Here I am about a month into my revived Mac experience and one thing that is obviously different is that I no longer get the “Virus Update Available” message anymore! With the PC this was usually a twice a week experience. I most often stopped whatever I was doing when the screen popped up telling me to download the latest protection. After all even though I performed regular backups I didn’t want to put all my files at risk of being stolen or wiped out by the ever present viruses around the Windows system. I now go days at a … Continue reading "Virus Update Available…"

Success: Senate Supports Quicker Afghanistan Withdrawal Good news! For the first time, the Senate has approved legislation calling for an end to the U.S. war in Afghanistan and your support was a big factor in this success. Last week, the Senate added the amendment, offered by Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley (OR) and Republican Senator Mike Lee (UT), to the military authorization bill. The near-unanimous approval of this amendment shows the significant and growing dissatisfaction with the war in Congress and the power of your action. I got this from an email from the FCNL a few days ago. It seems like the … Continue reading Some Good News on the War Front…

I spend a few days a week writing posts for RJs Corner. Since I have several categories outside of the political arena much of that time is spent just looking at life as Will Rogers taught me and then talking with you about my observations. Will’s most famous saying was I never met a fellow I didn’t like and I think he really meant those words. I try to emulate him in that regard even with those who have a political and life philosophy that is diametrically opposite to mine.  I try to see the good side of everyone. This … Continue reading My Conservative Friend…

This is one of the first pictures I took waking up aboard a cruise ship in Alaskan waters in 2006. Continue reading First Sights..

I have always been a techie. I paid almost a month’s salary for my first computer in the early 1980s and never turned back since then.  Over the years I have gotten some heat from others about being a nerd, even before the word was invented.  But I think my techie mentality has served me well over the years and it definitely has given me something to do in my senior years. I see others my age making statement like “I don’t understand (some say use) any of that computer stuff”. Of course almost every child born in the last … Continue reading Techie Lessons…

If you are a regular reader of this blog you already know that I recently returned to the Apple fold by replacing my old PC with a new MacBookAir. This has been a very enjoyable experience for me. It seems that Apple has chosen to do several things differently than Microsoft. One of those things that I perhaps appreciate the most is in the Apple Safari browser.  It seems that Apple has had a go around with Adobe and does not include many of their add-ins in its browser. For those of you who don’t know it is the Adobe … Continue reading No More Flashing Ads……

I recently came across the commencement address Steve Jobs gave at Stanford in June 2005. It was quite inspiring in its content, even for a guy like me who is on the down hill slide rather than starting up the mountain as the Stanford graduates were.  About a year before this event Steve was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer and given three to six months to live. Most of us know that he actually lived another seven years. Here are some inspiring words from that address: Don’t get trapped by dogma – which is living the results of other people’s thinking. … Continue reading Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish….

We are always yapping about the “Old days” and how we look back and enjoy it, but I tell you there is a lot of huey to it. There is a whole lot of all our past lives that was not so hot. -September 2, 1934 Will Rogers Why is it that once we become senior citizens so many of us lament about the “good old days”? Yes, I remember some good times in the past but as Will says much of my past life was not so hot. I remember as a youth when my grandparents made the same … Continue reading The Good Old Days….

  Last week I used a Will Rogers quote to basically say that if you are satisfied you are successful. But just what is satisfaction?  The first thought I had was the Rolling Stones song, “I can’t get no satisfaction…and I tried, and I tried”. That is kind of the story of my life I guess. I have never seemed to be able to accept the possibility of being satisfied with much of anything. I am always expecting more of myself than I seem to be able , or at least want, to deliver. I just can’t seem to get … Continue reading Satisfaction….

Sanity, Insanity.. Continue reading Across The Great Divide….

  Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress  and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. In regards to keeping a tight rein on your tongue this is a continuation of yesterday’s post. To look after orphans and widows is to be your brother’s keeper. The second lesson being polluted by the world is really about forgetting the first lesson. Continue reading More Words from James, The Brother Of Jesus

The title of the post is coming out of the mouths of many of our military people since the super committee, like the rest of congress,  couldn’t seem to agree with each other on anything. That means across the board cuts in all discretionary spending including the military. Even the newly appointed DoD secretary Leon Panetta is spouting off. Many of the military backers in Congress are trying to find a way to get out of this dilemma.  They say a 10% cut would put us back to pre-WWII levels. That is what they say but lets look at the … Continue reading We Can’t Possibly Take a 10% Cut In Our Military!!

A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible. —Woodrow Wilson 1919 The only difference between then and now is that the group of willful men is much larger. Continue reading Woodrow Wilson Quote

Talk about mottos this one sounds like it  should take its place beside A chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage”.  That one was from the Hoover campaign of 1928. You remember that one; it was just before the great depression hit. (I don’t know why they call it “great”; there was nothing great about it.) The title here is from an email put out by the Obama re-election committee. I have the honor (if you want to call it that) of getting these emails on a regular basis. Here are some excerpts from a recent letter: Friend — …. … Continue reading Where everybody who does their fair share gets a fair shake…..

  Is the first amendment dead except for those who control the money?? Here is a new definitions of the Golden Rule “Those who have the gold make the rules”. Sad, Sad…. Continue reading So Much for Peaceful Demonstrations…

I have taken this picture probably a dozen times over the last twenty years. It represents an almost perfect symmetry to me. Continue reading Pleasant Hill Attic…

Here is another post on the words of James, the brother of Jesus. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.  But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.  Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.  As James indicates not all “wisdom” comes from God. Be very careful … Continue reading James, The Brother Of Jesus….About Heavenly Wisdom and Humility

  Money and women are the most sought after and the least known about of any two things we have. -May 20, 1934  Will Rogers Oh Will you sage from the past!! But I guess the mystery of money and women even outdate you.  It has probably been going on since Adam and Eve. My mother abandoned my father, brother and me when I was about nine years old so I was never around women much during my formable years. Due to my timidity, something that I have definitely gotten over since then, women remained a mystery to me well … Continue reading Money & Women….

Source:  Cain: God persuaded me to run for president – USATODAY.com. Looking at the source article you might be expecting me to talk about how God is involved in politics but I won’t go there. God has much more sense than to get involved in the kind of stuff that is going around today. Instead I am going to talk about government spending…. Here are some words from the reference article: During his speech, Cain also criticized President Barack Obama for canceling the space shuttle program — a decision actually made by President George W. Bush— as NASA shifts its … Continue reading I Was For It Before I Was Against It

It looks like the super committee is, like the rest of congress, is in a partisan gridlock. As the cartoon to the right portrays the Republicans have taken a pledge to not put any additional taxes on their super rich supporters. They prefer to put the burden the poor and middle class with any deficit reduction plans. Of course this will not fly with the Democratic members of the committee so there is the usual gridlock. When they set up the supper committee they said that if the committee did not come up with a resolution to reduce the deficit then there … Continue reading Its Probably a Good Thing….

I kind of doubt it……Will freezer burn ruin the country instead?? Continue reading Frozen Turkeys

  “When you are satisfied, you are successful. For that’s all there is to success is satisfaction.”  July 29, 1928 Will Rogers I recently visited a place I have been to on about five other visits. I can’t seem to get enough of the totally relaxing atmosphere of this place. It is called Pleasant Hill Shaker Village and it is near Lexington KY. One of the Shakers mottos of life is Put Your Hands to Work; and Your Hearts to God When I recently came across the above quote by Will this phrase came to mind.  The Quakers were a … Continue reading The Definition of Success….

Continue reading Leaves of Fall…

Source:  10 great places to experience the simple life – USATODAY.com. It’s not uncommon at Shaker Village to see a pair of oxen laboring in the field or a blacksmith in period clothing shoeing a horse. It’s a delightful step back in time and “a testament to the simplicity of the Shaker lifestyle,” van Ogtrop says. “Plank-and-stone fences lace together nearly 3,000 lush bluegrass acres where a community of Shakers once lived, worked and worshiped.” It’s great to see Pleasant Hill get this national attention. It is number 2 on the list of 10 great places. Here is another picture … Continue reading 10 great places to experience the simple life – USATODAY.com

“The Bible speaks with remarkable frequency of ‘bearing.’ It is capable of expressing the whole work of Jesus Christ in this one word… Therefore, the Bible can also characterize the whole life of the Christian as bearing the cross. It is the fellowship of the cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship [one] belongs to is not Christian.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer Bonhoeffer described faith without works as a dead faith and therefore worthless. Let us all take to heart these words and the words of James, the brother of Jesus, in our … Continue reading Bearing our Burdens for Others….

But every one of us write our own history. If it sounds better the way we want it than the way it might have been why that don’t stop us any more than an amber light. -September 17, 1933      Will Rogers I think that this is one of those saying that is probably more true now than when it was in Will’s day. If I remember the figures correctly about 50% of the resumes in the job world contain embellishments or outright falsehoods. And of course the number one cause for traffic accidents today are people running red … Continue reading Writing Our Own History….

Source:  Obama college loan plan aims at an old voting bloc – Boston.com. Everybody in Washington seems to be apologizing to each other.  In Washington they just generally figure that one hatred offsets the other and they are both even. -January 25, 1935  Will Rogers The above article is about a new tact that President Obama is now beginning to use. He will basically provide via executive orders do what he can to help relieve the problems we are in.  It seems that the Republicans are dead set of stopping him for gaining any ground via the congressional process so … Continue reading Maybe He is Starting to Lead??

Looking back at the prosperity of the Clinton years of the 1990’s I’d say we’ve lost a lot of ground in this country. Are our best days behind us? They don’t have to be but given the current circumstances they might well be. If we cannot put aside our hatred of other political persuasions and creeds we may have peaked. The “us” vs. “them” mentality  that is so pervasive today is a very destructive thing and as a result it just might be all down hill from here. If we can’t get past these things then even I might live to … Continue reading We've Lost A Lot Of Ground In This Country….

source:  Silence is My Leading – QuakerQuaker. One of the most fascinating things I find from Quaker religious practices is their unprogrammed worship. That is where they spend time simply sitting and waiting for a message from God. This activity, or should I say inactivity, is unheard of in most other forms of religious practices. From the source article I have found that there are two distinctively different feeling about what is to be accomplished by this “waiting”.  Here is a quote from that article: For the Activist silent worship is a means towards an end.  That end is the … Continue reading Silently Waiting for God…..

The short answer to this question at least to those of us who love our neighbors as the Lord taught us is an emphatic YES The longer answer follows: Going to war should be the very last thing we do when we have a conflict with another nation. But at least with our last two wars that does not seem to be the case especially in Iraq. We seemed to rush into the invasion of that country long before it could ever have been deemed necessary. We allowed our president to feed us an untrue line that we were in … Continue reading Is Technology Making War Too Easy??

Reflections of Canada – RJ Walters (all rights reserved) Continue reading Ottawa Canada July 2011

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31 Continue reading The Greatest of God’s Commands

  Source: The 10 Biggest-Selling Drugs That Are About to Lose Their Patent – DailyFinance. I am one of millions of us seniors who is on some very expensive prescription drugs. I currently spend over $1,000/year on Plavix alone. But that is about to change. In May 2012 Plavix will lose is patent exclusivity. That will open the door for an inexpensive generic. The above article show ten high cost drugs that are in the same situation. To the right is also a mention of this from Money magazine in April 2011. I have had it pinned on my bulletin board … Continue reading Hello Plavix Generic…..