by Gary | Dec 28, 2014 |
S. and I have just returned from traveling in Burma, now Myanmar, for the last ten days or so, and while recollections are still fresh, I hope to give you some of my observations about a country that has only recently opened to foreigners after fifty years of seclusion. This first piece deals with an aspect of their culture that is central to their life style and my inability to adapt it to my own use. The longyi (pronounced lawn-gee) is the foundation of the national costume of Burma. Roughly described it is a piece of cloth three and a half feet by six feet with the ends sewn together to form a wide tube. It is the same for men and women except for the...
by Gary | Sep 10, 2014 |
Al-dawla al-islamiya fi al-iraq wa al-sham. There you have it. This is the full name (in arabic) of the group that is currently terrorizing large swaths of Iraq and Syria by using inhuman terror techniques more familiar to the middle ages. They also have a significant number of the citizens of the civilized world shaking in their boots and shaking their fists clamoring for retribution and then destruction. As I previously opined in a piece about the former dictator of Libya, Muammar Khadaffi, it’s nigh well impossible to focus on an enemy if you can’t agree on a name for the evil. Let’s see, Obama and his crowd insist on referring to...
by Gary | Feb 22, 2014 |
Never let it be said that I’m afraid of tackling the tough stuff. Any one who writes about god in Texas better be a preacher or a converted sinner. I am neither. I’m not taking a secular nor a religious approach to the topic. I’m going to try to deal with the subject as my old history teacher and wide receiver coach, Wally L., would have. Only the facts…names and dates in particular. This is not the place for, nor am I inclined to evangelize a point of view. I’ll let you decide for yourself if any of this makes sense. For source material I’ve relied on the research of cadres of academics who never tire of writing about...
by Gary | Jan 4, 2014 |
The words in the title of this post, absent the (un) are inscribed above the main entrance to the Supreme Court building in our nation’s capital. It is a noble sentiment to say the least, and some would say it is the corner stone of our system of jurisprudence, not to mention, our democracy. But it’s not exactly a new idea. The earliest evidence I’ve found appears in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian Wars wherein in he cites Pericles’ Funeral Oration in 431 BCE; which really wasn’t a funeral oration but a paen to the glory of Athens. Sidebar: I can never see the word Peloponnesian without thinking of the football...
