Republic Rules - The U.S.A. is a great representative republic.

Oh, my:
“Federal, state and local governments are hiring new workers at the fastest pace in six years, helping offset job losses in the private sector.
Governments added 76,800 jobs in the first three months of 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
That’s the biggest jump in first-quarter hiring since a boom in 2002 that followed the […]

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I know this will come as a shock to some people, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but…
… this is not a perfect world. So, get over it and make some rational decisions.
I hear people complain about the high cost of gasoline or our dependence on foreign oil (or involvement […]

Read the rest of Having It Both Ways

Individuals used to have many reliable resources available to help them learn what’s going on in their country and, if necessary, when their involvement was especially needful. The major TV networks were reasonably objective in their presentation of the news and typically ended their broadcasts with an editorial statement (and appropriately identified it […]

Read the rest of Personal Responsibility

… if you look young and want to buy alcohol or cigarettes.
… if you want to cash a check at the bank.
… if you want to purchase a gun.
… if you want to take the S.A.T. (college entrance exam).
… if you want to get a passport.
… if you want to drive a car.
Now, the Supreme […]

Read the rest of You Must Show A Picture ID…

A smaller government (not to be confused with NO government) means greater freedom for those people under it.  The larger a government entity becomes, the more controlling it becomes… and this is true whether it is a municipal government, state agency, or federal department.  While some control may be good… it prevents chaos… I believe […]

Read the rest of Less Is More

While vacationing in Mexico, I was once again impressed by the high quality of service I enjoyed at almost every place I visited. Whether at hotels, restaurants, beaches, or other locations and events, almost all of the service staffs were truly friendly and tried very hard to satisfy every request. It was all […]

Read the rest of Quality of Service

No posts the past few days as I spent some time south of Cancun, Mexico, in Playa del Carmen… a stretch of coastland now promoted as the Mayan Riviera. Wonderful beach, lots of sun, great service. All in all, a nice vacation destination.
While there, I had the opportunity to talk to others… mostly tourists […]

Read the rest of Lack of Fact

My last article about an old IBM advertising campaign (”THINK!“) brought to mind another strategy they used in competitive situations that gained wide notoriety.
It later become well documented and the stuff of considerable study in marketing and sales meetings everywhere. Most often, the IBM sales strategy focused on an abundance of quantitative analyses supporting […]

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I believe it was IBM that used this as an advertising tag line many years ago:  Think!  This was back when IBM was the symbol of corporate efficiency, integrity, and success. They were also a good corporate citizen, very involved in the community and well respected internationally.  The saying at the time went:  what’s good […]

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… do you blindly keep doing it or do you try something else?
You’ve heard this before… and it has truth in it:
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting different results.”
One of the inherent weaknesses of our government and political system is the momentum gained when a “program” […]

Read the rest of When A “Solution” Doesn’t Work…