The Ashleigh Brilliant postcards at the Santa Barbara Airport. The Lincoln Fox sculpture at the Albuquerque Airport. A 12-hour flight from Pittsburgh to Phoenix. A flight canceled due to storms in Atlanta and then a rainy rush the next morning to teach a class in Tallahassee. The cabbie in San Juan who knew all of the state capitals. The rocket-like take-offs from The John Wayne Airport. Crossing the Navajo Reservation at night. Landing at Reagan National and being in my hotel room in 20 minutes. A drive from Frankfurt to Heidelburg. The porpoises at The Kahala Hilton in Hawaii. Night drive from New Hampshire to Maine. Being the only passenger on a large airliner flying out of Yuma. The entrance of Pittsburgh. The advantage of ugly luggage. A meeting on Capitol Hill. Undercover agents in Kaiserslautern. Listening to the "Nixon in China" musical while driving through the fog in Oakland. A dead motorcyclist in San Francisco. A very shady establishment in Frankfurt. Securing my room at a spooky hotel in North Carolina. Staying at The World Trade Center. Studying the Mississippi barges in St. Paul. Wandering through the tunnels of downtown Houston. A wasp in Baton Rouge. An audit in La Mesa. The River Walk in San Antonio. The Peabody Hotel's ducks in Memphis. A kettle of vultures circling my suite in Miami. Driving along the Gulf Coast from Beaumont to Houston. The Napoleon House in New Orleans. Jogging directions at the Detroit Renaissance Center. The lemon cake in Washington, D.C. The airport slot machines in Las Vegas. Racing through multiple airports. A stormy flight from Salt Lake City to Helena. Raccoons in Atlanta. A would-be criminal in Honolulu. MacArthur Park in LA. The view from the Army CID regional commander's office at the Presidio.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Moral Clarity
I decline utterly to be impartial between the fire brigade and the fire.
- Winston Churchill
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
First Paragraph
A dozen years ago, when evil seemed funnier than it does now, Ron Reagan, the son of former President Ronald Reagan, had a television talk show that he taped in Los Angeles.
- From Evil: An Investigation by Lance Morrow
Keeping the Lid On
Jeffrey Blehar, writing at National Review, notes a big reason why Joe Biden didn't fire anyone.
Never Forget
The American revolutionaries may have been the only ones in the history of the world who sought to limit their own power.
That, in itself, justified their renown.
Monday, January 20, 2025
March 4, 1865
Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address has withstood the test of history for its brilliance in wording and leadership.
An excerpt:
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it-- all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-- seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
