Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
Laura and I have certainly changed a bit from our former selves pictured above in Austria in 1976… and so have my girls (going clockwise) Karen (1993), Karla (1993) and Kristin (1984). However, families are a fun diversion and there is something enjoyable about watching young minds develop.
So, allow me to add a small tribute to all of the ‘families’ out there… large and small.
Roger Freberg
For a long time, many people have followed the corporate disasters of “Eron” and the many ‘lapses in judgment’ in the corporate arena and wondered — not always silently — why these folks weren’t behind bars?
Publisher’s Weekly offers a candid review of the effort… and here is an excerpt:
“Psychopaths are described as incapable of empathy, guilt, or loyalty to anyone but themselves; still, spotting a psychopath isn’t easy. Babiak, an industrial and organizational psychologist, and Hare (Without Conscience), creator of the standard tool for diagnosing psychopathology, present a study of the psychopath in the corporate landscape. A common description of psychopathology states that subjects “know the words but not the music;” Babiak and Hare state that “a clever psychopath can present such a well-rounded picture of a perfect job candidate that even seasoned interviewers” can be fooled.”
You can purchase a copy rather inexpensively on Amazon.com.
Personally, I have noticed that psychopaths tend to be attracted to money, power and the control over other lives to benefit themselves. This covers a lot of ground — an in my humble opinion — the corporate environs are not the only hallowed halls that are infected with self serving psychopaths. One only has to look into academia itself… following the university president who takes his entire staff on a holiday cruise to the Mediterranean and there is much much more… but then I am sure that would be a subject of another book.
worth reading,
Roger Freberg
PS. other interesting books on related topics : the Sociopath next door, Psychopath: emotion and the brain; Emotional Vampires
For anyone who has enjoyed studying personality or taking the variety of tests available, have you ever wondered if personality and political affiliation are related? Well, there is a certain amount of correlational data to support this idea.
Hmmmm… I wasn’t surprised that my wife’s personality type skewed to the right. She is an INTJ …and 43% of all INTJ’s report themselves as either ‘Republican or Conservative’ …. this is the 2nd highest percentage on the right of all 17 personality categories (only 14% of the INTJ’s said they were ‘not political’)
From these same researchers, allow me share some of the highlights of what they had to say about INTJ’s:
“…When under a great deal of stress, the INTJ may become obsessed with mindless repetitive, Sensate activities, such as over-drinking…. Other people may have a difficult time understanding an INTJ…. They may see them as aloof and reserved… INTJs tend to blame misunderstandings on the limitations of the other party, rather than on their own difficulty in expressing themselves…”
Poor, poor INTJ’s… by contrast… ENTJ’s are quite different:
“As an ENTJ, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you deal with things rationally and logically…. ENTJs are natural born leaders…. which is well-served by their quickness to grasp complexities, their ability to absorb a large amount of impersonal information, and their quick and decisive judgments. They are “take charge” people….The ENTJ has a tremendous amount of personal power and presence which will work for them as a force towards achieving their goals….They’re likely to place much emphasis on their children being well-educated and structured, to desire a congenial and devoted relationship with their spouse.”
Okay…Okay, I pulled a ‘Dan Rather’, I picked out what I wanted to say about both personality types for selfish reasons… believe me, INTJ’s are really quite interesting people. The hard truth is that for every individual — regardless of personality type — there exists specific challenges that must be met in order to be happy in life….. they just may be different types of challenges. ENTJ’s (Me), for example, must refrain from being overly absorbed in their career… or life and love passes them by.
By the way, I am an ENTJ, and we — as a group — tend to be a little less politically active than the norm with 25% of us saying we are ‘not political.’ However, the largest segment of ENTJ’s describe themselves as either Democrat or liberal (45%).
After this ‘revelation’, Laura now looks at me with a ‘cautious eye.’ However, from what I can tell… when ENTJ’s (me) and INTJ’s get together… ENTJ’s (me) think they are in charge… but INTJ’s eventually get their way.
Roger Freberg
There’s a wonderful line in an Indiana Jones movie were “Dad” (Sean Connery) tells “son” (Harrison Ford), “you left just when you were becoming interesting!”
I think that is the way things can happen when your adult children start making their niche in the world. They develop into people that you really enjoy being around.
My daughter Kristin is a private person — and I respect that — but forgive me for updating her site ( and she has contributed some to it)… it has been a task I have enjoyed. Check it out… our tribute to Kristin.
Roger Freberg
Wine is a wonderful experience, whether it be for the daily glass at dinner or for a special bottle with special people. However, I have always smiled when I read about those wine buffs who lift their glass and condemn or praise this or that vintage because it was derived from an unfortunate year due to some volcanic eruption in some other part of the world that produced less sunlight and thus an inferior harvest. blah blah hmmmmm
So too are so many opinions on wine. Sometimes, the opinions reflect nationalistic sentiments or the bias of the individual palate. In any event, good wines are everywhere now-a-days… great ones are still rare … but few disappoint at the average barbecue.
So, Here I am talking about South African Wines again… the latest great bargain since the invasion ofAustralian and New Zealand wines made the scene in America. Of course, for those who remember 30 years back or so… even French wines were relatively affordable ( some day I might write about my case of Château Latour ’55 ( undeniably a great year!) or my fondness for Château Margaux). As for South African wines, I am also showing above Kumala and a wine that tells a ‘story’ on each bottle in chapters… aa probably affordably available somewhere near you.
Enjoy! … now if I could only buy Ostrich locally.
Roger Freberg