I forgot to mention last week another presentation of note here in the Omaha area.

Glenn Freeman, a Constitutional Scholar and Chairman of the National Council of Censors. (their web site is at www.nationalcouncilofcensors.org) will offer a presentation entitled "Common Sense and the Constitution". The presentation will be offered on two Mondays, Nov 2, 2009 and December 7, 2009 from 6:00 to 7:45 p.m. at the Omaha Public Library Millard Branch, 13214 Westwood Lane, Omaha, NE.

The talk is sponsored by Americans for Prosperity-Omaha. Contact Sheila Heieck at afpomaha@gmail.com to register. Space is limited to 30 per session. Admission is $10 per seminar payable to the National Council of Censors. Materials will be provided.

Mr. Freeman is a highly engaging and thought provoking speaker. I strongly encourage you to attend.

Today’s thoughts come from the intersection of two thoughts or principles I have found highly useful combined with some new facts about the use of mercenaries in Afghanistan.

The first thought is a corollary of Murphy’s Law—to wit: Before you do anything, you have to do something else first.

The second thought comes from a management development course. The instructor advocated setting traps for yourself to compensate for your weaknesses. In other words, set up punishments for yourself to keep yourself from doing things you shouldn’t.

The new facts come from watching Jeremy Scahill on an August 23 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher I finally had time to watch (Google Jeremy Scahill and Bill Maher to watch excerpts.)

Scahill revealed the Obama Administration is not only continuing to use these enormously expensive mercenaries, but has expanded their use. There are a number of reasons I oppose this approach beyond the expense. Using mercenaries sets a precedent dangerous to our political and governmental processes and also keeps us as a nation numb to the actual costs of the conflicts we fight.

Accordingly, I say that before we discuss what options to pursue in Afghanistan, we need to discuss the true costs of all options.

If I could wave a magic wand, here is what I would do to set a trap for ourselves to ensure we discuss all options and costs.

I would phase out the use of mercenaries over a 5 year period. To compensate for the loss of personnel, I would . . .

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