stupid. The leadership is a bunch of zealots and there is no reasoning with these people. And, if you are a member, there is only one question. WHY?

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

I have always liked the President. Here's a guy who can be making a speech, somebody hollers, "I love you" without dropping a word, he calls, "I love you back." He moves easily toward people. Sometimes criticized for aloofness? It is a management style, give somebody a job? Let them do it. Good father. Tackles crisis. This doesn't mean to say that he's not a politician but overall it is his personality, ENTJ. He has learned how to be a good president and deserves another term.

But, my point is that he is what he is because of personality. How do we know what he is? We can only guess because of our understanding of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the most popular personality instrument in the U.S.

My first exposure to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator was in 1977, way back in the dark ages when I was in the military. Otto Kroeger, who is probably the foremost present day guru of the theory came to do a workshop at Fort McPherson, Georgia. I was a young Major and truly didn't know my posterior from anything. And, reluctantly showed up at the seminar. As happened, it was a turning point in my life's outlook to say the least. In the military, I was always on the outside of the mainstream. I (ENTP) would be in a meeting and it was constantly "group think" but I was not there--never seemed to see it like everybody else. The military is cooperate and graduate personified. I was a good combat soldier but get me in the confines of peacetime and it was a struggle. By this time in my career, I had already been fired twice and miraculously escaped being pitched out of the military. So, here was a theory that was mostly built around the idea that all of us are born with different personalities, plain and simple, not much we can do about it. This was revolutionary. Simplistically, it seemed that to get to know our personality and others and to be able to make it useful in an organization like the military would be perfect.

According to the Myers Briggs, you actually can be one of sixteen personalities and all of them have various characteristics and attributes. Here is MBTI, 101.

Extroverts/Introverts. Extrovert move toward people easily and find a certain amount of energy being around people. Introverts usually have lots of conversations but many of the conversations are usually with themselves. One attribute is not good or bad, they just are. Sensing/INtuitives: Sensing types are "hands on" types. They love to reach out and touch. They can do things, fix things. INtuitives are creative and innovative. They always have time for one more thing. Thinking/Feeling. Thinkers are in their heads, they reason, try to figure things out. Feeling Types are in their guts, can be emotional. Finally on the Myers Briggs, we can be a Judging (all these terms are mostly Jungian ones. I would have chosen different ones) type or a Perceptive Type. These two, J and P really means how we live out our lives. Our live styles. This is all a capsule, out of my head. I am an ENTP.

Once we take a stab at our figuring out our personalities, we are better at knowing ourselves, and most important, making good decisions.

The Myers Briggs is based on the creditable theory of Carl Jung, the Swiss born Psychiatrist and somewhat rival of Freud. It was designed after years of research by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. The Myers Briggs could measure the conscious (as opposed to the unconscious)aspect of the personality. I actually wrote a book, The Personality Factor, read by only two others beside myself. Below are the 16 different types. The President:
E-extrovert, moves toward people easily.
N-iNtuitive-Innovative, creative; lots of legislation, creative appointments.
T-Thinking. He is very much on his head. Figuring things out, practical.
J-judging. Not judgmental. This is a lifestyle issue. It is how we love out our lives. The J/P is very importent as it conveys the idea of being organized as to being "open" about things. The President, ENTJ.

The 16 Personalities:

[ENFP] [INFP] [ENFJ] [INFJ] [ESTJ] [ISTJ] [ESFJ] [ISFJ] [ENTP] [INTP] [ENTJ] [INTJ] [ESTP] [ISTP] [ESFP] [ISFP]



My Brother Raz and Nixon

My brother Raz has the same birthday as Nixon (Yesterday, Jan 9) What a contrast: Nixon was a self serving, lying, petty sorry MFer. My brother started off as a 7th grade Enflish teacher, 45 years later, he retired as a school superintendent. He sent hundreds of youngsters into "Service" of humanity. Nixon also sent young men into Service but it was to Vietnam. He was elected to get us out of that sorry war. He lied. When he began his term, we had something like 9000 dead. By the time his lie played out, we had lost close to 59,000 young Americans. I don't know how the afterlife works, even though I believe in it. Maybe Nixon resigning the presidency in disgrace was enough punishment. My last thought. We need people like my brother in leadership, not the Nixons of the world. Who to choose? A Nixon who had no scruples. My brother where honesty and service marked his entire life.

Staying in Afghanistan

The debate is on about how many troops we keep in Afghanistan. How about none/zilch/zero. Karzai is visiting the Prez. Corruption, bad mouthing America by the President of Kabul and there you have it. Some General, Bing West was on The News Hour. He has written a book, The Wrong War, that I don't plan to read but he was still talking that BS of winning, etc. how stupid. It can't be done. There's no winning. For Americans in Afghanistan, there is only dying.

Sunday, January 06, 2013

HUNTING FOR HOMELESS VETS

VET HUNTERS PROJECT

Monica 22, was an Army parachute rigger who served from 2009 to 2011, spending time in Germany, performing test jumps out of planes. She has a 17-month-old son...couldn’t hold a job and couldn’t find a home for herself or her son...had to leave her son with mother — there was no room for anyone else where they were living. So I stayed in a car that my dad owned.


George, thank you for forwarding this to me. Do you have any way I could send a donation to this really worthy cause. As I have been relatively involved in attempting to reach the "homeless" here in various ways: too lengthy to recount. I think in San Fran, we are doing about the best we can. (City offers enormous services and one very important unacknowleged thing: police amazingly tolerant) What I've discovered which is simply fact, most of the homeless fit in three views: those who love the lifestyle, living on the streets, dope usually involved. Pretty savvy. Then, (2) those who are the chronic ones, mentally ill and should be institutionazed to evaluate and get help. Sometimes dangerous. (3) And then there is a small group that we stand some chance with: families, usually with children and those willing to go to rehab, with some family support somewhere.

I would never discount any of them. The one that jumped out at me was the female rigger, (I know lots about the airborne, obviously) child/husband. Even living in a car owned by her dad. What is there with that? An example of a "back" story probably that we don't know nor even have to know. God bless you for your ministry.

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Happy New Year

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS. Here are some facts, loosely garnered from NPR: (National Public Radio) most people make resolutions, most try to keep them and about a third are successful One of my all time favorite persons (my niece) sent me hers. 1) get fit 2) write her book 3) work harder at her job 4) be more frugal 5)make more friends. Will she keep them? Maybe, some of them, possibly, hopefully, adinfinitum. The important thing to me is that she keeps at it. Why did she sent them to me? A kind of insurance. She knows that I'll keep bugging her about, "whether she is keeping her Resplutions or not!

A little ritual in our family is that we all get together and we review last years "Resolutions". How did we do? What are the ones for the coming year? Are they realistic?

There is a view that if you say, "I'm going to try" to keep the Resolutions, then I probably don't think I'll do it. Consequently take, "try" out of your vocabulary. "I am going to keep them. I am not even going to deal with what if I fail? There is no failure." Good luck.