Some years ago, my friend Ken, who grew up in the rural southland of our great nation, introduced me to an expression I had never heard before. He proceeded to explain the meaning of the phrase “come up a big cloud.” That’s the way his part of the old south Read more…
Summer is a good time to think. Life is busy. As the Nationwide Insurance commercial said, “life comes at you fast.” And at that speed, it tees up challenges to address quicker than you can dispense with them. Fortunately, after you retire, you have more time to think about things. I Read more…
I love the summer. As I get older, winter wears on me. And while spring breaks the cycle of frigid days, it can be wet and chilly. Fall is actually my favorite season, particularly in Virginia where the changing of the season explodes into a bouquet of colors. But summer Read more…
What is at stake in 2024 aside from our sanity? If you are like me, you are just about fed up with all of the meaningless and exaggerated rhetoric that is bandied about with no regard for accuracy. Let’s consider a few phrases: Real (Fill-in-the-Blank) for Real People We often Read more…
Our current political landscape is pocked with the craters of political warfare that resemble the battlefields of WWI. Let’s explore this by delving into four keywords. Likability There’s no question that likability is a good trait to possess as a politician. I tried to keep that front of mind when Read more…
When I was growing up, there were three national television networks. The National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC,) the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and American Broadcasting Company (ABC). We also had a public television channel, which was largely devoted to public education back when education wasn’t indoctrination. I recall how people would Read more…
Looking around the world these days, it’s easy to agree with those who say this is our 1938 moment. By then Japan and China were already at war. Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 while most European powers did precious little to oppose that aggression. Consequently, Hitler asserted claims over the Sudetenland, Read more…
Sometimes I wonder if we have lost our nation to infantile and spoiled brats who think they are sufficiently knowledgeable of world events when in fact they are narrow-minded—and lately—profoundly anti-Semitic. I speak of the Hamas apologists who have brought violence to our intellectually castrated university campuses across the country. Read more…
After years of fighting counterinsurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US Army has a tough mission ahead of it. During those counterinsurgency years—some of which continues today as we keep a lid on any resurgence of ISIS—the US Army engaged in a combination of urban warfare and search and Read more…
Yesterday, Virginia could not agree on a budget for the next two years. So, the Governor and both sides agreed to symbolically meet in the epicenter of the Capitol in the shadow of Geroge Washington’s statue and plot a way forward. That path will take the General Assembly into a Read more…