Prior to this administration, I’ve have always prided myself for supporting my president. I’m having a hard time now. And I don’t like the feeling.

How can I support someone who is diametrically opposed to what my Dad taught me about fiscal responsibility? He taught me that I pay my bills as I go; that I quickly pay off anything I charge; that I buy only what I need to survive; that just because everyone has it is not sufficient reason to go into debt; that I save for retirement so I won’t be a burden on others; that I help those less fortunate; and that I mind my own business.

If any of us handled our personal finances the way Obama is handling the U.S.’s, we’d be bankrupt, evicted, and facing a life without Dr. Phil or Oprah on TV.

Obama’s devastating lack of executive experiences is painfully obvious. Like the majority of the media, “Newsweek” has always been an Obama supporter. Now, they have also drawn the line at Obama’s failed conciliatory eff...

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I suppose like me, you’re tired of listening to all the second-guessing and Monday morning quarterbacking over the Super Bowl last week.

While I enjoy pro football, I’m not into the fantasy end of it. Truth is, I have absolutely no idea how it works, and the longer I don’t know, the better off I figure I am, nor do I buy any of the team memorabilia.

While a Cowboy and Texan fan, I’ve been impressed the last few years with the Colts. Who wouldn’t?

Did you notice how many oddsmakers and prognosticators picked them to win the Super Bowl? I could be wrong, but other than the fanatical Saints’ fans, no one picked them.

In all the two-week build up to the game, everyone had an opinion, an observation, a comment, or some sort of reflection.

I don’t recollect any of the writers picking N’awlins. The comments ran from “Sorry, Saints, the Colts have too much,” to “Why the Colts will win and the Saints lose.”

Whether you read the local papers, online comment...

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Man is a puzzling creature. Just about the time you think you’ve got him figured out, he pulls a stunt completely out of character. Either that, or you don’t know the guy as well as you thought.

What prompted this not too perceptive observation was when a friend of mine went ballistic at the driver in front of him for refusing to turn right on a red light. My acquaintance blistered the driver with a string of well-crafted profanities. At the end of his tirade, he growled, “There’s nothing that ticks me off like a dummy sitting at a light like that.”

I grinned to myself. I couldn’t pass any kind of judgment on my friend or his pet peeve. I’ve got pet peeves too, but sitting behind a car waiting to turn right isn’t one that would set me off like it did him. Still, like everyone, there are some things that just rub me the wrong way.

Case in point!

Some supermarkets have sample cookies or pastries in the bakery. You’ve seen them, usually in a clear container that...

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If you’re like me, I’m tired of cold weather. How long’s it been going on now, six, eight weeks. It began well before Christmas. Of course that didn’t stop us from sharing a joyous Christmas and New Years with family. My 3-year-old grandson Mikey was under the weather for a few days during the Christmas season, you know, that midwinter stomach virus and such. When 5-year-old grandson Keegan saw the attention lavished on Mikey, he became ill.

To be honest, the little guy had been fighting off the blahs for several days also. Luckily, came the last few hours of Christmas day, both little guys were feeling as chipper as the three chipmunks, Alvin, Theodore and Simon.

(I suppose I should mention everyone came down with the virus throughout the holidays, but that’s OK. The days we felt good were worth it.)

Now, Mikey might be only a few months past his third birthday, but he is a big as Keegan. Often folks take them for brothers; one even suggested they were twins, for ...

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A few months back, I had the fortune to work with eight folks who were interested in learning to write a novel. Twice a year, I have the opportunity, and I always look forward to it.

In fact, one gentleman from four or five years back just finished a screenplay that was selected in the top ten percent of all the screenplays submitted to the Austin Film Festival. I’m anxious to find out what happened after he pitched it to various producers at the conference.

The truth is, all of us probably at one time or another have dreamed of writing a novel or a screenplay. It isn’t that hard to do. Believe me, if I can pull it off, anyone can. I suppose the requisite, the one real requisite is that you’ve got to be a reader. And oh, yeah, it doesn’t hurt to be stubborn.

Don’t misunderstand, non-readers can write. Go out and read some of the graduate dissertations. Most of them will put you to sleep in three pages.

And stubborn? Well, let’s say “persevering to the point o...

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My dad was one of those who knew better than anyone else. Even when facts confronted him, he found a way around them. He was probably the source of that ubiquitous joke about men drivers never asking directions.

I never saw him look at a map or stop at a gas station to ask for help. All Dad knew was where he was starting and where he was going. He’d point the grill of the car in the direction of our destination and take off.

In our frequent trips from Fort Worth to the Panhandle, we had to go through Wichita Falls. On each of the first dozen trips, he tried a different route to circumvent downtown.

Now, I’ll admit we saw sights we would never had seen otherwise.

Once I think we might have seen the Grand Canyon, but that’s pretty far fetched. Still-- Anyway we never saved any time with his shortcuts. He would never listen to suggestions, exclaiming instead, “I know what in the (expletives here-big time expletives) I’m doing.” And with that retort, the argumen...

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Quick! What was it you didn’t see on Nov. 22?

Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see it, nor did several others whom I questioned.

Give up?

I saw nothing commemorating the anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy forty-six years ago.

Oh, there were a couple conspiracy programs on the History channel, and that night, one of the networks mentioned it in a ten second comment.

Yep, I figured it was just me – you know, longer in the tooth, weaker in the brain – but when I asked my old high school chat group, the members of which are spread across the country, none of them had seen anything in their local news about it either.

Our country cannot afford to forget its history, for invariably, it is from those events that we derive true understanding, purpose, and determination. Sadly to say, however, you are probably just as aware as I of our country’s penchant to ignore history.

How many remember Dec. 7? Believe it or not, there are many ...

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Sarah Palin has a book out on politics. So what? Obama wrote a book also. Again, so what? Politicians, actors (sorry about the redundancy), journalists, commentators and dozens of others write books. And again, so what?

If you buy one looking for an epiphany of some sort, all you’ll discover is the same old garbage rehashed from that individual’s point of view.

I haven’t read any of them, but I’ll wager you half the facts in each are questionable with some being outright lies. Sorry, I mean “fabrications.” Our present administration is big on political correctness. We don’t have a “war on terror” any longer. No, it’s something like “overseas contingency” or some such nonsense.
Skewing the truth, which appears to be a prerequisite for political office at the state and federal level, is a means to confuse and mislead citizens, a ploy that has proven quite successful.

I did watch Palin on TV the other night. I don’t know if I would vote for her or not, but one th...

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One of the responsibilities many of us have ignored as citizens is the questioning of our own government; we should demand to be kept informed.

Many of our congressional representatives have learned to play the political game and know how to turn the confusion to do as they wish. I’m talking about both parties. The truth is, 90 percent of both parties are giving all the others a bad name.

The biggest piece of confusion up there now is the health care mess. And now that it passed the House, it is even a worse mess.

But there is another bill that while once defeated, still remains locked away, its sponsors waiting for the right time to spring it once again on Congress. 

You’ve heard about it, the Bush-Kennedy Amnesty bill on illegal immigration.

When I mentioned it to a friend the other day, he remarked, “I thought it was shot down sometime back.”

Shot down, but not dead. Those kissy-kissy bleeding hearts who want taxpayers to support the Ille...

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If I’ve learned anything in this life of mine, it is family makes holidays happy and joyous, not golden brown turkeys or a carload of presents. To be honest, I can’t remember the meals or the gifts, but I have a vivid recollection of the family gathered round, sitting on every available chair, armrest, stool, or sitting cross-legged on the floor, all balancing plates of fired chicken on their laps with glasses of tea or buttermilk sitting on the floor beside them while they laughed and joked about old memories.

When I was a kid. We never had turkey, but I’ll never forget the time we had rooster out at my grandparents’ farm. Yep, that’s right, a big old white leghorn rooster that was meaner than sin. 

The year after the war, we arrived at mama and papa’s a couple days early. My cousin Ed and his folks lived on the farm. Ed could do everything about the farm better than me, milk cows, gather eggs, feed stock. But the one skill of his I most envied was his deadly accur...

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