I grabbed this picture off one of my friends Facebook pages. It made me LOL. ;) I am somewhat new to Crocs, that is the shoes shown above. I just personally discovered them for myself this year. They are very practical for around the homestead in the warm weather months. I like to take strolls through my kingdom in the early morning after I have browsed the Internet and maybe penned a few posts for my blogs. When I do that there seems to be an ever present dew that thoroughly soaks my shoes. With crocs that is not … Continue reading What A Croc….

I recently got another copy of the book “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman. This one had a thorough description of the history around the book.  It is interesting to see that Whitman continued to edit the poems contained in the book throughout his lifetime. Here is a little about that from my friends at Wikipedia: Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by the American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Though the first edition was published in 1855, Whitman spent his entire life writing and re-writing Leaves of Grass, revising it in several editions until his death. This resulted in … Continue reading Leaves of Grass…

Now that I have had two posts here about mandating morality it’s probably time to address this general issue. I’m sure that after reading these posts some people question whether I believe there is any moral foundation. They are calling me a moral relativist. A recent article in The Week news site very much characterizes where I stand on this issue. Lets read some quotes from that post.  Click on the source to see the whole thing. Haidt lays out six distinct moral foundations. 1. Care the desire to help those in need and avoid inflicting harm 2. Liberty the … Continue reading Who are you calling a moral relativist?

Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.  Fanatics will never learn that, though it is written in letters of gold across the sky. It is prohibition that makes things precious.  Mark Twain   I have recently come across several sources of what I consider mandating morality. That is trying to force your version of morality on others. Our personal view of morality can come from one person, usually a parent or other authority figure, telling us what we are to believe about this or that. It can come form one group who think they have it right and others need … Continue reading Mandating Morality Part 1- Prohibition

If the old guard on the partisan Christian right envisions itself to be crumbling, there’s nothing more apt than a forceful restatement of terms, preferably with a fresh face. But if it’s crumbling, it’s because the foundations are weak, and illustrating that inadvertently isn’t going to make its last gasps any more graceful. Far from being the death knell for the American Christian left, Vicari’s book might be little more than a signal that this is the Christian left’s moment to rise. SOURCE: Christian conservatives have a terrifying new bogeyman: The Christian leftist – The Week. Another interesting article from … Continue reading Christian Conservatives’ Bogeyman….

To maybe entice you over to my pictorial blog site I am pulling another post from there for this Saturday’s picture day. Click on the mosaic map to the right to see some more entries… A nip is definitely in the air here in Indiana so that takes my thoughts to Pumpkins. Halloween is the first event related to pumpkins but since that is a pagan holiday I don’t celebrate that one :)  so that leaves Thanksgiving. I can’t imagine a Thanksgiving meal with a healthy slice of pumpkin pie. Pumpkins are very American. They were grown by native Americans … Continue reading An Ode To Pumpkins

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and one of the country’s leading health care experts, says by age 75 he would opt out of medical treatments in order to not prolong his life in favor of letting nature take its course. Emmanuel joins Judy Woodruff to discuss his provocative essay published in The Atlantic, “Why I Hope to Die at 75.”…. So, as we age, as we get older, we are actually going to become healthier, that the falling apart, the disabilities, the dementia, they’re going to become ever smaller parts of life. And that was a very, very compelling theory, … Continue reading A doctor’s argument against living longer

Drug and medical-device companies paid at least $3.5 billion to U.S. physicians and teaching hospitals during the final five months of last year, according to the most comprehensive accounting so far of the financial ties that some critics say have compromised medical care…. Some doctors have earned tens of thousands of dollars annually from drug companies by flying to various cities to give paid speeches, while some surgeons have received even larger amounts from medical-device makers, partly from royalties on products they helped develop…. One former Senate staffer who was closely involved in the effort to pass the Sunshine Act … Continue reading Doctors net billions from drug firms….

I was going through some of my past scans and ran across this one recently. It was from 2012 but I didn’t keep the source info. I can only assume it has some validity but just looking at is now tells me a lot about our American healthcare system. Before I get started here I want to let you know about a basic fallacy of Obamacare at least as I see it. Too many people make the complaint that Obamacare has not brought down the cost of healthcare. If I remember right that was not the purpose of the ACA. … Continue reading Wasting Healthcare Dollars….

I have always had a fascination for burning bushes so I have four of them in my yard.  And it is that time of year for them to “burn”. Continue reading That Burning Ring Of Fire….

Thirteen years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, this was supposed to be a season of relief, with Iraq managing on its own and most U.S. troops finally ending their combat duty in Afghanistan. Instead, Americans are bracing for another upsurge of military engagement in a region where one war blurs into another. Across the world, a generation has now grown up amid this continuous conflict, and there’s no end in sight. AP SOURCE:  No end in sight for America’s Mideast war duties. I hadn’t really thought about it much as 13 years seems a small part of my life … Continue reading No end in sight for America’s Mideast war duties

Yeah. So it is true that rich people can spend more money than middle class people, but there’s this upper limit on what we can spend. I drive a very nice car, but it’s only one car. I don’t own a thousand, even though I earn a thousand times the median wage. I have a few jackets, not a few thousand. My family can afford to go out to eat more than most American families, but not more than three times a day. We can’t go out 3,000 times a day. So if you concentrate wealth in the hands of … Continue reading Buying a Thousand Pillows…

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear. –Thomas Jefferson’s Letter, 10 Aug. 1787 I am going to combine my usual Sunday post on things inspiring/spiritual with my usual Thursday quotes. Thomas Jefferson, like most of the founding fathers was a Deist. That is he believed in a God who was in control of the universe but not so much into our daily lives. His quote above is very contrary to many religious communities today. Questioning the existence of God … Continue reading Check Your Intelligence At The Door…

We have a few very old maple trees on our property. The one shown here is pretty well hollowed out and that is where our cat Dexter likes to spend time. He climbs trees like a professional. This hole is about 15 feet off the ground which is no problem for him. Several times a year someone will stop and give us a quote to take down the tree but I always so “its time has not come yet”. I am old and not so pretty anymore but I don’t want someone to “take me down” so I treat this … Continue reading Home Away From Home…