The end of another era (05/03/08)
I taught my last class of the semester today (Friday) and next Friday, many of my students who came to campus two years ago not really knowing what to expect will be walking across the stage at True Hall to receive their diplomas and move on to either a career or the second stage of the higher education process. ...

Playing the hand we're dealt (04/26/08)
If someone would have told me twenty five years ago that, at this stage in my life, I would be single, living alone in an apartment, and teaching at a community college in McCook, Nebraska, I would have, at the worst, went looking for a gun, and at best, considered myself an abject failure...

Using the pejorative (04/19/08)
I was sitting with several friends over cocktails the other day, talking about one of two topics you should never talk about when alcohol is involved and that was politics. The other, of course, is religion. There were five of us sitting at the bar. ...

An inconvenient truth (04/12/08)
The title of today's column is also the title of Al Gore's documentary about global warming that, in very large part, won him the Nobel Prize this past year. In today's political climate, most Democrats support the idea of global warming, most Republicans don't. Some aren't sure. I'm not sure either. And I don't think anyone should be sure enough to use the word "truth" in a title about the idea of global warming...

What's wrong with this picture? (04/06/08)
I imagine most of you either read the front page story in last Sunday's edition of the Omaha World-Herald or have heard about it by now. It was about how births to unwed teens feed generations of poverty. It particularly focused on two black women, Samona Jones and her daughter, Keyana. ...

Abiding by the rules (03/29/08)
At the beginning of this presidential campaign year, the Democratic National Committee issued specific warnings for states to not front-load their primaries, desiring to keep Iowa and New Hampshire as the first primary states. The DNC felt so strongly about this that they included sanctions with the warning. ...

Nattering nabobs of negativism (03/22/08)
The title of today's column is a phrase coined by William Safire and given to Vice-President Spiro Agnew during the Nixon Administration to describe the press; the idea being that the press always looks at the negative and never at the positive. We continue to hear those same criticisms today, thirty five years later. Only today, it not only applies to journalists but to politicians as well...

Making promises they can't keep (03/15/08)
Several years ago, before I moved to McCook, I was the Executive Director of a temporary shelter for abused and neglected children in Arkansas. These were children who had either been removed from their homes or had run away from home and they would be placed with our agency until foster parents could be found for them...

A continued erosion of rights and freedoms (03/08/08)
Sometimes it's possible for Democrats and Republicans to share political common ground and this is one of those times. I share common ground with fellow Gazette columnist Dick Trail and some of the sentiments he expressed last week in his Saturday column; in particular, the smoking ban passed by the Unicameral...

People aren't for hitting (02/29/08)
I became involved in the prevention and elimination of domestic abuse eight years ago and twice a year, usually in March, and always in October because it's national domestic abuse month, I write about this horrible tragedy that goes on behind closed doors and drawn shades and blinds all across America. ...

Falling out of love (02/23/08)
Falling out of love politically, not romantically, that is. Regular readers of this column and my book know that when it comes to affairs of the heart, I'm a hopeless romantic. I fell in love with a woman eight years ago and I'll be in love with her eight years from now, or 18 years from now or however long I still have breaths to take or dreams to dream. So the title of today's column is not about personal romance, it's about political romance...

Thinking about different things (02/09/08)
Saturday presents Nebraska's Democrats with an opportunity to do something we don't get to do very often and that's to be a player in selecting the Democratic nominee for president. I jokingly told my students the other day that I and the other three registered Democrats in Red Willow County were going to meet in one of the broom closets down at the courthouse for our caucus. ...

I'm not sure there is a place called Hope any more (02/02/08)
Both former President Bill Clinton and current Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee are from Hope, Ark. One of Clinton's campaign themes when he was running for president was "I still believe in a place called Hope." I'm not sure I do anymore. Hope means possibility. ...

Pundits, politicians and predictions (01/26/08)
Many of the readers of this column don't particularly like it when I write about politics. In fact, a good friend of mine was lamenting to me just the other day about how we're inundated with presidential politics eleven full months before the election and how we're going to continue to be twenty-four, seven until the election in November...

Leaving the nest -- The final semester for some (01/12/08)
This is a melancholy time for parents and their children across the land. Many will be graduating in five short months from high school and will be embarking on a life filled with new challenges and expectations. It's especially melancholy for the parents. ...

Presidential politics and bad relationships (01/05/08)
Hillary got it handed to her in the Iowa caucuses Thursday night and the political prognosticators and pontificators are busy trying to figure out why. She has been the acknowledged front runner since she declared her candidacy and has enjoyed double-digit leads over her competitors since then. ...

Do actions speak louder than words? (12/29/07)
We often speak in terms of the "breadth and depth" of things. When we do that, we're in essence wondering or asking whether our behaviors match our words and/or our declarations. For example, one of the subjects I teach in my Introductory to Sociology class is a chapter on religion and one of the things we discuss is the breadth and depth of religious belief...

My proudest moment (12/22/07)
Watching my son, Michael, graduate from college with his B.A. from Arkansas Tech University was the proudest moment of my life. I'm a sentimental old fool anyway and I just couldn't hold back the tears when they announced his name. He had jumped through all the hoops and over all the hurdles on the way to accomplishing his goal and I was so proud of him and for him. He's going to be a teacher, just like his mom and dad...

We all lead multiple lives (12/15/07)
Erving Goffman called it "front stage-back stage" behavior and it means many different things. Sometimes we say different things to different people. For example, we might tell someone we love them and tell others we don't. Sometimes we say the same things to different people. ...

Getting rid of the static in our lives (12/08/07)
Wayne Dyer is a former college professor who became sort of a self-styled, self-defined self-actualization guru about 20 years ago and he's still going strong. He can often be seen on PBS and has written many books about how to take charge of your life and live it to the fullest. ...

Once a family, always a family (12/01/07)
I'll be traveling to Arkansas on Friday, Dec. 14, to celebrate my son Michael's birthday which will actually occur this Monday, Dec. 3, his graduation from college on Dec. 15, my son Will's birthday on Dec. 18, and, of course, Christmas. On top of that, Linda and I were married on December 22nd so December has always been a busy month for us. ...

Not there yet in Huskerland (11/24/07)
Many Husker fans felt four years ago that the hiring of Bill Callahan was ill-advised. Nebraska found itself in a strange and unusual situation. They had gone 40 days since the firing of Frank Solich, the day after beating Colorado in Boulder and finishing 9-3 in the regular season, and a 58-19 record overall. ...

Birthing a book isn't easy (11/17/07)
I wrote a column almost two months ago announcing the launch party for Morris Media, a new book production firm in McCook. Gene Morris, former publisher of the McCook Gazette, is the president of the firm, Barbara Morris is the vice president of operations and Gloria Masoner is the design director...

Why do people lie? (11/10/07)
If there was only one answer to the title of today's column and someone could determine it, then the problem could be fixed and the discoverer of the answer would become a very wealthy person in the process. Unfortunately, there isn't just one answer. In fact, there are a multitude of answers and I want to address just a few of them here...

17,999 really nice people and one who wasn't (11/02/07)
I hadn't been to Las Vegas in a few years so I was really looking forward to the trip. Especially since I wouldn't be traveling by train. I had also never had the pleasure of attending a Jimmy Buffet concert and, although I'm not a Parrothead, I really enjoy unique spectacles, regardless of who or what it involves. ...

The choices we make (10/27/07)
I was 14 years old and had just gotten my driver's permit. I had been waiting on this day for a long time. Since my birthday that year fell on the weekend, I had to wait until Monday to take the test. I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep a wink the night before and it seemed like Monday went on forever until school was finally out and my grandfather drove me to the county seat to take the test. ...

School is for fools (10/20/07)
I didn’t have to think very long about this week’s column title. It had been written on the board by someone when I walked into my classroom earlier this week. Unfortunately, it is an attitude that is becoming more and more pervasive in our younger generation. And it’s a shame...

It's all in your head (10/13/07)
Medical research has recently proven that "falling in love" is a process that can be measured in the brain. The brains of people in love aren't the same as the brains of people who aren't. That's why it's so difficult to talk to other people about your own love connections. Unless they're in exactly the same relationship place that you're in, it's like two people trying to communicate and neither understands the language being used by the other...

The fragility of life (10/06/07)
Our college family lost one of our own Wednesday night, once again underscoring the temporary, fragile nature of life. Kasey Jo Warner was struck by a vehicle and killed while she was out for a walk with her 3-year-old daughter. The man driving the vehicle was arrested at the scene for vehicular homicide and driving under the influence...

The Morris Media launch party (09/29/07)
This past Thursday evening saw Gene Morris, the former publisher of the McCook Gazette, launch his new company, Morris Media, along with the other principals in his organization that include his wife Barbara, Vice-President of Operations, and Gloria Masoner, Design Director. The gala took place at the Bieroc Café in McCook to a full house of invited guests...

Deadbeat dads and selfish moms (09/22/07)
In an old movie called "Divorce American Style," Dick Van Dyke was telling a friend of his that, in his divorce, his wife got the car and he got the payments, his wife got the house and he got the payments, his wife got the children and he got the payments, and his wife got the gold mine and he got the shaft...

Who betrayed whom? (09/15/07)
I know a guy who several years ago got caught up in a relationship with a friends' girlfriend. He and the other guy weren't best friends but they liked each other and socialized a lot together. In fact, there was a whole cadre of people who went places together, had parties together and generally enjoyed each others' company. Everyone in the group was married except the friend of the guy I know. He was divorced. The guy I know was married but wasn't living with his wife...

Sometimes you wonder (09/07/07)
Life is an incredible journey filled with ups and downs, highs and lows, agony and ecstasy and we never know what's going to happen next. I do my best to explain this to my sociology students every time we meet and yet, sometimes, I don't have the answers either...

So what is all the fuss about (09/01/07)
I've always been a bit mystified about the strong emotions that gambling elicits from people. People's response to it varies widely. Some see nothing wrong with it at all and actively participate in gaming ventures. Some believe others should be able to gamble if they choose to, even though they don't do it themselves. And then there are those who believe that gambling is an evil and terrible thing to do and don't think anyone should be able to gamble on anything ever...

Big boys don't cry ... or do they? (08/25/07)
I think I was 6 or 7 years old the first time I heard the statement in the first part of this week's column title. I wanted to go somewhere or do something and my mom told me I couldn't and I started crying. And as soon as the crying started, my mom said it...

What do you want to be? (08/18/07)
Both of my boys start college again this coming week, as young people are doing all over the country. Michael will be student teaching this fall, the final hurdle he has to jump before receiving his degree in Education in January. He's going to be a secondary school social studies teacher. Will switched from an English major to Broadcast Journalism this past spring and has another year to go before he finishes...

Some things you may not have heard (08/10/07)
One of the many great things about living in this time of unprecedented discovery and exploration are the new things we learn about literally every single day because of the unprecedented twenty-four hours a day, every-day news coverage. The world has certainly grown smaller since I was little. ...

The politics of discontent (08/04/07)
A recent New York Times poll reveals that only 38 percent of the American people view the Republican Party favorably while 56 percent view it unfavorably with the remainder undecided, while 52 percent view the Democratic Party favorably, 41 percent unfavorably, and the remainder undecided. ...

The amazing Mr. Bush (07/28/07)
The president's poll numbers reached an all-time low a couple of months ago and have stayed there. His approval rating continues to hover around 30 percent and his disapproval rating is at 65 percent, tying the highest disapproval rating for a sitting president since public opinion polling first started. The 30 percent approval rating is obviously made up of Bush loyalists who are going to support him, right or wrong...

A lot of people 'mess around' (07/21/07)
Whenever we hear the phrase, "mess around" as in "did you know that John's "messing around" on Julie, we naturally think about infidelity. "Messing around" has long been the euphemism society uses for having an affair. And certainly it continues to apply. But there are lots more ways to "mess around" on your spouse than keeping company with another person...

A great weekend in Curtis (07/14/07)
I had the pleasure of playing in one of the best-run golf tournaments I've ever participated in at Arrowhead Meadows golf course in Curtis last weekend. Although it was oppressively hot with high temperatures soaring over 100 degrees both days, the hospitality and friendliness of the people involved made the heat a lot more bearable...

Marriage, divorce and romance (07/07/07)
Many cultures don't use romantic love as a reason for marriage; they opt for more practical considerations like dowries, economics, professions and occupations. But in America, for the most part, we don't do that. We base our entire future on feelings that cannot be measured or quantified. We get married because we've fallen in love...

The rest of the story (06/30/07)
I'm writing this column from Russellville, Ark., where I've spent the past week with my two boys, Michael and Will. I always enjoy the time I spend with them and this time was no different. We've had a great week together. I drove down to Lincoln last Saturday to meet up with friends at the Embassy Suites Hotel, attend the hotels' famous Manager's Reception happy hour, and then my friends and I walked down to P Street to hear The Tijuana Gigolos, followed by Coca Montoya, two great bands performing back to back at the conclusion of Celebrate Lincoln weekend. ...

The travail of train travel (06/23/07)
Coach Daryl Bonow, Jim and Carol Lemon and I were scheduled to leave McCook last Wednesday night/ Thursday morning at 3:45 but didn't pull out of the station until after 6 a.m. because the train was almost two and a half hours late arriving. We were due to arrive in Reno, Nevada at 9:35 Friday morning but didn't get there until four o'clock in the afternoon, almost seven hours late...

Depression isn't just a state of mind (06/16/07)
I found out late this afternoon (Monday) that my next door neighbor committed suicide sometime between late last night and early this afternoon. As tragic as that is, what made it even worse for me was that I was evidently in my apartment when it happened. I heard people banging on his door repeatedly earlier this afternoon and then, in desperation crying out, "If you don't open the door in ten seconds, we're coming in."...

A wild time in Denver: Part two (06/09/07)
I ended last week's column explaining how Norm and I almost got trapped in a parking garage in downtown Denver after the Rockies-Cardinals baseball game. Fortunately we escaped and headed west to find a room for the night and a good meal before we went to Red Rocks for the Chris Isaak-Stevie Nicks concert. We found a place to hang our hats just a few miles east of Red Rocks in a conclave recessed from the thoroughfare that also included the Lone Star Steakhouse and a Village Inn restaurant...

A wild time in Denver (06/02/07)
Norm (The McCook Chef) and I spent a pretty fascinating twenty-four hours in Denver on Memorial Day. We left here at seven in the morning in the T-Bird and arrived downtown at 10 Mountain time. We parked the car in a parking garage and walked down to the Delectable Egg, maybe the best breakfast place in town. It was full as it always is and we had to wait 15 minutes or so to get a table. Every town I've eaten breakfast in offers the classic Denver omelet but the Delectable Egg doesn't...

Where are we headed? (05/25/07)
I was playing golf this past Thursday with Jim Lemon, a good friend of mine and, as we were preparing to tee off on the second hole at Heritage Hills, a head popped up a couple of hundred yards down our target line and motioned for us to go ahead and hit. ...

Trips, visits, music and musings (05/19/07)
Since I opted not to teach summer school this year, this past Wednesday was my last work day until the middle of August. I'm going to fill up my leisure time with as much fun as possible, hopefully allowing me to recharge my batteries in time to engage new and returning students when college resumes in the Fall...

Dr. Gene Budig, McCook native extraordinaire (05/12/07)
What a heritage McCook has in producing outstanding, gifted, and talented citizens. You all know about our rich political heritage and the tremendous leaders this small close-knit community has sired. We had the privilege of meeting yet another one yesterday at the MCC graduation ceremonies...

The end of an era (05/05/07)
For teachers and professors, every May is the end of an era because the graduates move on, to be replaced by a new crop of freshmen in the fall. It is just as certain as the changing of the seasons. Some of them hold great promise for the future, others you can only hope one day find their way...

The more I learn, the less I know (04/28/07)
I intended to respond to the column written in this newspaper last week by another columnist in regards to the "character" of customers who patronize Old Sarge's as opposed to customers at The Looking Glass and the Coppermill. But several others beat me to the punch and said it better than I could have; namely David McConnell, Jordan Bass, Kirt Matson, and Gloria Masoner...

What do we tell our friends? (04/21/07)
I was having a very animated conversation the other day with a couple of buddies about what you tell your friends or whether you tell them anything when you know things they ought to know but don't know. There was one guy who said you should, one who said you shouldn't and one in the middle. The topic could have been about a million different things but it wasn't. It was one thing...

The unfairness of injustice (04/14/07)
My ex and I shared a lot of things in common, but one of the biggest was our dislike of injustice. We didn't like it in real life and we didn't like it in fiction either. We wouldn't go see movies if we knew ahead of time that injustice was a part of the story line. We never watched the television show, "The Fugitive," nor did we see the movie either because we didn't like for good people and innocent people to be falsely accused...

The changing face of journalism (04/07/07)
I had four different majors as an undergraduate and three more in graduate school before I finally discovered and fell in love with Sociology and made it my life's work. But my very first major, as a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Arkansas, was journalism. ...

The way things would have been (03/31/07)
One of the great disappointments in life is when things don't work out the way we think they should. Perhaps there is no single situation where this is magnified more than in the love relationships we enter into. Those people who have strong egos and self-concepts firmly believe they are the captains of their own ships and the sole deciders of their own fate and, consequently, suffer more than others when they find out they're not. ...

How some people fall in love (03/24/07)
I met the mother of my children almost 34 years ago in a nightclub in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I had resigned from the police department to finish my college degree and was living in a singles-only apartment complex called Spanish Gardens which, at the time, was the hottest property in the city. The waiting list to move in there was two years long and it was only because of connections I had developed as a police officer that allowed me to jump ahead of several hundred who were already on the list...

The legacy we leave (03/17/07)
We are what we learn and we begin learning when we're still in the crib. We pattern our attitude and our behaviors after those people most important in our lives, usually our parents and close relatives. If they are good role models, we're at least pointed in the right direction. If they're not, then we already have a couple of strikes against us before we even begin. Boys tend to look up to their fathers and other male relatives; girls, their mothers and other female relatives...

Playing the race card (03/10/07)
I was involved in a process this past week that left me saddened and concerned. I can't report the details of my experience because of the confidential nature of the proceedings but I can report some overarching perspectives that were painfully obvious...

How things have changed (03/03/07)
Older people used to be held in much higher esteem than they are today. We used to look up to them because of the things they had experienced in their lives. We knew they knew so much more about life than we did and we were anxious to learn. I learned so much from my family when I was young and growing up in Arkansas, especially my Uncle Bill. ...

Orban legends are alive and well (02/24/07)
Practically everyone who owns or has access to a computer have received urgent email messages advising us either of some great "scam" being worked on the public and telling us what to do to avoid it OR telling us how we can make some quick easy money with little effort required on our part at all...

Freedom to be a fool (02/17/07)
Friday should have been a solemn day for the people of McCook. Sgt. Randy Matheny was memorialized at the City Memorial Auditorium for having lost his life in the service of his country. Unfortunately and tragically, this memorial was upstaged and overshadowed by the antics of four fools and demagogues in the persons of Pastor Fred Phelps and three others, coming to McCook from their home in Topeka, Kan., where he is the pastor and leader of the independent Westboro Baptist Church...

An 'out of this world' affair (02/10/07)
It was a nice short civil council meeting last Monday. Although the agenda was short one item will have a lasting impact in the way the City does business. The change will impact how the city staff spends our taxes. The City Ordinance governs how much money the City Manager can spend without going through the process of bidding. The threshold will be $20,000 if the ordinance receives two more YES votes from the Council...

The depths of depression (02/03/07)
I have a good friend who talks to me often about losing the love of his life. I listen because that's what friends do. I wanted to share his story with my readers because I know some of you are in or have been in a similar situation.   It's been sometime now since she left. His heart was broken and his life was shattered, he says, sometimes to the point that it was a chore to just make it through the day...

For those who don't like politics (01/27/07)

Different points of view (01/20/07)
After my column about Attorney General Jon Bruning's crime package was published last Saturday, I had a voice mail on Monday from his Chief of Staff, requesting that I return her phone call so we could "discuss" what I had written in that column. I returned the phone call immediately, but got her voice mail. I identified myself, told her I was returning her call and that I would be happy to discuss my column with her if she still had an interest in doing so. She never returned my call...

Another attempt to legislate morality (01/13/07)
Jon Bruning, our politically ambitious Attorney General, has recommended, as a part of his Crime Control package, that the legislature make sending sexually explicit pictures, words, videos, etc, thorough email to ANYONE a crime. The proposal, currently identified as Legislative Bill 142 and introduced by Senator Mike Friend of Omaha, would define the above mentioned behavior as a misdemeanor if all parties involved are adults. ...

Irish Cream and a view from the balcony (01/06/07)
As I write this column at 9:30 on Friday morning, the day before publication, it's snowing again. This is the third Friday in a row we've had frozen precipitation. Two weeks ago, the precipitation was in the form of freezing rain, which no one wants. Even though the trees looked beautiful as they were encased in ice, the beauty was deceiving because of the damage being done...

A columnist's biography (12/30/06)
I've been writing this column for the McCook Daily Gazette for eight years now and it occurred to me that many of you don't know anything about me, other than what I write about on this page once a week. So as we begin yet another new year, I thought it would be appropriate to fill in some of the gaps about who I am and what I've done to get to this time in my life...

There's no magic bullet when it comes to love (12/23/06)
It's hard to open up any kind of magazine anymore without finding "points" or "tips" or "lists" about what you should do to have a happy, long-term relationship with the one you love. It's everywhere on the internet as well. MSN.com has some kind of list about love and relationships practically every day. ...

The thing about women ... (12/16/06)
The thing about women is that men don't understand them. At all. We want to. We wish we did. But we don't. I've always told my students that they're as smart as they're ever going to get because one of the truths in life is that the older you get, the more ignorant you realize you are. ...

Lots of things going on (12/09/06)
One of the great things about going on trips is that you get to meet new people. My son Michael and I met up in Kansas City last weekend for the Nebraska-Oklahoma football game that would determine the winner of the Big 12 Conference. Michael's mom and my son, Will, had already made plans to go to Kansas City on Saturday to see Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band so Michael rode along with them...

The experts aren't always right (12/02/06)
One of my favorite television channels to watch is the National Geographic Channel because truth is so often stranger than fiction. In fact, fiction writers would be hard-pressed to come up with some of the things that actually happen in the real world every day...

A not-so-thankful Thanksgiving (11/25/06)
Thanksgiving will never be the way it used to be for my family before Thanksgiving of 2001. Our oldest son, Brandon, was serving in the Navy and was stationed in San Diego, California. He had his own apartment overlooking the beach, new stereo equipment and a new television, and was only two months away from being a civilian again. ...

A sad story from Douglas County (11/18/06)
The criminal justice system in this country has always been an oxymoron. Bail is economically discriminatory. Justice is often determined not by guilt or innocence but by the skill or lack thereof of one's attorney, which is often directly connected to the fee he or she charges. ...

What goes around, comes around (11/11/06)
I came straight home from teaching Tuesday afternoon to get everything in order for the election results that would be flashing across my computer in just a matter of hours. I had specially designed an election page on CNN.com to give me detailed results for the races I had a particular interest in, as well as general results for all the races. ...

Lighting someone's fire (11/04/06)
There's a new book out this week, put together by Martin Parr. It's called "Bored Couples." It is a collection of photos taken all over the world of couples out in public together who appear, based on their obvious lack of interest in the other person, that they would rather be anywhere other than where they are, doing anything other than what they're doing and being with anyone, other than who they're with...

Gridlock is good (10/28/06)
Based on letters and emails I receive, many readers of this column and most female readers tell me their least favorite columns are the ones I write about politics. I think there are a couple of reasons for that. Except for political junkies, most people just aren't that interested in politics. ...

Domestic Violence Awareness Month (10/21/06)
There is a small baby crying in the background as the little girl is connected to 9-1-1. She can barely get the words out between her own sobs. "Please help us," she cries, "My daddy is beating up my mommy."   This was an actual 9-1-1 call played to my domestic violence class at the college this past week by Tara Gross from the Domestic Abuse/Sexual Assault Services located in McCook. ...

Sometimes we forget (10/14/06)
I mentioned in this space a couple of weeks ago how important peoples' "special" days are and how we should make every effort to remember them. I had one of those special days myself last Saturday. Another year has come and gone in my life and another birthday had to be confronted. I use the word "confront" because birthdays are different than they used to be...

No party has a lock on morals (10/07/06)
It's always amazing how we react differently to things when the shoe is on the other foot. Everyone remembers the Republican Party's "outrage" over the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky sex scandal that led to him being impeached by the Republican-led House of Representatives...

An anniversary celebration (09/30/06)
I've always put a lot of stock in peoples' special days. I do that, I guess, because I put a lot of stock in my own. It always makes my heart feel good when people close to me remember my important days and, because they do, I try and always remember theirs too...

We believe what we believe (09/23/06)
Last Saturday's Nebraska game at USC has sparked a fairly significant debate ar-ound the state and its ramifications impact not only on the game itself, but in the way we live our lives with others in this other great game that is being played out every minute of every day. The game of life...

Nothing wrong with being obsessive (09/16/06)
"Obsession" has gotten a bad rap over the years because it's almost always discussed in a negative way. However, the dictionary definition of obsession doesn't carry a negative connotation. It defines obsession as "the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, person, etc." The condition of "being or acting obsessive" is perceived negatively by many people primarily because of the psychological definitions and implications of obsession, as in "obsessive and compulsive personality disorder." So most people when talking about it, talk about it from the psychological perspective rather than the definitional perspective.. ...

Secrets of column writing (09/09/06)
I've been asked many times by many different people how I decide what I'm going to write about, how I develop a title, and how I actually write the column, so I'm going to talk about those things in today's column. But today's column isn't going to be about journalism, even though that was my initial major in college, nor is it going to be about technical writing. Like most of my columns, this column is going to be about life...

Our dirty little secret (09/02/06)
"Lying in the hospital was a woman whose face was so swollen that it was barely recognizable. Her eyes were blackened, her nose was swollen twice its normal size, and her lips were grotesque. It would be years after this particular incident before the woman could bring herself to testify against her abusive husband in court for the years of battering she had endured. ...

You can't handle the truth (08/26/06)
The title of today's column is a line spoken by Jack Nicholson in the movie, "A Few Good Men." For most people in today's world, I think the line is wrong. I don't think it's nearly so much that people can't handle the truth but rather people being afraid to tell the truth...

A perfect end to a great summer (08/19/06)
As readers of this column know, I made my maiden trip to the Sturgis Bike Rally last week with Tim Shannon, Con Fielding, and Dennis Youngs. It was an experience I'll never forget but I'm not sure yet whether I'll repeat it or not. Imagine a half million people congregating in and around a town with a population of 6,000. ...

A hometown boy does good (08/11/06)
Culbertson's all-star everything, Ben Eisenhart, finally got what he deserved this past weekend: an athletic scholarship to play football at the University of Nebraska. Something we often forget when we watch athletics at any level are the stories that every player has. ...

OK, so I lied! (08/05/06)
Well, it wasn't really a lie. I just forgot. I wrote in this space last week that I was through taking trips for a while because some of them haven't turned out so well. When I wrote that, I had forgotten that I had tickets to see Michael McDonald and Steely Dan perform at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado this past Monday...

Another good trip gone bad (07/29/06)
I don't think I'll take any more trips for a while. I've lost my lucky charm and I haven't had a good trip since. The last disaster occurred this past Wednesday. Interestingly enough, it was a trip I was really looking forward to. About a month ago, five of us decided to take Amtrak to Denver on a one-day outing to watch a major league baseball game. ...

The adventure in Arkansas (07/22/06)
Well, let's face it. It seems like anything I do anymore turns out to be an adventure. My buddy, Phil, down at Old Sarge's Bar, laughingly told me last week to remind him not to ever go on an outing with me after reading my column about the Denver trip...

Don't throw the wrong stuff away (07/15/06)
Conventional wisdom says we shouldn't live in the past. We shouldn't hold on to things we don't have anymore. Let bygones be bygones. Get on with your life. Yesterday's memories are today's heartaches and heartbreaks. The list of clichés goes on and on. I don't believe any of them and I'll tell you why...

The Denver experience (07/08/06)
I mentioned in this column a few weeks ago about the two- day journey to Chicago and St. Louis some of us will be making in September to watch baseball games in both cities. Jim Hagert will be piloting us there and as we were talking about this particular trip, he asked if I would be interested in flying to Denver or Kansas City on some weekend he didn't have to work. I quickly agreed and that opportunity came a couple of weeks ago...

The sweet taste of revenge (07/01/06)
Revenge consists essentially of retaliation against a person or persons in response to a perceived wrongdoing. It is often connected to the concept of justice. The vengeful wish consists of forcing the wrongdoer to suffer the same pain they inflicted in the first place, or making sure that the wrongdoer doesn't inflict injury on anyone in the future...

A controversial court decision (06/24/06)
Last week, the "new" United States Supreme Court, with recently appointed conservative judges Alito and Roberts, overturned a centuries-old legal precedent that protected home privacy and the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches...

Should we have an official language? (06/17/06)
This is the newest debate raging between liberals and conservatives across America and, in this debate, I have to weigh in on the conservative side, although I have never really seen it as a conservative/liberal issue. What would it mean if English became our official language? It simply means that all government documents would be printed in English, which should make sense to most people. ...

Rationalizations and compartmentalization (06/10/06)
Rationalizing is defined as devising self-satisfying but incorrect reasons for one's behavior and many people have become self-defined experts in doing so. It has become an integral part of their lives. Jeff Goldblum said in the movie, "The Big Chill" that rationalizations are more important than sex because we can go days without sex but it's hard to go even hours without a rationalization...

Dictators and police states (06/03/06)
I watched two fascinating documentaries the other night that ran back to back on The National Geographic Channel about Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich. Both shows broke new ground and presented information I had not seen or heard before, including taped conversations Hitler never knew existed...