It should be no shock the immediate response to the Charlie Hebdo attack is more surveilance, more police presence and more homeland security. My skin crawls when I hear this, because we all know these massacres only happen because our security apparatus failed. 911 was not an achievement in defense. They already have billion dollar budgets and ( Read more... )

Daniel Pearl, James Foley and Steven Sotloff have a few things in common. They're all men, Americans, journalists, and were all murdered by beheading at the hands of Islamic nutjobs. Their murders were videotaped and distributed as evidence of their murderers meaning business. The west should take them seriously.

These men were bold journalists, ( Read more... )

I have been a geography buff my entire life, a collector and reader of maps, a student of cartography. My sons have the gene, there are Rand McNally road atlas' and large hard cover World Atlas' in our second bathroom. That's our reading. So it should be no surprise our favorite classic board game is Risk, the geography and war game.

I played day ( Read more... )

Have you hugged your child gun today?

The last 24 hours have been maddening for me and it will only get worse in the days to come. First came the unspeakable horror of the slaughter of children. Before we knew the scope of the massacre I read a man quoting Thomas Jefferson on Facebook on the need for a well armed citizenry to defend against the ( Read more... )

I waited a couple of weeks to post this, and it's a good thing very few people read this blog because what I have to say would be extremely unpopular with 80% of my countrymen. I'm just not 'feeling it' anymore during these 911 remembrances.

I don't need to be reminded to NEVER FORGET because that's really not possible. No one will forget what ( Read more... )

I'm watching these London Olympics but I must admit to not being too hyped about the summer games. I think NBC's prime time coverage is extremely weak, so I'm really only half watching. I have no problem watching tape delayed events as long as I don't know the result in advance. My problem is the lack of options, they only have one evening ( Read more... )

Anyone who reads this blog knows I support the Occupy Wall Street movement. From the beginning I thought it was good people were waking up to the corruption, injustice and inequity in our political and financial system. I've attended a few Occupy Phoenix events to see for myself and generally think they have their hearts in the right place. As ( Read more... )

I'll be following and commenting on the capture and trial of Boston gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger. I'm interested in the case, the continuation of a sordid mob tale spanning six decades.

Back in the 90's I read a book, Black Mass, about the 1960's Irish mob wars in Boston. Two gangs, The McLaughlins of Charlestown, and the Winter Hill Gang battled ( Read more... )

If you ignored my first no-fly-zone blog written long before the UN decided to take my advice you'll no doubt ignore this one. I realize enforcing a no-fly-zone is a logistical action very few nations can undertake. I also know NATO is the second most capable alliance to handle such a task. The fact one member in 28 .... Turkey .... can prevent a ( Read more... )

In the last 48 hours a great deal has said about the fifty volunteers who've remained at the Fukushima nuclear plant attempting to prevent the worst possible disaster. These are brave individuals sacrificing their lives. There is no equipment, not even state-of-the-art protection, that will stop their body's absorption of radiation. The men who ( Read more... )