I get a daily email from Sojourners.net containing a verse from the Christian Bible as well as a corresponding quote from someone in today’s world. Here is one I got recently:   “My father . . . used to say, ‘I need my anger. It obliges me to take action.’ I think my father was partly right. Anger arises, naturally, to signal disturbing situations that might require action. But actions initiated in anger perpetuate suffering. The most effective actions are those conceived in the wisdom of clarity.” – Sylvia Boorstein From what I can find I think that Sylvia Boorstein is … Continue reading My Anger Obliges Me to Take Action…

I ran across an old saying the other day that goes something like this Your first wife is just practice for the real thing Being that I am now over 65 and have been married to my first wife for more than twenty-five years I don’t much buy into that logic but it did get me to thinking about things being “just practice”. What if this life is just a practice for the next one which would be the “real thing”? I know to many that thought is kind of absurd but it does get some of us thinking.  Are … Continue reading Just Practice

Ten men in our country could buy the World, and ten million can’t buy enough to eat. -August 16, 1931  Will Rogers Sometimes it is almost eerie to see the similarities between the depth of the Great Depression and today.  The last time we were not able to break the grip of our aristocracy’s absolute control of wealth. Maybe we will this time around? After all they do say practice makes perfect. Or at least get them to paying their fair share. Let’s not put all the burden on their secretaries to pay the higher percentage of taxes. But what … Continue reading Getting Enough to Eat….

The Republicans are constantly harping about how ineffective it is to have businesses run by political processes. In most cases I agree with them in that regard. Just look at the many military contractors and their infamous $10,000 toilet seats to see an example of that.  Every person in congress has his hand out when it comes to our bloated military budgets. Things run by political processes is kind of like making decisions by a committee and we all saw how the congressional super committee was at that. One of those cases  of running a business as a political process is … Continue reading Putting the Political Process into Business Decisions….

  I am going to take a break from the Bible book of James to bring over a post from one of my now inactive blogs at RedLetterLiving.net . It is about another one of my heroes. This list has proven to be a cornerstone on my beliefs of non-violence and man’s humanity. I know that Gandhi was not a Christian but many of his actions were certainly Christian in nature and principle. I found  the picture shown here under a pile on my desk. I wish it had remained on top but that was not  to be the case. … Continue reading The Seven Deadly Sins (Ghandi version)

Source: QR codes 101: What those squiggles do – CSMonitor.com. You have seen those splotching things everywhere now days but what do they do? First of all they are called Quick Response codes or QR for short and they do many many things. Just scan one with your smart phone and it will among other things bring up a website download a coupon that can be immediately used tell you  more about the product you are viewing (probably more than any sales clerk you might be able to find) In order to be able to read a QR code you must … Continue reading What those squiggles do…

The official bird for Indiana is the Cardinal and we certainly have a lot of them around my homestead. Here is another picture of them visiting our feeder. We go through about 100 pounds of seed a month but well worth the price of seeing our feathered friends, especially in the winter months Continue reading Our Feathered Friends….

source:  Obama Strikes Populist Chord With Speech in Heartland – NYTimes.com. Mr. Roosevelt called the conflict between “the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess” central to progress. The men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess I know this isn’t exactly a campaign slogan but it is close enough. For those who know your history the “Mr. Roosevelt” was Theodore Roosevelt and the statement was made when he was fighting for the common man against the Robber Barons … Continue reading Another Campaign Slogan…

Here I am about a month into my revived Mac experience and one thing that is obviously different is that I no longer get the “Virus Update Available” message anymore! With the PC this was usually a twice a week experience. I most often stopped whatever I was doing when the screen popped up telling me to download the latest protection. After all even though I performed regular backups I didn’t want to put all my files at risk of being stolen or wiped out by the ever present viruses around the Windows system. I now go days at a … Continue reading "Virus Update Available…"

Success: Senate Supports Quicker Afghanistan Withdrawal Good news! For the first time, the Senate has approved legislation calling for an end to the U.S. war in Afghanistan and your support was a big factor in this success. Last week, the Senate added the amendment, offered by Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley (OR) and Republican Senator Mike Lee (UT), to the military authorization bill. The near-unanimous approval of this amendment shows the significant and growing dissatisfaction with the war in Congress and the power of your action. I got this from an email from the FCNL a few days ago. It seems like the … Continue reading Some Good News on the War Front…

This is one of the first pictures I took waking up aboard a cruise ship in Alaskan waters in 2006. Continue reading First Sights..

I have always been a techie. I paid almost a month’s salary for my first computer in the early 1980s and never turned back since then.  Over the years I have gotten some heat from others about being a nerd, even before the word was invented.  But I think my techie mentality has served me well over the years and it definitely has given me something to do in my senior years. I see others my age making statement like “I don’t understand (some say use) any of that computer stuff”. Of course almost every child born in the last … Continue reading Techie Lessons…

If you are a regular reader of this blog you already know that I recently returned to the Apple fold by replacing my old PC with a new MacBookAir. This has been a very enjoyable experience for me. It seems that Apple has chosen to do several things differently than Microsoft. One of those things that I perhaps appreciate the most is in the Apple Safari browser.  It seems that Apple has had a go around with Adobe and does not include many of their add-ins in its browser. For those of you who don’t know it is the Adobe … Continue reading No More Flashing Ads……

I recently came across the commencement address Steve Jobs gave at Stanford in June 2005. It was quite inspiring in its content, even for a guy like me who is on the down hill slide rather than starting up the mountain as the Stanford graduates were.  About a year before this event Steve was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer and given three to six months to live. Most of us know that he actually lived another seven years. Here are some inspiring words from that address: Don’t get trapped by dogma – which is living the results of other people’s thinking. … Continue reading Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish….

We are always yapping about the “Old days” and how we look back and enjoy it, but I tell you there is a lot of huey to it. There is a whole lot of all our past lives that was not so hot. -September 2, 1934 Will Rogers Why is it that once we become senior citizens so many of us lament about the “good old days”? Yes, I remember some good times in the past but as Will says much of my past life was not so hot. I remember as a youth when my grandparents made the same … Continue reading The Good Old Days….