I had a case of the flu or something that came on hard just as we thought we had a deal on the Budget. As it turned out, there was some petulance expressed on both sides about promises made and ignored. There was bluster and a member of the President’s party on the floor of […]

Here is the second part of the story about my experiences in dealing with the Russians, this time the return trip in 1995. In the true sense of contrasting the difference between two cities, Part One was more centered on Moscow; the highlights of Part Two center more on St. Petersburg. In that regard, allow […]

Editor’s Note: We lurch into the second day of the Federal Government Shutdown. Days ago, we wondered if anyone would notice if the Feds were not working. It suddenly comes to a dramatic revelation: the Commonwealth of Virginia maintains it historic blue laws on the commercial sale of bonded spirits on Sundays.Naturally, this does not […]

What If A North Korean Missile Hit Something In or Around Japan? Editor’s Note: I got a call on Saturday from Honolulu from my son saying it might be his last call, since missiles were inbound. It brought back memories of the calls from the jets and the towers on 9/11. Hard stuff. – Vic […]

平成30年1月16日 = (30th Year of HEISEI Era, 1st Month, 16th Day) – – – – – = This week’s poem: The Way It Happens Sometimes the best Things a day can confer, Have no reason, They simply occur, And the rest Is just a blur… { From my Blog: https://carllafong.blogspot.jp } – – – – […]

Do you suppose anyone would notice if the Government actually shut down at Midnight this Friday? So much stuff flying around this week, including the snow that always panics residents of the Swamp. We got only a dusting in placid Arlington, with the heavier concentration to the east in Maryland. Traffic was predictably awful regardless, […]

Well, I suppose it was more like a phone call from Detroit, circa 1960. I was dozing in the brown chair, watching the cable news and watching the new cold air chase away the moisture of the temporary January thaw. 1960 was the year that our Scout Troop (#1032, Methodist Church, Lincoln St, Birmingham, MI) […]

It was pick-up day. The on-line auction was done, the winners notified, and man, I was sweating this one- suppose I forgot? That has happened more frequently than I like to admit over the holidays. I treasure my friends, not to mention the rigid professional obligations of the last almost 41 years of service. But […]

OK- the lights, decorations and the world’s most bedraggled artificial tree have been nestled in the storage locker with care, and it is time to deal with the Bold New Year. California got smacked again- earthquake near Berkeley and then an intense rainstorm that brought down some of the hillsides in the areas that had […]

COMMENT: Happy New Year all — I pulled this one out of the internet news data torrent, just to allow some focus on what the article reports, and, perhaps more importantly, what it implies and portends. In my experience, Japan’s mainstream Yomiuri Shimbun seems to have pretty deep source connections into the Japanese government, and […]