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WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A TEAM

Dr. Joel Wade June 14, 2013

[Note from Jack Wheeler: TTP would like to congratulate Joel and his team, the Santa Barbara Masters (Joel's the goalie) for winning the Silver Medal in the National Water Polo Masters Championships (50 and over, Joel's an old guy) held in Riverside CA last Sunday, June 9!]

Brand New Mastering Happiness Audio Course! See below!

I've played water polo for most of my life, and still do. I've had the privilege of playing on some excellent teams, and I've also played on some, well... not so excellent teams.

I've also been involved with some psychology groups who thought they knew how to be part of a team, or to build teams. I was always surprised at the lack of understanding among them. Today I want to talk about some of the things I've found over the years that make for an excellent team - and a not so excellent team, whether it's for work, play, family or marriage.

This is by no means exhaustive. There is so much that goes into team building that it would be more than I could put into an article. But I want to focus mostly on doing away with one great big flawed cliché: "There is no I in team."

That's baloney.

DO YOU THINK YOUâ€™LL BE DIFFERENT IN TEN YEARS?

Dr. Joel Wade March 5, 2013

When you think of what you'll be like ten years from now, if you're like most people, you probably imagine that you'll be just like you are now. Yet when you look back ten years, aren't you different than you were then?

Of course you are different today than you were ten years ago - unless you've removed yourself from any experience of living. Life is a continual anti-entropy endeavor. If we don't expend energy to create order, the natural tendency of things to move toward disorder takes over.

If you don't mow the lawn, the lawn becomes a growth of weeds; if you don't use your body in some kind of physical activity, your body begins to break down; if you don't use your mind to learn and think about new things, your mind will become less active and effective.

You will be different than you are now in ten years. That's a fact of life. The question is, how will you be different; and will you be different mostly as a result of events, or through conscious choice?

THE TO THE POINT BUSINESS NETWORK

Dr. Jack Wheeler January 1, 2010

We are pleased to announce a new special feature of To The Point available to all TTP members: The To The Point Business Network.

There is already the TTP Social Network where TTPers can share their opinions and plan social activities with each other. But what about sharing business expertise and opportunities with each other?

There is so much business experience, knowledge, and creativity possessed by TTPers. So we have decided to synergize it. These are troubling economic times. But synergized TTPers can help each other overcome them - and even flourish during them.

Whatever your business talents and abilities are, whatever your economic situation, you'll find fellow TTPers willing to share their thoughts and ideas with you, willing to help - just as you can help them.

The link to the To The Point Business Network is in the left side bar of the TTP home page, just below the Main Menu categories.

So join and sign up now, and start making 2010 a business success story for you and your family. Many thanks to TTP general manager Miko, and Marco "The Wizard" Gilligan, for making this possible!

THE MIND OF JIHAD

Michael Ledeen December 10, 2008

Laurent Murawiec's The Mind of Jihad is, at last, a book on radical Islam that does it all.

Unlike many engaged in the heated debate over the nature of our enemies, Murawiec does not believe that ancient texts tell us all we need to know. He insists that all ideas change over time, even those believed to have been dictated by God's angel.

He has therefore immersed himself not only in the sacred texts of Islam but also in the richly variegated speeches, writings, and actions of its most extremist practitioners: the jihadis waging war against us.

He candidly admits that it was not easy, that many of his initial ideas turned out to be wrong, and that his current understanding of "the mind of jihad" surprises him. This understanding holds that the current doctrine is far more than the resuscitation of medieval commandments, and in fact has a lot to do with modern European and Soviet totalitarianism.

UPDATING YOUR SECURITY

Mark Gilligan May 23, 2008

If you run Windows OS software on your computer I kindly ask you to read the article linked below for your personal protection. My "Wizard" predecessor Dennis Turner and I have mentioned some of the items listed below, however this is a pretty complete documentation on how to be safe in a dangerous world.

How to Secure Your Windows Computer and Protect Your Privacy

Last week, Microsoft released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for its Macintosh 2008 Office suite. It has a variety of fixes and changes that have promised to improve performance and security to the suite of apps that closely parallels the Office Suite for Windows users. You can read about it here ... Description of Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0)

And download it here... Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0)

If you work in an organization, you may be surprised to find out that the most important factor in attaining organizational security is you. Do you know what your local IT policies or where your IT policies can be found?

You can find out, and learn how to be part of the solution rather than any problem by reading: Attaining Organizational Security.

DID NEW HAMPSHIRE SAVE OBAMA’S LIFE?

Dr. Jack Wheeler January 9, 2008

If you Google "Obama" and "assassination" you will get 384,000 hits.

All over the world, the media is speculating on the possibility. Typical is the January 8 (the day of the New Hampshire primary) headline in one of Australia's major newspapers, The Australian: Obama Must Be Wary of the Assassin's Gun.

The "news angle" of thousands of such stories is the same. The first line of The Australian story is: "Barrack Obama is crazy brave. His victory in Iowa puts him in the crosshairs of many a gun-toting racist for whom the thought of a black president is an abomination."

It's the drumbeat theme echoing around the globe: evil racist-fascist right-wing war-mongering child-eating nazi conservatives will always destroy America's hopes of being a peaceful humanitarian nation.

After all, it was just such a fascist-nazi right-winger that murdered JFK and killed Camelot, right? What's that? Lee Harvey Oswald was a Communist? Oh...

Please ignore that impossibly embarrassing fact. Especially since it brings up the real question that no liberal dares to think, much less ask:

Will Hillary find an Oswald of her own to take out Obama?

HOW TO GET WINDOWS TO STOP NAGGING YOU

Dennis Turner June 29, 2006

We're going to talk today about getting rid of an annoyance with Windows Updates.
Every user should have it turned to Automatic. But whether it is automatic or not, almost all the time after the update, your computer must be rebooted for the updates to take effect.

The annoyance is that if you click no to the message box that asks you if you want to reboot now, the message box pops up every several minutes and asks the same fool question.

Worse, if you leave the room for several minutes when the message box pops up, it'll reboot automatically - losing whatever websites you were on or data you hadn't saved.

This was really annoying me, and probably many of you. After Jack sent me an email asking me how to prevent it, I finally decided to find out how to get rid of it.

Chapter Nine: MALINALI’S PRAYER

Dr. Jack Wheeler September 22, 2005

Chapter Nine: Malinali’s Prayer

When Malinali finished her story, Cortez spoke to her directly. She had learned enough Spanish to mostly understand him.

“Doña Marina, you know now that I am a man, and not this Mesheeka god, yes?”

She nodded.

“Yet the Mesheeka king does not think I am a man just like him - he believes instead that I could actually be one of his gods?”

She nodded again.

Cortez crossed himself. He looked at Aguilar. “These Mesheeka are stranger and more evil than I thought possible, Jeronimo. Their religion is the worship of Satan himself, the gods they worship are devils - except for one god, this Quetzacoatl, who preaches good not evil. And it is him they are afraid of, it is him they have somehow confused with me. What is it they are afraid of?”

Aguilar shrugged. Cortez’s dark eyes shifted to Malinali.

WILL YEMEN BE THE SAUDI VIETNAM?

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard April 1, 2015

The long-simmering struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran for Mid-East supremacy has escalated to a dangerous new level as the two sides fight for control of Yemen, reminding markets that the epicenter of global oil supply remains a powder keg.

Brent oil prices spiked 6% to $58 a barrel after a Saudi-led coalition of ten Sunni Muslim states mobilized 150,000 troops and launched air strikes against the Iranian-backed Houthi militias in Yemen, prompting a furious riposte from Tehran.

Analysts expect crude prices to command a new "geo-political premium" as it becomes clear that Saudi Arabia has lost control over the Yemen peninsular and faces a failed state on its 1,800 km southern border, where Al Qaeda can operate with near impunity.

The Saudis face an impossible dilemma. The harder they hit the Houthis, the greater the danger of a power vacuum that can only benefit Al Qaeda and Islamic State groupings that already control central Yemen. They are among the most lethal of the various Al Qaeda franchises. A cell from that area was responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.

Yemen is the latest country swept up an epic struggle for mastery between the Sunnis and Shias across the Middle East that some have compared to the Catholic-Protestant blood-letting of the Thirty Years War in 17th Century Europe. Could this struggle end up tearing Saudi Arabia apart?

HALF-FULL REPORT 01/23/15

Dr. Jack Wheeler January 23, 2015

King Salmon - that's Alaska's State Fish. Because of its "high oil content," says one seafood website, it's "the richest salmon in the world." But why all the headlines about it this morning?

Oh... sorry... that's King Salman, the new ruler of Saudi Arabia. It's so easy to get vowels mixed up as written Arabic doesn't have them.

Salman wasted no time this morning replacing Abdullah's relatives with his own. He's got to be in a hurry as he won't be around for long either - he's 79 with persistent reports (such as in The Economist) he has Alzheimer's.

Thus the Saudi Kingdom could be in beaucoup deep kimchee. For, like the Former Soviet Union, it's not a real country but a colonial empire within its own borders.

A history of that with pics is appended below, but for now here's a shot I took of the Ibn Saud Conquest Map inside the Masmak Fort in Riyadh...

We'll laugh at Zero's "More Cowbell Speech," but the bottom line is scary serious: he's a fascist. That needs to be said everywhere repeatedly: President Barack Obama is a fascist. Here is precisely why...

THE BLESSING OF HUMAN PROGRESS

Richard Rahn December 24, 2014

On this Christmas Eve, you should count your blessings that you live in 2014.

Would you prefer to live as the French King Louis XIV did (1643-1715), or as you do today? The average low-income American, who makes $25,000 per year, lives in a home that has air conditioning, a color TV and a dishwasher, owns an automobile, and eats more calories than he should from an immense variety of food.

Louis XIV lived in constant fear of dying from smallpox and many other diseases that are now cured quickly by antibiotics. His palace at Versailles had 700 rooms but no toilets nor bathrooms (hence he rarely bathed), and no central heating or air conditioning.

Louis and John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in the world 100 years ago, had many servants to gather and prepare food for them, but they could not get fresh food out of season and had a tiny choice of food compared with anyone who has access to a modern supermarket, where one is increasingly able to purchase prepared meals of far higher quality and variety than anything Louis or Rockefeller could obtain.

My Cato colleague Marian Tupy has created a website, HumanProgress.org, which graphically details the enormous progress humans have made on nearly all fronts. People in the world live far better today than they did a mere half-century ago.

THE TRAGIC AND INDEFENSIBLE SUPREME COURT

Senator Ted Cruz October 8, 2014

The Supreme Court's decision on Monday (10/06) to let rulings by lower court judges stand that redefine marriage is both tragic and indefensible.

By refusing to rule if the States can define marriage, the Supreme Court is abdicating its duty to uphold the Constitution. The fact that the Supreme Court Justices, without providing any explanation whatsoever, have permitted lower courts to strike down so many state marriage laws is astonishing.

This is judicial activism at its worst. The Constitution entrusts state legislatures, elected by the People, to define marriage consistent with the values and mores of their citizens. Unelected judges should not be imposing their policy preferences to subvert the considered judgments of democratically elected legislatures.

The Supreme Court is, de facto, applying an extremely broad interpretation to the 14^th Amendment without saying a word - an action that is likely to have far-reaching consequences.

It is beyond dispute that when the 14^th Amendment was adopted 146 years ago, as a necessary post-Civil War era reform, it was not imagined to also mandate same-sex marriage -- but that is what the Supreme Court is implying. The Court is making the preposterous assumption that the People of the United States somehow silently redefined marriage in 1868 when they ratified the 14^th Amendment.

IS DARRELL ISSA BEING BLACKMAILED?

Dr. Jack Wheeler September 18, 2014

I first met Darrell Issa on Halloween. He was a freshman Congressman in 2001, and he came to a Halloween Party my wife and I had at our home in McLean, Virginia. Two of his California colleagues, both good friends of ours, brought him.

I make the world's greatest eggnog and it was served liberally. Given the crowd, the conversation naturally turned to politics and geopolitics. We were having a merry libational time solving the world's problems when the subject of Israel came up.

Issa, who had been quiet, launched into a passionate plea for the Palestinian Arab "Right of Return." John Fund of the Wall Street Journal and I instantly glanced at each other, for we both well knew this was code for advocating the extinction of Israel.

My ever-vigilant bride Rebel noticed, realized the conversation could go quickly sideways, and deftly changed the subject.

Given this introduction, it came as little surprise to me that, one month later (11/30/01) conservative columnist Debbie Schlussel denounced Issa as "Jihad Darrell" for his public support of Hezbollah and Yasser Arafat.

As a freshman, Issa was touted as "the richest man in Congress" - which he still is, with a net worth of over $355 million. That money, adroitly spent on generous campaign donations to one's colleagues, enables you to ascend the Congress power hierarchy. Which is why, when the Pubs got their majority back in January 2011, he was anointed as Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

And what has he accomplished regarding the most scandal-ridden presidency in US history? Nothing. Why?

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FOR REGRESSIVE ANTI-CHRISTIANS

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas. If that offends you, why should I care? It's your problem, not mine. Let me explain your problem a little more fully.

You folks don't want to be called "liberals" any more because most everyone else has figured out you don't believe in liberty but its opposite - the repression of individual liberty by a fascist nanny state. So now you demand to be called "progressives" - but we will not comply.

For you believe in a regression away from freedom. You are part of the past, not of the future. You deserve to be called "regressives." Another thing you are a regression from is reality. Christmastime is an opportune moment to focus on one fundamental aspect of reality about America: America is a Christian country.

It's your job to deal with that, because you're not going to change this fact. America has always been a Christian country, and - open wide now, because you're going to have to swallow this - it will continue to be.

You have been waging a war against Christmas and Christianity, but you are going to fail. Here's why.

DONâ€™T FORGET YOUR PLAN A

Dr. Joel Wade May 23, 2013

It's good to have a back-up plan, or a Plan B, especially in uncertain times; but it's also important to remember that this is only for when your plan A is threatened. Often the best thing you can do is to fully commit to your primary vision; sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

It's excellent to have a plan that you can fall back on if things don't work out; but today I want to talk about some elements of committing to your plan A that can be easily neglected... because we take them for granted.

If you're thinking of moving away from your home, be it out of state or out of the country, before you do so, consider what you will be leaving behind. Be very careful before you abandon your Plan A.

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