Likability. Likability. Likability. Ca depend. Ca depend. Ca depend. It depends. It depends. It depends.

Ca depend.

The best way for a grown man, who has observed something of life, to express what he has learned, comes to us, of course, from the French:

Ca depend.

It depends.

It all just depends.

Nana used to say to me:

“There are rules and then there are other rules and then there are OUR rules, ca depend….it all depends.”

When, at advancing age, I hear people tell me that there are absolute rules about anything and “Oh Johnnie boy, you must do this and musn’t say that and you can’t wear that to attain a desired end, I smile to myself and think: “yeah, yeah..but..ca depend.”

It depends…now doesn’t it?….Everything depends.

Most guys don’t go as high up in life as they could do because they don’t have a high enough regard for themselves. They don’t realize that life is governed, in the main by the French adage…ca depend…it depends…it all…depends.

So, what do we do with that information?

We…learn…to:

Throw a rock at the rules.

Why are we telling you this today?

Why?

Because we like you.

Do you know the real reason why one guy hires a particular guy over all the other candidates to work for him, assuming generally co-equal bona fides among all the candidates?

Why?

Because he likes him.

Likes him.

Likes.

One thing that employment advisors cannot teach is how to get people to like you.

That’s not the recruiter’s fault.

Likability can’t be taught.

Come to think on it, likability can’t even be learned.

My admonition to the young and the restless in this strange little society in which we now live is this:

If you really want to stand out, if you really want to be a star, be different from everybody else.

Break the rules.

Make your own rules.

Hermes, maker of the finest silks and best ties and scarfs in the world, used to have an advertising brochure which addressed men’s nervousness and middle class insecurities and apprehensions about whether or not they were dressed properly and their tie matched with their suit and shirt and pocket square and stockings:

The brochure read:

“Throw A Rock at the Rules…wear a tie that doesn’t go with your suit or shirt or pocket square or stockings in the conventionally accepted sense…we’re Hermes, we do whatever we want….we throw rocks at the rules. There’s a pocket hole in boy’s left breast suit and sport coat jackets. God put that pocket hole there for a reason. God wants you to put a pocket square in that pocket hole. Where’s yours? We’ll get to carnations, and which size, some other day.”

General Haig , who could be a very tough cookie, believe me, I know, speaking to, I think, The Fortune magazine many years ago was asked about the selection process for picking the next senior man to lead the company after he left it.

Haig was a very nice guy if you knew him away socially, from the office, tough as nails when on duty.

Haig made a very on point comment:

“At the low level of work, things are very:

Objective..

Get the best guy for the job, who has the tiddlywinks skills that are required to do the job, run him through the conventional hoops, et cetera, et cetera.

At the very high end where I am picking one guy out of 4 to succeed me, the process is completely:

Subjective.

That is, I pick him on this basis:

I like him.

Or reciprocally, I don’t like him.

I like his ties.

Or, reciprocally, I don’t like his ties.

Since all the candidates are all thoroughly qualified, I can use any yardstick for picking the winner that I like.

You see, all the top 4 guys can do the job perfectly well so I can pick any one of them and not worry that he will blow up the company.

So what am I really doing?

I am replacing myself with the nearest available equivalent among the candidates to….myself.

I am attempting to replace myself, as best I can with ….another….

Me.”

Shortly, the Americans will be visited by yet another Presidential election, notwithstanding that the Americans, detest and I do mean detest, all politics and all politicians….as soon as one election is over, the next begins.

Consider, there are virtually no qualifications to be President except that one be:

35 years old.

American born.

And one gets more electoral college votes than does the other guy.

There is no way to prepare, or qualify, yourself to be President.

It’s sort of like being elected Pope.

It’s a completely unique job.

Being President is not difficult at all…typing pool secretaries in the White House work themselves to death. The President works when he feels like it for as long as feels like it.

The expression “The Lion’s Share,” is applicable here:

Most people think that “The Lion’s Share,” means the largest amount only it doesn’t mean that and in fact many dictionaries get it wrong too, so don’t you feel lonely.

In fact the Lion’s Share means what ever amount the Lion wants….this evening he might not be hungry at all…again….our friends, the French….ca depend….it depends…on what the Lion wants. That’s his share….whatever he wants.

If you’re President:

You can work as hard as you want and say what you want without fear or favour.

Getting to be President:

Now, that, is savagely hard.

Perhaps the hardest job in the world..in fact, no perhaps about it…getting to be President is the hardest job in the world.

Of which, again, General Haig had a good point when he said that:

“What really divides the men from the boys in this world, even more than ambition itself, although they are likely connected, is the seemingly impossible capacity to function, week on month on year, at full throttle, at optimum effectiveness, on almost no sleep…and you either have that capacity or you don’t. It’s medically ill-advised to not sleep and most people couldn’t do that even if they wanted to, but there it is anyway, the thing that divides the men from the boys.”

That thought apropos of running for President, in which:

It takes 2 years, or more, of endless, endless work, humiliation and despair, living on airplanes, or in cheap flea bag hotels, eating airplane food, sleeping 3 hours a night, if that, dealing with hourly idiotic questions from reporters, trying to get people who hate you to vote for you.

And, at the end of this torture test, most of the candidates…..lose.

Why? In the main because, as with General Haig’s example of board room selection, getting elected President is reliant upon:

A contest that is:

Completely:

Subjective.

In point of fact, there are:

Absolutely…

No qualifications at all.

And this to be the leader of the free world.

And why does the winner get more votes in this completely subjective contest?

Because more voters LIKE him than they do his opponent.

Likability.

Ca depend.

Likability.

Ca depend.

Likability.

Ca depend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Man holds to opinions, God holds the facts.
The rich man ought not be taxed at all~~he ought be compelled to employ and train the poor man~~directly~~personally.
~~

The principal need in America today is~~financial and industrial De-Globalization~~to facilitate the promotion of the possibility for the average man to get and keep a good job with good benefits paid by the employer~~as was done not very long ago.~~

~~Bene Nati, Bene Vestiti, Et Mediocriter Docti~~

~

~~La crema y nata~~

~

~~Artista de la conquista~

~~In sunshine and in shadow~~I hold tight to the Republican view of time and money~~I write night and day~~yet~~while impecunious~~I am vastly overpaid~~in that taking pay to do what I love is unfair~~to my employer~~in a fair system~~under such circumstances~~I should pay him~~not he me~~I am far, far too old a man to be sexually confused~~praise Jesus~~but I am yet young enough to be politically confused~~is anyone not~~in an absolute sense~~I am a Catholic Royalist~~in a practical sense~~I am a Classical Liberal~~a Gaullist~~a Bonapartist~~an American Nationalist Republican~~in either sense~~my head is soon for the chopping block~~to hasten my interlude with Madame La Guillotine~~I write without fear~and without favor of~any man~~

~~

Finis Origine Pendet…
The escape commences…

~~

September, 1957

~~

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal Catholic parochial school, called, by anyone of any background, simply: “Chan~al,” a place where, of an autumn day in 1957, school, for me, began and ended in the first convening of the first grade in which a tiny nun, one Sister Dom Bosco, appeared before me, just behind the window appearing at far left of this photograph, and piped out this: “I may be small, but so then, is the Atom Bomb.”

~~

My determination to escape school commenced immediately on hearing about this Atom Bomb business and took 16 dicey and arduous years to finally accomplish.~~

~~

Non Sibi

The escape continues…

~~

September, 1966

~~

The Cathedral Latin School

~~

Finis Origine Pendet~

~~Κύριε ἐλέησον~~

Rejoice and Glad!!

Amen~~
~The Original Angry Bird~~The Catholic University of America Screaming Red Cardinal Mascot~~

~~EX LIBRIS~~

~~THEOS EK MĒCHANĒS~~

Quadragesima, Monday, 230h March, Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi, 2015
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"Jean-Marie Le Pen is a friend. He is dangerous for the political set because he's the only one who's sincere. He says out loud what many people think deep down, and what the politicians refrain from saying because they are either too demagogic or too chicken. Le Pen, with all his faults and qualities, is probably the only one who thinks about the interests of France before his own."~~

French actor~~Alain Delon
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CONCEPT OF THE CATHOLIC AND ROYAL ARMY OF AMERICA (CRAA)

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA

Seal of The Catholic University of America

Motto~~Deus Lux Mea Est~~

Acta Est Fabula

The escape concludes…

~~

The Catholic University Of America, Washington, District of Columbia.

~~

1976, Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi.

~~
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Acta Est Fabula.

~~

Deus Vult.

~~Our Ubiquitous Presence~~

The Queen~~

Our Ruler now 63 years on~~

Simply the best President we could ever hope to have~~