Author: Vic Socotra

Oral history …. How USS MIDWAY came to be forward-deployed to Japan

This account of the decision to home-port a USN aircraft carrier is from Naval Intelligence legend John Niemeyer, a national treasure. He relieved me in VF-151 in mid-1980, and did a memorable job as a Midway officer. He liked the Japan experience of the Overseas Family Residency Program (OFRP) a little better than most. He […]

Arrias: Easter History and Some Thoughts For Beijing

Editor’s Note: It was a fabulous holiday weekend down at the farm. It was filled with warmth and the sunlit prospect of hope. The Socotra editorial staff unanimously decided to allow tomorrow to take care of itself. Now, as often happens, tomorrow has arrived. Arrias has some thoughts on the kettle of crises, and one […]

Piedmont Easter

The wayward jet Stream has wandered north again, after caressing us with chill embrace the last few days. This morning, we can feel a breath of warmth and life and living once more. It is a holy day for some, celebrating something primal and good. I am not going to take the easy way out […]

FISA Follies

OK, there is plenty to talk about this afternoon, but the spin on everything these days makes me tired. The monthly Editorial Meeting on the First was unsettled and confused. No one knew quite what to make of the vehicle assault on the Senate entrance to the Capitol. Then the EPA notification came up that […]

Lingua Franca

Good Friday! This week brought us some of the most astonishing acts of public derangement I have seen in my time on the planet. It is very refreshing, but difficult to know where to start and stop. It seems we no longer have a lingua franca, a language we could use between cultures and multi-lingual […]

Life & Island Times: April Fool’s Edition: The Dude Speaks

Editor’s Note: It is the day to celebrate fools, or their foolishness, anyway. This is Marlow’s take on an older version that seems completely appropriate this rainy morning in Virginia’s lush Piedmont… – Vic Author’s note: Dear readers, below the tear line is a slightly tongue-in-cheek piece that was written during the early January days […]

Sources and Methods

This would be the Weather Report for this week. It slides over tomorrow’s celebration of foolishness and the real transition from one sort of weather to another. Lions and lambs will frolic in April, and we will get warmer. That is an immutable change with which we are all familiar. There is a lot going […]

Proper ID

The glib words run out this morning, and I am tempted to run along with them. I heard the Vice President wasn’t precisely in charge of the border “situation,” whatever that is. The President seemed to be adamant about that the other day. But the “situation” on the border is “more complex” and one for […]

Arrias: Cato, Sulla and Government Reform

Editor’s Note: Arrias this morning addresses one of the primary reasons things don’t seem to be working well in our Republic these days. There was a string that followed about the distance between those that enjoy the sea of cash that is flowing from Government printing presses to a variety of startling things beyond the […]

House Resolution 353

Whew. Thunderstorms rolled through the Piedmont this morning, announcing their arrival with brilliant flashes of light, followed in a few seconds by insistent sharp blasts of thunder. There was no point in attempting to stay under the eiderdown, and moderately caffeinated, we began our Sunday. We have talked about the Press Conference last week. Socotra […]