I saw the police on Monday, the day the death was discovered by the larger community. There had been a suspicion that something was wrong for several days before the discovery. Ruth is Big Pink’s dayshift Concierge. She does not drive, and consequently has a better handle on the neighborhood than many of the residents […]

I sat up this morning when I got to the Times. I have been wandering through the Air Force cover for the CIA Blackbird program, still a little giddy about my encounter with Article 138, the stealthy Mach-three spy plane parked in the lot next to the New Headquarters Building at Langley. The Times article […]

Text from the Uniform Code of Military Justice: “(a) Any person subject to this chapter who attempts or offers with unlawful force or violence to do bodily harm to another person, whether or not the attempt or offer is consummated, is guilty of assault and shall be punished as a court-martial may direct” That is […]

The Cold War was a necessary evil. It has not been popular to say that for a while, though Secretaries Gates and Rice probably were thinking a lot about that in Moscow this week. As one of the legion of Warriors from the struggle, I have been waiting for the parade that never came. The […]

I am glad I am not preparing for meetings in the Kremlin this morning, like Secretaries Rice and Gates are doing this morning. I suspect there will be a curl on the Russian lip when they met Mr. Putin, and the Intermediate Range Missile Treaty and the Conventional Forces in Europe agreement seem ready to […]

“The Web’s a fine and private Place, But none, I think, do there embrace.” -Apologies to Marvel There is not much time this morning. The annual controversy over the Turkish mass murder of the Armenians is in progress, highlighted in this legislative passion-play by the installation of an Islamist government in Ankara. Normally this annual […]

Leaks are part of life here. The back bathroom at my place at Big Pink has been a traditional problem. It is just a shower stall, with quotation pink tile in the 1960s manner. It dos not have the tremendous pressure of the one located above the tub in the real bath, and the controls […]

The verandah of the Repulse Bay Hotel, Hong Kong, circa 1930 Humid again, a little unusual this late in the season. The moisture in the morning air makes me think of South Asia, on the periphery of China. Hong Kong was always my favorite China, but it doesn’t exist anymore, not really. There was something […]

The unseasonable warmth of the last few days is colliding with something cold and dank coming from the northwest. The collision of the air masses has created thick fog this morning, and the cars are piling up on the Beltway. I have to head out that way to work on a big project, so I […]

We need to talk about the String of Pearls, the intricate ring of alliances the circle the Middle Kingdom, and we need to talk about the implications of China’s rise. The world is changing, quickly, and while our attention is on Iraq and how to pay for it, the Chinese are changing the basic landscape […]