Author: Jim Richardson

Recently in the news there is a story of a young 18-year old woman who is having a disagreement with her parents. She left home to go live with friends, but is expecting her parents to fork over $650 a week for support and to pay her private high-school tuition and college fees. She claims… Continue reading What do parents owe their children?

I’ve never been a huge fan of Woody Allen movies. Probably the one I like best is Radio Days, where he really didn’t appear, but it was nominated for best original screenplay. There is a huge wave of sentiment on the internet these days about allegations that he may have molested his 8-year old daughter.… Continue reading Woody Allen

I never understood why famous rich people are so insecure that they find a way to kill themselves. Be it a drug overdose or drinking themselves to death, these people had it made. First of all, they won the sperm lottery and were born with some sort of gift that they found a way to… Continue reading Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Throughout much of the later 19th and early to mid twentieth century, many, if not most, blue-collar jobs in America were unionized. Unions became popular, particularly in industrial jobs, with large memberships of average working-class men and women who had previously suffered poor working conditions or unfair wages. Unions not only changed the working environments… Continue reading Unionizing the Service Sector

I don’t remember being arrogant when I was young, at least not purposefully, but I’m sure that somewhere around you’ll find one of my elders who will tell you that when I was a young person, there were things about which I was arrogant. I think it is just part of being young and dumb.… Continue reading The Arrogance of Youth

In 1933, the American Great Recession was in full swing. Unemployment was 25%, times were about as bleak as they could get. Already the rumblings of discontent in Europe were foretelling the Second Great War, and Americans standing in line for handouts were in despair. A new President was inaugurated that year, and in his… Continue reading “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself”

We’ve all heard of the creepy NSA surveillance done by the U.S. government, which gathers electronic bits by the bucket load, apparently without any legal standing. We should all be absolutely furious at our government, and we should make our displeasure known at the ballot box. It’s not likely that will happen of course, we… Continue reading Camover

Over on my partner’s blog, Indianaohindiana.com I had written a response to his post about the results of the George Zimmerman trial.  We disagree, and I think the root cause of that disagreement is the wide gap in our understanding of American culture. I was raised in the deep south, and although my mother’s father… Continue reading It’s still 1954 in America

Nothing points out the current state of affairs with regard to our national decline in overall competence than this story about a young pre-teen contestant on Jeopardy who was told his answer was wrong because of a one-letter misspelling. If you are a fan of Jeopardy at all, you know that adult contestants have their… Continue reading America’s state of declining competence

I don’t read books as much as I used too. Before computers and video games and cable television, I could easily go through three or four good novels a week. I was a regular fixture at whatever local library was nearest, because I certainly couldn’t afford to buy that many new books. Although, looking at… Continue reading Orson Scott Card

I stole this from Mark, but it perfectly sums up my feeling about the Christian faith, especially as practiced in America.

This past week many Gay Americans and their friends celebrated the decisions made by the U.S. Supreme court in regard to gay marriage. In essence, if you’ve been in a cave recently, the court decided that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was unconstitutional, and that the Federal Government had to treat all legally married… Continue reading Gay Marriage – is that really what we wanted?