Commentary on Current Events

Thoughts, Ideas, and Comments of Bob Cardwell, from Indianapolis, IN. ________________________www.bobcardwell.com

Friday, December 31, 2004

New Year's Eve


It is New Year's Eve. I am spending it with my youngest son, Brian. We made some pasta and I have about 1/2 a bottle of wine. During the day I worked on the Christmas photos some more. Tonight, Brian and I are going to watch a DVD of Anchorman. Happy New Year! Posted by Hello


This is the final edit on the Christmas photo from 2004. Posted by Hello

this is an audio post - click to play

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Span of 100 Years

The Year is 1904

Maybe this will boggle your mind, I know it did mine! The year is 1904 ... one hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes! Here are some of the US statistics for 1904:

The average life expectancy in the US was 47 years.

Only 14% of the homes in the US had a bathtub.

Only 8%of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.00

There were only 8,000 cars in the US, and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.

The average wage in the US was 22 cents an hour.

The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year.

A veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year.

A mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the US took place at home.

Ninety % of all US physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."

Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason.

The five leading causes of death in the US were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two of 10 US adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 % of all Americans had graduated high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health." (Shocking!)

Eighteen percent of households in the US had at least one full-time servant or domestic.

There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire US

And I forwarded this from someone else without typing it myself, and sent it to you in a matter of seconds! Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years ... it staggers the mind.

Heart Stress Test

I went in for my heart stress today. It started at 7:30 am and ended at 12:30 p.m. I possibly have problems with my bungled nerve in the heart. This is a term I have not heard in ten years. Apparently it causes an irregular heart beat. So it appears I have an electrical problem like I did ten years ago. Prelim results does not suggest a plumbing problem or plaque, but I guess I have to wait for the offical meeting with the doctor next month to get all the results. It does look like my BP meds need to be changed as my BP is still a little high on my present meds.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004


Family Christmas v3.0 Posted by Hello

Monday, December 27, 2004

Currently reading Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler

I am currently reading Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler. I believe I have read all of his books and I am a great fan of his for over 25 years.




Black ribbon Posted by Hello


The Greatest Mother Posted by Hello


The Family Christmas Photo 2004 Posted by Hello

Liberty

If

If


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting, too;
If you can wait but not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!


Rudyard Kipling


Read more here!

Good news and bad news

There was a horrible earthquake in the Indian Ocean yesterday. Tens of thousands died. My heart, thoughts, and prayers are with them.

The good news is that I go back to work sometime after the New Year.

To see some of my holiday photos go here:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bbbob_99/my_photos

My Photos

Sunday, December 26, 2004

My Hero

My Hero

An artist who appeals to my very soul.

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Prayer for Christmas---Desiderata

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant;
they too have their story.


Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.


Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.


Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity
and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.


Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.


You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.


Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.


With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be careful.
Strive to be happy.

Written by Max Ehrman

Max Ehrmann was an attorney turned philosopher-poet who live in Terre Haute, Ind. He spent his life wrestling with the realities of making a living and following his personal calling to a life of poetry, literature, and thought. He wrote A Prayer, which became a message of hope for thousands, but he is best known for Desiderata, which he wrote for himself, "because it counsels those virtues I felt myself most in need of." Max included this work as part of a personal Christmas greeting in 1933, and Desiderata's power and appeal have continued to reach out to and significantly affect readers ever since. He died in 1945.


Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Art Graphic

A Prayer of St. Francis

THE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS


Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,


that where there is hatred, I may bring love;


that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;


that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;


that where there is error, I may bring truth;


that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;


that where there is despair, I may bring hope;


that where there are shadows, I may bring light;


that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.


Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;


to understand, than to be understood;


to love, than to be loved.


For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.


It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.


It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Religion Graphic

The All Seeing Eye



Wednesday, December 08, 2004

The Diamond

From the book, Angels and Demons. It reads the same upside down.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

I watched this Hallmark special on Sunday night. I enjoyed it.

Memorable line:

"How does one become happy? You learn to make memory your friend. You hold it. You dance with it."

Sunday, December 05, 2004

"She Put Him Out"

"She put him out, like the burning end of a midnight cigarette."

Friday, December 03, 2004

Memory and Remembrance

It occurs to me this morning that there is a theme which keeps coming up recently in my life. That is memory. I was hit with the movie, Eternal Sunshine..., memories of my marriage, memories of my deceased girl friend; and now I find a tidbit in my current book which may offer some explanation.

Let me quote from Angels & Demons: "Remembrance was a Buddhist philosoper's trick. Rather than asking her mind to search for a solution to a potentially impossible challenge, Vittoria asked her mind simply to remember it. The presupposition that one once knew the answer created the mindset that the answer must exist.....thus eliminating the crippling conception of hopelessness."

Thus I conclude that remembrance is therapeutic and this alleviates some of the guilt of just remembering.....and not diving into the pool of the future.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Currently reading Angels & Demons

I am currently reading Angels & Demons. It is a thriller about a secret society and its war with the Holy Catholic Church. It is by the author of The Davinci Code. I had read the Code a few months ago and really enjoyed it. Both of the books seem to stem from a cult book I read twenty years ago call Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Lincoln's National Day of Prayer

Some people know that Lincoln established the national holiday of Thanksgiving after the Gettysburg Battle during the Civil War. Most do not know that Lincoln established the first National Day of Pray prior to Gettysburg in 1863. It would be nice if The Lincoln Roundtable acknowledged this fact by spending some time with the prayer festivities during the visit. The National Day of Prayer is May 5, 2005.

Read more about it here: http://www.ndp-in.org/index.asp