I guess it is officially Spring now as all the country yard flowers and in full bloom. Now I know all you city slickers out there call my flowers as shown here weeds but you got to get over that idea. 😉 God just didn’t intend that only one variety of his creation was to appear on your front yard. But I do have to … Continue reading Not Your City Slicker Lawn…
Come gather ’round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’ Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes … Continue reading The Times They Are A Changing….
We are a generation that is able to pick and choose the best ideas and aspects from many different groups and systems and embrace them in our own lives and thinking. And this has never been a possibility for any other generation in the history of humankind. This does make us a generally skeptical generation. We don’t just drink the Kool Aid. That doesn’t mean … Continue reading Millennials: Anti-Social, Selfish, & Afraid?
We have made of Christianity a complicated, contradictory amalgamation of fear, fantasy, patriotism, self-justification and self-congratulations that would baffle anyone who knew the dusty Galilean founder. We can’t decide (or agree) if ‘being a Christian’ is something we do or have or believe. Most of us can’t even explain or define it to ourselves. But most of us do have the certainty that our religion … Continue reading Being A Christian…
“I guess our country holds the record for dumbness. The Pope spoke to the world this morning in three languages and we didn’t understand a one of ’em. But the minute he finished and the local stations got back to selling corn salve and pyorrhea tooth paste we were right up our intellectual alley again.” – Will Rogers, 15 May 1931 Continue reading Our Dumbness….
“As a result of [Supreme Court] rulings, the Second Amendment, which was adopted to protect the states from federal interference with their power to ensure that their militias were ‘well regulated,’ has given federal judges the ultimate power to determine the validity of state regulations of both civilian and militia-related uses of arms. That anomalous result can be avoided by adding five words to the … Continue reading It Seems Obvious To Me…..
Home-grown bullies More than half of Americans believe incivility in our society is on the rise and expected to worsen in coming years, according to Weber Shandwick’s 2011 annual survey on incivility. The climate of unbridled rudeness is evident in politics, pop culture, music, media, big business, work, schools, and now, the internet – just about all aspects of our culture. And incivility breeds bullies. … Continue reading Anatomy of a bully
The silencer buying frenzy is the second wave of gun-related purchases in the last two years. After the Newtown massacre, gun owners feared that a weapons ban would be enacted and rushed to buy assault rifles. Now that last year’s push for universal background checks has failed, gun owners have a lot of guns on their hands, and are outfitting them with gadgets including silencers, … Continue reading Gun Silencers Are Suddenly Selling Like Hot Cakes…
Republican proposals, such as cutting food stamps and assuming the guilt of minorities and the mentally ill who are in jail, appeal to the rich, he said. “Those kind of things just exalt the higher class, which is the whites, and they draw a subtle, but very effective racial line throughout the South,” Carter said. SOURCE: Jimmy Carter: Southern White Men Turn To The GOP … Continue reading Along Racial Lines….
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sense of belonging to the middle class occupies a cherished place in America. It conjures images of self-sufficient people with stable jobs and pleasant homes working toward prosperity. Yet nearly five years after the Great Recession ended, more people are coming to the painful realization that they’re no longer part of it. They are former professionals now stocking shelves at grocery … Continue reading More Americans see middle class status slipping
“America is just like an insane asylum. There is not a soul in it will admit they are crazy.” – Will Rogers, 28 April 1935 This has got to be one of the best and maybe most accurate post by Will. We sure do have a lot of crazies in this country. Thank heavens I am not one of them. 😉 Continue reading Not A Soul Will Admit….
Here are five tech products we predict will go the way of the dodo in the next half-decade. SOURCE: 5 Tech Products That Will Be Dead in 5 Years | TIME.com. It is amazing how quickly things, especially electronic things, change in today’s world. I can remember all the fury about moving to digital transmissions for television signals. There were many opponents to it when … Continue reading 5 Tech Products That Will Be Dead in 5 Years
Let’s all try to do what He commands…. Continue reading Happy Easter….
“Well we get pretty excited over politics, and pretty soon it’s all over, and we settle down to cussing the guy we just elected. It just seems like we can’t get a man that can take care of all of us after he gets in office. There just ain’t enough favors to go round. – Will Rogers, 15 July 1934 Continue reading Not Enough Favors To Go Around…
It’s known as one of the most exclusive places on earth, the home of the rich and spectacularly rich. Orange County, Calif.’s, reputation only grew when the TV crews started rolling in several years ago. But “The Real Housewives of Orange County” and the teens of “Laguna Beach” failed to mention a major piece of the O.C. drama. The county is also among the top … Continue reading A Tale of Two Cities….
“I have grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution, including the speech-and-debate clause,” Feinstein said. “Besides the constitutional implications, the CIA search may also have violated the Fourth Amendment, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” as well as an Executive Order barring the CIA from conducting domestic surveillance, she said. SOURCE: Top Lawmaker … Continue reading CIA of Illegally Snooping on Senate…
Legislation signed by Gov. Mike Pence makes Indiana the first state to step back from the standards that establish proficiency targets in math and reading….. But the national education standards have been the focus of vocal criticism from conservative grassroots groups, who believe Common Core amounts to a government takeover of education. Critics have said Indiana’s new standards are strikingly similar to the Common Core … Continue reading A National Strategy For Education……
I try to follow my hero’s advice and like everyone but this is one of those times that proves difficult to do that. Balancing the budget on the backs of the poor is a very spiteful way to even try to accomplish that task. Continue reading The Lack Of Integrity…..
I used to think that the phrase “leaving well enough alone” was a wise one but I am just not too sure of that anymore. It could mean that I just don’t want to change or maybe I don’t want to chance losing something for the benefit of others. Leaving well enough alone was often the phrase used to continue with segregation in the 1960s. … Continue reading Leaving Well Enough Alone…
We all know that yelling “FIRE!!” in a theater is against the law and can cause a lot of harm. We are told even as children not to do that sort of thing. Another area of this type are those that try to incite a riot by prodding and encouraging violence. That one isn’t quite as well published as the first. The school yard bully … Continue reading To Incite A Riot….
If there is anything we resent God for more, it is being outside of our understanding. We want God to be a like an omnipotent train conductor; completely in control but completely predictable. This is why one of the most glaringly obvious aspects of God’s relationship to us goes unnoticed, untaught, and often contradicted. We want to think God is completely consistent, and that everyone … Continue reading What If God is Pragmatic?
“The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.” – Will Rogers, 7 April 1930 That and very uninformed, some might say ignorant, voters…. Continue reading Short Memories…
“Hunt out and talk about the good that is in the other fellow’s church, not the bad, and you will do away with all this religious hatred you hear so much nowadays.” – Will Rogers, 11 March 1923 This quote hit home with me especially after my recent post about Pope Francis and the poor. There was one sad creature who tried multiple times to … Continue reading Hunt Out The Good…..
Tesla’s campaign to sell its electric cars directly to consumers shifted into high gear this week as state lawmakers debated Tesla-related bills while powerful auto lobbyists braced for a fight. In New York, a measure designed to ban Tesla from opening new stores passed a key hurdle, while in Arizona, lawmakers pushed a bill to make it easier for Tesla to sell its cars without … Continue reading Direct From The Manufacturer….
Thank heavens that he couldn’t find a gun….. Continue reading Thank Heavens…..
After spending $43 million on residential renovations, German bishop Monsignor Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst was suspended. On Wednesday, Pope Francis accepted the bishop’s resignation…. Francis has called on his priests and bishops to be models of sobriety in a church that “is poor and is for the poor.” SOURCE: Why Pope Francis accepted the ‘Bishop of Bling’ resignation – CSMonitor.com. I continue to be amazed by … Continue reading "A Church That Is Poor"…
This is the third and final post on this mini-serious, or maybe not even that, on getting older. The first post was about my depression when I compared my aging life with some of the other bloggers that I read. The second one was about the reality TV shows called “Porter Ridge” and “Duck Dynasty”. This one will close the door on those two seemingly … Continue reading Bottom Of The Barrel….
It might not seem like it but this is a continuation of my story about the joys of getting old. 🙂 I have to admit that I live in the same county in Indiana that the folks of “Porter Ridge” do. Here is how Variety describes that TV show: Gurney Productions, the shingle behind A&E’s hit series “Duck Dynasty,” has lined up redneck fare at … Continue reading Reality TV???
Following up on the “Pity Party” post of Friday, this is the first of a series of three posts that will have some reality but also some tongue-in-cheek stuff so don’t get too concerned that I am ready to bite a bullet or anything like that. 🙂 Now that Spring is here I hope I will soon be coming out of my usual winter doldrums. … Continue reading The Pity Party (continued)…
Here’s one person’s attempt to summarize the Gospel in a single sentence. It’s by Bruxy Cavey, the teaching pastor at The Meeting House. He says “The Gospel is the good news that God comes to us through Jesus to show us his love, save us from sin, set up his kingdom and shut down religion.” Just thirty words, but I think he does a great … Continue reading The Gospel In Thirty Words…
“Plans get you into things but you got to work your way out.” – Will Rogers, 25 June 1931 For me “getting into things” is the most difficult part of a new project. Writing a post for this blog starts out with an idea or quote and then progresses from there. So I don’t take Will’s quote here as getting into trouble as many probably … Continue reading Getting Into Things….
Early biographers, informed by Lincoln’s former Springfield law partner William Herndon, wrote first takes of the president that would be unrecognizable to the heroic image that Americans know today from books like Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and Daniel Day-Lewis’ Oscar-winning performance. And the public made Josiah Holland’s Life of Lincoln, which erroneously portrayed the president who was gunned down on Good Friday as … Continue reading About Our Heroes…
I’ve seen the light go out in people’s eyes when they decide it’s safer to embrace a doctrine or a policy that their gut tells them is wrong than it is to challenge those who say it’s right. I’ve watched open minds close and tender hearts harden. I’ve seen people pretend to believe things they don’t actually believe and do things they don’t actually want … Continue reading Conformity….
All of us have all been through some traumatic times in our lives. Some of us much more than others. It could be a health event, maybe a divorce, or a death of a friend or family member. One outcome that is almost assured from these events is a pity party. That is we question “why us?” or maybe “why did God do this to … Continue reading The Pity Party…
RJ's Corner 