Aaron Hurst: 11 Secrets to Building a Game-Changing Organization
What’s on Your Nightstand?
- Lamp
- Clock radio
- Extra pair of reading glasses
- Business cards, mostly my own
- 1 pen, 2 pencils
- Post-Its
- Vaccination record
- Schedule of classes for LA Fitness
- Two or three dollars in change
- Nine dollars in Candian coins
- 440 Indian rupees
Lightly Chewed
I was browsing the online inventory for a used bookstore and found this listing:
Gewirtz, Elaine Waldorf Pugs for Dummies Wiley Publishing 2004 Soft Cover. light shelf wear; light yellowing; bottom corner of book (at spine) lightly chewed;
It’s Not Just the Guns
Within a week or so, we’ve had Jovan Belcher, the mall shooting in Oregon and 26 people killed at a school in Connecticut. I’m hearing that maybe we should do something about guns.
But we’ve always had guns. Since the country was founded July 4, 1776, Americans have had guns, and for most of that time, we’ve managed to live with each other without a mass murder a week.
It can’t be just the guns.
One of the most appalling things to me about modern American society is the way increasingly graphic violence is peddled as entertainment. Turn on the TV: mass murder is entertainment. Grotesque, violent death is “great television.”
Serial killers in movies are the heroes. They can’t be killed off because they’ve got to come back and kill more people in the next sequel.
I know John Wayne used to kill people in movies, but when the Duke shot people, they just grabbed their gut and toppled over. It couldn’t possibly have been more fake. Now when someone gets shot in a movie, they have to be shot in the head. Shooting someone in the head is horrific. And there has to be blood spatter on walls or bystanders or both. And this is entertainment.
It diminishes humanity. It’s bad karma to pretend to kill and be killed for public amusement. It’s bad karma to trifle with death.
The Science of Persuasion
Times Have Changed
If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.
Merry Christmas
Dee-FENSE
107-2 — Bloomington South girls basketball team beats Arlington — ESPN
They gave up two points?! Who’s coaching the defense, Mike D’Antoni?
The Gentleman Has Nine Cares
Master K’ung said, the gentleman has nine cares. In seeing he is careful to see clearly, in hearing he is careful to hear distinctly, in his looks he is careful to be kindly; in his manner to be respectful, in his words to be loyal, in his work to be diligent. When in doubt he is careful to ask for information; when angry he has a care for the consequences, and when he sees a chance of gain, he thinks carefully whether the pursuit of it would be consonant with the Right.
When everyone dislikes a man, enquiry is necessary; when everyone likes a man, enquiry is necessary. — Confucius
In old days men studied for the sake of self-improvement; nowadays men study in order to impress other people. — Confucius
The Ways of the True Gentleman
The Master said, The Ways of the true gentleman are three. I myself have met with success in none of them. For he that is really Good is never unhappy, he that is really wise is never perplexed, he that is really brave is never afraid. Tzu-kung said, That, Master, is your own Way!
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This is the character of the man: so intent upon enlightening the eager that he forgets his hunger, and so happy in doing so, that he forgets the bitterness of his lot and does not realize that old age is at hand.
A gentleman does not grieve that people do not recognize his merits; he grieves at his own incapacities — Confucius
eEconomics – Gas Taxes
We are all here on earth to help others; what the others are here for, I don’t know. — W.H. Auden
Chinese Women Can Afford to be Picky
Via Steven Landsburg:
China has one of the highest male-female sex ratios in the world. That means women can afford to be picky.
Here are the requirements listed by a female graduate student seeking a mate on the Chinese equivalent of match.com:
- Never married
- Masters degree or more
- Not from Wuhan
- No rural I.D. card
- No only children
- No smokers
- No alcoholics
- No gamblers
- Taller than one hundred and seventy-two centimeters
- More than a year of dating before marriage
- Sporty
- Parents who are still together
- Annual salary over fifty thousand yuan
- Between twenty-six and thirty-two years of age
- Willing to guarantee eating at least four dinners at home per week
- At least two ex-girlfriends but no more than four
- No Virgos, no Capricorns
A People That No Longer Trusts Its Rulers is Lost Indeed
zu-Kung asked about government. The Master said, sufficient food, sufficient weapons, and the confidence of the common people. Tzu-Kung said, Suppose you had no choice but to dispense with one of these three, which would you forgo? The Master said, Weapons. Tzu-Kung said, Suppose you were forced to dispense with one of the two that were left, which would you forgo? The Master said, Food. For from of old death has been the lot of all men; but a people that no longer trusts its rulers is lost indeed.
Broad-Shouldered and Stout of Heart
Master Tsêng said, The true Knight of the Way must perforce be both broad-shouldered and stout of heart; his burden is heavy and he has far to go. For Goodness is the burden he has taken upon himself; and must we not grant that it is a heavy one to bear? Only with death does his journey end; then must we not grant that he has far to go?
Berkeley Voters Leave Something to be Desired as Parents
According to a new survey, just over 10 percent of Berkeley High ninth and 11th graders reported carrying a weapon onto school property, while about 35 percent of 11th graders reported attending class drunk or high.
If I had a kid at Berkeley High, I’d be moving out of town yesterday, but I’m reading in the Daily Californian that this news has been “met with surprise and joy from administrators,” the reason being that a similar survey two years ago reported about 17 percent of ninth graders and 16 percent of 11th graders carrying weapons onto campus, and 48 percent of 11th graders attending class drunk or high.
Progress!
“We’re very pleased with the survey results all around,” said Director of Student Services Susan Craig, “and at the same time we’re not at all complacent.”
If by “pleased” she means “horrified,” I couldn’t agree more.
In other news, Barack Obama got more than 90 percent of the Berkeley vote in the recent presidential election, while Mitt Romney got 4.6 percent and Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, got 3.2 percent.
The liberal voter looks to government to solve problems that many people prefer to take on themselves, like raising their children.
