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John Livingston

The Smell of Money

My wife and I passed the Capitol on State Street yesterday on our way up to Table rock to look at the Elk herd wintering on the Boise front. There was little going on at the Capitol inside or outside four days before Inauguration Day. We didn’t see any Elk, but we did see a […]

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John Livingston

Patients Suffer When Doctors and Reporters Don’t do their Homework

“The Idaho Board of Medicine did not review records before closing a complaint that alleged that Dr. Ryan Cole was providing substandard care to Covid 19 patients”. This was the first sentence in an article by Audrey Dutton in the Idaho Gazette on December 21st. Mrs. Dutton is a talented well-educated journalist with numerous awards […]

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John Livingston

‘Tis the Season — “Hope and Joy”

Since the midterm elections, many conservatives have been disappointed. Why should a country that has been blessed with so much, been favored with the responsibility and the duty of liberty, been unable to connect to the virtues and values that have positioned us as the envy of the world? Why is our country so divided along […]

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John Livingston

Are Today’s Hospitals Big Business or Quality Healthcare?

Over twenty years ago I first was introduced to the concepts of “asymmetry, agency, and scale” while visiting my son’s finance class during parents’ weekend at Gonzaga. The teacher of the class, Mr. Kent Hickman was one of the authors of the textbook FOUNDATIONS OF CORPORATE FINANCE that is used even today at many colleges […]

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John Livingston

Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us

Twenty-five years ago, Daniel Goleman published his book EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EQ). (EQ) is the ability to perceive, use, understand, and handle one’s own emotions, but also the emotions of others. For my simple brain, it simply means the ability to understand our surroundings and how we relate to others, while at the same time seeing […]

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John Livingston

Now is the Time to be Faithful

Hope springs eternal in Garden City this Christmas season. The celebration of the birth and promise fulfilled by the Baby Jesus will always sustain us no matter the challenges that the secular temporal world can put before us. We must never lose hope for the future. WE know the “rest of the story”. As Mother […]

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John Livingston

The Idaho State of Bureaucracy

Jerry Pournelle was a modern-day renaissance man who had the unique ability to see life from both sides of his brain—right and left. An operations and weapons scientist with BOEING and as a consultant to many Aerospace and military contractors his insights into “how things work” was sought by captains of industry, military leaders, and […]

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John Livingston

Who are we?

Herschel Walker gave the best concession speech I have ever heard —I paraphrase: There are no excuses, thank you, this is a time for reflection. So, I shall reflect on what happened in the disastrous Republican mid-terms and give an opinion about how we should move forward. First, we don’t know who we are. For […]

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John Livingston

The Right Man for the Job

I am so looking forward to Mike Moyle becoming the Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives. I have had the pleasure of knowing Mike and his family for almost 30 years. Over the past 10 years he has reminded me when he is wearing his political hat of a combination between Tom Brady and […]

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John Livingston

First In, First Out

I was happy to hear about the release of American basketball star and two-time Olympic Champion Brittney Griner from a Russian Prison in exchange for Viktor Bout known to US intelligence agencies and the DEA as “the merchant of death”, an international arms dealer who is responsible for the deaths of several Americans. The press […]

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John Livingston

Tolerance vs Intolerance

Growing up in central Ohio and in a community dominated by Irish and German Catholics and Scotch Irish Evangelicals I was exposed to many media evangelists. Billy Graham, Sister Angelica, and the Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen were favorites in my family and in the homes of many of my friends. I read many of their […]

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John Livingston

Happy Families are all Alike

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I first read those words 46 years ago. Arguably the opening sentence in Leo Tolstoy’s ANNA KARENINA is one of the most famous opening lines in all of literature. Before I ever thought of becoming a husband, a father, or a […]

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