Category: DailySocotra

Durban Poison

“The only real solution to climate change is to leave the oil in the soil, coal in the hole and tar sands in the land.“ – Ivonne Yanez, Acción Ecologica, Ecuador I had that dream again last night, or at least a familiar variant of it. It was not the running dream, but close enough. […]

The One Percent

I went to The Game yesterday. You know, the Army-Navy game kicked ass yesterday. Cold, cold, cold, but kick-ass. The storied rivalry is usually played in the City of Brotherly Love, that being a major venue about half-way between West Point and Annapolis. That makes it a little out of the way to go, being […]

Deep Cleansing Breath

This may be the most exciting time to be an alarmist in recent human history. You have to qualify that statement a bit, and I defer to my pal Mac on that. By that I mean that Raven and Big Mama can no longer talk about what it was like to be young and living […]

Dead Poet

I walked over to Willow for lunch yesterday. I normally eat at the desk, but I wanted to raise a glass of wine yesterday to honor the exact minute of the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was raining, a chill dank penetrating mist that made me unzip the hood concealed […]

12:55 EST

(Mitsubishi A6M Zero-sen and moth.) So, Annook writes to Spike and me last night, wondering if Big Mama could benefit from having a cat. Apparently she thinks that would address some of the engagement issues that are cropping up as the Turner Classic Movie Channel increasingly becomes the mainstream of her cognitive reality. She is […]

Small Business

  “Nice Christmas card,” I said, as I walked into Willow and saw Old Jim as his customary position at the apex of the Amen Corner. I was surprised to see his lovely wife Mary with him. She normally joins the barflies as a work in progress in her downtown grown-up suit. This evening she […]

Indaba

“Working Together, Saving Tomorrow Today.” Motto of the COP-17 Climate Meeting at Durban Man, there is a lot to consider as we plunge into this week. Annook is in the Little Village by the Bay, and reports that Big Mama is settling into life without the peripatetic Raven. That is good news, and may have […]

Joy to the World

04 December 2011 It is bright and sunny here this fine December day, and the sky is a pleasant robin’s egg blue. Temperatures are likely to hover in the mid-fifties, and the road beckons, just like it did yesterday. I couldn’t do much about it, though, since there had too much crap piled up in […]

A Touching Reunion for Swifties, NILOs and a Cambodian Agent

After his rescue by Swifties, Cambodian Senyint Chim (center) went to work for Naval Intelligence. He is seen in this 1970 picture with his Naval Intelligence Liaison Officer, LCDR Jack Herriott (in glasses, along with other NIOLS and agent who taught Senyint how to pretend to be a smuggler, and directed his intelligence collection operations. […]

Central Planning

I was going to compare the Lustron Enamel-baked steel houses of 1948 to Solyndra this morning. Or maybe the Chevy Volt. All of them come from the miracle of central planning, which is how a command economy works, or doesn’t, as the case may be. Central Planning takes policy and applies it to consumer demand. […]