I was reading the National Intelligence Estimate on the war in Iraq this week. It wasn’t the whole thing, just the key judgment section, but trust me, these things are dry as dust. The controversy made it interesting though, and I have never seen anything go from Tippy-top secret to the office e-mail so fast! […]

For most of us, this is a week that seems like most others on the green banks of the Potomac. If you looked at Washington from high above, you might not see anything unusual. Perhaps you would notice more helicopters darting back and forth, aluminum dragonflies that know no season. The increased security would be […]

Key Judgments The Waffle Shop is not a WiFi hot spot. It would never occur to management to encourage the transients to linger at the serpentine white Formica counter a moment longer than it takes to slurp down their coffee, black, and mop up the yolks of their eggs, easy-over, with the toasted white bread […]

Revealed Truth The threat of terrorism has increased because of the Iraq war, which has attracted foreign fighters. This is revealed truth, or at least revealed classified opinion. I was electrified Sunday when I heard all the talking heads analyzing a document they are not supposed to see. It is a huge story, even if […]

Dick is not always available when I need him. Sometimes I catch him out of the corner of my eye, in the brown chair fabric chair that came from his house in Pennsylvania. Not the one with the cushion that is still square. The one that is a little lumpy from long use, and where […]

Full Spectrum I walked out of Union Station completely unaware of the sticking point. The vast marble bulk of the train station was behind me, tourists jamming the concourse the runs between the Metro and the real trains. The Phoenix Park Hotel, home of the Dubliner bar, was on my right. Fish and Chips and […]

20 September 2006 The Rapture The Times has surrendered, as I knew they would. It doesn’t matter whether the Pope had a point in bringing up what it was like in a time before the Eastern Empire was put to the sword, given the choice of conversion or slavery. The Holy Father is in an […]

Religious fanatics attacked me yesterday, using all the media at their disposal. A friend found herself doing something she had not done since the 10th of September 2001. It rattled her, and to a degree, it upset me, too. I don’t trust my emotions as much as I once did. I had the willies that […]

Oxytocin I was out by the pool, shivering as I toweled off under the leaden sky. Peter, the owner-manager of the Deep Blue swimming empire, had ceased his occasional glances across the deep end to see if I was still afloat. His phone chirped periodically as other pools checked in, and schedules and time cards […]

Santa Esmerelda OK, so I blew it. I was tired from the week and should have gone down. I was pretty good about moving up my bedtime, and I had a resolution to do the same that night. There was a great movie on, the astonishingly violent Quentin Tarantino vehicle “Kill Bill, Volume 1.” I […]