tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47141482597220489032024-03-05T15:30:19.508-06:00DECISION TIME!Excerpts and comments based on the book "DECISION TIME! Better Decisions for a Better Life" by Richard Davidson. New applications of decision-making techniques and discussions of major and minor decisions we all face. Occasional random deviations into topics of transient or developing interest for the author. Decision humor and humorous decisions are also featured. Visit http://davidsonbookshelf.com for more information.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-35666196665581255992014-08-05T14:00:00.000-05:002014-08-05T14:00:54.933-05:00Keep Marching<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Life and that other thing that follows it are mysterious in many ways. Perhaps the biggest mysteries are the timing and ultimate cause of one's death. If you spend too much time anticipating your demise, you will only hasten it. Military veterans who were wounded in battle frequently die from a very civilian disease. Those who concentrate on nutrition, fitness, and wellness may reach their end through an unforeseen accident. As I see it, the only comfortable way to look toward the thing that comes after life is to avoid looking toward it at all. Like those old vets who follow the color guard in the Fourth of July parade, just keep marching. We all know there's a big IF in l-IF-e, but don't concentrate on the risks. Be creative and accomplish something for as long as you possibly can. Those veterans have the right idea.</div>
<br />Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-1872920320203063832013-06-08T10:15:00.000-05:002013-06-08T10:15:31.138-05:00Who's the Bigger Spy?There's much discussion and, in some quarters, consternation about the U.S. Government tracking people's emails and telephone calls in the proclaimed interest of defeating terrorist plots. The debate usually centers on personal privacy and liberty vs. the need for the government to protect its citizens and non-citizens alike. Perhaps this same kind of scrutiny should be applied to looking at what private firms do with your emails and internet transactions. Google takes keywords out of every email you write (at least on gmail, but perhaps elsewhere too), and uses it to tailor the advertising that you receive during your online interactions. Two days ago, I ordered flowers online for commemoration of my sister's anniversary. Within an hour, I noticed that just about every online site I visited had advertisements for the flower vendor from which I had ordered. The same thing happens if you search for a product which you may someday want to buy or which about which you want information. A few months back I went on Google to look up the dimensions of a faucet, and immediately afterward, I was deluged with faucet advertising, both from the manufacturer in the inquiry and from others. If you are signed in to Google, they document everything you do online.<br />
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We learn to live with private firm invasions of privacy. Why is it so shocking when the government does a version of the same thing for national security purposes. The important thing to remember is that you shouldn't say or do anything online that you aren't willing for someone to see. I'm in a particularly bad situation. I write murder mysteries (See <a href="https://www.amazon.com/author/richarddavidson">https://www.amazon.com/author/richarddavidson</a> ), and I frequently search for poisons and other devices for causing mayhem in my books. I wonder what all of the internet spy organizations are saying about me? The fact is that your computer leaves records or footprints with every click and search and scan. Get used to it, or completely disconnect yourself from the internet forever. Isn't it amazing that mankind survived without the internet until twenty years ago? Can we do so again?Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-37108708810125358312013-05-15T13:40:00.000-05:002013-05-15T13:40:16.620-05:00Are You an Original?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Some things in life are originals and can't be reproduced, like a rainbow that can only be seen for a short time under special conditions and from the correct viewing angle. Few of us are originals on a continuous basis. Most of our time is spent reacting to news and the actions of others. We spend another portion of our time studying and reproducing the traditions handed down to us by our predecessors. However, once in a while we manage to show our initiative and tackle something that no one has done before or create a product, piece of art, or literary work that is different and new. A long time ago, someone said that we are each a unique, unrepeatable, miracle of God. As such, we each have an unmatchable set of talents and experiences. Bring your uniqueness to your job or other challenge. Remove yourself from thoughts of your daily duties, and meditate on what uniqueness you have to offer those around you. Being yourself is more than not copying others. Express your own opinions based on the singular path you have taken through life, and create something that requires your own special blend of where you've been, what you've done, and who you are. The world is a different place because you've lived in it. Express that uniqueness to others. </div>
<br />Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-56220550171738195732013-04-20T10:46:00.000-05:002013-04-20T10:48:55.944-05:00Background Checks and Knowing Your Neighbor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Two major things happened last week. Two brothers, twenty-six and nineteen years old, bombed the Finish Line of the Boston Marathon, and the United States Senate failed to pass expanded background checks for people wanting to buy guns.<br />
In the case of the two bombers, who also had assault weapons and fired them at pursuing police, their neighbors and family members all said that they were good kids and had shown no signs of violent tendencies. Doesn't this sound just a little bit familiar? So many times we hear of someone committing a violent crime and find that neighbors and people who knew him or her casually thought the individual to be a pleasant quiet person. For all you know, there might be such a pleasant quiet person in your neighborhood right now. Would you want that person to be able to purchase an arsenal of firearms without a background check? The Senate would...The problem is that Senators think that it will never happen to them, and they think that the votes and contributions from the NRA are more important than the votes of the rest of us.<br />
Last week the violence from presumably innocent people hit my home town, Boston. A campus policeman was shot to death at MIT where I went to school. The FBI had already interviewed the older brother a few years ago. They may or may not have caught his desire to purchase assault weapons if the expanded background check system had been in place. With that system, they would have at least had the chance to spot his moves. Those two brothers were not the only ones among us, perhaps in your neighborhood, who have hidden violent tendencies and reactions to circumstances. Look at all the instances of someone being fired from a job and then returning with weapons to kill former supervisors and coworkers.<br />
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Expanded background checks won't catch every potential monster, but they would definitely keep some undesirable people from purchasing weapons. Even the NRA says we need better mental health treatment and need to detect people with mental problems. If someone who has been fired is angry at his or her former supervisors and coworkers, but doesn't own a weapon, they will be delayed in acting upon their anger and will have time to cool down. That's why background checks are usually accompanied by a cooling off period. Expanded background checks won't solve all of our violence problems, but the people they save are just as valuable in the sight of God as you or I. We have laws that identify sexual predators in our neighborhoods. Why shouldn't we keep felons, potential terrorists, and people with mental problems from stockpiling weapons in our neighborhoods too?<br />
<br />Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-25760276598784983832013-03-27T08:57:00.000-05:002013-03-27T08:57:23.894-05:00The Mouse that Roared<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Kim Jong Un must be a fan of the Peter Sellers movie, <i>The Mouse that Roared</i>, in which a tiny country that accidentally gets hold of a nuclear device has major powers trying to appease it. The difference is that Peter Sellers' version was funny while the current one is both pathetic and dangerous. This is exactly the type of unstable individual and national leadership that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Pact sought to avoid. North Korea is severing all ties with South Korea and aiming missiles at U.S. installations and islands in the Pacific. If this is to play out peacefully and in the interests of long-term world stability, it's time for China to exert its massive influence on the rogue on its doorstep. The major powers will not seek appeasement this time around.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-78969707989442295712013-03-12T16:13:00.000-05:002013-03-12T16:13:31.644-05:00This Above All, to Thine Own Self Be True...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Shakespeare had it right in the advice of Polonius to Laertes in <i>Hamlet</i>. <u>This above all, to thine own self be true...</u> Whatever your endeavor, don't try to do it the way someone else would. Do it your way, because you are unique and unrepeatable - we are each special in our own way. No one else has had your heredity plus your environment plus your experiences. You may be a bit self-conscious and afraid that you won't be as good as someone else, but if you copy the work or style of another person, you will be a poor imitation and not an original. When you do things your way, you will automatically have an approach and style that is your own. It may not be perfect, but you'll be able to learn from it and improve on your next try, because you'll know what it took to achieve the first try. Whenever you tackle a task, a project, or a way of life, you may make mistakes for which you may be blamed. If you have been copying the ways of someone else, you will be blamed for his or her mistakes. Be an original and true to your own essence and background. It is much better to be blamed for your own mistakes than to suffer for the failings of someone you emulate. You may start your career by being an apprentice, but at some point you have to step out on your own and do original work. We all have variations in our degree of originality, but an ounce of originality is worth a ton of copying.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-53191266868195816782013-01-27T20:39:00.000-06:002013-01-27T20:39:14.984-06:00Email Jesus Courses for Church Lenten Studies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Email Jesus</i> is a forty-day Bible Study for use during Lent or at any other desired time of the year. Written and edited by Richard Davidson, its uniqueness lies in its delivery of daily reflections on Bible passages and exchanges of comments on those reflections by email, allowing participation by an unlimited number of people from anywhere in the world. It is truly <i>church without walls</i>. The various courses are available as eBooks, making it easy to download the forty individual lesson sheets and distribute them to those who will write reflections, well in advance of their due dates. The courses currently available are:<br />
<i>Course 1, Forty Questions from John's Gospel</i><br />
<i>Course 2, The Prayers of Jesus</i><br />
<i>Course 3, The Parables of Jesus</i><br />
<i>Course 4, God's Promises and the Beatitudes</i><br />
<i>Course 5, The Disturbing Sayings of Jesus</i><br />
<i>Course 6, The Acts of the Apostles</i><br />
For more information or to order online go to <i> </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/author/richarddavidson" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/author/richarddavidson</a><br />
or for Smashwords <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mysteryimp">click here.</a> <br />
<br />Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-47702937180766569302013-01-21T16:08:00.000-06:002013-01-21T16:10:41.021-06:00The Secret of a Great Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Many people have said that the secret of a great life can be found in the Bible. This turns away many folks who may not be religious and who under no conditions would consider becoming a Bible scholar. I'm going to make it easy for all of you. I say that the secret of a great life may be found <i>in the first five words of the Bible</i>! Do you think you can handle that much studying? The first five words are: <u>In the beginning God created...</u> The secret of a worthwhile life is to be like God and create. You may create anything that is in your sphere of interest, but to emulate God, your creation must be constructive rather than destructive. Further, this should not be a one-time thing! You have to try to be creative in every situation throughout your whole life. The one-great-joke-comedian doesn't make it. Neither does the inventor who had one great idea at age twenty, and then spends the rest of his life bragging about that invention, even when it becomes decades-old technology. Every day can contain at least a little creativity: a new recipe variation, whistling a made-up tune, a prayer aimed at a stranger, a neater arrangement for your room, a kind word for someone who feels depressed, a puzzle solved, a few sentences or paragraphs toward a new story or book. Center your thinking on creativity, and you will soon add some zing to your daily routines. It's not variety, but rather creativity that is the spice of life.<br />
<br />Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-43795653505890264122012-10-08T14:09:00.000-05:002012-10-08T14:09:41.895-05:00Chicago Bears - What Are the Odds?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yesterday, when the Chicago Bears played the Jacksonville Jaguars, two of their defensive players, Charles Tillman and Lance Briggs, intercepted passes and ran them back for touchdowns. Not only that, but these same two players intercepted passes and ran them back for touchdowns in the Bear's previous game against the Dallas Cowboys. I'm told that this is the first time that the same two players have ever done this in two successive NFL games. What makes the tandem of Charles Tillman and Lance Briggs even more unusual, is that they both wear double integer numbers (33 for Tillman and 55 for Briggs), and they both have double consonants in the spelling of their names. All of these extremely unusual facts suggest that whenever we are facing a task with the odds stacked against us, we should remember that even when the odds of success are very small, they are never zero. <i>If you have enough priority and incentive to warrant tackling such a task</i>, go for it. Charles (Peanuts) Tillman and Lance Briggs have shown that ridiculous odds can be overcome. Maybe they'll even do it again!Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-68189808443448970762012-06-06T16:12:00.000-05:002012-06-06T16:12:52.903-05:00Heroes and VillainsOne of the things you have to learn if you want to write successful fiction, especially mystery novels, is that people are complex. Your heroes will have flaws, and your villains will have positive aspects to their personalities. In real life, your opponent in sports, politics, or war will look like a villain to you as you gear up for competition or battle, but he or she will look like a hero to supporters of the other side. The trick is to avoid branding the opposition as an inhuman villain but to learn to appreciate the opponent's strengths. Only by objectively evaluating these strengths can you plan a successful strategy to overcome your opponent. The saving grace in all of this is that by appreciating the opposition's good points, you may learn to live and work together effectively even while you are competing. Always remember that successful interactions with others follow the basic rule of negotiations - you have to give something up in order to gain something. It works best when what you give up is of higher value to your opponent than it is to you.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-26491726572143951522012-05-24T09:49:00.000-05:002012-05-24T09:49:41.442-05:00The First Ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Uq6ykFna6irnF0AE_a-lCUgDayI4xTEak7_QwJZuEkEzsQvSYS9FAu9gxAxjzx5ZF5kRxj9xt9RnDeGvJH9cO2dVQzAtCjgi7Xgt3HsG36dmiUUAPmtwh1TxLTT1qnHXBxEezbCECno/s1600/dday1+assisting+ashore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Uq6ykFna6irnF0AE_a-lCUgDayI4xTEak7_QwJZuEkEzsQvSYS9FAu9gxAxjzx5ZF5kRxj9xt9RnDeGvJH9cO2dVQzAtCjgi7Xgt3HsG36dmiUUAPmtwh1TxLTT1qnHXBxEezbCECno/s320/dday1+assisting+ashore.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">June 6, 1944…</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">D-Day…</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">0600 hours / Six o’clock in the morning…</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Omaha Beach…</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Easy Red Sector…</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Hell was about to happen!</div><div class="MsoNormal"> I was a Pharmacist’s Mate in the Sixth Naval Beach Battalion. They assembled and trained our unit under hush-hush conditions. The reason for all the security was that our <u>only</u> mission was to be the first regular unit to land on the beach. They started training us before anyone even knew where the invasion would be. We certainly didn’t know <u>when</u> it would happen. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Our job was to support the assault troops with medical aid, communications, and boat repair. We were trained in the use of all kinds of weapons, but most of the fighting would be left to others. We were supposed to be the traffic cops on the beach, trying to land the troops and their equipment safely. Later, we would shift over to evacuating the wounded and the dead. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The invasion was a deep dark secret, so our unit had to be secret too. If the Germans knew about us, they could have tracked us to get advance info on the invasion. We trained for about fourteen months in the States, and then we were shipped to England a few months before D-Day. They put us under the command of the Army’s 6<sup>th</sup> Engineer Special Brigade. We were sailors dressed like soldiers except that we wore black T-shirts under our field jackets, and our helmets had a blue/gray band around them and a red rainbow on the front.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> The weather had been terrible that week. It cleared enough at the last minute for the ships to proceed, but we had very limited use of air power. We headed for shore between 0600 and 0630 in the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach. We were right behind the demolition teams that landed in inflated boats to try to clear some of the obstacles and mines that the Germans had set up. One set of obstacles was a series of telephone poles set into the beach angled toward the sea. They had mines mounted on their top ends set to detonate on impact by a landing craft or other vessel. The Germans discovered the demolition teams at work and threw everything they had at them. Those poor guys suffered about seventy percent losses, and there was no one else yet ashore to help them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Our final approach to the beach was by LCI(L). That was the designation for a Landing Craft, Infantry (Large). It was about half the length of a football field with a ramp on each side of the bow that could be lowered to discharge troops and equipment. They were manned by Coast Guard crews.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> One of the other landing craft, LCI(L)-85, that came in a bit after ours at 0735 was hit twenty-five times and later sank. Only six people got off its ramps unscathed. One of them was a friend of mine who told me later how, after a couple of the artillery hits, he had to take the fire hose and wash clusters of small body parts overboard. That violated all of his medical training, but it had to be done.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> By comparison, we were lucky. Our LCI(L) got off course because of the weather. We reached shore about four hundred yards east of our designated landing spot. Because of this, we came in under a cliff where the Germans couldn’t target us with their guns. We didn’t quite make impact with the beach, and the water was very choppy, so three of us had to swim for shore with a heavy line. We secured it to one of those tilted telephone poles that had a mine on the top end, and our men had to wade through the surf with full packs of equipment by clinging to that line. In most cases the water was up to their armpits. Most of our people made it safely to shore even though we had incoming fire from anti-tank guns and machine guns. We lost a lot of equipment when the waves knocked people over, and only two of our radios were still working when we reached the shore.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> For about six or seven hours we were pinned down at the high water mark where the beach sloped down at about forty-five degrees into the water. This area was covered with large water-smoothed multi-colored pebbles ranging from the size of a chicken egg to about four inches diameter. Whenever an artillery shell came close to us and hit in this area, the stones would start flying at high velocity. More of our people were wounded or killed by the flying stones than by the artillery shells.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Only one tank made it safely to shore in our area. He set himself up on that slope of pebbles, and moved forward up the slope each time he wanted to fire on the German positions. Then he backed down the slope to hide from incoming fire. We thought we would be safest hiding behind the tank, but we soon realized that he was drawing a lot of fire, and we moved away from him.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> As more and more troops and equipment made it to the shore, the Germans stopped pinning us down because they had more important targets elsewhere. Then we started to do our best to tend to the wounded and get people ready for evacuation. Along the way, we saw two of our people crouched behind a half-track vehicle for shelter. A German shell hit the vehicle, lifted it into the air and dropped it on one of them. He died instantly.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> During the initial bedlam of that first day, we were so tired and the wounded had been hit so badly that all we could do was give most of them morphine shots to ease their pain. At one point a buddy and I found our battalion commander lying on the beach with an unexploded shell in his shoulder. It had entered his body through his right collarbone and now protruded through his left shoulder blade. We managed to flag down a truck and took him to one of the few field hospitals that had been set up. Only the use of penicillin, which was a new breakthrough, saved his life.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Incoming Landing Craft and other ships were being hit by artillery and machinegun fire. Because of this many of them discharged their troops too far from shore for them to wade in. A very small number of men who tried to swim the rest of the way managed to get ashore safely. Those who did only made it by discarding their heavy packs. Most drowned, and we fished as many bodies as possible out of the water. We had to drag the bodies beyond the high water mark to be sure that they wouldn’t be reclaimed by the sea at high tide. This meant dragging the bodies beyond any hope of cover, directly toward the German guns.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> During the first day of the invasion I saw one soldier frantically signaling to me for help by waving the arm he had lost. Another had his leg blown off, and in his shock, he crawled to get it back in the hope that somehow he would walk again. We found our Beachmaster lying shell-shocked next to boxes of burning hand grenades, but managed to get the boxes away from him before they exploded.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> The original plans called for the landing craft to evacuate the wounded on their way back out to sea, so that no craft left empty. Because of the heavy German bombardment of incoming vessels during the first couple of days, the ships were ordered away from the beaches for safety without taking on any wounded, and we ended up having to care for large numbers of wounded for a lot longer than expected.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> There were so many killed during the first day that we had to move the bodies with a bulldozer. We did this, both to keep the dead out of sight so they didn’t demoralize the fresh assault troops as they landed on the beach, and also to clear a path for the new troops to follow toward the German gun emplacements. The infantry finally managed to clear the extension of that path of mines, and they climbed up a ravine to get to the top of the cliff. Then they circled behind the German beach defenses which were all aimed toward the sea. Most of the Germans surrendered without resistance, and the troops were able to move inland off the beach. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> We didn’t join them. Our job was to handle the evacuation of the wounded and to direct traffic inbound and outbound from the beach. I was on that bloody beach nineteen days before I was evacuated back to England.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> For years afterward, I saw those beach landings and all the accompanying bloodshed in my dreams. I survived in some of those dreams, and in others I had a painful lingering death. That’s why I’ve refused to talk about it until now. I didn’t want to rouse my demons…</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">(Excerpt from <i>Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread</i> by Richard Davidson, The Lord's Prayer Mystery Series, Volume II. This is a composite memory of various members of the Sixth Naval Beach Battalion, and is historically accurate. In the book it is related by my fictional character Rob Slovitch.)</div>Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-88327586294958361172012-05-10T10:19:00.000-05:002012-05-10T10:19:06.192-05:00Obama's Gay Marriage AnnouncementYesterday (May 9, 2012), President Obama stated in an interview with ABC Television that he thought gay couples with healthy long-term commitments should be allowed to get married. What may have been lost in the reporting of this comment is that he called it his personal viewpoint. What he said is not official policy of the United States, but only a personal view that undoubtedly will influence many other people to have either a more positive or more negative opinion of the President. This was a classic <i>Damned if you do and damned if you don't </i>moment. It did show a lot of courage, but it may turn out to have been foolhardy from the viewpoint of political success in the next election. So long as Obama didn't define his stance, it was open to interpretation by all shades of the political spectrum. By declaring his position, he enhanced his standing with half of the voting public, but alienated the other half. This would have been true even if he had declared himself as being on the other side of this thorny debate. Therefore, I have to believe that Obama's public support of gay marriage has to be a statement of his conscience rather than being a political ploy. He gains nothing from it and may very well lose a lot. Whether or not this President gets re-elected, he has shown that he will take a stance on issues that most other politicians would remain ambiguous about.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-84843388929590335862012-05-07T13:21:00.000-05:002012-05-07T13:26:02.410-05:00Enough! I Need a Change!I haven't been posting regularly on this blog because I allowed myself to get involved in too many things at the same time. No matter how capable you think you are, you have to face up to not being a comic book superhero. We all have our limitations, and the key to success is to either avoid over-committing in the first place or to recognize the problem and develop a step-by-step plan for reducing your load to a manageable level. This also involves determining which of your commitments are to be eliminated or minimized.<br />
Eliminate a commitment that is:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Not satisfying to you, even if you accomplish it.</li>
<li>Too demanding, because you could do several alternate things for less effort and/or time commitment and with a higher total reward.</li>
<li>Not rewarding, in terms of either immediate compensation (may or may not be monetary) or in terms of long-term payoff through the opening-up of new opportunities.</li>
<li>Goal-less. Some tasks are done, in juggling terms, for the sake of keeping the balls in the air. You don't want to keep running on the treadmill in order to stay in the same place.</li>
</ul>
<div>
What are the consequences of saying "No!" to a new or ongoing task? Sometimes you can stop doing something, and nobody will even notice. In other cases, you have to find and train somebody else to replace you, because the task must be done by someone. Occasionally, you can simply walk away, forcing someone who otherwise would never have volunteered, to step up, because the lack of a reliable person doing that job threatens the organization. You may be perceived as weak or unreliable for quitting your task, but if you can take that criticism, you may consider yourself a hero for forcing someone else to take responsibility and for giving yourself new found freedom to consider other directions and opportunities. The future starts right now. Re-assess your obligations and, if you feel overburdened, continue only those you deem worthwhile.</div>Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-71364554176572449802012-02-07T12:05:00.000-06:002012-02-07T12:05:14.283-06:00Third Quarter in America<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/pGMOhOYvcw4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>There have been a lot of discussions about Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl Chrysler commercial, "Halftime in America" having had political overtones. I definitely disagree that any political message was intended. The point was that American manufacturing can and should come back to an energetic and vibrant status. Our past interest in short-term profits led to sending many jobs and capabilities overseas so that our corporate revenue statements looked good. It's time to take a longer term point of view. Forget those quarterly reports and rebuild our technical capabilities. Encourage college students to take technical courses and majors again by telling them that American manufacturing can and will grow so that they'll have good jobs. When you shop, look for that Made In U.S.A. label and give it priority over products from other countries. Encourage those who start small American manufacturing businesses. Start being proud of the things we can make instead of seeking dollars regardless of the source. If this sounds too much like patriotic cheerleading, that's too bad...It is OK to be patriotic and proud of your own team. Try it; you might like it.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-42409294709391480352011-09-09T15:13:00.000-05:002011-09-09T15:13:16.537-05:00The Future Is NowPeople in many countries are depressed about the current economic situation and worried about the future. In the United States the two priorities are more jobs and less debt. Last night President Obama unveiled a new program to generate large numbers of jobs. There is also a high-level congressional bipartisan committee seeking new programs and program modifications to reduce the debt. The problem is that programs are not the answer. What we all need is information that builds our confidence in the future. When the two political parties each say that the other party has the wrong kinds of programs that will lead to a failing economy in the future, they are guaranteeing that failure by diminishing the confidence of the people. We need cheerleaders more than program architects. There are plenty of private companies with enough cash reserves to hire new employees. There are plenty of people looking for jobs. The companies won't hire people until they believe that hiring will lead to sales increases in the near future. Consumers won't spend until they are reasonably sure that their jobs are safe. If the government (including both parties in Congress) and the media would emphasize positive factors and developments instead of negative possibilities, the economy would respond with positive trends. There is no need to snipe at each other for the sake of an election. Positive thinking is contagious. Try it some time. We can assure a healthy future for our economies right now by implementing a positive outlook. Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-64535670644875193272011-08-27T10:41:00.000-05:002011-08-27T10:41:21.459-05:00The Abuse of PowerPower can be defined as the ability to exert one's will over another. Power is addictive, and those who have it seek to maintain it or keep it for as long as possible, regardless of the personal or material cost. One of the problems of the possession of power throughout history has been the "might makes right" syndrome. People who have the power to control others believe that they are right <i>because </i>they have the power to control others. Hence the old adage: <i>Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.</i> Anyone who thinks he or she is wielding power for the sake of good rather than evil needs to be willing to accept a check and balance system that allows others to alert the person in power of a deviation from the path toward societally approved goals. Is power assumed for the sake of efficiency justified? Sometimes, but only in pursuit of very limited and well-defined goals. The problem often lies in determining what goals are worthy of granting power to a leader, and whether that leader feels that the end justifies the means. One who assumes power should take a <i>sunset pledge</i> to agree in advance to yield that power when the approved limited goal has been achieved or when a designated date has been reached. The addiction of power causes a leader to feel unique and irreplaceable, a situation that causes other viable leaders to protest and rebel. Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-20220551098076106402011-08-07T15:12:00.000-05:002011-08-07T15:12:23.298-05:00Stop Sending Your Money to ChinaI frequently advocate that people in the USA should Buy American products and services. It's time for outsourcing to end, and everyone in the United States, citizen or not, has a vote in this process. We vote with our purchasing decisions. Whether you are buying a tube of toothpaste, a household product, or a new car, buy something that is made in USA or has the maximum amount of US content. We have to break the cycle of sending our money overseas to China and others so that they can lend our money back to us at high interest rates. Every time you buy a US product you keep money in circulation within the USA; you increase demand at US companies which creates jobs for US workers; and you give incentives for those companies to invest in new equipment and learn how to make better and more competitive products. The economy started downhill when American companies started having products made overseas to enhance short term profits. It's time to think long term and rebuild American manufacturing capabilities. The one and only solution is your looking for the <u>Made in USA</u> label. The government in Washington can't fix the situation, but you can, one purchase of US goods and services at a time. Each US purchase is a vote for prosperity. Read those country of origin labels...Vote early and often.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-32663754401972129542011-08-02T10:01:00.000-05:002011-08-02T10:01:18.462-05:00Evaluate the US Debt Limit NegotiationsHere are my Seven Principles of Negotiation from my book, <i>DECISION TIME! Better Decisions for a Better Life</i>. After all the smoke clears in Washington, decide for yourself whether each side did a good job of handling the process, regardless of what it looked like to outsiders.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">The first principle of negotiation is that you must be sensitive to the needs of others when you set priorities for what you hope to accomplish. If all parties have the same list of priorities, then it is unlikely that the negotiations will be successful. However, it is usually the case that there will be differences in the priority lists for the two or more parties to the negotiations. This will allow a final outcome where more than one party comes away from the process having satisfied his top priority goal. By being sensitive to the desires of others, you can set your priorities into a structure that makes negotiation success more likely.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The second principle of negotiation is that you must make it very clear to your opponent which are your top priorities and how determined you are to achieve them. It is a fact of human nature that if you are able to reach a decision that gains your top priority objective too easily, you will feel that you could have negotiated an even better outcome. This is true whether you are setting the price for the purchase of a used car or if you are involved in a complex labor contract negotiation. For this reason, most negotiations will and should start out with a firm statement of your goals. These goals should be reiterated and should seem to be inflexible for as long as possible. There is acting involved in such posturing, but the objective is to find out which party most desires a positive outcome to the negotiations. That party will usually show the first sign of flexibility. If no such flexibility is seen on either side, progress may have to be made as the result of setting a deadline or introducing a third party to mediate the process. A final alternative to inflexibility is to walk away from the negotiation process. If and only if your opponent believes that you are truly willing to stop the process, moving to end the negotiations may actually introduce flexibility from your adversary and stimulate the process toward success.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The third principle of negotiation is that although you frequently will have to resolve conflicts by giving in to someone else’s viewpoint, you should always try to get something back in return for your willingness to see things their way. This is usually an acceptable and expected trade procedure. Even when there may not be an item on the table that your opponent is willing to give up in exchange for your flexibility, you may be able to gain something by proposing that he or she commit to a future benefit for you. This is why so many sports team trade negotiations end up including “a player to be named later” or a future draft choice. It is easier to reach agreement in this way because neither party knows the true value of a future benefit.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The fourth principle of negotiation is that decisions proceed from the bottom to the top. For this reason, it may be useful to have some low priority points on which you are willing to give in to your opponent’s viewpoint. They may mean little to you, but after you have relinquished something, it is reasonable for you to expect your adversary to offer you something in return. Not only are smaller points agreed before larger points, but also in formal team negotiations there is a “pecking order” for personnel on the two sides. [Lower level people decide lower level matters. Highest level people come in only when trying to come to the final agreement.]</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The fifth principle of negotiation is that when you are not sure what to decide on a particular point, the best tactic is to add something to the discussion which “puts the ball in the other party’s court” and gives your opponent responsibility for the next decision. This approach gives you more time to reach the decision that was facing you, and it may also give you new and valuable information from your opponent’s response on the new matter.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The sixth principle of negotiation is that you can’t please or accommodate everyone. You will definitely have to say No in many situations, and you will have to be firm about it. The word No has great value in that it can be used to reverse or slow down the momentum of a negotiation. You may be willing to concede additional points to your adversary, but judicious use of the word No will help you to gain return concessions and will help you to minimize those items on which you have to yield. It also helps to create an image of you as a tough negotiator, and in negotiations image is very important.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The seventh principle of negotiation is that the party with the greatest detailed knowledge of the matters being discussed has a great advantage. If you have all the details immediately available while your adversary has to repeatedly call for assistance from others or request a break in the process to obtain more information, you are negotiating from strength while the other party is negotiating from weakness. It is very important that you have done your homework before the meetings even start.</div>Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-89526818868034493192011-07-29T11:07:00.001-05:002011-07-29T11:08:50.949-05:00How to Handle the U.S. Debt DeadlineEnough, already!<br />
The USA has to get the two houses of Congress and the President to agree on measures to avoid a debt default next week. Don't look now, but the NFL Football owners and players managed to solve their lockout fiasco and save the football season. I suggest that the politicians, who obviously don't know how to do the jobs for which they were sent to Washington, should act more like athletes, albeit flabby ones. Let's just get this all over with a tug-of-war between the Fat Cats on one side and the Pompous Pigheads on the other. At this point all we need is a mechanism to get them to stop talking and do something. Just line them all up and let either side drag the other across the line that wins the tug-of-war. The country will survive whatever is decided; just demonstrate the ability to make a decision. I know that the voters will know how to decide that we need two entirely new tug-of-war teams when the next election comes. That's an easy decision.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-51259304017458300482011-07-19T10:30:00.000-05:002011-07-19T10:30:23.346-05:00Authors without BordersThe Borders superscale bookstore chain is being liquidated because of a lack of potential bidders willing to participate in a bankruptcy auction for the company. This will eliminate a major distribution mechanism for highly promoted books from major publishers. It will have little effect on the offerings of small presses and POD publishers, because Borders paid scant attention to them. I once did an experiment where I looked up my books successfully on Borders' online bookstore, and then I went into one of their stores and tried to find my books through an in-store terminal. I was very surprised when I couldn't find them. The two systems must have had separate management. Borders drove a lot of local independent bookstores out of business. They also presented the public with their concept of a bookstore as being more like a cross between a department store and a library, with a cafeteria thrown in for good measure. Gone were the crowded bookshelves and tables where you might stumble across a treasure. Added were music departments and toys and accessories that had little to do with books. The most enthusiastic book buyers I have ever seen patronized the old annual Brandeis Used Book Sales, when that university's alums wisely supported their school in that manner. Used print books are treasures, and they also stimulate the reading habits of those who find old friends and new discoveries among the dense arrays of well-thumbed volumes. Independent bookstores offering unusual books from independent publishers and authors may find more patrons now that one of the giant marketers is gone.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-21979072519054130592011-07-12T13:51:00.000-05:002011-07-12T13:51:27.738-05:00Friends and EnemiesWhich of these do you believe?<br />
<ul><li>The enemy of my enemy is my friend.</li>
<li> The enemy of my friend is my enemy.</li>
<li>The friend of my enemy is my enemy unless he/she belongs to my political party.</li>
<li>The friend of my friend is my friend unless his/her political party is different from mine.</li>
<li>What's good for the country is more important than what's good for my political party.</li>
<li>What's good for my political party is by definition good for the country.</li>
<li>What's good for me is by definition good for my party and country.</li>
<li>Who cares about anyone else? Do what will get me reelected.</li>
<li>I love everyone until after the votes have been counted.</li>
</ul>Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-77548379068501711142011-06-26T13:17:00.000-05:002011-06-26T13:17:26.323-05:00The Most Obsolete Word in the English LanguageIt appears that the most terrible thing that a politician anywhere in the world can do is to use the word <i>compromise</i>. Politicians have become more doctrinaire than ever, with discussions described as <i>stand-offs</i> and any comment from a member of a different party described as belligerent, uninformed, and adversarial. A certain amount of defense of your position is good posturing as part of the negotiation process (See my book: DECISION TIME! Better Decisions for a Better Life.), but frequently politicians aren't negotiating at all, but merely trying to score points and develop issues for the next election. Compromise should be the lubricant that makes governments work. Bombast only succeeds in minimizing the public's respect for their elected and appointed officials. In many conversations I hear citizen members of both parties agree that solutions to national problems aren't that difficult if the people in power would only use the second most obsolete term in the English language, <i>common sense</i>. In the field of law, the yardstick for evaluating an action is frequently: <i>What would a reasonable person do?</i> Why can't politicians and government leaders (most of whom are lawyers) ask themselves that same question, and act upon their answers to it?Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-91854766705625909902011-06-24T15:09:00.000-05:002011-06-24T15:09:10.544-05:00Recovery in Japan - Where Is the Media?How well is the recovery effort in Japan going? During the days and weeks immediately following the earthquake, tsunami, and resulting nuclear power station problems, newspapers and television networks around the world informed the public with a constant stream of status reports. As time passed, these reports disappeared, to be replaced by new <i>hot</i> stories. The news media think the public requires novelty in the news. Ongoing situations do not receive the attention they deserve. Instead, we focus on the disaster, military action, or political scandal of the current day or week. That's also why <i>good news</i> is seldom reported. Good news tends to be ongoing and background information rather than a spectacular event (except for the occasional royal wedding). The other peculiar habit of the news media is that they highlight one to five major events on any particular day, when there are many more newsworthy events happening in the world. Perhaps this will be one of the nails in the coffins of newspapers and television news. They are limited by column space or scheduled time. Internet news is expandable without confines. A web page can either scroll indefinitely or reference links to cover every worthwhile story that is happening anywhere. Now if they paid appropriate royalties to all their copied sources, they'd have a truly superior news presentation system.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-82143111061618643292011-06-17T13:58:00.000-05:002011-06-17T13:58:11.490-05:00Half Full, NOT Half EmptyWhat the U.S., and for that matter the world, needs to realize going into the future is that the proverbial glass <em>is</em> half full. For all the complaints about slower-than-expected employment growth and too much indebtedness, we have all accomplished a lot on our way back from the economy's burst bubble due to unrealistic home ownership policies and other problems. Whether you are talking about personal career development, governmental projects, or international development, a pessimistic future outlook is dwarfed by an inventory taken to show what we have accomplished in the past. The strength of democracies and market-oriented businesses is that each manages to do one or two good things every day. When you look backward to see how far you have come, you will generally be amazed. The incremental things we do each day appear small because we like to talk about achievement of goals rather than maintenance of progress. Make a little progress every day, week, month, and year. As you continue making that progress, you will be able to look back and see that goals have, indeed, been achieved. The glass is at least half full.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714148259722048903.post-41320459453239229912011-06-14T11:06:00.000-05:002011-06-14T11:06:01.209-05:00Communication Stifled by SuspicionI listened with interest to a telephone interview between National Public Radio and a Syrian woman. They were discussing the status of opposition to the Syrian government and its massive aggressive retaliation. The most interesting point in the interview for me came when the woman was asked about socialization in small gatherings during the course of this situation. Her response made me realize how uncomfortable one becomes when one is not sure of the political and doctrinal standing of the person with whom one is conversing. The conversation continues, but the content is watered down to inconsequential blather. Suspicion breeds lack of true communication and self-censorship. There is no true communication without the exchange of ideas and opinions. When one is afraid to declare one's position on any topic, the suppressive goal of the state or other controlling organization has already been achieved. Those of us who are removed from such a situation and enjoy the ability to speak freely with peers and at least cautiously evaluated strangers should realize how fortunate we are.Dick Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18416584490228523104noreply@blogger.com0