Og the Caveman - PT I

Og Lives ina cave. It's a nice cave as caves go but it's crowded because the entire clan lives in it. He's not the biggest or strongest but he's fast and aggressive enough to hold his own in the daily competition. Og is just another unremarkable user of the local resources. A hunter-gathering class stiff. He goes out on a daily basis and searches for sustenance. When he has a good day he can work out a little barter with one of the females. It's not much of a life.

One day he's out digging for roots and grubs and he hits a hard patch of dirt that looks to be a payload of goodies. He can see them but he cant get them out of the ground. On impulse he picks up a stick and tries digging with it. Limited success.

He picks up a rock and smacks the top of the stick. The hard earth breaks up a little. He moves the stick and smacks it again The hard earth is coming apart and he can get to the wild yams. He stuffs them into a skin bag. He continues to use the rock and the stick and goes back to the cave with more food than he's ever seen.

He is treated like a rock star by the females. He trades some of the food for a bigger skin bag. He goes to sleep with a woman on each side of him, all of his desires fulfilled, a full belly and visions of getting an early start the next day.

The next day it goes even better. He fills the bigger skin bag by noon and empties it in a safe hiding place and goes back out to fill it again. In the late afternoon, he goes back to the cave with a full bag and empties it on the ground and then goes back to recover his stash. When he gets there he sees that a wild pig is making a meal of his hard work. He wishes he had a club to kill it with be he was unprepared.

He goes back to the cave and the wild yams are gone, divided up amongst those that had nothing to do with harvesting them. It's dark and he goes to sleep hungry. The next day he gets an early start.

He uses the next day's harvest to trade for a big club and another skin bag. He's decided to use one bag for the harvest and the other to carry his tools. A stick, a rock that he uses as a hammer, a wooden club and a sharp rock to sharpen the stick with.

He moves with confidence through his world. He can harvest more and faster than anyone else anytime he wants. He creates more value, and because of that he gets more choices than others.

Og did not have an unfair advantage. He is not oppressing the others by using his talent and tools to excel. He is not raping the environment and spoiling the earth for future generations.

He trades the value he creates for goods and services he wants. He runs a trade deficit, but it's OK because he creates wealth. He is a benefactor of the tribe. His ability to create wealth is resented by some and admired by others but he is universally recognized as powerful and influential.

Words to Newlyweds

Things That Need to Be Remembered

Marriage is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. The first 5 years are the time to set the conditions for the last 50.

God likes marriages to work. Ask for his help...Everyday. Then do the things you know He’d want you to do.

Marriage takes 110%. Give 100% all the time. Expect only 10% back because that’s how it will be sometimes.

You cannot make someone be someone they aren’t but if you are insightful and kind, you can teach them why they should want to become who they ought to be.

While you are teaching, be teachable.

Neither of you are who you will be in 10 years. Resolve to make sure that who you become is even better for the other than you are today.

If your spouse takes their problems to someone else, you aren’t doing your job.

If you are the origin of your spouse’s problems – one of you is way out of focus. Serious self-examination is in order.

Keep your head out of the cockpit. Don’t spend time focused on “who did what to whom.” Instead focus on motivations, goals and strategies, Be focused on where you want to get. Not the small failures we all have along the way.

Keep your attention on your spouse’s strengths and your own weaknesses, Praise your spouse in public and private.

When you must air out grievances. Remember that the long term goal is a lasting, loving, rewarding relationship. Focus on the behavior and the way it made you feel. Remember they don’t care what you know if they don’t know you care.

It’s not about how good your best days are; everyone has good days. It’s how good your worst days are; that will be the real measure of your matrimonial performance.

If you are feeling unappreciated, then your spouse probably is too.

Laugh at yourself.

Your intimacy is a celebration of YOUR marriage and YOUR mortality. Practice it with joy and selflessness. It should be open and honest between YOU TWO and a complete mystery to everyone else. Kiss and hold hands in public. Keep everything else private. It’s no one else’s business, keep it that way.

Who you are is not determined by what you have. Save for what you want. Don’t be frivolous. Arguing over money is a good way to ruin a good match.

The Tool Sale From Hell

Driving home from work...Dayglo pink sign says "TOOL SALE...So I turned in at the local Fraternal Order of the Eagles Lodge and there's a beehive of activity around a semi-trailer.

Sign says: (1) Grab a clipboard and write down item code and quantity...(2) Pay Cashier... (3) Pick up purchase at semi-trailer.

I went in and picked up a clipboard. Hmmmmmmm... 4" pneumatic grinder...$29.99...Too Cheap!...must be made in China.

I looked around and just about everything there was made in China. I put dowwn the clipboard and the pen and walked out.

The U.S. is selling itself to China...cheap. Our trade deficit with China is about 0.5% of our national net worth annually. Their heavy industrial capacity is ramping up as we disassemble ours. The Chinese have no environmental constraint, no trade unions and cheap plentiful labor.

They are executing a national strategy to supplant the US as the lone superpower within 50 years. They plan to do it without firing a shot like we did with the Soviet Union. They plan to do it with economics.

I'm not buying anymore goods from China. They may be cheap. They may be of acceptable quality. But the long term cost is too high.

Normally a tool counter makes me giddy... Today it was depressing.

The Boogeyman

When were are young, we are told of the boogeyman. An evil creature of the night that steals children from their beds and does "heaven knows what" with them.
A boogeyman stole one of my children last Saturday.

What makes a young man think it's OK to steal away one of my daughters and marry her.
I don't care if he is an Eagle Scout. He's still "The Boogeyman" to me. Well, at least I got to dance with her before he got away with her.



HooHah

The Boxer

A boxer gets off his stool and raises his gloves as he cautiously leaves his corner toward his opponent. He is older, bigger, stronger and more experienced than his opponent. His opponent is faster, more agile and has better cardio endurance and the mental advantage of being the favorite. They’re in the 10th round of 15. The older boxer has been bloodied and bruised by the lightning fast hands of the younger man. He’s occasionally landed an effective blow, but he’s losing by decision. At best, it’s close, but he’s still losing. The younger man strides confidently into the ring. The younger man knows that he’s in the best condition he’s ever been in and he knows that cardio endurance is on his side in the coming rounds. He knows he’s in position to win the decision.
This is a decision moment. The older boxer can decide that he can’t win or he can decide that he can win. He can decide to continue using the same tactics or he can decide to switch tactics. The young man is not considering the need for a decision. He thinks the win is an eventual condition that will follow if he continues what has worked so far.
The older man shifts his weight slightly and appears less willing to square off. He keeps his distance and loosens his defenses to allow the occasional body shot, but he continues to protect his face and head. The younger boxer feels the change and is emboldened. He knows the old man’s is age catching up with him. The fatigue will loosen the old man up so that he can destroy him. But sooner than the young man would like, the bell rings and the 10th round is over.
In the following rounds, the veteran continues to protect himself from the knock-out and the young man’s confidence builds. The younger man keeps looking for a sign that the old man can no longer protect his head. He’s dancing around and feinting left and right to try to open up an opportunity. He’s looking for the opportunity to put the old man away. The veteran hasn’t thrown a serious blow since the 10th round. It’s over and his victory will be a testament to his speed, endurance and tactics. But the older fighter hasn’t given up yet. He’s waiting for a particular signal. He’s waiting for confidence to become arrogance. He continues to take the punishment. He willingly wades into the pain, willing to endure whatever it takes to win.
It’s now the 15th round and the fighters move to the center of the ring. The young man could just keep his distance and win the decision but he’s looking for the big headline. The last words spoken by the young man’s trainer was to instruct him to stop hitting the body and stop waiting for the opening but to wade in with left jabs until he creates an opening for the right and then follow that with an inside uppercut from the left. His trainer knows he can’t get the 15th round knockout without getting the formidable old fighter to open up. The veteran is still effectively protecting his head. He’s only been knocked out once before, and it was done with an inside uppercut from the left.

It goes according to plan except for one thing. As the barrage of jabs begins, the veteran slightly drops his right hand to protect against the inside uppercut and raises his left to protect from the imminent right hook. The at the second the hook starts to fly, he steps into it and takes it on the back of his head as he cocks back his left. He’s too close for the uppercut to be effective and he deflects it with the right as he unleashes a left hook at point blank range. As the younger man staggers backward in disbelief, the veteran drops him to the floor with an uppercut from the right.
The crowd jumps to it’s feet. Wagered dollars change hands. Sportswriters frantically rewrite copy to capture the moment and alter the mood of the article to flatter the winner rather than the favorite. When history gets written, the winner was always a beloved underdog.
When your tactics aren’t winning, it isn’t time to quit! Quitting is surrender. When your tactics are not working, it’s time to alter your tactics to encourage your opponent to make mistakes and expose his weak areas. The first decision is to decide to win first and always. I guarantee you that the Islamist Zealots think they’ve made that decision. So the only way to win is to make the same decision and then make them change their minds. Just like we did with Hitler and he invincible Third Reich in Fortress Europe. Kill them until they can no longer resist and are forced to adjust their thinking. Kill them until they change their minds about winning. Kill them and devastate their ability to gather support. If the Saudis continue to fund them, seize the oilfields and incarcerate them. If they resist, exterminate them.
Transmit to Global Islam that our problem is there problem and that they will either be the origin of the solution or the victims of the solution. If they don’t destroy the problem at it’s source in their communities, we will roll across their communities and destroy them to get to the source.

The only knock-out defeat in the veteran’s career was Viet-Nam.
The set up-“right hook” that was the Tet Offensive.
The inside uppercut from the left that once knocked out the old man is the media support for the anti-war agenda.

The War on Terror is underway. The first 10 rounds were the last three decades. Bloodied and bruised by the Marine Barracks in Beruit, The USS Cole, The First Trade Center Attacks and the east African Embassy bombings, the 9th round culminated with the attacks of 9/11. We came out in the 10th round watching the enemy more carefully and changing our tactics to pull the enemy away from his strengths.
The body shots are the on-going suicide attacks and vehicle bombings.
The jabs are the attacks of Chirac, Schroeder, Howard Dean, Al Jazeera, the combined dictators of the UN and the “tactical setbacks” that must be endured while we execute the larger strategy.
If we continue to fight enthusiastically using tactics that minimize the Islamist’s speed and agility advantage, and we leverage our massive strength and mindpower to deny him a glorious and decisive victory, the frustrated enemy and the anti-Americans that want them to win (even if only to hurt GW Bush) will attempt to unleash that right hook that will break open the hole for the inside uppercut from the left. My guess is that it will be a non-binding UN resolution condemning the coalition action in Iraq.
The big difference here are the artificial limits of a boxing match. There are no limits to the time that this fight against fundamentalist Islam will take. There is no imminent decision by a panel of judges. Fight as long as it takes. The jabs and body shots can’t take you down. Change tactics as many times as it takes. They can’t win if they can’t get to your head.
It’s decision time. Decide to win. Be willing to take the body shots. Willingly wade into the pain, confident that you will win. Protect your head and use your mind. Wars are won in the mind before they are won on the field. Find a weakness or create one and never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake. Get inside his head and his circle of influence. Set the trap, bait the trap and stand over it with a big club and be ready to swing. And don’t forget to guard against the inside uppercut from the left-wing, anti-American, liberal college educated, communist sympathizing, world government worshiping, anti-Christian, pro-abortion, anti-family, pro-gay-discrimination advocating, mainstream media.
Machines don’t fight wars, terrain doesn’t fight wars, weather doesn’t fight wars. Humans fight wars. You have to get into the minds of humans. That’s where wars are won.” – Col John Boyd, USAF, Retired

Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. – Sir Winston Churchill

Nuff’ Said. Hoo-Hah for Winston Churchill, John Boyd, George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln and all the others that understood that the first belligerent that decides that the cost is too much to bear is the loser.

Oh and lest we forget. This will be the veterans most glorious and remembered victory. He charged in against conventional wisdom and expectations and emerged victorious by surprising and humiliating a confident opponent.