CUBI I don’t know about you, but I awoke with the smell of rich dark earth in my mouth. It was musty and I could smell the corruption, and waited for the cock to crow. Must have missed curfew and had to go to ground to avoid the Philippine National Police and the Shore Patrol. […]

Bugs Of course we have bugs here. They are everywhere, creepy-crawly things that hatch in the darkness. Some of them are necessary partners in the food chain, and some are just nuisances. Like Congressman Randy Cunningham. He traded his hero-medals for the cockroach suit this week, blubbering on the television that he would seek redemption […]

Relationships and Response It was a great holiday weekend. Four days off, right in a row, no Quarterly to publish, and I let the daily just slide. I felt a little guilty about it, but I had company and other priorities. It was a great holiday, but everything comes with a price. It all depends on […]

Turkeys You would not think that turkeys come home to roost. They are flightless birds, for the most part, though in the wild are capable of limited vertical maneuvers. Ben Franklin had proposed we adopt the Turkey , rather than the bald eagle as the national bird, on several quite practical grounds. The eagle, while […]

Two If by Sea Before Congress got out of town for the holiday, the House Homeland Security Committee approved a sweeping bill intended to stiffen the nation’s border security. Sweeping measures make me nervous. It normally means that no one had a chance to read all the way through the Bill. I think they only […]

Quarantine It is wild and blowing out there, cold rain. It is a fine day for the memorial of President John Kennedy’s murder: dark and filled with raw power that is above any mortal’s ability to control. I do not recall the temperature in suburban Detroit that day, which is where I heard the news. […]

Old School It was the 41st time that mess dress and tuxedos had been dragged out of the closet, five decades of pleasure at seeing that the old uniform still fit, or dismay at the way the thing had shrunk while hanging at the back of the closet. It was the annual formal dinner, the […]

It seems to me that a Navy Captain is a grilled old fart, cunning in a feral sort of way, salty, worldly-wise. Admirals? Forget, it. Ancient history, Man. When I got to be one- the crusty old Captain, that is- I noticed that some of them were getting younger, even looking a bit damp behind […]

Mukhabarat The Jordanian security service- the mukhabarat- is an efficient organization. It has to be. When you serve a small country in a tough neighborhood, safety can only be assured by using every means necessary. Some say that the Service has become a law responsible only to itself, so powerful that the Chief actually lights […]

Keeping Track I got a note from a mother who lost her son. Neat lady. She suffers her loss in quiet dignity. She told me once that she wanted to have her son near her, so she could visit. But her son, a pal of mine, had said he wanted to be in Arlington , […]