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Lesson Learned

2/7/2017

When I played basketball as a freshman in Quapaw, Oklahoma, I complained to our leading scorer (Steve "Poodle" Roberts), that he was hogging the ball and shooting too much; most of the team felt the same way. I'll never forget what he told me as it was a great life lesson. He looked at me and said: "If I only shot the ball when I thought I could make it, I wouldn't have any fun."

I reflected on this later and realized that I wasn't passing the ball around out of generosity, I was mostly passing the ball off because I didn't think I could make the shot. I was waiting around for more of a guarantee that my shot would go in so the crowd would cheer and not be upset that I missed it. Instead, Steve was running around seeing what types of shots he could make for the fun of it.

I took this wisdom with me, as I learned the value and fun in taking more shots in my proverbial life. Thanks, Steve! By the way, we called him "Poodle" because he had extremely curly hair that would basically turn into a white man's afro by the time the game was over. :)

Mexico's Advantage

2/5/2017

Democrats are complaining about our relationship with Mexico since Trump challenged their President about us building a wall and them paying for it. First of all, Trump is doing exactly what he'd say he'd do and he got over 300 Electoral Votes for it.

Of course Mexico doesn't want us to build a wall as they aren't suffering by having millions of Americans crossing their border for opportunities only to find themselves draining Mexico because of government assistance.

They don't want a wall going up and preventing them the opportunity to get rid of dangerous criminals. This isn't only for the safety of their citizens but also not having the financial drain that crowded prisons would cause. Lastly, they love all the wire transfers coming into their country. The money is earned here but spent and taxed there.

Trump knows Mexico has been taking advantage of us and all Democrats have done is to make things better for them (NAFTA), without putting American citizens first. We have leverage in our relationship with Mexico because they have billions of dollars in surplus because of our trade relationships with them. You only have to read Trump's book: Art of the Deal to know that he never began a negotiation without first knowing how much leverage he had. Democrats sold out the American people for obvious reasons (votes), by placating Mexico at every turn; the party is over.

What is Art?

2/5/2017

Art is certainly appreciated on an individual basis. I greatly respect artists for all kinds of reasons including their ability to take a flat canvas and make it multi-dimensional. They create depth; for example when we look at a painting with a long dirt road and trees on each side. It’s a flat canvass yet it looks like we can see for hundreds of yards.

I used a pencil and paper one day and watched a television show on how to sketch. The artist showed how to make trees and then got them to reflect off the water…it seemed so easy. I could listen and watch what he said and did but what I created wasn’t something I’d want to show anyone. It was then that I figured out true art went well beyond technical skills.

This is a good example of what I’m talking about: my brother-in-law is a professional photographer. He can look at a broken down building and see a beautiful picture in it. All over the place he sees art and the photos he takes are amazing. Technical skills and a great camera might produce decent pictures but not great art like he does.

I’m not too much into abstract art but one day it hit me that people like Picasso were brilliant. Creating any art is amazing but painting an existing image versus painting something in your mind, is quite different. See if you can picture something in your mind that doesn’t already exist. How’d that work out for you? Me, I get nothing. The famous painting Scream by Picasso blows my mind because he took this really strange image in his mind and painted it; it’s the epitome of art.

I consider most building contractors to fall into the “artists” category. I can’t look at a room in need of renovating and see the finished results in my mind. Contractors see things most of us don’t. When I walk in a home under construction and it’s framed but nothing else, I can’t figure out what it’s going to look like when it’s done…building contractors can. They not only see it in their minds, they know how to create it just like any artist. They know the tools they’re going to use and in the end what they see in their minds make its way to their proverbial canvass.

The bottom line is artists see things most people don’t and know how to create it. Technical skills would mean little in their work if they didn’t have an innate, God given gift of artistry. I’m definitely not an artist of any sort, but I feel blessed that others are and I get to enjoy their beautiful creations.

February 05th, 2017

2/5/2017

Selfishness

2/5/2017

What does it mean to make a personal sacrifice? If you are a parent you definitely know what it means to make sacrifices. While doing this for your children you're probably giving up some things that you'd like. Maybe you would like to have a nicer car? Maybe you and your spouse would like to go out to dinner more often or maybe travel more? Instead, you give up selfish desires so that your children have what they need and often what they want.

Webster’s Dictionary has a definition for sacrifice that is easily understood and it is: To give up something for the sake of another. Out of the many complicated definitions in Webster’s, this is not one of them. The problem is that sacrifice is easily defined but not easily put into practice.

Do you know of anyone in your life who you consider selfish? When someone is selfish we also seem to characterize the individual as being childish. Isn’t it true that when we see a couple of two year-olds playing that even if one of them isn’t interested in something as soon as the other child wants it, the child hollers out: “It’s mine!” Of course as parents we try to teach our children to share and it's embarrassing to watch one of our children being selfish.

As adults we are supposed to put aside some of our childish ways (like selfishness) and act more mature. A major part about being an adult is that we are supposed to grow up and serve society in one way or another. In other words it isn’t supposed to be about us any more and instead about what we can do to support others. The reason it is so important is that it is what typically creates our livelihood. The better we can serve society the better off in the long run we can become personally and professionally.

This is so different from childish thinking in that the child just sees what’s in front of him and he takes it. What he doesn’t realize is that in the end he is so much better off if he shares. When other kids see him sharing they are more inclined to share what they have. Not that any child should do it for that reason, but there's a natural law in play and that is we are much better off in the long run if we let go of selfishness.

It's the same way when it comes to personal sacrifice in that in the long run it is much better for everyone involved. First of all, when we sacrifice our selfish desires to help make someone else’s life better, we honor God. Not unlike how it makes you proud when you see your child playing fairly and sharing his or her things, God also takes pleasure in seeing us doing the right things. Knowing this should cause us to pursue living unselfishly but most of us fight our human nature to take care of self first.

This is why in the Bible Jesus talks about picking up our cross daily to follow him. What he's saying is that all of us have our personal baggage due to how we were born into sin. Our sinful nature is all about self (i.e. cheating, lying, lusting, stealing, etc.), in order to get things that we think will make us happy. People who travel this path generally find out the journey is empty. What they thought would make them happy in the end causes a lot of pain and disappointment. Not only do they end up with even more personal baggage but there is often collateral damage as well in that they ruin some of their business and personal relationships due to making the wrong choices.

Living an unselfish life (which is unnatural), is kind of like the song by Chris Rice called: "Living Life Upside Down.” The lyrics include the phrase: "What if we reached up and touched the ground only to find we've been living life upside down." It's a lot like the song because this whole concept of personal sacrifice and unselfishness actually leads to a better life than approaching it selfishly and trying to get everything we can out of life. This is exactly what Jesus told his followers; something they didn't want to hear but needed to hear.

The Lies Keep on Coming

2/5/2017

Since you certainly aren't going to get the whole truth from the media, here you go: Trump isn't putting in place a religious ban on Muslims, he's establishing a geographic ban on countries who are tied to terrorism. Obama instituted a travel ban in 2011 on Iraq of course Liberals didn't have a problem with it.

It's absolutely ridiculous to say Christians are getting preferential treatment. Think about it, does a person run around with a religious card stating which religion he or she belongs to? No, it would be ridiculous and it's not a part of the vetting process and no Liberal can prove it is.

A Muslim could come from one of those countries who now have to go through more extreme vetting and say he's a Christian and he wouldn't get through, why, because there is NO religious litmus test in the vetting process. The fact that he came from Iran, would be THE issue.

Not only is the liberal media misleading people and stoking the fire, celebrities are too as seen at the SAG awards. Why anyone would think that they bring economic or political insight is beyond me. They need to grab their scripts and learn their lines and stick to what they do best. They are not the moral authority, they're just about the opposite.

They're some of the most hypocritical people I've ever seen. They burn way more fuel than average citizens with their mansions, private jets, and limousines, so they don't have the right to preach to everyone else about issues like climate change. I guess what I'm asking them to do in as nice a way as possible is: Shut Up! Thank you.

Immigrants' Constitutional Rights

2/5/2017

It drives me crazy to hear some of the points Liberals are sharing about the rights of immigrants when the fact is they don't have a Constitutional right to come to America; the Constitution is applicable to U.S. citizens.

Starbuck's is even offering thousands of jobs to these immigrants giving them preferential treatment over vets who have risked their lives for our country. How sick is that?

There's a lot of tough talk on the Liberal side, against what Trump is doing and even I don't agree with how it was rolled but to try and make it sound like it's a religious persecution issue is absolutely naïve and destructive. Shedding fake tears like Schumer did is embarrassing.

I saw an interview of a man this morning who lost his son at the Ft. Hood massacre; his life has been forever changed. I guarantee you that a Liberal would think differently if it was one of her children (or any family members), who was killed by a terrorist like with what happened in places like Boston and Ft. Hood or by a protected felon in San Francisco.

Some Liberals like to think they're the moral authority and that Conservatives don't care about other people but they always seem to forget about the other side of the equation and that is Americans have both civil and human rights according to our Constitution. Trump said he would look out for Americans first (which is his primary role as President), and he was elected for it. Liberals keep fighting over issues that they already lost when Donald Trump won the election.

As they say, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution. Houston, we have a problem and it has been identified as the Democrat Party.

The Boy and His Grandpa

2/5/2017

There was an old man and his grandson who lived in Mexico and they were walking down the road with the boy sitting on top of a mule. They came across a few Democrats who said it was wrong for the old man to have to walk while the young boy sat on the mule so they switched places.

They then came across a few more democrats who said that it wasn't fair for the old man to sit on the mule and make the little boy walk so they decided they'd both walk so they wouldn't be shamed by other people.

Then they came across another group of Democrats who told them how stupid they were for not riding the mule so they both rode it.

They passed more Democrats and they started throwing rocks at the boy and the old man for putting so much weight on the mule by riding it.

Having been told everything they were doing was wrong according to Democrats, they decided to try and carry the mule. While crossing a tall bridge the weight of the mule overtook them and it slipped out of their hands and went over the side of the bridge and was killed. Moral to the story: "If you try to please Democrats you might as well kiss your ass goodbye."

Foreign Relations

2/5/2017

It really upsets me that Liberals are complaining about Trump's relationship with the rest of the world when they're the ones doing everything they can to ruin it. What Liberals are doing is dangerous as they are hurting Trump's leverage in dealing with opportunities and problems with other nations by making it appear like American citizens don't support him when the fact is Liberals don't support him.

They aren't just hurting Trump, they're hurting all of us. They are completely putting politics before country which I consider treason by its very definition. By the way, I know many Republicans also play politics at the expense of what is best for U.S. citizens but I've never seen such vicious attacks on any President in my lifetime and it embarrasses me as an American.

Our Sugar Daddy

2/5/2017

I get the impression that some French people have a chip on their shoulders about Americans. I'm sure those who live in Normandy still love us. But I want to remind everyone that we do owe France a tremendous amount of gratitude for the birth of our nation and not just for their military support, but more for their financial investment in the future of our country.

They not only helped fund our war against Britain, they also gave us start-up cash and a line of credit to get our... country off the ground. We're in debt around $20 trillion now but the fact is our country started off in a lot of debt. Our Federal government wasn't up and running until around ten years after the war so colonies' obligation to help out financially was more of a give what you can. It didn't go well. It was Alexander Hamilton who helped get us on track by creating a tax system and holding the colonies accountable for pitching in to run Federal government services and pay down the debt. Of course this wasn't popular. A lot of colonists naively thought the days of taxation were over; they just didn't get that the real promise made was "taxation WITH representation."

France had anterior motives for helping us as for them it was seen as an investment. A strong and growing American economy meant more trade opportunities for their citizens and more taxing opportunities for the French government as the currency flowed back and forth. Britain wasn't a viable trade partner for them as they had been fighting each other for hundreds of years and there was zero trust to create any type of trade agreement so France had to find other opportunities for growth.

Even though they had anterior motives it doesn't take away the fact that a big reason we live in the United States of America is because France believed in capitalism. Take that Bernie Sanders. Viva le France!

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Author: John Mann

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