Category: Religion

It can be a difficult question—particularly when you realize what answer makes sense, the majority of the time.

The solution to the question may be different, than the one I’m about to put out there. Where that’s true, I wanted to speak specifically to the main one, I think needs to be understood.

When we’re younger (and sometimes not so young), we have a tendency to try and answer this conundrum in a way that’s both not really the case, and frankly, to our detriment.

You see, most of the time, the simple statement made should be, “I’m responsible.”

Yes, it’s true there are situations where placing the burden on oneself, may potentially be at least partially incorrect.

That said, most of the time, it’s a simple query, with an equally simple response.

Even in situations where somebody else did something, that resulted in some sort of less than desirable outcome, had we taken action to stop them doing so, what happened might’ve been completely different.

Sometimes it’s true, we may not have been been involved in the process. At other times, we may not’ve understood what was occurring, or been in a position to stop not-so-great things from happening. In those cases, unless we chose to not act appropriately, I think it’s fair to say whatever occurred was not “on us.”

In just about every other scenario though, it’s pretty reasonable to say we bear the burden, for at least a part of what happened.

I don’t say this in order to either beat myself up, or to get people to do likewise. The point of statement, is to seek future improvement, by bringing to light something we may not be accounting correctly.

In personal relationships for example, I’ve done a horribly bad job. Whether it was in deciding with whom I would be in such a coming together, or dealing badly with one or more (usually more than one) thing that happened while in that union, or other situation.

In the end, there’s certainly nobody more to be blamed, for the unfortunate outcomes, than plain old me.

Am I saying the other person involved has no responsibility in the various catastrophes, pitfalls, good, or great times we went through together? Not at all.

Rather, my intent is to point out two things.

If I don’t take responsibility for what I’ve done—how I’ve erred, or done well—I’m abdicating both that responsibility, and equally importantly, my authority, in those times when I obviously had both.

The other point of importance is, blaming whatever other parties were involved, rarely results in any benefit at all for anyone. About the best I can hope for, is keeping it in my mind, that the person in question might not be trustworthy.

Of course, all of this applies equally to business transactions and activities, as it does to private interpersonal relationships.

It’s incumbent on each person involved in public interactions, to do their best to ensure a favorable outcome for both themselves, and others.

It may be, none of this comes off at all surprising to you.

If you’re like me though, it’s a hard lesson to first internalize, then to maintain as recognized.

I have a terribly bad habit of blaming others, when I either did wrong myself in some fashion, or maybe more importantly, knew they were probably going to do badly, and failing to prepare for that eventuality.

Trust me, if nobody else gets it, I do. It can be hard to recognize that blame or fault lies in one’s own back yard.

You should also be totally aware, this is still something with which I cross swords on a daily and ongoing basis—and it’s not a battle I expect to win completely, any time in the near future.

That said, I’ve begun to build a pattern. It involves asking simple questions like, “How could I have made things better, or done more correctly?”

Sometimes I forget to even ask, much less answer questions of that sort. As I go along, I hope to get better and better, at doing so.

The funny thing is, blaming others is such an easy, and basic response, that I do it in the simplest of times, without taking a moment to look in the mirror, before doing so.

I’ll be driving down the road, and a car will basically stop in front of me to turn right. This is an absolute recipe, for me to blame the person at the wheel of that vehicle, for acting badly.

Should I do so though?

In reality, the common answer is, “No.”

How many times has such a thing happened before? It would be an amazing thing, for any driver with more than ten years of experience, to not be able to count a hundred or more such times.

If I knew the possibility might exist, regardless why it happens, is it not my responsibility to prepare for that eventuality?

Considering that’s true for a thing that seems so badly out of my control, how much more should it be the case, for things I should be even more likely to encounter?

If I flatly refuse to accept the possibility such things may come to pass, sooner or later, there will be potentially serious problems to face.

It’s for this reason I’ve been working to “fix” this issue within myself.

I’ve been lucky (you may be inclined to say blessed, instead), my ability to react quicky has been good enough most of the time, and the results so minimal, as to not have caused any serious harm, to myself or others.

It takes just one time for life to throw just the right curve ball, and for someone to be seriously badly affected, as a result.

Considering my luck, or how blessed I’ve been to this point, statistics are working heavily against me. Even if they weren’t though, it’s definitely time for me to shoulder what burden I can, and work to keep things, from going awry.

Remember this. Others may well affect various situations in which you find yourself. In general though you’re responsible for the outcome. Failing to look at things in this way, may result in dire consequences.

Thanks for reading, and may your time be good.

I wanted to take the time to relate a couple of incidents, from my time in the U. S. Air Force. Trust me, I’ll explain why I’m doing this a little further along in this piece. For the time being, just take in the pictures, and see what you think of them.

I was relatively new in the military, not more than a couple of years in. I had married a young lady who was from the Republic of Korea.

I decided it would be a good thing, among other considerations, for me to see her home country.

I found a way to get myself on the installation I desired, and off we went!

One day, during one of the rainy seasons there, I found myself plodding heavily along, in a fairly steady downpour.

It was early evening, and I had a long way—more than two miles—to go to get home, off base.

As I walked, I was reminded by the playing of “To The Colors,” that the military day was coming to a close.

That particular tune, was used to tell one, flags were going to be lowered and put away, and Taps was about to commence playing. As was expected, I stopped, turned in the direction of what I knew was likely the nearest flag, snapped to attention, and prepared to salute the setting banner.

As I stood there, rain dripped off of pretty much every part of my body. It fell from the bill of my cap, down in front of my face.

I heard the melody, signaling the end of the day, saluted, waited until the last note had sounded, dropped my hand, and trudged on to my home.

Sometime later on, I was working in the receiving warehouse on that same installation, where I spent the majority of the day. The commander of the Pacific Air Forces, had decreed that his people would work fifty hours a week, as a measure combating culture shock. The thinking was, if you spent enough time working, perhaps you wouldn’t be so wierded out by the differences around you.

I was beginning a ten hour day (it was either a Friday or a Saturday, as I recall), and we were in the middle of a training exercise.

That particular learning session, was one of the type referred to as an ATSO (Ability to Survive and Operate) event.

On that day, in the middle of summer, I was told early on, that we were to don our chemical warfare attire (Ground Crew Ensemble, gas mask, cotton gloves, rubber gloves, and rubber boots, worn over the top of full uniform), and perform normal work, until notified to take it off.

As indicated, it was summer, and the warehouse had no air conditioning, which meant it was already a hotbox, as such, the heat was pretty difficult to handle. Wearing all that gear, made it that much worse, as you can imagine.

Both of these scenarios, could be taken for being very near the bottom of circumstances, in terms of fun and enjoyment value. To be sure, they were far from pleasant.

The reality is though, I tell those stories, neither to evoke pity for what I’ve been through, nor to show you just how bad things could be.

What you need to understand is, these were some of the more difficult times, in my military career.

The next thing you ought to be clear on is, my experiences were minor inconveniences by comparison to the likes of MSG Roy Benavidez (whose story can be heard in part, by watching the video found in this post on my blog site), and Audie Murphy.

These guys make everything I experienced in my time in service, look absolutely lame by comparison.

And they’re far from alone in that. Think of all those men (and women) who went to Afghanistan, and Iraq. Consider those who went to Vietnam, the Korean War, and the Second World War.

Concern yourself with those who lost limbs, who were burned beyond recognition, yet survived. Cast your mind on those who went to war on foreign soil, and never returned alive.

My little trials, were akin to skin blemishes by comparison, to what so many have dealt with.

The more amazing thing? Besides having tremendous amounts of physical prowess to bandy about, many of the folks mentioned, had virtually unimaginable inner strength.

Benavidez speaks of crawling to walls, in order to try to stand up, suffering unbelievable pain in his back, when doing so.

I can’t tell you how many others can make similar claims; I’m sure the number is not at all, a small one.

When I look back on my time, not just in the military, but in life overall, I’m often more than a little ashamed, how bitter, disappointed, sad, and upset, comparatively tiny things have made me.

Bearing witness to such internal fortitude, can only make a thinking person stand in awe, of the people displaying it.

I can toot my own horn here, and say that I’ve continued through some relatively tough circumstances, and that for the most part, I’ve come out stronger, and more able, as a result. That considered, the folks I’ve discussed in this article, make it very plain to me, I don’t necessarily hold a candle to the toughness, they apparently possess inside.

You may be going through hard times. You could be dealing with things, the like of which I’ve never dealt. Still, your ability to stand up within, and deal with such things, may end up being one of the most important things you can do. At some point, people may look at you, and see another Roy Benavidez.

It’s often not an easy thing, to edure the struggles and difficulties of life. Doing, so can make us want to give up on that toil at times. That said, being able to look at the struggles and difficulties of gallant, valorous individuals, and realize maybe what we’re experiencing isn’t as severe as we’d like to think, can be helpful to realign our perspective. It’s hoped we can come to really understand, what inner strength looks like, when we do.

Thanks for reading, and may your time be good.

Who out there has not heard some variation of the old expression, “climbing the ladder?”

It seems the concept is a fairly universal one.

What’s maybe not so widespread, is an understanding of what “the ladder” actually is.

It may be fairer to say the term, and terms like it, don’t mean the same thing to all people.

That said, where I don’t think we can come to an all-encompassing definition, I do believe we can arrive at a meaning, a good many would count acceptable to discuss that ladder, and the idea of climbing it.

I’m pretty sure the majority of folks out there, want to achieve successes of various types.

Some among us, may never have dreamt of being rich, powerful, or famous. I would argue at least one of these, is an ambition the majority of individuals, have a desire to accomplish.

Here’s the first point of this piece. In order to climb a ladder, there must be one.

Take the idea of becoming wealthy.

First, there must be some form of currency. We’re not necessarily talking about notes, and coins here. In systems that work around barter, the currency might be cows, houses, and rutabagas.

Still, some sort of thing one may possess, which itself has value, must exist or be created in order to make it possible, for people to gain it in sufficient quantity, to be well off.

This implies a second thing, there must be some sort of standard—either personal, or societal, or both—that gives some idea, who has achieved that goal of attaining a necessary amount of assets, to be considered affluent.

That measurement system, may not be so easy to nail down.

Here’s an interesting thing though, in order to go from not having to having, there must be some mechanism or set thereof, which allows or allow, passage from one to the other.

I submit that pathway typically has a couple of components in a social unit with values, that aren’t horribly skewed.

The first is, it’s normally expected, that one must work hard to manage to get, to the place of plenty.

A second, would be that the person doing so, would have to behave in ways that are commonly moral, ethical, and legal. You may gain by doing otherwise, but you’re always at risk of losing. That’s true whether you act properly or not, but in my way of thinking, even more so if you don’t, than if you do.

Though there may be others, there’s a third that comes to mind. That would be having the smarts to get from point a to point b.

To be clear, that doesn’t necessarily mean, some sort of all-knowing intelligence. Some folks prove to just be good, at traveling that road.

And as I sit and think about my list, I realize there’s at least one more helpful—if not required—asset.

That would be, tenacity. You must be willing to work through obstacles, to continue when roadblocks loom.

Little in life comes easy. Seldom do things like wealth building, happen speedily.

Because that’s true, you have to be willing, and able, to “tough it out.”

So I think we’ve defined some important traits one must come to hold, if one intends to become well monied.

The next consideration that comes to me, is the types of bottlenecks a person might encounter, on that road.

To begin with, there will always be naysayers—people who’ll tell you it’s just not possible to achieve your desired end.

Additionally, there’ll be those, who insist it’s in some wise immoral to even attempt to possess more than enough, to live a meager existence.

Even if we assume that’s true, there’s a level of achievement that must occur to get, and stay there. That means themark I try to get to, is still just that, a point on the scale.

Sometimes, the folks who insist there’s a point at which someone has too much, will get into positions, where they have the ability to set some stopping place. At that point, they may seek to establish tools by which confiscation of what one has, over and above their assessed level, is possible.

This may seem like a grand “leveling mechanism.” In truth though, it’s pretty much invariably a bad idea.

Why? Because of the aforementioned attributes needed to achieve success. If one person comes to a position of power, such that they can take what’s reasonably gained from the gainer, the one having done the work, loses incentive to continue to acquire.

Does that sound desirable? If so, perhaps it’s because you’ve failed to consider the potential collateral damage, that will almost assuredly occur.

When a person seeks to gain, he or she will almost without exception, come to a place where doing so, will be more than he or she, can manage alone.

It’s at this point that they’ll enlist the aid of others.

Smart folks taking on help, will make it worth the while—to the extent they’re able—of those they employ, to be there.

Then there’s the idea that, once you get to a certain point, holding on to what you’ve managed to gain is generally a bad plan. Things perish. At best, excessive possessions sit, and gather dust.

You might ask, “So why gather things in the first place?”

The question isn’t a bad one. The thing many fail to recognize though, is that such things are at least brought together, and often, go through some additional processes, to make them useful. Like it or not, this is what such folks manage to accomplish en masse.

From there, others can more easily come by the things they need and want, by obtaining them through trade, from those who have them.

In the end, I guess my point is this. A ladder to various places at least should and really probably must exist. Some will argue for that path’s hindrance. For the most part, I contend against such perspectives because of their net effect on not just the wealthy, but everybody who might benefit from one climbing that ladder. You may disagree. If you do, I’d like to hear your logic.

Thanks for reading, and may your time be good.

Where do you get your information?

That’s not just a reasonable question, in my view, it’s pretty much an essential one.

As is true for many, I spend too much time wading through social media.

It was in the process of doing just that, I encountered a post that talked about how ironic it was, that a CNN reporter was arguing, the Parler social media platform, is “killing American Democracy.”

The discussion was in the form of a video clip, so it was relatively easy to see exactly what it was he was trying to say.

His argument, was that Parler is a “right-wing echo chamber.”

Here’s what astounded me. I’m on Parler (as well as many of the other social media platforms), and where I acknowledge that it tends to have a definitely rightward tilt, I consider that to be true for an obvious reason.

People on the political right seem prone to join Parler, because they don’t expect their voices to be heard consistently on any other platform.

It’s for that reason that both Parler, and the platform that can be considered competition to YouTube—Rumble by name—exist.

I’ve been a listener and watcher of Mr Dan Bongino for some time now.

I bring Dan up, because he’ll be the first to tell you he has an ownership stake in both companies.

Because that’s true, he advertises for both platforms on his show(s). That said, in much of the talking about them, when he runs his various plugs, he makes a point of saying they’re not designed to be total replacements, for other platforms.

Does that sound like someone living in an echo chamber to you?

How about a person who posts a clip of a CNN personality talking about how he doesn’t like Parler, because it’s destroying democracy? Yes, it was Mr Bongino who posted the clip I referenced earlier.

And by the way, that’s how I get certain more left-leaning opinions and commentary; I hear them from conservatives.

So the next question is obvious, “Considering I hear various liberal talking points, does it sound to you like I’m in a right-wing echo chamber?”

What if I told you I listen to other folks, with whom I sometimes agree, but with whom I certainly don’t always stand?

I enjoy listening to Tim Pool (timcast), Bruce “The Boss” Brooks, and others.

Bruce and Tim both, tend to have conservative leanings. That said, you can be assured, we periodically disagree.

And they’re not the only ones I’ll take the time to sit down and listen to by any means.

Here’s the thing.

Bongino is prone to use what I believe are referred to as “super cuts” on his Dan Bongino Show. Much of the time, they come from somebody or some group who’s known as Grabien. I’m not sure who they actually are, but they’re pretty good at compiling sound bites from the mainstream media.

This matters. because much of what comes out of such activity, is folks from a variety of different mainstream outlets, saying the same thing. They’ll literally utter the exact same verbiage from person to person, and program to program.

Want to know how I picture an echo chamber? Check out the super cuts out there, that show multiple mainstream news personalities, parroting the exact same language.

This, to me, is the very definition of the idea, “echo chamber.”

It’s for this reason—among others I’m sure—people like Dan Bongino are seeing such amazing success.

To be fair, had it not been for Mr Rush Limbaugh blazing that trail, I wonder if anybody would be traveling it.

That said, the reason the right-wing talk phenomenon has exploded, is at least largely, due to a hunger for something other than mainstream pablum.

I’m pretty sure I’m of a mind with Mr Bongino, and most others on the right. I would expect most such people to say, you should pay attention to a diverse set of sources.

I’d say further, that most of us who tend towards conservatism, would count it not only reasonable, but more or less essential, to listen to arguments from people truly in opposition, to those holding forth.

In my mind, I want people who disagree, to critique what I have to say. Having that occur, means I must either defend what I believe, or question what I hold true.

I’m a big boy. If I weren’t by this point, you should be worried. I can stand to have people attack my ideas, perspectives, and viewpoints.

In fact, I consider it valuable, for people to do so with factual, content filled responses.

What all of this boils down to is this.

It’s incumbent on each of us, to come to understand the tilts and slants of those around us.

It’s equally important to comprehend our own leanings. After all, I’m pretty well convinced we all have them.

If we get in the kitchen, and find the heat is too much for use to bear, maybe it’s time to start looking at what we hold dear.

Even if it all but makes you sick, hearing from other angles is a worthwhile thing.

Nobody says you have to agree with them. Then again, you may just find that you do, if you take the time to hear them out.

I’ve heard a good many right-side-of-the-aisle folks, talk about their liberal, even far left progressive origins. I don’t find that same sort of story, coming out of the camp of leftists folks. That is to say, that many of them started out as conservatives, and moved to liberalism.

In order for such a shift to happen though, it’s necessary for the folks in question to look to their opposition. Knowing that’s true, can you honestly say you believe it’s folks on the right, that tend to live in echo chambers?

My main point is this. We all need to look at from where our information comes. If you’re not prone to support, and attend a widely diverse set of sources, maybe it’s time for you to start.

Thanks for reading, and may your time be good.

I’ve spent a reasonably good part of my adult life, working in jobs where it was necessary for me to have a reasonable knowledge of data. You can be sure that includes a moderate amount of interpreting what statistics do say, and what they don’t indicate.

I recently saw a post on one of my social media accounts, that made it clear to me, far from everyone has had the need to learn how deal reasonably with such information.

I want to be clear, where in certain regards, my understanding of data centered facts, can be argued to be something close to expert, in other ways, that’s certainly not the case.

To give an example of how important it is to understand what you’re able to glean, when viewing statistics, it’s clear perusing the factual data surrounding COVID-19, that much of the action, as well as the policies put in place surrounding its existence, have been serious overkill.

I could go on to cite the data in question, but that isn’t the intended purpose of this article. Rather, the thrust of this little set of scribblings, is to talk about the idea that, without serious research and consideration, it’s often not true, one can look at data in meaningful and useful ways.

Another example of this, was found in the social media post, mentioned above.

It’s obvious the individual meant well in the statement they made (which was actually a repost of what someone else had put out there). That said, the point made about the thing discussed, shows how statistical data can be pretty readily abused.

The basic idea posited, is that one in ten children is born prematurely. The information presented lines up with the Data found on the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

A quick review of the page titled Premature Birth though, gives us the following information: “Premature (also known as preterm) birth is when a baby is born too early, before 37 weeks of pregnancy have been completed.”

Considering that the accepted normal term for a human pregnancy is at most 40 weeks (various writeups say 39), that means the definition of prematurity used by the CDC, involves cases where children are born as little as two weeks early.

I’m pretty sure one of my children can be considered premature by that standard. He’s Moderately (Level 2) Autistic, but other than that, appears to have been born healthy.

The point here is simple. Unless you wish to argue his autism diagnosis can be blamed on premature birth, the fact that he was born early, is a consideration bearing little to no weight.

I want to be clear in what I’m saying here. For those having children born at 21, or 22 weeks, or even younger, there’s little doubt they have a hard—one might even argue desperate—road ahead of them.

It can’t be denied, that folks who have children a month or more prior to the anticipated normal delivery date, may well suffer more than a little consternation as well. In fact, I’m sure in some circumstances, it can be downright devastating.

Though that’s true, I would be very surprised to hear many such folks, have more than a fleeting recollection of their child’s early birth, even a couple of years after it happened.

The fly in the ointment come to this statistic then, is this.

Where it’s true that one in ten babies is born prematurely, that information is not sufficient to form opinions, on the seriousness of such a claim. Instead, it’s necessary to possess additional data based on the potentially varying ages and health outcomes, for the children in question, to do so.

In order to seriously talk about this topic, it would be necessary to do a great deal more work, than I’m willing to do for this article.

None of this negates the horribly stressful, and difficult time, new parents (most particularly mothers, but fathers too), go though as a result of more serious instances of premature birth.

That said, because the data is relatively vague, it’s a completely reasonable thing to ask more revealing questions like, “Out of the one in ten babies born prematurely, how many suffer even remotely seriously problematic health outcomes?”

Doing this is not a sign of callousness. Rather, it helps to pinpoint the severity of the issue in question.

In the same way that people concentrating on the number of COVID-19 infections, fail to discuss the number of deaths, or even serious and lasting health outcomes attributable to the virus, considering the number of premature births simply doesn’t answer the questions, that can and should be asked about the well being of the babies in question.

What makes this worse, is that in employing statistical sleight of hand, people are making things that shouldn’t be matters of great concern, seem substantially more so, than they actually are. And when people figure this out, they often wrongly fail to attribute to those actually dealing with real and meaningful issues, the hardship those folks, have truly endured.

Further, because the data used to support their claims can be seen to be somewhat disingenuous, others who’re dealing with issues that are more serious and widespread, are seen as less significant than the ones having had their data inflated.

You have to understand too, it may appear that I’m intending on picking on a couple of cases only, but that’s not at all the case.

This type of statistical inflation and malfeasance, is a problem in many cases, and causes more significant things to be ignored on a regular and ongoing basis—and we’re not just talking about health related situations, either.

So how do we deal with this? It’s certain that many spreading unintentional falsehoods likely aren’t even in on the game.

About the only thing I can tell you, I’ve said many times before. Do your due diligence. Anything less, and you’re likely to be an unwilling dupe, of those spreading misinformation.

My final word is this. Please, please, I beg you, be very careful when presenting data given to you by others. Not taking the time to confirm what you see and hear, is likely one of the leading causes of muddied waters, surrounding things like understanding which health conditions are the most impactful. Take the time, do the research. If you’re not willing to do that, best to remain silent, at least where specific claims are made.

Thanks for reading and may your time be good.