The big clouds were to the West, and there was only the echo of thunder. But lightning lit the sky to the West in regular and flashes and the rain came down, drenching the Far Hills of New Jersey. I wondered what they were far from. New York? I knew about the Short Hills, and […]

Empires John Walton, a billionaire son of the Wal-Mart empire, died in a plane crash in Wyoming yesterday. He was worth $18.2 billion dollars, they say, and was flying an ultra-light airplane out of the airport at Jackson Hole , Wyoming . I can understand the appeal of flying a little plane above the great […]

They say this morning that suicide car bombers are neither depressed nor distressed. I imagine that could be true, though I have a hard time wrapping my gray matter around it. I saw one of those internet stories over the weekend that claimed some of the bombers were found with their hands shackled to the […]

Early Education Everything I needed to know was not taught to me in kindergarten. I defy the nauseating chicken-soup books that say this is all simple. It is not. It sounds good, on the surface. Play fair. Don’t hit people. It oozes politeness and the memory of what white glue tasted like. There were two […]

Foreign and Domestic The 9/11 Commission is crashing around town again, refusing to let the matter lie. They are no longer under the charter of the Congress, or the President, and they are acting in their own right, under the moral authority of The Dead. They are an inconvenience to the way things work around […]

Aspirin There are some smart Bad Guys. That should come as no surprise, though that is not the popular image of the terrorist. We tend to think of the fundamentalist fanatic, focused, to be sure, but not very bright. That is not useful shorthand, though it is convenient. One of the baddest of the Bad […]

Quality Assurance I filled out the quality assurance questionnaire from the Financial Services company that enabled my latest foray into the world of real estate speculation. You know, the regionally frothy market that Mr. Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Fed, talked about in testimony to Congress this week. The finance company wanted to know if […]

Year Round Governance It is the last day I will be able to say I am not, and never have been, fifty-four years of age. Thank goodness it is not one of the round numbers I would have to think about. Still, almost-birthdays are times to take stock, and examine one’s life. It is said […]

Convergence I nearly coughed up my cornflakes when I heard the latest on the Canadian terror cell, the one that was going to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The righteous young men were arraigned yesterday, and the Commonwealth attorney said that they had intended to kidnap the Canadian Prime Minister and behead him. In […]

Point of No Return It is the anniversary of the The Day that the Allies went across the Channel and opened the second front against Hitler. Mr. Churchill was nervous about the prospects for success. If this gamble failed, it would set back the war effort for years. It was a point of no return […]