government regulatory powers instead of market forces to address trust-busting and unionization troubles. We’ve been on the downhill path of federal intervention in the economy ever since. And after Teddy left office in 1909, he decided that he hadn’t wanted to leave office. In 1912 he ran a bootless third-party campaign against his own chosen successor, the moderate and estimable William Howard Taft. This split the GOP and allowed the
And LBJ? Applaud his making civil rights legally, actually, happen in the United States. Otherwise, to hell with him. He was a bully and a sexual predator. He was as monomaniacal as any president we’ve had and as paranoid as one we wish we hadn’t – Nixon. His over-ambitious, under-funded, poorly thought-out Great Society programs forced the nation to carry an enormous load of entitlements on its back. And we may never find a place to set that burden down. His war on poverty ended in defeat. And speaking of which, his cold-blooded Cold War exercise in realpolitik killed 58,220
election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson – a virulent racist, a cracked egghead, and a devotee of government expansion who let World War I drag on
Make your bad habits slightly more difficult to give into. If you have the bad habit of picking your nose, wear a pair of oven mitts at all times.
Americans in Vietnam. Reader, if you seek to be
for years and did what he could to bungle the peace afterward. FDR was a splendid leader if we trust the Greatest Generation’s memories (and, anymore, we mostly can’t). Franklin was a
schooled in leadership, learn only 25%, at most, of what Doris Kearns Goodwin teaches. Which brings us to Atomic Habits . It’s a book about breaking bad habits and acquiring good habits. “Do so.” There you have the book’s contents condensed for quick reading. Of course, by boiling down 306 pages to two words, the Grump is
slippery man in person and in politics. Much economic research indicates that his policies prolonged rather than
ameliorated the Depression. Roosevelt is never to be forgiven for failure to use his executive power and political muscle to offer a safe haven in the United States for the Jews of Europe. He was a staunch war leader. But staunch is not the exact equivalent of good. He refused to intervene in the rise of European fascism. He was caught napping by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor Day. He was bamboozled by Stalin. And, after his powers had left him, he refused to leave power.
leaving out some details, such as how to lose the bad habits and get the good ones. The condensation will need to be expanded. “Start small.” (Hence the “Atomic” in the title.) For instance, make your bad habits slightly more difficult to give into. If you have the bad habit of picking your nose, wear a pair of oven mitts at all times. That advice is not really in the book, at least the Grump doesn’t think so. As for what is in the book... Um...
80
January 2019
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online