You Gave Up On Us

For my 55th birthday I put up 275 on the bench press and a guy asked if I was trying to give myself a heart attack. Was nice to hear right after the doc suggested I call my cardiologist.

It has been a while since I tried to throw around iron like that and if you ask if my ego was involved I’ll nod my head.

Wasn’t like when I was four and would wear a cape and yell “I have got my power” because I don’t have a cape anymore.

The last couple of weeks have been filled with me pushing limits and testing boundaries. Some of it has been done not because I was acting like your favorite insouciant barbarian but because people were getting in the way of progress.

It wasn’t just irritating, it was unnecessary and sometimes the way you prevent that from being repeated is by demonstrating why obstruction is a mistake.

You Gave Up On Us

I went after someone online for pushing Jew hate who is a member-of-the-tribe (MOT) because I am sick of people prefacing awful comments with “I am a Jew.”

These fools who align themselves with Hamas and or other antisemites think that feeding the crocodile will save them.

It will not.

They will be eaten, maybe not as soon as others but eaten nonetheless and I have no patience for them providing cover to people who would load us onto trains.

I don’t accept it and I won’t be quiet solely to make them feel more comfortable.

I shared a more colorful version of “you gave up on us” and suggested if they were interested in self immolation they find a private place for it.

Almost shouted those same words at someone else but that is a different story.

Anyhoo….

I have been thinking again about what we should have done after the first Durban conference and the start of BDS. Been thinking about Gary Wexler’s piece The Inside Story of How Palestinians Took Over the World too.

The Islamists have done a good job of using time and money to push certain narratives and moving to install their people in a variety of places within academia and elsewhere.

Don’t take that as an Islamophobic rant because it is not. I don’t think most Muslims are radicals who intend to install an Islamic caliphate.

That doesn’t remove questions or concerns about those who take other positions. Try reading Decades of Denial: How Islamists Won the War against Western Values.

The West is going to face some hard questions and have to make some decisions about the coming decades.

The Right Questions

I tried to see the Northern lights from my home here in DFW but I failed to spot them here. I last saw them when I was 21 and the experience has never left me.

Needless to say I was disappointed but I will see them again before I die, just need to pick the time and place.

However I have been in places far from city lights where I could park my car and lie on the hood looking up at an endless tapestry of twinkling lights.

There is magic under a sky such as that and it is a place where you can figure out the right questions to ask.

Asking the right questions is something that many people fail to do. The right questions lead you to the most important answers, assuming you come up with a solution for those right questions.

Here is a brief example of what I am referring to. Someone posted the following on LinkedIn

HR: “We would like to make you an offer of $150,000.”

Candidate: “That’s great. I can work remotely, correct?”

HR: “Unfortunately, this position requires you to be in the office 5 days per week.”

Candidate: “Is there any flexibility?”

HR: “Sorry, but we want all our employees in-office.”

Candidate: “In that case, I’ll have to decline this offer.”

People were outraged that someone would decline an offer for a position that paid $150k but I shook my head at them and shared the following.

If your first response is the candidate is crazy to pass up $150,000 you’ve already missed the boat.

We don’t know if that salary is equivalent to what they are currently earning or a reduction.

Based upon limited information it sounds like it’s enough to garner a positive response.

The big question is how did they get to an offer without both parties understanding key requirements in advance of that.

I don’t think my answer was profound or amazing but it felt obvious to me. I don’t think they asked the right questions early enough to have avoided wasting time.

People miss the merit of spending time thinking about what questions they ought to ask and settle for ones that might not provide the insight they really need and or want.