I have been thinking about it lately so wanted to post a picture taken from the restaurant on top of the World Trade Center in 1999. It was very strange to look down and see helicopters flying around. The enormity of the buildings that fell is hard to comprehend unless you have actually seen them. Continue reading Looking Back…
History ain’t what it is. It’s what some writer wanted it to be. – Will Rogers Oh Will you sage!! How did so many wise things come from your lips? Another way of saying this is that “history belongs to the victor. Will Rogers, like me to a lessor degree, was part native American. He grew up in Oklahoma which was where most of the native American tribes ended up by the early 1900s. So, I’m sure Will had his ancestry in mind when the wrote these words. We native Americans have always been portrayed as those filthy savages in most of … Continue reading History Is…..
Great artists say that the most beautiful thing in the world is a baby. Well, the next is an old lady, for every wrinkle is a picture. – Will Rogers I guess some people are just not historians, either at the personal level or otherwise. When they begin to see a wrinkle or two on their faces they rush to a plastic surgeon. For those less affluent they make a panic trip to the drug store for the latest anti-wrinkle cream. The latest reports show that in the U.S. we spend more than $10 billion per year for Botox and the … Continue reading Every Wrinkle Is A Picture….
Source: Presidential campaign inevitably boosts war with Iran – latimes.com. This should be a very somber topic for all of us but given the Republican presidential candidates it seems to be otherwise. The eagerness to go to war is far too dominant in those folks. One thing I am very disappointed in President Obama is his war stances. They were pretty much the opposite of what he campaigned on. He seems to be just one of the gang now; the change mantra has all but disappeared. Here are some stark words from the source article: The truth is, Americans are not a peace-loving people. … Continue reading Permanently Geared To War…..
Source: Drugmakers have paid $8 billion in fraud fines – USATODAY.com. The nation’s largest drugmakers have paid at least $8 billion in fines for repeatedly defrauding Medicare and Medicaid over the past decade, but they remain in business with the federal government because they are often the sole suppliers of critical products, records show. This is one of those cases where “you can’t live with them can’t live without them”. Drug companies definitely have improved the quality of life for all of us. We should all be thankful that they are around. But greed, that seems almost ingrained in the capitalist … Continue reading An Ode to Capitalism…..
Source: Mooresville School District, a Laptop Success Story – NYTimes.com. The district’s graduation rate was 91 percent in 2011, up from 80 percent in 2008. On state tests in reading, math and science, an average of 88 percent of students across grades and subjects met proficiency standards, compared with 73 percent three years ago. Attendance is up, dropouts are down. Mooresville ranks 100th out of 115 districts in North Carolina in terms of dollars spent per student — $7,415.89 a year — but it is now third in test scores and second in graduation rates. I know change is difficult for … Continue reading Welcome To The Future?
This is the third of five posts I made on the book If God is Love by Philip Gulley. I have slightly modified it from when it was written over at RedLetterLiving last July. This is a continuation of my expose of the book by Philip Gulley entitled If God Is Love. In this post he talks about Dualistic Theologies. Dualistic theologies reduce the questions of life to one: Are you saved? Nothing else matters. The purpose of life it to answer that single question. Of course, simply saying “yes” is not enough. You confirm your salvation by accepting Jesus as Lord and … Continue reading If God is Love… Part 3
Seeing a fellow blogger talk about his new pet reminded me that I have been getting too serious on this blog lately. So I thought it was time to kick back on this post and show you one of my best friend. Best friends seem to be hard to come by in my senior years. :) She has been with us for about four years now. Although she weighs in at over sixty pounds she thinks she is a lap dog. This picture was taken a few months ago during our only snow storm that lasted more than a day … Continue reading My Best Friend…
The following is an exerpt from a recent Sojourners.com emailing relative to Franklin Graham who now heads the Billy Graham Ministries. The author of the article is shown at the bottom. When Franklin Graham expressed doubts about President Obama’s Christian faith during an interview on Morning Joe last week, it reminded me of an uncomfortable dinner I had in the late ‘90s. I sat down for a pleasant meal in the home of two great friends — one of them a white evangelical faith leader deeply committed to social justice. Well into the evening’s conversation — when we’d dropped all … Continue reading Black Evangelicals, White Evangelicals, and Franklin Graham’s Repentance
Source: Cosmic Log – Flaw found in faster-than-light setup. Months after researchers reported that they measured neutrinos traveling faster than light, they’re finding that the incredible result may have been due to a bad connection rather than a violation of Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity. A while ago I made a post about how scientists today disproved Einstein’s theory of relativity. It was reported that they had been able to measure the speed of a neutrino that was faster than light. According to Albert when things approach the speed of light they end up as pure energy. Well it … Continue reading Albert You Are Safe, For Now…..
via Why Pentagon, facing ‘doomsday’ spending cuts, refuses to plan for them – CSMonitor.com. Pentagon brass say they won’t even brook the possibility that $487 billion in mandated spending cuts – their ‘doomsday’ scenario – will actually come to pass. But if Congress doesn’t blink, say analysts, the Pentagon will be in dire straits. I have always believed that those Pentagon folks are the most arrogant batch of people on God’s Green Earth. As stated above they absolutely refuse to even consider the possibility of cutting their budgets! I’m sure if push comes to shove they will say that a budget … Continue reading Pentagon – a 10% Budget Cut Is Out Of The Question…..
Source: Life Inc. – Role reversal: Employers say they cant find workers. “Employers are getting pickier and pickier,” Holmes said. “We want the perfect person to walk through the door.”Other experts also are seeing evidence that employers just aren’t working as hard to recruit workers, either because they can’t afford to or they don’t feel like they have to. Employers may not be looking far afield because they cant afford moving expenses. Employees may be less willing to move because of the housing bust. I guess I am just showing my age here but at the beginning of my working … Continue reading Employers say they can’t find workers
I am bringing back one of my favorite posts for January of last year. It seems appropriate given all we have learned from the twenty-odd, and I mean odd, Republican debates we have had to endure so far. I’m sure that if the topic had come up during one of their debates they would all have throughly backed this theme. From January 11, 2011 Source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20110118/cm_csm/354973;_ylt=At28KK0Z7OndNM3vfaeRt82s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFlZW4ybXNuBHBvcwMyMTcEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9vcGluaW9uBHNsawNiYXJyaWVydG9iZXQ- The first words of this article caught my attention today. Let’s pull a few quotes from the article; they are in blue below. If you want to see the original article by Anthony Schlaff click … Continue reading Deserves a Second Showing….
I have had some questions and some search engine links to my blog about a “late deafened culture” so I want to talk a little about that here. As I mentioned on other posts I have been deaf for the last twenty-five years or so. Anyone who went deaf after acquiring the ability to speak is considered late deafened so I am obviously one. We make up about 1.5% of the current population in the U.S. The other deaf group is the pre-lingually deaf. They typically have been deaf since birth or at a very early stage. They make up … Continue reading Late Deafened Culture??
This is the second post of five about the book by Philip Gulley entitled If God is Love. Like the first installment last Sunday this one was also pulled from one of my other blogs at RedLetterLiving.net I made a few minor modifications to the original post. Post from RedLetterLiving March 2009 This is a continuation of my collection of snippets from the book by Philip Gulley entitled If God is Love. The Psalmists boats, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hate. I count them … Continue reading Book Review – If God Is Love (Part 2)
I enjoy cooking with wine and sometimes I even put it in the food I’m cooking. – Julia Childs I have always enjoyed cooking. After Mom abandoned my brother, Dad, and me I did most of the cooking. That was when I was about 10 years old. Of course at that time I didn’t know about cooking with wine but I did make pretty good biscuits and gravy among other things. Dad was the son of a pig farmer so we ate lots of pork. :) It would be years later before I discovered things like Coq Au Vin. This reminds me … Continue reading I Enjoy Cooking With Wine….
I always try to see the best in people and try not to attack anyone personally but sometimes it seems necessary to do so. This is one of those times. Rush Limbaugh is in the center of it once again for his outrageous comments. He is indeed a raving lunatic! But he is also a very rich raving lunatic because of his behavior. That in my mind is a major cause of where we are in the political sphere in this country today. It is reported that Mr. Limbaugh made about $30 million last year from his rantings. I’m sure all … Continue reading Raving Lunatics…..
I am going to put on my teacher’s hat now. Although I have never been an official teacher I have taught at several seminars in both the professional arena and the religious arena. So here is a lesson about altruism. On the right side of my blog I proudly proclaim that I am a passionate altruist. But what does that really mean? As usual there are varying definitions of the term. Here is what Dictionary.com defines as an altruist: altruism (ˈæltruːˌɪzəm) 1. the principle or practice of unselfish concern for the welfare of others 2. the philosophical doctrine that right action is that which produces the greatest benefit to others While this short answer gives you an idea of what altruism is let’s … Continue reading What Is An Altruist??
Most people, especially those in the U.S. like to proudly proclaim we are number one. We shout it from the rooftops. We scream it about our favorite sports team. We are often caught with that silly large rubber hand to show our pride. We as a country are number one in several areas. We’re number one when it comes to our war machine. Heck, you could combine all the other war machines in the world together and that would still not knock us out of first place. We spend many times more in this country than in country in the … Continue reading We’re Number One……
Since we seem to be on the verge of yet another long war, this time with Iran, I thought I would do a short post here from my friends at FCNL. Please tell your senator and congressman that we don’t want to go through another senseless war. War is not the answer. We are the answer. All of us. All of us who are weary of turmoil and conflict… who seek a world free of war and the threat of war… who seek a society with equity and justice for all…who seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled… … Continue reading War is NOT the Answer…
Psst…. I want to let you in on my dirty little secret. Don’t tell any of my Republican friends but sometimes I agree with what they say! I don’t often say it but I will whisper it here. Although I am a social progressive down to my soul I am also a fiscal conservative. I think we should all live within our means and that certainly includes our federal institutions. Source: Federal Workers Face ‘Unprecedented Assault’ in U.S. Budget War – Businessweek. “People who are government servants, public servants, should not be paid more than the taxpayers who are paying for … Continue reading My Dirty Little Secret…
Source: Many have little savings as retirement looms – USATODAY.com. Ravages of the stock market. The people Redmond encounters most who are lacking sufficient retirement savings weren’t necessarily delinquent or negligent. Many had money saved but were wiped out by the sour stock market in the past decade and poor investment strategies, Redmond says. That’s what happened, in part, to Robert and Connie Cabana of Tampa, who are both in their 60s. Robert built up a sizable 401(k) working as a financial executive at Verizon. Connie was a business assistant for a local irrigation supply company. Connie was laid off four … Continue reading Many have little savings as retirement looms
The book review post I want to bring over from my other blog at RedLetterLiving.net is one that had a profound effect on me during my three year search into current Christian organizations. In fact this book review spanned over five posts. (I haven’t decided yet whether to bring all five here or not). Phillip Gulley was one of my first encounters with the Society of Friends, otherwise know as Quakers. It would definitely spur much more reading about this group of Christians. Here is a slightly edited version of the March 2009 post Today I am going to talk … Continue reading Book Review – If God Is Love…
There ought to be a law against anybody going to Europe till they had seen the things we have in this country. – August 14, 1930 Will Rogers Although Will traveled around the world he was a homeboy at heart. I have been to all fifty State but still haven’t seen what we have in this country yet. Note in the photo here Will is twirling a lasso while writing for his blog of the day otherwise known as a newspaper column. He certainly was a showman :) Continue reading Made in the USA….
Source: A Genuine Willingness – QuakerQuaker. We long for connections to others. We want to belong to something greater than ourselves. At the same time, we demand autonomy and freedom from constraints imposed by virtue of belonging to a group. These opposing pulls cause stress on both institutions and individuals as we try to meet the requirements of our outer and inner worlds. How do we genuinely balance our need to be self-determining persons and, at the same time, contributing members of society? The answer depends on our definitions. If my interpretation of self-determination is how much I can gain for … Continue reading Connections….
Source: Possible U.S., China trade dispute looms – USATODAY.com. In September, the Department of Energy said that only about 6% of the solar cells and modules sold around the world were made in the U.S., compared with more than 40% in 1995. In the last six years, China’s global market share has ballooned to 54% from 6%. The average price of solar modules has plummeted more than 40% to $1.25 per watt in the past two years. The U.S. prides itself on being the leader of high technology. We depend on it to keep jobs here in the country. So when … Continue reading They Have Learned Their Lessons Well…..
Proposal would keep calendar same every year – USATODAY.com. Each year, Jan. 1 falls on a different day of the week, and the entire following year shifts accordingly. Schools, sports teams, businesses and banks spend many hours and millions of dollars calculating on what day of the week certain dates will fall, to schedule holidays and set interest rates. Yesterday was the day to adjust our calendar to be aligned with the sun. We do that every four years on the 29th of February. Our current calendar was invented about 1582 and is called the Gregorian calendar. It was named … Continue reading Proposal would keep calendar same every year
Today is a weird day. It only comes once every four years. So, I thought I would put out a totally weird post that I have been holding on to for some time. It starts with a quote from a not-so-well known person. Don’t get consumed by all the negativity in the world. Lighten up once in a while — January 11,2012 RJ Walters Now I’m not getting a big head here (at least not too much) by quoting myself. I just thought this should be said by someone. It just seems so easy to get totally down with all the negativity … Continue reading Don’t Get Consumed….
Source: God’s Dwelling Place – QuakerQuaker. There is no such thing as a sense of integrity that acknowledges the measure of light I have within me while at the same time ignoring the corresponding light within my neighbor. As that light is as constant within him or her as it is within me, there is no reasonable way or appropriate time to withhold the integrity my neighbor deserves as much as me. Nor are we to be honest and truthful with some and not with others because of such vain differences as race, gender, age, income, and sexual orientation. God dwells … Continue reading God’s Dwelling Place
Killing someone without government permission is wrong!! I guess it is just a matter of how you look at things in the world. I ran across the statement above recently and was dumbstruck by it. But after thinking of it a while I realized that from a military and a capital punishment perspective this is how we justify killing the “bad guys”. If the State says its ok to kill then you are justified in doing it! This has to be the primary mentality that allows a military sniper, which by the way is the fastest growing sector of our … Continue reading A Point of Perspective….
Source: The Body Odd – Cracking the code: Why yuor barin can raed tihs. For emaxlpe, it deson’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. It is funny how we can read this above sort of thing. It is even funnier how I can read my own handwriting a day or more after I have written it. We use context to pre-activate the areas of our brains … Continue reading Cracking the code: Why yuor barin can raed tihs
‘Star Wars’ universe getting a lot bigger – USATODAY.com. I am a Star Wars junkie, I freely admit it. I find it fascinating to take a peak of a possible future scenario that doesn’t end with us polluting the world beyond livability. I enjoy movies like “Soylent Green” and “Mad Max” but would rather believe we have a rosier future than they portray. Call me a wild-eyed dreamer if you want; I really don’t care. I have recently watched all the Star Wars movies in high def and I usually see an episode of “The Next Generation” or one of … Continue reading ‘Star Wars’ universe getting a lot bigger…
I see the Republicans have yet another “front-runner”! This time it is Rick Santorum. This makes every one of the eight or so wannabes that has moved to the front of the pack. But when that happens they soon seem to fizzle out like a flash in the pan. They get on the front burner of public attention and the heat becomes too much for them. Maybe Mr. Santorum will be different but I kind of doubt it. He has his flaws just like all the rest of them. The Republicans want the “perfect” candidate, at least according to their … Continue reading Another Flash in the Pan….
I can’t imagine the patience it takes to make one of these stone walls found at the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village near Lexington KY and there are hundreds of feet of them there. Continue reading Patience and Simplicity…
In my three year journey of studying current day Christian organizations I read many books that inspired me. So, in the coming weeks I will be re-blogging some of the posts from my blog at RedLetterLiving.net . I will limit these posts to just things that inspired me in this area. I will NOT be revisiting things that let me down. Here is the first review of a book by Gregory Boyd. He is indeed a profound writer on things pertaining to Christ. <<<Post from August 13, 2009>>>: I just finished the book Letters from a Skeptic by Greg Boyd and I … Continue reading Book Review – Letters from a Skeptic
If you can’t be good, be different. – April 29, 1928 Will Rogers Can any of us really be good for any extended period of time? I don’t think so. So, that leaves just one alternative; being different. All of us at times want to stand out from the crowd. None of us want to be vanilla flavored. Teenagers in particular go to extremes to be “different”. So much so that they end up looking and acting like all their classmates. That is the ‘catch 22’ of trying to be different when you really aren’t. If everyone wants to be … Continue reading If You Can’t Be Good….
Source: Scientists invent lightest material on Earth. What now? – latimes.com. This is a fascinating article about a new material. The picture at the right says it all. It sits peacefully on top of a fluffy dandelion. And proudly it was invented by a U.S. institution at CalTech. I just hope that some U.S. firm can manage to take this concept into a usable stage. It seems that many of these types of things have to leave the country lately in order to find practical applications. Being a retired engineer my mind leaps to see all the practical uses. What if the … Continue reading Scientists invent lightest material on Earth. What now?
Most of my life I have prided myself of being aware of what is going on in the world. I often cite the words of Thomas Jefferson who said a democracy depends on an informed electorate. But, much of my life has also been spent being a contrarian. I am always looking at the majority opinion on things and then looking at opposing views to see if maybe they make more sense. Sometimes these two philosophies collide; I think that is what happened here. What I am about to say now seems to go against the very grain of my life … Continue reading Head In The Sand….
Source: This Life or the Afterlife – QuakerQuaker. I don’t spend much time worrying about where I will be after I die. Instead I try to spend my time just concentrating on the words of Jesus as found in my Bible. By his words he shows us how to live a God pleasing life. Yes, in spite of what several current Christian denominations say, I believe it is possible to please God by doing, or at least trying to do, what he told us to do. God, unlike what some say, does not just view us as worthless pieces of snot who can do nothing … Continue reading This Life or the Afterlife??
Source: Young Women Go Back to School Instead of Work – NYTimes.com. “Today young girls are told they can do anything, go into any occupation. But if boys express any interest in traditionally female occupations, they get teased and bullied,” Ms. Coontz said. “Lots of guys are not understanding what’s happening to traditional low-income or middle-income male jobs.” Jobs in the male-dominated manufacturing industry and in other sectors involving manual labor have been, and still are, in structural decline. These careers can also be hard to maintain indefinitely because youthful strength eventually fades. And now many manufacturing workers do not have … Continue reading You Want To Be A What??
After watching the ending of a movie about Leo Tolstoy the other day I got interested in his life and writings. It surprised me to learn that he like Thomas Jefferson had written his own version of the Bible called the “Tolstoy Bible”. He again like Jefferson believed that the Christian church had strayed too far from the words of its founder Jesus Christ. I also learned that much of what Gandhi practiced come from Tolstoy’s writings. Here are some words about that from Wikipedia: Tolstoy’s Christian beliefs centered on the Sermon on the Mount, particularly the injunction to turn … Continue reading Tolstoy and Christianity….
I have been thinking lately about the words of Jesus and how he interacted with those he came across. Except for some of those in the religious establishment I couldn’t find any instance where he chose to automatically exclude from his saving grace or the wisdom of his teachings. He treated men and women pretty much the same; he welcomed all to his ministry. The poor and marginalized seemed to be special targets for him to reach out. He just wasn’t one to exclude anyone, even tax collectors and Roman soldiers. The sick and the lame were often the center of … Continue reading The Practice of Exclusion…
Source: Many say ‘So What?’ to God, religion, atheism – USATODAY.com. It is no secret that those who claim to be “religious” in the U.S. has been shrinking every decade for more than 50 years now. But in the last ten years the people who check “none of the above” have been increasing almost exponentially. Here are some statistics from the above article: •44% told the 2011 Baylor University Religion Survey they spend no time seeking “eternal wisdom,” and 19% said “it’s useless to search for meaning.” •46% told a 2011 survey by Nashville-based evangelical research agency, LifeWay Research, they … Continue reading Many say ‘So What?’ to God, religion, atheism
Source: Three Queries on Peace – QuakerQuaker. The author of the post above is David Madden. Please click the source above to see the entire post. There are not many words in the source post (I will likely exceed his word count in just talking about it) but they do inspire me. As is obvious from the link David is a Quaker and this article is based on Quaker thought and values. There are three points of peace brought up in the post. I will briefly mention the first two and then will have some personal thoughts on the last … Continue reading Peace Requires Strength and Conviction….
What we need is cleaner minds and dirtier fingernails. – February 28, 1928 Will Rogers This quote came to mind recently while I was reading an article on the USA Today website. As usual the comments at the end of the article were 95% dissing either the author of the article, the content, or other commentors. I seldom wander below the bottom of most articles for this reason but for this one I was inclined to put a comment there. It would have been a constructive criticism. But after a quick review of what was already there I decided my … Continue reading Cleaner Minds….
