I just got finished reading a blog post with the above title. The conclusion that the author came to was therefore to do only those things that make you happy. While this very narcissistic world view is pretty prominent today it all comes down to “what makes you happy?” That question alone could fill a library. Happiness is a very transcendent term. I have lived on this earth longer than many and I have come to the conclusion that when you focus your life totally on yourself you will never reach any significant level of true  happiness.

Everyone, especially those of us who are beyond mid-life are very aware that death could be just around the corner. Maybe that is the only thing we “have” to do but there are a lot of things in our lives before that inevitable condition.  When I originally saw the post I immediately pre-supposed that the author would continue the sentence with “Everything else is a choice”. The author of this post it turns out is a young girl currently attending college so I guess I should excuse her for taking what I consider a pretty shallow approach to this deeply philosophical statement. I’m pretty sure that as she accumulates knowledge she will see quite different answers to this question. Continue reading “The Only Thing We Have To Do In Life Is Die…..”

 

Source: Grover Norquist: The tax pledge is forever | Power Players – Yahoo! News.

This week, Spinners and Winners went to Americans for Tax Reform to talk to the man behind the pledge. ‘The Taxpayer Protection Pledge’ has been signed by virtually every Republican office holder over the last 20 years, binding congressman, senators, and governors to promise no tax increases of any kind, ever.

There’s talk that pledge is now dead, but as you can see, Grover Norquist is not backing down.Those who have disavowed the pledge — such Senators Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., and John McCain, R-Ariz. — will hear from their constituents, Norquist says.

“I think that people should keep their commitment to voters. I think they need to if they get elected with an open promise, they should keep that promise to voters,” says the founder of Americans for Tax Reform.

We all know that Washington D.C. is about power. It consumes almost anyone who goes there. I’m absolutely sure that is also the reason behind Grover Norquist’s words above. He sees himself losing power after so many years and is doing anything possible to hang on to it.  He seems kind of like McCarthy in the 1950s who gained power by accusing many there of being a communist. He dominated the Senate for several years until one person took him down with one utterance. “Have you no shame!”. Continue reading “The Never Say Never Pledge???”

Source: Obama’s Speech Is Urgent Call for Progressive Values – NYTimes.com. Mr. Obama came to office four years ago all but consumed by what he inherited: two wars and an economy in free fall. He then confronted an exhausting series of crises and political problems at home and abroad: budget showdowns, a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Middle East turmoil, the rise of the Tea Party movement. Through it all, he chose to wage additional battles of choice, most notably his successful push to overhaul the health insurance system. But not until this point, with the economy gradually … Continue reading Looking Back…. And Forward….

All followers of Jesus should be regular readers of Scripture. This is the primary place where we get our lessons from Jesus Christ. Learning how to read scripture is at the heart of learning what Jesus intended for us to do.  The topic of literalism came up very early in church history. Origen, who was one of the first church theologians, warned us not to take much of what is in scripture as  literal. That seems to be a lesson lost on so many in the fundamentalist’s organizations even today.  They insist that everything in the Bible is literal and … Continue reading Reading Scripture….

I want to warn you up front here that I am putting on my “green” hat now. I don’t mention the fact that I am green often on this blog but it is yet another thing that I have at least a degree of passion for. I try to do my part in energy conservation. One part of that is to daily follow my wife around the house and turn off the lights she constantly leaves on. :)  But another more serious part is preaching to anyone who will listen about our dependence on fossil fuels and how it is hurting the earth. Continue reading “The Sun…..”

“If exporting [LNG] means accelerated development, then we will more rapidly deplete natural gas resources that could help sustain future generations of Americans, leading to higher prices as resources diminish,” he wrote. source: Should US export natural gas? Study for DOE fuels fiery debate. – CSMonitor.com. This was a rather lengthy article (3 pages) and it was not until the last paragraph (shown above) did the question “what is good for the nation?” actually come up. Throughout the article it was widely acknowledged that if we allow natural gas to be exported it will result in significantly higher natural gas and … Continue reading Our Natural Gas – What is Good for the Nation???

  The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself  in the service of others. Mahatma Gandhi It is obvious to most of you that I think Gandhi was a very inspirational person. The above quote is certainly an example of that. Of course the bible has many quotes with the same message. The ultimate example of this is when in Matthew 20 Jesus himself said he came to serve, not to be served. I looked up the phrase “to serve” in my bible app and it returned 150 occurrences. That tells me that to be a Christian means … Continue reading In Service Of Others……

I know you expect this post to be about how the church is very much against the idea of evolution. But really it is going to be quite the opposite. Yes, many denominations within the church, like so many other areas of science, deny evolution of the species as originated by Darwin. The Scopes Monkey trial was evidence of that. William Jennings Bryan put up quite an argument about that and the church has for the most part has stiffly followed it up since then. But, this post is actually about how the church has practiced evolution over its two … Continue reading The Church and Evolution….

July 2009 – Bent’s Old Fort      One of my favorite places to be… Continue reading Bent’s Old Fort…

  Source: Lance Armstrong confesses to Oprah Winfrey about his doping – The Washington Post. The network’s Scott Pelley also reported that Armstrong is in talks with U.S. Justice Department officials, who are weighing whether to join a whistleblower suit against him, about returning a portion of the roughly $35 million that the U.S. Postal Service paid his cycling team in sponsorship dollars. I don’t follow sports much anymore but it is hard to not see that Lance Armstrong won a bunch of bicycle races that made him a multimillionaire and that he apparently won them because of drug use. It … Continue reading Your Actions Have Consequences….

  There is one rule that works in every calamity, be it pestilence, war, or famine: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The poor even help arrange it  — October 31, 1929  Will Rogers The quote from Will above just shows us that this saying that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” has been around for quite a while. It has been a fact of life for longer than we can imagine. But the last sentence is pure Will. I just can’t wrap my mind around how so many of us poor folks around … Continue reading The Poor Get Poorer….

Source:  Just the facts: Gun violence in America – U.S. News. The big picture: Every year in the U.S., an average of more than 100,000 people are shot, according to The Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence. Every day in the U.S., an average of 289 people are shot. Eighty-six of them die: 30 are murdered, 53 kill themselves, two die accidentally, and one is shot in a police intervention, the Brady Campaign reports. Between 2000 and 2010, a total of 335,609 people died from guns — more than the population of St. Louis, Mo. (318,069), Pittsburgh (307,484), Cincinnati, Ohio (296,223), Newark, … Continue reading Sobering Statistics — Gun violence in America

Source: Fiscal cliff deal includes at least $67.9 billion for special interests – U.S. News. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was less diplomatic. “It’s so incredibly disappointing that members of Congress saw fit to add hundreds of millions of dollars in special-interest handouts to the recently passed ‘fiscal cliff’ bill, which had the simple purpose of avoiding massive tax rate increases on average Americans,” McCain said Thursday. “It’s hard to think of anything that could feed the cynicism of the American people more than larding up must-pass emergency legislation with giveaways to special interests and campaign contributors,” he said. “And this growing … Continue reading About That Pork…..

Source: President Obama, Hamid Karzai: US Combat Operations in Afghanistan to End in Spring – ABC News. Roughly 66,000 U.S. troops are serving in Afghanistan. The military has proposed keeping several thousand troops in the country after 2014 as advisers, trainers and logistical support for Afghan forces; the White House has said it remains open to pulling out all troops entirely. Leaving no troops behind when we finally exit Afghanistan?  That would be a first for us.  We currently have troops stationed in about seventy-five percent of the world’s countries.  It wouldn’t be so bad to just leave some temporarily behind … Continue reading Leaving No Troops???

I am sometimes accused of criticizing too much on this blog. Some seem to think that if we were all just more positive as a society good things would then happen. Being a history buff I know that is not the case. Sorry if you disagree but that is my current line in the sand so to speak. Criticizing things is just about the only way to affect change in our society and if we need anything in today’s gridlocked world it is a change. Until enough people are critical of things nothing changes.

Yes, we could like the German citizenry did during World War II, ignore the problems around us and say every thing is fine and dandy. We could ignore all the unemployed and underemployed workers the same way they ignored all the millions of people who disappeared from their streets.  We could ignore the horrendously increasing cost of medical care in this country and how so many were locked out of the old system the same way they ignored the stench coming from some of their smokestacks. Let’s face it ignoring problems don’t make them disappear; if only that were a solution wouldn’t life be easy.

I do try to celebrate many things in today’s world. Not everything needs criticism. Continue reading “Criticizing Too Much……”

Ok, I have been working day and night to try to find the right persona for John Boehner and I finally have it. After outing Mr. Cantor as the Lone Ranger I am here to do the same for Mr. Boehner. His persona is Rodney Dangerfield. I’m sure anyone over fifty knows that Rodney Dangerfield was a comedian who’s most famous line was  “I don’t get no respect” Although I like to go by the name RJ my first name is Rodney so I was always painfully familiar with Mr. Dangerfield. My family and people I knew during my childhood … Continue reading The Persona of John Boehner….

  April 2008 — This is the Longeberger Basket headquarters in Ohio. It is a seven story building.  I showed the picture to a friend recently and she still doesn’t believe that this is a real building….     Continue reading Basket Building??

Man was made to mourn: A Dirge Many and sharp the num’rous ills Inwoven with our frame! More pointed still we make ourselves Regret, remorse, and shame! And man, whose heav’n-erected face The smiles of love adorn, – Man’s inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn!   By Robert Burns  1784 I always wondered where the phrase “Man’s inhumanity to man” came from. I didn’t realize it is generally attributed to Robert Burns. I’m not sure what the difference between a poem and a dirge is? They look pretty much the same to me. Wikipedia, as usual, has several other references … Continue reading Man’s Inhumanity To Man…..

The number two Republican in the House of Representatives almost tanked the recent compromise on making some tax breaks for the middle class permanent. The reason, he says it does not solve all our fiscal problems. Mr. Cantor seems to think that every bill that goes through the House must be the be-all and end-all for the problems being addressed. Particularly those involving our safety net. He must think every problem has a silver bullet. Continue reading “The Persona of Eric Cantor…..”

  In order to prepare some posts over at RedLetterLiving I have been studying some about the why the Roman Empire collapsed. Of course everyone seems to have an opinion about that. The anti-Catholic folks say it is the pope’s fault. The maker/taker folks claim it is because the empire became a welfare State.  But I kind of align with a majority view that they just had to spend too much money to keep their armies spread out among most of the world.  Their military expenses accounted for almost one-half of all their spending and that included building the coliseum … Continue reading Spread Out Over The World…

Source:  DNA of Newtown Shooter Adam Lanza to Be Studied by Geneticists – ABC News.

Beaudet noted that studying the genes of murderers is controversial because there is a risk that those with similar genetic characteristics could possibly be discriminated against or stigmatized, but he still thinks the research would be helpful even if only a “fraction” may have the abnormality or mutation.

“Not all of these people will have identifiable genetic abnormalities,” Beaudet said, adding that even if a genetic abnormality is found it may not be related to a “specific risk.”

“By studying genetic abnormalities we can learn more about conditions better and who is at risk and what might be dramatic treatments,” Beaudet said, adding if the gene abnormality is defined the “treatment to stop” other mass shootings or “decrease the risk is much approved.”

The successful mapping of DNA is perhaps the major accomplishment of our times. Determining what each point on that map means will prove to be even more significant.   A case in point should be learned from one-hundred years ago. In the early nineteen hundreds eugenics was the “scientific breakthrough” of the times.  Here is how Wikipedia defines that movement: Continue reading “Studying the DNA of Newtown Shooter – A Double Edged Sword…”

  I have been feeling gloomy lately; I wonder why?  Everything runs in cycles, but our congress it seems, so hopefully my outlook will swing back to something more normal soon. There are not many in Washington that I look up to anymore but Olympia Snowe was one of them.  Those two ladies from Maine always given me hope that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel. Senator Snowe usually put the country above party when it came to  the many partisan votes of recent years. She has become a rare breed in that respect. She was … Continue reading Olympia Snowe leaving the Senate….

I got the above title from one of my blogging friends over at Living Richly in Retirement.  It was a rather innocuous  sentence embedded in a post about selling her house. But it did strike me as part of my philosophy of life. Since I have no kids the following could be coming from total ignorance but I don’t think any of us should leave anything but a pittance to our heirs when we leave this earth. It would just spoil them anyway.  Let them take care of themselves as they expect us to take care of ourselves.

This is very contrary to all the latest trends going on in this country now but I am a contrarian so you should have seen this coming. We want to eliminate the inheritance taxes entirely in this country so that all the wealth can pass from one generation to another unscathed.  We say a couple million bucks is just not enough for our kids. They need it all. Being that if nothing changes we will be a plutocracy in a couple more generations this makes sense.

Continue reading “Take Care of Yourself, and Let Your Kids Do the Same…..”

  At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.   —  Albert Schweitzer I must admit that in some ways I am not a very creative person. I have often times in my life needed a spark from another person to get me headed down a path.  So, I certainly appreciated the quote above from Albert Schweitzer.  I have deep gratitude for those who have lighted the flame within me. I am a … Continue reading Rekindled By A Spark….

  Yeah that’s me a few days ago. We had a dusting of three inches of snow that I removed from our 150 foot circular driveway. This one I could handle with my trusty Craftsman tractor. Continue reading Oh the Snow….

Source:  Ahead of “milk cliff,” McConnell piecing together new farm bill – Political Eye – CBS News. and would extend at the post-August 2012 level the USDA’s Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, which compensates dairy producers when domestic milk prices fall below a specific level. I’m just a simple guy but I don’t understand how milk would go to $8/gallon if the farm bill is not passed.  Everyone knows that part of this legislation is for the government to buy large quantities of milk and cheese to prevent a glut in the market place. This seems like reverse supply/demand … Continue reading Ahead of “milk cliff”……

  Since this is a first day of the year post it has to be about the resolutions I have made for 2013. Being a list maker you might think that my list is quite long but you would be mistaken. We are all the slaves to the calendar so when we turn from one year to the next it seems a nature time for changes. I am no stranger to changes; in fact I most often embrace them! This year my list of changes is quite short. I don’t know if that is because I am starting to see … Continue reading New Years Resolutions…..