Opinions, Commentaries and Editorials by Wayne Engle
Here’s a riddle for you: When is a county, NOT a county? When it’s in Louisiana, of course! In the home of New Orleans jazz, jambalaya and the Cajun people, they’re called “parishes” —- possibly traceable to the state’s deep…
It’s now two weeks since Michael Brown, all 6-4 and 292 pounds of him, was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, and the race hustlers are still milking the incident for all it’s worth. Protests, riots,…
“A funny thing happened on my way to Florida …” “I just flew back from Melbourne, and boy, are my arms tired! …” “Look before you leap — especially if the leap will cost you a heap! …” OK, all…
President of the United States Barack Hussein Obama should be impeached by the House of Representatives, convicted by the United States Senate, and removed from office. Pretty bald statement, you say? Well, can you give me any good reasons why…
There aren’t too many people still living who knew Tony and Rubye Engle. He’s been gone 30 years; she, 44. Yes, they were my folks. They were the two most important people in my life, and they didn’t have…
It’s now two weeks since the Madison Consolidated Schools district voted down a proposed $69 million school construction project, by a margin of nearly 4-1. All of us who live here know why it sank without a trace: It was…
Cliven Bundy, who was being hailed as a courageous hero for his stand against a federal power grab of his cattle in Nevada, made what passes nowadays for a fatal verbal faux pas, and is now being condemned by the…
He was like Nureyev among clog dancers; like Shakespeare competing with the writers of dime novels; like the difference between Einstein and a first-year chemistry student at a small, insignificant college. Pete Maravich was that rare bird among noted basketball…
Big, evil Russia is poised to seize the Ukraine and put it back into place as just another province of the re-constituted Russian Empire that Vladimir Putin is starting to build. Right? Well, that’s what elements of the U.S. news…
And so the 50th anniversary of the world’s first discovery of the greatest rock band of all time — perhaps the greatest ENTERTAINMENT phenoma of all time — has passed with suitable note and well-deserved praise for the Fab Four,…
They died 55 years ago today — three young men who gained immortality for the music they wrote, played and sang, and for what further heights they might have reached in their careers, if only … Two Texans, Buddy Holly…
Remember “The Spaghetti Western?” This is the 50th anniversary of the release of the first of three movies which became synonymous with the phrase: “The Man With No Name Trilogy.” Actually I don’t think the trilogy most people think of…
The U.S. Supreme Court this week brought the state of Utah’s mad gallop into “gay marriage” to a screeching halt. The liberal minority in that most conservative of U.S. states had been huzzawing and slapping high-fives ever since a federal…
Paul Rhodes was a very smart guy. Too smart to believe in all that nonsense about an “invisible man in the sky,” or “life after death,” or “heaven and hell.” Oh, yeah; he was too smart for all that fairy…
Where were you that day when our world changed forever, 50 years ago today? What were you doing when you first heard that our young, glamorous President John F. Kennedy had left us, suddenly and tragically, the victim of an…
The atheists are at it again, with the U.S. Supreme Court about to consider a case that has come before it in which communal prayers recited before public meetings are targeted by the militant atheist movement, which wants those prayers…
I took a trip back into the 1950s of my hometown, Madison, Indiana, last night. As it has before, it brought back some wonderful memories. No, Old Corporal doesn’t have his own time machine; wish I did. I went,…
When you can’t do things, when you have to sit, day after day, like a potted plant, you could become angry and bitter and life-hating. Or, you could utilize the only two abilities you have that everyone else does — your…
Now that little Prince George Alexander Louis has been safely born and is “pretty loud and, of course, very good-looking,” according to his dad, Prince William, the trash tabloids in Britain and on this side of the Atlantic can…
BULLETIN Florida police revealed today that George Zimmerman, and another, unidentified man, rescued a family of four from their wrecked vehicle on a Florida road last week. Meanwhile, the Sanford police have turned over their files on George Zimmerman, and…
This was the Madison Regatta that wasn’t. A major hydroplane race, with no boats on the water. No exciting heats; no overall winner; no points added to any team’s season totals. But, you know, this year’s cancellation of the actual racing,…
In “Growing Up in North Madison — 1945 And On”, Rich Berry tells us in rhyme about his childhood and teen years in a little town that’s no longer here. Oh, the area is still here — part of Madison, Indiana, where Rich…
Look at the photo at left accompanying this story. Doesn’t that guy look like a dangerous, evil, murderous Nazi? Can’t you just imagine him slaughtering thousands of Jews at a World War II concentration camp? Sounds silly, doesn’t it? He looks like somebody’s…
Things haven’t gone well for the American people or President Obama lately. Although the most recent, most terrible problem — the murderous bombings at the Boston Marathon — ended as well as it could have, all things considered. One radical…
Jorge Mario Bergoglio had to wait 76 years for his moment in history to arrive. Last Wednesday, March 13, 2013, it did. The Argentine cardinal, elected as the new head of the Roman Catholic Church by his colleagues, is a…
Some entertainment groups seem to go on forever. The Hackberry Ramblers, a Cajun music ensemble, began in 1933 in Louisiana, and had continuity and were still playing until the early 2000s, when the last two original members died, IN their 90s.…
“We must end the terribly racist apartheid system in South Africa,” they said. “We must institute a democratic government based on the will of the majority of South Africans,” they said. “Let us institute boycotts, international condemnation, and UN…
A historic era in American sports ended last Saturday, Jan. 19. Virtually the last survivor of the great major league baseball players of the 1940s and ’50s, Stanley Frank “Stan the Man” Musial, died at his Missouri home, peacefully, surrounded by…
“Never allow a tragedy to go to waste!” — Rahm Emanuel. Thus spake one of Barack Obama’s leading flacks, once upon a time. He’s now the mayor of Chicago, the world’s biggest shooting gallery (over 500 murders last year; more than…
(Author’s note: I wrote this fantasy story for Christmas, 1997, when I was still employed at the Madison Courier. The publisher, for reasons best known to her, would not permit the editor to publish the story. So this is the…
My only remaining uncle, Joseph “Joe” Wingham, passed away recently at age 87 in Cincinnati. He was the last survivor of a remarkable family of 13 children, whose life spans extended from 1897 to Uncle Joe’s death just before this Thanksgiving.…
Democratic party prankster Dick Tuck once ran for political office, and was soundly defeated. Asked by the press for a concession statement, Tuck said, “The people have spoken — the bastards!” The American people spoke yesterday, giving another four-year term…
The third and final presidential debate for 2012 is now history. President Obama came across as much more aggressive than he had in the first debate — more so even than in the second. But at times he sounded, and…