Reflections of An Uncommon Common Man

  I have thought a lot lately about the so-called student walk out after the Parkland High School shooting and the subsequent March For Our Lives rally in Washington DC. As usual it makes me angry when I see Democrats manipulating young impressionable children to acquire their sinister political goals. Or as Rush Limbaugh might say young skulls full of mush. I can relate because at one time I was one of those young skulls full of mush. My generations greatest fear was nuclear annihilation. From the time I was about 7 or 8 until I was about 14 the threat of nuclear war was always on my mind. That is because the Cold War was a frequent topic of discussion among adults in the news media and Hollywood. Not until after the Cuban Missile crisis did the topic of the Cold War seem to diminish somewhat. The Cold War was, however; always in the back of our mind. When I look back on those days most of the ways that we were taught to survive a nuclear war look silly today. Such as duck and ...

  Bad behavior, regardless of who commits it, is never justified. When a Republican commits a sin it is covered 24/7 by the mainstream media. When a Democrat commits a sin it might get covered by a grocery store tabloid or two if we are lucky. Oh surely you remember that Republican president that slept with mafia mistresses, had prostitutes sleep over at the White House and swam nude with women in the White House swimming pool. Or that Republican senator that left a female aide to drown alone in a submerged car and later, like the scumbag that he was, tried to talk his way out of it so as to save his political career. How about that Republican Arkansas state attorney general, and later president, that violently raped a woman and physically forced himself on others more times than you can count. I love the one about that Republican senator from North Carolina that paraded his dying wife around hoping to get sympathy votes while he had a mistress on the side and was producing a l...

  Republican Alabama state representative Harry Shiver doesn't want to arm teachers because in his words most of them are women and "they are scared of guns". Much of the time when public figures, primarily conservatives, are accused by the feminists of saying something sexist their remarks are usually taken out of context or overblown. Mr. Shiver's opinion on this subject, however; is very sexist and just plain wrong. First of all I am a man and an expert shot but I am scared to death of guns. You should never lose your fear of guns. No matter how well trained you are. Women are applying for concealed carry permits in record numbers and they are outpacing men. There are studies that show women are better shooters than men. Colonel Kenneth Haynes who had a 32 year career as a military firearms instructor also believes that women are better shooters.  History is replete with examples. Annie Oakley, Margaret Thomas Murdock, and Lyudmila Pavlichenko who was a Sovi...

  Every time some nut kills or harms a famous person. Or kills innocent people in an active shooter situation we go through a societal wringing of the hands. We wonder what motivates these people to do what they do and what we can do to help them. As the son of a mentally ill father I have had fifty five long years to contemplate his motives for killing my mother and her unborn baby. I have some strong opinions on what drove him to do what he did but I will never really know for sure. All I know is that for three years I witnessed his mental deterioration firsthand. In retrospect the red flags were there for all to see. As a child I can say that I encouraged my father to get help and he did try. These attempts brought about some short term results but things went downhill after he tried to kill himself in the Spring of 1962. He was committed to a mental institution where he received electroshock therapy. It is my belief that this had a lot to do with what his later actions....

  I spent this weekend in Birmingham Alabama watching my grandson Russell who was playing in a wheelchair basketball tournament. Although I have passed through Birmingham many times over the years I have never had the opportunity to visit the site of the May 1963 Children's March. Before leaving town I was able to walk through the Kelly Ingram Park and visit the historic 16th Street Baptist Church just across the street. When Martin Luther King arrived in Birmingham in April 1963 he was smarting from a defeat in Albany Georgia.  The reason that most people have not heard about Albany is because of a very smart police chief there named Laurie Pritchett. He was not your run of the mill redneck Southern cop like Eugene (Bull Connor) of Birmingham, or Jim Clark of Selma.  He was the chief of police of Albany, Georgia from 1959 to 1966. Pritchett was an Auburn graduate and besides possessing many other law enforcement credentials he was a graduate of the FBI academy.  ...