Once upon a time, people's hands were busy putting food on the table and they were too busy or too proud to consider extending those same hands out to the government for a handout.
When I was a child, hearing Miss Nancy conduct calisthenics on TV's Romper Room ("Bend and stretch…reach for the stars…") planted ideas about the wonders of the universe.
Ah, the words that come back to bite you. Remember the famous statement prior to passage of what is now called Obamacare: "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it"? Whoops! Give President Obama credit; he doubtlessly believed that promise when he said it. However, I didn't and said so. Why? Employers and health care providers told me that when the majority of the provisions of "Obamacare" would take effect, it would ...
Just before my early morning run this morning, a young boy, three-foot-nothing, wearing shorts and a helmet whizzed past me on his scooter, and then abruptly stopped and backed up - when he saw me stuff a 20-pound terrier into my backpack.
Speculation is running rampant about why House Majority Leader Eric Cantor walked out of debt ceiling talks with Democrats. Most of the speculation is credited by pundits to insider maneuvering between Speaker John Boehner and Cantor.
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? U.S. Congressman Barney Frank introduced a bill Thursday that removes marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances so that the states may regulate marijuana the way they do alcohol. This'll save lives. Even a Jackass isn't going to be killed driving nine miles an hour. The FDA ordered cigarette manufacturers to display photos of throat cancer sufferers on every pack of cigarettes. Bar owners applauded the ...
All of a sudden the "kept media" is all agog over one Jon (not John) Huntsman, recently retired from his Obama administration post as U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, provoking the president to joke that he was "sure that him having worked so well for me will be a great asset in any Republican primary."
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? Hurricane Beatriz pounded Mexico's Pacific coast with high winds and driving rainstorms Tuesday. Winds were clocked blowing out of the south at 100 miles an hour. In San Diego people were holding paper bags up in the air and catching enough cocaine to make a house payment. President Obama made a prime time address Wednesday to announce a gradual U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. The good news ...
The whole idea of a democracy is accepting you'll never fully get your own way in government.
Reading Al Gore's comments on Mitt Romney we were reminded of all of the reason's we don't trust the man: "Good for Mitt Romney though we've long passed the point where weak lip-service is enough on the Climate Crisis. While other Republicans are running from the truth, he is sticking to his guns in the face of the anti-science wing of the Republican Party."
If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be Mormon, would you vote for that person?
Due to varying family circumstances, Father's Day is not a "one size fits all" holiday. Different individuals greet the day with warmth, melancholy, numbness, or anger.
My father worked hard to support six children - to send us to private school, contribute to our college costs and pay for all five of his daughters' weddings.
They're a puttin' on extra shifts at the ol' Great Bend Rumor Mill. Talk about job creation and a recovery. Granted, they may be low-wage, part-time jobs with no benefits. But, hey, we can't be too choosy in these tough economic times. The mill might even qualify for some sort of tax abatement. From corruption allegations to who sold whose house to whom, to "look who is in jail," we here at the Tribune have ...
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? President Obama said Monday he'd resign if he had a scandal like Anthony Weiner's sex scandal. He shouldn't tempt the fates like that. If the unemployment rate goes any higher, some guy is going to snap a picture of him in the shower and post it on Facebook to save the country. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords posted photos of herself on Facebook Sunday that showed her smiling, beautiful ...
What America needs is a good Productivity Boosting Nap Pod, a device that looks like a dentist chair with a roof. As luck would have it, this 310-pound unit, that "provides optimal ergonomics for napping," is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for $16,000. Dagwood Bumstead take note.
HOLLYWOOD-Happy Wednesday, everybody, and God bless America.
Alzheimer's Disease costs the U.S. economy over $200 billion per year, about $140 billion of which is a direct federal budgetary cost to Medicare and Medicaid. On our present course, this cost will quintuple to $1 trillion by 2050. It is the major driver up the steeply rising health care cost curve. Given this context, the most important question for health policy is not the green eyeshade question of who-pays-how-much that has come to dominate ...
HOLLYWOOD-Happy Tuesday, everybody, and God bless America.
History is one of our greatest teachers.
When executives of corporations are caught aiding and abetting criminal behavior of their employees, the executives are prosecuted and the businesses are destroyed.