Are you already as done with the 2016 Election Cycle as I am? Talking heads. He said-she said-he said. Attack ads. Scorched earth. All about “me”. Are we really going to spend more than a year with a large gaggle of seemingly qualified conservative leaders rearranging the deck chairs, hoping when the music stops that the last seat is theirs, while the Ship of State actually sinks and everyone else drowns in a sea of debt, low employment, lost opportunity and class warfare? Not to mention...
Ending 2014 with five personal thoughts on events that surprised me: Shortly after Memorial Day I attended a professional breakfast on current topics in commercial real estate. There were several hundred well dressed attendees, of all ages and both genders. The MC began by mentioning Memorial Day and remembering those who had given the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Then he asked for all of those who had served in the U.S. military to stand up to be recognized. I am used to that request...
In recognition of President Obama's State of the Union address, I'd like to share with you the very different approach of President William Harrison in my novel, The President, written almost twenty years ago. Enjoy. State of the Union Preamble
Last week Mark Tidwell spoke at Ken Boa’s Bible Study in Atlanta. Please, when you have forty-two minutes, watch Mark’s talk at https://www.kenboa.org/video/2013-01-30-wed/--nothing I could write today will have the impact of Mark’s story. And he has a powerful book, Leave A Mark. https://www.leaveamarknow.com/ Mark emphaszied a word that has been resonating with me for some time: intentional. To me it means that we take every opportunity we are given to communicate truth. In our writing,...
We need a Savior. Even as our family gathers this week, blessed with good health, a thriving new generation, and jobs, our joy is balanced by the ever-present reminders of evil, chaos and death. Mass murder of innocents at an elementary school. The fiscal cliff about to force a huge increase in taxes, and add to our nation’s uncertainty. My good friend from high school and his family struggling with the reality of disease and life’s finiteness. If God had left us on our own to cope with the...
If you are looking for the perfect gift for anyone who wants to understand the Economics behind all that is going on today, from the fiscal cliff to Greece, I have it. Henry Hazlitt wrote Economics in One Lesson in 1946, then updated in 1978. It reads like today’s news, because it is filled with economic truth, not political or editorial wishful thinking. You can read quickly through its 210 pages, or you can feast on each paragraph. It is that well written, and easy for anyone to understand,...
Last week I had the great pleasure of meeting with an HonorsCollegeclass at AuburnUniversity on the topic of What I Wish Someone Told Me When I Graduated from College. The students were, as you would expect, bright, engaged and vocal. I had a list of items from my personal experience to discuss with these talented young people, and one of them was: A problem with being successful at an early age is that the smarter and more successful you are, the longer it will take you to come to the end of...
For the past month a store at the retail center where we’ve shopped for years has displayed prominent signs stating “Going Out Business—Everything For Sale”. So yesterday I went in to say good-bye to Don, one of the employees who has frequently helped me select the right products. Over the years we’ve occasionally discussed the state of the world, and I expected that we would commiserate on the economy, his bad luck, the lack of jobs, etc. But we didn’t. When I asked him, Don smiled and...
For this post, it’s really someone we like. Over the past several months we have been instructed by John Rosemond on four occasions. He has incredibly relevant insights on parenting, which everyone should consider. John is a licensed family psychologist who calls most of what is written today about raising children “parent babble”. He told us that our own grandmothers (and their like-minded friends) had more child-rearing wisdom than can be found in most of these books. He then set out to...
We just returned from our third overnight trip on Amtrak, and we have enjoyed every minute of each trip. It is so relaxing to travel from city center to city center without long taxi rides, security lines, uncertain waits, weather worries, sardine seats, and no food. On Amtrak the people are friendly, the food is excellent, the accommodations are sized for real people, and the scenery is interesting. When you fly somewhere on vacation, the enjoyment doesn’t begin until you’ve surmounted the...
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