Today is a weird day. It only comes once every four years. So, I thought I would put out a totally weird post that I have been holding on to for some time. It starts with a quote from a not-so-well known person. Don’t get consumed by all the negativity in the world. Lighten up once in a while — January 11,2012 RJ Walters Now I’m not … Continue reading Don’t Get Consumed….
It seems popular now days to rally against the one-percent of the population in the U.S. that controls so much of our country’s wealth. I am one of the many who think the distribution of wealth has been skewed too far the last thirty years or so. We need to bring back a more moralistic ratio of wealth. We need to re-establish the quickly shrinking middle … Continue reading The Politics of the 5%…
For those of you who aren’t up on your U.S. history lessons, John Sherman was the Congressman who about one hundred years ago introduced the first major piece of legislation to rein in corporate greed. The legislation was call the Sherman Antitrust Act. Here is some of what Wikipedia says about that: The Sherman Antitrust Act (Sherman Act,[1] July 2, 1890, ch. 647, 26 Stat. 209, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1–7) is a landmark federal … Continue reading Where Are You John Sherman When We Need You???
Source: God’s Dwelling Place – QuakerQuaker. There is no such thing as a sense of integrity that acknowledges the measure of light I have within me while at the same time ignoring the corresponding light within my neighbor. As that light is as constant within him or her as it is within me, there is no reasonable way or appropriate time to withhold the integrity my … Continue reading God’s Dwelling Place
Killing someone without government permission is wrong!! I guess it is just a matter of how you look at things in the world. I ran across the statement above recently and was dumbstruck by it. But after thinking of it a while I realized that from a military and a capital punishment perspective this is how we justify killing the “bad guys”. If the State … Continue reading A Point of Perspective….
Source: The Body Odd – Cracking the code: Why yuor barin can raed tihs. For emaxlpe, it deson’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. It is funny how we can read … Continue reading Cracking the code: Why yuor barin can raed tihs
Source: Public workers’ time-buying perk costs states – USATODAY.com. Here we go again with short-term gains with long-term consequences. It seems that public employees in twenty-one States can give their boss (meaning us taxpayers) pennys on the dollar now and reap much larger benefits later. Here are some words from the above article: The practice, called buying “air time,” lets state, municipal and school employees … Continue reading Public workers’ time-buying perk costs states…
‘Star Wars’ universe getting a lot bigger – USATODAY.com. I am a Star Wars junkie, I freely admit it. I find it fascinating to take a peak of a possible future scenario that doesn’t end with us polluting the world beyond livability. I enjoy movies like “Soylent Green” and “Mad Max” but would rather believe we have a rosier future than they portray. Call me … Continue reading ‘Star Wars’ universe getting a lot bigger…
I see the Republicans have yet another “front-runner”! This time it is Rick Santorum. This makes every one of the eight or so wannabes that has moved to the front of the pack. But when that happens they soon seem to fizzle out like a flash in the pan. They get on the front burner of public attention and the heat becomes too much for … Continue reading Another Flash in the Pan….
I can’t imagine the patience it takes to make one of these stone walls found at the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village near Lexington KY and there are hundreds of feet of them there. Continue reading Patience and Simplicity…
In my three year journey of studying current day Christian organizations I read many books that inspired me. So, in the coming weeks I will be re-blogging some of the posts from my blog at RedLetterLiving.net . I will limit these posts to just things that inspired me in this area. I will NOT be revisiting things that let me down. Here is the first … Continue reading Book Review – Letters from a Skeptic
If you can’t be good, be different. – April 29, 1928 Will Rogers Can any of us really be good for any extended period of time? I don’t think so. So, that leaves just one alternative; being different. All of us at times want to stand out from the crowd. None of us want to be vanilla flavored. Teenagers in particular go to extremes to … Continue reading If You Can’t Be Good….
Source: Scientists invent lightest material on Earth. What now? – latimes.com. This is a fascinating article about a new material. The picture at the right says it all. It sits peacefully on top of a fluffy dandelion. And proudly it was invented by a U.S. institution at CalTech. I just hope that some U.S. firm can manage to take this concept into a usable stage. It seems … Continue reading Scientists invent lightest material on Earth. What now?
Most of my life I have prided myself of being aware of what is going on in the world. I often cite the words of Thomas Jefferson who said a democracy depends on an informed electorate. But, much of my life has also been spent being a contrarian. I am always looking at the majority opinion on things and then looking at opposing views to see … Continue reading Head In The Sand….
Source: This Life or the Afterlife – QuakerQuaker. I don’t spend much time worrying about where I will be after I die. Instead I try to spend my time just concentrating on the words of Jesus as found in my Bible. By his words he shows us how to live a God pleasing life. Yes, in spite of what several current Christian denominations say, I believe it is possible to … Continue reading This Life or the Afterlife??
Source: Young Women Go Back to School Instead of Work – NYTimes.com. “Today young girls are told they can do anything, go into any occupation. But if boys express any interest in traditionally female occupations, they get teased and bullied,” Ms. Coontz said. “Lots of guys are not understanding what’s happening to traditional low-income or middle-income male jobs.” Jobs in the male-dominated manufacturing industry and in … Continue reading You Want To Be A What??
Source: States expand lucrative pensions to more jobs – USATODAY.com. In Illinois, where highway maintenance workers earn up to $148,000 a year with overtime, early enhanced retirement can pay a $75,000-a-year pension at age 50 after 25 years on the job. Every day lately we seem to hear of another State that is on the verge of bankruptcy so I just don’t understand how they can … Continue reading States expand lucrative pensions to more jobs
After watching the ending of a movie about Leo Tolstoy the other day I got interested in his life and writings. It surprised me to learn that he like Thomas Jefferson had written his own version of the Bible called the “Tolstoy Bible”. He again like Jefferson believed that the Christian church had strayed too far from the words of its founder Jesus Christ. I … Continue reading Tolstoy and Christianity….
I have been thinking lately about the words of Jesus and how he interacted with those he came across. Except for some of those in the religious establishment I couldn’t find any instance where he chose to automatically exclude from his saving grace or the wisdom of his teachings. He treated men and women pretty much the same; he welcomed all to his ministry. The poor … Continue reading The Practice of Exclusion…
Source: Many say ‘So What?’ to God, religion, atheism – USATODAY.com. It is no secret that those who claim to be “religious” in the U.S. has been shrinking every decade for more than 50 years now. But in the last ten years the people who check “none of the above” have been increasing almost exponentially. Here are some statistics from the above article: •44% told … Continue reading Many say ‘So What?’ to God, religion, atheism
Source: Three Queries on Peace – QuakerQuaker. The author of the post above is David Madden. Please click the source above to see the entire post. There are not many words in the source post (I will likely exceed his word count in just talking about it) but they do inspire me. As is obvious from the link David is a Quaker and this article … Continue reading Peace Requires Strength and Conviction….
What we need is cleaner minds and dirtier fingernails. – February 28, 1928 Will Rogers This quote came to mind recently while I was reading an article on the USA Today website. As usual the comments at the end of the article were 95% dissing either the author of the article, the content, or other commentors. I seldom wander below the bottom of most articles … Continue reading Cleaner Minds….
Source: Future of Technology – Foldable electric car debuts in Europe. The concept is based on the electric CityCar created by researchers at the MIT Media Lab, and commercialized by a consortium of automotive companies in the Basque region of Spain…. The MIT Media Lab envisions the cars finding a home in car-share programs where members drive any available ride around the city and parking … Continue reading Future of Technology – Foldable electric car debuts in Europe
The U.S. lately seems to have fallen into the logic that a massive and overwhelming military is necessary to maintain our country’s security. History has proven that logic faulty again and again but we seem unable to learn that lesson. Lets go back to David and Goliath. Goliath was the big military giant with all the current day military weapons and David was just a … Continue reading Military Giants…..
“Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.” – Elise Boulding The above words by Elise Boulding have a very deep and … Continue reading The Happiness of Not Having Things….
Source: The best God joke ever – and its mine! | Stage | The Guardian. Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Dont do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, … Continue reading The best God joke ever …
There are all kinds of people around today who hand out advice on what jobs will be the most secure in today’s world environment. They say things like nursing and such can’t be outsourced to another country. But there is now a trend to have surgeries performed in other countries for a fraction of the cost here in the U.S. so I’m not so sure … Continue reading The “Perfect” Job for Tomorrow..
Here is a friend I met in New Brunswick Canada while we were there last summer. He didn’t have much to say but we seemed to make a connection 🙂 Continue reading A Friend From Canada…
I think I am freaking out with this puzzle stuff (ha)! First I started working jigsaw puzzles for pretty much the first time in my life and now I am seeing puzzle analogies all around me. When I put the last piece of a recent jigsaw puzzle into place I thought of how it represents life in general. The world is really just one gigantic … Continue reading Pieces of a Puzzle….
RJ's Corner 