Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt

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Robin’s Snoopy Dance

snoopy_dancingThere is one very special thing about Robin — you almost never have to guess what she is feeling. Unless it is an environment like work where it is better to keep your mask on, to see her is to know where she is at emotionally.

She is also a little hyperactive. I bring this up because she has an adorable behavior that I have seen directed at me twice and at other folks a couple times. When she sees someone she really likes and cares about, and she has not seen them in a while her whole body smiles. Yes her face is all lit up, but her body goes into this little dance that I can only relate to what I have seen Snoopy do in the cartoons. She is happy all over, her whole body is smiling.

First time I came back to St. Louis after moving to Memphis for work she went into one that lasted about a minute. We went to New Orleans a while back and saw an old, dear friend of hers who she had not seen in years. That was another Snoopy dance of a minute or so.

I came home the other night after being gone just one night for a quick trip to Muskogee, by gawd, Oklahoma. She went into short Snoopy dance then. I cannot imagine a better homecoming.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 8,309

yeah I know you did not ask!

Google knows me much too well. Of course, these voice recognition programs have a hard time with my Okie accent also. I’m driving to Tulsa the other day, and I want to find a western store. So I used the voice dictation function to enter into a Google search the following phrase: “western store Tulsa Oklahoma”. It changed that into “porn store Tulsa Oklahoma”. It must have been the personalization feature of Google.

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5 Things to Say at the End of Life

To The Best of Our Knowledge is interviewing Steven Spiro, a Buddhist Chaplain, on mindful dying. He has five things to say at the end of life.

  1. I love you
  2. I forgive you
  3. Please forgive me
  4. Thank you
  5. It will be okay

Not bad things to say at any point of life.

Mindful Dying podcast

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Overheard at a party

Overheard at a party.

First young man says, “I am friends with Joe So-and-so.”

Second young man asks, “Real friends or Facebook friends?”

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ObamaCare for Dummies

This is a very NON-PARTISAN explanation of the Affordable Care Act aka ObamaCare.  It strikes me that a large number of folks are opposed to ObamaCare and actually have little or no understanding of what it really is.

One issue I hear a lot is that folks are afraid that they will be taxed to subsidize freeloaders.  IMHO this is happening already in two ways.  The first would be excessive corporate profits.  There is a reason insurance executives can be paid those huge salaries and bonuses.  Secondly, when poor folks have no other health care option but to show up at an emergency room we are taxed for by the cost be shifted into other arenas of the hospital and passed on to paying patients.

Health resources are limited which means they need to be triaged.  The question becomes do you want the government triaging your health care or a for profit corporation.  Seniors seem to love the governments Medicare program.  Native Americans seem to find Indian Health Care more than acceptable.  My personal issue with ObamaCare is that is leaves too much in the private sector, but I realize it was probably the best that could be done at the time.

At least invest the 15 minutes or so in a very well done video before you absolutely decide one way or the other about ObamaCare.  Far too many of us many political decisions along partisan lines without all the information.  Far too many of our politicians do not speak to the issue, but work on our fears.  Educating yourself is at least a start in the right direction.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 2,880

…yeah I know you did not ask!

I find it somewhat ironic that two of most listened to commentators on the American political scene are two comedians, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.  Too bad more folks do not adhere to their point of view.