The eighth C in Lee Iacocca's list for leadership.

QUOTE from Joseph Joubert: " All ae born to observe order. but few are born to establish it."


Today I'm writing what I LEARNED about Lee Iacocca's eighth C in his list of nine traits of leadership. The eighth C is COMPETENT.

Iacocca says a leader has to be competent. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you are doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. A leader has to be a problem solver.

Then ninth and final C will be in my next post. It is two words and they begin with the intials
C _ _ _ _ _  S _ _ _ _. This one should be easy.

HUMOR for today. These examples of titles for VERY SHORT BOOKS.

A Journey Through the Mind of Dennis Rodman.
Everything Men Know About Women.
French Hospitality.
Mike Tyson's Guide to Dating Etiquette.
Popular Lawyers.
A Guide to Arab Democracies.

The seventh C of Lee Iacocca's list for leadership.

QUOTE from J.C. Watts: "Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking."

Today I'm writing what I LEARNED about Lee Iacocca's seventh C in his list of nine traits of leadership. The seventh C is CHARISMA.

A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to "inspire.." People follow a leader because they trust him. Lee says "that's my definition of charisma."

The eighth C starts with the letters COMP _ _ _ _ _ and is nine letters long. My guess is _________. Find out tomorrow.

HUMOR for today: Here are some more American Advertising Slogans translated into foreign languages. They're pretty funny.

When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave."

Then when Coca-Cola first shipped to China, they named the product something that when pronounced sounded like "Coca-Cola." The only problem was that the characters used meant 'Bite the Wax Tadpole."
They later changed to a set of characters that mean "Happiness in the mouth."

Jolly Green Giant translated into Arabic means "Intimidating Green Ogre."

When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the U.S., with the cute baby on the label - until they found out that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what actually is inside the container since most people cannot read.

The sixth C of Lee Iacocca's list for leadership.

QUOTE from Dwight D. Eisenhower: " Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."

Today I'm writing what I LEARNED about Lee Iacocca's sixth C in his list of nine traits of leadership. The sixth C is CONVICTION.

 CONVICTION is a fire in you belly. You're got to have passion. You've got to really  want to get something done. In 2006 the U.S. Congress was in session only ninety-two days, that's eleven days less than the record set in 1948.  Most people would be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.

The seventh C starts with the letters CHAR _ _ _ _ and is eight letters long. Take a guess - the answer tomorrow.

HUMOR for today: Here's How Some American Advertising Slogans Translate into Foreign Languages.

Coors translated its slogan "Turn It Loose" into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from Diarrhea."

Chicken magnate Frank Perdue' line, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," sounds much more interesting in Spanish: "It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate."

The Chcvy Nova never sold well in Spanish-speaking countries. "No Va" means "It Does Not Go" in Spanish.

The fifth C of Lee Iacocca's C list for leadership.

QUOTE from Harry Truman: "I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do and like it."

Today I'm writing what I LEARNED about Lee Iacocca's fifth C in his list of nine traits of leadership. The fifth C is COURAGE.

Iacocca says I'm talking about BALLS. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. Talking like a cowboy isn't courage. Courage in the 21st century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiations table and talk. It you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. A President doesn't have a town hall meeting when the only people allowed into that meeting are hand-picked and sanitized and are your most loyal suppoters.

The sixth C starts with the letters CONV _ _ _ _ _ _ and is ten letters long. Can you guess? You'll see the answer tomorrow.

HUMOR for today.                                     
                                                                               
HEAVEN is a place where:                                         :
The lovers are Italian.                                                
The cooks are French;                                              
.The mechanics are German.
The police  are   English                                                                                                                                                     The government is run by the Swiss. 

HELL is a place where:
The lovers are Swiss.
The cooks are English.
The mechanics are French.
The police are German.
The government is run by the Italians,

The fourth C of Lee Iacocca's C list for leadership.

QUOTE from Ralph Nader: "I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders not more followers."

Today I'm writing what I LEARNED about Lee Iacocca's fourth C in his list of nine traits of leadership. The fourth C is CHARACTER.

Iacocca said a leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "It you want to test a man's character, give him power." He went on to say that, "A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy." We have had presidents who have done that.

The fifth C starts with the letters CO _ _ _ _ _ and is seven letters long. Take a guess. Tomorrow I'll write about it

HUMOR for today.
A defending attorney was cross-examining a coroner. The attorney asked, "Before you signed the death certificate, had you taken the man's pulse?"
    The coroner said, "No."
    The attorney then asked, "Did you listen for a heartbeat?"
    "No."
    "Did you check for breathing?"
    "No."
    "So when you signed the death certificate, you had not taken any steps to make sure the man was dead, had you?"
    The coroner, weary of the browbeating. said, "Well, let me put it this way. The man's brain was sitting in a jar on my desk, but for all I know he could be out there practicing law somewhere."

The third C of Lee Iacocca's C list for leadership.

QUOTE from Andrew Carnegie: "No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it."


Today I'm writing what I LEARNED about Lee Iacocca's third C in his list of nine traits of leadership. The third C is a leader has to be able to COMMUNICATE. Lee said, " I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. That is, telling the truth even when it's painful." Not all of our Presidents have done that.

The fourth C starts with the letters CH _ _ _ _ _ _ _  and is nine letters long. Can you guess? I'll tell you tomorrow.

HUMOR for today has to do with baseball quotes from former major leaguers and other famous people. These came from the March issue of the AARP Bulletin

"I watch a lot of baseball on radio." - Gerald Ford
" Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher I ever saw. He always pitches when the other team doesn't score any runs." - Tim McCarver
"I never took the game home with me. I always left it in some bar." - Bob Lemon
"After Jackie Robinson, the most famous black in baseball history is Reggie Jackson." - Reggie Jackson
"Well, it took me 17 years to get 3,000 hits in baseball, and I did it in one afternoon on the golf course." - Hank Aaron
"Aw, how could he lose the ball in the sun? He's from Mexico." - Harry Caray
"All I remember about my wedding day in 1967 is that the Cubs lost a doubleheader." - George F. Will
"A man once told me to walk with the Lord. I'd rather walk with the bases loaded." - Ken Singleton
"I'd be willing to bet you, if I was a betting man, that I have never bet on baseball." - Pete Rose
"Lasorda's standard reply when some new kid would ask directions to the whirlpool was to tell him to stick his foot in the toilet and flush it." - Steve Garvey
"He looks like a greyhound, but he runs like a bus." - George Brett on third baseman Jamie Quirk
"Playing third base ain't so bad if nothin' is hit to you." - Yogi Berra
"The baseball mania has runs its course. It has no future as a professional endeavor." - Cincinnati Gazette editorial, 1879

The second C of Lee Iacocca's C list for leadership.

QUOTE from Colin Powell: "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand."

Today I'm writing what I LEARNED about Lee Iacocca's second C in his list of nine traits of leadership. The second C is to be CREATIVE.

A leader has to be creative, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. Leadership is all about managing change - whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt.

Tomorrow I'll write about the third C. It begins with the letters CO _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and is eleven letters long. See if you can guess.

HUMOR for today from the Readers's Digest.

Sarah, the self-appointed arbiter of the town's morals, stuck her nose into everyone's business. She made a mistake, however, when she accused her neighbor George of being an alcoholic after spotting his pickup parked in front of a bar one afternoon.

"George, everyone who sees it there will know what you're doing," she told him in front of their church group.

George ignored her and walked away. Later that evening, he parked his pickup in front of Sarah's house and left it there all night.

The first C of Lee Iacocca's C list for leadership.

QUOTE from Russell H. Ewing: "A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group."

In 2007 Lee Iacocca wrote a book emtitled, WHERE HAVE ALL THE LEADER'S GONE? In an email last month my son Brad made me aware of this book. The email was an excerpt from the opening of the book. In this excerpt Iacocca writes about his "C" list for leadership. He has nine traits for leadership, all of which start with the letter "C". What a greart article it is. Today I'm writing what I LEARNED about the first C - which is CURIOSITY. I'm going to write about one C a day, so it will take me nine days to finish. I think you'll  find them fascinating and you'll learn a lot, just like I did.

CURIOSITY; A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciouly, because the world is a big, complicated place. If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care.

One of our former presidents bragged about never reading the newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he said. Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide, whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter,"


Some FOOD FOR THOUGHT from Albert Einstein: "The important thing is not to stop questioning." I absolutely agree with Albert.

HUMOR for today from Groucho Marx: Groucho said, "Just give me a comfortable couch, a dog, a good book, and a woman. Then if you can get the dog to go somewhere and read the book, I might have a little fun!"

                              

Part 6: What's going on in America (and what's wrong with America.)

QUOTE from Satchel Paige: "I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I toss one that ain't never been seen by this generation."

LEARNING about what's going on and what's wrong with  TEXAS and WISCONSIN. (Info from Jim Hightower's LOWDOWN.)

TEXAS: Rick Perry is the Republican governor of Texas. He brags that he's made Texas "corporate-friendly." Here's what that friendship buys you. Wages in Texas are the 44th lowest in the nation. Texas is at or near the top when it comes to the poverty rate, near the top in the percentage of people with no health insurance. near the top in the income gap between rich and poor, and near the top with the most regressive tax system, the cost of electric bills, and the rate of high school dropouts.

Then there's the $27 billion budget deficit Perry has run up - the second-highest in the country. So who's expected to bear this deficit burden? Guess who? It's the middle class and the poor, of course, including at least 100,000 teachers who are now getting their "excessed" notices. And Perry's budget chops current school spending by nearly $8 billion, even as student enrollment soars. Texas Rick is making teachers and kids absorb the shortfall because he can't bear to hike the meager taxes paid by corporations and the rich, nor will he stand for eliminating their tax loopholes and state subsidies.Texas budget writers admit that they will not begin to meet the state's basic needs and that Perry's stripped down budget will cost Texans 335,000 more jobs in the next two years.

Texas is another example of what's wrong with America.

WISCONSIN: I'm not going to spend any time on Wisconsin. With all the publicity Wisconsin got this winter most of us know what going on there. But it is another Koch Brothers supported effort. Governor Wal;ker is described in the LOWDOWN as especially arrogant, autocratic, and abusive in trying to ram his bills into law, essentially operating as an above-the-law, tinhorn tyrant.

(This ends my Six Part Series with what's going on in America and what's wrong with America. It boggles my mind that conservative Republicans always expect the middle class and the poor to bear the brundt while the rich and the corporations have no responsibility to improve the situation. The middle class and the poor did not create the economic mess we're in. It was created by conservatives with the Bush tax cuts, too much spending put on the credit card by the Bush administration and their unquenchable thirst for greed and money.)

HUMOR for today: These are some Yogi Berra comments about the game of baseball. Yogi said:

"Ninety percent of this game is half .mental."
"Baseball ain't nothing like football. You can't make up no trick plays."
"Think! How the hell are you gonna think and hit at the same time."
"Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting."
"Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the street."
"So I'm ugly. So what? I never saw anyone hit with his face."

Part 5: What's going on in America (and what's wrong with America.)

QUOTE from Calvin Coolidge: "I have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm."

More LEARNING about what's wrong with America.- today it is Ohio.

OHIO: John Kasich is the newly elected Republican governor of Ohio. He was backed financially by the likes of the Koch Brothers and Rupert Murdoch (the FOX News guy.) Kasich is now backing their vision of a union-free America. His club of chioce is a draconian law that bars teachers and other public employees from striking for any reason, punishes any workers who participate in a walkout, eliminates automatic pay raises, bans any union effort to limit privatation of a government function, proihibits police and firefighters from access to binding arbitration in contract disputes, and only allows public employees to bargain with their governmental bosses when the bosses say they can.

Kasich excuses this by asserting that he was elected to make drastic cuts in state spending, including in the pay of these workers. But he has spared a few workers - those in his office. For example, he is paying his chief of staff $170,000 a year, nearly $50,000 more than the position previously paid. To get "good people to come in" to government, you have to offer good salaries.

(I find that statement a little ironic - I guess according to Kashich's thinking that only applies to his office.)

Kasich's approval rating has crashed to around 30%.

Tomoirrow I'll look at Texas and Wisconsin.

Part 4: What's going on in America (and what's wrong with America.)

QUOTE from Mark Twain: "Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can."

LEARNING what's going on and going wrong in Maine and Michigan. (Info from Jim Hightower's LOWDOWN.)

MAINE; Paul LePage is the new Republican governor of Maine. He won the five-way governor's race last November with only 38% of the the vote. Unencumbered by humility, LePage has interpreted his meager percentage as a sweeping mandate to:
-repeal worker's bargaining rights.
-restrict the ability of unions to collect dues from members.
-cut pension benefits for state employees (though he mercifully exempted one - himself).
-raise the retirement age for public workers.
-cut programs that benefit Maine's middle class.
-generously lowering the tax bill for the state's richest one percent.
-roll back child labor law's.
-removed an 11-panel mural from the state labor department's lobby. The piece depicts scenes from the state's rich labor history, but the governor says it represents a "one-sided decor" that reflects poorly on his pro-corporate agenda. The Hartford Courant said it was, "The most moronic and mindless anti-worker gesture in the country."

MICHGAN:  Rick Snyder is the new Republican governor of Michigan. Here are some of his actions.
- Snyder's first budget was was to give corporations a 60% CUT IN TAXES. To help make up for that revenue loss, he proposed to tax the pensions of working class retirees and kill the state's earned income tax credit for the poor.
-stop unemployment benefits after 20 weeks instead of 26. This slick move will save corporations $300 million a year - money taken right out of the hide of jobless people.
-but the real jaw-dropper is his Local Government Fiscal Accountability Act. This bill authorizes Snyder to seize control of local governments, suspend democratic sovereignty, and hand municipal authority and assets to the corporations of his choice. He can declare that any city, county, school district, etc. .. is 'insolvent' and then appoint a manager to run the entity. This manager, which may be a private corporation, would have the power to bypass and dismiss elected officials, commandeer the public budget, cancel all contracts (including collective bargaining agreements), decertify public employee unions, sell off assets, and even dis-incorporate the local entity.
(This sounds a lot like the European kings and queens of the 1700 and 1800s.)

Well, so far I've taken a look at Florida, Maine, and Michigan with their new Republican governors. Tomorrow I'll take a look at Ohio and Texas.

HUMOR for today:
A local charity had never received a donation from the town's wealthiest man, so the director made a phone call.
 "Our records show you make $500,000 a year, yet you haven't given a penny to charity," the director began. "Wouldn't you like to help the comminity?"
  The banker replied, "Did your research show my mother is ill, with extremely expensive medical bills?"
 "Um, no,"mumbled the director.
 "Or that my brother is blind and unemployed? Or that my sister's husband died, leaving her broke with four kids and no job and no unemployment benefits."
 "I...I..had no idea."
 "So, said the wealthy man, "if I don't give them any money, why would I give any to you?"

Part 3: What's going in America (and what's wrong with America.)

QUOTE from Senator Barry Goldwater: "Sex and politics are a lot alike. You don't have to be good at them to enjoy them."

More LEARNINGS about what's going on in America. (Info from The Jim Hightower LOWDOWN.)

As a retired teacher I'm learning a lot about current attitudes towards teachers. These attitudes are coming from from the conservatives elements of American society. Recently, we have been called tax-sucking leeches, glorified babysitters, overpaid slugs who leave work at 3 pm and take the whole summer off. "Greedy," as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie barked at teachers in his state. Fire-em, bust their unions, take away their democratic rights, slash their pay, increase their workloads, and eliminate their pensions. Words like these are coming from right-wing governors, state legislators, mayors, and members of Congress. What is ironic is that you don't see them offering to do the same. What a morale booster for our current teachers. Thank God, I'm retired.

In Florida newly elected Republican Gov. Rick Scott said he was going to run state government like a business. He had previously been CEO of the health care comglomerate Columbia/HCA, where he presided over massive Medicare fraud that cost his culprit corporation a $1.7 billion federal fine and cost him his job. In only his first four months he has:
- Demoralized Florida teachers by moving a bill requiring each of them to reapply for their job every year, with renewel of their contract dependent on how their students perform on a single standarized test.
- The state's budget deficit is to be reduced by firing teachers and increasing the workloads of those who remain.
- Scott is slashing the number of weeks that out-of-work Floridians can get jobless aid to as low as 12 weeks, rather than the standard 26.
- He has proposed massive tax cuts to corporations and millionaires, even as he wants to whack state education spending by 10% and take an average of $2,300 a year out of each teacher's paycheck.

I bet the Florida teachers are thrilled with their new governor.

Tomorrow I'll write about what's going on (and going wrong) in Maine and Michigan.


HUMOR for today: This is the Hagar comic strip from May 14.

Hagar's wife, Helga, is mopping the floor and cleaning the house while Hagar is sitting in his recliner drinking a beer.

Helga says: "Hagar, how can you possibly sit there for hours and watch me work?"

Hagar answers: "The toughest part is to just sit here quietly and not offer any constructive advice."

Part 2 - What's going on in America (and what's wrong with America.)

QUOTE from Thomas Jefferson: "When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property."

Yesterday I wrote about GE and Exxon Mobil making billions and paying no income tax. Today I'm writing about the Gannett Corporation, the media giant that owns 23 TV stations and 82 newspapers. My source is The Jim Hightower LOWDOWN.

What I LEARNED about Gannett. Early this year, Gannett employees were notified that, for the third year in a row, they would get no raises and would have to take a week off without pay. To soothe the pain a bit, the note added that Gannett's two top executives would take a commensurate cut in their salaries.

Okay, team spirit! But, only two months later, bonuses totaling $3 million were quietly bestowed on CEO Craig Dubow and COO Gracia Martore. The two also were awarded stock options and deferred pay totaling as much as $17 million.

So, some 32,000  workers were forced into furloughs to save about $17 million for Gannett, but the corporation's number one and number two were then allowed to slurp up all the savings and then some. The sad part is that Gannett's newspaper readership, revenues, and stock price have fallen substantially, and the corporate chieftains are widely viewed as lacking imagination. But they are credited with "aggression cost management" - a cynical euphmism for throwing employees in the ditch.

Once again, working people are sacrified while top executives collect multimillion dollar bonuses.

Is there something wrong with America???? You bet there is and this is one of the main things. Like a female friend told me the other day, "If this accumulation of America's wealth keeps going into the hands of fewer and fewer people who are already wealthy we are going to see some kind of revolution in this country."

Ovid had this to say about wealthy people, "Although they possess enough, and more than enough, still they yearn for more."

And Alexander Pope had this to say, "One can see the respect God has for riches by the people he gives them to."

HUMOR for today from the Reader's Digest. It takes a husband to say something stupid like this. Sue Ater of Kentucky sent this story to RD.

Shortly before our 25th wedding anniversary, my husband sent 25 long-stemmed yellow roses to me at my office. A few days later, I plucked all the petals and dried them.
On the night of our anniversary, I spread the petals over the bed and lay on top of them, wearing only a negligee. As I'd hoped, I got a reaction from my husband.
When he saw me, he shouted, "Are those potato chips?"

Part 1 - What's going on in America (and what's wrong with America.)

QUOTE from Henry Kissinger: "Ninety percent of the politicans give the other 10 percent a bad reputation."

I've been doing a of reading lately and LEARNING a lot about what is going on in America and what's wrong with America.) I'm going to share some of what I've LEARNED. My posting today has to do with GE. I learned the following eye-opening info from The Hightower LOWDOWN.

We've been hearing a lot of noise lately about the need for "shared sacrifice" to cope with multibillion-dollar budget deficits. Everyone must do their part by giving up even essential programs.

Everyone? Who's that hiding in the bushes? Gee, it's General Electric, the global conglomerate that has made tax dodging its chief business. In the past five years, GE has amassed $26 billion in profits just from its American operations - AND PAID EXACTLY ZERO IN TAXES.

Meanwhile, GE is doing its own whack job on its workers by demanding that they agree to cuts in union wages, pensions, and health coverage. It's a concerted effort by corporate elites and their politicians to crush America's middle class. (Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009, paid no federal income taxes, and got a $156 million rebate from the IRS.)

Only 6.6 percent of our nations's tax revenue comes from corporations - down from 30 percent in the 1950s.

My HUMOR for today: Mark Twain said, "When angry, count four; when very angry, swear." After learning about GE I"ll have to admit I did some swearing.

The bad side of religion.

QUOTE from Lord Chesterfield: "When a man seeks your advice he generally wants your praise."

LEARNING about bin Ladens early religious training.

I've been reading TIME Magazine's special report, THE END OF  BIN LABEN. It reaffirmed what I've felt for many years - that too much religion can be a bad thing. Religion can be such a positive factor in the lives of most people. But too much blind faith can be bad news, whether that religion be Christian, Islam, Hindu, Judaism, Buddhism, or whatever. As I was reading about bin Ladens early indocrination in Islam theology those thoughts came into my mind.

When he was a teenager, a friend of his recalls, bin Laden would pray seven times a day, instead of the required five. And he would fast two days a week in imitation of the Prophet Mohammed. For entertainment, bin Laden would assemble a group of friends at his house to chant songs about the liberation of Palestine.

His dad was the principal contractor in renovating the Moslem holy sites of Mecca and Medina in the 1970s. At this time he worked for his father so he had a direct connection to Islam's holiest places. One result was he became more than ever self-righteously concerned with the rigid observance of Islamic
rules, beliefs, and rituals.

His life changed in 1979 when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. That was the year that bin Laden's destiny would change. He was prompted to launch an ambitious plan to confront the Soviets with a small group of of Arabs under his command. This group would become the nucleus of al-Qaeda, which he founded in 1988, (al-Qaeda means "the base" in Arabic). The purpose of al-Qaeda was to take jihad (holy war) to other parts of the globe and eventually to the U.S. He believed we were leading a Western conspiracy to destroy true Islam.

Bin Laden's brother-in-law said that bin Laden was driven not only by a desire to implement what he saw as God's will but also by a fear of divine punishment if he failed to do so. So not defending Islam from what he came to believe was its most important enemy would be disobeying God, something he would never do.

This last paragraph explains why I say too much religion is a bad thing. I wish people wouldn't be so blind and would do more thinking and questioning about religion. Take the good that religion has to offer but don't be so stupid as to think that your religion is the one and only right one and everybody else is going to hell. We saw in Iowa last November what that kind of thinking can do  when Christian fundamentalists voted out three Supreme Court justices. These three had voted in favor of giving equality and justice to all Iowans but that didn't fit the religious beliefs of these blind, unthinking, unquestioning fundamentalists.

 My final thought is a question. "Did God create man, or did man create God?"

FOOD FOR THOUGHT ABOUT RELIGION:

We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another. (Jonathon Swift)

Religions revolve madly around sexual questions. (Remy de Gourmont)

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. (Napolean)

The man who is always worrying whether or not his soul would be damned generally has a soul that isn't worth a damn. (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

I finally found the answer.

QUOTE from Mark Twain: "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

I LEARNED something I have wondered about for many years. Over my seventy years I've looked at myself in the mirror and wondered why I had nipples on my chest. I could see no good reason why males had to have them. When browsing through Barnes and Noble I saw a book that sparked my curiosity. The title was, WHY DO MEN HAVE NIPPLES. There it was, the answer to my question. The book was written by Dr. Billy Goldbeerg, an ER doctor in New York City. Here is the reason men have nipples.

We are mammals and blessed with body hair, three middle ear bones, and the ability to nourish our young with milk that females produce in modified sweat glands called mammary glands. Although females have the mammary glands, we all start out in the same way in the embryo. During development. the embryo follows a female template until about six weeks, when the male sex chromosome kicks in for a male embryo. The embryo then begins to develop all of its male characteristics. Men are thus left with nipples and also some breast tissue. Men can even get breast cancer and there are some medical conditions that can cause male breasts to enlarge. Abnormal enlargement of the breasts in a male in known as gynecomastia.

HUMOR for today: Male breast enlargement can be caused by using anabolic steroids. So, if Barry Bonds ends up coming to the old-timers game with a pair of sagging 44DD man boobs, then I think we will finally have our answer to the steroid controversy. (Dr. Billy Goldberg's words.)

Thanks to Dr. Goldberg I no longer have to wonder why I have those two nipples,

The life of a female teacher many years ago.

QUOTE from Will Durant: "Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."

This morning I LEARNED about the life of female teachers in Iowa County, Iowa, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A guy named Owen Jones wrote a book entitled, "One-room School Houses: Iowa County, Iowa, 1844-1966." At one time Iowa County had over 100 country schools and seven town schools. Mr. Jones had some interesting stories to tell, especially about the the female teachers.

A teacher contract in 1872 called for a 25-cent-per-week pay increase after five years for teachers who performed without fault. They were required to set aside "a goodly sum" for retirement and could read the Bible or other good books only after working at least 10 hours a day.

In 1923 teachers received $75 a month for an eight-month contract, but they couldn't smoke, drink, or hang out at the ice cream store. Women couldn't marry and had to wear at least two petticoats at all times. Dresses could be no more than two inches above the ankle.

I've concluded that teaching school from 1962 to 1999 was much better than teaching school in 1872 in 1923. I am surprised at the dress code for females in 1923, I didn't think they had to dress that way in 1923. I wonder if  Mr. Jones got the year mixed up with 1872. As far as my teaching career we definitely could not have long hair or faciial hair in the early and middle sixties. By 1970 the Vietnam War and the protests changed that. Another conclusion I've reached is that teachers had no collective bargaining rights in those days.

HUMOR for today: Over my 36 years of teaching I was amazed at some of the people that were elected to our school board. Most were decent but there were some that did not belong on a school board. Mark Twain summed up my views on some of these undesirables.

Mark Twain said: "In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."

History of Bible translations.

QUOTE from Mark Twain: "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand."

When reading the latest issue of TIME magazine I LEARNED some intresting things about nine different translations of the Bible.

On May 2, 1611 the King James Version of the Bible is published in England. So it is 400 years old as of yesterday. In 1604, King James convened a group of scholars to translate Scriptures from the Hebrew and Greek into English as a way to consolidate his power. So it was done more for political and economic reasons than for spiritual or aesthetic ones.KJB dominated until the 1950s. Is is still relevant as President Obama used Abraham Lincoln's personal copy to be sworn in and William and Kate used the KJB in their wedding.

In 1952 THE REVISED STANDARD VERSION is published. A passage prophesies that the Messiah will be born to a "young woman" instead of "virgin,"causing pastors to riot.

In 1966 the GOOD NEWS FOR MODERN MAN is published. Conceived as a simple translation for non-english speakers and intended for missionary work.

In 1978 the THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION is published. Becomes known as the most accurate of the "readable" Bibles. By 1988, its sales pass the KJB's in Christian stores.

In 1982 THE NEW KING JAMES BIBLE is published. Trying to keep up, it changes "thees" and "thous" to "yous." This is the Bible often placed in hotels and hospitals by the Gideons.

In 1990 THE WOMEN'S DEVOTIONAL BIBLE WAS is published. Includes Scripture-based advice on home, children, love and work but still refers to man instead of "human."

In 1992 THE ONE-MINUTE BIBLE is published. Chops the word of God into bite-size chunks for time-strapped believers in a fast-paced society.

In 1999 THE EXTREME TEEN BIBLE is published. Offers "No fears, no regrets, just a future with a promise" for Christian youth.

In 2008 THE GREEN BIBLE is published. Published on recycled paper with soy-based ink. Instead of Jesus' words appearing in red, verses on caring for the earth are highlighted in a soothing green.

(Why did the new translations take place after 1950? The article said it was the DISCOVERY OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS in 1947. The SCROLLS were the oldest known biblical manuscripts and they spurred the new translations.)

(The article also said that in 1631 a typo in the KJB turns the seventh commandment into "Thou shalt commit adultery.")

HUMOR for today: Husband doing lanudry.

Wife: One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his sweatshirt. Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, "What setting do I use on the washing machine?"
"It depends," the wife replied. "What does it say on your shirt?"
Husband yelled back, "University of Alabama."

The two main reasons Osama bin Laden hated America.

QUOTE  from author Max Lucado: "Fear will always knock on your door. Just don't invite it in for dinner. And for heaven's sake, don't offer it a bed for the night."

LEARNING about bin Ladens hatred for America. Since last night I have been doing some research about Osama bin Ladin. I could write several pages about what I learned but I'll make it short and to the point.

Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia in 1954 or 1957. He became known as the most pious of the sons among his wealthy father's 54 kids. His path to militant Islam began as a teenager in the 1970s when he got caught up in the fundamentalist movement then sweeping Saudi Arabia. He was a voracious reader of Islamic literature and listened to weekly sermons in the holy city of Mecca.

In the 1980s he went to fight in Afghanistan against the Russians. He gained a reputation as a courageous and resourceful leader. Bin Laden and the U.S were on the same side in this fight, with the U.S. supplying money and arms. When he returned home to Saudi Arabia he was showered with praise and donations and was in demand as a speaker in mosques and homes.

REASON #1 for bin Laden's extreme hatred of the U.S. originated in 1990.  That is the year U.S troops landed on Saudi soil to drive Saddam Hussein's Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. Bin Laden tried to dissuade the Saudi government from allowing non-Muslim armies into the land where the Prophet Muhammed gave birth to Islam, but the Saudi leadership turned to the U.S. to protect its vast oil reserves. When bin Laden continued criticizing the Saudi governments close alliance with the U.S., he was stripped of his citizenship and kicked out of the country. He went to Sudan where he was also booted after a couple of years and ended up in Afghanistan again.

Being a devout Moslem he believed that Israel should be abolished. He was very much a hater of the Jews. REASON #2 for his hatred is that the U.S. has always supported Israel's right to exist as a nation. He felt we were ignoring the rights and needs of the Palestinians.

As far as I can tell these are the two main reasons bin Laden turned to terrorism. Plus the fact that he and his al-Quaida followers were not afraid of death. They envied those who fell in battle because they died as martyrs in God's cause.

HUMOR for today: So what is going to happen in the future now that bin Ladin has been killed.
I guess Yoga Berra said it best: "It's tough to make predictions - especially about the future."