Right Minded Online

What a shame that the people we regard as heroes are usually entertainers and athletes, who are often reprobates who have done absolutely nothing to earn their hero status. The real heroes, the ones who get buried on page 5 of the newspaper, are our service members who sacrifice their lives so the rest of us can enjoy freedom — a freedom that we all seem to take for granted.

Since self-appointed global warming prophets can make weather predictions a hundred years in advance and have them accepted as fact by their faithful global warming religionists, I have a pontification of my own to make. Global warming is real, and we are so deep into it that there is nothing we can do about it anymore. No amount of emissions reductions or carbon offsets can reverse the effects of global warming. It’s like terminal cancer. That being the case, there is no need to make any economic sacrifice on behalf of the planet, so party on and enjoy life to the fullest during the few years we have left.

I have come to the realization that the broadcasters who announce sporting events on television don’t know any more about sports than I do or any other avid sports fan. They get paid to do what they do simply because they have good voices and are able to keep the decibel meter moving between plays. Likewise, the sports analysts who make predictions don’t know anymore about outcomes than my nine-year-old. After all, words don’t win games. It’s all decided on the field of play, and not in television studios.

The NBA draft lottery is a sham, and must be scrapped immediately.

For the first time since 1976, neither a Bush nor a Clinton was on the presidential ticket this year.

The older I get, the shorter that list of “People I Need to Impress” becomes.

For entertainment, I would pay money to see a president nominate Ann Coulter to some government position that requires Senate confirmation. She’d never get enough votes, but the exchange between her and some of the pompous blowhards in the Senate would be side-splitting.

During the second semester of my junior year in college, I made a “24″ on my first test in differential equations. One person told me I was stupid if I didn’t go ahead and drop the class and retake it the next semester. (Nobody told me I was stupid for making a “24,” though.) I hadn’t dropped or retaken a class up until that time, and I wasn’t about to start then. I figured the absolute worst that could happen would be to end up failing the course and retaking it the next semester. I stuck with it, studied like crazy, and made a “97″ on the next test. (A careless mistake kept me from earning a perfect score.) I passed the third test, and did well enough on the final examination to earn a “B” in differential equations. Shows what everybody else knew. I don’t remember much about differential equations some 15+ years later, but I did learn an important lesson from that experience.

I used to give blood through the Red Cross, but the last time I tried, perhaps 4 or 5 years ago, I discovered they had added the question “Have you lived in Europe for at least six months since 1980?” as a disqualifier. I have, and I must say that I was inwardly relieved to have a legitimate excuse for not giving blood anymore.

Multi-lingual people amaze me. I lived in Italy for 2½ years, studied the Italian language for four semesters in college, and still never became fluent.

One of the best bargains I’ve found on the Internet is a subscription to Rush 24/7 for $6.95 a month. Not only does this give you access to a wealth of information on Rush Limbaugh’s website, but you can also download the podcast from each day’s show. Working shifts, I don’t often get to listen to the program live, but it has been years since I missed a show because of the podcast.

I have pledged to not buy any more books for the next year. I have at least a year’s worth of reading to do, and it seems as though for every book I read, I buy and/or am given two more.

Is it not amazing that we now have more computing power in our cell phones than the old ENIAC that weighed 27 tons?

Speaking of cell phones, I remember growing up in the 1980’s when I had to wait for the newspaper to see if the Phillies had won the previous night. Now I can hook up to the Internet using my cell phone to see what the score is at any moment. How did we survive all those years of hardship?

The more I read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, the more I realize that human nature hasn’t changed one scintilla since man was created.

Showing indignation toward others who make moral judgements is contradictory. By exclaiming “How dare you make moral judgements,” a person, in essence, makes moral judgements about those who make moral judgements.