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Thinking about: Counterinsurgency
I’m sure I don’t agree with many of the objectives of the Occupy Whatever movement, and certainly have issues with some of their hangers-on. That being said, Chris Hedges hits one out of the park in...
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Thinking about: Irony
As a politician you have to be immune to irony and hypocrisy, or else you would drive yourself crazy. Still, there is something to be said for the legal principle of stare decisis – “that which has...
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Quoted for thought: The Uninformed
“The uninformed scare easily.” Brian Wilson, talk show host and bassgrabber extraordinaire “Uninformed” is just a polite word for “ignorant.” To be fair, “ignorant” is not, in and of itself, a...
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Thinking about: The security of sameness
As best I can tell, it is part and parcel of human existence to be insecure. This leads to all sorts of coping mechanisms to deal with that insecurity, along with rationalizations as to why those...
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Thinking about: Choosing war
David Swanson posts brilliantly, saying, “Somebody chose this war, and it certainly wasn’t the Afghan people…” All I can add is, “Well, it certainly wasn’t ME who chose the bloody thing!” and thus we...
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Thinking about: Social evolution
We’ve come a long way from the days of a tin star and a six shooter. Anybody want to contend that America is better or safer now?
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Thinking about: Good book!
Sight unseen, at the moment, but the author comments here (there, and everywhere) on occasion, and they clearly show she is bright and thoughtful, and I’d be willing to bet that the book is worth...
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QFT: Rule of law
George Washington – no, not the dead President, but, rather, this one put it simply and correctly when he says, “We have argued for years that the best way to avoid violence is to reinstate the rule of...
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Thinking about: Consent of the governed
Despite this opinion that is at some variance, government has always rested on the consent of the governed. The only question has been whether that consent was freely given, or whether it was forced at...
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Let’s fire this up again
Since the local paper wants a second, non-court column out of me, I may as well get back to work here as well. Here, let me explain: So there I was, minding my own business – for a value of “minding my...
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Thinking about: Immigration
A month already. My, how time flies when time’s flying. Thirty days having passed, it’s another installment of Off The Bench, where we discuss everything but court matters. And where I strive to avoid...
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Thinking about: “Fuzzy Pink Elephants Raiding Your Underwear Drawer!”
I am a big fan of John Mosby’s website both for the information content and in the way he presents it that brings back (the good) memories of my time wearing a funny green tree suit. Despite my great...
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Thinking about: Narcissists
It’s nice that Salon has discovered that the American government – at all levels, really – is mostly about “feel good” rather than “actual results.” One really has to ask, though, why it took them so...
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Thinking about: Leaders and fuehrers
From a conversation elsewhere, the herd follower in italics, my comments in bold: It’s easy to say you don’t follow the leader while following the leader but walking backward, looking in a different...
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Thinking about: Tribes
Actually, Mosby has been thinking about tribes. And put his thoughts into a lot more words and a lot better words than I’d spend the time writing. So I’ll just say, “go see!” Got popcorn? For the whole...
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Thinking about: My Army Life
I have, I believe, what may be the only “D” grade in Penn State ROTC history. Might be a C – I’m not pulling out my transcripts to be sure – but the reason for the less-than-stellar grade was my...
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Thinking about: What goes around…
More Army fun. It seems that the Army wants to reinvent something like the Stuart tank. Which, if I recall correctly, they abandoned due to its speed not really compensating well for the lack of armor...
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Thinking about: Viral blog posts
You just never can tell what’s going to catch the public eye on the internet. I am pleased as punch (Punch?) to have gotten in early on a viral sensation: Happy Custer Massacre Day! by the inimitable...
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Thinking About: Culture – Us and Them
The phrase “gun culture” is frequently bandied about by the Left, as though it were some pejorative. Well … why not embrace it? This means, of course, that there must be a term for those who are NOT...
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