Alicia Ruby

This week, our two year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel - Alicia (my daughter's idea for a cool name) - declined precipitously in less than 24 hours. Our first-rate animal ER here in Greenville did everything they could to save her, in fact it looked for a while as if she would pull out of it.

Sadly, she died in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, as some really great and compassionate people at Upstate Veterinary Hospital worked as hard, and as professionally as anyone, anywhere, could.

Rather than mourn the loss of what should have been a decade of additional years, God, in His mercy, is using this to drive home the importance of gratitude for what I am given.

If you would, let me share with you a letter I wrote to her Saturday morning, before going to Upstate Vet. Hospital to bring her home to us one last time.
=============

June 23, 2012

My Dear, Sweet, Alicia Ruby -

Even when you were alive, I know you couldn’t read. Somehow, this makes my broken heart feel a little better, though.

You were only in our lives for two years, but the utter joy you gave us, your gentle nature, your unconditional and ever-present love made it worth far more than to not have had you at all.

I wish I knew why you got so sick, and declined so quickly. Two year-old dogs aren’t supposed to have that happen to them. But something very, very wrong was going on, and God, who made all things good, spared you from suffering, and me from having to make the decision to put you to sleep.

When I took my last picture of you alive, and you were looking better, I expected to pick you up the next morning and take you to Dr. Martin, or perhaps next door.

 On the way home I had a flat tire – again God’s providence in making sure I could take the call – the one from Dr. Heft, telling me you  had gone into distress, and your heart had stopped when they started giving you a transfusion.

Because I had just finished changing the tire, I could come back, so you wouldn’t have to be without one of us with you. You did not want us to be away from you, and I had to come back.

They worked to help you breathe, and try to get your heart to start. They began about 1230a on Tuesday morning. I got to you at 1250a. Sweet Puppy, I asked questions as they continued until 1220a. Finally, at 120aI asked Dr. Heft, on a scale of 1-10, what was the likelihood of bringing you back. She was kind even in the way she told me you weren’t coming back.

Several times I bent down and held you while they tried so to get you back. I kissed you, prayed for God to revive you.

I came to embrace the fact that you had left us, and I had to rest in Christ that this was, as all things, to his glory.

Rather, than regret the years we – Annie, Mommy, and me, will not have with you, I have asked God to help me be grateful for the richness of your unselfish love – well, unselfish, except if one of us was eating an orange – for the two years we did.

They allowed me to go to an exam room where they brought you to me, laying you the table. You lay on the towel you were on in the treatment area, and had the towel they had over you as a blanket, so that you could stay warm. They even had a towel folded for a pillow for you.

Your eyes were open, and you looked just like you did when you were resting next to Mommy.

After about an hour, I picked you up, and held you close to my heart and wept so. As I write this, I have had to take my glasses off.

I have wept so many times.

When I left you, I had been with you in that room almost three hours.

I got home, and Mommy did not realize you were gone.

We told Annie the next morning. It was the hardest thing as a parent I have ever done, listening, and filling in blanks as Mommy gently told her you had gone.

Annie wanted, as I had hoped, to have you in the back yard. I got a container from Walmart for you, and Mommy washed your fleece bedding you laid on in your crate.

On Thursday night, I dug a place for you. Between tree roots, stopping to drink tea and water, and sobbing uncontrollably, it took me until 330am. It was one of the highest honors of my life to do this for you.

I will have Annie and Mommy help me design it as a memory garden for you.

Annie wanted you to have some things with you, so she got them out, and drew a diagram showing where she wanted me to put them. To the left of your head will be one of your yellow toys you liked to play tug-of-war with. To the right, the green spray paint lid. Your breeder, told us early on that you would like to play with things like that.

Your plastic “peppermint” is going to your bottom left, and one of your last rawhide bones to your bottom right.

I am putting a picture of Annie on an exam table at Dr. Mages’s office, and that wonderful picture of you and Annie taken in my study with the foyer to your backs. Annie looks so happy, and you look so sweet, even though you are not looking into the camera.

Finally, I asked Mommy to bring a fresh orange for you. I will never forget the first time I peeled one after you came home, and you went nuts, as you did over carrots, spinach, celery, almost any fruit or veggie.

I was not able to sleep last night, not because I was stressed, but because I needed some way to express my thoughts of the past week.

In a few minutes, I am coming to bring you home – not as I had hoped, but – under the circumstances – as I want.

I will lay you in the container, and seal it with red "racers" tape. You would bark at the cars when I would watch a race on TV, so it seems fitting. I will seal it that way so that nothing can get to you.

Before I do, I will put the things I described in this letter, along with the letter itself.

I will place you so that your face is toward our house. When we look toward your place in the years to come, we will be looking toward each other.

By the way, my view of Heaven has changed in the last year or so. Some better teaching has helped me to understand that I won’t just be floating around in a spiritual stupor. God will have things there that were blessings for us here.

So, I will – Annie Mommy and I – will see you soon.

I will close with the little song Annie and I made up for you –

“Alicia Marie Ruby Dee,

Won’t you come away with me?

I love you!

Let’s elope!

We’ll have dinner by the sea.

Oh, how happy we will be!

I love you!

Let’s elope!”

I wrote the first part, and Annie did most of the second.

Well, as hugely difficult as this is for me, it too, is my honor.

It is time for me to bring you home, Alicia. See you in a few minutes.

I won’t forget your orange.

Love,

Daddy

Facebook vs. 10x Growth - Or How I decided not to drink Mai Tais at the Tiki Hut

I have diagnosed ADD. 

If you have read previous posts of Juggling Wolverines, you already know this. 

You may also know, both from Facebook, and this blog, that I see ADD as both a blessing and a curse.

People with ADD are often creative and pretty visionary.

At the same time, we have this knack for creating utter chaos and destruction.

When I was diagnosed back in 2004, I began taking a med - Strattera - which was hugely helpful in allowing me to focus.

Coaching was another big help. I had an executive coach work with me for three years, giving me a good start.

In 2008, I started with a comprehensive coaching program for entrepreneurs - The Strategic Coach. 

"Coach" as members refer to it, was founded by Dan Sullivan and his wife Babs Smith. 

Coach has been hugely helpful to me in providing tools I desperately needed, and use.

A great concept Dan Sullivan has laid out is called 10x Growth.

The idea is that rather than trying to grow, say to a point that is twice where you are now, you can actually grow ten times in the exact same period, using the same size of staff, or less, with the same energy or less.

My reading Dan's thoughts, and listening to audio on the idea, came at about the same time as I was hitting brick walls this year because of my ADD. 

Dan himself has ADD. He wound up inspiring me to find an ADD coach in addition to what I am getting out of Strategic Coach.

Enter the incomparable Nancy Snell - a kind yet blunt Yankee. In the course of working with her, we reached a conclusion - one corroborated My Reason for Living, and two friends of mine - Jon and Phil.
I was addicted to Facebook. 

No, wait, I was intoxicated with Facebook, like a guy in a leisure suit at the Tiki Hut bar at a Howard Johnson Hotel in Toledo - asking for just one more.

At this realization, I heard the voice of another friend, Julia Waller, who spent seven hours with me at the Strategic Coach HQ in Toronto helping identify and define the things I should focus on as my Unique Ability.

She pointed out that I was spending too much time on Facebook.

All five, over the last two years,  were separately telling me that Facebook was eating up my time.

And, I was hearing my hero, Dan Sullivan, mentioning that once you adopt a mindset for 10x Growth, you see things you are doing that are not "1ox" in quality. 

I realized at once that using the same amount of time or less to grow 10x as opposed to 2x was practical and real.

I also realized that Julia, Coach Nancy, Wife Nancy, and friends Jon and Phil were pointing me to the treasure trove of time I could invest - 
 in 10x Growth.

So where does that leave you and me? 

Well, for one, you made it to Juggling Wolverines, and you are giving me an audience for some fun I have writing.

You also give me the chance to say that interacting with you on FB is great fun, and sometimes profound as I get to share in relationships with a pretty diverse bunch.

But, I want to grow, and GROW 10X, not just monetarily, but in the entirety of my life  - whether that is in creation of value for entrepreneurial and estate planning clients, helping other business owners in an outside venture I recently became involved in - or growing 10x as a husband, father, friend, racing driver, whatever.

So much of that rides on my investment of time.

I have been riding Facebook like a Weight Watcher's refugee at an all-you-can-eat Chinese super buffet.

So, I am faced with a choice.

1. Continue on FB as I am now, and not just fail to hit 10x Growth, but move backwards- Or 
2. Put my FB account on ice.

I want to grow 10x.

My FB account goes on ice.

A big part of my problem with Facebook is the stimulation I get from seeing posts I just have to respond to.

My blog gives me the opportunity to write, just for the joy of it, and sometimes someone responds.

It is just not as convenient for me to find out - not as easy as logging on to FB.

So, off of Facebook I go - off to reallocated time for 10x Growth - and still writing my blog, perhaps more than I have, but as an outlet that is itself an investment in my sanity. 

Not a Mai Tai marathon at the Tiki Hut.

The Fight for the Votings Rights of the Viability Challenged Grows Fiercer

It appears that on further review, the number of Viability Challenged voters who cast ballots in the 2010 SC general election is not 950 as first thought, but a much, much smaller number.

This saddens me.

First because the courageous vanguard is so tiny.

Then because it will be that much harder to protect the voting rights of the Viability Challenged if more have not stood up before - pardon my choice of words.

Hanging Out in a Nouveau Entrepreneurial Culture

Last weekend, I attended an international conference of new technologies and deregulated energy entrepreneurs.

Okay, I didn't exactly go to Paris, but Charlotte, NC is pretty convenient for such a cool opportunity.

So why would an attorney go to such an event? Well, attorneys have felt the recession like everyone else. In fact, while there I met or heard surgeons, other attorneys, corp execs, even a guy who ran a honkingly large division of Virgin Records.

What did I come away with?

A big dose of insight into how to create value for consumers, for one.

Loads of stimulation of ideas as I listened to people who had started companies and businesses in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Shoot! Even the Donald was there, and his appreciation for the smaller entrepreneur was gratifying.


THE SMALLER ENTREPRENEUR!!! Shoot, that may have been the biggest thing I got from the three days of this conference.

In a microchip world, the smaller entrpreneur can now - regularly does - achieve financial results that thirty years ago required boatloads of financing and a big physical footprint.

Begrudgingly, the President even gets a little credit.

Yes, hard to believe, isn't it? I am giving credit to the President.

He has been pushing the States to deregulate electricity and natural gas marketing by a 2015 target date.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet both see this as the next big thing.

A huge number of the attendees at this conference were already achieving some great value creation in the US, Canada and Western Europe in that economic segment alone.

And yes, I went to the conference already committed to that concept.

What is so amazing is that the ability to enter and participate in that business, even across state, provincial or national borders is great for almost anyone.

No joke.

The Challenge of Taking Free Days

Sometime soon I am going to do something I have not done in years.

Take a family vacation.

That may not seem like such a big deal, but I somehow lost the ability to do that after a parent became ill in 2007.

Oh sure. I have taken days off, but not for real, get out of Dodge, turn off the cell phone, and ditch the lap-top time.

A community of entrepreneurs I am a part of, calls these days "Free Days." Those are defined as 24-hour periods, midnight to midnight, where you are completely disconnected from work.

How will I possibly do it?

By investing some time and energy in delegating to a crack team, and outsourcing some things that need to be done, but are not my unique ability.

AND by planning for a productive week of both revenue generation and business tuning upon my return.

Thinking on this, I realize that to stay fresh and creative, I have to keep Free Days in the mix as part of my regular schedule, not as treatment for burn-out.

That is how to make sure I can continue to create value.

Former Fundies, Evangelicals, and Death of a Salesman

I have mused over the last week about an exchange on Facebook with a friend who, like me, is an Evangelical and Reformed believer. She was sincerely adamant about certain conservative thinkers using terms like "objective legal standard" or "food stamp president" as code words for white racism.

So, I asked some other friends who are conservative, and are black. The scratched their heads figuratively.

I later listened to Congressman Allen West, who himself has been black for some time, and is a conservative by birth - - or is it the other way around?

I also heard J.C. Watts, former QB of the Oklahoma Sooners, former Oklahoma Secretary of State, Former Congressman, and I would say a potential Veep candidate.

He supports Newt, one of the code-speak offenders.

So, why do white liberals, who are former fundamentalist Christians and/or current Evangelical Christians (there is a BIG difference) buy into the code-speak thing?

Well, I worked it in reverse. I WAS a liberal, so much so that I could have made Nancy Pelosi look like Jesse Helms.

I protested outside the South African mission to the UN protesting apartheid. I still think the policy was wrong, by the way.

I was the typical Southern white liberal student who wanted to change things. I was angry.

And I did not want to be looked down upon by people from up North.

Then it hit me!

The unseen actor on the thinking of liberal former Fundamentalists and liberal Evangelicals was and is -

WILLY LOMAN!!!!!

You know. The protagonist in the Tennesee Williams play, Death of a Salesman

He wanted everyone to like him. He was obsessed with the idea. He guided his sons with exhortations that the way to succeed in life was to get everyone to like you.

So, liberals and progressives in general are hypersensitive to anything that remotely looks like it could offend.

As such, discourse is chilled, otherwise acceptable words are relegated to a trash heap of language, and

Grace is sacrificed on the altar of a legalistic moral code.

The bad news, the ex-Fundamentalists are still Fundamentalists, but in a better part of town.

The good news - the right people like them!

By the way, Willy's obsession eventually led to self-destruction.

On the Edge of Catholicism

For those of you who know me personally, and know I hold to a Reformed theological world-view, chill. It's all good.

I remain an Anglican trapped in the body of a Presbyterian.

I am reading a wonderful book entitled More Christianity, by Dwight Longenecker. Dwight is a former Anglican priest who came into the Catholic Church a few years back, along with his wife and children.

His terrific book is a cogent explanation to Protestants of what Catholic Christianity is all about.

While I find more than a few things in Catholicism I am not comfortable with, the sheer grandeur of faith as expressed by Catholic believers is, I think, pretty awesome, and gives me pause to consider whether I, as a Reformed believer, am too familiar with God - appreciating His personal and intimate relation to me, but being indifferent to His vastness.

Our Dog, and Media of Exchange

You may remember that we have a cute Rottweiller-Yorkie mix, Medusa.

We have had a problem with Medusa bringing in large sticks to chew on when coming back in from the open concept restroom.

Chasing her around the house, demanding she give us the stick, has not worked. So, we have resorted to giving her a treat if she drops the stick.

Works every single time. Unfortunately, Medusa seems to be a Conservative Republican Dog.

I know I should be happy about this, since William F. Buckley, Jr. (may his name be praised) is my political godfather.

Medusa has made the connection between collecting the sticks, and exchanging them for treats.

How cool is that????

The story now takes an unfortunate turn.

You see, Medusa, as dogs often do, eats her own poop.

Our dog, one day brought in a "product."

Alarmed, I ran to the kitchen, quickly found the bag of treats, and offered a couple to her. Medusa moved away from her fecal snack, and happily gobbled the treats.

I recovered the "item," having had the presence of mind to get a couple of paper towels, and a hazardous materials suit.

Soon, Medusa decided to switch from sticks to poop, and now the cute business transaction has taken on the context of something akin to extortion.

Sorta like the individual mandate under the President's healthcare program.

Maybe Medusa is an Obama supporter after all.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE SUCKER!!!!

Last night My Reason for Living, our daughter - She Upon Whom Sun and Moon Rise and Set, - and our little neighbor, Pablo, went to drive through the Roper Moutain Lights and walk through "Winter Wonderland" while there.

There is a guy there each year who does balloon figures. He is Michaelangelo with those things.
We got in line, but SUWSAMRAS and Pablo just wanted to act out "Chipwrecked." the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie we had seen a few hours earlier.

MRFL suggested getting them suckers from "The Lollipop Lady" whose stand was just inside the building where the balloon guy was.

I thought this was just an interesting project for her. Turns out the Lollipop Lady is a fourth generation candymaker whose nom de guerre is Heather Norton - wife of a Clemson prof, mom to two boys, and lollipop maven par excellence!

All kinds of shapes, regular flavors, and diabetic-friendly.

I thought about suggesting Guinness Extra Stout as a St. Pat's offering, but decided against it.

Heather ships all over the country, and it is easy to see why. I got a watermellon happy face. (You know, a Guinness Extra Stout happy face would be great.)

The lollipop is fab, and does not lick quickly. I was tempted to chomp it, but thought better of it.

These lollipops are art, and to eat them rather than lick them would be as pedestrian as treating pheasant under glass as finger food.

Check out Heather's facebook page shown below. If you love a great lollipop, and believe in a nation of small shopkeepers, as my fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson and I do, you can't go wrong with Heather's product.

facebook.com/thelollipoplady

The Importance of Staying Inside Your Unique Ability(R)

I start this post with high praise for my good friend - Julia Waller of Strategic Coach in Toronto, Ontario. Julia took a day with me in January to do what she does better than anyone on the planet. She helps entrepreneurs identify their Unique Ability(R). In other words, she works with a business owner to bring into focus that unique thing or group of things he or she does - not just in business - but in all of life. You find out what that is, and then delegate, outsource or eliminate everything else.

Which brings me to - you guessed it - HOME REPAIRS.

To be more specific . . . PLUMBING.

I will try not being prideful in saying that I am - - - well - - - a pretty good plumber - - - no - - - I am an EXCELLENT plumber.

Excellent. Excellent in the way Kim Kardashian is a gifted concert pianist, or Newt Gingrich is a successful Thighmaster owner.

You get the idea.

My Reason for Living asked me to have the kitchen faucet replaced. Being the national poster child for high testosterone levels, I not only got her a new one, but decided to install it myself.

The guy at Home Depot said it was a one-tool job. How hard could it be?

My Reason for Living, and our daughter - She Upon Whom Sun and Moon Rise and Set - went out for the evening.

My wife expressed the opinion that SUWSAMRAS was building her vocabulary fast enough without the addition of - - - ER - - - more advanced words.

Okay. Have a nice time.

I carefully removed the various cleaning products from under the sink - organizing them for a neat replacement upon completion of the project.

Then, I shut off the water to the sink. Next, I took the tool suggested as the only one needed, and disconnected the lines from the sink to the water supply.

So far, no worries!

I got out from under the sink and began working the old faucet to pull it off.

It was not coming off.

I looked again and discovered, to my surprise, that the faucet was secured by a couple of - pay attention here, my storehouse of home repair knowledge is about to gush - a couple of twisty-things that were so far up another tool - NOT THE ONE TOOL THAT WOULD BE NEEDED TO DO THE JOB.

My family would be gone for at least another hour.

I am now left with three choices -

1. Drive like a bat out of hell to Home Depot, in hopes of getting the OTHER one tool that would be needed to do the job.

2. Contort my body and complete the job without the other tool - - - and I could expect success just about the time Kim Kardashian's book on How to Marry for Life is released.

3. Suppress my pride, protect my confidence, and help my daughter maintain a quality vocabulary. This I would do by suggesting to my wife, that the faucet is lovely, and deserves a professional installation.

I chose number three.

My Unique Ability includes among other things, the ability to ask questions that transport others to a point in time that repesents a bigger and better future.

Plumbing is not really inside that definition.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go listen to Kim Kardashian's rendition of Mozart's Opus No. 40.

And where is my Thighmaster?

Lightening strikes, Microchips, and Dan Sullivan

My law firm has finally gone into the 21st Century.

We were hit with lightning recently. The strike turned the voicemail card on our analog phone system from original to extra crispy, if you catch my drift.

Cost to replace the card, plus service to the system? $750 to $1,250.

We had been pitched replacement analog phone systems two years earlier at $10,000.00 plus.

This year, we were pitched a digital system at $7,500.00.

Both analog and digital were feature rich.

My brilliant law partner did some research, as we had to do something.

What did she find?

Digital phone system, retaining one analog line for fax and security system.

Total acquisition cost?

Try 685 bucks.

Yep.

685 bucks.

Is my partner that smart?

Well, yeah, she is, but that isn't what caused the costs to plummet.

It was microchips.

No, not a snack item from Jenny Craig(r).

The brainy stuff in computers.

Dan Sullivan was right. Dan is a mentor to entrepreneurs around the world. He and his wife, Babs Smith, founded Strategic Coach a number of years ago.
If anyone has insight into microchips - he is the man!

Dan pointed out several years ago, that the microchip revolution was a fourth "Great Cross Over" as he puts it.

A great cross over is a breakthrough in communication and transfer of information. Dan says the first was speech, then writing, and the printing press was the the third.

Dan also points to an interesting effect of the microchip - one that a member of the team credited with the development of the chip has opined on: "Speed doubles/price drops by half every five years."

The guys who pitched us systems that would have taken four to five figures viewed what they were doing as selling a commodity.

Well, they lost.

How could they have gotten our business - or in the case of one company - sold to us again after making the original sale ten years ago?

By creating unique value - doing something for us that we could not have gotten anywhere else.

You see, we are entrepreneurial lawyers. If someone could come in - take the technology and show us how to leverage time and create extra value for clients, we would stay with them forever.

The sad thing is that the guy we bought our first system from knows more than most people in his industry have forgotten. He has ways to take that knowledge and create solutions that companies would gladly pay for, and probably pay him more than his profit on the $10,000 system - the one we just bought.

For $685.

His unique ability, however, stayed in his head, when he could have sold it to us.

For more than

$685.

Some Thoughts on Unique Ability, Delegation, and Dog Poop

Thursday morning, Medusa, my daughter's Rottweiler-Yorkie mix, experienced what can only be described as DOG-HELL.

The cat next door, an animal who to Medusa represents the embodiment of evil on earth, ran through the back yard at the very moment the dog began to poop.

The dilemma of how to engage her enemy while dealing with a present urgency was emotionally, and functionally, gut-wrenching for her.

Of course, this scene naturally made me think of - well - the challenges entrepreneurs face.

All of us with entrepreneurial DNA have a passion for something, a unique process that will create value, and we will benefit from a sense of having made things better, and a profit to boot.

Medusa had opportunity run right in front of her. Unfortunately, dealing with the crap of her operations meant that opportunity quite literally passed her by.

Now, to be fair, Medusa did not have a choice.

You and I do.

We can make sure we stay fresh by at least once a week taking a 24 hour period, midnight to midnight, disconnected from our work. And when we take "vacations," we have to be faithful, and not sneak away for clandestine trysts with "Blackberry."

Then we stay rejuvenated, ready to identify opportunity and create value.

But don't forget to concentrate days devoted to working on the business, acquiring and building capabilities, and to deal with the messes of life.

Finally, concentrate time on the Unique Abilities(R) I alluded to above. Everything else delegate, or outsource wherever possible. You and I have an advantage over Medusa. We can delegate the things we find to be poop to people who are ready, willing and enthusiastic about taking it on.

You can find some great insight on how to do the above in two great books - Unique Ability: Creating the Life You Want, by Catherine Nomura and Julia Waller, and The Time Breakthrough, by Dan Sullivan. You can find them at private.strategiccoach.com.

And as to Medusa? Well, outsourcing the byproduct of her success is - er - just not a doable.

The "Quotes from Self-Loathing Colored People" Department

Those of you who have followed me on Facebook may remember that up until the Fall of 1975 I was - and this is a technical term - LEFT-WING-FLAMING-WACKO-LIBERAL.

I know. It is hard for me to believe it, but it is true.

And, like most LWFWLs, I had prejudices about black people. You see, when I was an angry young white kid from the South, I assumed that all liberals and progressives like me were beyond prejudice, especially about black people.

My experience and observation was that we LWFWLs had these biases towards our tellow-travelers-of-color:

Black people were always:

1. Democrat
2. Liberal
3. 1 and 2 were governed by fixed and immutable laws of physics.

My biases there began to crumble when, over the course of a few years I met in Oklahoma, Black Republicans, who were Conservative Black Republicans, who were Conservative Black Republicans.

It was, to put it mildly, world-view changing. When Bill Clinton had his encounter with Herman Cain in 1994, I sympathized.

This election cycle, I have observed a surprising number of CBRs (Conservative Black Republicans) who are running, commenting, and winning.

I have also observed a significant increase of insidious white racists, who want to turn back the clock and keep the black person on the plantation, surpressing any independently arrived at thought.

Who are these "Kloset Klansmen?"

Tea Party members?

Chamber of Commerce types?

Bob Jones University students?

NO! They are Liberals. Not the Daniel Patrick Moynihan "anti-totalitarian/pro-social progress" liberals.

These are the "JFK was wrong about American exceptionalism" liberals.

You know them. They

1. Dismiss Herman Cain as being paid to run by Conservative White People
2. Dismiss Black Tea Party members as a statistically insignificant group,
3. Completely redact elected Black Conservatives, e.g. Tim Scott of SC and Allen West of FL as aberrations, and
4. Dismiss economists e.g. Thomas Sowell as a intellectually light-weight.

Looking at what these more fully evolved White People are saying about Black Conservatives, I have concluded that, alas, they are right.

(Not really, but saying so makes the end of this post easier to reach.)

I for one, want to help the More Fully Evolved White People get the word out - that Black Conservatives are SELF LOATHING COLORED PEOPLE.

So today, Juggling Wolverines launches a new department - the QUOTES FROM SELF-LOATHING COLORED PEOPLE DEPARTMENT.

"What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long."

-Thomas Sowell

Electric and Gas Deregulation - Revisted

The effect on consumers, as a positive, will be huge. This is indeed where the next Bill Gates will be. It will also be an area that is wide open for participation.

If you love being green, deregulated energy is the place to be.

I can show you how.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmszagDL-sQ

Father John R.W. Stott

This week I have longed for something about which to opine that did not involve Democrats, Republicans, bond ratings or arcane arguments about the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

As I write, I find that the addage "be careful what you pray for" is true.

At 815 AM local time in London this past Wednesday, Rev. John R.W. Stott passed away.

If you are not familiar with him, Father Stott was a Biblical scholar in the truest sense of the word. He loved the Bible, passionately loved it. He loved it because he loved Christ, and had a profound sense of precious value of salvation by grace through faith in Christ.

Father Stott knew he had nothing to bring to the table, that it was all God.

As a result, he was compelled to lovingly write, speak, teach, tell others about his Truest Friend.

In 1974 at the International Congress on World Evangelization, John Stott substantially framed the document now known as the Lausanne Covenant, a call to the Church and a framework for proclaiming the Gospel - in a true, unapologetically Biblical, and ECUMENICAL context.

That is why I so loved him. John Stott could embrace the denominational differerences within the church, not decry them, but see them as part and parcel of the way God works.

He could do this because he knew what the essentials of the Gospel were - things that were predicate to, warp and woof of, the Good News. He could and did give sway on the lesser points.

John R.W. Stott was - to the surprise of many on this side of the pond - an ordained, faithful Anglican priest - not a hardshell Baptist or a Pentacostal. Yet, a Baptist or Pentacostal reading his works would find much to love.

To a Calvinist and closet Anglican like myself - he was and is permission to love God's word, desire for others to know Him, and find encouragement and sheer joy at Scripture filled, prayerbook worship.

His commentaries on various books of the Bible, especially his work on the Acts of the Apostles, served to encourage me when my own fallen nature has shown not to be fully submitted to the love of Christ.

Part of me is hugely grieved at the loss of this giant of a man.

The rest of me says - "Thanks for all you did for me Father Stott. See you soon."

Electric and Gas Deregulation

Okay.

I am actually saying something nice about Obama, and no it is not a sign of the apocalypse.

The Obama administration has apparently gotten it right on pushing, or at least not getting in the way of, deregulation of electricity and gas delivery.

I for one, see opportunity here, and am so grateful to the President, that I may just show up at the groundbreaking for the Barack H. Obama Presidential Library in 2013.

Multiple Income Streams - Part Deux

This week, for a miriad (that means "alot") of reasons, I implemented a plan to develop three new businesses.

No, I have not quit my core business, as I still have much opportunity to create value there. I concluded, coming out of the recession, that I have to take responsibility for my own outcomes, trusting God for wisdom, but using what He has given me.

So, we are launching two businesses somewhat related to what we do in our law firm, and another related to new technologies/telecom/energy delivery.

None of the three are purely original, but each one was an idea someone who cared about me shared.

My job is to share the value of these ideas with the people who need them - some to help carry them further, and others to benefit from them - - -

And pay for them.

All We are Saaayyyinng is Give Wealth a Chance

‎"I would rather have 10,000 rich men handing out jobs than one (guy) at the top talking about "shovel ready" projects." ~ James Patrick Riley

Someone passed the quote above to me earlier. I posted it on Facebook and a liberal friend of mine - What? I used to be a liberal, so why can't I have liberal friends.

Anyway - this friend pointed out that a term for which I made a parenthetical replacement may have been disrespectful.

Without the term, Riley's statement remains valid. Even the President had to admit - much as Roosevelt's Treasury chief in 1938 - that the shovel ready projects were not so shovel ready.

So, what's the alternative? The billionaires, millionaires, and mass affluents that the President wants to pay their fair share?

Well, maybe he would have a point if those guys kept their money hoarded. 


But they don't.

They buy things. They invest. They start companies.

All of those things mean that women and men have to be hired to get the jobs done.

So, to paraphrase John Lennon.

Let's "give wealth a chance."

Dog Poop - The Real "Mother of Invention"

If you read one of my earlier posts, you know that my daughter's Rottweiler-Yorkshire Terrier mix, Medusa, ate a small screw Thursday night while I was changing a belt on our vacuum cleaner.

It had a blunt tip, so we weren't completely worried about damage from eating the screw.

Nonetheless, I was tasked with searching the backyard - a supply of dog-poop bags in hand. The objective was to palpate the bags of poop in search of a hard object.

Sounds like reading an Obama campaign position paper. But I digress.

As I have clinically dianosed ADD, I used the time searching for the Holy Grail of Dog Excrement to let my mind loose and see if anything creative occured.

It did.

I'd had a particularly irritating week. Between the challenges of making rain - which usually is great fun - and the process of delegating things that are not my Unique Ability(tm), I was feeling pretty stressed.

Then an idea came.

That idea was followed by another.

Then a goal came to mind, and from there a process.

After my sweep of the yard - several bags of poop - no screw - I texted my friend Erik.

Erik is another entrepreneur. If bad company is the ruin of good character, Erik is the kind of guy an entrepreneur wants to be sure to run with.

I gave him a date in mind for a rather grand goal.

That led to more texts with the goal fleshed-out.

Erik, as I knew he would, said he would guide me.

Invention had arrived.

And its mother is Dog Poop.

No - That is not how to join a metal band

Thursday night, I replaced a belt on our Obama January 2009 Vacuum.
Okay, it's a Eureka "The Boss."
Fully functional, both really suck, when you think about it. But I digress.
I laid the three screws you take off to get to the belt, and laid them on the hearth of our fireplace.
My daughter's dog, who I refer to as Medusa, noticed the screws, and ate one.
May start referring to her as Metallica.