Jim Wheeler
BS, USNA, Annapolis, 1959; MSA, The Geo. Washington U., 1975; Submariner, Commander, USN, 1959 - 1981; Aerospace battery engineer & mgr., 1981 - 1999; Political affiliation: Mainly of the Democratic persuasion but not a fan of the extremes on either side.
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Still Skeptical After All These Years by James R Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at jwheeler59@me.com. Copyright 2015 James R. Wheeler
Monthly Archives: December 2011
An Un-mined Gem
In cleaning up my in-box, a nigh-hopeless task these days, I came across an outstanding essay by fellow blogger Duane Graham, and was surprised to see that it had garnered no comments. Now it well might be because it is … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged Alexander Hamilton, civility, discourse, dissension, Duane Graham, Erstwhile Conservative, political discourse, politics
2 Comments
A Man In The Street Interview
In clearing off my desk this day after Christmas I came across a note I had made to myself on a napkin some two weeks ago while watching MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show. I recall thinking at the time that her … Continue reading
Posted in Iraq war, War
Tagged Colin Powell, guerilla war, Iraq, Iraq War, Iraq War lessons, Lawrence Wilkerson, lessons of war, Middle East, mistakes of war, nation building
17 Comments
An Indelible Driving Lesson
Several years ago my wife and I decided to take a mini-vacation by car to Fort Worth to see a museum exhibit of Egyptian artifacts, and it was fun. We stayed overnight, saw the exhibit and set off for home … Continue reading
A Solution To The Urchin Problem?
When I first saw a TV news item about Newt Gingrich’s advocating that children do some menial labor in school to teach them the merits of work and responsibility, my reaction was one of approval. I myself held part time … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Education
Tagged child labor, education, Education Reform, Joseph Lancaster, Newt Gingrich, one-room school, poor schools, urchin, urchins, Waldorf school, Waldorf System, work ethic
17 Comments
Childhood Memoirs of Pearl Harbor
On that infamous day, December 7, 1941, I was almost 5 years old and my wife Mollie was almost 4. One doesn’t usually remember much from such an age and yet we both do because it was a time of … Continue reading
Posted in Armed Forces, Memoir
Tagged Great Depression, memoir, Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor Attack, PTSD, Remember Pearl Harbor, Richard Rodgers, Victory at Sea
11 Comments
On Civility
By now people who follow politics in the news are aware of the vast gulf dividing America’s two political parties. The verbal vitriol has gotten so thick and positions so entrenched that I fear the extremists would rather sacrifice the … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Politics
Tagged civility, civility in politics, Gene Lyons, gridlock, Joplin Globe, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, political civility, political gridlock
23 Comments
The Misunderstood Public Option
I was verbally jousting about health care on another blog recently when a commenter challenged my support for the Public Option. He charged that the PO would not reduce costs, that is unless I intended it to entail “rationing”. Surely, … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Health, Uncategorized
Tagged doctors, Health care, MediCaid, medical costs, Medicare, public option
31 Comments
Still Skeptical After All These Years 