Author: Jim Richardson

Our government is a representative republic. It’s not democratic, most people fail to distinguish between the two. In a democracy, everyone gets one vote. In the United States, we do get one vote, but we vote for Senators and Representatives, and the people we elect then are free to vote however they please on whatever… Continue reading My Congressman Does Not Represent Me

I’ve been gone the last few days, attending the wedding of my daughter. As much as I grumbled and griped about the waste of money on what is essentially a one night party, there is an underlying pride in the fact that I am playing my part in never-ending march forward of our culture and… Continue reading Out with the old ….

Today, on the way in to work I heard a story on NPR about children who are staying in their parents home well into their 20’s. A young man was interviewed, and he sounded sincere, and I can sympathize with him on the fact that times are tough, jobs may be hard to find, and… Continue reading Grow up, kid

One of the worst things about being young is that a young person often has no concept of “tomorrow”. Because of this, they also can’t imagine themselves growing old. It is absolutely impossible for them to imagine that the old person giving them advice was once young like them. There are lots of things I’d… Continue reading Dance in the rain

On the way in to work the other morning, I heard a news story about the upcoming ban on Foie Gras in the state of California that takes effect on July 1st of this year. The law was actually passed eight years ago, with a delayed effective date so that producers of the delicacy might be… Continue reading Keep your hands out of my plate!

The Washington Post published a story where Mitt Romney’s classmates recall a string of incidents perpetrated by Romney that would be classified as incidents of bullying. One incident in particular was mentioned wherein Romney was the guy holding the scissors when the group he was with chased down a young man, and despite his desperate… Continue reading The Bully

Overlooked today in the aftermath of the news of President Obama stating that he thinks gays should be allowed to marry are the results of some unique surveys that show a majority of us think that our Defense budget should be deeply slashed. As of 2011, the United States military spending was $711,000,000,000 dollars. That’s… Continue reading Why are we the worlds’s policemen?

When I was a child in school, we learned about significant inventions of the industrial age that changed the world. Things like the steam engine, the automobile, the airplane, radio and television, the cotton gin, the light-bulb, the telephone, the telegraph, the mechanical reaper, photography, motion pictures, the gatling gun …all of these important inventions that… Continue reading In My Lifetime

Over in Garfield County, Colorado – on the western edge of the state, apparently the Sheriff’s office is having a problem with men who enjoy hiking the many trails in the area, sans clothing. There are no reports of lewd behaviour, no reports of attempted rapes or violence, simply someone out enjoying nature without benefit… Continue reading Doing it Naked

Four Hundred Three happens to be the number of years that one branch of my family has been resident on the continent of North America. (Four Hundred Two years is documented for another branch). Since the late 1970’s, I’ve been smitten by the hobby of Genealogy. My mother’s father and his sister had started the… Continue reading Four Hundred and Three

From July of 1973 to April of 1981, I served proudly in the United States Navy. I went to bootcamp at Naval Training Center, Orlando, Florida, and then to Radioman “A” school in Bainbridge, Maryland. From there, they sent me to a supersecret school in Northwest, Virginia. My first real tour of duty was at the Naval… Continue reading Haze Grey and Underway

When I was a kid, living in South Florida, it never crossed my mind that people lived in other places that didn’t have the wonderous bounty of delicious nature available to them. In my Grandmothers yard alone were cerenum cherries, oranges, mangos, guavas, kumquats, mulberrys and of course, my favorite of them all, avocados. You must… Continue reading Can you fall in love with a fruit?