Sunday March 17 – Snippets

Sunday March 17 – Snippets

RJ Walters

Thinking They Are Above The Law…BUT

It is interesting to see two different stories of wealthy people thinking that their money makes them above the law but then to discover it doesn’t. Paul Mannafort was sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison for dozens of instances where he flaunted the law in several different areas included evading millions of dollars of taxes. But his sentence seemed pretty low to me. I still remember where a guy in my very red county was given six years for stealing a roll of wire from an electrical power yard!

I wonder if the guy in the Oval Office will ever learn that he is not above the law either. Maybe that time will come on January 21, 2021?

The other instance was where wealthy parents hired brokers to get their kids into ivy league colleges. They faked credentials and had other people take SAT exams for them. They found that they their money does not make them above the law. One of those people was an actress in one of my favorite shows. I, like many others I imagine, have trouble separating the actor from their roles.

Leave Us With Our Memories

This snippet is a personal one, but it is kinda related to the above one. I have fond memories of the some of the TV shows I watched in the 1970s. One in particular was Mary Tyler Moore. The young Mary Richards battling against a male dominated world. She was a few years older than me, but I secretly dreamed that she would be my future wife. It ended up that my real wife would be even older than Mary! Go figure…

Getting to the point of this snippet, I wish I could just freeze those times in my mind. Unfortunately, that is not possible. I frequently see pictures of Mary, now in her 80s and my bubble is burst. What happened to that young girl! The same thing that happened to me, I guess! In my mind I will always be in my 30s but my body often reminds me otherwise.

In that same light, I don’t like looking at people in their coffins as that is the memory that wipes out all the pleasant ones. But maybe that is just me.

Techie Saturday – About Feedly

Techie Saturday – About Feedly

RJ Walters

This Saturday, I want to clue you in on one of the most essential tools I have in following my favorite blogs. That tool is Feedly. Here is how they describe themselves.

Feedly (click name to see the sign-up screen) tracks blogs that offer content via Real Simple Syndication (RSS). It delivers that content to your computer, tablet or phone, where you can see the updates and decide what you want to read.

All I have to do every morning is to open Feedly in my browser and all the unread blog posts from my twenty or so favorite sites show up. It gives me the list and a snapshot of what the post is about. When you find a new blog you want to add to the list it is simple to add it. See the image below:

I would highly recommend that you sign up with Feedly, its free and easy to do. When you do be sure to add RJsCorner.net to the list.

If You Have To Build A Wall…

If You Have To Build A Wall…

RJ Walters

I think the masonary union has some sort of power over the current Oval Office. What else would explain the obsession with wall building? If the current Oval Office occupant (#CO3) hopes to have ANY chance of re-election, he should change just where he wants to build his wall.

Let’s investigate the possibilities some with this post. What is the biggest sinkhole for our money in the world today? Undoubtedly it is the Middle-East. I’m sure we have spent trillions of bucks in the region of the world and in the end have gotten practically nothing to show for it. We prop up so many failing regimes in that area when we should be looking at keeping our country afloat.

Saudi Arabia is the prime example. #CO3 says they are our friends because they want to buy billions of dollars worth of our war machines. But, in the end, their country represents almost everything we despise. They execute people for speaking out against their way of government. They enslave almost half their population to serve the males in their country. Almost all the 9/11 terrorists were from there. Their regime represents the opposite of what we think is any level of morality.

Afganistan and Iraq are not much different from Saudi Arabia. The main difference is that we took down their the dictators who ran those countries and haven’t been able to escape the consequences even after decades there. How many trillions of dollars have we poured into those two countries and have nothing to show for it.

Everything about the Middle East is very contrary to our way of life. It is almost as if it was a separate world and maybe it should be. If any region of the world needs a wall to separate them from us it is the Middle East.

So, Mr. President, if you must build a wall do it to block off the Middle East from the rest of the world. I might even vote for you if you did that. No, I changed my mind, there is no way in hell I would ever vote for you.

The Twilight Of Democracy?

RJ Walters

Is democracy going to be that short 250 year period in earth’s history when we thought people could rule themselves? Given what has been happening the last decade or so, it seems we might not not up to the task. In the beginning of our American democracy Thomas Jefferson said:

Are we up to that task today? It seems not. We in the US allowed a completely incompetent con-man to snake his way into the Oval Office. Anyone who cared to do even a minimal amount of study would have found that he was totally unprepared for the job. He is there primarily because of a non-informed electorate.

For the most part the world has been ruled by the elite few, for almost all of its history. If you don’t believe me just look at all the kingdoms and dictatorships that have come and gone throughout our history. Even the eras of history are named after the prominent rulers of that age.

Utopian societies have come and gone throughout American history. Everyone thinks they can form the perfect government by going off into the wilderness and fashioning their own society. I have been studying these types of communities for quite a while now and one thing most have in common is that they don’t last more than a decade or so before they are abandoned. Why that was so is primarily because factions developed in the community and they started fighting with each other. Everyone seems to think that their view of the world is the only one can can result in utopia.

It seems that one democracy after another is in trouble now. The US has an inept president. Canada is struggling because its prime minister seemingly did a favor for a private company. Britain is on the verge of a crisis, trying to divest itself from the rest of Europe. France is crumbling due to the citizenry failing to embrace long term planning.

The world’s democracies are in trouble. Will the coming decades mark their end?

The Personal Reality Spectrum

RJ Walters

I spent some time last week fleshing out my thoughts about one of my foundations in life that drives my “Question Everything” attitude. I have been living it for some time now but just never got around to thinking it thoroughly through till now.

I originally posted this on my special projects blog over at CrackingCreativity but thought it would be a good thing to also present it here:

The Four Parts of our Personal Reality Spectrum

What is Personal Reality? – I know that that this term has been used for a myriad of topics over the years but my definition is very down to earth. Personal reality is how we shape our view of the world. Over at my main blog at RJsCorner, I often lament about how some people seem to a very different view of the world than I do. Particularly the MAGA folks who are getting so much attention now. I believe that where you are in the spectrum determine most of our personal reality differences. Some stop at the first part and it becomes their entire spectrum, some eventually progress through all four parts and thus cause parts 2 – 4 to shrink and 1 to grow. Our view of the world depends on how much of the spectrum you explore. Let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of each part.

Part One – What I know.

This is what you have convinced yourself the world is all about. It is things you are sure you know, most often you don’t even consider the possibility that they may be wrong or at least incomplete. People who fail to explore the rest of the spectrum are convinced that anyone who thinks differently than them is simply WRONG.

Part Two – What you think you know but maybe most likely don’t?

This is where you are willing to consider that things you think you know could just be wrong. To most people, this is called being open-minded and willing to learn. Most of us won’t likely stay in this second sphere very long. We need some resolution to our uncertainty so we move to part 3.

Part Three – What I know I don’t know.

Unlike the person who is stuck in part one, a person in this phase realizes that she doesn’t know everything and recognizes that there are others who know much more about a particular topic than they do. They know what they don’t know and they do something about it.

Most of us who consider ourselves free-thinkers live our lives in Part Three. We are constantly trying to learn what we know we don’t know from those who DO know.

Part Four – What I don’t know that I don’t know.

Of course, the fourth phase is not a place for permanent residency. Instead, it is discovering things that we have never considered up to that point. At that point, some of us drag that particular item into the third part for investigation. Some others never even consider that Part 4 exists.

Here is a graphic I made up to illustrate this spectrum:

Depending on how much time you spend in each section, the magnitude of each pie part changes.

  • If you are stuck in Part 1 then you think it makes up your whole pie.
  • If you acknowledge Part 2 you are consciously aware that you need to adjust your view so that part shrinks and part 1 grows.
  • When you discover Part 3, it enables you to move on to new thoughts and ideas. It opens your mind to other possibilities
  • Part 4 will almost always make up the majority of everyone’s pie, but the smaller it is the more complete your views.

I would be very interested in knowing what you think of all this?

About My Car Collection

RJ Walters

Yesterday I told you a little about my car collection. I am so proud of the twenty-six vehicles in my stable. I promised you some pictures, so here they are.

  • My Collection

Oh, I guess I forget to tell you one little detail about my collection. 🙂 They are 1/32 scale models sitting on the shelves behind me. I suspect you got the wrong impression of what I was talking about. It just goes to show you that even though everything I said yesterday was the truth, sometimes the truth can be stretched beyond recognition. That is why you should stick to the saying below.

Think For Yourself / Question Everything

Don’t believe something just because someone tells you to.