Executive Orders

When they turn the pages of history,
When these days have passed long ago,
Will they read of us with sadness,
For the seeds that we let grow?

We turned our gaze from the castles in the distance.
Eyes cast down on the path of least resistance.

Cities full of hatred fear and lies,
Withered hearts and cruel, tormented eyes.
Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise,
Beating down the multitude and scoffing at the wise.

The hypocrites are slandering
The sacred halls of truth,
Ancient nobles showering
Their bitterness on youth.

Can't we find the minds that made us strong?
Cant we learn to feel what's right and wrong?

-Rush
"A Farewell to Kings"

Tomorrow marks an historic transition in America. Some will celebrate with unbridled, wild abandon, while others will mourn far too bitterly the change from one President to the next. I have to admit that I have a lot of apprehension about the incoming Chief Executive. He has no experience, he's too far to the left, ignorant in too many vital areas, too closely associated with dangerous socialist ideals, too naive and has too many puppeteers pulling his strings.

On the other hand, he's replacing a fucking retarded chimpanzee, who squandered one historic opportunity after another for greatness. Who in turn replaced a philandering idiot married to walking evil, who together did more damage to this country than any enemy could hope to accomplish. Who in turn replaced the chimpanzee's dad, who fell asleep at the helm and set us adrift. Two Democrats, two Republicans. None worth a shit.

You have to go back four Presidents, spanning two decades - a generation! - to find a man worthy enough to be President. Of course, it was the late Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the Republic, who set the country back on course after the dark days of Vietnam, Watergate, stagflation and the impotent malaise of Jimmy Carter. It took real vision, real courage, and a firm belief that America was better that it had allowed itself to believe it was. He was the first great President in a long time. We have not had a good one since.

Reagan understood certain truths about America:

• We are eternal optimists.
• We are hard working, creative and energetic.
• We believe in truth, justice and Liberty.
• We are a great nation because of our spirit, not government.
• We are a great people because we are self-reliant.
• We have a great future because we have placed our faith and trust in God.
• America, and the promise she keeps for freedom, remains the last, best hope for mankind.
  

A few words of advice for our incoming incumbent: Read history. Seriously, get out some history books and study the past, for that explains how we got where we are and where we could be going, for better or worse depending on the choices we make today. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Go back, and study the great men who founded this Republic, understand why America has succeeded where others have failed, learn how other men who have sat in the office you will occupy tomorrow have faced challenges far darker that these we face today and prevailed.

I really don't care what political party he represents. I don't care what colour he is. I do care what choices he makes and how the consequences of those choices will affect my children's children. I'm willing to give the man a fair shake. He's got a monumental task ahead of him for the next four years. But history will be unspeakably cruel if he screws up.

So make the right choices, Mr. President. Don't screw this up. History is watching.

Going Global

Well, it's a holiday weekend, and what do you suppose I'm doing to celebrate it?

Yep, you guessed it. Another class has started and I have three assignments due by tomorrow. Finished one last night, two more to go.

This one is Global Information Technology Management. Should be fun. The books are actually really good reads, consisting of Michael Porter's seminal tomes on competitive strategy (only one was required, but Amazon had a great deal on the 3-volume set so I picked it up for less than half what the University bookstore wanted for it) and good study of how to apply Sun Tzu's Art of War to modern business.

It's not often that you run across textbooks that are actually enjoyable to read. In all fairness, however, these books weren't written as textbooks, but rather as books. For some reason, that seems to help. The closest approximation I've run across to a readable textbook was Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics, and the follow-up volume, Applied Economics.

Update from the last posting: There is no update. Still pursuing leads to explain what happened. Apologies to friends and family for the scare, but this is how life goes. One day you're running around the house with a red towel wrapped around your neck and your Underoos on the outside of your pants. Next day, you keel over. Life happens in between. Don't forget to live it.

Okay, enough morbid thoughts. Off to write papers!

Who Finished Who?

Well, the garage is clean. So is the office closet. I wanted to tackle the other closets and the filing cabinets but I have filled up the dumpster to capacity. So the rest will have to wait until another time. Still, I can look back and see the progress I have made and tell a real difference in the way these two parts of the house look. In a total of two intensive working days, I have thrown out enough stuff to fill up a big roll-off container.

Unfortunately, there were some brief side effects to all this.

About 2am this morning, I woke up with chest pains, shortness of breath, cold sweat, dizziness and nausea. The Missus roused the Gnu Herd in an air raid scramble and broke her personal best landspeed record rushing me to the emergency room. A bunch of checks later and we have ruled out heart attack. I'm home resting. That's the good news.

Bad news is, no one is sure what hit me or whether it was a one-timer or something that's coming back. We'll find out soon as I pursue answers. Wish me luck.

Gnu Year's Day

All is quiet on New Years Day,
A world in white gets underway,
And I want to be with you,
Be with you, night and day.
Nothing changes on New Years Day.

-U2, New Years Day

Happy New Year everyone! We've now left 2008 behind, even if it did take one extra second to close the books. That's right, 2008 was a leap-second year. Who'dathunkit?

Now that the holidays are over and done with, I hope we can all get back to work without any further insanity. Just to be sure, here is my annual holiday postcard:
















Okay, enough merriment. Back to work!

Speaking of work, the garage is now pristine and in perfect order. In other words, I threw out everything but the car. And I'm not too keen on keeping it, either. The dumpster is chock full of crap and I had to get in and jump up and down on the piles of detritus to make room for the office and closets. The construction company said the first ton of haul-away is free and he's only known two customers who ever went over that. I think I will make it into that rarefied category, given how much I still have to do inside the house.

Up next: the closets. Cover me, I'm going in!