A Must-Have Book for Boys Only

Everyone Wants Happiness And Success, Yet Few Ever Achieve It. Discover the Secrets Of The Self-Defeating Monster That Lurks Within You, And Learn How To Turn It Into A Servant That Gets You The Life Most Others Only Dream Of!”

What is it that prevents boys from winning the kind of life they want and deserve to have? Read on to find out …

But first, I have some important questions to ask you, and be honest with yourself here …

How many times have you asked yourself why not me? Have you ever figured out exactly how other people are able to so easily win what you find it so difficult to achieve? Have you ever thought "someone up there must not like me"?

Alone, rejected and disliked?

Are you still wondering how popularity and good luck come to some people as if they were born under a lucky star, while you struggle with relationships and things that seldom turn out favorably for you?

Do you know in your heart that you are just as smart and deserving as everyone else, yet somehow you can’t get off the ground to “soar with those eagles”?

Those questions used to drive me nuts when I was a boy, struggling to achieve, but always falling far short of a feeling that I was somebody.

Now, as a self-trained electronics engineer, successful corporate executive and officer, independent business owner, husband, father, grandfather, self-degreed intellectual and psychologist, author, and ordained minister ...

I can tell you my success in personal development did NOT come quickly or easily. In fact ...

I was a loaner and looser for what could
have been the best part of my life!

That's what drove me to achieve. I wanted to be somebody. But no matter what I achieved, it was never enough. I was often named "Outstanding ..." such-and-such, or head of this or that, but such honors never made me feel better inside.

I hated to be complimented, because a little voice inside always whispered that I really didn't deserve it. When anyone offered praise or recognition for something I'd done or achieved, accepting it made me feel like a liar.

I spent tons of time studying psychology, personality and human behavior, trying to figure out why I was different than everybody else. It didn't work. I learned a lot about what made other people tick, but somehow got the idea that I was different because I was special ... that the fates had some special purpose in store for my life. I avoided the pain of being imperfect by working all the time ... 14-hours a day, 7-days a week. No time for socializing or interacting with others.

Finally, when I was thirty-six, half-way through life, I was finally forced to face reality. I wasn't different, I was just a loaner, and a looser! I felt the best years of my life had been wasted, and were gone forever. I didn't want the other half. I didn't know how to make that any different than the first half.

I just wanted to die.

I was such a looser I didn't even have the guts to take my own life.

But I was such a looser I didn't even have the guts to take my own life. So, while sitting alone in my apartment crying, and although I wasn't religious and hadn't been in a church since I was a kid, I gave up, saying "God, I don't know how to change. If You can't change me, then just let me die!"

No, I'm not witnessing. And
this isn't turning into a sermon.

I didn't realize it at the time, but that was exactly the right thing to do. I finally got it through my head and faced up to the fact that the kind of thinking I'd been doing and the things I'd been believing all my life were powerfully destructive, and had gotten me to the dead-end I was at. And I was right in another way too ... at that point I had no idea what to believe or how to think.

I was finally able to see that many of my ideas and beliefs about myself and my place in the world were doubtful, or even dumb. I was not all powerful. I was not the center of the universe. Real men DO cry. It was okay not to be perfect. Accepting help and advice from others did not mean I was not as smart as them.

In his recent book by the same title, Christopher Kennedy Lawford calls these epiphanies Moments of Clarity. That is a good name for such experiences. Mine was enough to finally let me see myself for what I was, and open my mind to alternatives, and things began to change for the better immediately.

"So your point is ...?" you ask.

Did you get the part about my being thirty-six years old at the time? That's about the average age of the forty-three celebrities and highly achieving, but miserable, people who tell similar stories in Chris' book. We all threw away what could have been the best times of our lives on a bunch of neurotic nonsense.

I'm here to save you from that miserable waste of your life!

What is “success” and “happiness”?

You've heard it said, "Money can't buy happiness." Neither can what most people consider success. That's the mistake I was making. I thought I was restless and unhappy with myself because I was not successful and wealthy. I thought that if I worked hard enough to become successful and wealthy, I would then be happy. That didn't happen. I became more successful than I ever really dreamed of, and affluent at least, if not actually wealthy ... but when that didn't change the way I felt about myself, I was worse off than ever.

If you are happy with who you are, you will feel contented with your situation, whatever it is..

The fact is, it works just exactly the other way around ... if you are happy with who you are, you will feel contented with your situation, whatever it is. If you are a "common man," you will have a great life as a common man. If you turn out to be rich and famous, you will be happy in that role, never having any need to swallow a bottle of sleeping pills or to take a nosedive off the Golden Gate.

Feelings of happiness and success ... or failure and sadness ... are products of your mind. When you learn how to control your mind and keep its thinking sensibly rational, you will discover that life provides lots of reasons for good feelings, and that failures and sad situations need be little more than occasional bumps in the road.

You need to learn this while young!

Most people who think about such things think that process of getting screwed up, or not, begins during the first ten or fifteen years of life. The Monster thrives on stinkin' thinkin', and if you develop that habit during those early years, by the time you're passing through adolescence, the Monster will have become big and powerful enough to take charge of the rest of your life. Beyond that point, you will you will not be what you wish you were. You will be whatever you happen to become under the Monster's direction.

Does that sound crazy?

Do you think men like Adolph Hitler, Saloth Sar (a.k.a."Pol Pot") and other tyrants turn out the way they do by conscious choice? Would you believe that President Lyndon B Johnson decided not to run for a second elected term because he was convinced that most people didn't like him? Does Osama bin Laden's megalomaniac thinking and strategy make any sense at all?

What a shame ... that for lack of a little early guidance, all these lives are so troubled ... and cause so much unhappiness for others.

The Brain-Mind Duality

I was brought up to think, as most people did then, and many still do, that the brain and the mind are two separate and unique things. I thought of my brain as an electro-chemical hunk of meat, containing billions of nerve cells that worked according to the laws of physics, per some still-unknown processes. The mind, I thought, was the same as the spirit, a mysterious aspect of the psyche that controls personality, disposition, and emotions ... not physically connected to the body, probably immortal, and beyond one's conscious control.

I eventually learned that mind is a controllable and teachable brain function.

Mind is, in fact, the brain's most powerful function. If you don't take control of it, it'll take control of you. I've never seen a case where "Mind," left to its own devices, produced a good outcome. On the contrary, a mind left free to become whatever it will, invariably turns into a self-destructive Monster!

Is your mind less powerful than others?

You've probably heard someone say that most people use only ten percent of their brain. That's hogwash. The brain is a very busy place, with all sorts of things going on at the same time ... functions and operations we never even think of. Recent research suggests that all this activity is distributed all over your brain, rather than being controlled by particular regions.

If brains actually differ in capability, it doesn't make any difference, since they have so much more capability than anyone ever actually uses.

On the other had, if they had said most of us use only a tenth of our intellectual capacity, they might actually be right. Your brain is a massively complex and capable machine. If brains actually differ in capability, it doesn't make any difference, since they have so much more capability than anyone ever actually uses.

Most people think brain power can be measured by IQ tests. IQ tests don't measure much more than your ability to learn, and that depends a lot upon what you've already learned. People who appear to be smarter and brighter are simply people who have learned how to use their mind more effectively. Most of the time, that does not happen intentionally ... it just happens.

Maybe a kid happens to be the child of two highly educated and intellectual parents. Would it come as a big surprise if he acted mature beyond his age, and turned out to be the sort of person who loved to acquire knowledge? Of course not! But not all well-born kids turn out that way. It's not because there's anything wrong with their brain. It's more apt to be because they were raised as spoiled brats. They were never encouraged to emulate their parents, usually because the parents were too busy. Instead, they were given everything they wanted, and permitted to fritter away their time playing, or making a nuisance of themselves.

By the same token, a kid born to parents who are ordinary, or even dull, can excel. That often happens too, and when it does, people stupidly say, "That boy was gifted with a wonderful mind." Foolish poppycock! That boy's mind started out just like any other, with near-zero intellectual content. For whatever reason, he somehow just got into the habit of filling it up with quality material.

You can learn to do that too. It's not difficult, once you accept that you are capable of doing that, and understand how to do it.

What kind of a person are you, anyway?

That question can be summarized by describing your personality and your character. Here again, these are aspects of you that probably just happened. They are mostly behaviors and concepts

Your success and happiness in life will depend a lot upon your relationships with other people. There is no such thing as a self-made man.

that you learned after you were born, not ones you were born with.

Your success and happiness in life will depend a lot upon your relationships with other people. There is no such thing as a self-made man. How well you get along with others will depend mostly upon your personality and character. If you are a loaner, a bully, a crank, or otherwise unpleasant person, you will not be the sort of person others will want to help, and do nice things for. In fact, it sometimes works just the other way around, with pay-backs proving costly in terms of money and happiness.

Like any other learned thing, personality and character can be adjusted and polished. If you tend to rub people the wrong way, you can learn how to quit doing that. If you're just an average Joe, you can learn how to make yourself attractive enough that others will suddenly want to be around you, give you some breaks, and do nice things for you.

Dale Carnegie made a fortune teaching people how to do that, beginning in 1936 with his little book How to Win Friends and Influence People. That book is still in print, and has sold over 15-million copies. Obviously, his advice works. Develop the kind of personality and character that wins friends and influences people, and you'll find yourself steadily gaining altitude all throughout your life.

You can learn how to become that kind of person.

So, you want to be Popular, huh?

"Popular" is not something you can make yourself. Its something other people make you. Personality has something to do with it, but not all celebrities have great personalities. What they do have is a high Three A's ranking.

Never heard of the "Three A's"? Better learn quick if you really want to be popular. The Three A's describe how people will value you. They are attractiveness, affluence, and achievement (otherwise known as looks, money and power.)

Wait a minute! Before you go off in a pout because you don't have good looks, much money or any power, think about the other words ... attractiveness, affluence and achievement. No matter who you are, or what your situation is at this point in your life, you can become a person who is considered attractive, affluent and achieving. You just need to understand these concepts, the ways that other people see them, then change your act to give 'em what they want to see.

That's being phony? Not a all. You can object all you want, but that's the way it is. If you stubbornly

Do yourself, and everybody else, a favor, by becoming the person others want to look up to.

insist on being yourself and that people will just have to take you as your are, you might as well give up your dreams of popularity. It ain't gonna happen. On the other hand, you can do yourself, and everybody else, a favor, by becoming the person others want to look up to.

That's right ... "the person they want to look up to". You won't be fooling anybody. You'll be doing them a favor. People want to associate with popular people. That makes them feel just that much better about themselves. What's more, the more you act that way, the more you'll actually become the person you're acting like. In the end, it won't be an act at all!

You can learn how to do this, and it's important that you do. It's covered in detail in Chapter 5 of my book, one of the longest chapters in the book. The length of the chapter doesn't mean that it's difficult. The discussion is long, because I think this is so important to your happiness and success in life.

Not so good in school? Thinking about dropping out? You can easily do better ... it's not all about smarts!

Mind Over Monster is written for boys who are old enough to read, through high school age, so assumes that you are still in school. Perhaps you're a little older than that, and are struggling in college or tech school. Good News! Being a good student is a skill that can be learned too.

There's a lot more going on in classrooms than just learning.I'll tell you about that, and if you act upon what I tell you, your proficiency at "student" will take a quantum leap. Your grades are

There's a lot more going on in classrooms than just learning ... you can easily achieve a four-point-zero grade point average.

sure to jump by at least one full point. It you really take it to heart, you can easily achieve a four-point-zero grade point average.

Sounds magical?

Let me ask you this: Has anyone ever sat you down and taught you how to be a student?

Of course not. That never happens. But we expect kids to just magically be good in school anyway. How much sense does that make? The result is that a few do well. The rest scrape by, else after years of frustration, disappointment, criticism and failure, they drop out.

When I was about sixteen, I went deer-hunting up north with an older cousin and his best buddy. One night we got involved with my grandparents' neighbors, who were rather earthy people of the hillbilly persuasion. Out came the beer, and after a couple of brewskies they were all in the mood for some music and song. Someone sat down at an old upright piano, others fetched their guitars, fiddles and mandolins. Another person strapped on an accordion. When someone handed me a guitar, I held out my palms to refuse, explaining that I didn't know how to play a guitar. So she said, "Well, ya kin jist chord then." When I shrugged, shaking my head saying I didn't know how to do that either, they all stopped and looked at me in disbelief. "Ya' don't chord? Ever'body knows how'ta do thayt!" For the rest of the evening I was ignored. I guessed they really didn't believe me, and assumed that I was just being a stuck-up snob ... too good to play with them.

You have to learn how to play any musical instrument. That never comes naturally, or as a "gift." Neither does being a student. But schools treat kids who don't know how to be a student just about like my Grandma's hillbilly neighbors treated me. If you don't know how to do "student," you're simply dismissed as being stupid, lazy, irresponsible, oar delinquent.

I was a poor student, until my junior year in high school. Then I accidentally figured out some of the things I have to tell you. Even having figured out only a part of what I have to tell you, my grades went from E's, D's and C's, to B's and A's. My next eye-opener was in the U.S. Air Force's electronics schools. I started off very poorly there too. One instructor finally told me, "Warner, you're never going to make it in this career field." I was really embarrassed and irritated! I didn't like him much, and I'm sure he knew it. That probably prompted his remark, more than my poor performance. Anyway, I finally figured out how to ace Air Force tech school classes too, and wound up being the most proficient man in that career field on our base ... and even in the whole 2nd Air Division. I still have the certificates and framed letters of commendation on my office wall to prove it.

You can learn how to do school. And when you do, you'll love it!

You can learn how to do school. And when you do, you'll love it! Nothing's better for your ego than being at the head of the class.

... and More!

I hate business names that end with "& More!" I usually assume that really means, "and that's about it," else they aren't able to decide exactly what their business actually is.

But in this case there is more; lots more. In the last 2/3's of Mind Over Monster I talk about other stuff that often trips a boy up ... bad habits, sex, abuse and neglect, depression and suicide, and religion. Here's the Table of Contents. Check it out! ...

Mind Over Monster
Chapter  1	Introduction	1
Chapter  2	Mind or Monster?	11
Chapter  3	Your Beautiful Mind	21
Chapter  4	Personality	35
Chapter  5	The Three A's	51
Chapter  6	Straight A's	89
Chapter  7	Bad Habits	125
Chapter  8	Venery	147
Chapter  9	Abuse & Neglect	165
Chapter 10	Depression & Suicide	213
Chapter 11	A Practical Faith	225
Chapter 12	The Good Life	283
	Index	285

 

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem to lightly. It is dearness only, that gives every thing its value."

Thomas Paine wrote that a couple hundred years ago. Too bad I didn't read his article before I got all carried away creating free websites for people when the World Wide Web first began. I was really just showing off; showing that I was able to do something few other people knew how to do at the time. My reward for being such a show-off was that most of those websites were soon being neglected, and were ultimately abandoned. That taught me that people don't put much value on things that come free.

I think the world could be a much better place if boys all learned about the things I talk about in Mind Over Monster ... while they are still boys. I'm so sure of that, that I sometimes think that if I was rich, I'd give every boy in the world a copy of my book for free!

Since I'm not rich, and since most of those boys wouldn't believe a free book was going to be worth making the effort to read, that idea is nonsense. But I still want to encourage you to take a chance on learning how to have a great life. So here's what I'm going to do.

I hate buying anything at the "long price." Like everybody else, I love a bargain. Getting a great price on something of value gives me a good feeling inside. So I'm going to knock some money off the barcode price of the book. I'm going to knock 20% off that price! Five bucks off gets it down to the next magic number ... $19.95!

Not good enough?

Okay ... nobody likes to get a discount, then get nicked for "shipping and handling," So how about FREE SHIPPING ! That's another four for five bucks saved. Total saved so far ... about ten bucks.

Still not good enough?

Okay, how about this - my young daughter is a big fan of Twilight; the movie about a "hot" young vampire's love life. She's seen the movie a couple of times and read all the books from cover to cover. I noticed that our older daughter also bought a "Twilight" bookmark with one of the books she gave as a Christmas gift. I thought it was really cool, then also thought "I bet I can make a bookmark like that for my book." So here it is! A genuine Mind Over Monster bookmark, with metal beads and a pearl cotton tassel. On the back side of the "Twilight" bookmark, it says "$3.95". Mine's better, because it's actually laminated in plastic, not just slipped into a vinyl sleeve. But, what the heck, I'm calling it "$2.95" anyway. Order my book here, and it'll come with the really "righteous" Mind Over Monster bookmark.

Still not good enough?

Sheesh! So far you're up to $12.95 ... that's more than half the barcode price of the book!

Okay ... Whatever! Here's more. Your book will come to you as a signed copy, sent to you with my best wishes!. Now, if you had an original copy of Dale Carnegie's book How To Win Friends and Influence People signed by Dale Carnegie himself, what would that be worth today?

How to get your copy right now!

I'd love to send you a copy of Mind Over Monster. You can pay me online with a check or credit card. Or print the order form and mail it with a check or money order. Just click one of these links ...

 

You can also find my book at your favorite bookseller ... online, in the mall or at your neighborhood book store. Shop around, and you might even find a better price at retail.

           
If you do, and still want my "really kewl" bookmark, send me a copy of your receipt and a SASE, and I'll send you one for FREE.


Final thought: "What Price Success?"

Someone once said, "Money isn't everything. But poverty isn't anything." Nevertheless, it's a simple fact: happy and successful people are apt to make a lot more money, whether they're in it for the money, or not. It's simple: happy and successful people are the kind of people others like have around ... the kind of people others see as high-value friends and colleagues.

Success is cheap. It's struggling, disappointment and failure that's costly. The difference between averaging minimum-wage earnings over a career because of low-paying jobs and frequent layoffs, and enjoying an occupation that offers a decent wage, can easily amount to more than a million dollars over a forty-year career.

If, because of reading my book, you wind up in the latter category, that will be a 62,000% pay-back on your original $20 investment! If you choose to read Mind Over Monster, and I hope you will, come back here, use the link below, and let me know how things worked out for you.

PS: Bulk discounts are available for school counselors, youth directors, and others serving in a mentoring capacity. Please write me for more information.

Fear of Hope

Metathesiophobia is the clinical name invented for an irrational fear of change. In the extreme, a metathesiophibiacs experience trembling, cold sweats, nausea and even fainting when threatened with the possibility of change. That's rare, of course. I've never known anyone like that.

Far more ubiquitous is complacency ... the reality that people, indivdually and corporately, are inclined to maintain the status quo until a crisis forces change. For the seriously neurotic or addicted person, the consequences can be dire, as they are swept into a downward spiral that eventually ends in ruin or death. But for the average person, complacency merely stifles growth and retards development. They wind up stuck in their rut, as it were, passivly consigning themselves to life as they know it forever, dismissing possibilities and whatever personal potential they might have.

I have known lots of people like this. So have you. Perhaps you are one of them?

The Perils of "Rutophilia"

There's something to be said for constancy, of course. To be steadfact in purpose, love, loyalty or faithfulness is an important tool for anyone wishing to be successful in life. Impulsive change for the sake of change is apt to prove wastefully nonsensical. Learned skills and behaviors that are appropriate for persons and their situations have value which should not be dismissed on whims.

A fixed mode of life which is dull and unpromising is not steadfastness and has no value. It's a rut.

The narrower the thinking, the deeper the rut. The mind does not like ruts. As ruts deepen they limit peripheral awaremess, and possibilities pass by unnoticed. Lacking possibilities, feelings of futility eventually engender a reluctance to think about change. From within the depths of a rut, what the mind sees in the narrow view forward is nothing but more of the same. Minds become fearful of hope, because hope risks further disappointment, disenchantment and defeat.

The fear of hope deprives the mind of opportunities to do its thing, which leads to discouragement, depression, dementia, and ultimately death.

The Natural State of Mind

Minds are inquisitive and thrive on problem-solving. Minds love novelty and challenges. Minds need something positive to look forward to. Minds thrive on hope.

Should we wonder why adults worship youth? We're apt to attribute that to youth's energy, physical beauty, and budding sexuality, but it's not those things that the mind is fondly revisiting in its philoprogenic moments. Those things are not important to us in our youth; they're taken for granted and unappreciated. They're wasted on the young. They burn no indelible impressions in our minds.

In our youth, "our hearts were young and gay" ... our minds were free, and even encouraged to be inquisitive, to learn and to grow, to seek novelty, to imagine, and to believe in hope. In other words, our minds were free to play in their natural state. Our minds do not forget. In our adult years our tired and

The secret of health, happiness, and success in life is continuing personal growth.

disappointed minds therefore often yearn for those idyllic days of yore.

The secret of health, happiness, and success in life is continuing personal growth. Whether your purpose is pragmatic or romatic ... career development, or a love of all the wonderful things life has to offer ... growth is about letting your mind do what it loves to do ... to explore, to learn and to change. Learning and change inevitably suggest new possibilities, which is the essence of hopefulness and a satisfied mind.

In Search of the Good Life

Everyone wants the good life ... health, happiness, and success ... but few ever achieve it until late in life, if at all.

So what's up with that?

The answer is simple. Many people think (if indeed they think about it at all) that the good life comes naturally, or not ... that it's a matter of genetics, karma, or personality. Others feel that it's a matter of entitlement; that if they're not enjoying the good life, its because they're being wrongfully deprived.

Few ever learn the secret of health, happiness and success. It's not about happenstance, it's not about entitlement, and it's not difficult to achieve. It comes easily, but you have to make an effort. You begin by realizing that life is

Life's journey is full of rewards for the person who looks expectantly ahead with a hopeful heart.

a journey of exploration that begins when you're pooped out of the womb, and ends when you're popped into the grave. Along the way as you go merrily rejoicing between these two events, beautiful and intriguing discoveries await you ... surprises and adventures that are infinite in number and variety. Life's journey is full of rewards for the person who looks expectantly ahead with a hopeful heart. You need only walk along life's pathway with an inquisitive mind; one that is open to new ideas and eager to embrace new opportunities.

Whatever your age or position in life, be your mind's friend. Let your mind be itself, and go along hand-in-hand to the places it'll take you. Then you will most certainly be blessed with the good life ... forever.

A Homemade Cough Remedy That Works

It's that time of year again. The bug strikes, and is dispatched within a few days by your immune system. But then weeks of annoying coughing ensue.

The caging spells are intermittent, but are sure to come at the worst possible moments. They begin as soon as you crawl into bed a night, robbing you of the rest you so sorely need. You just know it's going to happen during the quiet of the church service, or in the midst of an important meeting. It's sure to happen on the bus, train or airplane, giving your fellow passengers to shun you like a pariah who is spewing the air with disease.

Whatever happened to Cheracol, that wonderful cherry-flavored cough syrup that actually worked? Answer: After years of over-the-counter availability, the FDA decided that small doses of Codeine (Cheracol's morphine-like cough-suppressing ingredient) were dangerously addicting, and this popular remedy became a "Schedule V" drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. It was taken off the shelves ... a casualty of the Nixon "War On Drugs." Rules vary somewhat among the states. For a while Cheracol with Codeine was available upon request at most pharmacies. But evidently druggists, at least in this area (West Michigan), eventually got tired of messing with purchase logs, and quit dispensing it, offering "Cheracol D" (Dextromathorphan or "DXM") as an equally effective alternative (it isn't).

Now the FDA and DEA are wringing their hands about teenage abuse of Dextromathorphan. To get a "high" with DXM (a.k.a. "DM", "robo", "rojo", and "velvet") a kid would have to down 250 to 1,500 milligrams ... that's up to three eight ounce bottles of icky-tasting cough syrup. Provided that the adventure isn't spoiled by puking the stuff up (a rather common reaction), the initial effect is similar to mild inebriation, which a kid with any sense could better achieved ... and much less expensively ... by chugalugging a couple of Dad's beers.

I've found that DXM-based cough remedies actually will work, but not at the usual recommended dosage. If you're going to try this stuff, read the label on all the bottles on the shelf, paying attention to the Dextromathorphan content per recommended dose. Buy the "extra-strength" product with the highest per dose content. Better yet, rather then drinking lots of that awful stuff, consider a cold remedy such as Coricidin (30mg per tablet).

Here's another idea; forget the drugs and make your own inexpensive preparation using ingredients found in your own kitchen. No warnings - no side-effects. The recipe is supposedly from India, but most websites credit the book Herbally Yours by Penny C. Royal, 3rd Edition, June 1982. Not only does this simple preparation seem to be very effective as a cough remedy, a dose just before bedtime also seems to promote a good night's sleep. Although this magical elixir has a little bite, and the taste leaves something to be desired, it's probably no less palatable than commercial preparations.

Here are the ingredients:

	1 part cayenne pepper (1 teaspoon)
	1 part ground ginger (1 teaspoon)
	12 parts honey (4 Tablespoons)
	12 parts apple cider vinegar (4 Tablespoons)
	24 parts water (8 Tablespoons)

Combine the water and vinegar, and warm it to coffee or tea temperature to promote easy mixing. Add a little of the warmed liquid to the cayenne pepper and ginger and stir. Add the honey and the remaining warmed liquid, and mix thoroughly. The measurements given in parenthesis make eight liquid ounces. A typical adult dose is one tablespoon (1/2-ounce), so an eight-ounce bottle is good for sixteen doses. Since the ingredients are all natural, there's no need to worry about overdoses. The mixture will quickly separate, so always shake well before using. Refrigeration is not required.

Enjoy!

Climate Change - It's A Good Thing!

o they teach kids folk tales like "Chicken Little" any more? Or fables like Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes?" In the pursuit of status and titles, basic life skills have been denigrated in favor of higher education and academic degrees.


Pundits, like Chicken Little, catastrophize, reciting all the prospective terrors of global warming, and blame mankind ... namely mankind in the developed countries ... and mainly the United States ... for causing the terrible cataclysm to come. Governments around the world have been worried into throwing billions of dollars into the urgent task of halting the spew of "greenhouse gases" into the atmosphere ... namely carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, anyone who has the bad manners to question the "science" driving this hysteria is dismissed with a vehemence and viciousness similar to that heaped upon "Holocaust deniers."


Folk tales like Chicken Little and fables like The Emperor's New Clothes were traditionally passed on to yesteryear's children as a learning exercise; not merely as entertainment. Kids soon learned to expect the question, "Now, what's the moral of this story?" And, indeed, such stories always made a point. They were a practical and highly successful way of teaching children some fundamental life skills … the stuff we call common sense and emotional intelligence.


Unfortunately, in today's educationally snobbish culture, nothing counts but the utterances of a "professional." Common sense is disrespected. Understandably so, perhaps. After having paid big bucks for a college degree, it's difficult to accept that a high school dropout well grounded in basic life skills might actually have a better handle on life.


And so on to the new holocaust … "Global Warming."


Famine and Pestilence - Wars and Rumors of Wars


I was brought up in a God-fearing family, and was therefore well indoctrinated with the idea that humankind is so fundamentally sinful that God gets sufficiently angered now and then to decide to just erase everything and start over. Last time around, as the legend goes, he flooded the whole earth, drowning everyone and everything, except for what Noah saved in his ark. I also learned that rainbows appear as a sign of God's promise that he'll never again vent His rage in that way. Sweet! ... Except our Sunday school teachers hinted that the next time around it would be fire, instead of flood. Being thus indoctrinated, we God-fearing persons, who constitute the majority of the human population, are therefore predisposed to believe in the global warming doomsday hype … that our wanton material gluttony will prove our undoing, and we will die in the heat of the planet we destroyed.


We seem to like doomsday-speak. During my life it's been one doomsday scare after another.


First it was World War II, where civilization as we knew it was at risk of being taken over and destroyed by those hatefully atheistic Nazi Huns, sexually insane gooks, and nutty Fascist wops. As kids in Traverse City, Michigan, we were frightened almost to death by air raid sirens and black-outs. "In Traverse City, Michigan?" you ask. Yes; it was ridiculous. In the early 1940's, enemy bombers were not that range capable, and even if they were, why would they waste expensive ordnance on a backwater place like Traverse? The propagandists claimed that they would be using city lights as landmarks, and commercial radio stations as navigation aids along the way to the strategically important Soo Locks. The propaganda also claimed righteous indignation; that the allies were totally innocent and the axis powers were totally evil. And so, the world chose up sides, ganging up on each other in an adventure that ultimately killed some 72-million people as we kids walked along sidewalks chanting, "Step on a crack; break Hitler's back." or singing, "Whistle while you work, Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini bent his weenie - now it doesn't work!"


"The Russians Are Coming!"


Having not-so-neatly dispatched that calamity, next came the Communist hysteria. These wicked and subversive nut jobs, zombie-like disciples of a creepy Vladimir Lenin and the evil Joseph Stalin, were bent on infiltrating every aspect of American life, and eventually taking over the whole world.


That reached a crescendo with Senator Joe McCarthy's infamous "investigations." Many influential institutions and personalities were sucked into the vortex McCarthy created, including the FBI, the House Un-American Activities Committee, the Catholic Church, the American Legion, the Kennedy family, and a young upcoming Richard Nixon.


A widely popular weekly television program during the mid-1950's called I Led Three Lives, which provided weekly, high-fictionalized episodes in the exciting, dangerous, and heroic life of Herbert Philbrick, an advertising executive who infiltrated the Communist Party as an undercover agent for the FBI, did much to promote McCarthy's cause with the general public. Eventually, anyone who dared doubt McCarty or question his witch-hunt was a risk of being fingered as a Communist sympathizer, "fellow traveler", or an outright Communist. After having destroyed the careers of many notables, McCarthy's rants about Communist infiltration in the highest offices of the government and the military … even accusing the Democratic Party of "twenty years of treason" … it became clear that the Senator's uncontrolled appetite for alcohol had evidently finally pickled his brain, and his colleagues finally voted to clip his wings.


But, not to worry … the next crisis was already at hand.


Mutually-Assured Destruction


Those damned Rosenberg's and their in-laws and friends had stolen our nuclear secrets and passed them on to "Uncle Joe" (Stalin). Those arch-evil Communists in the Soviet Union popped their first mushroom cloud, code-named "Joe 1," in late 1949, and the Cold War was on. As the McCarthy thing died, we began building bomb shelters in earnest, and us kids became unofficial members of the "Civil Air Patrol," constantly searching the skies for "Reds" (Russians in bombers). We just knew those evil, prisyka dancing vodka drinkers in the USSR were bent on taking over the whole world and converting it all to Communism.


The Cold War turned into an Arms Race, with each side scurrying to develop and manufacture ever more powerful nuclear devices. The A-bomb turned into the H-bomb, and even a Q-bomb was rumored … a small, but much more powerful device which somehow killed all the people without destroying their property. After twenty years of this madness, the doom sayers were ranting that we had developed enough nuclear explosive devices to destroy the planet, and were on the verge of doing so.

"I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
              - A. Einstein

However, most practical people realized that the Soviet Union already had a full plate and was probably not really interested in taking over the world any more, and perhaps never were. Furthermore, by this time both the US and USSR had settled in to a defense strategy called "MAD" … Mutually Assured Destruction … both having far more than enough firepower to wipe out the other on a moment's notice, making any "first strike" highly improbable, even with lunatics in charge of the buttons. Meanwhile, some scientists began to point out that the power of the world's combined nuclear arsenals were puny in comparison to nature's potential fury, which is occasionally unleashed as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions … catastrophes that do happen from time to time, yet life goes on.


In a characteristic display of bad judgment, the American people, in 1980, decided to replace a sitting President with a movie actor. As luck would have it, that turned out to be a good thing, since Ronald Reagan, in a refreshing display of common sense, decided to fight fire with fire in dealing with the Soviets. Taking the arms race to the next level, which became know as the Star Wars initiative … intercepting and blowing up Soviet missiles in space well before they could reach their targets … he essentially drove the USSR into bankruptcy in their frantic effort to keep up. By the end of his Presidency in 1989, the Soviet Union was crumbling, and the Cold War was over.


Ozone Depletion - NASA's Folly


What next? Oh, my God there's a gaping hole in the ozone layer! We're all going to go blind and die of skin cancer! Those mad scientists and greed-crazed corporate magnates at Frigidaire, DuPont, and General Motors, the inventors, makers and distributors of Freon … chlorofluorocarbons or CFC's; the stuff used in air conditioners and aerosol cans … were the primary villains here.


The real culprit turned out to be NASA. Struggling to preserve its budget as interest in space exploration waned and interest in environmental science waxed, NASA mistakenly interpreted some unexpected findings of its TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) program and exuberantly published the bogus results.


This new crisis came just in time. Environmentalists were giddy, and the doomsayers had something new to ring their hands over. All the hype led to the famous Montreal Protocol in 1987, an international agreement restricting the production and use of ozone-depleting chemicals, mainly CFC's.


But eventually more rational thinking in NASA evidently began to surface, with the space agency having the bad manners to begin hedging its bets … reporting that the hole in the ozone layer was,

"As usual, once the cat was out of the bag, the experts and doomsayers quietly crawled back into the woodwork."

on average, more or less constant and predictable, varying with the seasons. But they continued to defensively assert that it was a new phenomenon, and caused by hydrogen fluoride released into the stratosphere through the use of man-made CFC's. Other scientists found it curious that the hole appeared over the South Pole, whereas most emissions of man-made gases occur in the Northern Hemisphere. Worse yet, other climatologists pointed out Antarctica's Mt. Erebus spews some 150,000 tons of hydrogen fluoride directly into the Antarctican stratosphere each year, whereas the breakdown of man-made gases world-wide would theoretically account for only about 2,500 tons at most.


And so, the multi-billion dollar direct and indirect cost imposed upon world economies by bureaucrats who became believers in bad science and who bowed to zealous environmentalism, amounts to nothing less than a silly, wildly impulsive intention to play God … to take control of a natural planetary phenomenon far beyond our poor powers to do anything about. As usual, once the cat was out of the bag, the experts and doomsayers quietly crawled back into the woodwork. Isn't it funny … we don't hear much about the ozone hole anymore.


"C-yo-tu" and Kyoto


But wait … there's an all-new crisis, and just in time.


It's Climate Change (a.k.a. "Global Warming"). There will be terrible droughts, wildly inclement and destructive weather, the glaciers will all melt, flooding coastal regions and destroying places like New York, Los Angeles, the Netherlands, and what not.


This "silly science" dates back to French mathematician Joseph Fourier who, about 185-years ago, was able to calculate that the planet's average temperature seemed to be slowly increasing. He thought the temperature rise was probably due to the earth's atmosphere trapping solar radiation and reflecting it back to the earth. About seventy years later, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius theorized that this phenomenon was mainly the result of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and he coined the phrase "greenhouse gas." In the 1950's, English amateur scientist G..S. Callendar took an interest in the field, resurrecting the carbon dioxide theory and insisting that the greenhouse effect was dramatically impacting the atmosphere of the Earth. For his efforts, he won a place in science with global warming now being known in scientific circles as the Callendar Effect.


That really got the ball rolling. As average temperatures continued to slowly increase, other scientists got involved, and with new and improved high-tech instrumentation and hardware, they discovered lucrative new fields for research. As usual, this also came as good news to environmentalists and bureaucrats. It wasn't long before a coalition of scientists, environmentalists and bureaucrats decided that a United Nations Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would be a great idea. That led to yet another big environmental powwow, and another international agreement similar to the Montreal Protocol, this time called the Kyoto Protocol.


After all the hubbub, it turns out that CO₂ is a relatively minor member of the greenhouse gas family. The big Kahuna … the elephant in the room, as it were … is H₂O. That's right; water vapor. The air is full of it, as any practical person knows. Greenhouse gases actually comprise only a small part of the atmosphere, and of this small part, over three-quarters is usually water vapor.

"Scientists who pay attention to history understand that global temperatures have fluctuated rather cyclically over the eons, and to much more extreme levels that what’s being worried about today."

It now appears that Fourier's original conjecture was wrong. Scientists who pay attention to history understand that global temperatures have fluctuated cyclically over the eons, and to much more extreme levels that what's being worried about today. It further appears that these fluctuations coincide perfectly with solar activity … sun spots, in other words. One explanation is that the earth is continually showered with cosmic rays which promote cloud formation through ionization of the atmosphere. This shower is modulated by the solar wind and is significantly attenuated during periods of intense solar activity, The result is fewer, and less dense clouds, which permits more of the sun's energy to reach Earth's surface, and hence periods of greater warmth. This theory is rabidly refuted, of course, and others suggest different ways to explain the relationship between solar activity and the Earth's temperature. But, regardless of the mechanism, these facts seem clear: (1) global temperatures have varied rather widely for as far back as researchers can measure (millions of years), and (2) the variations are cyclical and correspond rather precisely with the activity of the four primary solar cycles.


These should be facts enough for anyone with a little common sense to conclude that the current hysteria is the outgrowth of hype generated by bad science and science aficionados in the environmentalist community. Yet, here again we have governments around the world squandering the fruits of our labor … billions of tax dollars … in a senseless and futile effort to control Mother Nature. The situation spirals far beyond reason as researches begin to chase after those dollars, mindful of the reality that the spigot will likely be turned off if they fail to deliver what bureaucrats are paying for … evidence that corroborates their bad judgment.


What makes this particular saga pathetically ironic is the knowledge that, as far back as recorded history goes, human progress, in terms of intellectual and economic advancement … "Good Times," in other words … have coincided with epochs of increasing global temperatures. As a matter of fact, Callendar's attitude was positive, thinking that this slight warming process would be a good thing. So, not only is there no valid reason to fear these natural warming cycles, there is legitimate historic reason for the human race to look forward to them … much like those of us in the non-tropical latitudes greet springtime's dispatch of a long, cold winter!


Goodbye Warming - Hello Meltdown!

As luck would have it, something did indeed melt down, but it wasn't the polar ice caps. It was the worldwide economy. Thank goodness! Now we have a new reason to wring our hands and rent our garments … and just in time! This crisis should be good for at least another two years, and some say ten. Kiss climate change goodbye.


As usual, government is charging ahead, hell bent on pointing fingers and solving the wrong problems. The current economic flame-out is not really the result of banking and mortgage misbehavior, but rather the legacy wrought by the past several decades of government's micromanagement and misadventure. That has arisen from the silly philosophy that government is responsible for solving all our problems, and that any problem can be resolved by passing a law. In 1854, Abraham Lincoln ... then a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois ... wrote this:

"The legitimate object of government is to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, by themselves."

Perhaps the culprits have really been us. When I was a teenager in the 1950's, when bad things happened people often muttered, "There ought'a be a law!" Proving yet again the truism, "be careful what you wish for," we now have laws and government regulations for just about everything. Not only has that become very costly, it has destroyed American manufacturing, the only sector of our economy that actually creates value.


Lincoln also said ...

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

Indeed, like all the other crises mentioned above, the present economic "crisis" will pass ... not because of what the government does, but in spite of it.


Don't Worry - Be Happy!


This review of doomsdays that never came to pass should teach us to think for ourselves and respect our own common sense. Titles like "professional," "scientist," and phrases like "government report," do on lend information a godlike status of credibility. Human beings, regardless of educational or vocational achievement, always remain fallible, our works and utterances always subject to review and amendment. A knowledge of this is the beginning of wisdom.


The next time someone tries to worry you about the dire consequences of climate change, the economic melt-down, or whatever pseudo-crisis comes next, remember the tale of Chicken Little. The world is a complex place. Human minds are fallible and easily jump to conclusions based upon the evidence at hand. Beyond that point, they tend to interpret new evidence as needed to support what they already believe to be true. Thus is flawed thinking easily expanded and perpetuated


Human minds are also emotional machines. When you are criticised for not being a believer, remember the saga of The Emperor's New Clothes. Passions frequently overwhelm reason. Understanding this, and being capable of, and willing to, set facts apart from emotion, is the mark of emotional intelligence, and the hallmark of real leadership.


In the final analysis, all things do indeed seem to work together for good. Not only did none of these situations deliver the worst-case consequences projected, they rather quickly melted into history, with life going on, eventually bigger and better than ever before. History shows that over the long term, optimism is always appropriate.