Lessons are being taught to us all the time it’s up to us to learn from them

Information & Education, Life & Living
Lessons are taught in more places than just nursery rhymes. Diane Warren is a songwriting powerhouse, penning memorable favorites for performers such as Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Elton John and even Meat Loaf. One that’s been resonating with me lately is sung by Underwood entitled, Lessons Learned (it was also recently covered by Broadway darling Kristin Chenoweth). Here’s a sampling: There's some things that I regret, some words I wish had gone unsaid,Some starts, that had some bitter endings,Been some bad times I've been through, damage I cannot undo,Some things, I wish I could do all over again,But it don't really matter, life gets that much harder,It makes you that much stronger,Oh, some pages turned, some bridges burned,But there were, lessons learned. [Chorus:]And every tear that had to fall from…
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Republican politicians turn an inspiring message to all into something bad

Information & Education, Life & Living
Is there anything that Republican politicians won’t try and contaminate? It seems Republican politicians are getting a little annoyed by the recent Chrysler commercial featured in this year’s super bowl. Clint Eastwood says, "It's halftime in America too. People are out of work and they're hurting and they're all wondering what they're going to do to make a comeback.” Republican Karl Rove said he was “offended” by the commercial and Michelle Malkin said she believe it alluded to his support of the auto industry. Are we done children? The political landscape has been reduced to nothing more than name calling, petty fighting and bullying on school playgrounds. We are so concerned with which side of the political field is winning the race that we forget about the everyday citizens who…
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The word “failure” is for those who haven’t learned anything

Information & Education, Life & Living
“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”Henry Ford It’s easy to look through the history of one’s life and categorize certain events or experiences as being a failure. I hate that word. The definition states that failure is “a person or thing that is unsuccessful or disappointing.” Okay, there are parts of my life I wish I would’ve handled differently, but to say that I was “unsuccessful” or that my life was somehow “disappointing” because of it just seems a little harsh. I believe the only reason something should be classified as a failure is if you haven’t learned anything from it. If you’ve gone through a string of relationships or friendships and still can’t love someone unconditionally; if you’ve bounced from job to job but never…
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The #1 Site for Beautiful People has nothing to do with real beauty

Information & Education, Life & Living
In July of 2009, I penned a column focusing on Ashley Madison - an online dating site geared towards those already in a committed relationship, but looking for something more. Their motto? “Life is short, have an affair.” Now there's Beautiful People. The existence of such a site surprised me at the time - as did its popularity with millions of everyday citizens paying for the ability to cheat on their significant others. And while I wanted to believe that Ashley Madison was in fact the most extreme and bizarre online dating site I’d come across, I recently stumbled upon a new, and slightly more disturbing entry to the fray. The site is BeautifulPeople.com. While the name and its slogan, “Where beautiful relationships begin,” might seem innocent at first, its…
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Our legal system is not about justice as much as lining people’s pockets

Information & Education, Life & Living
I’m of the opinion that the majority of this world is filled with self-serving, uncaring and down-right inconsiderate people. The sad reality is there are more than enough stories going around to back up my claim. You can often find them in the legal system. Apparently an Illinois appeals court recently ruled that a woman is within her rights to sue a dead teenager's estate for injuries she received by his flying body parts (sorry folks, there's really no pleasant way to put that). It seems the 18 year old boy was running across the tracks to catch another train but didn't make it. Let this be a lesson to everyone - NEVER RUN ACROSS THE TRACKS OF A BUSY TRAIN STATION! He was hit by an oncoming train going…
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