Jim Link: Idea-Links: The New Creativity - Blog Business Success Radio

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Consultant and educator and author of the demystifying and results oriented book Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link , describes how CEOs identify creativity as the key leadership competency, but have no idea how to develop creativity in their employees. Jim Link provides evidence that the concept of somehow unleashing creativity is the wrong approach. Instead, Jim Link offers the alternative idea of building creativity as a learned skill. Jim Link shares the techniques and disciplines necessary to developing creativity as a core skill. Instead of the traditional, and often misguided approaches to creativity, Jim Link presents a viable learning process that transforms creativity into another developed skill for all employees. Jim Link also shows how to utilize this new competency as a resource to solve specific problems that challenge the organization.

Jim Link is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Thursday, August 2, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Consultant and educator and author of the demystifying and results oriented book Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link , describes how CEOs identify creativity as the key leadership competency, but have no idea how to develop creativity in their employees. You will learn:

* Why CEOs consider creativity the most important leadership competency

* Why creativity is not something that can be unleashed or some eureka moment

* How to identify idea-links to boost your creativity thinking

* How to re-frame idea-links to find solutions to any problem



Jim Link (photo left) has a fascination with ideas began as a child when he would invent new products in his head, then record commercials for his ideas on an old tape recorder he found in the basement. "I've always had a deep fascination with ideas--how they happen, how to get more of them, and why some people generate them more easily than others. You might say I'm addicted to ideas, but in a good way."

Jim eventually turned his love of new ideas into a career at General Mills, where he led new product efforts in a variety of food categories. Seeking to spread his creative wings, Jim started his own idea company at the age of thirty-three. Since 1994, Jim has helped over seventy organizations generate, refine, and market new ideas. Through it all, Jim has chosen to remain a one-man shop, focusing on doing the work he loves.

Jim is an engaging teacher who conducts training workshops on creativity across the world. He is an instructor for 3M University and also teaches creativity as a guest lecturer at major universities.

An avid but shockingly unproductive fisherman, Jim lives in Stillwater, Minnesota, with his wife and their three children.

My book review of Idea-Links: The New Creativity by Jim Link.
Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk consultant and educator and author of the demystifying and results oriented book Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link , as he describes how CEOs identify creativity as the key leadership competency, but have no idea how to develop creativity in their employees. Jim Link provides evidence that the concept of somehow unleashing creativity is the wrong approach. Instead, Jim Link offers the alternative idea of building creativity as a learned skill. Jim Link shares the techniques and disciplines necessary to developing creativity as a core skill. Instead of the traditional, and often misguided approaches to creativity, Jim Link presents a viable learning process that transforms creativity into another developed skill for all employees. Jim Link also shows how to utilize this new competency as a resource to solve specific problems that challenge the organization on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link, creativity development, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Dog Cartoon Of The Week: Bone To Pick

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Dog Cartoon of the Week is brought to you by Andertoons. Check out the website for more great cartoons.


Cartoonist Mark Anderson lives in the Chicago area with his wife, their children, two cats, a dog and several dust bunnies. You might have seen his cartoons in a number of publications including Reader's Digest, The Wall Street Journal, Good Housekeeping, Forbes, Barrons, Woman's World, Harvard Business Review, Saturday Evening Post, American Legion Magazine, Funny Times.

Obama's Assault on U.S. Energy

By Alan Caruba

For the second time in two days, hundreds of millions of people across India have been plunged into darkness when its electrical grids collapsed. This is a warning of what could occur here in America.

“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” -- Barack Obama

In a war one of the first targets are the power plants in order to deny the energy a nation requires to function. Obama declared war on coal during the 2008 campaign and few were paying attention. In 1985 coal accounted for 57 percent of all power generated in the U.S. By 2011, it was down to 42 percent.

A July 28 Daily Caller headline reported that a “Record number of coal-fired generators to be shut down in 2012.” Based on an analysis of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the article noted that “coal plant operators are planning to retire 175 coal-fired generators, or 8.5 percent of the total coal-fired capacity in the United States.”

“A record-high 57 generators will shut down in 2012, representing 9 gigawatts of electrical capacity, according to the EIA. In 2015, nearly 10 gigawatts of capacity from 6l coal-fired generators will be retired…the scope of this new planned shutdown is unprecedented.”

“The coal-fired capacity expected to be retired over the next fire years is more than four times greater than retirements performed during the preceding five-year period.”

For those thinking that all those wind turbines and solar farms will make up the difference, it’s worth noting they provide less than three percent of the nation’s electricity and each must be backed up by a traditional—reliable—power plant.

Virtually of them are located far from urban centers and require lengthy, expensive power lines to feed the grid and yet last week the Interior Department announced it will set aside 285,000 acres in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah for solar projects! How many multi-million dollar failed Solyndra’s will it take to stop this rape?

In March 2011 the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report noting that the combined energy resources of the nation are the largest on Earth. They eclipse Saudi Arabia (3rd), China (4th), and Canada 6th) combined. Not included in the report are America’s shale oil and natural gas deposits.

Sen. Inhofe (R-OK), a ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said at the time that “The Obama administration has made a conscious policy choice to raise energy prices, accomplished in good measure by restricting access to domestic energy supplies.” If a foreign nation was doing this to America, we would be at war with them.

The CRS report noted that America’s reserves of coal are unsurpassed, accounting for more than twenty-eight percent of the world’s coal. It estimated that U.S. recoverable coal reserves were around 262 billion tons. Insofar as the U.S. consumers 1.2 billion tons of coal a year, that represents several centuries of coal use.

And, of course, coal is not the only energy source that has been under attack by the Obama administration. The CRS report estimated there are 163 billion barrels of oil that the U.S. can access, enough to replace oil imports from the Persian Gulf for more than fifty years.

One of the reasons that coal plants are being retired is the emergence of a huge domestic reserve of natural gas estimated to be around 2,047 trillion cubic feet in 2009. That would keep the lights on for a century.

The Obama administration energy policy has been appalling. It invested—and lost—billions in green energy companies and green jobs. Its stimulus package is estimated to have cost $335,000 per job “saved” or created.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu has been an unmitigated disaster. Before his nomination he said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” And we all know how well that has worked for Europe whose Union is foundering on the brink of collapse. The Environmental Protection Agency is the other blunt instrument of destruction of the nation’s energy providers.

The Obama administration has consistently insisted that “greenhouse gas emissions”, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2) had to be reduced to offset global warming, but there is NO global warming and CO2 plays NO role in climate change. When the administration tried to push cap-and-trade legislation through based on this hoax, Obama said that, under the proposal, “energy prices would necessarily skyrocket.” Does that sound like someone trying to crash the economy? Yes, it does.

Between an oil drilling moratorium—twice declared by the courts to be illegal—and the stalling of the Keystone XL pipeline (which would generate thousands of jobs while costing the U.S. taxpayer nothing!), the war on oil was pursued while the administration offered Brazil billions in U.S. taxpayer money in loan guarantees to build their oil production capacity.

Enormous oil reserves in Alaska and offshore are still unavailable to American use. In addition, crude oil production on federal and Indian lands decreased 13 percent from 739 million barrels in fiscal year 2010 to 645 million barrels in fiscal year 2011. Offshore production on federal lands fell by 17 percent in fiscal year 2011 and is down 40 percent compared to ten years ago.

Four more years of an Obama administration would be—just in terms of energy—a disaster for the nation. The President and his minions are weakening a nation that sits atop some of the world’s greatest energy reserves. This must end soon or the consequences are unimaginable.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

Jasmine's Mysterious Swelling And Interdigital Cyst Update

Jasmine's interdigital cyst is just about healed. She always responded well to antibiotics, and it held true this time as well. So that's the good news.

The bad news is that the swelling remains.

Apparently the cyst was just a coincidence and the swelling is due to the yeast infection. We're doing the medicated foot baths religiously, every two days. I also change all her sheets after every bath. Those have to be the cleanest sheets in the history of clean sheets.

The salty smell is gone but the swelling is not.

It has temporarily improved after Jasmine's underwater treadmill session on Saturday. She also got cold laser treatment on all her feet. But the next day it seemed to look about the same as at the beginning.

What would my life be if I didn't have something to worry about?

Jasmine's vet, though, isn't surprised by this and says that he wouldn't expect the swelling go down until Tuesday or Wednesday. We also made a follow-up appointment so he can check it out. With our planned trip to Jasmine's ranch (we're supposed to leave Thursday early morning), I would really like for this to be resolved before that.

So it all depends on whether the leg looks good by then and/or whether her vet clears her for the trip. I would hate to run into complications while virtually in the middle of nowhere and I'd prefer having a vet whom I trust on the case.

So far we're acting as if we're going as planned. 

Jasmine is already on low-glycemic diet, just low starch veggies and animal protein. I am wondering whether I should add some coconut oil or oregano. A bit of coconut oil shouldn't hurt anything. I am somewhat worried about oregano because Jasmine doesn't do all herbs equally well.

One virtue that I am not very fond of - patience.

Oh Lord, give me patience, and give it to me now! 

On second thought, never mind patience, give me healthy Jasmine. Thank you so much. Amen.

Related articles:
Jasmine's Mysterious Swelling And Another Experience With VetLive
The Diagnosis Is In: Jasmine Has An Interdigital Cyst  

Jasmine's Acute Lameness
Jasmine Doesn't Like "Doing Time"
Our Of Jail Free Pass
When It's Looks Too Good To Be True … The Lameness Returns
The Day Of The Treatment
First Time For Everything: A Healing Crisis(?)  
From Zero To Sixty In Four Days: Stem Cells At Work
The Calm After The Storm 
If It Was Easy, It Wouldn't Be Jasmine
This Is What Jasmine's Episode Looks Like
Gotta Try Everything Once (Or Twice): On The Quest To Figure Out Jasmine's Episodes 

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Meet Jasmine
I'm Still Standing! (Happy Birthday, Jasmine)
How Dogs Think (Well, Jasmine Anyway)
How The Oddysey Started: Jasmine's ACL Injury
Jasmine is Vet-Stem's poster child!
Rant About Quality Of Life Versus Quantity, And Differential Diagnoses
Jasmine Is Headed For Her Next Stem Cell Treatment
Jasmine's Stem Cells Are In
Arthritis? What Arthritis? 
Guess Who Is An Ever-Ready Bunny And Really Liking The Bit Of Snow We Got? 
Don't Knock It Until You Tried It: Animal Chiropractic 
Jasmine's Fur Analysis
Back At Chiropractic Care

Further reading:
Jasmine’s Story: Can Chronic Diarrhea and Soft Tissue Injuries be Normal?
Jasmine’s Story: An ACL Injury and a Cancer Scare
Jasmine’s Condition Deteriorates: Another ACL Injury and an Abdominal Abscess
Jasmine Recovers from Surgery and Jana Discovers TCVM
Who’s Minding Your Pet’s Health?
Pet Owner Perspective On Stem Cell Therapy
Difficult to Manage Lameness Treated with Physical Therapy
Our Journey to Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine

Idea-Links: The New Creativity by Jim Link - Book review

Idea-Links

The New Creativity

By: Jim Link

Published: February 12, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 280 pages
ISBN-10: 1592982751
ISBN-13: 978-1592982752
Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press














"We begin our journey by rethinking creativity and seeing how the allure of the fabled eureka moment actually distracts us from focusing on the important work that leads us there", writes consult and teacher of creativity, Jim Link in his demystifying and results oriented book Idea-Links: The New Creativity. The author describes how the most commonly understood theories and practices of creative thinking miss the point that creativity is a skill that can be developed, learned, and applied as a reliable problem solving process.

Jim Link cites a 2010 IBM poll which reported that CEOs considered creativity to be the most important leadership competency. The problem for these CEOs, writes Jim Link, is that they have no idea how to develop creativity within their employees or organizations. As a result, the CEOs simple wait from some magical unleashing, of some supposed creative energy, that never seems to happen. At the same time, countless hours and dollars are spent on creative thinking training sessions, seminars, and books that fail to produce more creativity either. Jim Link presents an alternative approach, where creativity is treated as another skill to be learned by individuals, and a process to be put into place by organizations.



Jim Link (photo left) begins by dispelling the myth that creativity is something that happens at random to supposedly gifted people. He also dispenses with the notion that creativity can be added to a person's skill set overnight, but instead requires hard work at learning and developing the proper disciplines. Jim Link guides the reader through the needed skills and disciplines that lead to enhanced creativity through a complete rethinking of the entire creative process and how it works in practice.Jim Link presents the concept of idea-links that connect what you already know to the problem at hand. With those links in hand, the author then moves to the next step of creatively re-framing what you already know to develop new ideas.

Jim Link presents a series of steps for the making of these all important idea-links. The making of idea-links includes the following:

* Digging deeper to use analysis to create idea-links
* Curiosity through the asking of why questions
* Storing idea-links by banking them for future use
* Finding idea-links for important subject areas
* Finding idea-links for specific projects or problems
* Creatively re-framing to access your already owned idea-links
* Asking the important what if questions
* Planning for success through a shared process and vocabulary

For me, the power of the book is how Jim Link transforms the entire concept of creativity, from one of random chance and supposed eureka moments, to one of a learned and repeatable skill. The author moves beyond the standard books on creative thinking, and presents creativity as a learned skill, that will become a reusable problem solving process. Jim Link demonstrates that creativity is not some random event, but is a discipline that can be learned, practiced, and mastered by anyone.

The author rightly cautions the reader that learning to think creatively requires work and dedication to understanding and employing this new competency effectively. To his credit, Jim Link doesn't posit any get creative quickly approaches, but instead shares the techniques to establish creativity as a core competency, and as an organizational process. Jim Lake adds to the texture of his concepts through real world case studies of the principle of idea-links in action.

I highly recommend the organizational and individual creativity skill development book Idea-Links: The New Creativity by Jim Link, to anyone seeking a realistic, and proven skill building approach to developing their own creativity skills, and those of their entire organization. This book will move you away from thinking that creativity is only an unleashing of a eureka moment away, and will guide you toward learning and practicing an important and valuable new skill.

Tags: Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link, creativity development, business book reviews

The Chick-Fil-A Distraction

Democrats Toss the Gays a Bone

By Alan Caruba

It’s official or, well, semi-official. The Washington Blade which identifies itself as “America’s leading gay news source” reported on Monday, July 30, that the Democratic Party platform had approved the language of “pro-LGBT positions” to be included in the party’s platform.

LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender for those of you who do not breathlessly follow the demands of this rather special group of voters. Apparently not satisfied in May when DC Comics announced that the sexual orientation of one of their superheroes would henceforth be homosexual, this latest breakthrough is surely being hailed in gay bars and salons from coast to coast.

The platform is still in a draft phase, but reportedly will include a plank approving same-sex marriage and rejecting the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The Obama administration let it be known that it would not defend DOMA despite the fact that it is federal law. And, of course, Obama came out for same-sex marriage in May.

For those unfamiliar with DOMA, it was signed into law by President Clinton on September 21, 1996 after passing both houses of Congress with large majorities. Ah, for the good old days when Democrats actually supported marriage between a man and a woman.

Marc Solomon, the national campaign director for Freedom to Marry, was one of the witnesses testifying in favor of the “marriage equality” plank. How much marriage equality can the nation handle? There are people who are extremely fond of their pets. Will tree huggers insist on the right to marry an oak or a redwood? The variations are endless.

Solomon is quoted in The Blade saying, “As I testified to the Committee on Friday, the Democratic Party has a noble history of fighting for the human and civil rights of all Americans.”

Whoa! Solomon apparently is unaware that it was a Republican Party President named Lincoln who issued the Emancipation Proclamation or that the opposition to slavery was a major component of the Civil War. For a century after their defeat the former Confederate states not only fashioned the system of Jim Crow laws, but were the steadfast opponents of civil rights legislation right on through to the 1960s. Maybe they don’t teach U.S. history to gay boys and girls in our schools anymore?

A Huffington Post article reported that “The Democratic National Committee had hesitated to push for same-sex marriage as a platform plank as recently as this March, with LGBT sources telling The Huffington Post that they were getting pushback from party officials.”

Aside from the hideous economic, energy and foreign policies of the Obama administration, does anyone—including deluded liberal Democrats—think that including a plank favoring same-sex marriage and opposing the Defense of Marriage Act is going to produce enough votes to retain the Senate and the White House, let alone win back the House?

According to Wikipedia, “As of April 2011, approximately 3.5% of American adults identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, while 0.3% or transgender—approximately 11.7 million Americans.”

So, to lock in those LGBT votes, the Democratic Party will include their plank. Or not. The final text of the party platform will not be voted on until the convention in September, though the close-to-final draft will be presented to the full platform committee in Detroit from August 10 to 12.

I do hope the plank becomes part of the platform if for no other reason that it is guaranteed to offend the millions of Americans who believe in the institution of marriage, are sick of Barack Obama, and are tired of the non-stop gay propaganda to justify homosexuality as a “normal” lifestyle in a world populated by billions of happy heterosexuals.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

Adoption Monday: Nikki, Labrador Retriever/Terrier Mix, Deerfield, NH

Check out this beautiful girl at Mary's Dogs Rescue & Adoption!

Nikki is a 1 year old, spirited and happy girl.

 
She is outgoing, friendly with people and children, other dogs as well. Very usual puppy energy.

Nikki will be a great family dog.

She is house trained, spayed and up-to-date with her shots.

Nikki is ready for you. Are you ready for her?

Want more info on Nikki? Call Mary's Dogs: 603.370.7750 or send along an email: marysdogsrescue@gmail.com

Ready to bring Nikki home? Tell us about yourself and your interest in Nikki in our adoption questionnaire. Check out all the wonderful dogs on Mary's Dogs Facebook Fan Page.

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Mary’s Dogs rescues and re-homes dogs and puppies from Aiken County Animal Shelter, a high-kill shelter in South Carolina, USA. They also serve as a resource to communities in Southern New Hampshire and pet owners nationwide by providing education and information on responsible pet ownership, including the importance of spay/neuter, positive behavior training, and good nutrition.

Drugs, Billions, and Mexico

By Alan Caruba

Mexico has always been seen as somewhat entertaining in American culture. In films from the midpoint of the last century, Mexicans were either buffoonish, but evil cutthroats or amusing sidekicks. For years Mexico was a vacation destination for Americans. Not any more.

Today and in a growing crescendo for many years, Mexico is a place whose leading exports are drugs and oil. And, if the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry hadn’t blown the lid off an Obama administration’s program to “walk” guns into Mexico, specifically for the use of drug cartels, they would likely still be crossing the border in the most inept and criminally stupid plan—“Fast and Furious”—to blame American gun stores for the rising tide of murders there.

In a June article for Businessinsider.com, Michael Kelley reported that “The sting operation led to the sale of over 2,500 firearms, of which fewer than 700 were recovered as of October 31, 2011, and has not led to the arrest of any high-level cartel figures targeted in the operation.”

Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, has authored “The Fire Next Door: Mexico’s Drug Violence and the Danger to America.” It will be published officially in October, so you are likely reading about it first here. The Cato Institute is a Libertarian think tank, a public policy foundation in Washington, D.C., funded primarily by some 15,000 individuals.

Carpenter’s book is a damning indictment of both Mexican and American policies regarding drugs. “The global trade in illegal drugs is conservatively estimated at more than $300 billion per year, and Mexico’s share is something in excess of $30 billion.”

Carpenter warns that “The deteriorating security conditions in Mexico, and the risk that the frightening violence there could become a routine feature of life in American communities as the cartels flex their muscles north of the border, makes it urgent that leaders of both countries reconsider their approach to the crisis.”

Let it be said that no one on either side of the border comes away with clean hands regarding this threat. If Americans are bothered by the flow of illegal aliens, many of whom are Mexicans seeking to escape the horrors of the cartel wars, the prospect of those wars occurring in the cities of America will really get their attention. The Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center estimates that cartels operated in 1,286 U.S. cities in 2009 and 2010. It is more than five times the number reported in 2008.

Up to now there have been fairly isolated cases such as Brian Terry’s murder and the murder of Arizona rancher, Robert Krentz in March 2010. Rarely mentioned is the murder of Jaime Zapata, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

When you put together “Fast and Furious” together with the Obama administration’s efforts to thwart and punish Arizona for passing laws to grant wider powers to its law enforcement authorities, the pattern that immerges is one of indifference for the safety of Arizonans and all others in the border and all other states.

When you add in the refusal of the Obama Department of Justice to make documents subpoenaed by a Congressional committee investigating “Fast and Furious” available and the subsequent indictment of Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt of Congress, as well as the declaration of executive privilege, you are witnessing a level of governmental criminality that rivals Watergate.

The Mexican response has been to return the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to power. It governed Mexico for decades and was widely seen as corrupt. It did, however, have “a de facto policy of (relatively) peaceful coexistence with the cartels.” For Mexicans that is a better alternative than the current bloodshed.

Carpenter says “There are approximately a dozen drug trafficking organizations that are significant players in Mexico. And several of them—especially the Sinoloa cartel, the Tijuana cartel, the Juarez cartel, and the Zetas—control major swaths of territory. But it is an ever-shifting competitive environment.” With $30 to $39 billion at stake, that is understandable.

There have been many estimates of the cartel’s death tolls in Mexico. Carpenter cites between 47,000 and 51,000 lives, noting that since President Felipe Calderon decided in December 2006 to wage a military-led offensive to crush the cartels, the increasing trend is ominous. Compare this with the 15,000 dead in Syria’s year old civil war and it is obvious that there is a war south of our border and one that is not getting much attention in the nation’s media or at the highest levels of the current administration.

While observers continue to say that Mexico is not yet a failed state, the prospect is out there and America shares a 2,000 mile border with it.

Carpenter suggests that America has to consider the legalization of drugs as a significant way of reducing the enormous income they represent to the cartels.

Vincente Fox Quesada, the president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, in a forward to Carpenter’s book, says “The fear that legalization would lead to an explosion of drug use seems unfounded. Portugal’s experience with its bold drug policy reforms over the past decade indicates that drug use might actually decline once prohibition is ended.”

So, perhaps the time has come for America to reform its drug laws. If it reduces the obscene amount of money the cartels earn, it’s worth it.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

Dog Food: The Multi Billion Dollar Infographic

Does your dog suffer from itchy paws, stinky ears, and low energy? Does he constantly seem to drop large, smelly stools? These may actually be symptoms of a poor diet.

Researchers at Pet365 took a long look at the pet food industry, examining the ingredients in packaged dog food and comparing them to a natural diet. In addition, they checked pricing across the board in order to find the best values. Even branding trends came under consideration.

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I don't agree that dogs should not eat raw meat (as per section 4). I know enough people who feed their dogs raw diets, after long battles with various health issues, and their dogs are doing amazingly well.

Many dogs also do great having yogurt, cottage cheese and other dairy products in their diets. Jasmine's original recipe, from a nutritionist, also had these ingredients in it. Many of the recipes also include tomatoes. So I don't agree with all the foods to avoid on those lists.

Overall, though,  it's a great and interesting infographic.



Created by Matt Beswick for Pet365. Take a look at the full dog food post.

The "Worst President Ever"

By Alan Caruba

You have to know how poorly Barack Hussein Obama has performed in office when the phrase the "worst President ever” has already become a cliché.

Obama’s first term is frequently compared to the devastation of Jimmy Carter’s first and only term. It left Carter a rejected, embittered man, frequently critical of those who succeeded him.

What did President Reagan do to create an economic boom in the wake of Carter’s sorry record?

Peter Ferrara, the Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for The Heartland Institute, who served in the Reagan White House Office of Policy Development, writing in 2008 cited Reagan’s (1) tax cuts to restore incentives for economic growth, (2) spending reductions, including a $31 billion cut in spending in 1981, close to 5% of the federal budget, (3) an anti-inflation monetary policy restraining money supply growth, (4) deregulation that by 2008 had saved consumers an estimated $100 billion in lower prices, and (5) free trade in the form of worldwide agreements to reduce tariff taxes.

Citing tax cuts, Ferrara noted that “Reagan was not the first or last to adopt sweeping tax cuts to boost the economy. It has happened four, perhaps five, times in the last century, with virtually the same results every time.”

Obama has never stopped talking about raising taxes and his signature legislation, Obamacare, had more than twenty increases in taxes embedded—hidden—in the more than 2,000 pages that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi famously said had to be passed in order “to find out what is in it.”

In contrast to Reagan, Obama has spent his years in office blaming George W. Bush and even the Clinton years for the economy he “inherited”, but which more accurately stated, was an economy he campaigned to fix, promising hope and change.

In 2005, Dr. Hans F. Sennholz, the chairman of the department of economics at Grove City College, wrote an analysis of “The Economics of Jimmy Carter” noting that Carter was “unaware of the inexorable economic principles that direct and determine economic life.”

Carter, Sennholz wrote, was unaware that, “Consumers determine not only the prices of consumer goods but also those of the factors of production, that is, land, labor, and capital. They determine and pay the wages of every worker” noting also that “Carter never tires of expounding his displeasure and irritability about the income and wealth of many capitalists and about government policies that seem to favor the rich.” Who does that sound like today?

In January of this year, looking back over the first three years of Obama economic policies, an Indiana University study noted that 46 million Americans are living below the poverty line—up 27% since the start of the recession dated back to 2006.

The report stated that “The Great Recession has left behind the largest number of long-term unemployed people since records were first kept in 1948. More than four million Americans report that they have been unemployed for more than twelve months.”

For those who still think Obama can be reelected, it is worth noting that the most severely affected states are Florida, Nevada, and Arizona which have been badly hit by the housing foreclosure crisis, and Michigan and Ohio that have seen the collapse of traditional manufacturing. These are all key states Obama would need to win.

On July 27, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. economic growth had slowed to 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter as consumer spending weakened. “The growth estimate Friday from the government suggested that the U.S. economy could be at risk of stalling three years after the recession ended.” While the official unemployment rate is 8.2 percent, it is widely believed to be above 10 percent.

“No president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the depths of the Great Depression, has been reelected when the unemployment rate exceeded 8 percent,” said the Associated Press report. “Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush were ousted when unemployment was well below 8 percent.”

At this point, the Obama campaign, unable to run on his economic record, has devoted itself to depicting Mitt Romney as a rapacious capitalist who grew wealthy investing in companies, a felon who continued to run Bain Capital after leaving to save the Salt lake City Olympics (a job for which he took no pay), and for failing to release his tax returns going back many years. Not mentioned is the fact that Obama is a multi-millionaire or his total lack of experience in the private sector.

Repeating all the errors of the Carter years and exacerbating the 2008 financial crisis by spending billions in taxpayer funds on failed “stimulus” programs, Obama compounded the crisis by waging war on the nation’s energy sector, wasting more billions on "clean energy", and using executive orders to circumvent immigration and welfare laws on the books.

The result has been the highest levels of federal deficit and debt in the history of the nation. He has, indeed, exceeded the damage Jimmy Carter inflicted during his only term in office. He is, indeed, the worst President ever.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

1.7 Million Warning Signs Page Views!

That’s the total thus far as July comes to an end. Warning Signs began at the very end of 2007 and steadily acquired an audience of visitors, mainly from the U.S., but also from around the world. The blog now averages about 100,000 visits a month and appears to be gaining momentum.

A January 2, 2010 commentary, “The Make-Believe Life of Barack Obama”, has had a strange life of its own. Misappropriated by someone who replaced my byline with the name “Eddie Sessions”, he also falsely claimed the commentary had been published in The Wall Street Journal. Snopes.com confirmed that I am the author in response to many inquiries. It is being widely disseminated via email.

All this is very flattering, of course, but it also a reminder of the need for a donation to the blog because, as you might imagine, it requires a lot of research and time to produce six commentaries a week. And this must be done while searching for editorial assignments which, in this economy, are either scarce or pay so little as to be a waste of effort.

As this is being written, the blog is just short of 800 “members”, faithful readers and they too are highly valued. The popularity of the blog also contributes to the popularity of my Facebook page where I post notices of each new commentary and other items I find newsworthy. A Twitter account provides daily updates as well.

What I hear most often is that Warning Signs provides a point of view and information that is not readily available on the Net though I should add that my commentaries are also widely re-posted on many leading news and opinion websites and blogs. I have been, for example, a daily contributor to http://www.canadafreepress.com/ for many years.

So, yes, I am delighted to report 1.7 million page views and I expect it will not be that long before we cross the line for two million.

Thank you, all!

Alan Caruba

JoAnn Corley: Organizational Strategies For The Overwhelmed - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Speaker, coach, and author of the very practical and results oriented book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy. JoAnn R. Corley, describes how in companies where people have been laid off, leaving others to pick the additional and often overwhelming workload, is the new normal. JoAnn Corley provides ideas for regaining control over your work, life, and career through managing your time, space, and priorities more effectively. JoAnn shares her strategies for being more empowered to negotiate your workload, able to find things more easily, and for getting more done in the same amount of time. JoAnn offers suggestions for using space more efficiently, and for handling interruptions effectively and tactfully. You will learn how to feel less stressed, make better and more effective decisions, and take control of your life and your career.

JoAnn Corley is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, July 31, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Speaker, coach, and author of the very practical and results oriented book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy. JoAnn R. Corley, describes how in companies where people have been laid off, leaving others to pick the additional and often overwhelming workload, is the new normal. You will learn:

* Why being overwhelmed is the new normal in workplaces

* How to apply an inside out approach to empowering yourself

* How to get more done in the same amount of time

* How to transform your desk and office to get more done faster



JoAnn R. Corley (photo left) is an experienced human resource professional and a dynamic, inspiring speaker-trainer, author & coach. She has a contagious passion and energy for the topics she teaches and has shared that passion with thousands across North America specializing in seminars on Time & Organizational Management, Personal Empowerment, Emotional Intelligence, Creative and Innovative Thinking, Effective Management and Leadership, Team Productivity & Collaboration. She has the unique distinction of having conducted seminars in every state in the U.S. and every major city.

She is author of the newly released book, Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed, How to Manage Your Time, Space, & Priorities to Work Smart, Get Results, & Be Happy, Wisdom@Work and The 1% Edge – Power Strategies to Increase Your Management Effectiveness. She is also contributing author to the book, Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Success, a collaborative effort with some of the top female motivational speakers in North American and hailed by Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame as a must read.

JoAnn also has a unique passion for the connection of technology to enhancing the quality of both our personal and professional lives. She sees herself as a non-techie who loves to learn about what's next and how can that help. That interest lead to the development of her mobile learning-training app - The 1% Edge Portable Coach.

Ms. Corley utilizes her 20+ years of business experience, expertise in the knowledge of work functions and thousands of hours of human behavior coaching to consult in areas such as organizational design, creative and innovative thinking, management development, and adaptive leadership strategies.

She is known by her clients as insightful, passionate and an acute strategic thinker as she assists them in reaching their targeted outcomes.

Ms. Corley founded Convergence Consulting Group in 1998, a human resource-organizational development firm, which has provided services to a variety of industries such as; accounting & finance, engineering, government, staffing, risk management, not-for-profits, and sales to name a few.

Variety also describes the type of coaching and consulting clients Ms. Corley’s has helped over the years, which have included governmental leaders, scientists, engineers, Phds, executives, finance and accounting consultants, mid-level managers and small business owners.

Ms. Corley attended Concordia College, Moorhead, MN and Eastern Illinois University. Prior to launching her consulting practice, she spent several years as the International Benefits Manager for a not-for-profit, then moved on to become a Senior Recruiter for the Richard Michael Group, a boutique Chicago recruiting firm. She is a member of ASTD, SHRM, and AWBA.

My book review of Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy by JoAnn R. Corley.

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with speaker, coach, and author of the very practical and results oriented book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy. JoAnn R. Corley, as she describes how in companies where people have been laid off, leaving others to pick the additional and often overwhelming workload, is the new normal. JoAnn Corley provides ideas for regaining control over your work, life, and career through managing your time, space, and priorities more effectively. JoAnn shares her strategies for being more empowered to negotiate your workload, able to find things more easily, and for getting more done in the same amount of time. JoAnn offers suggestions for using space more efficiently, and for handling interruptions effectively and tactfully. You will learn how to feel less stressed, make better and more effective decisions, and take control of your life and your career on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy, JoAnn R. Corley, personal development, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

The Diagnosis Is In: Jasmine Has An Interdigital Cyst

The wait for Jasmine's appointment felt endless. But the circumstances were such that it had to wait till Friday afternoon.

I did send the photos of Jasmine's swelling and the lump found on the toe to her vet and we talked on Thursday morning.

He reviewed it all and said that it looked like interdigital cyst to him.

(Actually interdigital cyst is a common way to refer to this kind of bump, though technically incorrect. Generally, a cyst is a fluid/semi-fluid filled sac. An abscess, in comparison, is filled with pus. An abscess is formed when foreign organisms are attacking the tissues. What is referred to as interdigital cyst is really an interdigital furuncle, in other words, a boil.)

Either way, it was a relief to hear. This would not pose any immediate or future serious threat.

Interdigital cysts are quite common and we kept our fingers crossed that's what it was. I did some research into the subject and there were couple things that worried me.

1. I didn't find any mention of associated swelling
2. There seemed to be no evidence of pain or lameness (these are supposed to be painful and cause lameness)

Of course this thing is pretty tiny compared with photos I found online, so perhaps that's why the lack of evidence of pain.

The swelling, though, kept worrying me.

No mention of a swelling resulting from interdigital cyst anywhere I could find, while mast cell tumors do have the ability to cause swelling. They don't seem to look the same, but pretty darn close, particularly when you're looking at something very tiny. All reference photos of either condition feature large lumps. And I still havd to wait before we could find out.

VetLive:  I have never seen edema caused from a cyst but if it is irritating her body enough then I can see the logic there.

I was a basket case.

I kept checking the lump, which seemed unchanging, and staring at the swollen leg. The more I was staring at it, the more swollen it seemed ...

The lack of any other symptoms was somewhat comforting.

I did look up potential causes behind an interdigital cyst, several were possible. I was leaning toward either ingrown hairs or foreign body, or yeast infection. I did notice that Jasmine's feet smelled kind of salty (for lack of better interpretation of what I was smelling)

I didn't really feel that allergies would be behind this, I keep saying this all the time but it's true--Jasmine is not an itchy dog.

I found that typical treatment would be Cephalexin (antibiotic used to treat skin infections), along with topical treatments. That would be good, Jasmine was on Cephalexin in the past with no adverse effects.

I found out that the most useful diagnostic tests include skin scrapings (for mites), impression smears, or fine-needle aspirates to confirm the presence of an inflammatory infiltrate.

Source: Merck Veterinary Manual

I wanted to be sure we know exactly what we're looking at.

I wasn't certain whether we could do an needle aspirate on such a tiny thing, but I made a list of all the things I wanted to do to confirm anyway. I really do feel sorry for Jasmine's vet.

Finally we made it to the time of Jasmine's vet appointment.

The diagnosis is in: Jasmine indeed has an interdigital cyst, secondary to Malassezia infection (yeast).

So now I know what that salty smell means.

This was confirmed by physical examination and cytology results. We also sent some of it to the lab for further bacteriology.

All four feet are actually affected by the yeast infection, possibly some virulent strain than Jasmine had previously encountered. The vet was asking whether Jasmine met any new dogs; well, she didn't meet them per say but there are a lot of new dogs in our complex now...

The rest of Jasmine's body is infection free, the vet check her all out inch by inch.

The treatment, as I suspected, is Cephalexin and antifungal shampoo.

So I guess I should be able to breathe again. Still obsessing about the swelling, though, so I hope it'll go down some time soon. Of course it would go down faster with steroids but my gut tells me that is not a good idea. So unless things get worse, I'd rather stay away from that.

When I shared the results with VetLive, I realized that I really was not overly paranoid about the mast cell tumor at all.

VetLive: I am SO glad it's not a mast cell tumor! She really has the worst luck so I was hoping it would not continue to this. Some of the sweetest patients have the worst health luck, if there is such a thing.

I was paranoid alright. I even fasted Jasmine prior the visit, just in case she needed any diagnostics or treatments that would need her fasted.

I trust our vet 98%. But the remaining two are enough to drive me out of my mind in a case like this.

And the long wait only fed my worry. I figured that combining his expertise with the cytology results we can be reasonably sure that it indeed is the interdigital cyst. I was glad to get a confirmation.

VetLive: Mast cell tumors practically scream their names on a slide.

So that ought to be enough even for my ever-worrying heart. 

The swelling still bothers me, so hopefully it's not going to be there for much longer.

Jasmine's birthday is coming up next Friday, I so hope she can enjoy it fully with nothing bothering her.

Related articles:
Jasmine's Mysterious Swelling And Another Experience With VetLive

Jasmine's Acute Lameness
Jasmine Doesn't Like "Doing Time"
Our Of Jail Free Pass
When It's Looks Too Good To Be True … The Lameness Returns
The Day Of The Treatment
First Time For Everything: A Healing Crisis(?)  
From Zero To Sixty In Four Days: Stem Cells At Work
The Calm After The Storm 
If It Was Easy, It Wouldn't Be Jasmine
This Is What Jasmine's Episode Looks Like
Gotta Try Everything Once (Or Twice): On The Quest To Figure Out Jasmine's Episodes 

***
Meet Jasmine
I'm Still Standing! (Happy Birthday, Jasmine)
How Dogs Think (Well, Jasmine Anyway)
How The Oddysey Started: Jasmine's ACL Injury
Jasmine is Vet-Stem's poster child!
Rant About Quality Of Life Versus Quantity, And Differential Diagnoses
Jasmine Is Headed For Her Next Stem Cell Treatment
Jasmine's Stem Cells Are In
Arthritis? What Arthritis? 
Guess Who Is An Ever-Ready Bunny And Really Liking The Bit Of Snow We Got? 
Don't Knock It Until You Tried It: Animal Chiropractic 
Jasmine's Fur Analysis
Back At Chiropractic Care

Further reading:
Jasmine’s Story: Can Chronic Diarrhea and Soft Tissue Injuries be Normal?
Jasmine’s Story: An ACL Injury and a Cancer Scare
Jasmine’s Condition Deteriorates: Another ACL Injury and an Abdominal Abscess
Jasmine Recovers from Surgery and Jana Discovers TCVM
Who’s Minding Your Pet’s Health?
Pet Owner Perspective On Stem Cell Therapy
Difficult to Manage Lameness Treated with Physical Therapy
Our Journey to Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine

Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed by JoAnn R. Corley - Book review

Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed

How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy

By: JoAnn R. Corley

Published: November 6, 2011
Format: Paperback, 152 pages
ISBN-10: 1466481412
ISBN-13: 978-1466481411
Publisher: CreateSpace





"Overwhelm is the emotional response that is triggered when your brain gets a signal that too much is going on for you to reasonably process and thereby threatens the desire and possibility of getting things done in a way that you think you should", writes speaker and coach JoAnn R. Corley, in her very practical and results oriented book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy. The author describes how being overwhelmed, in the face of layoffs and the remaining people being asked to do more, is the new normal. As a result, JoAnn Corley shares ideas and strategies for regaining control over time, space and work priorities.

JoAnn Corley understands that employees are under tremendous stress in the workplace. People feel overwhelmed, and the author points out that the deeper emotion is one of fear. To counter this sense of fear that leads to being overwhelmed and unable to cope with the demands of the job, JoAnn Corley offers a two pronged approach to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed and no longer in control. The first part of the remedy is to manage yourself and your own reactions to the day's events. The author calls this managing yourself on the inside. The second part of the remedy is manage what is happening outside that can be controlled by the individual. The approach presented by the author is one that works from the inside out.



JoAnn R. Corley (photo left) recognizes that simply providing another book on time management or organization is insufficient to overcome that sense of being overwhelmed at work. In this new normal of the over-demanding workplace, the JoAnn Corley emphasizes the need to work smarter than ever before. As a result, the author shares the strategies, tools, and tips to achieve greater results in less time.

To facilitate these various techniques and strategies, JoAnn Corley offers her overall philosophy for empowering the individual. The philosophy includes the following points:

* Stay grounded in reality and focus on what you can influence and control
* Approach everything in small bites to keep it simple
* Find a way to improve your performance by 1% per day
* Don't get hung up on tools, technology, and tips

For me, the power of the book is how JoAnn Corley goes beyond the standard time management books, to add the critical elements, that are missing from those books. Instead of the usual focus on the tips, techniques, and tricks, the author precedes them with an understanding of decision making and choices. JoAnn Corley goes a step beyond other books as well, and makes herself available through seminars and coaching. There is also a consideration of the importance of social media for adding value and interaction with the readers.

JoAnn Corley includes a series of very valuable tips for better managing time and organizing office and desk space. These concepts, however, are always presented within the context of making decisions, proper choices, and personal empowerment. Each chapter is a hands on group of ideas that can be applied readily, and right away to help achieve that 1% daily improvement, and to remove that sense of being overwhelmed by events.

I highly recommend the transformational and idea filled book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy by JoAnn R. Corley, to anyone seeking a refreshing and holistic approach to removing that sense of being overwhelmed in the workplace. This book will change your perspective and empower you to get more done, and achieve greater results, than ever before.

Tags: Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy, JoAnn R. Corley, personal development, business book reviews

Cartoon Round Up

Veterinary Highlights: Fighting Canine B–Cell Lymphoma With Autologous T–Cells

While chemotherapy for canine lymphoma kills cancer cells, it also wreaks havoc on the dog’s immune system. 

T-cell killing cancer cell. Image OMICS Group, Scientific blog

Researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have found that solution to this dilemma could lay in culturing the patients' own T-cells, harvested prior the chemotherapy treatment, and re-introducing them into the blood stream after the chemotherapy is over.

(There are already other therapies out there using the same concept--employing patient's own cells to treat disease; such as the stem cell therapy and platelet rich plasma therapy)

The preliminary study yielded better results than expected.

B-cell lymphoma, the most common type, is the most deadly when untreated. Standard chemotherapy treatment often results in only one year of durable remission.

Could T-cell therapy replace chemotherapy for canine lymphoma all together?

Dr. Wilson’s Texas A&M team, along with researchers from MD Anderson, are working on it. The initial trial results are promising. After all, a healthy immune system was designed to prevent cancer from developing to start out with.

I think it's a great idea. Helping the immune system instead of crippling it.

I am excited to see what else this research brings.

***

Dog owners interested in helping with this research may be able to get involved in Texas A&M’s clinical trials. The Clinical Trials page on the university’s website explains which dogs are eligible to participate, and how to enroll in the trials.

Source article:
Using Autologous T–Cells to Treat Canine Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma

Further reading:
Adoptive T-cell therapy improves treatment of canine non–Hodgkin lymphoma post chemotherapy

The Quadrennial Sportsgasm

By Alan Caruba

This is for all the boys and girls, men and women, for whom sports plays little or no role in their lives. As a lad the only sports in which I engaged were those required by “gym class” which for me involved trying to avoid any activity that displayed my lack of interest and ineptitude.

At some point I developed an interest in billiards—pool shooting to be precise. I liked the whole hand-eye coordination thing, the sharp crack of the cue ball and the satisfying thump when the target ball fell into the pocket. I also enjoyed time spent at a local shooting range. Again it was the hand-eye coordination thing and the explosive sound of the gun or rifle firing off a round. Neither of these sports involved breaking a sweat.

I have never watched a complete baseball game on television, let alone ever been to a ballpark. When a student at the University of Miami, I attended a couple of the football games, but as an adult, televised football became a succession of long commercial breaks and short bursts of the game actually being played. I have never watched basketball. I do enjoy boxing and it is the only sport I will watch on television.

Suffice to say, the Olympic Games every four years are largely lost on me. NBC is promising to air 3,500 live hours of programming so sports enthusiasts can literally overdose on them though, presumably, they will select those sports of particular interest and watch them. They will also be watching 3,500 hours of non-stop commercials and everything you ever wanted to know—or not—about each contestant.

For anyone who engages in a favorite sport, I know it is good for you. It promotes both physical and mental health.

Olympic contestants, however, take their sport of choice to a level most people may admire for the discipline and hard work involved, but would never think to do themselves. For the more than two weeks of the contests, the games offer a look at feats of athleticism that are impressive and often astonishing.

The winners receive a gold medal, get their picture on a box of Wheaties, do advertising endorsements, and can sometimes get a gig on television providing commentary. The rest fade into obscurity.

For those who will be watching, let me say I am happy for the participants. I just won’t be watching most of them. I am not even likely to last long during the opening ceremonies with its succession of national teams marching in and around the arena. In the end, it is all just show business, glitzy and filled with symbolic displays of flags, music and dance.

It strikes me, too, that for all the talk of the collegiality of the games, they were hosted by the Nazis in 1936 and then cancelled because they started World War Two. In 1972 Palestinian terrorists killed members of the Israeli team for whom, once again, there will not be a moment of silence in their memory and in 1980 Jimmy Carter would not allow the U.S. team to participate when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

Allegedly the games transcend politics, but they tend to be more about “bringing home the gold” than world peace.

Mostly, I just want to offer some reassurance to all of you who did not much care for “gym class”, team sports, or any sport enough to spend the exorbitant price to attend in person and maybe buy a hotdog or some snack for ten times its cost anywhere else.

If sports are not at the center of your life you are not alone. Indeed, I suspect there are lots of us who will be content to get the highlights from the sports reporters on the 10 o’clock news. As if we cared.

© Alan Caruba, 2012