This is probably not a good post for a U.S. national holiday but here goes anyway. Fools rush in where…. A few hundred years ago, which is a very short amount of time in world history, we were part of the Great British empire. We bowed to the king and paid our share of taxes. Then some hot heads came along and convinced us that we would be better off on our own.  They, like many Californians today, just didn’t like the idea of paying taxes and found every excuse to avoid doing that. Long story short here we are … Continue reading Maybe We Got It Wrong…

“In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down his leg, a sword in his hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is the guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.” – Mark Driscoll Being that I am now a big fan of streaming video I get advertisements such as the picture above on a regular basis. When I first looked at the picture the resemblance between the person in the picture and the traditional western depiction of Jesus slammed me. … Continue reading I Cannot Worship a Guy I Can Beat Up

  County fairs, especially those in rural areas are usually the highlight of the year. Here are some pictures of the one in my county. A little something for everyone.   Continue reading County Fair

One of the surest ways to get smarter is to surround yourself with those who are more intelligent than you and to insist on regularly stretching yourself beyond your comfort zone. If you’re just too smart for your current gig, that’s just not going to happen SOURCE: 3 Signs You’re Too Smart for Your Job – Yahoo Small Business Advisor. Another way of saying the above is that if you are not stimulated by what you do for a living then you should be looking elsewhere. But of course in our current economy where so many people are underemployed being … Continue reading 3 Signs You’re Too Smart for Your Job

Problem: Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about “Obama spending” and “Obama deficits” and how the “stimulus” just made things worse…. SOURCE: Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law Updated | Dave Johnson. In the old days, that is the time before I gave up on all the cable news channels I used to get a weekly dose of Fox News.  As they say keep your friends close and your enemies closer. It was anything but news…… That’s all I want, or need, to say about this topic. It is too toxic … Continue reading Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law

Just what we don’t need in this country, another ultra extreme right wing narcissist vying for a leadership position. Continue reading A Snippet Here, A Snippet There…

1: Mississippi. The poorest state in the U.S. Also the one whose corruption most approaches levels in a Third World country.SOURCE:  Gallery: America’s most corrupt states. When they talk about corruption in this article they are talking about corruption of public officials and that is generally from taking bribes. As shown above Mississippi comes in as number one in this category. And as also mentioned they are also the poorest and most uneducated State.  I suppose those facts are somewhat related. I read an article somewhere that much of the South’s poverty came from their reliance on slave labor which … Continue reading America’s most corrupt states

Dearborn, MI – Ford Museum The Henry Ford Museum is one of the premier museums in the country. Shown here is the bus that Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man. This was one of the things that spurred the Civil Rights movement.  Here is a little about that from Wikipedia: On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake’s order that she give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Continue reading Rosa Parks & Civil Rights…

For far too many of us the image of being religious is the above.  This picture was taken on a busy Saturday night in Times Square NYC recently. Too many look at religion as some grim-faced old man telling us that we need to quit having any fun and get ready for the wrath of God. They didn’t take this old guy seriously anymore than take most current religious establishments seriously. In some ways religion has earned this moniker. Too many  spend too much time worrying about God’s wrath rather than focusing on his love. Too many worry about the … Continue reading For Too Many….

Its hard to tell just who we are at war with in any given moment. But it seems we always gotta be a war with someone…  Blessed are the Peacemakers…. Continue reading A Snippet Here, A Snippet There

This is a second post on the article from the Atlantic Magazine on the creative brain. Click here to see the article. The process of creativity has always fascinated me. Just what makes some people more creative than others? It is something they are born with or do they learn it through life’s experiences? I don’t often state it often but my IQ has been tested to be into the top 2%. That would surprise many of my teachers who I’m sure just thought of me as lazy as I was going through school. Sometimes I just didn’t have much … Continue reading Creativity and Mental Illness…

Out of the horror of World War II came one of the great achievements in all of human history: the Geneva Convention of 1949. It was a statement from humanity to itself that, in the aftermath of the bloodiest war in history, some decency might still be rescued. Despite the millions of senseless dead, despite all the mass murder and genocide and terror bombing, despite all the filth and hypocrisy and witless incompetence, the Convention states these things shall be held inviolate in war: Wounded and sick soldiers shall be treated humanely, and medical facilities shall be off-limits to attack. … Continue reading Whitewashing of torture….

The above image is a clip from the July 28,2014 issue of Time magazine page 12. It seems very hard to find what percentage of the population is gay in the U.S.  The most often cited by those who don’t have an interest in the issue is about 1%. That seems to align somewhat with the Census Bureau numbers found above. But of course I realize even today that there are those who have homosexual tendencies who adamantly refuse to be  identify themselves as such. Continue reading A Snippet Here A Snippet There…

The Triangle Factory Fire was a defining moment in US history. Here is a little about what Wikipedia says about it The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan, New York City on March 25, 1911 was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in the history of the city, and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history… The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers – 123 women and 23 men [1] – who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were … Continue reading Triangle Factory Fire…

Nearly 25 years later, the North Korean People’s Army, Navy, and Air Force are relics of a different era. Nearly everything is obsolete. North Korean tanks and armored fighting vehicles are up to 50 years old. This summer, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was photographed onboard an old Romeo-class submarine, an antiquated design first produced in the 1950s. The North Korean Air Force is only slightly better off; its newest fighter jets are now 25 years old most are closer to 50.Not only is the equipment obsolete, it’s becoming unusable. Late last year during naval exercises, two North Korean … Continue reading North Korea’s military is falling apart

Instead of helping the poor, feeding the hungry, tending to the sick, sheltering the homeless, fighting injustice, speaking for the voiceless, sacrificially giving, and wholeheartedly loving our neighbors and enemies, churches have become co-opted by secular values and empty content. Emulating Christ is not for the faint of heart, and following his commands will probably mean becoming a church that embraces conflict, discomfort, work, pain, suffering, and truth. This is the messiness of Christianity — following God through the Pilgrim’s Progress of life, forsaking the riches of this world for the treasure of a Divine relationship. Are we brave enough … Continue reading Are You Brave Enough???

On our recent visit to NYC we also spent a day revisiting our old haunts in New Jersey. We lived there during my last four years in the corporate world. As seems to be so typical today my twenty-six years in corporate America in the Midwest came to an abrupt end when they closed down our division. We were told we had a job but it was now in New Jersey. Most of the six-hundred or so chose to stay in the Midwest and look for another job. For me, with only four years left for a full pension that … Continue reading New Jersey….

Kennett Square PA  – Longwood Gardens Longwood Gardens consists of over 1,000 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. I have visited there a couple of times.  It was the home of Pierre DuPont for most of the early 1900s. He spent a considerable portion of his vast fortune on the lands and the buildings but he had much more to pass on to his heirs. Some are still living lavishly off his wealth even today. Continue reading Botanical Gardens & Industrialists