Common Sense from a Christian and Stupidity from a Liberal

Deborah Douglas is a common sense Christian Columnist for the Chicago Sun Times, a not so common sense newspaper (Liberal) all the time. She had a pretty good column on Friday the 28th titled: Calling Christians 'haters' won't help gay marriage activists

A few things she says that are worthwhile from the article:

Gay marriage threatens traditional marriage. Proponents of the right of same-sex couples to marry insist it doesn't: But it does. Gay marriage is threatening because the issue . . .

- Forces voters, notably in California and Florida, to confront closely held religious beliefs.

- Forces people to balance the seemingly contradictory decision to deny people the legal right to commit to a person they love with their decision to love God more by following His commandments (or trying to).

- Opens a Pandora's box of controversy over what it means to be a man or a woman and how people of faith should model appropriate gender behavior in a world that has come to accept many definitions of gender and sex roles.

And while the economy plummets and wars rage on, many Americans feel threatened with the prospect of reordering life as we know it: Gay marriage is a frightening proposition for anyone who looks at it with the slightest level of intellectual honesty.

It is beyond me why so many gay marriage activists have gotten so ugly and mean about the right to marry. Calling people of faith, namely Christians, "haters" is no way to get people to understand the other side. Publishing blacklists of people who donated to groups fighting to ban gay marriage won't win friends.

Fomenting "retribution" against people who don't support it won't influence people. "I chose to act upon my belief that the traditional definition of marriage should be preserved," said Scott Eckern, who resigned as artistic director of the California Musical Theater when he was "outed" for donating to the Proposition 8 campaign to ban gay marriage.

Activists threatened to boycott the theater as payback for his personal expression of free speech. Gay-rights activists even marched outside Saddleback Church. Legal sure, but the protest showed disregard for religious tradition and worshippers' beliefs. It was tacky.

Read the whole thing.

Then some self Righteous Fellow from Glenview IL, Neil J. Blum, posts his opinion. And believe me it is JUST HIS OPINION because it has no basis in fact whatsoever. I have over the last few years had the opportunity to fine tune my debate skills with liberals. One of the things they always do is try to just parse out one statement, hold some ideal without context (US Constitution in Blum's Case) or vilify and make fun. Liberals in the absence of true argument rely on ridicule.

This is sad. But in fairness, I urge you to read his whole response. Then you will see for yourself how infinitely vacuous the liberal arguments can be. My comments in RED.

I am a 50-year-old happily married (soon to be 28 years) heterosexual (Some of my best friends are black argument here), and I happened to find her column ignorant of the one true issue being faced in the gay marriage debate -- equal protection under the law. Really, and what protections are Gays married or otherwise denied that a civil contract cannot accommodate?

That's U.S. law, not some religious doctrine, so please allow me to quote the first words of the First Amendment to our U.S. Constitution, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Of course like all liberals he fails to mention the balance of that statement. Look it up. Dumb and dumber.

I invite her to read the entire U.S. Constitution. Something it's dubious Blum has ever done based on what is to follow.

Homosexuality is natural; it's found in nature everywhere. And, as a kicker, she adds that perfectly healthy children result from these unions. By that argument I assume she believes that heterosexual couples who cannot conceive healthy children should be barred by the state from entering into a marriage. This is the most pathetic of the argument liberals learn from one another. Sterile couples have been known to propagate children even after dire prognosis. Homosexuals never have. Not by the union. And found in nature? OK, I'll bite. Cite some anal intercourse between same sex chimps. Or anything else for that matter.

"Unfortunately, many gay marriage proponents betray ignorance of the Bible they preach against and of marriage itself." Well, maybe I am ignorant of the Bible she speaks of, but alas, Douglas shows ignorance of how that Bible was used to keep black people in chains right here in the good old United States of America. OK, the old race card again. Blacks and Gays are alike. Hogwash. And by his admission doesn't know the Bible as well as the Constitution. People have used the Bible to justify all kinds of idiocy. They have used a fictional component of the Constitution (right to privacy) to justify the murder of babies before birth. So, his ignorance of either is evident.

Thanks to the genius of our Founding Fathers, it's really simple. If the government is going to allow two people to marry, then that shall be open to all people. OK MR BLUM. I'll need chapter and verse on this one. You will be looking for a while. It's not there.

Thank you for your illustration Mr. Blum. You signed up for this, now you have arrived. Had I written this in jest I couldn't have done better. Now go back to your Daily Kos and Huffington Post and drink some more Kool Aide.

Our Culture is Better

The above statement is not one I wrote, but I am sympathetic to the idea. I think the western civilization Judeo Christian humanistic culture is better than the alternatives. Certainly better than the cultures that have spawned the kind of rampant mindless murder of the radical Islamic cultures.

Gert Wilders from the Netherlands may be the single most famous, notorious and outspoken Nederlander Politico there is. He certainly comes out and in this article from today's Wall Street Journal there are statements that might make you wince, but the truth of them all is hard to contradict:

As he sees it, the West suffers from an excess of toleration for those who do not share its tradition of tolerance. "We believe that -- 'we' means the political elite -- that all cultures are equal," he says. "I believe this is the biggest disease today facing Europe. . . . We should wake up and tell ourselves: You're not a xenophobe, you're not a racist, you're not a crazy guy if you say, 'My culture is better than yours.' A culture based on Christianity, Judaism, humanism is better. Look at how we treat women, look at how we treat apostates, look at how we go with the separation of church and state. I can give you 500 examples why our culture is better."

"The principle is not me -- it's not about Geert Wilders," he says. "If you look at the press and the rest of the political elite in the Netherlands, nobody cares. Nobody gives a damn. This is the worst thing, maybe. . . . A nondemocratic country cannot use the international or domestic legal system to silence you. . . . If this starts, we can get rid of all parliaments, and we should close down every newspaper, and we should shut up and all pray to Mecca five times a day."

Since 9/11, American political leaders have struggled with the question of how to describe the ideology of the enemy without making enemies of the world's billion or so Muslims. The various terms they have tried -- "Islamic extremism," "Islamism," "Islamofascism" -- have fallen short of both clarity and melioration. Melioration is not Mr. Wilders's highest priority, and to him the truth couldn't be clearer: The problem is Islam itself. "I see Islam more as an ideology than as a religion," he explains.

His own view of Islam is a fundamentalist one: "According to the Quran, there are no moderate Muslims. It's not Geert Wilders who's saying that, it's the Quran . . . saying that. It's many imams in the world who decide that. It's the people themselves who speak about it and talk about the terrible things -- the genital mutilation, the honor killings. This is all not Geert Wilders, but those imams themselves who say this is the best way of Islam."

I have struggled to understand the radical Islamic mindset. I do actually, a little. It's the idea of a cause bigger than yourself. It's the motivation that causes a man to throw his body on an exploding grenade to save his fellow soldiers. It's running into a burning house to save your children. It's burning at the stake rather than renounce Jesus. So, yes I do understand a little.

BUT, when all things are measured, I have lived and worked around the world in many countries for a long time. Our culture is better than theirs and it's time to stand up for what we have before it's gone.

Reagan's Double Rainbow

On Wednesday, My Son, His wife and I went to Tampico IL to visit Ronald Reagan’s birthplace. It’s a trek of Honor to the great man. Bob (of realty fame) said that maybe we (my son and I) hold Ronald Reagan in the same adulation as Barack Obama, a conservative Messiah sort of.

OK, Maybe.

BUT,

There is a great story and photo I didn’t know about. The day before Ronald Reagan was elected president the first time, In a landslide over Carter, a rainbow appeared directly over his birthplace. A second rainbow appears at the same time. The first signified that he would win. The second that he would win a second term.



I don’t think that messiah Obama ever had a sign from heaven regarding his ascension, did he?

They Only Lie When They Speak

We have been told so many absolute truths that are so very wrong it's hard to know where to stop.

Harry Reid said, "The war in Iraq is Lost"
Homosexuality is Genetic (inherited)
Al Gore said, "We are the Cause of Global Warming"
"Abortion is NOT Murder"
Tax Increases are good for the economy
Wind Power is worth the effort.

Now Obama wants to implement a Green New Deal.

Same as the Bad Old New Deal, just more damaging.

Here is a conversation about this.

We are in so much trouble. We are being lied too constantly.

Black Friday was Blacker than I think we are allowed to know

Yesterday the family went down to the City. Chicago. To look at the lights, walk thru the stores and go to the Christmas Market on Daley Plaza.

Have done this often.

Then today I had to go to Lowes to pick some stuff up.

Downtown was a MOB. Cheek to Jowl. I couldn't believe how busy it was. In and out of the stores. And people had armload of stuff they had bought.

Same today at Lowes.

So, I'm having a little hard time believing all I hear about Black Friday being disappointing. I think it might have been better than they are making it out to have been. Of course for that to be true it would have to mean that the Mainstream Media lies to us and everyone knows that isn't possible.

We are a country but NOT a nation

I read this newbuster article this morning right after I read this from Ron Mackenzie. Here's the problem, not everyone sees life thru the same prism. We are a country that is not a nation. A country is a plot of real estate. A nation is a group of people who have assembled in that real estate with the express purpose of living together in some level of harmony and peace. As long as people who come into that real estate and take the pledge officially or unofficially they become an important integral part of the nation at large. For the most part, Orientals, Hispanics and Western Europeans seem to get this. Some Eastern Europeans, Middle Eastern, and Muslim Country natives do not. Some Africans don't understand this at all. Most Indians do, many Pakistanis do not. It's a mix, but we are in a bad way and our melting pot is failing us because we are reckless in adding ingredients.

When people come into that real estate called the USA and do not become part of the fabric of the nation we end up with fragmentation. That is part of what we have politically. We have a secular God denying society and a Religious God fearing society. Then we have Christian God Fearers and others like Muslims who have as an intent the idea that the USA should and if they have their way, will become an Islamic country.

This is NOT good. When these divisions are in place they fracture our nation. The country is still intact, it's the nation at risk.

I'm not saying that we must live some mythical western European Nominal Christian life to exist together. That would leave out a lot of people. I am saying that the same influence that the invaders from the west, the Europeans, when they came to the shores of the real estate now known as the USA and changed everything is underway again.

It's a strange revolution. It's Islamic in part and Secularism in spades. Gay Marriage and Homosexual rights to force E-Harmony to do hook up is part of that. Killing babies in the womb is part. And at the same time an implied participation in all these changes in the name of tolerance for an Islamic invasion. Never mind that under Islamic Sharia law the Homosexuals would be the first to lose their heads and the Abortionists would be hung from a high tree. As President Achminidjab said, "We have no homosexuals in Iran". We wouldn't have them here either.

So while Ron's idea is great, it doesn't work if your aren't at your core a nation. We are not a nation. We are deeply and profoundly divided. There is not a good solution to this. I don't want to implement cultural law.

When Somalis who we welcomed to this land with open arms in the name of refugee mercy become our enemies from within, I really wonder if we understand what we are doing to ourselves in circular firing squad style.

I won't overstate more than to stay, practice and theory do not go hand in hand.

Minn. Star Tribune Leaves Out Important Parts of U.S. Terror Recruiting Tale

By Warner Todd Huston
November 29, 2008 -

It reads like the lyrics of the song in West Side Story where the "Jets" gang members sing to Officer Krupke claiming they are just misunderstood kids, not punks and criminals. The Minneapolis Star Tribune takes this approach to the story of young male Somali refugees that have taken residence in Minneapolis who have decided to go back to Somalia to "visit." The suspicion is, though, that are they going back to join terrorist gangs there. The Star Trib claims they absolutely are not in its coverage, however. Yet, for some unexplained reason, the Star Trib also leaves out the fact that Somali recruiters have been seen roaming the streets of Minneapolis encouraging Somali men to return for just that purpose, as well as other important details linking the “visits” with terrorism.

Why would the Star Trib leave out such important facts in the story?

Of course, the subject arose when it was discovered that a recently returned Somali refugee had blown himself up in a suicide bombing attack in northern Somalia in October. The man, Shirwa Ahmed, was also a former resident of Minneapolis.

Further, as TV station KSTP reports, there have been as many as 40 such young Somali men that have up and left Minneapolis for Somalia this year. Worse, Somali terror recruiters have been seen in Minneapolis trying to get more young men to go back and join terror efforts.

"The bottom line is there are people who are recruiting here, kids who are being brainwashed to go back there and blow themselves up," explained Omar Jamal with the Somali Justice Advocacy Center.

Sources believe there is a strong network of recruiters working the Twin Cities, trying to convince young Somalis to surrender themselves for the cause of terrorism.

Even more ominously, KSTP reports that the CIA is warning that al Qaeda is increasingly reaching out to Somali groups in Somalia.

CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledges a growing tie between Al Qaeda and Somali terrorist groups. Federal investigators believe these missing men are training for terrorist attacks overseas, but can't be sure they won't return the Twin Cities someday to carry out an attack.

But none of these harrowing and important details appear in the Star Tribune's story, for some unexplainable reason. In the Star Trib's story the Somali men in Minneapolis are presented as wide-eyed, innocents just yearning for home. Few of the details that KSTP reported appear in the Star Trib story.

In fact, the very first line assures the reader that these young men are merely going back to poor, war-torn Somalia seemingly for nostalgic reasons.

Many would like to return to their homeland someday. Some even do. But if they go, they say it's only to gain fresh perspective -- not to fight.

As far as the Star Trib is concerned, none of these men intend on joining terror groups when they return to Somalia.

He did not, he insisted, go to fight. He went for a new perspective on his life in America. And others are doing the same thing, Maye and several other local Somali men said Wednesday.

I don't imagine the Star Tribune expected these guys to admit anything to them so as to be swept up by U.S. authorities on terror charges after the story comes out, eh?

As the Sar Trib goes on with its tale few of the real facts of the story see the light of day. These young Somali men are portrayed as simple tourists as they visit Somalia and little mention is even made of the situation back there.

Even worse than not revealing the terror connections that other stories discuss, the Star Tribune even makes the whole thing the U.S.A.'s fault. The Star Trib says the reason these young men yearn for home is that they can't make it here because the U.S.A. is so forbidding to them!

Many have found only disappointment here -- lost jobs, trouble with the law, poor prospects. So, he said, they go back to Somalia for a fresh start or to reconnect with their culture. Or, he said, "to do something good."

Ah, yes. It's just so hard here. No constant warfare, no roving terror groups, peace and quiet reigning supreme, and all. It MUST be impossible for an immigrant to get by here!

And it almost goes without saying that the Star Trib never uses the words Muslim or Islam to describe these men, either.

So, we have the true situation being that up to 40 men have disappeared (the Star Trib claims is is half that number), one of them has already blown himself up in a terror attack (at least the Star Trib mentions that in one short sentence), recruiters for Somali terror groups have been seen in the Somali community trying to get other young men to go back (not mentioned by the Star Trib), and al Qaeda has been increasingly involved in Somalia (another fact the Star Trib ignores).

Why did the Minneapolis Star Tribune leave out so much of this story and portray these young men as obvious innocents? Certainly some may be innocent and may have been truthful when they said they visited their homeland for a “fresh perspective.” But, why didn’t the Star Trib give the whole story showing that many may have indeed gone back to fight?

You tell me.

To me it sounds like the song in West Side Story, Gee Officer Krupke, which goes in part…

Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good!

As far as the Minneapolis Star Tribune seems to be concerned, none of these Somali refugees could possibly be joining terror efforts, despite the recruiters seen in their fair city and one of their own already self-destructing as a suicide bomber. They are all just misunderstood, of course.

'A Day of Thanksgiving' The national holiday actually began at a dark hour during our war for independence.

When was the first Thanksgiving? Most of us think of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621. But if the question is about the first national Thanksgiving holiday, the answer is that the tradition began at a lesser-known moment in 1777 in York, Pa.

In July 1776, the American colonists declared independence from Britain. The months that followed were so bleak that there was not much to give thanks for. The Journals of the Continental Congress record no Thanksgiving in that year, only two days of "solemn fasting" and prayer.

For much of 1777, the situation was not much better. British troops controlled New York City. The Americans lost the strategic stronghold of Fort Ticonderoga, in upstate New York, to the British in July. In Delaware, on Sept. 11, troops led by Gen. George Washington lost the Battle of Brandywine, in which 200 Americans were killed, 500 wounded and 400 captured. In Pennsylvania, early in the morning of Sept. 21, another 300 American soldiers were killed or wounded and 100 captured in a British surprise attack that became known as the Paoli Massacre.

Philadelphia, America's largest city, fell on Sept. 26. Congress, which had been meeting there, fled briefly to Lancaster, Pa., and then to York, a hundred miles west of Philadelphia. One delegate to Congress, John Adams of Massachusetts, wrote in his diary, "The prospect is chilling, on every Side: Gloomy, dark, melancholy, and dispiriting."

His cousin, Samuel Adams, gave the other delegates -- their number had dwindled to a mere 20 from the 56 who had signed the Declaration of Independence -- a talk of encouragement. He predicted, "Good tidings will soon arrive. We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection."

He turned out to have been correct, at least about the good tidings. On Oct. 31, a messenger arrived with news of the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga. The American general, Horatio Gates, had accepted the surrender of 5,800 British soldiers, and with them 27 pieces of artillery and thousands of pieces of small arms and ammunition.

Saratoga turned the tide of the war -- news of the victory was decisive in bringing France into a full alliance with America. Congress responded to the event by appointing a committee of three that included Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia and Daniel Roberdeau of Pennsylvania, to draft a report and resolution. The report, adopted Nov. 1, declared Thursday, Dec. 18, as "a day of Thanksgiving" to God, so that "with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor."

It was the first of many Thanksgivings ordered up by Samuel Adams. Though the holidays were almost always in November or December, the exact dates varied. (Congress didn't fix Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November until 1941.)

In 1778, a Thanksgiving resolution drafted by Adams was approved by Congress on Nov. 3, setting aside Wednesday, Dec. 30, as a day of public thanksgiving and praise, "It having pleased Almighty God through the Course of the present year, to bestow great and manifold Mercies on the People of these United States."

Read the Whole Thing

A ways to go yet in the housing crash - A bit of Econmic Common Sense

Stated in real today money, Houses have always cost about 150,000 dollars more or less for the last several decades. What we saw as increasing house prices was in fact decreasing values to the dollar.

If you could buy 150,000 dollars worth of goods today, it would have only taken about 30,000 in 1976. OK? Get it?

So, now to look at a chart of the average value of a home in the USA since 1976 till today and what has and will happen puts in perspective what has yet to happen. House prices will tumble another 20% from here and then flatten out. They must. The big money house prices reached was an artificial level. It still is.

The interest rate cut that just happened that is causing lots of people to refinance will just mean that at some point in the future there will be more people under water financially. This new wave of refinance just deepens the pain when houses fall further in price.

It's not pretty but it's the truth. What goes up must come down. The red line is the real value in today's dollars of houses inflation adjusted.

The Blue line is the price in dollars in the economy of the time. You see that things got pretty out of whack and now have to resolve. Hang in there folks. It'll be OK. You'll afford a nicer house some day. BUT, if you are way deep underwater in a McMansion Mortgage, well, as the song says, You'll be MOVIN ON UP to the East Side.

President Bush's Last and Best Thanksgiving Proclamation (I'm going to miss GWB)

He calls on citizens to ‘serve a cause larger than themselves.’

Thanksgiving is a time for families and friends to gather together and express gratitude for all that we have been given, the freedoms we enjoy, and the loved ones who enrich our lives. We recognize that all of these blessings, and life itself, come not from the hand of man but from Almighty God.

Every Thanksgiving, we remember the story of the Pilgrims who came to America in search of religious freedom and a better life. Having arrived in the New World, these early settlers gave thanks to the Author of Life for granting them safe passage to this abundant land and protecting them through a bitter winter. Our Nation’s first President, George Washington, stated in the first Thanksgiving proclamation that “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” While in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln revived the tradition of proclaiming a day of thanksgiving, asking God to heal our wounds and restore our country.

Today, as we look back on the beginnings of our democracy, Americans recall that we live in a land of many blessings where every person has the right to live, work, and worship in freedom. Our Nation is especially thankful for the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who protect these rights while setting aside their own comfort and safety. Their courage keeps us free, their sacrifice makes us grateful, and their character makes us proud. Especially during the holidays, our whole country keeps them and their families in our thoughts and prayers.

Americans are also mindful of the need to share our gifts with others, and our Nation is moved to compassionate action. We pay tribute to all caring citizens who reach out a helping hand and serve a cause larger than themselves.

On this day, let us all give thanks to God who blessed our Nation’s first days and who blesses us today. May He continue to guide and watch over our families and our country always.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 27, 2008, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather together in their homes and places of worship with family, friends, and loved ones to strengthen the ties that bind us and give thanks for the freedoms and many blessings we enjoy.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Of course some people hate that he mentions God.

Why Can't a Church own a BANK?

I'll admit, I'm out of my league here. This comes on the heels of a conversation with Pr Phil yesterday. How do we respond as a Church to a world of Hurting People all around us?

It has always been my opinion that the Church of Jesus has failed in doing for society what it was called to. The Catholic Church did pretty well early on.

1. Prisons should be run by Christians and the restoration should be spiritual first and occupational second. This would reduce recidivism.
2. Schools should all be run by Churches and Christians teaching Godly Principles along with the three R's
3. Hospitals should be Christian, pray first, operate later. Lutherans, Presbyterians and Catholics used to be good at this.
4. All welfare should be funneled thru Churches. If you are in need and the elders get it, then and only then do you get help. If a man will not work, neither should he eat. And if your life is out of order, we will feed and clothe you but we are also going to help you get back on track. That's starts with Jesus.
5. Of course there are Christian Health "Insurance" plans where Christians take care of each other.
6. Then I started thinking. Why are we going to the world for funds to do what we need to do? Why aren't there more Christian Owned Banks?

It has long been said that we might have to go back to the book of Acts again and hold all things in common. Maybe we are heading there finally.

I'm just asking.

OH, and by the way, I know all the anti-Christians in the world will hate this post. Don't bother abusing me for it. I just think the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. We can do this better than the world system does. Just watch the news.

How about it?

Peter Drucker would have LOVED Sarah Palin

The very down to earth common sensibilities of Sarah Palin was exactly what Peter Drucker meant to contrast the success of her ilk when he wrote of the failure of really smart people trying to solve complex problems. Obama is smart we think, at least he seems to be. He is surrounding himself with smart people, we hope.

I get the impression that they are like the Enron whiz kids that almost did us in and were written up in the book, "The Smartest People in the Room".

Once William F Buckley said that he would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Boston Telephone book than by two thousand Harvard Professors. I agree with him. We have as a case in point, Robert Rubin, a smart guy, who got us into this mess by any measure. Yet he is being called on to scoop the poop he created. I don't think this is wise.

If you will read all that Peter Drucker wrote it will help you not trust smart people so easily. I have very smart people as friends who voted for Obama. I rest my case.

Chicago Boyz:

Among liberals, “progressives,” and especially academics, there is great joy at the prospect of an administration dominated by people who had very high SAT scores and who possess advanced degrees.

At the same point in time, we are experiencing a serious credit crisis, brought about to a substantial extent by naive and inadequate mathematical models–mostly developed by people with very high SAT scores and very often with advanced degrees.

About 20 years ago, Peter Drucker wrote a wonderful pseudo-autobiography, “Adventures of a Bystander.” It tells his own story only indirectly, via profiles of people he has known. These range from from his grandmother and his 4th-grade teacher in Austria to Henry Luce (Time-Life) and Alfred Sloan (GM).

In the chapter titled “Ernest Freedberg’s World,” Drucker writes about two old-line merchants. The first of these, called “Uncle Henry” by those who knew him, was the founder and owner of a large and successful department store. When Drucker met him, he was already in his eighties. Uncle Henry was a businessman who did things by intuition more than by formal analysis, and his own son Irving, a Harvard B-School graduate, was appalled at “the unsystematic and unscientific way the store was being run.”

Drucker remembers his conversations with Uncle Henry. “He would tell stories constantly, always to do with a late consignment of ladies’ hats, or a shipment of mismatched umbrellas, or the notions counter. His stories would drive me up the wall. But gradually I learned to listen, at least with one ear. For surprisingly enough he always leaped to a generalization from the farrago of anecdotes and stocking sizes and color promotions in lieu of markdowns for mismatched umbrellas.”

Reflecting many years later, Drucker observes: “There are lots of people with grasshopper minds who can only go from one specific to another–from stockings to buttons, for instance, or from one experiment to another–and never get to the generalization and the concept. They are to be found among scientists as often as among merchants. But I have learned that the mind of the good merchant, as also of the good artist or good scientist, works the way Uncle Henry’s mind worked. It starts out with the most specific, the most concrete, and then reaches for the generalization.”

Drucker also knew another leading merchant, Charles Kellstadt (who had once run Sears.) Kellstadt and Drucker served together on a Department of Defense advisory board (on procurement policy), and Kellstadt told “the same kind of stories Uncle Henry had told.” Drucker says that his fellow board members “suffered greatly from his interminable and apparently pointless anecdotes.”

On one occasion, a “whiz kid” (this was during the McNamara era) was presenting a proposal for a radically new approach to defense pricing policy. Kellstadt “began to tell a story of the bargain basement in the store in Chillicothe, Ohio, where he had held his first managerial job, and of some problem there with the cup sizes of women’s bras. he would stop every few sentences and ask the bewildered Assistant Secretary a quesion about bras, then go on. Finally, the Assistant Secretary said, “You don’t understand Mr. Kellstadt; I’m talking about concepts.” “So am I,” said Charlie, quite indignant, and went on. Ten minutes later all of us on the board realized that he had demolished the entire proposal by showing us that it was far too complex, made far too many assumptions, and contains far too many ifs, buts, and whens.” After the meeting, another board member (dean of a major engineering school) said admiringly, “Charlie, that was a virtuoso performance. but why did you have to drag in the cup sizes of the bras in your bargain basement forty years ago?” Drucker reports that Charlie was surprised by the question: “How else can I see a problem in my mind’s eye?”

From these two encounters, Drucker draws this conclusion:

“Fifty years or more ago the Uncle Henry’s and the Charlie Kellstadts dominated; then it was necessary for Son Irvin to emphasize systems, principles, and abstractions. There was need to balance the overly perceptual with a little conceptual discipline. I still remember the sense of liberation during those years in London when I stumbled onto the then new Symbolical Logic (which I later taught a few times), with its safeguards against tautologies and false analogies, against generalizing from isolated events, that is, from anecdotes, and its tools of semantic rigor. But now we again need the Uncle Henrys and Charlie Kellstadts. We have gone much too far toward dependence on untested quantification, toward symmetrical and purely formal models, toward argument from postulates rather than from experience, and toward moving from abstraction to abstraction without once touching the solid ground of concreteness. We are in danger of forgetting what Plato taught at the very beginning of systematic analysis and thought in the West, in two of the most beautiful and moving of his Dialogoues, the Phaedrus and the Krito…They teach us that experience without the test of logic is not “rhetoric” but chitchat, and that logic without the test of experience is not “logic” but absurdity. Now we need to learn again what Charlie Kellstadt meant when he said, “How else can I see a problem in my mind’s eye?”" (emphasis added)

My intention is not to attack theory and abstraction. Without theory and abstraction, we couldn’t build and fly airliners. Without theory and abstraction, it wouldn’t be possible to run a business much bigger than a single store. But when theory is not based on observation and reasoning; when it becomes dogma, when it is used by people who don’t really understand what they are doing and confuse the map with the territory–then there can be malign consequences. Professor Drucker’s advice that “we again need the Uncle Henrys and Charlie Kellstadts” is, I believe, correct.

Gas Price Rising

I am heartened to see Gas and Crude rise yesterday a bit on the market.

It's a mine canary in the market.

It means fear is coming out. Confidence is coming back (a little).

The real price of Crude right now should be and should settle at about $75. Gasoline should sell for $2.50.

Enjoy your short respite. It won't last. Neither did $4 a gallon gasoline.

Keeping my Promise

I pray for President Bush and President elect (although until the electoral college meets he isn't officially President Elect yet) Obama.

I have promised to honor him. I have done so. I question his decisions. I shudder at his pronouncements. I hope he gets better, so far I'm not thrilled.

On the other hand I am doing everything I can to point out the ignorance of the Left, the stupidity of an electorate that has done what it did and the media banality that drives this.

Just doing what I promised. You're welcome.

Olbermaniac Spends 7 Minutes Berating Sarah Palin For Turkey Gate

What in the world is the matter with Keith Olberman? Why is he so intent on destroying Sarah Palin? What is it she has done?. Now that she has gone back to Alaska and "EVERYONE" knows that she's just a dumb doofess who will never amount to anything. Who has no future. Who has nothing to give. Who the Republicans will never call on again. Let her wilt into obscurity would seem to be wiser wouldn't it?

Why would he spend so much time on this loser? It demonstrates that he has no idea where food comes from. OK. I get that. Girly men like Olberman are stupid in that area.

BUT WHY?

Or, does he and his ilk secretly fear what might happen if this extraordinary woman should emerge on the world stage once again?

You decide. And then, are you on the left really proud of how well represented you are by this kind of PDS.

I challenge the Pro Gay Marriage Anarchists to Protest in front of a Mosque as they do in front of churches

They won't. They are girly boys who love low hanging fruit. Christians are kind. So they go protest and break into churches. Or abuse people who stand and pray.

On the other hand, Muslims are Sharia based. Heads and Hands dismembering.

Not all that docile.

I'm looking for the day when those brave protesters who have attacked Christians to go do their protesting in front of the local Mosque.

That would make good TV.

Why Obama won and the intellectual bankruptcy of our elected officials

There is a civics test that has received some publicity. It appears that economic and political ignorance is so deep that out elected officials are less informed than the electorate. In addition most people that voted for Obama would be of the same ilk.

You couldn't have voted for him and understood the essence of basic economics and civics.

I actually think Obama is smart enough to pass this test pretty well.

I blame our public school system and the liberal media for brainwashing a sheepling electorate.

Now we have this mess.

Here is the test. Take it and see if without cheating you can beat Mr Gene. Rob Port got 100%. IF you beat me and you are a liberal I have to ask, WHAT WERE YOU SMOKING WHEN YOU VOTED AS YOU DID?

You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %

Average score for this quiz during November: 78.1%
Average score: 78.1%

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.

If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.

You can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.

Please click on the table of how elected officials did and then next time you see Charlie Rangle, Chucky Schumer or Nancy Pelosi up pontificating remember they are much dumber than Mr Gene (or you maybe).

Obamamania hides the Truth in Iraq

Did you know that not ONE American was killed in Iraq last month? NOT ONE!

Neither did I.

We were all so engaged in the shuffle of the election the the truth of the war was lost.

That's too bad. We won you know. It's over. It's finished. So, when like a big hero Obama removes troops from Iraq right on the schedule already established everyone will say OOOOObama.

Phooey.

Remember the naysayers, the disbelievers, the phony left wing scaremongers? They are silent now.

I wish we could line them up and force them to listen to themselves be the idiots they are and were.

Thank GOD for George W Bush and for the Courage of John McCain to push for the surge.

I am going to miss President Bush.

Have you had your Sex Today?

Ed Young Jr has challenged his congregation to have more sex:

7 straight days of sex. That was the challenge Pastor Ed Young issued to all of the married couples at his Grapevine church. Too taboo, or right on time? Whatever your opinion, this conversation and tonight's story is strictly for adults. KLTV 7's Layron Livingston sat down with some local pastors to see if the message could make its way to your church's pulpit.

"Everybody's whining about the economy and about the world....let's move from whining to whoopee!"

The message caught some members of Fellowship Church by surprise, and its perking the ears of East Texans.

"Between a married man and a married woman...the more, the better."

Young says the challenge will help couples in his church focus on each other, reclaiming sex for married people.

"I think I'll try it this evening!"

Reverend Jerome Milton says it's about time.

"God's Word has addressed it, we won't preach it. This challenge sort of stirs all of us up to teach and to preach it, so that people can have a better understanding about it," said Rev. Milton.

"And if we don't address this, then I guarantee you, Desperate Housewives will!"

Minister Mark Edge says sex is in the Bible. So why not the church? In fact, he says last week's sermon was about Christian sexuality.

"God's Word is certainly not ashamed to talk about this. God's Word understands. God understands that it is a very important part of our lives....we really should have been talking about this all along," said Edge.

"I think the concept is awesome,"

Pastor Doug Clark agrees, but says it's unrealistic to expect struggling relationships to simply get better with a week of sex. He says sex is more than just physical.

"There's so much about connection, emotion stuff...there's so much about value that's being passed back and forth. If a wife doesn't feel valued, or if a husband doesn't feel love or respected, hey, there's some issues that have to be dealt with," said Clark.

Of course, you have to practice what you preach. Pastor Young says his membership includes him and his wife. They've also accepted the challenge.

Obama is Disappointing the Wacky Left and I am Happy for it

From Dummie Funnies.

We're beginning to see a pattern emerge. Whenever the Young Prince shows any sign of "moving to the center"--hiring Clinton retreads, being nice to Traitor Joe Lieberman--the Looney Left gets HOPPIN' MAD! They go absolutely bonkers! Although . . . isn't that really their normal state? Yes, but in this case, the target is different. Now it's the previously unassailable Obamassiah. They're not quite to the point of yelling, "Crucify! Crucify!" but you can see how they could get there from here.

Well, the latest thing to set them off is a slight little indication that Obambi may NOT move to punish the rich quite as quickly as the Bolshevik hordes might like. Just the thought of letting the EEEVIL rich off easy makes the DUmmies' heads explode! As we see in this THREAD, "Obama may delay high-income tax-cut repeal: aide." 300 replies in nine hours! Stay class-warfarey, DU!

So hide your 401Ks and don peasant garb, as we watch the Marxist mob rage against the Capitalist Pig-Elect, in Bolshevik Red, while the commentary of your humble guest corespondent, Charles Henrickson, dedicated to spreading the mirth around, is in the [higher text brackets]:

[First the news that sets them off . . .]

Obama may delay high-income tax-cut repeal: aide

President-elect Barack Obama may consider delaying an election promise - to roll back tax cuts on high-income Americans - as part of his economic recovery strategy, a senior aide and an adviser said on Sunday. David Axelrod, one of Obama's closest confidants chosen to be a senior White House adviser, was asked if the tax cut could be ended later than Obama called for during the campaign. "Considerations will be made," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Ted Nugent goes RINO hunting

Like any entity that abandons basic quality control, political parties rot from within. It happened to the Democrats long ago, and now has become the case with the Republican Party, which has strayed from its conservative underpinnings.

There are really only four things I have a strong aversion to: unloaded guns, dull knives, banjos, and Republicans in Name Only (RINOs).

The Nugent family simply doesn't allow any of those things in our lives.
RINOs are Fedzilla punks who feign support for conservative principles only when it serves their political interest. RINOs are also known for their moderate positions such as supporting tax increases, federal “bailouts”, “comprehensive immigration reform”, advocating more counterproductive gun control that guarantee more innocent victims, opposing the death penalty, and growing and sustaining Fedzilla and all its toxic mongrels by going along with the liberals. RINOs have forgotten President Ronald Maximus Regan's admonition that government is the problem, not the solution.

RINOs reach across Fedzilla's aisle to cut deals and build consensus with the liberals. Consensus building means compromising values and cutting deals with the socialist prankster punksters whose goal it is to turn America into EuroAmerica.

Consensus building is for wimps and soulless people who stand for nothing. Compromise is not about being tolerant: these days, it’s about giving up conservative principles.

As the Republican Party begins to retool, rebuild and return to the "less government is best government" conservatism that makes America work, the first thing the GOP needs to do is to lock the RINOs out of the discussion. Heavily armed with an abundance of conservative attitude, my hunting buddies and I will provide security to ensure RINOs are kept downwind from the discussion. If allowed to participate, RINOs will continue to rot the Republican Party from within and diminish it in the eyes of the public. Enough is enough.

John McCain has been a RINO on campaign finance, immigration, global warming and other issues and look what happened to him. He had reached across the aisle so many times to cut deals with the liberals that he had to pick Governor Palin, a true conservative, to try and lure disenfranchised and disgusted conservatives back into the fold. Didn't work. Senator McCain was the wrong candidate at the right time. RINOs lose elections;
conservatives win them.

Should President-elect Obama implement his wrong-headed economic policies, our economy will continue to slide into the abyss and America's debt will continue to soar to unsustainable levels. Conservatives must hold the line at all costs and call out all RINOs who support President-elect Obama's economic kamikaze plan.

Make no mistake, conservative values and ideologies are embraced by Americans. The polls all indicate Americans are fed up with the Pelosi-led, do nothing congress, and do not support more government programs and control. Sounds to me like we have a conservative revolution brewing.

Conservative leaders and thinkers such as Newt Gingrich, Jed Babbin, Governor Jindal of Louisiana, Thomas Sowell, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, Governor Sarah Palin and others need to turn up the heat and bring this less government, more individual freedom and strong national defense revolution to a boil. It is time.

My specialty is making Fedzilla punks squirm and turn into a puddle of sweat and drool. Therefore, in the spirit of famous butt kickers Generals Chesty Puller and George Patton, I say we launch an attack on all fronts. Uncle Ted hereby declares it is open season on RINOs. No bag limits or permits required. Conservative ideas, arguments and votes are the weapons we will use. Hunt them down and shine a blazing light on these RINO turncoat cockroaches. Zero in the "we the people" crosshairs of your voting assault weapon and aim for the RINO pumpstation. Double tap center mass. Whack em and stack em, track em and hack em, pack em and give em no slack. Let's do to the RINO beasts what we did to the passenger pigeon. Force out of the Republican Party out the subspecies known as RINOs.

We must not make the mistake of keeping the GOP tent so big that there’s room for RINOs. They are in the business of producing conservative defeats. Instead, join me in the new Conservative Revolution. Let's go out and win another one for the Gipper.

[Editor’s Note: Ted Nugent is H.E.’s first licensed RINO hunter.]

*Cartoon by Brett Noel.

What is Submission?

Sub means under

AND

Mission means the thing one is is purposed to do

If a person is Submitted to me, it means they are committed to support and do what I am purposed to do. Not what THEY want to do.

If I am submitted to another person it means that I am committed to support and do what they are purposed to do. Not what I want to do.

If I have a purpose and a mission and the person to whom I am submitted has a purpose and a mission and both attempt to pursue those respective missions we are not in submission either way, therefore when we try to work together we have Division. Two visions.

That is not Submission. We are not under an other's mission.

Therefore we fail.

That's why in a marriage there must be submission one to another. That means that the marriage to be undivided must have one purpose submitted to another. They may agree, but one purpose will be submitted. Under the other's mission. That might be man to wife, wife to man, but one will lay down their mission to submit to another's mission.

Same in a business. Same in a Church. If a person doesn't submit to the vision and mission of the organization and the leadership of that organization, the they are creating division.

Two visions.

That's not submission.

That's a shipwreck. In a marriage. In a company. In a Church.

I just thought that anyone who had a problem understanding why submission is important would need a primer.

I just gave one.

Farm Country Values

I'm astounded by the Press and other liberals who are apoplectic over the video of Sarah Palin at a turkey farm in an interview while turkeys are being processed.

Yep, that's what turkeys are. Processed. They are bred, fed, fattened and at the right time turned into butterballs in the freezer.

That's how it all works. If you don't believe me ask a turkey farmer.

I think most Mainstream Liberal Media types have never cleaned a fish, killed and cleaned poultry like chickens and ducks. Have never shot and dressed any animal.

These are some of the headlines:

# TURKEYS DIE AS GOVERNOR PALIN TAKES QUESTIONS FROM MEDIA

# GOV. SARAH KEEPS TALKING WHILE TURKEYS GET SLAUGHTERED BEHIND HER

# GOV. PALIN APPARENTLY OBLIVIOUS TO TURKEY CARNAGE OVER HER SHOULDER

They are wimps. Girly boys.

Sarah Palin isn't intimated by the processing of dead animals into meat. I want all people who are offended by this whole thing to stop eating all meat at once. No more steak. No more McDonalds and for thanksgiving I want those girly boys to to eat tofu turkey for Thanksgiving.

Yum.

Isn't the idiot left amusing?

I learned to do this kind of work when I was very young. I always knew to honor and respect the animal I had killed. We are worse for losing rural America.