One good thing about the Delta delays, I was able to finish iconoclast by Gregory Berns. It was a nice book on the neuroscience of how some people "think different". It did point out some the traits that those who do novel things have in common, such as lacking fear. I'm still not sure how much of this is genetic and how much f it can be learned, but I think at least some of it cna be learned.
Good news for the Dems; bad news for America, Thomas P. M. Barnett
Thomas P M Barnett says the argument between traditionalists and reformers in the GOP is good news for the democrats but bad news for the country. I agree with him in part. It is bad for the country because I think we need to quit all the in-fighting and get back to fundamental conservative principles—limited government and free markets. I’m not sure it is good news for the Dems though. The public has a short memory and the average Joe does not o serious policy analysis—he votes how he feels and right now he does not feel good.
The problem, in case you haven’t heard, is the economy. But it is not America’s economy; it is the world’s economy. There are some things president-elect Obama will be able to do but I’m not comfortable he, nor anyone else, will be able to turn this thing around in four years. Come the next election, average Joe will still be hurting and will blame it on the President. I think for that reason the GOP has a great chance in four years of winning back the Whitehouse and keeping it for two terms. Why? Because the economy will be better, although neither party will have really solved the issue, it will just be timing. Had McCain won this last election, I would be saying the same thing for Democrats.
In a nutshell, I’m predicting a one-term president Obama and two-term GOP president in 2012. We’ll see. The truth is right now all of this is nothing much more than reading tea leaves.
Another flight on Delta and another comedy of errors. I left Starkville with no problems. It does irk me a little that when I travel I always take the same stuff and pack the same way. Most times I sail through security, other times they want to search everything. I can’t imagine why the difference. Heck, even some of the TSA agents know me now and talk to me. I got to Atlanta with no problems, had time to stop at Starbucks, and then got on the plane. We even left on time. Of course I immediately noticed that we quit climbing and started banking which meant only one thing—we were returning to Atlanta. The problem was the throttle on one engine was sticking and pilots wanted it checked.
Once we got to back to the gate maintenance took a look and the pilot announced that sometimes the baggage handlers packed the bags too tightly which forces the ceiling of the cargo hold up a little and can bind the throttle cable. After a little while everyone was pretty much convinced that was the problem but not enough to fly the plane. So, we deplane and go to another gate. They announce a departure time of 5:30 and we board the plane accordingly. We are all ready to go but there are no pilots. Not only that, there is no air conditioning. We were getting hot and the flight attendants were trying to get maintenance to turn on the air conditioning. Finally one pilot shows up, then another. But we don’t move. The new problem is that the caterer took the drinks off the old flight and moved them to the wrong gate. We were grounded because of soft drinks.
While we are waiting for the drinks to arrive, the Delta messenger service starts sending me email messages every five minutes telling me we are leaving in five minutes. Finally, we leave and trust me, by the time I was served a soft drink on this flight, we could have landed in Norfolk had we not waited for the drinks. The crew and the flight attendants were as nice and helpful as they could be but there are some serious management issues with Delta. I also continue to be bothered by the number of mechanical problems that are discovered in flight.
But, the good news is I am in Norfolk with friends and an exciting week of work ahead.
It always does my soul good to see good students with their interested and engaged parents, and college students who are interested in giving back some of what they have been given. I had that opportunity today.
Our annual Breakfast of Champions was this morning and we had people invited from the entire southeastern region. Most everyone was within driving range although some of them did have to get up early to make it. We gave them all breakfast and had a program consisting of some words of welcome and then two stellar students who discussed why they chose to attend the Bagley College and what they have done while being here. The keynote speaker was Dr. Kirk Schulz, VP for Research and Economic Development at MSU. As a former faculty member, department head, dean, and now vice president, he had the experience to relate to the students on many levels. He even has a son looking at colleges now. He nailed the talk and gave them exactly what I was hoping for. It is a shame that he is not the new president for he certainly has the vision and experience.
The other part was watching our current students give up their Saturday and come out to help us. They interacted with our guests and were on panels for discussion. They are the ones who sold the college today and it really makes me happy to see a group of students give back to an organization and take the time to make a difference in someone else’s life. I have no doubt that because of those students today, we will have new students in the fall who will make a difference in the world.
I capped the afternoon off with a drive to New Orleans for my last drill with my current unit. I assume command of a unit in Houston on 01 December.
Just watched the Bulldogs get killed by Alabama. I agree with the commentators, we have a world-class defense— at least we did until they all got banged up by being on the field so long—and if we only had an offense to go along with it things would be great. Well, as we have all grown so fond of saying, “wait until next year!”
I won third place in the Mississippi State Scabbard and Blade Honor Society Chili Cookoff today. I made the chili last night and let it cook all night. The judging was today at 1100 in front of Middleton Hall. I was not expecting to win, this was my first entry, so I am very happy. Even better, one of the members of my Day One Action Team from last year won first place!
I had to joke that those running this copetition had to be future contracting officers. They require you to buy the ingedients to make the chili, that you pay a $10 entr fee, and then they sell the chili for $1.00 per bowl. Only a contracting office couldwork such a deal. Of course I was only joking. The proceeds went to support the Sacbbard and Blade Society and the Intrepid Fallen Heros fund--two very worthy causes.
I had the privilege of having lunch today with America’s finest. The Sony Montgomery Center for America’s Veterans hosted a luncheon for World War II veterans today on the campus of Mississippi State I was fortunate enough to be invited. I met some really wonderful people who answered their nation’s call and to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude. In addition to lunch, we also viewed the PBS documentary on the World War II memorial in Washington, DC.
My only regret is that my grandfather was not around to be invited. I was able to eat with several people today who reminded me of him in many ways. On the one hand I was tremendously proud of what he did. On the other hand it brought back memories and made me realize how much I still miss him.
The AP is saying that Obama won the election in an Electoral College landslide. A what? What the heck is an Electoral College landslide other than over-the-top journalistic rhetoric? Strafor is more reserved, and hence why I prefer them, and say he won a “solid majority” of the popular vote but nowhere near a landslide and that his Electoral College win was “decisive”.
Stratfor goes on to point out that, in effect, now it is time for Obama to perform. They discuss his statement that he will withdraw from Iraq but he does not have a timeframe nor does he discuss how this will work with Saudi Arabia or Iran. They ask, can he offer Iran anything that will cause them to accept Iraq as a neutral government serving as a buffer between Iran and Saudi Arabia? They state:
“What is important is that Obama, having won the election, will now have to face a range of foreign policy issues that will challenge his ideology and policies, and where his personality will matter little. He will be dealing with people like Vladimir Putin, Hu Jintao and Angela Merkel, none of whom are swayed by charisma and all of whom govern countries with interests very different than those of the United States.”
Yes indeed. Now it is not charisma and charm, it is the real world.
It looks like Obama has won the election. Of course I am disappointed because I have not really heard of anything he is going to do other than offer “hope” and “change”. I caught a little of C-SPAN and they had some young guy call in to say he voted for Obama and was excited because “he was a good speaker”. Okay, we elected a good speaker as president. Now he is going to have to do something. He cannot vote present and he cannot talk. It is time to perform.
The good thing about America is that the shift from Bush to Obama will happen without revolt. Power will shift orderly and the union will survive. It is also not likely much will change either. It seems every candidate promises change but few actually deliver it.
I will go out a limb here and predict that Obama will be a one-term president. By the way, I would have predicted the same thing if McCain had won. Why? The problem today is the economy. The US did not cause the so-called crisis it but is suffering from it and is a contributor to the problem. The economic problems are global and there is only so much any president can do to fix the problems. So, when the next election rolls around the economy could still be the problem and Obama will be to blame for it. The problem is that I do not anyone who has an idea of what to do or how to do it.
I’m wondering what turnout was for voting in Mississippi. There was a lot of talk of record turnout so I voted early this morning rather than my usual mid-afternoon time. I had to wait about 25 minutes when I usually have to wait less than five. However, I heard that later in the afternoon there was little to no wait. So, I wonder, did all of the talk of high turnout get people out early to “beat the rush” or was there really an increase in turnout?
Any loss is tough but it seems the toughest losses are the not the ones where you are beaten by a superior team, but when you beat yourself. That it is where the MSU Bulldogs find themselves again on this Saturday. Had the kicker been able to get a kick through the uprights instead of hitting the upright, things would have turned out differently. Had the line done a better job at blocking, the PAT would not have been blocked and things would have been different. Had the offensive line done a better job blocking, more passes could have been thrown and caught and things would have been different. Instead it ended up MSU 13, UK 14.
Very similar things happened a few weeks ago which ended with MSU 2, Auburn 3. So close but this is football, not horseshoes. It is, however, MSU football—and we all used to it by now.
Barack Wrote a Letter… Wall Street Journal, 29 October 2008, p. A16
The Wall Street Journal had a telling article about Obama’s work on the subprime lending crisis. In his 07 October debate, the Journal says, Obama stated that he “’never promoted Fannie Mae’ and that ‘two years ago I said that we’ve got a subprime lending crisis that has to be dealt with.’” The Senator wrote some letters to the Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke. The letters, says the Journal, called for decisive action. Obama suggested that they “’consider options’ and that ‘the relevant private sector entities and regulators’ might be able to provide ‘targeted responses.’” My favorite line from the article is “Then in paragraph four, the Harvard –trained lawyer dropped his bombshell: a suggestion that various interest groups get together to ‘consider’ best practices in mortgage lending.”
This scares me to no end. For all those who tout the Senator’s vast experience at “community organizing” this is the result of that experience. An executive makes decisions; an organizer gets people together to talk. When the Senator was blowing the top off of this crisis all he wanted was to get people to talk. We need decisions in Washington not gripe sessions. The lack of leadership in this candidate is astounding. The number of people who fail to see that lack of leadership is scary.
The United States Air Force Band, joined by The Singing Sergeants presented a wonderful concert on the campus of Mississippi State. Much of the music presented was what you would expect from a military band, good marches and service songs, all performed to perfection. This band added some other excellent music including a Concerto for Trumpet that was outstanding—and I say that having played the trombone in high school.
What I really found interesting was the Singing Sergeants and the Journey through Oz they performed. Dressed in costume, they performed an arrangement of music based on the three renditions of the L. Frank Baum’s book which include The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz, and Wicked. All-in-all it was a great concert.
Tonight a group from the college drove over to Birmingham to have a dinner with some teachers from area schools. We had a good meal, met some nice people, and shared some information with them about our college. Our hope is that these teachers and administrators will in turn share their knowledge with their students. We’ve done these in the past and had some others planned for the future. Right now we are waiting to see how the economy is going to do before we plan too much.
IHL has elected to not reopen the search for president. It’s a mistake, in my opinion, for several reasons. First the board does not seem to realize that perception is reality and the perception/reality is that anyone selected from this pool is the second choice. There is also rumor that one of the preferred candidates had associates bring forth the charges against Watson resulting in magnoliagate so he will be doubly-troubled. Third, and I think most important, the board’s own consultant said at the beginning of the process that the pool of candidates would be limited by having the interim in the mix. Well, he is not in the mix now so I suspect a much different pool of candidates would result.
What really troubles me is the reports that the previous presidential search had a pool of candidates of 100 but this one has a pool of 13.
I’m feeling pretty good about the dissertation now; I wasn’t just a short time ago. I met with my dissertation advisor and we discussed some higher level topics. The next steps are to complete a high level outline of the proposal—structured but without all of the prose inserted—and we’ll discuss that. Then I can fill in the details and have the proposal ready to go. Once that is done the rest is data analysis and a little more writing.
My goal is to have the outline ready by Thanksgiving. We can discuss it before Christmas break and Christmas can be used to add the prose.