Happy New Year and welcome to 2008. It is hard for me to believe that it has been 40 years since those of my generation endured the misery of the year 1968 that helped define a whole cohort of politicians and journalists. The journalists that were young in 1968 are now nearing the ends of their careers. For the politicians hoping to either be elected president or play a pivotal role in electing a president,...
Click here to listen to the You Tell Me segment broadcast on Friday, Dec. 28, 2007 on Newstalk 600 KTBB. My wife has more than a few liberal friends. She was on the phone with one named Doris that lives in Florida the other day and the subject of investments came up. Doris opined that she was certain that her investments would do better as soon as Bush is out of office. Memo to Doris....
Click here to listen to the “You Tell Me” segment broadcast Friday, Dec. 21, 2007 on Newstalk 600 KTBB. I’m about to celebrate my 53rd Christmas. I have always celebrated it as a Christian. I will confess that Christmas over the years has been, emotionally speaking, a mixed bag for me. Many of the Christmases of my childhood flood back as some of the happiest times of my life. If ever a man knew how...
Beginning last week, as the headlines included coverage of Mitt Romney’s speech regarding his Mormonism, I received the following e-mail from a man named Frank. He said, “I will no longer be listening to your station between the hours of 8 and 11 AM. I was not aware that Glenn Beck was a Mormon.” Here is how I answered Frank. I waited 24 hours to answer your e-mail so that I would not overreact to...
It’s a bit less than a year to the 2008 presidential election. Anything can happen. As proof of that statement, anybody you asked on January 1, 2007 would have said that the Iraq war will be the dominant issue in November 2008. Ask that question today. Maybe not so much. At least for now, the success of the change of strategy in Iraq leading to the so-called “surge”has taken Iraq off the front page. I...
Pardon me for taking you backstage but I’m doing it for a reason. The radio industry and the record industry were born at the same time and nurtured in adjacent cribs. Being the siblings that they were, many decades ago, when both were in their concurrent adolescence, an accommodation was reached. Radio was in need of material to broadcast. The record companies needed to promote new artists and records. And so, the recording industry made...
Click here to listen to the “You Tell Me” segment broadcast on Newstalk 600 KTBB Friday, Nov. 9, 2007 This past week, for the first time, Hillary Clinton’s carefully controlled, highly scripted, enormously disciplined political mechanism hiccupped. At the Democratic presidential candidates debate in Philadelphia, Tim Russert asked her for her stand on the decision by New York governor Eliot Spitzer to issue driver licenses to illegal aliens. Here is what she said. Click here....
Click here to listen to the “You Tell Me” segment broadcast on Newstalk 600 KTBB Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 I have the good fortune to live in an affluent neighborhood. I also have the misfortune to live in an affluent neighborhood. I say misfortune because of the impact that affluence can have on some kids. I’ve already had one daughter go through middle and high school. I have another that will be in middle school...
Click here to listen to the You Tell Me broadcast segment on Newstalk 600 KTBB Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 Before I begin, I want to get this out of the way. I am not insensitive to the suffering of those in southern California who have lost their homes to raging wildfire. I cannot imagine losing everything that I have and I pray that I will never have such an experience. With that said, I am...
Click here to listen to the “You Tell Me” broadcast segment on Newstalk 600 KTBB, Friday Oct. 19, 2007 The school board in Portland, Maine has just made the decision to offer birth control pills to school girls in its district as young as 11 years old. And, guess what. Mom and dad don’t have to know. How toweringly arrogant. How is it possible that parents of young girls don’t have the right to...
Listen to the introduction of this topic on Newstalk 600 KTBB Friday morning, October 12. You Tell Me segment, Friday October 12 I recently visited two Tyler post offices. The goal seemed simple. Get a Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope, affix the appropriate postage and drop the envelope in the collection box. Yes, it was Columbus Day and the post office was closed. But who cares? I didn’t need the services of a postal clerk....
Recently I was driving on south Broadway in front of Hogg Middle School in Tyler when I saw a series of yard signs on the campus announcing that progress reports were being issued. The signs appeared in the parkway in front of the school in a row, alternating between signs in English and signs in Spanish. Honest to goodness, if you’re in middle school in Tyler, Texas and you need a sign in Spanish to...