tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-103259672009-06-29T00:14:29.233-04:00This blog is an online presentation of my newspaper opinion columns. Subjects vary widely, from political commentary to personal reflections.Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.comBlogger301125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-86860200185339153932009-06-28T12:28:00.003-04:002009-06-28T17:15:07.509-04:00

According to the bible, Jesus performed many miracles during his ministry. He is said to have walked on water, healed lepers, restored the sight of the blind, calmed a storm, expelled demons, and most miraculous of all, brought his friend Lazarus back from the dead. Some of these miracles were performed using nothing but hand gestures, such as when he calmed the storm; others required the use of

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-2580426683889280802009-06-19T14:55:00.002-04:002009-06-19T14:56:33.523-04:00

The advancements in consumer technologies never cease to amaze me. Take the GPS devices for example. These little units have become commonplace over the past few years as their prices have become more affordable to the average American. But what they do, and how they do it, is nothing short of amazing.Let’s take a quick look at how these little gadgets know exactly where you are and where you’re

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-65633012523947145872009-06-07T08:42:00.000-04:002009-06-07T08:43:11.578-04:00

Did you neglect to go to church this Sunday? Do you feel guilty because of it? Well, don’t worry. Here is a countdown of the top ten things you missed by not going to church. They don’t all apply to all churches since each denomination has its own idea of which part of the bible is most important, but you can pick out the ones that seem to apply to your church and go with those.10 – They sang

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-29054816756517064882009-05-31T10:08:00.001-04:002009-05-31T10:08:35.143-04:00

I’m writing this on a Sunday morning while millions of Americans are getting ready to go to church. Some go because they feel obligated. Others go because it’s just a Sunday morning habit. There are those who go because they are afraid not to; hell is a scary place for those who believe it exists. Still others go because they actually enjoy going for whatever reason. And a few go just because it

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-61535503446523648322009-05-23T10:19:00.001-04:002009-05-23T10:19:48.806-04:00

When the 2010 congressional elections are held, the more intelligent people of Georgia might want to consider replacing Rep. Paul Broun with someone who won’t make that state a laughingstock. Just as the Kansas board of education made that state a laughingstock eight years ago when it kicked evolution out of the school curriculum, Broun isn’t doing his state any favors with his idiotic suggestion

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-73462328663281753282009-05-16T10:06:00.001-04:002009-05-16T10:06:52.246-04:00

Wars are fought for many reasons, including territory, politics, oppression, and religious differences. Throughout history religious differences have been a major excuse for declaring war. More people have lost their lives in the name of God than for almost any other reason.Our war against terrorism is really rooted in religious differences. The terrorists are religious fanatics who use their

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-36561106004012014062009-05-09T09:06:00.001-04:002009-05-09T09:06:47.213-04:00

Did you take biology in high school? If so, were you taught about the theory of evolution? Were you also taught creationism or intelligent design? It might surprise some of us but according to recent research about a quarter of high school biology students were taught creationism as a valid alternative theory to evolution.That is having an effect on the way college biology students think about

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-18368165909626139162009-05-01T11:52:00.001-04:002009-05-01T11:52:55.638-04:00

Most of my family and friends differ markedly from me on their religious views. Most of them are Christians; some go to evangelical churches. I, on the other hand, am not a Christian and I hold religion in complete and utter contempt. I believe religion through the ages has been the bane of society and has held back scientific and social progress. I believe religion remains a danger to society,

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-1611204543967739642009-04-26T11:50:00.000-04:002009-04-26T11:52:43.815-04:00

Let me start by saying that the logical arguments that follow are not against the existence of a supreme being per se. I am not an atheist, but an agnostic. I acknowledge that a god might possibly exist. The arguments are against the premise that the Christian God exists.So let us first define some terms: The Christian God is the god of the bible, the main characteristics of whom are that he is a

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-89409494298896056592009-04-25T09:45:00.002-04:002009-04-25T09:53:46.674-04:00

Pres. Barack Obama is facing criticism for his decision to lift the ban on embryonic stem cell funding that George W. Bush ordered early in his presidency. He is facing criticism for lifting a similar Bush ban on aid to countries that offer counseling on abortion. The University of Notre Dame has faced criticism for inviting Obama to speak at its commencement and to bestow an honorary degree

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-54644637344536531992009-04-18T13:53:00.001-04:002009-04-18T13:53:32.973-04:00

This blog and my newspaper column, which ran in local newspapers from 1993 until late last year when it became a victim of the bad economy, is called Over Coffee. As I explained in one my early columns, I got the name from another column that ran in the Edinburg Daily Courier, my hometown newspaper, in the late 1960s. I wrote a daily weather forecast and almanac piece in the paper back then and

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-27233597998449494492009-04-11T10:35:00.000-04:002009-04-11T10:36:17.993-04:00

During this Easter season I am reminded of all the things that I was taught while attending Sunday school as a kid and while going to grown-up church as an adult. I didn’t attend church much beyond the age of 12 or 13 until I was about 40. Then, after my father died, I decided to be with the rest of my family in church every Sunday. I did that for 10 years, religiously. I even went to Easter

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-84946767853966751802009-04-04T09:46:00.001-04:002009-04-05T16:23:38.318-04:00

This week’s topic is a little taboo and very politically incorrect. A lot of people believe what I’m about to say, but few will say it publicly for fear they will be labeled a pompous, greedy ass. Well, I’m willing to take that risk.My daughter’s friend was invited as a VIP to attend a fundraiser concert to help fight AIDS in Africa recently. She was excited because her favorite band was one of

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-48930272873482568712009-03-28T09:45:00.000-04:002009-03-28T09:47:27.303-04:00

Americans tend to have an unwavering sense of fairness and balance. It probably stems from the fact that we live in a democracy. But some controversies cannot be settled by the democratic process.If you were seriously ill and you had a choice of listening to a team of doctors recommend your treatment or a group of lay people who were generally intelligent but never attended medical school, you

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-88752370747388339822009-03-21T10:52:00.001-04:002009-03-21T10:57:32.650-04:00

I might be a little weird, but sometimes I like to imagine a former version of myself, or perhaps someone else from an earlier time, transported into the present day. My former self, or time-traveling companion, would be in awe of the technological goodies that we all take for granted today that didn’t exist in the 1960s. Then I wonder what I would think if I were suddenly transported 50 years

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-9724637430380397412009-03-07T09:04:00.000-05:002009-03-07T09:05:27.581-05:00

With a few well-placed strokes of his presidential pen, Pres. Barack Obama has been methodically expunging some of his predecessor’s ill-conceived pen strokes. George W. Bush had a self-conceived moral imperative to make sure all citizens of America followed his own narrow view of what is right and wrong. Now, Obama is setting things right.There are people in this country who believe that

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-65344986028321846062009-02-28T08:57:00.000-05:002009-02-28T09:03:37.211-05:00

I eat out a lot. In fact, I seldom eat in unless it is food that I have had delivered. Once in a while, probably less often than once per week, I cook dinner, which usually consists of some ready-to-cook meat dish, a frozen or canned veggie, and some instant mashed potatoes. The remainder of my home cooking consists of opening cans of soup or popping a packaged entrée into the microwave.So with

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-51799530570714562802009-02-21T09:30:00.000-05:002009-02-21T09:31:24.669-05:00

Back during the McCarthy era of the 1950s, the overreaction to anything communist and the public fear that we would be taken over by communist sympathizers working for the Soviet Union grew out of a concern that the communist philosophy was to infiltrate from within, by indoctrinating young people into the communist way of life.It’s true that one strategy employed by the Soviets was to plant

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-66403237467736541512009-02-14T12:37:00.001-05:002009-02-14T12:58:41.678-05:00

This month is being celebrated by the scientific community, and by people in Britain, because it marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the great men of science, Charles Darwin, the English biologist who put forth his theory of evolution by natural selection. This year is also the sesquicentennial of Darwin’s greatest work, The Origin of Species. If Darwin were alive today, I can’t

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-92051746099440992752009-02-07T09:43:00.000-05:002009-02-07T09:45:20.338-05:00

Pres. Barack Obama has signed an executive order that extends, and tweaks, former Pres. George W. Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative. It was a fulfillment of a campaign promise. But like his predecessor in office, Obama may be flirting with violating the First Amendment’s prohibition against government entanglement with religion. He claims this isn’t the case and says he will appoint the right people

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-87732414454718585462009-01-31T11:34:00.001-05:002009-01-31T11:34:39.876-05:00

By the middle of the year, the United States will be an all-digital TV nation. The exact date of the switchover will be either February 17 or June 12, depending on whether or not Congress decides to delay the conversion. As of this morning, January 31, the switch is still scheduled to take effect February 17.I say let’s keep it that way. A delay will do nothing more than add to the confusion of

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-81244904512733304852009-01-24T12:22:00.001-05:002009-01-24T12:22:47.695-05:00

I have been online longer than most people. I feel confident in making that sweeping statement because, to most people, being online means being hooked to the Internet. I was online almost a decade before the Internet started to become a serious contender in online communication and file sharing.And I wanted to be online even before that. Back in the days when The Source and CompuServe were the

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-22095566277222761182009-01-10T10:55:00.001-05:002009-01-10T10:56:58.768-05:00

I woke up this morning and went downstairs to brew a pot of decaf. But much to my chagrin, I noticed the bag was empty. So now I needed to decide something. Should I get dressed and drive the five-kilometer trip to the grocery store in order to purchase a half-kilogram bag of coffee or should I just go to the coffee shop down the block for a quick 500 milliliter cup? Either way I would have to go

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-36567067575946074642009-01-03T09:58:00.001-05:002009-01-03T10:01:03.076-05:00

When President-Elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20 he, like every other president before him, will have his hand resting firmly on the bible. Incoming presidents get to pick which bible they want to use and even the verse to which the bible will be opened. Obama will be sworn in using the same bible that Abraham Lincoln used in 1861. But which verse will he single out as the

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-69625760614658795412008-12-27T09:56:00.002-05:002008-12-27T10:23:58.944-05:00

Evangelical Christians are fond of asserting that this country was founded on Christianity. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Founding Fathers all believed in God, but not necessarily the Christian god. Most were deists, believing that God and nature were substantially equivalent and that we humans create our own future and are solely responsible for our past. A minority of the

Jerry Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05466226925773904805noreply@blogger.com2