Category: The Grab Bag
The Greenhouse Mouse
I have been at war with rodents for most of my life. I am presently doing battle with a particularly clever mouse in the greenhouse who has, in full disclosure, managed to outwit my considerable efforts to end his life early and with extreme prejudice. This lifelong, low-intensity fight for dignity against rodents has resulted ...
Our Predator Problem
Authors Note: this column was written for The Nugget Newspaper, in Sisters, Oregon. For a more thorough discussion of the topic, please see the 2 part series First Person Shooter, at RunningIronReport.com. ___ The common denominator in school killings isn’t what you think it is. It isn’t guns, and it isn’t mental illness. The only common denominator ...
Fear and Loathing in D.C.
The bludgeoning of our Republic continues. For the sake of argument, consider this: suppose the Republicans are right, and the Russian collusion narrative is, in the words of Victor Davis Hanson, “an incoherent effort to destroy Donald Trump’s candidacy beyond the bounds of normal politics and later a renewed and unprecedented endeavor to abort his ...
Notes on a Greasy Napkin
I like to write in diners. I like it because I always hear something marvelous about politics, or the weather, and also because there is something inspirational in the smell of bacon, the comfort of a worn-out booth beside a picture window, and the reliable goodness of hashed browns, two eggs over-medium, and a side ...
The Cross of Lorraine, Part Deux
We don’t often think of US Marines when we think about World War 2 in Europe. The Marine Corps, naturally, did the bulk of its work in the Pacific theater and probably survives today only because of the brutal, no-quarters warfighting the Old Breed did against the Japanese in places like Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, and ...
The Cross of Lorraine
With mostly amusing talk of “resistance” so much in the air, this column has been reading deeply on various characters of the French Resistance during World War 2. A couple of noteworthy names have floated to the surface—not Frenchmen, but allies who parachuted into occupied France to help the Maquis organize, train, and bring the ...
Steal This Column
The real crux of the word-ban issue at CDC isn’t that the words are “banned.” They aren’t, not really, and as of this morning there are no credible reports of bonfires on Capitol Hill fueled by the ritual tomecide of policy manuals. Officially, the words are merely “discouraged.” What’s most troubling is the rationale put ...
Grunt
The graduation of a female from the Marine Corps’ Infantry Officer Course has left many of my fellow veterans conflicted. To be clear, there is no short-shrifting her accomplishment thus far—IOC is the most difficult infantry school anywhere in the world–but we are conflicted because we are, most of us, raised with no small pride ...
Charlottesville
This week I had planned to write about our garden. After a few years of heartache and disaster, I wanted to share a tale of success–the 18 lbs of peas we’ve harvested so far, the bucket loads of green beans, the beautiful squash, and the luscious ears of corn that have sweetened up just right ...
Arrivederci, Scaramucci
I, for one, am going to miss Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci. If you didn’t know, The Mooch was sacked as White House Communications Director after an explosive and “colorful” interview with Ryan Lizza, a writer for The New Yorker. The Mooch, raised on Long Island, was brought to us by Tufts University, Harvard, Goldman Sachs, ...
Bunkhouse Chronicle 