Evil by Any Name
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...The Father I Didn’t Know
My father died on the day my first grandchild was born. His death and her birth are all of a piece. He had always been in my life, but I didn’t know him well, at least not as a son should know a father. Throughout most of my adult life I more or less ignored him. Of course, I did the obligatory things that one does, but with little interest or feeling. His gentle nature and lack of apparent drive or ambition had caused me to conclude that he was, at his core, a weak person. I, on the other hand, had already achieved things that he could never understand (or so I thought). We had no basis to relate, except that biology and my mother had conspired to...In Memoriam
I was asked to speak at a Memorial Day celebration in the small town near our ranch. I guess they had gotten the word that I was an easy mark when there was a podium and a microphone involved. For reasons unclear to me at the time, I had a hard time deciding whether or not to accept. I’m sure they weren’t looking for much. A few words in memory of those members of America’s military who had sacrificed in our behalf and in celebration of those who still served. No jokes, no pithy stories. Just a few words to make people feel a little better. Before making my decision, I spent more than a little time trying to figure out what I would say and how I would say...