Extraordinary soldiers and extraordinary journalism: Check out Michael Yon with British forces in Afghanistan here and here.
And don't miss an analysis by Max Boot of the proposed strategy.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Quote of the Day
If a cat spoke, it would say things like, "Hey, I don't see the problem here."
- Roy Blount, Jr.
- Roy Blount, Jr.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Burned-Out Bulbs in Moscow
At our spring Board Meeting in Munich in 1989, our key people reported that all signs pointed to the lid blowing off the Soviet Empire before the end of the year. The huge volume of incoming calls and their despairing tone, plus detailed reports from our growing number of stringers in the whole dispersed broadcast area made even our most hardened and jaundiced editors believe that something new was up.
One story our people reported was the appearance of a novelty among street vendors in Moscow: a market in burned-out light bulbs. Why buy burned-out bulbs? To take to the office, unscrew good bulbs to take home, and screw in the useless ones.
Read the rest of Michael Novak as he remembers 1989.
The Big Tab
Ever have a restaurant bill for more than $47,000?
Waiter Rant looks at one from Nello's Restaurant in New York City.
Waiter Rant looks at one from Nello's Restaurant in New York City.
Not Just Any Jet
Donald Trump is moving up and selling his old jet. Stanley Bing describes:
As jets go, it’s pretty standard. The interior looks like a huge stretch, with inverted glassware and the customary burnished wood everywhere you look. Lots of nice seating. Very comfy. Potential purchasers may wish to remove the enormous TRUMP that festoons the side, as well as the large pouf of ruddy, flaxen hair that has been surgically attached to the front dome, but beyond that it’s pretty much in walk-in condition. The price is reported to be between $4 and $8 million.
As jets go, it’s pretty standard. The interior looks like a huge stretch, with inverted glassware and the customary burnished wood everywhere you look. Lots of nice seating. Very comfy. Potential purchasers may wish to remove the enormous TRUMP that festoons the side, as well as the large pouf of ruddy, flaxen hair that has been surgically attached to the front dome, but beyond that it’s pretty much in walk-in condition. The price is reported to be between $4 and $8 million.
Veterans Day
You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.
- General Douglas MacArthur in his speech at West Point
When Silence Doesn't Signal Assent
I once worked in a headquarters where the philosophy at the top was that praise was unnecessary because if you still around that meant you were doing a good job.
Needless to say, that was not reassuring.
Executives and managers often miss the significance of not praising a project or of failing to respond positively to an email. They don't realize that silence is often interpreted as disapproval or hostility and that their good feelings are not presumed. There is more risk in undercommunicating than in overcommunicating and yet, especially in these times of lean staffs and pressing priorities, people can easily miss opportunities to reassure.
I knew one executive who had an extraordinary record with an organization. He resigned, largely due to a sense that his efforts were unappreciated. He later said that if one of the higher-ups had asked him to stay, he would have, but no call was made. All he heard was silence.
I guess they were busy.
Needless to say, that was not reassuring.
Executives and managers often miss the significance of not praising a project or of failing to respond positively to an email. They don't realize that silence is often interpreted as disapproval or hostility and that their good feelings are not presumed. There is more risk in undercommunicating than in overcommunicating and yet, especially in these times of lean staffs and pressing priorities, people can easily miss opportunities to reassure.
I knew one executive who had an extraordinary record with an organization. He resigned, largely due to a sense that his efforts were unappreciated. He later said that if one of the higher-ups had asked him to stay, he would have, but no call was made. All he heard was silence.
I guess they were busy.
Great Leap Backward
Check out the comments. This Wired article has sparked a debate over who deserves a very dubious honor.
Quote of the Day
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are we not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
- Marianne Williamson
- Marianne Williamson
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Kindergarten Teachers
David Brooks on the rush to therapy in the wake of the Ft. Hood killings:
This response was understandable. It’s important to tamp down vengeful hatreds in moments of passion. But it was also patronizing. Public commentators assumed the air of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissible and intolerant thoughts. If public commentary wasn’t carefully policed, the assumption seemed to be, then the great mass of unwashed yahoos in Middle America would go off on a racist rampage.
[HT: Real Clear Politics]
This response was understandable. It’s important to tamp down vengeful hatreds in moments of passion. But it was also patronizing. Public commentators assumed the air of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissible and intolerant thoughts. If public commentary wasn’t carefully policed, the assumption seemed to be, then the great mass of unwashed yahoos in Middle America would go off on a racist rampage.
[HT: Real Clear Politics]
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