All Purls. No Swine.
Via Scott Johnson at powerlineblog.com. This past Saturday I met Aaron MacLean, host of the School of War podcast. Aaron is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Before that, he worked on Capitol Hill as senior foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Senator Tom Cotton and served on active duty as a… Continue reading A Podcast Recommendation For Those Who Love Military History
Crimenutely. A post from a five-years-ago New Year's that--with a 2023 update--I think might be worth another look: Let’s be clear: I could write at length about renovation in one of its generally accepted senses. I could write about the house we’ve been building and renovating for over three decades, and which still has a… Continue reading Clearing My Spindle, Cleaning My Bowl–2023 Edition
Revisiting a post from exactly three years ago here. (In the midst of Covid misery.) I was reminded of it by a couple of recent posts on Ricochet. Please subscribe if you have not already. You won't regret it. While I often re-post stuff I've written on Ricochet on this site, as a backup, if… Continue reading Responsible Men, and the Women Who Love Them: A Reminder for Us All
You probably all know either the meme or the original story: The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked… Continue reading Twitter Idiots: On Boiling the Frog
So there I was, as I often am, chasing down some reference or other that has nothing to do with the point at hand, and I stumbled over the fact that it was only 160 years ago today, on November 19, 1863 (what a very young country this still is), that a President of the… Continue reading “These Honored Dead”
...is to tell their stories. That's what I've tried to do, over the years with my family members, my friends, and many others I've lost over the years. Some of them certainly didn't start out as natural allies. But they all ended up beloved. And the only way I can insure that the world remembers… Continue reading The Best Way to Memorialize the Dead…
One of the most delightful parts of my weekend is opening my email (yes, really, I know how sad that sounds) on Sunday sometime and discovering Douglas Murray’s latest “Things Worth Remembering” installment for The Free Press. I’m a basic (paid) subscriber to the site, so I get all the links and can read the… Continue reading “Seeing God in a Cat”
Well, OK, it's a headline from sixty-two years ago today, but who's counting? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IpdcFKHOrZU?feature=share Not worried. I've already said, here and elsewhere, that in the event of cataclysm, disaster, nuclear catastrophe, holocaust, or anything else, I'm heading for the chicken coop. Most resilient and steadfast structure on the property. I know. I built it. Water--check.… Continue reading People! Build Nuclear Bomb Shelters! Or Else!
Several months ago, I wrote a "very preliminary" book review of John Blashford-Snell’s From Utmost East to Utmost West: My Life of Exploration and Adventure. Happily, someone took me up on the challenge to read the entire book and write the actual whole thing, and the result is this post on the Ricochet main feed. (Worth… Continue reading On Family Memories and the Meaning of “Gift”
It started out as a day like any other day, a day like all the days before--at least like all the days for almost sixty years before--had started out. It started out with us feeling safe, at home in America. In Southwest Pennsylvania, it started out as an idyllic late summer day with sunshine and… Continue reading September 11, 2001