"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
You really never leave
From Wikipedia: The “Powell Doctrine” is a journalist-created term, named after General Colin Powell in the run-up to the 1990-1991 Gulf War . . . The Powell Doctrine states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States: Is a vital national security interest […]
I’ve been away, attending a weekend hashing event in Colorado, shirking my duties as a blogger. We’re only just home . . . still unpacking, in fact . . . so this entry will be disorganized and short. Passing through Albuquerque last Thursday on our drive north, I heard on the radio that some New […]
The media occasionally report on Christian evangelicalism and proselytization in the military services, particularly at the military academies. One journalist who tracks stories about non-believing and minority religion servicemembers coerced into Christian worship is Ed Brayton, who blogs about this and other issues at Dispatches from the Culture Wars. Last week he published a letter […]
Or . . . stealthy and expensive mega-guns? I’ve been trying to think of something intelligent to contribute to the ongoing debate over future production of the F-22 Raptor. President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates want to cap production at 187 aircraft, the number currently funded. Congressmen and senators from F-22 producing districts […]
Keith Olbermann calls for a boycott of Fox News. Boycott how? Here’s how: when you find yourself in a bar or restaurant with the TV set to Fox News, find an owner or manager and tell him you’ll take your business elsewhere if he doesn’t change the channel, and calmly explain why. Keith then lists […]
It’s Memorial Day. My father died on this day, two years ago. Some time after his death I posted a letter of his to this blog. The letter was about his WWII service as a US Navy Armed Guard gunner aboard the MS Chester Sun, a civilian tanker. Just today, I received an email from […]
First it was Arthur Godfrey, now this. RV parks and barbershops everywhere will be draped in black. I grew up with Paul Harvey on the radio, and must admit I enjoyed his staccato delivery and homespun manner. At some point, of course, I realized “homespun” encompassed a lot of hatred. Hatred of blacks, of hippies, […]
One of the men I flew with in the early 1980s, Dave Baker, died last Thursday. We called him Bull; I blogged about him a few months ago. Bull had been a prisoner of war; captured and held after being shot down in Cambodia near the end of the war in Vietnam. They teach you […]