Here’s to your health

August 16th, 2012

Essentials for better physical & financial health

By KEITH WOMMACK

How often do you better your health and save money at the same time? I know. Never.

Yet, through some health care plans, it seems possible. Some plans include unique programs that will reward you for taking meaningful actions toward enhancing health.

Within good-health-behavior reward plans, an individual can …

a little levity

August 9th, 2012

Of saws, electricians and others things musical

By STEVE LANG

“If all the world’s a stage, where does the audience sit?” – Anonymous

I am not a music critic, except of my own.

However, I consider the recent Viva Big Bend music festival a lights-out good time. From saw to banjo, mandolin to fiddle, harmonicas to keyboards, …

¡ask a mexican!

August 9th, 2012

Why not just shout “¡Otra!”

By GUSTAVO ARELLANO

Dear Mexican: So often when we see Mexican bands perform in the U.S. and Mexico, the crowd at some point starts chanting a profane word for “butt.” Why does the crowd yell this word at a band that they seemingly adore and paid a lot of money to see …

Star Gazer

August 9th, 2012

Perseid meteor shower peaks on Sunday

By PAUL DERRICK

It’s time once again for the popular Perseid meteor shower, and this year we might get two nights of increased meteor activity. The shower is predicted to peak the morning of August 12, thus there could be increased meteor activity the nights of August 11/12 and 12/13.

The best …

The Idle American

August 9th, 2012

Where eyes still widen

By Dr. Don Newbury

Back in the 1930s, a Lions Club–two hours by train from Dallas–faced a dwindling membership, largely because one of its members was so obsessed with “Big D” that he spoke of little else. Lions grew weary of his ramblings.

Upon learning that the old geezer had never even been 50 …

Here’s to your health

August 9th, 2012

Is spiritual-based healing weird?

By KEITH WOMMACK

While in a meeting, a newspaper editor, after learning that I practiced spiritual-based healing, said, “Since Christian Science is weird, it … ”

The editor stopped mid-sentence, looked at me, and said, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say weird. I’m so sorry.”

After the editor apologized several more times, …

¡ask a mexican!

August 4th, 2012

The red, white, and green

By Gustavo Arellano

Dear Mexican: I’m a Mexican-American high school student, and just as patriotic as the Joneses who live next to me. In my neighborhood, a gabacho got mad when someone hung a Mexican flag and ended up cutting it down. I think this whole idea of putting one’s flag up …

The Idle American

August 4th, 2012

When gold finishes third

By Dr. Don Newbury

Three centuries ago, poet Alexander Pope penned that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” If this be true, Americans are trapped squarely in the jaws of danger. We’re in an election year when hundreds of millions of media dollars are spent to provide the electorate with boatloads of …

A little levity

August 4th, 2012

Flashing and flirting with fleeting fame

By STEVE LANG

“In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” – Andy Warhol

The longer one lives, the fewer the degrees of separation exist between the celebrating and the celebrated.

These days, contact with the rich and famous looms as close as the camera lens on a Blackberry or iPhone.

And …

Ever Vigilant

August 4th, 2012

Second Amendment, for now

By Joan R. Neubauer

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.—2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In 2006, the U.N. Small Arms Treaty reared its ugly head, ostensibly to prevent the export of small …