By Robert Ringer

I had a long visit a few days ago with a Republican Congressman, who assured me that even if the Republicans win back both the House and Senate in 2010, government spending will continue unabated. He agreed with me that, with few exceptions, Republicans are as lacking in courage as Democrats.

But he also made one other point that I thought was significant. While BHO and a handful of far-left Congresspersons are driven by ideology and really do want to see the U.S. transformed into a socialist (if not communist) state (apologies to Bill O’Reilly, who “doesn’t believe for a second that Barack Obama doesn’t have the best of intentions for his country”), most are simply ignorant. Read the rest of this entry »

By Robert Ringer

Michael Jackson’s close friend Yuri Geller, talking to Fox News by phone after Jackson’s death, said that one time when Jackson was sitting on a couch in Geller’s living room, he asked the “King of Pop” if he was a lonely man. According to Geller, Jackson paused, then looked up slowly and said, “Yuri Geller, I’m a very lonely man.”

After decades of observation, I have concluded that Jackson’s sad response could have come from any one of millions of people. A lonely person’s giveaway is his eyes. No matter what happy disguises he may wear, his eyes betray him. Read the rest of this entry »

By Robert Ringer

We witness misery every day on our television screens, but when John Travolta’s son died, it pained me in a special way. I could relate to that great photograph of the two of them, nose to nose. You could see how much he loved that boy.

It was just another reminder of one of life’s harshest realities: No one, no matter how rich or famous, escapes the tragedies inherent in human existence. The only thing different about tragedy in the life of a high-profile person is that it feels close to home to the rest of us. That’s because, in a vicarious way, we feel like we know that individual on a personal level. Read the rest of this entry »

Right up there with the Abu Ghraib prison and Gitmo, a shopping mall is one of my most unfavorite places. My annual Christmas trip to the mall this year was especially bad … rather depressing, in fact.

The place was mobbed, as though people were determined to have one last go at the good life, perhaps sensing that next Christmas the shopping malls might be turned into homeless shelters. I watched with great interest as people stood in long lines to pay for the on-sale merchandise they clutched tightly in their arms.

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As religious fanaticism continues to pester civilized people, one wonders how civilization has managed to advance as far as it has. One would have thought that by this time, religious fanaticism and intolerance would have become passé.

Religion aside, it would seem that the least everyone could agree on is a single, self-evident point: that a Universal Intelligence exists. I guess if an individual chooses not to believe that there is a Universal Intelligence (“God,” “Conscious Universal Power Source,” “the Universe,” “Supreme Being,” etc.), there’s nothing wrong with that — provided he doesn’t try to interfere with the rights of others to connect in their own way.

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In Part I of this article, I offered some examples of people who seem to have paid for their bad deeds with “compound interest” added. The belief that everything that goes around comes around is a comforting view of the world, but two other possible scenarios destroy the idea that the world operates in such a manner on a consistent basis. They are:

In thousands of years of recorded history, no one has even come close to being able to explain why bad things sometimes happen to good people. It could be that God has a plan to which we are not privy. Or that appropriate rewards will be forthcoming in the afterlife. Or perhaps that God doesn’t care about earthly events. Who knows?

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When asked what he believed to be the greatest discovery of the 20th century, Albert Einstein is said to have answered, “Compound interest.” And wealthy people — you know, the ones who clip debt-instrument coupons as a pastime — would undoubtedly agree with him.

Compound interest, however, can accrue on things other than money. When I was a very young man, I observed that I almost always ended up paying considerably more for a “wrong” action than what I had hoped to gain from it. When the payment came due, it was like an invisible balloon note that carried onerous, compounded interest. (Sound familiar?)

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I thought long and hard before chiming in on the latest O.J. saga. Since everyone is now pretty much in agreement on the character of this psychopathic primate, I’m not interested in getting in a few “me too” jabs.

Nevertheless, as I watched O.J. near tears in court, the word karma came quickly to mind — as it probably did with you. Not only because of the way his life has turned out, but also considering the lives of so many of the other actors in the fourteen-year run of this modern-day Greek tragedy.

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I had a dream last night that my unsubscribe link sent me an e-mail saying, “Would you please stop taking on divisive issues and stick to the touchy-feely stuff?” Just to be obstinate, my answer to that request was to write this article.

You’re probably familiar with Gianna Jessen from an ad the Republicans ran during the presidential campaign. She’s the young woman afflicted with cerebral palsy as a result of surviving a botched abortion. Gianna has also appeared on many television shows, including Hannity and Colmes, and, incredibly, has run marathons and travels the world speaking out on the rights of unborn babies.

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No matter how smart or successful we are, in the end, life is a series of unanswered questions. And when the question involves a life or death situation, you have to wonder why you survived. Was it Fate? Divine intervention? Or something else?

Some time ago, I received an e-mail from subscriber John P. about a close call he had while driving when he was seventeen years old. Here’s part of what he had to say:

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