Category: Having My Say

Having My Say8 Comments

Paul Ryan’s new Medicare plan…

RJ Walters

  Source: Paul Ran’s new Medicare plan could be tip of the iceberg (+video) – CSMonitor.com. A parallel factor is rising income. As a society grows richer, it tends to spend more of its income on health care. Add in demographics (an aging population) and a lack of competition among health-care providers in many markets, and you have a recipe for more people to consume more health-care services at higher prices. For once I am not going to comment on Mr. Ryan’s seemingly enthusiasm to balance his budget on the backs of the poor while asking for increases in our bloated … Continue reading Paul Ryan’s new Medicare plan…

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Putting Conditions On Accepting God’s Love…..

RJ Walters

I am going to jump off the series of posts about God’s grace for a quick aside. It amazes me how God can have agape love for us humans. He puts no conditions on his love and he loves each and every one of us. Knowing that God’s love for me is not dependent on me is reassuring indeed. It also amazes me how we Christians seem to put so many conditions on accepting that love! I was recently vegging out for a few minutes with TV and came across a series that documents a Hutterite community. I didn’t get … Continue reading Putting Conditions On Accepting God’s Love…..

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World War IV…..

RJ Walters

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -Albert Einstein When I came across this Einstein quote it almost made me shudder. Even though I have heard it before it struck me this time.  We are advancing technologically at an astounding pace in recent years.  Integrated circuits are in just about every device we now buy. Artificial intelligence is being used for so many things today.  Unfortunately because the Pentagon budgets take the biggest bite out of our discretionary spend technology is at the forefront … Continue reading World War IV…..

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The Republican Budget….

RJ Walters

  Source: Will Fractured House Republicans Unite on Budget? – ABC News. “When you’re looking at a budget, you’ve got a watch the gimmicks,” Ryan warned. Gimmicks indeed.  One of the tools Mr. Ryan proposes to balance his so-called budget plan is the total repeal of Obamacare.  Is he the only one to see that as impossible?   As usual he wants severe cuts to the safety net while actually increasing military spending.  Yes, Mr. Ryan I am “watching the gimmicks”.  Like the battles for Social Security eighty years ago the battle for even a limited version of universal healthcare were … Continue reading The Republican Budget….

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The Highest Incarceration Rate… Part 2

RJ Walters

Why does the U.S. have the biggest percentage of our population in prison?  When I first heard this it somewhat surprised me. I thought surely those countries led by dictators would be higher.  Given the reputation of the Gulags in Russia why are they not higher than us? I did a little digging and it seems the answer is really not clear. But there seems to be at least a few pointers that might be part of the cause: Drug Offenses Incarceration for drug offenses has increased 12-fold from 40,000 in 1981 to nearly 500,000 by 2010, accounting for two-thirds … Continue reading The Highest Incarceration Rate… Part 2

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The Best I Ever Saw….

RJ Walters

But always remember this, that as bad as we sometimes think our government is run, it’s the best run one I ever saw.” – Will Rogers, 18 December 1932  Sometimes the ever-present trollers who come across my blog have to scream and rant for me to just get out of the country if I hate it so much. To them if anyone has any criticism of the “Good Old USA” then somehow they are traitors to the country. But their rants often have the opposite effect on me.  They tell me that I got their attention with what I was … Continue reading The Best I Ever Saw….

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The Highest Incarceration Rate…

RJ Walters

We in the United States have the largest percentage of our population under lock and key than any other nation on earth. Why is that. That will be the topic of the next two posts.  This time we will look at it from a time standpoint and a geographical perspective. The next post will look at the make up of the prison population to see why they are there. Let me start off this post by letting you know that I have never used any kind of illegal drugs. I did go to college in the 1960s but only smelled … Continue reading The Highest Incarceration Rate…

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God’s Wrath….

RJ Walters

Many share my love for Jesus. We accepted him as Lord. We were baptized in his name. We became his disciples. We worshiped and adored him. Yet we’ve often divorced the words and actions of Jesus from the God he worshiped and adored. We’ve forgotten the very one Jesus came to reveal. Those of us raised in the Church have a good excuse for this confusion. It’s what we were taught. The church of my childhood often glorified Jesus at God’s expense. Jesus was Savior. God was judge and executioner. Jesus was closer than a brother. God was distant—remote at … Continue reading God’s Wrath….

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Rand Paul’s 13 Hour Filibuster….

RJ Walters

  Source: Rand Paul’s 13 Hour Filibuster – The Talking Kind – Against John Brennan – ABC News. “I rise today to begin to filibuster John Brennan’s nomination for the CIA, Paul said at about 11:47 a.m. ET. “I will speak until I can no longer speak. I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found … Continue reading Rand Paul’s 13 Hour Filibuster….

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I Think I Am Losing My Technology Edge…..

RJ Walters

I may no longer be an official techie (or whatever the latest term is). I haven’t bought a new “latest thing” in about 18 months. That is an eternity in the tech world!  I don’t know what has happened to me. I used to keep up on all the latest trends and often splurged for some of them. Maybe I have just finally found the stuff that makes me happy. Now that I am fully in the Apple camp (MacBook, iPad, iPhone) and now have a couple of versions of Kindle I have finally reached my tipping point of needing … Continue reading I Think I Am Losing My Technology Edge…..

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Our CEO Is Exceptional So…..

RJ Walters

How did we get into the problem of insane pay for U.S. corporation leaders? The problem basically originated from the title above. Every board of directors wants to pat themselves on the back for selecting that exception person who will lead their company to outperform all the others.  They need to do that so that they can somehow rationalize their board being paid thousands of dollars per hour for their time. So the statement is made: Our CEO is exceptional so we must guarantee him a paycheck in the top 20% of all CEOs. On the surface this is a … Continue reading Our CEO Is Exceptional So…..

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If Grace Is True…..

RJ Walters

I’ve never experienced a God of wrath. I’ve heard such a God preached. I’ve read of such a God. I’ve encountered wrathful people who claimed to be acting on God’s behalf. I’ve even allowed such sentiments to tarnish my view of God. Yet, in the midst of all these distortions, I never experienced a wrathful God. The God I’ve experienced is the God of Jesus—a God of unlimited patience, infinite love, and eternal faithfulness. Jesus described a God who waits long through the night, with the light lit and the door open, confident his most defiant child will one day … Continue reading If Grace Is True…..

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Latin America…..

RJ Walters

Here is a quick question for you. How did Central and South America get the name “Latin America”?? This popped off the top of my head while watching the news recently.  At first thought I came up with Latin was the language of the Roman Empire which was based in Italy. But I don’t remember any country in South America being founded by Italy. Here is what Wikipedia says about the origin of the term “Latin America”: In a more literal definition, which remains faithful to the original usage, Latin America designates all of those countries and territories in the … Continue reading Latin America…..