Alert Readers have noted that Charmaine did not make a number of points about the Octo-mom on Huckabee.

The segment was edited down for time. But Charmaine at AUL and some media outlets are reporting about the need for regulation of fertility clinics and Artificial Reproductive Technology (ART).

Cheryl Wetzstein writes
WETZSTEIN: Fertility industry in need of rules in the Washington Times,

Lawmakers in a hurry might want to consider model ART legislation from the pro-life Americans United for Life (AUL).

The bill recommends limiting the transfer of embryos to two at a time and encourages using frozen embryos before creating new ones, AUL official Mailee Smith said. It also would require comprehensive informed consent, so women can understand the range of health risks associated with multiple births, she said.

Charmaine was scheduled to appear on Larry King Live to continue the fertility debate, but was canceled.

Thank you (foot)notes,

See more of AUL's incremental abortion strategy in, MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH New trend: Ultrasounds before abortion 12 states may require doctors to offer image of baby prior to terminating life, By Chelsea Schilling, © 2009 WorldNetDaily. For example, in,

Missouri: Physicians and other "professionals" performing abortions must provide information about free ultrasound services, allow the woman access to an ultrasound and provide her with a chance to listen to the heartbeat of her unborn baby.

Currently, a patient must be informed of risks of abortions 24 hours before terminating her pregnancy. Doctors must have written parental consent or a court order to perform abortions on minors.

According to Americans United for Life, the state's General Assembly "has found that the life of each human being begins at conception." The state prohibits partial-birth abortion throughout pregnancy.

Most fertility clinics break the rules.

Posted at 9:12 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

The Commonwealth of Virginia is a terrific state to do business.

Alert Readers and my students well know the bias of Your Business Blogger(R) has toward Virginia -- a talented labor pool, low taxes, and a right to work state (re: employees don't have to join a union).

Virginia has had a business friendly culture since the county's founding. A few decades ago the beliefs were memorialized.

A Code for Virginians
Developed by a special committee of the Virginian State Chamber of Commerce and adopted by the membership in annual session at Roanoke on April 9, 1942

Preamble

Virginia was the scene of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. In its colonial legislative halls the fundamental principles of a new democracy were developed. Here the pattern of a government for a free people was evolved.

Patrick Henry sounded the keynote of the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Deceleration of Independence. George Washington led the army that made the formation of the United States a possibility. James Madison fathered the Constitution. George Mason's Virginia Bill of Rights. Here in Virginia was launched the struggle for freedom that gave birth to a new government conceived and fostered by the sons of its soil.

It is fitting, then, that we who enjoy and seek to preserve the benefits that our forefathers provided for us, should reaffirm our faith in the principles upon which this nation was founded. We should pledge our support and dedicate ourselves, our institutions, our organizations, and our individual businesses to the principles whose adoption has brought our nation and our people to be the exemplars and leaders of the civilized world.

Since a system of free enterprise is not based upon any fundamental human right, the obligation rests upon our conduct of business that under this system the public welfare is best served.
To Virginians and Virginia institutions has come the opportunity to raise anew the battle cry of freedom, to crystallize into fulfilling action the tenets that have made of this a promised land. They who gave to us this priceless heritage will not sleep if we who now enjoy it let it slip from our grasp.

[Free enterprise may not be based on an enumerated right, but capitalism is Biblically based. The Commandment Thou shall not steal is a protection for private property and that property can only change hands -- legally -- with a willing buyer and seller.]

That we may express our faith in and pledge our support of our system of private enterprise the following code has been adopted by the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce to be displayed by all its members and proclaimed to the people pf this state and nation.

1. Business in all its forms, in all its activities, must command the respect, confidence, and support of the public and its own personnel. to this end it must keep its own house in order. only through the adoption and self-enforcement of ethical standards of conduct can business justify the right to freedom of action. By this means business can minimize the need of governmental regulation.

[Any human behavior needs to be protected from evil. Many cultures use government. We are blessed with self-government with self-regulation...enforced not with brute government, but with 'intermediating institutions' -- associations between citizens and government.]

2. The privilege of doing business in Virginia is freely acquired. It is a license to serve which imposes obligations upon business to deal fairly, openly, and honestly with the public, the employee, the investor, and the government.

[Virginia has low taxes and low barriers to entry to open a business.]

3. Laws regarding business should be based on the principle of guaranteeing freedom of action to all. They should prevent the abuse of power. Fulfillment of the statutes in spirit as well as in letter in an obligation of business.

[President Jefferson said that the purpose of government is to restrain evil -- not to do good.]

4. The freedom enjoyed by individuals in a democracy imposes commensurate obligations, applying equally to those engaged in business, professional, and governmental activity. All business enterprises, enjoying rights guaranteed to persons, must recognize the same obligation as are required of the individual.

5. The foundations of our established form of government rest upon the preservation of the fundamental, inalienable rights of the individual expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of the United States of America. These rights can best be preserved under a system of free enterprise.

Posted at 3:25 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Planned Parenthood has covered up another rape. Or did they?

Indiana Planned Parenthood Covers Up Sexual Abuse of 13-year Old -

Planned Parenthood
Rape cover upLifeNews reports,

Lila Rose, a UCLA student journalist and president of right-to-life advocacy group Live Action, posing as a 13-year-old seeking abortion. In an appointment with a Planned Parenthood nurse, Rose says she has been impregnated by a 31-year-old man, a clear case of child molestation punishable as a felony under Indiana state law.


On tape, the nurse acknowledges her responsibility to report the abuse, but assures Rose she will not. The nurse says, "I am supposed to report to Child Protective Services," but tells Rose, "Okay, I didn't hear the age [of the 31-year-old]. I don't want to know the age."


She then instructs Rose how to obtain a secret abortion by crossing state lines to avoid Indiana's parental consent law.


The nurse also coaches Rose to cover for the 31-year-old man by saying he is only 14. She says, "You've seen him around, you know he's 14, he's in your grade and whatever. You know what I mean."

The diminutive and talented Lila Rose can act like and pass for a 13 year-old and appeared on Hannity and Colmes Friday December 5th.

The liberal Alan Colmes went after Lila for misleading Planned Parenthood and "filing a false report" and taking up "valuable staff time" for a problem that did not exist.

Did Lila Rose cross an ethical line in a sting operation on Planned Parenthood?

No.

Your Business Blogger(R) teaches business ethics at the local college. The bright line in ethics is Quo Bono? Who Benefits?

Is there unjust enrichment?

Lila did not enrich herself by exposing a malicious, felonious intent of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.

Even though posed Lila as a 13 year-old, is this action actionable? Is it a lie?

I would submit that Lila's act was a misdirection that all businesses should welcome and use.

Decades ago Your Business Blogger(R) worked as a sales rep for a manufacturer producing a private label product for a national retailer. It was a part of my job description to regularly "shop" my client to test their salesman's product knowledge, sales techniques, in store displays and product availability.

I reported my findings to the store manager and my boss.

I did indeed take up "valuable staff time" as Colmes would charge in a sting operation. Managers would recognize this exercise as the 'control' part of managing. To learn what the store is doing right.

Or, in the case of Planned Parenthood, what the business is doing wrong.

Planned Parenthood should thank Lila Rose for acting as a "mystery shopper" providing valuable feedback on the conduct of the Planned Parenthood abortion operations.

Join Fight FOCA

Thank you (foot)notes:

Planned Parenthood does not have the integrity to process the 360 millions of our tax dollars. Planned Parenthood should be defunded.

And Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards (with her million dollar salary), and the so called 'Freedom of Choice Act' FOCA should be stopped. Join FightFOCA.com

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just"-Thomas Jefferson. See Values Voter.

Charles Lewis, at National Post has Obama bill could fan flames of abortion debate.


Bio Medicine has Americans United for Life Urges State Legislatures to Oppose Federal Power Grab: Provides Model Resolution Denouncing Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA)
'Freedom of Choice' Act Promotes Extreme Abortion Agenda

CNS News, Faith-Based Hospitals Could Close If Obama Signs Freedom of Choice Act

Posted at 8:38 PM | Permalink
Comments (2)

After I hit the send button a friend alerted me that I had just made the biggest blunder of my career.

About a decade ago Your Business Blogger(R) was helping a good friend and fellow board member of the Family Foundation in Virginia, Ruble Hord, make a run for the House of Delegates.

The Yoests and Jim Gilmore

I emailed an invitation to an event to 200 of our closest friends to help raise funds for his effort for conservative values in central Virginia.

But I made a mistake. A whopper. I embarrassed my boss, hurt the candidate, and got a sarcastic write up by Tyler Whitley in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

(My complete humiliation was averted in that the RTD didn't run a picture, as they would with most Republican criminals...)

My mistake?

I used the wrong computer. A government computer, owned by the tax payers of The Commonwealth.

I goofed. I forgot where I was, working day and night, non-stop, intense pressure, new on the job, etc and etc and whining etc...

The Governor through his chief of staff wrote me a scathing letter of reprimand that left burn scars to this day (seen and unseen). His deputy hand delivered the letter and carried out the, um, verbal corrective interview.

Even though said deputy and I are friends today -- it was not a pretty sight back then.

All this happened in a few hours. Tyler Whitley published his article the next day.

The only thing that kept me from being terminated (serving at The Pleasure of the Governor) was my instant remorse to the CEO's quick action.

Such an "oversight" eg stoopidity, on my part did not need to be evaded or minimized. I was wrong. I violated the public trust.

And the boss made sure that I knew it.

Fortunately, it was only a one day story, but it felt much, much worse.

The Governor who issued the stern, public and immediate reprimand was James Gilmore.

Now running for Senator in Virginia.

This is the difference between the liberal/socialists Obama/Warner and the conservative/capitalists McCain/Gilmore.

When Gilmore saw one of his people using government property to advance a political agenda he did not cover up, did not stonewall, did not deflect. He did the right thing, even if it meant a public flogging of a brilliant staffer political appointee.

Note what the liberal/socialist's team of the Obama/Warner ticket does when government property is used to malign "Joe the Plumber."

Nothing.

Nothing.

There will be no investigation, no checking the facts, no public apology. No media spotlight either, but that's outside the scope of this post.

A Gilmore conservative staffer used a government computer and was publicly displayed in the light.

A Warner/Obama liberal staffer used a government computer and is quietly hidden in the dark.

Vote for Jim Gilmore for honest, open government. He lives out public service transparency.

I'm proof.

Posted at 7:07 PM | Permalink
Comments (4)

Charmaine giving a lecture
at Princeton Nothing good comes out of a "shack job" as Dr. Laura often says.

Charmaine will be on Glenn Beck tonight to debate recent trends in co-habitation.

See
More view cohabitation as acceptable choice, By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

An analysis of cohabitation, marriage and divorce data from 13 countries, including the USA, shows that living together has become so mainstream that growing numbers of Americans view it as an alternative to marriage.


The National Marriage Project study of a sampling of Western European and Scandinavian nations, Australia, Canada and New Zealand found that cohabitation elsewhere is far more common and indeed viewed as an option to matrimony.


The study found that anywhere from 15% to 30% of all couples identified themselves as living together, compared with about 10% right now in the USA.

The guys get the sex, the girls get the heart-break, the kids get Prozac and few couples stay together for long.

"Just like marriage," some would say. "After all, half of all marriages fail."

Wrong.

This is my favorite wrong statistic. Half of all marriages do not fail.

The 50% failure rate goes like this: In any one year there are about 2 million marriages and about 1 million divorces.

So: half of all marriages fail, right?

Nope.

The caveat needed to be emphasized is: "In any one year."

To get the numbers right, the stats should evaluate couples ever married. Not those marriages/divorces in a single year. One person can have multiple, multiple marriages.

This is the media run a-muck attempting to screw-up the culture.

For example, only marriages are counted, not the people in them. Charmaine and I have one marriage, Elizabeth Taylor has eight of them and she finally gave up, I think. Her last relationship with a Jason Winters was merely a shack job. Hollywood.

Not good for the couple. Not good for any children. Sharon Jayson continues,

Glenn Beck on CNN

The National Marriage Project report also cites findings from earlier studies showing that children of cohabiting couples are more likely to experience emotional problems, alcoholism and drug abuse.


But Raley says the research leaves unanswered questions.


"Many cohabiting couples use cohabitation to weather economic uncertainty or uncertainty about a relationship," she says. "We can't tell if the negative outcome for the child is due to the cohabitation or to the economic uncertainty or maybe the relationship uncertainty. That's a limitation of the data."

Guys: go get married. Make an honest woman out of her. For the children. For your health.

Hit time is 7 and 9 pm on CNN's Headline News. Email and let us know what you think.

Thank you (foot)notes:

The Baptists get it right, of course: More view cohabitation as acceptable choice.

See the Legal Theory Blog with Leckey on Cohabitation. Read how a professor can use the higher educational word "discursive" not once, not twice, but three -- THREE times in a single paragraph. "Diachronic" is used but once (in that same paragraph.) No network is going to ask that Ph.D. to debate on air, thank goodness...

Charmaine makes it look easy.

Your Business Blogger(R) also blogs at Management Training of DC, LLC.

Posted at 3:45 PM | Permalink
Comments (2)

Mark Siljander and
Your Business Blogger(R) And I'm not alone.

"You know about that cliche: Want a friend in Washington, DC, get a dog?" Mark asks me.

"Yep, Truman, I think..."

"Not true," says Mark, laughing.

"Johnson?"

"No, no, the cliche is wrong." He's upbeat. A former public servant, currently indicted, unworried, unhurried.

Another congressman, Asa Hutchinson emailed us, "I consider myself an informal advisor and friend" of Siljander.

He still has friends. In this town! Alert the media...

Well, maybe not that.

Mark has been unjustly targeted and will be cleared. But this is when -- with most indicted congressmen -- friends who were actually "friends" and don't recall knowing le accuséd.

This is a case study on having friends. (Mark does have the added benefit of being innocent...)

"No one has left me," says Mark. "Except the media, thank goodness."

The helicopters, the satellite dishes, the circus have stopped blocking his drive way.

His friends stayed with Mark. Clients, however, have become a bit skittish. It is business, you see.

So his business has stopped, the bills have not. And the kids refuse to stop eating.

So what has caused all the ruckus? The government is confused over the source of funding for Mark's research. (Yes, yes, confused government is redundant.) Alert Readers can read the product of the work.

Get Mark's new book is A Deadly Misunderstanding, published by HarperCollins.

<

A Deadly Misunderstanding
by Mark D. Siljander
Buy the book,
I did. His 13 trips to Sudan in 2007 seem to have raised some concern. And Mark speaks lotsa languages.

This is getting Siljander in trouble. Perhaps he should have traveled with Louis Farrakhan. And worshiped with Jeremiah Wright.

But instead of running for President, Mark Siljander was teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ attempting to bridge cultures.

And is paying for it dearly.

But Mark is taking this well and is not whining about the injustice --

(Nobody likes a martyr: that's why they killed so many of them...)

Alert Readers will recall that Congressman Siljander was the author of the Siljander Amendment to HR5490[5], which says simply that life begins at conception and would be under protection of the 14th Amendment.

Al Gore voted for it.

Mark has spent his life working on the issues that conservative, pro-life, God-fearing citizens care about.

He needs your help today.

Friends have set up a defense fund to help cover his legal costs. Please buy his book and contribute to his defense.

Please send contributions payable to:

"Greenberg Traurig, PC",

put on memo "Siljander Trust" and mail to:

The Honorable Edwin Meese
c/o Mr. Joe Reeder
Greenberg Traurig, PC
2101 L Street, NW
Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20037

Donate to this hard working friend. One never knows where random injustice will strike again.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Debbie Shlussel wonders, What Happened to My Former Boss Mark Siljander?

See A Deadly Misunderstanding.

From NRLC,

On June 26, 1984, the U.S. House of Representatives was considering the Civil Rights Act of 1984, a bill to expand the reach of key provisions of four previously enacted federal civil rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pro-life Congressman Mark Siljander (R-Mi.) offered a one-sentence amendment to revise the bill's definition of the key term "person."

The Siljander Amendment read, in its entirety, "For the purposes of this Act, the term 'person' shall include unborn children from the moment of conception."

The House conducted a straight up-and-down vote on the Siljander Amendment which failed, 186-219.

Mark Siljander is a car-guy. Elected to congress at 29, he tooled around town in DeLorean. (Jalopnik reports a comeback in 2008.) One of his projects was a frame-off restoration of a Hurst Olds 442.

Mark's wife sent us an email. Excerpts at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 6:58 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Henry Hyde The nation is mourning the passing of Henry Hyde. He will be remembered for his low-key, impassioned speech on impeaching Bill Clinton (perjury and obstruction of justice) and for the Hyde Amendment.

Your Business Blogger remembers him as a gentleman. I met Congressman Hyde a time or two and every time I would see him he would stand and greet me.

Alert Readers will note that I am (much) younger than the deceased Congressman and I had no where near his status or rank.

But he stood up for me. And stood against a president lying and breaking the law. Hyde was a stand-up kind of guy.

He stood up for no-bodies and everyman, and everyman loved him. (Except the Clintons.)

Henry Hyde will be remembered for many things, but for most people, he was a gentleman.

Thank you (foot)notes:

When I grow up, I want to be a wise old man, like Henry Hyde.

Be a stand up guy. Arise when your boss enters the room. Arise when a woman enters a room. See Business Etiquette Between Manager and Employee. And Management Training: Etiquette for the Manager and Staff.

See Small Business Trends, Respect: The Ultimate Business Etiquette on being a stand up guy.

Alert Readers will remember that Bill Clinton lost his license to practice law for five years and paid a $25,000 (chump change) fine. In 2006 Clinton became eligible to practice law according to Josh Gerstein of The New York Sun. Trial lawyers everywhere danced in the streets. And welcomed home one of their own.

Hyde says [perjury] admission 'vindicates' impeachment,

Reaction in Congress was mixed along predictable lines. Hatch said Friday that Clinton's statement showed the proceedings where justified.

"The combination of the president's acknowledgement, the significant suspension of his Arkansas law license, and the imposition of a fine demonstrate that the allegations arising out of this investigation of President Clinton's past actions were not based upon partisanship. They were based upon the facts and the law," he said.

Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde, the Republican former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who led the prosecution in Clinton's Senate trial, said the admission "vindicates" the House impeachment effort. Hyde's Democratic counterpart, Michigan Rep. John Conyers, called the deal "a sensible accommodation" that ends "this long national farce over an extramarital affair."

Posted at 9:24 AM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Legalize Poker on-Line

An ounce of appearance is worth a pound of performance, my Army buddies would often joke.

But this video clip brings the ditty to life. Charmaine, seen here, is the angel of light and brillance and reason and hope.

She was debating Howard Lederer, All-star professional poker player, who is lobbying Capitol Hill to legalize poker on the internet.

Howard Lederer is the ideal type-cast as a poker player: unkempt hair, ill fitting suit, a gentleman who should stand a little closer to his shaving razor. At least he wasn't wearing sun glasses...

Some 85% of communication is non verbal. This debate is the kind of test Roger Ailes would often use to evaluate talking heads for the small screen.

Ailes would watch the talent on his hotel TV the night before the appointment -- with the sound off -- and if Ailes caught himself, unconsciencely wanting to turn up the sound, he knew he had a real candidate to work with to make a difference.

Ailes judged people, well, on sight. Then sound.

Howard Lederer looks like a villian, a con-man, a tempter -- a poker player -- something unsavory out of a Frank Peretti novel.

Charmaine is heavenly, of course.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Full Disclosure: Charmaine is the wife of Your Business Blogger.

Roger Ailes was the creator of Squawk Box while at CNBC, before he moved to FOX.

The PPA, Poker Players Alliance, advertising on the Gambling Blog wants more gambling.

No one used the euphemism "gaming" instead of the accurate word "gambling." Maybe those guys are not so smart after all.

Frank Peretti blogs at Peretti's Blog.

Posted at 7:32 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., Vice President for Communications at Family Research Council, appeared on CNN Headline News October 16, 2007 to discuss a proposal at a middle school to dispense contraceptives to its students.

Click thru and watch the video -- and listen to Richard Veilleux, the Executive Director from the Maine Assembly on School-Based Health Care. Richard does not discourage sex among 11 year-old girls.

Richard has a 12 year-old daughter -- he said he would not be upset if his daughter was having sex.

As long as his pre-teen didn't smoke a cigarette after...

Should Middle Schoolers Be Given Birth Control? Please forgive the extra click through at the FRC site.

One wag once said that, "the masses are @sses." Does the entire country think like Richard from Maine? Will the entire country slide into a Hillary-land next election?

Do the masses think like Charmaine -- or Richard?

Is our country without standards or commonsense values? Can the country embrace something other than Hillary or Baywatch?

Your Business Blogger has rules for his daughters based on the wisdom of W. Bruce Cameron.

And note the protection of Cameron's intellectual property.

Cameron is a much better model than Richard from Maine or Hillary from Arkansas.

Posted at 3:50 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Words are important. Especially in the selling of ideas; selling the intangibles in the marketing of public policy.



The Squawk Box on CNBC It is a swamp. Not a wetland.

It is a jungle. Not a rain-forest

It is abortion. Not a choice.

It is gambling. Not gaming.

The last euphemism is the subject of Charmaine's media appearance Tuesday, 23 October.

Tomorrow, Charmaine will be debating the wisdom of legalizing online poker on the CNBC business news program "Squawk Box" with Carl Quintanilla, Joe Kernen and Trish Reagan (filling in for Becky Quick).

Hit time is scheduled for 7:15am ET. It will be live. In the morning...

The second guest will be professional poker player Howard Lederer.

If you are up or can TiVo, please watch and let us know what you think.

Listen close: Lederer will say "gaming." Yoest will say "gambling."

Thank you (foot)notes:

From CNBC,

CNBC airs in 95 million homes in North America, 391 million homes worldwide. An appearance on CNBC reaches one of the most influential and affluent audiences in television. A recent CNBC Viewer Tracking Study found that 70% of top management executives watch CNBC and that the average net worth of our viewers exceeds $2.7 million.

"Squawk Box" is the ultimate "pre-market" morning news and talk program, where the biggest names in business and politics bring their most important stories. "Squawk"'s unique sense of street smarts and wit, mix business news with an unscripted and fast-paced exchange of banter.

Anchored by CNBC's Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla, CNBC's signature morning program features reports from Washington, Silicon Valley, London and Hong Kong.

"Squawk Box" brings Wall Street to Main Street and is a "must see" for everyone from the professional trader to the casual investor.

Your Business Blogger counsels to minimize risk, avoid both unjust enrichment and zero sum negotiations. To ignore this advice is, well, gambling.

Posted at 5:56 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Schools want to separate children
from all parental supervision and control.
And to help those children demonstrating
risky behaviors. A child's affinity for victory
and military hardware would be suspect... A publicly funded middle school in Maine will be providing the contraceptive pill to pre-teens.

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard, at the Blethen Maine Newspapers, reports

"The proposal would build on the King Student Health Center's
practice of providing condoms as part of its reproductive health
program since it opened in 2000, said Lisa Belanger, a nurse
practitioner who oversees the city's student health centers.

If the committee approves the King proposal, it would be the
first middle school in Maine to make a full range of
contraception available to some students in grades 6 to 8, said
Nancy Birkhimer, director of teen health programs for the Maine
Department of Health and Human Services. Most middle
schoolers are ages 11-13"

Charmaine will be debating a representative from SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, on the wisdom of having a doctor prescribe pills and administer services without direct parental knowledge.

Bouchard continues,

"Of 134 students who visited King's health center during the
2006-07 school year, five students, or 4 percent, reported
having sexual intercourse, said Amanda Rowe, lead nurse in
Portland's school health centers.

"This is a service that is totally needed," Rowe said. "It's about
very few kids, but they are kids who don't have the same
opportunities and access as other students."

The percentage of middle school students in Maine who
reported having sexual intercourse dropped from 23 percent in
1997 to 13 percent in 2005, according to the Maine Youth Risk
Behavior Survey."

Charmaine will be on the side of the angels, as always. SIECUS, will be on, ...well, the other side.

School bureaucrats have a clever way to get around parental notification, as the Blethen Maine Newspapers tell us,

"Contraception would be prescribed after a physical examination
by a physician or nurse practitioner, Belanger said.

Types of prescription birth control available through the health
centers include contraceptive pills, patches or injections, as well
as the morning-after pill. Diaphragms and IUDs are not usually
prescribed, she said.

Belanger said health center workers encourage students to tell
their parents about their health center experiences, but by law
they cannot compel students to do so or inform parents without
the student's consent."

Interview Scheduled for: 5pm ET hit-time

Topic: Birth Control for Middle Schoolers

NOTE: Live segment regarding Portland, ME school district giving contraceptives to middle schoolers.

A Maine middle school has decided that 11 year-olds should probably go on the pill.

Prescribe 'the pill' at middle school?
Student health officials say a broad contraceptive program is 'totally needed.'

Thank you (foot)notes:

SEICUS has helpful links such as National Transgender Advocacy Coalition and Renaissance Transgender Association, Inc.
Mission: to provide the best in comprehensive education and caring support to transgendered individuals and those close to them.

There is nothing in the proposal that would prohibit sex-change operations. They will certainly be available under Hillary Clinton.

After she surrenders to the jihadists.

Posted at 3:48 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Our Education. Their PoliticsYour Business Blogger and Charmaine recently attended a premier screening of the documentary Indoctrinate U at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The movie was part of the American Film Renaissance Festival.

The film is an explosive discourse on the absence of free speech and radical censorship on our nation's college campuses.

It is a must see.

The movie is the brainchild of Evan Coyne Maloney. We caught up with Maloney at an after-movie bash at the Watergate. Maloney, who is a libertarian, tells us how got started on this issue, "When I was in college my opinion [news] paper was stolen and thrown out -- I got death threats for opinions. Schools teach tolerance and diversity, but there is no tolerance of different ideas."

But the educational nonsense does not begin in college. We see it nearly every day, now down to the elementary level.

Charmaine will be on the Alan Colmes radio show tonight to discuss a teacher who has quite a bit to show and tell.

Melinda England is a 28 year-old elementary school teacher who has, well, suggestive pictures on her MySpace. Alan Colmes thinks it is just peachy to let the wee ones have a peek-a-boo. Charmaine thinks some decorum might be in order. For the children at least.

Check local listings. Hit time is 10:15pm EST

See a lot of Melinda England here. Caution, not safe for work. Not safe for your kids.

Thank you (foot)notes:

For more education naked nonsense see Higher Education: Exposed. Safe for work. This is art. I think.

Full Dislosure: Your Business Blogger is an Adjunct Professor of Management at the Northern Virginia Community College.

Posted at 8:05 PM | Permalink
Comments (5)

Gary Bauer has an excellent analysis of how liberal Democrats behave in power. Their disrespectful behavior would not improve if another Clinton were in the White House.

Charmaine has given congressional testimony and Your Business Blogger has attended a number of congressional hearings. Hearings are usually conducted with decorum and respect and dignity. The high ceiling-ed hearing rooms are treated as sanctuaries; like churches. And people are mindful of being considerate and deferential.

But not these days.

Bauer, as usual, gets it right on yesterday's hearings -- and his message deserves a wide audience.

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

I spent most of the day on Capitol Hill yesterday, meeting with members of Congress and discussing important issues. The terrain is familiar to me, though it can be hostile at times. I have worked in this town for three decades, served eight years in the Reagan administration and have been through some tough hearings myself.

But yesterday something happened that I have never seen before, and even the Washington Post felt compelled to report the “theatrics” on page A2 today, noting, “the lid came off” of the liberals’ anger during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

Simply put, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Peter Pace were ambushed by radical activists and liberal Democrats on the committee. Senator Robert Byrd, chairman of the committee and the top recipient of campaign cash from MoveOn.org, whipped the audience into a frenzy. Here is an excerpt from the Washington Post:

“He [Byrd] invited the audience in the room to join him in heckling the witnesses [Secretary Gates and General Pace], creating a responsive Greek chorus.

“Byrd: Are we really seeking progress toward a stable, secure Iraq?
“Chorus: No!

“Byrd: Is our continuing occupation encouraging the Iraqi people to step up?
“Chorus: No!

“Byrd: Are Iraq's leaders doing the hard work necessary?
“Chorus: No!

“Emboldened, two dozen hecklers in the audience from the antiwar group Code Pink continued to shout at the witnesses and wave signs for the better part of an hour. Finally, after Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) challenged Pace on his view that homosexuality is immoral, the hearing collapsed as the hecklers shouted down the nation’s top military officer.

“...When the proceedings resumed, minus two dozen pink-clad demonstrators, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) felt the need to ‘go on record with how disturbed I am about the conduct that occurred here. Such tension, such chaos, such disrespect.’”

What is described here is a mob scene in which top officials charged with the defense of our country were verbally harassed and insulted by arrogant politicians and a cadre of loud-mouthed radicals. Secretary Gates and General Pace were not there to offer testimony about the war. They were intentionally set up and they walked into a trap.

That kind of petty partisan behavior is disgraceful and unbecoming of the United States Senate. While I appreciate Senator Mikulski for speaking up, it’s no wonder that Congress’ approval rating has fallen to record lows lately.

By the way, when Senator Harkin decided to bring up the issue of open homosexuality in the military, General Pace reminded the senator that the U.S. Military Code of Justice prohibits homosexual activity -- and adultery. To which Sen. Harkin retorted, “Well, then, maybe we should change that.”

Wow! I wonder what the good folks back in Iowa think of that idea. I hope they will keep it in mind next year when Harkin runs for reelection.

Global Warming = Higher Taxes

Liberals in the House of Representatives are putting the finishing touches
on a plan to combat global warming, and, of course, it involves higher
taxes. Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee is being very blunt about the facts of the plan, saying, “I’m
trying to have everybody understand that this is going to cost and that
it’s going to have a measure of pain that you’re not going to like.”

In making his call for “shared pain,” Dingell is proposing – and you might
want to sit down for this – to hike gasoline taxes 50 cents a gallon;
phasing out the interest tax deduction for home mortgages; and a new tax on
carbon emissions of $50 per ton, which would increase the cost of
electricity, winter heating fuel, etc., etc.

I’ve been saying for some time now that this debate was headed in precisely
this direction. Regardless of the science or the value of being good
stewards of the environment, liberal Democrats are turning the policy
debate on its head and using it as a tool to accomplish their agenda of
bigger government, higher taxes and more control over your life.

Democrats Debate Values; Go Off The Deep End

An interesting question was posed to the Democrat candidates during last
night’s debate in New Hampshire. A member of the audience told the
candidates about a situation that occurred last year in Lexington,
Massachusetts, in which second grade students were read a “fairly tale”
about prince who could not find true love until he met another prince. The
book is called “King and King” and it is being used to indoctrinate young
children about same-sex “marriage.”

This concerned citizen asked each of the Democrat candidates, “Would you be
comfortable having this story read to your children as part of their school
curriculum?” Their responses were revealing.

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards responded, “Yes, absolutely. I
want my children to understand everything about the difficulties that gay
and lesbian couples are faced with every day, the discrimination that
they’re faced with every single day of their lives.”

Barack Obama essentially agreed with Edwards, noting that children need to
understand that some people are different. Then it was Hillary’s turn.

“I really respect what both John and Barack said. With respect to your
individual children, that is such a matter of parental discretion,” Clinton
said.

Well, actually, it’s not. When the father of a child in the Lexington
class objected to what his son was being exposed to, he was told that
homosexual “marriage” was legal in Massachusetts. When he continued to
protest the school’s blatant disregard for parental rights, he was
arrested. Parents later sued the school district and a judge dismissed
their suit. So much for “parental discretion.”

I’m pleased to report that several Republican presidential candidates today
are noting just how extreme and out of touch the Democrats have become on
values issues. Earlier this year, the Democrats participated in the first-
ever “gay debate,” demonstrating the influence the militant homosexual
movement wields within the party of Clinton and Kennedy.

My friends, today’s news – liberal Democrats haranguing our military
leaders; trying to raise taxes through the roof; and forcing homosexuality
on our children – once again illustrates the stakes involved in the 2008
elections. I’ll be reporting even more in the days ahead. I hope you are
ready, and I hope you will support us!

Thank you (foot)notes:

If you would like to receive Gary Bauer's update by e-mail, you can sign up online at http://www.cwfpac.com/cwf_eod_request.php

If you would like to support his outstanding work, please click on the following link:
https://www.cwfpac.com/cwf_contribution.php

These are unpaid links for the Campaign for Working Families

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger and Charmaine have worked for Gary Bauer in different capacities over the decades.

Posted at 9:13 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

The Cowboy Poet and Larry Craig
Charmaine had just finished her book, Mother in the Middle: Searching for Peace in the Mommy Wars, so we put The (little) Dreamer in the car and went book-flogging across America.

Our travels took us to Boise, Idaho, in the flyover country of conservative book buyers. The local Family Policy Council invited us to their fund-raiser and Charmaine spoke behind headliner and popular Senator from Idaho, Larry Craig.

She wrote about the experience for Policy Review, formerly owned by The Heritage Foundation, and now under The Hoover Institute masthead. She begins,

Rudy Gonzalez, a "cowboy poet" with a handlebar mustache and a home-on-the-range accent, strummed his guitar, then launched into a joke. The crowd relaxed into laughter as he regaled them with tall tales and folk wisdom.

Reading Charmaine's old article now seems like anything but a trailer for Brokeback Mountain.

This is the Idaho Family Forum's annual summer fundraiser, the Spud Bake, where this group of moms and dads marks the end of summer by eating baked potatoes. Lots of them. Followed by spud-shaped ice cream.

But cowboy poetry soon gave way to public policy. U.S. Senator Larry Craig rose to address the group, and the question-and-answer session that followed was brisk and well informed. The Idaho Family Forum (IFF) and its supporters are dedicated to changing cultural trends that are undermining the stability of families -- from no-fault divorce to teen pregnancy to chronic welfare dependency.

Larry Craig's talk was red meat to this Red State.

His remarks were sincere, but looking back was he being, as we now say, authentic?

Or does Craig's resignation announcement today indicate something more. That his "wide stance" -- a sort of big tent across men's room stalls for anonymous homosexual sex -- now means that one cannot be homosexual and conservative?

(Many of our Log Cabin Republican homosexual friends vote pro-life. Believing that if science ever finds that "gay gene" that mothers will root out gays in the womb and abort to eliminate this "orientation" from that family blood-line.)

Nope. Larry Craig was cheating on his wife.

Once in the Army, Your Business Blogger had a battalion commander, a Lieutenant Colonel Paul Funk, who gave poor marks to a Major who had a weakness for women; his wife not included. We young lieutenants were a bit perplexed: this Major, a Vietnam Vet was being penalized for personal behavior that had nothing to do with his job. How judgmental! How intolerant!

The word got around, as information does in any organization, that LTC Funk did not consider any lines between the personal and the public and the private.

He said, "If a man cannot be loyal to his wife, how do I know he'll be loyal to me?"

The same if true of politicians. Maybe even more so. If a Congressman or Senator cheats on his wife, it is a matter of when, not if, he will cheat his constituents.

Larry Craig took the correct action by leaving the Senate.

Thank you (foot)notes:

LTC Funk continued with his medieval sense of duty and chivalry and honor. He was rewarded, and advanced to become a Lieutenant General and hero of the First Gulf war. I understand he retired quietly back to his hometown of Roundup, Montana. I've been blessed with a number of talented bosses and he was one of the best.

Read Charmaine's original article Family Policy Councils: The Real Grass Roots Needed for the Next Conservative President

Posted at 7:12 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Worthwhile Reads:

If this is our new guide, we’re lost by Gina Dalfonzo with excellent commentary on Dr. Drew Pinsky.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt Learn about FUD: fear, uncertainty and doubt, at Why Sell Is Still a Four Letter Word by Charles H. Green -- brought to us at no charge by Carnival of Sales & Management Success, hosted by Brad Trnavsky

Leading by Example in a World of Copy Cats By Michelle Cramer via Carnival of Leadership Development hosted by The Engaging Brand blog with Anna Farmery, Business Coach and Speaker

And be sure to visit the Carnival of Image & Influence | Vol. 2 hosted by Steve Silvers. He graciously points to my article What is the best tactic to get a referral?

But Steve minimized the best referral in one of the better posts lately -- which would be his. See references to Steve Silvers' quotes in Forbes and from an article in the Associated Press, 2 Wal-Mart Critics Leave Group, By MARCUS KABEL,

Corporate reputation expert Steven Silvers said the move may signal that the union campaigns are reaching an end, with little new ground to cover after criticizing Wal-Mart for two years.

"At some point an activist group has to ask itself if it's preaching to the choir," said Silvers, from the Denver-based consulting company GBSM Inc.

"What they're doing is going from rhetoric to relevance," Silvers said. He said Blank and Kofinis can have more impact on Wal-Mart from the national platform of the presidential race.

Steve would be a blogger with reach.

Thank you (foot)notes:

STEVEN SILVERS is a Principal at GBSM, Inc., 600 17th Street, Suite 2020 South in Denver, CO 80202. Go visit www.gbsm.com

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:10 AM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Charmaine at Princeton University
April, 2007
Photo by Wes Shim Charmaine is quoted in Teen Sex Rates Stop Falling, Data Show, By Rob Stein, a Washington Post Staff Writer on Sunday, July 22, 2007; Page A01. Stein begins,

"The long decline in sexual activity among U.S. teenagers, hailed as one of the nation's most important social and public health successes, appears to have stalled.

After decreasing steadily and significantly for more than a decade, the percentage of teenagers having intercourse began to plateau in 2001 and has failed to budge since then, despite the intensified focus in recent years on encouraging sexual abstinence, according to new analyses of data from a large federal survey."

Charmaine's quote is not on A-1 at the beginning of the story, but on the continuation deep in A-16 something. But Stein did quote her accurately, and yes, fairly,

"Teenagers today live in an MTV-driven culture and are bombarded by sexual messages that say it is normative for them to get involved sexually," said Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council. "We need a message that sexual experimentation as a teenager is unhealthy."

The number one reason that teens have sex is not the need for intimacy, or the fun, or the good time, or the passion.

Tobacco Free Kids It's peer pressure.

The belief that every one is doing it.

And not everyone is. Just like smoking.

Proper parental supervision is more healthy than the teen's peers.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Abstinence programs should be encouraged in the same manner as teen smoking campaigns. See Tobacco Free Kids. For more information on Teens and smoking, please contact our good friend, Danny McGoldrick, Vice President, Research at TobaccoFreeKids.

See more on the marketing -- watch for negatives: The Marketing Bimbos.

Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Boo, The Diva and The Dancer
with Your Business Blogger's
Mao Man Bag (for diapers) I asked the woman why she wanted to work for us.

"The Terrorists are trying to kill me."

I knew this was not to be an ordinary job interview.

Charmaine and I were hiring a housekeeper in the early 90's, and Mrs. C was referred to us, because she was well qualified. She used to own a day-care business.

In Peru.

And her husband was a manager for a manufacturer for a US based company. The rebel communists, the Sendero Luminoso -- or Shining Path -- had picked up the local company organization chart and began picking off the managers in quick order.

A well executed plan.

Like a good org chart shaped like a pyramid, the terrorists started at the bottom and were working their way up the corporate ladder fast.

The hierarchy of the career path was easy to follow for the Shining Path. The communists are nothing if not consistent. Just as they were in Stalin's day, the communist's were executing the managers, killing their way up the org chart.

Mr. C thoughtfully decided to leave the company, wanting to spend more time with the family...in another country.

So Mrs. C packed up her two girls and hubby and moved to America and was given earned asylum. I admired her resilience. Her ingenuity. Her gumption.

Her green card.

Filled with compassion, as is my nature, I hired her and her valid status.

We learned a bit about Peru and the kind of terrorism that kills immediately and immediate family. The terrorists, with the accent on the last syllable. We learned that the people of Peru loved freedom, hated communism.

Cameron Diaz
with Mao bag in PeruSo we were surprised that the well-briefed commie babe Cameron Diaz would go to Machu Picchu, Peru with her trendy, yet practical, Mao Bag with bold Red Star and well-placed slogan Serve the People in the ever- popular military drab olive green.

Peruvians did not appreciate her "style."

The nation of Peru is still healing from the almost 70,000 murdered by the Shining Path. Not quite the head count of Stalin or Mao, but still a not-too-shabby benchmark in the Commie Accounting.

Cameron Diaz did apologize for her thoughtlessness.

But it is not just the thoughtless commies in Hollywood who are insulting the people of Peru. Our very own (elected) commies Democrats in Congress are insulting Peru.

Democrats are insulting the government of Peru by modifying trade deals. Not content with attempting to run our lives here in the States, the Dems are micro-managing in Peru. And are screwing up a good trade deal.

But Your Business Blogger wants to assure our friends in Peru that the American People are not represented (so to say) by the Democrats in our Congress. That our government really wants free trade and free people to do business.

So we put The Dreamer, our first born, on Copa Airlines this morning out of Dulles Airport with a suitcase full of new shoes for children in Lima.

The Peruvians fought communism and are now fighting Democrats, the least we can do is support these freedom fighters.

The Dreamer, being brighter than Cameron Diaz, did not take her Mao bag to Peru. She is taking our good will and a big heart and a suitcase full of shoes.

To make a difference one child to one child.

The Penta-Posse minus The Dreamer
at a Potomac Nationals minor league game in
Northern Virginia. We won beating the Salem Avalanche,
farm team for the Houston Astros.

Thank you (foot)notes:

The Dreamer blogs at A Different Kind of Drama. Visit for another shot of the Mao bag.

Last year, when our church went to share Jesus with the people of Peru, they found many children arriving to Bible studies in bare feet. . . this year, our group from McLean Bible Church will arrive with over 500 pairs of shoes so that they can practice "Feet-First" evangelism.

Your Business Blogger bought the Mao bag on a trip to China. It was, I believe the only item in the entire country that was not violating American intellectual property.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 1:18 PM | Permalink
Comments (6)

Charmaine on an earlier
FOX appearance Data is showing that the public is most uncomfortable with abortion.

Charmaine will be discussing the trend -- as Naomi Wolf said, "The fetus beat us."

Hit time is 12:30 pm Saturday 19 May 2007 on FOX.


The Fetus
Beat us.
The proof. Charmaine appeared with Tucker Carlson to morn the loss of a pro-life leader, Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Watch the short segment here. Please forgive the extra click to the Family Research Council.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Our friend, John Aravosis called Falwell a "hateful pig."

Posted at 4:46 PM | Permalink
Comments (11)

Don Imus on MSNBCThe folks at FOX did a much better job at moderating the presidential debate than Chris Matthews from MSNBC and The Politico. A silly questioned missed by Chris would could have been, "Should IMUS be allowed on the airways?"

A silly question. But the only silly question Chris didn't ask.

And Charmaine is not afraid to address.

Watch the short clip and give us your take. Please forgive the extra click to the Family Research Council site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., Vice President for Communications at Family Research Council, appeared on Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on April 13, 2007 to discuss a Don Imus radio future.

Charmaine has never appeared on Imus. She never received an invitation. I'm glad we were not tempted.

From King Jimmie, There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able...1 Corinthians 10:13

Posted at 12:07 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Mike Jingozian
founder of AngelVision
announces political ambitions "You will hear more about my political plans in the months ahead. For now, I wish you peace and harmony. Be well, Jingo."

A number of Alert Readers have been following our case study of AngelVision. The founder, Mike "Jingo" Jingozian has been most unhappy with Your Business Blogger's analysis and has hired (at least two) lawyers and a private investigator in response to the critique and the comments.

(A private investigator??!! I'm honored.)

Jingo will be running for an elected or appointed public office -- but has taken some time off the campaign trail and his business to address Reasoned Audacity's review of the unusual AngelVision management style.

Jingozium Erratum
Your Business Blogger at
Oxford's circular library
May 1995Over the next few weeks we will discuss the challenges of crisis management in dealing with the blogosphere.

AngelVision continues to be an outstanding case study -- on a "distinctive" reaction to public criticism.

Meanwhile Jingo should consider CampaignSiteBuilder.com to help him launch his political career. (See compensated link on sidebar.)

Continue reading at the jump. Hint: Don't hire expensive private investigators to spy on bloggers.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Be sure to visit AngelVision and take the Jingo on-line poll on what to do with Your Business Blogger. Here's how I voted:

Number three: Don’t be a wimp! Kick some @ss! Sue the b@stard out of principle! [Expletives modified]

The vote results will surprise you.

(Charmaine voted for "ignore him." She's no fun.)

Here's my advice and bumper sticker for his political world view.

UPDATE: 16 May 2007, Mike Jingozian claims that Your Business Blogger is a Washington government insider. Very flattering, but I must not be much of a political insider because I just now noticed that Jingo Jingozian is really, really running for public office. No, not town council. Not for congress. Nope. Jingo is going the Full Monty. Mike Jingozian is running for President. Goodness.

Blue state Oregon is now in play for the GOP.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 12:20 PM | Permalink
Comments (8)

GOP Presidential Debate Smackdown? Nope. The buzz is on Blumenthal.

Max meant to be snarky. But comes off stupid silly. Or worse: An amateur.

Blumenthal on the Huffington Post hotlinked to a picture on the Family Research Council web site. Max is 'borrowing' server space. Not really a big deal...just bad form.

Joe Carter and Jared Bridges at FRC caught it and substituted this come-back:

Dead Kitty: Blumenthal Poisons Cats

The Huffington Post lefties are slow learners. Liberals always are. So Max Blumenthal re-hot-links. And screws up yet again.

But cannot get ahead of Christian Soldiers Marching as to War. Or Blumenthal's Comedy Club.

FRCBlog: Max Blumenthal's Favorite Stops on the Interweb

Thank you (foot)notes:

Joe Carter, a former Marine,
said he started blogging as a way
to become an influential voice
for Christian values even though
he doesn't have
Ivy League credentials.
(By Rich Lipski, The Washington Post) Joe Carter is the Editor at the FRCBlog and was recently highlighted in The Washington Post. He blogs at The Evangelical Outpost.

Jared Bridges is a contributor at FRCBlog and personally blogs at TruePravada.

The Carter/Bridges brilliance is noted in NewBusters Editors' Pick May 4, 4007.

Brian Kaylor at For God's Sake Shut Up! sees nothing funny. Pursuing a Ph.D. has that effect. His sense of humor should return after his dissertation defense.

Kevin Aylward at Wizbang has an update.

See ChristianityToday.

Blogroll the BlueyBlog: Max Blumenthal: Image Thief

HuffPo p0wn3d by FRCblog.com! by Laura at Pursuing Holiness. Our kind of girl.

And see what Joe Carter did with:

Michelle Malkin

Little Green Footballs

National Review Online

RedState

FreeRepublic.com

Human Events' Right Angle

Bluey Blog

Wizbang!

NewsBusters

InstaPundit

TownHall.com

Pursuing Holiness

WORLD magazine's blog

Wonkette

in A Lesson in Web Etiquette for the Huffington Post (Part II)

Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. -- Proverbs 26:11

Wizbangblog is on the story with analysis,

That's not ignorance of how the web works, no that's willfully dishonest bandwidth theft on the part of Mr. Blumenthal.

Posted at 11:28 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Snoopy
by Charles Schultz :Charles Schultz Philosophy has been making the rounds and deserves repeating.

The creator of the Peanuts comic strip, Charles Schultz, has an eternal perspective.

Charles Schultz

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.

4. Name 10 people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners .

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with

Easier Right?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care .

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia .

(Charles Schultz)

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:08 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Glenn Beck
on CNN
Charmaine will be coming back again this week on the Glenn Beck Show on CNN to discuss the cultural implications of the shooting at Virginia Tech.

The Killer Was Evil. He Made an Evil Choice.

Liberals do not want to hear any debate on Good and Evil. Because Liberals cannot, of course, name Evil.

Because they would then have to acknowledge Good.

Because liberals cannot acknowledge our Creator from which all Good flows.

Hit times are thrice tonight, Friday: 7, 9 and 12 midnite Eastern on your CNN Headline News cable outlet.

Charmaine on remote on the DC set
for Glenn Beck who is taped in NYC
Photo Credit: The Dude Please tune in and let us know what you think.

And listen to a conservative Political Scientist who can name Evil.

Posted at 1:14 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

MSNBC Charmaine will be on Dayside News with Contessa Brewer. Charmaine will be reviewing those parenting skills useful between parent and child.

Starting with the fact that the parent is the adult.

...Usually.

L to R: Cohen, Clinton, Albright, Sandy Berger

Backgrounder is AP story Adults are urged to take a parental role

Hit time is 1:15 on MSNBC.

She will then be on Fox at 1:40 debating that latest news on Day Care from the NIH.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Backstory on the Clinton photo:

PBS took the Hear no evil, speak no evil..." photo of clinton/cohen/albright/berger from it's site! -- from comments on Free Republic

Secretary of Defense Cohen, Impeached Bill Clinton, Albright, and long-accepted CODE-level thief and document destroyer National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, holding court in the Ronald Reagan Building on April 25, 1999 The Impeached Bill Clinton: "We were all making comments we shouldn't have about how the meeting was getting very boring. So finally we decided we had to make like the monkey. Cohen started this 'hear no evil,' and then I was next so I spoke no evil, then Madeleine saw no evil, so Sandy Berger said, 'I'm evil.'" -

If you are in Northern Virginia, be sure to come to McLean Bible Church and watch The Diva sing at 6:30pm.

Posted at 10:30 PM | Permalink
Comments (2)

He doesn't go to church.

Bob Knight and Brent Bozell
Photo Credit: Michelle S. Humphrey
from the Media Research Center It seemed that many of the clients of Your Business Blogger were having challenges finding integrity in job candidates. Even business schools are forced to teach ethics. Goodness.

So I ask Bob Knight, who runs the Culture and Media Institute a part of Brent Bozell's Media Research Center about this. Bob's team just released a report, The National Cultural Values Survey.

Smart Human Resource gurus have always used an unspoken, intuitive cultural profiling to test job candidates.

Bob Knight's Survey quantifies with hard numbers what managers have all been feeling over the last few years.

And it turns out the HR professionals may have been right. People these days have a ...flexible compass on truth.

The Culture and Media Institute released this report at The National Press Club on Wednesday in Washington, DC. I ask Bob, "What should hiring managers use to determine a good job candidate from one that would break the law, lie, or use drugs?"

"This is a problem for business and for us all," Bob said later. The variable on honesty can be measured by the professed attendance at a house of worship. "The determining line would be going to church at least twice a month." However, Bob was quick to remind me, "You can't ask that in a job interview."

Questions based on Faith Based Hiring practices would be, well, discriminating.

In favor of the crooks and liars and liberals.

In The National Cultural Values Survey: America: A Nation in Moral and Spiritual Confusion, Bob finds that,

The survey reveals that 74 percent of Americans believe the nation is in moral decline, and that a culture war is indeed occurring in America.

Indeed. First-line supervisors see this daily and battle with the challenge of finding ways of selecting good employees.

Managers would often gauge an aspect of culture and class of a job candidate by observing the prospective employee's behavior at a restaurant. Table manners were important, but the astute manager watched how the candidate would treat the wait staff.

Bob Knight's Survey takes this test to a higher level and gives a vignette on measuring honesty in a table called, Cheating on a Restaurant Bill,

You are out to dinner with a group of friends. When the check arrives you notice that several
items are missing from the bill. Your friends say you should just pay the bill, and that it’s the
restaurant’s own fault for making the mistake. What would you do?

85% of church-going conservatives would Tell the waiter and pay the right amount. Only 52% of the Godless liberals would be forthright.

The 18th-century atheist and culturally-correct philosphe, Voltaire, recognized this problem. Even though he believed Christianity was an "infamy," he wrote that "I want my attorney, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God."

Voltaire wanted this accountability to God not for his employee's eternal salvation, but as a Total Quality Management System. "...Then I shall be robbed and cuckolded less often," he concluded.

The Frenchman and the Jesus-loving Christians. Voltaire hated them. But he hired them.

And so should you.

Thank you (foot)notes:

If you are a manager, please comment on your favorite (legal) tactics to find honest employees.

What's the One Best Question to Ask a Job Candidate?

Also see MRC's Business and Media site.

And NewsBusters.org

And mark your calendars for Media Research Center's 20th Anniversary Gala on 29 March. Your Business Blogger and Charmaine will be there with some of the smartest people in DC. You be there too.

Business Pundit has more data that supports one of Bob's findings -- children make us more honest and better people. See Do Parents Make Better Managers?

See Mike Paul's Reputation Doctor.

All links are unpaid.

Read Major Findings of the Survey at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:57 PM | Permalink
Comments (9)

Policy Review
November & December 1996In the mid-nineties, Charmaine wrote a column for Policy Review magazine. One of her articles reviewed the Family Policy Councils. The FPCs are state based non-profits considered faith-based, cultural and economic conservatives.

A conservative president usually needs Ohio to win. And the embrace of the Family Policy Councils.

These state-based organizations work somewhat with the Family Research Council in DC and Focus on the Family in Colorado.

Originally published in 1996; and even more important today.

State Groups That Fight for Mom and Dad

by Charmaine Crouse Yoest

Rudy Gonzalez, a "cowboy poet" with a handlebar mustache and a home-on-the-range accent, strummed his guitar, then launched into a joke. The crowd relaxed into laughter as he regaled them with tall tales and folk wisdom.

This is the Idaho Family Forum's annual summer fundraiser, the Spud Bake, where this group of moms and dads marks the end of summer by eating baked potatoes. Lots of them. Followed by spud-shaped ice cream.

But cowboy poetry soon gave way to public policy. U.S. Senator Larry Craig rose to address the group, and the question-and-answer session that followed was brisk and well informed. The Idaho Family Forum (IFF) and its supporters are dedicated to changing cultural trends that are undermining the stability of families -- from no-fault divorce to teen pregnancy to chronic welfare dependency.

Led by executive director Dennis Mansfield, a former businessman, the IFF is part of a growing national movement of independent, state-based policy organizations called Family Policy Councils (FPCs). There are now more than 30 such organizations across the country, loosely affiliated by shared goals, common strategies, and mutual support. In order to win the ears of lawmakers, the media, and academics, they prefer research over rallies and education over activism.

Continue reading at the jump

Thank you (foot)notes:

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger served on the Board of Directors for The Family Foundation, a Family Policy Council in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:07 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

NOW Chapter President
Desiree Nall
Admitted Rape Hoaxer It is a lie, that women never lie.

And when it comes to rape, women tell the truth about half the time.

Which creates a problem for law enforcement. When a woman cries, "Rape," a crime has been committed. The challenge for cops is, who is the criminal -- the man or the woman? Either a rape has occured. Or a slander has occured. The police officer could flip a coin to determine truth with equal statistical probability.

Or could he. Are there other indicators that law enforcement could use to determine the likelyhood of the crime of rape?

Elaine Donnelly, to whom I report to at the Center for Military Readiness has Sex, Lies, and Rape: How to Distinguish Truthful Allegations form False Ones.

She cites Eugene J. Kanin, Ph.D. and Charles P. McDowell, Ph.D. who have made a number of studies involving women who claimed rape, then recanted the charge -- even under the criminal penalty of filing a false report.

Bottom line: Some women lie. Here's how the legal eagles spot the liars:

1) Revenge -- Is the girl out to get even with a man or boyfriend?
2) Alibi -- Does the girl need an explanation for having sex?
3) Emotional Instability -- Does the girl have problems or a desire for attention?
4) Timeliness -- How long did she wait to report the crime? -- Some women take a year to file a police report.
5) Physical Evidence -- There may not be any.
6) Self Inflicted Wounds -- But never sensitive areas: no lips, eyes, gentialia, nipples.
7) Incapacitated -- Drunk or drugged remembering few details.

These clues are merely clues, but can help alert investigators on the credibility of a complainant.

Donnelly quotes Warren Farrell, a former board member of the National Organization for Women who matured from a male feminist to an advocate of truth and equality that does not discriminate against men,

False accusations are not a rarity, they are themselves a form of rape...

But not all NOW-ists have so matured. Wendy McElroy writes about one Desiree Nall, that,

On April 8, [2005] the president of the Brevard, Fla., chapter of the National Organization for Women was charged by the Florida state attorney's office with filing a false rape report and making a false official statement.

She could be imprisoned for one year on each count and forced to pay for the police investigation she incurred. The case has far-reaching implications for gender politics and for women who report sexual assault in the future.

And the NOW chapter president recanted; the rape was a hoax, McElroy continues,

According to police, on Nov. 19, Nall phoned and asked to have the case dropped. When Detective Jon Askins questioned her original report, Nall reportedly confessed that she was "not a victim of a sexual batter." The police speculate that Nall, a vocal feminist, may have been trying to "make a statement" about violence against women. The alleged rape occurred during Sexual Assault Awareness Week, which was intended to highlight the issue of sexual violence against women.

As feminist Cathy Young correctly says,

We need a serious, honest, open discussion on false accusations of rape. Being able to accuse someone of rape is a form of power (of course that's true of any accusation, but a charge of rape packs a unique emotional and legal punch); and it would be naive to expect women never to abuse the power they have, just as it would be naive to expect it of men.

Our feminist friends should join us conservatives to focus scarce law enforcement resources on the actual crimes of criminals. And not waste time with liars, hoax-ers and false accusers.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Your Business Blogger is proud to serve as the Vice President of the Center for Military Readiness.

Elaine Donnelly is quoted in Martha Mendoza's AP Probe Looks at Recruiting Misconduct.

Wendy McElroy writes False Rape Accusations May be more Common Than Thought in Fox

Alec Rawls has clear thinking on the science.

Glenn Sacks is re-running an interesting column on Research Shows False Accusations of Rape Common.

Army veteran Billoblog has insight at False Rape Accusations Are Not Rare.

Cathy Young has Who says women never lie about Rape? in Salon. Cathy Young blogs and has a post on Rape, lies, and videotape.

Columbian Journalism Review has analysis.

Alas (a blog) has False Rape Reports.

Update 19 Sept 2006 -- Also see another 'Victim" in the Washington Post.

Posted at 8:17 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

The Guardian,
Your Business Blogger
and Charmaine Disney's soon-to- be-released movie, The Guardian, starring Kevin Costner, tells the Coast Guard's story. Semper Paratus

The Coast Guard is Always Ready. But sometimes the Coast Guard must make hard choices. The conflict setup of the The Guardian action-movie is:

When a Coast Guard rescuer has to decide between two people in extreme distress, which one does he choose?

Webster Smith, Center
with parents
AP Photo The Coast Guard has itself been under distress. The service academies have precise rules as a condition of employment and as the price of admission for the free university education. Among them:

Don't have sex in the dorms.

If you are looking for a Charlotte Simmons campus, go civilian. The feminists and the academies are battling in the courts arguing over the breaking of rules and rape.

In the recent Webster Smith trial the Coast Guard recently had to choose between,

He said, and,
She said

The Coast Guard picked, "She Said."

Webster Smith was convicted guilty of indecent assault, extortion, sodomy, failure to obey an order and absent without leave. This is the first student court-marshal in the Coast Guard academy's 130 year history.

The Free Republic says:

With no DNA or forensic evidence in the case, prosecutors relied on the testimony of Smith's on-again, off-again girlfriend to carry the rape case. (Emphasis mine.)

She testified that she drank two bottles of wine at a party in Annapolis, Md., last summer and couldn't remember having sex with Smith.

Smith said that she drank far less that night and that the sex was consensual. He was acquitted on charges stemming from her accusations.

Both were a-boozing. She's now an officer. He gets six months.

Hell hath no fury like a woman women scorned.

All this started with the girls getting mad. And then getting even.

The time line starts with Webster canoodeling with (at least!) four Coast Guard female cadets. This is against the rules for boys and girls alike. Webster should have gotten gigged or gotten demerits or something; So should the girl(s). But no.

About a year ago, the girlfriends began to find out about each other.

Real sexual assault must be addressed. Monsters who rape must be quarentined from civil society. I'm just not sure Webster is such a monster. Webster Smith is a cad(et) to be punished. But it is not clear that he is a rapist.

The story begins:

Webster "rapes" girlfriend #1.

The next night, after the "rape" of #1, #1 girl goes with Smith to a concert, then she spends the night together with Smith in a hotel room.

They exchange affectionate e-mails.

They have dinner.

#1 gets pregnant. Smith and his mother and #1 girlfriend talk about getting married.

They don't get married.

Webster Smith is brought up on rape charges and all the other lawless canoodeling activity.

At his trial, girlfriend #2 testifies that she and Smith also had sex. A number of times.

The sex with girlfriend #2 took place in her dorm room. She opened the door and let him in. A number of times.

Girlfriend #2 says all this sex was "unwelcomed." A number of times.

Girlfriend #2 joins Webster in a series of naked photographs; Paris Hilton special. (The Chronicle of Higher Education has the options, I believe.)

Girlfriend #2 is also now a Coast Guard officer. (It is not known if she is posing... for recruitment posters.)

#2 girlfriend gave testimony about oral sex with Smith. #2 said she had to debase herself with lots of sex, and porno-photography because Smith had a "secret" and would tell on her.

The secret would jeopardize her career.

#2 girlfriend sold sex for silence. To keep her "secret" safe.

Smith is befuddled. He knows of no "secret." He really doesn't know what she's talking about. She implies that Smith does know. Or should know.

(Every married man reading this is nodding: has been there, ignored that.)

Somewhere in all this Webster's baby is aborted.

Smith must register as a sex offender in Texas and will not graduate from the Coast Guard Academy.

The conflict, the lesson of The Guardian, of whom to choose, whom to believe, is simple.

Always rescue the damsel in distress. And,

What "She Said" is always true.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Webster's "rapes" were not as bad as Professor Igor's 80 "rapes" of a woman. The service academies are looking more like civilian academies all the time.

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger has the honor of serving as the Vice President for the Center for Military Readiness.

For an outstanding analysis about the service academy rape cases visit countervailing force.

More at the jump

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 4:24 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Scarborough Country Charmaine will be appearing on Scarborough Country tonight on MSNBC. Hit time is around 9:40pm EST.

She will be debating the value of fidelity in marriage.

She will be sounding like the Marines:

Semper Fidelis.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

More on Congressman Joe Scarborough at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:24 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Your Business Blogger
with back office hardware
Bangalore, India In India it's called "Speed Money." In Mexico it's call "Facilitation." In China it's called a "Relationship."

In the US of A, it's called a "Bribe."

Except in Washington, DC, where it's called "Love."

Frank Robinson, an Inspector for the Washington, DC Department of Transportation was caught on tape asking for love; asking for a bribe. According to The Washington Times, May 25, 2006:

Mr. Robinson: You want your permit right away, right?

Contractor: D*mn right I want my permit.

Mr. Robinson: You need to love me, baby, you need to love me. I did my part; you didn't get no fines or anything.

Contractor: Give me a price. I got to talk to my people about money. Tell me how much.

Mr. Robinson: What you think man? If you had somebody ...watch something so you didn't get a $2,500 ticket?

Contractor: Frank, I need a price.

Mr. Robinson: Give me $500.

Sounds much like doing business in a Third World Nation. Or maybe it is. As Washington, DC has often been compared.

Your Business Blogger once had a boss in the medical device business working the Washington, DC hospitals. He advised me on how to deliver "the gratuity" which was usually in a brown paper bag, to the key influencers and decision makers. My boss was a pro. He directed me to give the goods only after the contract was signed as a "reward." Rather than before the signed order.

The "thank you" was a box of donuts.

A difference of degree from $100K Congressman Jefferson received as a "gratuity" I suppose.

As Your Business Blogger consults with international clients, particular attention is paid to the difference between a gratuity and a gratuity.

And I would lecture smugly on the superiority of God-fearing English-speaking Capitalists (that'd be us) ruling the world.

(Test: Find something in your house made in China Syria.)

People always ask, "What is the main difference in business between USA and [country X]?

The short answer is that North America has trust as then central tenet of business. The Puritan Work Ethic. I would advise, discreetly, that Americans expect an honest deal. The rest of the world expects to get screwed.

Nobel laureate Milton Friedman spoke to this. He said that a cultural prerequisite of making money is the holding of truthfulness as a common virtue.

When you can trust a merchant's word, says Friedman, "it cut[s] down transaction costs."

The North American flavor of capitalism makes the most money and leaves the best taste. Even with an occasional rotten apple in Your Nation's Capital.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Posted at 1:04 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Henry Hyde "What do you want to be when you grow up?" is asked of children. And adults.

As for Your Business Blogger? When I grow up? I want to be a Wise Old Man.

Just like Henry Hyde. (He's made fewer mistakes than me.)

Charmaine and Your Business Blogger saw Congressman Hyde again at a DC event this week at the Willard. He was being honored by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).

Hyde, the 82-year old Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a warhorse who sometimes bucked his own party.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council wrote,

When he first introduced his amendment to cut off federal funding of almost all abortions in the immediate aftermath of Roe v. Wade, it seemed to many people in the political world that abortion was "settled law." Both Houses of Congress were firmly in the hands of liberals who supported abortion. Even the Republican Ford administration had decided that the federal government should pay for abortions--because the Supreme Court had ruled them legal.

Henry Hyde would rather be right than be popular.

Maybe life isn't like high school.

Henry Hyde does what we all want to do: Make a difference.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Be sure to sign up for the Family Research Council email newsletter.

More on NRLC at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:12 AM | Permalink
Comments (0)

The Chronicle of Higher Education arrived in my mail box. In plastic wrap. But it should be covered in brown paper. Remember, Your Business Blogger subscribes for the articles. But I can always count on The Chronicle to titillate.

Here's this edition's nudie pics.

The liberals in academe cannot understand why us parental prudes might not want their daughters dancing naked on campus and posing in paint for publication.

This is bad for the education business. Looks bad on a resume.

But I could be wrong.

Rachel E. Beaulieu (above in tiger stripes), a senior...is treasurer of the Liquid Latex Club,...wanted to improve [her] outlook on the way [she] looked...

[and]

...the nudity may attract first-time audience members...

[but]

...Ms. Beaulieu says it is not what the show is about...

And boys read Playboy for the articles.

The co-ed concludes, "It's a very unique experience...the liquid latex allows you to do things you could never do," with conventional cloth and clothes and virtue.

This is a subtle hint to human resource managers: The more a girl has appeared nude in print, the greater the possibility that men would have seen her. And perhaps have stared. Some will oogle.

This is a longitudinal sexual harassment case study in the making.

Ms. Beaulieu, please let us know how the job search progresses.

We'll be watching.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

From The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 14, 2006. At least the picture was buried on A6.

Full Disclosure: The wife of Your Business Blogger has been published in The Chronicle. In conventional fashion.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

Basil's Blog has a Picnic.

Michelle Malkin has more on education.

Outside the Beltway has Traffic Jam.

Posted at 10:24 AM | Permalink
Comments (0)

"It's all fake," said the young man who lived in town.

We were looking at acres of a bazaar, that was, well, bazaar bizarre. Rolex, North Face, Mont Blanc, DVDs as far as the eye could see.

None of it was real.

There was a 'new' word that swept thru elite American campuses a few years ago: Authentic. Professors liked the word because it had three syllables instead of the single syllable 'real.'

Inauthentic for the academy was even better -- it has four syllables instead of single syllable 'fake.'

So.

In this (new) age of exploring our feelings, few ask any questions about the emotion of fake goods; stolen brand names.

How does the fake North Face make you feel?

Your Business Blogger owns a real Armani suit, purchased some time ago from a reputable establishment. (Yes, only one.) Every time I slip the coat on, I stand a bit taller.

Tragically, few people have ever recognized or identified the brand name suit on its smug owner. No one knows it's an Armani.

But I do.

And that is the difference. The suit is real. The emotion is real. Ergo I am real.

The feeling is authentic.

Not everyone is as shallow as Yours Truly. A fake brand, a fake suit would make me feel like... a fake.

And feelings are the only things that count.

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger did a little shopping in East Asia. And bought a North Face duffle bag to haul all the loot home. I was assured that it was real. A sign, in English!, said so.

The Carnival of the Capitalists is up at CaseySoftware.

Posted at 6:25 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

Public
Broadcasting
SystemLast week Charmaine did the Fred Friendly Seminars. A civilized shouting show on PBS.

The program was on Ethics in America: My Brother's Keeper. The moderator was Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School.

L to R: Rabbi Daniel Zemel, Elayne Bennett, Barney Frank, Charmaine Yoest,
Anita Allen

Charmaine in make-up

The Dude and The Diva get the camera angles

Cook's Tour by
Producer Pamela Mason Wagner

Executive Producer Richard Kilberg with Charmaine

Note Ethics' compass. Magnetic north?
Or left tilt?

Professor Ogletree assured us during taping that the repeated use of the words "penis" and "sexually transmitted diseases" would probably end up on the cutting floor. The liberal panelists seemed to like very direct language.

Certainly Barney Frank did. Only the congressman from Massachusettes could use the words "fetish" and "fetish-ize" multiple times. Into a live mike. For cable.

We'll let you know when it airs.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

The PBS operating revenue in fiscal year 2004 was $333 million. Leading sources of revenue included: ...CPB and federal grants (24%); ...and educational product sales (12%).

And the generous support of Annenberg Media.

The Seminar tapes are available from Fred Friendly Seminars for a fee. As part of their consulting offering and education packages. The guests appearing on the show are not compensated. Save for the croissants and coffee. Now that's a business model.

See more on The Seminars at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:29 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

GoogleIn Chinese there is no word for "privacy."

Google's business practices in China are under question. In having a different product for different counties. I am not so sure Google is departing from a sound business theory. I think Google's strategy deserves a case study. On doing business in different cultures.

Yoest, Faisal Alam in
New Delhi, IndiaYour Business Blogger was in India working with North American and Indian managers. Having thrown off our British rulers, we still shared a common English language.

But cultural communication was another matter.

American managers were frustrated that Indian executives and staff were not always truthful.

Or so it seemed.

If a supervisor (of any nationality) would ask an Indian subordinate a closed question such as "Does the report include the budget from Bangalore?" The Indian subordinate reply always would be 'yes.' Even if the answer was 'no.' Accompanied by a side-to-side movement of the head -- which corresponds to the up and down affirmative head nod in America.

Was the Indian employee lying to his superior?

It depends on cultural perspective.

(Yes, yes I know -- Alert Readers know well that Your Business Blogger subscribes to Timeless Truth: Truth is not relative.)

But the Indian culture is one of deference and respect for authority. It is not within the languages or culture to say "no" to the boss. Immediate compliance -- obedience -- is something every boss, in every culture really wants -- but American's seldom openly admit.

The culture is different. Where change to USA standards should not be forced.

Supervisors working with Indian subordinates should only ask open ended questions. A question allowing something other than 'yes' or 'no.' "Show me the line item for employee taxi expenses for Bangalore."

The USA manager should understand also that the Indian manager will seldom say 'please' or 'thank you' to a subordinate.

Additional questions are time consuming. But necessary to do business across cultures. And to respect differences in culture and tradition.

I think we should ask more questions. And take the first step.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." says China's Confucius.

A single step from a single person. Countries don't do business. People do business.

President Nixon meets with
China's Community Party Leader,
Mao Tse-Tung on
February 29, 1972

Nixon went to China. Google went to China.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

In Chinese, in The Common Language (Mandarin) there are no words for "private" or "privacy" as we understand in English.

Mark at Mark My Words has commentary.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:31 AM | Permalink
Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)

Vanity FairCharmaine appeared on CNBC (attempting) to debate the cover of Vanity Fair. Is it art? Or money-making-porn?

CNBCCNBC's On The Money

Click here for the CNBC Vanity Fair video.

This is a long 6 minute segment.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. blogs at Reasoned Audacity and FRCBlog

Be sure to visit Basil's Blog.

Don Surber has best Wednesday posts.

Mudville has Open Post.

OutsideTheBeltway as links.

Aquila has more (or less).

See The Washington Post.

Posted at 11:27 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Aliens in AmericaFred B., an alert reader, commented on more Christmas cannings:

Sixty veteran clerical employees of the NYSE were laid off yesterday in the traditional way; With no warning, their badges were confiscated and they were marched out of the building under escort.

How is it done on your planet?

Indeed. Fred's observation is humourous, to be sure. And ironic.

But I think Fred is on to much more: His comment helps us to see through the dark glass of this world into the Truth.

On what planet do people -- even bad people -- get fired at Christmas?

If this earthly logic makes no sense, then you might be (an) alien to this world.

My good friend, Peter Lawler writes to Fred's point in his book Aliens In America: The Strange Truth about Our Souls. We are merely "pilgrims or aliens in this world."

We are just passing through. For a short time.

Professor Lawler serves on President Bush's Council on Bioethics and teaches at Berry College.

Lord only knows how he got a job in academia.

Firing employees at Christmas makes no sense if you have an eternal perspective.

So who would fire people at Christmas? An earth-bound man.

With a heart of stone.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

A thoughtful review of Aliens can be found in First Things.

Dr. Peter Augustine Lawler, Dana Professor of Government and Chair, Berry College:

Peter Augustine Lawler is Dana Professor and Chair of the Department of Government and International Studies at Berry College. He teaches courses in political philosophy and American politics and has won several awards from Berry for doing so.

He is executive editor of the acclaimed quarterly journal, Perspectives on Political Science and has been chair of the politics and literature section of the American Political Science Association. He also serves on the editorial board of the new bilingual critical edition of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America and on the editorial boards of several journals. He is a member of the Society of Scholars at the Madison Center at Princeton University, the George Washington Professor on the American founding for the Society of Cincinnati for the state of Georgia, and he is a member of President Bush's Council on Bioethics.

See La Nouvelle Theologie for more.

Revenge of the Syndicate has links.

Posted at 9:22 PM | Permalink
Comments (5)

Be sure to visit the Carnival of the Capitalists. Hosted this week by the Part-Time Pundit.

Posted at 9:16 AM | Permalink
Comments (0)

8 Simple Rules
Around 1999 or so I wrote an essay Dating Our Daughters based on materiel that made the web rounds sans copyright. Later I posted the piece to my static website. I credited Anonymous.

Anonymous no more, as many would recognize. 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter is the intellectual property of W. Bruce Cameron.

As penance, I bought his book (new!). And so should you.

This posting is an unforced error correction with no admission of guilt. (Well, some guilt: I was raised Catholic.)

Thank you (foot)notes:

See a credited version at Reasoned Audacity.

Update: 12 Oct 2005 Grow a Brain was very gracious in providing a link to the old page.

12 Oct 2005 Blazer Blog has a similar version.

12 Oct Jamey Ragle has it too.

12 Oct Decadent Grace has a very kind link.

12 Oct Bits and Pieces also linked. I am honored. I wish I could take credit.

Posted at 9:18 AM | Permalink
Comments (21)

If you work for Senator Chuck Schumer (D) you do not have friends in the growing storm. Your world is changed.


Charmaine Yoest on phone
Top of Chuck Schumer's head center

Your only friend is your lawyer. And even here you are not your legal counsel's friend. You are now what these economic rent seekers call a "client."

Your Humble Business Blogger has been on both sides of the table dealing with the FBI and legions of lawyers. You cannot win, even if you don't lose. You will cry. Start now.

The Schumer scandal is in my current state of Maryland involving purloined documents from our Republican Lieutenant Governor Steele. The Democrats are doing the purloining . You, Schumer staffer, are guilty.

Your counseling sessions should begin with advice from Hugh Hewitt:

First, write down this number: 202-974-5600... for Chadbourne & Parke in DC, ... Abbe Lowell. ... he is the city's best bet for criminal defense ... It is best to be the first one to the firm before conflicts kick in. Bring your wallet. Probably dad's wallet, if you are young staffer in over your head. In fact, you'd better tell dad right now.

You will remember Lowell, Esq. and his combat with Ken Starr. As Hugh Hewitt suggests, the DC battlefield requires local guides.

In politics, as in business, guilt or innocence is irrelevant.

At one of my start-ups 15 years ago, we received a letter from a competitor's legal team challenging our patent. "To respond you need to budget $25,000," our lawyer said.

"But our patent is air-tight! This is frivolous! Outrageous!"

"Indeed," our legal counsel almost smiled.

That time the company paid, or, rather, our funders.

Another tangle with a business partner over disputed expenses was mediated by lawyers. Him guilty; me innocent.

No matter, for a year or two the lawyer fees were greater than the Yoest family home mortgage payments. And I don't get Christmas cards from my lawyers.

Because I was never a friend. And now I am not even a "client."

So young staffer, even if you could never get arrested, your time has come. You say you are innocent? You never touched, viewed, aided and abetted the stolen Steele stuff?

I once asked Morton Blackwell -- who ran the GOP in Virginia -- why Clinton's cabinet stood behind Clinton and lied for him during the Lewinsky event.

"Because," said Blackwell shaking his head, "Clinton only hires people just like him, who think and act like him." Birds of a feather kind of thing. (The only exception would be Jesse Brown.)

No, you are guilty. You're in a barrel headed over Niagara Falls, New York. What now?

Here's what you do:

1) Hire legal counsel.
2) Resign from Schumer's office
3) Do exactly what your legal eagles say.
4) Do not go home to NY.
5) Find the cameras.

I was at the Roberts' confirmation hearings with Charmaine as she lobbied in the lobby. The most dangerous place to be was between Schumer and a camera. But now you must beat him to the cameras, learn to stare into the bright lights and repeat the script your legal team will write. Sincerely. Faking it with your whole heart.

I can help you. email me. I can give you more free consulting.

So, young staffer, this experience will get you prepared when you deal with your divorce attorney in the coming years, but that will be easier.

Penta Posse
Senate Office Building
Thank you (foot)notes:

Checker Board has Ominous.

Captain's Quarters has the story.

Atlas Blogged has questions.

Kennedy v The Machine has silence.

And remember, Hugh Hewitt has the naming contest.

The Anchoress is not bored. Which makes good reading for us all.

MaxedOutMama has Schumer Staff Pulls.

GOPinion has more.

GOP Bloggers has the payoff.

Michelle Malkin has the dirty trick story.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post. And while there, see Toe in the Water with dangerous dolphins.

Posted at 6:11 AM | Permalink
Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)

Integrity is still important

Every manager will one day soon need to give direction to his staff on the Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling of ... Web Logs. Every supervisor in any business from pipefitter to preacher needs Blog Management.

The self-policing of "a virtuous people" is necessary to avoid government oversight and intrusion. Or a visit by a camera crew from 60 Minutes.

Milton Friedman

Your Humble Blogger wrote on this virtue for The Scripps Howard News Service some years ago:

Nobel laureate Milton Friedman has said that a cultural prerequisite of capitalism is the holding of truthfulness as a common virtue. When you can trust a merchant's word, says Friedman, "it cut[s] down transaction costs." Without adherence to common moral principles we must substitute external controls to govern business behavior; efficiency demands a framework of standards and accountability.

Substitute "blogger" for "merchant."

Informal policy guidelines have already been published as many alert readers already know. Guidelines should be added to a manager's skill set.

Charlene Li at Forrester Research (a consulting firm with a blog) wrote on this last year.

Sample Corporate Blogging policy

1. Make it clear that the views expressed in the blog are yours alone and do not necessarily represent the views of your employer.
2. Respect the company's confidentiality and proprietary information.
3. Ask your manager if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog.
4. Be respectful to the company, employees, customers, partners, and competitors.
5. Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.
6. Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments.

She also outlines personal blog standards.

Sample Blogger Code Of Ethics

1. I will tell the truth.
2. I will write deliberately and with accuracy.
3. I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly.
4. I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes so as to maintain the integrity of my publishing.
5. I will never delete a post.
6. I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic.
7. I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly.
8. I will strive for high quality with every post -- including basic spellchecking.
9. I will stay on topic.
10. I will disagree with other opinions respectfully.
11. I will link to online references and original source materials directly.
12. I will disclose conflicts of interest.
13. I will keep private issues and topics private, since discussing private issues would jeopardize my personal and work relationships.

A thank you note to Le Pen through Christian Connett at ReciprocityBlog.

The more we bloggers can maintain our own ethical standards, the less the public will need the heavy hand of the law, except, maybe for spell checking.

WizBang was studying blogging ethics a year ago.

CyberJournalist wrote in 2003 on Blogger's Code of Ethics.

USC Annenberg has Influence peddling, "Just don't call yourself a journalist when you're cashing that check." And points us to WOMMA.

BL Ochman has whatsnextblog writing on full disclosure.

See Blog Ethics who links to Rebecca Pocket posting weblog ethics.

daniweb has firing offense.

Tim Worstall has Blog Ethics from the NYT.

Cynthia Webb writes for Washington Post, The Great Blogging Ethics Debate.

The Jewish Ethicist posts, Is the blogger responsible for defamatory posts?

From Web Log Ethics Survey Results,

...the limited support from bloggers for a blogging code of ethics poses a serious problem for advocates of on-line social responsibility. If any inroads are to be made in terms of bloggers regulating themselves, consensus in the community must be developed.

Imprint has be honest and fair.

Martin Kuhn from UNC presented a paper at Harvard on blog ethics,

...it is shown that many bloggers have ranked "factual truth" and "free expression" as the two highest duties of the "good" blogger.

BuzzMachine has a review.

Analysis by Christine Hurt at Conglomerate. Thanks to Instapundit. And more. And links to Bill Hobbs.

Update 23 Sept 05: BuzzMarketingWithBlogs has powerpoints. Short and compelling.

Posted at 9:05 PM | Permalink
Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

Originally Published for the

Scripps Howard News Service

THE Holiday Inn in Colorado Springs has the notice "Certified Breakfast Bar" proudly displayed above the juice and jelly. I understand certifying elevators, accountants and jet engines, but a breakfast bar?

What has happened in America where even my croissants must now be credentialed?

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:19 AM | Permalink
Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)