[March 10, 2023] People often talk to me about my courage; they say because of my time in combat, but that is not precisely correct. I just learned to be afraid of the right things. During my time in the Army, I’ve seen that not saying what is true is what really has terrible consequences. Whatever I had… Read More »
[March 2, 2023] You want disagreeable people around you, especially if you are responsible for anything. The reason is those who are most disagreeable will tell you what they think and are blunt about it. One of the best predictors in life is the trait of conscientiousness. Those folks value hard work, rules, order, reliability, integrity, and structure,… Read More »
[February 23, 2023] I couldn’t pass this bit of humor up. Poor Meghan Markle. Duchess of Sussex, a British royal family member, television star, rich and famous and privileged, is said to have refused to watch an episode of South Park that mocked her and her husband. We are told she is “upset and overwhelmed” about how she… Read More »
[February 18, 2023] The takeover of Twitter this past October by Elon Musk and the follow-on investigative reporting of what is known as the “Twitter Files” is one of the most important events of this century. Journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and a small number of others began to peel back the many layers of deep corruption within… Read More »
[February 16, 2023] During my first combat tour in Iraq, I had two photos. One of my children, nicely framed and sitting where I could see them every day. And a second of a motivational poster starring Jane Fonda sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun surrounded by NVA soldiers. The poster read, “Treason. Yes, it was –… Read More »
[December 2, 2022] Yes, I am at the Emergency Department (no longer the ER) of my local hospital to find out that my kidney stone is stuck in the urethra tube, causing swelling in the kidney and great, mind screaming pain. Maybe an 11 on a 1 to 10 pain scale. Worse than being injured in combat. Drugs… Read More »
[July 17, 2022] Growing up, baseball was our game. Every boy in my school played it. We all played on a Little League team, we enjoyed pick-up baseball in the streets, and even while running through the backyards of our neighborhood. Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost. My dad’s advice, “It’s not whether you win or lose, but… Read More »
[June 30, 2022] Before the last U.S. Presidential election, I summarized 20 proposed traits a senior leader must possess; traits that would make them successful. They don’t need them all, but they will fail if they are off-target on most. I’m not going to go over all today to compare VP Kamala Harris point by point (you can… Read More »
[May 25, 2022] On one very hot, very sunny, very dangerous morning one day in the Iraq desert, my Soldiers came upon an unusual geological formation near a small village. We were searching for dirt fill to build walls to protect a new combat outpost. My Soldiers were about to discover something that our ancestors knew – that… Read More »
[May 24, 2022] Never underestimate your enemy. The ‘enemy’ symbolically refers to people opposed to you, those with competitive opposing ideas, desires, and missions. They could be an opposing army, a terrorist group, a strongman dictator, a megalomaniac who wants to destroy the world, or the metaphysical Devil. The enemy can be as tiny as a drunk friend… Read More »