Monday, May 11, 2009

For Just Four Dollars and Forty Cents (Plus Tax) Per Principle...




Passing by The Fark News Channel I got a part of Newt's selling his new "family" book. I was astounded at level of his insight into the success of life. I also like Jackie's, his daughter, cute accent.
Check out his publishers description of the five principles below.


5 Principles for a Successful Life

"Is life really so complicated? Ask happy and successful people this question and you’re likely to hear that, in its essence, life is really quite simple. In these pages, Newt Gingrich and his daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushman....show how, by following just five principles, you can live life to its fullest:

1. Dream Big: Like Walt Disney, who shared the magic kingdom of his imagination with millions, or like Jackie’s sister, Kathy, who didn’t let a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis stop her from completing a walking marathon, see where your dreams can take you.

2. Work Hard: As Jackie points out in her recollections of her dad’s early political career, working hard can be a surprising source of energy, and adopting an attitude of cheerful persistence will help you reach your goal.

3. Learn Every Day: The key is to re- member that learning is a reciprocal process. You can’t be passive; you must be engaged. Come along on a visit to the acclaimed Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta to see how this principle works in action.

4. Enjoy Life: And what’s the best way to do that? From the wisdom of the ancient philosophers to information from the latest scientific studies, the answer is the same: Be grateful for all your blessings and do something every day to show compassion and generosity to others.

5. Be True to Yourself: It sounds easy, but it’s the hardest principle to live by. Discover what people from William Shakespeare to Henrik Ibsen to John P. Abizaid have had to say about this touchstone for an honest life."
Source: http://www.randomhouse.com/


This can be yours for $22 or you can get a discount of 32% at Amazon.com ( A third off before it was published?) Hurry and buy several. They would make great Christmas presents.

This is "the" solution for a successful life, Hannity says so (emphasis his). It proves without a doubt that Hannity and indeed Gingrich both do have a well developed sense of humor something here-to-fore thought lacking.

In the end this is a little to self helpy and positive for me. I will have to revert to that other Republican Statesman and Governor of California, Conan The Barbarian, and his philosophy of a successful life:

"Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is an illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and I am content. "
— "Queen of the Black Coast",

23 comments:

drlobojo said...

Before you ask, yes fark is a real word and there is a whole book about it.
It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News
http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-News-Fark-Media/dp/1592402917
And Amazon is selling it at a 38% discount.

The Punk said...

Now I'm not going to dispute the awesomeness of The Queen of the Black Coast or that being damn near the perfect Conan quote. However, it wasn't actually ever said by Conan the Governor. Here's a different formulation from the 1982 Movie.

Mongol General: Hao! Dai ye! We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?
Mongol: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.
Mongol General: Wrong! Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
Mongol General: That is good! That is good.

drlobojo said...

Granted Punk I took a small poetic license attributing it to the republican governator.

BB-Idaho said...

Inevitable, I suppose..first Glenn Beck pushing the old '5005 Year Leap' and now your offering...it has something to do with finder's fees, right? :)

drlobojo said...

"...it has something to do with finder's fees, right? :)"

.0005% off the top.

drlobojo said...

Oh yes, point on Skousen's book "The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World"
As a tract for Regan's campaign is was a little over the top. Basically what I remember is it said that everything that happened in the previous 200 years was due to the Enlightenment and our founding fathers embracing it. Which is an interesting perspective in that it leaves out the rest of the world and their embrace of the industrial revolution and the enlightenment.

As a geographer, I would argue that what made us great was our West. Our ability to expand into and exploit a fertile and rich land. That makes more sense than his thesis. Those founding fathers thought for example that it would take a 1000 years to fill up and exploit the West. So much for their insights into the future.

TStockmann said...

"Enough talk," is also not a bad Conan-the-Austrian quote.

Feodor said...

The rest of the world embracing enlightenment and our expansion into the West were later means to our success.

The first steps of our rich and enriched legacy agree with Conan: to slay and enslave.

While I am a great believer in the projects of humanist and academic enlightenment, I have to keep in front of me how enlightenment products, its scientific method and its constricted vision of how belonged to "Man," contributed to piles of millions of slaughtered bodies. Not to mention military forces that colonized at the point of artillery.

drlobojo said...

The more I study actual history rather than the published propaganda of the time, the more I'm certain that disease has paved the way for conquest. Recomend the book 'Pox Americana'for some of the insight.

Did Conan ever publish a book of his philosophy?

Feodor said...

Germs traveling in the bodies of soldiers that was passed after pacification.

drlobojo said...

Actually the surprise is that the people make first contact and the poxes run ahead of them like a wild fire so that when they get there the population in opposition is so weak that they are easily done in. That was the effect I was not aware of.

In one instant, a disease brought to Mexico by Conquistadores in the 16th century traveled to Canada and cleaned out areas claimed by the French in the early 17th century.

In a classic example, in New England, a pox left by a trade ship two years prior to the Pilgrams wiped out 90% of a tribes population leaving their buried food supplies and fertile ground available for seizure by the colonist. Of course this was a sign from God that they would succeed there.

Feodor said...

Yeah, you're right. Disease paved pacification.

TStockmann said...

Ah, well. In regards to the loser cultures, it is hard to better St. Augustine: "The virtue of children lies not in their wills, but the weakness of their limbs."

Feodor said...

He was talking about their sexual appetite, Sigismund, was he not?

drlobojo said...

Pox Pax

Feodor said...

Pox Americana

TStockmann said...

Well, no - he was talking about their tendencies in general, for once, rather than about sex. That's the OTHER famous Augustine quote.

Feodor said...

What is that "p" word used to translate Augustine's notion of "desire"?

I'm blocking.

drlobojo said...

purient :)

Feodor said...

No. It was a synonym to concupiscence. But I'm not coming up with it and I don't want to go digging.

drlobojo said...

Ok, add an "r" = prurience

Feodor said...

I'm thinking of something obscure, but I am not coming up with it.

If it's still on my mind on Monday I'll have to go digging.

TStockmann said...

priapic?