A Leader I Knew

Posted on 05/11/2012 by Grumpa Joe

Where have all the leaders gone? I was amazed by the lack of leadership exhibited by Obama after hurricane Sandy destroyed the Jersey shore and Staten Island. My experience with leaders is quite different. On my job I often had to fix quality problems we had with our products. If it was trivial, Engineering handled the matter immediately. If it was serious, the CEO-owner became involved. Mr. CEO called the department heads from Quality, Engineering, Tool Room, Production, and Marketing to his personal conference room. The problem was defined, the extent of the problem was determined, and then the brainstorming began. Mr. CEO did not allow us to leave the room until he satisfied himself that we had a plan to determine the root cause and an action plan to resolve it. The CEO made sure each department head had a solid plan of action to implement before the meeting convened.

Most of the time, Engineering had the bulk of the work to do. Within one hour after the meeting, I received a phone call from Mr. CEO who wanted a progress report. If I didn’t have one, he gave me a new deadline for when I would have one. He always followed up. Some problems were serious enough to follow up several times a day. Often, I had design changes made and prototyped into hard plastic by the following morning with test results to report. Mr. CEO followed each department head with the same tenacity: were the customers notified and appeased, had Production determined if all the molds used in the process had the same problem, did Quality check the inventory on the shelf?

Mr. CEO had a big stake in a major quality problem just as President Obama has in this country. The difference I see between Mr. CEO and Obama is that Obama gave an order to his department heads via national TV and then left to go campaigning. I laughed out loud when I heard him tell his bureaucrats via his speech to cut the red tape and think of ways to get stuff done. Did he call his Department heads and give them the same message? Did he hold their feet to the fire for solutions? Has he followed up? If he has, why are the people of New York and New Jersey still feeling the hurt?

Mayor Bloomberg, another proclaimed leader proudly announced that in spite of the devastation the New York Marathon would go on. Eventually he thought better and cancelled the race.  Two huge generators were on hand in Central Park for the Marathon.  They remain unused while big sections of the city could be powered from those units.

Where is the leadership?

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How this Election Might Change a Sport

Posted on 05/11/2012 by Grumpa Joe

Americans love their guns. The Second Amendment guarantees our right to own a gun. The founders believed that we the people should keep arms to be able to overthrow a rotten government if needed. I’m not sure just how that would happen in today’s world because the local police can put down an insurrection in a New York minute. God forbid we ever got beyond that level and the Military came after us. The concept is great, but the execution of a revolution needs work.

Last week I received a meme from a friend who is a gun-toting NRA member and an avid hunter. A lot of guys I know love hunting and evacuate their homes during deer season to bag a buck. Here in Illinois the hunters must use shot guns. We are too populated a state to use a real gun for anything.  Nevertheless, there is a great number of hunters who trek the woods during late fall in search of their deer. For all the Bambi lovers out there, the deer population in Illinois during 2011 exceeded 700,000. Nation wide there are 1,500,000 car-deer crashes a year, and of these there are 150 fatalities. I don’t feel sorry for a Bambi killed by a bullet or arrow.

We face a serious threat to the loss of our gun rights. I’m afraid that if Obama gets a second term he will sign the United Nations Treaty banning guns. Basically, he will abdicate the sovereignty of America to the United Nations (If you think Congress is hopelessly deadlocked now, just imagine what will happen when the UN decides our fate.) Obama won’t care because he won’t be running for a third term. This treaty will forever change our right to go shoot a deer, but it won’t kill off our ingenuity, nor our will to go hunting. We will just do it another way.

The picture below is proof positive that American Ingenuity is alive and well.

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The Action of Inflicting Hurt

Posted on 05/11/2012 by Grumpa Joe

Where in the world did Obama get the idea that he needs us to vote for revenge? He is obviously upset that we the people have wronged him in some way. Perhaps he is upset because we have tried to vet him in spite of his efforts to hide his true identity. Perhaps it is  because the 2010 election removed his total advantage to turn the country upside down. Elections have consequences is what he told us of shortly after taking office. I’m sure he will remind us again if he is so lucky as to be elected again. I shudder at the thought.

After reviewing the dictionary definition of “revenge”  The idea that he would want to hurt the country is appalling. There are those of us who do not believe his direction is in our  best interest. After all, not everyone believes in a socialist society of huge government controlling every aspect of our lives. Not everyone believes in protecting the environment to the point of returning the planet to a Neanderthal state. After viewing the news photos of the chaos created by hurricane Sandy on New York and in particular the chaos created by a minor gasoline shortage I’m sure we are glad that it isn’t happening to us. Yet, our energy policy will make those gas lines seen in New York a universal scene. Think about what would happen in your life if there is no gas. How long would it be before you become desperate? Is that why Obama wants revenge, because we don’t want his energy policy?

Here is one more analogy from New York. People are scrambling for food, clothing, and shelter. The hardship these folks see is obvious because we see them on TV. Again we are glad it is not us. What we don’t see is the hardship experienced by the twenty-three million people who are out of work. Oh, but they are on unemployment and food stamps we argue. Imagine yourself  in that situation before you rationalize how benevolent the government is. Perhaps Obama wants to revenge those of us who still have work and don’t need his huge government help.

What ever the reason he wants revenge it will not matter provided we do the right thing tomorrow. We need to make this election have some serious consequences for him.

revenge |riˈvenj|

noun

the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands: other spurned wives have taken public revenge on their husbands.

• the desire to inflict such retribution: it was difficult not to be overwhelmed with feelings of hate and revenge.

• (in sports) the defeat of a person or team by whom one was beaten in a previous encounter: the Yankees wanted to get their revenge for losing to the Dodgers in the 1955 Series.

verb [ with obj. ] chiefly literary

inflict hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong done to (someone else): it’s a pity he chose that way to revenge his sister.

• inflict hurt or harm on someone for (an injury or wrong done to oneself or another): her brother was slain, and she revenged his death.

• (revenge oneself or be revenged) inflict hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong done to oneself: I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.

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