Insights & Inspirations

08/01/2024

I hope people realize how important this is....https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/06/opinion/trump-2024-campaign-warning.html?smid=url-share

31/12/2023

For those of a certain age with musical memories.....https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/12/the-tubes-joy-geriatric-rock/676989/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231231&lctg=60661005428f1451996e3674&utm_term=The%20Atlantic%20Daily

28/12/2023

If reelected, he could use the powers of the presidency to evade justice and punish his enemies, Barton Gellman writes.

26/12/2023

May the gods help us.....https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/22/opinion/trump-danger-rage-psychology.html?te=1&nl=opinion-today&emc=edit_ty_20231122

20/12/2023

04/12/2023

The American health care system maximizes the profits of health care companies at the expense of families’ budgets.

The United States spends an average of about $13,000 per person every year on health care. No other country comes close to spending so much:

26/09/2023

A great article about music and its benefits - for both kids and adults ...."— while it’s great to approach anything (including music) with the goal of mastery, it’s also important to do things simply because they’re fun and bring you joy. Playing music is fun, or should be, and you don’t have to be great at it to find it joyful. There are lifelong benefits to be enjoyed, and regrets to be avoided, if you stick with it and just keep playing along.

The problem isn’t getting instruments into students’ hands. It’s keeping them there.

19/09/2023

A very good, logical piece that expresses my outlook.....https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/relationships/why-i-don-t-believe-in-god/ar-AA1gVCSA?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=bb8e542624034b6680f15515a2f9f8a7&ei=73

03/09/2023

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/us-culture-moral-education-formation/674765/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20230901&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily Very thought-provoking and, as usual, Brooks identifies the symptoms of a serious illness. A bit long, but well worth the read.

In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world.

27/08/2023

Lots of articles like this on the "rise of the nones" lately and the implications - both positive and problematic. Many of these articles on dechurching connect it to political stances, a too busy society, social media, etc. But based on my family's experience (my wife and four grown sons), it's also, to paraphrase James Carville 'the mythology, stupid." No article has yet pointed this out. Up until a hundred years ago, we knew almost nothing beyond our own solar system. As science and our collective consciousness becomes more aware of the incomprehensible size of the universe it's very difficult for rational people to see ourselves as the center of the physical or moral universe with a 'big guy in the sky who created us, watches and judges us and can be appealed to to interfere in personal, human affairs.' It's absurd and - with the exception of UUs - churches will continue to struggle to hold on to members if the ticket to admission is buying into this mythology.

My upbringing makes me particularly inclined to see a church-size hole in American life.

07/08/2023

“How can a creature who will certainly die have an understanding of things that will exist forever?”

02/06/2023

27/05/2023

It's alarming how few people seem to be aware of the catastrophe that's looming if this should happen.....

Investors, executives and economists are preparing contingency plans as they consider the turmoil that would result from a default in the $24 trillion U.S. Treasury market.

26/05/2023

26/05/2023

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsINTZtONk6/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

17/05/2023

Finished 4-day father-son drive - 2931 miles - from Richmond,VA to Anacortes,WA

20/04/2023

I love seeing these morons get justice - but it’s even sweeter when they bumble their way there.

Prosecutors take fresh shots at the group’s leaders after two co-defendants took the risky step of testifying in the Jan. 6 trial.

20/04/2023

17/04/2023

We’ll, there you go…

Why educational attainment is increasingly the best predictor of how Americans will vote, and for whom.

05/03/2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/magazine/epitaphs-green-wood-cemetery.html?te=1&nl=the-morning&emc=edit_nn_20230305

There’s comfort and wisdom to be found in the eerie poetry of gravestones.

28/02/2023

How old are you in your head?

There are good reasons you always feel 20 percent younger than your actual age.

29/12/2022

This has to be one of the most eye-opening videos; illustrating how incomprehensibly big the universe is.....and how small we are.

Please Subscribe: http://bit.ly/2dB7VTOMusic is by Brandon Maahs. Check out his website and music by clicking this link: http://www.brandonmaahs.com/audio-reel

23/12/2022

Whatever the Department of Justice decides to do, the House Jan. 6 committee has achieved what impeachment could not.

23/12/2022

A definitive statement for History - hopefully followed up by the DOJ:

The lengthy, eight-chapter document details former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Each chapter roughly mirrors the presentation of the committee’s investigative hearings this past year.

18/12/2022

No surprise here

When in doubt, move to Australia.