People don’t visit Route 66 to change America; they come to be changed by it. Janice Mollet doesn’t know how many people come through the restored Valentine Diner at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. But her friend and fellow museum volunteer Sharon Brown pointed to a box of hundreds of push pins sitting...
Roscoe Filburn owned a wheat farm in rural Montgomery County, Ohio. When he used his own farm to feed his own family, he fell under the hammer of the federal government. It was 1938, and America was in the throes of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Agricultural commodity prices—and specifically, wheat prices—fluctuated wildly,...
This Fourth of July weekend we will celebrate the 249th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with fireworks and all the usual fanfare. As Texans, we should also take a moment to celebrate Spain’s big win in 1776, picking the American side in the war with England. Everyone knows France played a...
Monday was National Social Media Day. This is one of those random days you’re supposed to celebrate like National Hamburger Day (May 28) or National Dog Day (August 26). That might have been the case 15 years ago when National Social Media Day was created by online tech news outlet Mashable, but today you rarely...
Native Americans have their own fable that corresponds to the West’s “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” In their cosmology, they’re not worried about the wolf, so much; as author Tony Hillerman points out, “some Native American tribal beliefs cautioned against a human in wolf’s clothing.” The principle is the same, however, and it applies to the...
She said what we’ve all known deep down: The best workplaces run on trust and clarity, not surveillance and seminars. Jennifer Sey struck a nerve when she declared that her company, XX-XY Athletics, operates without an HR department. “They produce nothing,” Sey said at Freedom Fest earlier this month. “They monitor our words. They tell...
Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. There is absolutely no debate that President Donald J. Trump is a world-class winner this week. Here’s the list: WINNER: Trump Should Get the Nobel Peace Prize American presidents have been trying to...
Most people understand that you shouldn’t spend more than you make. But many independent school districts (ISDs) don’t seem to have gotten the message. Over the last few weeks, numerous ISDs have been observed adopting deficit budgets. For those not well-versed, deficit budgeting “occurs when government expenses exceed revenue.” As you might imagine, there are...
Here they come. The ink from Governor Abbott’s pen is hardly dry on Texas’ $10 billion tax cut and local governments are already scheming to steal your share of that tax cut. For example, Fort Bend ISD just approved a 7-cent property tax rate increase, which district leaders brazenly justify by saying that, well, they’re not going to...
When a citizen goes beyond the call of duty, he’s a hero. When a government goes beyond the call of duty, it’s overreach—and, unfortunately, some municipalities, like the city of College Station, seem to have made a bad habit of it. As was revealed in a Senate Committee meeting earlier this year, College Station city...
An influential Texas Senator took to X recently to ask the following question: “How much money is dedicated in the [2026-27] State of Texas Budget for Property Tax Relief, really?” The answer: appropriators set aside more than $10 billion this session for property tax relief purposes, which is one of the largest reductions in recent...
Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. As the whole world watches to see President Donald Trump’s next step regarding Iran, here’s who made the list: WINNER: President Trump’s Birthday Week All but the totally deranged can see the...