Musings of a Patriot

Category: life

  • Pursuit of Liberty Forum

    Maybe I should call this a "pre-announcement" but I wanted to let everyone know that I am setting up a forum where anyone who is interested in talking politics is welcome to help shape my political thinking. The forum exists but will be taking real shape as I have time to shape it to meet…

  • Blogging Full Time

    No, this is not an announcement that I will be blogging for a living. I have been doing a lot of reading lately. Besides any moral/religious reading (C. S. Lewis etc.) in the last month I have read: Atlas Shrugged Why We Whisper Lies My Teacher Told Me (with others on hold at the library)…

  • Speaking My Native Language

    I have always tried to maintain a very civilized and respectful tone here when discussing issues that are sometimes charged with emotion in the public arena. I have been reading the book Why We Whisper and I began to recognize that my efforts to be civil had resulted in my speaking a dialect that is…

  • Go Vote Now

    I went to my polling place this morning and the lines were so long (at 7:00 am) that I decided to go to work first. My first thought was that maybe I didn’t need to remind anyone to vote today but then I thought better of it. Everyone go vote as early as you can…

  • The Costs of Health Insurance

    Maybe this is related to being under a dentists drill this morning, but today’s topic is the cost of health care. A story over at The Health Insurance Myth detailing how much more a visit to the eye doctor costs for insurance companies was very revealing. Add to that the fact that we are entering…

  • Short Term Uncertainty

    I will be spending most of next week at a conference at Disney World so I don’t know how much I’ll be posting (little if any, I suspect). Besides that, I will be trying to take some concrete action to shape the group I talked about to encourage more widespread participation in civil political dialog.…

  • Make “the Silent” a Minority

    Recently my niece approached me to ask questions about politics. She’s a young teenager, years short of being able to vote, but she wants to become informed and involved so that she could positively participate by the time she can vote. The conversation served as a reminder to me of how important it is for…

  • Write In “No Confidence”

    Somewhere in the news yesterday I heard that voters are beginning to like Sarah Palin less as they get to know more about her. I thought that was interesting since I heard basically the same thing said about Barack Obama back in June or July. My own experience is that I am liking both Obama…

  • Three out of Four (ain’t bad)

    What’s the point of having your own blog if you can’t toot your own horn occasionally? So this may be two weeks old, but I’m bored so I’ll share. At BlueOregon there have been a few "Punditology challenges" where they invite their readers to predict what will happen in the political world (for example, what…

  • Taking Ownership

    Yesterday I helped my brother move into his new house (like me, he changed jobs and relocated over the summer). I am looking forward in the next couple of weeks to completing a home sale (this week) and a home purchase (next week) so that he can return the favor (actually, him returning the favor…