On Just About Everything
It’s become quite clear that really bad people get more attention than decent people. Liars get more attention than truth-tellers. Conspiracy theories get more likes than reasoned arguments. It’s clear that short tweets are more convincing with some people than … Continue reading Latching On To False Beliefs..
The Old Testament has always been a struggle for me. I find far too many places where God’s wrath is brutally shown. This is in such a total contrast with Jesus Christ I know in the New Testament. It is almost like the good cop/bad cop scenarios that play out so much on the TV cop shows. I tend to refer to it as the all-powerful God vs. the all loving God. Can the two really co-exist or did God basically change his management style between the Old Testament and the New Testament or you could say between the old … Continue reading Contemplating the All Powerful God and the All Loving God…
For this artsy Saturday, I want to give you a photo from this past Fall. It is basically looking from my front porch. Even after seventeen years here I still appreciate the Fall colors, but maybe not so much the leaves that have to be later raked. :) Continue reading Fall At The Homestead
This is going to be one of my Aspie themed posts or so I image but it also could be my almost total lack of exposure to women in my early years. Six of one, half dozen of the other … Continue reading I Don’t Like Eye Candy..
The title of this post comes from something I recently heard on GPS with Fareed Zakaria. The topic was how the Internet puts things out there with no clear distinction between truth and untruth. If you have the wisdom to discern the difference then the info you gain from instant communications is invaluable to you. If you don’t then it is difficult to decide just what to do with opposing information. The very heart of this topic lies in the question, how does a person gain wisdom? Besides putting truth and untruth on the same level, the Internet also makes … Continue reading The Truth And The Untruth Lay On The Same Level.
We went to Disney World in the Spring of 2016 for our 30th wedding anniversary. At least for me, it was a very memorable experience. My wife took the idea that Disney World was for kids and was therefore determined … Continue reading Circle Of Life…
For this artsy Saturday, I have chosen to highlight one of the paperweights from the Bergstrom Museum in Neenah Wisconsin. I have grown quite enamored with glass paperweights in the last few years. I now have six in my collection. But none as fancy as the one in this picture. I have no idea how they go about creating such a beautiful thing. Continue reading Paperweights
The article below got me to thinking a little more deeply about our time in the USA and if we can survive them as a democracy. Tribalism is how we as humans survived to become the thinking creatures we are. It is at the core of our human experience. Tribalism, it’s always worth remembering, is not one aspect of human experience. It’s the default human experience. It comes more naturally to us than any other way of life. For the overwhelming majority of our time on this planet, the tribe was the only form of human society. We lived for … Continue reading Tribalism & Democracy..
With this post, I am going to try to add more on-the-road trip reports here to RJsCorner. I thought this would be a good project for the 2017-18 winter months. The subject of this post is Ft. William in Thunderbay Ontario Canada which is on the north side of Lake Superior. It is in my top five historic sites I have ever visited. Here is a little background on Ft. William from Wikipedia: Fort William Historical Park is known as a living history site. Numerous historic buildings have been reconstructed to show the range of the post, and costumed historical interpreters recreate … Continue reading On The Road – Ft William, Thunderbay Canada
One of the goals of RJsCorner it to maybe teach the younger generations some lessons so they don’t have to make the same mistakes I did. If maybe one of my over 3,000 posts has helped one person in that regard then all my efforts here were worth it. With that in mind, I am going to start a series here on some of the life lessons I have learned in my seven decades on this earth. It would have been nice to have been forewarned about some of them but I really had no one to teach me these … Continue reading Life Lesson # 102.. Don’t Work for Assholes
I have certainly had some fun visiting the rendezvous in the last few years. They are becoming my favorite venue for my micro-RV trips. With temperatures in the 60s today and much of November, it doesn’t feel like winter (thank goodness) but I am still in the mode of looking back with my picture portfolio. So, I have gathers some pics to celebrate rendezvous. Someday, if I live long enough I just may try to join some of these folks. As usual, click on any pic to see a larger slideshow view: As you can see, my favorite flavor … Continue reading Rendezvous…
I find myself often complaining when Christian organizations don’t come right out and say that currently labeled “Evangelicals” have kidnapped the true meaning of their religion and have replaced it with their own political version. I search out where someone is speaking out on this topic and here is one of them. You might want to read the whole article if this is of interest to you: “Is Roy Moore a hill on which Evangelicals are prepared to die? As for me and my house, ‘Hell no, we won’t go,’” said Evangelical theologian Rev. Dr. Peter Heltzel, Associate Professor of … Continue reading Over 300 Christian Theologians Challenge The Corruption Of U.S. Christianity
For this artsy Saturday, I want to talk about jellyfish. Thank heavens I have never run across any them in the wild as I hear their sting is pretty nasty. The only place I have seen them is in city aquariums. The ones shown here were in the aquarium on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. The is just something almost magical about them. Continue reading Jelly Fish
I’ve been pretty busy lately redoing my study. It needs a refresh after 17 years I think. I may miss a few posts here and there and some may seem kinda rushed. So, pardon me if you will, .. or won’t… At this point, we can only hope and pray that enough Republicans vote on their principles rather than taking small measures offered to them in this monstrous 515-page tax bill. A BREAK FOR BOOZE: The Senate bill contains a special tax cut for makers of beer, wine and spirits, for no particular reason. (Perhaps it’s because these companies are doing their patriotic … Continue reading A Special Tax Cut For Beer Makers??
I have pretty much vowed off talking about the current occupant of the Oval Office but have to put this one out there as a snippet. I found this on my desk from the Nov 10 issue of “The Week” magazine Team Trump doesn’t seem very worried that proof of collusion will emerge said Timothy O’Brien of Bloomburg.com. But in the past, the president has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of properties to Russians and gone into business with Felix Sater of the Bayrock Group, a Soviet emigre with organized crime connections in Russia. Trump may well owe … Continue reading Russian Ties…
The words in the title above have been around for probably eons, but I kinda think they have been forgotten in today’s world. It seems that everyone wants everyone else to live their life as they do. Christians can’t tolerate non-Christians, Muslims think they need to kill anyone who doesn’t share their beliefs. And then there is the RedAmerica vs BlueAmerica, that divide is becoming too wide to even think of breaching. Live and let live seems to be a forgotten phrase today, but I kind of think it is the solution to most of our problems we face. Let … Continue reading Live and Let Live…
This is an extremely hot topic that I want to pursue delicately if I can. It just seems like the words “Sexual Harassment” has come to mean something quite different than I had imagined. Having had limited opposite-sex contact even in my youth, and my Aspie characteristics even then limited my experiences in this area. To be honest, whenever I had even a casual contact with a female in my young adult years it was most often an intimidating experience. Not for them but for me! I just didn’t know what to say or how to act. As far as I … Continue reading You Have My Permission To Kiss Me..
It used to be that your word was your reputation. If you break your word you suffer the consequences. But for the words in the title above, the majority of us break our word. Oh, we have all the intentions … Continue reading Till Death Do Us Part… Aspie Style..
For this artsy Saturday, I want to take simplicity to the edge. This is a picture of a floor in one of the sites I visited this summer uRV trips. I guess it is considered a parquet floor but I don’t think I have ever encountered one like it. Being a woodworking guy it just fascinated me. For those who don’t know what they are looking at, it is an end view of the 2×6 boards. Continue reading Taking “Simplicity” To The Edge
I wonder how many of you out there remember when a company’s employees were considered assets to be nourished and held on to? Relative to my years on this earth, it was not that long ago. I don’t know why but all of this stuff that I now consider bad, seemed to have happened during the Reagan years. I think that was the beginning of where we ended up today. It was the early 1980s when the “three-legged stool” was abandoned. This principle was that a successful business was made up of three equal legs: owners, employees, and customers. The second leg was … Continue reading Assets Or Liabilities?
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers. There is certainly a lot to be thankful for around RJsCorner. I hope you and yours have a peaceful day. Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving
I know no one likes rules but sometimes they are necessary to maintain a civil society. But then again the very idea of civility is being attacked by some in RedAmerica. They just don’t believe that civility is of any benefit to them and therefore it is deemed useless. I got a dose of this recently from a niece and her teenage daughter. She flat out said that being civil was not “her thing”. I know I am getting off track here so let’s shift back to the idea of rules in a civilized society. Civility has a pretty simple … Continue reading Rules, Rules, Rules…
Christ’s church has cycled from one level to another for almost its whole existence. I can only hope that the cycle turns positive in the coming years. If it doesn’t I can see the end of that institution. One of the bright periods of the Protestant version of the church occurred between 1890 -1930. It was known as the social gospel. Here is a little about that from my friends at Wikipedia: In the late 19th century, many Protestants were disgusted by the poverty level and the low quality of living in the slums. The social gospel movement provided a … Continue reading Social Gospel
For this Artsy Saturday post, I want to show you a cherished picture of some of my feathered friends. Redheaded woodpeckers are certainly a colorful part of that family. I wonder why nature gave them their colors. It probably has something to do with attracting the opposite sex. Even human women seem to go for flashy guys. Continue reading My Feathered Friends
I have been in the weeds so to speak with my posts here on RJsCorner so I thought I would put out a car post today. I want to move from the weeds of politics to the green pastures of vintage cars. I know this post title is going to get a lot of attention from my more macho car guy friends. I suspect that they are saying “yeah if I drove around in a pink Cadillac!!” But what I am really talking about is how many car guys fall for the latest trends even if they are totally impractical. … Continue reading Car Guys Are Like Women…
Don’t be fooled by all the GOP rhetoric about their proposed tax plan. Study its effect on you before jumping on board. And even more importantly look at what effect it will have on your children. Of course, we also have to understand that the GOP is primarily a party that gives the most to their rich donors. They are the ones who will primarily benefit from this current plan. Since the “trickle down” theory they have constantly used in the past has never come to actually happen why should we expect it to happen this time. Too much of … Continue reading Permanent Tax Cuts For The Rich, Temporary Cuts For The Rest Of Us..
The political news just gets raunchier and raunchier now that we have a “liar-in-chief” in the Oval Office. The president used to be an image that we could give our children for their inspirations. Now we need to shield them from the current occupant’s disrespectful rantings and constant lies. My tolerance for these intolerable defects continues to erode as each day passes. I used to be a hog for news. I watched multiple sources on a daily basis. Now, the only thing I can seem to stomach is the PBS Newshour and since it is recorded and watched the next … Continue reading It’s Hard Looking Beyond Self Preservation Nowadays..
I decided to let my creative juices flow a little more lately and attacked my blog header to make it a little more cheery. I know most of you guys probably don’t even notice the header but I don’t think you can avoid this one. :) There is enough in the world today that is simply awful dreary. We need to let the sun shine more in our lives. This is a meager attempt to do a little of that. The main themes for my blog are “Question Everything” and my “InSearchOfAmerica” project. I am adding another theme to that … Continue reading A Little More Cheery…
One of the current foundations of the Christianity is the atonement. Generally that is thought to be Jesus taking the wrath of God for us with his substitutional crucifixion in order to appease God wrath toward man’s sinfulness. I, like many others I’m sure, thought that atonement was a foundational issue with Jesus and the early church. In reality it was post-Constantine theologians who gave us the doctrine of original sin and the blood atonement, the belief that Jesus came to earth solely for the purpose of dying for our sins, was a doctrine not fully developed in the church … Continue reading About Atonement..
The tinsmiths of our early years were certainly a creative bunch. They fabricated many of the utensils we needed to live everyday life. Here are some pictures of one such shop found in the Nauvoo Village in northern Illinois. Continue reading Creativity In Tin.
My InSearchOfAmerica project takes me through literally thousands of small towns that once had a population a few hundred or less, and the vast majority of them are basically hollow shells of what they once were. We have to face … Continue reading Small Town America
I am an ultra-advocate to the rights and privileges of voting. If you don’t vote then you should have no say in what your representatives do in Washington. Sadly, we are one of the lowest participatory democracies in the world. Less than half of those eligible to vote in any election usually choose to do so. When that happens we allow a small minority to choose our elected officials. That is certainly what happened in 2016. An unlikely coalition of estranged fringe groups eerily chose our president. For the most part the uninformed masses coalesced into an unchallenged voting block. … Continue reading Your Vote Counts, But…
In Search Of America — My InSearchOfAmerica has taken me to Madison Indiana on several occasions. The most recent trip was in August of 2016 when I snapped the following gallery of pictures. With so many small towns that are dead or dying it is nice to see some flourishing. Madison Indiana is on the Ohio River and once gained its livelihood from barge traffic. As usual click on any picture to see a larger slideshow view I think I need to explain all the hog butts in one of these pictures. I got to town a couple of days … Continue reading Madison Indiana
It is important to take stock in all the good things we have had. But it is also worthwhile to recognize the opportunities we might have missed. In the past I have told many stories about how, after very humble beginnings, I have had a pretty privileged life. This post is about the things I might have missed. So, here is that story. The bible says something about not worrying about tomorrow or the past, but just live in today. Those always seemed like wise words to me but being I question everything they also sometimes seem like stifling words. … Continue reading Lost Dreams..
To get started, let’s look at how Wikipedia defines “a perfect storm”: A “perfect storm” is an expression that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically. I think the idea of a perfect storm is where we likely are in world events today. China is aching to take over as “the” world leader while at the same time the current US administration is shrinking into a protectionist mode and recklessly abandoning its responsibilities in that regard. We are headed for a perfect storm and much sooner than many might anticipate. Let’s look at … Continue reading China And The US.. A Perfect Storm..
I think I have let it be known that I view the Bible as a history book of the early period of Christianity. As such maybe it needs to be updated from time to time? New chapters need to be written and old ones modified to more accurately reflect information found. The Bible was put together about 400 years after the death of Jesus. It was primarily assembled under the oversight of a Roman Emperor who intended to use it as a guide for his kingdom. It contained several of the ancient documents found at the time but by no … Continue reading The Bible As A History Book..
In Search Of America — I am always on the lookout for group photos from the past. Looking at the individual faces helps me to remember that history is about people as well as events. It is hard to believe that so many were learning to work on cars as early as 1920. Of course the primary auto in those days was the Model T. This photo was found at the “American Pickers” garage in Le Claire Iowa during our recent visit there. Click on the picture and it will expand to a large view. Continue reading Auto School – 1920 Style
I see where President Chump is making an official visit to China next week. He will never admit it but I know he is kinda intimidated by President Xi Jinping so he is taking a bunch of people with him to … Continue reading President Chump Going To China
I have always admired Henry Clay for being a statesmen during some tumultuous times in America and was looking forward to visiting his home during my last micro-RV trip through Kentucky and Tennessee. I don’t like giving negative reports here on RJsCorner especially when it come to important historical site but this one deserves it. I got there at 1:05pm to tour the home and small grounds and was told I would have to wait an hour as they only gave 15 minute guided tours on the hour., I explained that I was deaf and wouldn’t get anything from … Continue reading Henry Clay Historic Site… Sigh…
Be forewarned that I am putting on my satirical hat for this post so don’t take it too serious even if it does ring of truth. The title of this post may shock some of my readers but that is what my Aspie side sometimes thinks when I sees some women. It just looks to me that too many 21st century women will go through whatever present and future pain is necessary to make themselves into what others expect. I know I have this maybe abnormal fixation on this topic but for the life of me I can’t understand why … Continue reading Why are so many women low esteem masochists?
Being an engineer I consider myself a scientist and I can tell you first-hand that I felt very much attacked whenever I brought up science in my weekly bible classes. In that church the word “scientist” and “liberal” seemed to have an equally negative bias and I was both! I could never understand why so many were threatened when I asked questions based on scientific knowledge. If I did that it seemed I was immediately labeled a heretic. I found out my feeling were by no means unique. Here are some words about that from a book called Saving Jesus … Continue reading Science Is Not The Enemy Of The Church..
For this “arsty” Saturday I thought I would put out some pictures of some of the pets that have been in my life. My wife of 32 years is the epitome of a animal lover. She would rather run into … Continue reading Pets
Often times in my life I feel like I am going in circles. The same things seems to always crop up to mess things up. I didn’t get married until I was forty so I had my share of dates. But on second thought I really didn’t. I knew I was not very good at it so I didn’t even attempt that often. Except for a very few occasions I just never could get past the second date. With those kinds of experiences in life I knew I was different from many around me. I would also later learn that … Continue reading Writing is Recursive
I thought for this mid-week post I would again visit the Museum of the Appalachia. This time I want to concentrate on Asa Jackson and his perpetual motion machine. It looks like Asa spent many hours working on his … Continue reading Perpetual Motion..
One of the axioms of writing is that it should make people uncomfortable. If it doesn’t then you are not stretching the horizons of those reading your words. Even before I heard this it was in my heart. One of the foundations of RJsCorner is that I try to get people to think outside their boxes to other possibilities. I am constantly looking for ways to stretch my horizons and I think everyone else should do the same. Being stuck in place is one of the primary causes of where we are today. Why do I think that maybe I … Continue reading Writers Should Make People Uncomfortable..
