I’ve decided to depart from my usual political rant this month and take on an equally controversial subject — religion. More specifically, I want to address Christianity. It’s not that I find other faiths less relevant or valid. Out of respect, I choose not to speak for those faiths to which I don’t belong. It’s [...]
Recently, during a Town Hall meeting in New Hampshire, GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney fielded a question from a young man in the crowd, asking the candidate if he thought that corporations were people. The question was in reference to the Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission decision handed down by the Supreme Court on [...]
Greed: an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth. Greed has gripped our nation and may very well destroy our economy and our democracy. One doesn’t have to research too deeply or look too far to find examples of over inflated salaries and [...]
Like a lot of Americans, I’ve been following the Republican presidential debates the last couple of months. To be honest, I find myself scratching my head and asking myself, “What in the world is going on?” I have never seen such a group of job applicants express such open disdain for the company to which [...]
Is it better to be feared or loved? This question was posed by Machiavelli in his book “The Prince” back in the 1500s. The question possesses both political and religious ramifications. As a lifelong Christian, I’ve often wrestled with this schizophrenic notion of God. On one hand, we have the demanding and wrathful God found [...]
I worry. Sometimes I worry too much. I get a thought in my head and I become like a pit bull, I can’t let it go. It’s not good for me. In the past, it has caused me, and those close to me, problems. I think it’s because I have lousy denial mechanisms. Woody Allen [...]
I recently returned home from a six-day kayak trip down the Rogue River in southern Oregon with my friend Phil. Early in the trip Phil was wearing a “red dirt” shirt he had brought home from his trip to Kauai. On the back of the shirt was a list of short philosophical quips, the first [...]
There’s a saying, “You can have your own opinions but you can’t have your own facts.” Unfortunately, many are now selecting unique and sometimes bad facts to convince others of the merit of their opinion. For instance, in Mr. Oyen Hoffman’s “Another point of view” [published in the June 30 edition of the Idyllwild Town [...]
