Referencing the uproar over Obama’s address to schoolchildren, which will be aired nationwide Tuesday, Laura Bush said it’s “really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States.”

It’s good to see that common sense takes hold once in a while and someone has recognized that the recent disrespect for our president is ridiculous.

Yeah, it’s fine to disagree — of course. But base it on facts and do it respectfully. Don’t shout really loud about stupid shit just to drown out people who aren’t matching up with your ideology. You’re pooping in the pool and muddying public discourse.

Most people can’t handle this. So far our president has been called:

• Hitler
• A socialist
• A terrorist
• A fascist
• A communist
• A racist

And, probably worse than that. And we’ve still got 3 years to go!

Thanks Laura Bush.

WTF indeed.

The fact that alcohol prohibition was legalized during the great depression is an important lesson. But there’s a huge difference between drinking a few beers and shooting up heroine.

However, it’s fair to say that legalizing drugs has not been tried. There is a slew of questions surrounding the practicality of such a drastic change in policy, but I wholeheartedly agree that our drug policy in the united states is puritanical and draconian.

Questions I’d have:

• What would be the deterministic health consequences? Would the toll on the psyche and well-being of society be too much if we trusted people to control themselves?
• How can you weigh the benefits of reducing the power of drug cartels with the increase in DUI deaths and personal losses for people who will battle addiction?
• Would this even increase the amount of abusers? People who gamble find ways to gamble, people who do drugs already find ways to do it — is it a myth that everyone would suddenly rush to do drugs?

I think the argument against legalization is based largely on precedent and less on metrics — since a lot of it is just speculation. I don’t have many doubts that we’d be able to save money and increase revenue drastically at the same time — and we could channel a small percentage of funds to education, support and rehab instead of spending so much on enforcement and incarceration.

Think about it.

One of the things missing from The No Asshole Rule was how to estimate a positive worker’s contributions.

On top of operational performance there’s a fuzzy area you’d like to be able to measure, and that’s how someone’s attitude impacts the office. Do they generally piss people off? Do they encourage others and nurture growth?

This can be measured in terms of energy. I recall vaguely that a professor was experimenting with evaluations of workers by conducting surveys that measured energy expense towards an individual. For example, if talking to Mike at work is very draining and leaves you tired or frustrated, he has a negative impact on your work environment. On the other hand, if Mike is fun to work with and lifts you up, makes you a little happier every time you talk to him, that’s a plus.

And what do most people know about dealing with assholes? It’s very draining.

Sure, it’s healthy to understand and identify assholes, but it’s also worth thinking about your energy and its tangible effect on others. So next time you’re pissed off or irritated in a meeting, think — am I draining energy from this meeting or supplying it? Will the people I’m dealing with feel drained after this?

Granted, we’re not going to always be bouncy and huge balls of positive energy in the workplace. But over time, the sum of your interactions creates a net positive or negative flow of energy between you and the people you work with. I think we should strive to give more than we take.

Maybe it’s karma, but it’s definitely there, whatever it is. If we paid more attention to our energy consumption it’d make work a better place.