Lies. These days it seems that everybody lies. Politicians, but that’s not new; corporate honchos, way more than previously; religious leaders, in the name of CYA; parents, for their kids own good; kids, because they’re kids; and on and one.
Richard Bach believes that the worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves, while Mark Twain believes there are three types of lies, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. I like that; I’ve always thought that statistics are like the Bible, you can spin them to support any view.
Adolf Hitler said, Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying …read more

Raising kids is about teaching values, among other things, but kids learn by watching more than by listening. “Do as I say, not as I do” just doesn’t fly these days.
Cheating is not only a good example, it’s a global one.
Everyone knows that cheating is wrong, yet in US surveys 64% of high school students say they have cheated, while 84% of undergraduate business students and a whopping 56% of MBA students also admit to cheating. Not only is cheating prevalent, parental action often condones it.
Since many of these same parents are leaders in the workplace, the results of a …read more

What would you write if you were allowed just 100 words to describe a future for our world knowing that your description would become reality?
I don’t mean sci-fi technology or sweeping physical changes, but changes to people’s MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™), universal changes that would improve life in any country and overall globally.
Here is mine.
We need to stop putting ideology ahead of success; stop avoiding accountability by citing those whose lead we follow; excusing our own unethical behavior on the basis that others do the same thing; believing that [whatever] is OK because our religion forgives us. We must take …read more

Now check out this truly stupid action
Please join me tomorrow for America’s Tragic Shame.
Your comments—priceless
Don’t miss a post, subscribe via RSS or EMAIL
Image credit: erix! on flickr

Cheating isn’t new, nor is my writing about it.
It probably dates back to the cavemen, but it’s become more acceptable with the passage of time. Or maybe it’s just that the level of cheating needed to upset people and the stakes involved have increased so much.
An article in the Sun Journal gives an excellent overview of the pervasiveness of cheating.
Of course, the best thing to do if you’re going to cheat is don’t get caught, but if you do and lie about it the penalties increase exponentially.
For some reason people are tolerant of the cheating, in some cases they even …read more

Monday I introduced Chris Blackman, who attended the AlwaysOn GoingGreen West conference for us.
I found her reporting of the attitudes toward implementing renewable energy into the grid in the face of entrenched interests disturbing.
Fungible Grids
Will the energy grid replace existing sources of power—oil, coal, gas, and nuclear—with renewable energy? Currently, our energy is finite and polluting yet highly efficient. And all of the players in the market, producers and consumers, recognize the need to overcome these limitations.
Solar energy accounts for only 0.003% of energy consumption in the US today and that is projected to increase to 2% by 2025. That …read more

Now check out this great cultural goal
Your comments—priceless
Don’t miss a post, subscribe via RSS or EMAIL
Image credit: WILPF

The road to hypocrisy is pave with ideologies.
This is especially obvious in the confirmation comments around Judge Sotomayor.
According to Republicans she would bring bias to the Court, but we already have that in the current Court.
The difference is that the current bias is in tune with Conservative Republicans, whereas Sotomayor’s MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) isn’t.
So the “we want to avoid bias on the Court” is more correctly stated as “we want to avoid bias on the Court unless it agrees with ours.”
Beliefs are based on and fed by passion, whether it’s religious or ecological; animal lover or tree hugger, the …read more

Last Thursday the John Ensign (US Senator) scandal triggered a post about the hypocrisy kids see these days in so-called leaders; not their lies, but their over the top do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do attitudes and actions.
In response, Dan Erwin commented that rather than standards, i.e., set rules, he preferred to teach his kids about covenants, because “Legalism, in all its forms, is really death-giving stuff. I go back to covenant…covenants get renegotiated.”
By definition, a covenant is “an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified.”
But Ensign’s hypocrisy was pushed off the hot seat by the same …read more

(Today continues a conversation initiated last Thursday and added to yesterday.)
Everybody lies about sex. Those who aren’t getting any say they are and those who are getting it where they shouldn’t deny it.
Governor Mark Sanford followed the same path of Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston, Rudy Giuliani, John Ensign, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Helen Chenoweth (the first woman) and many more.
But you know what?
I don’t care. At least, not about the sex—or even the lies. Even the lies under oath, because I don’t believe that an oath is going to change someone’s attitude about admitting something they don’t want …read more