Straight From The Hart

I’ve lived in Laclede County all my life, going on 71 years now, so I can appreciate how spoiled we are  with regard to having what we consider the necessities of life.  We turn on the faucet to release the cleanest and best tasting water in the state, more than we need to  drink and bathe and even water our gardens and flower beds. We flip a switch and cool our homes in the summer and heat them in the winter, and except for the occasional lightning strike or squirrel running over the power lines, at the touch of our finger we have enough power for a house full of television sets, computers, telephones, kitchen and bathroom appliances. But there may be danger over the horizon as our power grids and water supplies become more vulnerable to threats of terrorism or even environmental upsets.   We have experienced several harbingers throughout the nation just recently, and James Woolsey, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, described the US ...

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a packet in the mail recently from Dee Wampler, Springfield attorney, talk radio host and author. It contained his most recent book “Standing On The Front Line”. Dee was my first political mentor back in the 70’s and has remained a good friend all these years. I never dreamed that I would need his newest book for research so soon, but then I heard the President’s pronouncement this week giving credit to the Muslims for their contributions to “building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy”, and I had to respond in some fashion. So let me get this straight. A few months ago he pointed his finger and lashed out at American entrepreneurs, telling them “You didn’t build that!” even though they invested many years of labor and thousands of their own dollars and assumed tremendous risk to build a business. Now he is giving credit to Muslims for building America? For strengthening the core of democracy? The Mus...

 If you are a news hound like I am, you probably see or hear at least one news report a day which makes your head spin and leaves you saying "what in the world were they thinking?" My column this week details several such recent stories.  Perhaps they make sense to you.  They certainly do not make sense to me.  Most of these stories would start with me saying, "Now let me get this straight"....even while I know there is no way there could be  a reasonable explanation for someone's words or actions. First off would be a statement by Terry O'Neill, President of the National Organization For Women, an organization notorious for its aggressive pro-abortion stance.  In an editorial she wrote for the Huffington Post this week she said "From a public health point of view, abortion care, no less than contraception, is an essential measure to prevent the heartbreak of infant mortality. In other words, American women need direct access to  abortions so they...

I’ve been watching the news coverage of Hamas missiles attacking Israel for the last several days.  The chilling wailing of the air-raid sirens reminds me to pray for the Israelis and their leaders every time I hear them go off. I support Israel in its defense efforts and I’m  thankful for the Iron Dome that Israel has put in place but  regret that we were never able to get its counterpart in our own country where we are vulnerable and in the hands of more of our allies when we had the capability and a president with the desire to do so. I  served as Laclede County chairman for the Reagan campaigns in the 80’s, and  in that context, one of Lt. Gen. Daniel Graham’s associates in the High Frontier organization approached me about becoming a part of the National Speakers’ Bureau for the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as the SDI. At that time, the defense policy of the United States consisted of the  Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine, approp...

Lebanon High School Alumni (Lebanon, MO)

CONFESSIONS OF A LINGUAPHILE There’s nothing more diverse than people The things they cherish, that turn them on The things they collect and want to “keeple” Their treasure stashed when day is done. Some like their cars, matchbox or antique Old and battered or shiny and sleek. They polish and buff them then drive them around Taking pleasure in gear shift and motors that sound. Some delight in dishes, with patterns that match And vases and pitchers, or just one of a batch. Some collect ducks, or elephants, or pigs Some look for paintings to enhance their “digs”. But for me, I love words, How they sound, how they rhyme, How they roll off my tongue, Absolutely sublime. Like abstruse and duende, oppugn, fancify, Prodigious and resile, cachinnate,and belie, Vademecum and bedizen, coterminous too Fugacious, inexorable, and then derring-do. I could go on forever for there’s no stopping place, Tapetum is a bright spot on a cat’s pretty face. I’m a logolept and pro...

Can you imagine what would happen if one thousand children ranging in age from toddlers in diapers to young teenagers  were dumped out on the corner of Commercial and Jefferson some night and abandoned with no adult supervision? This has become a real life situation for many American cities on the southern border of the country over the past several weeks.  Almost 50,000  unaccompanied children of all ages have been picked up in Texas alone since October, some as young as 3 years of age. This “humanitarian crisis” as the White House refers to it, has come about as a result of a program put into effect by President Obama in June 2012 called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which allowed minors coming into the U.S. to escape deportation for 2 years, and another two year window was opened up last week. So from all over Central America, especially Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, children are coming through Mexico and into the U.S.  Parents are...