scottlingamfelter

Today’s Virginia Democrats have taken a page out of the playbook their forbearers used to disenfranchise a huge swath of Virginia’s population. Having foisted a despicable Gerrymandered congressional map on the Commonwealth, Democrats are now set to achieve a 10-to-1 advantage in the overall 11-seat delegation in the House of Representatives. Read more

Lying is not new.  It is rooted in our fallen nature as humans.  It shows up in many forms.  Prevaricating, quibbling, equivocating, paltering, dissembling, or fibbing— it’s all the same.  Only the degree differs.  The end state is untruth.  We have all lied at times.  Often, it involved disguising the Read more

I was 18 years old when Apollo 11 was launched on July 16, 1969, at 9:32 AM, carrying the first humans to land on the moon.  Three days later, the crew, Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, entered lunar orbit.  The Read more

Tomorrow I turn 75. (No applause, please.)  But feel free to buy my books. (See below!)  I’ll autograph it on my birthday for you.  Meanwhile, I’m very fortunate to be at this point.  There were times, including prostate cancer 22 years ago, when I wondered if my time had run Read more

A dear friend recently asked me, “How will the war end in Iran?”  I’m not an oracle, and despite having spent a full career as a soldier, I, like many of you, consume what I read and hear from the news and draw conclusions about what will happen. I suppose the Read more

In the sixteen years I served in the House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly, I learned a lot about legislating.  Among those lessons was to never assume you have a mandate that you don’t actually possess.  The hubris that accompanies a partisan victory, putting the entire legislature and Read more

The liberation of Iran is underway.  But just a week into this conflict, we are already hearing the voices of capitulation.  The opponents expostulate as a reflexive response.  They see the US-Israeli (now also Gulf nations) campaign against Iran as unwarranted and unjust.  It’s not.  It’s actually leadership that is Read more

Occasionally, I dust the shelves of my memory and think about things from the past.  This week, I was thinking about leadership.  At 74—and closing in on another year—I don’t do much leading.  Gone are the days of military glory and political noteworthiness.  Neither was a prominent feature of my Read more

If my father were alive today, he would be just shy of 111 years old.  He passed away 56 years ago when I was a 19-year-old first-year cadet—a Rat—at the Virginia Military Institute.  His death left an enormous hole in my life when I was hardly a man.  I have Read more

In Greek mythology, many themes still apply today.  Consider the quest to clean the Augean Stables.  The task was one among the “twelve labors” assigned to the Greek hero Heracles to accomplish.  The Augean Stables belonged to Augeas, the king of Elis, who kept 6,000 head of cattle there.  After Read more