Eisenhower was Right (About more than the Military Industrial Complex) During World War II, US defense spending peaked at $83 billion per year (1945), which doesn’t seem like a lot these days. But in 1940, the US GDP was $101 billion and total spending of the Army and Navy for 1940 was about $2 billion. […]

Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, the man who led the planning and execution of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 (among other things) was quoted as saying that “Errors in tactics can be corrected in the next battle, but errors in strategy can only be corrected in the next war.” His point, accurate then […]

I just finished an eight-day trip during which I drove a tad more than 2,700 miles and, for what it’s worth, here are some comments and thoughts on life in general and life in America… The trip was to attend the funeral Mass, and then the burial, of a dear friend, a Marine Colonel, named […]

The race isn’t always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong… but that’s the way to bet. – Hugh Keough (and Damon Runyon) The attempted assassination of former President Trump has now had a chance to settle in just a bit, and in capitals around the world I would suspect that there are […]

Author’s Note: Very gray very humid (Weather Underground says it 93% humidity… – Arrias Another Storm The wood is still, not a breath of air, Thick clouds, dark gray on gray, Dawn is still an hour off When the first raindrop falls today. One lone songbird greets first light, In the distance a dog barks, […]

Author’s Note: I wrote this after reading some accounts from Ukrainians who are getting ground down – they want their independence but they also fear their country is being destroyed, literally and politically, and there seems to be no way to, in practical terms, split the difference. The public face is very patriotic but there […]

Editor’s Note: NATO comes to our town as France is in turmoil over an election lurch left and wit a campaign in turmoil. That is being played out before a media that has been willfully blind. Arrias takes on that issue this morning! – Vic To the Main Stream Media: Thank You! I’ll begin by […]

Paul Revere Patriot, Horseman and Industrialist I started writing this in early April but somehow was sidetracked. But as this fellow was a key player at the beginning, he is worth remembering on our nation’s birthday. Years ago we had a neighbor, Mr. Charles Bradford. He was a direct descendant of Governor Bradford, of Mayflower […]

I spend a good deal of time trying to make sense of the war in Ukraine. Over the course of the last 28 months the war has changed, expanded, and is slowly but surely escalating as more and more ideas are creeping into planning cells: leaders in France, Poland and the Baltic states have suggested […]

We are 120 weeks into the war in Ukraine, a peace conference begins in a week in Switzerland (at which only one side is represented), and the war continues to evolve. But there are some lessons we can draw from the war, and perhaps some hints of what the future may hold. None of these […]