The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my 65th birthday — old enough to qualify for Social Security, but still working. It’s been four days since I updated the blog, but my day job kind of interfered with the blogging schedule this week. Also, I keep doing that thing where I begin an article, write hundreds or even thousands of […]

We Survived Thunder Bird Falls

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON When my son told us we were going for a hike Saturday, my first thought was, “We’re going to get eaten by bears.” A quick Google search (“thunder bird falls + grizzly bear”) turned up several results, including a recent story with this quote: “Bear encounters can happen anywhere in Anchorage, in […]

Checked and Ready for Boarding

BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT Remember the “Shoe Bomber”? In December 2001, would-be terrorist Richard Reid was aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami when he failed in an attempt to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his shoes. Because of this botched terrorist attack, all commercial airline passengers to this day are required to remove […]

North! To Alaska!

This afternoon, my wife and I will be flying the friendly skies, first to Dallas for a three-hour layover before heading to Anchorage. I’d told y’all about this trip earlier, when I thought we’d be leaving last week, but I was mistaken about the anticipated travel date. Our Army son is stationed there with the […]

Another Day, Another Deadline

“There was never enough time. Every deadline was a crisis. All around me were experienced professional journalists meeting deadlines far more frequent than mine, but I was never able to learn from their example.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL DESK This morning, at precisely […]

Back to CPAC With the Big Yellow Button

  For something like 15 years, I never missed the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), covering it first for The Washington Times, then for The American Spectator. And by “covering it,” of course I mean hanging out with all my friends and filing late-night screeds of semi-incoherent gibberish. The liberal media always feasts on […]

The Fourth of July and the Partriotic Return of the Big Yellow Button

  LITHIA SPRINGS, GEORGIA My family and I are gathered here this Saturday for the funeral of my Aunt Pat, one of the finest Southern ladies you can imagine, and I have been asked to speak a brief eulogy at the service. My brother and I rode down with my son Jim at the wheel, […]

Spring Means It’s Time for the Joyous Return of the Big Yellow Button

  MORROW COUNTY, OHIO As every regular reader of this blog knows, the yellow “donate” button takes you to my PayPal account, where you can contribute dollars, pounds, Euros, shekels, pesos or whatever to support the blog. (We used to accept rubles, but Putin ruined that recently.) My wife and I are in Ohio en […]

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