Joe’s Stuff:
1) Random blogs about history, economics, sports, physics, mathematics, life events …
See recent posts, archives, categories, etc to right →
- To contact Joe just email him at joe@girardmeister.com
- You can add yourself to the “New Essay Notification List” by clicking here.
2) The Poetry and Essay links are not maintained or updated (very often)
3) Charities we support below.
4) Archived essays from this site: Archived Posts
Older essays (from old website) and blogs at Older Essays
=============
Some of our Favorite Charities, almost all focused on children.
Foothills Kiwanis Club Foundation: Primary activity is providing service dogs for economically disadvantaged children with invisible ailments like seizure disorders, diabetes and severe food allergies.
Also supports with funds and manual labor Sweet Dream in a Bag: providing personalized bedding for children in social and economic crises.
Rocky Mountain Honor Flight: Treating WW2, Korean and Viet Nam vets with extreme dignity and gratitude by providing “red carpet treatment” for tours — with personal escorts — of monuments and historic sites in Washington, DC. [Sadly there were no Honor Flights in 2020 or ’21. Dang Covid. Escorted tours began again June, 2022]
Intercambio — providing opportunities for learning American English and Culture to immigrants.
Uplift International: Repairing cleft pallets in third world countries. The stigma of this unfortunate defect is too difficult to understand and puts victims at an impossible disadvantage. [This replaces our support of a similar organization: Smile Train. Uplift is Colorado Local, focuses on the Philippines and has a better ratio of funds used to serve vs overhead].
NAMI – National Alliance on Mental Illness: Depression is epidemic. Suicide is at the highest rates in my lifetime. And it is the second leading cause of death among 15-35 year olds.
Maji Safi Group: Bringing clean water and safe hygiene practices to villages in Tanzania.
Ethiopian Education Fund: enable disadvantaged youth and young adults, especially girls, in the Kaffa zone of southern Ethiopia to realize their full educational potential. This is not near the civil war region: Tigray.
Real Choices Pregnancy Centers: Helping woman in pregnancy crises in all aspects.
Bal Swan Children’s Center – Nurturing children of all abilities, challenges and talent in an integrated setting since 1963.
____________________________________________________________
Some really interesting columnists and bloggers Joe follows with some regularity:
I believe that Bari Weiss is one of the most interesting people in the US. I follow her at TFP (The Free Press) and on her podcast “Honestly.” Bari Weiss. Extraordinary story, background and insight.
Jeff Jacoby (Boston Globe), unfortunately there is a paywall at the Globe, and I hit the limit on “free reads” most months. Jeff has a fascinating family history. He writes of contemporary issues with clarity and a unique perspective.
Walter Williams, RIP (George Mason University, Economics), he doesn’t publish anymore, as he has passed away. He was brilliant and even his old material is still worth a read. Walter passed on December 2, 2020, after a full life and distinguished career.
Thomas Sowell was here too. But he’s retired. I suggest any of his books on economics.