Facebook is a helpful way to keep in contact with old friends who you would otherwise lose touch with. I reconnected with someone I had not had more than passing contact within a number of years. What surprised me was that this person and I have wildly different political viewpoints. My first thought was “I […]
Facebook is loaded with posts of cute cats and entertaining dogs. I saw a post yesterday that featured health risks to cats. Did you know that smoking increases the risk of cancer in dogs and cats? Secondhand smoke has been associated with oral cancer and lymphoma in cats, lung and nasal cancer in dogs, as […]
Do you get discouraged thinking of all the social problems in the world, and think “I’m just one person and I can’t do anything about it.” Well, what if you could? In fact, individuals do it all the time. I attended a Rotary International conference recently. As I met new people, I asked what their […]
Who doesn’t love a good TV show? The 10 most watched series finales ever were M*A*S*H, Cheers, The Fugitive, Seinfeld, Friends, Magnum P.I., The Cosby Show, All in The Family, Family Ties, and Home Improvement. However, my personal favorites include Northern Exposure, Sex and the City, The Vicar of Dibley and now Downton Abbey. I […]
I’m a reader. Who doesn’t love to curl up with a good novel? The problem is that I rarely have the time for it. But I also notice that my reading habits have changed. I don’t read so much as scan. I have become a voracious scanner. As it turns out, I am not alone. […]
The IRS created a list of top scams this tax season. Identity theft, phone scams, email phishing scams, tax preparer fraud, inflated refund claims, and fake charities are among the most popular scams. Some people are more vulnerable to fraud than others. Would you fall for this scam? Someone calls from your county Sheriff’s office […]
We’ve heard that big boys don’t cry. We’ve been told not to be a cry baby. Some people feel weak when they cry. Others are embarrassed to be found vulnerable. No one makes it through life without hardship. Whether it is from the loss of a close friend or family member, trauma or stress, there […]
Last week I wrote about terrorism. Jihadist terrorists are the product of a process called radicalization. To be “radical” implies not only extreme beliefs, but extreme action to impose their beliefs on the rest of society. A recent news article reports an increase in the number of Jihadist terrorists who were radicalized in the United […]
Terrorism has many faces. It is the face of Timothy McVeigh who detonated a bomb at the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. It is 9/11 in which 2,996 people were killed. It is the bombing at the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and injuring 264. It is the face of Dylann Roof […]
We are a society obsessed with youth and beauty. It’s insane. Kids as young as five think their ideal weight is thinner than their current size. By age seven, one in four kids has been on some kind of a diet. I read about a 19-year-old woman who changes her outfits eight times before leaving […]