If you’ve ever been on a US Navy ship, several times per day you’ll here a call over the 1MC (1 Main Comm – a “public address” system that goes to every compartment in the ship): “Sweepers, Sweepers, Man your brooms, give the ship a clean sweep down fore and aft. Sweep down all decks, […]

Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general, is well remembered for his virtually mystical performance on the battlefield. For 14 years he waged war against Rome and never lost an engagement – until the last one, the battle of Zama. And even then, his defeat was a direct result of the earlier betrayal by his ally of […]

The year began like any other, Full of hope, wonder, fear and surprises, Troubles and wars and rumors of war, And now another year arises. Last year was just the same in this, A bright future beckoned to all, What was possible or what would be, Just who would make that call? A New York […]

Sanctuary A Siberian beast stalks the high plains, From the mountains the frost giants descend, Scouring the land before them, In their storm-blast mighty trees will bend. Alone on the plain a dacha stands, Proof against the cruelest gale, The Master and the Mistress of this house, Sip their cognac, they will prevail. A cheery […]

Author’s Note: My Muse in somber mood this morning… Wading through a host of reports on Ukraine, the fighting around Bakhmut seems to be growing in intensity, and the trench warfare is getting nastier and nastier as the weather gets colder, and yet there is a story in one of the big foreign policy journals that that […]

Author’s Note: My Muse was active… A dream I did not want to wake up from… someplace hot on a cold winter morning… -Arrias Spice Souq I was buying shelled pistachios, Some cloves from Zanzibar, And a pound of dried pear, A jar of Tumeric, Nutmeg from Pemang, When I saw her standing there. A […]

Author’s Note: My Muse showed up again this morning… chilly for mid November… The puppies had me up and out early, but “too cold” to hear any of the birds as my field guide so informed me… – Arrias A thick hoar frost, A cold, hard ground, A thin, bright crescent moon, Frozen grass crunches […]

Among those elites who would shape our view of things there is a meme that they like to intone, in an often condescending voice: democracy dies in darkness. It has even made it into several movies. The problem, of course, is that we don’t live in a democracy; we live in a republic. And the […]

Sky Girl Editor’s Note: These eyes started looking at me on the Secretary’s hallway at the Department of Health and Human Services. She hung by the elevator bank on the 4th Floor as “Sky Girl,” and helped us focus on the SARS-1 epidemic twenty years ago. The one where Dr. Tony Fauci told us that […]

There’s a particularly brutal scene in the movie “The Untouchables” in which Al Capone (played to perfection by Robert De Niro), in front of all of his lieutenants, gives a short speech about “the team” and then beats one man to death with a baseball bat. If you haven’t seen it, go online and search […]