What relationship is there between companies in which top management is given giant golden parachutes (Merrill Lynch and Home Depot) and the culture of

What relationship is there between companies in which top management is given obscene giant golden parachutes (Merrill Lynch and Home Depot) and the culture of "we're here to make this company great through our collective efforts."

Is that an example of what Jim Collins calls "willful humility" of the best ceos? As he describes such people they'll do whatever it takes to make their company great while at the same time insisting that they are not the authors of the company's greatness. Are such people going to hold their heads up high and take a $200 million payout when they are dismissed? I think not.

There are so many things to frown about with the current U.S. Executive Branch. I do believe that these eight years have done more harm to our country than any previous 8 years in my lifetime or likely in any American lifetime other than perhaps the founding father's inability to elminate slavery from our lands before or with the writing of the U.S. Constitution.

That said, what I wonder is what elements that are so often criticized are matters of ideology (what goals the admininstration is setting out to accomplish) and what are matters of means (how this administration operates to reach accomplish their goals).

The Cheney profile in the Washington Post a few weeks ago was unusually creepy for several reasons. First of all, because of the furtiveness of the operation, secondly, because of the appearance of operating while not at cross purposes with the president seeminly not at the president's direct behest or strong encouragement, thirdly because of the ways he used his knowledge of the levers of power, the slowness of the bureaucracy, the ability to undermine the spirit of many laws, and be unaccountable to anyone, and fourthly and finally because of what he set out to accomplish and largely did -- unfettered ability to torture at will, spying on Americans without authorization from the proper channels, holding "enememy combatants" some of whom are American citizens for unlimited periods of time without charging them or allowing them legal council, pushing for tax cuts for the rich and very rich, putting the desires of outsourcing and a free-market system ahead of the success of the Iraq venture, putting loyalists in running the Iraq venture ahead of those vastly more competent, and so on and so on.

To put it another way, let's suppose

How to deal with the "Paris" problem? Is it really realistic for media outlets to just ignore a story if it deems that story bad for its industry.

Lists, lists, lists...


Sick of lists...someone's speaking to you. Otherwise I'll find the best top lists in the next week.

Lists, lists, lists...


Sick of lists...someone's speaking to you. Otherwise I'll find the best top lists in the next week.

projects first

projects first

cbs

cbs

cbs

cbs

new cbs

New cbs

With all the discussion of the nastiness of American politics and the anything goes approach of current campaigns, what a shame that