The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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People who know me, know that I consider myself a Luftwaffe WWII historian. I have studied the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) in WWII for almost my entire life and I cannot seem to get away from it. I may put it on the back burner in my life for a short season, but there it is again. Seemingly out of nowhere. But I have come to grips with that reality and it is certainly a part of who I am. If my spousal unit can deal with it, then I am okay. What many people do not realize, however, is that I...
I was watching the news the other day, minding my own business when out of the blue, I heard something so stupid, so ridiculous, so un-American that I had to hit the rewind on my DVR and watch the news segment again. No way. No how. Come on, are you kidding me? Now I am not talking about snowflakes pounding down Tide Pods, crying in the streets and foolishly calling for an end to the Second Amendment. Nor am I talking about the cretins crying the NRA has blood on its hands while ignoring the...
I don’t know about you guys, but I love the Twilight Zone. Twice per year, I eagerly anticipate and when I can, watch as much of the Twilight Zone Marathons the SciFi Channel shows. Hour after hour, it never gets old. “It’s a cookbook!!” You gotta love it. There is no doubt that Rod Serling was a master of the English language. He had a definite way with words. Before every episode, he would prove that with just a brief ditty to the upcoming show. It was brilliant. One of my favorite Rod Ser...
I have to admit that I kind of pride myself on being a fairly up-to-date guy on World War II history when it comes to the air war in Europe. For those of you who may have been reading my column for several years, I think you probably know that already. Well about eight years ago when I was doing some research on my book about Luftwaffe pilot Hans-Joachim Marseille, I came across an interesting photograph. It was a photograph of a black man sitting under the wing of a P-40 in North Africa circa 1...
Earlier this year I did a review of the movie “Dunkirk” and clearly stated that I am in no way a movie critic. But I went to see “Darkest Hour” opening day and felt compelled to write something about one of my historical heroes, Sir Winston Churchill. Before I start I want to first say, “SHAME” to every movie theater here in Montgomery that, even up to the time of me writing this, has not shown this movie on even one of their screens. Not one! Shame, shame, shame. My wife and I made a short roa...
By now, all of us have heard about the three UCLA freshmen basketball players who were caught shoplifting in China a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, that is a pretty bad thing. Stealing is bad enough but to do it on foreign soil is taking theft to a new level. Haven’t these guys seen the 1978 movie, “Midnight Express” where the guy was trying to sneak heroin out of Turkey but got caught at the airport? Or maybe they have seen a couple of episodes of the series titled, “Locked Up Abroad?” Or maybe...
Once again, so many stories, so little room to write. Sort of like a Lays potato chip, I cannot have just one. So here goes. 1. DOUG JONES FOR SENATE. In my column, I do try to remain "politics neutral" without necessarily coming out with an endorsement of any candidate. But by now, I am sure most of you know where I am coming from politically. Have any of you noticed that in Doug Jones' commercials, (two that I have seen thus far), he doesn't mention he is a Democrat? No, really, he doesn't. My...
With the Messerschmitt's left wingtip pointed vertically toward the bluish-green bay below, the hapless Hurricane fighter stands virtually motionless in front of the young Berliner's windscreen. Through the heavy metal framed canopy of the Messerschmitt Bf-109F-4, the brown and tan camouflaged British Hurricane with its yellow, blue, white, and red centered cockade remains clearly recognizable against the crystal blue, cloudless North African sky. Pulling back on the stick, the G-forces...
As I sit here writing this Robservation, another "car into the crowd" attack just happened in Barcelona, Spain; 14 dead and a hundred or so injured. CNN, not surprisingly, suggested that it was a "copycat" of the Charlottesville, VA attack from earlier in the week. Of course, it couldn't be a copycat of Niece, Antwerp, London or dozens of other similar attacks around the world. Right? But to fit their crazy narrative, the press had to claim it might be related to Charlottesville. I am here to...
"The trio of timelines can be jarring as you figure out how they all fit, and the fact that there are only a couple of women and no lead actors of color may rub some the wrong way." USA Today Brian Truitt Last night I had the pleasure of attending the opening night of the movie, Dunkirk. In all the years I have been writing for the Gazette, I believe this is my first review. Once this is complete many of you will probably say you know exactly why I don't write movie reviews but here goes...
“What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over... the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire... But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of p...
I just returned from a 3-day trip, turned on the news and saw where 19 people have been killed at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Again, the sorrowful, cowardly words, “New Normal” raises its ugly head. No, I will not accept that. I won’t. I can’t. I refuse to. Anytime I go to the movies, a concert, the mall or out to dinner, I am supposed to have a reasonable expectation that I will get killed by some cretin with a grudge against the whole world? I DO NOT THINK SO!! Let me see,...
Way back in 2010, there was a huge debate in the Montgomery Advertiser over whether the God of our Bible and the Koran’s Allah are the same deity. I bring this up now because recently I have heard the same argument raise its ugly head yet again. I knew I had written something about it then so I dug it out and have wiped away some dust from it. One thing I have never intended is for my "Robservations" column to become a Christian mouthpiece. Those of you who read my column probably know this t...
We have all seen those genetic testing commercials on television. Ancestry DNA, 23andMe to name just two. I have several friends who are way, way, way into genealogy and tracing their family roots back to caveman days but as for me, I never had the desire or energy to find all of my family tree. But something strange happened back in January 2002. That is when my mother died. After her death, my family all converged up in the East Tennessee town of Morristown where she lived. My wife, my...
I am not sure what they are teaching in college these days but I am sure in many cases it is not honor, integrity, critical thinking, wisdom and common sense. I came across this article the other day titled, “The Writing Center at the University of Washington is telling students that expecting Americans to use proper grammar perpetuates racism.” Wha-what??!! I am not even sure where to go with this. But here goes. The writing center is willing to argue that “there is no inherent ‘stan...
This is my favorite line from my all-time favorite movie, The Blue Max. In this 1966 movie that my dad took me to watch when I was all of five years-old, George Peppard plays a German World War I fighter pilot, Bruno Stachel. After being denied his first aerial victory and being dismissed by his snobby, upper-crust squadron mates, Bruno shoots down a British airplane over his own airfield. When confronted by his angry commanding officer, Stachel walks over to the downed airplane, cuts the regist...
Today every other man (and still more so during war-time) is an amateur strategist and tactician; the House of Commons is full of such folk. No politician would be considered sane if he told a chemist or an astronomer what to do, but he considers it his right to tell the soldier, sailor, and airman what to do, and even how to do it; and if his words are not based on a true understanding of war they are based on a false understanding, for there can be no middle course. J.F.C. Fuller Did you hear...
Election night 2016 was a beautiful thing to watch. Tears flowing, heads exploding, pundits demonstrating that they know absolutely nothing about anything, you name it. Obviously, I am happy that “she” did not win, but watching all of the crazed people crying and being on the verge of suicide was a thing to behold. Reports that Hillary had a profanity laden meltdown while overturning tables and launching objects around the room easily explains exactly why she did not come out to greet her sup...
All I can say is that by the time this Robservation hits the streets, the election, for better or worse, will be over and done with. It has been a long, drawn out embarrassment for the entire United States. Whether the winner is a clear political outsider who has said some questionable things in the past and had an up and down business career or whether the winner is a pathological liar who hates the Constitution, who will do and say anything for political gain, has broken the law, violated...
Deplorable: Causing or being a subject for grief or regret; lamentable; causing or being a subject for censure, reproach, or disapproval; wretched; very bad. Irredeemable: Not able to be saved, improved, or corrected. “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic --you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them u...
Sitting here on vacation, there are so many things going on but today I only want to cover two items for now. There are sunny beaches to see so here goes. 1. The Olympics: First of all, after all the negative press about Rio before the games began, I did enjoy watching the Olympics on television for the past two weeks; for the most part. After all, during the games only one severed arm washed up in the Olympic bay, only one mugger was shot dead by a Russian diplomat and after only a week, the gr...
Last week after the mass murders in Nice, France, I called into a local talk radio show. When beginning to discuss the topic, I was asked if I “had the answer” to the attacks and threats that are coming at us at an increasing pace. My answer was “no.” Without having all the requisite intelligence information, nobody can. It is impossible. The area of operational planning is far too complex and detailed to come up with an answer in a 30 second bite. When pressed for an answer, I again refused...
I am admittedly frustrated as I write this (these) Robservation(s). This first part is something I wrote over 3 years ago in February 2013. It is still relevant and after the Orlando shootings and the new calls for more gun control, I felt compelled to readdress this with an earlier Robservation and follow up with a more current assessment of the gun control debate. As a rule of thumb, I know that you should never write when you are angry. I kinda broke that rule with part 2. I apologize in...
Of course I had to. I had absolutely no choice in the matter. After the killings in Orlando, my government went out of its way once again to show that they are in fact the real JV team on the field of play right now. Literally, and you cannot make this crap up. The 49 bodies of those slain in the nightclub were still on the floor, their cell phones ringing from the calls of loved ones that would never get an answer, and our President was on national television blaming guns and calling for more...
There is an old adage that says, "The customer is always right." I will be one of the first ones to say that is total nonsense. On paper, that sounds like a socially righteous attitude to take, but reality tells me something totally different. When a passenger intentionally urinates on the floor of the airplane because he won't be served more alcohol, when a passenger drops the tray table while we are taxiing into our gate in Denver and he starts snorting cocaine, when a passenger fondles a...