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
Category Archives: Ethics / Morality
Past As Prologue
I recently came upon a 1949 review of George Orwell’s then-new dystopian novel, 1984 and was struck anew by its insight into human addiction to power. Power is intrinsic to the motivations of oligarchs, dictators and, I dare say, to … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics / Morality, Federal Government, Politics, War
Tagged 1984, corruption, Trump
8 Comments
VIOLENCE!
What does science have to say about man’s tendency to violence? That is the subject of the latest episode of PBS’s NOVA program. Surprisingly, someone has found a way to quantify episodes of violence throughout history by statistical analysis of … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Ethics / Morality, Politics
5 Comments
How’s Your Mood Today, Mr. President?
Every year, at least one intercontinental ballistic missile is launched thousands of miles from a United States submarine to an instrumented area in the ocean. The purpose of this is to test the reliability of the complete system, including … Continue reading
Torture, By Any Other Name . . .
George F. Will, a columnist who arguably loves words too much, has written persuasively on the nomenclature of “enhanced interrogation techniques” which are central to the plot of a current movie, Zero Dark Thirty now playing in theaters, a movie … Continue reading
A Medical Hobson’s Choice
In a post titled Ice Bergs and Ice Cubes last week I expressed my opinion that healthcare is at the core of America’s financial crisis, and that the profession of doctor is being corrupted by the medical industrial complex through the … Continue reading
An Infernal Development
I don’t think I ever believed in hell. When I was young I didn’t think much about dying, but religion did interest me. I think I’ve always had a streak of idealism. But as for hell, it didn’t make much … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics / Morality, Religion
Tagged Catholic Church, Christianity, Galileo, God, hell, indulgences, Jesus, Jon Meacham, pope, Pope Benedict, Religion and Spirituality, Rob Bell
4 Comments
Private Solemnity, Publicly Expressed
The just-announced decision of the Supreme Court in the Westboro Baptist Church case is a bad one, in my opinion. I think the behavior of Phelps’ group violates families’ fourth-amendment rights to be “secure in their persons” and is not … Continue reading
A Cultural Journey
The persistence of the USS Enterprise scandal as a public topic is evidence that there is something profound in it, something that goes beyond the job assignment at its heart. In my opinion that something is the changing nature of … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics / Morality, Leadership, Nuclear weapons, Submarines, U.S. Navy, War
23 Comments
Military Culture and Behavior
The scandal over Captain Owen Honors of the USS Enterprise causes me to reflect on how things have changed in the US Navy since I was a young Midshipman. I entered the US Naval Academy in 1955, graduating in 1959, and … Continue reading
Posted in Armed Forces, Culture, Ethics / Morality, Submarines, U.S. Armed Forces, U.S. Navy, USNA
11 Comments
Cookie Diplomacy
Sometimes one hears a story that sticks in the memory because it is profound. That happened to me several decades ago when a naval-officer friend of mine, we’ll call him “Ron”, told me a true story about himself. He was … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics / Morality, Philosophy, Politics, Sociology, U.S. Armed Forces, U.S. Navy
Tagged Abbas
11 Comments
Still Skeptical After All These Years 