The Fears of the Aged The older I get the more fearful I get. There was a time, not so long ago, after I had looked into the abyss of a career debacle, when I thought to myself that there really was nothing short of a random bear attack that would scare me. There is a bit of humor in the fact that my worst career debacle was while being the CEO of Bear Stearns…
Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The “Other” Amendments The United States Constitution clearly defined the amendment process because the Founding Fathers understood that any sustainable governing document would have to be a living document that could get changed and updated as needed to meet the changing times. As such, Article 5 of the Constitution establishes that the Constitution can be amended following certain procedures including obtaining a super-majority (⅔) of Congress and 75% ratification…
Pitching Pups Now that we are in September, it seems to be time to get back into the gardening business I around the hilltop. Springtime seems like an obvious time for planting and growing things, but the autumn is not so intuitive. If I lived in the Northeast, autumn would be a time to prepare plantings for the harshness of winter, but this is San Diego, where the harshest month of December has an average…
Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The Bill of Rights The Bill of Rights is the name given to the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. These amendments were the direct result of the anti-federalist sentiments held deeply by many of the new citizens of the union that were still stinging from the overbearing control on them by what they considered the oppressive rule of the British Crown. They spring from the battle for…
Losing a Lime I just read in the Wall Street Journal that researchers have been working to understand why the average human brain has been shrinking in the last millennia or so. There is an old joke about the dinosaur speaking at a convention of other dinosaurs. He says to the group, “The outlook is not good gentlemen, meteors have been striking the earth, the climate is changing for the worse, vegetation is disappearing…and we…
Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land and represents a refinement in the Founding Fathers’ thinking over a dozen or so years. It was published in 1789 and replaces the Articles of Confederation published in 1777. Those articles represented the first, loosely defined combination of what had been thirteen disparate colonies, and it was a stepping stone for this…
Drawing Blood Blood is a very unique and special substance which sits at the heart (pun intended) of life as we know it. With expressions like “life-blood”, we seem to openly acknowledge that blood is the essence of life. Some people fully comprehend the composition of blood and understand that it is not at all the same from one being to another. We often like to say that we all bleed red just like everyone,…
Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The Declaration of Independence On July 4th, 1776, we all know that the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to sign this declaration from the thirteen founding colonies of what would become known as the United States. They had actually signed the Resolution of Independence two days prior as their assertion of independence and then went on to publish the formal declaration to announce and explain their basis for…
The Universe Speaketh All throughout my youth, I enjoyed school and learning. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t cry when it was time for school letting out for summer or the holidays. But I was clearly on the side of liking the learning process. I cannot remember all of my teachers through my grade school years, but I at least remember Mrs. Hunt, who was my fifth grade teacher in November, 1963 because I remember…
Ought v. Naught Reimagining America George Pratt Shultz lived 100 years and for 35 of those years was a leading force in the forging of America’s foreign and domestic policies. He held four different cabinet-level positions under two Republican presidents, holding a seat at the cabinet table for a dozen years from 1969 to 1989. He was on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors for Eisenhower, Secretary of Labor, Director of the Office of Management…