Year: 2018

Arrias: Our Moral Vacuum

It’s said nature abhors a vacuum. Strictly speaking, I’m not sure that’s true; the universe is essentially empty, only a tiny percentage of the universe has anything in it. But in politics and society it is true, if you remove one set of rules or order from a social structure, it’ll be replaced by another. […]

Swamp Postcard #46

Hurricanes Just a few months ago, my son called from Honolulu to tell me missiles were inbound. Thankfully, that turned out to be a bogus alert, but now there is a Cat 4 Hurricane bearing down on Honolulu, and it is real. We survived Hurricane Ewa back in the ’80s, and it was pretty amazing. […]

Special Swamp Post Card 3: Vacation Edition

The pool closes at Labor Day, and Kuba the Polish Life guard will be free of us again. No word on whether the Big Pink Condo Board will authorize two weekends in September for swimming. Constant vigilance is required. Also necessary in the inexorable approach of the mid-term election. I ha to flee the city […]

The Club Prepares for Demonstrations

Sunday is going to see an influx of left and right wing demonstrators on Sunday. Apparently this is the second iteration of the pro-and-counter demonstrations last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, the home of Mr. Jefferson’s University of Virginia. One demonstrator was killed in the clash. This time the right wingers have secured a permit to […]

Special Dog Days Edition 2

It is early August and I am rode hard and put away wet, which is actually part of the paradox of life. I can sim vigorously for an hour and then barely limp back to my condo. Irritating. And worse, the pool will start to shut down Labor Day weekend with no week day swims […]

Arrias: The U.S. Navy: A Leadership Crisis

Maurice Rindskopf commanded USS Drum during WWII, later rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. Commissioned in 1938, 3 years before Pearl Harbor, Rindskopf was the youngest man to command a submarine during WWII. During WWII, when communications and information technology was far less sophisticated, and commanders required large staffs to support these processes, staffs […]

Swamp Postcard #45

These are hardly the Dog Days of August. To the contrary, it has been cool and rainy. I swear I have been chilled each time I have been in the pool since Memorial Day. Despite the continued chaos of the Mueller probe, the wars are still in progress and the debt continuing to press upward, […]

Ceremony At Osan

(Remains arrive at Osan. the flag is that of the United Nations, under which US forces served. Image from Pacific Stars & Stripes) If you don’t know (or have forgotten) your Korean geography, Osan is the big USAF base about an hour south of Seoul. When I was assigned to US Forces Korea in 1980, […]

Swamp Postcard: Sultry, With Rain

(Mary returns to DC. Photo by Jamie). In the old DC, the one before air conditioning, August was traditionally the time everyone went back to there districts, or the shore. I don’t recall a milder Swamp summer in my thirty-something years living here (counting made me use four digits) and I am either getting more […]

Arrias: Who To Believe

Watching the news over the last week was like watching a Marx Brothers movie: zany, madcap, and detached from reality. After a while I was reminded of Groucho’s great line: “Who ya’ gonna’ believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?” It seems everyone is up in arms about the President and his seeming support of Tsar […]