Tag Archives: Honesty

* Salon headlines

Bible, Clippings, Media, National media, , , ,

The entry below for December 30, 2015 was the last straw, moving me to “out” this information as a post.

For some months, I have made a good faith effort to note every headline my Yahoo! News feed captured from Salon.com that touched on religion.

Salon.com holds itself forth as, in effect, the voice of progressivism.

The headlines themselves display a pronounced bias on the topic of religion. Not all, but almost all, are hostile.

Not skeptical. Not indifferent. Not equanimous.

Hostile.

I am struck that this posture cannot possibly be intellectually honest.

Continue reading * Salon headlines →

* Leadership, Patton and Jesus

Bible, Get on your feet, OUR BEST POSTS, , , , , , , , , , , ,

From a 03/31/08 e-mail to my supervisor at the dollar store. This was a young man who had never had a paying job before, and thus certainly no experience in supervision; and I had a mind to give him some pointers on the nature of leadership. Previous conversations had already established that he regarded himself as a devout Christian.

If you’ve never seen it before, I’d urge you to see the movie Patton (link to Wikipedia).  Actually, I’d urge you to buy a copy (link to Amazon).

Luke 7:

2A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death.  Continue reading * Leadership, Patton and Jesus →

* The Gestapo librarian

Get on your feet, Homelessness, The Way of Peace, , ,

(Originally posted 08/04/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reblogged 12/27/18.)

Officer Nasty works security at the library. He doesn’t wait for trouble to happen or for someone to ask him for help. Instead, he constantly patrols the whole place looking for people who may be breaking the rules, so he can put them out. He walks up and down the narrow aisles of the computer center to see what you have on your screen. He comes into the men’s room hoping to catch someone in the act — act of what, I can’t imagine. You get the picture.

Continue reading * The Gestapo librarian →

* Oh, what a tangled web we weave …

Clippings, Get on your feet, Justice, Local politics, Politics, , , , , , , ,

… when first we practice to deceive.

Closing arguments in Julius Henson election fraud trial

I have had direct contact with trials involving Edward Smith, Jr. in the past, such that his antics here come to me as no surprise.

The question I ask is whether it’s worth it to tell the truth, and what happens when we don’t.

[To be continued …]

(Originally posted 05/09/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.)

 ———— ♦ ————

A new page has appeared at The Homeless Blogger:  “Choose your name.”

One can also take a sneak peek at the related post scheduled for release 2014-03-12, “What’s in a name?”

(Reposted 08/31/17.)

talk show host, on air talent, radio talk show, the homeless blogger

Jacob’s Ladder 06/26/13

Career goals, Dependency, Get on your feet, Homelessness, Jacob's Ladder, Job search/Job prospects, Motivations, Poverty, Squalor, , ,

Prayer for myself often takes the form of imagining myself climbing up a ladder out of a pit, the pit being my current circumstances of poverty and homelessness. Getting out at the top represents a return to the normal life of the American mainstream. I didn’t start with a ladder in there, but I decided to add one to symbolize the various structures and tools that others have made available to me — and eliminate the possibility of clawing at loose earth.

Here begins a list of “rungs” on the ladder that I’ve become aware I need to “overcome.” Each one takes effort, exertion, to get over. I will update this list from time to time as I learn of others.

1. Fear of the unknown. See From my diary: Learning to pray.
2. Jealousy of others who seem to be prospering more quickly than I am. Details here.
3. Times of despair. I guess, from time to time, they’ll happen. Details here.
4. Incidents of utter selfishness. Details here.
5. Moments of unusual hardship and sacrifice. Wednesday 06/26/13 I met my principal patron, hoping to pick up the second half of my allowance for the week. He could only give me 2/3 of the amount. With two minutes left on my phone, and no more cash expected till next week, I e-mailed a supporter in Texas and invited an early birthday present in the form of his putting minutes on my phone. I had to buy a soda at a corner store to get change for bus fare “home.” At the shelter, having my last smokes before going in, I began to figure.Certainly I could not buy more than one more pack of smokes — to last four days. For certain, I will wind up using the nicotine gum Pastor worked so hard to help me get last fall. I would have to give up sodas. I might have to give up coffee in the afternoons. I might have to give up coffee in the mornings — and sit outside from 6 am to 10 am with nothing to drink and no access to a bathroom. I might have to stay one night at a different shelter. I might have to walk rather than take the bus to church Sunday.

Enigmatically, when I got inside and sat down on my bunk, I felt cheerful. The last thing in the world I want is to be on the bus stop Sunday and find myself without bus fare to church. This minimal amount of self-management, of stewardship, of planning what sacrifices I must make, gave me a degree of power and control over my lot.

on air talent, talk show host, radio talk show, the homeless blogger

Jacob’s ladder 06/19/13

Career goals, Dependency, Get on your feet, Homelessness, Jacob's Ladder, Job search/Job prospects, Motivations, Poverty, Squalor, ,

Prayer for myself often takes the form of imagining myself climbing up a ladder out of a pit, the pit being my current circumstances of poverty and homelessness. Getting out at the top represents a return to the normal life of the American mainstream. I didn’t start with a ladder in there, but I decided to add one to symbolize the various structures and tools that others have made available to me — and eliminate the possibility of clawing at loose earth.

Here begins a list of “rungs” on the ladder that I’ve become aware I need to “overcome.” Each one takes effort, exertion, to get over. I will update this list from time to time as I learn of others.

  1. Fear of the unknown. See From my diary: Learning to pray.
  2. Jealousy of others who seem to be prospering more quickly than I am. In particular, at the shelter in recent months have been several guys who just “came home” from doing “hard time,” and within days had found jobs.
  3. Times of despair. I guess, from time to time, they’ll happen. The question isn’t whether I fall down, but whether I’ll get back up. A moment of despair doesn’t rule out faith long-term. It can be OK for me to lie there and have a little pity party, as long as it’s reasonably brief.
  4. Incidents of utter selfishness. (I may rename this if I think of a better name.) Several weeks ago after church, I became impatient waiting for the person who had promised me a ride downtown, and waiting also for my principal patron, who was tied up in conversation with others. I became disgusted with myself over feeling that way; and disgusted that I was hanging out there long after I would otherwise have left, having feelings all about obtaining favors for me, me, me.

That’s not a pretty way to end this just now, but in the long run I do think I need to be candid in admitting what it takes to climb one’s way out of poverty.
on air talent, talk show host, radio talk show, the homeless blogger