Who Am I?

"If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind that robots will be doing soon."

Who am I? I want to take this opportunity to put down, for all of my audience in the world, what empirical and non-empirical characteristics comprise who I am. This list, by no means, will be comprehensive; however it (hopefully) will be a good primer on getting to know me better.

People should be less stupid. This I know for sure. The rest...well, it's conjecture based on who I am and what I believe.

I was raised half in (what I consider) a small city and half on a farm. I believe myself to have a high level of integrity and a strong set of morals. I have a strong work ethic but couple it with the "work smart, not necessarily hard" ethos. I am a strong believer in efficiency and effectiveness of effort which has been developed in me as the ability to know which tasks should be delegated (and to whom, another key ingredient) and which ones I should undertake myself or up-train someone else on.

"Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime."

By teaching others the knowledge and assisting them with developing the abilities to complete tasks, you produce synergies that have the capability to propel you and everyone else on your team into a higher order of doing business.

I am a firm believer in common sense, free markets, state's right's with a balance of a handful of federal government programs (read: highway money, not necessarily welfare money...you shouldn't be able to afford to have a cell phone if it is a lifestyle being subsidized by the government). I believe in the american way, apple pie, and white picket fences. I believe in having a good education--whether that be in the halls of a school or the school of hard knox. I believe in working for what you earn and that you aren't entitled to anything but.

I don't believe in excess, gas prices over $2.00 (I remember when they were much, much, much less expensive), or crooked politicians. I believe that my father is the best judge of character I will ever know and that my brother is one of the toughest. I believe in holidays for the sake of tradition and reasons to get the family together: Turkeys at Thanksgiving, presents at Christmas, Easter egg hunts at Easter, and barbecues in the summertime.

I believe in cars with more than 2 horsepower, but anything bigger than what you really need (read: SUV's as status symbols) is just stupid. I believe that athletes and actors get paid too much and that teachers, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, or anyone else that I'm forgetting that fits into these categories needs more pay.

I believe that the focused human mind is the most powerful tool or weapon in the universe. I believe that you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it. I believe that the collective IQ of the gene pool must be a constant, and the gene pool is getting larger.

You must have goals and aspirations. You have to know where you want to go and be able to develop a game plan on how to reach that place.

Set your standards higher than other people set for you. If you do this, I guarantee that you will get ahead.

If you do something stupid you should be smacked with a rolled-up newspaper. If you keep on doing things that lack common sense the newspaper needs to get bigger.

If you can't control your environment, it will control you. Do you want your environment to be a product of what you believe, or do you want to be a product of your environment?

I believe that Patton and Bradley were two of the greatest generals that this country has ever known. On my list, furthermore, are Washington, Pershing, and Schwarzkopf.

I believe in having a strong national defense, the right to bear arms, freedom of press and religion, that our government don't be plain dumb in administering policy.

However, I feel that the freedom of all these things doesn't allow abuse of them: For instance, freedom of speech doesn't give a person the right to be mean and rude to other people. It's a license to be an agent of change, not the person that people don't like being around or talking to.

I believe that physics can answer most matters in the universe, that prayer works, and that people need to remember how things worked before modern life made them automated, replicated, and moving between places on the face of the planet instantaneously.

I believe in human space flight because of the sheer thrill of it. Basic science needs for funding because that is where the great stuff comes from.

I believe in real things: Butter, sugar, sodas, and people. I don't like the fake things too much: Fake butter, fake sugar, diet sodas, and fake people with fake parts.

I believe that parents should raise their children, that children cannot raise children (what are they going to raise their kids based off of?...both years of their experience?). I believe that violent video games don't make kids kill people. I believe that guns don't kill people, people kill people. I believe that people should learn to shoot a weapon, but learn the elegence of a sword.

Lastly, I believe that when it comes down to it...most people have a fundamentally good nature; however people shouldn't project their feelings on how the universe works onto other people. I don't know, maybe I have it all wrong.

Trust me on the stupid people thing, though.