I HATE WAR!! I wanted to say that up front in this post. If anything shows the potential for the extinction of the human species it is war. I am a lifelong reader of history and it is obvious that most of recorded history is about one war or another. The Roman Empire didn’t start […]
Read MoreI don’t know why I have these times when so much flashes across my brain? The thoughts come and go quickly unless I write them down. Getting down to it, I think one of the primary reasons the world is in such a turmoil has to do with neighborhoods. For us in the U.S. it […]
Read MoreI have certainly had some fun visiting the rendezvous in the last few years. They are becoming my favorite venue for my micro-RV trips. With temperatures in the 60s today and much of November, it doesn’t feel like winter (thank goodness) but I am still in the mode of looking back with my picture portfolio. […]
Read MoreThe quotes below come from input from Irish high school students when asked about having religious studies in their school system. The wisdom of these kids’ words are way beyond their years. By giving all children the opportunity to learn about the beliefs and values of diverse groups in society, the government would be providing […]
Read MoreFirst of all I want to hope everyone has a good day on this important national holiday. 240 years ago a bunch of rebels got the idea to make a nation based on freedom of choice. The exact right group got together to hash out the details and those details have allowed us to for the […]
Read MoreI 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 […]
Read MorePresident 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 […]
Read MoreI think I heard somewhere that the U.S. has more than a thousand military bases throughout the world and I suspect many of them are located in the Middle East. We as a country seem to be so fixated on telling others how to live that we spend huge amounts of money and our citizens’ […]
Read MoreFrom the title it is hard to determine where this post is going. We can be wrong about almost anything in this life and there seems to always be someone around to alert us of that fact. If we get something set in our minds that just isn’t true then we are the worst kind […]
Read MoreIt’s an incantation repeated among Obama’s neocon critics: the Iraq surge worked; things were going swimmingly until we withdrew; the same thing will happen in Afghanistan if we pull out completely. Let’s assume it’s true, that we could keep peace and order in these countries if we kept tens of thousands of troops (or more) […]
Read Morea world that is boiling over in violence and cut-throat theocracy makes me nostalgic for the days it was merely “simmering in resentment and tyranny Source: How the refugee crisis is teaching us the value of Hussein, Mubarak, and Gadhafi Don’t we all wish for the “good old days” when Saddam ruled with an iron […]
Read MoreFor those of you who haven’t visited here much I will state up front that while I am very much a social progressive but I am also a fiscal conservative. I too think as indicated in this editorial cartoon by Jack Ohman “where did the Republican party go?” They once were the party of small government and keeping […]
Read MoreSpouting Off… Being Loud But Not Being Obnoxious One of the things I missed the most about my hiatus from RJ’s Corner is spouting off. It does the heart good to question everything and sometimes put forth a thought or two. I plan on doing that rather frequently in the future here on the new/improved […]
Read MoreThis post is a continuation of my story about my father and his early years. I know there there millions of families that have been seriously affected by all the wars we have been involved in during my lifetime. Some grievously damaged, some to a lesser extent. I see too many people who are still […]
Read More“We were ready to do it” Russian President Vladimir Putin said he considered putting the country’s vast nuclear arsenal on alert to prevent outside agents from stopping the Kremlin’s forced annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine last year. Putin’s admission was aired during a prerecorded documentary called Homeward Bound, which was broadcast on a […]
Read MoreIf it were challenged by Russia, how important is Estonia’s sovereignty to you? Would you kill and die for it? Send your children to do so? Would you risk the nuclear annihilation of your civilization? Is your gratitude for use of Estonia’s airspace during the war on terror that great? SOURCE: Don’t save Ukraine – […]
Read MoreChristians have a presumption against war as well as an obligation to help heal those who suffer its consequences. The above title and words come from a Sojourners Magazine article by Gregg Brekke in the April 2014 issue. I have made it clear on most of my blogs that I am pro-peace in almost all […]
Read MoreSomebody 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 is own business. Trace any war and you will find some nations was trying to tell some other nations how to run their […]
Read MoreIf we can just let other people alone and let them do their own fighting. When you get into trouble 5,000 miles away from home, you’ve got to have been looking for it.” – Will Rogers, 9 February 1932 Thanks Will for reminding us what common sense, which seems to be a rare commodity these […]
Read MoreIt has been a while since I have visited this site (click on the picture to go there). Of course if you have spent any time on this blog you know that I frequently say that we just spend too much money on our military. Forty times more than any other country on earth and […]
Read MoreWhat would happen if we spent as much money on seeking peace as we did going to war? I suspect the cartoon would be much different. It would be a fleet of Maseratis on the Autobahn instead of what you see above. I don’t know if peace would actually happen even with this reversal but […]
Read MoreI know many think of me as one of those starry eyed liberals who doesn’t have any sense of reality. With this post I will probably cement that vision with many of my more conservative friends. But what would happen if we just refused to be enemies with those our leaders dictated us to hate. […]
Read More“[War] won’t stop till there is as much brains and scientific study put to aid peace as there is to promote war.” – Will Rogers, 1 June 1929 Of course these words were spoken not long after World War I which was inaptly titled the “war to end all wars”. Of course it didn’t accomplish […]
Read MoreWe are three billion in the hole and will be three billion more next year, and not a Congressman has got the nerve to ask voters to pay part of it. — January 29, 1933 Will Rogers Obviously this quote was said long before even Grover Norquist’s parents were born but it is equally […]
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