Who I Owe

I've reread my post from yesterday, and I'm embarrassed by it.  I was writing angry, and it shows. 

The post comes off as being way too self-centered.  The fact is, I do owe a debt of thanks for what I've been able to achieve.  To many: 

• My parents, who raised me in a loving, functional environment, and who taught me a work ethic and interpersonal skills that continue to serve me. 
• My siblings, who pushed and supported me, and serve as a great example from which to mimic. 
• My wife, who has loved, supported, and sacrificed right along with me. 
• My extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews that have kept me loved, thankful and grounded. 
• Friends, who have pushed me, consoled me, mentored me, and provided needed stress relief. 
• Coworkers, some of whom are the best people I've met in business, including great leaders, great teammates, and great employees. 
• St. John's University, which taught me so much, especially the role faith, family, and community plays in life. 
• God.  I was blessed to be born in a free country to a loving family.   

Indeed, the list of who I owe is a long one.  But you know what's not on this list?  The government.  While I'm grateful for our Bill of Rights, our veterans, and those that worked hard to create an environment in which one could be successful, that environment exists for every American.  While other Americans may not have had the advantages listed above, it doesn't mean that they're somehow owed something.  Nor does it mean that someone who enjoyed this support is now more obligated to the government. 

Don't get me wrong - via my position I am obligated, and my wife and I are generous in our charitable giving.  It was a lesson from my mom and dad that was not lost on their son.  But our obligation is to our community and its betterment.  It is not to give more than our fair share of money to a government that is wasteful, corrupt, inefficient, harmful, and biased. 

Mr. Obama is right, I didn't get there on my own.  I got there because of the people on this list.  But not because of the government.  If anything, I got there in spite of the government.

President Obama: "You Didn't Get There On Your Own"

At a recent campaign stop, President Obama said the following:

"If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there." 

This has been a more and more popular meme in the blogosphere. One that the ungrateful "haves" were only able to achieve their success by leveraging the infrastructure that government has provided for them.  And as such, those that have won success now owe a debt. 

It's one thing when some liberal posters make such a claim, but when the president now makes it, it pushes me over the edge. 

I'm officially livid. 

Yes, I'm in the top tax bracket.  And I didn't get there on my own?  Pardon me for the vulgarity, but I'm at a loss for a better retort - bullshit.  Not a damn thing was handed to me.

While I'm the product of a public school system, the education I received there was mediocre at best.  I found out just how weak my education was when I went to college and interacted with students that went to private school.  They were far more prepared than I.  Looking back with an adult's perspective, the teachers I had were remarkably unremarkable, and every great one encountered was offset by at least one borderline psychotic. 

So when I arrived at college I was behind, but prepared to work.  And work I did.  And while there, I learned the lesson that has stayed with me throughout my career: all of life is a choice.  I could work my butt off and get an "A," or I could go to the bar with my friends, cut corners, and maybe eek out  a "B."  Sometimes I chose the prior, sometime the latter, but the lesson was not lost on me.  I had a choice in my relative success.  It was up to me. 

After undergrad I went to grad school and worked the hardest I ever have in my life.  Despite putting in 50+ hours in at work every week, I put in an additional 20+ on school.  For four long years.  While my friends where chiding me for not going out with them, I was working.  When I did relent and go out, I felt the pain that came with one that really should be reading one more chapter or cranking out a couple more pages on the business analysis case. It was not a fun period. 

Upon graduation, my classmates and I kidded ourselves on what we'd now do with all of our new "free time."  For most of us, the "free time" turned to more work.  Throughout my career, nearly two and half decades, I've simply worked substantially harder than my peers.  Part of it was because it was necessary to remain competitive, but mostly it was a conscious choice.  And the result was that soon my peers were no longer peers, and I moved up. 

But both of us had choices.  I could have left at 5:30 like the rest of them and had a balanced life, or I could have killed myself and moved up.  I chose the latter. 

And now, even though I've "arrived," nothing has changed.  My work weeks are 60-80 hours.  I need to be available to the business 24 hours a day, 7 days per week if necessary.   It is a choice I make. 

A great example of this is this past weekend - a beautiful Saturday in Green Bay.  Coming off a week where I was in the office as early as 5:45 and leaving as late as 7:30 ( a good 70 hour week), I was in the office for about 6 hours on Saturday morning.  Out of an office of 800, I was one of 20 folks there.  Know who most of the other 20 were?  Mostly our top executives.  That 20 and the remaining 780 all made choices on how to spend that beautiful Saturday morning. 

I don't begrudge the 780 for the benefits associated with their choice.  Nobody should.  So why in the hell does the president begrudge me for the benefits associated with my choice?  How the hell can he say I didn't get there on my own?  It sure felt like I was on my own all those times when I was shutting off the lights in the office at the end of the day while the rest of my friends had left hours earlier to go to the bar, play softball, or spend time with their friends or families. 

I've made the necessary choices and paid the associated costs to get to this point in life.  Me.  The personal sacrifices I've made are too long to list, and a number I deeply, deeply regret.  I paid a price few are willing to pay, and have enjoyed a compensation commensurate with that sacrifice.  But I did it myself.  Yeah, I used the school and roads, and have enjoyed the protections afforded by our military, police, and fire departments.  And I've paid substantially more for those services than most others.  Even though many of our society pay absolutely nothing for those same services, despite using them at an equal or greater amount than I do, I feel like I already pay "my fair share." 

Compared to what it took to get here and maintain here, what I've "paid" is colossal. 

You're wrong, Mr. President.  You may not have achieved your position on your own, but I assure you that I got here on my own.  And for you to insult me and my massive amount of sweat and sacrifices with your disrespectful class warfare rhetoric shows the depth of your lack of knowledge of how our economic system works.     

History of Rock Via 100 Riffs Video

If I had the talent to do this, I would never leave the house.  Incredible.

Rick Reilly on JoPa

I came out pretty hot on Penn State yesterday.  Atrocity can do that to a guy, I guess. 

Looks like I wasn't the only one.

While I'm not a big Rick Reilly fan, he knocked this one out of the park on ESPN yesterday. 

I encourage you to read it all

Freesh Report Results Show Penn State Football Should End

With the release of the Freesh report yesterday, the activity of Penn State's most powerful men in the university and the athletic program were laid bare.  And the results were shocking, damning, and sickening. 

To protect the university, and more importantly the football program, university President Graham Spanier, university Vice President Gary Schultz, head football Coach and NCAA icon Joe Paterno, and Athletic Director Tim Curley tured a blind eye, and worse - covered up - multiple episodes of child sexual abuse that were happening with their knowledge. 

It is absolutely stomach-turning.  All four of these men had the ability to stop the horrific abuse they knew was happening.  All four of them instead chose to "protect" the football program. 

So what should happen now?  For the three surviving members of the four responsible for the cover up, criminal charges would be a great place to start.  Certainly obstruction of justice and conspiracy in commitment of a crime occurred,  but it will ultimately be up to a grand jury to determine if there is enough evidence available to secure a conviction.  As for the university itself, it will (and should) be named as liable in civil lawsuits for the victims.  And the resulting activity will likely run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Finally, what of the football program?  You know, the one whose motto is "success with honor?" 

If there is any shred of honor left in that institution, they will end football at Penn State. Effective immediately. 

That may be harsh, but consider the following: the rot could not have been more deeply ingrained in the program.  It permeated from top to bottom, literally from the president to the janitor, and therefore needs to be pulled up, roots and all.  Second, and this point has been made elsewhere but it is critical: if this activity can't end a football program, what can?  What scenario would be worse to justify such a fate? Obviously, it simply can't get much worse than this.  This is as bad as it can get.  Period.

Penn State can begin to rebuild its institution right now by killing off the football program, effectively cutting out the cancer that effects its body.  If they can't muster the fortitude to do it, the NCAA may be able to do it for them.   Regardless, someone finally needs to step up, take responsibility, and do what's right. 

This whole situation occurred because of a system that was set up to protect the football program above everything else.  If Penn State truly considers itself an institute of "honor," it will recognize that the only path forward is to sacrifice the very institute that the system sought to protect. 

Penn State football needs to end now.

San Francisco Gymkhana Video

While I may drive like one, I've never been much of a motorhead.  Despite that, this video was still immensely fascinating.  Enjoy.

What's Behind Confrontational Atheism?

There is an exploding trend in social media and on the web to actively disparage those that believe in religion.  It is aggressive, confrontational, and growing. 

Atheism is being touted as the only alternative for those that consider themselves learned, open minded, and intelligent.  Those that seek to live a religious live are depicted as rubes and fools. 

Really? 

Throughout my life, the most intelligent, successful, wealthy, and prosperous people that I have met have been those that engaged in some form of traditional religion.  Whereas those I've known that espouse atheism in a confrontational, activist fashion are, at best, relegated to the middle rungs of society. 

Perhaps it is my limited set of data points.  Perhaps it is because of who I surround myself.  But every activist atheist I know couldn't hold a candle to the dozens (hundreds?) of successful folks I know that have faith. 

Does that mean there are no successful atheists?  Hardly.  But those that seek to raise their stature by active disparagement of the faithful seem to be lacking something. 

Perhaps it is the kindergarten lesson made manifest - you can't make yourself better by making those around you feel worse.  And that appears to be exactly what activist atheists are attempting to do.   

George W Bush and the W-100

A side of George W Bush that I believe that very few people know about.