Amazon.com – Perpetual Adoration

February 21, 2021

Superior Talent on Loan from God

You’ve probably never heard of Robert Pittman. He’s a 67-year-old American businessman who was one of the founders of MTV, the first cable music television network in the United States. MTV was launched on August 1, 1981, and initially featured music videos and related programming that was presented by television celebrities who were known as VJs (video jockeys).

April 13, 2019

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A New Adventure is on the Horizon

My wife Georgette was born in Tripoli, Lebanon. Three months after her birth, her parents immigrated to the United States. When they arrived in Peoria, Illinois, they could not speak, read, or write in English.

December 29, 2018

What Can You Do With A 43-Year-Old Tool Box?

Do you remember what you received for your 18th birthday? It’s been 43 years since I turned 18 (1975), but I still remember what I received from my parents. It was a 21-inch, gray metal Craftsman toolbox. Prior to my birthday, my mom had asked me what I wanted, and I wrote down the type of toolbox that could be purchased from Sears.

September 8, 2018

Bunkering – The New American Lifestyle

I first heard the term “cocooning” in 1981, during my first year of law school. The term came from Faith Popcorn, a marketing consultant in New York. Popcorn later described “cocooning” in her book, The Popcorn Report, which was originally published in 1991:

March 10, 2018

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The Gods of Technology and Government

When I was a boy growing up during the 1960s, it was hard for me to imagine how God could see, hear, and remember everything that happens in each person’s life. In religion class, we were told that in addition to God being able to see, hear, and remember everything, He also knows all our thoughts. While I had my doubts, I accepted as true the fact that our Creator possesses full knowledge of all our thoughts, words, and actions.

August 9, 2014

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A Final Response

This is my fifth and final response to an email that I received from Tony, who questioned an article I had written about Amazon.com and its founder, Jeff Bezos. Tony provided the following reasons why I (and other Catholics) should refuse to buy products from Amazon:

August 2, 2014

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Creative Destruction

One of the things I wanted to cover in my series of articles concerning Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com is the process of creative destruction. Have you ever heard of “creative destruction”? It’s a term that was originally used by an Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950). Schumpeter described creative destruction as an essential process that takes place in a free-market economy, wiping out entire industries after new technologies are discovered and put into place.

July 26, 2014

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Aggressive Behavior, Anger, and Trust

One evening during the summer of 2005, I called one of my clients and asked him if he would come over to my house to fix a problem with my plumbing. His name was Jim, and at that time he was in his mid-50s. We had done business with each other since the early 1990s. I was originally introduced to Jim by another client who owned several rental properties and had hired Jim to work on his properties.

July 19, 2014

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Modern-Day Advice from a 13th-Century Saint

Last week, I wrote about how an adorer (“Tony”) had criticized me because of an article that I had written about Amazon.com and its founder, Jeff Bezos. Tony provided several reasons why I (and other Catholics) should refuse to do business with Amazon, one of which is that “Amazon distributes pornography.” Here’s how I responded to the comment about the pornography issue: