The buck stops where? freep.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Lincoln's presidential museum outdraws the others stltoday.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Harry Truman Would Like the House Bill The New Republic Take a look at an interesting article we found.
January 19, 2010
Yesterday, we spoke of leadership and common sense.
Continuing that theme, I thought it might be interesting to discuss one our Presidents, who had an ample amount of both.
Harry S. Truman:
“Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
Of all our presidents, Harry Truman had some of the oddest notions:
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
He probably made as many important decisions as any our Presidents, yet he might have been the most modest man to ever take office.
“All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”
A measure of the man may be what he did after he left the White House.
Four months after entering private life, he was invited to address the Reserve Officers Association in Philadelphia. Refusing official transportation, he drove his Chrysler New Yorker with Bess in the front seat.
His only income was from a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year.
Congress, seeing that he was buying his own stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.
He was offered corporate positions at large salaries, but declined:
"You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."
He may not have been Dr. Spock, but he found time to give a little sage advice on raising children:
“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.”
On May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he turned it down cold:
"I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."
When Truman left office in January of 1953, few presidents were as unpopular. His approval rate was around 20 percent. There were numerous labor strikes and the stalemate of the Korean War.
In the over half century since he is now revered by Republicans and Democrats and recently finished fifth in a 2009 C-SPAN poll ranking presidents.
I'm sure he would have been flabbergasted, to use one of his favorite words.
From “Plain Speaking:”
"My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!"
Atomic Bomb: Decision dannen.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
The Presidents whitehouse.gov Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Harry S Truman Library & Museum trumanlibrary.org Take a look at an interesting article we found.
It is unlikely but not impossible that a Truman inauguration was what we watched as s...
Jan. 19, 2010 12:44 PM
Your definition of leadership?
41% 13% 13% 31% 3%
RE: the quote about the difference ; I think the food may be better at the White House. 2) It may be easier to discern motives in the whore house
Elucidation: in one of those circumstances, one person wants to get,ah,serviced,in the other, he wants to,ah service as many as he can.....
H.S.T. at the time, used the most destructive weapon man had ever devised; but with the intention of doing good. Since then, more devious weapons have been designed, and to the detriment of most,but not all....And they went off with not a boom, but a cha-ching. And they did not do good,except for some,and for them,very,very good. IMHO
Who turns out to be the hero and who turns out to be the villian often has largely to do with who wins and who loses. Had Japan won the war, Truman and his generals would likely have been tried for war crimes. Courage & valor in civilian applications have a lot to do with spontaneous assertiveness of doing the right thing, not that which is deemed to be popular, or "politically correct." And on life's journey it is not always easy to make informed decisions critical to knowing the difference. The web of obfuscation that is used to camouflage excrement and reflag it "ice cream" is tangled.
Ehhh, Bert, PUUULEEEEZE tell me that is NOT how Rocky Road got its name........
How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt" HST inquired. Agree or not with his legacy, Mr. Truman had political cojones and the dignity to not sell out for unadulterated financial gain is refreshing.
morning all !
looks like a porch day to wait for the sepia journey tonight...good friends, food, views and music....y'all all get this figured out...see ya!
He only had a middle initial, not a middle name, though he did put a period after it. It has been said that if everyone who claimed to have bought a tie from Harry Truman's men's shop actually had, he would not have had time to enter politics.
Truman had many great qualities. But the legacies he left us
from Korea
is; war without declaration. He rushed
to the defense of Korea
and even took it to the UN and got a there support for action but never asked
for a war declaration from congress to support the UN action. Since then we have had Viet Nam, two Iraq,
and Afghanistan.
Truman also put Macarthur in command in Korea as UN
commander. At that point should Macarthur
do what he thought best to for the UN policy or as a General of the Army what
was best for US
policy?
Truman took the Presidency into some murky waters.
more on the honor rollIt is unlikely but not impossible that a Truman inauguration was what we watched as school kids in the home of a student's parents on a small black and white TV. I would have been five and in kindergarten.
It is a certainty that we watched Ike's first inaugural and just before school let out, the coronation of QE ll in 1953.
In the Spring of 1966, when I was twenty-two and my younger brother fifteen, we drove from St. Louis to Kansas City to visit one of our older brothers stationed there with the air force.
While in the area, we thought to drive past the Truman home in nearby Independence, Mo.
The former president was out in the yard with two men who looked to be measuring something and a lady who was not his wife or mother-in-law.
It was a surprise to actually see him and we would have been happy with a wave but he excused himself and strolled over to the fence: "I'm Harry Truman," he said smiling and extending his hand.
"We know, sir, and we have just been saying that it is so nice that you all had such a beautiful and quiet place to return to."
We visited for a while, he asked about our trip, wished us a safe return and thanked us for stopping by to say hello.
His parting handshake was one of those deals where he gave it a little something extra maybe because he knew, even if we didn't, that it was a moment that we would never forget.
That was, of course, before cable TV and an endless, twenty-four hour succession of under qualified nattering nitwits creating careers out of dragging our leaders and their betters through the muck.
A time, you might say, of dignity.
Always like Teddy Roosevelt's quote on leadership: "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to
do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with
them while they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt" I'm sure Harry S. must have studied Teddy, since he was a great student of history.
Several studies in human productivity in the workplace define Tuesdays as the day that individuals buckle down and crank out the productive calories. The authors of that study never consulted with ME, at least not TODAY. And furthermore, the decanter for the best coffee maker is BROKEN.....
Truman
was probably better educated (self educated at that) on his country’s history
than any other president with the possible exception of TR. Truman’s favorite president, other than FDR
for who he had great respect and admiration (something few Vice Presidents have
for there boss), was Andrew Jackson.
What a great story, Stoney. Sure beats seeing Woody Allen in a NYC elevator.
It's too bad that today's society won't allow a former president to live as simply or be as natural as that anymore.
Who do we remember more, the guy who played right field for the Yankees after Babe Ruth retired, or the guy who followed FDR into the White House?
An old saying.... "He who aspires to leadership should look over his shoulder frequently to make sure his followers are still back there...." Corallary: "If you keep your head in the heat of battle, the others will ask you what to do...." I've worked for a handful of great guys and a pile of creeps and losers. Every follower knows very quickly how to tell them apart!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukxiP0-6bgs
Shandonista,
Nice man but he seemed perplexed by my ride: "Funny car though."
It was a '59 MB 220 S. The kind with big red leather recliners up front and a couch in back. It was non-metallic gray, got over thirty-five mpg and, now that I think about it, was in fact a lot more like a grandfather's choice in wheels.
Now that I am about to turn three times that age, I would like to have it back.
Woody is a pretty big card to have punched. Any contact?
Great story Stoney. As the commerical says, PRICELESS. My recently deceased Father in Law told me of his meeting Admiral Bull Halsey when he served on the Saratoga. I could see the same glint in his eyes at eighty five that he must have had when he was around 20.
Give 'em Hell, Harry!
STONEY- great story!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was a great story,Stoney. I could say something silly,like I hope you never washed that hand,but we are probably all thinking it anyway.So I won't.
This country has had only a handful of decent, REAL Presidents, and Harry Truman is one of the greatest of them .......
Okay.
My contribution to today's topic is disrespectful, and it is silly -- because it is a college sorority drinking song.
It bashes Margaret Truman (who is a pretty good mystery writer nowadays) and Harry's wife, Bess -- who wasn't known for her beauty, any more than Margaret Truman was known for her musical talent.
Nonetheless, Harry S. Truman shamelessly encouraged his only child to play that piano in front of captive White House audiences, and he shamelessly loved his unlovely wife, Bess, both of which actually say a lot of good things about this former President. A man who loves his wife and daughter and isn't afraid to let the world know it -- sounds like a good man to me.
But college students aren't sensitive to these things until they're out of college and into their own marriages, so here's our drinking song, in which we shamelessly picked on the Truman family and a certain rival sorority:
Mary Margaret Truman
was the daughter of the Pres
She lived in the White House
With her ugly mother, Bess.
Her social rating
Was not worth debating
'Cause she was a member of
Pi Beta Phi ......
When homely Harry Truman
Got the boot
In Fifty-two
Mary Margaret Truman
Made her very last debut.
She went back to
Missouri
To work in a
Brewery...
So let's all drink Budweiser beer!
Yes. And to think my father paid good money for my college education, and Lo! all these years later, this is what I bring to a discussion about the man from Independence.
Oh Well, what the Hell.
Cheers!
Give 'em hell Park... I say your father's money was well invested.
PARK- this is one of the reasons that panty shields were invented....
You are tooooooooooooo much woman!!!!!!!!!
PARK4: Thats Funny !!! Good to know that you can Givem Hell Just As Well !!!!!!!
Peter Lake,
It is good to see that you are at liberty or is it at large?
There was some concern that after the cable outrage of running "Miller's Crossing" (What's the rumpus?) and "Prophecy" (Even on Christmas) at the same time, that you may have been driven to take action.
It was worse than say, Disparate House Wines and The Bachelor running against each other... that would at least have irony going for it.
I had visions of you holding tall buildings of cable execs hostage as you hurled carefully crafted phrases and sharp though respectful barbs and admonishments until they buckled and agreed to run each one monthly on separate evenings.
Wait! They already do, don't they?
Never mind.
P4
Back into the corner... funny though.
Wasn't it the Nebraskan who expressed the hots for Margaret?
Luddite, are you and Mrs. Luddite doing OK at the coast? Heard there was high surf.
I think Harry Vaughn said it best about Mr. Truman, "He was one tough son-of-a-bitch man." I wouldn't doubt it for a minute. A modern warrior poet (almost blind bookworm soldier who reached the rank of Captain during the Great War), he epitomized what a man could accomplish with his life. Like all men, he had his faults, but he knew what kind of man he could become and what kind of country we could be. Never stop striving to improve one's country and one's self. He knew how to lead, how to teach, and how to be tough but fair. I'd imagine the American Presidency is the best and worst job in the world but if one does it right, people won't remember the bad things that happened as much as the good.
Stoney - When it comes to those two films the 'respectful' part of my barbs takes a hike and the hard-core South-Sider rises from the ashes and goes Medieval on the netwok boys.
Be well good sir, and fear not. I've got both movies DVR'd
When it comes to Harry T., when he had to he stood tall, all the while keeping his feet on the ground.
"Disparate House Wines" so NEEDS to be a Wine Spectator spin off.
Stoney, give me a 100 shares, please....and keep it offa Buffett's radar.
Stoney- a PONTON! how cool. I had the much less classic 62 or 63 ( also 220 S) with the small fins and the over/under headlights. Grey exterior and red interior seemed to be a frequent Euro combo in those days. Didn't the bad guys drive your car in the Bond films? Theirs prolly had the black interior, though...
I remember working on those as a young man. I remember the quirky diesel,with that little caged glow bar on the dash,you pulled that knob until that element glowed red,and then you started that little 4 banger. It would rattle to life with a shudder and a symphony of clikety clakety goodness,and off you went,a smokey trail behind you. And that funny rear wheel stance, from that flexoble member at the rear axle...Boy, that leather was the best interior...a shame they replaced it with that damask inserts/leather. And that wooden dashboard-burled and varnished. what a great drive down the paths of my memory...thanks
Back from night class. What are tonight's drink specials?
Truman will make it a coffee...I'll make it a Spanish coffee.
In that case . . . I'll have gin.
Michael,
Way to go. Why screw around with the martini when it is so simple and gratifying to pour gin into a glass and drink it?
Bombay? Bermondsey? Pink? Does anybody have a preference???