Reflections From a Murky Pond

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation since long before the White Man reached America’s shores, says that, “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.”

This is certainly sound wisdom, if not especially profound in any way.

The “wisdom” of America’s government, however, took a different approach to the Dead Horse Theory and tends towards other responses than getting off the horse’s carcass:

1. Changing riders
2. Appointing a committee to study the horse
3. Arranging trips to other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses
4. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included
5. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired
6. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse
7. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase efficiency
8. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse’s performance
9. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance
10. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some live horses
11. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses
12. Blaming some group for raising or buying an unfair number of live horses
13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Now I know that innovation is predicated upon thinking laterally and “outside of the box,” but has anyone ever managed to get where they were going by flogging a dead horse?

The Piano Guys bring us their rendition of the ever ongoing franchise that is the war between the Jedi and the Sith.

The Force Is Musical In This Them

And, of course, Darth Vader’s popping & locking and playing of the accordion proves yet again that he’s on the Dark Side in the classical struggle between Good and Evil. 😆

H.R.10 – the Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2011 (REINS Act) seems to have really set Obama’s teeth on edge in a big way. Before REINS Act has even gone to the Democrat-controlled Senate he’s threatened to veto the bill, which would provide Congressional oversight of the regulations set forth by the various federal bureaus and agencies under the command of the Executive.

Obama has no plans to allow Congress such oversight of his actions.

The House Republican proposal would require Congress to approve any regulation that is estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than $100 million a year, would result in an increase in prices, or have adverse effect on competition or jobs.

All my readers know that I loath Obama but there is no doubt in my mind that he’d be perfectly correct in vetoing the REINS Act if it ever managed to reach his desk. The Executive is not subordinate to the Legislative and this Act seeks to make it so.

Breath. I know it seems profoundly shocking that I agree with Obama on something, especially a contest between him and the GOP, but it does happen upon the rare occasion.

If the REINS Act were to become law, we might well as go ahead and subsume the whole of the Executive into the Legislative because very few, if any at all, federal regulations don’t cost the U.S. economy more than $100 million a year, result in an increase in prices, have adverse effect on competition or jobs, or some combination of the three.

The Coca-Cola Company is pulling its special white holiday cans from the shelves months earlier than originally planned because of a backlash from consumers.

According to The Wall Street Journal, there were perceived taste differences and many found the white cans too easy to confuse for diet coke – because reading the can’s label was just too much work or took too much thought.

While not directly causative, this bit of stupidity is indicative of why America is in the piss-poor shape that it’s in. Too many people are too mentally deficient and too lazy to even begin to do for themselves but are seemingly always willing and able to complain and to demand that “the powers that be” make changes to enable their unmerited comfort.

It’s really no wonder that wealth, influence, and power are concentrated among the few when the many are little more than mindless drones.

Motherly advice and comfort has been the centerpiece for most American children’s upbringing since even before we were an independent nation. Father’s may have the role models and the protectors, but it was our mothers who mostly molded us with the love and advice.

Of course, mothers and their advice aren’t monolithic. Things vary from individual to individual…

Motherly Advice, It Changes from Mother To Mother

Pretty solid advice…if the bully can understand the inference and the kid can fight. Otherwise, it’s not so good. 😉