“Yes, we can” meets “No, I won’t”

  In this photo, it looks like the Chinese Premier has Obama right where he wants him. Obama seems to really be struggling to make his point, to justify his position. He seems so sincere, and if he were talking to his daughter, my heart just might go out to him. He seems very willing here to make a compromise, to go for a ‘win-win’.

  Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the climate change conference in Copenhagen.

Interpretations? Captions?

This is a photo from Obama’s own Flickr site, so it presents Obama as Obama’s people want him to be seen. Obsequious? Abasing? Or steady and serious in a difficult process of persuasion?

(Above photo and italics from Ann Althouse blog.)

 

     Well Ann, I’d say he looks like a clown in this context, however serious he may feel himself to be.

     Negotiation expert Jim Camp weighs in on the dangers of win-win/compromise negotiation strategies  during an interview:

 

First – a definition of win-win:

What is win-win negotiation?

It is born of collective bargaining. It is an invention utilizing compromise and assumption as its foundation. It forces the user to craft compromise to please the other side. Very seldom will the user get the full price in a win-win negotiation. Fear of failure, loss of the deal, reduced margin of profit, even going out of business can be the byproduct of win-win negotiations.

In your negotiation training book “Start with No®” you say win-win negotiation is the worst way to do business. Why?

I can’t tell you how many times I have sat down with a team of negotiators and asked them to list the first 3 things they must do to prepare for a negotiation. In almost every case, the list included figuring out how much discount they should offer to make the other side happy. Before the negotiation even begins, they are giving up precious profit out of fear of not making the other side happy. Win-win negotiators believe they “know” what the other side is thinking and what will make them “happy.” It is sad that so much is given away for no reason.

Camp is discussing business, but the principles he teaches apply to all negotiations.  Even if you totally agree with Obama, this photo ought to disturb you. He needs to have his game face on, and he does not.   He ought to be the one  asking the questions and learning something about his respected opponent, to coin Camp’s term. What pain does China see coming out of agreements in Copenhagen? Does Obama really know?  Does he have a mission and purpose that sees and solves both that pain and other pain that China may not have considered? If  Obama saw such pain and the solutions, he’d be calmly and carefully drawing out Chinese premier out to have a look at the negotiation landscape with him, not making a sales pitch with his eyes to the floor.  

 

For anyone who has been a parent, or had them

I think this is a remarkable post from one of my favorite bloggers  – the Anchoress. She is conservative and Roman Catholic and even though many associate those two groupings with intolerance and judgement, her words are full of mercy and promise. Beginning with a quote from Pope Benedict that more than a little surprised me with its simple eloquence,  it spoke to my heart as a man who is father to two children who have to live with my divorce from their mother, and also as a man who has become a father to more children through adoption. Her words touched both my grief and heartfelt gratitude for the many blessings I have received in this life, and the urgent need for mercy in this world. Mercy is not pity ….. it is loving and valuing . Mercy serves. Mercy glorifies.

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2009/12/16/benedict-and-obama-and-i-and-you/

Ongoing misuse of psychological theory and technique by American military

You’ve probably heard of Dr. Martin Seligman, author of ‘Learned Optimism’. Well , the US military has decided to have drill seargeants administer his positive psychology on soldiers. Really? As readers of my blog hopefully realize by now, one size does not fit all when it comes to psyhological theory and technique. In fact, the wrong size can be useless at best, harmful and even deadly at worst. Psychologists in the military have some of the best understanding of PTSD in the world, and they were not consulted about this.

Dr. Seligman thinks it is great, of course, because he is such a positive guy.

link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bryant-welch/vets-with-ptsd-when-johnn_b_383109.html

Stayin’ Alive

Words have to die if humans are to live.

 ….always seek balance between rejection and faith.

 There may be many layers of meaning to this quote, which I picked up from Idries Shah, but I think it has application to the dangers of being too literal, on the left – with political correctness, and on the right, with religious fundamentalism. And if you think about how these two extremes interacted at Fort Hood last week, maybe it doesn’t seem like just a bunch of philosophical mumbo jumbo.

See enemy, blink, die

 Why did  we fail to catch onto the threat of Hasan?  Sen. Lieberman will convene the Homeland Security Committee and try to answer that question. There has been a lot of debate since 911 over how much effort ought to put into preventing this sort of thing. That’s fine, but at the end of the day, our leaders cannot seem ambivalent to their soldiers and federal agents about the need to always err on the side of caution and apologize for the inconvenience later.  From the WSJ:

The most-heard reason for the possible failure is political correctness. No doubt. But Sen. Lieberman’s committee should avoid making this its main line of inquiry, because that is a problem without a policy fix. It minimizes the real problem.

The problem is confusion. The combatants at each end of the spectrum in the war over the war on terror know exactly what they think about surveilling suspected terrorists. But if you are an intel officer or FBI agent tasked with providing the protection, what are you supposed to make of all this bitter public argument? What you make of it is that when you get a judgment call, like Maj. Hasan, you hesitate. You blink.

View Full Image

 

Now everyone thinks the call was obvious.

Associated Press

 

In war, uncertainy gets you killed.

Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize

This reminds me a lot of the participation awards that we give kids just for showing up for sport’s teams. Obama has the ‘right’ attitude. Winning , that is, actual accomplishment in the arena of peace, is irrelevant.

Which begs the question, how relevant is this prize?

I am really baffled by this one.

And he is right on the verge of having to reject or refuse his Generals’ request for 40,000 troops in Afghanistan.  Which choice will make him a peacemaker? Anything less than what they request is surrender as far as I’m concerned. Taliban resumes control.

Manipulation lesson – Obama kicks ass

Time to reevealuate all those good feelings about Obama. Most would agree that all politicians try to manipulate us, but you may  be aware how could a job Obama did and is doing. He employs the power of iconagraphy. It is a great word that deserves a second look ( yes - pun intended!)

  

This 8 minute video featuring Bill Whittle is worth your time.

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2009/09/28/bill-whittle-national-treasure/

Out Of Mao’s Shadow – Phillip P. Pan

I recently finished a book that Reena purchased called Out of Mao’s Shadow by Phillip P. Pan. It is a remarkable book about various people who take a stand against injustice in China despite incredible risks posed to them by the ruling Communist Party. It will give anyone interested in China a great look at what it is really like to live there. It looks at current life there but China’s frightening past is certainly part of the story. It is an enjoyable, instructive inspirational yet disturbing read.

http://outofmaosshadow.com

You’ll find interviews of the author by Jon Stewart and Charlie Rose on the website.

Tort reform WILL reduce health care costs

I really can see no good reason why this isn’t on the table among the Democrats.

Look at what happened in Mississippi:

Since passing tort reform in 2004, Mississippi has seen the number of medical malpractice claims plummet by 91 percent from its peak. The state’s largest medical liability insurer dropped its premiums by 42 percent, and has offered an additional 20 percent rebate each year since tort reform went into effect.

Holy crap. Even the lawyers , who obviously don’t like it, can’t call it unfair:

In the wake of tort reform’s passage, Barbour added, plaintiffs still have the right to sue and recover damages, and trial lawyers can still make a living — just not at the previous, exorbitant level. “It has not been very contentious,” he said. “Most of the trial lawyers — particularly the ones who are really good lawyers, think that it’s fair,” even if “they don’t like it.”

Here’s what they did in Mississippi:

Changed rules of venue, to prevent abusive court-shopping.

Got rid of the rule of “joint and several liability” — as Barbour put it, in order to protect the defendant who is only “2 percent negligent” but who has the “deep pockets” that trial lawyers look for when deciding whom to sue.

Protect innocent landowners and sellers of products. Under the reforms, “if a pharmacist is selling a drug that the FDA has said is appropriate for the purpose it says it’s used for, unless the pharmacist knows it has been tampered with, then that pharmacist is immune,” said Barbour.

Put caps on punitive damages, with a sliding scale based on the size of the defendant corporation.

Put caps on non-economic damages, particularly to deal with medical malpractice liability.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Heres-your-demonstration-project-Mr-President—-its-called-Mississippi-59990137.html

thanks to the Anchoress

Are you in pain? Too bad

Not very nice, is it? But for many Americans who live with physical pain, it is the essence of the message they usually get from their health care providers. There are medicines that exist to treat pain, but docs are afraid to prescribe becuase they’re afraid of losing their license.  The US government pays close attention to th activity of physicians, and they have reason to be afraid. And as a result, so do you , if you ever face chronic pain .

I wish docs learned that they could cover themselves by sending their pain management patients to therapists like myself. We can help them watch for the signs of addiction, and prevent abuse of pain meds. Addicts aren’t hard to spot if they see the light of day, and coming into a therapists office regularly and talking  for 45 minutes makes it even harder to hide addiction. Usually they don’t show up. Instant red flag for the docs who are putting their licenses on the line. The system can work without so much policing of the medical field.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/22/reasontv-the-government-interference-in-medical-pain-management/