For this Artsy Saturday I give you “Red Knobs”. I’m sure that all the red knobs in this pictured weren’t placed there to be artsy, but in my opinion, they are. This picture of a steam locomotive was taken at a railroad museum in Greenbay Wisconsin. Continue reading Function vs Artsy
There seem to be all kinds of people who are trying to figure out why we have gotten into where we are in this world. Some point to one thing, some to another. In my opinion, for what its worth, the reason below is one of the primary causes of our current madness. [They say] Capital was for capitalists — everyone would be better off that way! LOL. What really happened was as predictable as it was grim — capitalists took all the capital they could possibly get their hands on, plundering society after society, and hid it in treasure chests buried around the … Continue reading The Other 90%
I want to say up front that Google doesn’t appreciate what I do. Their algorithm is prejudiced against me. They sometimes call me a “duplicate content provider”. Argh!!! When I started my personal blog over ten years ago, I set a foundation for what it would be. The first foundation was that it would pattern what my primary literary hero Will Rogers did. One of Will’s more famous quotes is “All I know is what I read in the newspapers.” That is he took a topic for his articles from what he read and gave it his own twist. I … Continue reading Seeking Wisdom – Will Rogers Style
Watching the seemingly endless stream of people pleading guilty to one thing or another and then pledging to cooperate with their accusers is very tiring. It’s kind of like a TV melodrama that ends each week with an on-the-edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger. Watching all the many players and trying to keep track of them is a daunting task. There seem to be so many that they could fill a prison themselves. They keep getting indicted but the swamp just seems to always be getting deeper! It seems like an endless stream of anticlimax. “OK, that is another damning thing to add to … Continue reading An Endless Stream of Anticlimax
I want to continue on from my 10 Pillars post of last week with a personal story about the second pillar which is “You are not alone”. As I have mentioned before I want deaf in 1988 at the age of forty-two, but I had been hearing impaired for years before that. I lost hearing in one ear during my early college years in the 1960s. Since I had no insurance and I couldn’t afford to pay doctor bills and college tuition at the same time, it would be a few years later when I discovered the cause of my … Continue reading Coping With Deafness And My 10 Pillars
As a celebration of the Christmas season, I have put together a gallery of pictures from a recent visit to Branson Missouri and Silver Dollar City. Take a look at MyViewOfTheWorld Continue reading Happy Holidays…
For this artsy Saturday, I bring you pure creativity. I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting Laster’s Art Shack but from the looks of the company car, I imagine it is one creative place. Continue reading Art Shack
The graphic here came from one of my Facebook friends and I agree with her. I know I am an advocate for automation but it is not always a good thing. This may be one of those times. Let me explain why. I know there is a big chunk of our American society who just don’t have the skills to compete in our very technology-driven workforce. Some never learned to take learning as a lifelong goal. Some had learning beaten out of them at an early age. Some are just too lazy to do the work that learning requires. I … Continue reading Self-Checkouts Kill Jobs
What will it take to get even a small degree of bipartisanship back in our federal government? That seems to be the question of the decade for those of us living in the US and actually much of the world as well. My friends at Eudaimonia & Co speak constantly about the dark side of capitalism and we all need that at least a small dose of that to keep us focused on the bright side of life. Here are some of their words in a recent post about that: There are three great trends which shape American decline — and the … Continue reading Little Steps Are Not Enough…
I know the title of this post will get quite a bit of attention because it mirrors someone we all know. It is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Here is a quote from an article about it: “When psychologists Dunning and [Justin] Kruger first described the effect in 1999, they argued that people lacking knowledge and skill in particular areas suffer a double curse. First, they make mistakes and reach poor decisions. But second, those same knowledge gaps also prevent them from catching their errors. In other words, poor performers lack the very expertise needed to recognize how badly they’re … Continue reading Why Incompetent People Think They Are Amazing
I know you don’t care but since I am an addicted list maker I have been tinkering with my blogging schedule here at RJsCorner. In order to not fixate on the political scene I have committed to addressing more diversified topics. That diversity is driven by my blogging schedule as shown at the top of this and every page. Monday is the only day I allow myself to concentrate on the political scene inside the beltway and particularly inside the Oval Office topics. Any more than that could drive me to insanity. :) I have just changed Tuesday to blogging … Continue reading My 10 Pillars
I think one of the biggest failures of the Obama administration was their naivete in thinking that they could compromise with the current Republican Party. Here are some words about that: American needs a loud, proud, uncompromising, demanding, and transformative opposition at this crucial juncture, my friends — one which accomplishes something in particular: a new social contract. What else is this wave asking for? Anything less is failing the moment, the opportunity, the challenge, and the test — of collapse. Trying to fight authoritarianism with gentle compromises and winsome diplomatic smiles is like offering your abuser tea and crumpets. America needs an opposition that can … Continue reading Compromise?
For this Artsy Saturday, I bring you raw beauty. I am constantly in awe of the beauty I find in nature. This one was taken in the mountains of Colorado in 2012. Very simple, but very beautiful. Continue reading Nature’s Beauty
For this Question Everything Friday I want to bring you another dangerous myth that is ingrained into our country. That is that we are so exceptional that you can’t be compared to any other country. Here is my quote for the day about that. We can’t compare America to any other country! Especially not strange, dangerous countries like Scandinavia or France! We can’t? Why not? How else do you suppose that nations make progress — if not by learning from one another? Americans have been told that other places are “homogeneous”, so America can’t be compared to them — but “homogeneity” is not the … Continue reading American Myths – American Exceptionalism
Another of the major sources of wisdom I frequently visit is the fourth president of the U.S. James Madison. There are a number of reasons for that admiration, not the least of which are the similarity between Madison and myself. He was 5′ 7″ and small stature while most of the other famous people during that period were broad-shouldered and well over 6′. Since he was a little guy he had to work harder than many to get the attention he deserved. I am currently 5′ 7″ myself (although I was over 5′ 9″ before old age and compression fractures took … Continue reading Seeking Wisdom – James Madison
Ok, I admit that I have been retired from the workforce for almost two decades now, so aside from what I read I am pretty much ignorant of it. When I left the workforce the mantra was “Do more with less”. Many of my coworkers were being laid off and I was told that I had to do their jobs in addition to my own. I couldn’t imagine a more stressful situation today. When I came across this article by By Ruth Whippman in the New York Times it helped me to have more empathy for today’s middle-class workers. Ms. Whippman is the … Continue reading Explaining Our Times…
What could be more American than the small rural county fair? I have had the pleasure of living in one of the smallest population wise counties in Indiana for almost two decades now. While I don’t go to all the … Continue reading The County Fair
David Brooks from the New York Times and the PBS Newshour recently used a word I haven’t heard in a long time. That word is the title of this post and here is the definition. This word just seems soooo appropriate for someone we all know. I don’t even have to mention his name. If there is any single word that can possibly contain who this guy is, bluster is it. He is certainly loud, totally aggressive, as indignant as anyone I could ever imagine. He refuses to believe in facts other than the ones he made up. But I … Continue reading Bluster…
Shane Claiborne is one of my favorite Christian authors. He definitely lives the words of Jesus and he is not bashful when it comes to telling others that Talk is cheap and actions are where you demonstrate your beliefs. At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said, essentially, “I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ.” A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here … Continue reading What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff
For this “Outside the Box” Saturday I give you a picture of when I was attacked by a giant spider! Well, not really, but it was a 30 ft or should I say a 10-meter high sculpture of a spider. This photo was taken in Ottawa Canada when we visited there a few years ago. The sculpture is called Maman and is located at the National Gallery of Canada. There are so many sites in Ottawa to see. We spent four days there but that really wasn’t enough. Continue reading Spider Attack!!
Since I have lived the largest part of my life as a scientist I have thoroughly come to believe that when facts clash seriously with beliefs then beliefs need to be modified. I know the current Oval Office occupant doesn’t believe in facts, to him everything he doubts must be fake news and sadly his loyal base blindly accepts that line. That is one of the scariest things for me about these times. But that is not the main point of this post. Here are some words to ponder: They are facts. Nothing more and nothing less. Just facts. It … Continue reading Between Fact and Belief…
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 