If you were in the northern part of central Europe sixty-one years ago, you would be anticipating the end. The Allied armies were poised to link up at the Elbe River, and Germany was just about done. People were getting ready for what was next in most places. The conference to determine it had been […]

The Crossroads of Big Pink is the lobby, and in the congestion around the Concierge desk it is not uncommon to see several animals tugging on their leashes at any given time. Most of the dogs are pretty mellow, and have become accustomed to the bedlam in the late afternoon, when the mail has been […]

Back Up I had out-of-town guests- Corporate ones- and I could have done a better job of hosting them if I had input to their schedules. But of course I did not. That was controlled by executive secretaries in some other state, and a company alliance with a major hotel chain. It could be worse. […]

It is a round hundred years this morning since the earth moved under San Francisco. The quake lasted for a minute or so, and the ground slipped along the fault line for about 25 feet, releasing the tension that tugged on the rock and soil. The movement was fairly brief, and the adjustment was the […]

I don’t know what to worry about this morning. Prioritization is tough. By turns, I have been alarmed by an sharp piece of analysis on an argument that the loony government of Iran will not only acquire the Bomb, but use it expeditiously on Israel to cement leadership of a resurgent Islam. That occupied me […]

Master of Policy The Master of Policy is a man of small stature with merry eyes. They twinkle behind his gold-rimmed glasses. He is bald, though his forehead would be prominent in any case. Perhaps to make up for the deficiency in follicles to the north, his eyebrows have grown to astonishing length, wizard length, […]

The Sofa King A friend of mine sent me an e-mail with a picture embedded in the text. Technology has really marched on. It used to be that the pictures came as attachments to the e-mail files, and had to be downloaded separately. Hackers loved that. They could send intriguing spam notes out with purportedly […]

It is Holy Week, Palm Sunday, and I am going to church. A former colleague is singing the tenor part in Handle’s Messiah in a few hours at the Methodist church just across the parking lot. It will be the first time I have set foot in a sanctuary since at least 2001, perhaps longer. […]

General Mike Hayden, the senior intelligence officer on active duty, lectured his service on their approach to intelligence collection and analysis the other day. Mike had been pretty quiet since the tempest over NSA �wiretapping� began last year. Perhaps he feels it is safe to address something as innocuous as how his Service is handling […]

It is the anniversary of the second day of the battle of Shiloh, the battle in Tennessee that demonstrated the resolve of General U.S. Grant, and just how awful things were going to be when the large formations of armed men collided. Shiloh is the word is Hebrew for �place of peace.� My great-great Uncle […]