03/9/19

Real Men

I have been fortunate in life. I have enjoyed the tutelage of extraordinary teachers and had the example of great men starting with my father.

Leonard C Minch, 97, Rest in Peace

One of those men was the boxing coach at my alma mater, Virginia Military Institute. Every cadet took Rat (freshman) boxing. I hate to admit I enjoyed it, though I did bleed more than a little. You will note that the boxers are not wearing headgear. Coach King did not fool around.

The man on the right is Coach Clark King. This picture was taken a few years before I matriculated at VMI, but it could have been my class. That’s exactly the way we looked.

Coach King taught you technique, how to land a punch, how to take a punch, but he taught us all something more — he taught us how to be men, to defend ourselves in a hard world. The Vietnam War was going on at the time.

What I did not know was that Colonel King was a World War II Marine and had been awarded the Silver Star for heroism at Iwo Jima as a Second Lieutenant, platoon commander. The attached citation tells the story.

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These are the kind of men who taught us back in the 1960s. The kind of men who formed us and fired us in a hot furnace called The Virginia Military Institute. I am happy to report that the same transformation is underway as we speak. One of my Brother Rats is the President of the Board of Visitors. The school is run by an incredibly competent leader, General Peay. It is an infinitely better school than when I matriculated.

I am eternally grateful to these men and to my father who nudged me in that direction. [Thanks to fellow alumnus Dee Shannon, for the Citation for Clark King’s Silver Star.]

Real men. I am proud to have been in their company.

 

 

 

03/9/19

Israel and Anti-Semitism

Big Red Car here on a dark and cloudy day that will top out at 82F. For comparison, Manhattan will have a low of 28F and a high of 36F, but it will be sunny.

So, the ether is abuzz with darts and arrows about anti-Semitism and, by association, Israel.

This was all triggered by idiotic comments made by freshman Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota’s 5th District.

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In the picture above, Congresswoman Omar is pictured with Palestinian supporter Linda Sarsour, a controversial figure who once tweeted about two women with whom she had debated, “She’s asking 4 an a$$ whippin’. I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don’t deserve to be women.”

This type of remark sets the tone for the discussion.

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03/7/19

Bullshitters v Doers

I have been traveling to see Baby Tempe for a few days so I have been MIA. When I travel, it gives me a good chance to think. One of the reasons I adore road trips.

Here is Baby T working the marketing end of her mother’s hot startup Weezie Towels. You will want to get over to www.weezietowels.com when you can.

It is hard to be an effective marketer when you can’t speak yet. But, she’s on the case.

So, here’s something I have been thinking about for a long time, but have never really articulated in an intelligible way — the world is filled to overflowing with bullshitters, but has only a handful of real doers.

I am going to peg the comparative percentages at 98% bullshitters and 2% doers. A pal put it at 99% v 1%, but he was always a hard grader.

Before you condemn the coarseness of my observation, let me say there is nothing inherently bad or evil about being a bullshitter, as long as you know it and make way for the doers who are ultimately going to solve the problems.

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02/21/19

Scaling Talent in a Growing Startup

Today we talk about how a company scales its talent as the company grows. Can it be done? What do you need to watch for?

So, a conversation that recurs from time to time is this — the talent with which you found and initially grow a company may not be strong enough to grow the company in the mid to long term, and get to the Promised Land.

When you are a band of brothers or sisters, it is beguiling to believe that you have the right mix of people to grow the company to its ultimate size.

This is how co-founders think of themselves when they first found the company. They are killers, happy, genial killers, but still killers. Look at these sweet co-founders.

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Beguiling.

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02/19/19

Twenty-fifth Amendment to the US Constitution

A gray, rainy day in the ATX — a good day to trim trees?

So, lately we’re been hearing a lot of talk about the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. Let’s do some research, shall we?

Here’s a picture of the Founding Fathers in Philadelphia hammering out the Constitution. The US Constitution was drafted over a period of 116 days from 25 May 1787 to 17 September 1787.

The American Revolution ended on 3 September 1783. It took a long time to finalize the Constitution and it had a provision to amend it.

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First, contrary to the talking heads, the 25th Amendment was not the work of the Founding Fathers. I listened to an idiot on Fox News for half an hour talking about what the Founding Fathers intended.

The 25th Amendment was submitted to the states on 6 July 1965. It was ratified on 10 February 1967.

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02/18/19

George Washington, The First Great American

The story of George Washington and the creation of the Continental Army, the fight against the British in the American Revolution, and his presidency is an American tale of greatness. Every American should know it. Here is but a brief view of it.

Washington the Commander in Chief and President

While much is known of Washington’s life as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army (huge startup success) and ultimately President of the United States, not very much has been written about his exploits until he attained those positions.  Here is the picture that America has in its minds eye of Washington, our first President.

Washington was 43 years old when he accepted the call of his countrymen to form an army to lead the colonial rebellion against the British.  Life expectancy in the Colonies was less than 40 years at that time.   Washington would live to be 67 years old.

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02/16/19

Census 2020 and Reapportionment

Big Red Car here getting ready to take a long drive to the Hill Country, but first a few words on the census and reapportionment.

Every ten years the United States conducts a census. It is done in order to reapportion the seats in the House of Representatives.

There are a fixed number of seats — 435. Right now, a Congressperson represents 712,000 persons.

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