One of the sites I visited while on my southern Illinois trip was to Fort DeChartres. Here are some pictures of that visit. The museum building was not open during my Wednesday visit, State budget cuts I guess. It would have been nice to learn more about the site but that is how it goes I guess. (click on any picture to see a larger slideshow) Continue reading Fort DeChartres…
If I am known for anything here at RJsCorner is it my contrarian view of many things. Managing my money is one of them. I know there are many blogs out their that strongly advise us to seek out financial planners to manage our money. Supposedly they take a percentage of our assets each year in order to invest our money where it will get the highest earnings. I admit that for the seventeenth year of my retirement from the corporate world I have yet to use a financial planner. One of the reasons is cited in the quote above. In the … Continue reading Managing Our Money…
I love reading about the history of America and some of the best critiques come from outside our country. Two of my favorite quotes comes from the idea of the “Tyranny of the Majority”. That is when the majority in our country tends to deny basic civil rights to various minority groups. Of course the most glaring one is slavery but there is also the murder of millions of native Americans during the conquest of their native lands. The term “Tyranny of the Majority” was widely employed in mid-nineteenth-century America in conjunction with a series of moral questions (Sabbath, temperance, racial equality) that … Continue reading Perpetual Utterance of Self-Applause
If you know me you are probably puzzled about the title of this post. For the most part I believe that the “good old days” just weren’t that good, but there are a few exceptions. Before I get to the crux of this post’s title I want to give you my other views of day 2 of the Democratic convention. One of the main thing that hit me was how all the networks seem to be viciously searching for controversy. They cover very little of the actual proceedings. That is very different than the good old days where you could … Continue reading Back To The Good Old Days…
241 years ago we were part of the Great British Empire. We were loyal, although complaining, citizens. Then we chose to go our own way and eventually after a four year rebellion got our way. We still have common bonds with GB but we are also markedly different. One of the major differences is that we are a nation of immigrants and Great Britain is a nation embedded in aristocracy. We until recently have a classless nation. We don’t hold people in higher esteem just because of what name they have. America became known as the land of opportunity. A place where … Continue reading About Brexit and the British.. And How We are NOT Like Them
The main crux of this post is about whether a company can remain innovative as it ages. I want to use Sears and Amazon as study points. Being a U.S. history buff I can’t help but draw a parallel between Sears in the early 20th century and Amazon a hundred years later. One of the striking things about Amazon beside their explosive product line is the speed at which they deliver their products. For $79/year you can get unlimited 2 day delivery at no cost. I must admit I am a major customer who places orders probably 30+ times a year for … Continue reading Innovation…
I have been dreaming about my April Disney World trip lately. One of the most spectacular shows was “Lion King”. With this post I am giving you a flavor of it. It is a massive production and well worth one of your “magic passes” if you ever go there. (as usual click on any of the pics above to see a larger slideshow) Continue reading Dreaming About “Lion King”
I occasionally write a letter to the editor of our small town newspaper. They allow me to put my two cents into the topic at hand. But since our town is so small I am often reluctant to chime in on some sensitive issues for fear of being labeled by my neighbors. Anonymity is not an option in small town living. When I ran across this “letter to the editor” from Buffalo NY it got my attention. To me the author spells out the relationship between government and religion as concisely as possible: Like the Bible, the writings of the nation’s Founding … Continue reading Letters To The Editor…
This morning I put out a post of the cons for my recent trip into southern Illinois so this afternoon I wanted to give you a gem to counterbalance it. That gem is Giant City Lodge. Before I do that I want to give you a little background on my habits during my uRV trips. I usually stay the night at a State park at during the trip. Part of my ritual is to get up early as I usually do and find a local restaurant that serves breakfast. I do have a Coleman stove in the uRV but it … Continue reading The Gem of Southern Illinois…
I will say again but this time add a kicker, It’s Hard To Be A Law Abiding Citizen…When So Many Aren’t. It just seems human nature, the dark side that is, to not want to do what you are told. This is characteristic of our teenage years but goes way beyond that for too many of us. We know there are concepts of the common good and the rule of law but somehow they don’t apply to us. What brought this thought up was my recent uRV trip to southern Illinois. As usual I traveled almost exclusively state and … Continue reading It’s Hard To Be A Law Abiding Citizen..
When I saw it was only going to get up to 87 today I dreamed about all the finishing touches I could put on the inside remodel of my micro-RV. I started the work about 8am and by 9:30 I had to call it quits. The temperature was only 82 but with the humidity so high from yesterday’s rain I was drenching in sweat. I know it gets hot in the Southwest but I still cling to the belief that it is not the temperature that gets to you but the humidity. When you can chew the air it just … Continue reading Chewing The Air…
I’m not done with the Deusenberg Museum yet but I kind of figure you can’t take too much of that beauty at one time so I need to ration it out. :) But I did fine another museum behind that one that is worth the visit if you are in the area. I admit that I got there just 10 minutes before that closed so they let me take a quick “free” visit. I managed to quickly snap some pictures of the trucks there. Continue reading Another Car Guy Place..
When I read the words in the source article below they rang very true to me. Even though I was not a minister like he was I too felt the cost of being forced out of a church community for having different/unacceptable beliefs. I dared, among other things to say the earth was more than 6,000 years old. After 36 years in the Evangelical Charismatic movement in Tennessee, Dave left his faith. “For me,” he says, “it all started with a critical examination of the Bible and how it came to be…when I quit making excuses for the inconsistencies and … Continue reading When Leaving Religion Costs You Everything…
The Rapp-Owen Granary is just one of perhaps a hundred buildings that have survived from the two utopian communities that were established in New Harmony Indiana. The Rapp-Owen Granary is perhaps the largest and most elegant. If you are ever near southern Indiana and have an interest in history, especially utopian communities New Harmony is well worth a visit. (click on any of the pictures above to see a larger slideshow) I enlarged some ofd the words in one of pictures for easier reading here: Continue reading Rapp-Owen Granary
I want to go back and visit the Deusenberg Museum in Auburn Indiana once again with this post. There is so much beauty in that place it is almost overwhelming to a car guy like me. (as usual click on any picture to see a larger slideshow) Continue reading It’s A Deussy
I have several interesting posts to do on my just completed micro-RV trip into southern Illinois. As usual I managed to avoid interstate highways for all but four miles of the 700+ adventure. Anyone even vaguely familiar with Illinois know that the vast majority of the state’s population resides in the extreme northeast around Chicago. I can hereby attest that there are almost no people in the southern half of the state! OK, maybe I am exaggerating a little bit but only a little. I must have gone through 100 small towns during my two day visit. Almost none of them had … Continue reading Trip Report – Southern Illinois… Give Them a Break..
I have been holding off on this post so as not to offend some people’s views of that holiday. My friends at Red Letter Christians have spurred me in thoughts once again. This time it is about Memorial Day. I have always found it strange that we as a nation celebrate our wars. Some even seem obsessed with them. To me war is the failure to accomplish our goals in a Christ-like manner of peace. “Bound together by Christ, not nationality” is a real but seemingly pretty naive thinking in today’s world but that is my reality. I know I am … Continue reading Memorial Day Is Not On the Church’s Calendar
President Bush’s use of drones and elevated them to an extreme level. We are told that the innocent lost of life because of these drone strikes are one of the primary reasons so many hate us in that part of the world. They strike so quietly and devastatingly to strike terror into innocent citizens of those Middle East countries. Yes, we are known by some as terrorists in that part of the world. If only we could have admitted our mistakes as soon as they happened we might be in a very different place in our world. But given the … Continue reading U.S. Reveals Death Toll From Airstrikes
I am getting ready to hit the road again in an hour or so. This time I will be touring southern Illinois particularly along the Mississippi. I thought it appropriate to leave you with some pictures of my Spring trip to Bridgeton Indiana. It is in the middle of “covered bridge country” here in southern Indiana. Continue reading On The Road Again… The Mississippi
I know guns are an emotional topic for many in this country. It is kind of like the immigration issue. Many of us have compassion for those who struggle to come to the “land of opportunity” but others see those coming, both legally and illegally, as someone to fear. They fear they are rapists and murderers or at least taking away their jobs. Some see threats, some see love. I guess that is American diversity for you. The sad fact is that there are now more guns in this country than there are people. I hear the latest episode of the … Continue reading Guns and the Great USA…
When I came across this post a while back it got my immediate attention as the topic is probably one of the primary reasons that more and more people are declaring themselves spiritual but not religious. There is just too much baggage attached to too many of our religious institutions today. Too many twist the words of Jesus to match their current view of the world. It is kind of surprising that the author of the words above is a Baptists professor. Flat- Bible advocates, of which many Baptists are a part, believe that every word in the Bible comes directly … Continue reading Wicked Theology
RJ's Corner 