November 17, 2018

Farewell Roy

This week, we say farewell to one of Country and Western’s greatest entertainers, Mr. Roy Clark. Roy was one of the greatest musicians of his time. He was a veritable master of the banjo and six and twelve sting guitars. I heard Roy Clark for the first time on my step-fathers’ 8-track tapes. Then I saw him on Hee-Haw, a show that my parents regarded as “wholesome entertainment.” Even as a child, I chuckled every time we watched it, because eighty percent of the women on that show were either Penthouse or Playboy models. Roy was a co-host of that show, along with Buck Owens, another pioneer of Country Music. I saw Roy live for the first and only time of my life when I was about eight or nine years old, at the Las Cruces Civic Center. He was loud, funny, and as good of a guitar player as anyone I knew of. The truth is, Roy Clark was an incredible musician, a smooth vocalist, and an all-around good joe.

Roy Clark was my single greatest influence as an early guitarist. I learned to play guitar using the “Roy Clark Big Note Guitar Songbook,” with numbered stickers that you placed on the guitar’s frets to denote chords. Yeah, there were others like Chet Adkins and Angus Young, but those came years after Roy taught me to play.

I will forever remember Roy Clark best for his English version or “Hier encore,” known worldwide after that as “Yesterday, when I was young.”

That song was awesome to me when I was 15; and is like a life anthem to me at 52.

RIP Roy Clark. You are forever missed, and never forgotten.

-Jim 

Follow me at: http://jimculp.blogspot.com

November 11, 2018

Today is Veteran’s Day. I like to spend days like this going through old photos, thinking about my military career, and hopefully talking with some of my brothers.

Veterans Day was established in 1938 after years of being called “Armistice Day” in regards to the end of World War I. That war was a bloody one, with large numbers of men losing their lives in savage trench warfare and chemical agents used for the first time in declared war. It was to be the “war to end all wars,” but sadly the peace afterwards only lasted for twenty short years, and the world would be at war again, at least in Europe.

Millions of men and women have served in our Armed Forces, and I am proud to have known over seven hundred of them. I have forgotten a hundred names, but I never forget a face. While contracting for Allied Container Systems from 2006 to 2013, I spent a crazy amount of time in airports. I mention that, because I ran into people that I had forgotten, and immediately recognized their face. They might have been out of my life for anywhere from five to thirty years, but I never forget a face. I ran into Generals that I knew as Captains years before. I would look across a bar… and see someone that I knew in Korea when I was eighteen.

These men and women, for whatever reason, served our country in peacetime and war, and gave of themselves in so many different ways. Some were “grunts,” some were tankers, some were guitar players in the Army Band. Whatever they did, they served this Nation with dignity and respect. They deserve that back.

So when you see a veteran today at church, or especially if you see one sitting on the side of the road shivering, take some time to tell him or her that you appreciate their service. Buy them a meal or a drink if you have the money. Get that homeless veteran a coat if you can.

From one veteran to all of you, Happy Veterans Day, and may we never know the horror of war again.

Jim Culp

SFC, USAR

Retired

November 9, 2018

“Ban ALL Guns”

I just read a headline that says “Ban ALL GUNS!” Man, I’ve never heard that before.

Ok…let’s dismantle the Constitution and take away everyone’s firearms.

That will give us a peaceful country with NO SHOOTINGS.

Well, that was what Plato and Buddha had in mind, and that all sounds real chocolate pudding with whipped cream on top, but here’s the reality of that.

The only people that are going to surrender their firearms to anyone are liberal law-abiding citizens and conservative law abiding citizens that want to follow their pastor’s or their elected officials advice.

That’s going to account for the registered and legal firearms of the country, and that will leave about half of the firearms left in private possession still out there. So let’s break that down.

Half of that number will be guns like my old .22 and my bolt action 12 gauge, both legal, just not registered.

They’ll still be there, but I never busted those out and shot innocent people with them in the first place. To be honest, I’ve owned six AR-15’s in my life, and never shot anything but range targets with them.

In 2006, I sold a collection of 40 military rifles in calibers from .223 to 7.62X54R…none of which were ever used to murder anyone.

I’ve owned at least 50 different handguns in my life, and carried .357’s, .45’s and 9mm’s in military service and security work, but never took one into a honky-tonk and opened fire because I was pissed off at Nancy Pelosi or Sarah Sanders for some off-topic bullshit.

So here we’d be…half of the USA disarmed. Great. Crime would triple or quadruple. Deer would be so thick you’d need to run dozers over the interstates every morning before traffic could move. Women wouldn’t walk anywhere- unless they wanted to be raped or captured and sold. No one would be safe, because the police couldn’t dream of holding back the waves of criminals that would flood our streets and cities.

Guess why? Those criminals never turned their guns in. They didn’t buy their tricked-out AK’s or 9mm UZI’s at Walmart or Gun Shows. They appropriated them by way less than legal means.

The government would, in desperation, declare martial law, roll out the Marines and the Apaches, and kill all the bad guys. Absolutely chaos would ensue, and our country would be ripe for invasion, which China and Russia would gladly take advantage of. Take a bite out of that apple, comrade.

The Founding Fathers knew this kind of stuff; and put the Second Amendment in the US Constitution for that reason.

I’m really sorry about the people that died in Thousand Oaks this week. RIP to the families. But don’t…I repeat…DO NOT…be naïve enough to think that firearm confiscation is going to solve the problem of a Marine with PTSD wasn’t properly cared for, or an idiot that hates Black people deciding to shoot them in church. It won’t.

-Jim

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The Amendment Series- The First Amendment

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

If you want to, and only if you want to; read this paragraph. It's the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

In these modern times of global internet and cellular phones that rule our lives, this Amendment (and the one I will discuss next week, and several thereafter) are documents that were the foundation of the formation of our country, two hundred and twenty-nine years ago. They are not outdated, and they are not disposable. They are the reason that our Republic can stand as the greatest of all time…and the reason that it can fall, just like ancient Rome, in a very short time because they are ignored and dismembered to the point of worthlessness.

I welcome your comments for discussion. Why is this amendment important to you? What does it mean to you?

You’ll get my answer, and the next topic, next Sunday.

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