Posts in ‘Politics’

Stranger Things

Behind the flotsam and jetsam of Trump, of Biden, of Fox News, of CNN, there is evidence of something else. There could be a very real game for very real power between players we don’t see for stakes unknown.

  • Posted: July 25, 2023

Ken Caryl Middle School – “Go Tell the Spartans”

My granddaughter’s school changed mascots because of an “offended parent”. The “Crusaders” became the “Spartans” and the teachers union removed a Superintendent they hated.

  • Posted: May 31, 2023

Whither Texas?

Texas has a rich history. Will it protect the State from becoming another enclave of the “woke”?

  • Posted: May 16, 2023

“My Truth”

“We hold these truths to be self evident . . . . “

  • Posted: January 16, 2023

War, What Is It Good For?

Edwin Starr asked the question in a Sixties protest song and our emotions agree with his shouted response – “Absolutely nothing!” But our emotions, as always, blind us to the obvious.

  • Posted: April 19, 2022

Ukrainian Realities

There is something about underdogs and bullies that explains Realpolitik, the international balance of power, to a nation whose priorities are determined by Influencers, a recently coined job title for teenagers adept at creating TikTok videos.

  • Posted: March 31, 2022

Prelude to an Ending

It was 150 years ago that George Custer and the 7th Cavalry died on Last Stand Hill. They were to converge with two other columns. Where were they?

  • Posted: May 11, 2021

The Revenge of Mortimer Snerd

Impeachment trials are behind us – at least until 2022. But the omens are troubling. Its not like they are something new.

  • Posted: March 1, 2021

No Enemies to the Left

The world is a crazy place when the lyrics of “Golden Oldies” make more sense than the newspaper.

  • Posted: August 20, 2020

Saturday Night in Greeley, CO

My wife and I went out for dinner a few nights ago. Dinner out, a familiar ritual transformed. One might imagine sitting down to burgers and beer in the ICU of a mediocre hospital. In earlier times I might have…

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  • Posted: July 6, 2020
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  • What I’m Reading

    What I’m Reading

    The Twelfth Department
    By William Ryan

    What happens when we forget, or never bothered to learn, what we believe in and why we believe? What happens when the emotional whirls of Facebook and Twitter are the depths of our understanding? Evil, great evil, is regularly found lurking in the unexamined depths of good intentions. Mathew Arnold put our present political climate in memorable words years ago:

    And we are here as on a darkling plain
    Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
    Where ignorant armies clash by night

    Novels, good stories, provide a lens to see life, including our beliefs, without camouflage. As an example, JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the finest Bible commentaries ever written. Progressive political ideals may lack in recent electoral success, but have undisputed possession of today’s moral high ground. And while death and taxes may be the only sure bets, the eventual victory of those holding the high ground have very good odds in any battle.
    And so fiction provides a look at eventual victories. There is no question that the outlines of today’s progressive agenda can be clearly seen in other times and places. William Ryan takes us to a time and place fondly imagined, idealized at the time, by the forefather’s of todays progressive leadership. In The Twelfth Department, we see a police captain in 1930’s Moscow. Captain Alexei Korolev is just a man trying to be a good father, a good citizen, a good police officer. In many ways Alexei is a fortunate man, with a good reputation and many more material advantages than the average citizen. But a high profile murder brings him into ambiguous circumstances. The tone of the book is respectful of life in Moscow, with no axes to grind. It is just a portrait of a man trying to do his job, bringing a gruesome killer to justice, among ordinary human beings seeking only to live normal lives in a progressive paradise.

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