The Post, according to its own announcement of its sale for $250 million, has suffered a 44 percent drop in operating revenue over the past six years. Like other once-prosperous big-city dailies, it has been wounded by the defection of readers and advertisers to Internet competitors. No major U.S. newspaper now claims to have a business model that would guarantee its survival, let alone its success long-term. But the “long-term” is where Bezos’ mind naturally likes to go, says Brad Stone, senior technology writer for Bloomberg Businessweek. Stone’s forthcoming book “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” … Continue reading Thinking Long Term….

Housing is coming back. Banks are lending again. Energy is booming. A prominent Democrat argues that the U.S. economy is finally coming back to life SOURCE: Is the U.S. Economy Coming Back to Life? – TIME. Everything is great again in the USA!  The stock markets are booming. Banks are as profitable as ever and are now lending again. All the economic indicators are rising.  These are joyful words for us liberals and dreaded ones for conservatives during a Democrat administration. Everything is great except for the fact that almost all of this prosperity is flowing into the hands of the … Continue reading Everything is Great Except…..

I am a big fan of the TV show “Little People, Big World” about the Roloff family. The mother and father and one of the four children are dwarfs. I think I relate to them because I too face a daily handicap. I have watched the show since its origination I don’t know how many years ago. What brings this to mind is the latest episode of the family where they went on vacation in Costa Rica. During their trip Matt, the husband who has some pretty severe physical limitation, struggled to keep up with the family but often times … Continue reading Life’s Frustrations…

Pentagon officials say leaving zero troops in Afghanistan after 2014 would not be good strategy, but if Afghanistan doesn’t give US troops legal immunity, it’s the likeliest outcome. SOURCE: Leaving zero troops in Afghanistan? It’s a serious option, Pentagon says. – CSMonitor.com. Wouldn’t that be something. I think it would be a first in my lifetime that we didn’t leave soldiers after the battle is over.  We pay huge amounts of our taxes to keep our young kids in over a hundred countries throughout the world. For some reason we just can’t seem to get out completely when we get out. … Continue reading Wouldn’t That Be Something….

At the center of this ring of geriatric mobsters is Bulger, 83, a still fierce figure despite the liver spots on his hands. Bulger is on trial in federal court for a string of crimes including 19 murders. Prosecutors say that some of his victims were strangled with those arthritic hands. Bulger’s trial has entered its third week with a series of senior citizens describing the criminal havoc and reign of fear his Winter Hill Gang wreaked all over Boston with the help of corrupt FBI officials Bulger trial is not just about organized crime and FBI corruption. It is … Continue reading The Mob….

During the last portion of my corporate life I was an IT guy. IT being information technology. For those of you who might not know what that is we basically, at least in my area, take data and turn it into information. The old saying goes “Drowning in data but starved for information”. If you want to get an idea of what that mean just Google about anything and watch thousands of hit come up. We IT guys took those thousands of hits and with some pretty sophisticated software narrowed it down to a handful. Now that you got an … Continue reading Voting Districts….

How did things get so out of whack in DC????????????? Continue reading Down on the Farm…..

Two long years, in which all I did was stare at the endless abyss, not sure if I was meant to jump or not, scared that the jump wouldn’t fix anything. All I needed was an escape, and the abyss wasn’t willing to offer me one. It took me two years to realize that life isn’t really worth living unless you want something. Until you have an impossible dream, an ideal to strive towards. Until you have something to fight for, you simply exist. SOURCE:  Over the edge… « Cristian Mihai. My young Romanian friend Cristian Mihai certainly gives me … Continue reading Purpose in Life…..

Beijing’s heavy pollution concerns parents Smog can cut off sunlight to Beijing for days. At the International School of Beijing, parents want routine air quality measurements, and the school has built a $5 million dome to enclose a playground and filter the air. Seth Doane reports. Source: Beijing’s heavy pollution concerns parents – CBS News Video. One of the major prices China is having to pay for their sudden industrial dominance is pollution. Since there is a much bigger priority on economics than there is on environment the big industrial areas of the country are becoming very polluted. I know there … Continue reading Beijing’s heavy pollution concerns parents

Prince William and Kate Middleton have named the royal heir George Alexander Louis, Kensington Palace announced in a statement today. SOURCE: Kate Middleton and Prince William Name Baby George Alexander Louis – ABC News. So another big royalty event is past.  The future king’s name is George. Being a big U.S. history buff, not so much the royalty stuff, King George has some significance to me. Let’s go back about 250 years ago. At that time another King George was battling with insurgent terrorists in some of his British colonies on the other side of the world. They absolutely refused to … Continue reading Taking It Back….

One of the biggest stumbling blocks in following the teachings of Jesus is our tendency to do whatever we want, and to then convince ourselves that Jesus supports our agenda. This is especially true when it comes to His peace teachings. I’ve talked to church leaders who really want to speak the truth about peace but are afraid of repercussions from people in their congregations who are either in the military or related to someone in the military. There are a couple of things I’ve learned from thinking through this issue. The first is that we can love and respect … Continue reading A Quick Quote from Stephen Jarnick

While the cyclical outlook looks bright, the U.S. will be hampered in the longer term by such structural headwinds as an aging population, a plateauing of educational achievement and increased inequality, Gordon said. Source: U.S. Expansion Poised for Longevity – Bloomberg. I have always found it strange that my more conservative friends seem to want to see all Democratic administrations fail in one regard to another. They always say that their Republican heroes did it better than any Democrat ever could.  When they mention this I just love to pull out the statistic that shows if you invest $1000 in only … Continue reading U.S. Expansion Poised for Longevity…

Emmy Awards 2013: Nominations Announced Source:  Emmy Awards 2013: Nominations Announced – ABC News. I won’t bore you folks who swear you never watch television with the long list of Emmy nominations here. If you want to see them click on the source above. The point of this post is that excluding “Dowton Abbey” there were no other shows on this long list that my wife and I watch. Are we out of tune with all those other TV watchers?  Most of the shows on the list I put in the “stupid” category. They are for the most part just … Continue reading I Must Be Getting Old…..

The Bible nowhere qualifies the command to help the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, and the poor. The Bible never says “help the Christian poor” or “help the poor only if they listen to a 30-minute sermon.” God told the Israelites that they are God’s people if they help the poor and bring justice to the oppressed. No qualifiers. No agenda. No strings attached. Just love. Scandalous love. Jesus love. The kind we teach and preach about – the free gift of God, that we do not deserve and cannot earn. Source: Joy Bennett: Time Share Charity and God’s Scandalous Grace … Continue reading Too Many Conditions….

President Obama: “There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me,” Obama said. “And there are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator.”  Fox News: Fox’s Sean Hannity suggests that the main reason Obama identifies with Trayvon is that the two as teenagers had smoked marijuana. On Facebook, Fox News radio host Todd … Continue reading Words From the Heart….

A rain free night full of vehicle demolishing and car smashing fun was featured at the 4-H Fairgrounds Saturday for a capacity crowd inside the main arena as 38 drivers competed in four categories for trophies, prize money and bragging rights. Welcome to small town America. I have lived in it for much of my six plus decades on this earth. I want to thank my local paper for the photo and the words above. I live just north of a town of 2214 people.  At least that is what the sign says coming into town.  I wouldn’t have it … Continue reading Small Town Life…

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima appear on the balcony of the Royal Palace with their children, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, April 30, 2013. Willem-Alexander is not only the monarch of the Netherlands but also the Dutch Caribbean territories of Curacao, Aruba and Saint Maarten. He holds several military titles but requested an honorable discharge. Source: Dutch Abdication: Willem-Alexander Becomes Europe’s Youngest Monarch | The Netherlands New King | TIME.com. I just can’t understand the allure of a monarchy but I know that many are infatuated with them.  My wife stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to see … Continue reading Monarchy……

Make your home more energy efficient. It could help reduce not only your utility bills, but also what you owe the IRS. You can make relatively easy and inexpensive upgrades, such as adding insulation or replacing leaky windows, and possibly receive a $500 tax credit on your 2013 tax return. More extensive — and expensive — alternative energy improvements will get you bigger tax breaks. These include installing solar energy, wind power, fuel cell or geothermal systems. Eligible home energy improvements in these areas could qualify for a tax credit equal to 30 percent of the cost, including installation, without … Continue reading Make home energy improvements….

I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. . . . It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government. – Thomas Jefferson  –Letter, 30 Jan. 1787, to statesman James Madison, speaking of Shays’ Rebellion They say that Shay’s Rebellion was one of the primary drivers for moving away from the weak Articles of Confederation to the U.S. Constitution a couple of years later.  Obviously Jefferson had some sympathies toward that rebellion. I don’t know much about that but I … Continue reading A Little Rebellion….

A century ago, people were dreaming of flying, trying and failing, falling on the ground. But why do people fall? Why do they continue to fight when all hope seems to be lost? I believe it is because it is in our nature to fight, to try to find something in the darkness of the things we do not understand, in the chaos that surrounds us…… Don’t over think it, don’t tell yourself what you are doing is more than what it is, don’t try to impress anyone. Don’t play it safe either. Simply write like yourself, and write exactly … Continue reading A Century Ago…

I was just out in the yard mowing my two and a half acres and started thinking about how I am more relaxed now that I have greatly reduced my diet of politics.  There is little that goes on in that world now that would spur anything other than frustrations. I have admitted that in 2008 I actively supported the candidacy of Barak Obama. His rhetoric was very inspiring to me. He gave me hope that he could affect the changes necessary to restore this country to some form of sanity. In the five years since that time I have … Continue reading Neither Party Deserves It….

Less than a week after the Supreme Court watered down the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a handful of states seemed poised to roll back the protections afforded to minorities by the 48-year-old law. Two hours after the decision, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that a 2011 voter-ID law that federal courts found disproportionately burdened poor and minority voters would go into effect “immediately.” New redistricting maps, Abbott says, could swiftly follow. Source:  States Eye Voting Obstacles in Wake of High-Court Ruling | TIME.com. I am not really much of a Supreme Court watcher anymore but from what I know … Continue reading The Fox In Charge of the Hen House…

Whatever shape your world may take in the year 2000 A.D., we can all be fairly sure that it will be one world. Whether through war or through peace, the nations fifty years from now will have learned to enmesh their sovereignties into a single supreme authority. They will have learned to do so because, difficult as it may seem now, no other alternative exists. One world or none at all is the choice…. This trend toward world authority will be contested bitterly for many years, because national sovereignty is something all men cling to. But sooner or later a … Continue reading A 1950s View Of the World In 2000…

“A real self-made man would have to be one who had received no learning or knowledge, or assistance from any person or source.” – Will Rogers, 28 October 1923 I really appreciate your words here Will. There is really no such thing as a self made man.  I have run across so many people who proudly claim to be self made.  There is a definite whiff of arrogance in every one of them. There is even a car guy on cable that has those words tattooed on his fingers.  He proudly says he built his business totally on his own. … Continue reading Self Made…..

Excessive self-criticism tends to backfire, because it leads us to focus on our so-called failures instead of the “small ways that we could have improved,” says psychologist Tamar E. Chansky, PhD, author of Freeing Yourself From Anxiety. And over the long term, studies show, self trash-talk is associated with higher stress levels and even depression. Source:  9 Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic – ABC News. Being down on yourself is just a normal state for some and an occasional state for others. This seems especially true for  certain varieties of Christians who believe that all human beings are just … Continue reading Being Down On Yourself….

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Continue reading Happy July 4th…

In a Washington Post Op-Ed piece Wednesday, co-founder Mr. Zuckerberg wrote that today’s “economy is based primarily on knowledge and ideas – resources that are renewable…. In a knowledge economy, the most important resources are talented people.” Beyond helping to nudge the current debate, according to a statement released on Wednesday, the group’s goal is to “organize and engage the tech community in the issues where we can contribute to the national debate, on issues of vital importance to America’s ability to compete in the global knowledge economy.”… The country does not have enough skilled workers to fill industry’s needs, he says, and it sorely … Continue reading The Knowledge Economy….

But, virtually every night, I would also feel from those who came, along with that hunger, a very deep cynicism about social change even being possible. And when it came to Washington or Wall Street, the cynicism was overwhelming. Virtually no one trusts either our political system or marketplace to be fair, honest, moral, or even open to doing the right thing. Most Americans seem to believe that the primary institutions of our public life completely lack integrity. And sadly, that cynicism, for many, even extends to their churches or other religious institutions, which they don’t regard as playing an independent leadership role for … Continue reading Hitting the Nail on the Head….

Like other Republicans who have advocated a ‘bigger-tent’ philosophy for their party, US Senator Rand Paul says this doesn’t mean leaving behind strongly held principles Source: Rand Paul: ‘When Republican Party looks like the rest of America, we’ll win’ (+video) – CSMonitor.com. As any Madison Avenue type and he will tell you it is all about marketing. In other words you must show the masses what they want or what you want them to believe; they don’t have a clue themselves. I must admit that if you ignore much of Rand Paul’s libertarian philosophies about shutting down government he says things that … Continue reading Its All About Marketing….

  “You see a Republican moves slowly. They are what we call conservatives. A conservative is a man who has plenty of money and doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t always have plenty of money. A Democrat is a fellow who never had any, but doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t have some.” – Will Rogers, 26 March 1933 Will certainly had it right about things of politics in his day and it is almost weird that the same hold true eighty years later.  The rich continue to get richer and the poor are almost exponentially increase month … Continue reading Republicans And Democrats – A Definition

You’re so vain I bet you think this song is about you, don’t you?   This quote came from a song by Carly Simon in 1972.  I don’t think of myself as being very vain, but aren’t we all vain to one degree or another?  What is vanity? According to one dictionary I have it is:  characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance. All of us take pride in our accomplishments and rightfully so but when that we get carried away with it then it becomes a problem.  An excessive degree of vanity some say is the … Continue reading A Little Vanity Goes A Long Way….

  We are a nation who puts top priority on everything being cheap. No, that doesn’t apply to our military. We throw so much money into our war machines their top priority has to be figuring out how to spend it all. But since there are so many outstretched hands  wanting to relieve us of our hard-paid tax dollars  that even ends up not a big problem. Getting back to the topic at hand. Among our European neighbors we in the U.S. are mostly known for the shabby goods we readily accept.  Don’t get me wrong, we know quality when … Continue reading We Are Just Cheap…