For this artsy Saturday, I want to give you one of my favorite facades. I would love to hear the history of this building. I found the building a few miles north of Iroquois Illinois during my first uRV trip of 2018.. (Click on the pic to see a larger view) Continue reading The Stories It Could Tell…
No, I am not talking about the BYOB type parties but instead, this post is about the current political parties that have our government functions gridlocked. The extremism of both parties is leaving a gawking hole in the middle of our political landscape. The Republican party is now dominated by those who fear just about everything and just want to batten down the hatches and … Continue reading Let The Fringes Have the Parties…
It seems there are many people who always want more and more. Of course, that is basically the foundation for our economic system here in the US. Given the fact that our population has plateaued in recent decades, each of us buying more is the only way for our GDP to constantly increase year over year especially now that our government is doing everything they … Continue reading More Is Not Always Better.
I think its time to pull one of the header quotes from Will for this post. “Do the best you can and don’t take life too serious.” I discovered this quote several years ago and practicing it has helped me cope with daily life. I don’t think I am unusual in taking my personal life too seriously. If we were to concentrate on what our … Continue reading Don’t Take Life Too Serious…
I heard the quote in the title above on an IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) segment of the PBS Newshour. It was basically linked to another quote that is pretty common in the art world, “Separate the Art from the Artist”. The first thing that came to my mind was Bill Cosby. Looking at his various TV series it is hard to even imagine that … Continue reading Bad People Can Make Beautiful Things.
I see where the Supreme Court chose to kick the can down the road instead of finally addressing the issue of gerrymandering. The very basic foundation in our country is “one person/one vote”. It’s bad enough with the electoral college that the sparsely populated “Red State” folks in the middle of the country have almost twice my voting power. Gerrymandering plain and simple is an … Continue reading Kicking The Can…
I just decided to play hooky today. Too many summer chores that need to be done and too little time to do both blogging and them. 🙂 Continue reading Playing Hooky
For this artsy Saturday, I want to give you a picture I took this week at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. This was my fourth trip there but the last time was over 30 years ago so a lot has changed. More on that in a near future post. Continue reading WienerMobile..
I have said here many times that #CO3 is driven totally by his self-image. Being an extreme narcissist everything simply has to be about him. Keeping that in mind read below what Politico says about some of his latest insanities. President Donald Trump reliably tells the truth on one thing: He likes the way dictators do business. “He speaks, and his people sit up at … Continue reading Infatuation With Dictators??
“You are not alone” is one of my Ten Pillars of life. The thought is that no matter what adversities you face, there is always someone who has had them before you and they can help you learn how to cope. Asking for help is a hard thing to do for many of us. We just don’t want to admit to ourselves that we sometimes … Continue reading The Cutting Room Floor
There have been quite a few negative comments about Christianity here on RJsCorner and many of them were from me. I want to make it clear with this post that I lament what has become of Christianity not what it is at its core. When Jesus was asked what it the most important thing about being one of his followers he gave us two commands: Love … Continue reading At Its Core…
I was watching a PBS Newshour segment of “Shields and Brooks” a while back and the title above was used to describe David Brooks by his cohort. That is one of the things I most admire about David Brooks. He tries to find things to be optimistic about in every story he discusses. Another is that he is a “True” conservative and doesn’t have much … Continue reading An Incurable Optimist
In Will’s days checking your phone meant going into the parlor to see if it was ringing or maybe if someone else on the party line was using it. Phones were pretty valuable in those days and they didn’t cost $800 like many do today, especially since $800 was pretty much what a successful fellow made a year in Will’s time. But, I guess I … Continue reading Checking Those Phones…
It is sad to see that suicide is on the rise in the US. A couple of prominent people have brought it to the forefront. As noted below a part of the problem is the lack of proper healthcare here in America. It is hard to believe that over 45,000 people committed suicide last year alone. The stigma of mental illness causes too many to … Continue reading Rising US suicide rates…
For this artsy Saturday, I want to give you a picture looking out the dining room window of the Giant City Lodge State Park in southern Illinois. The park is not big and “Giant City” is nowhere to be found but it reminds me of Yellow Stone and other national park lodges. The CCC statues there is to honor all those who built the lodge … Continue reading Giant City Lodge
It’s been a few days since I visited a Will Rogers quote, so I spent hours going through my archives looking for just the right one to say what I currently feel. Well, actually, it took about one minute before I found one that grabbed me. But, spending hours just seemed more dramatical. I am not so much lately but for most of my life, … Continue reading Three Kinds Of Men…
When I was a member of an Evangelical church the most often phrase I heard when its members couldn’t reconcile something recently happened with their beliefs in the bible was that “God works in mysterious ways, we just have to trust Him”. I always thought that was more of a cop-out than an explanation of the situation. But that is not the topic of this … Continue reading Works In Mysterious Ways…
This post is primarily about the book “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,” by Jon Meacham. He tries to offer historical context and a sense of proportion for our current times. While I have not yet read the book, it is on my Kindle now, I have seen enough reviews to maybe entice you to take it up yourself. It is … Continue reading Troubles In The Past
No, I’m not going to have a countdown of my top ten list but I did just establish a new set of categories entitled “My 10 Pillars” in the header menu here at RJsCorner to reflect the new direction I recently took for this blog. They are not in rank order as each is just as important to me as the other. In the past, many … Continue reading The Top Ten…
In Will Rogers’ day during the Great Depression soup kitchens were where millions got their daily meal if they got one at all. I know a thing or two about soup kitchens as I volunteered in one for over eleven years. It was a very rewarding and eye-opening time for me I am not a “meat & potatoes” guy, but $1,000 for dinner seems pretty excessive. I guess if … Continue reading $1,000 Dinner!
For as long as I can remember California has been at the forefront of every significant social change. All change in this country just seems to seep into the west coast and then dredge across the country until eventually, all those Northeasterners have adopted it. The Southerners seem to always be the holdouts until they finally are forced into it. Here are some words from … Continue reading (WS) As Goes California…
I know, there are probably several of you out there who might not agree that the photo below is beautiful. But, for a guy who made plastic models like this one in his youth, seeing the real thing in my old age is beautiful indeed. So, for this artsy Saturday, I give you the American Hotrod. Continue reading The Orange Beast
“Congress is deadlocked and can’t act.” I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this country. -Will Rogers (Weekly Article #59, January 27, 1924) I just can’t understand how the leadership of the Republican party can blame the Democrats for not getting anything done this year. Come on Mitch, you guys control everything and still can’t accomplish the daily chores necessary to keep … Continue reading Tit For Tat…
Fear is what drives far too many of us in the US right now. The majority of the most fearful live in the less populated rural areas of the country. You only need to look at the red/blue map to see that reality. Here are some causes as I see it of this inordinate fear: For many of these folks fear is due to just … Continue reading Being Afraid of Minorities… Why??
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment – Will Rogers It’s time I put out a post on the new quote in the header above. I think experience and wisdom often go hand in hand and as Will says learning from mistakes is a big part of it. I personally think I can remember more details of the … Continue reading Good Judgment
I have to give Mark Twain credit for the quote in the title above. Something happened recently to make this quote “How did I get inside this old body” jump in front of me. In my youth, when I visited my grandmother the thing I noticed first was the line of pill bottles that were on her dresser. She seemed to always be taking her … Continue reading How did I get inside this old body
This post is about a recent report on the PBS Newshour about Senator John McCain. I want to start off with a heartfelt belief that, unlike some of my viewers, I believe many and probably most of our representatives in Congress are well-meaning and compassionate people who are trying to do their best. John McCain is certainly near the top of that group. Yeah, they … Continue reading We Are More Alike Than Different
I have pretty much given up on the hope that those who are part of the Radical Right/Fear tribe will ever really understand my view of the world or that I will understand theirs. All we seem to be able to do lately is to scream at each other across the red/blue abyss that separates us. Is that a fruitful way to spend the rest … Continue reading (WS) I Don’t Need The Annoyance Anymore…
For this artsy Saturday, I want to give you a simplistic display of textures and colors. They were found in Madison Indiana a few years ago. Continue reading Feast of Textures & Colors
I read a statistic the other day that almost half the folks under forty say their primary news source is Facebook? That totally astounded me. Yes, Facebook is a nice tool to keep up with family and friends, and even some not-so-friends but a primary news source? But maybe I am old-school when it comes to where I get my news. I want my news to … Continue reading Getting Your News From Facebook?
RJ's Corner 