(Poet and Empire story-teller Rudyard Kipling) Editor’s Note: In view of our renewed commitment to Afghanistan, it is worth re-visiting Rudyard Kipling, Poet Laureate of the British Empir, and recall his thoughts about the troops and service in that troubled land…and America’s longest war. – Vic Troop in’ (Our Army in the East) Troopin’, troopin’, […]

Yeah, another nuclear test from the NORKs, and warning of another atomic conflict, but they shouldn’t do the demonstration over Labor Day. It is wasting time. It is like they don’t get the news cycle and the popular attention span here in America. Let’s concentrate on things that matter. Yeah, I know summer doesn’t officially […]

The Cajun Navy stepped up, revealing the real America that the media doesn’t tell us about- wrong ‘meme,’ whatever that word means. I was never that clear on it. Steely Dan had a distinct voice- meme, message, whatever, but that is gone this morning since half of them- Walter Becker, 67- are now dead. I […]

I awoke way too early, and on my way to the end of the Internet, was only moderately surprised to see the North Koreans had apparently tested another nuclear device. I don’t think they realize we are not paying much attention to it, since we have plenty of stuff to occupy us right here, what […]

I really can’t get the cognitive dissonance out of my mind this afternoon between the concept of natural disaster and inimical evil. The North Koreans are launching missiles in a manner that suggests they would like the option of turning someplace like Los Angeles into a molten slag. I am aware there could be a […]

Editor’s Note: It is car show season, though it has been a cool summer here in DC, and I regret not getting out there to see the magnificent vehicles that have survived, based on the passion their owners and aficionados have for them. Me? I am a Rambler kid. This is from peripatetic contributor Jim, […]

Events near and far shaped a week that contained despair and inspiration- and contained news that increasingly seems to come from the satiric site The Onion rather than real news organizations. The breathless account of the First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS- says so on her ball-cap) and her choice of footwear seemed to […]

Life is still good in Northern Virginia. I am going swimming this afternoon, rain will not be here for another several hours, I have no statues in my neighborhood, and no one is marching around. Certainly not the way tropical storm Harvey is stomping on and punishing Texas, which has changed and my whole idea […]

(Looking and feeling my best on a Sunday morning). I sent along one of Arrias’s fine ruminations this morning about what happened after the American Civil War. It was an affirmation of how the wounds of a nation could be bound up, and let the healing begin. It was particularly poignant, considering the current hysteria […]

How the heck did it get to be Wednesday again? Dog Days of August and the uneasy realization that the pool is going to close in less than two weeks. At least one problem is deferred: Congress is back home raising money, and not much is happening here in the muddy flats by the Potomac. […]