Columns

11 - 11:45pm

Williams: 'Bread and circuses' curse likely to take America out 06/05/11 - 10:45pm

The latest Social Security Trustees Report tells us the program will be insolvent by the year 2037. The combined unfunded liability of Social Security and Medicare has reached nearly $107 trillion in today's dollars. That is about seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times the size of the national debt.

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Westbrook: The talent of a singer is a joy forever 06/06/11 - 12:01am

Before there was a resurrected Cactus Theater and its nationally-known Cactus Cuties, there was a Lubbock 10-year-old who figuratively had a television show of her own. Technically, it was the Mathis Furniture television show and it was limited to a local station, but she was the regular the audience tuned in to hear. Wayne Mathis, who seemed to mysteriously arrive in Lubbock in the mid-1960s, had set up a furniture and appliance store, kept it going for about five years, then quietly moved on.

Leschper: It's important to remember safety when enjoying time on the water 06/05/11 - 12:25am

Texas may not be the land of 10,000 lakes, but we have plenty of places to fish, swim and boat, and it's time again to focus on ways to stay safe. In a positive downward trend, deaths on public waters decreased to 28 in 2010 from 38 in 2009. In 2008, there were 62 deaths, the highest figure of the decade, and so far this year, a dozen people have died on waterways. The figure remains too high, and as we creep closer toward the hottest months of the year, more folks will make their way to rivers, lakes, bays and the gulf for a variety of outdoor activities.

Dromgoole: Megan Cope taught her dad many important life lessons 06/04/11 - 11:20pm

Megan Cope, the mentally disabled child of Mike and Diane Cope, spoke only one complete sentence in her brief 10 years of life - "I'm Megan!"- but she touched people's lives in many powerful ways. Her dad, an Abilene minister, professor and author, has written an inspiring book about Megan called "Megan's Secrets: What My Mentally Disabled Daughter Taught Me About Life" (Leafwood Publishers, $14.99 paperback). "The child who could only speak one sentence in her whole life," Cope writes, "taught me more than any of the wonderful professional teachers I've had.

McBride & Hammond: Add the Texas energy industry to endangered list 06/04/11 - 11:16pm

How do you like them gas prices at the pump? Want to see them jump even higher? Apparently, the Obama administration does. The president must be wholly unsatisfied with a doubling in the price of gas since he took office; so now he aims to triple it. How, you ask? By putting the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin on the Endangered Species List. What's that you say? It's not the domestic energy industry whose head is on the chopping block again. We beg to differ.

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Dromgoole: Megan Cope taught her dad many important life lessons 06/06/11 - 8:55am

Megan Cope, the mentally disabled child of Mike and Diane Cope, spoke only one complete sentence in her brief 10 years of life — “I’m Megan!”— but she touched people’s lives in many powerful ways. Her dad, an Abilene minister, professor and author, has written an inspiring book about Megan called “Megan’s Secrets: What My Mentally Disabled Daughter Taught Me About Life” (Leafwood Publishers, $14.99 paperback).

Polgar: The Revolutionary Mind, an interview by Renata Holcmann 06/03/11 - 10:50pm

I was recently interviewed by Renata Holcmann of Columbia University. With her permission, I would like to share what she wrote with you.

Pratt: A reflection after the Joplin disaster 06/03/11 - 10:37pm

All I remember about my visit to Joplin, Mo., is an amazing amount of green - trees and grass - all scarce in West Texas. I must have been around 11 years old. My dad had relatives in the area, members of his mother's family that we had never met. Grandmother was a proud McCracken. She had met my grandfather, Samuel Monroe Crawford, while on a visit to the Fort Worth area. By the time I was born, Grandmother's two sisters were living in Spokane, Wash., where my great-aunt, Carrie McCracken, was a nurse. She had assumed the lifetime care of Aunt Faun, who was deaf.

Donohue: Diet, paired with exercise, is best method for losing weight 06/04/11 - 9:44am

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am 73 and overweight. I’ve been overweight most of my life. My doctor insists that I lose weight, but he’s silent about how to do so. Can you tell me with a straight face that weight loss at my age is possible? If you say it is, how do I go about it — diet, exercise, liposuction? — H.M.