I Hope Commission Will Appreciate The Taxpayers, Too

By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com During my entire 30 years in Washington, I saw two things over and over: 1) The easiest thing in the world to do is to spend other peoples’ money, and 2) It was impossible to satisfy the government’s appetite for money –...

My Dad Was Sweet And Kind, But No Sissy

By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com My father passed away in 1988, but I still think of him at some point almost every day. I once described him in an article in the News Sentinel as the “sweetest, kindest, toughest, hardest-working man I ever knew.” I put the...

Covid Scare Was Used For Politics And Big Money

By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com The very corrupt World Health Organization declared a few days ago that the coronavirus pandemic was officially over. It was a virus that was exaggerated and blown way out of proportion and in that way became a very cruel...

I Retired And Got A Wife And A Dog

By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com Regular readers of my column know that my wife, Vickie, and I got married last May 20th after we both had lost our previous spouses to very serious illnesses – her husband to Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and my wife to strokes and...

What Papa Told Grandma About Scottish Kings Duncan

By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com In 2002, I received a call in my Washington, D.C., office from a man who identified himself as Robin Naysmith, head of the Scottish Section of the British Embassy. He said they had done some research and found that I had...

Ben Byrd Did Not Like Bobby Knight

By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com     When my fellow Focus columnist, Tom Mattingly, wrote recently about Ben Byrd, the longtime sports editor for the Knoxville Journal, it brought back some memories for me, too. I knew Ben well from being around...