Jim Mueller is a peripatetic traveler, NIP Stalwart and regular contributor to the NIP Quarterly. Earlier this month, he visited the Farnborough International Airshow, a week-long event that combines a major trade exhibition for the aerospace and defense global conglomerates. It is modestly known by it’s promoters as THE WORLDS GREATEST AIRSHOW. In the days […]

It has been quite chaotic over the last couple weeks, what with the remarkable and depressing international, national, professional and personal threats to good order and discipline. One of my more mundane challenges has been to port over Microsoft Office Outlook to manage my calendar and incoming messages from a different computer network. I don’t […]

Funerals at Arlington are a strange two-part affair. The first event is the stunner- the one in which you discover that an old pal or professional acquaintance has passed from this world to another. There is a grieving family, a memorial service, and tears. Then the matter is turned over to the Cemetery Administration for […]

I hate to do this to you guys, but it really was a nice event. It was a glorious afternoon- sultry but not overwhelming- and we had just buried The Judge a couple hours before at Arlington. Too many people passing these days. I was unsettled. The company I abruptly quit after almost nine years […]

I was parked out in front of Front Page last night- I had come from my first meeting with the management team of the concern where I will now be working, so I was wearing smart-casual for a change. I had ensured that I was legally parked, since that can be problematic with all those […]

Not content to just deal with the hysterical pandemonium surrounding this surreal election, or the rising tide of social unrest that seems to threaten the dissolution of life in the West, I decided to put what is left of my professional life into the Waring blender, punch the button for “Frappe,” and see what would […]

No, I am not talking about a Ukrainian drug smuggler. I am talking about the tasty and refreshing summer cocktail to enjoy as the Republic shows signs of collapse all around. I think the way to get through the GOP convention in Cleveland this week is vodka, plenty of it and keep it coming. Given […]

I thought we were done with senseless violence and murder this week, but I guess I was wrong. I had just climbed out of the pool. I wanted to get the cardio workout done and out of the way on what promised to be a spectacular edition of gem of a day in July. I […]

Well, I will be hornswoggled. We got tagged, and are official locals at the Front Page. It was a Friday crowd and we were drinking and watching the dozen or so flat screens to see of the BLM protests scheduled for that evening were real, or some hoax perpetrated to stir up trouble. I have […]

This is a sad, but necessary read, forwarded to me from a retired senior officer. I read it in disbelief. The alternative was to write about the other elephant this has taken up residence in our collective living room, and to that I can only offer my sympathy to the people of Nice, and say […]