In my mind taking personal responsibility is a big part of the bedrock of what makes the U.S. a success story among the nations of the world. We encourage, some would even demand, that each of us take personal responsibility for our well being and especially for our future needs. The graphic to the right pretty well sums up the benefits and obstacles associated with … Continue reading Taking Personal Responsibility…
But if you believe that every human being is made in the image of God — imago dei; if you believe that every individual person represented in economic statistics is a child of God; if you believe that in nearly all religious traditions, loving your neighbor as you love yourself follows directly after loving God; and if you believe, regardless of your conception of God, … Continue reading Inequality as a Religious Test
I recently discovered that the Indiana Historical Society of which I am a member is in the process of digitizing their photo library. Here is one of the celebration at the Memorial Circle in Indianapolis at the end of World War 1. Click on the picture to see a larger view…. Continue reading Indiana History…
There is nothing wrong with myth, as it is an ingrained part of a cultural and religious traditions. Here is a little about mythology from Wikipedia: As a collection of such stories, mythology is a vital feature of every culture. Various origins for myths have been proposed, ranging from personification of nature, personification of natural phenomena to truthful or hyperbolic accounts of historical events, to … Continue reading There Is Nothing Wrong With Myth….
One of my friends who is also a camera buff sent me some photos of antique cars on a Brown County street. I kind of antiqued this one and it now resides on my desktop. Thanks Max….. Click on the pic if you want to see a larger version…. Continue reading Old Time Brown County
I don’t know which GOP rally the picture to the right was from but I know it was from one of them. This guy is seen to represent the supposed base of the GOP. (Why do all those guys holding signs like this one look the same?) They seem to be deathly afraid of someone, anyone, getting something they don’t deserve. In that regard they … Continue reading About Those Refugees…
I have been digging pretty deeply into my photo archives lately and ran across this Maui Sunset taken in April 1986 while I was on my honeymoon. Continue reading Maui Sunset
Malcolm Turnbull has vowed to set aside ideology and be “thoroughly pragmatic” in power as he urges business leaders move on from their past concerns about the dysfunction in Australian politics…. “I want to say to you tonight, emphatically, that the business of government is to get things done. “Australians expect their elected representatives to deliver practical, commonsense policy to improve economic security and the … Continue reading A Pragmatic Government….
I embrace change, it is what keeps life interesting and challenging for me. To that end I am adding yet another subcategory to RJsCorner. It is called “Streaks Of Inspiration” and is found under the”About Life” category header above. I am approaching almost 3,000 posts here. Most are about my observations of daily life around this planet earth. But then there are some where an … Continue reading Streaks Of Inspiration…
Religion today seems more about interfaith competition than “love your neighbor”. It seems to be “love your neighbor as long as he is a Lutheran/Baptist/etc. Spiritual but not Religious The above words (I failed to capture the source) and the graphic are perhaps the primary reasons I now claim to be “spiritual but not religious”. I just see too much politics and interfaith competition … Continue reading About Religion…
With my new macro lens in hand I am finding the artistry of nature almost everywhere I look… Yeah, I still got a lot of these works of art in my yard. 🙂 Continue reading Artistry of Nature…
I don’t know how many of you are like me but I just don’t buy into the latest gourmet trends of chefs stacking all my food on top of each other on my plate. It tends to taint the meal before I even start eating. I end up spend minutes getting the mashed potatoes out of my asparagus and the entrée cleaned off before I … Continue reading Deserving Its Own Real Estate…
There is the sentiment that we can let the victims and families know we’re sorry for their loss, but those words fall on grieving, frightened and mostly, deaf ears. I am sorry about the loss of human life anywhere, but saying it to the internet has all the veracity of signing an office sympathy card, accompanied by those trite phrases we use, so that we … Continue reading Listening….
I know the title above might be confusing to you right now but let me explain. If only we would follow the principle of Occum’s razor and understand that most often the simplest answer is the best answer. But instead we make things more complicated than they need to be. We just can’t seem to help ourselves. This phenomenon came to the forefront for me … Continue reading Pragmatism & Drugs in Prisons…
Here we go again! America is running true to form, fixing some other country’s business for ’em just as we always do. We mean well, but will wind up in the wrong as usual… Will Rogers June 22, 1931 I seem to have been ignoring one of my heroes of late. It seems that my op-ed posts are taking over RJsCorner. I gotta do something … Continue reading Here We Go Again… Even Eighty Years Later…
It has been a while since I brought up a new category here at RJ’sCorner. After seeing so many people stuck in one mode of thinking I have come to passionately embrace the concept of pragmatism. Let’s look at its definition: I like to think of myself as being a pragmatist. All my life I have looked for solutions instead of alliances. I try to … Continue reading I Love Pragmatists
History backs-up the scientific evidence that secular people are more moral, as reviewed by Israeli psychologist Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi. Most white supporters of the US Civil Rights Movement were non-religious, for example, while the apartheid regime in South Africa was led by devout Christians and opposed by atheists. But the view that non-religious individuals are morally dubious is deeply embedded in American society. Atheists and agnostics … Continue reading Religion Makes Children More Selfish…
Pragmatism Needed Here Continue reading About Those Second Amendment Rights…
One of the things that we first-world countries have basically wrong in my opinion is that we must be a consumer driven society. Everyone buying and consuming more and more each year is the bedrock of our economic system, especially here in the U.S. Over my seven decades on this earth I have accumulated literally tons of stuff that I really didn’t need or actually, … Continue reading Mount Trashmore… A Consumer Driven Society..
Carson insists no other candidate has received the level of scrutiny that he has. Asked on NBC whether he is getting more than President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, Carson replied: “Not like this. Not even close.”Scrutiny of his past is par for any major candidate for president, not only Carson. Obama’s citizenship was questioned and he later released a birth certificate showing … Continue reading I’m Being Picked On….
That is the moral-ideological core of conservatism today. It presumes that life is a competition or race, that people are unequal in talent, drive, and ambition, and that those who end up on top deserve their victory and rewards — and those who come out on the bottom deserve their failure and hardships. Any attempt to overturn or even mitigate this moral order — whether … Continue reading They Deserve Their Failure….
One of the things that I learned the hard way during my years of retirement is that you don’t have to be busy all the time. I just couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around the idea of just having “down” time where I literally did nothing. No work, no thinking to any degree; just sitting alone with myself. The Quakers call this “centering down”, … Continue reading You Don’t Have To Be Busy All The Time….
DO YOU THINK WE RUN THE RISK OF “TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT” WHERE MACHINES TAKE ALL OF OUR JOBS? HAWKING: The outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence… and the Second Industrial Revolution
This Sunday I want to flesh out a little more of what God means to me personally. Theologians throughout the centuries have molded God into a being mainly of their own making. If they can do it so can I, at least for my own purposes. As I have said in the last two Sunday posts I see God as primarily the keeper of life. … Continue reading Life Flow …
This is a picture of the inside of one of the cabins at O’Bannon State Park in Indiana that I visited early this year. It showed that a family on the frontier often lived in a 200 square foot or small house. Today it seems most of us think that is too small for even a bathroom. 🙂 I love the hand hewn logs and … Continue reading Settler’s Cabin…
Gov. Jerry Brown acted Saturday to increase participation in California elections and help prevent shootings at colleges, approving automatic voter registration and banning concealed weapons on campuses. Source: Jerry Brown OKs automatic voter registration through DMV – LA Times California has always been kind of “out there” for me but they do things that need to be done much before most other States. Where most … Continue reading Automatic voter registration through DMV
Press secretary Josh Earnest called Ryan’s claim that he cannot trust the president on the issue “ironic,” given he helped write bipartisan immigration reform legislation in 2013 only to stand with House GOP leaders in Congress who refused to take up a bill. “The president has proven himself untrustworthy on this issue, because he tried to unilaterally rewrite the law himself. Presidents don’t write laws. … Continue reading “Untrustworthy” — Really???
Mr. Obama ordered flags at the White House on Friday to half-staff to honor the victims of the shooting. “When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to make mines safer,” he said on Thursday night as early reports of the dead and injured in Oregon reached the White House. “When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer. When roads … Continue reading Stuff Happens….
From a Facebook friend. I don’t know how much all the supposed supporters really know about this guy. Continue reading WingNut Sighting….
This being election day I thought I would throw in a little political banter for those who think for themselves… I thought it was noble that one of the conditions that Paul Ryan put down for accepting the Speaker job was he demanded that he be able to set aside time to be with his family. Family time is important. But then there is his … Continue reading What’s Good For Me Is….
I know I shouldn’t nominate myself for the best of the best list but when I ran across this post from October 11, 2011 I couldn’t resist. It seems it is even more applicable today than it was four years ago. This excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article peaked my senses. It seems the rich, who we give massive tax breaks, are aware that … Continue reading Poor Little Rich Kids…
This is a continuation of last Sunday’s Post on God and Life. If you haven’t already read it you might want to do that now as this post won’t make much sense without that background. (God Is All About Life) In that post I put forth the proposition that God is life. With this post I will expand just what that means to me. I … Continue reading God, The River Of Life…
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