January 1999 — That’s me looking out at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from Battery Park in Manhattan. My wife and I had just finished a wedding anniversary dinner at Windows on the World at the WTC.   It was the last time we were there. Continue reading Visiting NYC

  Source: Top G.O.P. Donors Seek Greater Say in Senate Races – NYTimes.com. The effort would put a new twist on the Republican-vs.-Republican warfare that has consumed the party’s primary races in recent years. In effect, the establishment is taking steps to fight back against Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations that have wielded significant influence in backing candidates who ultimately lost seats to Democrats in the general election. I am glad to hear that the not-so-radical in the GOP are declaring war on the Tea party. It’s about time. Maybe a nudge toward the middle will finally happen. But … Continue reading The New Face of the GOP….

I am going to take a vain attempt at looking into the future!  The place I am going to look will likely surprise you until you have heard me out.  The future I am going to look at starts in Africa.  Now before you click the exit button let me explain. Africa is finally starting to come into the 20th century. I know it is a century late but better late than never.  Electricity, telecommunications, and TV are becoming more common  in some of the more agrarian countries.  They are doing that without a grid network as is common in … Continue reading Looking Into The Future…..

  No man is great if he thinks he is. – 1 March 1929   Will Rogers Vanity is a powerful force in us human beings. We all like to think that we are great in one aspect or another. After all, none of us want to go through life thinking we have not made at least a small dent in this world.  Some are humble about their greatness. Gandhi and Mother Teresa immediately come to mind in that category. But for every humble person there are thousands who think they are greater than they are. Thinking you are great when … Continue reading Vanity….

I grew up in poverty and without a mother.  My father was typical of his generation in that he was a pretty stoic guy who even though he had love in his heart he just didn’t hand it out well. As a result I had some rather serious love issues growing up.  My younger brother and I were pretty much on our own at least emotionally through our early years. I was shy and very introverted for many of those years. I started losing my hearing during high school and then at the age of forty I went completely deaf. … Continue reading Second Chances In Life….

Source: Rubio: Reported Obama Immigration Plan ‘Dead On Arrival’ | Rubio | Fox Nation. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Saturday panned a reported immigration reform proposal from President Obama, saying it would be “dead on arrival” in Congress. If actually proposed, the President’s bill would be dead on arrival in Congress, leaving us with unsecured borders and a broken legal immigration system for years to come,” said Rubio in a statement I really had hope that the “new” Republicans in the Senate and House would at least be willing to do a minimal amount of compromise in working with their Democratic … Continue reading I Had Hopes But…..

Source: John McCain’s Theology of War is Wrong – Jim Wallis | God’s Politics Blog | Sojourners. But McCain hasn’t been right in his endless promotion of war as the primary solution to our national conflicts. He has been consistently wrong and America has paid a very high price because of the ideological zealots of war that McCain represents. After yesterday, I wished that the coming vote on confirmation could be the other way around; that America could somehow vote John McCain out of office and off the American political stage. The cost of McCain’s theology of war has been far … Continue reading Some Strong Words about John McCain and War….

I was just watching something on MSNBC that got me to thinking. Yes I do on occasion watch that “liberal trash” as some of my conservative friends call it. Of course if I were to make the same comment about anything on Fox News they would act totally shocked. :) But what got me to thinking had nothing to do with the matter being discussed. I drifted off the topic here so let me get back to my thoughts. When I watch some of the people talk they are constantly waving their arms in one manner or another. At times … Continue reading An Aerobic Workout….

  You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.   — Woodrow Wilson I am falling back on to one of my primary heroes in life and that is President Woodrow Wilson.  He like some other that followed was totally immersed in altruism. That is he was more concerned about his fellow man than he really was about himself … Continue reading With a Finer Spirit of Hope and Achievement…

I spent my high school years in a small rural town in Indiana and when I retired from corporate life my wife and I chose once again to return to that small town living.  One of the highlights of small town life is the annual county fair.  This picture was taken in 2002 so I guess all the kids shown here are now young adults making their way in the world. I hope they are all doing well…. Continue reading County Fairs…..

Its time to lighten up a little and what better way than to make fun of old people. :)  Being a collector of quotes I have an arsenal of them. So, here goes: You are over the hill when you back goes out more than you do.  — R.J. Walters (I think?) Old age is always 15 years older than you are — Oliver Wendell Holmes You know you are getting old when all the names in your black book have M.D. after them – Arnold Palmer Just remember that once you are over the hill you begin to pick … Continue reading Over The Hill….

Be forewarned that I am getting on my soapbox now. I know there are numerous times in our history where civil liberties have been severely threatened. Various groups and individuals have been attacked by our government without due process. One glaring recent example is putting Japanese-Americans in prison camps during World War II simply because of their heritage. But it seems like this is almost becoming common place in our country today.  Mr. Obama’s kill list is one example.  It sounds as if one or two high-ranking officials think that any person, including a U.S. citizen, is a threat to … Continue reading Innocent Until Proven Guilty…. Or Is It The Other Way Around??

I want to add one further thought about fear while it is fresh on my mind.  There is another basic emotion that outweighs fear as being more destructive to any person or society and that is hate. What little hate I have been exposed to in my life truly scares me. It is a dark side of life that I don’t ever want to get to know on anything but a superficial level. Every once in a while I will glance through my spam queue  on this blog to get a feeling of what the trollers are ranting about. Ninety … Continue reading About Fear & Hate….

I want to pencil in my first thoughts of the State of the Union address last night before I start reading what the pundits say. Overall it was a good address – He covered much of what I deem important to our country. I wish he had mentioned something about work to rein in healthcare costs.  Single payer system like much of the rest of the world has is the  most efficient. But since that is not yet possible here I wished he had targeted something to control our current system.  Education for the 21st Century – I liked what I … Continue reading First Thoughts….

This is my last post about fear at least for a little while. It has run its course in my mind. I want to finish up here with some personal thoughts about fear and the consequences of fear.  I will then close out with a fear that I just can’t seem to understand. I must say that I am generally not a fearful person. That is I don’t rise each day being in fear for what it will bring. I don’t anticipate the bad things that could happen to me each day.  Don’t get me wrong, I know fear has … Continue reading About Fear….. Some Closing Thoughts

    I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I saw this cartoon. Thanks Gary Varvel for the laugh. And an Indiana guy at that. I know the GOP is desperate to rebrand their party into something with a broader appeal. But for some reason the Democrats just don’t seem to want to cooperate in that endeavor. :)   Continue reading LOL……..

This is a continuation of the topic of fear and how it drives so much of our country and world. I have been cruising some of the “gun rights” websites lately.  The reason I am paying attention to this group is to try to understand the thoughts and mentalities of the people in them and how fear appears to play such a strong part of their adamant refusal of any kind of gun regulation. It appears that many from this group have a basic fear of their fellow citizens. They just don’t trust anyone they don’t know. They see bad guys … Continue reading About Fear…. One of Many Manifestations of Fear

Source: TV icon Dick Van Dyke: ‘I don’t get the comedies today’ – TODAY Entertainment. “It seems to me that relationships are what’s missing. I think back to ‘All in the Family,’ when you knew what those relationships were and the comedy that came out of that. Today it’s just one line after another, and they seem to try to cover too much in the way of story in a short time. Then I think they signal when they’re trying to be funny, and the minute I catch someone trying to be funny, then I won’t laugh.” I am not one … Continue reading ‘I don’t get the comedies today’….

Fear is as engrained in us as any of our emotions. I guess it goes back to our caveman days of fearing for our lives in a very dangerous world. For some odd reason I have been thinking about fear lately and how it affects so many parts of our lives. So, I decided to spend three posts here talking about this subject. Lets start of with the basic definition of fear: 1. a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.  2.  a specific instance of propensity for such a feeling: an abnormal fear of heights. 3.  concern or anxiety; solicitude: a fear for someone’s safety. 4.  reverential awe, especially toward God: the fear of God.  In the first post I want to get into some recent history and current conditions that maybe foster this … Continue reading About Fear…. Its Causes??

  Source: Georgia man, 69, accused of fatally shooting 22-year-old who drove into wrong driveway – Crimesider – CBS News. (CBS/AP) LILBURN, Ga. – A 69-year-old suburban Atlanta man faces a murder charge after authorities say he shot and killed a 22-year-old man who had mistakenly driven into his driveway. An arrest warrant states that Rodrigo Abad Diaz of Duluth, Ga., was fatally shot in the head Saturday as he tried to drive away from Phillip Sailors’ home in Lilburn, northeast of Atlanta. According to Diaz’s friends, who were in the vehicle at the time of the incident, the 22-year-old had … Continue reading Defending His Property….

This is one of my favorite pictures from our Canada trip of 2011. My friend here was in an Acadian village in Nova Scotia (I think) Continue reading My Canadian Friend

Source: ‘Just us’ wedding trend: Couples ditch the guests – The Look. “We just wanted it to be about us,” said Eustice, a 29-year-old dental assistant from Orlando, Florida. “At big weddings, I noticed the bride and groom are entertaining the guests and don’t get to spend a lot of time with each other — we love spending time together. And, it’s really about [us] at the end of the day.” Weddings-for-two, as bridal planners call them, are a growing trend, says Kelly Karli, owner of Frosted Pink Weddings in Vail, Colorado. “It’s been popping up more and more,” I am … Continue reading ‘Just us’ wedding trend: Couples ditch the guests

I know I have a sizable percentage of women who follow this blog so I thought I would spend this post telling you about how guys bond. At least the guys I know.  I’m sure you all know and that guys bond differently than women.    When a woman feels emotional about something it is usually very obvious.  Not so much for us guys. I think I am more girly, as Arnold puts it, than most guys. I readily admit that I shed a few tears during some movies and such when something bad or even good happens to a … Continue reading Guys Bonding….

Source:  G.O.P. Pulls Back on Immigration, Not on Guns – NYTimes.com. Changes to gun laws, he said, have no such support. “They will have a rough row to hoe,” he said. “I have some donors who own gun stores who said they can’t keep stuff in the store.” According to gun rights people and the NRA that represents them there is no need to change anything. Everything is fine just the way it is.  Having a few kids killed in a class room and a few more killed in a movie theaters and shopping malls is just the collateral damage … Continue reading Everything Is Fine Just The Way It Is…..

  Source:  Most common travelers’ tipping mistakes – Travel Kit on NBCNews.com. The most ironic part of the story? McManus’ waiter likely wasn’t even expecting 2 cents—because in Australia, restaurant patrons rarely tip at all…. (Re: tipping in the U.S.) One Australian travel insurance agency has even decided that their clients need educating: “Since Australians don’t tip at home, there is great angst about it, and they have come to blows over it,” says Phil Sylvester of the Sydney-based World Nomads Group. “We finally decided it was a safety issue that needed addressing—as in, ‘Don’t get into a fight, learn to … Continue reading Tipping…..

  Source: Personal Tweets Costing Employers $650B – ABC News. When does twittering at work become frittering away your employer’s time — and money? When your tweets aren’t work-related. Business research firm Basex puts the productivity cost of workplace interruptions, including employee abuse and misuse of social media, at $650 billion a year. I don’t know of any tweets that would be work related as the above article mentions but then I am by no means a Tweeter expert. As a matter of fact I only very rarely visit that site.  It is hard to believe that it has been almost … Continue reading Personal Tweets Costing Employers $650B – ABC News

Source: What We Don’t Know Is Killing Us – NYTimes.com. That Mr. Obama had to make such a decree at all is a measure of the power of the gun lobby, which has effectively shut down government-financed research on gun violence for 17 years. Research on guns is crucial to any long-term effort to reduce death from guns. In other words, treat gun violence as a public health issue. But that is precisely what the National Rifle Association and other opponents of firearms regulation do not want. In the absence of reliable data and data-driven policy recommendations, talk about guns inevitably … Continue reading What We Don’t Know Is Killing Us

  Source: Page 2: Scientists Explain Why President Obama’s Calls for Cooperation Meet Resistance – ABC News. In this case, research suggests that how you ask someone to join a community effort may determine whether or not you are successful. Telling the world we need to work together sounds great, but may not be as effective as had been thought. Or as the study put it, “…the frequent and pressing calls for Americans to recognize their shared fate and think collectively may result in unintended consequences of undermining the very motivation they seek to inspire.” This quote is from an ABC … Continue reading Scientists Explain Why ….