America…How I weep for Her

The Statue of Liberty front shot, on Liberty Island. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I weep for a nation that is no more, for a nation that was once a great nation, a nation that prided itself on achieving greatness through hard work and innovation.

I weep for a people that once believed that handouts were to be looked down upon and that prosperity was not guaranteed but rather something you worked for, I weep for a people that once believed in the American Dream, but now believe in the American Scheme.

Last night America voted, and last night they voted for a new America, an America that is unknown to our founding fathers, an America that removers personal responsibility and replaced it with Government handouts, an America that looks at the Constitution as nothing but an old document written by old white men and religious freedom has now become a relic of the past. America is no longer the America I grew up in, it is now the America of the twisted views of the left, a socialistic state that will plunge into a depression and America will become the next Greece.

We have given up on the dream and now want the scheme. We are willing to place our health into the care of a government scheme, ObamaCare, one of the largest corporations in the world GM is nothing more than a government scheme, following in the tracks of Amtrak. America the free has been replaced by America the Dependent, sad, oh so very sad.. I weep for my country and my fellow countrymen, I weep for all the brave men and woman who gave there lives to defend our freedom only to have it lost, I weep until I can weep no more.   

God Bless

Paul Sposite

Guided Insight Life Coach 

 

Leonardo, where are you?

Cover via Amazon

I just finished “How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day” by Michael J. Gelb.This is a fantastic book, one that all should read. The information is useful no matter who or what you are. Leonardo’s life lessons are timeless and learning about how he looked at life how he saw life was fascinating. I will be looking up more books concerning his life. Managers, Teachers, Parents and everyone else needs to read this book, we need to return to being renaissance men and woman once again.

So what is a renaissance man? And why do we need them again?

As to the first question, what is it:

The common term Renaissance man is used to describe a person who is well educated or who excels in a wide variety of subjects or fields.^[3] The concept emerged from the numerous great thinkers of that era who excelled in multiple fields of the arts and science, including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Copernicus and Francis Bacon; the emergence of these thinkers was likewise attributed to the then rising notion in Renaissance Italy expressed by one of its most accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472): that “a man can do all things if he will.” It embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance humanism, which considered humans empowered, limitless in their capacities for development, and led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. Thus the gifted people of the Renaissance sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge, in physical development, in social accomplishments, and in the arts. The term has since expanded from original usage and has been applied to other great thinkers before and after the Renaissance such as Aristotle, Johann Goethe, and Isaac Newton. (source)

Basically, it is a person well versed on many fields of study, what we would call today, a well rounded education. But really it is more than that. It is more than just getting your Liberal Arts degree.Well at least how we in modern times view it:

The phrase liberal arts (Latin: artes liberales) refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects (called the Trivium) were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy (which included the study of astrology). This extended curriculum was called the Quadrivium. Together the Trivium and Quadrivium constituted the seven liberal arts of the medieval university curriculum.

In modern times liberal arts is a term which can be interpreted in different ways. It can refer to certain areas of literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, psychology, and science.^[1] It can also refer to studies on a liberal arts degree program. For example, Harvard University offers a degree of Master of Liberal Arts, which covers biological and social sciences as well as the humanities.^[2] For both interpretations, the term generally refers to matters not relating to the professional, vocational, or technical curricula. (source)

The classical Liberal Arts is the definition of a Renaissance man, it is the study of Leonardo and many others. It is the study we need to return to, it is the study the will teach us to think. Modern-day Liberal Arts, modern-day education is not setup to teach thinking, it is set up to teach remembering. Students are not encouraged to think freely, but rather to retain what was told to them. The modern-day education system is one based on indoctrination not liberation. Leonardo’s education was geared towards discovery, experimentation and liberation. His disciplines ran across many areas of study, but he, as many renaissance men, had the ability to see the connections. The lines between art and science are blurred as are the lines between religion and science. The cross training and encouragement to push the envelope was the hallmark of renaissance training.

So why do we need a Renaissance man today? We have people who specialize in areas of study, so why should a rocket scientist care about the science of art? Why should an artist care about religion? Why would someone need to know about logic and rhetoric when they push a broom for a living?

Because life is connected, because the betterment of all starts with the betterment of one. Because life is more than what you do, it is who you are. And who you are is shaped by what you know. One of the main principles of Leonardo is connectedness, Leonardo saw the connections between seemingly non-connected objects. For example do you see the connection between a frog and the internet? Think about it… There is a connection. The frog has webbed feet and the internet is also called the World Wide Web. So both frog and internet have some sort of web. It is this connection, relationship that Leonardo saw, and it is this connectedness that we are missing in our lives.

Leonard saw the world not separate from humanity, but just a part of it. He saw the flow of the rivers to be the same as the flow of blood, the grass as the skin and the rock as the bones, he was a oneness between humanity and nature. Leonardo understood the connectedness of the clouds to the rain to the oceans, he saw the dependence of one upon the other. Leonardo is considered a great artiste, the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper among the greatest art works in all of humanity. Yet he was much more than that, he was a scientist and inventor, a caterer and party planner. Leonardo used his talents to enlighten and entertain, he was known for a beautiful singing voice and accomplished musician. He understood that a holistic lifestyle was a healthy life style. Leonardo understood the body and mind connectedness, he was physically and mentally fit, because Leonardo knew that one could not be truly whole if a part of him was left to waste.

The Renaissance man of antiquity needs to be restored. We need to nurture and grow our children with a desire and fascination for learning. To question and explore their surroundings and to see the world, the universe with the eyes of openness and wonder.

We need more Leonardo’s’ in todays world, we need men and woman who are willing to expand their horizons, to cross over disciplines and to not fear failure, for through failure comes discovery. We need to foster the exploration of connectedness, we need to discover the universe anew.

Leonardo, where are you? Where have you gone. When did we decide that men such as Leonard are obsolete? Why did we decide they are of no use? the enlighten of man has many casualties, and this is one. But all is not lost, we can return, we can learn to think like Leonardo, we can create a new Renaissance, we just have to try.

God Bless

Paul Sposite

Guided Insight Life Coach

Related articles

• Renaissance an Easter Tradition: (wilrickards.wordpress.com)
• How Colleges and Students Differ: Liberal Arts Colleges & Research Universities (education.com)
• Renaissance Man (theherocomplex.com)
• Questioning the value of a business major (costofcollege.wordpress.com)
• Rochester, NY Artist Makes Discoveries Regarding the Mona Lisa and other Renaissance Art (prweb.com)
• Interesting Facts About Leonardo Da Vinci (artsignportal.wordpress.com)
• Wealth in the Liberal Arts (thirtygoingonthirteen.wordpress.com)
• The real da Vinci code: Louvre unlocks last work (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Louvre uncovers restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s last work Saint Anne (oyiabrown.wordpress.com)

 

Quality of life

Can a few hours with someone really change you quality of life? Can a Life Coach make a difference? I believe so, the ability to sit and talk with someone, be it face to face or over the phone or internet, the ability have someone just listen and help you see yourself in a new light is priceless.

Our quality of life depends mostly on ourselves; how we see life and how we decide to live it determines our quality of life. Many factors are in our direct control, but all-too-often, we feel the sense of a lack of control, that life has gotten out of hand.

Life Coaches use many tools to help you assess your quality of life, to help guide you towards your goal and to achieve the quality you desire. Assessments can be simple, but powerful, if we allow them to work within ourselves, if we are truthful in our responses, as painful as it can be at times, we will learn more about ourselves and how to change what needs to change in our life, too improve our life quality.

I would like to offer anyone who wants, a free Life Quality assessment, and one free session to review the results with you. Just email me at guidedinnsight@gmail.com and request your free assessment. Include your contact information (First and Last name and country and city). I will be happy to send along the Quality of Life assessment, and to set up a time to review it with you, all free of charge.

God Bless & Happy Lent

Paul Sposite

Guided Insight Life Coach

 

The Voice of Summer: A Lenten Reflection

For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Solomon 2:11-12

For any Michigander, Detroit Tiger Fan or just a Detroiter, you know the above, it is the Voice of the Turtle, and every spring it was read by the voice of summer, Ernie Harwell

In Detroit, you knew it was spring, not by the temperatures outside, but by the voice of Ernie on the air. Each and every Detroit Tigers Baseball session started off with the Voice of the Turtle, a short verse from the book of Solomon, yet, most of us hearing the words had no idea they were from the bible. I know that when I was growing up hearing Ernie’s words, I thought it was just a pome he wrote for the start of spring, I had no idea that he was evangelizing me, I had no idea I was hearing the inspired word of God.

Isn’t that just how life is, we hear something, it sounds cute, it sounds good, yet we fail to hear the voice of God with in it.  But yet, like Ernie’s rendition of the Voice of the Turtle, it resonates with you, it seems to fill a spot within your heart. I know that’s how it was with Ernie, and that’s how it still is, even today when I hear his voice, I hear his reading of the Voice of the Turtle, I feel spring has arrived, all is right with the world. It’s amazing how certain things effect us.

God is that way, when you allow Him to be. He will resonate within you, make all things right, if you allow Him too. But like hearing the voice of summer, you have to tune in, to hear Ernie call a baseball game was like being in the park, feeling the sunshine and smelling the hotdogs. He made you fell as if you were apart of the action, one of the fans right behind home plate.

I remember many a Saturday afternoons listening to Ernie call a game, his voice was baseball, and you truly did feel safe and secure with his voice on the radio. Several years ago Ernie passed away, and it was like all of Michigan lost a grandfather, and we all knew Detroit Baseball would never be the same. Something was lost, the voice of summer had died. Sure, he had not been calling games for a few years before he passed on, but he was still there, you would hear him on the radio every now and than and you knew he was watching his beloved Tigers, just as you were. It just seemed different after his passing, nothing was the same, summer had lost its voice and silence now rained. Dramatic sounding I know, but some people just have the effect on you, some moments or memories are just that strong, and Ernie is one such memory. And not just for me, but for millions of fans.

Last year I had the opportunity to see a play in downtown Detroit called “Ernie!”, yep a play about the voice of summer. It was written by our own Mitch Album, a local sports writer  and radio personality, and know nationally for his best selling book “Tuesdays with Morrie”. The one act play was a sell out each and every night and is returning this year for another go around. An amazing thing, if you stop and think about it, Ernie was just a sports broadcaster, a baseball guy. He didn’t invent the cure for cancer, he died from it. he didn’t bring world peace to the world, he brought baseball to the homes. He was, by every account, just a man who loved baseball, his wife Lulu and his kids. He was just Ernie. But he was beloved by all and holds a special place in the hearts of all Detroiters, for Ernie was, and still is to many, the voice of summer. Ernie knew his gifts and used them everyday, in small ways, to make God know and visible in this world. Be it by reading a small poem  on the air waves, or by making us all feel as if we are welcomed into his world of baseball. It was his gifts that he chose to share with the world, and we are all better of for it. Ernie was truly one of a kind, he truly was a gift from God.

Lent offers us an opportunity to look into ourselves, to evaluate our gifts and to determine the best way to share them with others. God gave Ernie the gift of Baseball, the gift to make you feel welcomed and the gift of the love of life, what gift do you have, and how are you using it. Find ways this Lent to use your gifts, to share them with others, to make God known a little better in this world.

God Bless & Happy Lent

Paul Sposite

Guided Insight Life Coach

Related articles

• Take Me Out To The Ballgame (blogher.com)
• Ernie Els struggling to make The Masters after blowing lead at Transitions Championship (telegraph.co.uk)
• THE ERNIE 4 – "One Baskervoid Frottage – 30 Minutes With The Ernie 4″ – stream – 2012 (autoreversetoinfinity.wordpress.com)

 

Overturned: A Lenten Reflection

 

¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.”

Matthew 21:11-13 (NIV)

Jesus showed a side of Himself not often portrayed in the bible accounts of His life, a justified anger. Yes, there is such a thing, and yes even Jesus got angry, as we just read. Jesus cleansed the Temple, overturned the tables and set the birds free. Does not sound like a “Jesus loves you just as you are” sort of guy. YES, I know Jesus LOVES YOU! That is not in question, but the idea or theology that goes something like this: Jesus Loves you just as you are, he asks nothing of you, you are fine just as you are… You know what I’m talking about. Well, that just wrong, and not biblical.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (NIV)

We are the Temple of the Lord, the new Temple instituted at that Last Supper when our Lord instituted the Eucharist. We partake His Body into out Temples, the new dwelling place of the Lord. Does the Holy Spirit reside in a den of robbers, or is it fit for the Holy Spirit? Have you overturned your life? Emptied it of the money changes or are you still allowing space with in your temple for them?

This is a hard question, one that causes us to stop and look within, and most of us would rather not look within, we find it much easer to look out and see the other people’s den of robbers.

 ⁴¹ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Luke 6:41-43 (NIV)

We are called to make our Temples fitting for the Lord, to provide a “New Wine Skin”

 

16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Matthew 9:16-18 (NIV)

Our souls will rebel and pull away from the Lord, sin leads to tears and rips in the wine skin of our souls. The money changes of our life, anger, pride, envy and such, rob of us our ability to commune with the Lord. We need to enter into our temples and overturn the tables of anger, pride and envy, we need to set free the birds of sacrifice and offer up ourselves to the Lord. We need to allow the Lord to dwell within His temple, we need to make room in our souls/life for Him, we need to cleanse our Temples, and Lent offers us the opportunity to do this.

Lent is a time of fasting, of giving up the bad in exchange for the good and Holy.

The Catholic Church observes the discipline of fasting or abstinence at various times each year, especially during Lent. For Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one’s intake of food, which may or may not include abstinence from meat (or another type of food). The Catholic Church teaches that all people are obliged by God to perform some penance for their sins, and that these acts of penance are both personal and corporate. The purpose of fasting is spiritual focus, self discipline, imitation of Christ, and performing penance. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Fasting a way for us to overturn the tables within our Temples, it offers us the opportunity to purge our body/souls of unwanted toxins, sins. Fasting helps us remember what is truly important in our lives, what we can live without and more importantly, what we cannot live without, God.  This Lent I offer up this idea, besides abstaining from meat on Fridays, offer up Wednesdays as a day of Fasting, eat only one small meal all day, no snacking, no grand 18 coarse meal at the end of the day to celebrate your fasting, just fast and tell no one, just offer it up.

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
Matthew 6:15-17 (NIV)

Cleans your temple this Lent, make room for the risen Lord within your soul and rejoice in knowing you His Temple.

God Bless & Happy Lent

Paul Sposite

 

Guided Insight Life Coach

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Newt speaks the Truth…

Last night I watched the South Carolina debates on Fox News. What stuck me was the fact that the questions were not designed as “sound bites” and that they were fair. What a concept… It was refreshing to hear, for the most part, intelligent questions from the media. No “So if states want to ban birth control” type questions. In truth they all sounded good, except Ron Paul, for some reason he always sounds like he is disorganized and scattered. Newt, as always was right on and put the media in there place. His little spat with Juan Williams, who was trying to bring up the race card.

 

It seems to me that the race card is going to be the mode of operation this election season. If you state the truth, and dislike Obama, you must be a raciest. How sad is that, how low is that, I for one, am insulted! I dislike Obama because he is, in my opinion, the worst president EVER, He makes Carter look good, and that’s pretty bad. I would have thought that the fact that the current president won by a land slide would have dispelled the notion that America is raciest. But I guess that something are just to easy to fall back on.

It’s a no brainer to say it must be race, not policy, it makes good head lines to say White America is racist. By the way, as a side note, I hate when we Americans are described as:

• White Americans
• Black Americans
• African Americans

Are we not all just Americans? Is that not part of the issue, we keep a divide between us when we do that. And to me it is simply stupid and counter productive. Yes I know there are still some whites that dislike blacks, just like there are some blacks that dislike some whites. It will, sadly, always be that way. There will always be ignorant people in this world. There is not much we can do about that. But there is much we can do about the divided we create when we refer to each other by our race. How about just American? What’s wrong with that?

Well back to the topic at hand…

Newt has a way of responding that just makes the questioner take a step back, his simple “No” to Juan was brilliant, the follow up from Newt with the why, in simple terms and no concerned about political correctness, what a beautiful thing to see and hear from a politician!

With Newt as our President we would always know were we stand, what he thinks and how he is going to deal with any issue. What a refreshing thought….

As for Dr. Ron Paul… Not sure why, but I just get an uneasy feeling about him, the feeling that one night he is just going to wake up and decide to run nude through the White House, just a feeling that he is just a tad bit off center. Not nuts, just a one or two cards short of a full deck. Don’t know why I get that feeling, but I do…

Romney, well what can I say about him, I would vote for him if he was the republican, but that’s about it. I just am not drawn to him.

Perry, he looks like he is always stiff, almost like a Ken doll…

Santorum, I like him, he is my second in line, if not Newt, than Santorum. Why not my first, I just like Newt, always have.

This election year promises to be exciting and revealing. I think we will see what America is made of this election. The American fabric will be stretched to its limits, and we will see what she can stand. If we fail, if the fabric rips we will be headed down a long, steep and slippery road to socialism. A road we are currently on, a road that not just liberals have put us on, but, sad to say, so have many conservatives. It is time, this election is the election to decide what road we want, socialism or the road the Founding Fathers forged for us, the road carved out of the wilderness with the blood of our sons. The road of Liberty and freedom, the road of personal responsibility and sacrifice. The process will not be easy, and we will have a hard climb back up to the top of this current hill, a lot of back tracking to do, freedoms to restore and liberties to reinstate. But we are Americans, we can do it, if only we try and work hard. Something our history as a nation has show we are not afraid to do, hard work was what this nation was built on, and hard work is what will restore this nation.

God willing, we will do just that, we will restore this great nation back to is former glory!

God Bless

Guided Insight Life Coach

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Faith in Humanity

Last week my house was broken into, for anyone who has had this happen, you know the feeling. The feeling of being violated. What they took is all replicable except some watches that use to belong to my day, but the rest is just stuff, and stuff can be replaced. I called the police, they found some evidence, but I am not very hopeful because, truth be told, this is not the biggest thing on their radar. Yes it was well over $4000.00 dollars of stuff, but still small stuff considering the larger picture.  The insurance company is taking care of it all, so it will all be replaced soon.

But what makes me mad is this simple concept, that some people feel they have the right to take what they want, to take what I have worked hard for, what I have purchased with my hard-earned money. And, sad to say, we have done it to ourselves. We have created a nation of “But I want it” a youth of “I deserve it” and a belief that “We just don’t understand them”.

Bull crap!

I understand, I understand that I have worked hard all my life for what I have. That I don’t just take what I want, that I understand that I know it is wrong to take what is not yours. And don’t give me that crap they just don’t know any better. I will wager that if I went up to on of the low fife thief’s and took something of there’s, they would understand that it was not right to take what they have, just because I wanted it. They understand right from wrong, it’s a basic to life. We are born with it, even a child knows they are not happy when you take something from them. Sure it takes time for them to understand that it works both ways, that its wrong to have something taken and to take. But anyone who can drive is old enough to have that basic skill set. Nope it has nothing to do with “They don’t understand”” but more to do with “They just don’t care”.

We have a basic moral code in us, we always have and always will, but free will allows us to choose do as we please, and they choose to take what was not theirs. Plain and simple!

Back in June my car was stolen, prior to that some change was stolen from my car and now this, add to this that my Dog passed away in April it has not been a good year.

But…

I have not lost faith in the human race, I still give people the benefit of the doubt… I still look to the future with hope, maybe a little more prayer that before last week, but still hope.

God Bless

Paul

Guided Insight Life Coach

 

Sometimes simple is well enough

Something’s should not be messed with, some traditions are sacred and should remain untouched. But there are always some who feel a little twist here and a little change here makes things better. Take, for example all the restaurants that feels a need to “fix” the American classic, grilled cheese. A simple delight as it is, but some feel a need to “spice it up” change it around and make it “new and improved”. Hogwash! That’s what I say. It worked as it was, it was simple and delightful… Two slices of white bread, 2 slices of American cheese, slap some butter on the bread and grill… Simple and good as it is. No need to add aged cheese from the basement of some monastery in some obscure town in Europe, or artisan bread that coast as much as a new car. Sometimes simple is better.

When I travel to Germany and visit my good friends there, we always make time to have some nice home cooked foods. He is a marvelous cook, and can create some very fancy meals. We seem to always have one posh meal before I leave to return home. But off all the meals, the simple poor man dishes are the best. Simple pasta dishes or the working mans German dinners. They are simple, flavorful and, well, comforting. As food should be…

This also applies to other areas of life, such as family or religious  traditions. Why mess with proven ways… Why change just for the sake of change? What progress is there in that?

Last weekend I took a coworker and friend from Mexico to Downtown Detroit, to show him the sights and he wanted to get a hat from the Detroit Hard Rock Café. As part of my fifty cent tour of Detroit we walked to Fox Town, where the Fox Theater is. What a theater it is, it is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, it truly is the gem of Detroit. Currently the Fox has a production of Irving Berlin‘s “White Christmas”. One of my all time favorite movies. I mean what’s not to like, Bing sinning White Christmas, as only he can and Danny Kaye dancing and, well, being Danny Kaye. A simple story line, clean humor and best of all, it’s just a good plain simple feel good movie. One that I watch all year-long…

As part of our night in Detroit, we decided to take in the play, enjoy the sounds of Christmas and experience the Fox in all her glory. the Fox did not let us down, she is a majestic ornate theater and she was all done up for Christmas. What a sight!

But the same cannot be said about the play…

Why change a classic? Why make it what it is not? Why add to what is perfect?

All theses questions where running through my head as I watched this thing unfold. Was it a bad musical, not, the actors were fine and the singing was good, but was it “White Christmas”, nope, they could have called this play anything they wanted…. And maybe I would have enjoyed it more if it was not called White Christmas.

What did they do to it, they sexualized it, turned Bing’s character in to a fool and Danny’s into a sex hound, made the general an ass and the house keeper his love interest. Why? for what purpose? The story was fine as it was. Sure I understand that you need to rewrite the move for the stage, but why reinvent the characters? Like the grilled cheese, an American classic, so it White Christmas. It was simple, and decent, it was and is one of the finest movies made, yet the producers of the play felt a need to update it, to bring it into the 21st century. To what ends? For what purpose? None that I can see. Sometimes simple is well enough.

In a world full of complex situations and over sexed everything, sometimes sitting on the couch wrapped in a blanket and watching White Christmas while eating a simple grilled cheese sandwich is all we need. Sometimes simple is the best way to go.

 

God Bless

Paul

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• White Christmas – sknetworksinternet (itunes.apple.com)

 

Sometimes we just don’t need to know

Image via Wikipedia

Just a question…. Is it really a good idea for any one, the president, a senator or just some low level person to announce our military plans? Last night President Obama told the nation, and the world, that his is going to withdraw troupes from Afghanistan. Is this really a smart thing to do?

I’m not questioning the withdraw, I will leave that to another blog, but I am questioning the announcement.  Should the American people be told everything? Do we really want to tell the world our plans?

I think not.

Once again, this is not an Obama blast, but a blast in principal…. We, the American people, seen to think that we have a right to know everything… Before it happens….

I’m not to sure it’s the smartest thing to do, “Hey everyone, we are withdrawing on this day and time” … Why not just sent the enemy the plan or post it on Facebook so they can download it!

I never understood this, never. Something’s should not be for general consumption. And military plans are one of them. But I seem to be a minority in this view, The American public seems to feel they should know before hand. Why? withdraw if that’s what we need to do, then tell us. That way it’s a surprise to us as well as our enemy…

Sometimes the whole 24/7 news is not a good thing, this coming from a new junkie, but sometimes we just don’t need to know…

All the sex scandals for example, ok, tell us once and move on, we really don’t need to hear about every detail of every photo taken and sent, nor do we need to know the play by play of this ones or that ones love child. By the way, I have an issue with that term, Love Child, shouldn’t it be more like “I cheated on my wife child”? But that’s also another blog…

We are infatuated with sex scandals in this nation, we drag them on, sometimes for longer than the “relationship” itself. We, as a nation, really do need to get a life…

On that note…

God Bless

Paul

Related articles

• Obama, British PM talk troops drawdown before WH speech (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• Parsing the Obama Withdraw from Afghanistan (vgiordano.wordpress.com)
• Obama plans withdrawal of 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next year (capitolhillblue.com)
• Obama plans to speed up Afghan troop withdrawals (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
• President Obama announces start of troop withdrawals from Afghanistan (dailykos.com)
• Obama to Outline Afghanistan Withdrawal (newser.com)
• Obama to Announce Afghanistan Withdrawal Plans Wednesday (theroot.com)
• President Obama’s Afghanistan Speech: Woefully Incompetent, Dangerously Irresponsible (snarkandboobs.wordpress.com)
• President to address nation on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan (charlotte.news14.com)
• The longer we stay in Afghanistan, the more enemies we create – war veteran (rt.com)
• Obama to Announce Plans to Withdraw from Afghanistan (israelnationalnews.com)
• Obama Announcement On US Troop Withdrawal (news.sky.com)
• U.S. to Withdraw 33,000 Troops from Afghanistan by 2012 (israelnationalnews.com)
• The ebbing tide of war (proseandthorn.wordpress.com)
• Obama’s Afghanistan speech: The troop withdrawal is dramatic, but it could work. (slate.com)
• Suppose Obama will Transfer 33,000 Soldiers from Afghanistan to Libya, Yemen, Tunisia or Egypt by 2014 ??? (2012patriot.wordpress.com)
• Obama to reveal blueprint for Afghan withdrawal (ctv.ca)
• Obama likely to cut 10,000 troops from Afghanistan (ctv.ca)
• Obama to set course for drawing down Afghan war (ctv.ca)

 

Free Speech and a Teacher

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In the news this past week is a story about a teacher who’s blog has hit a nerve… She used her personal blog to criticize her students and fellow teachers, she never named names, didn’t say what school she worked at and didn’t give her own name. Yet the school saw fit to suspend her… Is this fair? Is this taking away her free speech rights. I for one think she has all the right in the world to say what she pleases, as long as she don’t use names, what harm. And besides, she is correct, the student body of most high school students are as she states, the youth of today is lazy they do expect you to do everything for them and they expect everything to be handed to them.

This is not a “local” thing, this is a national epidemic, one that needs to be confronted, and soon!

I have two teen age boys living with me, and all to often I hear the words “They just expect to much” or “This is no fair”… Well life ain’t fair and life expects even more… We have created a generation of lazy youth, a youth that expects the world to bow down to there every needs, a youth that expects there teachers to pass them just because a youth that expects there first job to be a CEO position and a youth who expect everyone to just accept then as they are. They don’t need to change, they don’t need to follow the rules, hell they don’t even need to respect.

So I say blog to your hearts content, and if it upsets some, so be it, if feelings get hurt, get over it and if a parent or child finds offence to it, than get off your lazy butt and do something about it, fit it, change, grow up and move on.

I have worked with youth for over 20 years, and I can attest to the fact that many, not all, but many youth are as she states and many parents, once again not all, but many are the reason why. They don’t want to parent, they want to be friends. Well my friends, being a parent is not being a friend. You did not have a child to make your new best friend, at least I hope not, you had a child, I hope, to show your love to your spouse and to praise God.

But sadly many do not, many have children to fulfill any emptiness, to give them someone who will love them. It is a selfish reason to have a child, and the results are the youth of today. Now before everyone gets mad at me, and sends me nasty replies, I know that many, if not most parents are good loving parents and most children are good and loving children. But, as it works out,  it is always the minority that gets noticed, that speak the loudest and get the attention of everyone around them.

The funny thing is, the reason why they act out, in most cases, is to get the attention, well she gave it to them, and now they are pissed.. To bad! Get over it! Grow up!

As I tell my teens, The world is not here to serve you, sometimes life sucks and sometimes things happen, that’s just the way life is. And the sooner you learn this the sooner you will be able to live in the real world. But modern society does not agree with this, the liberal mind set at schools teaches our youth that you should not have to work hard, that everything is given to you and that life should be fair. For any readers of this blog, you know I think that is a bunch of crap! Our youth need to learn that sometimes, fair or unfair, life keeps coming at you. That sometimes homework gets in the way of your plans to have fun, that sometimes a teacher may expect more from you than you want to give and that sometimes you just got to do what you don’t like to do.

This teacher has all the rights in the world to air-out her dirty laundry, she has all the rights to say what she pleases, it is her first amendment right. The founding fathers made sure they protected this basic right, but the left, the liberals, only protect it if it fits there agenda.  And for obvious reasons, her blog does not. It shows the short-comings of the educational system, the failure of parents and society, and a generation for what it is. I say she should be promoted, made the principal and given more power. Maybe her approach of calling out the issues, showing the problem for what it is will shock the students and parents and fellow teachers into action. Now I am not saying all students, parents and teachers are in need of the shock, but many are.

Her is an article from USA Today….

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Pa. teacher strikes nerve with ‘lazy whiners’ blog (source)

FEASTERVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A high school English teacher in suburban Philadelphia who was suspended for a profanity-laced blog in which she called her young charges "disengaged, lazy whiners" is driving a debate by daring to ask: Why are today’s students unmotivated — and what’s wrong with calling them out?

By Matt Rourke, AP

High school teacher Natalie Munroe was suspended from her job over profanity-laced posts on her blog.

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By Matt Rourke, AP

High school teacher Natalie Munroe was suspended from her job over profanity-laced posts on her blog.

As she fights to keep her job at Central Bucks East High School, 30-year-old Natalie Munroe says she had no interest in becoming any sort of educational icon. The blog has been taken down, but its contents can still be found easily online.

Her comments and her suspension by the middle-class school district have clearly touched a nerve, with scores of online commenters applauding her for taking a tough love approach or excoriating her for verbal abuse. Media attention has rained down, and backers have started a Facebook group.

"My students are out of control," Munroe, who has taught 10th, 11th and 12th grades, wrote in one post. "They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying."

And in another post, Munroe — who is more than eight months pregnant — quotes from the musical "Bye Bye Birdie": "Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs. Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS."

She also listed some comments she wished she could post on student evaluations, including: "I hear the trash company is hiring"; "I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son"; and "Just as bad as his sibling. Don’t you know how to raise kids?"

Munroe did not use her full name or identify her students or school in the blog, which she started in August 2009 for friends and family. Last week, she said, students brought it to the attention of the school, which suspended her with pay.

"They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative," Munroe said of her students in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. "The students are not being held accountable."

Munroe pointed out that she also said positive things, but she acknowledges that she did write some things out of frustration — and of a feeling that many kids today are being given a free pass at school and at home.

"Parents are more trying to be their kids’ friends and less trying to be their parent," Munroe said, also noting students’ lack of patience. "They want everything right now. They want it yesterday."

One of Munroe’s former students, who now attends McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., said he was torn by his former teacher’s comments. Jeff Shoolbraid said that he thought much of what Munroe said was true and that she had a right to voice her opinion, but felt her comments were out of line for a teacher.

"Whatever influenced her to say what she did is evidence as to why she simply should not teach," Shoolbraid wrote in an e-mail to the AP. "I just thought it was completely inappropriate."

He continued: "As far as motivated high school students, she’s completely correct. High school kids don’t want to do anything. … It’s a teacher’s job, however, to give students the motivation to learn."

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association declined to comment Tuesday because he said the group may represent Munroe. Messages left for the Central Bucks School District superintendent were not returned.

Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said school districts are navigating uncharted territory when it comes to teachers’ online behavior. Often, districts want teachers to have more contact with students and their families, yet give little guidance on how teachers should behave online even as students are more plugged in than they’ve ever been.

"This is really murky stuff," she said. "When you have a teacher using their blog to berate their students, maybe that’s a little less murky. But the larger issue is, I think, districts are totally unprepared to deal with this."

Munroe has hired an attorney, who said that she had the right to post her thoughts on the blog and that it’s a free speech issue. The attorney, Steven Rovner, said the district has led Munroe to believe that she will eventually lose her job.

"She could have been any person, any teacher in America writing about their lives," he said, pointing out that Munroe blogged about 85 times and that only about 15 to 20 of the posts involved her being a teacher. "It’s honest and raw and a little edgy depending on your taste. … She has a deep frustration for the educational system in America."

Rovner said that he would consider legal action if indeed Munroe loses her job.

"She did it as carefully as she could," he said about her blog. "It’s so general that it applies to the problems in school districts and schools across the country."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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God Bless

Paul

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