Idon’t know exactly who decided that the lesbian, gay and bisexual movement needed to add the word “transgender” to its moniker, but I’d like to give him/her a piece of my mind. For years now, the LGB community has struggled to achieve equal treatment under the law.

Last month Jeffrey Krusinski was arrested in Washington DC after he assaulted a woman in a parking lot. But Krusinski isn’t just any run-ofthe-mill attacker. He is a lt. colonel in the US Air Force, and the man who had been put in charge of preventing sexual assaults.

If you’re a fan of shows like “Mad Men,” “Game of Thrones” or “Breaking Bad,” then you should send a thank you note to Clint Walker. If you’re the creator of a TV drama, then you should send a royalty check to Clint. That’s because had it not been for Clint Walker, the evolution of adult television dramas would have been significantly altered.

The fact is that Nixon and Obama might just be mirror images of each other. Both men grew up poor and powerless, yet became rich and powerful. Both men were heavily influenced by political machines and private-sector power brokers who helped them get elected.

That was also the same year locusts caused the break-up of countless marriages, including those of Charles and Diana, and Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson. Mad Cow Disease invaded the United Kingdom, there was a meningitis epidemic in West Africa and a bomb exploded at the Atlanta Olympics.

Public figures often say one thing and mean another. For example when NC House Speaker Thom Tillis said he supported reparations for victims of forced sterilization, it gave those victims hope. What he didn’t say, however, was that the bill had no chance of passing, given the economy and the changing political climate in Raleigh.

Simply stated, you cannot blame “Triad Today” for being the only local public affairs TV show in the Piedmont. Additionally, it is unfair not to have a category for Best Host of a Local Public Affairs Show. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a dog in this fight.

It seems like every week we read about another CEO receiving a huge raise or an obscene bonus. In fact, such blatant avarice has become so commonplace that I fear we might be growing apathetic to it. I hope that’s not the case, because these so-called 1 percenters continue to make quality of life worse for those of us in the 99 percent.

Not long after I wrote a column about the North Carolina General Assembly’s obsession with naked nipples, I received an e-mail from Joseph Hirn. Hirn told me that when it comes to “anal legislators,” North Carolina can’t hold a candle to his home state of Virginia.

Back in June of last year, I wrote a column about homophobic preachers, and the hate speech they spew. Like Pastor Charles Worley of Maiden, NC who told his flock that the solution to the “Gay Problem” is to round up all of the homosexuals and imprison them in side an electrified fence until they die out.

For many of us, “The Andy Griffith Show” is the greatest TV program of all time. That’s because it was about relationships. There was real chemistry between Sheriff Andy Taylor and his deputy, Barney Fife, and though they had their share of spats over the years, they always had each other’s backs.

A modern interpretation would suggest that the three travelers along the road to Jericho represent our 50 diverse states, and how today’s laws are inconsistent and confusing from one state to the next. Had the Samaritan stopped to help someone along the road to Topeka, Kan.

But NBC executives were afraid that a movie shot on videotape to simulate live news coverage of a nuclear threat, might be misunderstood by viewers. So the network displayed a disclaimer before and during the broadcast, stating, “The following program is a realistic depiction of fictional events.

Christians often refer to the Bible as the “Good Book,” and they’re right. Actually it’s a great book, full of expressive prose, parables and metaphors. Some of its messages are also inspirational, but let’s not forget that those words were written by flesh-and-bone humans, not by some deity.

In 1978, CBS invited me to LA to interview their stars. In turn, I would agree to help the network promote their primetime line-up by broadcasting the interviews back home in North Carolina.

Cripple? Slam? Eviscerate? This was more like a primer for the MMA than a guideline for political talking points. The language itself was disturbing, and the call for operatives to interfere with governance should concern every citizen in a state where leaders were democratically elected.

The North Carolina General Assembly is back in session, so you’d think they’d be tackling really serious issues, like setting tax policies that would penalize greedy corporations who lay off people here and open plants in slave-wage countries. Or standing up to health-insurance monopolies and enforcing a cap on premiums.

In April 2008, Pope Benedict traveled to Washington, DC to be feted by his buddy, President George W. Bush, on the occasion of the pontiff’s birthday. As more and more cases of abuse were coming to light, Bush praised his friend, calling the papal visit a reminder for Americans to “distinguish between right and wrong.

Fantasy football is, by some accounts, the fastest growing pastime in the nation, in which more than 37 million adults pretend to draft, manage, coach and trade real-life professional football players. There are fantasy football parties, playoffs and championships.

Commentaries on 2012.