Victor said she was “shocked” when she heard what Scalia said about the Voting Rights Act during the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on a key provision of the law last month. “I thought you must not know what’s happening in this country,” Victor wrote. “After learning more this year from the civil rights group, Advancement Project, I know that just as there were for me, there are barriers to voting for many people – especially people who are black or brown.” Obama pointed to Victor, who waited in line for hours to vote at a polling place in Miami, as … Continue reading Equal Voice At The Ballot Box….

  There is only one battle worth fighting: spend every second of your life searching for the spark that makes you feel alive. There’s no other fight quite like it. You fail, and it doesn’t matter. The entire world thinks you’re pathologically unstable, and it doesn’t matter. You receive 200 rejection letters from agents, you keep on writing. Reach for the stars and don’t whine when you fall on your ass. Source: Success. Fear. And stuff. « Cristian Mihai. I certainly enjoy reading posts of my fellow bloggers. As I have said before most of what I read comes from other … Continue reading Success. Fear. And stuff…..

  Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours. -Swedish proverb I don’t know many Swedes I guess so I don’t know if any of them actually live by this proverb. I briefly had a Norwegian roommate in college and he definitely liked to party with his friends.  I can’t imagine another proverb that has so many lessons of life in it.  I wonder where it came from. Of course all of us Christians know about the Book of Proverbs in the … Continue reading Whine Less, Breathe More…….

April 2011 – Since I just got done with a series of posts about Jefferson I thought I would put a picture of his life size bronze from Monticello here. Continue reading Tom Jefferson…

It was nice to see that Rand Paul’s standing filibuster bringing additional attention to the military drone issue in this country. Our country is based on check and balances and the current drone program has neither of those characteristics. The possibility of serious abuse scares me and should scare all of us. But, that is not what this post is going to be about. Instead it is about our pledge of allegiance and our national anthem. I think it is time to replace both of these “sacred documents” to align us with twenty-first century thinking.  We need to get away … Continue reading The Pledge….

I want to do a followup of this morning post with a little more whimsical frame of mind.  As I see it we are looking at two different world views when it come to our energy needs. One of our political parties theme seems to be “Drill Baby, Drill”. They want to extract absolutely every drop of oil out of our planet. They adamantly insist on building the Keystone pipeline so that we can take the dirtiest oil around and send it off to countries with little or no environmental regulations. They want to send our kids over to foreign … Continue reading Two Scenarios….

  Source: Obama’s $2 billion plan to wean US off foreign oil (+video) – CSMonitor.com. If the Obama administration has its way, $2 billion in new revenue from offshore oil drilling will fund research into how to wean American drivers off imported oil… “The reason so many different people – from the private sector, the public sector, our military – support this idea is because it’s not just about saving money, it’s also about saving the environment. But it’s also about our national security,” Obama said. “This is not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea; this is just a smart … Continue reading Putting a Man On The Moon And….

  Dear R J, The Keystone XL pipeline is a giant straw that spews out some of the dirtiest oil on earth. Christians have advocated tirelessly to stop the pipeline. Despite this opposition, the State Department recently released a report that claims the pipeline is “unlikely to have a substantial impact.” Where did they get their data? The oil and gas industry. [1] Tell the State Department to take a second look at the damage the Keystone XL pipeline would do to God’s creation.  Oil from tar sands releases significantly more carbon pollution than any other energy source we import, and … Continue reading Keystone Pipeline Opposition Explained….

I didn’t consider this for many years. I actually thought my experiences rare. I was one of the chosen. I was special. Now I know the truth. God whispers his love in every ear. He isn’t interested in declaring his love to a select few. He doesn’t limit his presence to Vatican City, to the halls of seminaries, to the offices of preachers, or to church altars. God doesn’t restrict his communication to the Bible. He doesn’t confine his presence to any single denomination or religion. God speaks to all people, even when they’re not inclined to listen. Fortunately, God … Continue reading If grace is true, it is true for everyone. – Part 4 If Grace Is True….

  No slick lawyers, or income tax experts can get you out of a national sales tax. It’s so much on the dollar on every luxury you buy. Then, if you like to live in luxury, the poor fellow knows you are paying for it and he will even encourage you to buy more so it will help out the government.  November 2, 1924  Will Rogers This morning’s post was about closing tax loopholes so I thought I would continue with that thread this afternoon.  I am one that believe that a significant amount of our taxes should be raised … Continue reading About Those Taxes…..

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -Albert Einstein When I came across this Einstein quote it almost made me shudder. Even though I have heard it before it struck me this time.  We are advancing technologically at an astounding pace in recent years.  Integrated circuits are in just about every device we now buy. Artificial intelligence is being used for so many things today.  Unfortunately because the Pentagon budgets take the biggest bite out of our discretionary spend technology is at the forefront … Continue reading World War IV…..

I wish I knew who originally penned these words. They are inspiring indeed.     Continue reading Definite Words Of Wisdom….

Sept 2010 – Mackinac Island Continue reading Mackinac Island…

Why does the U.S. have the biggest percentage of our population in prison?  When I first heard this it somewhat surprised me. I thought surely those countries led by dictators would be higher.  Given the reputation of the Gulags in Russia why are they not higher than us? I did a little digging and it seems the answer is really not clear. But there seems to be at least a few pointers that might be part of the cause: Drug Offenses Incarceration for drug offenses has increased 12-fold from 40,000 in 1981 to nearly 500,000 by 2010, accounting for two-thirds … Continue reading The Highest Incarceration Rate… Part 2

But always remember this, that as bad as we sometimes think our government is run, it’s the best run one I ever saw.” – Will Rogers, 18 December 1932  Sometimes the ever-present trollers who come across my blog have to scream and rant for me to just get out of the country if I hate it so much. To them if anyone has any criticism of the “Good Old USA” then somehow they are traitors to the country. But their rants often have the opposite effect on me.  They tell me that I got their attention with what I was … Continue reading The Best I Ever Saw….

We in the United States have the largest percentage of our population under lock and key than any other nation on earth. Why is that. That will be the topic of the next two posts.  This time we will look at it from a time standpoint and a geographical perspective. The next post will look at the make up of the prison population to see why they are there. Let me start off this post by letting you know that I have never used any kind of illegal drugs. I did go to college in the 1960s but only smelled … Continue reading The Highest Incarceration Rate…

  Source: Rand Paul’s 13 Hour Filibuster – The Talking Kind – Against John Brennan – ABC News. “I rise today to begin to filibuster John Brennan’s nomination for the CIA, Paul said at about 11:47 a.m. ET. “I will speak until I can no longer speak. I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found … Continue reading Rand Paul’s 13 Hour Filibuster….

I may no longer be an official techie (or whatever the latest term is). I haven’t bought a new “latest thing” in about 18 months. That is an eternity in the tech world!  I don’t know what has happened to me. I used to keep up on all the latest trends and often splurged for some of them. Maybe I have just finally found the stuff that makes me happy. Now that I am fully in the Apple camp (MacBook, iPad, iPhone) and now have a couple of versions of Kindle I have finally reached my tipping point of needing … Continue reading I Think I Am Losing My Technology Edge…..

How did we get into the problem of insane pay for U.S. corporation leaders? The problem basically originated from the title above. Every board of directors wants to pat themselves on the back for selecting that exception person who will lead their company to outperform all the others.  They need to do that so that they can somehow rationalize their board being paid thousands of dollars per hour for their time. So the statement is made: Our CEO is exceptional so we must guarantee him a paycheck in the top 20% of all CEOs. On the surface this is a … Continue reading Our CEO Is Exceptional So…..

Here is a quick question for you. How did Central and South America get the name “Latin America”?? This popped off the top of my head while watching the news recently.  At first thought I came up with Latin was the language of the Roman Empire which was based in Italy. But I don’t remember any country in South America being founded by Italy. Here is what Wikipedia says about the origin of the term “Latin America”: In a more literal definition, which remains faithful to the original usage, Latin America designates all of those countries and territories in the … Continue reading Latin America…..

1934 – Boys Town, Omaha Neb.   I chose a slice of this picture for the header but wanted you to see the whole thing. I took this re-snap about a year ago when we visited there. Continue reading Boy’s Town

  I pride myself on being a critical thinker. I just naturally don’t go along with the latest trends simply because many others do. Critical thinking is at the very foundation of my life. Mob mentality  which is the opposite of critical thinking is to me an absurd and idiotic condition. But what is critical thinking? Critical thinking can only be possible when one opens his mind to the possibility that current beliefs may be only partially true or may even be false. Here is some of what Wikipedia says critical thinking means: Critical thinking clarifies goals, examines assumptions, discerns … Continue reading Critical Thinking…..

  Source: How to Survive China’s Pollution Problem: Masks and Bubbles | Design Decoded. Last January, air pollution reached new levels of toxicity in China. Just how bad did things get? According to the Chinese Air Quality Index (AQI), measurements of particulate matter in the air reached more than 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter the northeastern part of country. That probably doesn’t mean anything to you without context though, so here it is: anything above 300 is considered “hazardous” and citizens are warned that they “may experience more serious health effects.” For even more context, consider that the U.S. AQI only … Continue reading How to Survive China’s Pollution Problem: Masks and Bubbles

I enjoy making predictions. Don’t we all. And since I am probably no worse at it than any of the so-called expert, here I go again. I predict that within the next twenty years the true power brokers will be the temp employment agencies and their eventual workers unions. I know, as usual I am way out in left field with this prediction but again as usual hear me out before you change channels so to speak.. Most businesses now rely on employment agencies for their workforce. Corporations are no longer  willing to provide any perks except to upper management. … Continue reading Power To The People….

  Source: Fiscal nightmare looms at ‘bloated’ Pentagon – NBC Politics. Just two weeks ago, the GAO kept the Pentagon on its annual “High Risk List” of departments whose books are so mysterious and opaque that they’re at high risk of fraud, waste and mismanagement…. He (retired Army Gen. David Barno) said the Pentagon’s method of operating is comparable to driving a 1985 Oldsmobile which is leaking oil, “and every time we go out on the highway at 65 miles an hour, we come back after another day, there’s more and more oil on the floor of our garage in the … Continue reading At The Top Of The High Risk List….