Author: Vic Socotra

Arrias: The Flaw in the System

Editor’s Note: One of the problems that plagues my thoughts these days is the sheer mount of cash floating about our beloved Congress. Some say there is still a trillion dollars still in some sort of digital limbo from the last adventure in relief from something, and another two trillion to come. The purpose of […]

No Rant Zone: Closet Crap

As you are unfortunately aware, it was project time down on the farm in Virginia’s lovely Piedmont. We had sunshine for nearly two days, and naturally the residents here were stunned and disoriented. Thankfully we are back to normal this morning under gray skies spurting chunks of ice and unfrozen rain this morning, so we […]

The Old In-Out

There is a modest level of activity at the farm on a luscious golden morning in Virginia’s Piedmont. A closet door had opened and a flood of ancient clothing slumped from “in” to “out.” Outside it was still cold, part of that amazing and memorable cold spell that swept across the Southwest and froze Texas […]

Big John

There has been a lot of recent talk about something we have discussed with some energy for a very long time. Can’t get away from it. The content of that pigment in our epidermal layer is a determining feature of every momentary issue. It drives all functions of interaction. It is a symbol richer than […]

Life & Island Times: CONgressional Boogie

Editor’s Note: Buckled down tight at the farm, being pummeled by the arctic blast from…Texas! We asked for dispensation, but that seems to be external to the situation. Was talking to some of the people huddled down by the Socotra Loading dock next to the barn to show compassion. Some of them think the Justice […]

Swamp Postcard: Waiting for the Storm

It has been a quiet week, or at least it is down on Refuge Farm. The political internals in the Swamp have the people responsible concentrating on each other. They can get back to the citizens when they get a chance. Down in the country, we have blue skies this morning with fresh chill breeze. […]

The Seventy Days

Yesterday was a day all its own. We could talk about the screaming school board up in Fairfax County. That was fun, what with one of them castigating parents for “wanting their babysitters back.” There is other COVID-related stuff going on, of course. And politics. It seems to me that the plague panic will peter […]

Delay in Transmission

Morning! There is a certain delay in things this morning. It is a common thing these days. You know, National History, Public Health, Climate, Cold & Warmth and Continuing Emergencies. That sort of stuff. All of them in strange confluence. Before I could even get to that I had a problem of transportation. Not the […]

The Emergency

(Old Style Medical Emergency). Had a chat this morning with pals in Colorado and down on the Chesapeake. The former reported -15F, with a slow increase to maybe -5 later in the morning. Chesapeake reports rain and much “warmer” in the 30s, which is about where we are in Virginia’s gentle-climed Piedmont. The nice Lady […]

Arrias: Free Speech

A prominent lawyer and former member of the Obama White House recently penned a piece on free speech, and suggested that the debate on free speech was, to use his words, “Broken.” He takes issue with the Supreme Court’s commitment to “the marketplace of ideas,” and with Justice Brandeis’s comment that the remedy for falsehood […]