Category: Having My Say

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The Thing About Facebook

RJ Walters

Is it just me or is Facebook getting pretty annoying lately? It puts stuff on my screen that I haven’t asked for and the potential friends it suggests are often downright gross. I am a seventy-two-year-old guy who is WAY past puberty and has NEVER visited an xxx site, but for some reason, they think their suggestions to the right would be good friends for me? I am a software guy so I understand all this stuff is determined by algorithms, and it is obvious that those algorithms need some serious adjustments. I am really annoyed by these types of … Continue reading The Thing About Facebook

Having My Say2 Comments

The Other 90%

RJ Walters

There seem to be all kinds of people who are trying to figure out why we have gotten into where we are in this world. Some point to one thing, some to another.  In my opinion, for what its worth, the reason below is one of the primary causes of our current madness. [They say] Capital was for capitalists — everyone would be better off that way! LOL. What really happened was as predictable as it was grim — capitalists took all the capital they could possibly get their hands on, plundering society after society, and hid it in treasure chests buried around the … Continue reading The Other 90%

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Seeking Wisdom – Will Rogers Style

RJ Walters

I want to say up front that Google doesn’t appreciate what I do. Their algorithm is prejudiced against me.  They sometimes call me a “duplicate content provider”.  Argh!!! When I started my personal blog over ten years ago, I set a foundation for what it would be.  The first foundation was that it would pattern what my primary literary hero Will Rogers did.  One of Will’s more famous quotes is “All I know is what I read in the newspapers.” That is he took a topic for his articles from what he read and gave it his own twist. I … Continue reading Seeking Wisdom – Will Rogers Style

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An Endless Stream of Anticlimax

RJ Walters

Watching the seemingly endless stream of people pleading guilty to one thing or another and then pledging to cooperate with their accusers is very tiring. It’s kind of like a TV melodrama that ends each week with an on-the-edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger. Watching all the many players and trying to keep track of them is a daunting task. There seem to be so many that they could fill a prison themselves. They keep getting indicted but the swamp just seems to always be getting deeper!  It seems like an endless stream of anticlimax. “OK, that is another damning thing to add to … Continue reading An Endless Stream of Anticlimax

Life On The Margins2 Comments

Coping With Deafness And My 10 Pillars

RJ Walters

I want to continue on from my 10 Pillars post of last week with a personal story about the second pillar which is “You are not alone”.  As I have mentioned before I want deaf in 1988 at the age of forty-two, but I had been hearing impaired for years before that. I lost hearing in one ear during my early college years in the 1960s.  Since I had no insurance and I couldn’t afford to pay doctor bills and college tuition at the same time, it would be a few years later when I discovered the cause of my … Continue reading Coping With Deafness And My 10 Pillars

Having My Say10 Comments

Self-Checkouts Kill Jobs

RJ Walters

The graphic here came from one of my Facebook friends and I agree with her.  I know I am an advocate for automation but it is not always a good thing. This may be one of those times. Let me explain why. I know there is a big chunk of our American society who just don’t have the skills to compete in our very technology-driven workforce. Some never learned to take learning as a lifelong goal. Some had learning beaten out of them at an early age. Some are just too lazy to do the work that learning requires.   I … Continue reading Self-Checkouts Kill Jobs

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Little Steps Are Not Enough…

RJ Walters

What will it take to get even a small degree of bipartisanship back in our federal government? That seems to be the question of the decade for those of us living in the US and actually much of the world as well.  My friends at Eudaimonia & Co speak constantly about the dark side of capitalism and we all need that at least a small dose of that to keep us focused on the bright side of life. Here are some of their words in a recent post about that: There are three great trends which shape American decline — and the … Continue reading Little Steps Are Not Enough…

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Why Incompetent People Think They Are Amazing

RJ Walters

I know the title of this post will get quite a bit of attention because it mirrors someone we all know.  It is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Here is a quote from an article about it: “When psychologists Dunning and [Justin] Kruger first described the effect in 1999, they argued that people lacking knowledge and skill in particular areas suffer a double curse. First, they make mistakes and reach poor decisions. But second, those same knowledge gaps also prevent them from catching their errors. In other words, poor performers lack the very expertise needed to recognize how badly they’re … Continue reading Why Incompetent People Think They Are Amazing

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My 10 Pillars

RJ Walters

I know you don’t care but since I am an addicted list maker I have been tinkering with my blogging schedule here at RJsCorner.  In order to not fixate on the political scene I have committed to addressing more diversified topics.  That diversity is driven by my blogging schedule as shown at the top of this and every page. Monday is the only day I allow myself to concentrate on the political scene inside the beltway and particularly inside the Oval Office topics. Any more than that could drive me to insanity. :)  I have just changed Tuesday to blogging … Continue reading My 10 Pillars

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Compromise?

RJ Walters

I think one of the biggest failures of the Obama administration was their naivete in thinking that they could compromise with the current Republican Party. Here are some words about that:  American needs a loud, proud, uncompromising, demanding, and transformative opposition at this crucial juncture, my friends — one which accomplishes something in particular: a new social contract. What else is this wave asking for? Anything less is failing the moment, the opportunity, the challenge, and the test — of collapse. Trying to fight authoritarianism with gentle compromises and winsome diplomatic smiles is like offering your abuser tea and crumpets. America needs an opposition that can … Continue reading Compromise?

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Seeking Wisdom – James Madison

RJ Walters

Another of the major sources of wisdom I frequently visit is the fourth president of the U.S. James Madison. There are a number of reasons for that admiration, not the least of which are the similarity between Madison and myself. He was 5′ 7″ and small stature while most of the other famous people during that period were broad-shouldered and well over 6′.  Since he was a little guy he had to work harder than many to get the attention he deserved. I am currently 5′ 7″ myself (although I was over 5′ 9″ before old age and compression fractures took … Continue reading Seeking Wisdom – James Madison

Life On The Margins4 Comments

Explaining Our Times…

RJ Walters

Ok, I admit that I have been retired from the workforce for almost two decades now, so aside from what I read I am pretty much ignorant of it. When I left the workforce the mantra was “Do more with less”. Many of my coworkers were being laid off and I was told that I had to do their jobs in addition to my own.  I couldn’t imagine a more stressful situation today. When I came across this article by By Ruth Whippman in the New York Times it helped me to have more empathy for today’s middle-class workers.  Ms. Whippman is the … Continue reading Explaining Our Times…

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Bluster…

RJ Walters

David Brooks from the New York Times and the PBS Newshour recently used a word I haven’t heard in a long time. That word is the title of this post and here is the definition. This word just seems soooo appropriate for someone we all know. I don’t even have to mention his name.   If there is any single word that can possibly contain who this guy is, bluster is it. He is certainly loud, totally aggressive, as indignant as anyone I could ever imagine.  He refuses to believe in facts other than the ones he made up. But I … Continue reading Bluster…

Philosophical Thoughts2 Comments

What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff

RJ Walters

Shane Claiborne is one of my favorite Christian authors. He definitely lives the words of Jesus and he is not bashful when it comes to telling others that Talk is cheap and actions are where you demonstrate your beliefs. At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said, essentially, “I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ.” A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here … Continue reading What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff

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Spider Attack!!

RJ Walters

For this “Outside the Box” Saturday I give you a picture of when I was attacked by a giant spider!  Well, not really, but it was a 30 ft or should I say a 10-meter high sculpture of a spider. This photo was taken in Ottawa Canada when we visited there a few years ago.  The sculpture is called Maman and is located at the National Gallery of Canada.  There are so many sites in Ottawa to see. We spent four days there but that really wasn’t enough. Continue reading Spider Attack!!

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Thomas Jefferson, American Hero

RJ Walters

I want to kick off this re-formatted “Seeking Wisdom” category here on RJsCorner with Thomas Jefferson.  He is one of my primary sources of wisdom. He was an idealistic rebel of his times. Even by his compatriots, he was considered a writer for the ages.  He was a young man when he was drafted to write the Declaration of Independence. Some believed him to be just too much of an idealist and too inexperienced to write it, but looking back that is exactly the type of person needed for the job then and maybe even more so now.  He was … Continue reading Thomas Jefferson, American Hero

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My Essence Statement – Who I Am

RJ Walters

In a recent post, I declared myself as living a joyous life of a nuanced skeptic. This post will flesh out that description as to make you even more confused. :)  Now in my old age, I am convinced that it takes almost a lifetime to determine just what your personal essence is.  We can all describe ourselves at various points in our lives but to find the essence of you is much more difficult. Maybe the difficult part is to do it in just a few words. I have been playing with the words above for several weeks now. … Continue reading My Essence Statement – Who I Am