Adds some Clarity to the Current State of Affairs in the World Doesn't it!

Responsibility Starts with Ourselves!

Texas One Ups Obama - Again!

Texas A&M Fly-by at Mississippi State Game

Since the sequester funding kicked in early this year, “Fly-Bys” at sporting events have been banned by the Obama Administration as a way to, in my opinion, punish the conservative public.  Not surprisingly, since that time Texas A&M has continued fly-bys at its home football games using volunteers flying vintage aircraft from the Commemorative Air Force or privately owned restored aircraft and experimental aircraft.  This last weekend (November 9,  2013) at the last home game for 2013 Texas A&M played Mississippi State.  The plane below did the pre-game fly-by during the National Anthem. 

  

At first blush, during the fly-by my thought was, “well I guess with the new budget deal and no debt ceiling, military fly-bys have returned.  It wasn’t until the end of the third quarter when the air crew was introduced did we learn that this was the ultimate in your face by Conservative Texans and Texas A&M.  The plane is not a US Air Force plane, it is owned by a private citizen and fellow Texan  H. Ross Perot, Jr. and was flown by one of his pilots with Texas Governor, Rick Perry sitting in the back seat as co-pilot!  God I love being a Conservative Aggie and living in Texas!

Gig Em!

Marc '72

It Don't Cost Nuthin' to Be Nice. . . .

This story has probably been told and re-told, embellished and perhaps improved upon many times.  I got this from the internet so . . . . . let’s just call it a legend because Bear Bryant certainly is a legend.  Regardless of whether this story is true or not is irrelevant, however the message certainly is profound and one we all need to heed.

The message:

The lessons your mama taught you are right. It don't cost nuthin' to be nice. It don't cost nuthin' to do the right thing most of the time, even when it cost, it always cost less to keep your word than it does to lose your good name by breaking your word to someone.

Enjoy the Legend

So the legend goes like this . . .

At a Touchdown Club meeting many years before his death, Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant told the following story:

I had just been named the new head coach at Alabama and was off in my old car down in South Alabama recruiting a prospect who was supposed to have been a pretty good player and I was having' trouble finding the place.

Getting hungry I spied an old cinder block building with a small sign out front that simply said "Restaurant." I pull up, go in and every head in the place turns to stare at me. Seems I'm the only white fella in the place. But the food smelled good so I skip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit.  A big ole man in a tee shirt and cap comes over and says, "What do you need?"

I told him I needed lunch and what did they have today?

 He says, "You probably won't like it here, today we're having chitlins, collared greens and black eyed peas with cornbread. I'll bet you don't even know what chitlins are, do you?"(small intestines of hogs prepared as food in the deep South) I looked him square in the eye and said, "I'm from Arkansas, I've probably eaten a mile of them. Sounds like I'm in the right place." Everyone in the restaurant smiled as he left to serve me up a big plate. When he comes back he says, "You ain't from around here then?"

I explain I'm the new football coach up in Tuscaloosa at the University and I'm here to find whatever that boy's name was, and he says, "Yeah I've heard of him, he's supposed to be pretty good." And he gives me directions to the school so I can meet him and his coach.

As I'm paying up to leave, I remember my manners and leave a tip, not too big to be flashy, but a good one and he told me lunch was on him, but I told him for a lunch that good, I felt I should pay. The big man asked me if I had a photograph or something he could hang up to show I'd been there.

I was so new that I didn't have any yet. It really wasn't that big a thing back then to be asked for, but I took a napkin and wrote his name and address on it and told him I'd get him one. I met the kid I was looking for later that afternoon and I don't remember his name, but do remember I didn't think much of him when I met him. I had wasted a day, or so I thought.

When I got back to Tuscaloosa late that night, I took that napkin from my shirt pocket and put it under my keys so I wouldn't forget it.  Back then I was excited that anybody would want a picture of me.

The next day we found a picture and I wrote on it, "Thanks for the best lunch I've ever had."

Now let's go a whole bunch a years down the road. Now I'm back down in that part of the country scouting an offensive lineman we sure needed. Well anyway, he's got two friends going to Auburn and he tells me he's got his heart set on Auburn too, so I leave empty handed and go on to see some others while I'm down there.

Two days later, I'm in my office in Tuscaloosa and the phone rings and it's this kid who just turned me down, and he says, "Coach, do you still want me at Alabama?" I said, yes, I sure do.  And he says OK, “I will come”.

I ask, well son, what changed your mind?

His answer surprised me, "When my grandpa found out that I had a chance to play for you and I had to you no, he pitched a fit and told me I wasn't going nowhere but Alabama and wasn't playing for nobody but you. He thinks a lot of you and has ever since y'all met."

Well, I didn't know his granddad from Adam's housecat so I asked him who his granddaddy was and he said, "You probably don't remember him, but you ate in his restaurant your first year at Alabama and you sent him a picture that he has had hanging in that place ever since."

That picture's his pride and joy and he still tells everybody about the day that Bear Bryant came in and had chitlins with him since y'all met."

"My grandpa said that when you left there, he never expected you to remember him or to send him that picture, but you kept your word to him and to Grandpa, that's everything. He said you could teach me more than football and I had to play for a man like you, so I guess I'm going to."

I was floored. But I learned that the lessons my mama taught me were always right. It don't cost nuthin' to be nice. It don't cost nuthin' to do the right thing most of the time, but it costs a lot to lose your good name by breaking your word to someone.

When I went back to sign that boy, I looked up his Grandpa and he's still running his place, but it looks a lot better now; and he didn't have chitlins that day, but he had some ribs that would make Dreamland proud and I made sure I posed for a lot of pictures; and don't think I didn't leave some new ones for him, too, along with a signed football.

I made it clear to all my assistants to keep this story and these lessons in mind when they're out on the road. If you remember anything else from me, remember this. It really doesn't cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be unimaginable.  ~ Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant 

What determines your station in life?

It isn't your race, it isn't religion, it isn't your education, where you were born, who your parents are,  or how much money you have, it is your attitude.  As Zig Ziggler says, "It's your attitude that determines your altitude!"  Your attitude is contagious.  If you are positive, confident, and friendly almost everyone you meet will smile and treat you with respect and most will want to find a way to help you.  If your attitude is negative, bitchy, and sour few people will lift a finger to help you or feel sorry for you and no one wants to be around you.  If your attitude is that someone other than you is responsible for your station in life you are simply wrong.  You will never improve your life until you improve your attitude!

Try it before you scoff at this advice!  What do you have to lose?

And BTW, contrary to what you may hear from the Inside the Beltway crowd in DC, or some leftist follower of the latest fads, no one owes you anything!

The Fox is Guarding the Hen House!

Bill Neinast

IN PERSPECTIVE

This is a hard decision.  What is the best opening cliche for today?

“The buck does not stop here; heck!, it does not even get here,” fit last week’s news perfectly.  This week is different.  There are just too many pithy descriptions of what is going on. 

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil might describe some of the displays at news conferences and in Congressional hearings.  All this questionable activity at the State and Justice Departments and the IRS came as a complete surprise to the upper echelons of the government.

Who?  Me? Could also apply.  None of these things were important enough to be brought to the attention of the White House.  The disaster at Benghazi just was not a photo op for the President to be seen in serious contemplation of whether to send help.

President Bill Clinton’s “it depends on what the meaning of “is” is” also comes to mind.  How about the meaning of “if” as in the statements of President Obama and other administration spokespersons that “if” the acknowledged facts in a number of fire storms are established as facts, the situation could be serious. 

What about the most transparent administration in history promised by Barack Obama in his first run for the White House?  Last week was consumed by reporters, investigators, and Congress trying to peel back the dark shades shielding the Justice, Treasury, and State Departments, among others.

The worm turns could certainly apply to the press finally beginning to hold Obama under the spot light.

The worm turned, in part, because the Obama administration bit the hand that feeds it.   A compliant press had been feeding the administration all the fawning praise it could wish for.  Then it was disclosed that the Justice Department secretly monitored the Associated Press’ phone logs and those of about 20 reporters.  That was too much for most of the press, and the hand with the food was jerked back.

Two old timers, however, are at the top of the list today.  That would be the Nixon years and “What did he know, and when did he know it?”  Right behind that is Schultz, who just might provide the best cliche.

Remember Sergeant Schultz in the TV series “Hogan’s Heroes” in the 60s mad 70s?  One of his most often repeated lines was, “I see nothing, nothing.”

The sergeant’s fat jowls came to mind every time Attorney General Holder and Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller are shown testifying before a Congressional committee.

They have answered “I don’t know” so many times that next time around they might automatically mouth that response when asked to identify themselves. 

Miller actually said “I don’t know” when asked to identify the person he said he had talked with about a certain matter.  After being pressed with two more questions about that person’s identity, he finally did identify her.

Likewise, Holder played dumb repeatedly on questions about the things he had been summoned to testify about.  Watching his evasive “I don’t knows” to questions on subjects that he should have inquired about before going to the hill stretched my credulity. 

If Hillary Clinton is subpoenaed to testify again about Benghazi, “I don’t know.  I saw nothing, nothing” should be anticipated as the prevailing answer.  That, however, would not be an appropriate response to questions about her derisive earlier tirade of “What does it matter now?”

A good bet might be that, if she deviates from “I don’t know,” her responses will include, “It’s the Republicans fault.  They cut the budget and we did not have the money to beef up security.”  

Although that response would fly in the face of the sworn testimony of the State Department Official who made the decisions on security that money constraints were not the reason for denying the requests for more security.

Topping off the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil cabal has to be President Obama.  It took real chutzpah for him to maintain a straight face like Sergeant Schultz when he told the American public that, “I saw [knew] nothing, nothing” of an IRS Inspector General investigation of his IRS playing politics until he read it in the news.

So here’s the perspective.

Two occurrences last week indicate clearly that none of the above should be cause for concern.

First, Sarah Hall Ingram, the so called low level IRS supervisor in charge of the section harassing conservative groups seeking tax exempt status, was given a bonus and promoted to be in charge of the section that will monitor compliance with Obamacare insurance mandates. Certainly a person of that character would not condone auditing a business that claims exemption from insuring its employees.

Next, Attorney General Holder recused himself from participating in the investigation by his subordinates of why the phone lines of the AP and its reporters were monitored.

Those two events made this search for the right cliche a lot easier.  Nothing could be more appropriate than closing with the oldie about the fox guarding the hen house door.

THE BUCK DOES NOT STOP HERE

Bill Neinast


IN PERSPECTIVE

THE BUCK DOES NOT STOP HERE

What a contrast.  Compare “The buck stops here” with “The buck never gets here.”

Harry Truman will never be forgotten.  This failed haberdasher from Missouri rose to be the most powerful man in the world.  Most thought he was not man enough for the job.  But he wowed them.

Shortly after taking the reigns of government on the death of FDR, he made the momentous decision to unleash the atomic bomb on hundreds of thousands of civilians in Japan.

Just a few months later, he refused to dance with the love of the Democrat Party, the unions.  On May 24, 1946, after coal miners and railroad workers staged nationwide strikes, he personally announced, “As I stated last night, unless the railroads are manned by returning strikers I shall immediately undertake to run them by the Army of the United States.

“I assure you that I do not take this action lightly. But there is no alternative. This is no longer a dispute between labor and management. It has now become a strike against the Government of the United States itself.”

Then a few years later after winning the race against Tom Dewey that all the pundits were predicting he would lose, he publicly fired the most admired man in the country at the time, General Douglas MacArthur.

Truman was not only a President, he was a leader.  He did not waffle.  He called the shots as he saw them and unflinchingly took the blame or the credit for the actions of his administration.  The buck did stop in his office, and he was proud to take responsibility for stopping it there.

Compare that with the White House today.  Unless the press can show a solemn Obama surrounded with advisors making the easy decision to kill Osama bin Laden, a vicious killer of Americans, he is curiously absent when hard decisions that go awry are exposed.

Where was he, for example, on Sep 11, 2012, when American property and lives were under attack by Muslim terrorists in Benghazi, Libya?  Instead of answering  for his administration’s actions or inactions on that night, he requires Jay Carney to explain his absence and take the heat from the press.

Watching Carney dance around the Benghazi questions in the White House press conference Friday brought to mind the scene of the Texas Governor singing and dancing on the mezzanine of the state capitol rotunda in the movie, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.  Remember that second verse of,

“Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.”

Carney was ducking and weaving so much at that press conference that even Dick Cheney would have had a hard time hitting him with bird shot on a quail hunt.

The State Department whistle blowers who appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week rekindled a number of unanswered questions about the Benghazi fiasco.  There are now serious questions about whether that tragedy was mishandled before the occurrence and covered up afterward.

Until Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panther, and other high ranking officials are willing to step forward  in the shoes of last week’s whistleblowers for an honest discussion, this cloud will continue to shadow the Obama legacy.

Members of the Obama Administration will also have to learn some new moves for the Texas sidestep.  As Carney was doing his version of that dance last week,  another tune was heard in the background.

Refusing an offer to dance to that tune, Lois Lerner, the IRS director of exempt organizations, went on TV to preempt a report of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that conservative organizations applying for tax exempt status were targeted for harassment.

Lerner admitted that such targeting and harassment did occur, but blamed in on low level, non political appointees. This went a little further than IRS Commission Douglas Schulman’s testimony before the House Ways and Means subcommittee in March of last year.

At that hearing, he gave explicit assurances that the IRS was not targeting Tea Party groups. "What's been happening has been the normal back-and-forth that happens with the IRS," he said. "And so, there's absolutely no targeting."

It is clear now, however, that the harassment was known quite high in the organization, maybe even by the Chairman of the agency.

In this case, at least, Obama has expressed some concern.  He says such targeting is unacceptable.  He has not, however, said that he will take responsibility and see that some heads must and will roll.

So here’s the perspective.

President Obama could spare himself pain and embarrassment by walking in the shoes of Harry Truman.  He would look like a much better man if he would just take responsibility for both the good and the bad of his administration.

As for Hillary Clinton, is she wants to be the next President, she may have to go before Congress, acknowledge that what happened at Benghazi does matter, and take responsibility for her part in the disaster and cover up.

The Difference between advising on a decision, and making a decision!

This is an article about presidential decisions but I assure you every business leader is faced with this each and every day.  There are always many people who will tell you what you should do or how they think things should be done, but like in politics those advisors come and go, and it is the leader who has to make and live with the final decision.  

One of the things employees want and need is a person with life experience, some gut feel, and the willingness to take risk on their behalf!  The leader is not always right, but he/she is always responsible and accountable for his/her decisions!  

Peter Wehner | @Peter_Wehner03.25.2013 - 12:00 PM

  MATERIAL DELETED . . . . ENDING PARAGEAPH HERE

When asked by ABC’s William Lawrence to look back over the first two years of his presidency, John Kennedy said this:

I would say that the problems are more difficult than I had imagined them to be. The responsibilities placed on the United States are greater than I imagined them to be, and there are greater limitations upon our ability to bring about a favorable result than I had imagined them to be. And I think that is probably true of anyone who becomes President, because there is such a difference between those who advise or speak or legislate, and between the man who must select from the various alternatives proposed and say that this shall be the policy of the United States. It is much easier to make the speeches than it is to finally make the judgments, because unfortunately your advisers are frequently divided. If you take the wrong course, and on occasion I have, the President bears the burden of the responsibility quite rightly. The advisers may move on to new advice.  

It is in the nature of things that in America, the leader is the individual who has to sort through competing counsel and decide which course of action to take. And then he or she must do all in his or her power to execute effectively and take responsibility for the decision.  

People want to be lead but they need leaders with experience, character and willingness to lead and adjust to accomplish well defined goals.  

Remember this when you are selecting some one to lead you, be they leaders of Companies, Countries, or Cities.  

People simply can't be American if they Can't Speak English . . Is that really necessary?

Bill Neinast


IN PERSPECTIVE

“Having pledged our allegiance to the Flag which protects our nation, we maintain our insist upon a 100 per cent Americanism, which includes speaking the English Language.”

This quote could be the rant of an ideologue frothing about any hint of amnesty for undocumented aliens in the country.  The thought, however, is much older than the current debate over the hordes of illegals doing the stoop labor in our vegetable fields, cleaning our hotel rooms, and roofing our homes in summer heat.

The words are almost 100 years old.  They were taken from a Ku Klux Klan proclamation posted on the doors of Ebenezer Lutheran Church in the Berlin community of Washington County, Texas, during WWI.  The threats in the proclamation were directed at the residents of German descent who were the backbone of the farming and business communities in the county.

Those threatened were first and second, and maybe even third, generation Americans who conversed more in German than in English.  The sermons and records in Ebenezer Lutheran and other Lutheran churches in the county were in German.  Some senior citizens remember that in the first two decades of the last century, German was the predominant language on the streets and in the businesses of the county.

Clinging to the language of the citizens’ ancestors, however, was not a sign of disloyalty.  Nonetheless, the hysteria against anything German back then was as widespread as that against those wading the Rio Grand today.

Consider, for example, this excerpt from a lengthy article on the web site of the Authentic History Center.

“As the [federal government’s] propaganda machine was cranked up, public rhetoric soon took on a distinctly anti-German-American tone. Literature began to directly attack German-American churches, schools, societies, and newspapers as agents of Imperial German conspiracy. Soon there were calls to throw out the German language and ‘all disloyal teachers.’  One publication read, ‘Any language which produces a people of ruthless conquistadors such as now exists in Germany, is not a fit language to teach clean and pure American boys and girls.’  The American Defense Society, an off-shoot of the National Security League, encouraged the public burning of German-language books and campaigned to change the names of cities, streets, parks, and schools in America to the names of Belgian and French communities destroyed in the war.  Germantown, Nebraska, became Garland after a local soldier who died in the war. East Germantown, Indiana, was changed to Pershing; Berlin, Iowa, became Lincoln.  Berlin, Michigan, became Marne (after the Second Battle of the Marne).  In June 1918, a Michigan congressman introduced a bill that would have required such name changes nationwide.

“Super patriotism soon reached ridiculous levels. The names of German food were purged from restaurant menus; sauerkraut became liberty cabbage, hamburger became liberty steak.  Even German measles was renamed liberty measles by a Massachusetts physician.  Super patriots felt the need to protect the American public from contamination via disloyal music by pushing to eliminate classic German composers such as Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart from the programs of community orchestras. Some states banned the teaching of the German language in private and public schools alike. In July 1918, South Dakota prohibited the use of German over the telephone, and in public assemblies of three or more persons.”

Speaking a language other than English was the excuse for much of the senseless violence locally and nation wide.  That seems one of the lynch pins for the knee jerk objections to any compromise on the current illegal visitor conundrum.

Oddly, not everyone complying with the law and applying for U.S. citizenship have to speak English and sample questions and answers are published by the USCIS in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Azerbaijani.

So here’s the perspective.

The English language is the principle ingredient in the mix of factors that meld many cultures into the unique republic of 50 independent states. “Speak English,” however, is a red herring that misleads or detracts from the actual issue of solving the illegal immigrant problem.

One who is not fluent in English may not be able to participate fully in the American experience.  A lack of fluency in a language foreign to an applicant, however, should not bar his or her realization of the dream to become a legal, productive citizen.

Becoming fluent in a foreign language is not easy.  Learning English is particularly difficult with some quirky spelling and pronunciation anomalies. Consider, for example, chair and choir; to, too, and two; duck and ducks, but goose and geese and on and on.

So before becoming entrenched in the speak English only mantra, remember how long it took our non-English ancestors to learn the language.

I am an American!

What's Your 45?

This was written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short, enjoy it.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye, but don't worry, God never blinks.

16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19.. It's never too late to be happy. But its all up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative of dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you need

42. The best is yet to come...

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

A Question of ID's

Michelle Bachman reportedly asked in her speech at CPAC this week, why you need to show a photo ID to go on a White House tour but don't need to show a photo ID to vote for the person who occupies the White House!

Not everyone has access to a photo ID.  Elderly and illegal immigrants may not be able to obtain an ID, the sick and invalid are at risk at missing the tour because they don't have an ID!   Can America tolerate this kind of discrimination and visitor intimidation?  

The Greatest Play in Baseball - Ever!

Take a moment to watch this, even if you are not a baseball fan.  Can this play be duplicated today, absolutely!  Would this play be duplicated today, I hope so!

Is it any wonder baseball is consider America's sport!  On April 25, 1976, in Dodger Stadium  Rick Monday saved the American flag from a couple of wacko's in LA.  God bless Rick Monday!

Marc

God Made a Farmer - Texas Aggie Version

Giving new meaning to Farmers Fight!  God made a Farmer - Texas Aggie Version

Gig Em'

And we wonder why there are security leaks from "inside the beltway"?

If you are in the military in this country you must go through a rigorous security clearance process before you can be exposed to, work with, see or handle any classified information that could impact the security of the United States.  It takes weeks and sometimes months for security professionals to check your character and background before a security clearance can be granted.  Not everyone who is screened is granted a clearance, there are many reasons for denial of a clearance!  As I understand the process if you happen to have prior illegal drug use, or perhaps have been engaged with former known terrorists you would be denied a security clearance.

Ironically, if you are elected to the office of President, Vice President, or one of the other 435 seats in Congress and/or Senate or you are appointed to a cabinet position you do not have to undergo a background check or security clearance investigation.  Yet these folks have access to all levels of security information and there are more than a few instances where "loose lips" have cost American lives!

Wouldn't it seem reasonable that anyone running for a national office should be required to obtain a security clearance before they could even enter the race for a national office?

I would bet serious money that if this were the law we would see an significant improvement in the quality of applicants and leaders who run this country and a much needed improvement in the security and safety of this great Country!

Just a thought!