Columns

Americans in need of a vacation

Boy, I could use a vacation about now — like millions of other hardworking Americans. According to a recent study by the U.S. Travel Association’s Project Time Off, 54 percent of American employees ended 2016 with unused time off — a total of about 662 million unused vacation days.

Do we understand the significance?

It appears that all too many in our great country naively believe that the United States survived and thrived for the last 241 years, only because of the industry of its people. Such a prideful view point is indeed unfortunate.

Louisiana, California bear misconceptions

I recently spent time in San Diego, California, at a NRECA convention. NRECA is the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Its roots go back to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. It was enacted by FDR as part of the New Deal.

I guess Donald Trump was tight

At his big rallies last fall President Trump kept telling his supporters that, “We’re just going to win and win so much you’re going to get tired of winning.” No one ever gets tired of winning, especially a rookie politician that everyone in the establishment predicted would be a loser.

The double murder of Otto Warmbier

We may never know what brutal torture and malign neglect American student Otto Warmbier suffered at the hands of North Korea’s dictatorship before losing his life this week at the age of 22. But it wasn’t the first time the free-spirited Ohio native died.

From cliches to abuse of journalistic style

I can’t stop myself from keeping a mental list of words and phrases that have been bastardized beyond repair by journalists. They range from the trite, such as “Breaking News,” to the abused, such as “anonymous sources.” For TV journalists they include crutch phrases such as “at the end of the day.

Put the blame on the Trump haters

It’s impossible to argue with Rush Limbaugh. When Rush said the nut job who shot House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and four others at a D.C. baseball field on Wednesday was radicalized by the leftwing establishment media, he’s absolutely correct.

A congressman and killings in New Orleans

A New Orleans congressman tragically was shot while he was out playing baseball. Luckily, it looks like he will fully recover. Some of those who first heard the news assumed that he had been shot in New Orleans. You see, killings have become a way of life in the Crescent City.

Planes, trains, boats, trucks or pipelines?

Here in this soon-to-be-great nation, we Americans take a lot for granted. From our freedom and safety, to our low cost food and fuel, we just tend to forget, especially the younger generations.

Old-school dad imparted great lessons

My father made me wear hand-me-downs — even though I was our family’s only boy, with five sisters. It wasn’t too bad most of the year, but Easter Sunday was a bear. You know how hard it is to outrun the neighborhood bully with your panty hose bunching up and your bonnet flopping in the wind?