National issues stir us up and the internet becomes abuzz. Unfortunately, most of the conversations generate more heat than light. I hope these posts are at least a little enlightneing.
Assumptions “It seems to me Democrats (Liberals) want to help people and Republicans (Conservatives) want to help people help themselves.” That’s how it was summed up by someone who was, I think, pretty wise. But when I am in a bad mood, it seems to me that liberals are paternalistic… Continue reading
This post is part of the March Synchroblog: Guns and God. Links to the other posts are listed at the end the article. Abuse I am really tired of people trying to co-op God to support their political position. Guns and God do not go together. Gun control and God… Continue reading
For far, far too long, Christians, especially Evangelicals were known for what they were against. They were against abortion, homosexuality, and most anything that made them uncomfortable. Is killing unborn babies bad? Yes, it is. Is it unforgivable? Is it “the platform” for Christianity? No, on both accounts. Following Jesus… Continue reading
Just thinking about the images makes me crazy. A twenty-year-old young man shot his mom in the face, then using her guns blasted his way into an elementary school and mowed down twenty-six people, most of them six and seven year old before taking his own life. The tears are… Continue reading
We’re wimps! We, the people of the United States of America are a sorry lot in the way we exercise our citizenship. I am a wimp, too, but I am beginning to train to be a better citizen. We vote based on superficial information that has been carefully engineered by… Continue reading
You probably are aware that Kansas City Chiefs linebacker, Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend who was the mother of his three-month-old daughter just minutes before driving to the Chiefs’ facility where he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, taking his own life. In the parking lot,… Continue reading
By the time you read this Election Day 2012 will over. Thank God! However, I am writing on Tuesday morning. Patty and I have already squiggled in our ovals and fed our ballots into the optical scanner by 7:30 this morning. Either Barak Obama will be rehired or he will… Continue reading
And I thought we were polarized during the last election cycle. Your neighbor puts up an Obama or Romney yard sign and you think, I thought he was an okay, but apparently he is an idiot. One of your Facebook “friends” writes about what an ass Obama or Romney is… Continue reading
While we are overwhelmed with political propaganda and endless chatter from the talking heads and spin doctors, there is not enough attention given to three foundational questions that should affect how we vote. The answers to these questions should be applied to every governmental program. Is it the role of… Continue reading
If I had a magic wand, here are three things I would fix in our political system. The Electoral College would be gone. When you vote for the candidate for your choice for the President of the United States, you are really voting for your state’s electors. All states, except Maine… Continue reading
This is a comment in response to a post on another site (though it also posted here on glennhager.com). It covers several issues, so you would understand it better if you the post and the comment I am responding to. Here is the link to the post, so you can… Continue reading
As I was surfing Facebook, I saw an acquaintance’s claim that Romney was trying to take us back to the days of Ozzie and Harriet. It was a curious response to the debate. Some conservatives might look on those times as the good old days and some liberals regard then… Continue reading
There are some things I look for when hiring a plumber. I want to know if he knows what he is doing and if he is good at it. I want to know if he is honest, going to show up on time, do quality work, not leave a mess,… Continue reading
We live really close to Wisconsin (a block and a half away). The state is home to Reince Priebus, Chair of the Republican national Committee and Paul Ryan Republican Vice Presidential nominee. So, our geography, the campaign news reports, and the political conventions have me thinking about politics. The word, politics… Continue reading
I have to admit that I have been itching to write about the hoopla surrounding Chic-fil-a and homosexuality. Based on what I know about the story, my conclusions are rather clear. Everybody has a right to their opinion. That means Don Cathy, the CEO of Chic-fil-a, a privately held company,… Continue reading
I wrote this piece during the Obama/Romney Campaign. That campaign was a gentile exercise in democracy compared to the current one. Campaign season always makes me cranky. Campaigns always turn ugly. Candidates should run their own campaign and lay off of the half-truths and lies about their competitors, but they… Continue reading
The Trayvon Martin case is but another example of a high profile, racially charged incident being tried in the media and the court of public opinion prior to the facts being known. Emotions are running high because it reminds us as a nation of our not so distant past when… Continue reading
This post is part of a synchroblog related to Women’s History Month and International Woman’s Day. I was in my early twenties attending a denominational meeting with my pastor when we ran upon a mutual acquaintance, the man who was my pastor when I was a teenager. He had moved… Continue reading
Here is a summary of my observations on presidential campaigns. The candidates always say they are going to run a positive campaign, but it always turns negative and nasty. They always say that the campaign is about the people and their love of the country, but the one with the… Continue reading
For the last several weeks, I have been poking around in the nooks and crannies of the Hager Hacienda in an effort to eliminate clutter. Boxes of outdated and unused books have been donated to the community library. Clothes went to the drop-off box. Old dishes were delivered to a local… Continue reading
I don’t live in Wisconsin, but I’m close… a block and a half south of the state line and I regularly read a Wisconsin newspaper and listen to Wisconsin Public Radio. Like most everyone else, I receive a constant barrage of sound bites, call-in programs, posts and tweets about what is… Continue reading
I just learned of someone who lost her job over a remark that was deemed to be racially insensitive. She is a hard worker, a highly educated upper level manager and long term employee who has devoted huge blocks of her own time and money to this supposedly Christian employer. Her… Continue reading
This post will make more sense if you begin by reading the first one in this series on the new healthcare law. Let’s look at how the new legislation addresses the problems with our current system of healthcare that I wrote about in the first post. Uninsured people. – FIXED in 2014! The… Continue reading
The much debated, little agreed upon healthcare reform is now the law of the land. Healthcare in this nation should have been reformed decades ago. Like any problem, the longer it continues, the more complex the solution becomes. Some things in our (non) system are very broken. Uninsured people. The number… Continue reading
