The Common Sense Cowboy's Guide to Life: Stories from the Old Guy at the End of the Bar

“This book gives good advice—strategies for how to avoid the bad things, do the good things...and hopefully have a few laughs along the way.”

—CRAIG SHIRLEY, presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author

A MAN ISN’T BORN A COWBOY. HE BECOMES ONE. HE MAKES A CHOICE.

When you're running out of sunsets, don't waste the sunrises you have left.

And right now, America as a nation and we as individual citizens are at its own moment of truth. 

Do we cowboy up or do we quit?

There is no escaping this choice or putting it off, no wishing it away. We have procrastinated long enough, and the problems have only gotten worse. It’s not just about addressing a laundry list of those problems and coming up with solutions. If it were that easy, we would have done it long ago.

It is fundamental, foundational.

We keep hoping that the politicians, especially the ones in Washington, will finally fix things.

There are only two things wrong with that. First, they are the ones that created the mess in the first place and, second, they couldn’t fix a flat tire, let alone all the problems they have created.

No, in the end it will have to be the American people who fix what ails America.

We all need to roll up our collective sleeves and clean out all the horse manure and cattle crap that has piled up for decades in this country. From the halls of government to the executive suites at our corporations, the ivy-covered universities, Hollywood studios, and every other place in our culture and society that have been polluted and corrupted. And this cleansing and fixing needs to start at the very beginning in every home in America.

You don’t need a college education or advanced degree to read and understand what I’m about to tell you in the following pages. You don’t even need a high school diploma, for that matter. All you need is common sense, a desire to pick up a manure fork, and—together with your fellow Americans—do what needs doin’ and fix what needs fixin’. 

Common sense is not passed down in the genes from generation to generation. It is taught, passed down from parents to children. Returning America to its former greatness and rediscovering the tried-and-true values that built this country won’t be accomplished by an election. It will only be accomplished by you and me. It is as fundamental as being able to tell the difference between right and wrong … and then acting accordingly. Everything else in a free society branches out from that tap root which is sunk deep into the soul of America. And while the tree of liberty that connects us all isn’t healthy right now and is in danger of dying, it ain’t dead yet.

We, the people can save it if we just get back to basics.

This book is about those basics, told in stories from the old guy at the end of the bar.

Common Sense Cowboy’s 12 Rules for Life

1. The secret to a long life is getting up every day with a purpose. Young or old, working or retired, everyone needs a purpose so find yours.
2. Never betray trust, because trust is like virginity. Once lost, it’s impossible to get back.
3. Everything breaks sooner or later. So, learn how to fix things.
4. The measure of a man is when he does the right thing even when no one is watching. If you do the wrong thing and nobody saw you do it, it is still wrong.
5. Don’t waste time thinking about what might have been. Put the “might have beens” in the same trash can reserved for the “wouldas”, the “shouldas” and the “couldas”. Then get busy with the “doin”.
6. A fancy education might gain you some knowledge, but only hard life experiences will gain you wisdom. A PhD won’t help you fix a flat tire.
7. Be wary of the person who tells you they can get you a burger and fries for nothing. There is no free lunch.
8. Your word is your bond, and your handshake seals the deal. 
9. If you shake hands with a politician, be sure to count your fingers when you let go to make sure you still have all five. (See above)
10. Don’t pray for things. The Almighty is not Amazon or Costco and faith delivers salvation and comfort not packages.
11. There is right and there is wrong. There are no loopholes and the only thing in between are excuses.
12. The Good Lord gave us each a certain number of seconds, minutes, hours and days, but he didn’t give us our expiration date. Use your time wisely and live life to the fullest.

IT’S TIME TO COWBOY UP AND START RIDIN THE FENCES!

PATRICK DORINSON (ST. GEORGE, UTAH) is the “Common Sense Cowboy” and has lived and endured through many lives over the course of his seven-plus decades on this planet as a maverick, a dreamer, a schemer and—most appropriately for the purposes of this bio—a communicator.

Dorinson is a longtime author, speaker and Newsmax and Fox News contributor who, for nearly a decade, was host of his own The Cowboy Libertarian radio show on iHeart media’s Sacramento-based KFBK. 

Although he takes pride in the fact that renowned conservative talk show stalwart Rush Limbaugh had his start at the same station, Dorinson takes further pride still in the fact that throughout his lengthy career, he has worked with equal passion and grit on both sides of the aisle. Along with, as he likes to say, “in the aisle itself.”

Aspiring toward being something of a modern-day Will Rogers (with a twinkly eyed twist of Mark Twain), Dorinson transmits his thoughtful dispatches via his popular Ridin’ Fences with Patrick Dorinson platform online at RidinFences.com, continuing to tell the stories of diverse regular folks who do most of the heavy lifting in America today (and always have). 

After hanging up his spurs as a seasoned veteran of the political strategy and media commentary battlefields (with the combat scars to prove it!) at 55, Dorinson turned in his tie and pinstriped suit for a cowboy hat and boots, following in the footsteps of his late cowgirl mother in learning and living the “cowboy way” with his horse Beamer by his side. 

Twenty years later, Dorinson is proud to have worked on ranch crews, won buckles in cow work competitions and been a campfire teller of tales both tall and small alike. 

These days, the Common Sense Cowboy hopes to never step foot onto the dreaded Beltway again … unless, of course, it’s to see a man about a horse.

The author lives & works in the Las Vegas metro area.

RidinFences.com

MATHEW KLICKSTEIN (GREELEY, COLORADO) is a longtime multi-platform storyteller whose work has appeared in numerous publications—regional and national, online and off —and whose books (typically focusing on "pop culture history") have been released by some of the largest (and smallest!) publishers globally. He is also a notable filmmaker, podcaster, playwright, novelist, TV series producer, comic book creator, ghostwriter, and arts therapist/college lecturer.

Klickstein is the author or co-author of over fifteen books and his writings have appeared in such publications as: WIRED, Paste Magazine, New Yorker, New York Daily News, New York magazine's Vulture, Heavy Metal , Alternative Press, ABLE, Boulder Weekly, Yellow Scene, Colorado Daily/Daily Camera (as Staff Writer), OC Weekly, Willamette Week, Hammer to Nail, Entertainment Today (for which he was Editor-In-Chief), iTechPost (for which he was Deputy Editor), Bleeding Cool, Fade In, Kansas City Star, Ink (for which he created and ran a regular foodie column), Decider (NY Post), Baltimore Jewish Times (for which he was Senior Reporter), Baltimore Sun, Dayton Daily News, and Greeley Lifestyle (as Publication Director).

The author lives & works in the Denver metro area.

MathewKlickstein.com