Killing the Messenger

From an article titled State of Terror, written by Keith Gessen and published by The New Yorker on November 6, 2017: Stalin soon began to receive warnings of an imminent German invasion. Despite the ravages of the Terror, his anti-Nazi spy network was still the best in the world. Hitler issued a top-secret order for […]

Tuesday Whiff o’ Putin

From a blog post I wrote on November 15th, one week after the election: “To the conspiracy theorists: I never thought I’d join you, but something about this election stinks. Along with GOP redistricting, gerrymandering, and voter suppression, there’s more than a whiff of Russian manipulation of electronic vote results in a few key states. […]

Please Refrain from Wearing Blue Jeans

We’re going to the annual volunteer appreciation dinner at the air museum this week. Yesterday the organizer sent a list of last-minute instructions. One item stood out, and not in a good way: “This is a nice dinner, so please refrain from wearing blue jeans, shorts and such.” It was a crappy thing to say, and […]