"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
This entry was posted by my co-blogger Dick, a writer and former squadron mate: I don’t have any trouble calling it “The War on Terrorism” and don’t want to get wrapped around the axle as to what it is and isn’t. For the most part, people accept it is not a “war” in the conventional […]
Motorcyclists know that Sturgis – properly, the Black Hills Motorcycle Rally – is next week (August 8-14). Those of you who’ve been reading my personal entries know that I’m delivering motorhomes for an RV dealership. Here’s how those two things are related: Tomorrow morning I’ll leave Tucson in a new motorhome, bound for Sturgis, South […]
This entry was posted by my co-blogger Dick, a writer and former squadron mate: For the record, I was in the pit of Stormy’s F-15 when Paul flew his flight lead check out of Soesterberg, like in 1981 or there abouts. That mission told me all I needed to know about Skid. Yeah, he had […]
I want to comment on two articles I read in the New York Times. The first article is about random bag searches in NYC subway stations: Privacy Rights Are at Issue in New Policy on Searches As the New York Police Department begins randomly checking the bags and backpacks of people entering the city’s subway […]
Yesterday was the day the Defense Department, under court order, was supposed to release the rest of the Abu Ghraib photos and videos – the really bad ones (which we all just can’t wait to see). But the government refused to turn them over and is filing new appeals, arguing that their release will threaten […]
Several years ago, when I was chief of flight safety for one of the USAF’s major air commands, I was ordered to interfere in an ongoing major aircraft mishap investigation. My mission was to shift the investigation from the track it was on (the right one) to another track (a false one). Some explanations are […]
I should know better than to pontificate on terrorism within hours of a terrorist attack, as I did in my 7/7 entry, below. For example, writing about beheading Al Qaeda by taking out Osama bin Laden: what the hell do I know? This particular snake may very well live on without a head. And yet […]
Al Qaeda attacked the USA in 1993 (the first World Trade Center bombing), 1998 (the simultaneous bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania), 2000 (the bombing of the USS Cole in Aden), and 2001 (the 9/11 attacks in New York City and Washington DC). Al Qaeda attacked Bali (and through Bali, Australia) in 2002. […]