 For this Sunday’s post, I want to talk about the strict conformity many churches today demand of those who want to be members. It is not as simple as deciding to join but you must jump through all the hoops they tell you to before they will accept you. I’ve seen the light go out in people’s eyes when they decide it’s safer to embrace a … Continue reading Conformity..
I am pulling off a photo from your 2009 month long trip to the Pacific Ocean. I’m not sure just where this was taken but I suspect it was in Colorado. It is very different from what I am used to. Continue reading Go West, Young Man
Even though I am not going to do any new resolutions this year other than to just survive I wanted to give you some high-level predictions on what I see for the coming year. For the most part, I am trying to be as optimistic as I can in the coming year. Given our current political circumstances that will prove a difficult task. In the coming … Continue reading The Year Ahead..
Yeah, I know there is quite a bit of anxiety out there about driverless cars but I am not one of those. I hope before I die I am able to buy one. Ford Motor has set a goal of producing a self-driving car with no steering wheel and no pedals by 2021, allowing time to make sure such technology can be managed safely. Source: Trying … Continue reading The Anxiety of Driverless Cars
One of my regular blog reads is Satisfying Retirement from Bob Lowry. Bob’s blog is much more popular than mine and as a result of him mentioning RJsCorner in his blog list, I get quite a few referrals from it. Some of his readers who visit RJsCorner might be interested in how very different people can become friends. Over the years we have become pretty good … Continue reading Satisfying Retirement and RJsCorner
I have decided to spend this last week of the year totally ignoring our dark political times. Here is the first installment. One of the things I remember most about my grandpa, besides him being a pig farmer, was that he would start each meal by cutting everything into small pieces and then mixing it all together! No matter what was on his plate it … Continue reading Grandpa Would Be Proud..
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Everyone Who Happens to Visit RJsCorner. Continue reading Happy Holidays
I just took this picture from my kitchen window. It looks like it will be a “White Christmas” here in the Midwest. Continue reading White Christmas
I am a person who loves symmetry. I don’t know why but it draws my attention whenever I come across it.  This picture for artsy Saturday is of a staircase at a Des Moines museum taken in 2010. Continue reading I Love Symmetry
The title of this post is from the quoted article below from my friends at the New York Times. I like the analogy of the GOP falling down the rabbit hole and continually going deeper and deeper. Now it’s clear that middle ground doesn’t exist. That’s because Donald Trump never stops asking. First, he asked the party to swallow the idea of a narcissistic sexual … Continue reading The G.O.P. Is Rotting
 I want to start this post off by saying I think there are some good parts to the current tax bill that is now the law of the land. I have always thought that we should quit taxing corporations and instead put the full tax on the shareholders/owners of the corporation. At least they got the first part right, putting the bill on the shareholders … Continue reading Tax Reform??
I have run across some interesting articles lately about what makes a good writer. Some of the characteristics come naturally to me, some I need to learn. But one thing I know after nine years and 3,000+ posts here on RJsCorner my secret is in the editing is as much or maybe more important than the first inspirational thoughts that start each post off on … Continue reading The Difference Between Good Writers and Bad Writers
I had been in South Bend Indiana a couple of times in the past few years before I realized that it was the home of Studebaker car manufacturing. So, I thought it was worth another trip to that city. It was the last trip I took for the 2017 season. While Studebaker was never considered a mainstream car it was a well made and totally … Continue reading On-The-Road – Studebaker Museum
It’s become quite clear that really bad people get more attention than decent people. Liars get more attention than truth-tellers. Conspiracy theories get more likes than reasoned arguments. It’s clear that short tweets are more convincing with some people than logical and balanced discussions. It’s also clear that people are getting lazy and think that a democracy is a never-ending state. That could be a … Continue reading Latching On To False Beliefs..
 The Old Testament has always been a struggle for me. I find far too many places where God’s wrath is brutally shown. This is in such a total contrast with Jesus Christ I know in the New Testament. It is almost like the good cop/bad cop scenarios that play out so much on the TV cop shows. I tend to refer to it as the … Continue reading Contemplating the All Powerful God and the All Loving God…
For this artsy Saturday, I want to give you a photo from this past Fall. It is basically looking from my front porch. Even after seventeen years here I still appreciate the Fall colors, but maybe not so much the leaves that have to be later raked. 🙂 Continue reading Fall At The Homestead
This is going to be one of my Aspie themed posts or so I image but it also could be my almost total lack of exposure to women in my early years. Six of one, half dozen of the other I imagine. Simply stated I don’t like eye-candy. Some of you might not know just what eye-candy is so I will explain it here. Eye-candy … Continue reading I Don’t Like Eye Candy..
The title of this post comes from something I recently heard on GPS with Fareed Zakaria. The topic was how the Internet puts things out there with no clear distinction between truth and untruth. If you have the wisdom to discern the difference then the info you gain from instant communications is invaluable to you. If you don’t then it is difficult to decide just … Continue reading The Truth And The Untruth Lay On The Same Level.
Socialized medicine seems to be dirty words for many of my RedAmerica friends. To them, it and communism are one and the same thing. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Since there seems to be nothing in this world that isn’t a simple black or white to them, I’m not sure they will ever accept any other definition but that doesn’t stop me from … Continue reading The Thing About Socialism..
We went to Disney World in the Spring of 2016 for our 30th wedding anniversary. At least for me, it was a very memorable experience. My wife took the idea that Disney World was for kids and was therefore determined to not have a good time. Unfortunately, for the most part, she accomplished that. But that is another story I guess. We spent five days … Continue reading Circle Of Life…
There is just something about Maine that makes them different. Maybe it is the fact that there are basically no roads on the northwestern part of the State. Maybe it is the fact that they are really more Canadian than American? I don’t understand how we stole that land from Canada in the first place? I have been in Maine a couple of time in … Continue reading Something About Maine…
Some say that all religions are the result of mankind asking “Why are we here?” Everyone eventually comes to that question and various answers have resulted in what we now call “religion”. I have let it be freely known here that I am a follower of Jesus Christ but don’t call myself a Christian anymore, and particularly not an Evangelical! That word has been totally destroyed … Continue reading Why Are We Here? We Are Here Because…
For this artsy Saturday, I have chosen to highlight one of the paperweights from the Bergstrom Museum in Neenah Wisconsin. I have grown quite enamored with glass paperweights in the last few years. I now have six in my collection. But none as fancy as the one in this picture. I have no idea how they go about creating such a beautiful thing. Continue reading Paperweights
The article below got me to thinking a little more deeply about our time in the USA and if we can survive them as a democracy. Tribalism is how we as humans survived to become the thinking creatures we are. It is at the core of our human experience. Tribalism, it’s always worth remembering, is not one aspect of human experience. It’s the default human … Continue reading Tribalism & Democracy..
With this post, I am going to try to add more on-the-road trip reports here to RJsCorner. I thought this would be a good project for the 2017-18 winter months. The subject of this post is Ft. William in Thunderbay Ontario Canada which is on the north side of Lake Superior. It is in my top five historic sites I have ever visited. Here is … Continue reading On The Road – Ft William, Thunderbay Canada
I’m pretty sure most of my viewers are older folks who might remember the song written by one of my folk song heroes Pete Seegar in the late 1950s. Much of the lyrics came directly from Ecclesiastes and goes something like this: To everything (turn, turn, turn) There is a season (turn, turn, turn) And a time to every purpose, under heaven A time to be … Continue reading Turn, Turn, Turn
One of the goals of RJsCorner it to maybe teach the younger generations some lessons so they don’t have to make the same mistakes I did. If maybe one of my over 3,000 posts has helped one person in that regard then all my efforts here were worth it. With that in mind, I am going to start a series here on some of the … Continue reading Life Lesson # 102.. Don’t Work for Assholes
I have certainly had some fun visiting the rendezvous in the last few years. They are becoming my favorite venue for my micro-RV trips. With temperatures in the 60s today and much of November, it doesn’t feel like winter (thank goodness) but I am still in the mode of looking back with my picture portfolio. So, I have gathers some pics to celebrate rendezvous. Someday, … Continue reading Rendezvous…
I find myself often complaining when Christian organizations don’t come right out and say that currently labeled “Evangelicals” have kidnapped the true meaning of their religion and have replaced it with their own political version. I search out where someone is speaking out on this topic and here is one of them.  You might want to read the whole article if this is of interest … Continue reading Over 300 Christian Theologians Challenge The Corruption Of U.S. Christianity
For this artsy Saturday, I want to talk about jellyfish. Thank heavens I have never run across any them in the wild as I hear their sting is pretty nasty. The only place I have seen them is in city aquariums. The ones shown here were in the aquarium on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. The is just something almost magical about them. Continue reading Jelly Fish
I’ve been pretty busy lately redoing my study. It needs a refresh after 17 years I think. I may miss a few posts here and there and some may seem kinda rushed. So, pardon me if you will, .. or won’t… At this point, we can only hope and pray that enough Republicans vote on their principles rather than taking small measures offered to them in this monstrous … Continue reading A Special Tax Cut For Beer Makers??
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