(French Interior Ministry personnel at the scene of the yeshiva shootings in Toulouse. Photo courtesy of the UK’s Telegraph.) The murder of children is back in the news this week, not like it wasn’t last week, too. It has happened down through the long bloody history of humankind, and in the clash of civilizations we […]

(Dramatic Detroit Skyline, seen, of course, from Windsor, Ontario, in the Dominion of Canada.) I am a political creature, as you know, and used to be comfortable in this Constantinople on the Potomac. These days, not so much. Nothing in particular seems to be working. The President seems to be surprised that people do not […]

(Earthquakes and tsunamis are part of the Japanese psyche. Living as they do on islands floating on the grinding of the Pacific tectonic plates, both are common occurrences. Mystical explanations helped explain the apparently random and frightening events. This image shows the giant catfish, Namazu, whose wiggling tail causes earth tremors and giant waves. Namazu […]

(The Great House at Stratford Hall. A place out of time, falling forward into a future we cannot know. Yet. Photo Stratford.) I did not fall out of bed with much enthusiasm, looking owlishly at the clock. I had to be on the Northern Neck by ten or so for the funeral, and I dressed […]

We were talking about Guam and slowly lowering the levels of the liquids in the glasses in front of us. Mac had a golden Bell’s Lager, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and I was working on a pale white wine from  South Africa that Kevin the Sommelier had picked out as the Happy hour loss-leader. We may […]

It was a great day for weather and a mixed day for my personal interaction with the First Amendment. We had low eighties and sun in Arlington, and people were literally floating along the sidewalks with goofy grins, welcoming the coming warmth. I had to take the Bluesmobile to the repair shop yesterday to have […]

  (Science Project.)   I thank God that I am retired, and have the liberty to pursue my own delusions and not those of others. I got a request to comment on the Navy’s commitment to bio-fuels, demonstrated recently by a demonstration on a decommissioned Spruance-class destroyer, the ex-Paul F. Foster (EDD-964).   The ship […]

(Knox Henry, WW II Veteran, is notified he is the new mayor of Athens, TN. 1946. Photo AP) I was shaking my head over the news this morning. Apparently the Taliban Wing of the Republican Party triumphed in the party primaries in two of our more eccentric States. More power to them; Mitt still took […]

(Scene from Kandahar. Photo Gulf news.) “… and the last thing I’ll stand for is ideas to get the better of me! I know that rubbish from 1918…, fraternity, equality, freedo, beauty and dignity! You gotta use the right bait to hook ’em. And then, you’re right in the middle of a parley and they […]

(Soviet Forces withdraw from Afghanistan, 1989. Photo courtesy BBC.) Man, the word was depressing this morning. I have been doing a slow boil anyway since the revelations of the burning of some book at Bagram Air Base began to spread, and the subsequent murders of ISAF personnel by aggrieved Afghan soldiers. It was intolerable, if […]