Reflections of Canada – RJ Walters (all rights reserved) Continue reading Ottawa Canada July 2011

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31 Continue reading The Greatest of God’s Commands

  Source: The 10 Biggest-Selling Drugs That Are About to Lose Their Patent – DailyFinance. I am one of millions of us seniors who is on some very expensive prescription drugs. I currently spend over $1,000/year on Plavix alone. But that is about to change. In May 2012 Plavix will lose is patent exclusivity. That will open the door for an inexpensive generic. The above article show ten high cost drugs that are in the same situation. To the right is also a mention of this from Money magazine in April 2011. I have had it pinned on my bulletin board … Continue reading Hello Plavix Generic…..

Here is a quote from Jim Wallis over at Sojourners that will be the foundation for this post. Since the Occupy Wall Street movement began, the talk about inequality has been greater than I can remember it being for a very long time. This has been the elephant in the room in our discussions about the economy that nobody wanted to say out loud. In the last hundred years, there have been two peak periods of great inequality in American society—just before the Great Depression, and in 2008, right before our current Great Recession. And in the mysterious and secret … Continue reading Inequity in the U.S.

  Christ, in sending the [people] to the scriptures, sent them, not merely to read them, but carefully to search and ponder them. And did he not say, “Read the scriptures,” but “Search the scriptures.” … Their meaning is not expressed superficially or set forth in their literal sense, but, like a treasure, lies buried at a great depth. And those who seek for hidden things will not be able to find the object of the search if they do not seek carefully and painstakingly. – St. John Chrysostom Homily 41 (John 5:39-47), A.D. 390 From Wikipedia John Chrysostom (c. 347–407), Archbishop of Constantinople, was … Continue reading Don’t Just Read But Search & Ponder….

The above title is something that many people espouse to live by.  But in my opinion you can’t just go with the flow in your retirement life. At least not the way I perceive it or at least not in the beginning. Going with the flow is allowing things to happen without much outside intervention. When we enter your retirement life each of us needs to have some plan on what we are going to do and what we hope to accomplish. Without that plan going with the flow could mean getting up every morning, watching TV all day and … Continue reading Just Go With The Flow….

Source:  Column: We don’t want an America ‘made in China’ – USATODAY.com. Let’s subtitle this post to “When Buying American Meant Something”. There are some rather disturbing things about the source article above. It seems very strange that a U.S. supplier would lose out to the China competitor for the glass used in the new Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site! If there is anything that should be American made it would be at that site! Yet the business went out of country, although through several intermediary U.S. companies, because PPG Industries could not afford to pay the … Continue reading We don’t want an America ‘made in China’…

Continue reading Barns – Waterford Mill, Maryland

There should be a tax on every man that wanted to get a government appointment or be elected to office. In two years that tax alone would pay our National debt. – Will Rogers  March 22, 1925 I have to go back to my hero Will Rogers for answers to many of life’s problems. Given that we are in the middle of the primary season for president and the congressional stuff will be starting soon this seems like an answer to more than one problem. But I guess I should also include the following Once a man has held public … Continue reading The Answer to the Debt Problem…

Source:  Editorial Cartoons – USATODAY.com Photos. Continue reading Way Too Narrow For Me Too…

This was a picture taken recently during our Canadian vacation. We were staying in a small motel right on the river. It was a mystical place.     Continue reading Sunset Over the St. Lawrence River – 2011

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,  I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, … Continue reading If You Are a Christian There Are Consequences To Inaction…..

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” –Steve Jobs — Continue reading Follow Your Inner Voice….

I guess everybody who has looked at any news source yesterday know that Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple Computer, passed away this week of pancreatic cancer.  He was only 56 years old.  Steve was definitely not one who was afraid of pushing the envelope of life and particularly our technology life. In that regard he was a hero of mine. I myself pushed the status quo a few times in my technical life but nothing compared to him. In 1970, when Steve was fifteen years old, I started out my career as an electric engineer. Then in … Continue reading Here's to you Steve….

Source:  Military retirees say benefits hard-earned – USATODAY.com. The news in the article above came as somewhat a shock to me.  I often hear that the military pay is substandard; that we are forcing our soldiers to live in poverty. The graph to the right seems to go against those words.  It seems that being a federal employee including ones in the military that your compensation is well above those in the private sector.  In fact being in the private sector is putting you at the bottom of the total compensation ladder in this graph! I certainly appreciate the comments … Continue reading Federal and Military Employee Compensation…