Year: 2017

Life & Island Times: I Went to a Party

Author’s note: Since returning yesterday from my third and youngest grandchild’s high school graduation in northern Indiana, I have been thinking and researching a piece on the capitol beltway’s little emperor class and the self serving drama piece they are performing for us. Fortunately, a blast for the past and Noel Coward came to my […]

Postcard from the Swamp #5

Swamp Update OK- we are all jet-lagged here in the Swamp, every one of us, though in varying degrees. There were a hundred thousand or more people on the Nation’s Front Yard down at the mall all day yesterday to take in the Capitol 4th show. I avoid crowds these days, and had a vague […]

Life & Island Times: Seen Around Savannah

Editor’s Note: This morning, Marlow touches on some of the things that make this great, chaotic, wonderful nation unique. Enjoy your 4th! The Parade in Culpeper starts at 4:00 PM! Fireworks to follow at the park! – Vic I am no scientist, just an interested observer. I am exploring our new neighborhood in Savannah much […]

Arrias on Politics: Serving the National Interest

The media spends a great deal of time these days in what can comfortably be described as howling at President Trump. At the same time they’ll tell you it’s their responsibility to serve and defend the national interest, “humbly” reminding us it’s their “duty to seek the truth” and “to speak truth to power.” So, […]

Life & Island Times: History 3.0

July 2 2017 With the advent of Amazon and Google enabling fast searches of digitized books and periodicals and early Version 1.0 social media tracking of every errant thought, photo and text back in the early 21st century (I date this back to before Facebook – somewhere in 2002 and 2003), we entered History 2.0. […]

Air Intelligence

This being the eve of the nation’s birthday, some of the usual suspects have been talking about the foibles of cruises-past, when we were in the best Fleet in the world. I got to USS Midway (CV-41) in 1978, and I learned my trade at the knee of the Magnificent Vinnie and CVIC Asst. Rich […]

Emerald City Stroll

I was feeing pretty good for a Sunday morning. A little sunburned from the afternoon at the pool, but I had to be downtown fairly early, since I was meeting a group from Oz to give a waking tour of the landmarks near the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue. It is only appropriate, since […]

Life & Island Times: War is Over

Author’s note: Breaking news on the back pages of today’s morning newspapers says the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee voted in a bipartisan fashion yesterday to rescind the 2001 authorization for the use of military force that underlays much of the past 16 years of American warring. The ostensible reason for this was reported […]

Postcard From the Swamp #4

Considering the pace of breaking news over the last six months, things seem to be cooling a bit as we head into the Congressional recess and the 4th of July holiday. Dribbling out this weekend include a raft of Supreme Court interim decisions, some questions about what the current (and previous) Administration knew about the […]

Life & Island Times: Hellhound Blues

Author’s note: Just when I didn’t think it could get any weirder, voters have started telling their representatives to stop with all the Russian stuff and start legislating and our imperial city’s newspaper details a long story on the Russian’s two year campaign to hack the 2016 American presidential election in which one prior administration […]