![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/warfighting-FI.jpg\" "\\"warfighting")
<\/a> tables, facts and\u00a0complex figures illustrating the orchestration of a very complicated set of sphincters that keep us from social embarrassment.\u00a0\u00a0It turns out that when that when one of these sphincters is blown – sort of like when the elastic gives out in the waistband of your skivvies – there are not too many options besides the obvious techniques of diet adjustment and close proximity to a toilet.\u00a0 My client had come up with an implantable device that applied electrical stimulation that was designed to put the spunk back in the sphincter and make everything copacetic.\u00a0 By a weird coincidence, a previous project for a different client involved the subject of urinary incontinence.\u00a0 I felt pleased that I was now conversant with the ins and outs of our two most\u00a0 important sphincters.\u00a0 It reminded me of a professor who used to say, \u201cI just hope that I die with all my sphincters intact.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nMy report provided the background resource document for the upcoming strategy session, where members of the team were supposed to anticipate the insurance company\u2019s reaction to this new product.\u00a0 Would insurance companies pay for it?\u00a0 Were the consequences of fecal incontinence fully appreciated?\u00a0 How do you define fecal incontinence?\u00a0 While that may seem simple, one person\u2019s inadvertent skid mark could be considered a near fatal embarrassment by a more fastidious person.\u00a0 What kind of standards could be imposed for objectively evaluating the severity of incontinence?\u00a0 Just before I left, I received a slim book that we were asked to read in preparation for the meeting.\u00a0 I had slipped it into my bag without really looking at it, figuring I would read the book on the plane.<\/p>\n
I was taken aback to find that the book was called \u201cWarfighting: The US Marine Corps Book of Strategy,\u201d which is required reading for all marines.\u00a0 The cover of the book featured a close up profile of a frenzied horse with a wild eye and widely flared nostril, straining mightily against the reins.\u00a0 There was a large vein popping out along the length of his nose.\u00a0 The horse looked like it was about to explode in fury.\u00a0 What could this 100 page book possibly have to do with fecal incontinence?\u00a0 The inside cover noted that Warfighting shows how to use the Marine Corp\u2019s battle strategies to manage your way to victory in every confrontation, whether corporate or personal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the endorsers on the back cover of the book was Ed McMahon, identified as a \u201ctelevision personality,\u201d who blurbed, \u201cBeing a good marine transfers easily to being successful in your chosen field.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Now it seems to me that Ed McMahon, as a chuckle-headed second banana to Johnny Carson, does not represent the leadership skills of a Marine.\u00a0 I recently happened to stumble across McMahon on the show \u201cThe Dog Whisperer,\u201d where a dog trainer comes to your house to whip your wayward dog into shape.\u00a0 Ed and his wife had some sort of yappy lap dog that had totally taken over the household \u2013 it may have been that the dog kept trying to bite Ed when he tried to bed his wife.\u00a0 And since I also try and keep up with my People magazine, I can tell you that overextended Ed was one of the most high profile victims of the mortgage meltdown; the bank has foreclosed on his house.\u00a0 It looks like Ed needs a crash refresher course on Warfighting to take control of this situation.<\/p>\n
Although I was perturbed about reading a book about war strategies, I wanted to be a gamer, so I settled in.\u00a0 The jacket advised that as we read the book, we should substitute the word \u201ccombat\u201d with \u201ccompetition,\u201d \u201csoldier\u201d with \u201cfrontline worker,\u201d and \u201cenemy\u201d with \u201crival.\u201d\u00a0 Now my interest in the project was really the science behind fecal incontinence and the challenges of investigating it.\u00a0 I really had no interest in treating insurance companies like the enemy, grabbing market share and hitting projected revenues.\u00a0 But I guess that is why my colleagues get stock options and bonuses and I do not.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The book starts out by defining war, which like the definition of fecal incontinence, should be self-evident, but in this book takes 19 pages.\u00a0 There are such obvious statements as, \u201cviolence is an essential element of war, and its immediate result is bloodshed, destruction and suffering,\u201d and, \u201cat least one part to a conflict must have an offensive intention, for without the desire to impose upon the other there would be no conflict.\u201d\u00a0 I think that we can all agree that if nobody is willing to fight, there is no war, but maybe I am oversimplifying this in some way.\u00a0 Subsequent chapters extol the virtues of surprise and boldness, which most recently has been translated into the catchier phrase, \u201cShock and Awe.\u201d\u00a0 It turns out that surprise and boldness is a relatively new tactic for the military, replacing the previous attrition strategy which was based on superior firepower.\u00a0 \u201cThe attritionist gauges progress in terms of \u2026 body counts and terrain captured.\u201d\u00a0 While attrition rode the good guys to victory in WWI and II, the limitations of this strategy became glaringly apparent in the guerrilla war that was Vietnam.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As I finished the book, I realized that there were two gaping holes in this treatise that may leave the marines on the front lines scratching their heads.\u00a0 First, there was no guidance on identifying the enemy.\u00a0 While US soldiers helpfully garb themselves in distinctive uniforms, this seems to be a one way street, since our opponents do not extend us the same courtesy.\u00a0 Secondly, there is no definition of winning the war, i.e. how do you know when it\u2019s over?\u00a0 Now here is where fecal incontinence shines.\u00a0 The enemy was me, since I originally wrote the negative coverage policies when I worked for the insurance\u00a0industry \u2013 I was basically trying to undo my previous handiwork.\u00a0 Winning is easily defined \u2013 it would be when access to electrical stimulation becomes not a privilege, but a federally mandated right, such that anyone with even a smidge of fecal incontinence could raise an unfettered hand and say, \u201cImplant me!\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0The missing words in the following poems are anagrams (i.e.\u00a0like spot, stop, post) and the number of asterisks indicates the number of letters.\u00a0 One of the missing words will rhyme with either the preceding or following line.\u00a0 Your job is to solve the missing words, based on the above rules and the contex\u00a0of the poem.\u00a0 Scroll down for answers.<\/h6>\n
Do you think that combat and undaunted courage are not in your genes?<\/p>\n
Well maybe it\u2019s time that you took a lesson from the US\u00a0 *******.<\/p>\n
Perhaps you could attend a ******* on the theory of Warfighting,<\/p>\n
Or you could just read the book if you respond better to writing.<\/p>\n
And then all that ******* is to know when the job is over and done,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then you can raise your weapon in the air and say, \u201cYipee, I won!\u201d<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Answers:\u00a0 marines, seminar, remains<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: My medical career has focused on the niche business of technology assessment for health insurance companies.\u00a0\u00a0 Specifically, I have analyzed the published medical literature on literally hundreds of medical technologies to determine whether or not they would be still considered … Continue reading <\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"