(Shoulder Patch of Los Zetas: “Service to the Gulf Cartel”)   It is Fat Tuesday, the wind is blowing chill here, and some places there is a samba playing, and drink flowing. Elsewhere there is mayhem.   The men in the city named for Benito Juarez know who they are killing. Whether it is members […]

(Network Centric Powerpoint)   I stayed up too late at Big Pink to be rested and not long enough to be satisfied. The reason this time was not trying to party past the inexorable present, but to watch the proceedings of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts. I did my best to ignore it, since […]

(Map of Pakistan) Kushal Khan was on his way to become the Sultan of Swat this morning, the Pakistani government’s District Coordination Officer in the valley, but he didn’t make it. He was snatched- along with six bodyguards- by persons unknown before reaching his new office in the bustling little town of Mingora.   The […]

(Headline from Juarez) I got up and walked the Visiting Dog. He is a remarkable animal with all the personality in the world, and a young enough bladder that he let me sleep again after emptying mine. His Mistress, Sara 1, is in the Bahamas, soaking up sun and looking for investment bankers, who are […]

  (CAD View of the Taepodong Missile Stack)   Secretary of State Hillary Clinton- I said it out loud a few times to get used to the sound of it- will visit Indonesia today before heading on to the Republic of Korea, not to be confused with the Democratic Peoples Republic to the North, before […]

(Scales of justice and Fairness) The morning started with a meeting with the Ombudsman. It is a double Monday, since this Tuesday starts after the federal government had the day off to honor the dead Presidents and we were supposed to be in the office looking like we were working.   I hate it.   […]

(Iridium Orbital Scheme)   It a lovely chill Sunday. It is illuminated by the realization that nothing must happen this early in the morning, and tinged with the mild melancholia that the next time the alarm rings it will be Monday again. That is what makes the Sunday morning so sweet for those of us […]

(Noted Space Expert- a Master of Science)   There is so much going on these days that it is hard to focus on it. Airplanes are falling from the sky, we are mortgaging our grandchildren’s future and satellites are crashing into one another in the heavens.   Here on earth, things that seem to make […]

(Space Junk)   If I were a man with a penchant for a morning drink, I would have raised one to the souls onboard Continental Connection Flight 3407, a Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 operated by Colgan Airways, which fell from the sky while on final into Buffalo.   God rest the 49 people aboard. Their loss […]

  (egg salad) One thing I have found is that a couple work-around-the-clock sessions really takes it out of me these days. Proposal season means planning endlessly, and writing so hard that the fingers bleed.   The fatigue that ensues means I am probably not ready for the post-attack phase of my survival plan.   […]