The Eagle and the Cat – a Fable by Benjamin Franklin

It was the spring of 1775 and the strains between Great Britain and the Americans were at its height prior to the war commencing.  Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the Americans’ chief representative in England, “losing all hope, folded his papers, sailed away from that country and came home to help his countrymen in the impending struggle with the brute force of Great Britain.”  One evening before Dr. Franklin departed, he was at Lord Spencer’s home in the company of a number of English noblemen. The light conversation reportedly turned to fables, and most agreed that not “any beast, bird, or fish could be worked into a new fable with any success.”  Dr. Franklin was not in agreement and, upon receiving a pen, ink, and paper from Earl Spencer, wrote the following:

Once upon a time, an eagle soaring around a farmer’s barn and espying a hare, darted down upon him like a sunbeam, seized him in his claws, and remounted with him in the air.  He soon found that he had a creature of more courage and strength than a hare, for which, notwithstanding the keenness of his eyesight, he had mistaken a cat. The snarling and scrambling of the prey was very inconvenient, and, what was worse, she had disengaged herself from his talons, grasped his body with her fore limbs, so as to stop his breath, and seized fast hold of his throat with her teeth.  ‘Pray,’ said the eagle, ‘let go your hold and I will release you.’  ‘Very fine,’ said the cat, ‘I have no fancy to fall from this height, and be crushed to death.  You have taken me up, and you shall stoop and let me down.’ The eagle thought it necessary to stoop accordingly.

The fable above was discovered in a book entitled Our Country, A Household History of the United States for All Readers, From the Discovery of America to the Present Time, Volume 1 by Benson J. Lossing, LL.D (The Amies Publishing Company, New York, 1888).  On the page preceding the preface of the book, the author wrote:

The Households of Our Country, wherein private virtue sustains the fabric of our free institutions, this work is dedicated, with the respect and affection of the author.

(This was originally published at Hugoville on January 9, 2010.)

Happy Veterans Day

Lee Habeeb wrote a nice piece for Nation Review Online this Veterans Day.  Remembering a Soldier’s Soldier – The stellar example of Maj. Dick Winters.  Thank you to all veterans.

Let there be Big Government

Organic, natural, and free. For everything except the humans. Regulate the hell out of them. They say they are just looking out for the small guy – the one without a voice. But not you, the individual. You are too small. Besides, they hear you already. The next size up, that is for whom they look out.

Let nature be wild and free and its native self. But don’t permit the humans presence or mere passage for possible harm to real nature’s perceived condition. Prohibit the human’s poisoned hand from reaching too far. Restrain them. Limit the damage they may cause to others and themselves, pitiful souls.

Let there be a central authoritative figure to set and administer the rules. And let it be big. Make it that its scope is so broad and its organizational levels so deep that decisions are made as far as possible from the object for which it exists. Let the numerator become so massive that the denominator becomes insignificant and further analysis is unnecessary.

Let there be Big Government. Have mercy for the small citizen.

9/11: What do you tell the children? It’s Heroes Day

What do you tell the children about September 11, 2001?  We should tell them something, but we don’t want to scare them and provide them with another set of fears:  of tall buildings, airplanes, razor-knives, foreigners, dark-skinned men, or Muslims. They need to learn what happened and know what we’ve learned.  In time, some say.  But time is scarce and stakes are high.

Some of what was learned – then, since, and even before – should be incorporated into the parents’ values curriculum long before the child is capable of handling the most benign detail of that day.  Children must be made to understand, for their own personal safety, that there are bad people in this world.  They are few, true.  Still they exist, can be extremely dangerous, and are not always easy to spot.  And sometimes you just can’t do a thing about it.  Other times you can.  But know this, child: evil exists.

Tax the Rich, they Say

“Tax the rich.” “Their fair share.”  The enduring call.  The empty meme.

What exactly is this old, tired promise?  They will tell you about the super-wealthy and their inherited, unearned, and ignoble capital.  The “millionaires and billionaires” with their yachts and their planes, they cry.  They don’t even need all that money, so says President Obama.

It is a tempting notion;  it’s worth a nibble. But it demands a deeper inspection before you tilt your head back, close your eyes, and take it to your core. Look at its past, its present, and its possible futures.

The Truth Feels Good

This past Saturday night I was stretching out with an old friend, warming up for our wives’ high school reunion.  Halfway through a pair of double Scotch whiskeys I postulated that the three greatest feelings in the world, in order, are Love, the Truth, and Simplicity.  Today I’ll put a brief spotlight on the truth.

In a recent article in Wired Magazine, editor in chief Chris Anderson interviewed Microsoft founder and co-chair of the world’s largest foundation, Bill Gates, about the future of energy, alternative fuels, etc.  On the topic of solar arrays for individual homes, Gates commented on the safety aspect of installing high-temperature systems on people’s roofs.  The interviewer then supposed aloud that we will not find any solar cells at Gates’ home, to which Bill Gates replied, in part: “For rich people, this is OK. Rich people can do whatever they want.”

Doesn’t the truth feel good?

Next, take Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.  This past Sunday (August 7, 2011), Mayor Nutter addressed his congregation at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church on the recent youth violence targeting residents of and visitors to downtown Philly.  The entire clip below is 30 minutes;  but if you want to hear the great crescendo to his monologue, pick it up at the 27 minute 30 second mark and listen to the last three minutes.

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Our last spotlight on Truth this week features Felonious Munk – unknown to me before today but I believe he is an artist, musician, and/ or comedian.  Caution:  contains vulgar language.

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The truth – life’s 2nd greatest feeling.

Ode: To the Engineer

Engineering.  The world’s second oldest profession.  And far less revered than the first.

 

Engineer, from where you come?

What thing you do like no other one

 

To do the feats we think to dare

To make this that with enough to spare

 

Your father Science and your mother Art

Things now together, but for you, remain apart

 

For the Engineer, no great monument, public love, or applause

For to bring about with economy, for utility, is his only cause

 

Oh noble Engineer, dare I say, if not your fruit unfold

I’d be naked in a field alone; hungry, wet and cold

 

“Doctor, this man here he engineers,” ’tis truth

Nay, “Professor, it is Engineer Hugo I introduce.”

Happiness: Life’s Pay

If this life pays anything, it is happiness.  The thing we call happiness is a nebulous thing.  It is part this and part that and can be made to suit different tastes, but only in single-serving sizes.  Above all, it is a matter of preference, of taste.  It is variable.  One’s own definition of happiness changes throughout life.  The child is made happy differently than the adolescent is.  An adult measures happiness in completely disparate terms than its younger self and often casts former happiness must-haves as naive, silly, and, at worst, foolish.

The fruits of happiness do not hang ripely from weak stems under low-hanging branches in this world. It does not wash up unblemished onto soft beaches as abundant treasure.  Happiness does not hang in our closets like a fine suit to put on each morning.  Or does it and is it?

Smallness and Bigness

There’s an unceasing conflict and contrast in many of life’s things between Smallness and Bigness.  In the natural order, smallness precedes bigness.  Small fish become big fish.  Saplings become trees.

Our engineered world often follows suit.  Small-capacity machines become big-capacity machines.  Members of small strength become members of large strength.  Minor efficiencies become major efficiencies.  Small-time organizations and businesses can become big-time concerns.  The most minor human unit bonds with another and can, through procreative and accretive activities, forge larger families along blood lines and friendship.

Many well-executed, small efforts yield great, big results.

Cartoon: A Dinosaur by Any Other Name

I call this:

President Obama riding cluelessly into the sunset on a dinosaur named Union with Richard Trumka punching a fist of solidarity through the extinct animal’s anus

They found WMDs … in California?

Did you hear about this?  You should have.  Simple as that.

This story surfaced way back in the second week of February 2011 (less than a week ago).  San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV 10 News began reporting the story on February 9, which centered on an interview that KGTV 10 investigative reporter Mitch Blacher had with Al Hallor, who is the assistant port director in San Diego.

San Diego Port Security Says WMD Found On American Soil

Krauthammer-Cheney 2012

Am I the only one who thinks the perfect American presidential ticket would be Charles Krauthammer and Dick Cheney?

To read or listen to Charles Krauthammer, M.D. (the “Hammer”) is to witness first-hand the exceptionalism of the human mind.  A few of my favorite Hammerisms follow:

“Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country – and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.”

“If we insist that public life be reserved for those whose personal history is pristine, we are not going to get paragons of virtue running our affairs. We will get the very rich, who contract out the messy things in life, the very dull, who have nothing to hide and nothing to show and the very devious, expert at covering their tracks and ambitious enough to risk their discovery.”

“If Obama has his way, the change that is coming is a new America: “fair,” leveled and social democratic. Obama didn’t get elected to warranty your muffler. He’s here to warranty your life.”

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And for Mr. Cheney.  This song says it all.

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And Rumsfeld for Secretary of State.

A Busted Flush

It ain’t you and it ain’t me.

They show you their (R), they show you their (D).

They will point with one finger and hide the other hand.

They know you won’t fall far from where you stand.

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They’d prefer more than that, that you pay them no mind.

But if you can’t turn away just stay in your line.

It’s theater, it’s a show staged for your pocket and purse.

Your trouble their blessing, your fortune your curse.

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They’ll multiply their importance on your concern and at last,

lest you forget they are the Master … and you the Subject class.

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- Words by Hugo, Music by yourself.

Honoring the Honorable on Veterans Day

Veterans Day is not merely a single day on which you should thank a soldier or extra-appreciate the men and women who have served in our armed forces.  It is an annual checkpoint.  It is a day to reflect on how well in the previous year you have appreciated those who have exhibited their love for country in their service to her.   It is also a gentle reminder of the importance of carrying and sharing this gratitude going forward throughout the year.

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.

-  Cynthia Ozick

The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.

-  George Washington

Voter turnout, the enthusiasm gap, and the Malta model

In a list of 32 countries that do not have mandatory voting laws, voter turnout figures range between 51% and 95% as measured over 1960 through 1995 for national lower house elections.  Malta gets top honors, a full 2 percentage points above runner-up Austria.  Other notables include Italy (90%), New Zealand (88%), Germany (86%), Israel (80%), Canada (76%), France (76%), United Kingdom (76%), Spain (73%), India (58%), United States (54%) … what’s that?  Yes, tied for second-to-last, a 35-year ranking posts us second-to-last in voter turnout below Russia (61%) and tied with Switzerland.

Of the six countries in my list with compulsory voting legislation, the average voter turnout is 88.8%.  For the voluntarily voting, it is 77.0%.

Focusing in on the United States and examining voter turnout numbers from 1980 to 2008, we bottomed out in 1986 and 1998 with 38.1% of eligible casters risking life and limb to cast their vote. 

Only in America

What do the following concepts or phrases have in common?

• The Belgium Dream;
• Czechoslovakianism;
• Anti-Swedenism;
• Ukrainian Exceptionalism;
• Becoming Nigerian.

Answer:  They don’t exist in the world’s lexicon.

To all the children under 50, I’ve got a message.  Our parents failed us.  For most of us, happily, it was a singular failure.  But significant.  They didn’t teach us what being an American meant.  Remember when someone used to say, “Only in America.”  When I was younger that phrase was reverently uttered following a story or anecdote about a young person who came to America with a hole in one pocket and his hand in the other.  The meat of the story was full of words that typify the American success story:  courage, initiative, determination, hard-working, industrious, perseverance, opportunity.  The tale ended with the unlikely conclusion of innovation, prosperity, family stability, and the exponential distribution of well-being to others.

Then, presumably when I was napping, “Only in America” came to mean something different altogether. 

An Investment Better than Gold

Come with me into the future.  It won’t take long.  We’ll be back in five minutes.  The year is 2012.  The month is, let’s say, June.  The convergence of the Mayan end-of-the-world faithful, unsatisfied Y2K’ers, and Nostradamus-istas has reached a pinnacle.  People anchored in reality, however, feel the inflation, elevated food prices, and a level of government regulation never seen.  You can buy a dime bag of reefer at Walmart, but growing a tomato in your backyard will get you a $1,000 spank.  Assisted suicide is not only legal but comes with some very favorable tax benefits.  Capitalism is still alive, but it’s stranger than ever.  And gold is roughly $3,400 per ounce, the equivalent of $54,000 per pound.

Continuing on in not-too-far-off-futureville, a franchisee of Dr. Jack’s House of Dignified Dieing notices that your hairline has afforded you ample forehead real estate available for advertising. 

I had a google about a google last google

The Google. I cannot think of another company in history that has offered such an array of excellent products that are completely free of charge to the public. Think about it. If you want an image of your house from a satellite, where do you go? Google Earth. If you want to see a picture of the front of the house in which you grew up, where do you go? Google Street View. Want to keep an online calendar of your events? Google Calendar. Share your pictures, blog your thoughts, or build a 3D model of something? Picasa, Blogger, SketchUp. Email, download digitized books, or organize your medical records online? Gmail, Google Books, Google Health. … So are these merely products? Or are they just bait?

Ask yourself these questions and answer candidly. 

There are 5 types of solutions

Not too long ago we talked about problems.  As a refresher, we said that there are only four types of problems.

1. You want something you don’t have (Want, Don’t Have)

2. You have something you don’t want (Have, Don’t Want)

3. You want to keep something that you are about to lose (Want to Keep, About to Lose)

4. You’re about to get something that you don’t want (Don’t Want, About to Get)

But what good is a problem – or better said, a clear understanding of your problem – without some possible solutions?  This is today’s lesson.

September 11: Now I Know What Never to Forget

WTC. Photo courtesy www.dailymail.co.uk

Every year I seem to suffer a range of emotions the days leading up to and after the anniversary of September 11, 2001.  Sorrow, anger, hatred, shame, frustration.  Nine years later, I don’t grieve as much for the ones who died, suffered, or were left behind that day.  I’m not as angered and filled with hatred for the planners and perpetrators.  No longer am I ashamed of the failures of our nation’s intelligence network.  I am no longer frustrated that the heavy hand of vengeance has not come down on those who struck.  Nor am I uneasy about what wickedness this way may still come.  It is now nine long years hence and I just now understand what troubles me.  More importantly, now I know what changed in me that day.

In the days and weeks following September 11, 2001 I thought a lot about how I must reach a new plateau of physical and mental strength so that when more attacks happened, as they surely would, I could do something:  resist, fight, escape, save, help.

Shanksville, PA. Photo courtesy Valencia M. McClatchey

But that was not how I was changed that day. 

Someone finally asked: What are Obama’s dreams?

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance is the memoir of Barack Obama.  It was first published in 1995 as Mr. Obama prepared to launch his political career.  Following its re-publication in 2004, the book received high praise and the audio book edition even earned him a Grammy in 2006.  Many millions of copies were purchased.  But I’ve wondered for some time, did anybody read it?  I understand that many other books are bought, placed on shelves, and never once their spines are cracked.  Did I read it?  No.  I was hoping that someone else would take the time and then briefly answer the question:  what are the dreams from President Obama’s father?

Today, my dream was answered when I

Hugoville: Year One in Review

This week we celebrate the One Year Anniversary of the founding of Hugoville – A place for average competency at the optimum time.  It’s not a big celebration because that’s not our style, right?  However, we must find some comfort in the smallest of our daily (or annual) victories.  And that, my friends, is exactly where we started.

Secrets for Daily Victory was the maiden outreach on September 5, 2009.  In reflecting on those simple words today, I still hold them dear.  God knows (as does my family, friends, and strangers alike) that I am not a perfect practitioner of the principles advocated there.  But like a good dog – sometimes unpleasant to smell, uneasy to look upon, and unimaginably inappropriate at times – there I am, always trying and never giving up.

The 8-28 Restoring Honor Rally – A Hugonopsis

Upon returning Sunday from the Restoring Honor Rally at the Lincoln Memorial this past weekend, I read a lot of articles by professional media outlets reporting on the event.  I read all the biggies and many of the well-read blogs and watched recaps on the major TV networks.  Some people I know who are on the periphery of these types of things told me they watched the network news, saw clips of the speeches given and still had no idea what the message was.  I understood the confusion based on the coverage I saw following the event.  For those interested in the full context, you can watch C-SPAN’s coverage of the entire three and a half hour program at your own leisure.  For those only partially interested, below is the most brief summary of the Restoring Honor Rally I can offer.  First, I’ll repeat a summary from an earlier post of mine titled “Anti-Americanism” which I think is in-line with the theme of the 8-28 Rally.

VIDEO PREMIERE: “The American Trinity” by Hugo

Compilation: Being an American Essay Contest Winners (2009-2010)

The dedicated staff at Hugoville has compiled the first, second, and third place essays from the 2009-2010 Being an American Essay Contest sponsored by the Bill of Rights Institute.  The winning essays from each region have been organized into the PDF below, complete with bookmarks for easy navigation.  I encourage you to read all 27 essays and gain insight into what some young Americans from around the country are thinking.

Being An American_Essay Winners_2009-2010

As right as rain (and Reagan)

What does your gut tell you?

Rampant Intellectualism

Not much substance here.  Just thinking about a term to define the ‘smarter-than-thou’ mindset running rampant through the executive and legislative branches of our federal government.  As Angelo Codevilla stated in his recent piece for The American Spectator,

The most successful (of the ruling class) neither write books and papers that stand up to criticism nor release their academic records.  Thus does our ruling class stunt itself through negative selection.  But the more it has dumbed itself down, the more it has defined itself by the presumption of intellectual superiority.

The “presumption of intellectual superiority.”  That sounds a lot like Intellectualism to me.  New word?  Nopes; it has already earned itself a healthy writeup on Wikipedia.  Let’s see what it says:

In Search of (a balance of) Power

Last night, late, I almost checked out.  Figuratively.  I was doing research for an article I thought I wanted to write when I came across an article, tangential yet related, to my subject.  After reading it (what is was is unimportant at this time), I snapped shut the lid of my notebook computer and wandered around the dark, lower floor of my house mumbling to myself.  I probably was saying something like:  “They’re right.  This has been going on for such a long time.  It’s so complicated and intertwined.  What can I possibly do about it?  I should just, like many of my friends and family tell me, worry about what I can control.  Make strong and healthy myself, my family, and my faith.  And we’ll see what happens.“  And so I went to bed and again dreamed of maggots curiously surfacing wherever my dream state took me.

But today, like an angel on horseback (or if you prefer, bacon wrapped around a scallop), I read something.  And now, my friends, and I mean right now – I am renewed like never before. 

Anti-Americanism: What does it look like (in America)?

We’re in big trouble here, friends.  Pay attention.

To follow, or believe in, another mortal man, you must have faith in that person.  As opposed to blind faith, pragmatic and secular faith requires understanding a little about the ideals that guide that particular individual.

In this pursuit I found it natural and economical to start with a baseline from which I could measure existing, new, and possibly complicated ideas and philosophies.  And because the object of my inquiry was of national significance I first endeavored to define the classical American values.  I have previously shared a concept first offered by deep thinker Dennis Prager, which he calls the American Trinity.  As Dennis illuminates, the American Trinity has been under his nose for his entire life, marked on virtually all of our coined currency as: In God We Trust, Liberty, and E Pluribus Unum.

In revisiting this topic I fetched a quarter from my pocket and was quickly distracted thinking about how I would have designed the coin. 

Amateur Thinker

The work was done for the day and the chores were completed.  I ate a healthy dinner and by 8 pm had some spare time.  I figured I would catch up on some reading I’d been meaning to do.  In two hours, I reasoned, I could resolve a few things in my own mind.  … Five-and-a-half hours later I had perused and cogitated on quite a list of subjects:  Capitalism, Socialism, Marxism, Communism, Individualism, Collectivism, Statism, Theology, Democratization, Republicanism, Totalitarianism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Elitism, Classism, Racism, Oppression, Anarchism, Black Liberation Theology, Imperialism, Racism, Capital, Labor, Property, Proletariat, Bourgeoisie, Revolution. … I read some papers and essays from the Weather Underground, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Institute for Democratic Socialism, and the thoughts of folks such as Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Jeff Jones, et al, James H. Cone, Michael Harrington, and Benjamin Tucker.

Interestingly, all of the subjects and heavy-duty thinkers above are not completely unrelated.