"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
In the news
First some background, from a post I wrote on 30 November 2010: Yesterday, listening to an NPR report on the DoD’s Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell survey of military personnel, it hit me that if gays are permitted to openly serve, the thorny issue of same-sex marriage will soon follow. I probably don’t know what I’m talking […]
In the wake of bin Laden’s death, political pressure is mounting for a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan. We were leaving anyway: Obama announced months ago that we are going to draw down force levels there, and we’re already in the process of bringing troops home from Iraq. What happens when the troops come home? Unless […]
Here’s a Facebook exchange from this morning. Everyone involved (including me) is from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, home town of local hero Rush Limbaugh. Apparently, this is how the folks in AM radio country are going to denigrate Obama’s leadership and great victory: We got Osama because George W. Bush put Afghanistan on the back burner […]
The news began to come in around 7:30 last night. I was losing interest in a violent, depressing prison movie, so I picked up my smart phone to skim the latest on Twitter. A few informed people, mostly news types, were just beginning to tweet about Osama bin Laden’s possible death. Over the next half […]
From the news desk of the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea Central News Agency: Dancing Parties of Youth and Students Held Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) Dancing parties of youth and students took place in different parts of the country Monday on the army day. They began to the tune of “Long Live Generalissimo Kim Il […]
I took my last US Air Force physical this morning. No, I’m no longer on active duty, but for the last 13 years I’ve gotten my medical care from USAF doctors at the Davis-Monthan AFB clinic here in Tucson. When I turn 65 later this year, I’ll go on Medicare like everyone else and will […]
That Michigan state senator who wants to force foster children to wear only hand-me-downs because he personally “never had anything new”? Detroit journalist and blogger Nancy Nall has this to say about him: Caswell is 61. He “never” had anything new. So why should anyone else? Look what it did for him: He graduated from […]
From a USA Today article published 8/9/2004: “A year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Justice Department obtained video surveillance tapes suggesting terrorists were targeting Las Vegas casinos but authorities never alerted the public as they discussed whether a warning might hurt tourism or increase the casinos’ legal liability, internal memos show.” I blogged about […]