Random Thoughts Archives - Page 11 of 31

Celebrity Philanthropy Gone Wild

It’s tempting to blast celebrities (or political candidates, though there isn’t much difference) for their public philanthropy.

Like the big name Hollywood actor who earned millions for doing a commercial, then let his publicist promote the story about him donating $10,000 to a local homeless shelter. I remember cynically thinking at the time, “Wow, so generous, you gave almost .1% of the income you earned doing a one day photo shoot.”

But the truth is we all do it. Maybe we don’t have a publicist (I don’t, but if you want to volunteer give me a call). Maybe we give …

D-Day Prayer

As Allied forces landed on the beaches of France this day in 1944, a day we will always remember as D-Day, President Roosevelt went on the air to share the news with the American people. Below is the prayer he offered as the whole world waited to hear how this moment in history would unfold.

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness …

“Nobody Wants To Be Around Poor People” – Steve Wynn

Casino mogul Steve Wynn is a billionaire. He has amassed a fortune with casinos across the globe. High profile and high energy, at 74 he is still pushing forward.

At a recent investors meeting he was talking about the proposed Wynn casino outside of Boston. In a lame attempt to explain the high end branding his company seeks to achieve, he said, “…rich people only like being around rich people, nobody likes being around poor people — especially poor people…”

At first we might dismiss this comment as just another poorly stated, class war comment from a tone deaf billionaire. …

Selling Memories

A little over a year ago we started cleaning up our family ranch — which in part meant selling memories. Of course we’ve also sold a lot of junk, construction materials, car parts, and random items accumulated over the decades. Craigslist has become my new best friend as we sell everything from old ovens to generators.

But some of the things we’ve sold are filled with memories. The premier example is the early 60’s dune buggy my Uncle George gave me when I was fourteen. It seems like an outrageously generous gift, but the motor was blown, there was no …

Breakfast with the President at the National Prayer Breakfast

Last week we attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., and had breakfast with the President. Well, along with 4000 other people attending! The keynote speakers were Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi were seated next to each other on the stage, which was a nice symbol of unity around prayer. The highlight of the event was hearing Andrea Bocelli sing Amazing Grace to close our time together.

The other meals (two dinners and a lunch) plus the breakout sessions were also fun. Heard amazing tales of bravery from Sister Rosemary, inspirational stories …

Craziest Presidential Race, and Why I Might Run for President

Tomorrow morning we fly to Washington DC just as the craziest Presidential race in my life starts shifting into high gear. As I publish this post it’s not clear who won in Iowa, and it probably doesn’t matter that much, but you can bet it’s all I’m going to hear about for the next few days.

Six years ago, when my posts were long and my rants were funnier, I wrote this post about politics, and sadly things haven’t changed much. Thankfully, it appears the National Prayer Breakfast has grown to be more inclusive. I’ll try to focus on …

Exploding Wine Bottle

A friend of mine, Pam, is a bright person seeking to solve many of the challenges of our era. She’s doing good work for the right reasons in a graceful way.

Pam was visiting my daughter and there was a case of my wine on the kitchen counter. I purchased the wine online and my daughter had picked it up for me.

I’m still not sure what happened, but somehow Pam dropped a bottle of the wine onto the tile kitchen floor.

And it exploded. Usually a bottle just bounces back — wine bottles are remarkably rugged.

But this time …

Predictions for 2016 – Guaranteed Accuracy

It’s the time of year to make my predictions for 2016. I have an amazing record of being right on these predictions, as you can tell by previous posts for 2012, 2013 and 2014. Of course I’m still waiting for a few things to happen…but no doubt they will in time.

Oh, and no, I didn’t make any predictions for 2015. I’m glad. It was a tough year for most of the world.

So here we go … my predictions for 2016:

– In a stunning series of events, the Republican leaders engineer a brokered convention and nominate …