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The high cost of “free.”

As a good friend of mine, a volunteer football coach and altogether good guy said Wednesday afternoon, “Paul, when you married Lee you out-punted your coverage.” For those of you who aren’t football fans, suffice to say, that was the highest compliment he could pay my wife. And he’s right. I married a wonderful woman. For all of my guy friends who complain about how much their wives spend, my problem with my wife is...

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Take a number and we’ll call you when your cancer is Stage 4.

Sometimes these pieces just write themselves. My experience of last Friday is an example. In the movie “Baby Boom”, a seriously overwrought Diane Keaton pours out her heart to a man she believes to be a doctor, disclosing among other things her deepest fears, her precarious financial situation and her lack of recent sexual release, only to find out that the “doctor” she’s talking to is a veterinarian. You quickly appreciate from Ms. Keaton’s experience...

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The Cautionary Tale of the Once Golden State

This is a cautionary tale about a beautiful state in our beautiful country. When God was making the world, he saved his very best work for that part of it that we now call California. California, if it stood alone, would be one of the most envied countries in the world. It’s natural wealth is staggering. California has abundant water from the Sacramento River that flows from the Cascades and the San Joaquin River that...

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Put the doughnut down and step away, sir!

Not far from my house is Mustang Doughnuts, home of the best glazed doughnuts I have ever had. And if you leave the house when I do, when the little hand is still on the five, the doughnuts are fresh and warm and without question one of the most amazing indulgences of the flesh available without a prescription. I have no business eating doughnuts. There’s no defending them. They are trans-fat-laden cholesterol bombs that raise...

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Not paying the bill isn’t the same as controlling cost.

With the summer being so hot if you’re not happy with your electric bill, I have an idea that will dramatically lower your cost. When you get your July bill, just don’t pay it. Or, just pay what you feel comfortable paying. That way, you can tell your spouse that you have significantly lowered your home cooling cost for July. You’ll be a hero. For a little while. Of course, you won’t be such a...

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Democrats to Jacko: “Thanks for covering for us.”

With respect to the Michael Jackson story, the Drudge Report the other day had the best headline. It read, “Michael Jackson: Never Can Say Goodbye.” I really feel like our celebrity-obsession crossed some line in the past two weeks and I believe Bernard Goldberg when he says we have become the ‘United States of Entertainment.’ And while we were all absorbed with the never-ending news coverage and retrospectives and downloading ‘Thriller’ to our iPods, Congress...

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The brightest stars burn out first.

The ancient Greeks called the sun, the star closest to the Earth, Helios. They thought the sun was a god. There was a time when we called the biggest of our celebrities stars, and thought of them as gods. The sun-as-god, celebrity-as-god parallel is closer than you think. Let’s explore it. Let’s start with the first of two stars to burn out yesterday. Farah Fawcett was the smaller of the two that we lost but...

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Live healthy, pay less.

President Obama has stated that his number one domestic agenda priority is a radical overhaul of our health care system. The various proposals being discussed are projected to cost well in excess of $1 trillion over the next ten years. It should be obvious that we can’t afford such “reform.” But the debate over costs misses what I think is a very important point. If you listen to KTBB at all, you hear segments we...

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Forget about health care costs. What about college?

If you just had a child graduate high school and are now 11 weeks away from the start of college, turn off the radio. You’re not going to like this. I was recently given a tour of the brand new facilities at a major university. I’m not going to say which one because you die-hard alums that flock your Christmas trees the same color as your alma mater’s  football jerseys will bombard me with your...

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Government Motors: No way to run a railroad.

How do you feel about Barack Obama effectively being the chief executive officer of General Motors and voting 60 percent of the stock? I hate it. I wonder what Milton Friedman would say. Milton Friedman was a celebrated economist whose views on taxation, monetary policy and business regulation informed the likes of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Mr. Friedman was in Asia and was taken to a job site where workers were digging a canal....

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How is her experience more rich than yours?

President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court said in a speech in 2001 the following: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Hasn’t lived what life? Do you have to be female and Hispanic in 2009 in order to be authentic? Does that mean that male and black no longer...

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Graduates: Be selfish and serve mankind.

It’s graduation season and that means commencement addresses. Recently President Obama spoke at the commencements of Arizona State University and the University of Notre Dame. All across the country, distinguished alumni and other major and minor luminaries are speaking to the Class of 2009. A common theme in commencement addresses is that graduates, armed with degrees that frequently cost more than all but the very nicest homes, must leave college and go forth to serve...