Bubba Hanks was the biggest kid in Mrs. Crabtree’s third-grade class. In fact, Bubba was the biggest kid in all of Mt. Olive Elementary school. Some say it was due to his fondness for Mrs. Wilma’s sticky buns. Wilma was the head lunch lady and for an extra nickel, you could get an extra sticky bun.

Bubba had a lot of nickels.

Others said Bubba’s largeness was because of a kidney infection in the first grade that put him in the hospital for a week and home in bed for three months. Which caused him to be held back a year. That meant an extra year of eating sticky buns. Read More»

For more than 30 years, political pundits have raised red flags about an “October surprise,” an unexpected announcement or event that blind-sides a political opponent or party just before the November election.

Google “October surprise” for a quick course in previous suspiciously timed disclosures or actions that seem to be aimed at maximum effect on the electorate. Note that both Democrats and Republicans have been accused of dropping October surprises onto the public plate. Read More»

In another country also called America, there were no credit cards and excessive debt was seen as a character flaw. In that America, my grandparents and their parents had discussions when they wanted to buy almost anything. The conversations focused on two questions: can we afford it and do we need it? If the answer to either question was “no,” they didn’t buy it.

So much of our personal and public debt in modern America comes from a refusal to ask these questions. We don’t need much of what we have and we certainly can’t afford it. But we buy it anyway. Read More»