Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 9:17 PM

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Opinion

Cold weather activities

Cold weather activities

I just talked to an old friend who told me it is very cold in his town. He wonders what he can do for fun in icy conditions. 01/02/2025 09:19 AM

Vehicle inspections no longer required

Vehicle inspections no longer required

Drivers will no longer be required to get annual safety inspections beginning Jan. 1, the Texas Standard reported. However, drivers in the state’s 17 most populous counties will still be required to get an emissions test in order to register their vehicles. 01/02/2025 09:19 AM

New Year celebrations

New Year celebrations

When did people begin to host New Year parties? Ancient Egyptians celebrated New Year when the Nile River overflowed, usually in June. Then someone suggested, “If we change New Year to January, we won’t drown coming home from the party.” Early Romans named their celebration for Janus, a deity with two faces. 12/26/2024 11:29 AM

Can’t take the Cotton Gin out of the boy

Can’t take the Cotton Gin out of the boy

Thorston Veblen wrote a book back at the end of the gilded age called “Theory of the Leisure Class,” about those who were wallowing in wealth so great they struggled at finding places to spend it. 12/26/2024 11:29 AM

Have a blessed new year!

Have a blessed new year!

I pray that you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoyed the time with your family and friends. I pray your year is coming to a good end. 12/26/2024 11:29 AM

Abbott unveils new border strategy

Abbott unveils new border strategy

Gov. Greg Abbott said last Thursday the state is initiating a billboard campaign across Central America and border cities in northern Mexico to discourage migrants from attempting to enter Texas, the Austin American-Statesman reported. 12/26/2024 11:29 AM

Have a Merry Christmas!

Have a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas with your family and friends. This is my favorite time of the year. 12/19/2024 08:21 AM

Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

The words of America’s greatest president came to mind when I read the tiresome Letter to the Editor last week: “Better to be thought a fool by being silent than to remove all doubt by speaking [writing].” If I had very little understanding of 14th century Chinese society (I have none.), it would be foolish to presume in writing that what I wrote about it would be taken seriously. The Letter in question is just such an example - too full of vague and erroneous “facts” that make Kamala Harris’s word-salad nonsense seem clear. 12/19/2024 08:21 AM

Holiday traditions

Holiday traditions

One of my favorite stories is “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. How many other tales feature a miser, four ghosts, tombstones, and a goose? Actually, before I read this story I thought it was about somebody named Carol. 12/19/2024 08:21 AM

Agency seeks $300 million to bolster Medicaid

Agency seeks $300 million to bolster Medicaid

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is seeking a $300 million transfusion of funds to bolster the state’s Medicaid application process, The Texas Tribune reported. The public health insurance program provides coverage for people or families with limited income, as well as pregnant women and people with disabilities. 12/19/2024 08:21 AM

Scalded dog or best of life?

Scalded dog or best of life?

To paraphrase an old movie, the United States is no country for old men. However, the entire population is ageing, and we want to make sure no immigrants come into the country, yet we expect someone to make life for us as smooth as banana pudding. We forget what a privilege it is to grow old. The aches, pains, and bruises, physical and otherwise: those checks eventually come due for us all. The question is are we going to approach it like a scalded dog or like Robert Browning told his future wife, “come and grow old with me as the best of life is yet to be” We also have now generations of young people raised on Iphones and social feeds that tell you how gloomy it is outside so don’t bother to go check for yourself. They think old people can’t possibly know anything as the computer knows all. I remember when I was a kid and men at the Cotton Gin store talked about debt and the depression. Later I recalled bankers in the years after 2001 saying they didn’t need to be regulated because the balanced derivative market was self regulating. After 2007, they blew up the world and the federal reserve had to print dollars by the trillions to avoid a collapse that would have taken us back to the stone age. 12/19/2024 08:21 AM

Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

Trump following ‘the law?’ Incoming President Donald Trump is facing a problem that nobody could have ever imagined … unless they’ve listened to Donald Trump and his supporters these last ten years. Seems Trump is expecting everyone to follow “THE LAW.” He wants people nationwide to do exactly as he says, when, for example, it comes to how he wants to pursue “illegals.” It gets a little murky when an “immigrant” is instead someone who has applied for asylum status, because asylum procedures are ALSO “the law.” “The law” comes into play when discussing things like “state’s rights,” and whether a locality is bound to aid the Federal Government in its every so-called “law enforcement” effort. 12/12/2024 08:55 PM

Who is the sucker?

Who is the sucker?

I read a story recently about a lady school teacher in Yazoo City, Miss., in the impoverished Delta country that is teaching unprivileged kids and there is not enough money to even pay her a salary. Yet kids that would fall through the crack of life are staying in school and making plans for the future. When asked about financial strain she faces, she uttered a phrase that applies to all of us: “What I don’t get in this life, I will get in the next.” 12/12/2024 08:55 PM

Jesus is the reason for the season

Jesus is the reason for the season

It is very busy this time of the year. We enjoyed the Teague Christmas parade on Thursday and the Fairfield Christmas parade on Saturday. 12/12/2024 08:55 PM

Phelan drops bid for House speaker; no clear winner yet

Phelan drops bid for House speaker; no clear winner yet

House Speaker Dade Phelan withdrew last week from seeking another term leading that chamber. After three rounds of voting on Saturday, state Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield emerged as the preference of most House Republicans. However, his opponent, state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, claims to have enough support from both Republicans and Democrats to clear the 76-vote threshold. 12/12/2024 08:55 PM

Not a lot of time

Not a lot of time

OBSERVANCES Well, the election is over and one group is dancing in the streets while another group is drowning themselves in despair. This is the first time in my memory that one party has control of the four branches of government: executive, senate, house and supreme court. 11/21/2024 09:10 PM

More than 1,500 bills filed as session approaches

More than 1,500 bills filed as session approaches

CAPITOL HIGHLIGHTS Texas lawmakers last week filed more than 1,500 bills ahead of the next legislative session, which begins Jan. 14. 11/21/2024 09:10 PM