One of my neighbors is just an old-school type of guy. He continues to burn off the leaves around his house instead of composting them or using some other more environmentally friendly method of disposing them. In many ways he continues to hang on to the ways of the past. He is radically conservative anti-Obama in a very Red State so he fits quite nicely … Continue reading Old School….
On the Senate floor Tuesday, Elizabeth Warren argued for the need to strengthen Social Security benefits, now that cuts to the program seem more likely. “With tens of millions of people more financially stressed as they approach retirement, with more and more people left out of the private retirement security system, and with the economic security of our families unraveling, Social Security is rapidly becoming the … Continue reading Run Elizabeth, Run….
This came in a calendar from my new friends over at Union for Concerned Scientists. I just gave them a donation.. Continue reading It’s Called Science……
Be forewarned that in this post I am attempting in some meager way to come to the defense of the Republican party that I seem to rail against so frequently. It is a mistake to link the current right-wing ideologues to the conservative movement or even the Republican party in general. They are not the same. The core of the Tea Party is libertarian in … Continue reading Right Wing Ideologues And The Republican Party….
I think Teddy Roosevelt was probably my second all-time favorite Republican. Of course Lincoln was number one. If only Mr. Bush had followed in his fellow Republican’s footsteps one hundred years later instead of going to the opposite extreme. Thank you President Roosevelt for taking the bully pulpit as a trust buster for the common good of the people. Continue reading Teddy Roosevelt…
I often wonder just what has caused the gridlock that has dominated our national politics of the last few years. Is the cause all those wing nuts that are now holding down seats in our congress? I want to believe that if we could just get rid of those guys everything might return to normal, whatever that is. But are those yahoos the cause or … Continue reading The Symptom Or The Cause????
In a country discouraged by last month’s health care rollout and corresponding widespread problems, Erin Kotecki Vest and her family are rejoicing. Obamacare will save them almost $19,000 each year. “When the president says no family should lose their home because someone got sick, no family should go bankrupt because somebody got sick, that is us. That is absolutely us.” SOURCE: Obamacare to save family $18,900 … Continue reading Obamacare, What Is Seldom Heard….
I have been in a philosophical mode lately and one of the things on my mind is the fact that in at least the last twenty years or so we just can’t seem to be able to learn from others mistakes. We seem to be locked in a mode of doing the same stupid thing over and over again. Too bad we don’t have a … Continue reading Making The Same Mistakes Over And Over Again….
I admit that I find the gospel of partnering with God for the healing of the world much, much harder than the gospel of God loves you and wants to give you a ticket to heaven. It’s harder emotionally, physically, financially, socially and culturally. It’s tiring. Without the Holy Spirit, without worship, without community I’d give up and go back to that old gospel. It … Continue reading The ‘Other Gospel’ was easier
Since the First Century, if not before, the choice of people of faith has been between empire approved institutions or the individual or tiny group quest for peace, justice and personal, if not cultural, transformation. Could any of us even begin to imagine how different European (and world) history would have been if, instead of massive armed hordes of Crusaders, Christianity had been represented on … Continue reading Christianity, Empire, and a USS Mother Teresa?
The snapshot above was from a Time Magazine article about the 25 best inventions for 2013. Many of the inventions they noted were pretty frivolous in nature but not this one. Of course we all should have expected that our current drone program is only the beginning. There are trillions of dollars more to be made by our military industrial complex before drones have run … Continue reading A World Gone Mad???
Many pastors fear that if they were honest with their congregations about their doubts they would be fired, and the sad fact is: They probably would be. Not fired for some moral indiscretion mind you. But fired for being honest, fired for taking a stand of integrity. Those in the pews are no different. I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve gotten from people … Continue reading The Greatest Heresy…
War Crimes and Misdemeanors HEY PRESIDENT OBAMA: The Nobel Peace Prize committee is calling. They want their medal back. The coveted award, which many felt was premature, at best, when bestowed during the president’s first year in office, was seriously tarnished in the eyes of many by his escalation of the war in Afghanistan and other military endeavors. But Obama’s role in waging drone warfare—particularly … Continue reading No Flesh In The Game……
“No man can be condemned for owning a dog. In fact you admire him, ’cause as long he’s got a dog he’s got a friend, and the poorer he gets the better friend he has.” – Will Rogers, 8 May 1927 Wouldn’t it be nice if, in some ways, we were more like our canine friends. They don’t judge us on how much money we … Continue reading Man’s Best Friend…
Legislators in Mexico City, the largest city in North America, are preparing to push through certain measures that would decriminalize and regulate the consumption of marijuana in the Mexican capital, a move that may speed pot legalization elsewhere in the continent SOURCE: North America’s Largest City Moves to Legalize Pot | TIME.com. I want to warn you up front that this post has no deep … Continue reading Legalizing Pot….
REENSBORO, N.C. Police say one person has been shot at North Carolina A&T State University, prompting a brief campus lockdown. Greensboro Police Department said in a statement Saturday night that “one or more” suspects were firing guns near McCain Hall on campus when one of the rounds struck 21-year-old Divine Eatman. SOURCE: 1 shot at North Carolina A&T State University – CBS News. Lockdown is a … Continue reading Lockdown……
They say it’s the little things that matter. All the little moments that make up our day to day lives. We never seem to appreciate them, nor do we seem to acknowledge the long and impossible road behind us. We rarely stare in the rear view mirror to see what we’ve accomplished so far. We rarely enjoy the ride. We want to get to the … Continue reading Day to day lives….
When the votes are tallied in Virginia’s race for governor on Tuesday, over 300,000 citizens will be missing from the voting rolls – including 20% of the state’s black population. The reason is not low turnout or voter ID, but a growing and often invisible barrier to voting that is upending elections around the country. Over 5 million Americans are barred from voting because they … Continue reading Ex-felons face barriers to voting rights
Evangelism is a term very similar to “Jihad” in terms of public relations. It is a term cherished by those of us “inside” Christianity, but despised by those on the outside. Christians may think “spreading the Gospel,” but to others it means “socially awkward situations where you pressure me to accept YOUR beliefs.” Some on the progressive side of Christianity have suggested we should just … Continue reading Is Evangelism A Dirty Word???
An apocryphal story is told of Fosdick meeting a young man for a walk in Central Park. “I’m jealous of your faith,” said the young man. “I’m afraid to ask questions, because I was raised in a faith that provided all the answers and to ask questions was to show unfaithfulness.” Coming upon a reflecting pool, Fosdick mused, “Son, your faith is like this pool: … Continue reading Stagnation is Christianity’s Deadliest Enemy…
One of the things they tell you that you must learn when you become a soldier is to follow orders without any questions or doubts. It is not up to you to determine if what they order you to do is moral, right, wrong, or any other type of reasoning. That lesson is drummed into you during basic training and throughout your time in the … Continue reading I Would Make A Terrible Soldier….
Safety Android is the Wild West of phone operating systems. Stock devices largely come unprotected from attack. Sure, Google checks apps and viruses for malware on the Google Play store, but threats can come from anywhere – even via unsecured Wi-Fi locations. The phones are so vulnerable, in fact, that 32.8 million Android devices were infected with malware last year alone. SOURCE: 4 Reasons Why You Should … Continue reading Why You Should Pick Apple iOS over Android
From taking tighter control over the health insurance market themselves to pushing decisions and costs down to individuals, businesses are experimenting with a host of new ways to offer health-care coverage, spurred in part by the launch of the Affordable Care Act, but also by the inexorable rise in the cost of medical care in the United States. The moves promise to change a social … Continue reading Of Course Its Coming…
I admit up front that for my generation It seems I am just weird. I am the first of the baby boomers and I am now officially a senior citizen. Being a senior citizen I am told by the media that: I must fear change when in fact I embrace it. I must fear the changing demographics when in fact I celebrate it. I must … Continue reading I Am Weird…..
I’m not sure where I first heard the phrase in the title but it rings true to me in both our international and our political processes. When someone makes a very crude attempt to make a shoe bomb we immediately make it front page news and then spend billions of dollars to guard against it. It seems that by talking about terrorism so much we … Continue reading Publicity Is The Oxygen Of Terrorism….
There is a lot of uproar lately about digital privacy. I am kind of on the fence about it. One the one hand I want our government to be able to track down those who would do harm to innocent people but on the other hand I don’t want the government to come after me because of some of the words on this blog or … Continue reading About Digital Privacy….
The automation of human labor is as old as the Industrial Revolution. From the steam engine and the cotton gin to the desktop computer and the robotic welder, machines have enabled leaps of efficiency that create far more jobs than they destroy. And yet many economists and technologists believe that things are different this time, that society is entering a new and troubling phase as … Continue reading Will Robots Take Our Jobs?
Many if not most of my conservative friends seem to base their political posture on fear. They are anti- anything that changes their version of the country. Their fear is so pervasive in their actions. But what do they fear the most??? That is probably a question that has a myriad of answers but let me give you my beliefs about it. The Tea Party … Continue reading What Does The Tea Party Fear The Most???
I come from a very Red State so I shouldn’t be surprised that so many of my high school classmates are radical rights. But that doesn’t ease the pain…. Continue reading Oh I Know The Feeling……
“Don’t romanticize charity, we can’t make up for these cuts,” Margarette Purvis, president and CEO of Food Bank For New York City, told MSNBC.com in September. “No one is more afraid of these cuts than charity, because we cannot cover it.” Negotiations began this week between the House and Senate on the 2013 Farm Bill as the two sides try to reconcile their differences, including … Continue reading Disregard for Humanity…..
One thing most New Testament scholars agree on—and they don’t agree on much—is that Jesus’s main aim was the kingdom of God—not some saccharine vision of a future in heaven, but a clear political statement about the here and now. From the Book: Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity (Felten, David;Procter-Murphy, Jeff) Continue reading Kingdom Of God…..
Now which is the narrowest, religious intolerance or political intolerance? – Will Rogers, 20 April 1927 That is a tough one Will. Even tougher is which does the most damage? Many have blamed, and rightly so in some regards, religious intolerance for most of humanities wars. But political intolerance has caused so much damage to society as to rival that. Which is the narrowest? … Continue reading Intolerance….
RJ's Corner 