Flipping through the pages of People magazine, I saw where a guy with whom I once spent a week in Hawaii had been named as one of sexiest men in America.

Proverbs 13:12 in the New King James version of the Bible says “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” I love the Message Bible’s version of this scripture. It says “unrelenting disappointment makes you heartsick.” We have all had them. Things that we thought would happen that never happened. In fact, the greatest source of pain in our life comes from expectations that we have that we never see come to pass.

“Stupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card — and Lose,” my new book, comes out Feb. 5, Super Tuesday. Unfortunately for former President Bill Clinton and his wife, no one sent an advance copy.

CHISAMBA, Zambia — It’s 7:15 Monday morning in a cement-block house near this country’s major highway, the paved, two-lane Great North Road. Supervisor Peter Phiri, who helped to build that road during the 1990s, is speaking to 40 employees starting their workweek in a country where AIDS, unemployment and corruption are all rampant. They sit on planks held up by cement blocks in the building their own hands constructed.

Last Tuesday night’s results from Florida in both the Democratic and Republican Party presidential primaries were what I expected, and then some.

The truth be told, I didn’t want to go to the Prayer Summit this week. It’s not that I am against prayer nor is there a desire to separate myself from the pastors and ministers who would be attending the Prayer Summit. Frankly, I didn’t want to go anywhere or see anybody.

The impression takes root and grows. Say! The Democrats could lose this one. Could lose big, in fact.

On which premise no one should stake even his subprime mortgage. But boy, oh, boy, this Clinton-Obama thing, expanded now to compass the Kennedys and their mystique, must strike Republicans as the work of Providence.

Winning and losing. Sometimes there’s a very fine line between the two. It may not be as newsworthy as the presidential election, who’ll win the next American Idol, or even the plunging stock market, but around our house it’s the biggest thing to happen all year. I won an argument with The Wife, an argument about history, no less.

Both political parties seem determined that the federal government should create a “stimulus package” of things designed to cushion a downturn in the economy.

Some “good news, bad news” about birds.

First the good: On Dec. 15, a mild Saturday, 11 volunteers fanned out across the 15-mile-diameter Peachtree City circle for the 108th Christmas Bird Count. Veteran coordinator Brock Hutchins led the pack of sleuths to count the number of species wintering over here – 78 in 2007-08 – and the total number of birds counted – 6,331.

The aptly named Republican “retreat” last weekend at the ritzy Greenbrier resort in West Virginia should have included Democrats because Republicans are behaving just like them.

It was with great excitement and an overwhelming sense of responsibility that I took my seat on Monday in the state House as the 2008 General Assembly session was gaveled in by the Speaker of the House. In the first week of session I had the opportunity to work on several issues that are of great importance to Fayette County and our state. I plan to write periodic updates during the legislative session in an effort to keep the community informed as to what is going on in the General Assembly this year.

Three friends and I were motoring our way from the western edge of Kentucky over to Louisville when someone proclaimed a sudden and immediate need for an orange Nehi soda.

Answers to your questions about life, religion and the Bible

Pastors get some of the darnedest, most interesting questions from people in their churches and people they meet. Here are a few that I’ve gotten over the years of my ministry and via email since this column started.

After spearheading a disastrous, security-undermining illegal alien amnesty bill last year with Teddy Kennedy, “straight-talking” GOP Sen. John McCain claims he has seen the light.

A subprime lender is one who makes loans to borrowers who do not qualify for loans from mainstream lenders. It’s a market that has evolved to permit borrowers with poor credit history and an unstable financial situation the opportunity to get home mortgages.

Walter Cronkite, when asked whether he agreed that liberals dominated the major news media, told me, “Yes — if by liberal you mean open-minded.”

I'm continuing my quest to uncover as much as I can about the various Owen and Owens families in our area, taking first the family of Brice Marshall Owen and his wife, Sarah Law (or Lane) who married in 1812 in Jasper County, moved to Clarke County, Ga. by 1820, and who were in Meriwether County by 1840. Try as I might, I could not find Brice anywhere in Georgia in 1830.

If one presses me for a favorite professional football team, I’d have to say the Green Bay Packers. That might seem strange for a guy who grew up a Southerner cheering for the Volunteers of Tennessee and basically believing that Heaven started south of the Mason-Dixon Line. But, the Packers it is.

Politicians tend to get serious when the economy turns suddenly and snarls. Well, semi-serious — which isn’t bad for people whose livelihood depends on saying things intended mostly to leave an impression.

Dad was really mad this time. He sat all of us down on the snow-covered curb in front of our house at 110 Flamingo Street. We were in big trouble, but I must admit it had been really a cool thing to see.

Most of the horrors of the 20th century — of which there were many — would not have been possible without demagoguery or misleading propaganda.

Our Jean lives in northern Virginia and is good to keep in touch regularly. This week she copied me with reports she has contracted to send NOAA concerning whatever weather was happening in her backyard. Snow!

In the ‘90s, Judicial Watch, an organization that seeks to hold Democrats and Republicans accountable to the law, pursued members of the Clinton administration. Larry Klayman, the organization’s founder, filed several lawsuits to expose alleged cover-ups in Commerce Department trade missions and the suicide of White House aide Vincent Foster.

According to recent intelligence reports, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed 40 Hamas terrorists in Gaza this past December without inflicting a single civilian casualty.

rdine can that is a train.

That’s why, once one neglects to make a timely reservation on any of the popular 30-minute, $40 road shuttle services between San Francisco and San Jose, the $7.50 Caltrain ticket becomes an enticing option. Once.

Dixie Dew and I went away for the weekend to visit our friends, Stevie and Darrell in Nashville. It was actually Dew’s invitation but I was allowed to tag along.

This year has gotten off to a bizarre start on some fronts. Along with the grisly Gary Hilton alleged murders, several weird events have made the news.

The nasty bickering on the subject of race between Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama got me thinking about the true legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“I’m writing to you on behalf of my son. In the simplest form, what are the main differences between today’s Democrats and Republicans? I get too complicated with my explanations. I don’t think these kids really know the difference and just vote for a candidate because he is young, or female, etc. Can you help?”