On Just About Everything
You can look at half the guy’s stomachs in the world, and you can see they don’t know how to order for themselves. -November 18, 1934 — Will Rogers. This quote says it all. I don’t need to add blah, blah, blah :) Continue reading Will Rogers
via MacBook Air, Ultrabook spell doom for optical drive | Nanotech – The Circuits Blog – CNET News Apple is different. The Apple of Steve Jobs held focus groups in contempt. In essence, Jobs believed consumers don’t know what they want until you give it to them. So, present them with a MacBook Air–as Apple did in January 2008–and consumers will eventually come around. I pretty much found this to be the case in my professional life as well. Focus groups/committees just are not forward looking. They tend to be stuck in the past. If you have something forward looking, that … Continue reading People Don’t Know What They Want Until You Give It to Them..
America can carry herself and get along in pretty fair shape, but when she stops and picks up the whole world and puts it on her shoulders she just can’t “get it done.” – March 15, 1933 Will Rogers Is seems like in the last 80 years we could have learned this lesson. Continue reading Carrying the World…
Here is a picture I took in 2009 at the aquarium on Fishers Wharf in San Francisco. Jellyfish just don’t seem real to me. I was totally entranced by this display. Continue reading S.F. Jellyfish
I want to get back to our study of the Book of James in the Bible. To me this is one of the most important books in the Bible as it tells us most directly how to live our lives. Here is an extended quote from the second chapter for our discussion today. I have underlined a few places that I will be discussing further. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You … Continue reading James The Brother of Jesus – Faith Without Works is Dead…..
USA TODAY’s notable tech products from 2011 – USATODAY.com. If you seniors out there want to learn about some of the tech innovations in 2011 I would suggest you read this article. There are about a dozen significant things that surfaced in 2011 on the new technology front. One of the first things I noticed in this article is that the author constantly mentions that some of the new products coming on the market are almost as good as Apple products. That seems to be a common mantra the last few years. I finally realized that if it is “almost … Continue reading Notable Tech Products from 2011
I’m going back a ways for this In The Slow Lane photo but it is from Galena Illinois which was the home of U.S. Grant. It is really a nice place to visit. The town is very well maintained in the late 1800s period and lots of shopping and historic sites. Continue reading Galena Cellars…
This would be a great world to dance in if we didn’t have to pay the fiddler. – June 27, 1930 Will Rogers I haven’t heard the phrase “Its time to pay the fiddler” in years. When I looked it up on Wikipedia it was shown to be a country music song sung by Ernest Tubb among others. It goes something like this: Well it’s time to pay the fiddler And it’s sad to know we’ve danced it all away But the warm night’s disappearing Leaving nothing but the cold hard light of day Since “paying the fiddler” is in … Continue reading Paying the Fiddler…
“I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come out right. In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.” – Anne Frank, from The Diary of Anne Frank As pointed out these words were from Anne Frank. Here is some of what Wikipedia says about her Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank 12 June 1929 – early March 1945) … Continue reading Words from Anne Frank…
. . . no man is great if he thinks he is. – March 1, 1929 Will Rogers This one sentence said a lot about people in Will’s day but maybe even more so in today’s world. In a nutshell, anyone who thinks they are great aren’t! It is as simple as that. Thinking that you are great will almost certainly assure that your greatness is in your mind only. The really great people all the way from Moses through Lincoln and beyond never assumed they were meant for greatness. There are several conditions that lead to thinking you are … Continue reading Great Men…
Source: Mind the Gap | edsteinink.com. Interesting story yesterday about how wide the economic gulf has become between members of Congress and their constituents. According to the New York Times, the median net worth of the folks in Congress grew 15 percent from 2004 to 2010, while the public saw its net worth drop 8 percent. Senators and representatives have always been richer than the average American, but the gap has grown precipitously in recent years. The average member of Congress has a net worth almost ten times that of the general public; half of all members are millionaires, and … Continue reading The 1% (in Washington) – Ed Stein
Source: Editorial: Too fast to get out of Iraq? No – USATODAY.com. Just nine days after the departure of U.S. forces, Iraq is looking more like its old self — divided, angry and threatened by civil war and dictatorship — than like the self-reliant democracy President Obama described as the troops came home. I don’t understand why the Republicans, and even some Democrats believe that we can change thousands of years of local history in a foreign nation by occupying it with our military might. I truly think that those who follow this tactic believe that they can turn nations into democracies in this … Continue reading Its Just Iraq Being Iraq….
Call me a naive optimist if you want but now that we are in a new year here are some things I hope, actually dream, to see in 2012: From a personal standpoint My wife and I (and for that matter all seniors) maintain our health in the coming year. That I manage to see more of this great country on our vacations this year. That my actions live up to my words in being my brother’s keeper That I find some good projects this year to keep the boredom down :) That the words of Will Rogers continues to … Continue reading Hopes & Dreams For 2012…
Here is an extended quote from the second chapter of James for our discussion today: You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is … Continue reading Fire Insurance???
via Will bank branches wither away? – USATODAY.com. In the past year, the number of bank customers who prefer to bank online has jumped sharply, according to a survey conducted in August by the American Bankers Association. Sixty-two percent of bank customers said they prefer banking online to all other methods, up from 36% in 2010. Only 20% of customers said they preferred using a branch, down from 25% last year. I can remember as a youngster taking some of my hard earned grass mowing money to the bank to open a savings account. The lady there that handled all … Continue reading Will bank branches wither away?
Source: Ford’s Theatre, citing errors, refuses to carry Bill O’Reilly’s ‘Killing Lincoln’ – CSMonitor.com. Just because you write a book doesn’t mean you are an expert in something. Fox New’s Bill O’Reilly I’m sure has a large following on his news show. I know he rants and raves just like most do on that network. He often mentions that he is a self-proclaimed expert on Lincoln who was the founder of the Republican party. However, it seems that his book on the subject of Lincoln’s assassination will not be sold in Ford’s Theatre where the killing took place. The historians there … Continue reading Just Because You Write a Book…
Source: Cosmic Log – Faster-than-light neutrinos confirmed. Goodbye E=m² !!! It looks like scientists have discovered that matter can travel faster than the speed of light. One of Einstein’s simplest and most dramatic theories postulated that this was impossible. According to the theory when matter approaches the speed of light it turns into pure energy. He also postulated that matter no bigger than an eraser could create more energy than all the stockpiles of nuclear bombs now in existence. Einstein was definitely one of my heroes as I was growing up. I think I read his biography when I was in … Continue reading Say It Isn't So….
I will get right to it here. As the title implies I just don’t seem to have any patience for wordy writing or speaking anymore. Maybe I have never had that patience but now I am now old enough and bold enough to finally come out and say it. I read so many things lately and my mind is screaming “Come to the point!” Why can’t people just say what they mean? I was flamed recently for criticizing N.T. Wright who is a pretty well know theologian at least among my Baptist friends. In a blog interview I read he … Continue reading I Don't Have Patience for Blah, Blah, Blah….
Source: NBC Politics – Congress prepares for year-end spending and tax cut bazaar. Complain if you will about congressional gridlock, but right before the holidays is often when the gridlock eases because everyone is focused on getting out of town and back to their families. The extension of at least some of the 53 tax credits and preferences which Congress created or preserved last December. The platter of tax breaks includes something for almost all tastes: the deduction of state and local sales taxes, which is worth about $2.8 billion to taxpayers who itemize, the economic development credit for American Samoa, … Continue reading Congress prepares for year-end spending and tax cut bazaar
Merry Christmas Everyone . Talk to you again on Monday Continue reading Merry Christmas…
Source: Obama Strikes Populist Chord With Speech in Heartland – NYTimes.com. The most recent proposal by Senate Democrats calls for reducing the share of Social Security payroll tax paid by employees to 3.1 percent from the already reduced level of 4.2 percent. If Congress takes no action, the tax is to revert to 6.2 percent next month. The cut, under the proposal, would be offset by a 1.9 percent surtax on modified adjusted gross income in excess of $1 million, which would take effect in 2013. Everyone is saying that the Social Security Trust Fund is on the road to bankruptcy … Continue reading Taking Money Out of Social Security
I have always wondered who the party faithfuls are. :) Continue reading I Have Wondered Who They Are??
Cosmic Log – Bam! How comics teach science. The source article above doesn’t have much to do with this post other than invoking some buried thoughts from my childhood. The comics they talk about in no way resemble the ones I read when I was a kid. I haven’t been around comic books in years so I don’t know what the general contexts are now. In my day it was about Superman, Spiderman, Archie, and hundreds of others. But one thing I am pretty sure of is that I’m sure of is that is where I gained my first real interest … Continue reading Comic Books Made Me Who I Am???
Thank you my Quaker brothers and sisters for being the conscience of Christ where so many others won’t. Continue reading The Power of Love
Dear R.J., “Jim, Christianity has nothing to do with racism.” That’s what my church elder told me when I was a 15-year-old boy. Can you believe that? “That’s political, and our faith is personal,” he said. That’s the night I left my church. This kind of story is all too common. So that’s exactly why we founded Sojourners 40 years ago – to call Christians back to a radical Jesus, the one who called us to be with “the least of these,” including those people living with the realities of poverty, racism, and war. Forty years ago, many Christians didn’t understand … Continue reading Not as Much as We Would Like to Believe…
“Wounding and healing are not opposites. They’re part of the same thing. It is our wounds that enable us to be compassionate with the wounds of others. It is our limitations that make us kind to the limitations of other people. It is our loneliness that helps us to to find other people or to even know they’re alone with an illness. I think I have served people perfectly with parts of myself I used to be ashamed of. ” – Rachel Naomi Remen Here is another inspirational message from my daily emails for Sojourners which has become one of my favorite … Continue reading In Service To Others…..
The Republican candidates for President, via their debates, are in a race to the bottom… but that is where their base is. I can’t give you a name to go with this quote but it is a poignant one. The Republican base makes up about 20% of the total electorate. It seems like it will be a very difficult job to turn around the rhetoric when the primaries are over. I can’t see how they will spin the words of these current times to appeal to the other 80% of voters? As usual they seem to be against much much … Continue reading A Race to the Bottom…
“We do not strive for spectacular actions. What counts is the gift of yourself, the degree of love you put into each of your deeds.” – Mother Teresa, from The Love of Christ Almighty God, tear down the walls that divide us. Remove whatever infects our eyes, that we may see the stranger not as different but as a brother or a sister. Amen. This voice and prayer come from Sojourners daily emails. Mother Teresa was not one to be showy in her actions but she definitely put love into each of her deeds and her deeds were many. If we show … Continue reading Each of Our Deeds…
Here is another of my favorite Cardinal Winter pictures. It was taken in early 2011 during an ice storm. I broke a rib falling on the ice later that day!! Continue reading Iced In….
You gotta love all the spin masters on Wall Street these days. I noticed these headline here several times this year. BIGGEST ONE DAY GAIN!!! But what they don’t talk about is that the day before was the biggest one day loss so all that the gain did was put us back to where we were the day before yesterday. These guys will do just about anything to try to justify their big year-end bonuses. But what do I know…. Continue reading Biggest One Day Gain!!!
Source: Start-ups cue up for mobile video-sharing – USATODAY.com. Texting is so old school according to the latest trends. Video is where it is at today. Here is a quote from the referenced article: The meteoric rise of camera-equipped smartphones has popularized personal videos. And several new companies are rushing to develop mobile apps to help consumers capture, edit and share those videos across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Think of it as serving the YouTube 2.0 generation. Not only are many users now capturing video over mobile, they are transmitting over mobile and adding the social-media aspect, too… I know my … Continue reading About Video Sharing….
I got my hands on a Kindle Touch yesterday so I want to tell you a little about it and why you may want one. No, I’m not getting paid anything from Amazon but I am a regular customer of theirs. As the header shows here I am targeting this review toward seniors. When I talk about e-books to some seniors I often get a list similar to the one below on why they don’t think they would like to go that route: get headaches from reading computer screens You can’t use a computer in bright sunlight. The batteries don’t … Continue reading E-Book Readers
Source: Wolfram Blog : Stock Market Returns by Presidential Party. The New York Times recently published an “Op-Chart” by Tommy McCall on its Opinion page showing what your returns would have been had you started with $10,000 in 1929 and invested it in the stock market, but only during the administrations of either Democratic or Republican presidents. His calculations showed that if you had invested only during Republican administrations you would now have $11,733 while if you had invested only during Democratic administrations you would now have $300,671. Twenty-five times as much! This must be one of those deep dark secrets … Continue reading An Investment Strategy No One Talks About….
There is nothing as easy as denouncing. . . . It don’t take much to see that something is wrong, but it does take some eyesight to see what will put it right again. -July 28, 1935 Will Rogers It seems most of our political leaders need a serious eye exam. Continue reading Will Rogers Quote for the Day
Here is an interesting article from the blog quakerquaker.org that I thought worth putting here. He has quite a few valid arguments but I’m sure most will ignore them due to him coming to the “wrong” conclusion. The Progressive Gospel (according to me) Posted by Dave Salyers on 12th mo. 8, 2011 at 11:00am Send Message View Blog The essence of the Good News of the Gospel as taught by Jesus is very simple and can be understood by even a child. The purpose of life is to have good and fulfilling relationships with other people and the larger community of life. Jesus … Continue reading Salvation According to a Progressive Quaker
I get a daily email from Sojourners.net containing a verse from the Christian Bible as well as a corresponding quote from someone in today’s world. Here is one I got recently: “My father . . . used to say, ‘I need my anger. It obliges me to take action.’ I think my father was partly right. Anger arises, naturally, to signal disturbing situations that might require action. But actions initiated in anger perpetuate suffering. The most effective actions are those conceived in the wisdom of clarity.” – Sylvia Boorstein From what I can find I think that Sylvia Boorstein is … Continue reading My Anger Obliges Me to Take Action…
Here is an anonymous quote I ran across a little while ago. If you give a man a fire, he will be warm for the night. If you set a man on fire, he will be warm the rest of his life Very off-the-wall but humorous in a macabre sort of way. And here is another one that is even more insane Guns Save Lives.. Now I need to put my brain back in my head and go on about the rest of the day. Have a good one…. Continue reading Way Off The Top…
I ran across an old saying the other day that goes something like this Your first wife is just practice for the real thing Being that I am now over 65 and have been married to my first wife for more than twenty-five years I don’t much buy into that logic but it did get me to thinking about things being “just practice”. What if this life is just a practice for the next one which would be the “real thing”? I know to many that thought is kind of absurd but it does get some of us thinking. Are … Continue reading Just Practice
Ten men in our country could buy the World, and ten million can’t buy enough to eat. -August 16, 1931 Will Rogers Sometimes it is almost eerie to see the similarities between the depth of the Great Depression and today. The last time we were not able to break the grip of our aristocracy’s absolute control of wealth. Maybe we will this time around? After all they do say practice makes perfect. Or at least get them to paying their fair share. Let’s not put all the burden on their secretaries to pay the higher percentage of taxes. But what … Continue reading Getting Enough to Eat….
The Republicans are constantly harping about how ineffective it is to have businesses run by political processes. In most cases I agree with them in that regard. Just look at the many military contractors and their infamous $10,000 toilet seats to see an example of that. Every person in congress has his hand out when it comes to our bloated military budgets. Things run by political processes is kind of like making decisions by a committee and we all saw how the congressional super committee was at that. One of those cases of running a business as a political process is … Continue reading Putting the Political Process into Business Decisions….
I am going to take a break from the Bible book of James to bring over a post from one of my now inactive blogs at RedLetterLiving.net . It is about another one of my heroes. This list has proven to be a cornerstone on my beliefs of non-violence and man’s humanity. I know that Gandhi was not a Christian but many of his actions were certainly Christian in nature and principle. I found the picture shown here under a pile on my desk. I wish it had remained on top but that was not to be the case. … Continue reading The Seven Deadly Sins (Ghandi version)
Source: QR codes 101: What those squiggles do – CSMonitor.com. You have seen those splotching things everywhere now days but what do they do? First of all they are called Quick Response codes or QR for short and they do many many things. Just scan one with your smart phone and it will among other things bring up a website download a coupon that can be immediately used tell you more about the product you are viewing (probably more than any sales clerk you might be able to find) In order to be able to read a QR code you must … Continue reading What those squiggles do…
The official bird for Indiana is the Cardinal and we certainly have a lot of them around my homestead. Here is another picture of them visiting our feeder. We go through about 100 pounds of seed a month but well worth the price of seeing our feathered friends, especially in the winter months Continue reading Our Feathered Friends….
source: Obama Strikes Populist Chord With Speech in Heartland – NYTimes.com. Mr. Roosevelt called the conflict between “the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess” central to progress. The men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess I know this isn’t exactly a campaign slogan but it is close enough. For those who know your history the “Mr. Roosevelt” was Theodore Roosevelt and the statement was made when he was fighting for the common man against the Robber Barons … Continue reading Another Campaign Slogan…
