Planning Is Indispensable Quotes

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Fix your eyes on Jesus and the plans he has for your life. Look ahead, and run after him with all your heart. Then look around. Whoever has kept up with you, marry that person.

To generate exuberant diversity in a city's streets and districts four conditions are indispensable: 1. The district, and indeed as many of its internal parts as possible, must serve more than one primary function; preferably more than two... 2. Most blocks must be short; that is, streets and opportunities to turn corners must be frequent. 3. The district must mingle buildings that vary in age and condition, including a good proportion of old ones so that they vary in the economic yield they must produce. This mingling must be fairly close-grained. 4. There must be a sufficiently dense concentration of people, for whatever purposes they may be there...

No battle was ever won according to plan, but no battle was ever won without one.. Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower

Self-deception is an indispensable element of war, and that despite the fact that wars are calculated and planned, there is a sense in which human beings do not know what they are doing when they cut one another down on the battlefield.

The Lord can leave us wanting relative to certain things (sometimes judged indispensable in the eyes of the world), but He never leaves us deprived of what is essential: His presence, His peace and all that is necessary for the complete fulfillment of our lives, according to His plans for us.

One of the basic questions that we need to look at is how to convert merely rebellious attitudes into revolutionary ones in the process of the radical transformation of society. Merely rebellious attitudes or actions are insufficient, though they are an indispensable response to legitimate anger. It is necessary to go beyond rebellious attitudes to a more radically critical and revolutionary position, which is in fact a position not simply of denouncing injustice but of announcing a new utopia. Transformation of the world implies a dialectic between the two actions: denouncing the process of dehumanization and announcing the dream of a new society. On the basis of this knowledge, namely, “to change things is difficult but possible,” we can plan our political-pedagogical strategy.

Eisenhower who said, “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable,

...the scientific attitude implies what I call the postulate of objectivity—that is to say, the fundamental postulate that there is no plan, that there is no intention in the universe. Now, this is basically incompatible with virtually all the religious or metaphysical systems whatever, all of which try to show that there is some sort of harmony between man and the universe and that man is a product—predictable if not indispensable—of the evolution of the universe.

The despot is not a man. It is the Plan. The correct, realistic, exact plan, the one that will provide your solution once the problem has been posited clearly, in its entirety, in its indispensable harmony. This plan has been drawn up well away from the frenzy in the mayor’s office or the town hall, from the cries of the electorate or the laments of society’s victims. It has been drawn up by serene and lucid minds. It has taken account of nothing but human truths. It has ignored all current regulations, all existing usages, and channels. It has not considered whether or not it could be carried out with the constitution now in force. It is a biological creation destined for human beings and capable of realization by modern techniques.

Well, a good place to start if you want to know what something was about is to look to see what changes it introduced. And particularly in the case of a war planned in advance where the outcome was never in any doubt, I think you have solid reason to believe the result was what the thing was really for in the first place.

The reality is that under capitalist conditions―meaning maximization of short-term gain―you're ultimately going to destroy the environment: the only question is when. Now, for a long time, it's been possible to pretend that the environment is an infinite source and an infinite sink. Neither is true obviously, and we're now sort of approaching the point where you can't keep playing the game too much longer. It may not be very far off. Well, dealing with that problem is going to require large-scale social changes of an almost unimaginable kind. For one thing, it's going to certainly require large-scale social planning, and that means participatory social planning if it's going to be at all meaningful. It's also going to require a general recognition among human beings that an economic system driven by greed is going to self-destruct―it's only a question of time before you make the planet unlivable, by destroying the ozone layer or some other way. And that means huge socio-psychological changes have to take place if the human species is going to survive very much longer. So that's a big factor.

I’m afraid any plans you have to kill him will have to wait—I believe he is the only person on the ship who can handle the maneuvering properly.” Klag grinned. “Pity, that.” “It’s all part of my cunning plan,” Leskit drawled from the pilot’s station. “I’m trying to make myself indispensable.” “Some of us would settle for useful,” Klag said,

Thought, in and of itself, has no external consequences-although it may be an indispensable overture to action: one may, for example, plan, rehearse, or muster the resolve for action. Action extends one beyond oneself; it involves interaction with one's surrounding physical or interpersonal world. Action need not entail gross, or even observable, movement. A slight gesture or glance toward another may be action of momentous import.

Part of the whole capitalist ethic is that the only thing that matters is how much money you make tomorrow: that's the crucial value of the system, profit for tomorrow. Not just profit, but the bottom line has to look good tomorrow. And the result is that planning for the future, and any kind of regulatory apparatus that would sustain the environment for the long-term, become impossible―and that means the planet is going to go down the tubes very fast.

Make your purpose brilliant. Keep it clear. Seek to energize it with positives. Do not lumber up your plan. Centralize it. Modify it. Create it as a necessity. Form into it the indispensable. Then embody yourself into it. See that nothing about you defeats, or neutralizes attraction. Have a burning interest in your proposition. Look for fulfillment. Anticipate success. Make the world feel that you know you are right. Stop asking folks if they think you will succeed. Of course they do not, because they have not. Hold your mind relaxed in Silence. Make your desire active. Set your wishes in motion. Confidence attracts confidence. Positives attract positives. Bring out your latent forces, they only need arousing. THINK AND ACT.

MAN: What do you think about nationalization of industry as a means of allowing for this kind of large-scale social planning? Well, it would depend on how it’s done. If nationalization of industry puts production into the hands of a state bureaucracy or some sort of Leninist-style vanguard party, then you’d just have another system of exploitation, in my view. On the other hand, if nationalization of industry was based on actual popular control over industry—workers’ control over factories, community control, with the groups maybe federated together and so on—then that would be a different story. That would be a very different story, in fact. That would be extending the democratic system to economic power, and unless that happens, political power is always going to remain a very limited phenomenon.

I believe that love is the indispensable fuel that allows us to go on living. Someday that love may end. Or it may never amount to anything. But even if love fades away, even if it's unrequited, you can still hold on to the memory of having loved someone, of having fallen in love with someone. And that's a valuable source of warmth. Without that heat source, a person's heart–and a monkey's heart, too–would turn into a bitterly cold, barren wasteland. A place where not a ray of sunlight falls, where the wildflowers of peace, the trees of hope, have no chance to grow. I treasure the names of the seven beautiful women I loved here in my heart." At this, the monkey laid a palm on his chest. "I plan to use these memories as my own little fuel source I burn on cold nights to keep me warm as I live out what's left of my own personal life.

Using the alternative angelic sons of god or gods translation in Deuteronomy 32:8 brings logic and definition to the passage; otherwise, the passage would make no sense whatsoever: Israel was not yet a nation in the days of long ago (before the flood), when in generations long past the nations were assigned to angels. Moreover, this alternative Deuteromic translation is supported in the Gnostic gospel Basilides Teachings, which states the earth was divided, along with its various nations, among the angels who helped create the earth, and chief among these angels was the God of the Jews, who wished to subject all nations unto Himself but was repelled by other rulers/ angels that resisted him.4 This redefined Deuteromic passage will become indispensable when set alongside the disparate antediluvian myths from the pantheistic cultures defining the antediluvian order.

How does marital love shed light on the nature of the celibate vocation? John Paul II writes that the fidelity and “total self-donation” lived by spouses provide a model for the fidelity and self-donation required of those who choose the celibate vocation. Both vocations in their own way express marital or spousal love, which entails “the complete gift of self” (see TOB 78:4). Furthermore, the fruit of children in married life helps celibate men and women realize that they are called to a fruitfulness as well—a fruitfulness of the spirit. In these ways we see how the “natural” reality of marriage points us to the “supernatural” reality of celibacy for the kingdom. In fact, full knowledge and appreciation of God’s plan for marriage and family life are indispensable for the celibate person. As the Pope expresses it, in order for the celibate person “to be fully aware of what he is choosing ... he must also be fully aware of what he is renouncing” (TOB 81:2). Celibacy, in turn, “has a particular importance and particular eloquence for those who live a conjugal life” (TOB 78:2). Celibacy, as a direct anticipation of the marriage to come, shows couples what their union is a sacrament of. In other words, celibacy helps married couples realize that their love also is oriented toward “the kingdom.” Furthermore, by abstaining from sexual union, celibates demonstrate the great value of sexual union. How so? A sacrifice only has value to the degree that the thing sacrificed has value. For example, we do not give up sin for Lent; we are supposed to give up sin all the time.

Our critique is not opposed to the *dogmatic procedure* of reason in its pure knowledge as science (for science must always be dogmatic, that is, derive its proof from secure *a priori* principles), but only to *dogmatism*, that is, to the presumption that it is possible to make any progress with pure (philosophical) knowledge from concepts according to principles, such as reason has long been in the habit of using, without first inquiring in what way, and by what right, it has come to posses them. Dogmatism is therefore the dogmatic procedure of pure reason, *without a preceding critique of its own powers*; and our opposition to this is not intended to defend that loquacious shallowness which arrogates to itself the name of popularity, much less that skepticism which makes short work of the whole of metaphysics. On the contrary, our critique is meant to form a necessary preparation in support of metaphysics as a thorough science, which must necessarily be carried out dogmatically and strictly systematically, so as to satisfy all the demands, no so much of the public at large, as of the Schools. This is an indispensable demand for it has undertaken to carry out its work entirely *a priori*, and thus to carry it out to the complete satisfaction of speculative reason. In the execution of this plan, as traced out by the critique, that is, in a future system of metaphysics, we shall have to follow the strict method of the celebrated Wolff, the greatest of all dogmatic philosophers. He was the first to give an example (and by his example initiated, in Germany, that spirit of thoroughness which is not yet extinct) of how the secure course of a science could be attained only through the lawful establishment of principles, the clear determination of concepts, the attempt at strictness of proof and avoidance of taking bold leaps in our inferences. He was therefore most eminently qualified to give metaphysics the dignity of a science, if it had only occurred to him to prepare his field in advance by criticism of the organ, that is, of pure reason itself―an omission due not so much to himself as to the dogmatic mentality of his age, about which the philosophers of his own, as well as of all previous times, have no right to reproach one another. Those who reject both the method of Wolff and the procedure of the critique of pure reason can have no other aim but to shake off the fetters of *science* altogether, and thus to change work into play, certainty into opinion and philosophy into philodoxy." ―from_Critique of Pure Reason_. Preface to the Second Edition. Translated, edited, and with an Introduction by Marcus Weigelt, based on the translation by Max Müller, pp. 28-29

During these uninterrupted peregrinations of mine from place to place, and almost continuous and intense reflection about this, I at last formed a preliminary plan in my mind.   Liquidating all my affairs and mobilizing all my material and other possibilities, I began to collect all kinds of written literature and oral information, still surviving among certain Asiatic peoples, about that branch of science, which was highly developed in ancient times and called " Mehkeness ", a name signifying the " taking away-of-responsibility ", and of which contemporary civilisation knows but an insignificant portion under the name of " hypnotism ", while all the literature extant upon the subject was already as familiar to me as my own five fingers.   Collecting all I could, I went to a certain Dervish monastery, situated likewise in Central Asia and where I had already stayed before, and, settling down there, I devoted myself wholly to the study of the material in my possession.   After two years of thorough theoretical study of this branch of science, when it became necessary to verify practically certain indispensable details, not as yet sufficiently elucidated by me in theory, of the mechanism of the functioning of man's subconscious sphere, I began to give myself out to be a " healer " of all kinds of vices and to apply the results of my theoretical studies to them, affording them at the same time, of course, real relief.   This continued to be my exclusive preoccupation and manifestation for four or five years in accordance with the essential oath imposed by my task, which consisted in rendering conscientious aid to sufferers, in never using my knowledge and practical power in that domain of science except for the sake of my investigations, and never for personal or egotistical ends, I not only arrived at unprecedented practical results without equal in our day, but also elucidated almost everything necessary for me.   In a short time, I discovered many details which might contribute to the solution of the same cardinal question, as well as many secondary facts, the existence of which I had scarcely suspected.   At the same time, I also became convinced that the greater number of minor details necessary for the final elucidation of this question must be sought not only in the sphere of man's subconscious mentation, but in various aspects of the manifestations in his state of waking consciousness.   After establishing this definitely, thoughts again began from time to time to " swarm " in my mind, as they had done years ago, sometimes automatically, sometimes directed by my consciousness,—thoughts as to the means of adapting myself now to the conditions of ordinary life about me with a view to elucidating finally and infallibly this question, which obviously had become a lasting and inseparable part of my Being.   This time my reflections, which recurred periodically during the two years of my wanderings on the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, resulted in a decision to make use of my exceptional, for the modern man, knowledge of the so-called " supernatural sciences ", as well as of my skill in producing different " tricks " in the domain of these so-called " sciences ", and to give myself out to be, in these pseudo-scientific domains, a so-called " professor-instructor ".

Speech to the German Folk January 30, 1944 Without January 30, 1933, and without the National Socialist revolution, without the tremendous domestic cleansing and construction efforts, there would be no factor today that could oppose the Bolshevik colossus. After all, Germany was itself so ill at the time, so weakened by the spreading Jewish infection, that it could hardly think of overcoming the Bolshevik danger at home, not to mention abroad. The economic ruin brought about by the Jews as in other countries, the unemployment of millions of Germans, the destruction of peasantry, trade, and industry only prepared the way for the planned internal collapse. This was furthered by support for the continued existence of a senseless state of classes, which could only serve to transform the reason of the masses into hatred in order to make them the willing instrument of the Bolshevik revolution. By mobilizing the proletarian slaves, the Jews hoped that, following the destruction of the national intelligentsia, they could all the more reduce them for good to coolies. But even if this process of the Bolshevik revolt in the interior of Germany had not led to complete success, the state with its democratic Weimar constitution would have been reduced to something ridiculously helpless in view of the great tasks of current world politics. In order to be armed for this confrontation, not only the problems of political power but also the social and economic problems had to be resolved. When National Socialism undertook the realization of its program eleven years ago, it managed just in time to build up a state that did not only have the strength at home but also the power abroad to fulfill the same European mission which first Greece fulfilled in antiquity by opposing the Persians, then Rome [by opposing] the Carthaginians, and the Occident in later centuries by opposing the invasions from the east. Therefore, in the year 1933, we set ourselves four great tasks among many others. On their resolution depended not only the future of the Reich but also the rescue of Europe, perhaps even of the entire human civilization: 1. The Reich had to regain the internal social peace that it had lost by resolving the social questions. That meant that the elements of a division into classes bourgeoisie and proletariat-had to be eliminated in their various manifestations and be replaced by a Volksgemeinschaft. The appeal to reason had to be supplemented by the merciless eradication of the base elements of resistance in all camps. 2. The social and political unification of the nation had to be supplemented by a national, political one. This meant that the body of the Reich, which was not only politically, but also governmentally divided, had to be replaced by a unified National Socialist state, the construction and leadership of which were suited to oppose and withstand even the heaviest attacks and severest tests of the future. 3. The nationally and politically coherent centralized state had the mission of immediately creating a Wehrmacht, whose ideology, moral attitude, numerical strength, and material equipment could serve as an instrument of self-assertion. After the outside world had rejected all German offers for a limitation of armament, the Reich had to fashion its own armament accordingly. 4. In order to secure its continued existence in Europe with the prospect of actual success, it was necessary to integrate all those countries which were inhabited by Germans, or were areas which had belonged to the German Reich for over a thousand years and which, in terms of their national substance and economy, were indispensable to the preservation of the Reich, that is, for its political and military defense. Only the resolution of all these tasks could result in the creation of that state which was capable, at home and abroad, of waging the fight for its defense and for the preservation of the European family of nations.

Exploring the Benefits of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) In the world of diabetes management, Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) have emerged as a game-changing technology. These small devices are designed to provide real-time data on blood glucose levels, offering numerous advantages for individuals living with diabetes. In this article, we'll delve into the benefits of CGMs and why they are becoming an indispensable tool for managing diabetes. Real-Time Monitoring: CGMs provide a continuous stream of data, allowing users to monitor their glucose levels 24/7. This real-time feedback helps individuals make informed decisions about their diet, exercise, and insulin administration. Improved Glycemic Control: With constant glucose tracking, users can spot trends and patterns in their blood sugar levels. This insight enables them to make proactive adjustments to their diabetes management plan, leading to better glycemic control.

Es indispensable reconocer tu PROPÓSITO. Recordarlo. Re-activar esa información en tus células. Y, tal vez, recorriendo El Camino de la Diosa también puedas encontrar esa certeza de Propósito que tanto estás buscando.

but as General Dwight D. Eisenhower said, ‘In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Interestingly, Freeman describes a set of circumstances in which the unstructured group can, in fact, work: It is task oriented. Its function is very narrow and very specific, like putting on a conference or putting out a newspaper. It is the task that basically structures the group. The task determines what needs to be done and when it needs to be done. It provides a guide by which people can judge their actions and make plans for future activity. It is relatively small and homogeneous. Homogeneity is necessary to insure that participants have a “common language” for interaction. People from widely different backgrounds may provide richness to a consciousness-raising group where each can learn from the others’ experience, but too great a diversity among members of a task-oriented group means only that they continually misunderstand each other. Such diverse people interpret words and actions differently. They have different expectations about each other’s behavior and judge the results according to different criteria. If everyone knows everyone else well enough to understand the nuances, they can be accommodated. Usually, they only lead to confusion and endless hours spent straightening out conflicts no one ever thought would arise. There is a high degree of communication. Information must be passed on to everyone, opinions checked, work divided up, and participation assured in the relevant decisions. This is only possible if the group is small and people practically live together for the most crucial phases of the task. Needless to say, the number of interactions necessary to involve everybody increases geometrically with the number of participants. This inevitably limits group participants to about five, or excludes some from some of the decisions. Successful groups can be as large as 10 or 15, but only when they are in fact composed of several smaller subgroups which perform specific parts of the task, and whose members overlap with each other so that knowledge of what the different subgroups are doing can be passed around easily. There is a low degree of skill specialization. Not everyone has to be able to do everything, but everything must be able to be done by more than one person. Thus no one is indispensable. To a certain extent, people become interchangeable parts. Here

Rebels tend to resist committing to a schedule. Seeing an item on their calendar can make them feel trapped, and when they do make plans, they often cancel them at the last minute. Rebels resist doing repetitive, boring tasks—such as taking out the garbage or filing expense reports—unless the consequences become serious enough. Many Rebels mention that they use automatic bill paying, and when they can afford it, they often pay to outsource routine obligations.

The plans were useless, but the planning was indispensable.

Exploring the Benefits of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) In the world of diabetes management, Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) have emerged as a game-changing technology. These small devices are designed to provide real-time data on blood glucose levels, offering numerous advantages for individuals living with diabetes. In this article, we'll delve into the benefits of CGMs and why they are becoming an indispensable tool for managing diabetes. Real-Time Monitoring: Continuous Glucose Monitors provide a continuous stream of data, allowing users to monitor their glucose levels 24/7. This real-time feedback helps individuals make informed decisions about their diet, exercise, and insulin administration. Improved Glycemic Control: With constant glucose tracking, users can spot trends and patterns in their blood sugar levels. This insight enables them to make proactive adjustments to their diabetes management plan, leading to better glycemic control. Reduced Hypoglycemia and Hyperglycemia: CGMs can provide early warnings of impending hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), reducing the risk of severe blood sugar fluctuations and related complications.

Exploring the Benefits of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) In the world of diabetes management, Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) have emerged as a game-changing technology. These small devices are designed to provide real-time data on blood glucose levels, offering numerous advantages for individuals living with diabetes. In this article, we'll delve into the benefits of CGMs and why they are becoming an indispensable tool for managing diabetes. Real-Time Monitoring: CGMs provide a continuous stream of data, allowing users to monitor their glucose levels 24/7. This real-time feedback helps individuals make informed decisions about their diet, exercise, and insulin administration. Improved Glycemic Control: With constant glucose tracking, users can spot trends and patterns in their blood sugar levels. This insight enables them to make proactive adjustments to their diabetes management plan, leading to better glycemic control.

But planning to live with the Roosevelts was FDR’s indispensable right-hand man, Louis Howe, who suffered from a battery of illnesses, among them asthma, and was no fan of summertime humidity. The Roosevelt entourage

Dealing with an Upholder Child In most ways, the parents of Upholder children have an easy time. Upholder children want to understand and meet expectations, and they’re self-motivated. Parents don’t have to be involved in many homework battles or remind a child to feed a fish. An Upholder child will practice the piano without many reminders, plan ahead to pack the right soccer equipment, and keep track of the school schedule. Parents enjoy this aspect of Upholderness, but they may get frustrated when a child can’t turn off the Upholder Tendency. From time to time, they want the child to loosen up or let go of expectations. Not likely. The Upholder child may go nuts if he can’t do the thirty minutes of reading that he’s supposed to do before bed or if she arrives five minutes late for school.

Schopenhauer, in his splendid essay called "On an Apparent Intention in the Fate of the Individual," points out that when you reach an advanced age and look back over your lifetime, it can seem to have had a consistent orderand plan, as though composed by some novelist. Events that when they occurred had seemed accidental and of little moment turn out to have been indispensable factors in the composition of a consistent plot. So who composed that plot? Schopenhauer suggests that just as your dreams are composed by an aspect of yourself of which your consciousness is unaware, so, too, your whole life is composed by the will within you. And just as people whom you will have met apparently by mere chance became leading agents in the structuring of your life, so, too, will you have served unknowingly as an agent, giving meaning to the lives of others. The whole thing gears together like one big symphony, with everything unconsciously structuring everything else. And Schopenhauer concludes that it is as though our lives were the features of the one great dream of a single dreamer in which all the dream characters dream, too; so that everything links to everything else, moved by the one will to life which is the universal will in nature.

To appeal to the emotions of the public in a political campaign is sound-in fact it is an indispensable part of the campaign. But the emotional content must- (a) coincide in every way with the broad basic plans of the campaign and all its minor details; (b) be adapted to the many groups of the public at which it is to be aimed; and © conform to the media of the distribution of ideas. The emotions of oratory have been worn down through long years of overuse. Parades, mass meetings, and the like are successful

Très peu de Traders déjà pensé à l'importance de ces deux questions. Ils sont indispensables pour la réussite commerciale. Comme je l'ai présenté au début je vous ai montré un trading pour compte propre dont les résultats sont superbes. Cependant, dans les résultats que j'ai intentionnellement montré les longues périodes où rien ne s'est passé. Il n'y avait pas de profits pour quelques mois ... non mais en fait ans. Si je l'avais quitté, ce qui est facile à faire, je n'aurais pas tombé sur quelques-uns des grands gagnants. En réalité, lorsque vous négociez vous allez passer de longues périodes où rien ne se passe. Vous devez avoir la patience d'endurer ce sinon vous ne réussirez pas. Ce n'est pas facile. Trade réussie est d'être cohérent et suivre votre plan de Trade à plusieurs reprises. J'ai appris au fil des années que mes bénéfices proviennent d'un ensemble de Trades. Il est devenu évident pour moi que je n'ai pas besoin de connaître l'avenir. J'ai simplement suivi mon plan de trading et me mettre dans la position d'être disponible pour les Trades potentiels. Il n'y avait rien d'avoir raison ou tort. J'ai pris l'aspect financier de la question. Il était

The comments these young men and women make at their roundtable discussions often betray the deep contradictions they contend with in their daily lives. They are disillusioned with the government but planning to serve it; critical of corrupt officials but unwilling to resist them; and intensely focused on the United States, a country they view as both Russia’s most dangerous adversary and its indispensable ally.

The Federal Reserve System had been established to prevent what actually happened. It was set up to avoid a situation in which you would have to close down banks, in which you would have a banking crisis. And yet, under the Federal Reserve system, you had the worst banking crisis in the history of the United States

And since one of the main purposes of social policy is to keep the population passive, people with power are going to want to eliminate anything that tends to encourage the population to get involved in planning―because popular involvement threatens the monopoly of power by business, and it also stimulates popular organizations, and mobilizes people, and probably would lead to redistribution of profits, and so on.

Well, it depends which planned economies you mean. There are lots of planned economies―the United States is a planned economy, for example. I mean, we talk about ourselves as a "free market," but that's baloney. The only parts of the U.S. economy that are internationally competitive are the planned parts, the state-subsidized parts―like capital-intensive agriculture (which has a state-guaranteed market as a cushion in case there are excesses); or high-technology industry (which is dependent on the Pentagon system); or pharmaceuticals (which is massively subsidized by publicly-funded research). Those are the parts of the U.S. economy that are functioning well. And if you go to the East Asian countries that are supposed to be the big economic successes―you know, what everybody talks about as a triumph of free-market democracy—they don't even have the most remote relation to free-market democracy: formally speaking they're fascist, they're state-organized economies run in cooperation with big conglomerates. That's precisely fascism, it's not the free market. Now, that kind of planned economy "works," in a way―it produces at least. Other kinds of command economies don't work, or work differently: for example, the Eastern European planned economies in the Soviet era were highly centralized, over-bureaucratized, and they worked very inefficiently, although they did provide a kind of minimal safety-net for people. But all of these systems have been very anti-democratic―like, in the Soviet Union, there were virtually no peasants or workers involved in any decision-making process.

The very concept of social planning, of rational planning for human concerns—that's regarded as virtually subversive. And that's the only thing that could possibly save people: rational social planning, carried out by accountable people representing the whole population rather than business elites. Democracy, in other words—that's a concept we don't have.

Something has gone terribly wrong when young Christians believe that their main purpose in life is to find marital love. This dangerous belief robs us of joy and true purpose. True purpose is eternal, because God’s plan for our lives can never be taken away.

Once you have a clear idea of what your higher purpose is, invest some quality time to make a plan. How are you going to translate that purpose into goals and actions? Remember: A purpose without action is useless; it’s just a set of platitudes. In order to contribute at a higher level in your job and your other life roles, you need to figure out how to put your purpose in to action on a day-to-day basis.

A finales de 2009 hubo un pequeño alboroto mediático en España al descubrirse que la Junta de Extremadura, en manos de los socialistas, había organizado, dentro de su plan de educación sexual de los escolares, unos talleres de masturbación para niños y niñas a partir de los catorce años, campaña a la que bautizó, no sin picardía,El placer está en tus manos. Ante las protestas de algunos contribuyentes de que se invirtiera de este modo el dinero de los impuestos, los voceros de la Junta alegaron que la educación sexual de los niños era indispensable para «prevenir embarazos no deseados» y que las clases de masturbación servirían para «evitar males mayores». En la polémica que el asunto provocó, la Junta de Extremadura recibió las felicitaciones y el apoyo de la Junta de Andalucía, cuya Consejera de Igualdad y Bienestar Social, Micaela Navarro, anunció que en Andalucía comenzaría en breve una campaña similar a la extremeña. De otro lado, un intento de acabar con los talleres de masturbación mediante una acción judicial que puso en marcha una organización afín al Partido Popular y bautizada, con no menos chispa, Manos Limpias, fracasó de manera estrepitosa pues la Fiscalía del Tribunal de Justicia de Extremadura no dio curso a la denuncia y la archivó. ¡A masturbarse, pues, niños y niñas del mundo! Cuánta agua ha corrido en este planeta que todavía nos soporta a los humanos desde que, en mi niñez, los padres salesianos y los hermanos de La Salle —colegios en los que estudié— nos asustaban con el espantajo de que los «malos tocamientos» producían la ceguera, la tuberculosis y la imbecilidad. Seis décadas después ¡clases de paja en las escuelas! Eso es el progreso, señores. ¿Lo es, de veras? La curiosidad me acribilla el cerebro de preguntas. ¿Pondrán notas? ¿Tomarán exámenes? ¿Los talleres serán teóricos o también prácticos? ¿Qué proezas tendrán que realizar los alumnos para sacar la nota de excelencia y qué fiascos para ser desaprobados? ¿Dependerá de la cantidad de conocimientos que su memoria retenga o de la velocidad, cantidad y consistencia de los orgasmos que produzca la destreza táctil de chicos y chicas? No son bromas. Si se tiene la audacia de abrir talleres para iluminar a la puericia en las técnicas de la masturbación, estas preguntas son pertinentes.

The other great obstacle to abandoning oneself to Divine Providence is the presence of suffering, in our own lives as in the world around us. Even for those who abandon themselves to Him, God permits suffering; He leaves them wanting of certain things, in a manner sometimes painful. Think of the poverty in which the family of young Bernadette of Lourdes lived. Isn’t this a contradiction of the words of the Gospel? No, because the Lord can leave us wanting relative to certain things (sometimes judged indispensable in the eyes of the world), but He never leaves us deprived of what is essential: His presence, His peace and all that is necessary for the complete fulfillment of our lives, according to His plans for us. If He permits suffering, then it is our strength to believe, as Thérèse of Lisieux says, that “God does not permit unnecessary suffering.” In the domain of our personal lives, as in that of the history of the world, we must be convinced, if we want to go to the limits of our Christian faith, that God is sufficiently good and powerful to use whatever evil there may be, as well as any suffering however absurd and unnecessary it may appear to be, in our favor. We cannot have any mathematical or philosophical certitude of this; it can only be an act of faith. But it is precisely to this act of faith that we are invited by the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus, understood and received as the definitive victory of God over evil. Evil is a mystery, a scandal and it will always be so. It is necessary to do what one can to eliminate it, to relieve suffering, but it always remains present in our personal lives, as well as in the world. Its place in the economy of redemption reveals the wisdom of God, which is not the wisdom of man; it always retains something incomprehensible. …for My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are My ways above your ways and My thoughts above your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). At certain moments in life, a Christian is necessarily invited to believe in the contradiction of appearances and to hope against all hope (Romans 4:18). There are inevitably circumstances where we cannot understand the “why” of God’s activity because it is no longer the wisdom of man, a wisdom within our capacity to understand and explain by human intelligence. Rather it is divine Wisdom, mysterious and incomprehensible, that thus intervenes.

The delivery formula has been cracked when all the following events always happen. ★ Products are delivered to the same high standard, on time, every time. ★ This year’s product is measurably better than last year’s. ★ This year’s product costs at least 5 per cent less to make than last year’s. ★ Volumes can be doubled within a year without panic or loss of quality. ★ Work is delegated to the lowest-level person who is fully competent to do it. ★ Everyone increases his or her skill level significantly each year and works better and faster. ★ The workplace exudes calm, order and discipline. ★ Standards and procedures are written down, clear, unambiguous - and observed! ★ Logos, colours and designs are attractive and consistent. ★ Budgets are always met or exceeded. ★ Cash is always higher than planned. ★ The firm is a machine - smooth-running, reliable, relentless, self-maintaining and self-improving. ★ Nobody is indispensable. If the best people leave, the firm rolls on regardless. New leaders come to the fore.

Formerly, a few families had set the fashion. From time immemorial everything had, in Dublin, been submitted to their hereditary authority; and conversation, though it had been rendered polite by their example, was, at the same time, limited within narrow bounds. Young people, educated upon a more enlarged plan, in time grew up; and, no authority or fashion forbidding it, necessarily rose to their just place, and enjoyed their due influence in society. The want of manners, joined to the want of knowledge in the new set, created universal disgust: they were compelled, some by ridicule, some by bankruptcies, to fall back into their former places, from which they could never more emerge. In the meantime, some of the Irish nobility and gentry who had been living at an unusual expense in London—an expense beyond their incomes— were glad to return home to refit; and they brought with them a new stock of ideas, and some taste for science and literature, which, within these latter years, have become fashionable, indeed indispensable, in London. That part of the Irish aristocracy, who, immediately upon the first incursions of the vulgarians, had fled in despair to their fastnesses in the country, hearing of the improvements which had gradually taken place in society, and assured of the final expulsion of the barbarians, ventured from their retreats, and returned to their posts in town. So that now,' concluded Sir James, 'you find a society in Dublin composed of a most agreeable and salutary mixture of birth and education, gentility and knowledge, manner and matter; and you see pervading the whole new life and energy, new talent, new ambition, a desire and a determination to improve and be improved—a perception that higher distinction can now be obtained in almost all company, by genius and merit, than by airs and dress.

En Inde, la realite, c'est sauvagerie, brutalite, egoisme sans aucune retenue, mepris complet de l'homme pour l'homme et salete inexprimable. Tout est tragique ici, en Inde, l'art, la religion, les imaginations, les consciences, la vie journaliere ou les plus simples faits ou gestes, il y a un reflet de la terreur sacree dont parlent les anciens. L'idee des incarnations donne l'habitude de mourir. On se dit qu'on est mort tant de fois deja que cette formalite a remplir perd de son epouvante. Il fait froid et triste quand on demande aux etres de vous etre un soutien, de vous rechauffer, d'alleger le fardeau de misere inherente a toute existence. C'est en soi qu'il faut cultiver la flamme qui rechauffe. Ce que nous aimons, ce sont nos sensations, la satisfaction de nos desirs. Quand les hommes ont peur, ils se tournent vers les dieux, vers le surnaturel, comme les enfants qui s'accrochent aux jupes de leur mere. Une tradition et une chaine de pensees millenaires sont une force, une energie aussi reelle dans le domaine mental que l'electricite sur le plan physique. Parfois je fais ce qu'on l'on appelle en tibetain: tsam. C'est a dire que, pendant plusieurs jours, je ne vois personne ni ne parle a personne. C'est tres reposant, ces jours de solitude complete. Les peuples primitifs restent bien pres de l'animal; leur plus grande joie est de manger. Pas mal de civilises leur ressemblent. Les voyages ne fouettent pas seulement le sang, comme un sport hygienique, ils fouettent l'esprit et lui communiquent de la vigueur. Voyager, c'est de meme qu'etudier, faire un long bail avec la jeunesse. Il n'existe pas, je crois, de plus efficace fontaine de jouvence que ces deux choses combinees: voyage et activite intellectuelle. A ceux qui sentent autrement que le public vulgaire, le superflue est plus indispensable que le pretendu necessaire. Quand on voyage, le voyage lui-meme tient lieu de tout, mais lorsque l'on devient sedentaire, l'on aime bien vivre dans un decor agreable.

I have always found plans usless, but planning indispensible

So many men and women come into my office broken and discouraged because their life’s purpose is wrapped up in a relationship that has failed them or let them down. This is not the way God intended it to be. Finding true love may be a beautiful portion of your story, but it was never intended to be the grand finale. It’s too easy to work so hard on this one section of our story that in the meantime the rest of the book never gets written. God’s plans never play out in our lives because we are so fixated on finding love that we don’t take the time to look at where we are going.

This saying challenged me to keep focused, to know my vision, and to look ahead to God’s plans for my life. No distractions, no pit stops, no wrong turns. It wasn’t until after I decided to pursue God’s purpose for me that I eventually came face to face with the man of my dreams. As we were both looking ahead to God’s plans for our lives, our stories collided in a miraculous and unexpected way.

My husband and I have been planning a big trip for a milestone anniversary celebration. Given the amount of money we’re thinking of spending, you’d better believe that we have spent hours researching, making lists, making phone calls, asking questions, and discussing what we want as we choose a destination. Anyone planning to spend a lot of money on a memorable trip would do the same thing. If people put that much planning into a trip that will be here today and gone tomorrow, how much more should they invest in thinking through the qualities they want in a lifelong partner?

we are reminded of the words of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on the merits and limitations of planning for the D-day landings: “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”1 We don’t believe that your Plan A is useless, actually. But it’s probably off target in more ways than one,

Out of New York came a governor from the moneyed class, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and he drove Murray to fits—being from that hated family. (FDR’s cousin, Teddy, had forced Murray to remove a white supremacist plank from the Oklahoma constitution before he would allow it to join the union.) At first, Franklin Roosevelt was dismissed as a man without heft, a dilettante running on one of the nation’s great names. Then he took up the cause of the “forgotten man”—the broken farmer on the plains, the apple vendor in the city, the factory hand now hitting the rails. And though he spoke with an accent that sounded funny to anyone outside the mid-Atlantic states, and he seemed a bit jaunty with that cigarette holder, Roosevelt roused people with a blend of hope and outrage. He knew hardship and the kind of emotional panic that comes when your world collapses. He had been felled by double pneumonia in 1918, which nearly killed him, and polio in 1921, which left him partially paralyzed. He had been told time and again in the prime of his young adulthood that he had no future, that he would not walk again, that he might not live much longer. “If you spent two years in bed trying to wiggle your toe, after that anything would seem easy,” he said. Hoover believed the cure for the Depression was to prime the pump at the producer end, helping factories and business owners get up and running again. Goods would roll off the lines, prosperity would follow. Roosevelt said it made no sense to gin up the machines of production if people could not afford to buy what came out the factory door. “These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized, the indispensable units of economic powers,” FDR said on April 7, 1932, in a radio speech that defined the central theme of his campaign. He called for faith “in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” That forgotten man was likely to be a person with prairie dirt under the fingernails. “How much do the shallow thinkers realize that approximately one half of our population, fifty or sixty million people, earn their living by farming or in small towns where existence immediately depends on farms?

Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, after the successful invasion of Normandy in World War II, was asked about the detailed planning process that went into the invasion. He said, “The plans were useless, but the planning was indispensable.

It was Eisenhower who said, “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable,

To improve your competence, do the following: • Get your head in the game. If you’ve been mentally or emotionally detached from your work, it’s time to reengage. First, rededicate yourself to your job. Determine to give it an appropriate amount of your undivided attention. Second, figure out why you have been detached. Do you need new challenges? Are you in conflict with your boss or coworkers? Are you in a dead-end job? Identify the source of the problem, and create a plan to resolve it. • Redefine the standard. If you’re not performing at a consistently high level, reexamine your standards. Are you shooting too low? Do you cut corners? If so, hit your mental reset button, and outline more demanding expectations for yourself. • Find three ways to improve. Nobody keeps improving without being intentional about it. Do a little research to find three things you can do to improve your professional skills. Then dedicate the time and money to follow through on them.

Peñalosa learned when he was a boy that the redistribution of privilege always meets with resistance. But he was not one for compromise. He ordered the removal of thousands of cluttering commercial billboards, and he tore down the fences residents had erected around neighborhood parks. He went to war not just with cars but with anyone who appropriated public space in Bogotá, even if they were poor—in one case forcing thousands of struggling street vendors to remove stalls that had choked off public plazas. The city’s amenities were for everyone. Peñalosa campaigned to turn the city’s grand country club into a public park. Even the dead were targeted: while Mockus had the words “Life Is Sacred” painted on the walls of a cemetery in the central city, Peñalosa attempted to remove the graves so that the living could have more park space. (Both the country club and cemetery initiatives failed.) This aggressive plan created plenty of enemies for him at first. Private bus operators and drivers who were pushed from TransMilenio routes were furious. So were the vendors and hawkers who were swept from popular plazas. But none were as vociferous as the business lobby, who were outraged by the bollards that went up along city sidewalks, effectively killing their free parking. They could not imagine customers arriving by foot, bike, or bus. “He was trying to Satanize cars,” Guillermo Botero, the president of FENALCO, Colombia’s national federation of retailers, told me. “The car is a means of subsistence. It is an indispensable means for people to develop their own lives. If we keep squeezing roads, the city will eventually collapse.” FENALCO