Author: Vic Socotra

Arrias:  Action or Reaction?

In virtually any situation, from sports to geo-politics, you can usually parse things down to one major actor and a whole bunch of reactors. There may also be spectators, but usually they’re reacting as well. For the US, as the world’s preeminent great power, maintaining some level of stability requires that we stay in front […]

LIFE AND LITERARY TIMES

The Snake Ranch Papers is one of those things that has followed us around since 1981. There was a time when triplicate forms were used in order to provide “carbon” and “file” copies to normal correspondence. That limited distribution to a very small group and provided safety that would have saved at least one career […]

The Fog of War

The Chief Executive of a big nation made impromptu remarks on his return from Israel the other evening. We had not intended to view the show, but like other events in this amazing comprehensive political campaign it did not work out that way. Instead, the program was run twice more over last weekend and we […]

Extra! Extra!

Wish something would break in some kind of easement to peace, you know? We woke to expect more announcements of conflict this morning. You know what we are talking about. The unsettled nature of who is at war with whom with still hot, and we could sure use an epiphany. We will see how this […]

Life During Wartime

We couldn’t avoid talking about some of the people we used to talk about this morning. It was funny about the timing of some of the whimsy about the latest war that made us think of an earlier one. Not a hysterical response, mind you, but the mid-1970s were years we shared at the start […]

Weather Report: Congressional Chaos

We seem to have stumbled into the Autumn with a vengeance. We are not sure how it could have been prevented or altered to make it a less painful process. We do enjoy the one time in the working week that we can sigh, turn to face the production crew and say: “Yeah, all this […]

The Next Carrington Event

The New War is heading toward status as a continuing event. Headline? “Iran warns Israel of Preemptive Action!” Soon! That includes not only Hamas in the Gaza Strip but Hezbollah fighters launching rockets from Lebanon in the north. This Saturday may have a little breathing room as the three or four powers in contact align […]

Arrias: Club Gaza

Author’s Note: I know this is impossible, but it really needs to be said… While the Israelis pursue their plan to sweep through Gaza, the question that bugs me is this: what is the long term solution to the Gaza Strip? As I see it, there are four major paths forward for Gaza – in […]

Arrias: Rest in Peace, Mr. Smith

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Just needed to say this… – ARRIAS A good man passed away the other day… I’ll call him Mr. Smith. He deserves, as much as is possible, given his career, a note on his passing. You don’t know him, and in all likelihood you never will. He worked for one of those organizations […]

Any Doubts?

Despite the fact that it is clearly not Saturday, there was the usual modicum of disbelief in the assertion that it is the Day of Prayer and rest. Correspondent Trey Yingst apparently got some sleep after working the first 73 hours of the conflict and other media figures were flown into the region to explain […]