04Mar 2011 by CJ

Westboro Baptist Church – Show Some Respect

Information & Education, Life & Living
I used to be a devout Catholic who regularly attended religious services on any given Sunday. But once I became a freethinking adult, I found that many of my beliefs about religion stemmed more from my parent’s views than from my own. I see religion as a very private matter, up to the individual, and something that shouldn’t be forced upon anyone by radical groups looking for allies. I’ve also discovered there’s a lot of hypocrites out there - who preach the word of their God of choice, but do little to practice its beliefs in their every day lives. I’m not sure if that makes them any more religious than I am, but I’m sure in their own minds it does. As I understand it, the purpose of religion…
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03Mar 2011 by CJ

Driving Drunk – Another Sad Truth in the World We Live In

Information & Education, Life & Living, Youth
It was around 8:05 pm on April 20, 2008, when 17-year-old Mathew Bray was struck and killed by someone driving drunk as he rode his bike home from a friend’s house. “Mathew was a special kid. He would bend over backwards to do anything for anybody," his mother Mary said of her son. And though almost three years have passed since the tragedy, my thoughts and prayers still go out to his family and friends - as I’m sure such a loss is not easily forgotten. Regardless of how many innocent people die every year, Americans continue their abuse of alcohol – many times for its impairing nature, which allows one to temporarily forget their own reality. But what happens when that denial of self collides with the innocence of…
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02Mar 2011 by CJ

Reading the Obituaries – An Eye-Opening Experience

Life & Living
For some odd reason, I now find myself looking at the obituaries in the newspaper on a semi-regular basis. Thankfully, I never find my own name in there, but the practice does freak me out sometimes. I feel like a senior citizen, checking to see if any of the dearly departed are friends or acquaintances I need to pay my respects to. What I have found however, is a very discouraging trend – the age of those listed in this section is getting younger and younger. Sure there’s a handful of those fortunate enough to reach the age of 78, 85 and just the other day 94. But over the last week, I’ve also been humbled to find a loving wife and mother who was only 45, a cherished son…
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01Mar 2011 by CJ

Charlie Sheen – The Latest Hollywood Bad Boy Giving Himself a Bad Name

Life & Living
Nowhere but in America would we allow a drunken, drug-using, name calling, girl hitting and all around reckless character to get paid $1.2 million dollars for his work on a half hour television sitcom. Except if you're Charlie Sheen. I’m talking of course about Charlie Sheen from CBS’ “Two and a Half Men” - the newest Hollywood bad boy. He’s now ranting and raving to anyone who will listen, after the network and production company agreed to cancel the remainder of this season’s production schedule, due to inappropriate and lude comments he made on a popular radio show. Shocking isn’t it? Are ratings and advertising dollars so important to television studios that we’d allow this clown to show the world that this kind of behavior is not only acceptable, but…
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25Feb 2011 by CJ

Family Dinners – The Benefits of an Eat-in-Kitchen

Life & Living, Youth
Whenever my wife and I talk about a floor to ceiling remodel of our kitchen, we tend to disagree on the use of space based on the subject of family dinners. For instance, I envision a peninsula or island with a few stools surrounding it, while she prefers a more traditional 4-seat table for dining. Her argument rests solely on maintaining the “eat-in-kitchen” status we currently have for future resale value. But lately, I’m not so sure that matters to most would-be home buyers. Perhaps an “eat-in” living room might be more appropriate. An article recently appeared on the Wall Street Journal’s website entitled, “No McMansions for Millennials.” It recommends that houses of the future skip the dining room, but “don’t forget space in front of the television for the…
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