YOU’VE GOT TO WANT IT
When someone calls me for coaching, once we’ve established the goals they want to accomplish, one of the first questions I ask is, "Why is it important for you to reach these goals?"
If the reason is something like "My parents want me to…" or "My boss wants me to…" or "I’m supposed to…" I know we have some more talking to do, because somebody else wanting us to do something is rarely a strong enough motivation to make changes in our lives.
Changing behavior, learning new skills and overcoming personal limitations all take consciousness, time and willpower. Habits are powerful forces; we can change them but not lightly. Frankly, we have to have a darned good reason to change.
Here’s the secret to change and how to access it.
Join the forum discussion on this postREVOLUTIONARY RELIEF
When Poland was able to free itself from Soviet imperialism in 1990, the Poles proceeded to systematically tear down the giant statues of Lenin (never life-size as Lenin was 5-foot-3) infesting every town in the country.
One of the largest stood in the Plac Centralny, the central square of Nowa Huta, an industrial town near the historic city of Krakow in the south. The huge bronze statue was pulled down in a pre-independence protest in 1989. The square was renamed Plac Ronalda Reagana.
Recently, however, the artistic community of Nowa Huta decided the city needed another statue of Lenin, to appropriately honor the father of Soviet Russian tyranny.
The statue’s creators, led by artist Bartosz Szydlowski, painted it in radioactive yellow-green, and entitled it “The Fountain of the Future.” It’s a fountain, you see, depicting Lenin relieving himself.
HALF-FULL REPORT 09/18/15
After discussing Carly’s triumph and all the Hillary-inspired hit pieces on her, plus a variety of takeaways from Wednesday’s debate, we come to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
As the moderate leader of the Labor Party (the Brits’ Democrats) from 1994-2007, he’s aghast that his party would elect as its leader a 100% Marxist Moonbat on the side of every Moslem terrorist group there is, Jeremy Corbyn. This happened last Saturday (9/12).
Yet Blair sees something far larger than just Brit party politics. He sees what’s in common with political manias over Jeremy Corbyn, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Alexis Tsipras in Greece, Marine Le Pen in France and elsewhere. He calls it the Politics of Parallel Reality, “in which reason is an irritation, evidence a distraction, emotional impact is king and the only thing that counts is feeling good about it all.”
We discuss illegal immigration, worse in Europe than even in the US – and how TTP’s long-expressed fears of the real reason behind our flood of illegals became clear yesterday.
There’s hopeful news: Breitbart is reporting (9/14) that the odds are growing for Boehner’s removal as Speaker. Puzzling news about Scott Walker – and great news about The PIAPS: her support among Democrat women has collapsed – down 29% in the last 8 weeks, 71% in July to 42% now.
There’s lots here in the HFR this week, including unusually inspiring Heroes of the Week. Let’s get started.
SUMMER DAYS SUMMER NIGHTS ARE GONE
Summer Days Summer Nights Are Gone is a funky Bob Dylan rocker from his Love and Theft album of 2001. He’s performed it all over the world – the link is a video of his doing so in Tel Aviv in June 2011.
A very appropriate location – which we’ll discuss after we talk about this verse of the song and the Pub debate last night (9/16):
Well the fog's so thick you can't spy the land Well the fog's so thick that you can't even spy the land What good are you anyway if you can't stand up to some old businessman
Weddin' bells are ringin' and the choir is beginning to sing Yes, the weddin' bells are ringin' and the choir's beginning to sing What looks good in the day, at night is another thing
Yes, what we saw last night was summer days coming to an end for The Donald. Here’s how it happened. Then we’ll see how summer days are gone for Israel as well. As they should be.
THE TRUTH ABOUT CARLY
The consensus is clear: Carly Fiorina won both the first and now second Republican Primary debates. As a result she is climbing in the polls and into the top tier of candidates. Her rise has led pundits to speculate about her tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
I was a member of the HP Board of Directors much of the time Carly was the CEO (1999-2005). I was in the room for many of the decisions she made. I can attest to the strength of Carly’s leadership, the accuracy of her vision and the quality of her management.
Carly was an excellent CEO. She led HP through one of the worst economic times in decades. While other Silicon Valley icons like Sun Microsystems disappeared, Carly’s vision and execution not only helped to save HP but made it a strong, more versatile company that could compete in the changing technology sector.
Critics often claim was fired at HP because she was unsuccessful. As a member of the board, I can tell you this is not true. Here’s what really happened.
BARNUM AND TRUMP
“There’s a sucker born every minute,” said P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), the Donald Trump of the 19th Century. These days suckers cluster on the Right.
Conservatives love the idea of Donald Trump – a D.C. outsider who doesn’t care about political correctness, says what people are thinking but are afraid to say, said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
But Mr. Trump himself is a shallow, unserious narcissist, all bluster and no substance. “It’s silly to argue policy with this guy,” Gov. Jindal said. “He has no idea what he is talking about, he makes it all up on the fly.” When his ignorance is exposed, Mr. Trump responds with bullying and name calling.
Yet many on the Right can’t tell the differences between Trump the Act and the real Donald Trump. And when conservatives who can point them out, Trumpkins accuse them of selling out to the GOP establishment, of secretly supporting Jeb Bush.
The act is magnificent. Mr. Trump is the greatest showman of our era, just as Barnum was of his. But would you entrust P. T. Barnum with the national security of your country or the future of your children?
FROM A BLACK GLIB EGOMANIAC TO A WHITE GLIB EGOMANIAC
In a country with more than 300 million people, it is remarkable how obsessed the media have become with just one — Donald Trump.
What is even more remarkable is that, after six years of repeated disasters, both domestically and internationally under a glib egomaniac in the White House, so many potential voters are turning to another glib egomaniac to be his successor.
No doubt much of the stampede of Republican voters toward Trump is based on their disgust with the Republican establishment. The fact that the next two biggest vote getters in the polls are also complete outsiders — Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina — reinforces the idea this is a protest.
It is easy to understand why there would be pent-up resentments among Republican voters. But are elections held for the purpose of venting emotions?
An election is not a popularity contest, or an award for showmanship. If you want to fulfill your duty as a citizen, then you need to become an informed voter. And if you are not informed, then the most patriotic thing you can do on Election Day is stay home.
Otherwise your vote, based on whims or emotions, is playing Russian roulette with the fate of this nation.
THE WAR GAME
Can’t anybody around here play this war game?
Russia is sending troops into Syria, alongside the Iranian forces that have been fighting long since, to shore up the Assad regime.
The Iranians are convincingly accused of creating terror cells in Kuwait and Thailand and waging cyberwar and conventional terror attacks against Saudi Arabia.
We know that Iran organized a scheme to blow up a restaurant in Washington, another to bomb a passenger train between Canada and the U.S., and yet another to destroy Kennedy Airport.
They are all acts of war. Yet, the president and his followers insist that if there is no deal with Iran, “the only alternative is war.”
You’d think a blind man could see that the war was on, but no. War is instead described – by the Democrats – as A Very Bad Thing that only would happen if Congress didn’t follow President Obama’s orders.
Meanwhile, opponents of The Deal insist that war is actually more likely if we approve all the concessions granted the Iranians at Vienna. They, too, fail to see the war already ongoing in front of their noses, and engage in the heated debate over a fantasy.
A NATION TO EMULATE
Zurich, Switzerland — When you think of Switzerland what comes to mind?
Beautiful lakes surrounded by the Alps; a rich country with happy people; the home of milk chocolate, expensive watches and discrete bankers; a peaceful country that has not been at war in more than two centuries?
All that is true, and even more. Switzerland is at or near the top of almost every measure of a successful country, including the just released Human Freedom Index compiled by the Cato and Fraser Institutes, and others.
The world would be far better off if a majority of its countries were run like Switzerland. And in this way too: almost no one knows who the president of Switzerland is. Do you? That’s also something to emulate.
GENETICS IS GOOD FOR YOU
Fifteen years after the first sequencing of the human genome, the genetic engineering of human beings is getting closer. Will that mean designer babies and the rich winning life’s lotteries from the start? And will we ever stop this slither down the slippery slope to playing God?
My answers are: no, and I hope not. Despite dire predictions, almost nothing but good has come from genetic technology so far, and we’ve proved that we don’t slip down such slopes: we tread carefully.
The current excitement is over gene editing. A precise way of doing this, called CRISPR-cas9, is all the rage among the white-coated pipette-users. As usual, the doomsayers are predicting disaster.
Prior to this new fear, we have had bio-ethical worries about six times in the past four decades. In all six cases the results have been far better than feared. Here’s the track record.