I am a rocker at heart, but my day job is all about developing leaders and helping them become more effective.  From my experience, I have found one of the most effective ways to develop leaders is to identify exemplary leaders for them, help them understand what those leaders do different than everybody else, and then help the leader model that same behavior so they can achieve similar results.   A few months ago I decided to combine my love of all things Ronald Reagan with my …

The schizophrenic Obama Administration can’t seem to make up its mind on what symbols to adopt for its far-flung domestic agenda. Just a few months ago, Obama brought federal suit against the state of Arizona for trying to control its borders against illegal immigration, enforcing the laws that the federal government failed to adhere to. Caught up in this whirlwind of vilification was good old Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He has long been a lightning rod for liberal criticism because of his tough stance on …

Ronald Reagan's V-Day Ceremony Address at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Delivered 11 November 1988, Washington D.C. Before I begin, let me take a moment to congratulate the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and the other distinguished guests without whom the construction and operation of this memorial would not have been possible. Let me also say that America is grateful to the hundreds of Vietnam veterans who, when I asked them to join my Administration, did so, and have and are serving our nation so …

Ok Folks, I am now on the 4th attempt to write this blog today.  3 times I have written it in its entirety ; 3 times my computer has crashed.  It must be the result of a vast left-wing conspiracy!  Sad thing is, for once, my writing seemed somewhat coherent.  Here goes attempt #4... Please forgive me if I am not drinking the kool-aid on Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity held yesterday in Washington, D.C.  I must admit, I have never been a big Daily Show fan, …

Predictably, the mainstream media has been making comparisons between Barack Obama's and Ronald Reagan's first 2 years in the Oval Office.  They state that during Reagan's first two years in office, the economy was worse and Reagan's approval ratings were lower.  It is understandable that the media would try to make some sense of the current mess in Washington in order to prop up the guy they put in office, and to indicate that under Obama's leadership a Reaganlike recovery …

If you are anything like me, life is sometimes too much of a rollercoaster.  Don't get me wrong, I love roller coasters (The Voyage at Holiday World is the World's Best By The Way!), but riding one all day, every day will quickly wear a person down. One of the reasons why our moods are so up and down is that we attach so much importance to the end result, believing that if things don't end up our way, we must have somehow failed or done something wrong.  This happened to me a few …

In watching the debates for the 2010 House and Senate races, an interesting trend has become apparent.  That is that the new face of the Democratic Party is cranky, pasty, old white guys.  Most of these liberal candidates are career politicians who have never held down a real job and who can only speak theoretically when talking about the economy & what creates jobs (i.e., Dick Blumenthal in his debate with Linda McMahon).  In contrast, the most interesting races involve confident, …

I recently watched clips of the Dick Blumenthal and Linda Morris debate and was struck by how their debate sums up the question before all of us in November.  Who creates jobs?  Government or Free Enterprise?  Those on the left argue that the government does create jobs, and if you look at the growth of the public sector and the destruction of the private sector over the last couple of years, who could argue?  The question needs to be reframed.  Who creates wealth and …

Growing up I thought rock stars were rebels who went against the establishment. But, the older I get, the more I realize that they conform within their industry just like most of the rest of us lemmings in society. As my favorite Japanese proverb says “Deru kugi wa utareru” or the “nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” The entertainment industry is decidedly liberal and there seems to be no reward for artists who present a different viewpoint, no matter how respectful they …

This is officially my first blog in the blogosphere. My name is Mark and I live a pretty quiet existence here in the midwest. I stopped listening to all the talking heads on both the left and right side of the political aisle a couple of months ago, thinking that I was done following politics. A strange thing happened; once I cleared my head of all the chatter, I found my desire to participate in the process was stronger than ever before. It came to me at 5 am in the morning when I woke suddenly with …