Small Town Life and Values: The Latest Target of the Woke Mob

Having grown up in two small Kansas towns, I guess I should be distraught and maybe remorseful. Why? Because when an award-winning Country-Western singer writes a song about life and values in America’s ubiquitous small towns and is immediately attacked and canceled, he must have done something wrong, right? Wrong! Actually, all Jason Aldean did …

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The Age of Upside Down

“Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?” ~Simon and Garfunkel 1967. Seems appropriate in this age of upside down. Where are the heroes? Where are the adults? Where are the sheepdogs that protect the flocks? Are they gone or just uncaring? Who stands for the values that made us? I’m in my 70s and, by the …

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Critical Thinking and Policy Development and Analysis

Critical Thinking and Policy Development and Analysis This blog builds upon Part 4: Policy Development. It is the opening part of a series on critical thinking and policy development and analysis. It provides the framework, as shown in the opening figure, for policy development and analysis. Following parts will use this framework to assess some …

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The Looming NCO Crisis, Part 3: Military Culture

The Looming NCO Crisis, Part 3: Military Culture   Part 1 of this series framed the problem of the looming NCO crisis. Part 2 examined why the recruiting base is so low and ended on the cautionary note that even if the military solved the recruiting crisis, if the culture does not support excellence and …

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Losing the Rule of Law: Eroding Civil Society

The rule of law allowed the US to grow exponentially. It both facilitated foreign investment in railroads and other infrastructure and provided a stable set of rules for the growing civilization. But American culture is increasingly inclined to simply ignore laws people find inconvenient. As we ignore laws, we lose respect for the rule of law and the virtues that allows American to prosper.