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David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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In an age when lies are expected, integrity matters more than ever

By David McElroy · March 30, 2019

It should have been a simple business transaction. I met the woman early last week and she seemed professional enough. We spent half an hour talking about a proposed deal.

Toward the end of the meeting, she told me something that seemed to contradict what she had said earlier. I questioned this small detail and she explained the contradiction away as a misunderstanding. I accepted her story and was prepared to sign a contract.

The next day, she didn’t do what she had told me she was going to do. When I contacted her, she had an explanation that was vague and questionable. She told me a couple of specific things she was going to do in the next couple of hours. By this point, I was skeptical and suspicious, but I was still willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

And then she just disappeared. Completely. Poof. She didn’t return my phone calls or texts. She didn’t do any of what she promised to do. After a couple of days, I gave up and put her on my list of people not to do business with.

She’s a liar. She has no integrity. I can’t trust her.

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If you’re out of place somewhere, nobody’s going to be very happy

By David McElroy · March 2, 2019

I was still 21 years old when I hired someone for the first time. I failed miserably.

I had just been promoted to managing editor of a small daily newspaper and one of my first tasks was to fill the job I had just vacated as sports editor. I felt very confident that I’d make a good hire.

OK, let’s be honest. I was young and full of myself. I knew what I was doing, unlike those who had come before me. I wouldn’t hire some dork with no talent. (We had a couple of those.) I was going to hire the best.

When I went through resumes and read the candidates’ previous work, one guy stood out. Danny was a great writer. His copy was crisp and fun to read. He had just finished his graduate degree in journalism and would obviously be working at a bigger paper soon with some experience. After an interview, I hired him.

It was an absolute disaster.

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Marriage is a business decision, not just matter of romantic love

By David McElroy · October 25, 2018

The husband or wife you choose is the most important business partner you will ever have — and the family you create together is the most important business organization of your life.

We have been taught by our culture to see marriage as little more than two people magically brought together by fate and chance. Our movies teach us this. Our fairy tales teach us this, too. But those stories almost always end when the two people ultimately come together. We’re told they “lived happily ever after,” but we never see what that looks like.

Romantic love is very important to me. I’ve written multiple times about the ways in which the heart knows what it wants — often for reasons which aren’t clear to the rational mind. But if you choose to follow romantic love alone — and follow the model of family which culture is teaching us today — you will be throwing away your most valuable material asset.

And if you choose that path, you’re setting yourself up for a miserable family.

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Have you felt as though you’re living through Grou Have you felt as though you’re living through Groundhog Day lately? Me, too. Here’s a quick-and-dirty political satire I made this evening for fun and stress relief.
About three minutes before sunrise, vibrant color About three minutes before sunrise, vibrant color is poking through the skies to the east of my back yard.
The lights and color might have been more spectacu The lights and color might have been more spectacular a couple of minutes before this, but this was the best view I had of the Monday afternoon sunset from a bridge over I-20 in Moody, Ala.
I just remembered this shot I got a couple of hour I just remembered this shot I got a couple of hours ago of the fading sunset while I was in the Publix parking lot on the way home. If you suddenly find yourself craving Arby’s or Wendy’s, blame the giant icons in the sky, not me. 😃 (BTW, this was with the iPhone’s 8X telephoto lens.) #nature #naturephotography #sunset #birmingham #alabama
I had just pulled into a parking lot Friday night I had just pulled into a parking lot Friday night and was watching traffic through the distortion of the gently falling rain on my car window when I realized that the abstract view I had matched the way I was feeling tonight, so I turned it into a brief abstract video to match my mood.
Get ready for the next great animated Christmas cl Get ready for the next great animated Christmas classic, featuring singing and dancing and danger from Alex, Oliver and Sam. Coming soon to a theater near you. (The funniest part is that if I cared about this as anything more than a Christmas joke, it strikes me as something that could be profitable with the right story development and the right animators.)
Here are a couple of views of the sunset I just wa Here are a couple of views of the sunset I just watched on my way home after showing houses. I didn’t have my camera with me, so these are just iPhone shots. #nature #naturephotography #sunset #birmingham #alabama
This is what it might look like if the cats and I This is what it might look like if the cats and I were cast in a Wes Anderson film.
This is one of the funniest things that ChatGPT ha This is one of the funniest things that ChatGPT has done for me. I asked it to create a movie poster showing what a movie poster would look like for a film starring me. I told it to use my previous writings (from my website) to come up with a title and subject matter. And this is what it came up with. I can’t stop laughing. Also, the software decided on its own to included Oliver. 😺
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Some neighbors across the street have put their ho Some neighbors across the street have put their house up for sale and Sam has been keeping his eyes on anybody who comes to the house to look at it. There was someone there just a little while ago and Sam was making sure he wasn’t a danger to us. The two men left without causing any harm to the neighborhood, so Sam obviously did his job.
Alex woke up early Tuesday afternoon just long eno Alex woke up early Tuesday afternoon just long enough to see if I had come to play with him or not. When he realized I was leaving the house instead of coming to play, he curled up and went back to sleep.
Sam relaxes in my arms at an office window just af Sam relaxes in my arms at an office window just after midnight Monday. He would still rather be left alone, but he tolerates me pretty well most of the time. 😺
Alex is hanging out with me just a bit after 3 a.m Alex is hanging out with me just a bit after 3 a.m., but I think he’s about ready for us all to go to bed.
Just before sunset, Alex is watching birds outside Just before sunset, Alex is watching birds outside an office window.
Oliver’s been enjoying the beautiful spring weathe Oliver’s been enjoying the beautiful spring weather in an office window late Saturday afternoon.
When I came home late Friday night, Sam and Oliver When I came home late Friday night, Sam and Oliver were in a window on the side of the house when they heard me there. You can see Alex in the background on top of the castle.
When I got back home a few minutes before sunset F When I got back home a few minutes before sunset Friday, Alex and Oliver were sacked out on the top levels of the castle. You can barely see Oliver behind Alex. He’s on a part of the top level that’s a few inches lower. Sam was sleeping in my office chair.
You might think this is just a coincidence, but I’ You might think this is just a coincidence, but I’m pretty sure Sam was trying to stick his tongue out at me.
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We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

A child having a tantrum understands only one thing: Did I get my way or not? He doesn’t understand the issues involved. He doesn’t understand the reasons that went into a decision. He doesn’t understand any of the things that mature and reasonable adults have to understand in order to live healthy lives. By his reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down his disastrous tariff scheme, Donald Trump shows himself to be — once more — a screaming child having a tantrum. Outside the world of mob bosses who expect to get their way every time, normal adults don’t act this way, but Trump isn’t normal. He’s an angry and vengeful man who has narcissistic personality disorder. And we are in danger as a result. Trump doesn’t understand the legal issues involved in this ruling. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t understand rule of law. He doesn’t understand that he can ever be wrong. All he understands is that he didn’t get his way. And he is now a narcissistic and raging little boy who also happens to hold life-and-death power over most humans on this planet. He’s dangerous — and the system which gives him that power is even more dangerous.

Is it an attempt to blur the gender line between men and women? Or is it some weird tribute to the traditional Scottish kilt? It’s hard to say, but fashion designers keep pushing for men to wear skirts in the last few years. Both men and women in modern fashion seem oddly androgynous, as though it would be offensive for a man to look manly or for a woman to look feminine. A CNN article about the latest fashions from Paris caught my attention Monday and left me wondering about the ugly clothes the designers are hawking. If a man wants to wear a skirt — or a kilt — that’s OK with me, but I’ll stick with a traditional dark suit with a white shirt and tie. (Well, when I’m not wearing t-shirts and sweats, of course.) I always wonder who actually buys the outlandish garb from fashion designers anyway. I would be humiliated to be seen in any of this stuff, but I obviously have no sense of high fashion.

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