Avanti
For this artsy Saturday I give you the Avanti. It was a radical design by the Studebaker car company in the 1960s. I am a car guy and I am proud to have one in my collection. My 1/32nd scale model collection that is. :) This real one was found in the Auburn Auto Museum in Ft. Wayne Indiana a few years ago. Continue reading Avanti
Austerity
The quote below got me to thinking about the “Common Good”. Does that term even mean anything now? Is Austerity now a permanent part of the world society? Austerity simply means a lack of investment by societies in themselves, in people, in public goods. Things like healthcare, education, transport, energy, retirement, decent jobs, incomes, savings. The problem is that all those things are what underpin the stability of societies, by ensuring that prosperity is something that is realized by all — not just something greedily seized by a tiny few. Source: How Austerity Ripped the World Apart If you look it up on … Continue reading Austerity
Mind Your Own Business!
SOMEBODY IS ALWAYS TELLING US IN THE PAPERS HOW TO PREVENT WAR. THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY IN THE WORLD TO PREVENT WAR, AND THAT IS, FOR EVERY NATION TO TEND TO ITS OWN BUSINESS. Will Rogers It’s been a while since I have posted a quote from Will Rogers who is one of my primary heroes in life. The words above were written almost a hundred years ago and maybe things are different now, but the idea is still a valid one. I know that the world is much more connected now than then. Lindbergh had just made is … Continue reading Mind Your Own Business!
The Thing About Facebook
Is it just me or is Facebook getting pretty annoying lately? It puts stuff on my screen that I haven’t asked for and the potential friends it suggests are often downright gross. I am a seventy-two-year-old guy who is WAY past puberty and has NEVER visited an xxx site, but for some reason, they think their suggestions to the right would be good friends for me? I am a software guy so I understand all this stuff is determined by algorithms, and it is obvious that those algorithms need some serious adjustments. I am really annoyed by these types of … Continue reading The Thing About Facebook
Function vs Artsy
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
The Other 90%
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%
Seeking Wisdom – Will Rogers Style
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
An Endless Stream of Anticlimax
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
Coping With Deafness And My 10 Pillars
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
Happy Holidays…
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…
Art Shack
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
Self-Checkouts Kill Jobs
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
Little Steps Are Not Enough…
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…
Why Incompetent People Think They Are Amazing
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
My 10 Pillars
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
Compromise?
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?
Nature’s Beauty
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
American Myths – American Exceptionalism
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
Seeking Wisdom – James Madison
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
Explaining Our Times…
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…
RJ's Corner 