A Brief History On July 6, 1947, the aptly named AK-47 assault rifle went into production.  After undergoing military trials in the Soviet Union, it was accepted for general use by the Red Army in 1949.  Today, the AK-47 is still in production in many nations, and about 1 out of every 5 firearms in the world is an AK-47 or a closely related weapon.  Production is 75 million rifles and counting, with AK family of related weapons accounting for another 25 million rifles, carbines, pistols and machine guns, including semi-automatic civilian models. Digging Deeper To put the enormous impact…

A Brief History On July 4th, Americans celebrate their Independence Day, a holiday that signifies their freedom.  During the month of June 2015, Americans experienced a host of developments in the expansion of this freedom.  In any case, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times sure were a-changin’ in June 2015! Digging Deeper June 2015 included events, incidents and policy changes that the older generation among us probably did not expect to see take place in their lifetime. To begin, early in the month, Olympic medalist Bruce Jenner, a father of six, changed his name to “Caitlyn” and began referring to himself with feminine pronouns.  While he cross…

A Brief History “Dracula’s Guest” is a short story by Irish author Bram Stoker (1847-1912) first published in 1914, two years after Stoker’s death, and now in the public domain.  It is widely believed that “Dracula’s Guest” is actually the deleted first chapter from the original Dracula manuscript, which the publisher thought was superfluous to the story. Digging Deeper: The Story When we started for our drive the sun was shining brightly on Munich, and the air was full of the joyousness of early summer. Just as we were about to depart, Herr Delbruck (the maitre d’hotel of the Quatre Saisons,…

A Brief History In June of 2015, the Treasury Department announced that Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, who has graced the $10 U.S. bill since 1929 will be replaced by the image of a woman in the year 2020.  No decision has yet been made about who will be selected, although the Treasury stated that it would probably be someone who represents for “our inclusive democracy.” Digging Deeper A little known fact is that women have already appeared on U.S. paper bills, in fact twice – namely inaugural First Lady Martha Washington and Native American princess Pocahontas. U.S. money has also included fictional characters such as…

A Brief History On June 29, 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States stunned the nation by ruling in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty violated the 8th and 14th Amendments.  This decision basically outlawed capital punishment until each state that wanted to reinstate it reworked their laws and procedures to meet Supreme Court guidelines. Digging Deeper It seems that over 200 years of previous experience had not perfected the procedure.  The court found judicial practices so arbitrary and inconsistent that a grossly uneven administration of capital punishment was the result.  So much so, that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment.  In wake…