Tag Archives: High Plains Blogger

Life lesson bites suddenly

January 17, 2026 kanelis2012

Most of us likely are guilty of this from time to time. It’s a form of projection, where we project our own life experience into situations that have no tangible meaning to the here and now.

For example: How many of you have said, “I could never do what the pioneers did in the 19th century, which is pack up everything I own, throw it into a covered wagon and travel way out west to an unknown destination, battling Mother Nature and people who don’t want us mingling among them.”

How does one make that determination? They make it based on the creature comforts they enjoy right now in the 21st century. What we all need to do is take the long view and understand that the pioneers did not experience what we have today, that they knew nothing but the life they had. I have to remind myself that moving across country in a bumpy, flimsy wagon was just part of their life. Do you suppose they thought: Gosh, I wish I could transport myself into the future where I had all those comforts that I would have to leave behind just to fulfill this manifest destiny.

Why am I venturing into this realm? Hell, I don’t know. I just am taking a breather from the daily political barrage I am absorbing … and then passing along to readers of High Plains Blogger.

My point of this post, I suppose, is to advise everyone that they cannot control either the past or the future. So, let’s avoid spending a moment wondering how we would fare if thrust into situations with which we have no connection, or which we never will have a connection.

My life today presents plenty of challenges for this old fella.

local news, media news

Explaining changes in the media climate

January 9, 2026 kanelis2012

In just a few weeks, I will receive an opportunity to do something I haven’t given much thought about doing … which is to tell a group of friends, associates and maybe even a stranger or two about why the media climate has changed so dramatically in the United States of America.

I will speak to the Farmersville Rotary Club, of which I have been a member for the past few years.

I told our club president this week that I have come up with a concept of the talk I intend to deliver. My task now is to organize it into a document that spells out what I have witnessed and what I have experienced.

I have told friends over the years that I was a victim of the changing media climate. Readers of this blog have read about my tale already. My daily newspaper career came crashing to a halt in August 2012. I have moved on and have rebuilt my life. I had hoped to retire gracefully from my job in Amarillo, but I was denied that opportunity when the publisher decided to hire someone else to do the job I had done there for 18 years. But, hey … that was then. As for the here and now, I am still writing for newspapers, as a freelancer who writes for a group of weeklies in Collin County. Therefore, I am not extinct!

I am not alone among journalists who have been shown the door in unceremonious fashion. Declining newspaper circulation provides plenty of testimony to what has happened to that medium.

Now I get to explain it all to my friends in Farmersville. Why write about this in my blog? I just want to share with you the opportunity I have received to put a little personal perspective on on a worldwide phenomenon.

The good news for me is that my talk will be brief. The difficulty might come in trying to condense it into a bite-sized tale that I believe will have a happy ending.

media news

Living the editorialist’s dream

December 29, 2025 kanelis2012

I guess you can date this phenomenon back to around 9/11, the day the terrorists declared war on the United States of America and thrust us into the global war against terrorism.

It fell on the laps of people like me — who was writing editorials and columns and editing the pages on which we would publish them — to seek to provide context, perspective and leadership through the written word.

The phenomenon of the moment took place in this fashion: Hardly a day went by while I was working as a full-time opinion journalist where I didn’t have something on which to say. That’s right. The task I faced almost every morning when I reported for work was to decide what to set aside for a later publication date.

Many of those who have done what I did for a living for nearly 37 years faced the opposite … finding topics on which to comment to fill a gaping hole on the page. Not me, man! 9/11 introduced us to a whole host of terror-related and national security issues that required commentary from the newspaper. This occurred during the time when newspapers actually meant something to the comunities they served.

Writer’s block? Fuhgettaboutit!

I had a brief bout with writer’s block. It’s passed. My A-game has returned. I am grateful.

I now will continue living the dream … a life as a semi-retired blogger who gets to foist his views on the rest of the world.

local news, media news, national news

Sorry for not engaging

September 25, 2025 kanelis2012

Here it comes … a qualified apology to the occasional critic of this blog who challenges me to engage them in debate, only to be rebuffed by me.

High Plains Blogger used to consume a lot more of my time than it does these days. As I grow older — and as I continue to rebuild my life after my bride’s passing from brain cancer more than two years ago — the blog has become less a part of my life. That’s by design. It’s my design.

I have my share of supporters who tell me they like what I have to say on issues of the day. I also have a number of folks who I know oppose my point of view. On occasion they will challenge me. They demand that I explain myself. If they present data they believe proves me wrong, they insist I say so publicly, or at the very least engage them in debate.

I once posted an item on this blog that declared that I see my posted opinion as my last word on a subject. Therefore, I have no particular need or desire to engage someone in a debate that will result only in boosting my blood pressure. Maybe even theirs, too.

Now that I am well into this next phase of my life, I have even less reason to go toe-to-toe with a political foe. There is no point. I choose only to let my critics have the last word, as I am not afflicted by what I call “last word-itis.”

I have asked on occasion if my foe and I could just “agree to disagree.” Some of them say yes. Some of them want to keep the rhetorical brass knucks handy.

Look, the loss of my dear Kathy Anne taught me a valuable life lesson. It is that life is too damn short to waste time on matters that won’t ever change. I never expect to change anyone’s mind with the posts I deliver on High Plains Blogger. They might think they can change mine.

They would be horribly mistaken. To those who wish I would engage them, I merely want to apologize … but only for staying away from the rough-and-tumble. I won’t apologize for whatever I say.

Sports news

Covering pro sports requires an MBA

September 20, 2025 kanelis2012

This blog post is a rant, but not the kind of rant that High Plains Blogger readers have come to expect … and some of whom actually like to read from little ol’ me.

This one deals with sports writing and the special expertise that has become evident in the facts that reporters have to possess. They need master’s degrees in business administration to report accurately on the comings and goings of pro athletes, on the decisions made on where they pursue their craft … and the huge amount of money they earn while hitting a baseball, shooting a basketball or tossing a football and tackling those who do.

I must restrict this blog to just men’s sports, because that is where the money issue is spiraling into outer space.

I was reading recently about the Dallas Cowboys’ decision to trade defensive lineman Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. I cannot even begin to recite the terms of the trade, because it soared way over my pointed noggin. I saw terms like “salary cap,” and “franchise tag” and assorted other rhetoric that made the facts of the trade totally foreign to me. I don’t even know the sticking points that made the Cowboys dicker for the trade, other than I presume Parsons wanted more money than the Cowboys were willing to pay.

Whatever …

This is just the latest such story that goes way over my head.

I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s when it was a huge deal to read about a pro baseball athlete earning 100 grand a year. Stan Musial was the first, I think, to crack that barrier. Then came Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron. Who else? I remember when quarterback Joe Namath signed with the AFL’s New York Jets for $400,000. You would’ve thought the planet had just spun off its axis.

It’s all chump change these days when we talk about that bygone era.

As for sports writers who have cover these issues for anyone with an interest in the amount of money that goes to these people, they now must bring financial expertise to be able to boil it all down to the lowest possible level. They used to tell us to write our stories so that a fifth grader can understand it.

Does a child actually understand the wealth that pro athletes command?

crime news, media news

Blog finds new rhythm

July 30, 2025 kanelis2012

High Plains Blogger had hit a slump, I am willing to acknowledge, but that slump might be about to reignite into a new energy.

That’s my hope.

I have found a new rhythm to writing and posting items on this forum. I shall explain.

For years I had prided myself in my prolific writing. I was able to crank out three, four, five entries daily. My friends said they marveled at the frequency of my blog posts. I appreciate the good word, but it wore me out.

I have decided to scale it back to a single entry on most days. Sometimes there will be two. Even less frequently you might see three entries. I also have decided I am going to rely more on issues rather than personalities. You know already that I detest the moron masquerading as president of the United States. Thus, there is little — if any need — to whip that already bloody carcass. Hell, it’s already been bled dry.

You’re likely to read observations about more local matters. The Texas Legislature is back in special session for the next month. Maybe it will stay on the job longer. I am going to watch our legislators carefully.

I also want to devote more time and attention to what I call “slice of life” matters. Maybe this blog post qualifies as a piece defining a slice of retired life. You know?

I recently posted a blog entry that discussed taking a break from blogging. Some supporters objected and told me they want me to stay in the game. I heard you. I’m not going anywhere.

I just want to tone it down a bit. I want to stay sharp enough to comment when the spirit moves me and when policy decisions demand it.

So, there you have it, kids. New rhythm, less pressure, more varied topics.

It’s going to keep me in love with what I do.

crime news, national news, political news

No apology for being right about this clown

July 21, 2025 kanelis2012

A critic of this blog just cannot seem to grasp the notion that my mind was settled long before Donald and Melania Trump glided down the escalator in the summer of 2015 to begin Donald’s career in politics.

I concede the obvious. Yep. My mind was made up a long time ago. And the 45th and 47th POTUS has done nothing at all to change it. I believe then what I believe now, which is that Trump is categorically unfit for public office.

But you know that already. Correct?

What none of us knows at this moment is what can be done to improve matters in D.C.

I’ll start with a couple of possibilities. One is to turn the House of Reps into an organization led by Democrats. Voters need to wrest control of that chamber from Republicans. If that occurs in the 2026 midterm election, then the fun can begin anew. There might be a third impeachment of this fundamentally corrupt individual. This impeachment could center on his involvement with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein hanged himself in a federal prison cell. Trump is now believed to have had something more than a passing acquaintance with this sexual predator. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump sent Epstein a birthday greeting card years ago. Trump denies it. He has sued the Journal, which stands by its reporting. I’m inclined to stand with the WSJ.

We have seen some fracturing among the MAGA fanatics who have supported Trump since he rode the escalator with Melania. Many of them want Trump to release the documents that could reveal a whole lot about Trump and whether he and Epstein were besties.

The other option is to elect someone to the presidency in 2028 who is clean, scandal-free and who knows how in the hell to govern. It won’t be Trump … no matter what some of his ardent supporters would like to see happen. The Constitution has labeled Trump a lame duck until Jan. 20, 2029.

Then it will be good bye and good riddance to the singularly most stupid individual ever elected to the presidency. Then we’ll have to ensure we cannot make that mistake ever again.

local news

Too good to be true?

July 19, 2025 kanelis2012

You have heard it said, I reckon, that you shouldn’t trust an offer that is “too good to be true.”

I’ve been getting many of them lately in North Texas. Here’s how they go:

My phone rings with the message that says “Spam Risk.” OK, it’s a risk of a spam call, not necessarily a guarantee that it is some sort of come-on. I answer and the voice on the other end offers to sell me a home security system for my house “with no installation charge or set-up fee.”

Sigh …

I hang up. You see, I treat calls like that the way I treat motel marquee signs that tell you that the Flea Bag Motel has “free HBO.” No. It doesn’t have a freebie.

Nor do these home security pitches. You see, no one goes into business thinking of ways to throw money away. Which tells me in clear and direct language that anyone who says they’ll install a home-security system with no installation fee is going to make up the price elsewhere in the transaction. In the monthly fee, yes? Or perhaps in some sort of surcharge.

So, there will be no installation charge. Right. It’ll come to you in a different form, which gives the solicitor a justification for spinning a tale that borders on a falsehood.

Now that I have posted this item on High Plains Blogger, I am going to stop answering all calls that warn me of a “Spam risk.”

local news, media news

Blog decision looms

April 29, 2025 kanelis2012 4 Comments

A possible decision might be looming for High Plains Blogger … that would be yours truly.

The decision involves whether I want to keep pursuing this daily goal of posting commentaries,. Yes, the daily goal. I have been writing blogs each day since The Flood, or so it seems. I have had good spells and slow spells.

I am deep in the midst of a slow spell. I have plenty of topics on which to comment. The response has been, well, rather sparse. As in very sparse. I’m in a slump.

I am unsure if my audience, such as it is, has grown weary of my rants. Maybe I’m not as sharp as I once claimed to be.

I believe I’ll know what to do soon after I post this particular item on Highs Plains Blogger. If the comments pour in from readers saying they want me to keep going, well, then I’ll respond accordingly.

If it remains quiet out there in Blog Land, I think that will tell me something, too. Maybe I can monkey around with the blog platform I use to get more response.

Just know that I truly enjoy sharing my world view with you. It’s my view only. I know it has its friends and its foes. Critics are welcome to offer their negative responses. I am a grownup and I can take it. I’ll be honest, I prefer to hear words of support.

I have sought to broaden the subject matter, to include more slice of life entries, rather than just relying on politics and policy.

I’ll know in due course what my decision will be. I’ll keep you posted on what I decide.

Meanwhile … have a great day.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience