A Flock of Black Swans Comes Home to Roost
Lyric of the week: “I was a freedom rider When we thought the South had won Virginia in the spring of ’61 I sat down on the Greyhound that was bound for Mississippi My mother asked me if that ride…
Michael Krepon
The Open Skies Treaty Bites the Dust
Lyric of the week: Who knows where the time goes? And I am not alone while my love is near me I know it will be so until it’s time to go So come the storms of winter and then…
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
Quote of the week: “America prepared for the wrong kind of war. It prepared for a new 9/11, but instead a virus came.” – Dominique Moisi Dear readers: I’m on the home stretch of a book in progress tentatively titled…
Trump’s National Security Strategy Revisited
Lyric of the week: Don’t you ever be sad Lean on me, when times are bad When the day comes and you’re down In a river of trouble and about to drown Just hold on, I’m comin’ Hold on, I’m…
Hard and Soft Power
Lyric of the week: There’s gonna come a time when the true scene leaders Forget where they differ and get big picture ’cause the kids at their shows, they’ll have kids of their own The sing-a-long songs will be our…
The Day After Hiroshima
Quote of the week: “If necessary, we shall continue the war alone, and we are not afraid of that. But I trust you realize, Mr. President, that the voice and force of the United States may count for nothing if…
The Covid-19 and Nuclear Plagues
Poem of the week: “Roaming in thought over the Universe, I saw little that is Good Steadily hastening towards immortality, And the vast all that is call’d Evil I saw hastening to merge itself And become lost and dead.” –…
The Most Consequential Step
Diversion of the week: I strongly recommend the movie “Heart and Souls” (1993) starring a very young Robert Downey, Jr., the great Alfre Woodard, the under-appreciated straight man, Charles Grodin, Kyra Sedgwick and Tom Sizemore. We usually settle for one,…
Giving Thanks for Heroic Efforts
Verse of the week: “I understand the large hearts of heroes,The courage of present times and all times,How the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of the steam-ship,and Death chasing it up and down the storm,How he knuckled tight…
Making Nukes Weapons of Last Resort
Lyric of the Week: Won’t you please come to Chicago For the help that we can bring We can change the world Re-arrange the world It’s dying — to get better –Graham Nash, “Chicago” The tension between deterrence and arms…
