[July 09, 2014] My father told me on many occasions to “stand up for yourself” when in a threatening situation. He also said to “stick up for your friends.” Not standing up for yourself and friends meant that you were a coward and were more likely to be attacked. News reports from yesterday, shows that the escalating violence… Read More »
[July 09, 2014] As a teenager, my friends and I were lukewarm to high school learning … it was something we simply had to do. Yet, I do fondly remember our track coach teaching us about “leadership and propaganda”. His message was prophetic – you will be consumed by propaganda unless you are taught the leadership and knowledge… Read More »
[July 08, 2014] Growing up in the Deep South provided me with opportunities for my friends and I to get into trouble and plenty of fistfights with each other. Preceding any fight however, there was the obligatory taunting: sticking our tongue out, name-calling, daring them in some way. My first grade teacher, upon observing one of these fights,… Read More »
[July 08, 2014] Comedians and politicians appear to be the best at reading their audience. Not to equate them on their level of national importance, of course. They both base their livelihood on their ability to foresee how their audience will react to what they do (telling a joke or debating national security). Predicting the audience reaction is… Read More »
[July 07, 2014] Savage manliness? Running of the bulls in Spain rates with Rugby and Calcio Fiorentino as a sport that requires very special talents. My wife says that those who run with a bunch of bulls chasing them are crazy. I like to think of them as having physical courage mixed with a little insanity. However, it… Read More »
[July 07, 2014] The United States has an immigration problem. There is no denying the fact that the number of people crossing the southern border annually in violation of U.S. law has dramatically increased over the past several years. Likewise, the number of deportations has fallen. The real problem, however, is not the immigration issue itself, but the… Read More »
[July 06, 2014] Military leaders are taught from the beginning to be aware of the dangers of “group think.” There have been a number of colossal military disasters that resulted from group think: Custer’s Last Stand, the Maginot Line, Stalingrad, and the Bay of Pigs. Any good leader would rather learn from group think failures than experience them… Read More »
[July 05, 2014] Today I added a new page to test the feasibility of having a leadership news page. Right now, I’m calling it “Leadership Weekly”. My intent is to have a place people can go for major stories from the past week on leadership. Those selected stories will be simply linked to articles published elsewhere … but… Read More »
[July 04, 2014] In 2006, soon after the President announced a “surge” in Iraq, I was given an extra duty. Several of us, the most senior colonels, were to help “flush out the particulars of the military surge strategy.” General Petraeus outlined the strategy for us but there were to be a structure to the direction and control… Read More »
[July 03, 2014] Yesterday, I missed a very important date. Fifty years ago, on July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.1 While the entire Act is important, Title VII Equal Employment Opportunity is the part most commonly cited and the core of the Act. The signing of the Act was conducted with much fanfare… Read More »