Benjamin Franklin was right about death and taxes, but new taxes only become inevitable when a Democrat is elected president, and here we are.

STARKVILLE — Randall Scott Parker is finally, mercifully at peace and a family circle violently broken 31 years ago is once again unbroken.

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow.”

I had a very long, storied, and notorious college career but I ended up right back where I was born, in Hattiesburg as a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. I started my freshman year at Mississippi State University way back in 1979.

“Many automakers have detailed plans to electrify large portions of their fleets over the next decade, with some announcing goals for fully electrified lineups within five years,” reports Consumer Reports.

Before the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, Mississippians wanting to visit their state Capitol could come and go as they pleased through multiple entrances, facing no security checks or metal detectors.

Look for it.

On Sept. 11, 1940, Winston Churchill gave a broadcast about the “Blitz,” the brutal nightly bombing of London, England.

STARKVILLE — This weekend, I completed my 10-day Covid-19 Delta Variant quarantine period. My wife and I both were diagnosed with so-called “breakthrough cases” of the virus.

On that day 20 years ago this week, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war on Pentagon bureaucracy, saying that it was a threat to national security and “a matter of life and death.” A day later, the nation’s security would be breached and there would be a new threat that truly w…

It was a recent Saturday night in August – a second Saturday in August to be exact when Hubs and I needed something fun, an outlet. That's when our friends, Lanny and Sarah, mentioned bluegrass music.

The numbers showed 2,469 of the 2,510 Mississippians who died of Covid between January 1 and August 4, 2021, had not been vaccinated. That’s 98%.

A few years ago, many in the state argued that the enactment of Common Core national education standards would result in the ruin of Mississippi’s public education system.

The air seems to be super-charged when a tropical system enters the Gulf.

STARKVILLE — University of Southern Mississippi Professor Emeritus James Crockett, now an adjunct professor of accountancy at the University of Mississippi, perhaps enjoyed a bit of serendipity in bringing his latest book to market in the same year that the entire nation witnessed a Mississ…

After a COVID-19 break, the annual Rose Hill Cemetery Tour returns on Saturday, Sept. 25, from 7-9 p.m, at 631 40th Avenue (across from Calvary Baptist Church, off Eighth Street)

An educated guess: Joe Biden is not doing what every first-year president starts doing around Day 200 of his presidency: running for reelection. After the two weeks he has just endured, he is doing the thing presidents don't do until their last months: running for history.

As many Mississippians ignore, discredit, and denigrate science, the darn rascal keeps having more and more beneficial impact on our lives.

The tragic events of recent days have captured the world’s attention. I think in some ways the stench of evil pouring through my television set as I watch the evening news causes me to see what is always there lurking in the shadows.

Once, at a Canton Flea Market, I tripped on a broken sidewalk and crashed face-down on a crowded pathway. Almost immediately, two Catholic ladies came to my rescue, lifted me up, and ushered me inside their church.

HOMER, Alaska — Leilani and I journeyed to the AK Diamond J Ranch near Homer, Alaska on Kachemak Bay on the southwest side of the Kenai Peninsula for the wedding of Rachel Klimetz to Jimmy Wingerter on August 19 – and it was worth every moment of travel to “The Last Frontier.”

During the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic, my brother and I congratulated each other that we had little to fear. Descended from hardy Irish peasants who lived in dirt-floored hovels among farm animals, we’d inherited sturdy immune systems and pretty much never get sick.

Not all strangers are bad omens but this one was.

Many years ago, a situation occurred that made me feel very small and insignificant.

There's a fascinating question in a new Fox News poll that suggests the political dynamics at work in 2022 and 2024 will be far different from 2020. If that is the case, it is good news for Republicans.

STARKVILLE — Mississippi hasn’t executed a Death Row inmate since former grocery store butcher Gary Carl Simmons Jr. was executed on June 20, 2012, for the grisly 1996 murder and dismemberment of Jeffrey Wolfe and the subsequent kidnapping and rape of Wolfe’s girlfriend in Pascagoula.

As the days of 2021 seem to sit squarely upon our heads with no offer of hope, and with suffocating brick walls and never a light at the end of the tunnel, we must turn our faces to the truth. There is no one better to read and as well enjoy his words of encouragement, no one better than C.…

“A year ago, we were protecting the vulnerable immunocompromised and elderly. Yet with this (Delta) strain, the children in my arms are part of the vulnerable I am trying to protect.”

STARKVILLE — Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann used his Neshoba County Fair political speaking time to kick the political ant hill of making public health care more affordable and accessible in Mississippi.

Do you remember Conway Twitty? Of course you do. I have a little ditty and Twitty to share today.

Once upon a time many community and organization leadership training programs around the country featured sessions on “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” authored by the late Stephen Covey. Practicing these habits was seen as a means for people to harness ambitions and work with other…

Donald Trump has always loved seeing his name emblazoned on things, from hotels and golf clubs to steaks and airlines. But there is one naming opportunity, one blue chip brand, that the former president has assiduously -- and astoundingly -- ignored: the Trump Vaccine.

There is a developing thin line in mainstream journalism ethics between what’s acceptable and what’s not in defining impartial, independent news coverage.

I don’t suppose that many waited with baited breath to hear what the song lyrics of "A Horse With No Name" actually meant, but I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I wondered if this song alluded to drug use and would let you guys know what I found out. After a little research I realize t…

PHILADELPHIA — With no active political races and a fairgrounds population returning after a 2020 hiatus caused by the global COVID pandemic, this summer’s return to the Neshoba County Fairgrounds was wonderful but there was an underlying tone that things had not quite returned to normal.

There's a handy device for determining status in American society -- whether someone feels obligated to abide by his or her own COVID rules or not.

One Democrat in the Mississippi Senate – Hob Bryan of Amory – represents a district that does not have a majority African American population.

Ho hum (ho hyphen) is an exclamation expressing boredom, weariness, or contempt, according to Dictionary.com, while ho-hum (with hyphen) is an adjective meaning dull, boring or routine.

Dear readers:

My day just got infinitely better. Now, don’t get me wrong; it was already a pretty decent day. Actually, it was a pretty nice day.