Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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Sure, why not…

This started shortly after my bride retired in 2013.  She had spent the previous 35 years teaching Special Education, and earned a much needed rest.   The last 3 or 4 years had been tough on her as her role had changed from one she loved, teaching, to one she was less than enthralled with, case management.   Same job title and pay, but the documentation for Special Education seemed to have assumed more importance than the teaching in the minds of upper management.  What do they say, “follow the money.”

She was at a bit of loose ends initially, as are most retired folks.  She started responding to an activity suggestion with, Continue reading “Sure, why not…”

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Quote of the Day — Jaron Lanier

“Funding a civilization through advertising is like trying to get nutrition by connecting a tube from one’s anus to one’s mouth.”  ~~ Jaron Lanier 

 

Lanier is considered the father of virtual reality.  He had a  key role in the getting Internet off the ground.  And those are just some of his minor achievements. He is an extraordinary individual that most of us have not heard about.

To see more Quotes for Day, visit this link: Quotes for the Day

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #1,238

yeah I know you did not ask!

We visited another couple yesterday evening.  We went over to their house, sat outside to eat the Chinese food we had ordered delivered.  We took reasonable precautions about sharing various utensils and passing things.

Deciding to have social interactions during the coronavirus shelter-in-place mandates reminds me a bit of some of the discussions I had during the 18 years between my marriages.  Vague questions trying to feel out our mutual “social interaction” history.  Not so vague questions trying to ascertain if we had been practicing safe “social distancing”. How do you feel about being tested? You can imagine.

That was the negotiation we had last night.  We decided that none of the four of us had been out much, that we had all used precautions on those occasions when we did go out, and that we had not been around anyone with symptoms… as far as we knew. At least they did not require us to bring a doctor’s report certifying our status!

Strange times we live.

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USA is pitied

Note:  For the most part, even though I am the home of “The Little Known Blogger” with a minimal readership,  I try to honor intellectual property rights. A friend sent me this opinion piece from the Irish Times.  I could not find a link to it that was not behind a pay wall.  Because I found this oped so spot on until such time…

Irish Times
April 25, 2020
By Fintan O’Toole
Editorial

THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT

Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity. Continue reading “USA is pitied”

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Coranavirus masks as a political statement

I’ve been saying for 2 or 3 weeks now that not wearing masks and gloves in public was a political statement by many of those folks.

Here is an article that says the same thing: Wearing a mask is for smug liberals. Refusing to is for reckless Republicans.

From the article:

For progressives, masks have become a sign that you take the pandemic seriously and are willing to make a personal sacrifice to save lives. Prominent people who don’t wear them are shamed and dragged on Twitter by lefty accounts. On the right, where the mask is often seen as the symbol of a purported overreaction to the coronavirus, mask promotion is a target of ridicule, a sign that in a deeply polarized America almost anything can be politicized and turned into a token of tribal affiliation.

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I Finished a Task Started in Childhood

I had a very brief and exceedingly undistinguished career in the Boy Scouts of America.  I am going to attribute the briefness to the frequency to which my family moved due to the nature of my father’s work.  I started the Boy Scouts in Toms River, New Jersey.  I do not remember much about that experience except we met in the basement of a church of some Protestant denomination.   I remember learning the Scout salute, handshake and some knots.

Best I recall I went on one camp out with the troop to a larger jamboree of Continue reading “I Finished a Task Started in Childhood”