Tag Archives: Joplin Missouri

Give A Gift, Save A Life

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Jim Wheeler

I just can’t help but admire good ideas, so I am motivated to update one such that I blogged on a year or two ago. It is WeatherCall.  (Disclaimer:  I have received nothing whatsoever for plugging this service.) If you’re … Continue reading →

Posted in Safety | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

A Memoir of Permanent Change

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Jim Wheeler

An EF 5 tornado, one of the strongest on record, struck my home town a year ago on a Sunday evening, May 22 at about 5:30 PM.  Its path was only a couple of miles south of our house.  I … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Little Things Mean A Lot

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Jim Wheeler

In reading my morning Joplin Globe my eye was caught by two seemingly unrelated articles, subjects I later realized had a certain aspect of human nature in common. Most readers will recall that Joplin Missouri was hit by a record-breaking EF-5 tornado … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Overreacting In Tornado Alley

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Jim Wheeler

Have you noticed?  Government tends to become overprotective when public safety is the issue. I am all for reasonable efforts but there is an ongoing campaign in Joplin Missouri now that is over the top and misguided, in my opinion. … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, government regulation, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Tornado Accounting

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Jim Wheeler

By now I think just about every news junkie in the United States associates Joplin Missouri with tornadoes. Our local newspaper, the Joplin Globe, has finally published a roundup of something I’ve been waiting for ever since our town was … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

That’s The Way It Is

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Jim Wheeler

All too often newspaper commentary is banal, predictable and light on originality, so when I find a column that is none of those things I think it is worth some attention.  Investigative reporter and journalism teacher Max McCoy (whose picture … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Is Economic Clarity an Oxymoron?

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Jim Wheeler

As the nation struggles to emerge from the worst recession since the Great Depression, the issues are becoming harder for politicians to ignore and the 2012 election is shaping up to be one of the most meaningful that I can … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Rebuilding Joplin

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Jim Wheeler

I am offering this post in answer to a number of inquiries about helping out financially or otherwise with the aftermath of Joplin’s tornado disaster. I have posted before about concerns that many charities are inefficient.  The Red Cross was given … Continue reading →

Posted in charity, Disasters | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Old Dogs and Weather Tricks

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Jim Wheeler

It was the late 1970’s and I was standing on our front porch in Lawrence, Kansas, watching two small tornadoes dance across the landscape south of town a few miles away.  Mollie was yelling for me to come down to … Continue reading →

Posted in Weather | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Textbook Irony

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Jim Wheeler

A recent blog post by Anson Burlingame discussed how our public schools are doing a poor job of teaching children the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic.  He is well qualified to address the issue because he has done substitute … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments