Aspirin There are some smart Bad Guys. That should come as no surprise, though that is not the popular image of the terrorist. We tend to think of the fundamentalist fanatic, focused, to be sure, but not very bright. That is not useful shorthand, though it is convenient. One of the baddest of the Bad […]

Quality Assurance I filled out the quality assurance questionnaire from the Financial Services company that enabled my latest foray into the world of real estate speculation. You know, the regionally frothy market that Mr. Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Fed, talked about in testimony to Congress this week. The finance company wanted to know if […]

Year Round Governance It is the last day I will be able to say I am not, and never have been, fifty-four years of age. Thank goodness it is not one of the round numbers I would have to think about. Still, almost-birthdays are times to take stock, and examine one’s life. It is said […]

Convergence I nearly coughed up my cornflakes when I heard the latest on the Canadian terror cell, the one that was going to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The righteous young men were arraigned yesterday, and the Commonwealth attorney said that they had intended to kidnap the Canadian Prime Minister and behead him. In […]

Point of No Return It is the anniversary of the The Day that the Allies went across the Channel and opened the second front against Hitler. Mr. Churchill was nervous about the prospects for success. If this gamble failed, it would set back the war effort for years. It was a point of no return […]

Union The Dutch trashed the new constitution even more thoroughly than the French did. Over sixty-one percent of them voted against the European Constitution. Commentators on that side of the Atlantic claim this is the most significant event since the end of the Cold War. It means all sorts of things, I imagine, including deep-rooted […]

The Bureau Man, did the memories start flooding back. The family is saying that they let the cat out of the bag because their patriarch is a hero. The man who skulked around the parking garage chain-smoking Pall Mall cigarettes has been unmasked by his own hand. The man who guided the slow-motion fall of […]

Double Monday It could be a lot worse, though it is a double Monday, and I have a full-scope polygraph scheduled this week. It is a double Monday because all the things that should have happened yesterday will happen today, along with everything that was going to happen anyway. I don’t know if it is […]

Rolling Thunder “Vive la France ,” is all I can say this morning. Well over half the voting electorate turned down the opportunity to approve the new Constitution of the European Union. The nation that came up with the European Union has turned down the document that would codify it. It is not left to […]

Shelf Life Latin strongmen come in various shapes and sizes and with indefinite shelf-lives. I am tempted to make a comparison between the length of the regime with the height of the strongman- tall Castro versus squat Noriega, for example- but that would be misleading. There is much more to it, and I would be curious to […]