As I type this, I am in the midst of a rather intense internal dialogue. Over the past ten plus years I have made several stabs at starting a blog. My efforts are sprinkled throughout the perpetual Net for anyone who cares to look. Despite my best intentions, however, none of my attempts have met […]
Conviction Time
First, the good stuff. I need to do some bragging on my bride. As of today, she is a bona fide, newly minted professor of the Hebrew language. Her online class began today, and to say she’s hard at work would be a gross understatement. If I was wearing a shirt with buttons, they’d be […]
Way More Than A Score
I am currently reading a book titled More Than a Score. It is a series of essays discussing the issue of high-stakes standardized testing in K-12 education. I have been sort of aware for a while about the emphasis that testing has developed in schools since the implementation of No Child Left Behind, but I […]
Thoughts on RFRA
Recently a whole lot of hot air and much cyberspace has been dominated here in the Hoosier State by discussion of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), including by yours truly. I’ve had a few days to reflect on the law since it was signed into law by our governor, and I’m finding my views […]
Carkey Worship?
For the past few days I’ve been seeing a story kicking around about an individual in Detroit who walks 21 miles to work every day. First and foremost let me say, good on him! I honestly don’t know if I’d have the stamina to do something like that. But I suppose if you don’t have […]
Thoughts on American Sniper
Some online exchanges I had yesterday got me to thinking about my views regarding American Sniper. I decided to write down my reflections, at least in part. First, I will say that I have absolutely zero interest in seeing the movie. I’ve always had an aversion to war-based movies, or movies that feature excessive violence […]
New Habits, Hopefully
Sitting here, trying to keep myself on task, I’m reminded of how hard it is to self-discipline oneself. I have come to the conclusion that the only way I’m going to move myself forward is to force myself to do the hard work that goes along with getting things accomplished. To that end, I’m going […]
New Year Goals (Not Resolutions!)
I’ve never been one for making New Year’s resolutions. When I have tried, they’ve almost always crashed and burned in a very short time. I have consolation in that I’m not the only one who does this. That being said, I’m feeling led to form some new habits as we turn the corner into 2015. […]
Reservoir Thoughts
Today I am writing about my current hometown, Anderson, Indiana. I’ve only lived here a little more than two years, which makes me a mere neophyte, but nevertheless there are some local issues—one in particular, actually—that I wish to address. Hopefully I won’t come off as self-righteous or something else negative. The hot topic around […]
On Societal Fragmentation
This is a somewhat reworked version of a comment I left on a friend’s Facebook post. In essence, this person was lamenting how tribal we have become in today’s society, and their contribution to it. I wish I could say I wasn’t part of the problem as well, but I am. I’ve written before about […]
Some Thoughts on a Hard Subject
As I write this, the death of Robin Williams has become by far the dominant subject of social media. It’s very sad, and he certainly will be missed. It’s certainly accurate to say he was a comic genius. But he was clearly also a troubled soul. To end it all as he has done is […]
Striking a Balance
I find myself in a bit of a dilemma. On one hand, there is plenty going on in the world today to get outraged about. With Israel and Gaza, Putin trying to activate the Cold War way-back machine, plus all the squabbling and bickering going on stateside, it’s really difficult to know where to begin […]
Ruminations on Socialism
I wrote this last year. It still rings very true. This morning I read that the stock market has risen more during the Obama presidency than during any other. The piece I was reading went on to ask the question: Does this make President Obama the worst Socialist ever? Considering how often our President is […]
Why Vote? (From the Archives)
I’ve decided to dip into the way-back machine for this post. I wrote this in October of 2010, in the run-up to the ultimately disasterous midterm elections that year. Some of what I said here is now dated, but the general gist of what I said still holds true today. Here it is… When I […]
Historical Presidential Rankings
A poll was published recently that ranked President Obama as the worst president since World War II. Notwithstanding that this seems to me to be yet another example of people who blindly hate the president for no apparent reason other than the huge unstated one (see my previous entry), it’s not at all fair to […]