Famous, Happy… and Making a Difference…
This is the season for high school and college graduations… and a time when the famous and semi-famous are often invited to provide inspiring graduation speeches. I’ve never been asked to speak at any...
View ArticleBeliefs, Fundamentals, and Extremes
From what I’ve observed, and from what history reports, the majority of violence wreaked in human history has been primarily caused by two kinds of people – by those who are mentally unbalanced, either...
View ArticleShameless Self-Promotion
Over the years, in the military, business, and government, I’ve watched those who’ve been successful, and, especially in larger organizations, or government and academia, an inordinate number of those...
View ArticleThe Coming Demise of the “Now” Culture?
Human beings have always been creatures of the present, as exemplified by the old saying, “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.” Admittedly, that was originally a soldiers’ mantra, but...
View ArticleSelective Raises in Higher Education
Last week the head of the Utah State Board of Regents proposed pay hikes for all of the college and university presidents in the state system, as much as by 24% in one case. The reason cited was that...
View ArticleAntiagon Fire Release and Giveaway
Antiagon Fire will be officially released tomorrow, Tuesday, May 28th. In the fourth book about Quaeryt [and the seventh of The Imager Portfolio], Quaeryt and Vaelora find themselves dispatched as...
View ArticleAnother Look at U.S. Priorities
A recent Associated Press news story highlighted a fact that we all know – CEO pay has been going up again ever since a brief two year decline following the initial 2007 economic meltdown, and is now...
View ArticleThe Value of Prevention… and the Question of Responsibility
One of the functions that government performs best, in the sense that it is a function that can seldom be performed on a societal-wide basis by any other entity, is the one that citizens often have the...
View ArticleJune Question
Why don’t publishers allow purchasers of print books to obtain an electronic copy that is included in the price of the print edition? At present, I know of no movement among publishers toward such a...
View ArticleOne of My Computers is Down…
…and I’m angry, not quite raging rip-down-walls-mad, but close. Despite two different reputable anti-virus systems, both current, some virus or perhaps more than one, has rendered it useless, so much...
View ArticleKeeping Up With the Times
After my encounter with an excessive plethora of unexpected internet viruses, and the comments from readers, my wife the professor made the observation, “The law hasn’t kept up with the internet.” We...
View ArticleIrrational Economic Values
Ever since Adam Smith, and probably before, economists and philosophers have attempted to reduce the essence of economics to simple principles, coming up with various explanations for various aspects...
View ArticleStereotypes
Over the past few years the issue of stereotyping has become and remains a hot-button topic with many people, particularly those in groups subjected to the practice. The Oxford dictionary definition of...
View ArticleOn Your Own Terms
There’s a scene in the movie Citizen Kane where Jedediah Leland tells Charles Foster Kane that Kane only wants “love on your own terms.” It’s a great scene, and true as well as prophetic in a far...
View ArticleThe Week’s Market “Crash”
Taken together, the drop in the various market indices on Wednesday and Thursday appear to be the largest two-day decline in almost a year and a half. And what supposedly triggered the sell-off and...
View ArticleAmerican Politics – Power Now?
In past blogs, I’ve discussed the insidious and potentially deadly long-terns effects of the “now” mentality, particularly on American business, and how the emphasis on immediate profits, immediate...
View ArticleThoughts on Self-Sabotage
Over the years, both my wife and I have encountered quite a number of individuals who had the ability and skills to succeed, and who then proceeded to commit self-sabotage, often when they were on the...
View Article“Real” Fiction
The New York Times best-selling author Jeannette Walls was quoted in the Times this past weekend as saying, “I’m not a huge fan of experimental fiction, fantasy or so-called escapist literature....
View ArticleNot Wanting to Know
Recently here in Cedar City, there have been several letters decrying the direction of the university as a “liberal arts” institution and complaining about the high cost of tuition. My initial – and...
View ArticleThe Dependability Fallacy
In almost every bit of advice about success there’s something about the need to be dependable. Even Woody Allen, who, for all of the craziness of his personal life, has certainly been artistically and...
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