Commentary

2013 C30, premium two-door Volvo

With the C30, Volvo made its debut in the segment for two-door premium cars.

shadow

Boy becomes cavalry soldier for a day

FORT HOOD – Deciding on a career can be a difficult decision some make very late in life, but for 9-year-old Neil Sawh of Houston, there’s nothing he wants more than to be a soldier.

shadow

Law not made for righteous people

We are taking a fresh look at the Ten Commandments. They show us our sin and they point us to Christ, who is the only way to God. I am reading from I Timothy 1:3- 11.

shadow

Understanding my own heart during February

As I was meditating and giving serious thought to what I would address for the month of February for several publications, I began to think about the human heart. Now, I have lived long enough to know that different folks believe different things about the importance of the heart. I am not referring to medical conditions, although God knows there are many people suffering from bad hearts in the physical realm. Scholars have long debated what is stored within man’s heart. Many say it is the seat of our emotions.

shadow

Abraham Lincoln and modern healthcare

Contained within Abraham Lincoln’s famous “House Divided Speech,” delivered to the Republican Convention on April 16, 1856, is the imperative for data analytics and performance auditing by healthcare providers today. Lincoln said, “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.” 

shadow

Iconic Coupe

For 2013, Dodge Challenger delivers a powerful and efficient engine lineup, iconic design and a starting MSRP of $27,295.

Under the hoods

shadow

Free competitor to Microsoft Office

With a very few exceptions, I have used Microsoft Word as my word processor when writing these columns. Tonight I am using LibreOffice Writer, a component of the newly released LibreOffice version 4.0.0.3, a totally free and open source competitor of Microsoft Office. 

shadow

The cost of doing nothing

When questioned about state funding of education, I have often said the cost of ignorance is far greater than the cost of educating young people in Texas. One only has to compare our prison system to our schools. We pay as much as $40,000 a year to incarcerate a young person and $8,746 per year to teach one. Even so, our legislature seems intent on continuing to squeeze both public and higher education. The cost of Texas being without an adequately prepared workforce in the next generation will be a tremendously high, the price paid for doing nothing.

shadow

Becoming a more positive person

There’s an old Southern gospel song I remember from my youth. Beaumont song leader Melvin Elkins will likely remember this one, too, from his more than 40 years of singing in churches large and small: “This world is not my home. I’m just a passin’ through.” The premise of this song is that while we spend our allotted years here on earth, Christians must keep in mind that we are not going to be here forever.

shadow

Response to week at Harvard Kennedy School of Government

From Jan. 27 through Feb. 1, 2013, I participated in an executive education program titled “Shaping Healthcare Delivery Policy” at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Boston, Mass. In more than 54 hours of case studies, presentations and dialogue, we examined creative approaches to solving complex healthcare problems, including ways of fulfilling the Institute of Healthcare Improvement’s Triple Aim: improving care, improving health and decreasing cost.

shadow