While Merle's philosophy is not perfect it seems a sight better than those who complain all the time about how bad things are now. Updated: Apr. 16, 2013 5:00 PM | Full Story

By John Parker | Full Story

"Friends come and go but enemies accumulate," goes the old saying. | Full Story

"Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. God spoke: 'Light!' And light appeared" (Genesis 1:2–3, The Message). Updated: Oct. 5, 2012 7:34 PM | Full Story

Sometimes in history the things that almost happened are as interesting as the things that did. Nearly every book on World War II shows the famous picture of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt meeting with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin at Tehran in November 1943. The accompanying caption usually mentions something about the meeting solidifying the alliance that would go on to win World War II. Rarely mentioned, however, is that the historic moment might never have occurred — because the president, the joint chiefs of staff, and numerous other top American leaders on board the USS Iowa were nearly victims of a torpedo attack on the way to the summit. Updated: Oct. 5, 2012 7:35 PM | Full Story

The Reverend Ezra Stiles Ely was to 19th century America what Reverend Jerry Falwell was in modern times. One could even go so far as to say Ely was the leader of the nation's first "Moral Majority." This nationally-known preacher was at the forefront of the raging culture war of the 1820s and '30s. | Full Story

"John, we got in a motorcycle accident on the way out see you in California and had head back home." | Full Story

CHOWCHILLA It was 1955 and we were all rounding up steers to take to the sale. My uncle, Marion Ray, had a large pasture that seemed enormous to my eight-year-old eyes. Updated: Aug. 30, 2012 5:18 PM | Full Story

I'd given up looking for it months ago. I knew it was in the Old Testament part of the Bible but I just couldn't find it. Updated: Aug. 27, 2012 6:51 PM | Full Story

England's Queen Victoria set a longevity record for British Monarchs. After ascending the throne in 1837, she ruled for sixty-four years until her death in 1901. During that time, the British Empire reached its zenith, and such was her influence that she gave the period a name — the Victorian age. Updated: Aug. 27, 2012 6:43 PM | Full Story