The Penta-Posse at
Arlington National Cemetary, 2005 Charmaine wrote this a few years ago.

Every time we've made the left turn onto Eisenhower Drive, and passed through the imposing brick gates of Arlington National Cemetery, I've been overwhelmed with emotion. Family members of those buried at Arlington National Cemetery are given a special pass and may drive onto the Hallowed Grounds to visit the grave of their loved one. It's an enormous honor which makes me feel humbled.

My husband's father served thirty years in the United States Navy, and died the year I married into the family, so I didn't know him well. And the fact is, after a lifetime of nine-month Mediterranean tours, wars, and rumors of war, there is a lot my husband doesn't know as well.

However, over the 15 years that we've been married, I have gotten to know my mother-in-law well. She doesn't talk either about the sacrifices she made, but there is one story that she has told me several times.

Once, when my father-in-law was out on tour, and she was home with three small children, the car broke down and, of course, she had to take care of it. My husband marched up and said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll fix it." He was about five years old at the time.

My mother-in-law laughs. . . the little man, takin' care of things. But it makes me cry.

We owe a lot to our military families.

When we visited Arlington this past week, we passed at least three funeral ceremonies on the way to Section 64. I lost track of the fresh graves and the still-standing tents, either just vacated by other grieving families, or awaiting the afternoon's fresh, raw sorrow.

As we pulled up on Bradley Avenue, an Air Force honor guard was marching precisely back to their bus after a ceremony for an airman who had been a POW in Korea. While we searched for my father-in-law's headstone, an empty horse-drawn caisson lumbered past, and settled briefly in the shade nearby, awaiting their next assignment. . .

We found my father-in-law's headstone: The front has the Christian Cross with the old Chief's Curriculum Vita. Chief Yoest cut high school to catch World War II. He retired with rows of ribbons and a "v" device, and pinned butterbars on his boy. He now has a grandson, The Dude, who bears his name and wants to be a Navy pilot.

The reverse of the stone is blank, awaiting the inscripton for Chief Yoest's high school sweetheart, his wife, Jack's mom, "Babcia" (Polish for Grandmother), who is still with us. In the end, they will be buried together, an honor she earned.

As we turned to go, the Diva took her jingle-bell necklace from around her neck, and left it on the headstone. A fitting tribute for a warrior.



Sailors, rest your oars.

We drove back down Bradley Avenue -- past a fresh grave covered by a tarp. In front of us, sparkling in the bright sunlight of a gorgeous day, stretched row after row of white marble markers, orderly, peaceful, some weathered, others new and crisply chiseled . . .

I turned to the Penta-Posse. "I want you to look," I said. "I want you to understand, that each one of these headstones represents someone who gave their life so that you could be free."

They were quiet and solemn. The weight of it is beyond measure.

The Dreamer said, "Don't cry, Mom."

We made the right turn onto Eisenhower. We drove slowly toward the exit, passing the drive to the Tomb of the Unknowns to our left, until we came to a crosswalk thronged with tourists. The guard on duty motioned to the crowd to stop, and we drove through, passing through the gates, back to a busy day, leaving behind -- the curious crowds, the chattering school children. . . and the silent stones.

Our good friend Mackubin Owens, Ph.D., has a terrific article up on NRO from last year, Mystic Chords of Memory, From America's Founding, to the sacrifices of her sons and daughters, we remember.

This weekend, we mark the 140th anniversary of the first official observation of the holiday we now call Memorial Day, as established by General John A. Logan's "General Order No. 11" of the Grand Army of the Republic dated 5 May, 1868. This order reads in part: "The 30th day of May 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers and otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land." Logan's order served to ratify a practice that was already widespread, both in the North and the South, in the years immediately following the Civil War.

Alas, for many Americans today, Memorial Day has come to signify nothing more than another three-day weekend, a mere excuse for a weekend cook-out. Such an observance of Memorial Day obscures even the vestiges of its intended meaning: a solemn time, serving both as catharsis for those who fought and survived, and to ensure that those who follow will not forget the sacrifice of those who died that the American Republic and the principles that sustain it, might live.

"Mac" continues,

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address gives universal meaning to the particular deaths that occurred on that hallowed ground, thus allowing us to understand Memorial Day in the light of the Fourth of July, to comprehend the honorable end of the soldiers in the light of the glorious beginning and purpose of the nation. The deaths of the soldiers at Gettysburg, of those who died during the Civil War as a whole, and indeed of those who have fallen in all the wars of America, are validated by reference to the nation and its founding principles as articulated in the Declaration of Independence.

Some will object, claiming that linking Memorial Day and Independence Day glorifies war and trivializes individual loss and the end of youth and joy. How can the loved ones of a fallen soldier ever recover from such a loss? I corresponded with the mother of one of my Marines who died in Vietnam for some time after his death. He was an only child and her inconsolable pain and grief put me in mind of Rudyard Kipling's poem, Epitaphs of the War, verse IV, "An Only Son":

I have slain none but my mother, She
(Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me.

Kipling too, lost his only son in World War I.

But as Holmes said in 1884, "[G]rief is not the end of all. I seem to hear the funeral march become a paean. I see beyond the forest the moving banners of a hidden column. Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death -- of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and joy of the spring. As I listen, the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope and will."

This Memorial Day the household of Your Business Blogger(R) will fly our Flag as we always do and remember those who "gave the last full measure" and died in service.

Dad is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The years on his head stone tell of his full life. Our family was so lucky.

Nearby head stones tell of service men who died far too soon. Far too young. In war for us.

Danny Boy
The BalladThe Irish classic Danny Boy has a long and varied history. The following explanation is my favorite and the simplest,

Once, a long time ago there was an old man who had raised many sons who he loved dearly. A war raged over the land that they lived in and one by one he saw each of them go off to fight and not return. Then one day, as harvest time drew near, he knew that his youngest, and most precious, son would soon be going off to fight just as his brothers before him. The old man was sad and knew that he may never see his last boy alive. He looked intently at the young lad, and with tears in his eyes he sang this song.

The ballad cannot begin to reveal the emotion and the pain of fathers and mothers who bury sons in a time of war.

I do not know how families do this.

But I do know that we must be grateful.

We are so lucky. Happy Memorial Day.

Thank you (foot)notes:

See Meditation on Suffering and Sacrifice,

The famous chapel on the grounds of the United States Air Force Academy nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains is more truly a cathedral. Outwardly, it is all sleek silver-wing metal, with seventeen external buttresses, knifing severely skyward. Designed to evoke an air-frame, the architecture does not immediately summon spiritual devotion.

But cross the threshold, step inside, and one is transported to another plane. The solemn air is bathed in the soft splendor of muted light. While the stern steel silhouette dominates the external view, the interior reveals the fragile panels of stained-glass that the harsh ribs support. The intricate glass panes filter and animate the sunlight, illuminating the sacred space with almost a visual hush.

At the front of the chapel, a single row is roped off. "Reserved" the sign says, for all the United States aviators who are missing in action or prisoners of war. The only occupant of the pew is a single, burning candle.

"Greater love hath no man than this. . ." reads the plaque. The Scripture it alludes to concludes: "that a man lays down his life for his friends."

My thoughts immediately fly to my boy, my sweet Dude, who wants to be a fighter pilot. And baby Boo, who will almost certainly want to follow his older brother. My heart blanches. How could I bear it? And yet so many other mothers -- gold-star mothers -- even this very day, must find a way when their sons have given the last measure of devotion.

Be sure to read Charmaine's post from 2005, Memorial Day: Arlington National Cemetery

Danny Boy Lyrics at Memorial Day, 2008, Danny Boy.

Follow us on Twitter: @jackyoest

Posted at 10:34 PM | Permalink
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Jack and Charmaine This is wedding anniversary week in our household: We celebrate for 7 days.

Men's Health magazine reminds us why marriage works. The April issue from last year has six compelling reasons to marry, by Anna Maltby.

Anna is a woman.

But the advice is still good,

If you are susceptible to vice, find a wife. She'll save you from yourself -- and improve your life -- in a variety of ways...

1. Increase your pay A Virginia Commonwealth University study found that married men earn 22 percent more than their similarly experienced but single colleagues.

[VCU is a terrific school located in Richmond, Virginia. Usually Conservative. Good.]

2. Speed up your next promotion
Married men receive higher performance ratings and faster promotions than bachelors, a 2005 study of U.S. Navy officers reported.

[If the Army wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one, goes the old joke -- it looks like the military is a-changing its perception of the value of a helpmeet.]

3. Keep you out of trouble
According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice report, male victims of violent crime are nearly four times more likely more likely to be single than married.

[Your Business Blogger(R) has not been in a bar fight since getting married. But every few years I got to get the caps replaced on those cracked up front teeth from an altercation back in single days. And I wish that ringing in my ears would stop...]

4. Satisfy you in bed
In 2006, British researchers reviewed the sexual habits of men in 38 countries and found that in every country, married men have more sex.

[Don't go there...]

5. Help you beat cancer
In a Norwegian study, divorced and never-married male cancer patients had 11 and 16 percent higher mortality rates, respectively, than married men.

[Charmaine is forever pestering me to get a(nother!) physical. Goodness, I had one back in the 90's. And the colonoscopies every 5 years are her idea too. Such a pain in the ...]

6. Help you live longer
A UCLA study found that people in generally excellent health were 88 percent more likely to die over the 8-year study period if they were single.

The accountability and friendship of marriage works.

Excuse me now, I've got some yard work to do.

As one academic studying the men-marriage-maturity transformation wrote, "A rake, now out raking leaves,"

Thank you (foot)notes:

But we actually celebrate two anniversaries.

Two constants every man needs.

His car.

His woman.

Jack and Charmaine 1990 (Order may not be important to some.)

Even as Charmaine and I are moving into our 20th year of marriage toward that death do us part part; the other anniversary is a milestone of over two decades.

Alert Readers are thinking, I know Jack -- how did he do it?

Without a coffee cup holder...?

The Germans do not believe that people should drive and drink...coffee. Ergo, no coffee cup holder in that old model.

So the ride has been a series of spilled hot fluids. And I would do it again.

Kisses Sweeter Than Wine - Andy Williams, Peter Paul & Mary

20 years; one owner
Your Business Blogger(R) and The Dude

Financial Expert Larry Burkett believes that a man should own but one car and run that car 'til the wheels fall off then repair and repeat.

Replacing is poor stewardship of resources.

It is also Biblical and is based on the Babe Bargain: A man should be the husband of but one wife.

Replacing is poor stewardship of resources.

A car and a girl. What more could a guy want?

Larry Burkett continues,

Let's face it. The majority of new automobile sales in America are made because of the buyers' wants, not needs. Often they are just tired of their cars; they look old and out of date, or they need repairs to put them back into top condition, or their neighbors or coworkers have acquired new cars.

Lyrics to KISSES SWEETER THAN WINE here. My favorite version is by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt.

In May of 1987 Your Business Blogger(R) bought a new car from American Service Center in Arlington, Virginia from former Redskin football player Joe Tereshinski.

My two investments; my two May anniversaries.

Follow us on Twitter: @JackYoest; @CharmaineYoest

Posted at 7:07 AM | Permalink
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Helen:
GARDENING WITH CONFIDENCE™Every business should have a mission statement to help focus staff, benchmarks, resources, results.

Every business could benefit. Every silo, in the business; on the farm.

Even your garden.

A business going to seed, so to say...

My favorite 'plant manager' is Helen of Raleigh who runs the premier gardening business in central North Carolina. She writes for Better Homes and Gardens and blogs at Gardening With Confidence™.

Helen is also a Garden Scout and Stylist. In her work as a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and their Special Interest Publications such as Country Gardens and Nature's Garden, she scouts great gardens for their publications.

When a garden is chosen for publication, Helen works with photographers to style the photo shoot.

Just as every manager needs a business coach, every gardener needs a gardening coach.

Who knew?

Helen helped create this market niche. She is in great demand as a Garden Coach.

In her former career as a Vice President of an environmental company she learned how to shovel manure.

Good management training.

Carrying a rifle in Pakistan didn't hurt either. (Working for an environmental client. Really.)

Here is Helen's gardening mission statement,

If you have a garden statement, send it along to Helen. She will be posting the collection.

Thank you (foot)notes:

For the backstory see, Women, Work and Family: One VP's Solution,

"How do you it all?" Accomplished women with kids constantly get this question.

Helen Philbrook, married and mother of three, from Raleigh, NC, has the answer.

Your Business Blogger(R) recently sat down with Helen and her husband David to learn the secret.

She's a former Vice President of an environmental testing firm, and perhaps the world's first female "Smoke Stack Sniffer."

Full Disclosure: Helen is the sister of Your Business Blogger(R)

Posted at 10:50 AM | Permalink
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The Dancer, friend of all animals, wanted a date with Dad. And off we went to see the flicka that is making moviegoers cry across America.

She was one of the five million who read the book and wanted more.

Here's what we learned, as the 22 doggie-double Marleys gnawed their way across 15 years.

Yes, it is a dog story and no humans were hurt in the filming. But the lessons were made for the alphas in us all.

1) A dog is as much cost and effort as a child. Your Business Blogger(R) had a tamer Marley-like hundred pound German Shepherd: Shadrach, The Dog Genius, who chewed his way thru four houses. Shepherding our first two children. Dogs add more than they subtract. The shaggy dog is the origin of fuzzy math.

The Dreamer and The Dude at Shadrach's last Christmas, 1995

2) Dogs are a cost-center not a profit-center: a consumer of resources. But the indoor animals (with outdoor voices) generate enough goodwill to be an asset that doesn't need to be sold to be realized or appreciated. A lot like children.

3) The domestic animals do not always produce domestic tranquility. Until housebroken. Just as, Charmaine would say, husbands.

4) Moms and Dads always cry after a miscarriage. There's one in the movie. If you are Pro-Choice you have our permission not to look at the sonogram. Then again, go ahead. There was no heartbeat. One pregnancy in five miscarries. One woman in four has an abortion. There is a lot of crying in America, and it's not only over a dog in the Marley & Me movie.

5) Funerals are for the living. As Yogi Berra said, "Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours." There must be closure for the living over the dead. A miscarriage needs closure. An abortion needs closure. Too bad the Pro-Choice community insists that abortion is a private matter. Women (and the dads) would heal quicker with some remembrance of what was. What could have been. Funerals provide the venue for a good cry. Like dog movies.

Go read the book. Go see the movie. Take a date.

Even if you don't need a reason to cry.

Posted at 7:00 PM | Permalink
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This is this year's Christmas Card from our house to yours. The card may not be as interesting as the out takes.

Or, as The Dude says, the 'ruined pictures.' See more on The Dude's Facebook page.

See

See Christmas 2006.

And like shadows they will be gone, off to college, off to their own families. Soon -- too soon. See What to take from a burning building, or Christmas by the Numbers; 16 Each

Posted at 8:27 PM | Permalink
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The Dude is competing for first string quarterback on his football team. But the coach needed him for a defensive play. The Dude went in. The play came his way. The Dude maneuvered for the open field tackle.

The first rule of marriage for men is knowing when to keep your mouth shut.

"Let's not worry mom...until we have to," I said. "The more information we can give her, the better we all will feel." The Dude understood. Uncertainty causes the real pain in life.

While The Dude was dealing with his pain, we all in the ER were subjected to a more intense pain: Keith Olbermann on MSNBC.

While waiting in the ER Keith Olbermann was complaining that the RNC showed footage of The Towers going down. This reminded us all that we are at war and maybe we still need a war leader. Rather than talk about Obama's inexperience, Olbermann was miffed that such carnage would be replayed reminding us we live in a dangerous world.

But I think Olbermann was really upset about Sarah Palin.

No one in the elite circles or the media (redundant, I know) understands Sarah and Todd Palin and their five kids.

The Palins are on a family mission.

Somewhat like the Blues Brothers, they are on a mission from God. Our liberal friends do not quite understand this. The Christian prays for guidance and accountability.

The Dude's forefinger knuckle -- note chip on side

Big families know this sense of purpose and the marriage partner who happens to get the ball, get the call goes into the game.

Todd is not the VP nominee. Sarah is.

I am not a CEO. Charmaine is.

Real men understand the talent and the gifts that only women have can be used in these unusual times. Like the ancient Jewish judge, Deborah, Sarah is being lifted up to help John McCain get the country on the right track; to bring the country to victory over evils foreign and domestic.

The American people understand this and love Sarah Palin.

Feminists understand this and hate Sarah Palin.

The story has a happy ending:

The Dude made the tackle.

Keith Olbermann got fired.

Sarah Palin will be elected.

See The Complete Married Man's Guide To Spousal Responses

See The Dude's other big break during the Huckabee presidential campaign.

Not everyone who appears on MSNBC is an elitist.

Posted at 8:39 AM | Permalink
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In the Yoest household kitchen Answer: She's not married to Todd Palin.

On CNN yesterday Charmaine reinforced the point that women can succeed in any position at any level, if she has a deep support system. Beyond the government safety net.

The best support system is to marry a guy who will embrace the family mission, the family business. A husband who is not distracted by interns at 2am.

And will lift up his wife when her time comes...

And I'm not just talking pregnancy.

About half of all women who enter into a Ph.D. program do not finish. When Charmaine was working on her disertation at the University of Virginia, Your Business Blogger(R), MBA, and Charmaine's parents, Mom, Ph.D; Dad, Ph.D; Brother, Ph.D. and Penta-Posse gathered together and strategized on the path to make sure that Charmaine was in the half that got 'hooded.'

The extended family decided to invest in Charmaine.

Money was key but not the entire issue. Wisdom and logistical support were the real needs of house hold and five little ones.

Extended family and a hubby who will sacrifice for the family mission is the solution to whatever success the family, the mother, the mission will achieve.

Todd Palin is my kind of guy. Like me, he married way over his head and is not afraid to let the world know.

We are both married to CEO's who advance the family mission. Our extended families have made sacrifices and investments to advance very talented women, very talented wives.

If more feminists had devoted husbands, maybe they'd enjoy more success. As well as the other benefits of marital bliss (re Five Children...).

And this is the real reason the liberals hate Sarah Palin. She is normal.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Fish on a bicycle by Ray Troll Feminist icon Gloria Steinem can be blamed for a lot problems these days in verbiage and communication in the battle of men vs women.

But not this phrase.

Gloria Steinem writes to Time Magazine,

"In your note on my new and happy marital partnership with David Bale, you credit me with the witticism A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. In fact, Irina Dunn, a distinguished Australian educator, journalist and politician, coined the phrase back in 1970 when she was a student at the University of Sydney."

Credit should go to Irina Dunn, graffiti artist and Australian Senator from the Nuclear Disarmament Party.

And made popular more by U2.

Posted at 10:31 AM | Permalink
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Friday was Charmaine's last day at FRC. They gave her a nice send off. It was less like a funeral and more like a celebration -- a celebration like many funerals should be: She's going to a better place, but we wish she were here.

Later, Your Business Blogger(R) returned with the Penta-Posse to her office to gather up the pictures and files and stuff and stuffed all into the monster-SUV. We left no action, email, paper, or child behind.

It took 'til 9pm to clear out. This is how job changing is different from death:

Crossing over to eternity: Your inbox will be full.
Crossing over to another job: Your inbox will be empty.

The only thing she took with her were the memories and the comfort that she would be seeing all of her old friends again somewhere, sometime again.

Some things don't die...

Friendships endure: Relationships in the Body are eternal.

Then again, maybe job-changing and death are exactly alike.

From the Family Research Council,

Our Loss is AUL's Gain

It is with mixed emotions that we announce that Dr. Charmaine Yoest, VP for Communications, has accepted the presidency of Americans United for Life.

While this is great news for Charmaine and even better news for AUL, it is a deep loss for us.

During Charmaine's time at FRC, we have gained a whole new level of visibility in the national media, developed an excellent new web site, built out the first video studio in FRC history, overhauled our media center to make it state-of-the-art, obtained record op ed placements, and maintained quality radio programs heard on hundreds of stations nationwide.

Charmaine and her entire team can be justly proud of these accomplishments. It's good to know that her gifts will now be deployed at the helm of one of best-known and most successful pro-life groups in the country.

We wish her and her family well in the weeks and years to come, and we're confident our paths will cross many times as we work to protect innocent human life.

Posted at 8:26 AM | Permalink
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Vehicle Identification.

One of the Rules of Males is to be able to fix things and know the differences of Make, Model and Year of the various cars on and off the road.

At left is one of the 1957 Chevys Your Business Blogger(R) owned a number a decades ago -- back when the mid-fifties Chevys were viewed as street racers of their day (at least by local law enforcement). These Chevys started out as transportation, then hot rod and now museum piece. Few are driven on the street now-a-days except during parades.

So to continue with The Dude's Real Education we traveled to Snow Hill, Maryland for the weekend to visit the annual classic car show and for The Blessing of the Combines with friends and family. A new combine goes for some $200,000. Farming is expensive.

But it was the cars that caught our attention.

Alert Readers will remember that Your Business Blogger(R) has also owned a number of Corvettes. At the car show, there was a well maintained 1964 convertible that was selling for $49,500. I sold mine for considerably, considerably less, long, long ago.

These days it's not the old cars that break down...it's the old guys.

Women! Are you looking for your man to display some emotion? Take him to an old car show! Ask him three questions:

1) Did you ever own one of these old cars?
2) What did you sell it for?
3) What are they worth now?

Give him a hug, but do not make a scene as he begins to cry. The other men present know what is going on and will avert their eyes when an old car-guy breaks down.

I'm told it happens a lot at old car shows.

(Let's not call them antique cars, just yet. Please)

A key vehicle series to know is the differences between the '55, '56 and '57 Chevys.

The Dude learned fast. And learned the secret access to the '57's gas cap.

At left: Driver's side Tail Fin opened revealing the gas cap.

Photo Credit: The Dreamer.

The Blessing of the Combines at Snow Hill, Maryland, August, 2008. I did not find the owner of the red 1957 Chevrolet two-door sedan pictured, but would like to acknowledge him, if possible.

Posted at 9:18 AM | Permalink
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"It is something you only want to do once," said Gary Bauer.

"What's that?" I ask. "Running for president?"

"No," he says. "Falling backwards off the platform."

Alert Readers will well remember Gary Bauer falling off the podium while flipping flapjacks on his run for president. It was funny and no one got hurt.

Except, maybe, his chances for president...

The Baby-Boo, the caboose on the Penta-Posse, made a similar slip and fell off the elevated platform at a press conference today.

Falling is something everyone has to do. Baby-Boo has got his 'falling' out of the way -- and is now ready to run without a slip for president.

Baby-Boo may not be 35 years old, but, then, he's not that much younger than Obama.

Gary Bauer still laughs about his tumble and the uncertainly all presidential campaigns generate on the trail. Gary is a class act. (Your Business Blogger(R) would still be mad and a-blaming someone...)

Watch Baby-Boo's fall and his quick recovery. Click here for the Family Research Council site and then click on Judy Bruns's talk.

Pictured behind Judy Brun is Baby-Boo, The Dude and The Diva.

Incidentally, Judy's speech is terrific on the meaning of words.

Following is The Diva's YouTube of her pro-life encounter with teachers at her school. See Pro-Life Student Forced to Remove Abortion T-Shirt.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:53 PM | Permalink
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Your Business Blogger(R) has a degree in Education and was pressured by the National Education Association (NEA) to join the union years ago.

"The NEA is great when you get sued," said the (very large) union rep.

I declined to teach and went into a less violent business: The Army.

The NEA is having their convention in Your Nation's Capital next week. On July 2nd Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) will be conducting a rally at the Washington Convention Center from 10:00am and 2:00pm.

This press conference would have my attention even if I didn't have 5 kids in the public schools or if Charmaine wasn't speaking.

If Charmaine is speaking, you'll want to listen. And this time we own the mic.

Charmaine is pictured above elbowing aside pro-abortion NOW President Kim Gandy at a open press conference in 2005. This is the only Women in Combat of which conservatives would approve.

PLEAS Coordinator Bob Pawson says, "Pro-Life teachers, school employees, parents, and students are invited to come pray and peacefully picket...Hillary Clinton and/or Barack Obama will surely address NEA's 9,000 Delegates, as they did last year."

Pro-Life teachers are concerned that their teacher union dues support and promote abortion and political candidates who tolerate the holocaust of the unborn.

Pawson explains, "Late-term abortionist George Tiller spoke at NEA headquarters for the [pro-abortion] Feminist Majority Foundation's Leadership Conference in March 2008." Watch the YouTube video here. Warning: graphic pictures of dead children.

No pro-life speakers or political candidates are supported by the NEA.

NEA union President, Reg Weaver is backing Obama; "every public school employee needs to get squarely behind the Obama candidacy."

The union tells us,

"The National Education Association supports...the right to reproductive freedom" -- the abortion code-words.

The "NEA supports the ...Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision which now permits abortion on demand through nine months of pregnancy. The NEA is silent on the Dred Scott decision which also codified the ownership of one human being by another. The Dred Scott slave owner is the Roe v Wade feminist.

UPDATE: Press Conference at the Family Research Council building at 9:30 to 10:15am, then on to the presser at the Convention Center at 10:30am.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:53 AM | Permalink
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Following is from a Naval Aviator. The Dude, pictured on left with Baby Boo a few years ago at the Air Force Academy, loves jets and jet noise and wants to fly.

Charmaine is not so sure.

The Air Force crashes about 75 jets in routine training accidents apart from the war zones. The Navy budgets two jet losses per carrier per deployment.

Producing a number of widows, orphans and grieving families.

Even training is dangerous.

Our cousin Will was an F-18 pilot after graduating from Harvard.

He assures us that Naval Aviation is safe.

Except when it isn't.

Subject: Oyster Here . . I Think We Need To Rig The Barricade [ To Catch This Thing ] !

Here's a personal story of an F-18 pilot's . . at o'dark thirty . . with the carrier's barrier in place. The barricade's an impressive 20 foot high stiff net, that can be stretched across the deck to ' capture ' birds during extreme emergencies.

" Oyster, here. This note is to share with you the exciting night I had the other month. So There I was .

. . manned up with pins pulled on the hot seat for a 2030 night launch on the Hornet about 500 miles north of Hawaii. I taxied off toward the carrier's island where I did a 180 and got spotted on Cat number 1. They lowered my launch bar into position and the take-off routine began. On the run-up, all systems appeared to be ' in the green.'

After waiting the requisite 5 seconds to make sure all my flight controls were OK, I turned on the exterior lights, then shifted my eyes to the catwalk to watch the deck edge dude move his head while clearing me, left and right.

With the back of my helmet, I touched the head rest for...what was coming.

The Hornet cat shot is pretty impressive. Particularly at night. As the cat fired, I clicked in both afterburners...and I am along for the ride. But just prior to the end of the stroke there's a huge flash with a simultaneous B-O-O-M ! ...

continue reading at the jump.

This article has been circulating on the web. Credit to John Howland's USNA-At-Large.

Be sure to read Your Business Blogger(R) getting bested by his pre-teen Diva. And no, this is not a case study for women in combat. Read The FireDrill: Practice Success to Avoid Failure,

Your (Army) Business Blogger[R] had no business in the cockpit. My instructor was a Vietnam vet with MigKlr license plates on his truck.

He said the F-14 was a "Man's Plane." He sounded sexist. He explained that the old-generation hydraulics required real strength -- after a couple of hours, even the manliest studs needed two hands on the stick.

No place for girls.

Or so I thought.

But I was wrong, again.

I bring the Five-kid Penta-Posse to Oceana Naval Air Station to show them how macho military men (like their father) defeated Communism.

We get invited to some F-14 training. I climb in the simulator. No photography is permitted. And a good thing, too...

Alert Readers know that the F-14 is now retired.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 3:49 PM | Permalink
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Two items for June 18th:

1) It is a day of remembrance in Your Business Blogger(R)'s household, and
2) Charmaine gave speech.

Charmaine's talk was on the impact that women can have in our culture.
See her From Femme to Fatale.ppt Power point presentation.

MEDIA ALERT: Charmaine to speak at the EPC 28th Assembly

Charmaine's talk reminded us of the eternal values. Life and Death; this side of eternity and beyond.

At a recent funeral -- they seem to come faster and faster as we get older and older -- we talked about burials. Cremation, well, lights our fire and speeds up that dust-to-dust transition.

Charmaine asked what we plan to do with the ashes, where on earth to put them. We talk about the extended family's burial plots.

"Where do you want to get buried?" She asks.

"37º18'N, 137º55'E," I say.

"What?"

"The Sea of Japan," I remind her. Women!

"What's there?" she wonders.

Bonefish.

June 18th is the day we remember the loss of USS Bonefish.

My father, then only a teen-ager from Jersey, left high school, went to war and was assigned to the submarine, USS Bonefish. Just before the final mission of the Bonefish, my father walked off the gangplank - transferred to another assignment. Another man took his place.

On its eighth mission, on June 18, 1945, the Bonefish was lost fighting the enemy in the Sea of Japan, with the loss of all 53 officers and men. It was the last U.S. submarine sunk in World War II...

The article was first published by a number of outlets including the Virginian-Pilot in my hometown.

Posted at 10:38 PM | Permalink
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Charmaine recently appeared on CNN with a sound bite on the recent court actions in California. The video clip is here.

Charmaine, the Vice President for Communications at FRC, appeared on CNN's Situation Room June 16, 2008 to discuss the granting of marriage licenses to same-sex couples in California.

This is not good for civilization.

The liberals with an anti-family world view are over reaching in this political season.

Charmaine above on an earlier cable appearance on homosexual "marriage."

Posted at 7:20 PM | Permalink
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The Women in Leadership & Philanthropy program, is hosting a conference at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

You are invited.

Charmaine will be speaking from her experience as a senior adviser to the Huckabee for President campaign.

Alert Readers will recall Charmaine also served in the Reagan Administration as a White House (unmolested) intern .

She also served in the Office of Presidential Personnel under Bob Tuttle, current Ambassador to the Court of St. James's.

The Women in Politics panel is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008, from 9:30 to10:45 a.m., at the Darden School's Abbott Auditorium.

From UVA,

...[S]peakers on this panel: UVa. alums

Charmaine Yoest [Ph.D.] (Family Research Council, former adviser to Mike Huckabee) [confirmed]

Cheryl Mills (advisor to Hillary Clinton) [confirmed],

and Janet Napolitano (Governor of Arizona) [awaiting confirmation].

We may also ask [other] alums... The panel will be moderated by Vesla Weaver, assistant professor of politics and a UVA alum as well.

At this point, our conception of the Women in Politics panel is:

More than ever before, women - Republicans, Democrats and Independents - are making a difference in the American political arena and U.Va. alumnae are among those leading the way. Please join us for a panel discussion of the contemporary role of women in American politics.

Potential topics include the 2008 presidential election, the historic role of Senator Hillary Clinton's candidacy and the short list of women who may be considered as vice presidential nominees in both major political parties.

For more information on the conference, please visit the conference Web site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Tips for visiting Mr. Jefferson's University. While at UVA, never say 'campus.' Say 'grounds.'

Address Ph.D.'s not as 'Dr.' but as 'Mr.' or 'Ms.' in keeping with our third president's sense of fraternite and Voltaire and all things French. Egalite run amuck.

See Christopher Hitchens on Thomas Jefferson.

Work and Family: One Size Does Not Fit All

Your Business Blogger(R) of Management Training of DC, LLC, is an adjunct professor of management at NOVA and a licensed agent for the William Oncken Corporation.

More at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:03 PM | Permalink
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Al Gore, Jr played high school basketball. Al Gore, Sr was a Senator, a very important man in Your Nation's Capital. Gore Sr never watched his son play. Never watched a game. Never. Dad was too busy.

But there is a highway named after Gore, Sr. And Junior got a Nobel Peace Prize.

Every dad does it different, I guess. And the kids turn out different...

The Dreamer rowing stroke:
closest rower to the coxswain Alert Readers will remember Your (insufferable) Business Blogger driving 20+ hours to watch a five minute boat race.

The Nationals competition was held in Oakridge, Tennessee, Al Gore's home state.

Yorktown High School from Arlington, Virginia had a very respectable showing. We didn't win, but we did watch.

It was important: We Were There.

Business consultant guru, In Search of Excellence, Tom Peters writes and lectures that for important meetings people show up. In Real Life, IRL.

If it's big: be there. In person. Live. Not just in spirit, in the flesh.

Important events: Births, Deaths, Marriages...Kids' competition.

The Dreamer, winner of Most Valuable Rower The Crew Team had their awards banquet and The Dreamer was recognized.

We are so proud of her. It's a Happy Father's Day indeed.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Yorktown Crew 2007 - 2008Alert Readers will recall that Al Gore, Jr., did not carry Tennessee when he ran for president. I would submit that his home state voters didn't want him as president, because his dad didn't watch him play a basketball game: His dad really didn't care; his voters really didn't care either.

Real men know that it is not all about them, "it's about the children" as our liberal friends constantly remind us.

Dads must be crazy -- crazy about his kids.

Al Gore, Sr. was a very smart, very accomplished man. And he wasn't crazy.

Maybe the country would be better off if he was.

See: Teamwork & Rowing: 2008 National Scholastic Championship, Oak Ridge, TN

Your Business Blogger(R) of Management Training of DC, LLC, is a licensed agent for the William Oncken Corporation presenters of Managing Management Time(TM) fondly known as Monkey Management.

UPDATE: Yorktown Crew 2008 Spring Sports Night Awards

Posted at 11:19 AM | Permalink
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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
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Charmaine will be in New Hampshire tomorrow, Friday the 6th to give a talk to strengthen the conservative, pro-life movement.

See the Family Forum Flyer,

Learn how to recapture Traditional American

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 – 9AM-3PM*
WHAT: A grassroots training seminar designed to educate and equip citizens to promote traditional family values in your community. Learn practical how-tos for effective communication and creating and managing your message to be persuasive in the public debate!
WHERE: Thomas More College
Merrimack, NH

Charmaine will be speaking on the power of words to frame a debate. She noticed that Your Business Blogger(R) has a line drawing of the HMS Victory over his desk; a profile of the body of the ship that Lord Nelson made famous in the sea battle at Trafalgar against the French; against Napoleon. The English won, as usual.

VICTORY. There is no ship in the Royal Navy named "Success." And this is where President Bush gets the Global War on Terror wrong: Men don't die in combat for "Success in Iraq." They will sacrifice and die for "Victory."

We don't have "Success in Jesus." We have Victory.

The wordsmith knows the difference. (And the Christian...)

Charmaine will also speak on Bimbos. If you are anywhere in the Northeast, go visit and sey hey to Charmaine.

"Bimbos" as we are using it, is the intellectual property of Merrie Spaeth. Another brilliant women who knows the power of words. And like Charmaine, she worked for Ronald Reagan, of course.

Spaeth reminds professionals and public speakers to always recite the positive and to never repeat the negative accusation -- usually advanced by a commie reporter. Public affairs should only be handled by professionals.

When I say 'public affairs' I am not speaking of Bill Clinton's weaknesses...

See Indra Nooyi: $5 Million Gets You Bimbos . . . and Boycotts. . .

Most Americans think the country is on the wrong track. Representatives like Heather Wilson may have been a part of the deterioration of the GOP branding and why citizens are dismayed: Republicans are not behaving like Conservatives. Wilson she wanted women in combat. She advanced abortion. This is not a conservative. Wilson just lost her primary race. Thank goodness.

Watch Charmaine's debate with Heather Wilson(R) from New Mexico a few years ago on women in combat. Ignore the Army women exposing their breasts.

More at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 5:04 PM | Permalink
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The number one reason teenage girls have sex is not the pleasure, but the peeps. Peer pressure is the largest motivator.

Charmaine reminds us of this fact and was quoted by The Washington Post in Decline in Teen Sex Levels Off, Survey Shows,

...the onslaught of movies, books, advertising and cultural messages...glamorize sex.

"The No. 1 movie that all teenage girls want to see right now is 'Sex and the City,' " said Charmaine Yoest, a spokesman for the Family Research Council. "Our culture continues to tell them the way to be cool is to dress provocatively and to consider nonmarital sexual activity to be normative."

The WP reporter Rob Stein implies that more condoms and "comprehensive sex ed" will fix all,

New data from a large government survey show that by every measure, a decade-long decline in sexual activity among high school students leveled off between 2001 and 2007, and that the rise in condom use by teens flattened out in 2003.

Moreover, the survey found disturbing hints that teen sexual activity may have begun creeping up and that condom use among high school students might be edging downward...

Condom failure rates are seldom mentioned in any reporting. In these times, a failure may result in more than a pregnancy.

See What course for schools on distributing prophylactics?

Watch Charmaine debate condoms for college kids on NBC back in 2006. The debate hasn't changed much...

Thank you (foot)notes:

The article was picked up by newspapers across the country. The comments are encouraging.

For example, Tulsa World and DallasNews.

The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL)/Women's Studies girls at Feministing are not happy. At all.

See Top 10 Facts on Teen Sex.

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., was named one of the Evangelical Women of the Year 2005.

Your Business Blogger(R) of Management Training of DC, LLC, is a licensed agent for the William Oncken Corporation -- presenters of Managing Management Time(TM) fondly known as Monkey Management.

Posted at 9:04 AM | Permalink
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Virginia GOP Convention
2008, Richmond, VA Your Business Blogger(R) is honored to be a delegate to the Commonwealth of Virginia GOP Convention.

We will be driving down this weekend with a partial Penta-Posse to vote for the future leadership of the Commonwealth and the Nation. The Convention will be a terrific education.

I hope to get the kids into a smoke-free/smoked-filled-back-room deal-doings. Everyone loves kids.

Except the baby-killing Obama. No, no -- Barack X. Obama has never performed an actual abortion.

That I know of.

He just votes for letting babies born alive ... to die. Obama opposed the Born Alive Infants Act. Not even Hillary Clinton did that. Not Ted Kennedy.

Goodness, not even the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) lobbied against the Born Alive Infants Act.

Obama against
Babies born alive
Warning: explicit images
thank you Catholic Fire

Thank you (foot)notes:

Nobody hangs up when a kid callsJeff Frederick is out-polling John Hager for Republican Party of Virginia chairman on the Family Foundation Blog.

Can Pro-Choice Gilmore win? Here's how.

See The Convention Is Almost Here.

Watch The Diva and The Dude work the phone bank in the Des Moines Presidential primary,

Dick Cheney is the headliner for the dinner on Friday nite.

Where are the strongest grass roots? It's not with the Obamanation.

Your Business Blogger(R) of Management Training of DC, LLC, is a licensed agent for the William Oncken Corporation; presenters of Managing Management Time(TM) fondly known as Monkey Management.

Posted at 11:25 AM | Permalink
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The Dreamer writes, The Dude, a dominant male homo-sapien, attempts to explode a bottle of diet coke with mentos. Commentaries by The Dreamer and The Diva. Grip by The Baby Boo.

This is a typical Penta-Posse activity when not in the class room and distracted by getting a conventional education.

Proving that the public schools are good for something...

No animals were harmed in the making of this film.

Happy Memorial Day!

The frustrated attempt:

Success:

Posted at 11:28 AM | Permalink
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Launching area for the crew regatta
click on image for live feed web-cam Building Teams and Teamwork is the mantra of the modern manager.

How does a manager take a group of talented individual contributors and motivate them to, well, pull together as one unit in the same boat?

Last year The Chronicle of Higher Education lurched into the truth in an article All for One.

It was a story on rowing.

And in it Your Business Blogger(R) read a business lesson.

For both my business practice and The Dreamer's crewing at her high school.

Race Course
Click on image for live feed
web-cam The Oak Ridge Rowing Association and the Scholastic Rowing Association of America is sponsoring the 2008 National Scholastic Championships in Oak Ridge, TN. Several thousand visitors will go down to the river and pray for blue skies and flat water.

We are packing up the monster Huck-a-truck and the Penta-Posse (minus The Dreamer traveling with her team) and will gas-guzzle our way to the Volunteer State to watch our girls compete at the regatta.

With a monster carbon footprint.

Listening to the Oak Ridge Boys .

(Ain't America great or what?)

The Women's Freshmen Eight will row at 10:15am on Friday the 23rd. Please check the schedule.

The Women's coach was able to persuade decision makers to allow his team to use the Invictus. A new and faster boat used by upper class men at their high school.

Where tenths of a second determine winners, the perception of crewing a world-class shell can make the difference. If the women think they are faster, they will be.

Rowing is 90 percent mental, the other half is physical.

Apologies to Yogi Berra.

Scholastic Rowing Association
of America
Regatta 2008
Which brings us back to Notes From Academe, in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Writer Scott Smallwood visited the Cambridge University Boat Club in the UK to write about the yearly Oxford-Cambridge competition.

Alert Readers will recall that Charmaine and Your Business Blogger(R) read at Oxford and attended our first rowing event on the narrow creeks that pass for rivers at ox ford.

Duncan Holland, the Cambridge coach with some 20 years experience, helped Dutch rowers to an Olympic medal. He well understands that even though he's got winning seasons, only one race matters as a condition of (enjoyable) employment:

Beat Oxford.

Picking eight rowers seems like an easy task for a coach,

With rowing machines that can spit out reams of numbers about how fast and hard every rower can pull, what's so hard about choosing a team? Why not just pick the eight strongest guys and be done with it? It turns out...that team dynamics are trickier than that. The eight who are eventually chosen will be not necessarily the fastest individual rowers, but the best combination of rowers.

Smallwood continues,

Quintus Travis, a past president of the boat club and now treasurer, puts the mystery more bluntly: "There are always a couple [of rowers] who are stunted, but somehow they make the boats go faster."

The Brits can be brutal.

Mr. de Rond is a professor at Cambridge's Judge Business School and is studying the Cambridge athletes and the team and the coach,

...de Rond sees the answer [of the faster boats] in how team members bond. He draws a comparison from a 2005 paper in the Harvard Business Review by Tiziana E. Casciaro, of Harvard, and Miguel Sousa Lobo, of Duke University. The pair studied likability versus competence. Their work boils down to this: When choosing whom to work with, do you pick the lovable fool or the competent jerk? People, especially managers, often say they value competence above all. But in practice, they'll often trade some of that competence for likability. And that may not be so dumb.
Mr. de Rond doesn't think any of the Cambridge rowers are incompetent. No matter how lovable you are, you can't get in this boat unless you're a top-notch rower.

But here the Cambridge rowers become a self-directed team. Something business managers talk about but seldom see,

When the tentative roster was chosen," says [de Rond], Dan wasn't originally on the list." The other men successfully lobbied the coaches to put him in the varsity boat, even though by the numbers he was a borderline choice. Now, he says, [Dan's] social skills -- he's the class clown, really -- have improved the psychology of the entire team.

Like the coaches, this is where managers work their magic. To assemble a team that maximizes strengths and minimizes weaknesses, as Peter Drucker said.

So the women's coach got a better boat for his team. Coaches and managers get paid to figure out the immeasurables; the intangibles that go into building a winning team.

This Freshman Women's coach has got it figured out.

If he reported to me, I'd get him a raise...

Yorktown Crew Boosters Thank you (foot)notes:

On April 7, 2007, in the 153rd match-up: Cambridge beat Oxford.

This is a cross post from Management Training of DC, LLC.

All for One by Scott Smallwood was published on May 4, 2007 in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

See video from the Stotesbury Regatta.

From The New York Times, From a World-Class Rower, Tips to Sharpen Technique. Watch the video on how to film a rower's movement and a slide show on training.

Mix It Up

“There’s this saying that ‘Miles make champions,’ ” Michelle Guerette said. So she spends up to five hours a day on the water, doing a variety of workouts. Mix these pieces into your own sculling training:

BUILDING BLOCKS A base training session “addresses fitness, feeling and rhythm,” Charley Butt said. As with a runner, he said, what matters is “how a rower gets in the miles.” He advised rowing for 25 minutes at 75 percent of full pressure at a stroke rate of 16 to 20. Then, he said, paddle for 5 to 10 minutes and repeat. Maintaining a low stroke rate allows you to concentrate on technique.

Stan Hudy will not be at the races. A loss for us all.

Posted at 12:26 PM | Permalink
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Your Business Blogger(R) just received an email from Alert Reader Janice who tells us about Hillary's presence at the State Street United Methodist Church in Bowling Green, KY,

I just received an email letting me know that, yes indeed, the Paul Fryman who was our former student at Asbury was the pastor who preached at State Street UMC in Bowling Green, KY this past Sunday when Hillary was there. He has been the subject of abuse because his sermon was on adultery. He has received hate mail and all sorts of attacks – including accusations of being a pedophile and needing therapy, etc. He has chosen (wisely) not to react or respond at all. Paul is a humble, guileless servant of Christ.

The service and Paul have been distorted unbelievably.

Here are some facts, in case someone asks you:

· Hillary's people called Paul and told him she would be in his church, it was not a request.

· He told her people that they were in a series of sermons and that the morning sermon would be on adultery from the Sermon on The Mount, making sure she knew what she would hear, the bulletins were already printed.

· Paul’s sermon was 12 minutes (not the hour-long that was in the press – that was the length of the whole service)

· Paul acknowledged the presidential candidate’s presence in the service (some reports said that she was ignored and unwelcomed).

· Reporters sat in the service with their laptops – did not participate in the service respectfully.

· His sermon will be put online as soon as possible so that people can judge for themselves. [he called for members of the congregation to make a new commitment to their own marriages and to be aware of the temptations that they face – it was not an attack against Hillary

Thank you (foot)notes:

Alert Reader Janice is a former Board Member of Asbury College and, with her husband were professors at the Methodist institution of higher learning.

See, While Campaigning in Kentucky Hillary Clinton Hears Sermon On Infidelity.

Read where CNN gets it wrong. This is not news.

But what is news is that CNN can't spell. Nancy writes into CNN,

May 18th, 2008 5:15 pm ET

Just a note - please check the spelling on the word "alter," which I belive [sic] should be "altar". Or at least that's how it's spelled at my church. See, all democrats are not Godless heathens.

Nancy must be pro-life...

CORRECTION: Janice Crouse, Ph.D., is a current member of the Board of Directors for Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky.

Posted at 1:28 PM | Permalink
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Walking the boat Forgive 'The Day in the Life of Your Business Blogger(R)' but as The Dreamer says,
Eat

Row

Sleep

Repeat

Crew.

So we packed up the Penta-Posse and Charmaine and we drove up to the Stotesbury Cup Regatta that the Yorktown High School freshman girls had qualified for. Even Katie Curic would be proud.

Stotesbury is the world's largest high school rowing event in the world with over 5,000 students competing. On the Schulykill River. The adjacent parkway is known to the locals as Sure-Kill.

Philadelphia was sold out.

Our girl rows strokes man or simply, stroke.

Racking the boat The Yorktown eight oar racing shell qualified to the semi-finals but didn't quite make it to the finals.

Even so, the boat will go on the to National's Competition in Oak Ridge, TN. Next week.

20 hours of driving for a few 5 minute races.

Thank you (foot)notes:

The perky Katie Curic is an alum of Yorktown High School.

Watching the rowing events and all the work demanded makes me think of the galley slaves of old. Ben Hur. Except these girls are slaves to their passions for crew. We all should be so lucky. To be a galley slave and love it.

The racing shells go for some $35,000. Not counting the other stuff. Like the trailer. At Yorktown, crew is supported financially by the Boosters. It is an expensive sport. I'll bet The Yoest family has written almost enough checks for The Dreamer to buy her own boat. Charmaine and I are galley slaves...and love it.

Traveling with children is always an adventure. Read where The Dude gets stuck in the Hampton Inn elevator. And the panic that followed. Dad is doing fine, now.

Edward T. Stotesbury was once one of the wealthiest men in America. On Stotesbury and the Regatta,

In 1927, Bachelors Barge Club President E.T. Stotesbury sponsored the award for the scholastic eights race in the first high school rowing regatta competition in the country. The regatta was held on the Schuylkill river near Boathouse Row. The award was a large sterling silver trophy, and the first winner was a crew from West Catholic High School. West Catholic won the race again in 1928 and 1929, which entitled them to retain permanent ownership of the trophy according to the regatta rules at that time. When West Catholic won the race again in 1930, 1931 and 1932, they retained permanent ownership of the second Stotesbury Cup. After that, Stotesbury announced that the rules would be amended and a new sterling silver Stotesbury Cup would be used as a permanent trophy. Since that time, the Stotesbury Cup Regatta has grown to become the largest high school rowing competition in North America.

For race results see Race #3, Girl's Freshmen Eight, Event 4, Head Race

Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine saw their first rowing event while reading at Oxford. Where they Bump. And burn a boat at the end of a regatta.

The Brits know how to bonfire.

UPDATE: more at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 1:06 PM | Permalink
Comments (3)

Eli Gold, from The Harbour League writes,

Dr. Herb London

As you are aware by now, on this Tuesday May 13th the Harbour League will be hosting a talk by the Hudson Institute president and THL board member, Dr. Herb London. In consideration of the attendance of our entire board of trustees, the event will take place at: The Cloisters, 10440 Falls Road in Lutherville, Maryland and not at the Harbour League's office.

The evening will begin at 7 pm (doors open at 6:30pm)with a talk given by Dr. Herb London entitled, "America's Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion". Dr. London will suggest that the rise of secularism in the United States is a flaccid response to the challenge presented by the fanaticism of radical Islam. In the so-called war of ideas we are handicapped in our ability to thwart the inroads of fanaticism by a reflexive belief in relativism, one dimension of secular humanism.

The rise of secular humanism not only challenges the traditional antecedent of the nation, it is an ineffective response to the challenge of Islam. The result? If you don't know what you believe in, you are unable to defend what is worthwhile. Something that, if understood, can change Maryland for the better.

Following the talk and question and answer session, there will be a dessert reception that will give you a chance to talk with any member of member of the board regarding the movement.

To RSVP to this for this event or to the dinner prior to the talk please visit www.TheHarbourLeague.org or call 410-753-4560.

We look forward to seeing you there.

The Harbour League
2800 Quarry Lake Drive, Suite 140
Baltimore, MD 21209
410 753-4560
410 415-0800

Thank you (foot)notes:

Herb London's daughter, Stacey London, will NOT be present (I don't think). Although he might answer questions...

Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine and The Dude will be attending.

More on Dr. London at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:57 AM | Permalink
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The Diva's root canal
credit: Dr. Eric Arbuckle Our family has endowed a chair -- not at the local university -- but at our dentist's office. You can use it if is not booked. We treat the chair like a fractional ownership of a Gulfstream G4.

The Penta-Posse has busted out more front teeth than an entire hockey team.

Your Business Blogger(R) is also minus a front tooth due to a basket ball mishap. Non-stop dental work is required to correct alterations caused by various bar-fights from decades past.

Dentistry, however modern, builds character...in parents.

I never really trust a man until he's had a child in a dental chair.

The Diva's tooth trials began with a base ball bat. One of The Dude's team mates was out of the dug out.

"Don't swing that bat in the stands...!"

When contact was made there was a mess: the crying, the wailing, the gnashing of teeth...

And that was just me. Not The Diva. She's got a high tolerance for pain. She's may have even more testosterone than me.

She also got smacked with a field hockey stick.

So. After a few years of patch work her tooth nerve has been removed, the canal filled, my wallet emptied.

And it still hurts. Me, not The Diva.

This is what passes for suffering in our soft times.

The Diva and Your Business Blogger(R)
on set at the Leadership InstituteThank you (foot)notes:

And this is why the country should vote for John McCain.

He knows real suffering.

Obama knows nothing.

The Diva at a piano recital circa 2004 Sports have been very good to our household. We are looking forward to the benefits of Title IX.

Posted at 9:29 AM | Permalink
Comments (2)

Charmaine giving a lecture
on abortion at Princeton Rakes, Cads and leering Don Juans -- that is to say: all normal men -- have been attempting to seduce women for 4,000 years.

Our institutions of higher learning have noticed this and are helping out. No, not helping the parents, not the girls, not our culture.

Nope. Your local college administrator, acting in place of the parents, has now made it possible for the young women to undress in front of the young men in the privacy of their own (parental-paid) room.

This is not the No-Tell Motel. It is the college dorm room.

Higher Education has been working for decades to help separate not the women from men, but women from their clothes in front of men. And now the colleges and the men have succeeded.

The colleges, Your Business Blogger(R) would suggest, are acting less loco prarentis but just plain loco.

Charmaine recently appeared on CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck Show Monday, May 5, 2008 to discuss the emergence of co-ed dorm rooms on college campuses.

Watch the clip here at the Family Research Council. Sorry for the extra clicking.

"Professor" Diana York Blaine
Womyn's Studies

Normal people think co-ed dorm rooms are lunacy.

But the "professor" on the left is a typical Leftie that passes for normalcy on the local college campus.

Womyn's Studies Professor and lunar worshipper Diana York Blaine offers Alert Readers Full Disclosure on helping college men in learning all about the modern womyn. The nutty professor Blaine teaches at USC. It is not known if clothing is optional.

Higher Education at its best.

Research Institutions pride themselves on 'advancing scholarship.'

These days, Higher Ed is advancing an agenda.

And it is not a pretty site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

But sure to catch Charmaine's recent appearance on FOX News March 1, 2008 where she debated the prevalence of shock-style -- nasty -- advertising in the media. Click here to view the video -- please forgive the extra click on thru on the FRC site. Now that's a Pretty Woman.

Full Disclosure: Charmaine has taught Politics and the Family at the University of Virginia; Your Business Blogger(R) teaches Business at the Northern Virginia Community College.

Blaine tells us on her site that,

Dr. Diana Blaine is a PhD philosopher, writer, adventurer, bon vivant and buttkicker. She's read and studied how gender dynamics function in our culture...

Emphasis mine. Some lady. Email us your comments.

Posted at 12:00 PM | Permalink
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Jack and Charmaine This is wedding anniversary week in our household: We celebrate for 7 days.

Men's Health magazine reminds us why marriage works. The April issue has six compelling reasons to marry, by Anna Maltby.

Anna is a woman.

But the advice is still good,

If you are susceptible to vice, find a wife. She'll save you from yourself -- and improve your life -- in a variety of ways...

1. Increase your pay A Virginia Commonwealth University study found that married men earn 22 percent more than their similarly experienced but single colleagues.

[VCU is a terrific school located in Richmond, Virginia. Conservative. Good.]

2. Speed up your next promotion
Married men receive higher performance ratings and faster promotions than bachelors, a 2005 study of U.S. Navy officers reported.

[If the Army wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one, goes the old joke -- it looks like the military is a-changing its perception of the value of a helpmeet.]

3. Keep you out of trouble
According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice report, male victims of violent crime are nearly four times more likely more likely to be single than married.

[Your Business Blogger(R) has not been in a bar fight since getting married. But every few years I got to get the caps replaced on those cracked up front teeth from an altercation back in single days. And I wish that ringing in my ears would stop...]

4. Satisfy you in bed
In 2006, British researchers reviewed the sexual habits of men in 38 countries and found that in every country, married men have more sex.

[...]

5. Help you beat cancer
In a Norwegian study, divorced and never-married male cancer patients had 11 and 16 percent higher mortality rates, respectively, than married men.

[Charmaine is forever pestering me to get a(nother!) physical. Goodness, I had one back in the 90's. And the colonoscopy was her idea too. Such a pain in the ...]

6. Help you live longer
A UCLA study found that people in generally excellent health were 88 percent more likely to die over the 8-year study period if they were single.

The accountability and friendship of marriage works.

Excuse me now, I've got some yard work to do.

As one academic studying the men-marriage-maturity transformation wrote, "A rake, now out raking leaves,"

Posted at 9:03 AM | Permalink
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This is a guest post by The Diva. The script was written by The Diva. Really.

Talent on screen, The Diva ; Camera-Direction, The Dude;
Grip #1, T-shirt, clapper, The Dancer;
Grip #2 ALL paper, Baby-Boo
My name is Helena Yoest, and I was harassed by the principal of my school because of a shirt.

Ok, so I went to class, just like a regular school day, I had the shirt on, no one was offended or anything by it.

Then my teacher- Mr. Young- says "Mrs. Schaffner wants to see you"

I walk over to her in the hall, she was talking to some other teachers with one or two students flocking around her.

She stops talking when she sees me, pulls me over to a corner, and says plainly

"you can't wear the shirt"

Wow. 5 minutes into the day and I've been caught in this t-shirt. (say sarcastically) Shoot.

I say very politely "may I go get something from my locker?"

Mrs.Shaffner says, "eh, yes"

So I go down to my locker to get a piece of paper, it's a magical piece of paper that gets me out of trouble.

National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day From the American Life League.

Actually, it states my civil rights and how I CAN wear the shirt, no harassment.

I hand over the letter and she hands me a t-shirt with the school name on it. Oh joy.

So I head to the bathroom to change and I hear her say, "were going to have to visit the principal about this."

So there I am, in the principal's office. Mrs. Annan (the principal) reads the letter Mrs. Shaffner is babbling about how they've never had this happen before, while Mrs. Annan is reading.

Mrs. Shaffner gets called away to do vice principal stuff and

Mrs. Annan pulls up a chair to sit beside me. "How do you know about this political issue?" she asks. "My mom" I say.

"What would you think if a kindergartner went up to you and asked you what it is?" she says pointing at my shirt.

"I would say 'it's where doctors and hospitals kill babies'"

You should've seen her face when I said that. "I just don't want you to be uncomfortable."

She leads me to a bathroom "you can turn it inside out, or you can change, whichever you want" so I change into this ew yucky t-shirt with the school name on it, so they would be happy and quit bothering me.

This is how it was in the classroom:

"Whydya change your t-shirt?" my classmates ask.

"She made me" I say, which isn't stretching the truth.

I went to art, and my teacher came in the middle of it and said

"walk with me" so I walk with him and he says "you can change into your shirt now, or after art, what do you want?"

I changed after lunch.

Can you believe that?

The principal of an elementary school, pressured and manipulated a 5th grade student to do her wills.

The principal, of all people! Wow.

Growing, Growing...Gone Pro-Lifers are the new Progressives.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Please send us your comments!

The Penta-Posse L to R: Baby-Boo, The Dancer,
The Diva, The Dude, The Dreamer
The Roe Effect
The American Life League sponsors the annual trouble-making event. The Dude was also spoken to by school officials. But no action was taken against him.

The "magical piece of paper" from the American Life League.

See The Roe Effect

The Diva protesting at the Afghan Embassy, 2006
She is no stranger to controversy

The Diva making phone calls for Mike
at the Huckabee for President headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa
Video Credit: The Dreamer See The Dude's post on the Abortion T-shirt at Panzer Commander.

Posted at 7:01 PM | Permalink
Comments (6)

UPDATE: School Officials direct student (our Diva!) to remove Pro-Life T-shirt. DEVELOPING...



The Penta-Posse L to R: Baby-Boo, The Dancer,
The Diva, The Dude, The Dreamer
The Roe Effect Today is the Sixth Annual National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day.

The bright blue t-shirt shows a baby growing and growing then black -- nothing. So simple even school age children understand what abortion does.

So compelling that even the teen-aged Dreamer donned the shirt.

Our five wee-ones will be wearing the garment-billboard today at school and around town.

Here comes trouble.

Our public school system is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic party, Planned Parenthood and the teachers' union.

(The only debate allowed is who would be better for the country, Obama or Hillary. And how awful Ronald Reagan governed and when global warming will kill us all. War is not the answer, etc and etc...)

National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day So our city is our mission field.

The schools will not be happy to see Pro-Life T-Shirts. We will be setting up a legal defense fund when the sheriff comes a-calling. Details to follow.

The American Life League sponsors the annual trouble-making event. The legal eagles at the ALL non-profit have provided a helpful handout for the students if they are confronted with the intolerant abortion lovers.

Free Speech in the public schools? We'll see.

Growing, Growing...Gone Pro-Lifers are the new Progressives.

Thank you (foot)notes:

UPDATE: It took 8 minutes before one of the Penta-Posse principals called -- comparing abortion to the disruption of "liquor, cigarettes or guns..." The school is really unhappy with the Pro-Life T-shirt. Your Business Blogger(R) was most polite. DEVELOPING...

UPDATE: The school leadership has made The Diva turn her shirt inside out -- Charmaine found out and lost her sense of humor -- the t-shirt is right side out, we think. A school official asks The Diva, "What will you say when the kindergarteners ask about your t-shirt?" The Diva doesn't miss a beat, "That doctors kill babies..."

The Diva hits the mark.

From the American Life League,

Harassment

The Diva protesting at the Afghan Embassy, 2006
She is no stranger to controversyIf you are a student at a public school, you have a right to wear a pro-life shirt to school. Our experience is that most young people who wear a pro-life shirt to school on National Pro-life T-shirt day do not have any problems. Occasionally a misguided school official may ask you to remove the shirt. This is a violation of your rights.

Read more at the jump from the good-guys at the ALL.

The Diva making phone calls for Mike
at the Huckabee for President headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa
Video Credit: The Dreamer

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:20 AM | Permalink
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Your Business Blogger(R) has an old article at National Review Online about the loss of the submarine,

Five Days in May: The loss of the USS Scorpion.

By Jack Yoest

Yolanda Mazzuchi was about the prettiest girl in our school class. Our dads were in the Navy, often gone for months at a time. And they would be welcomed home at dockside with cheers and homemade signs. These gatherings at the D&S Piers at the Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, were a regular part of our lives growing up. Families often took children out of school to celebrate a ship’s homecoming.

At 1 in the afternoon on Monday, May 27, 1968, at the height of the Cold War the USS Scorpion was due in port.

Yolanda didn’t know it then, but her dad was already dead....

Follows is an invitation to the 40th Anniversary Memorial Weekend for the USS Scorpion.

April 24, 2008

Dear USS Scorpion Families / Shipmates / Friends:

MaryEtta and I hope you have made your reservations at Norfolk’s Downtown Radison Hotel for the USS Scorpion, SSN-589 40th Anniversary Memorial Service weekend. The program has been finalized and we are honored to have Vice Admiral John J. Donnelly, Commander, Submarine Forces, as our keynote speaker at the memorial service. We have a full weekend planned, thanks to our sponsors and your support of our T-shirt sale.

After checking-in at the Radison, please join us in the USS Scorpion, SSN-589 Hospitality Room. There you can pick up all the information for the weekend activities as well as reuniting with old friends. The room will be open all day and well into the evening, so if you are staying at another location, please come by and say hello.

***Note to USS Scorpion family members and crew***
The Newport News Father Bader Assembly of the Knights of Columbus is hosting a picnic at Fleet Park starting at 1:00 PM on Saturday in honor of the USS Scorpion family and former crewmembers. This is a ticketed event, so please see Barbara Lake in the Hospitality Room to receive your tickets. If you can’t pick them up on Friday, please see me before or after the memorial service.

This will be the last mailing we will be sending out before the memorial service. As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to call Mary Etta.... I will have my cell phone on all weekend if anyone needs assistance or information.

Attached you will find the full schedule events. Look forward to seeing everyone very soon.

Sincerely,

Art Nolan
In honor of Wally Bishop, Chief of the Boat

More at the jump.

Thank you to John Howland at USNA-AT-LARGE

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:42 PM | Permalink
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Neil Cavuto Charmaine will be debating on Neal Cavuto today. She's on the side of the Angels as always.

They will be debating the spanking of children.

Your Business Blogger(R) was paddled a time or two in Junior High School by the phys ed teacher. Which augmented and preceded parental punishment at home.

Absent all that attention, I may have turned out a bit worse than my present condition.

Watch and let us know what you think.

No one will get hurt...

Hit time is 4:50 Eastern on FOX. Your World With Neil Cavuto Check local listings.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Read the leave child spanking behind bill at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 2:57 PM | Permalink
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Charmaine on an earlier FOX appearance Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., Vice President for Communications for the Family Research Council appeared on Fox News on March 1, 2008 to debate the issue of edgy ads and to discuss the prevalence of shock-style advertising in the media.

Click here for the clip. Please forgive the extra click thru to the FRC site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

For more on the ads click here. Safe for work. I think...

Posted at 7:48 PM | Permalink
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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)

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. addresses
the 2,600 attendees at last year's Summit
Photo Credit: Peter Shinn Hold September 12 on your calendar for the Values Voter Summit in Your Nation's Capital.

Called "the most exciting meeting there is in Washington" by author and radio host Bill Bennett, FRC Action's 2007 Values Voter Summit (formerly "The Washington Briefing") attracted over 400 national and international members of the media, a waiting list of speakers, and thousands of values voters representing nearly every state in the union and many foreign countries.

On September 12-14, 2008, 60 days before an historic election, FRC Action (a 501c4) will host its third annual Values Voter Summit at the Hilton Washington in downtown D.C., and you are invited.

As a participant in one of the conservative movement's must-attend events of the year, you'll have the opportunity to hear from some of America's key leaders at a decisive moment in our nation's history, including invited speakers such as Newt Gingrich (confirmed), Chuck Colson, Lou Dobbs, Bill Bennett (confirmed), Lt. Col. Oliver North, Gov. Bobby Jindal, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Star Parker (confirmed), Justice Clarence Thomas, Patricia Heaton, Roger Hedgecock (confirmed), House and Senate leaders, and all the 2008 presidential nominees.

Charmaine at the podium 2006 In addition to lively discussions on issues ranging from life, marriage, school choice, and radical Islam to judicial activism and religious liberty, attendees can take part in: celebrity book signings; breakout training sessions; Radio and Bloggers' Row; special co-sponsored meals hosted by Focus on the Family Action, American Values, and Alliance Defense Fund; a unique student track (including a Friday night reception); and the Faith, Family, and Freedom Gala Dinner on Saturday evening.

The Values Voter Summit is quickly becoming one of Washington's most anticipated weekends of the year. Packages start at just $95 for adults and $50 for students and pastors. Sign up now and enjoy a $25 early-bird discount! Registration opens online tomorrow, March 15, at www.valuesvotersummit.org. Call 1-877-372-2808 for more details.

Thank you (foot)notes:

See Values Voter Summit 2007 and more.

Posted at 3:26 PM | Permalink
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The Superbowl is the Christmas card deadline for most folks sending out a yearly update(!). Not here. Tax Day is a dual deadline for us this year: cards and forms. Alert Readers will recall that the Huckabee campaign provided a delightful distraction for Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine and the Penta-Posse this past season. Merry Christmas!

See Christmas Past and what to take from a burning building.

Posted at 8:00 AM | Permalink
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The Dude and Baby Boo circa 2005
USAF Academy The Dude wants to fly military war planes. Never too early to start planning. So which branch? Air Force or Navy?

John Howland who runs USNA-AT-Large has (very) Alert Readers who have written in with suggestions on just this topic. The following deserves a wide audience to aid the high schoolers -- and younger -- students in picking a military academy.

"Bill Taylor provides this handy guide for young Americans who have the choice --

Great comparison of USAF vs. USN Aviators. Pretty much fits my experience.
Regards, Bill

The piece is written by Bob Norris, a former Naval aviator who also did
a 3 year exchange tour flying the F-15 Eagle. He is now an accomplished
author of entertaining books about U.S. Naval Aviation including "Check
Six" and "Fly-Off".

Check Six
Bob Norris

In response to a letter from an aspiring fighter pilot on which military
academy to attend, Bob replied with the following:

22 December 2005
Young Man,

Congratulations on your selection to both the Naval and Air
Force Academies. Your goal of becoming a fighter pilot is impressive and
a fine way to serve your country. As you requested, I'd be happy to
share some insight into which service would be the best choice.

Each service has a distinctly different culture. You need to ask
yourself "Which one am I more likely to thrive in?"

Baby Boo, Your Business Blogger, The Dude
P-51 Mustang, USAF Academy

USAF Snapshot: The USAF is exceptionally well organized and well
run. Their training programs are terrific. All pilots are groomed to
meet high standards for knowledge and professionalism. Their aircraft
are top-notch and extremely well maintained. Their facilities are
excellent. Their enlisted personnel are the brightest and the best
trained. The USAF is homogenous and macro.

No matter where you go, you'll know what to expect,what is
expected of you, and you'll be given the training & tools you need to
meet those expectations. You will never be put in a situation over your
head. Over a 20-year career, you will be home for most important family
events. Your Mom would want you to be an Air Force pilot...so would your
wife. Your Dad would want your sister to marry one.

Navy Snapshot: Aviators are part of the Navy, but so are Black
Shoes (surface warfare) and Bubble Heads (submariners). Furthermore, the
Navy is split into two distinctly different Fleets (West and East
Coast). The Navy is heterogeneous and micro. Your squadron is your home;
it may be great,average, or awful. A squadron can go from one extreme to
the other before you know it.

Fly Off
Bob Norris

You will spend months preparing for cruise and months on cruise.
The quality of the aircraft varies directly with the availability of
parts. Senior Navy enlisted are salt of the earth; you'll be proud if
you earn their respect. Junior enlisted vary from terrific to the
troubled kid the judge made join the service. You will be given the
opportunity to lead these people during your career; you will be humbled
and get your hands dirty. The quality of your training will vary and
sometimes you will be over your head. You will miss many important
family events. There will be long stretches of tedious duty aboard ship.

The Chapel at the USAF Academy
Credit: The Diva

You will fly in very bad weather and/or at night and you will be scared
many times. You will fly with legends in the Navy and they will kick
your ass until you become a lethal force. And some days - when the
scheduling Gods have smiled upon you - your jet will catapult into a
glorious morning over a far-away sea and you will be drop-jawed that
someone would pay you to do it.

The hottest girl in the bar wants to meet the Naval Aviator.

That bar is in Singapore.

Bottom line, son, if you gotta ask...pack warm & good luck in
Colorado.

Banzai

P.S.: Air Force pilots wear scarves and iron their flight suits."

Thank you (foot)notes:

The Diva on the stick

Posted at 7:32 PM | Permalink
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Charmaine speaking last year at AU
at far Right... Charmaine has two gigs today.

She will be speaking at American University in Your Nation's Capital tonight at 8PM. The Dreamer will be attending.

This is a return engagement. Charmaine spoke last year on Feminism and will be speaking on the same topic tonight.

Is Feminism Universal? will be the subject. From AU,

Join us Monday, March 3 at 8pm in MGC 200 at this exciting and sure to be lively event and listen to important women from diverse local organizations debate the nature of global and international feminism. Speakers include Dr. Charmaine Yoest from the Family Research Council, Carrie Lukas from the Independent Women’s Forum, Betsy Kim from the DNC, and the Acting Vice-President of NOW, Melody Drnach. Contact ae4199a@american.edu for more info.

Charmaine will also be interviewed on the Moody Broadcasting Network about the undercover recording of the bigots the baby killers liberals who work at Planned Parenthood. Check MBN or here for local listings. Hit time 3pm Eastern.

Actor: ...I really faced trouble with affirmative action, and I don't want my kids to be disadvantaged against black kids.


Planned Parenthood: Yes, absolutely.


Actor: And we don't, you know, we just think the less black kids out there the better.


Planned Parenthood: (Laughs) Understandable, understandable... This is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited and want to make sure I don't leave anything out.

So far no one has been fired from Planned Parenthood for supporting race-based abortions.

Thank you (foot)notes:

From the Family Research Council,

Racism Alive and Well at Planned Parenthood

A shocking set of recordings was released this week that could prove disastrous for Planned Parenthood's ties with the African-American community. Lila Rose, a pro-life student and reporter at UCLA, launched an undercover investigation aimed at exposing the racism of the nation's largest abortion merchant. With the help of an actor, she contacted Planned Parenthood clinics in seven states, inquiring if they would be willing to accept a donation earmarked for the abortion of black babies. The results were jaw-dropping.

Rose was appalled to discover that every last clinic agreed. Not one employee objected or questioned the request, even when the actor insisted that the purpose was to "lower the number of black people" in America. When the caller phoned an Ohio branch, he was told that Planned Parenthood "will accept the money for whatever reason." Read the outrageous transcript from the Idaho clinic, which is also available with Rose's other recordings in a montage [here]
...

Students at UCLA are so infuriated by the investigation that they are petitioning the university to cut all affiliation with Planned Parenthood. What few people realize is that the organization has a history of racism that has been ingrained since Planned Parenthood's earliest days, when founder Margaret Sanger advocated negative eugenics and spoke to a woman's branch of the KKK (Margaret Sanger, An Autobiography, 1938, p. 336-367). However, as is customary for Planned Parenthood, the organization has managed for decades to cover its tracks - and the facts. That task has just been made monumentally more difficult. Abortion has taken the innocent lives of over 14 million black children - a national tragedy that has begun uniting and mobilizing African-Americans across party, state, and financial lines.

We support a Pro-Life world-view. As found in our country's founding documents.

Posted at 3:12 PM | Permalink
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One Room School House circa 1895Columnist (Dr.) George Will once wrote, " Not long ago the education establishment promised that if we would only invest more in the nation's schools, they would produce a nation of Einsteins and Edisons. Today, we'd be pleased if upon leaving school our children have heard of Einstein and Edison."

Indeed, our Dreamer at the local high school, is forced to sit in a class room and listen to a movie recommendation from a history teacher. So Charmaine and Your Business Blogger watched the teacher's subject matter.

The movie is rated R. Lotsa sex. Lotsa violence. Some history, I suppose. (But I didn't notice for the bare buttocks. Jodie Foster gives a great performance -- if you know what I mean and I think you do...)

What's the big deal? the liberal education elite might ask, As long as the children are learning?

But are they?

Alert Reader, Dr. Crouse, sends this along,

1895 Eighth Grade Final Exam

And to think, most people don't believe in the dumbing down of America...... Remember when our grandparents, great-grandparents, and such stated that they only had an 8th grade education?

Well, check this out. - - -

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th GRADE FINAL EXAM

Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.

2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no Modifications.

3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.

4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb. Give Principal Parts of lie, lay and run.

5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.

6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.

7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.

2. A wagon box is 2 ft deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?

3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050lbs. for tare?

4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?

5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.

6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.

7. What is the co st of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?

8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.

9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?

10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U. S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U. S. History is divided.

2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus .

3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.

4. Show the territorial growth of the United States .

5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas .

6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.

7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell , Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?

8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour)

1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?

2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?

3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, sub vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?

4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.

5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.

6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.

7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: ?bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup

8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.

9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, si te, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.

10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronounciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)

1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?

2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?

3. Of what use are rivers Of what use is the ocean?

4. Describe the mountains of North America.

5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall & Orinoco.

6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.

7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.

8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?

9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.

10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took five hours to complete.

Gives the saying "she/he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

Jodie Foster went beyond 8th grade -- she went to Princeton. And had sex in my living room.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Your Business Blogger has an undergraduate degree in education and teaches business management at the Northern Virginia Community College.

Our good friend Cheri Yecke did her doctoral dissertation at the University of Virginia on the correlation between tax dollars spent per student and test scores. She didn't find any. Yes, there is no correlation between the amount of money spent per student and the student's test scores. A school system spending $6,000 per student had about the same test scores as a system spending $10,000 per student. The tax payer does not get his money's worth -- as one would expect from any union dominated enterprise. Her findings shocked the education industry. Her work was of no surprise to the parents who choose to home school.

Cheri Yecke continues to be harassed wherever she serves.

Update: Alert Reader Jill Zimon reminds us that Jodie Foster attended Yale -- Not Princeton as I had written. Jill says, "I know this more because one of my high school friends was Foster's freshman year roommate, than because I follow Foster. :)" Way cool anyway.

Posted at 9:07 AM | Permalink
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Nitro Dragster
Credit: Baumgartner Your Business Blogger used to play an acceleration trick known among car-guys as 'the quarter game' in his old Corvette.

Here's how the bet would work: Find a traffic-free interstate on-ramp,

Toss a quarter on the passenger side floorboards,

On acceleration the passenger attempts to reach forward to pick up the quarter --

We would bet the quarter that he (always a 'he' -- Girls didn't like to play...) He could not lean down and pick up the coin as Your (law-abiding!) Business Blogger raced thru the gears. The passenger could not overcome the G's.

I would usually win...

Or maybe 'cause the friend would be laughing so hard at my occasional -- rarely -- infrequent missed gear shifting.

Guys laugh at things like this.

Girls didn't like all the noise.

An Alert Reader sent this along to demonstrate real G-force acceleration.

Acceleration Put Into Perspective

* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

* A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to merely drive the dragster's supercharger.

Your Business Blogger in his old '58 Vette
Blond Option no longer available * With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

* At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

* Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence.

* In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G's.

* Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

* Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

* The redline is actually quite high at 9500 RPM.

* THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000 per second.

The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter-mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 MPH (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03, Doug Kalitta).

Putting this all into perspective:

The only Corvette that matters today:
The Dreamer in her 'Vette with proud dad.
I driven both, and this -- this is life in the fast lane.You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged & ready to launch down a quarter-mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line & pass the dragster at an honest 200 MPH. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.

The dragster launches & starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums & within 3 seconds the dragster catches & passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter-mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it - from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 MPH & not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race!

That's acceleration!

Thank you (foot)notes:

The Alert Reader writes,

Let me see if I’ve got this right. What you’re telling me is that in the space of under 2 and a half minutes of running a Top Fuel dragster (28 runs of 5 seconds each at $1,000 per second), I would have spent enough competing in the dragster to have paid for a Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette Z06 (that will run 200 mph).

Hmmmm.

Comments may not be enabled because of a nasty DoS. But please email your thoughts here.

Alert Reader Pat Patterson writes,

And that\'s why the proper way to do the quarter trick is to use your dad\'s Chevy Nova, almost bone stock, station wagon with a dealer installed 327 and Turbo-Hydramatic. The only person I ever saw miss a gear with that car was my mom who also could fry the clutch of a stick shift without actually leaving the garage in the morning to drop my sister off at school.

My dad was not a car guy and couldn\'t understand why the wagon got such terrible gas mileage and also why his teenage son didn\'t seem to mind driving around in that statin wagon with that infamous puke green metallic color that Chevy loved so much. I should also mention that it had dog dish hubcaps, a sticker for the Long Beach Naval Station and a bumpersticker for the March of Dimes on it. The perfect stealth car, or rather considering this was in the 60\'s, the perfect Q-ship.

Patterson lets us in on the best kept secret of acceleration: Automatic transmissions transmitted greater torque and faster shifting than any manual transmission. Even the old PowerGlide Turbo-Hydramatic could jump off the line faster than my old 'Vette with a wide-ratio 4 speed. (Although a 4:11 rear end would have been helpful...but we'd be back to that 8 mile a gallon concern.)

Patterson does not write if any money ever changed hands as he tooled around town...

Posted at 8:07 PM | Permalink
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The Penta-Posse
election nite 2004 Me too.

As the father of the five-person cohort called the Penta-Posse, Your Business Blogger is looking for angles for college admission and funding.

And not just Title IX...

Our friends at the Daniel Kovach Scholarship Foundation have an opportunity for cash. $2,000. Real money.

For political bloggers. If you are a college student, or have parents looking for help, go enter the 2nd Annual Political Blogging Scholarship.

And let us know how it works for you.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Thank you to Alert Reader Jennifer Rotman, Scholarship Coordinator, at College Scholarships.

Comments may not be enabled. Nasty DoS attack. Please email us with comments.

Update: Jill Miller Zimon, Freelance Writer, Editor and Blogger has more information and -- as the main stream media like to say -- original reporting,

Hi Jack -

I don't know if you have ever spoken with Daniel, but here's a post I wrote after interviewing him and one that links to a CNN article about him.

Thanks for posting about the blogging scholarship. An Ohio blogger I know used one (though I don't think it was the same one) to cover New Hampshire primary prep last summer.

Best,

Jill

Posted at 12:00 PM | Permalink
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The Dude interviewing Mitt Romney at last year's CPAC

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is meeting this week February 7 to 9.

Your Business Blogger,

The Dreamer,

The Dude and

The Diva will be a-blogging.

Reasoned Audacity is honored to get a hook-up seat on bloggers row.

CPAC 2008
Following are blogs on Bloggers Row.

The conservative event is held yearly and is heavily attended.

Mike Huckabee is schedule for 9am on Saturday morning.

The three-day event begins Thursday at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.

*CPAC 2008 BLOGGERS ROW*

Ace O'Spades
Alarming News
Atlas Shrugs
Bluey Blog
Captain's Quarters
Conservatives with an Attitude!
Fausta's Blog
FreedomWorks
Gay Patriot
Girl on the Right
HotAir.com
Hugh Hewitt
Human Events
Little Miss Attila
Mary Katherine Ham
Matt Sanchez
Musclehead Revolution
My Man Mitt
Newsbusters
Outside the Beltway
Politico
Reasoned Audacity
Red State
Riehl World View
Right Wing News
Sam Adams Alliance
Save the GOP
The American Mind
The Autonomist
Truth Laid Bear

Thank you (foot)notes:

Reasoned Audacity
CPAC 2007 Official Blogger Kristina Grabosky at CRC Public Relations is the go-to source for all good things PR at CPAC. (Unpaid link.)

Special thank you to Robert Stacy McCain for setting up the links.

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

Posted at 7:19 AM | Permalink
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Charmaine, right at her Little Rock office
The Face That Launched Me A 1,000 miles.
Chip Saltsman's office is next door on right. Saturday nite Huckabee came in three points down in South Carolina. So close -- a mere field goal. But still a loss.

Charmaine's leave of absence had come to an end. This meant one thing to Your Business Blogger's household:

Road Trip.

We started packing up the Penta-Posse after Huckabee's Saturday evening concession speech and set the alarm for 0:darn-thirty, military time and left Virginia for Little Rock on Sunday morning. We arrived at Charmaine's office some 16 hours later late last night.

Nobody got hurt. (This trip anyway.) (We've got the best kids on the planet.)

We knew that the campaign would fly Charmaine home, but we thought we could drive home and visit kin along the way. A little delayed Christmas and New Year's -- Charmaine worked through both this year. We would also be implementing a lesson from World War II and Vietnam:

To Decompress.

After WWII the returning troops returned via slow ship transport with their buddies and slowly adjusted from combat to the idea of civilian life and regular sleep, regular food. And adjust to the idea that nobody was gunning for you.

Much like a presidential campaign...

Vietnam vets had no such decompression. They went from battlefield to seat 3B to USA tarmac in 24 hours. No wonder a few had such difficulty with re-entry. There was no time to cry.

We wanted to drive some 2,000 miles to learn from the wars. And learn from the war.

While I was a-driving cross country with the Hucka-Truck full of MacDonald's wrappers, Charmaine was eating steak with Ed Rollins, Chairman; Jim Pinkerton, Senior Adviser and David Polyansky the Chief Operating Officer. They were saying goodbye.

Ed picked up the check. He's a class act.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Ed bought the steaks instead of watching some football game. Where the NY Giants beat the Packers 23 to 20 in overtime. Ed has his office in New York. He gave up watching the playoff game to huddle-adieu. Ed knows how to coach a team...

Mike Huckabee is preparing for the next debate on Thursday in Florida. We will continue to cheer him on in any way possible.

We look forward to rejoining our Cherrydale Baptist bible study!

Posted at 8:27 AM | Permalink
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The Dude's broken wrist
on the campaign (ski) trail Your Business Blogger has the rambunctious Penta-Posse on the road supporting Huckabee for President. Alert Readers ask,

"How do you do it?"

The one word answer,

"Noise-canceling-headphones."

And I would follow-up: "Nobody gets hurt."

I can't say that any more.

On the way home from New Hampshire I steered the Hucka-Truck with the Penta-Posse for a day of night skiing at Pat's Peak.

Charmaine suggested that taking five children out on the slopes is a formula for trouble.

Skisbootsglovesgoggleshelmetspolescoats X 5 + Your Business Blogger = Charmaine is right again.

So. Under close parental supervision -- meaning within cell phone range -- The Dude and The Diva were doing a Double Black Diamond double time.

Their first run down the Diamond was slow, deliberate and measured in keeping with our family motto of Safety First.

Their second run was faster. The Dude took a jump, grabbed some air, ate some snow.

That was the only thing he ate that night. He took the pain like a trooper. Better than me.

I wonder about the coming physical therapy though...

Thank you (foot)notes:

Jeffrey Lovallo, MD, installed the cast. The Dude got the cast in black. In memory of the diamonds. No complications and the cast should be off in six weeks.
Dr. Lovallo,

is currently an upper extremity consultant to the Washington Redskins and the DC United professional soccer team. He is a consultant for DePuy Medical, the leading total shoulder joint replacement company in the US. As a total shoulder arthroplasty consultant for DePuy, he has produced a state of the art video on total shoulder replacement.

Posted at 4:40 PM | Permalink
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Your Business Blogger and the Penta-Posse went to the Huckabee celebration joining Charmaine in Manchester, New Hampshire Tuesday night.

It was an over-flow room with an enthusiastic crowd. Supporters didn't look like, or sound like those whose candidate finished... third.

Monday night we watched Janet Huckabee announce the Hucka-husband Mike after he flew back from doing Letterman. The rally was a gig at the VFW hall in Rochester. Some 1,300 showed up and cheered.

Janet is an outstanding speaker. We learned that she jumped out of a (perfectly good) airplane -- parachuting with the Army's Golden Knights.

Huckabee spoke with Chuck Norris (zero body fat) and jammed with the band. "Sweet Home Alabama." Everyone sang along.

The younger voters rather enjoyed the bass-playing future president. The elders didn't mind either.

The Diva and The Dude working the phones back in Iowa.
Video Credit: The Dreamer

Thank you (foot)notes:

The weather was like Florida, the landscape was like, well, New Hampshire in winter with snow piled up. But 55 degrees. The Penta-Posse wants to go skiing in shorts.

Visit Chuck Norris Facts.

The only person not gaining weight on the campaign trail in Mike Huckabee. He still runs nearly everyday. These are not photo ops -- but a lifestyle that keeps him physically and mentally fit. This is discipline. Running works for Huckabee.

Crying works for Hillary's Moment,

By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 8, 2008; 8:33 AM

News flash: Hillary shows emotion.

I don't mean to be flip about it--all right, maybe just a little--but watching her choke up yesterday was a revealing moment.

It wasn't that she started weeping or anything. If you've seen the video, her voice breaks and she seems briefly overcome.

The networks' newscasts all led with it. The cable chatters chewed it over. By this morning, it was approaching Dean-scream frequency.

See Charmaine's quote in USAToday today,

Senior adviser Charmaine Yoest said Huckabee's showings in New Hampshire and Michigan would demonstrate the national appeal of the former Arkansas governor. "We think the polling data that shows our lead widening in South Carolina speaks pretty clearly about our chances there," she added.

Posted at 10:40 PM | Permalink
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Mike Huckabee won. But more important, he won in the category that counts: He exceeded expectations -- he beat the point spread.

And he did it the hard way.

In any military campaign, marketing campaign or political campaign the resources are time, talent and treasure. Seldom is there enough of all three to satisfy every requirement. Usually, a campaign will have two. Seldom three.

(Your Business Blogger is a former marketing guy. My favorite question, "Budget, what budget?" Usually big budgets can fix any short coming.)

The Huckabee campaign didn't have the treasure. It had the same time as the other candidates.

The only variable that Huckabee had was talent. Oddly, that was enough.

Chip Saltsman, the campaign manager said, "We play to Huckabee's strengths." And he won.

The Iowa Caucus made history: It proved a candidate could win on his record; on issues. Without big money. Without the elite media. With out the elite conservative stalwarts. And, sadly, I guess, without Rush Limbaugh...

Thank you (foot)notes:

Charmaine emailed from New Hampshire at 3:22am,

Hillary's plane and edwards' plane were across the tarmac. It is unbelievably cold

Caution: Gloating Follows. Clinton and Edwards got there early. They may have had less to celebrate than the First Place Winners.

Congratulations to First Place Iowa Winner for the Dems Obama.

Your Business Blogger is a-packing up the Penta-Posse to work the phone banks in New Hampshire. A mere 22 hour drive from Des Moines. Reporters would give me horrified stares when I told them I was driving instead of flying. "What do you think this is?" I asked, "The Romney campaign...?"

OK, so I didn't say that. But there are some things that money can buy. Like an additional 707. (We brought a lot of coats.)

We would be loading up pictures, but we lost all the cabling and adaptors, and the batteries, and the camera.

But we didn't lose any children.

Bryon York, the National Review White House Correspondent, has more analysis -- with children. See, Inside Huckabee’s Victory, How the impoverished governor from nowhere beat the mighty Romney machine.

Alert Readers will remember that the National Review has endorsed Mitt Romney. Your Business Blogger still subscribes to NR. And so should you. (Unpaid endorsement.)

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink
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Your Business Blogger has a full time job looking after the women in his life. Here's what's happening to help me keep mom off the streets and The Little Woman out of Nordstroms.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Charmaine is the Senior Policy Advisor for Mike Huckabee.

"What Karen Hughes is to Bush's "war on terror," Charmaine Yoest is to the pro-life movement." Esther Kaplan, The Nation.

Posted at 11:11 PM | Permalink
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Huckabee is surging. Watch why. From The Washington Briefing, hosted by the Family Research Council.

And be sure to support your favorite candidate. Your Business Blogger will soon be a-sporting bumper stickers.

Alert Reader PB writes,

I am a graduate student at the Greenlee School of Journalism at Iowa State University. I am doing a research project on the effectiveness of the bumper sticker in political campaigns. You have a note on your blog from last year that says research shows that a bumper sticker can be worth $250 to a candidate. Can you please direct me to this research. I would truly appreciate your assistance as I have not found anything this specific in the literature. Thank you so much

The Alert Reader is referring to Steele for Senator and the Roe Effect, from November, 2006,

After an evening of lit drops, the Penta-Posse poses for their candidate, Michael Steele for Senator for Maryland.

Research shows that a bumper sticker has an in-kind equivalent value of $250 to the political candidate. Smart campaigners will also put the bumper sticker on the driver's side front bumper to greet on-coming traffic.

The Roe-Effect will take effect sooner or later.

Our Iowa grad student is correct: the research/data is difficult to uncover. I use the $250 amount from memory of a lecture I heard somewhere. But I have no solid citation other than from Matt Lewis & The News, writing Congressman Says Bumper Sticker = $250 and good friend Todd Zywicki at The Volokh Conspiracy with A Curious Claim:

Senator George Allen routinely reminds us that a bumper sticker is worth $200 in free advertising or $300 if on a pick-up truck or S.U.V.

But as Charmaine reminds me, I must always cite a source -- even on the blog.

If another Alert Reader can email me a citation, we will send you a copy of Charmaine's book Mother in the Middle...with Bill Maher's finger prints.

Bill Maher, Politically Incorrect

Thank you (foot)notes:

Tomorrow, the first of December, Your Business Blogger and the Penta-Posse will be putting Charmaine on a plane to Little Rock.

And check out Alert Reader Patti Brown's well researched work on political advertising.

Posted at 3:24 PM | Permalink
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Charmaine will be participating in a panel discussion on America’s Changing Social Contract: The Rights and Responsibilities of Employers, Families, Government and Civil Society hosted by the New America Foundation,

The Penta-Posse at Four Corners, 2005
What is the future of the social contract?

"Despite the sustained economic growth of recent years, Americans are increasingly concerned with economic security. Even before economists began reporting signs of recession, skyrocketing health care costs, faltering pensions, and burgeoning inequality frayed the fabric of the American social contract. America's social contract is an evolving, complex web of legal and informal relationships between households, employers, government, and civil society that extends beyond particular federal programs. Now is the time to strike a new bargain between these sectors, rethinking the rights and responsibilities of each. Breathing new life into the American social contract is needed to keep pace with our 21st century economy and build the conditions for sustained growth and healthy families."

You are invited. And unlike CNN hosting a presidential debate, you can bring your own unplanted, unprogrammed questions.

Start: 12/03/2007 - 9:00am
End: 12/03/2007 - 3:00pm
The Mayflower Hotel
1127 Connecticut Ave, NW The East Room
Washington, 20036

The New America Foundation's Next Social Contract Initiative invites you to join a discussion to help redesign the American social contract. Speakers, discussants, and panelists will return to first principles and address the roles that government, business, families, and civil society have to play in the next social contract.

The Next Social Contract Initiative aims to reinvent American social policy for the twenty-first century. Through a program of research and public education, the initiative will explore the origins of our modern social contract, articulate the guiding principles for constructing a new contract, and advance a set of promising policy reforms.

Participants at the jump.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Charmaine recently sat on another panel hosted by the New America Foundation on The Politics of Parental Leave.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:25 AM | Permalink
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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
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For the Children.

Carve here.

(Thanks, mom)

Posted at 6:02 PM | Permalink
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There were three 14'ers we could find.

No, we were not taking in mountain scenery in Colorado. Charmaine and Your Business Blogger were looking for the youngest finishers at yesterday's 32nd running of the Marine Corps Marathon.

Billed as "The Peoples' Marathon" a runner had to be among the first 30,000 to enter. The run takes place from the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia ending at the Flag Raisers at the Iwo Jima memorial.

The run route passes Arlington Cemetery were my dad and friends rest.

We three had been following a work-out regiment for months, following the military dictum that the more one sweats in training, the less one bleeds in combat.

No one is bleeding, but everything still hurts. Charmaine didn't cry as much this time.

The marathon was run with, well, military precision. The Marines run a class act, having some experience with logistics and human relations and victory.

And business.

Challenge Coin from USAA The MCM is expensive. To help underwrite the event businesses lined up. Sponsors included CVS/Caremark; Wal*Mart; Brooks; CISCO, Saturn, Arlington, Virginia; Aetna; AT&T; BAE Systems; Bar Clif,; CROCS, Crystal City: EDS; jetBlue Airways; Maggiano's Little Italy; Rosslyn; symantic; UPS; VSP; The Washington Post; Sodexho: Einstein Bros Bagels: Her Sports; News Channel 8; ABC 7; HOT 99.5; BIG 100.3; DC 101; 97.1 WASH-FM; 98. WMZQ; SportsTalk 980.

But the best SWAG was from USAA.

Thank you (foot)notes:

About 20,600 of the 30,000 registrants finished. Thank you for not asking our time...

More on SWAG at All Things Orange Save the Date for The National Multiple Sclerosis Society Dinner in Baltimore and 7 Steps in Making Money at Trade Shows

History of the Challenge Coin at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:12 AM | Permalink
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Kinglsey Brown Alert Readers will know of Your Business Blogger's endorsement of Professor Kingsley Brown and his research. Brown is on faculty at Wayne State University teaching law.

He writes to John Howland with USNA At Large,

“Co-ed Combat: The New Evidence that Women Shouldn’t Fight the Nation’s Wars” is due out on November 8, although it can be pre-ordered now on Amazon...

My book examines physical and psychological differences between the sexes and their implication for integration of combat forces. This examination includes not just individual traits -- such as strength, endurance, risk-taking, physical aggression, fear, courage, and other traits that affect both combat motivation and combat performance -- but also the effect of psychological sex differences on the functioning of groups. As you know, individuals do not fight wars; groups do, and the sex composition of groups has a substantial impact on how the group functions.

As you have yourself noted, trust is the “coin of the realm” in combat groups. It appears that men are not “designed” to easily trust women in dangerous situations. I’m sure that you and the other At-Large members have had the experience of knowing leaders whom you would be willing to follow through the gates of Hell and others whom you would be reluctant to follow across the street. Some people trigger trust in their comrades, and others –

Women in Combat

no matter what kind of training they have had – simply cannot do so. I suggest in my book that women generally do not trigger that kind of trust in men, no matter how much men like and respect women. This is not a criticism of either women or men; it is simply the way our psyches work. As the continued opposition to women in and near combat suggests, this is not a problem that can be solved simply through “leadership” and “training,” which are usually invoked as the solution to problems with sexual integration.

My book also chronicles a number of other impediments to sexual integration, many of which are well known, such as problems of pregnancy, double standards, political correctness, and so forth.

Best regards,

Kingsley

Thank you (foot)notes:

Read more on Kingsley Browne's work at Hiring Super Stars vs Tolerating Turkeys

Thanks to John Howland at USNA At Large.

More on Professor Kingsley Brown at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:48 PM | Permalink
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The Dude and Anthony from the Predators The Dude and Anthony cut their first radio commercial inviting Big Kids to play football.

It's running as a public service announcement locally on WMAL, 630 on the AM dial.

The ad was written by Your Business Blogger and was produced by David Salkeld.

Please listen in and let us know what you think.
Listen Here

Thank you (foot)notes:

The most valuable part of any exercise is the evaluation component. Alert Readers were most generous in offering advice on a previous radio ad. Even when the advice was brutally honest...

See comments at
Management Training Seminar, A Free Lunch and Rush Limbaugh

See the script at the jump.

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Posted at 6:59 AM | Permalink
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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

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Charmaine on an earlier
marriage debate on CBS Charmaine will appear on CNN's Headline News this afternoon to discuss the latest trends on marriage and co-habitation.

Are shack-ups good for women? Good for children?

Tune in at 5pm and let us know what you think. Hit time is 5:30 live.

She will be on the other side of a married couple. Who are swingers.

Not to be confused with swinging both ways.

But that the swinging married couple have jimmied the (wed) lock, and are not monogamous.

So they have an 'open marriage' and a number of sexual partners.

At least the 'marriage' has a man and a woman...

It is not known if Charmaine's next segment will be with a monogamous homosexual couple.

So Your Business Blogger -- ever alert to the immediacy of news hooks -- asks Charmaine, What happened today? Jenna moved in with a boyfriend? Chelsea moved out from her live-in...?

Nope, she says. It's August.

Wtih congress in recess, there is very, very little a-going on.

It's August in Your Nation's Capitol.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Note that CNN HeadLine News and CNN are on different cable channels.

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Alert Readers will remember the puff piece-post done on Helen Philbrook, The Modern Working Woman in Business, at Home,

So here's the typical mom in America today: baby on knee, small business down the street, with rifle in Pakistan

These days, Helen is using her advanced degree in chemistry and her experience as a Vice President for a pollution control company to design and build gardens.

She studied gardening in, where else? London, England. Her small business, Tiger Lily's, has been highlighted in a number of print publications such as The American Gardener, The Avant Gardener, Horticulture, Garden Design, The English Garden, Fine Gardening, Garden Gate, Wildlife in North Carolina, Better Homes and Gardens, Special Interest Publications, Garden Ideas & Outdoor Living, Best of Flower Gardening, Country Gardens, Garden Shed, and Lawns & Landscapes.

Helen is back in the news. Carol Stein, Correspondent for The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, writes in Secret gardens prepare to open up,

...[O]n Lewis Farm Road, is Laura and Bob Bromhal's French-style garden. Bromhal's approach to gardening is centered on her love of houses. A busy Realtor, with little time to spend in the garden, she says, "I know how to hire the right people."

Her gardener of many years recently retired so Bromhal enlisted a longtime friend and regional representative of the Garden Conservancy, Helen Yoest, to help with the overall design and to meet with her new gardener Patrick Barkley, owner of Elysian Fields.

Barkley cleared out overgrown ivy and brush, pruned the shrubs and added new plants. Then Yoest stylized Bromhal's brick patio -- more like a hidden courtyard off the home's master suite -- using items the Bromhals had on hand...

Business is Good. As her tag lines says, Tiger Lily's is

Creating intrigue in Raleigh, one garden at a time.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Full Disclosure: Helen Yoest Philbrook is the younger sister of Your Business Blogger. And yes, this is an unpaid ad.

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Today, 27 July, marks the end of the live fire hostilities of the Korean War. Flags are to be flown at half-staff until sunset.

The Korean War began on 25 June 1950 when North Korean attacked South Korea.

And ended in a stalemate.

And a lesson. During the negotiations, the UN forces in US Army jeeps would drive the delegates under a flag of truce to the North Koreans.

The flag of truce was flying from the front fenders -- it was, of course, a white flag.

The white flag was reported by the Communists as a flag of surrender. A tremendous propaganda victory. It took the UN Forces a few days to catch on to the 'misinterpretation' that gave aid and comfort to the enemy.

Which is what will happen today if liberal Democrats have their way and retreat and withdraw from our current war in Iran. It will not be 'misinterpreted.'

It will be more than a white flag. It will not be a stalemate. It will be a surrender.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Your Business Blogger's father fought in the Korean War.

The citation reads, in part,

Pearl Harbor, March 20 [1951]...Boatswain's Mate Yoest received this medal for, "meritorious service as a member of a motor whale boat crew on board the USS CONSERVER, a rescue and salvage vessel, during the sinking of an allied mine sweeper in densely mined areas, subjected to enemy gun fire off Wonsan, Korea on 17 October 1950. He volunteered and took his boat on two successful trips at great personal risk, into the mined areas to rescue survivors, thereby minimizing the loss of life and contributing to the successful clearance of mine free channels and anchorage off Wonsan...

Chief Yoest now rests in Arlington National Cemetery.

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Dr. Drew Pinsky from Discovery Health Channel
(By Jonathan Alcorn For The Washington Post)
Dr. Drew Pinsky recently gave a talk for the Independent Women's Forum in the Rayburn Building in Washington, DC.

The audience was some four dozen young women.

The interns who actually run the government in Your Nation's Capital.

Pinsky advised the young nubile college aged co-eds that they have three options with sex:

A) Drink Juice 'em up and go. Liquor is quicker -- for girls. Beer Goggles -- for men.
B) Steady Joined at the hip. Live together shack-up. Trial marriage.
C) Hook-up Friends with benefits. Also known as f**k buddies.

He mentions no fourth option.

I would, if asked, submit Bruce Cameron's rules. And if you read the rules, the Alert Reader would well understand why I am not retained as a speaker for the IWF.

And Pinsky is.

As Dana Milbank from The Washington Post reports,

This is not your mother's conservative movement...

Pinsky is an imperfect spokesman for the religious right; he once gave out free condoms as a promotion for his Web site.

"By the way, sometimes it's just fun," Pinsky said of youthful sex. "I'm not saying, 'Oh, my God, we have to have a funeral march.' Sometimes it's fun. It's not a bad thing."

The WaPo is wrong. (This is not news.) The Independent Women's Forum makes no claim to be faith based. IWF takes no position on abortion. IWF makes no moral judgments on sex.

The Washington Times column Inside the Beltway's by John McCaslin, reads,

[Pinsky]described the college social environment as "unnaturally intense," as it gives women three basic options: to engage in an "intoxicated physical encounter with no commitment" (a hook-up), to begin a "joined at the hip" relationship or to agree to a "friends with benefits" arrangement. The women in the audience agreed that none of these options is ideal.

While leaving the larger moral and cultural implications up for consideration, Dr. Pinsky advocated personal responsibility, integrity and most importantly, an openness for dialogue.

This is code-talk psycho-babble for "sex only after three dates." Something "The [other] Rules" would advocate.

Except that in any of these scenarios, the girl is -- used, drunk, infected, pregnant.

Or worse.

She gets a broken heart.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Your Business Blogger's wife, Charmaine, has served on the IWF Advisory Board. She does not endorse the recommendations of Dr. Drew Pinsky.

Form Bruce Cameron's Rules for Dating My Daughter,
Rule Four:
I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without using a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

Rule Six:
If you make her cry, I make you cry.

The Rules: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right (Hardcover)
by Ellen Fein (Author), Sherrie Schneider.

Michelle D. Bernard, President and CEO of the Independent Women's Forum says,

The reviews are in! This year's Sex and Dating Conference for Capitol Hill interns was the best ever. Not only did we garner an unprecedented amount of media coverage- including a major piece on page A2 of The Washington Post-we felt that the interns who showed up were eager for a serious discussion of sex and dating mores in a safe atmosphere...

At IWF, ...We felt that, without offering judgments, Dr. Drew Pinsky, led a thoughtful-and fun-discussion of campus mores. He repeatedly asked if hooking up is such a good idea, why is it that students find they must be intoxicated to hook up?

Dr. Drew Pinsky's philosophy needs adult supervision. People, moving down the hyway of life, need real guidance, real guardrails.

See Dr. Drew comes to Washington.

Posted at 9:34 PM | Permalink
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Northern Virginia
Unlimited Youth
Football Association Alert Readers know that we've moved around a bit.

Which means new schools, piano teachers, friends, coaches.

The Penta Posse has taken each uprooting and replanting as normal.

As we constantly remind them: We are not normal...

Anyway, The Dude has always been lucky to find the best coaches in sports.

The Hurricanes Maryland state champions Our luck continues in our move back to Virginia from Maryland. After some checking around, we learned that there is no local Pop Warner football league in Northern Virginia.

But we may have found something better for our boy.

The Northern Virginia Unlimited Youth Football Association is just what The Dude was looking for. The league's motto is,

"Let the Big Guys Play!"

The program is designed for 6th-8th Graders Only (11-14 Years of Age), and most important:

No Weight Limit, No Experience Needed

The NOVA UYFA tag line continues,

"Prepare Yourself For High School Level - Come Experience The Fun!"

If you are looking for an advanced level of football for high school prep. Contact Joe or leave me a comment.

Or come to the FREE conditioning camp:

July 16th is the start of our Conditioning Camp. Time: 6pm to 7:15pm Place: White Oak Elementary School

The minimum weight is 130 pounds, so players are big. And serious.

Email me for questions.

Thank you (foot)notes:

One of the challenges that this league is facing is a government bureaucracy. Your Business Blogger has wrestled a bit with bureaucracies and managing bureaucrats and working with bureaucracies well understands the challenges. The local government employee/zealots have made it difficult for the budget-conscience league to market to the general population. The most common marketing effort for the local sports teams is to place temporary roadside signage.

But the local governing jurisdictions are hammering the leagues with litter-laws, and other special big-government applications.

Joe Whibley, the Executive Director of NOVA UYFA says word of mouth works to identify football players.

"We are always looking for more players to join," and Joe asks that we all help, "advertising...spreading the word...and recruiting for us."

The counties are not yet silencing blogs as a media outlet. This is an unpaid endorsement for the Northern Virginia
Unlimited Youth Football Association.

See What Is The Best Predictor of Successful Leadership? See Management Training.

NOVA UYFA is Endorsed by the Northern VA High School Coaches Association

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Every misstep captured will by the camera,
or today, YouTube The Dude was having a challenge getting the moves right for his team. -- everyone noticed and criticized. He was a bit depressed.

So Your (compassionate) Business Blogger offered gentle counsel, "Don't worry about it son. It will get worse..."

The Dude was not amused.

To paraphrase General Douglas MacArthur, what counts is the Team, the Team, the Team.

No matter our individual contribution, the only thing that counts is that the team wins.

To make the boy feel better, I show him how Your Business Blogger got the snot kicked out of him in high school. Which the camera caught. Of course.

The Dude wonders, So why is it they will take pictures of the losers and not the team?

Losers? This is not going quite the way I planned. Father/son lectures seldom do. I soldier on, "Well, son, no matter how well the team does an individual can still screw up -- remember, if it bleeds..."

"...It leads." The Dude is a fast learner.

The moral of the story: When fighting in the arena -- sports or ideas -- all eyes watch your every move. And in the end, there is no substitute for victory.

Charmaine Cheering Whatever the camera caught during the game, I still got the prettiest girl after.

Hey Dude, sometimes things do work out in the end.

Thank you (foot)notes:

My game mentioned above and the girl-getting were years apart. I was having enough trouble explaining the story to The Dude without this minor detail.

General Douglas MacArthur's Farewell Speech at the jump, and his love for the Corps, the Corps, the Corps.

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I have had a horrific number of strike outs, on and off the field. And it hurts.

But, only one thing hurts more.

To watch your boy strike out.

The Dude was playing for the Yankees, the local little league. Saturday before last, his team was in the District playoffs for the championship. Charmaine and I and the Penta-posse were all in attendance.

Please forgive the day in the life reflection, but we have always thought that life should not be too easy for kids -- that anything worth having has a fence around it. (Like a base ball diamond.) And they should learn to deal with overcoming obstacles.

So we are forever designing small age-appropriate challenges to stretch the young ones thinking, reasoning, and physical dexterity.

Alert Readers will remember that we allow our children restricted use of power tools to teach self-reliance. And to get some work done around here.

I wanted start early and teach our infant children about the harsh world outside their cribs... by placing barbed wire along the top rail. Charmaine did not think this amusing.

The Dude swings for the fences So The Dude had struck out.

But like most things in life, it was not his last time at bat. He had another chance.

He came to the plate and confidently stood his ground in the batter's box. Faced the pitch.

And swung and hit. Sending the ball over the fence ending the game.

A home run.

There is nothing better to have your son beat you at your own game.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Credit to Don Suber for citation for Rick Lee Photo.

See Rich Galen's similar experience of having a son surpass.

Full Disclosure: No barbed wire is used in our Management Training classes. Unless requested.

Posted at 10:24 PM | Permalink
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A homecoming at a Navy pier
Norfolk, Virginia, undated Homecomings are exciting. And none more so as when a ship returns to port. To family.

But not all boats return.

The picture at left was taken by a shipboard Navy photographer capturing the emotion of waiting wives and children. Mom is seen at the lower right.

Every year around father's day, our household remembers how very lucky we are. To celebrate dads and sacrifice. And the boys who never became dads.

This piece was originally published by The Virginian Pilot and the Courier Post.

My father, then only a teen-ager from Jersey, left high school, went to war and was assigned to the submarine, USS Bonefish. Just before the final mission of the Bonefish, my father walked off the gangplank - transferred to another assignment. Another man took his place.

USS Bonefish,
Returning from her 4th patrol.
Sailors, rest your oars.

On its eighth mission, on June 18, 1945, the Bonefish was lost fighting the enemy in the Sea of Japan, with the loss of all 53 officers and men. It was the last U.S. submarine sunk in World War II. Dad eventually went back to high school and married my mother.

The other man is "on eternal patrol," as the veterans say.

A half-century later, after fighting in and surviving two wars, my father was buried in Arlington Cemetery. He had the chance to raise a family and devote 30 years to the armed services, and pin second lieutenant bars on my shoulders.

He didn't talk much about the Bonefish or the man who replaced him.

Still, I imagine in some Navy Valhalla my dad and this other sailor linked up together and asked the Creator, "Why?"

"Why him? Why me?"

John Sr. with John Jr.

War forces these questions on us, and they echo for generations. My father had me, and I now have a 4-year-old son, John, who carries his grandfather's name and his love of battle and discipline.

John III with
John Jr. (Jack) John, like all children, often asks, "Why?" Like all fathers, I struggle to answer. But there are questions mere human reason cannot fathom.

Why was my father not on that submarine that fateful day?

And the answer does not come. Only that John now lives. With a purpose and a destiny still unknown.

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, someone asked her, "What is your greatest fear?" She answered that it was losing her husband; she feared the possibility of facing the awesome responsibility of motherhood alone.

But now, several children later, as I reflect on that same question, my fear is not of losing her, or even one of our daughters. I fear losing my son. In my masculine pride, I believe I can protect my wife and girls, but in my heart lurks the dread possibility that I must one day send my son to war.

My boy loves my cavalry saber and my dad's medals. Wearing a military uniform and military service runs in our family. My son's bloodline is traced through the Civil War and the Revolutionary War to William Penn to Charlemagne of ninth century France. His great-grandfather helped build Virginia Military Institute.

I pray the time never comes, but if it does, I expect that he will fight for God and country like his fathers before him.

Buried at sea, there are no headstones. I cannot mark the grave of the man who took my father's place, so I mark the date. I pay silent homage in remembrance of June 18, 1945, when the sea smashed through the bulkheads and turned a warship into a coffin.

There have been many such coffins, and if history is any teacher there are many yet to come.

When I think of future wars, I pray that a doomed high-tech Bonefish will not carry my John. The fear of this nearly unendurable loss humbles me. That young man who walked on the Bonefish to take my father's place was another man's son. Another man's dreams lost at sea.

War turns civilization on its head. In peace, sons bury fathers. In war, fathers bury sons.

It is a weighty debt. A debt of honor due. I expect to instill in my son a sense of history, of purpose, of his mission. That his body is not entirely his own, that he has a high calling.

I hope that I can teach him the lessons of his forefathers, those men now called the Greatest Generation.

It is my prayer that instilling this sense of mission will drive out the distractions, temptations and destructions of his growing generation. That drugs will not cloud his ambition. That he will see the hand of divine providence moving in his life.

That he will know he has so much to be thankful for. Like his fathers before him.

I pray he will be grateful, like his grandfather. It is my charge to tell my son that another man took his grandfather's place. My son has the duty, and like me, the obligation to his family and to that other man, to live with a sense of purpose and awe.

To live with a sense of respect to the tomb of that other young submariner.

This June 18, I want to salute the man who died for me and the men who died for us all. I want my son to know his debt of honor. And, God willing, my son will bury me.

John Wesley Yoest, Jr., of Richmond, is [the former] assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Since this was first published a few years ago, Your Business Blogger has been honored to hear from other veterans who served on the Bonefish and naval historians. There were actually 85 men lost aboard the Bonefish and another boat holds the distinction of last sub lost in the war.

Charmaine blogged on the Bonefish June years past.

James and Jack And, since this article was written, we've added John's brother James to the family -- here he is in the same sailor suit that dad sewed by hand while at sea decades and decades ago. Sons (and grandsons) of thunder.

See here for our visit to Arlington Cemetery.

Alert reader Greg Gray reminds us that,

"In peace, sons bury fathers. In war, fathers bury sons."

That comes from Herodotus 1:87. But it's still a wonderful point. Also relevant to today is Pericles' oration in Thucydides' Peloponnesian Wars.

Published: June 18, 1999
Section: LOCAL, page B11
Type of story: OPINION
Source: JOHN WESLEY YOEST
© 1999- Landmark Communications Inc.

Description of illustration(s):
Art by Margaret Scott

See Five Days in May: USS Scorpion Lost another boat that did not come home.

Be sure to visit Ron Newton with A Noble Generation Of Workers Matured The Hard Way.

Posted at 7:47 AM | Permalink
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Marathoning in Style
in Richmond, Virginia.
Your Business Blogger and
Charmaine Have you ever watched a woman cry for five miles?

This is how Charmaine usually finishes. And Your (compassionate) Business Blogger is most concerned. Yes, the dehydration.

And the pictures.

Charlie, your mascara's streaking.

The Dreamer and The Dude
Triathlon-ing in North CarolinaThis is The Dreamer's first year being legal to run the Marine Corps Marathon in October. Charmaine was not about to let her train alone so we three registered and began Galloway's regimen for running the 26.2 miles.

Please let us know if you are in the race also.

Reasoned Audacity at
The Country Music Marathon

Thank you (foot)notes:

Thank you for not asking our run times.

There are two types of marathoners: Competers and Completers.

We are in the former latter category.

Posted at 10:28 AM | Permalink
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A post from last year and the year before by Charmaine.

Every time we've made the left turn onto Eisenhower Drive, and passed through the imposing brick gates of Arlington National Cemetery, I've been overwhelmed with emotion. Family members of those buried at Arlington National Cemetery are given a special pass and may drive onto the Hallowed Grounds to visit the grave of their loved one. It's an enormous honor which makes me feel humbled.

The Penta-Posse
at Arlington National Cemetery

My husband's father served thirty years in the United States Navy, and died the year I married into the family, so I didn't know him well. And the fact is, after a lifetime of nine-month Mediterranean tours, wars, and rumors of war, there is a lot my husband doesn't know as well.

However, over the 15 years that we've been married, I have gotten to know my mother-in-law well. She doesn't talk either about the sacrifices she made, but there is one story that she has told me several times.

Once, when my father-in-law was out on tour, and she was home with three small children, the car broke down and, of course, she had to take care of it. My husband marched up and said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll fix it." He was about five years old at the time.

My mother-in-law laughs. . . the little man, takin' care of things. But it makes me cry.

We owe a lot to our military families.

When we visited Arlington this past week, we passed at least three funeral ceremonies on the way to Section 64. I lost track of the fresh graves and the still-standing tents, either just vacated by other grieving families, or awaiting the afternoon's fresh, raw sorrow.

As we pulled up on Bradley Avenue, an Air Force honor guard was marching precisely back to their bus after a ceremony for an airman who had been a POW in Korea. While we searched for my father-in-law's headstone, an empty horse-drawn caisson lumbered past, and settled briefly in the shade nearby, awaiting their next assignment. . .

We found my father-in-law's headstone: The front has the Christian Cross with the old Chief's Curriculum Vita. Chief Yoest cut high school to catch World War II. He retired with rows of ribbons and a "v" device, and pinned butterbars on his boy. He now has a grandson, The Dude, who bears his name and wants to be a Navy pilot.

The reverse of the stone is blank, awaiting the inscripton for Chief Yoest's high school sweetheart, his wife, Jack's mom, "Babcia" (Polish for Grandmother), who is still with us. In the end, they will be buried together, an honor she earned.

As we turned to go, the Diva took her jingle-bell necklace from around her neck, and left it on the headstone. A fitting tribute for a warrior.



Sailors, rest your oars.

We drove back down Bradley Avenue -- past a fresh grave covered by a tarp. In front of us, sparkling in the bright sunlight of a gorgeous day, stretched row after row of white marble markers, orderly, peaceful, some weathered, others new and crisply chiseled . . .

I turned to the Penta-Posse. "I want you to look," I said. "I want you to understand, that each one of these headstones represents someone who gave their life so that you could be free."

They were quiet and solemn. The weight of it is beyond measure.

The Dreamer said, "Don't cry, Mom."

We made the right turn onto Eisenhower. We drove slowly toward the exit, passing the drive to the Tomb of the Unknowns to our left, until we came to a crosswalk thronged with tourists. The guard on duty motioned to the crowd to stop, and we drove through, passing through the gates, back to a busy day, leaving behind -- the curious crowds, the chattering school children. . . and the silent stones.

More on Arlington National Cemetery at the jump.

Memorial Day fine time to visit historical sites.

Other Memorial Day Links from years past:
Blackfive with "Opening the Gates of Heaven."
Intel Dump

Marine Corps Moms

LaShawn Barber's Corner

See Traffic Jam

Jo's Cafe has Specials.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

Michelle Malkin has Memorial Day Links.

Wiz Bang has links.

LaShawn has tributes.

California Conservative has Memorial Day Tribute.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:20 AM | Permalink
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Five Days in May: The loss of the USS Scorpion.

By Jack Yoest

Yolanda Mazzuchi was about the prettiest girl in our school class. Our dads were in the Navy, often gone for months at a time. And they would be welcomed home at dockside with cheers and homemade signs. These

USS Scorpion gatherings at the D&S Piers at the Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, were a regular part of our lives growing up. Families often took children out of school to celebrate a ship's homecoming.

At 1 in the afternoon on Monday, May 27, 1968, at the height of the Cold War the USS Scorpion was due in port.

Yolanda didn't know it then, but her dad was already dead.

The families gathered on Pier 22 and huddled together in the wind and rain. And looked out over the storm, over white-capped waves.

They waited for the USS Scorpion without any word for five days.

Women for millennia have waited by the sea for their men to return. In bygone eras, a hand-railed walkway was built along the rooftop of sailors' homes. So that the wives and mothers, and daughters and sons could look out for returning ships. Sometimes the boats didn't come back. But the women and children would still watch and pray and hope.

In those days, like Penelope, they often waited for months, even decades.

Frank Patsy Mazzuchi, QMSC, a senior chief quartermaster, was looking for a berth teaching at nearby Fort Eustis. The chief and his Navy wife traveled to the Pentagon to work out a deal on his next duty station. The Navy assignment desk persuaded Chief Mazzuchi to take a last submarine tour in the Mediterranean.

The senior, experienced chief was needed on the USS Scorpion: A capstone to his career before retiring. He would make the last voyage. Then shore duty with normal hours, normal life. Instead, the capstone became a headstone.

The submarine "silent service" is an elite, intimate sea-duty. The Scorpion was not a big vessel for her day with 99 men in tight quarters. She was 31-feet wide, powered by a nuclear reactor and armed with two nuclear-tipped torpedoes.

The Scorpion carried Russian-speaking experts for espionage to fight Soviet subs in the Cold War. The Scorpion had just finished its three-month deployment in the Med and was headed home when new orders arrived. The nuclear sub was diverted from its trip home to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa for a spying mission on Soviet ships.

A high-speed run to the Soviet fleet. Then silence. It is believed that an accidental internal explosion doomed the boat. Questions remain on maintenance.

Without closure.

She was overdue in Norfolk on 27 May and probably sank on 22 May. The Navy declared the sub "presumed lost" on 2 June, 1968.

Finally, in October of that year, the Scorpion's final resting place was discovered some two miles beneath the surface, west of the Azores. The sub became a coffin to the 99. She will not be raised.

Yolanda says, "Before he left, we had a big argument and I told him that I wished he would go to sea and never come back."

And he never did. Those departing words haunted her for years. "It took a very long time to get over that remark," she says.

Her son, the grandson Chief Mazzuchi never saw, joined the Navy. He serves now on the USS Washington in the Caribbean. And doesn't write as often as he should.

But Yolanda has already forgiven him. As she is sure her father had forgiven her for a little girl's thoughtless final words.

She says, "In fact, it was not until my children became teenagers that I understood that my father forgave me as quickly as I said it."

Forgiveness and loss; sorrow and hope and sacrifice. Even today, the Cold War long past, the warriors remain on eternal patrol and the Widow's Walk continues on Navy Pier. Tracing the steps of those who waited in vain for five days in May, so many years ago.

Penelope and Telemachus, awaiting the return of Odysseus.

Jack Yoest, is president of Management Training of DC, LLC and a former Army Captain. His father served on the submarine Bonefish in WWII and in the Navy for 30 years.

Thank you (foot)notes:

The article originally appeared in National Review Online.

See USS Bonefish, Lost June 18, 1945 originally published in the Virginian Pilot.

USS Scorpion (SSN 589)

Spectre of the Scorpion

Local author exposes Cold War cover-up And see the correction.

Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion

John Howland has advice at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:53 PM | Permalink
Comments (7)

It is not known if anti-war Damascus Nancy Pelosi or Presidential candidate Mike Jingozian were present.

An Alert Reader from National Review says that Damascus Nancy could be shortened.

They were also burning the American flag. No, not Nancy or Mike (that we know of...) But they may as well have been burning the flags with Blue Stars on them.

Cousin Captain Joshua Hearn protecting
American flag burners overseas.

Army Captain Hearn well understands that we can fight the jihadists over there. Or they will follow us home and we will certainly fight them here. Except for maybe Oregon.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Joshua Hearn was a mere (well behaved) pup in our wedding. We are so proud of him.

My business partner, Bill Oncken said that he was not treated especially well by liberals when he returned from combat in Vietnam. But he said he was never burned in effigy.

National Review letters to the editor available by subscription:

THAT’S MADAM SPEAKER, TO YOU
After her visit to North Vietnam, Jane Fonda became known to us as “Hanoi Jane.” Can we now call Nancy Pelosi “Damascus Nancy” — or, for short, “Dam Nancy”? (Well, also, “A Dam Nancy” has a certain ring to it.)

Donald P. Kerwick
Hamilton, Ohio

Captain Hearn commented on the Panzer Commander's blog that Hearn is a genuine (direct fire) commander. Even though he's pictured above with a(n indirect fire) howitzer.

Posted at 8:40 AM | Permalink
Comments (1)

The Royal Visit
credit: The Dude I have never let my schooling interfere with my education, said Mark Twain.

So in keeping with the spirit of Samuel Clemmons, Your Business Blogger and Charmaine chose education over (public) schooling today and dispatched The Penta-Posse to the South Lawn of the White House for a glimpse of the Queen.

The Dude has pictures and the story of lessons learned at Panzer Commander.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Rob Bluey was also in crowd of 7,000. With more great shots.

Posted at 9:15 PM | Permalink
Comments (5)

The first week in every month of May Your Business Blogger has two anniversaries to celebrate.

Two constants every man needs.

His car.

His woman.

Jack and Charmaine 1990 (Order may not be important to some.)

Charmaine and I are moving into our 18th year of marriage toward that death do us part part.

The other anniversary is a milestone of two decades: 20 years.

Alert Readers are thinking, I know Jack -- how did he do it?

Without a coffee cup holder...?

The Germans do not believe that people should drive and drink...coffee. Ergo, no coffee cup holder in that old model.

So the ride has been a series of spilled hot fluids. And I would do it again.

Kisses Sweeter Than Wine - Andy Williams, Peter Paul & Mary

20 years; one owner
Your Business Blogger and The Dude

Financial Expert Larry Burkett believes that a man should own but one car and run that car 'til the wheels fall off then repair and repeat.

Replacing is poor stewardship of resources.

It is also Biblical and is based on the Babe Bargain: A man should be the husband of but one wife.

Replacing is poor stewardship of resources.

A car and a girl. What more could a guy want?

Thank you (foot)notes:

Larry Burkett continues,

Let’s face it. The majority of new automobile sales in America are made because of the buyers’ wants, not needs. Often they are just tired of their cars; they look old and out of date, or they need repairs to put them back into top condition, or their neighbors or coworkers have acquired new cars.

Lyrics to KISSES SWEETER THAN WINE at the jump. My favorite version is by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt.

In May of 1987 Your Business Blogger bought a new car from American Service Center in Arlington, Virginia from former Redskin football player Joe Tereshinski.

My two investments; my two May anniversaries.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:37 PM | Permalink
Comments (9)

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)

Gold Star
1st Lt. Jared M. Landaker A few decades ago, Your Business Blogger was privileged to be a Survival Assistance Officer helping families who lost a service member. As a young Cavalry Officer, I commanded a number of burial details. The part that hurt and still moves in slow motion in my mind's eye, is handing the tri-folded American flag to the widow.

I never cried at these funerals. I was too young. It was a task, a detail that had to be done.

Our government has a task that needs to be done. But it won't be done by Harry Reid. Democrats are surrendering and will nullify our sacrifices in the war against the jihadists. Democrats say our troops sacrifice and die for nothing.

Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, says, "...this war is lost..."

Democrats, like the French, have already surrendered. RedState says it all best.

But not surrendering, it seems, is the American public. Following is Diary Of A Last and Final Flight Home dated February 17, 2007, that was making the rounds. Hat tip to John Howland, who runs the USNA-At-Large group.

Every death in the armed forces is a public event. 1st Lt. Jared M. Landaker, 25, Big Bear City, California, Rest in Peace.

Diary Of A Last and Final Flight Home

February 17, 2007,
0350 [hours; 3:30am]
I was at curbside at 24th and M, Washington DC . 16 Degrees with a light breeze. Going home after my second week of freezing temps to my warm home in SoCal. Take a walk on the beach, ride a horse, climb a mountain and get back to living. I'm tired of the cold.

0425
paying the taxi fare at Dulles in front of the United Airlines counter, still cold.

0450
engaged the self-serve ticker machine and it delivers my ticket, baggage tag and boarding pass. Hmmm, that Marine over there is all dressed up in his dress blues a bit early this morning... "Good Morning Captain, you're looking sharp." He says, "Thank you, sir."

Pass Security and to my gate for a decaf coffee and 5 hours sleep. A quick check of the flight status monitor and UA Flt 211 is on time. I'm up front, so how bad can that be? Hmmm, there's that same Marine. He must be heading to Pendleton to see his lady at LAX for the long weekend, all dressed up like that. Or maybe not. I dunno.

The speaker system announces "Attention in the boarding area, we'll begin boarding in 10 minutes, we have some additional duties to attend to this morning, but we'll have you out of here on time."

The Marine Captain has now been joined by five others. BINGO, I get it, he's not visiting his lady, he's an official escort. I remember doing that once, CACO duty. I still remember the names of the victim and family, The Bruno Family in Mojave - all of them, wows, that was 24 years ago.

On board, 0600:
"Good morning folks, this is the Captain. This morning we've been attending to some additional duties, and I apologize for being 10 minutes late for push back, but I believe we'll be early into LAX. This morning it is my sad pleasure to announce that...

Continue Reading »

Posted at 3:16 PM | Permalink
Comments (3)

FOX News Charmaine recently appeared on FOX News Sunday to discuss the data and wisdom and public policy of day care.

She is debating a professional who loves day care.

Charmaine reviews the data that confirms the mother's intuition that the more time a mother spends with her child, the better the child will be. The better the world will be.

Moms know best. Who knew?

Child care liberal feminist activists take the other side. So that women can make money. Because money, to feminists, is the most important thing in the world...besides sex. And power.

(Money, Sex, Power. Liberal feminists would do well to remember a Democratic President who warned against this trifecta: Harry Truman.

Three things ruin a man

power, money, and women.

I never wanted power.

I never had any money,

and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.

He also dropped the Atomic Bomb...my kind of guy.)

Anyway. Charmaine's short clip is available here. Please forgive the extra click thru on the Family Research Council site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

See: Emptying the Nest: Does Day Care Work?

Lauren Bacall and Harry Truman
As a child, Truman would wake at 5am to practice Chopin.
The piano player can get the girl, as I tell my sons,
Practice chop-sticks and get the chicks. Also see: Women's Work: A journalist warns women that once they leave the career track, they may never get back on, in The Washington Post.

Posted at 7:36 AM | Permalink
Comments (5)

Glenn Beck
on CNN
Charmaine will be on the Glenn Beck Show on CNN to discuss the cultural implications of the shooting at Virginia Tech.

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

Thank you (foot)notes:

Be sure to listen to Your Business Blogger tomorrow at 8:45am Eastern on FOX 97.1 FM Talk KFTK in St. Louis.

Posted at 2:37 PM | Permalink
Comments (2)

Rolling Stone
always provocative Rolling Stone has an excellent analysis on the God-fearing voter effect on presidential politics.

Evangelicals in Exile; The Christian right is reeling from its biggest electoral defeat in a quarter century - and now they're talking about abandoning the GOP byline ROBERT DREYFUSS,

"To ensure that Republicans get the message in 2008, the religious right is redoubling its efforts to mobilize its political machine -- including tens of thousands of churches, hundreds of radio stations and two national television networks."

The liberal thinking is that the Jesus-God-fearing voter votes as one. One candidate; one block.

O that we would. 30% of Evangelicals voted for Clinton. Gary Bauer at one time encouraged John McCain. Liberal democratTIC candidates still get some Catholics.

Robert Dreyfuss continues,

The Family Research Council, a leading lobby for the Christian right, is planning a huge expansion on the Internet, including videos and podcasts, to reach millions in next year's election. "We want to be sure that the lessons of the last election have been learned, and that the Republicans understand that we are not a lock for the GOP," says Charmaine Yoest, the council's vice president of communications. "When you're looking at razor-thin margins, you better pay attention to your base."

New Media is key. A percentage point or less, will win. Jim Ceaser, who sat on Charmaine's dissertation committee, made this clear in his book The Perfect Tie (list price: $69.00).

The other James, Carville, agrees,

"It's not like you have to win 'em," says James Carville, the Democratic strategist who engineered Bill Clinton's rise to power. "You just have to do better. Even if you go up five points, it's a big deal."

Dreyfuss quotes Charmaine, who gets it right (of course...)

The swing certainly got the attention of the Christian right. "Man, a couple of points difference -- that's what the political consultants get paid the big bucks to deliver," says Yoest of the Family Research Council. "In a divided electorate, that's significant."

Dreyfuss warns,


Rolling Stone

The group fired an early shot across the GOP's bow in January, when it delivered a videotaped response to President Bush's State of the Union speech. "The president failed to draw a line in the sand on behalf of life," charged Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council.

Dreyfuss quotes Perkins,

"What will become of the culture of life, of the defense of marriage?" The council displayed a chart [above] on which it noted the number of times the president mentioned the Christian right's core issues: marriage, 0; abortion, 0; stem cells, 0; cloning, 0; abstinence, 0; and values, 0.

Be sure to bookmark and track Family Research Council's New Media advances at the FRCBlog. (Unpaid link.)

Thank you (foot)notes:

See Charmaine's work at The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: Religious Voters and the Midterm Elections

Also mentioned in the Rolling Stone article were,

Communications expert Genevieve Wood from Heritage, Dick Armey, James Dobson, David Kuo, Ted Haggard, Phill Kline, Curtis Gans, Don Wildmon.

Get (warring) religion on Rein's Religion Blog.

Posted at 8:01 AM | Permalink
Comments (7)

President Bush at the
National Catholic Prayer Breakfast
Credit: Peter Shinn
from Pro-Life News TV There is one thing the White House Press Corps never does.

Applaud the President.

Your Business Blogger is attending the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Your Nation's Capital. And received White House Press Pool credentials.

So my fellow press jackals kindly let me know that it was very bad form for me to clap for the president. Whooping and cheering is frowned upon in the press gallery. We all must keep a professional, detached demeanor, you see.

And don't even think about reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Plege was led by Marine Corporal Michael Blair. Got his body blown up by an IED in The War. He still hobbled up and stood tall for the 1600 attendees. I looked at Cpl Blair...then over at the press corps.

The White House Press Corps -- I was reminded of a slander my old First Sergeant would often invoke: They all wouldn't add up to a pimple on a corporal's backside. Except Top didn't say backside...

('Top' is the term of endearment for the senior enlisted rank-holder in a company size Army unit.)

So I join my fellow Jesus-loving Christians, who are in the Catholic tradition. [Caution: Christian humor to follow.]

Catholics are easy to spot -- they're the one's with tabbed Bibles...to make the individual books easy to find.

Protestants smugly don't need the table of contents and page numbers; having grown up with 'sword drills' to find a particular Biblical passage. Although we Protesting Protestants could use the sacrament of confession...

...Or maybe just this Calvinist.

(I'll match my humility against anyone's.)

Anyway, Austin Ruse began the welcoming after the breakfast meal.

President Bush came to the podium punctual. On time: The Courtesy of Kings.

A war protester yelling something about stop the war was quickly and safely escorted from the ball room. It was not clear if she was addressing President Bush...or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. (Not present.)

The President starts by complimenting the Catholic crowd, "You make a Methodist feel at home." Bush noted the wisdom of the planners that the breakfast bash, was "...on the Friday after Lent...[so you can now] eat the bacon..."

George Bush speaks about the sanctity of human life -- he is at home in this pro-life crowd. Standing O's.

Laura Bush did not attend.

In the gathering:

Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America; Janice Crouse, Ph.D., Beverly LaHaye Institute.
Justice Alito, Bill Saunders, Board member of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

Reverend Thomas G. Bohlin, Vicar, Prelature of Opus Dei in the United States

Colleen O'Boyle, CRC; and
Diana Bannister, Shirley & Bannister
putting the PR in PRayer Jacqueline Halbig, Board member of the National Prayer Breakfast

Ken Blackwell, fellow at the Family Research Council, and Michael Steele.

The Breakfast is the kick-off for the day-long conference. The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast was created and influenced by Pope John Paul the Great for a "New Evangelization, new in ardor, methods and expression."

Well Done, good and faithful servants.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Schedule at the jump.

All links are unpaid.

Be sure to watch Charmaine on Cavuto today between 4 and 5 on Fox in a debate on Imus. (Not present.)

UPDATE: 14 April, Kathryn Jean Lopez, from NRO was there, of course. K-Lo is every where. See The Guy Can Deliver, and Breakfast with the Catholics.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:06 AM | Permalink
Comments (2)

How Abortion Harms Women
Princeton University Charmaine and Your Business Blogger will be a-traveling with the Penta-Posse (minus The Dreamer at crew camp) to Princeton University over the spring break.

Charmaine will be giving a talk on abortion/women/work/life. Alert Readers will remember that she used to teach a course The Family and Politics at The University of Virginia.

From the Princeton Campus Announcements,

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D.

A lecture titled "How Abortion Harms Women" is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, in 16 Robertson Hall.

The talk will be delivered by Charmaine Yoest, [Ph.D.] vice president for communications at the Family Research Council, a nonprofit lobbying organization that promotes socially conservative views.

Yoest also is project director of the Family, Gender and Tenure Project at the University of Virginia, a nationwide study focused on parental leave policy.

She is the author (with Deborah Shaw Lewis) of "Mother in the Middle" and is working on a new book, "A G.I. Bill for Moms: Mothers, the Market and the American Way."

The talk is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.

The event is free and is open to the public. Come by and join us and let us know what you think.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Special thank you to Andy McCarthy at The Corner at NRO for "How Abortion Harms Women" -- a forum sponsored ... by Princeton! Andy says that he has,

...duked it out before (in an exchange at Commentary on international law) with Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Dean at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She is, though, a fair-minded liberal in the great but dying academic tradition of allowing all thoughtful voices — including, yes, conservative voices — to be heard on campus.

Thank you also to Tiger Hawk for the announcement and poster pic.

See also Princeton to allow Charmaine Yoest to speak about abortion! at RealChoice: The reality of "choice" in America. In a breathtaking, courageous example of fostering real diversity of thought...

And note Abortion foe to lecture at Princeton University from The Princeton Packet.

Posted at 10:53 AM | Permalink
Comments (4)

Ken Blackwell Ken Blackwell recently joined the Family Research Council. He will be introduced by Tony Perkins.

Plan on coming to see Charmaine also. And the Penta-Posse and Your Business Blogger.

Ken Blackwell will give a talk on Lessons of 2006: Moving Forward to 2008.

A must see,
if you're in DC.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 29, 2007 CONTACT:
J.P. Duffy or Maria Donovan, (866) FRC-NEWS

Washington, D.C. - Tuesday, 3 April, at 5:30 pm, Family Research Council and the Board of Directors, will host a reception in honor of Mr. Ken Blackwell, a former Undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Mr. Blackwell is joining the Family Research Council as the Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment, where he will focus on issues such as family economics, tax reform, and education. The evening reception will include remarks by Mr. Blackwell on the 2008 presidential election as well as an opportunity for media interviews.

When: Tuesday, April 3, 2007
5:30 pm

Where: Family Research Council
801 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Please RSVP: 1.800.225.4008, they need to get a headcount for the (free) hors d'oeuvres and refreshments. Business attire is preferred.

Ken Blackwell's appointment at FRC was noted by the Associated Press, where he is quoted,

“They (FRC) asked me to sort of build up the economic and fiscal dimension and show how that is an important part of what they do and what they find to be important. One of the areas where Buckeye and FRC share a public policy interest is in the area of advancing school choice and parental empowerment. It’s 21st century civil rights,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell, a former state treasurer, is well-suited to discuss economic issues, but his position against abortion and on other issues will allow him to speak to many constituencies, FRC President Tony Perkins said.

“Ken is well rounded as a former (Cincinnati) mayor, secretary of state, gubernatorial candidate. He has a well-rounded conservative portfolio,” Perkins said. “He has consistent conservative positions and he has not been bashful.”

Please come and welcome Ken Blackwell.

Thank you (foot)notes:

And be sure to see Charmaine on Anderson Cooper 360 tonight, Monday, at 10:00pm Eastern. She will be debating Intelligent Design, Creationism and Evolution in the classroom.

Posted at 7:42 PM | Permalink
Comments (0)

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)

Hillary Clinton has well known positions on daycare. In this presidential political season, we can see where she'd take the country based on what she influenced the last time a Clinton held the national bully pulpit.

EMPTYING THE NEST: THE CLINTON CHILD CARE AGENDA

I spent eight years in getting the child-care bill passed in Congress,
and at its zenith, there was never a child-care movement in the country.
There was a coalition of child-advocacy groups, and a few large
international unions that put up hundreds of thousands of dollars,
and we created in the mind of the leadership of Congress
that there was a child-care movement -- but there was nobody riding me.
And not one of my colleagues believed that their election turned on it for a moment.
There wasn’t a parents’ movement.

I. THE CHILD CARE “CRISIS”

Daycare DataTo kick off the sixth year, and home stretch, of the Clinton Administration, in January 1998, the President and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a long-time children’s issues activist, announced an historic initiative: $20 billion in increased federal spending for child care over the next five years. This, they said, would address a silent child care crisis afflicting the nation.

Given the size of this initiative, we might do well to examine the underlying assumptions and common perceptions used to buttress such an expansion of federal involvement in day care. Is there a crisis in America today over child care? If so, is day care the answer?

To answer those questions adequately, the issue must be framed appropriately. Accepted as true is the modern myth that most families have two parents working today and are desperately struggling with day care.

This, it turns out, is not true.

Is there a child care crisis in this country? To answer, we need to know what parents really want, and most essentially, we must know what children need.

Continue reading at the jump.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Full Disclosure: Originally published by the Family Research Council in 1998.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:26 AM | 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)

"What about the baby?" asked The Dreamer.

Charmaine and our first born, The Dreamer, ventured to an academic venue to answer "What is Feminism?"

Charmaine was joined on the panel by Carrie Lukas, from the Independent Women's Forum.

The Dreamer was aghast at the harsh feminist literature on abortion.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Full Disclosure: Charmaine served as an Advisor to the Independent Women's Forum.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:18 PM | Permalink
Comments (1)

Charmaine will be speaking at the Second Annual Conservative Women's Conference at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachuetts on February 24, 2007.

The Alert Reader will note conservative and Harvard in the same sentence.

Who knew?

Alert the media.

Charmaine's talk will be A Higher Ambition: Women at the Intersection of Sex, Power and Purpose.

Other good-guys scheduled to speak at the conference:

Kerry Healey (Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, 2003-07, candidate for MA Governor, 2006)

Chriss Winston (first woman to head the White House Office of Speech Writing as Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications and Director of Speech Writing for President George H.W. Bush)

Kathryn Lopez, Editor, National Review Online. Her topic will be "Speaker Pelosi Does Not Speak for Me."

Women in the Military (tentative): Captain Kristin Hort, USAF

Women in Academia: (tentative) Mary Keys, 2006-07 Visiting

Women in MA Government: Christina Bain, Executive Director for the Governor's Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence

"Pro-Life and Pro-Woman": Linda Thayer, Massachusetts Citizens for Life

Panel on Balancing Family and a Career in Public Service

Carrie Severino, HLS graduate and clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

Dr. Mildred Jefferson, retired surgeon and former chair of the National Right to Life Committee

Greer Swiston, Commissioner, Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, Candidate for State Representative from Newton


Harvard University
But even with this august panel, expect no real changes at Harvard with the new incoming president, the first female in its herstory. Drew Gilpin Faust comes from Radford and is a former director of the Women's Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. See a course sampling at the footnotes: Liberals simply cannot help themselves.

Faust's strongest credential is growing up in Virginia.

Thank you (foot)notes:

From the organizers,
The purpose of the conference is to provide conservative, college-aged women with the opportunity to hear from women who are successfully countering the liberal environments that surround them. Young women, especially on the Harvard campus, are often assumed to be liberal feminists; our conference aims to dispel this unfortunate myth.

Be sure to read liberal feminist president Drew Gilpin Faust's Mingling Promiscuously: A History of Women and Men at Harvard.

The New York Times refers to the new president as Chainsaw Drew (which Your Business Blogger likes) and that she, "...[H]ad dialogues with [her] dead mother over the 40 years since she died." Your Business Blogger has an occasional monologue with my dead dad, but he has not yet dialogued back.

Drew Gilpin Faust was the director of the The Women's Study Program at Penn. Higher education course offerings as,

THEORIES OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY -- ...we will turn to contemporary debates about the limits of transgender identity, gay pride and gay shame, the commodification of identity, the meaning of “queer,” [the Q-word used in the syllabus, no hate mail, please]

WOMEN: US HISTORY 1865-PRESENT -- ...women's liberation, and gay rights...

SCIENCE OF SEX & SEXUALITY -- “On Being Male, Female, neither or both” concluded ... with the following statement: “The definition of sex was (and is) still up for grabs.” In our post-modern world, we have become accustomed to the malleability of gender identity and sexuality. We are also aware that individuals undergo sex reassignment surgeries but by large we assume that transgender people are transitioning from one discrete category to another. Queer activists certainly challenge this assumption, preferring to envision sex, gender, and sexuality on a continuum, but these days even scientists don’t concur about a definitive definition of sex...

KING KONG: MONSTERS & THEIR BRIDES -- This course will incorporate a historical overview of gender, sexuality, race, and religion in monster images...

Higher Education in America?

Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink
Comments (2)

USA Today Originally published in USA Today. This article highlights the liberal emphasis on separating children from parents. The argument remains current.

"[Gregory Kingsley] now stands virtually alone in court; the next scared child who needs protection may not be as bright and determined as Gregory. Most are stuck in the system; it should be held accountable. Children shouldn't be forced to go mano a mano with their parents in a court where they could so easily become pawns in a much larger chess game.

THE EDITORIAL PAGE; Today's debate is on CHILDREN'S RIGHTS and whether they should be heard in court"

OPPOSING VIEW: Beware the legal precedent enabling children to sue their parents. It will harm children.; Charmaine Crouse Yoest [Ph.D.] is a [former] policy analyst [now Vice President] for the Family Research Council, Washington.

One fact is certain: Gregory Kingsley's life has been tragic. This trial should generate a long-overdue uproar over our foster-care disaster.

But it mustn't generate a legal precedent enabling children to sue their parents. Ultimately, such a far-reaching ruling would harm children by separating them, in legal theory, from the protection of their parents. Parents should not be our target when the system is the culprit.

Fundamentally, children need protection. If parents violate that duty, the state may step in. This case highlights the state's failure; but do we really want attorneys - with a myriad of personal agendas - to be the next line of defense? Gregory, for instance, is represented pro bono by an attorney who won the case striking down Florida's parental-consent laws on abortion.

With the exception of her attorney, few defend Gregory's mother. She claims her "right'' to her child without, apparently, recognizing that those rights are rooted in an awesome responsibility. Most people, however, know that lack of contact with a child for a year (or less, even) is clearly abandonment.

So why is the state of Florida only now filing for termination of parental rights, clearing the way for adoption, when Gregory has been in and out of its care for several years? This failure is the appropriate target of legal wrath. For the sake of other children in its care, Florida should not be let off the hook.

Gregory now stands virtually alone in court; the next scared child who needs protection may not be as bright and determined as Gregory. Most are stuck in the system; it should be held accountable. Children shouldn't be forced to go mano a mano with their parents in a court where they could so easily become pawns in a much larger chess game.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Originally published in USA Today, Sep 24, 1992. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

See Don Singleton.

Posted at 8:40 AM | Permalink
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MSNBCThe homosexual lobby group PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) is pushing legislation to dissolve any family that does not produce children.

This is not a joke.

PFLAG also supports the transgender surgical removal of body parts.

That is not a joke.

Charmaine will be debating against the homosexual position.

Tune in on MSNBC today, Wednesday, February 7. UPDATE: Charmaine will be on twice -- Hit time is 1pm EST; and again at 3:30pm EST.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 12:25 PM | Permalink
Comments (10)

Cybercast News ServiceA new book Homeland Insecurity... American Children at Risk says yes.

I think not. Red States are better than Blue States. Permit me one anecdotal statistic. Your Business Blogger packed up kith and kin and moved from the blue, communist "Free State" of Maryland and headed south, back to our beloved "Old Dominion." (Home of the University of Virginia and George Mason.)

My car insurance instantly dropped 30%. My personal property insurance dropped.

So I asked USAA Insurance why the huge savings by my merely moving a few dozen miles.

Short answer: Lower risk.

Seems that Maryland is full of terrible drivers and home invaders, criminals and crappy schools. Insurance companies assess rates accordingly.

A citizen is more apt to be a victim of a car wreck or have his home burned down and personal property stolen living in Maryland. My former county in Maryland had horrific public tax-supported education, forcing the Penta-Posse into private alternatives.

A citizen is safer in Virginia. The (apolitical) (profit-motivated) insurance market proves it.

And coincidentally, Virginia is aggressive with criminals. The Commonwealth of Virginia is prompt in emptying death row with Dead Men Walking. Maryland is more "compassionate" with crooks walking...or running for office. Murderers get a pass in Maryland. Murders are executed in Virginia.

So I moved to Virginia. Safer.

Tom McMahon And I'm not the only one. Tom McMahon originally pointed us to the United Van Lines Migration Study showing what states people move out of and into,

Maryland ... continued its 15-year outbound tradition... the United Van Lines study, through the years, has been shown to accurately reflect the general migration patterns in various regions of the country... real estate firms, financial institutions, and other observers of relocation trends regularly use the United data in their business planning and analysis activities.

The only thing United Van Lines gets wrong are the colors. "Inbound" states should be red; "outbound" blue.

Which, as Alert Readers have noted, align with blue state/red state political leanings.

Business and citizens understand the market and benefits and safety of red states.

But not liberal elites. Like Michael Petit.

Monisha Bansal, a CNSNews.com Staff Writer writes in Children More at Risk in Red States, Book Claims,

(CNSNews.com) - A family group voiced deep skepticism Thursday about a new book charging that children in Republican-leaning states are at greater risk than their peers elsewhere because of conservative policies.

Based on that measure, he said, nine of the top 10 states with "the best outcomes for children today" are the Democratic voting blue states of Wisconsin, New Jersey, Washington, Minnesota, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire, with Iowa being the sole red (or Republican voting) state in the group.

Reasoned, seasoned voices challenge the claim. My favorite political scientist is quoted,

Charmaine Yoest, vice president of communications for the Family Research Council, said she was "really skeptical" of Petit's findings....

"The overwhelming evidence has proven that the two-parent family - a mom and a dad, committed for life and caring for kids - provides the best outcomes for children," Yoest said.

Charmaine, as usual, gets it right.

Thank you (foot)notes:

My endorsement of USAA insurance is unpaid.

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger served Jim Gilmore, former governor of Virginia. Whenever the courts sentenced death in a capital punishment case, Gilmore always, "Declined to intervene." Virginia has good courts, too.

Posted at 6:50 AM | Permalink
Comments (3)

Your Business Blogger
and CharmaineThe gay marriage scorecard shows that the nation prefers marriage to be between one man and one woman.

Heterosexuals, 28; vs.
Homosexuals, Transgender, Bi-Sexual, Bigamists,
National Man-Boy Love Association, 1

Yes, that's 28 to 1.

27 of 28 public debates on marriage were decisively won by traditional marriage proponents.

Only voters in Arizona voted wrong.

Protecting Marriage as Between One Man & One Woman

Prior to 2004
Alaska (1998) 68%
Hawaii (1998) 69%
Nebraska (2000) 70%
California (2000) 91%*

*California’s statewide ballot measure, Prop. 22, enacted a new state law protecting marriage, rather than a constitutional amendment.

2004
Arkansas 75%
Georgia 77%
Kentucky 75%
Louisiana 78%
Michigan 59%
Mississippi 86%
Missouri 71%
Montana 66%
N. Dakota 73%
Ohio 62%
Oklahoma 76%
Oregon 58%
Utah 66%

2005
Kansas 75%
Texas 75%
Alabama 81%

2006
Tennessee 81%
Colorado 56%
Idaho 63%
S. Carolina 78%
S. Dakota 52%
Virginia 57%
Wisconsin 59%

Pending
Legislation:
Minnesota (’07)
Indiana (’08)
Massachusetts (’08)
Pennsylvania (’09)

Initiatives:
California (’08)
Florida (’08)

(Bolded states went for Kerry in 2004. Proving that voters may be confused about liberals, but not about marriage.)

Thank you (foot)notes:

The Cumulative Chart is the work of David E. Smith, Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute. A family policy council that counts.

Human Resource Management Tip: Hire the homosexual? Maybe, but be slow to award "partner" benefits. The public and, I dare say, stockholders, prefer traditional marriage.

Posted at 7:47 AM | Permalink
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Jan. 11: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
discusses U.S. policy in Iraq
while testifying on Capitol Hill.
courtesy AP Speaking to Secretary Rice, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said, “Who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young. You’re not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family.”

If you have no child, you have no understanding. Odd.

Fox News quotes Charmaine in White House Spokesman Blasts Sen. Boxer's Exchange With Secretary Rice

The Family Research Council, a group that promotes marriage and family, found Boxer's comments to be inexcusable and offensive, said Charmaine Yoest, a spokeswoman.

"I think it's offensive to the millions of Americans who don't have a direct relative serving overseas to suggest that somehow they're not connected to the men and women in our military who are putting their lives on the line," Yoest said.

This is, of course, the debating style of liberals. Absent ideas, they are reduced to argumentum ad hominem personal attacks.

And it will get worse. Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center says we will see even more of the insulting from liberals. Bozell says that the left will escalate these mean-spirited personal attacks as they go on the offensive -- because they lack policy alternatives. They will attempt to destroy conservatives with petty insults rather than debate ideas.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Land of the Free gets it right.

NewsMax has more.

UncommonSense sees nothing wrong.

John Trevino, Charmaine, John Aravosis To read a case study in ad hominem attack in action see I have no idea if Condi Rice is a lesbian by John Aravosis.

Visit NewsBusters, Sec. Rice Attacked by Sen. Boxer Over Childlessness.

Blue Star Chronicles has a round-up.

Posted at 11:57 PM | Permalink
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Point/Counterpoint in the New York Daily News
Charmaine Yoest: Equal rights or radical fems?

Treaty too radical for life in U.S.

Charmaine wrote a column back in 2002 warning the country about an insidious United Nation's program (yes, that is redundant, I know) the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The liberal Democrats (again redundant, I know) are working to Eliminate US Soverignty. Here's how.

New York Daily News

By CHARMAINE YOEST

Radical feminist activists are engaged in a stealth campaign. Unable to pass their social agenda domestically, they are attempting to impose it using the weight and influence of an international treaty. The Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is a massive international Trojan horse, a threat to U.S. sovereignty, cloaked as an effort to protect human rights.

Resurrected from well-deserved political dormancy by Sens. Joseph Biden and Barbara Boxer, the treaty narrowly passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week. Next stop is a vote in the full Senate.

Presented as an elevated tome enshrining principles of timeless truth, the guts of the treaty are a leftist utopian wish list: government wage-setting, paid maternity leave, nationalized child care, free maternity-related health care, gender-blind military service and quota-determined political parity for women.

For ratifying countries, these mandates are overseen by an obscure tribunal known as the CEDAW committee. The United States would be required to report to the committee. That way, Cuba's human-rights expert on the committee can provide oversight of America....

Continue reading at the jump.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Originally published on July 31, 2002 New York Daily News

Charmaine also wrote the news breaking article on CEDAW.

Feminine-genius gets it right, as always.

Our good friend Austin Ruse has an outstanding analysis at the Catholic Defense League.

Dead Men Don't Rape is pro-CEDAW, as you might have guessed, somehow...see below.

Also pro-CEDAW is Holly's Fight for Justice. (She is currently engaged; it is not known if he's a man, a rapist, alive or dead.)

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:47 AM | Permalink
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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
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Bill John knows leadership. He is a Vietnam Vet credited with a Mig kill as a naval aviator and who later commanded a combat ship. I asked him how he identified future leaders.

Past success in sports.

Your Business Blogger is honored to advise senior leaders. I once had a conversation with Bill about mentoring managers.

Rules-bound games are the key. Leadership skills start early in sports, he said. Sports leaders pull their teams together to reach a common objective. They learn these skills at a young age... and are accurate predictors of leadership talent.

The Dude with the Wildcats a few seasons ago

Bill John's analysis mirrors the philosophy from another military hero, General Douglas MacArthur, who was the West Point Superintendent for three-years in the early 1920s.

From AmericanHeritage on MacArthur. It is noted that some of,

...[H]is eloquence is on display over the main entrance to the gymnasium. Some blank verse that he penned as Supe memorializes the strenuous regimen of intramural athletics that he imposed on his alma mater:

Upon the fields of friendly strife

Are sown the seeds

That, upon other fields, on other days

Will bear the fruits of victory.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Management Training Tip: When evaluating new entry-level management trainees, ask about sports participation.

Be sure to visit the Panzer Commander who plays all manner of contact sports. And asks the question no parent would like to hear, Dad, what's my blood type?

Full Disclosure: Bill John is a cousin.

Posted at 8:25 PM | Permalink
Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

No ‘cookie-cutter’ solutions: Family expert Charmaine Yoest says creativity, flexibility are keys to resolving work/family issues

Charmaine Yoest acknowledges that creative solutions to juggling work and family are never easy. “That’s part of why I study it as an issue.”

By Elizabeth Kiem [from May 14, 2004]

Charmaine Yoest, a doctoral candidate in U.Va.’s Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics, is an up-and-coming young expert on family policy issues.

Charmaine Yoest
Photo by Andrew Shurtleff By normal counts, her 10 years at the University have been hyper-productive: Her papers on the subject are prolific, as are her media appearances, congressional testimonies and academic presentations. She has written a book on working mothers and is completing a second on parental leave policies.

But Yoest's career must be viewed in the context of a not-so-typical doctoral student’s family life -- she is the 39-year-old mother of five children, ranging from age 10 to infancy.

"I hope it’s inspirational to some," she said of her ability to pursue her studies and career even with a full capacity mini-van. "Obviously I couldn’t do what I’ve done unless my husband was willing to live a nontraditional life as well."

Yoest acknowledges that her domestic situation, with close family near by to step into the child-care breach and a husband willing to reduce his workload significantly to help raise children, has been unusually conducive to her career. Nonetheless, she would like to see more families adopt a "nontraditional lifestyle" to accommodate childrearing and professional equality among the parents.

There is such an emphasis on work and family that sometimes the family gets lost because people are so focused on ‘how can we facilitate work? she said.

A regular on the political talk-shows, Yoest is careful with her words, aware of just how politicized the debate has become. She is quick to emphasize that her pro-family stance in no way negates her advocacy for women to pursue careers and advanced education, as she has done. The mission, she says, is to find creative ways to do both -- and women require the participation of spouses and employers to do so.

Continue reading at the jump.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Originially published by UVA Insider May 2004.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 12:02 AM | Permalink
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Tucker Carlson Charmaine will be on Tucker Carlson today, Wednesday to talk about sex. The out-of-wed-lock kind.

The AP reports, Wait Until Marriage? 'Extremely Challenging'

A 2002 survey of about 12,500 men and women found that 97 percent of people who were no longer virgins at age 44 had sexual intercourse for the first time before they married.

By age 20, only 12 percent of people interviewed had married, but 77 percent had sex, and 75 percent had sex before marriage. By age 44, 99 percent of people were no longer virgins, 95 percent reported having had premarital intercourse, and 85 percent had married at some point.

MSNBC Charmaine has another take on the topic. Tune in today and let us know what you think. Hit time is 4:20 Eastern.

Posted at 2:42 PM | Permalink
Comments (2)

If you would like to be added to our good-guy Christmas Card list please email us.

Read about London's John Calcott Horsley and the business of the first Christmas card at the jump. And the original meaning of "merry."

Continue Reading »

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

Gozzoli's Augustine III. The Christian Individual: Augustine

As has been often noted, the problem for Platonic and Aristotelian political theory is that they venerated a social hierarchy with a foundation firmly established on inequality and misogyny. The family could be relegated to meaninglessness because the individuals involved in the institution were consigned to irrelevancy in the classical teleology. In Schochet’s formulation, the family served as the “rudimentary form of association,” but this did not confer value on it – the family was not a “building-block” of society, rather it was the raw material. Since the state was formed by a rudimentary, natural coalition of families, the family and the state were in one sense equivalent. But this was an equivalence much like the relationship between logs and a fire: the logs are used to provide the material for the fire, but they are then consumed in the generation of the heat and the flames.

The rise and spread of Christianity challenged, and ultimately overthrew, this paradigm. With Jesus Christ’s teaching that men and women, slaves and free people are all equal before God, the individual was no longer dispensable. Elshtain argues that Christianity directly challenged Aristotle:

Christianity defied [Aristotle’s] rigid categorical separation of human beings by declaring that the potentia of every single human being was as great as any other and equal in God’s eyes. . . One reason the figure of Jesus remains important to political thought is his insistence that the realm of necessity. . . is not a despised forum for human endeavor. . .

Thank you (foot)notes:

This work was originally published by Charmaine at the University of Virginia.

And be sure to vote for Reasoned Audacity for Best Business Blog.

Also see Part 1
Part 2

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:29 PM | Permalink
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The Dude pulls out
the offending nail This is a cross post from The Dude's Panzer Commander. Alert Readers will note his new Google Ads.

Fix a Flat

Today, I was really bummed out. The warm weather was gone and with it, 1 air-filled tire in The Business Blogger's 1987 Mercedes. So, we couldn't use the Mercedes for the day. But thanks to Fix a Flat (this is a non-paid advertisement) My father and I were able to fix the tire in 20 minutes.

The instructions were:

(1) If possible, remove foreign object from flat tire( it happened to be a short nail; easy to pull out with pliers)

(2)Shake can vigorously for 30 seconds before screwing on the nozzle to tire valve.

(3)If possible, move car slightly so that the tire valve is in the 6 o' clock position. Screw the plastic nozzle clockwise on to the tire valve with can upside down and vertically aligned to the tire valve system. Contents of can will automatically discharge into tire.

The Dude applies the fix(4)After can has discharged, unscrew nozzle.

(5)Watch to make sure rim is lifted off the ground.

(6)Only if rim is off ground, DRIVE VEHICLE IMMEDIATELY a short distance-2 to 4 miles, (dang, then whats a long distance???) to allow tire pressure to increase (???) and sealant to spread evenly inside tire.

So, the fix a flat thing works, so use it if you got a flat. But one question you might ask... "why not use the spare?" Well, I used the spare one time with my father, it took at least a day or 2. But the Fix a Flat really saves you that trouble, and time of changing a flat.

Posted at 8:58 PM | Permalink
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Plato and Aristotle by RaphaelII. Classical Political Theory: Plato and Aristotle

While as moderns we tend to congratulate ourselves on having discovered gender equality, and imagine the past to be a wasteland of misogyny and hierarchical patriarchalism, the really radical explorer of equality was one of the earliest political theorists, Plato himself. (It should be noted, however, that this was a theoretical exploration that extended only to elite men and women.) When he constructed his model utopian Republic, Plato envisioned a society marked by a strict equality between men and women, at least among the leadership philosopher and guardian classes. Shorthand descriptions of his schema usually refer to “philosopher-kings,” but Plato himself was careful to underscore that his template for leadership was gender-neutral. After Socrates finished describing the education necessary to produce the leaders of the kallipolis, Glaucon comments: “Socrates, you’ve produced ruling men that are completely fine.” To which Socrates responds: “And ruling women, too, Glaucon, for you musn’t think that what I’ve said applies any more to men than it does to women who are born with the appropriate natures.”

Thank you (foot)notes:

This work was originally published by Charmaine at the University of Virginia.

And be sure to vote for Reasoned Audacity for Best Business Blog.

Also see Part 1

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:28 PM | Permalink
Comments (2)

The family is the foundation of the city and what we might call the ‘seedbed’ of the polity.

Cicero, De Officiis

CiceroThis article intends to examine the ontological status of the individual and the family in society and address the question of how political theory has viewed the family as a societal institution throughout history.

In order to give an over-arching account of the sweep of trends in political thought on the family, this examination will trace the broad contours of shifts in philosophic approaches, rather than examining any one period or thinker in depth.

Contrary to what one might expect, the progression of political thought did not move in a linear progression from a more collectivist, familial-oriented emphasis to a postmodern radical individualism. Although it is true that, in general, historically the family was accepted as a foundational institution more than it is today when even the very definition of a “family” is under review, the legitimacy of the family as an institution has never gone entirely unchallenged. For example, Plato viewed the family as a threat to the unity of the polis, while Aristotle viewed the family as a societal necessity.

Thank you (foot)notes:

This work was originally published by Charmaine at the University of Virginia.

Management Training Tip: Every manager should be able to reconstruct, rebuild and restart his business unit, if the building burns down; the essence of ISO 9000. Start with the family album. Your highest priority.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 8:13 PM | Permalink
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Arlington National Cemetery, Section 64, #144

Posted at 11:30 PM | Permalink
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After an evening of lit drops, the Penta-Posse poses for their candidate, Michael Steele for Senator for Maryland.

Research shows that a bumper sticker has an in-kind equivalent value of $250 to the political candidate. Smart campaigners will also put the bumper sticker on the driver's side front bumper to greet on-coming traffic.

The Roe-Effect will take effect sooner or later.

Lord willing, tomorrow.

The Steele Family

From Steele's web site, His Agenda for Economic Empowerment,

Economic empowerment creates opportunities poverty will never let you see. Whether you are an employee looking for a better job, or a business owner working to expand your company, you must be empowered to turn your hopes into action, and turn opportunity into ownership. The Steele Agenda for Economic Empowerment contains policies devoted to increasing homeownership, business ownership, and the prosperity of Maryland families.

Vandalized Stop Sign
in the Nuclear-Free Hippie Zone
Tacoma Park, Maryland

Steele has an uphill battle in the Commie counties close to DC and Baltimore.

Maryland is a Blue State full of Red Diaper babies.

Save for mine.

More from the Steele website,

Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele was the first African-American ever elected to statewide office in Maryland. Michael made history once again in October 2005, when he announced his candidacy for the state's open seat in the United States Senate.

Since taking office as Lieutenant Governor with Governor Robert Ehrlich in 2003, Michael has produced real solutions to the real problems facing Marylanders. The Lt. Governor has lead the fight to improve access to better-performing schools; worked alongside law enforcement officials to reduce crime and secure communities; strengthened the state's minority business program to foster greater entrepreneurship; and worked with Maryland conservationists to protect the environment for future generations.

Posted at 9:45 PM | Permalink
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I've created a monster! I can't get my computer back from my boy! I'm reduced to Blackberry blogging.

Great picture of the Dude in the Blogging Scrum will follow if I can ever get my laptop back...

Read more on The Dude's blog entries about the Blogger's Convention here.

Posted at 8:33 PM | Permalink
Comments (2)

So we decided to marry our fortunes together. And begot the New* Reasoned Audacity.

Just as in-real-life we didn't get hyphenated: We got married.

Our feminist friends will smugly note that the female in this union kept her name.

Jack and Charmaine Yoest by Elgin Tyrell

Your Business Blogger will continue to write on Business Sense, Military Precision and Timeless Truth. Charmaine will continue to write on Politics in Real Life. Where these two become one.

Was this helpful? Please comment.
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Thank you (foot)notes:

*The Alert Reader will note: the 'New' as adjective for Reasoned Audacity in this post. We were considering a nifty trick Lee A. Iacocca performed as he was rescuing Chrysler in the early 1980's. He officially changed the automaker's name to 'The New Chrysler Corporation.' So that every time reporters mentioned the troubled company's name the copy would read, "The New Chrysler Corporation." The only thing new was Iacocca and the name (and a lot of managers)...

...The government bailout didn't hurt either. But it gave the public the perception that new and good and wonderful things were coming out of Chrysler.

Proving again that Seth Godin is right in All Marketers are Liars.

Charmaine and I are now planning to sell The New Reason Audacity to Daimler-Benz Chrysler.

Penta-Posse

Posted at 9:41 PM | Permalink
Comments (4)

Every civilization has rites of passage. A driver's license into adulthood.

Births, Marriages, Deaths.

And a series of firsts. A baby's first breath, steps, words, teeth...haircut.

Forgive the-day-in-the-life of Your Business Blogger. But Baby-Boo just got his first haircut. And he took it like a man.

Alert Readers will know that all pictures worth keeping belong on a remote server, not in a scrap book in your house. Store your photos on line. So that if disaster strikes, you can grab the kids knowing that the photo album is safe on-line.

Posted at 11:28 PM | Permalink
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FRC Action, the c4 component of The Family Research Council sponsored a briefing this weekend at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC. Your Business Blogger attended with Charmaine and the Penta-Posse.


Charmaine at the
podium for the
FRCAction Briefing

The 2,000 attendees at The Briefing

Radio Row

La Shawn Barber, Joe Carter and Jared Bridges

Was this helpful? Do comment.
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Thank you (foot)notes:

Cross post from Reasoned Audacity.

Be sure to visit La Shawn and get her take on the event.

Tony Perkins, President of the FRC, has an open letter to Barry Lynn

An Open Letter to the Reverend Barry W. Lynn Dear Reverend Lynn,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your presence this weekend at our Washington Briefing, Values Voters Summit 2006. I was delighted to see your name as a paid registrant for a number of the activities. As head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, you, of course, disagree with us on a number of issues.

Your support of same-sex marriage and abortion coupled with your opposition to school choice and any public recognition of God would make most people think our differences are vast. However, your willingness to attend our Briefing shows that even you recognize the importance of concerned citizens being involved in public discourse.

While you are here, I recommend you attend our Saturday session, The Role of Churches in Political Issues, moderated by Dr. Kenyn Cureton with speakers Reverend Herb Lusk, Reverend Dr. Richard Land and Reverend Dr. John Guest. I am sure you will find it enlightening as the panelists discuss how to apply the teachings of the Bible to the issues we face today.

It is reported that many Evangelicals do not vote and I'm sure you would agree such citizenly neglect is detrimental to any democracy. That is why we are holding our Briefing and also participating in nonpartisan get-out-the-vote rallies around the nation. Thanks again for being with us.

Photo credits: Your Business Blogger

Posted at 11:48 PM | Permalink
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The Diva
and Dancer at the
Air Force Academy Not long ago Your Business Blogger was advising a boss on a product roll out. His team had never done anything quite as large. I suggested a 'FireDrill.'

It consists of three parts:

1) FireDrill; The plan

2) The Drill, and

3) The Fire

The Plan is a checklist, The Fire is the execution, But The Drill, the practice is the toughest. Because teams need dry runs to learn because things will always, always go wrong. Your team will gain wisdom and judgment through simulation. And learn. Today, permit me to be Your Drill Instructor. And learn how I was surprised by a pilot project.

The F-14 Tomcat

Your (Army) Business Blogger had no business in the cockpit. My instructor was a Vietnam vet with MigKlr license plates on his truck.

He said the F-14 was a "Man's Plane." He sounded sexist. He explained that the old-generation hydraulics required real strength -- after a couple of hours, even the manliest studs needed two hands on the stick.

No place for girls.

Or so I thought.

But I was wrong, again.

I bring the Five-kid Penta-Posse to Oceana Naval Air Station to show them how macho military men (like their father) defeated Communism.

We get invited to some F-14 training. I climb in the simulator. No photography is permitted. And a good thing, too.

The instructor guides me through the take- off and some maneuvers. The room spins. The world spins.

And nobody was shooting at me. Although lots of people were yelling at me...

Time to bring the baby home. I turn. Lots more yelling. It might have been me.

The world freezes, the screen freezes. At a funny angle. In Real Life it would have been a $38 million mistake and DNA remains of Your Business Blogger.

My instructor: "Success. You did great!"

Me: ?

My instructor: "The seat is dry."

Me: ?

My instructor: "No puke, no p!ss."

Navy humor.

After my showing off, the Posse is not impressed. The Diva, age 6, female, issue-one-each slides into the (dry, thankyouverymuch) front seat sim. Confident. In control. And zooms. Flying circles around anything in the sky.

(I remember her as a little wee-one, who used to throw-up all the time. But not today, even on inverted rolls. Lord, where do the years go? Where did my baby girl go?) Practice is complete.

Perfect landing. "Just like PlayStation," the Diva says.

I expected a few more years to pass before they passed by the Old Man. She had practiced. I didn't.

The Diva
at a static display at
The Franklin Institute.
Entirely too comfortable
in the cockpit During the Drill no one is hurt. And we all process lessons and understand our capabilities.

And learn the limitations of the team.

And the boss. And the Dad.

A FireDrill will bring out the best in your people. And your managers.

Without the crash and burn.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Women are not permitted in land combat. Unfortunately, little girls (not much older than my Diva) are permitted to fly combat aircraft. The Air Force loses about 75 jets each year in routine accidents. The Navy budgets for the loss of two jets per carrier per deployment. The losses would be much higher, of course, absent intensive training, intensive practice.

Posted at 8:48 AM | Permalink
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Dad & The Dude
prepared for war
September 11, 2001
photo credit:
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. Just after 9am on 9.11, I was doing what all business owners were doing: selling something. I was on the phone with a client. Making a pitch to attend a series of seminars, with CNN on in the background. I was a bit distracted by the live feed of a burning building.

While making 'the ask,' it was clear that my customer was not aware that we had just been attacked. I wanted to say something, like, Turn on your TV and stare at real pain. It just didn't look real. I continued instead with the conversation. Your Business Blogger is not normally so focused. In denial, perhaps. Disasters are not normally good for business.

There was work to be done. My next class was on September 19.

And I didn't want the customer on the other end of the phone distracted until the sale was closed. Then we could go to war.

The deal done, I noticed my boy, The Dude, was concerned that the attacks would continue down to us in Charlottesville, Virginia. "We got to get ready!" he shouts and scampers around digging up my old uniform, boots, saber and his grandfather's bayonet. (Old soldiers never die, they just file away. Apologies to MacArthur.)

The Dude spent the rest of the morning marching outside our front door. Looking out for terrorists. It must have worked.

Charlottesville was not attacked.

But we were affected. Everyone was. But I wasn't sure that the bank was going to delay getting their money over a pesky act of war. I still had to earn a living.

How would the war affect business? Not the macro, but mine? I had a seminar and clients coming into town in little over a week and the world was on fire. Would anyone show up? Would anyone care?

We North Americans do business like we do war. We win. Donald Trump becomes Victor Davis Hanson. At 8 am on 19 September 2001, 86 professionals showed up and got down to business. A packed room.

The free lunch helped.

Even my business partner, Faisal Alam, came down from New York City to join us. He is Muslim.

The country was mourning, but on the move.

I started with a minute of silence in remembrance of those lost in the World Trade Towers.

Then we all got back to work. Each making the world a better place. Even with a war on.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Basil's Blog has open trackbacks.

California Conservative has Open Post 9.11.

Posted at 7:31 AM | Permalink
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Your Business Blogger unjustly suggested that John Aravosis at AmericaBlog had deliberately, with malice aforethought, deleted a photo of Charmaine he took during the G-8 and blow up of 7.7 in London last year. I was looking for that particular shot of Charmaine, but I lost my copy. (I'm looking for a way to blame the kids.)

John, in an email exchange, becomes unhinged, as liberals are known to do and calls me a "goof." The slander! The hate! l'insulte!

And then he asks me for the photo when I find it. John smugly assumed that I had it stored in some hidden folder and that I would eventually uncover it.

So.

I found it.

John, here's your copy.

I goofed.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

John was right about the picture location; he's right that it's a great shot. But he's wrong on everything else.

Posted at 11:36 PM | Permalink
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Antonin Scalia I lean over to Charmaine and say, "Hey, that guy looks like Scalia."

Antonin Scalia was sitting in the seminar like any other nobody at a American Political Science Association convention a few years ago in Your Nation's Capital. He even asked questions, deferring, as befitting an academic setting, to the august panel of experts. The room hushed as he spoke: We were in the presence of a gentleman.

We chatted him up after the panel. He had a firm handshake, direct eye contact, direct language. We love him.

Not everyone does.

Seth Godin Seth, the Master Marketing Guru doesn't care for Scalia. Him being all that is wrong with America. Scalia or Godin, your pick depending on your world view of politics.

But this is not a problem for Your Business Blogger: I am on all three sides of the debate. The country has no better Supreme Court justice than Antonin, no better marketer than Seth. And now no better elliptical trainer than Smooth Fitness.

On this, Seth and I would agree, I think.

Smooth Fitness I bought a Smooth Fitness piece of hardware last month. Recently, I received a follow-up phone call from the Smooth Fitness Director of Customer Experience, Keith Menear. We talk about the terrific Smooth Fitness CE 3.2 Elliptical Trainer machinery, my smooth on-line purchasing experience, the constant follow-up and Smooth Fitness touches. Actually, Keith let me do all the talking, which is how I prefer to do business anyway. I subtly let on how I am a world famous, very influential blogger.

Keith brightens audibly, I could see the light coming through the cell phone, "Are you the Purple Cow guy?"

I tense up, "What?"

"You know," says Keith, smiling. "The blogger who wrote Purple Cow?"

"Who?"

Keith is excited, "Yes, the staff let me know this author..."

"--Never heard of him--"

"...who just bought one of our ellipticals."

Time to surrender. "Oh, I guess you mean that struggling marketer, Seth Godin."

"Yes, that's him! The staff is psyched -- Seth Godin just placed an order."

"Well, I suppose he has some name recognition...would be great for your business, huh?"

Keith is floating off his Aeron, "Right, I hear he's quite a superstar."

"I suppose...well, this is nice Keith. Now, what can I do for you?"

"What was your name again...?"

[sigh]

Smooth Fitness
Some Assembly Required In any event, customer service was outstanding. The Dude, a pre-teen in my Penta-Posse, read the directions (something I've never done before), followed the directions (something I've never asked for) and completed the assembly and had me working out in an hour. Silent and smooth as silk.

Smooth Fitness
Under Construction by
The Diva & The Dude Your Business Blogger has very simple tastes -- the best in everything. I have noticed, however, a near fatal flaw in the Smooth Fitness product. Shared unfortunately, with my old Mercedes: no place for my coffee cup. (The only thing that ever had a cupholder was my computer...)

And please understand that Smooth Fitness products are frightfully expensive. And worth every dime.

And that's no lie.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

This is an unpaid endorsement. So far. Smooth Fitness has a referral program -- drop my name (if you can remember it) (no one else does) when you order and I get a few bucks from Smooth Fitness. To buy a coffee cup holder for my ellipitcal trainer.

Posted at 7:03 AM | Permalink
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An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest said Ben Franklin. And sometimes learning a skill will pay off in ways unintended and unanticipated.

My favorite interview question is to ask candidates what their high school dream was. What did they want to do, what did they want to be. The best candidates -- by that I mean the most contented candidates, have a thread in their lives of what they wanted to do back then and what they are doing today.

An expert interviewer, like Your humble Business Blogger, can discern the contentment and the fire in the belly of the job candidate, by analyzing any gap between high school plans and the current stage in life -- I find that the larger this gap, the more unhappy the candidate. Unhappy candidates make for unhappy employees.

Critics of this crazy question accurately say that technology, markets, the world have changed since we were in high school, back in the day. And they are right: the material world changes. Less so people. And what people love to do, and how each individual candidate would like to make a difference.

Here is my favorite example.

She was a competitive swimmer in her youth. And wanted to be a life guard. Her dream job that would make a difference. She trained, studied and was certified.

She found her calling; her vocation but she never found that job.

A disappointed teenager, she took a position as an Assistant Cashier in the athletic center at Camp of the Woods in Adirondack Park of upstate New York in June of 1982. She didn't get what she wanted, but at least she was near the water.

One afternoon while ringing up a sale, the young girl heard a commotion from the pool behind her across the hall.

A woman was just pulled from the pool. Limp, on her back turning blue. Not breathing. Stunned on-looking bystanders frozen. Inaction.

The teenage girl darted to the woman. Started mouth-to-mouth. The woman moved, struggled, gagged, puked and breathed.

Our teenager never got exactly the job she wanted; that job she trained for.

But her education did pay off. Expecially for one swimmer visiting Adirondack Park.

Training is never wasted.

Today that teenage girl, now a mature woman, lives out her high school dream making a difference in a big, dramatic vocation before an on-looking crowd of millions. She wanted to make a difference in a unique way. And does so today.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

The management at the resort was concerned that the near death by drowning would cause adverse publicity, I suppose. The life-saving event was never reported. Bad for business, you see. Our young heroine was never thanked.

And she doesn't want to be thanked now. And really doesn't want this blogged. (But that's what husbands do.)

Posted at 7:10 AM | Permalink
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I thought the US was supposed to be "hung up" about sex. Turns out we're doing pretty well compared to the rest of the world, if you want to lend any credence to a new study. And I'm not saying I do, but here you go anyway.

A survey of nearly 30,000 middle aged and older people in nearly 30 countries, says that men are "more satisfied with their sex lives than women in the same age group" and that age has little to do with sexual well-being.

The survey also revealed that sex is better in Europe, North America and Australia than it is in the Far East.

The Penta-Posse

Even better news: in the US "about three-quarters of men and two-thirds of women" reported they were very satisfied with their sexual relationships. The USA is on top of the world.

Still, a big caveat. I'm skeptical about some of the details -- with these kind of surveys you get an awfully high "selection bias" that skews the results. You have to ask how the people who were willing to participate in the project differ from society at large. And I also wonder about the variables they were looking at to differentiate between the factors that contribute to a good sex life. The news report attributes having "more or less equal relationships" to positive findings. But that begs the question: what does "more or less equal" mean?

Well, it's not rocket science, and you don't need high-priced studies to tell you the answer. It's just basic common-sense -- a good sex life is rooted in a committed, married relationship founded on deep, enduring respect and consideration for each other. We have to be careful about the political freight "equality" brings -- if equality degenerates into keeping score, you've lost the essence of caring for each other that keeps a love relationship alive.

Hat tip: My Way News.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Cross Post from Reasoned Audacity. So that's where all those kids came from...

Posted at 11:21 PM | Permalink
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At Dusty Brand shirts

How great is this??

From Seeker at two or three.net.

Cross Post from Reasoned Audacity.

Posted at 7:58 PM | Permalink
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So here's the typical mom in America today: baby on knee, small business down the street, with rifle in Pakistan.

This week's column in Small Business Trends has highlights -- and I'm not talking hair -- of a typical mom. Yes, women have always been producers -- breeding babies and businesses since Eden, but this is something each generation has to discover for itself. See Women's Future in the Small Business Labor Force.

Helen, second from left
with rifle "consulting" in Pakistan

"How do you it all?" Accomplished women with kids constantly get this question.

Helen Philbrook, married and mother of three, from Raleigh, NC, has the answer.

Your Business Blogger recently sat down with Helen and her husband David to learn the secret.

She's a former Vice President of an environmental testing firm, and perhaps the world's first female "Smoke Stack Sniffer." She's run a number of start-ups.

But Helen says she's now "followed her passion to gardening." Her company Tiger Lily's is an award-winning firm that gives her what she needs most:

Flexibility.

She was well-prepared. Helen has an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and Science, studied Garden Design in London, and completed a series of international consulting assignments. In a male-dominated business. Where she learned:

Negotiation.

The greatest challenge women face in business is learning to negotiate.

But she also negotiates with her clients. Hard. She establishes upfront contracts with the explicit understanding that her family will come first.

Helen, Vice President

She is an advocate of "sequencing" for women -- marriage, children, work. Helen says a woman can always have an "ambitious career." After the kids are in school. She knows she will anger feminists.

She has advice to young women starting out. Where the fear is that they will get behind the power curve. "Not so."

Helen says, "Your career is still waiting for you."

After your children.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Full Disclosure: Helen is my sister.

No Speed Bumps has Women in Engineering.

Alas, a blog has Homeward Bound.

Basil's Blog has Breakfast.

Posted at 6:17 AM | Permalink
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The Diva on Piano The Baptist Convention of Baltimore and Delware is sponsoring a music camp. Starts this Sunday and spaces are filling up.

Cost $99 per child -- We'll be sending our Penta-Posse.

Call Bryan at 410 -dot- 695 -dot- 5374 to reserve a spot. Reservations can also be made at the door at First Baptist Church in Laurel, Maryland. Or email Bryan at BPatrick AT FirstBaptistLaurel dot org

Or email me.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Cross posted at Reasoned Audacity.

Posted at 12:24 PM | Permalink
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On the plane with Richard Branson

Following is an edited cross post from Charmaine's Reasoned Audacity, July 1 - 7, 2005.

A year ago, Charmaine calls early morning from Edinburgh. "I'm having trouble flying into London," she says.

I'm still waking up. I ask, "When can you come home?"

"I don't know," she says, her voice unsteady, "They're still clearing the bodies."

A wake up call. London, welcome to the war.

It started, as most things these days do, with Powerline.

Following is original posting from London as Charmaine called it into me, when her site went down. Any inconsistencies may be due to transcription overload.

This is Jack, the husband: Charmaine called. Her site is still down, but she wanted to file a report to Powerline.

"Flew into Heathrow airport and took a $150 cab ride into north London to conduct interviews and document the bombsites. Bobbies cordoned off area around the sites sealing the scene of the explosions. I got to within a block or so of Edgware Tube station entrance with Londoners sitting calmly, relaxing in pubs. Everything is strangely calm, business as usual. I interviewed a woman, an interior designer, expecting some emotional display. There was none. "We don't do a lot of group hugging in England," she said, making me think of the stiff-upper lip. "We are not sentimental."

And she seemed to reflect the mood of the London population. Not for what they were doing but for what they were not doing: No candles, no out-pouring of grief, no hoards of gawkers milling around police tape, no teddy bears, no bouquets of flowers. No movement. No tears. Everything normal, except, maybe for that bus with the top blown off. Workers cleared and cleaned up the area real well. Spiffy. And got back to their pints.

I visited hospitals and learned that 'only' 37 were confirmed dead at that time. More confirmations were expected.

There were no moms with little children in downtown London. I interviewed middle-aged businessmen on cell phones and kids with Mohawks, none who were surprised.

Londoners gently reproached me about my concern over the bloodshed, "You Americans get sentimental over silly things. We're used to getting bombed." The IRA Troubles had hardened hearts as well as the London infrastructure.

I expected some grief, at least as much as there was when Lady Di died. And grief I got. I interviewed three very ordinary, normal teenaged English Muslims, one with short spiky hair (dressed not unlike my 10 year-old-dude). All three seems to be parroting Muslim talking points. "The bombings were a conspiracy by Blair to generate support for the war," they recited in a charming British accent.

The bombers were quite indiscriminate. Edgware is not far from the heart of Little Beirut, a Muslim ethnic neighborhood.

A young British black woman told me, "The bombings are Tony Blair's fault -- they killed a 100 thousand Iraqis -- and it's like a boomerang [coming back at the British]." Most everyone I talked to believed that the British caused the bombing or had it coming.

Of the dozen or so people I interviewed only white males in business attire expressed surprise that anyone would think the British were at fault in anyway.

But these gentlemen were the minority. Most felt that the Brits were complicit. The people at London's ground zero were sounding like the "wobbly" Spanish after their train bombings.

The day is a cloudy, cold, rainy 7.7."

Charmaine is still out on the streets -- 9pm local London time and will be sending pictures soon.

Read the story at the jump.

CMR Salamander points to HotAir with video.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 7:11 PM | Permalink
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The Weekly Standard Last year Charmaine wrote a book review on Does God Belong in Public Schools? published in The Weekly Standard.

Read how academia doesn't care much for church-going folk.

The Four Rs
Readin', writin', 'rithmetic, and religion?
by Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D.
10/24/2005, Volume 011, Issue 06

Does God Belong in Public Schools?
by Kent Greenawalt
Princeton University Press, 296 pp., $29.95

IN 1925, JOHN SCOPES, a 24-year-old science teacher, violated Tennessee law by teaching his students the theory of evolution. The result was State v. John Scopes, the infamous "Monkey Trial" immortalized in the classic play and movie Inherit the Wind.

Nearly a century later, the Scopes trial still is being replayed in schoolrooms and courtrooms across the country. Today, Ground Zero in the evolution-creation conflagration has shifted to Kansas. The Kansas State Board of Education began hearings in May to consider including intelligent design in the state science standards. A nationwide coalition of scientists is boycotting the hearings. Kansas is not alone: Controversy over teaching evolution has erupted in at least 20 states.

In Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia, the focus is on attempts to modify textbooks so that arguments for evolution are labeled clearly as "theory." And parents in Pennsylvania filed a federal lawsuit after a school board decision requiring schools to teach intelligent design. The conflict in the schools, of course, goes beyond questions about

Charmaine Yoest is the author of the Reasoned Audacity blog.

Thankyou (foot)notes:

Be sure to subscribe to The Weekly Standard.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:51 AM | Permalink
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Charmaine appeared on Joe Scarborough's show last night. She was debating a recent New York Times article. It said that cheating on a spouse can be good.

The Grey Lady has gone crazy.

But that's not news.

Congressman/talk show host Scarborough was able to find a woman to agree that extra, extra-marital sex can be, well, therapeutic.

The woman, Jennifer Berman, is some kind of doctor; a licensed therapist. She treats the crazies.

She should put the Grey Lady on the couch.

Then they could waste each other's time and leave normal people alone.

Anyway, here's the clip, courtesy Peter Shinn:

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. on Scarborough Country.

Charmaine in hair and makeup
Photo Credit: The Dude

Charmaine on the set on remote.
Photo Credit: The Dude

Charmaine and The Dude at MSNBC in DC

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Thankyou (foot)notes:

Be sure to see It Doesn't Matter What The Media Says, As Long As They Spell Your Name Right over on Small Business Trends Radio. My weekly column appears there on Fridays.

Posted at 8:56 PM | Permalink
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John Calvin, the French theologian, once said that "self-denial is the sum total of the Christian life." Which is why Hollywood doesn't care for faith or self-sacrifice themes. And creative marketers are sometimes confused by timeless basics.

The Penta-Posse
at the famous
Jack Rabbit Trading Post
on Rt. 66 But sometimes marketers and Hollywood lurch into Calvin's truth.

The Puritanical is not tyrannical.

Two items:
1. Disney's new movie "Cars" ended with the hero making (what for Hollywood is) the supreme sacrifice. And,
2. The movie took in $60 million on its opening weekend.

They are connected. By an old road.

Lisa Baertlein, from Reuters, reports, 'Cars' marks Disney-Pixar's third biggest opening:

"Cars," a heavily marketed film whose star is a talking race car named Lightning McQueen, is competing for the family audience with animal cartoon "Over the Hedge," which had weekend receipts of over $10 million.

Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution, expects "Cars" to cross the $100 million line sometime next weekend.

"Cars," featuring the voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt and racing icon Richard Petty, is the first Disney-Pixar collaboration since Disney acquired Pixar in January for $7.4 billion.

The feature, which is rated G for all ages, tells how Lightning McQueen learns valuable life lessons during a forced pit stop in a sleepy town. It is directed by John Lasseter, whose "Toy Story 2" opened at $57.4 million.

The sleepy town is located on the by-passed Route 66. John Steinbeck, in The Grapes of Wrath, blessed Route 66 as the "Mother Road." As in apple pie and America. Alert Drivers west of Chicago will know the road and the story well. The 2400 mile road links The Windy City to LA.

Get Your Kicks on
Route 66
TV from the 1960'sLast year Charmaine and Your Business Blogger took the Penta-Posse out west down parts of Route 66. Self Discovery, just like the early 60's TV series Route 66. We didn't take a Corvette -- we took another Chevy, the monster Suburban.

Down parts of Route 66. A Car Guy's Highway. It is the subtext of the "Cars" movie. An earlier time when America and Hollywood were proud to be great.

Today this greatness, this self-denial can only be marketed with a cartoon. But it's a start.

Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Studios
A scene from "Cars," directed by John Lasseter,
which Pixar Animation Studios hopes
will be its seventh consecutive hit.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

See Route 66 News.

We took the Penta-Posse and other assorted family to see "Cars." Tickets, popcorn, drinks, candy; a great time. Thank goodness financing was available. Heatsongs reminds us to stay well past the credits after the movie.

More history at the jump.

See Your Business Bloggers' nostalgia for old Vettes, old times and getting kicks. On Route 66.

Seth Godin has ideas on entertainment marketing.

Mudville Gazette has Open Post.

Brand Autopsy has more on money in movies

Best of Me Symphony is up with self selected best posts over 60 days seasoned.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:48 AM | Permalink
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Every Friday, Your Business Blogger has an article up on Small Business Trends Radio. Here's a preview of this week's edition.

Bill Archer, Left
Your Business Blogger, Charmaine and
The Dreamer

A few years ago, Your Business Blogger and Charmaine and the 18 month-old Dreamer kicked off a press conference for Congressman Bill Archer who was introducing tax cut legislation. As I droned waxed eloquent, the little Dreamer got distracted by the microphones. With their soft, inviting, spongy covers.

So she reached out and gave the mike cover a good squishy squeeze. And when she did...

Read the rest at Small Business Trends Radio, Show Prep for Your Big Show Biz Break.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Small Business Trends is the creation of Anita Campbell.

Posted at 10:30 PM | Permalink
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USS BonefishJune 18th, this Sunday is Fathers' Day. It is also the day of loss of the USS Bonefish in 1945. This date is acknowledged each year by our household -- for the men lost -- the Dads; the sons.

A few years ago Your Business Blogger was honored to be invited to the Submarine Veterans Chapter in North Carolina and share a few words. The podium was on the ocean front. Grizzled vets and wives sat in the sun. Hot. Uncomplaining.

Afterwards, a plane flew overhead and dropped a wreath on the water a few hundred yards out. An honor guard fired a three-round volley. The Dude scampered for the shell casings. I have them in a desk drawer. To remember.

Submariners' Memorial Service, Saturday May 13, 2000, Outer Banks, North Carolina

Debt of Honor

It is an honor to join you here today and remember the submariners "still on patrol." And to remember our debt of honor due. I've asked my son, John, to join us today -- a day I expect him to remember and take to his grave.

During World War II, my dad, a teenager from New Jersey, left high school, went to submarine school and was assigned to the USS Bonefish.

Virtual Painter Photos
Courtesy Tom McMahonWhen John saw previews of the blockbuster movie U-571, he asked if it was about his grandfather. The movie is a story about honor, courage, strength, character, what being a man, a warrior really is. Yes John, your grandfather was in the movie, and so were each of the submariners here today.

But in the movie the men came home. We are here today for the men who didn't.

My father was re-assigned and walked off the gangplank and another man walked on the Bonefish. The Bonefish was lost in combat on June 18, 1945 with all hands.

My dad eventually went back to high school and married my mother. The other man is on the bottom of the Sea of Japan.

My father, after a half-century later after fighting in and surviving two wars, is buried in Arlington Cemetery. He had the chance to raise a family and devote 30 years to the Navy and pin Second Lieutenant bars on my shoulders.

Like many veterans, he didn't talk much about being in harm's way. Still, I imagine, in some Navy Valhalla, my dad and this other sailor linked up and asked the Creator, "Why?"

Why was my father spared? Why each of you? Why was the other man, why did the other men not come home? War forces these questions on us, and they echo for generations -- my father had me, and now I have a 5-year old son, John, who carries his grandfather's name and his love of battle and discipline.

John, like all children, often asks, "Why?" Like all fathers, I struggle to answer. But there are some questions we cannot fathom on this side of eternity. Why was my father not on that submarine that fateful day?

And the answer does not come. Only that John now lives -- with a purpose and a destiny and lessons to learn and a debt of honor.

The submarine and her crew is the truest example of a military unit and military cohesion and military mission. And this is what I want my son to see. He saw it in the movie U-571, and in each of you today. But more important, I want him to understand the sacrifice of the men remembered today.

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, someone asked her, "What is your greatest fear?" She answered that it was losing her husband; she feared the possibility of facing the awesome responsibility of motherhood alone.

But now, several children later, as I reflect on that same question, my fear is not losing her, or even one of our daughters. I fear losing my son. In my masculine pride, I believe I can protect my wife and girls, but in my heart, just below the surface, is the dread possibility that I must one day send my son to war.

Just as your fathers sent each of you. And by God's grace, you and my father came back.

My boy loves my cavalry saber and my dad's medals. Wearing a military uniform and military service runs deep in our family. My son's blood line is traced through the Civil War and the Revolutionary War to William Penn to Charlemagne of ninth century France. His great-grandfather helped build the Virginia Military Institute.

I pray the time never comes, but if it does, I expect that he will fight for God and country like his fathers before him. And like you, warriors gathered today, and like the warriors still on "eternal patrol" we honor today.

I have in my office the Norman Rockwell print of the "Homecoming GI" showing a young man coming home from war being greeting by the neighborhood. His back is toward us, his face is each of you and my father. We remember today the boys who didn't come home, lost at sea -- the only thing left was a gold star and a Purple Heart and our eternal gratitude.

Buried at sea, there are no headstones, I cannot mark the grave of the man who took my father's place. But shortly we will honor that man and each of the 3,505 men lost on 52 boats with a wreath. It is fitting that, as some boats were lost to aerial bombs, that we remember those lost heroes with an aerial wreath dropped over the sea.

There will always be wars and rumors of war, the Bible teaches. When I think of future wars I pray that a lost heroic high-tech Bonefish will not carry my John. The fear of this nearly unendurable loss humbles me. That young submariner who walked -- requested permission to board -- the Bonefish to take my father's place was another man's son. Another father's dreams lost at sea. War turns civilization on its head: In peace sons bury fathers. In war fathers bury sons.

Today we remember the men buried in the sea. It is a weighty debt. A debt of honor due. This is why I have my boy, the grandson of a submariner, here today to honor those men with you. I expect to instill in him a sense of history, of true sacrifice, of his mission in life. That his body is not his own, that he has a higher calling and that he will honor and obey. That he has a high calling.

I hope that I can teach him the lessons of his forefathers, and the lessons of the men we remember today and each of you -- a great cloud of witnesses. The Greatest Generation.

It is my prayer that instilling this sense of mission will drive out the distractions, temptations and destructions of his growing generation. That he will see the hand of Divine Providence moving in his life. That he will know that he has so much to be thankful for. Like his fathers before him. That, as Scripture teaches, greater love has no man than to give his life for another.

I pray that he will be grateful, like his grandfather, and me, to the man and the men who died for us. It is my charge to tell my son that another young man took his grandfather's place.

My son has the duty, and like us all, to that man and those men. My son has the duty to live with a sense of respect and purpose and awe. To live with a sense of reverence to the tomb, the crushed hull, of that other submariner.

Today we salute and honor the man and the men who died for me and for us all. I want my son to know his debt of honor. And Lord willing, my son will bury me.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Debt of Honor; USS Bonefish Lost was originally published by The Virginian Pilot and other print outlets.

Be Excellent has Father's Day Advice.

Basil has a picnic.

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If your house is burning down, and after you get the family out, what's the one thing most people would take out to save?

Pictures.

The Wall Street Journal reported today on the websites available to store and share pictures.

The Cranky Consumer by Lan N. Nguyen wrote A Snapshot of Photo Web Sites. And did a side by side comparison:

Flickr.com ...good for those serious about photography

Kodakgallery.com ...so user friendly that even technophobes will take to it.

Shutterfly.com A sweet deal-- a lot of special tools and functions at no charge.

Myfamily.com Perfect for preserving family history -- albeit for a price.

Photosite.com You get what you pay for.

And, of course, there are blogs. And if I have to pick one picture from each year to load up -- these would be the ones.

Our Christmas cards. Since meeting Charmaine.

Not much happened before then anyway.

2005

2004

2003

See the other 16 at the jump.

Mudville has Open Post.