Second Chances

I believe in second chances. I am personally glad that people get them. Yesterday, while following some links on the Beauchamp/TNR story I came across a phrase, "flat ass rules", that was new to me: I googled it and found this document which contains the lines:

3. Leadership
Understand the difference between a mistake and a breakdown in discipline. Identify, correct, and lead through mistakes. Utilize every ounce of your leadership to stamp out discipline lapses. I neither expect nor demand unending perfection. Perfection is attainable, but only for select periods. I do demand consistent
excellence and a dedicated commitment to improving the readiness of our Squadron.

I like that line "Identify, correct, and lead through mistakes." I don't fully understand the phrase "breakdown of discipline", but if I translate it to mean failure to follow proper procedures, this makes a lot of sense.

Today Michael Yon has posted a great essay on second chances.

All this reminded me of our current city management/police department situation. I've come to believe that Mitch Johnson needs to go as city manager, but maybe council candidate Bill Knight has a better idea. Bill has suggested finding some other spot in city government for Johnson, and I first thought this was just a way to avoid firing him.

On second thought, maybe it is the best way. Mitch has many supporters who believe he is a talented and valuable manager. He made a serious mistake in the way he handled the Wray situation, but perhaps he deserves a second chance. I could support giving him a choice of moving to some other open job with the city and letting him earn a second chance.

We need to find a solution to this mess, and I think Bill's suggestion has some merit.

Come on Guys, You Can Do Better

Ann Althouse linked to this article. It is a fascinating story, but I was struck by the following, "Ms. Gibson will receive the promised $15,000 reward from the seller, as well as a smaller finder’s fee from Sotheby’s, which the auction house declined to disclose." Let's see, doesn't the auction house get a 20% commission. That's $200,000 if the painting in fact sells for a million dollars. Surely Sotheby's can pony up more than a piddling couple of thou. In this case, I think they should split the commission more nearly 50:50.

ConvergeSouth

I attended the ConvergeSouth conference this past week-end and really enjoyed it. Though I don't blog much, as you can see, I wanted to learn more about blogging, and the registration fee was right. I did learn a lot, saw some old friends, and met several bloggers whose work I read and admire. You all know who you are.

I've been critical of the political slant of the conference (here, here, and here among others) but otherwise I thought the organizers did a great job of putting on the event. As volunteers, they have my appreciation, and I'll do what I can to help in the future.

This morning, I stumbled on the ConvergeSouth Flickr site and was reminded of one of the best pieces of photographic advice I've ever gotten: If you want to improve your photography, don't show all your pictures. I just couldn't look thru 500 photos to find any that interested me.