THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury The ballyhoo about “no free lunches” was first bandied about in the 1880s and today, Southwest Airlines’ “bags fly free” death bell is on the verge of gonging. Long known for allowing passengers to check two pieces of luggage “free,” SWA is altering its policy and there’s more story-spinning underway than a 10-year-old pulling

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Had a Texas Aggie been a Rip Van Winkle wannabe in 2011, he (she) might hardly recognize the university upon awakening from slumber in 2025. There might be understandable confusion. Is real time clearly in focus or is the awakening accompanied by swirling figmentary dream extensions from a heap of sleep? Surely the eye-rubbing

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Taxation without representation is tyranny. Though it’s hard to nail down who initially coined this statement, it was the hue and cry of “British Americans” when they fought during the American Revolution 260 years ago. My Uncle Mort–a homespun philosopher lazily whittling away the day from a cane-bottom chair on the porch of the thicket’s

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Odds of brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright constructing, then flying, the world’s first powered aircraft in 1903–and Southwest Airlines’ founding what would become one of the world’s leading airlines 64 years later–were about the same.  Most figured the odds to be slim and none. And most were wrong. While the Wrights’ contraption was aloft

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury    Column deadlines often are near enough to nudge before first paragraphs are actually written.    Some might think such to be sheer procrastination. I prefer to consider my “delays” to be viewed as being more akin to prolonged  research. Pretend that I am hacking through the vines of a word jungle with a machete, searching

Tears of millions of Americans have scarcely dried since the tragic mid-air collision of a passenger airliner with a military helicopter on January 29 in the icy waters of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. A total of 70 victims–64 passengers, a crew of three and three in the helicopter–lost their lives a handful of seconds and a few hundred

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury My aged Uncle Mort admitted the other day that he feels like it’s time for him to re-enter the stock market, and this time, “brimming with confidence.” He swore off trying to out-guess the market in the late 1990s. Mort said he lumped all of his investments into “sweet chariot stocks.” I’d never heard

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Relax. This is NOT going to be another one of those “promise pieces” about helpful resolutions that might elevate life for me in 2025. I leave that to others. In fact, were I to make a New Year’s resolution, it would be the determination to avoid making annual resolutions in the future. My aged

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury To most Texans, the name “Rambo” may mean little, but to Todd Compton it evokes memories from his childhood, when kinfolk spoke of 17th century ancestors who lived in what is now Philadelphia.  Peter Gunnarson Rambo (1611-1698) was most discussed, and Compton, now 52, remembers the accounts he heard in his grandmother’s kitchen. His genealogical