A History Lesson at Work

I had a man in my office today to whom I have had the privilege to provide my professional services for more than two decades.  He is a native Norwegian.  He was born in 1929.  For some reason it came to my mind to ask him when he was born.  He told me and then I asked if he was there during the early 1940's when the Nazi's invaded Norway.  He said he was a young boy then, an early teenager and he remembers it vividly.  He related an incident when the German army was throwing anti aircraft fire at bombers coming from England.  He said that sometimes they would fall to the earth and then explode.  One night, it was 1 AM and there was tremendous noise during a bombing raid and suddenly there was a big explosion across the street.  He said a lovely family lived there, but fortunately they had left for the country leaving an older gentleman there.  The explosion killed him.  But he went on to say that he thought that he was going to die for sure that night.  Then he said the worst thing was the Gestapo.  They were brutal; they would rape the women and torture the men.  But, he said he remembered the everyday, run of the mill German soldier as nice people who were there because they had to be.

Recently this man's wife has suffered a stroke and she requires his help.  The greatest thing he said during his visit today was that "she is my first priority".  And so it is and should be.  Later that afternoon I kind of said to my staff members who were listening to his stories.  "Quite a history lesson, huh?"  They all said they couldn't imagine living through something like that.

Two Graphic Budget Links

From the inestimable Iowahawk the inflow problem.  And the inflow and outflow problem. Admittedly this is a simple example, it does not get down to all the nitty gritty minutiae, but we don't have to in order to get the picture.

In The Reredorter at Abravanel Hall

We had the chance to attend the Utah Symphony performance last night.  It was Rachmaninoff and it was wonderful.  Prior to the performance I was in need of using the facility.  Walking in I approached the area dedicated to the males of our species to relieve renal byproduct.  As you can imagine there were already others participating in that delicate activity.  As I passed behind one man he was proudly, I assume proudly because he did not appear shy in the least, discharging methanic pressure in a loud, unabashed manner.  There was no delicacy here, take my word for it.  I suppose he fancied himself challenging the big brass bass player.  Frankly, I hadn't experience such a performance in such a place in such a manner before.  I am not sure, but I think the pitch of the notes were about a D in the bass cleff.  The whole performance would have demanded an encore if there had been 12 year old Boy Scouts there.  We mature symphony goers didn't even snicker.

Someone's Point of View On Mitt Romney

I saw this on a Forbes posting regarding a NY Times articles concerning President Obama.  The following was a reply to the article.  Here is the link.


Twister 12 hours ago

Helen –
You’re arguing mere semantics. The President’s job title may not say “CEO” but he needs to “lead” LIKE a CEO needs to “lead” (the emphasis being on “leadership” and NOT on the specific duties). Now, rebut this, please….27 qualifications Romney has to lead America back to greatness and prosperity. Verify it yourself from multiple, independent sources like I did.
ROMNEY:
- Graduated with “University Honors” from BYU (also known as “Highest Honors”, their most prestigious from of recognition, somewhat equivalent to valedictorian) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English; he’s not just a numbers guy
- Master’s degree in Business (Harvard, a Baker’s scholar: top 5% of business students)
- Master’s degree in Law (Harvard, graduated Cum Laude / with Honors, top 1/3)
- Earned both master’s degrees (business AND law) at Harvard University simultaneously (Could you do that? I couldn’t.)
- Enormously successful in private business and now worth between $200 and $250 million (compare this to Obama and many of Obama’s closest advisers who have never had to turn a profit or go hungry, and, no, don’t whine about workers Romney let go when taking over a company while at Bain Capital because you’d be forgetting to look at: A) the fact that Bain was INVITED by the companies to have Bain invest in them; there were no “hostile takeovers” by Bain Capital and B) the workers’ jobs Romney saved by saving a dying company and C) the jobs he created after those struggling companies were turned around and started to grow again)
- Gave away his inheritance in 1998 to start / help fund the “George W. Romney Institute of Public Management” at BYU (his father, George Romney, died in 1995)
- As head of the 2002 Winter Olympics (Salt Lake City) turned a potential loss (-$379M shortfall) into one of the few profit-earning Olympic games (+$100M profit)
- Donated his entire Olympics salary and severance package ($1.4M) to charity
- Put aside partisanship prejudices/trash-talk by successfully campaigning/winning the governor’s seat (2003 – 2007) as a Republican in a heavily Democrat-controlled state LONG before Scott Brown
- While governor of Massachusetts, at HIS request, served the people of MA at the salary of $1/year (that’s right, ONE DOLLAR)
- Previous executive leadership experience as a state governor, including Massachusetts’ Commander In Chief of state military forces (Yes, a state governor is legally the Commander In Chief of that state’s National Guard forces unless those troops are called to active-duty by the President)
- Turned Massachusetts’ budget from red to black while governor (- $3.0B to +$2.16B; that’s “billion” with a “B”)
- Cut taxes 19 times as Massachusetts governor (that’s not a typo, NINETEEN)
- As MA governor, developed a plan that would make deadbeats pay for their own health care (you may not like the MA health care law but that’s what it’s sole purpose was. Still don’t like it because of the mandate? Don’t move to MA.) (BTW, how would YOU have solved the MA healthcare free-loader problem and how would you have done it with an overwhelmingly Democrat-controlled state legislature like Romney had to work with?)
- “Service over self”. Romney endorsed McCain only 2 days after ‘Super Tuesday’ in 2008 when it became obvious McCain was the clear front-runner; America is more important to him than his ego
- Volunteer service to community as a church head pastor for 13 years all with ZERO pay (that’s right, none); 5 years as a “bishop” and 8 years as a “stake president”
- Would give ALL his Presidential salary ($1.6 million total) back to the American taxpayers if elected (yes, he’s on record as committing to this)
- Voluntarily turned down enrolling in Medicare when he turned 65 on March 12, 2012
(in other words, he’s NOT sucking up our precious tax dollars because he knows he can, and therefore should, take care of himself)
- He also chose to NOT receive any Social Security payments upon turning 65 because, again, he knows he can take care of himself and therefore should not rely on our tax dollars to help fund his daily living
- Looks, talks and acts “Presidential”
- Understands commitment (never divorced, in a loving 43 year marriage)
- Understands morality (never had an affair)
- Understands family (5 kids, all successful adults)
- Willing to let all of America see his birth certificate without a fight
- Released his most recent filed tax records (2010) proving he’s not a tax cheat (the IRS has no problem with his filed taxes), with more tax records (2011) promised to be released before the election
- He’s pledged (repeatedly) that he’ll repeal Obamacare.
- And finally…..he’s N-O-T Obama
P.S. – If all one can say about a candidate is that they are a member of “X” church and ignore the talents and character of the person, that person does not deserve the privilege of voting.

Links to some stuff (To Be Updated)

The housing bubble and the causes are complex but the basic underlying cause was the incredible number of loans that were defaulted.  They were made to people who generally would not qualify.  The banks problem?  This didn't help.

Dennis Prager emphatically talks of the American trinity and the state of Americanism here.

Hard choices vs easy choices.  Here is one guy's opinion on the choices the President has made.

This one here seems to smack of voter suppression.

Foreign Policy?  Obama is Carter?

There is this,  It is all over.

Peggy Noonan via Hugh Hewitt

I read this at www.hughhewitt.com by Peggy Noonan:

One good thing about good parents these days is they always look tired.  A lot have hard lives--two jobs, different shifts, helping with homework, cleaning the house.  But they also have the exhausted look of hypervigilance.

Once parents could take a break at night, park the kids in front of the TV and let the culture baby-sit.  Not anymore.  Our culture, they know, is their foe.  The culture brings sick into the room.  They have to guard against it, be hyper vigilant: "Put that off!"  "I don't care if your friends are going, we're not."

It's a wonder they don't revolt.

I wish I could have said it as succinct and clearly.

You See Stuff If You Look For It

I was driving through Bountiful, UT today during my lunch hour heading for the Subway.  I arrived at the intersection of 5th South and 2nd West.  Much to my surprise, a guy on a horse crossed 5th South heading towards the South.  I imagine 120 years ago that was a fairly common sight at the spot but it sure was odd today.  He looked good though.  It appeared he had Wrangler jeans on, a cowboy shirt, cowboy hat.  I looked around and all kinds of people were taking pictures with their phones.  I couldn't because I had to drive.

Next I was sitting in Subway and this little kid was laughing so hard in the booth across from me he kind of rolled on the floor laughing.  Well, an elderly man behind him turned and noticed this chap on the floor.  He said, "Get up off the floor and act like a gentleman."  The kid got up and was still kind of goofing around like a kid does and the old fellow turned and sort of flipped him in the head.  The kid got some watery eyes and called the old man Grandpa.  Well, I guess that is one Grandpa you don't mess around with.

Finally, I stopped quickly at a used book store and as I was entering I noticed a young lady walking away from me.  Everything about here was quite acceptable to the eye; nothing wrong with her morphology.  But she was wearing these boots, with high heels and as she walked I swear she looked like a wounded giraffe or something.  For the life of me I cannot reconcile that in my mind--females and fashion.