False Pumpkins: A Thanksgiving Deception

I, like most Americans, grew up eating pumpkin pie made from canned pumpkin. Every Thanksgiving my mother would make such a pumpkin pie, adventurously changing the recipe to use either sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. I lived in ignorant bliss until I owned a home and had a garden …

Believing Whatever You Want To Believe

In trying to sort out fact from fiction, there are confusing moments when faced with two competing views. Take reincarnation. There is the traditional viewpoint which rejects it and alternate viewpoints that accept it as fact. In the latter case, I was stunned by the following: And finally, the verse below is often used …

Left, Right, and Religion

For as long as I can remember I’ve been told that America has two camps: Left Liberal Democrats and Right Conservative Republicans. One is always correct and the other always wrong. Yet as a Christian it perplexed me why some of the devout around me picked different parties from each other. How can this be if …

The Owls of Postmodern Environmentalism

From the time America was discovered until around 100 years ago, most of the old growth forests were cut down. This upset environmentalists, so a push was made to protect forests and to plant more trees. Now trees are roaring back. Estimates are that between a third and half of …

Mandatory Voting

President Obama spoke in favor of mandatory voting. Why would anyone want to require the populace to vote? Politicians love uninformed voters. They are easy to manipulate and they generally turn attention away from the details. It becomes a popularity contest. A good part of politics is trying to win …

Can We Solve Climate Change?

While there is no doubt from a statistical standpoint that that humans are major contributors to global climate change, the exact extent and mechanisms are unknown. Pundits would have you believe otherwise, but just look at how terrible the climate models are at prediction. There is a lot of guesswork and complexity. …

Welcome

Welcome to the site. I plan to use the blog as a place to muse about a number of topics of interest to myself. Hopefully you find it a little bit useful. Feel free to comment. The site will also include my portfolio of photos that will be available for both …