Uncommon Sense

Editor’s Note: Uncommon Sense looks at politics, business and life in what is considered a different light.  It is opened to anyone with a point of view that wants to share.  Michael Lordi joins the staff and will offer some of his insights.  This is his first installment.

By Michael Lordi

What we call genius may really be the ability of some people to creatively repeat themselves.  That’s the point of a Fast Company article by Nate Kontny who writes that our inability to reboot ourselves with a refreshed spin on core ideas – even if they appear worn and aged — holds us back as artists, inventors and entrepreneurs.

As proof, Kontny points to enduring, successful bands that keep fans happy by replacing studio versions of their songs with acoustic or remixed tracks.  Facebook, he says, is MySpace translated through the mind of Mark Zuckerberg.  Dropbox wasn’t the first file-sharing solution, and people were already advertising spare rooms for rent online long before Airbnb.

He’s on to something.  It was Thomas Edison, after all, who said, “A good idea is never lost.  Even though its originator or possessor may die without publicizing it, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another.”

Having trouble having your idea or point of view heard?  Many may give up thinking it’s poor execution, but that may not be the reason at all.  “Ad agencies know this better than any of us,” says Kontny. “A common rule of thumb in that industry:  It takes seven ad impressions before someone will take action.”

An interesting thought that you can read more about here.

What do I think about the creative process of repeating yourself?  First, there’s nothing wrong with it.

There’s even nothing wrong with talking to yourself.

There’s nothing wrong with asking yourself a question.

There’s nothing wrong with answering your own question.

It’s when you ask yourself to repeat the question that you may want to Google “benzodiazepine”.

Finally, what we call genius may really be the ability of some people to creatively repeat themselves.  That’s the point of a Fast Company article by Nate Kontny who writes that our inability to reboot ourselves with a refreshed spin on core ideas . . .

The wobbly spiral lands clumsily in the receiver’s arms who runs another 10 yards before three defenders tackle him.  Down the road a pitcher has struck out is eighth batter in five innings.  Youth sports is popular beyond any measure and it teaches children valuable lessons.

The one lesson it will not teach, however, is how to go outside and play a pick-up games with friends.  It seems children do not play games without adult supervision.  Birthday parties are no longer affairs where children gather and make their own fun.  Adults manage the entertainment, the activities, and schedule the spontaneous surprises.

It was not long ago that conversations happened naturally at social gatherings but today nothing happens until an organized icebreaker.  It was not long ago that going out with colleagues after work was a spontaneous event but now it is a prearranged event complete with a planned Karaoke entertainment.

You walk past a dirty dish in the sink and think someone else will clean it.  You walk past a pile of dirty clothes on the floor and think someone else will pick it up.  Ditto for the empty soda can in the street.

Did our dependency on someone else start the government takeover of our lives or did the government fill the void of “someone else will do it” when we grew up?

It starts with something as simple as organized youth sports and then matures into avoiding doing something that finally culminates with dependency on the government.  It is an over-the-top illustration, I know, but such progression is not that too far off when we allow self-reliance be abated by taking the easy way out.

The mindset of dependency starts early in life and is perpetuated by an omnipresent government that is suffocating self-reliance daily.

President John F. Kennedy famously said, “… ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”  I would suggest changing it to ask not what you can do for me but ask what I can do for myself.

People fail when they become complacent.  Governments fall when its citizenry is complacent and apathetic.  It is easy to paint the opposition as obstructionists but maybe the opposition is the only one that cares.

If you want something better in life, it starts with you, not someone else.

We have so many different types of communication devices yet people no longer communicate with each other.  We have wireless phones, instant messaging, texting, videoconferencing, web conferencing, e-mail, and all sorts of social media from Twitter to Facebook.  Most people use these communication vehicles to share inconsequential dialog.  I do not really care to know a person I knew in high school is riding his motorcycle with his riding club.  I much rather talk to him about meaningful topics.

Our phones are wireless that share groundless thoughts.  Expressing thoughts has become meaningless and, by extension, so have our relationships.  The irony is we stay in contact with more people but still do not know them.  I prefer boundless thoughts shared in person.  Is it me or did we communicate better when we had phone calls and letters?

We can instantly cook food in a microwave and eat in front of the TV watching mindless drivel.  There is fast food and takeout orders to fulfill our biological needs.  The instantaneous gratification we get ruins the appreciation deserved of a well-cooked meal.  There is nothing wrong with waiting for a meal shared around a table with family and friends.  The response to that last sentence is always “There is no time.”

I disagree.  There is no such thing as no time, only no priority.  As a society, we place more value on taxiing our children to their activities versus learning about their hopes and dreams around the kitchen table.  Is the hope of a college scholarship more important than knowing our children?

Conventional wisdom claims our children have surpassed their parents educationally.  The next generation may be more “worldly” than our generation but take away their calculators and how many can add in their collective heads.

We live in a throwaway society.  By that, I mean it seems nothing lasts past the warranty.  We have appliances with great diagnostics but I would rather have a refrigerator last more than five years versus telling me I need milk.  I can figure out I need milk by looking in the fridge but cannot determine how to make it keep food cool longer.

Calculators help us do math better but think less.  We understand more but know less.  Diagnostically advanced appliances help us with grocery shopping but make us reliant on technology instead of ourselves.  We stay alive longer but live less.  Somewhere along the line, making life easy made life harder.

I am not opposed to technology – in fact, I love it.  But technology should enhance not replace our thinking.  It should simplify not complicate our lives.  And, above all, it should not make an entire generation dependent on anything but themselves.  We went from walking to riding horses to the horse and buggy to the car to the train to air travel and space travel.  We made these advances to get there faster and do things sooner.  Now doctors tell us we need to walk more.  The irony is rich.

I went to use a Men’s bathroom at a gas station and needed a key that, for some reason needed to be attached to a long stick weighted down with a one pound piece of metal. I don’t know about you but I don’t think I ever wanted to steal anything in a gas station Men’s Room.

Whenever I visit a friend in wealthy neighborhood I have to wait five minutes while listening to the sound of unlocking locks. Fast food places have security cameras. Banks have armed guards and security cameras. They even have cameras on traffic lights. People go to extreme measures to protect their information on computers.

So why do we allow illegal immigration and act as if we are an altruistic nation? We are aiding and abetting. The argument for illegal immigration is to help the law breakers get a better life. Isn’t that by definition why all people break the law?

When was the last time a burglar said he stole your property because he was jealous of your possessions? People steal things to sell them so they can get a better life. Duh!

On Monday, June 24, 2013, the Senate passed a test vote on an immigration overhaul that would legalize millions of illegal immigrants. The 67-27 vote to shut down debate on the amendment effectively shows the entire bill likely has more than enough votes to pass the chamber.

In effect, our government is supporting illegal activity. How is it any different than organized crime? How can Senators, Congressmen, and the President ever claim to believe in the rule of law with a straight face? A Conservative friend of mine once said laws are meaningless because the government can change them at any time rendering past prosecutions moot. At the time I thought he was nuts but now I’m not too sure.

Instead of granting amnesty and rewarding illegal behavior why not password protect the border? How about putting surveillance cameras on the border and pretend it is a donut shop. Apparently preventing “donut napping” is more important than preventing illegal immigration.

C.S. Lewis wrote a satirical novel called The Screwtape Letters. The story is a series of letters from a senior demon named Screwtape to his junior Tempter. Screwtape mentors his protégé on ways to convert an honest man to the dark side. In one of the letters, Screwtape instructs: “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
Those 67 Senators have put the country on the gentle slope. I can envision a savvy Defense Attorney making the case for his client’s amnesty because “he wanted a better life.” The precedent has been set before but now it is illuminated.
Those 67 Senators gave vote for the politicians, cheap labor for “Big Business”, law breakers a pardon, and the ultimate slap in the face to law abiding citizens. Somewhere Screwtape is basking in his glory.

First President Obama said he did not need Congressional approval to order a military strike on Syria.  This after stating a year ago that his “calculus’ will be altered on whether to intervene in Syria if the Assad regime used chemical weapons. He threatened “enormous consequences” if the “red line” was crossed.  The Assad regime crossed the red line by using chemical weapons on its people and that left the president in a bind.

Looking for cover, Obama did something totally out of character and embraced the Constitution seeking Congressional approval to use military action.  Congress is in recess until September 9 and all indications are there are not enough votes to approve a strike.  The president is now facing a credibility gap.  He threatened consequences but now appears like the boy who cried wolf on the world stage.

Obama is once again deflecting all responsibility and accountability for his actions.  He stated he did not set a red line but the world community did.  The president also fell back on his tried and true ways by thumbing his nose at the Constitution and, by extension, the American people.  He stated if Congress did not give him the authority to use military force he may unilaterally do it anyway.

Between the screaming talking heads on both sides of the aisle are two important stories.  The first is whether the United States should take action against a foreign nation not abiding by the rules.  I have long maintained the United States should neutralize any threat to its people before the threat becomes too real.  I agreed with President Bush’s decision to go into Iraq and if it is a matter of nationally security I agree we need to strike Syria.

The second item is Obama is doing what he does best: playing politics.  If Congress approves a strike, Obama will do a Pontius Pilate.  If Congress rejects the request, Obama will blame the Republicans for all the atrocities.  The media will no doubt run stories and pictures of impoverished, gassed, homeless, and destitute people. If Obama thwarts the Constitution and attacks Syria with an executive order, he will say he did it for the sake of humanity.  The media will once again aid and abet him in this mission.

Regardless, the American people have a weak president.  He is averse to owning decisions and wants nothing to bear his name unless it is a Nobel Peace Prize.  Ironically, he won that for doing nothing so the stage was set from the beginning.  This episode is another example of his ineptness especially when contrasted with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Putin has a clear policy on Syria, but Obama has been vague.  Putin has been specific and determined on his policy while Obama is general and uncertain.  While a real leader stands up our president is sitting down.

I am not the sharpest tool in the shed as most who talk with my wife will attest. But some things do not make sense to me:

• Abortion activists who are against the death penalty
• The belief that minorities cannot be racist
• No one blames the knife in a stabbing but blames the gun in a shooting
• People that fertilize their lawn then complain they have to cut it
• The nation must use Obamacare yet Congressional and Senatorial staffs will get 75% subsidies to help defray the costs
• Major League Baseball bans players 50 to 100 games for cheating but bans Pete Rose for life for gambling
• You can’t rent a power tool without a photo ID but can vote without one
• Golf
• How politicians lack self-awareness
• Public school nurses can dispense condoms and abortion advice without parental consent but cannot give students an aspirin without a parent present
• The ACLU in Oklahoma is suing to have a monument of the 10 Commandments removed because a Baptist minister is “highly offended but has not said anything about the racial undertones in the murder of the white Australian jogger
• Why competitive reality series seem compelled to highlight participants with a tragic back-story
• Congress legislating a person’s right to personal choice.  It is my prerogative whether to wear a seatbelt however silly that choice may be
• The way lawyers pervert the law to give criminals more rights than the victims
• The Justice Department remains mum on the IRS scandals but has time to sue Texas over voter ID laws

Bill Whittle, a blogger, created a project called Mr. Virtual President. He makes YouTube videos which make him appear as the President of the United States, saying what he would say if he were President of the United States.

The video link below presents a provocative view on our second Amendment rights. Regardless of your political affiliation this is worth watching.

Second Amendment

Watch or listen to any newscast and you are bound to get traffic and weather reports within every 10 minutes. You will get a human-interest story, an animal story, issue of the week story, sports, and the winning lotto numbers.

The irony is we get so little news in a world of 24-hour news channels. Rather than get objective news reporting on issues that affect our daily lives, we get slanted news coverage of issues that promotes a media outlet’s agenda.

We heard about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin ad nauseum but very little on the plight of other African Americans killed during that same time period. In the same state that gave us Zimmerman and Martin comes another episode. This time three black youths beat up a 13 year-old white boy on a bus. Thankfully, no one was killed but was this not a racial crime?

Where is Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson? Since President Obama is half-white why didn’t he state: “If I had a son he would have looked like this white boy”? Why didn’t the Department of Justice send member of its community relations department to organize rallies?

The fact is media outlets broadcasts or prints whatever someone in its employ deems newsworthy. We consume the information, call it news, and accept it as fact. It shapes our attitudes and beliefs. Growing up, I thought the Fourth Estate was there to monitor the other three, not help perpetuate a crisis of the week culture.

Most of us are too busy navigating our lives to spend time fact checking the media. The media is supposed to do that for us. Instead, we must first determine whether a media outlet has a liberal or conservative bias and then filter the news within that prism.

Politicians love this national cone of silence and feel immune to any repercussions. A well-informed populace is a politician’s worst nightmare. I suggest we give the politicians’ nightmares.

The Affordable Care Act is set to take affect October 1 meaning congress and its staff would lose the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the separate health care program for those in Congress and the Senate. In 2009, Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) added an amendment to the law requiring all congress and senate members and their staffs to get coverage from an exchange as the law stipulates for all Americans.

But something funny happened on the way to equality with us average Americans. The staffers fretted the loss of the 75% subsidy they received for FEHBP and the subsequent hit to their paychecks. Congressional representatives and Senators equally worried about losing staffers to jobs that pay better. I’m sorry, but isn’t this dilemma the same as all small businesses face in America thanks to these very same people?

The only difference is small businesses are told to suck it up and painted as rich SOB’s only worries about their fortunes while our government officials simply changed the law to allow the subsidies. Actually, President Obama took care of it by prodding the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to allow members and their staffs to keep their insurance subsidies.

The average salary for congressional and senate staffers is $70,000/year. If that is the average that means some staffers are making upwards of six figures and getting a 75% subsidy to pay for their health insurance. That subsidy comes from our taxes. So why is this story hardly being reported on? Does this bother anyone else but a handful of political junkies?

There is always that one kid who takes his ball and goes home when he can’t get his way. He blames the other children for being unfair as he stomps away. I guess I now know those kids grow up to be politicians.

People forgive anything but arrogance and hypocrisy. Ironically, our government officials are nothing but arrogance and hypocrisy. So why are we forgiving them?

Here are a few links to the story in case you want to read the articles.
1. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/2/congress-can-keep-government-subsidized-health-pla/.
2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/08/02/congressmen-rejoice-govt-to-subsidize-their-health-insurance-through-obamacares-exchanges/

I drove three hours from Houston to San Antonio to hop a one-hour flight from San Antonio to Houston. Seems illogical right? Apparently, that inconvenience afforded me is logical to United Airlines.

On a recent trip to Texas I flew from Philadelphia to Houston and then on to San Antonio. The return trip was a reverse course. However, my plans changed necessitating a three hour drive to Houston two days prior to my return flight.

I called United Airlines and asked if I could simply go to the Houston airport and pick up the second leg of my return flight. I was told that maneuver would void the entire trip requiring a change fee of $200 per ticket.

Other than throwing common sense out the window and creating a customer experience that rivals sticking needles in my eyes, the airline lost revenue. On the surface, the airline had a seat it could have re-sold. I was not looking for a refund, just convenience. That’s double income on one seat. Under the surface, I will travel other airlines and try to convince as many people as possible to do the same. That’s lost opportunity income the airline gets to enjoy.

The mind-boggling episode reminded me the lack of common sense is not relegated to politics.