a hierarchy..................................

  I read about the duties of the Policy Review Board I am asked to join.  It "serves a critical function in this work.  The Board, consisting of leading citizens with many different backgrounds, philosophies, and experiences, functions to guarantee the objectivity of the Public Agenda's work.  Board members review Public Agenda projects, publications, and other material to insure that they are free of ideological bias, that they are balanced and thoughtful, and that they represent the highest level of analysis and research."  Prose like that gags, doesn't it?  I mean, if leading citizens with different backgrounds, philosophies, and experiences guarantee objectivity, they why isn't the United Nations objective?  And are we sure we want to be free of ideological bias?  Isn't a hierarchy of values valuable?

-William F. Buckley, Jr., Overdrive: A Personal Documentary

Toughen up................................

 Humans are not built for a life of ease. This is a forgotten wisdom, one revered by the ancient Stoics and once fundamental to philosophical thought. Within the writings of Seneca and Epictetus lies the maxim that it is not our hardship that harms us, but how we relate to it. In choosing to learn and grow from affliction, we fortify our mind. As Seneca wrote, “Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” . . .

“Humans don’t mind hardship,” Junger remarks, “in fact they thrive on it. What they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.”

-Freya India, from this post on Generation Z and suffering

Tougher than it looks........................

Most people will get much more out of destroying their own wrong ideas than trying to come up with new ones all the time.  Once you get rid of the clutter, all that's left will be the good stuff that you can use to improve your results.

-Ben Carlson, from A Wealth of Common Sense

Toughness and compassion..............

...............................................also known as leadership:

     But with the nation's economic travail continuing throughout McKinley's second term, the governor faced major civil disruptions in the form of labor strikes and threats of mob rule.  In April 1894 the United Mine Workers called on coal miners to walk off their jobs in what one Ohio publication called "one of the greatest strikes, in point of numbers, in the history of any country."  Some 200,000 miners went on strike in Ohio alone, along with many others in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and elsewhere.  Civic tensions rand high, and the action devastated the regional economy as the strikes shut down railroads and factories fueled by coal.  Normal commerce ceased.  At the request of local sheriffs, McKinley sent out militia troops—some 3,000 in all—to restore and maintain order during the job action.  Later in the year he deployed troops to protect train service during a railroad strike.  When labor representatives suggested the governor's actions could harm him politically, he replied, "I do not care if my political career is not twenty-four hours long, these outrages must stop if takes every soldier in Ohio."
     As soon as the strikes were settled and order was restored, he turned his attention to getting funds and provisions distributed to areas where miners were suffering serious financial deprivation due to the strike.  The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote, "Praise for the prompt action of Governor McKinley is on every tongue among the distressed. . . . Every detail of the relief work is under the general supervision of the governor."  Reflecting both his natural inclinations and his political acumen, McKinley combined toughness in the face of disruption with compassion for those caught up in the struggle.

-Robert W. Merry,  President McKinley:  Architect of the American Century

Seismographs....................

Congressmen are not evil people, they're mostly sort of seismographs with antennae; they're waiting - they're more worried about losing their jobs than Assistant Deans of Men in the Ivy League.

-attributed to Allard  K. Lowenstein

The wages of the Presidency..............

............................It is a difficult job, people.  It will age you:

Barack Obama 2008ish

Barack Obama 2016

Choices, choices, choices..............

I'll bet you didn't know..............................

...........that there is such a thing as a "licensed metal detectorist."

Life its ownself................................

.................................................a happy, loving, toughness.



via

Say what you will about the Presidency..............

......................................but it certainly seems to age a man.

George W. Bush               2000

George W. Bush        2008

Barack Obama                      2008

Barack Obama                           2014