We have certain characters… fictional characters… who have acted as proxy guides and, in some cases, guardian angels as we traverse the decades of our lives. Role models, and we absolutely need role models, help us to understand the amorphous goals of what we want to become. Sometimes these are purely career related; sometimes...
Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. That definition was cut and pasted from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary...
Ceremonial events have meaning. That is why they are largely ceremonial. They connect us with our past and provide, at least to an extent, the promise of a future. (If there were not a predictive value for future experience, then participation in a ceremonial act would be largely insignificant, an exercise in nostalgia at...
As many of you know, I really don’t offer product endorsements on this blog. I would like to say that it is a result of a deep-seated philosophical principle to remain stoically neutral to the items available to us; the reality is that no one ever asks for my opinion. So… while this is a...
A few months ago a fellow service member in my JAG unit reached out to me. He handles criminal defense in his civilian practice and focuses primarily on federal cases. While he is familiar with firearms, he is not a “firearms attorney” per se, but the case he was handling had firearms-related issues as...
There are few times when movies exceed in quality their source material. True, this is usually a rare occurrence. I have always preferred books to cinema for a variety of reasons, most importantly, the ability to develop characters beyond the limited time constraints of a two-hour flick. But, there are those rare exceptions. One...
“Come fly with me, come fly away… if you can use some exotic booze, I know a bar in far Bombay”… The sounds of Sinatra fill the empty spaces in my troubled soul. Yes. I can use some exotic booze. The world is in need of a great reset. This has been looked upon by...
In 1989 I was getting my class notebook ready in my dorm room. I had an afternoon Spanish II class I was dreading, but it was a graduation requirement from the University of San Francisco, so I had no choice but to go. (That was true, and my foreign language skills were less than...
I like Old Fashioneds. I like whisky and bourbon. I enjoy congenial conversations with night nurses who are troubled with what they encounter on their way to their cars after work. Pathogens don’t particularly bother me, and I do like guns. Yes, I really like them. I like the inherent symmetry they have and...
The Cadet was home last week. It was nice having her back in Le Château de Lieberman, even if it was only for a brief period of time. Incidentally, what Sandy and I are really looking forward to is Thanksgiving… Carolyn is about to turn 30 and Chaney is about to turn 21… Thanksgiving itself...
