Opinion

The high dive

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in Opinion

Wednesday, July 27. 2016

By Mike Ruffin

During my boyhood, this time of year was all about going to the Barnesville swimming pool, which was located about where the Gordon Highlanders now play baseball. I’d join many others in purchasing an annual pass and using the laminating machine outside of Carter’s Drug Store to render it waterproof. [Full Story »]

Hatred can spread like kudzu

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Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, July 20. 2016

By Walter Geiger

There is a spot I pass on one of my walking routes where kudzu has taken permanent hold. It has been there for years but has not spread far because it is hemmed in by a maintained hayfield on one side and the county right of way on the other.
[Full Story »]

Self esteem kids not fit for Georgia State Patrol

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Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, July 6. 2016

I have written before of my disgust with the self esteem politics that I encountered on a brief foray into recreation football coaching many years ago.

My coaching partner and I worked hard to teach the boys football.
[Full Story »]

Gays, Muslims and guns

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Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Friday, July 1. 2016

By Mike Ruffin

Around two o’clock in the morning on Sunday, June 12, a man opened fire with a Sig Sauer MCX rifle on patrons of Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Forty-nine people were killed.

Another 53 were wounded, many seriously. Police killed the shooter. [Full Story »]

How do they do what they do?

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, June 22. 2016

It’s a bad time to work for the Orlando chamber of commerce.

The fantasy world created there by Disney World, Epcot, Universal et. al. was harshly welcomed back to reality by a sickening series of events over the past week. [Full Story »]

Homecoming and going

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, June 15. 2016

By Mike Ruffin

I’m serving as interim pastor of The Rock Baptist Church. A couple of Sundays ago, we had lunch together after the worship service. Everybody brought food.

There were about 30 people there. We could have fed 150. We had at least 12 baskets of food left over. It was all very Biblical. It was also lots of fun. Midway Baptist Church, the church to which my parents first took me when I was 10 days old (as my mother never tired of reminding me), and in which I was baptized into the church and ordained to the ministry, has been having Homecoming on the second Sunday in June ever since John the Baptist baptized Jesus. [Full Story »]

Sorry Broadway Joe, I've gone electric

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, June 8. 2016

By Walter Geiger

Some of my earliest memories are of watching my Daddy and Granddaddy shave.

I would stand in the bathroom and watch in awe as they lathered up and cast off the previous night’s crop of whiskers with a big old safety razor. Sometimes, they would let me coat my face with shaving cream then remove it from my whiskerless skin with the razor without a blade in it. I felt so grown. [Full Story »]

Dryer sheets and squirrels

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Thursday, June 2. 2016

By Mike Ruffin

I had poured my heart out every Sunday morning for six years.

I had tried to tell them how much God loves them. I had preached about the blessings and the challenges that come with following Jesus. I had tried to help them see just how amazing it is that Almighty God gives any thought to us at all, much less that God loves us so much that Jesus died for us. I had told them over and over again that we have an amazing opportunity to be crucified with Christ, to be raised with him, and to walk in newness of life. [Full Story »]

Sen. Isakson on Memorial Day

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Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Sunday, May 29. 2016

By Sen. Johnny Isakson

“We would not be where we are today had it not been for veterans who died on the battlefield so we could have free speech, democracy in government, and so our people could peacefully decide whom their leaders were and leave it up to us to lead the country.

“I want to put a personal face on Memorial Day for just a moment.

“First, I wish to talk about a guy named Tommy Nguyen. Tommy Nguyen is my legislative staffer on military affairs information. He volunteered for the U.S. Army Guard. He went to Fort Benning, GA, and graduated No. 1 in his class. You know what that means at Fort Benning. Right now he is deployed in Afghanistan and has been deployed for the past 5 months. [Full Story »]

A long time coming

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, May 25. 2016

Nearly lost in all the campaign rhetoric and discussion on which bathrooms should be used by whom and who gets to be the bathroom monitor was news that the U.S. Senate has okayed a bill which would allow families who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia.
[Full Story »]

Hold on loosely

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, May 18. 2016

By Mike Ruffin

So there’s been a report making the rounds that says you shouldn’t hug your dog. My dogs and I find this news very disturbing. Dr. Stanley Coren, a retired professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, examined photos of people hugging their dogs and concluded that, in most cases, the hugged dogs exhibited signs of stress. [Full Story »]

The best neighbor ever

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, May 11. 2016

We first moved to Barnesville in the Spring of 1979. We bought a wonderful, old, big, drafty house on Thomaston Street that had belonged to the McKoy family.

We knew very few people in Barnesville but, boy, did we ever hit the lottery on neighbors. [Full Story »]

That doesn't make it "Christian"

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, May 4. 2016

Led Zeppelin’s 45-year-old song “Stairway to Heaven” has been in the news lately. The estate of a former member of the band Spirit is suing Zeppelin, claiming that the legendary British rockers plagiarized the opening notes of the song from Spirit’s song “Taurus.”
[Full Story »]

Fire chief Steve Andrews trained his team well

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Wednesday, April 27. 2016

Laura and some of her garden club friends were at the office making red and purple bows to benefit fire chief Steve Andrews in his fight against pancreatic cancer. Red is for firefighters and purple is for pancreatic cancer.

Hedy Cauthen started the bow tradition here years ago when her son, late firefighter Britton Cauthen, was fighting the same dreaded diagnosis.
[Full Story »]

Zip-Line Church

Posted by

Walter Geiger

in Opinion

Thursday, April 21. 2016

By Mike Ruffin

The Braves played in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium from 1966-1996.

That’s 31 years. This will be their 20th and final season playing at Turner Field. Next year, they’ll move into a brand new state-of-the-art park up in Cobb County. I expect the one after that to be built on the shores of beautiful Lake Lanier. When you look at a map that shows where their season ticket holders live, the move makes sense. There are other advantages to the new location. If they need to call up a player from the AAA Gwinnett Braves, he’ll be just an Uber drive away, for one. But as someone who lives south of Atlanta, I’m sorry they’re doing it. It’s going to make it much more complicated to get to the old ball park. Make that the new ball park. [Full Story »]