Iraq: They Did It Again

by | Apr 10, 2008 | 0 comments

I don’t know why I punish myself by subjecting my rather smallish and cluttered brain to the hours and hours of political low theatre implicit in the testimony of two of the Bush Administration most accomplished sycophants on the status of our “Mission in Iraq”.  Watching these two fellows give dissembling answers or completely dodging the same simple minded questions over and over and over could drive one to drink.  In fact it did.  An early morning Bloody Mary and a late afternoon potion of Vitamin G (as in gin and tonic) helped me make some sense out of the whole thing. I even took the time to look in the archives of these humble writings to reread (no, I...

A Letter to Sarah

by | Apr 9, 2008 | 0 comments

Ok, I’ll say it out loud.  I’m a Democrat who used to be a Republican.  I’ve played ball with both teams, so to speak.  So when I heard that John McCain had selected Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska to be his vice-presidential running mate my first thought was….”huh?”.  There is no question that she changed the character of the 2008 campaign… there still is, however, a big question on whether it was for the better or for the worse.  You decide.  Her speech on September 3, 2008 at the GOP convention was widely lauded, even by that left leaning rag, The New York Times, as a good, even great, piece of rhetoric.  For those...

Viet Nam on My Own

by | Apr 1, 2008 | 0 comments

Only one amongst you patient readers, are likely to know (or care about) the trade acronym F.I.T. which obviously is in the title of this piece. My eldest son J. could probably give you a more precise definition of this sub-segment of the travel industry than I, but I’ll give it a shot anyway, because I am one of them, I think.  That is to say that I eschew traveling as a part of any group for any reason.  I’m happier to have a bad meal at a restaurant of my own choosing in (name any town anywhere in the world) than a good meal with any group large or small not of my own choosing.   I’m perfectly happy to be lost in a strange town rather than be following a...