Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders. — Ronald Reagan April 28, 1966 If ever there was one quote that distinguishes the present difference between the two political parties in Washington this is probably it. Nothing else needs to be said…. Continue reading Vacation For Freeloaders….
“If we can just let other people alone and let them do their own fighting. When you get into trouble 5,000 miles away from home, you’ve got to have been looking for it” – Will Rogers, 9 February 1932 The world is a much smaller place now than it was in 1932 when Will spoke these words. The first multiple channel trans-Atlantic cable would not be laid for almost 25 years and communications satellites where also decades away. 1932 was just the beginning of our addiction to the automobile so it would be again decades before we became dependent on … Continue reading Let Them Do Their Own Fighting….
Sometimes I take a peak at the website I put up for the church I was once a member. I have been gone for three years now but nothing has changed on that site since I left. The pastor just doesn’t see the Internet as being valuable in reaching out to the community. But one thing that is updated is the text of his sermons are added each week. I glance at them from time to time just to get an idea of how the church is doing. One thing that has not changed in these eight years of the … Continue reading The Sit Back And Wait Syndrome….
I have stated often on the blog that I have spent much of my life asking myself “What do I want to do when I grow up?” It just seems that I never really found my own personal unique way to put my mark on the world. This question popped up yet again while I was sitting on my throne a while ago and suddenly the most obvious answer flooded my senses. I was meant to be an editor!! This calling should have been obvious to me before now. I can’t believe I have lived this long without fully realizing it. … Continue reading When I Grow Up….
You are what you do, not what you say… Continue reading Actions Speak….
Fine dining at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world can come at a price. But what you get for those high price tags (which can often be accompanied by sticker shock) are outstanding dining experiences that can take you to a castle in Switzerland or to an underwater culinary experience in the Maldives. From Japan to Europe to the Big Apple, luxe dining menus are often designed tasting courses paired with wines, which substantially adds to the consumer’s bottom line. SOURCE: 10 most expensive restaurants in the world. I guess there are people, especially the 1%er who don’t mind plunking down … Continue reading 10 most expensive restaurants in the world
Are you a builder of walls or windmills? Continue reading Winds Of Change….
I think I first happened upon the words paradigm shift sometime in the 1980s. Here are some of the words that Wikipedia use to describe it: The term “paradigm shift” has found uses in other contexts, representing the notion of a major change in a certain thought-pattern — a radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems or organizations, replacing the former way of thinking or organizing with a radically different way of thinking or organizing. Paradigm shift don’t happen very often in this world. In fact they are quite rare. Lets face it change is very hard for many of … Continue reading A Paradigm Shift…..
“Went down last night to a world’s championship wrestling match. Us movie actors are advised to go there by our producers so we can learn how to act. It was a fine show, everybody enjoyed it, but wrestling managements are overlooking an extra big revenue, for folks would pay even more to see them rehearse with each other before the match.” – Will Rogers, 25 July 1935 This quote brought back a very distant memory for me. I can recall with I was about ten years old watching my grandmother yelling at the very small TV screen in their living … Continue reading Rehearsing…
When St. Augustine wrote On the Trinity, he tried to work out a conundrum. He wanted to figure out how women could be the image of God. He finally solved the puzzle by writing that when a woman is alone, then she is not in the image of God. It is only when she is joined with a man, when she is one flesh with him, she can be considered the image of God. Of course, we cannot take our ideas of gender equality and try to compare them to a different time and culture. We shouldn’t judge Augustine by … Continue reading The Image of God….
The one thing these old boys with a big navy are scared of, and that’s submarines. They are always claiming they are inhuman and not a civilized mode of warfare. It would be rather interesting to see published the names of weapons that are considered a pleasure to be shot by. – Will Rogers, 30 April 1935 Of course submarines have been replaced by drones as being not civilized mode of warfare today. At least that is what those who have been shot by drones say. Will was just not much of a fan of our war machine. I … Continue reading A Pleasure To Be Shot By….
I have readily admitted here that I am no snob about television. My wife and I usually watch a couple of hours of our favorite programs nightly. That is just how I relax and let my brain cools down at the end of many days. We have a digital video recorder that records our favorite shows so we can watch them whenever we want. With the DVR I can speed through three minutes of commercials in about four seconds so I usually only get a very fleeting glimpse of all those advertisements. I have also recently discovered streaming video which is … Continue reading Viagra and the American Male…
Who Are We to Judge the Poor? Americans are horrible savers. On average, we save less than 5% of all our earned income. Despite this, we routinely think of the poor as people who deserve their lowly status. “They squander their money away on drugs, alcohol, and bad habits!” is a common excuse for not giving anything directly to the poor. The truth is, we probably aren’t that much better with our resources. While we complain about the habits of the homeless, we go to the movies, buy new clothes, watch Netflix, eat junk food, and squander our income. The … Continue reading Helping The Poor – Reason 3
I see where it was 50 years ago this week that President Johnson declared “war on poverty”. This resulted in many social justice issues being addressed. Among them were: Social Security Act 1965 (Created Medicare and Medicaid) – July 19, 1965 Food Stamp Act of 1964- August 31, 1964 The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 which created the Community Action Program, Job Corps and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), centerpiece of the “war on poverty” – August 20, 1964 Elementary and Secondary Education Act – April 11, 1965 By today’s standard, which are pretty low indeed, it was remarkable … Continue reading War On Poverty… Solved…
There are some folks who would say they are Christian, but they are looking less and less like Jesus. And there are some folks who would never claim to be Christian, yet their hearts and their passions are slowly moving closer and closer to Jesus’ heart. It’s up to God to sort all that out. Being more like Jesus is what we are trying to do as Red Letter Christians; it’s where we’re coming from, and where we’re going. SOURCE: Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said? (Claiborne, Shane;Campolo, Tony) Being a new year it is … Continue reading Reflections…
Things are finally starting to thaw out here in the Midwest. The temperature actually got into the 20s yesterday and is supposed to break freezing today. But there is still much ice to contend with. As a matter of fact we now have a new lawn ornament in our front yard as a result of the ice. Here is the story behind that. Our neighbor from across the road knows that ice and I are a treacherous combination so she usually get our mail for us during these conditions. She is seventy-six years old but refuses to admit it. She … Continue reading The Big Thaw….
Cooking is one of my passions. I have always enjoyed it since I started cooking for my dad, brother and me at the age of ten years. Mom decided to look for greener pastures, which she found, and left us on our own. I didn’t really know much about cooking so I learned as I went. Dad, growing up on a pig farm, knew how to make a pretty wicked pork chop and he learned how to make milk gravy on toast in the army during WWII. The soldiers called it “shit on the shingle” back then. (Like always I … Continue reading Its Own Real Estate….
The funny thing about Michael Galinsky’s photographs of malls, taken during a road trip across the U.S. in the winter of 1989, is not the feathered and hair-sprayed hair, the pleated and pegged jeans, the high-tops and acid wash, the puffy chests in too-small or over-sized tank tops. It’s not the whiff of Mrs. Field’s cookies, Orange Julius, and Chick-fil-A waffle fries. It’s not the fluorescent lights and pained efforts to bring the outdoors in: rubber plants, umbrellas hovering in food courts, faux snow fluffed, not falling, over Christmas scenes. That dusty, dim glow. The funny thing is, looking at … Continue reading Flashback to the Timeless Malls of the 1980s…
“No man has had a happier life than I have led; a happier life in every way.” -President Theodore Roosevelt On the 95th anniversary of your death, here is to you Teddy. You took on the 1% of your day and busted all the trusts that had taken over the country. You brought some sanity back to the capitalist system. If only we could clone you today…. Continue reading Here Is To You Teddy…
I seem to be fixated on a phrase “The idea of” lately. That is people liking the idea of something without really understanding the details involved. This phenomenon spans across a wide sector of our world. I have several ideas for post on this topic. The one I want to talk about this time is RVing. Rving, that is buying a recreational vehicle and setting off on the road for daily adventures. I must admit that this one has had me in its clutches for some time now. One of the first books I read as a young man was Travels With … Continue reading The Idea Of…. RVing
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This map shows just how far down this cold weather goes today. We are at -14 right now with a wind chill of -40! Our neighbors across the road power went down yesterday and it is still out but ours was OK, thank the Lord. They moved in with family in town. The lady next to them also lost power; she will be our guest for the next few days until sanity returns.. These are the rare times when it is dangerous for us senior citizens to be living in the countryside. I hope all my other neighbors are … Continue reading COLD!!!!!
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 