News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
By William W. Lawrence Sr
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Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: Each age has deemed the new-born year. The fittest time for festal cheer
Sir Walter Scott
Chalk this up to the tolerant left.
NaturalNews.Com a website that appears to be geared to healthy eating, placed on its Facebook page Mohandas Gandhi’s famous quote Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look
upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.
Facebook suspended their account. After the deed became widely publicized they reinstated it.
The lesson is don’t depend on the totalitarian wannabees on Facebook to get your message out.
On the third day of Christmas — that would be Dec. 27 to you non-traditionalists — President Barack Obama signed an executive order giving the vice president, members of congress and fed workers raises which will take effect March 27.
Joe Biden’s salary goes from $225,521 to $231,900. The congress cirtters get $900 raises.
The fed workers get a half-percent raise.
What is this “fiscal cliff” they keep talking about? It doesn’t appear to apply to members of the new feudalism.
Downsizing is a contemporary, worked-to-death word, and we went through our downsizing several years ago when we moved from a Cape May home with a swimming pool, three decks, and more than an acre of ground to our present home, which is little more than a cottage.
Now there’s a lot to be said for having a big seashore home with plenty of ground for kids and grandkids to romp, but it also means you run a motel six months of the year. You see, when family comes to visit, they don’t stay for several hours and go home—they stay for several days!
Thanksgiving used to be an especially big deal that started on the Wednesday prior and lasted through Sunday. This year it began Thursday afternoon and ended Thursday evening. And there wasn’t a cargo bin of towels to run through the washer and dryer afterward. Just a dishwasher load or two.
Ahhh…it’s great when they come to visit…and great when they go home. Hey, who said that?
We thought we were all downsized—my wife and I. She retired, and me; well, writers never really retire, so I continue to work from my home office, but it’s been a while since we both dressed in our business-casual finery and left for our respective days at the office. My wife was in medical billing and I was a newspaper editor.
Recently, however, we finally came to the realization that we had never really downsized our wardrobes. We each still have a closet full of business-casual slacks, blouses, shirts, sport coats, skirts, and shoes…shoes; don’t even wander there! I think there were fewer shoes in the barracks during my Air Force days.
So our downsizing now goes into phase two: Dozens of stylish, well-kept, business-casual style outfits—male and female—are being packed into contractor bags (folded nicely, thank you) and will be promptly transported to the local Goodwill store. We’ll keep some fashionable togs for church and family gatherings (New Year’s Day of course), but we have to admit that we’re no longer the casual-business type.
Oh, we’re still casual—I won’t tell you have many of these columns I’ve written in pajamas—but at least a few other souls will now get a chance to dress in Dockers, a Van Heusan shirt, and Floorsheim penny loafers when they never would have imagined they could have looked so…metrosexual. At least that’s what I’ve been told the word for stylish is today.
By William W. Lawrence Sr
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Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious.
–Anonymous
Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf died yesterday, Dec. 27, at the age of 78. These words from an address he gave the Corps of Cadets at West Point shortly after his victory in the Gulf War are a pretty good way to remember him.
To be a 21st-century leader, you must have two things: competence and character.
I’ve met a lot of leaders that were very, very, very competent. But they didn’t have character. For every job they did well in the Army, they sought reward in the form of promotions, in the form of awards and decorations, in the form of getting ahead at the expense of somebody else, in the form of another piece of paper that awarded them another degree. The only reason why they wanted that was because it was a sure road to faster promotion, to somehow get to the top. You see, these were very competent people, but they lacked character…
I’ve seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and saw it as a platoon. But I’ve seen great leaders who stood in front of a platoon and saw it as 44 individuals, each of whom had his hopes, each of whom had his aspirations, each of whom wanted to live, each of whom wanted to do good. So, you must have character. Some great man once said that character is seen only when nobody is watching. It’s not what people do when they are being watched that demonstrates character, it’s what they do when they are not being watched that demonstrates true character. And that’s sort of what it’s all about. To lead in the 21st Century, to take soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coastguardsmen into battle, you will be required to have both competence and character. You say, “How do I do that?. How do I do that?” The answer is very simple–and I guess this is what I really want to tell you most of all. You are being taught every day at this great institution how to do that. I have a classmate–one of the most ethical and moral people I’ve ever met. I was discussing with him one day what gave him his great character. He said, “Norm, that’s easy. When I went to West Point, I was one of those guys that really believed what they told us up there. And I still do.”
Out there among you are cynics. They are the people who scoff at what you are learning here. They are the people who scoff at hard work. But they don’t know what they are talking about, let me tell you. I can assure you that when the going gets tough and your country needs them, they are not going to be there. They WILL NOT be there. But you will.
Competence with character. That’s what you must have. That’s what you are going to carry with you from West Point. Those of you who really believe what you are learning here. To hell with the cynics. Believe it! Believe it! Believe it! You must believe it if you are going to be a leader of the 21st-century military. You must believe it!
By William W. Lawrence Sr
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Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: It is better to be free among those who recognize an inclination towards greed, than to be a slave among those who deny it.
J.W. Dant
Wayne Lapierre of the National Rifle Association got grief from the “I Think I’m Smart Crowd” when he reiterated Bill Clinton’s idea of having armed guards in public schools as a more effective means of making them safe than gun bans.
The Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. where President Obama’s daughters go has 11 armed guards as standard operating procedure, Brietbart.com has revealed. In other words, this does not include the Secret Service protection the Obama girls get.
Note Sidwell is a Quaker school.
In other ironic gun-grabbing news, David Gregory of NBC, who was complaining of too few gun laws is facing charges after waving around a 30-round magazine to demonstrate his point on last week’s Meet the Press. The possession of the magazine is illegal in Washington D.C. where the show is produced.
What parents have to come to understand is that their children are going to be most safe and best treated in schools that they can fire.
By William W. Lawrence Sr
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Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: You don’t know a woman until you have had a letter from her.
Ada Levenson