Category: politics
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Waterboarding
I don’t like me-too blogs but every once in awhile, someone writes on a topic in a way that exactly captures my own feeling, a way that I could never match, much less trump. This piece by Joe Galloway is one such. My God, how did we come to a point when Senators and Representatives…
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Recycled: Just Wrong
Long before this blog, I kept an equally-erratic literary journal called A Voice in the Wilderness. And while nothing written there was particularly world-shattering, I don’t want it to get lost in the mists of cyberspace. So to do my part to save the planet, I’m going to recycle and reuse that content, putting the…
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Alternate History: The Speech that Wasn’t
In preparing my second Convocation speech, I spent most of the summer at a loss. Once I had changed apartments, I sat down in earnest. Eventually, I ended up jettisoning my original effort and producing the speech as given. But in case you wonder what could have been, below I’ll post the speech I nearly…
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Faith in an Age of Fear
Today the Hun School had its second annual Convocation to commence the year. As the current holder of the Distinguished Faculty Endowed Chair, it fell to me to present a speech. (I did this last year, too; you can find that speech online.) The text of this second speech can be found below the fold.
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Worrisome Phrase
In reading this AP News story on the upcoming speech by the President, I came across the following: Bush and his senior advisers are likely to hear the initial thinking from Ryan Crocker, Bush’s envoy in Baghdad [emphasis added] Isn’t Ryan Crocker the accredited ambassador to Iraq? Confirmed and empowered, one would hope, by the…
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Another propaganda poster
As has been usual, this is another exhortation to “Work to Win”. My “study” of WWI and WWII posters indicates that almost all fell into the “Work harder” or “Buy more bonds” categories. True to form, this poster says, “Victory up here… begins down here“. Overhead are a Retro Rocketship and a DV snub fighter.…
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The financial hardship of serving one’s country
You have to feel bad for poor Tony Snow, Press Secretary to President Bush. You see, Tony really really loves the job — he’s full of passion for it — but darn it, he just can’t afford to fight the good fight anymore. According to reports on CNN and the AP, Tony will have to…
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The Mongrel Dogs at Sea (12): From Arizona to Missouri
Seven days ago I had the opportunity to relive the American experience in the Second World War in one morning. In reverse. As part of the Regal Princess‘ stop at the port of Honolulu, I took part in a tour of the memorials to the USS Arizona and USS Missouri. In case your command of…
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The Mongrel Dogs at Sea (6): Security Silliness
I was going to write today about my visit to the USS Arizona and USS Missouri memorials and how moving it was. I suppose I’ll get to that, though maybe not today. Right now I’m going to blog about one of the deepening madnesses of the 21st century, the traveler security checkpoint. Let me say…
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The Mongrel Dogs at Sea: Constitutional Cowardice
Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Were he still living, he might well amend that to be the definition of “Democrat”. Although, truthfully, there seems to be less and less difference between being a Democrat and being insane. And I say that as a…