The only mountains in Ukraine are in the west (the border with Romania), the Carpathian Mountains. Most of the rest of Ukraine is either steppe – grassland – or woods. Much of the forest has long since been converted into farmland and it was across the farms of Ukraine that German tanks swept with great […]

If you dig around on the subject of Thanksgiving you will eventually find that the first one celebrated in what was to become the United States was celebrated in Virginia in 1608 when some Polish glass blowers, some British farmers and some Powhatan Indians (who were actually Algonquians) held a celebratory dinner after the harvest […]

A number of years ago I testified at a murder trial. As with the Rittenhouse trial, there was no question as to whether the defendant had committed the physical act, rather the issue was why, what was his mental state, etc. Without getting into specifics, the striking thing was the work-a-day nature of it all. […]

Editor’s Note: It is Fall in Virginia’s Piedmont, and Arrias has released his poetic muse to capture the magic of the season. Expect a complete volume of his verse. – Vic The Artist Speaks I have never seen the leaves so bright, I’ve never seen such a glorious fall, Reds and greens and gold, More […]

China is not Colombia. That is, you might say, a blinding flash of the obvious. But the illegal drugs that flow out of Colombia and into the United States do so despite the efforts of the Colombian government. China is different; China is a country controlled entirely by the Communist Party (CCP). Certainly, there are […]

Major General Patrick Jay Hurley. Veteran’s Day – Remembering One Veteran Veterans Day – a time to remember; so here is the tale of a veteran who, one can fairly say, lived a full life. It is a scene straight out of Hollywood: the JAG (Judge Advocate General – military lawyer) volunteering to conduct a […]

June 22, 1893, in the Eastern Mediterranean; Vice Admiral George Tryon, Commander-in-Chief of Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet, was at sea with his 8 pre-Dreadnought battleships and 5 cruisers, conducting maneuvers. Tryon was a believer in drills and maneuvers, ever more complicated maneuvers; 22rd of June was no exception.  And so, on that calm, sunny Thursday […]

First, a tip of the hat to President Biden; his comments that the US will defend Taiwan from attack are an excellent first step towards preventing war in East Asia. However, comments by members of his cabinet and other members of his staff attempting to explain “what the President meant to say,” are at best […]

There was a very entertaining movie made in 1967 that was a satirical attempt to “tap” into the growing paranoia that the “Government” was spying on Americans. The movie was “The President’s Analyst, and the evil antagonist in the movie was “TPC,” “The Phone Company,” a huge, all knowing, omnipresent technological marvel that worked hand-in-glove […]

 When I was in college I had a pal who was a few years older than me; he had been in the Army and did an 11 month tour of duty in Vietnam. He told me a story about how he had returned on a flight to the US in a plane filled with GIs, […]