12-3-24

I have a theory that generally speaking people are lazy…..not everyone, but a lot of

them are…..just plain lazy…..because of that inherent laziness that I see in other

people there are things that I do differently…..I mean it…..

- If there are two water fountains and one of them is the short water

fountain…..I drink from the short one because most people won’t bend over

that far…..check me on this….next time take a look and I bet you will see

that the short fountain is dry from lack of use…..it’s about drinking from the

cleanest fountain

- In the Wal-Mart parking lot I generally park a little further out…..I will be

parked quicker and in the store than the folks who lap the parking lot 5 times

looking for the spot that will save them 20 steps of walking…..it’s about the

shopping not the parking…..

- If I go to a restaurant that has self-serve drink dispensers I look for the drink

I want that is available in the furthest drink dispenser from the

counter….people won’t step two steps to the side if they don’t have to and

that means I’m more likely to get the best drink with the most fizz…..it’s

about the best drink, not the convenience….

- And don’t even get me started on people who won’t replace the toilet paper

roll….there’s a special place in Heaven for people who always replace the

roll for the next person……just sayin’

But these things….while they may sound amusing…..they’re really about

priorities…..they’re about getting something done….they’re about remembering

what the actual mission is and being willing to do the hard thing if necessary to get

the job done….to get to the goal…..everything from National Security to fizzy

fountain drinks…..having priorities in order is part of what drives mission

success….

There’s a lot to be said for having priorities in order…..not to be confused with so-

called “good ideas”…..priorities are meant to be the most important things, the

issues or challenges or tasks that are to be done first and foremost because they

carry the most weight, achieve the highest outcomes, work toward the better

good…..but “good ideas”…..those are just neat things that people dream up that fit

their agenda but don’t speak to the greatness of actual achievement….we used to

joke in the Army that you could always tell when the “Good Idea Fairy” flew

through the room and sprinkled magic idea dust…suddenly we had new acronyms,

new minutiae, new bureaucracy…..but the Good Idea Fairy rarely had anything

that made us more combat effective….because good ideas are not always in line

with actual priorities…..

As an Airborne Infantry Officer, and a graduate of the US Army Ranger School, I

spent a good bit of time having certain things hammered into me. …..when you are

on patrol and you come to an extended halt you set up a patrol base….a defensible

site, off the beaten path, where you can finalize preparations for whatever mission

you happen to be on…..but in all of that training and field testing it was hammered

over and over to engage any patrol base activities in light of what we called

“priorities of work”…..why would that be?......Because left to their own

devices….in the heat of the moment….people are lazy…..generally

speaking…..people will too often default to their personal comfort…..they will

sleep, eat, and feel sorry for themselves unless the leader of the patrol maintains

the discipline of ensuring the priorities of work are accomplished…..

Here’s how that goes……you patrol as a part of small unit tactics…you arrive to

your intermediate point prior to actions on the objective….you set up your patrol

base from which you operate the final stages of the mission……

If left to their own devices there are many light infantry guys that would go

immediately into rest……get some chow…..they would grumble about their sore

feet…..that’s why you go into it with the understanding that there are things that

you will do first and foremost…..in certain order…..and delay that need for

personal comfort and gratification until all else is done….

Generally speaking upon locating your site for the patrol base you put immediate

effort into security, establish a withdrawal plan, ensure communications are

established, prep for the next phase of the overall mission, conduct weapons and

equipment maintenance, resupply water, and only then do you get into eating and

rest…..because if you do that then you will increase your survivability….and if

you increase your survivability….you will increase your lethality….and if a unit

does these things then it will increase the likelihood of mission success…..

Sounds reasonable……priorities of work…..key word priorities!

In 1942, Admiral Chester Nimitz was told that the premier aircraft carrier in the US

Navy, the U.S.S. Yorktown, had been too severely damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea

….the Yorktown had been hit by a 551-pound armor-piercing bomb that had smashed

through the flight deck and obliterated six compartments and much of the ship’s lighting,

radar and refrigeration systems…… When the Navy told Nimitz the Yorktown needed

90 days of repairs, he replied, “We must have this ship back in three days.” ……To

accomplish that goal, Nimitz waived safety regulations and ordered 1,400 repairmen to

work around the clock…… The power demands of the repair work were so great that

blackouts rolled through Honolulu……. But the Yorktown made it out of drydock as

ordered just days later and ended up turning the tide at the U.S. Navy’s most decisive sea

battle: Midway……it was an epic moment of a leader recognizing that priorities were not

the comfortable route….priorities were about doing what was needed to accomplish the

mission….the mission was not making sure that everyone in the shipyard got home on

time for dinner, or felt comfortable and unburdened in their work environment…..the

mission was to win the war and the USS Yorktown was needed back in action to meet

that mission……

Wouldn’t it be amazing if politicians realized that the common defense is not met

by uncommon good idea fairies who prance through the room sprinkling good idea

fairy dust?......

Remember Biden’s Build Back Better Plan?.....A bill that Pelosi blew through the

House filled with trillions of dollars in climate change activism, social justice and

big government spending on good ideas…..it stalled in the Senate when Joe

Manchin balked at it…..but then he came around and sold out for a slightly

reduced version and we got the infamous trillion dollar Inflation Reduction Act

that inflated our economy and drove inflation to 40 year highs…..the priorities

were completely out of whack….there was no sense of reason….no sense of the

priorities of work that actually stimulate an economy…..that’s because it was never

about the economy….it was about funding the good idea fairy….

Remember the pullout from Afghanistan?......was the mission really to end the

war?.....Well, wouldn’t it seem reasonable to ensure that all Americans were

actually out of Afghanistan before announcing mission success….before assigning

massive aid to the Taliban…..that’s because it was never about prioritizing actual

American interests….it was about funding the good idea fairy…..

What about Title 9?.....suddenly its okay for men to play in womens sports……It

would seem reasonable to think that for a White House study to issue a

proclamation on gender equality that they wouldn’t first have destroyed Title 9 by

pushing for transgenders in female sports…..but it was never about prioritizing

women….it was about answering the call of the good idea fairy……

I also find it odd that it was deemed necessary to ensure that the State Department

had a full day devoted to advancing the use of made-up pronouns as opposed to

working the issue of advancing American foreign policy……because it was never

really about what is good for America….it was about advancing the causes of the

good idea fairy…..

I could go on here….but the point is that the left has immersed themselves in

chasing the easy roads, the crazy roads, the roads to perdition, none of which are

really about the actual mission of securing the best for America…..

Picture the United States as one big patrol base……

- Are we setting up security first? Are we ensuring that communications are

clear and concise? Did we prioritize adequate care for our mission essential

equipment? Did we facilitate adequate planning for movement and the next

phase of the operations? Or did the administration just slip into what was

comfortable…..what addressed their personal needs……

When a patrol base is shoddily established the troops are at risk…..it is no different

here and now with the manner in which the Biden administration has been running

things.

Priorities of work? …….What priorities?......They aren’t evident to many……not

at all…..just a bunch of Good Idea Fairies with no real sense of the mission

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way