“A nation is just like an individual. If a man’s neighbors all hate him and he is continually in trouble, and all his fights and troubles are always over in the other fellow’s yard, he must be wrong.” – Will Rogers, 30 March 1927 Why we continue to always be fighting in the other fellow’s yard is beyond me. I am very thankful that for … Continue reading In The Other Fellow’s Yard….
The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin, says that a House Republican leader told off President Barack Obama during a negotiation meeting, and that they are so disrespectful it’s practically impossible to have a conversation with them. “In a ‘negotiation’ meeting with the president, one GOP House Leader told the president: ‘I cannot even stand to look at you,’” Durbin wrote in … Continue reading ‘I cannot even stand to look at you’
Punditry is an industry built on confirmation bias. Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck and Arianna Huffington, Rachel Maddow and Ann Coulter—these people provide fuel for beliefs, they pre-filter the world to match existing worldviews. If their filter is like your filter, you love them. If it isn’t, you hate them. You watch them not for information, but for confirmation. Be careful. People like … Continue reading Man Bites a Dog…..
In science, you move closer to the truth by seeking evidence to the contrary. Perhaps the same method should inform your opinions as well. SOURCE: “You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself” (McRaney, David) I have a lot of quotes from this book now residing in … Continue reading Seeking Evidence….
This is kind of a continuation of yesterday’s post about why Republicans hate Obamacare. One thing I didn’t come across in my one hour search of why they hate Obamacare but I have seen it used as part of their opposition is that it puts too many additional people into the system. They say adding 30 million more consumers of healthcare will overwhelm our system. This … Continue reading Too Many People…
I recently googled the above title and then spent an hour looking at the first one hundred or so sources that came back. I was hoping someone would give some insight into why Republicans, without exception in congress, hate something that gives people the opportunity to purchase affordable healthcare. I was really looking for some well nuanced explanation of what is wrong with Obamacare. I … Continue reading Why Do Republicans Hate Obamacare?….
“There is such little eating being done in the homes now that a dining room is almost a lost art.” – Will Rogers, 1 April 1923 Note the date of 1923. And you thought this was a recent phenomenon….. Of course ten years later it was because of the Great Depression and fewer people had food. It will be that again soon since congress is in … Continue reading Eating At Home…
17th century French philosopher Rene Descartes said, “ If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” If he’s right, seeking the truth about Jesus might require mentally distancing ourselves from everything we’ve been programmed to believe and instead becoming open to discovering the true Kingdom of … Continue reading Doubt Everything, At Least Once….
Mark Driscoll, the attention grabbing minister of the Mars Hill megachurch, is at it again. He’s pushing his badass Jesus who has, as he put it a few years ago, “a commitment to make someone bleed.” Driscoll has a personal need for a sacred tough guy because he has some sort of theological kink or character twist or… whatever, that leads him to declare, “I … Continue reading His Own Version Of Jesus….
Have you ever wondered why people with advanced degrees in climate science or biology don’t get online and debate global warming or evolution? The less you know about a subject, the less you believe there is to know in total. Only once you have some experience do you start to recognize the breadth and depth you have yet to plunder. — You Are Not So Smart: … Continue reading The Less You Know….
Roughly 4.7 million Americans went online Tuesday to browse the Obamacare health insurance exchanges prompting HealthCare.gov administrators to increase the site’s server capacity and create a new “wait page” to hold a person’s place in line until the site can load properly. On top of the Web traffic, 190,000 Americans used federal health insurance exchange call centers and another 104,000 requested live chats. “Now that … Continue reading Heavy Traffic Clogs – and Delights – Obamacare Insurance Sites
There is a lot to like about a conservative party that advocates for small government and understands what markets can accomplish and what they cannot. The problem is that the Republicans are not that party right now. From the book The Centrist Manifesto (Wheelan, Charles) Continue reading Not That Party Right Now….
Many of us are taught, starting in childhood, to never, ever give up. It applies even more so to those of us in the nonprofit, charitable, and faith arenas. We often work with hurting, broken but incredibly valuable people. We want to be the sort of inspirers who those we love and serve will one day be grateful for. And about us, we hope they’ll … Continue reading Doing More Harm Than Good….
After shooting Landsberry and two other classmates, the student (13 years old) turned the semi-automatic handgun on himself and was killed. Federal officials tell CBS News the gun was owned by his parents. SOURCE: Sparks Middle School student: Gunman said “you ruined my life and now I’m going to ruin yours” – CBS News. Continue reading Again, Again, And Again….
….I’m also not so sure that, as my friend said, it (gun violence) is the way the “world” is. The more I travel the world I am convinced it’s not the way the world is… it’s the way the USA is. I’ve seen a lot of the world, with travels taking me to about a dozen countries a year and this is what I’ve seen: … Continue reading Bringing America Back to Life….
U.S. job growth likely picked up a bit in September, suggesting the economy enjoyed rising momentum before an acrimonious budget fight in Washington took some of the wind out of its sails. SOURCE: U.S. job growth seen having revved up before budget fight hit: Fidelity. In some ways I put many of the business men out there only slightly above the politicians in my favorability ratings. … Continue reading U.S. job growth seen having revved up before budget fight hit
“The Republican Party is not really a party. It doesn’t stand for anything except re-electing itself,” Stockman, who directed the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, tells Newsmax. “The neocons are only oriented to an aggressive, imperialistic foreign policy of big defense establishment and suppression of our civil liberties. That’s bad. “The tax cons want to just cut taxes — any time, … Continue reading GOP Is Not A Real Party…
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett on Wednesday called the U.S. debt limit a “political weapon of mass destruction” and said both political parties should pledge never to use it as leverage because of the financial damage it can cause. As lawmakers and the White House scrambled to raise the $16.7-trillion debt limit before a Thursday deadline, Buffett said it would be asinine” for the U.S. to … Continue reading The GOPs WMD….
I recently read an article that said bloggers are either creating or reacting but I kind of think it is a combination of both. Lots of things float around in my brain throughout each day. I always have a notepad available to jot down some of the more noteworthy thoughts but many escape before I can recall them. I like to think that even when … Continue reading Reacting Or Creating…..
Congressional leaders are playing a dangerous game with their constituents’ money, their livelihoods and their retirement savings. On Wednesday, all Congress did was flip over the hourglass on a game of chicken that cost our economy $24 billion and left America’s future up in the air — and, by doing so, may cause some of our hard-earned retirement savings to disappear into it. via Your … Continue reading A Dangerous Game…
“I have always rather enjoyed being considered a heretic, and have never wanted to be endorsed by any one. I have felt that to be endorsed was to be bound, and that it was better, for me at least, to be a free lance, with no hindrances to my absolute mental and spiritual freedom.” SOURCE: Meet Hannah Whitall Smith, a “Convergent Friend” at the turn … Continue reading Being A Heretic….
It is interesting to see that 75% of our current deficits came from Republican administrations…. To appease one of my commentors the chart above was apparently generated from 2010 data. See the comments to learn more…. Continue reading Deficits…
America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us. —Woodrow Wilson I wish our politicians in Washington would look seriously at the words above from Woodrow Wilson. They were spoken almost a century ago but are as true today as they were then. Synergy is a term I am somewhat fond of … Continue reading All Of Us…
I just read an article in the local paper where my congressman proudly announced that he voted to default on our nation’s debt this week. Of course living blue in a red State it was not in the least surprising. I am constantly voting against these yahoos who would rather the country default than to give up a small piece of their “principles”. What a … Continue reading He Voted Nay……
These last few weeks in Washington have been very frustrating to me and I’m sure to you too. The complete breakdown of compromise and trust is not something that should happen to any nation’s capital. Because of the apparent hate that is in our nation’s capital I truly fear for our future as a country. Seeing all this malarkey often makes me want to just … Continue reading Dropping Out…..
But one of the most notable additions to the 35-page bill was a $2.1 billion increase in funding for a dam under construction on the Kentucky-Illinois border, which just happens to be the home turf of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). It has raised the alarm bells of conservatives, who have long complained about Republicans who spend heavily on their home states. One group, the Senate … Continue reading Earmarks…..
One of my favorite FaceBook pages is a group called “Living Blue in a Red State”. Having lived in Indiana most of my life I can so relate to that theme. I don’t know if you have noticed this but for as long as I can remember when the network news starts on presidential election night they always start with “We are ready to call … Continue reading Living Blue In A Red State….
I have been having a feeling lately that we, like much of the rest of the world, are dividing ourselves into smaller and smaller factions. We just can’t seem to agree on any common bonds anymore. Everything is “us” vs “them”. Look at Africa. If you look at a world map of 50 years ago you would not see hardly any of the current States … Continue reading I Have A Feeling….
Swagger (verb ) 1. to walk with a lofty proud gait, often in an attempt to impress others ⤻syn: tittup, ruffle, prance, strut, sashay, cock 2. discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner; intimidate ⤻syn: browbeat, bully 3. act in an arrogant, overly self-assured, or conceited manner ⤻syn: bluster, swash I must admit that the word swagger has never been one of my favorite words. It just has too many negative connotations for me. For those of us old enough to remember the first person that comes to mind when they hear this word is John Wayne. I’m sure he was a nice enough … Continue reading Swagger….
A recent poll by the Massachusetts Medical Society, a statewide physician group, finds that most people in Massachusetts today are generally satisfied with the health care system there. “Eighty-four percent of residents expressed satisfaction with the care they received over the last year, including 56 percent who indicated they are ‘very satisfied’ and 28 percent who are ‘somewhat satisfied,’” the survey report states. Seventy-three percent of … Continue reading They Might Just Like It…..
A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible. — Woodrow Wilson This sounds an awfully like the Tea Party but in reality it was another small group of Republicans who tried to do the same thing. They failed and hopefully this current batch of wing-nuts will too. Continue reading A Little Group of Willful Men….
I admit I have only been keeping half an eye open of all this garbage going on with the shut-down and default threats made by the Republicans in congress. One thing I have been watching is to see if there is any compassion being shown by any of those folks there from the GOP and quite frankly I have found almost nothing there that resembles … Continue reading Compassion And The GOP….
RJ's Corner 