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Our nannies on the Tyler City Council

Listen to the broadcast of You Tell Me on Newstalk 600 KTBB, Friday, Feb. 8, 2008 On Wednesday of this week, the City of Tyler did what a large number of cities have already done in passing an ordinance that severely restricts smoking in restaurants and other public places. I have always been a little surprised that such an ordinance has been such a long time coming in Tyler. Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin and...

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Hail to the Provider in Chief

Listen to the broadcast of You Tell Me on Newstalk 600 KTBB, Friday, January 25, 2008 We’ve gotten so used to it in our politics that we almost don’t notice when it’s right under our noses. Every four years, politicians stand up and tell us what the government is going to do for us. Both parties are guilty. But what government can (read: should) do for you is much more a part of the rhetoric...

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Enormous challenges, enormous opportunities.

When you consider that newspaper publishing has been around for centuries, commercial radio broadcasting has been around for over 80 years and television has been doing its thing since about 1950, the changes that have rolled over these traditional media seem to have occurred in the blink of an eye. Almost overnight it seems, digital technology, together with almost universal availability of broadband internet service and a growing list of devices that will access the...

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Remembering the lessons of 1968 as we vote in 2008.

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,...

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What do you expect from the next 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....

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C’mon, Paul. It’s Christmas.

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...

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Religious bigotry has no place in America

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...

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In 2008, it’s likely we’ll be voting on us.

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...

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What if the music on your FM radio goes away?

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...

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Hillary: All the Clinton baggage without the likeability.

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....

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Put the plastic away and raise your kids.

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...

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The Government Cannot Protect You from Mother Nature

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...