Welcome to Today.com and OUT-OF-THE-BOX.
I decided to start this blog to have a place to discuss political issues and bureaucratic bungling.
I’ll start with some situations based on my experiences over the years, and decades of being an activist. I’ll welcome your input, especially if you have something to expose and don’t quite believe you can do it yourself.
Just to let you know I do believe in protecting my sources, completely. I recently had to teach this lesson to a 30 something mayor who wanted me to disclose sources about something he didn’t like. He likes to think he is top dog just because of his family name; that sort of thing cuts little ice with me.
I’m not ‘red’ and I’m not ‘blue’. Rather, as most who know me well, I have a deeply imbeded independent streak so I’ll try my best to be fair and unbiased, just raising issues that need to have a little light aimed in their direction.
I also want to use this venue to hone my writing skills. I’ve been lucky to have a few professional journalists and journalism professors help me from time to time. So if you’re in this category your constructive criticism is welcome. And, yes, I did hate creative writing in college, so who would have guessed?
I have over many years been very involved in politics and political environments of one kind or another. Whether it’s been tribal, federal, state, local or organizational (private or public) I’ve experienced a broad cross section of people and behavior. Probably it has been these experiences that led me to starting this blog.
It’s a reflective sort of thing and a place to put out some of the biting bytes that cross my mind.
Its also a place to address some of these issues and concerns in a way that might provide you with some knowledge. I think knowledge is missing or at least some effort to stop and think about what we are doing and how we go about it.
One long time friend, now as GS 13 with a federal agency, told me in a conversation we had a few year ago that I had truly had a beneficial effect on his life. None of it had to do with the critical thinking I tried to get him to implement, or helping him improve his writing and research skills. It was just interpersonal stuff.
This is just one example of many that is about as good as it can get in life. The issue here is just how do you get the control freaks to understand that their opinion or views just shouldn’t be rammed downed people’s throats so they can look good. Maybe that ‘looking good’ is just in their mind, to justify the bully behavior and their ad hominem attacks on others to to achieve their end, or boost missing self-esteem or what ever else seems to be nagging at them down deep in their core.
I think about this because I’ve recently experienced such interaction with a couple of fellows who can easily be defined by this definition.
I think its an interesting story, especially because one of the two really has it out for others and can’t seem to engage in any kind of interchange with others unless he is attacking them. He doesn’t mind stealing, lying, making false claims, attempting to coerce others to do the same, or even investigate the facts before he puts a foot in his mouth. He’ll also threaten you with things when he doesn’t even know it can’t hurt you and won’t bother you - because its just not the truth.
This guy’s some kind of a closed-minded philosophy student who always claims to be a libertarian but is a RED Voter on the farthest side of that fence.
I suppose he over looks his readings of John Stuart Mill and the definition of Libertarian.
The most common definition of libertarian is someone who believes that individuals should have the freedom to do whatever they wish so long as they do not hurt anyone in the process.
Mill said that the “sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.”
Sadly this fellows motives in achieving his ends include harming others and often going out of his way, or use any means, to achieve this goal.
Today, after reading some of his rants against someone with a different philosophy made me wonder if he realizes how he is acting and what he is really doing. I’d say he did not. I’d also say he did not care and so it puts him in about the same category as Aryan Nation types.
I didn’t know that close-mindedness really helped any of us progress for the greater good; our own and others.
Now the other of the duo likes to let you know just how much he think he knows. He also doesn’t stop at actions that harm others after the fact. I watched this fellow frantically engage in a fraudulent process against another person who hadn’t done much different that he himself was doing as well as some of his other cronies. This guy just selected out his fall guy for his own bad decision making.
I suppose that’s not much different than the Wall Street sharks and derivative dealers that brought down the current financial markets.
Or did you forget that in organizational philosophy you need to calculate risk based on things going up and things coming down. Plus you’re supposed to watch for the signs and make corrections. Something I don’t think happened in this case.
I’ve more to say on politicians, government, bureaucrats, voting and other topics as this moves along.
In the interim keep your hands on the wheel.
