Something To Think About Archive

The late Oilman T. Boone Pickens advised us to “Be willing to make decisions. Don’t fall victim to what (he called) the “ready-aim-aim-aim syndrome.” You must be willing to fire.”

Aerospace engineer and businessman Norman R. Augustine says that “Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.”

Coach John Wooden cautions that “For every peak there’s a valley, so don’t get too high.”

Gain of Function biological research is an insane gamble with world health, vis a vis COVID, and the fact that the U.S. funded such research in China, of all places, is beyond belief. Anthony Fauci’s claim in recently surfaced emails that the benefits outweighed the risks is simply incredible and is a classic case of a scientist more excited about what CAN be done rather than what SHOULD be done.

Justice Sandra Day O’Conner believed that “It is the individual who can and does make a difference in this increasingly complex world of ours. The individual can make things happen.”

Richard Lara campaigned to be California Insurance Commissioner warning about the risks of climate change. Is it any wonder that insurance companies took that as a signal to raise rates and then abandon the state when he blocked those increases, leaving many residents with no options? And let’s be clear: There’s nothing “Fair” about California’s Fair Plan that many are left with.

Book critic George Scialabba calls “imagination” “…intelligence having fun.”

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright said: “I have very set and consistent principles, but I am flexible on tactics. I like to get the job done.”

According to former Mouseketeer the late Annette Funicello who suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, “Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.”

Even CNN’s Fareed Zakaria recently acknowledged that America’s so-called “elite” universities have lost face given that they have “gone from being centers of excellence to institutions pushing political agendas” whose “good intentions have morphed into a dogmatic ideology” and “where the pervasive goals are political and social engineering, not academic merit.”

Customer service guru Holly Stiel notes that “Successful people know fear – but forge ahead anyway.”

California is facing a $68 billion budget deficit this year and yet Gavin Newsom and the Democrats in Sacramento continue to spend money they don’t have including $3.1 billion on health insurance for some 700,000 illegal immigrants.

Writer Germany Kent reminds us to “Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction.”

It’s been said that “A man who dies too rich has lived too poorly.”

Poet Robert Frost advised us to “Love what’s lovable and hate what’s hateable.”

Playwright, screenwriter, and author David Mamet notes that “The Committee is a tool in movies as in government, devouring the greatest of the organization’s resources. It might seem to exist as Counsel of the Wise, but it is actually a mechanism for the apportionment of blame.”

According to German novelist Thomas Mann: “Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them.”

U.C. Berkley professor Ron Hassner points out that in a survey that he commissioned of students, 87% supported the chant “From the river to the sea” but only 47% could name the river and/or the sea, some even thinking that it was the Nile and the Caribbean. 10% thought former terrorist and PLO leader Yassar Arafat was the first prime minister of Israel; and most did not realize that the slogan meant a one-state solution with both groups living side by side, an idea that has been rejected by both sides and that it would mean the relocation or annihilation of 7 million Jews. In other words, as usual, those protesting the loudest often know the least. Kinda like with calls to “Defund the Police.”

Journalist and author William E. Vaughan once noted that “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”

Take a chance. Give yourself the right to be wrong.