Goodness, Gentle Readers, what a strange week! I drove up to Greenfield, Mass, last Thursday afternoon to attend my brother’s wedding. It was a joyful trip, meeting the new family with fabulous weather. My lovely cousins made it up to the event from Florida after perilous adventures in Air Transport, including de-planing a couple times […]

Well, you can’t say this is the doldrums here in the soggy bottom of the nation’s Swamp. The President has decided to upgrade us to a “cesspool,” or a “sewer,” whichever is more appealing at the moment. The GOP is at war with itself, and the Dems, bless their hearts, have come up with a […]

Whether the living is easy is a matter up for debate. I have to say, in my half century in looking at how our country is doing, I have never been so unsettled. I am one of those who grew up with the certainty of Ike Eisenhower and never thought we could go so far […]

Swamp Postcard Yep- it is Wednesday again, and time to update the postcard from The Swamp, where the Deep State appears to have successfully prevented anyone from doing anything to lower the water level. If anything, it seems to be getting deeper…and I don’t mean that as a metaphor. If anyone had set out to […]

I have been a little slow off the mark the last couple weeks- I know many have noted it and I feel bad. I have been doing this morning blogging thing now for nearly twenty years, and the fodder of of chaos, national and international, in the government and out of it, has been entertaining […]

So, this is what retirement looks like? I looked at myself in the mirror this morning and came away a bit mad at the tousled gray hair. Not mad at myself, or not completely, but at what has become a new reality. Then retreated to the comfort of the comforter and read the morning incoming […]

Editor’s note: this is a re-post of a 1979 article based on a special request from a distinguished colleague who remembers when this stuff was actually true. If you can’t see the intrinsic respect in this for the people of the Republic of the Philippines, I failed to convey exactly how close and intimate our […]

Editor’s Note: Yeah, I know this is basically recycled, but I am only now coming to grips with the idea that the decade of Willow is well and truly past. There was a sense of family there, and I will always miss it. I had an interesting chat on Monday with one of the major […]

The heat index for The Swamp is going to be over 100 degrees today. Sounds like it might be time for everyone to cool off and do something about health care- 20% of the gigantic US economy- and for other people to cease “resisting” whatever it is that so infuriates them. Just an opinion here, […]

Editor’s Note: The Goat Locker is where the Navy and Coast Guard Chiefs hang out on naval ships or revenue cutters underway. It is an honor (or horror) to be invited there, depending on your rank. But we all know who runs this complex business. And they always have. This is from my retired Master […]