Wes Skillings

About Wes Skillings

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far Wes Skillings has created 194 blog entries.

Anti-Dieting: Shooting Up to Bring Weight Down

Docs dictating diabetic drugs for disheartened dieters. A few years back, I ruminated about a radio ad that trumpeted the claim, “You’re not fat… you’re bloated.” Aside from metabolism and genetic causes, it suggested that we’ve been blaming those expansive paunches on things like overeating, poor dietary choices and lack of exercise. Too many of us had apparently been blaming ourselves, but, as it turns out, it’s not our fault and there’s a magic pill or supplement [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-11-29T14:47:28+00:00November 29, 2023|Uncategorized|

Where Have All Our Public Servants Gone?

Uncle Sam Wants You— If you can afford to get elected to public office! The more I think about how I make my decisions about who I want to be President or Governor or Senator or in the U.S. House of Representatives, it strikes me that it is not really about politics. It’s about humanity. I want men and women in office who seem to be in it for the noblest reason of all, public service. We’ve [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-11-09T17:49:43+00:00November 9, 2023|Conservatives, Democracy, Elections, Liberals, Partisanship, Voting|

Bring Back Reason and Rhyme at Election Time!

Campaign slogans with and without exclamation points! Slogans have been a part of presidential campaigns since George Washington was fitted for his first set of wooden teeth. Washington himself didn’t need a slogan. He was, after all, the “Father of Our Country.” How could he lose? Then there was the I-cannot-tell-a-lie story that we now know was itself a lie dreamed up by a biographer. As we’re seeing in the preliminary rounds of the 2024 Presidential Election, [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-11-02T15:44:25+00:00November 2, 2023|Biden, Campaign Rhetoric, Democracy, Democrats, Elections, Presidency, Republicans, Trump|

Just Believe What You Want to Believe!

Doctors used to endorse smoking as healthful and smokers kept puffing. What do vitamins and memory-enhancing supplements have to do with campaign ads and federal laws protecting us from false advertising claims? It all comes down to this: We all get to believe what we want to believe. Never has it been truer than during the opening years of this decade. Why? Because an amazing number of U.S. citizens want things to coincide with and confirm their [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-10-25T14:33:36+00:00October 25, 2023|Advertising, Beliefs, Campaign Rhetoric, Elections, Health, Israel, Palestinians, Trump, Truth|

Poisoned Minds Defend Massacres of Innocents

Prejudice poisons our minds into accepting inhumane acts. I find it disturbing that so many on both the left and right have sided with the militant Hamas after the butchery of men, women and children in Israel from the neighboring Gaza Strip. The latest count is more than 1,300 Israelis — at least 25 of them U.S. citizens—killed in the carnage. Dozens more were taken hostage and held in Gaza, with Hamas using them as human shields [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-10-15T13:52:37+00:00October 15, 2023|Christians, Hamas, Hatred, Holocaust, Israel, Morality, Palestinians|

What’s Behind All those Empty Pews?

I  was recently called upon to deliver a sermon in my church. It was an emergency fill-in because the pastor and lay leader, both unavailable, had figured that I, as a long-time newspaper reporter and editor accustomed to deadlines, could put something together that wouldn’t result in raucous dissention in the pews. I reluctantly agreed, despite several good reasons not to, because I knew my God-fearing and conscientious church-attending parents in Heaven would want me to do it. It [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-10-04T15:00:34+00:00October 4, 2023|Christians, Church, Religion|

Older but Wiser? We Can Only Hope

Are too many on Capitol Hill over the hill? I haven’t been writing blogs as often as I did a year or two ago, mostly because the world, especially the political world, has gone wacky. I can’t even make fun of this wackiness anymore, because these people are serious, and there are a lot of them out there. I should be enthused that, at this point, at least, two dudes much older than I will probably be [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-09-21T17:44:17+00:00September 21, 2023|Aging, Baby Boomers, death, Democrats, Humor, Old Age, Politics, Presidency, Republicans|

Trials of Following the Greatest Generation

Why the long face? A tough act to follow for Baby Boomers. I’m not so sure I like being a Baby Boomer, but I can’t do much about it. Considering that the age group preceding us is known collectively as the Greatest Generation, it seems to me that, by comparison at least, the Baby Boomer moniker is not flattering. This is a subject I pursued in a previous decade as a newspaper column, and I’m returning to [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-08-22T20:03:38+00:00August 22, 2023|Baby Boomers, Donald Trump, Gen-Y, Greatest Generation, History, Joe Biden|

Is It too Late to Save American Democracy?

Crybabies wailing for their perceived rights have replaced those who respect democracy and the Constitution. I think it is essential, if America is to continue as a shining light, to bring a little respect back to the democratic process. It’s easy to say that these people representing our interests in Washington, D.C., and even Harrisburg, have not earned our respect, but they are our creations. We tend to forget that no president was the target of more [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-08-22T16:42:00+00:00August 22, 2023|Uncategorized|

Limited to Running in My Dreams

I’ve been fortunate so far in my life to have lived this long and I’m still quite healthy. Running for fun and fitness is a relatively recent American pastime. Sure, both knees have been replaced, which means I don’t do much running anymore. I should say I don’t do any running. On occasion, I’ll start to break into a trot, and it doesn’t feel quite right, so I downshift to a walk. I suspect that if I [...]

READ MORE

By |2023-07-28T20:28:29+00:00July 28, 2023|Aging, Fitness, Running|
Go to Top