Author: Vic Socotra

Who Owns the Elk

(Wyoming elk herd near Johnson County, WY)   21 April 2010: Please see the Editor’s Note below for additional clarification. I have a picture of a herd of Elk out on the vast prairie. They are a magnificent animal in the wild, but they are rightly wary creatures. The image shows the animals wandering on […]

Eyjafjallajokull

I won’t even try to say it. The people on the media have been challenged by the name of the volcano in Iceland that has caused all the trouble this week. I’ll defer to the style manual of the New York Times, which tries it as: EY-ya-fyat-lah-YO-kut.   It is the beginning of a week […]

Quakes and Shakes

Krakatau erupting on May 27, 1883. From Symons, G., 1888, The Eruption of Krakatau and Subsequent phenomena: Reports of the Krakatau Committee of the Royal Society, Trubner, London. It is unfortunate that the world appears to be falling apart just as I am getting read to get back out in it.   The Iceland eruption […]

Changing Status

  I don’t know about you, but I have a Facebook page. I am not sure why. I don’t do Mafia Wars or Treasure Isle, which is challenging old favorites like Bejeweled Blitz and Happy Pets for great ways to waste time.   I remember when my younger boy told me about it- he was […]

Learning to Loath The Bomb

I can neither confirm nor deny anything, you need to know that going in. But there are some hallucinations I cannot clear from my mind, and I am not alone.   There was a nuclear museum on Kirkland Air Force Base, with a real B-29 Boeing bomber parked outside. I have written about that, thinking […]

Death&Taxes

Death…and Taxes (Pre-Department of Homeland Security Civil Defense Logo) I am not sweating this tax day. The die was cast more than a month ago for me, and with some effort, we got Mom and Dad’s done, too. For me, it seems a distant memory. The snow was deep, the forms received from the banks, […]

Cocktails With Mac

(The real Joe Rochefort (R) and the Movie version (L))   It was a strange day. The Nuclear conference wrapped up downtown at the convention center. The First Lady made a dramatic appearance in devastated Port au Prince. The talking heads are speculating on the impact of the retirement of Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, […]

No Nukes is Good Nukes

  “We rambled Armageddon roads for a mighty long time, paying no mind to the signs. Got lost after becoming perfect war hammers, when Dutch hoisted our victory flag. Talk show fumes now choke out sun’s light. Many pray and clean their guns at night.” – A Nuclear Pal’s take from Key West, with inspiration […]

Katyn Forest

(Orthodox Crosses in the dark woods of the Katyn Forest near Smolensk) We talked about oil and gas yesterday. Here is the deal: If oil costs more than $72 a barrel, Russia continues to get rich. With that wealth, they can invest in military equipment and mischief. Oil this morning is just south of $84 […]

The Cost of Oil

  It is a lovely morning in Virginia, and at the moment, you cannot hear the sound of drilling. That is going to change.   Oil is holding steady at what OPEC thinks is the “prefect price.” That is around $85 bucks a barrel at the moment, high enough to sustain the lunatics who control […]