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….

Merry Christmas Everyone . Talk to you again on Monday Continue reading Merry Christmas…

I have always wondered who the party faithfuls are. :) Continue reading I Have Wondered Who They Are??

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…

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

  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…

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…

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