Musings of a Madman

Grant me the senility to forget the people
I never liked anyway,
The good fortune to run into the ones I do, and
The eyesight to tell the difference.

Following is the text of President Obama’s address on a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, as released by the White House on Tuesday 1 Dec 2009; for me this is one of, if not his finest:

Good evening. To the United States Corps of Cadets, to the men and women of our Armed Services, and to my fellow Americans: I want to speak to you tonight about our effort in Afghanistan — the nature of our commitment there, the scope of our interests, and the strategy that my administration will pursue to bring this war to a successful conclusion. It’s an extraordinary honor for me to do so here at West Point — where so many men and women have prepared to stand up for our security, and to represent what is finest about our country.

To address these important issues, it’s important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place. We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people. They struck at our military and economic nerve centers. They took the lives of innocent men, women, and children without regard to their faith or race or station. Were it not for the heroic actions of passengers onboard one of those flights, they could have also struck at one of the great symbols of our democracy in Washington, and killed many more.  Click to continue…

Note: Quick read by Thomas Stanley on low profile millionaires…

A producer from ABC’s 20/20 news magazine television show once asked if I could identify neighborhoods where the millionaire next door types live. After checking my database, I pinpointed several neighborhoods where these people resided. The resulting televised program certainly raised eyebrows. Most of the homes depicted were in the $200,000 to under $400,000 price range. All of the millionaire next door types who lived in these neighborhoods had an investment portfolio of at least $1 million. Yet the median price they typically pay for a bottle of wine is just over $10.00 – certainly not the acting rich crowd.

Then I did a statistical analysis of my data base and ultimately a profile of millionaires who live in homes currently valued at between $125,000 and $395,000, the low profile millionaires next door. A more detailed examination of the data brought to mind another television episode. It took place while I was promoting The Millionaire Next Door on the Oprah Winfrey Show. A rather well dressed woman from the audience asked me the same question I had heard a thousand times before: What good does it do to have all this money if you don’t spend it? The woman was agitated, even indignant, that I was touting frugality. She further indicated that these people couldn’t possibly be happy. She, like most people who are not wealthy, believed that the more one spends, the more satisfying life is. Thus, more money translates into more spending and therefore more happiness.
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