Category: Having My Say

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Declaring The Supreme Court Unconstitutional…

RJ Walters

There are those, too many in my mind, that are adamant in taking away affordable healthcare to 10 million of our citizens. Without offering any viable alternative they insist that those ten million go back into the uninsured pile whose only access to healthcare is an emergency room and a band-aid. It is widely acknowledged that when the ACA was written it was NOT the framers intent to give subsidies to some areas of the country and not others.  The Framers themselves have loudly come out with those facts. So why is this challenge even in front of the Supreme … Continue reading Declaring The Supreme Court Unconstitutional…

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A Snippet Here…. When You Put Yourself In The Center Of The News..

RJ Walters

If Fox New is famous for anything it is about putting themselves in the center of the news. It seems that this behavior is getting one of its stars Mr. O’Reilly in hot water recently. He is getting caught with too many personal embellishments lately. When Brian Williams did that recently he got a six-month non-paid vacation, but I’m sure Mr. O’Reilly won’t even get a slap on his wrist. After all if Fox News were to put him on forced hiatus they would probably have to do the same with almost their entire staff. But that is not the saddest … Continue reading A Snippet Here…. When You Put Yourself In The Center Of The News..

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Why We Can't Yet Build True Artificial Intelligence…

RJ Walters

We’re still pretending that we’re inventing a brain when all we’ve come up with is a giant mash-up of real brains. We don’t yet understand how brains work, so we can’t build one. We bolded that last sentence because it pretty much explains the predicament for AI. Until we more fundamentally understand that which we’re trying to clone, everything else is an impressive attempt up Everest that never totally summits. This jibes with a sentiment that renowned author and cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter posed earlier this year. He calls current prominent pursuits in the artificial intelligence arena “vacuous” [IBM’s “Jeopardy!”-winning … Continue reading Why We Can't Yet Build True Artificial Intelligence…

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Fifty Years From Now…

RJ Walters

Recently someone requested that I be his new “friend” on Facebook. I’m not sure I even know him but I think he is a sibling of one of my high school classmates. One thing that Facebook is good at is to give you a long lists of  “friends of your friends” to entice to add more. I guess they get more revenue that way but I don’t know for sure.  Anyway I went ahead and accepted the request and within a day or two that person’s Facebook page appeared on my screen. The first post was him passing along someone else’s post. It … Continue reading Fifty Years From Now…

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We Are All Damaged Goods…

RJ Walters

In some way or another we are all damaged goods. Yes, we have been enhanced by some life experiences but we are also tainted by others. Whether we will personally admit it or not we all have dark sides. We all have things in our past that we would do differently if we had the chance. In other words we have all had experiences that affected how we look at life. Too many of my Christian brothers use this fact as a reason to do nothing. The clergy in their pulpits constantly remind them that they are nothing but miserable sinners and … Continue reading We Are All Damaged Goods…

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America Died From a Delusion…

RJ Walters

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. When some nation wants us to help ’em out, they use the same old “gag” that we should exert our “Moral Leadership: and, like a yap, we believe it when as a matter of truth, no nations wants any other nation exerting “Moral Leadership” over ’em, even if they had one. If we ever pass out as a great nation we ought to put on our … Continue reading America Died From a Delusion…

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Cracking Creativity – What If….

RJ Walters

Geniuses think productively, not reproductively. When confronted with a problem, they ask themselves how many different ways they can look the problem, how they can rethink it, and how many different ways they can solve it, instead of asking how they have been taught to solve it…. Leonardo da Vinci believed that to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you began by learning how to restructure it to see it in many different ways. He felt the first way he looked at a problem was too biased toward his usual way of seeing things. He would look at … Continue reading Cracking Creativity – What If….

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A Snippet Here….

RJ Walters

Just a quick snippet to add some info to this morning’s post. Why Bibi and Barack Can’t Get Along But the real challenge the two have faced is their different policies in the Middle East. Obama came to office reaching out to Iran and pushing for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Netanyahu opposed warming ties with the militantly anti-Israel theocrats in Tehran and refused in early meetings with Obama publicly to embrace the possibility of a Palestinian state. The outcome of their latest confrontation remains to be seen. Netanyahu faces a tough election this month and the White House’s increasingly public criticism may … Continue reading A Snippet Here….

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Snowbound…

RJ Walters

The pic above is of Merv (uRV). He is my truck of almost 25 years that I have been repurposing into a micro-RV for travels around the Midwest in the coming years in my own version of “Travels with Charley”.  I have spent two years turning what was once a delivery truck for my past furniture business into a quite comfortable 5×8 foot living quarters. This spring I will start with the exterior design which will include advertising this blog and the travelogue over at InSearchOfAmerica. In the mean time here sits uRV up to his wheels in the most recent … Continue reading Snowbound…