Never Have So Many Owed So Much to So Few

Stephen Landry's Blog has the story of an RAF hero.

One of the few who saved us all.

Richard Chamberlain (aka Dr. Kildare), RIP

 

Bluesky

 Commentary magazine: James B. Meigs on "Bluesky: The Online Cone of Silence."

Maintaining the Paths. Protecting the Crops.

Every day, the jungle tries to take over. The more we keep it at bay, the happier we are.

But every single day, it keeps trying.

That's the nature of jungles.

Some Treasures are Cheap

While sorting through a shelf of books in my house, I came across two old ones I'd received from a cousin at a birthday party years ago. She'd bought them at a used bookstore, but I knew then what I know now: I will never get rid of them.

The price of a gift means so little.

[By the way, the books were Bleak House by Charles Dickens and The Poetry of Oscar Wilde. Great stuff.]

Find Something Beautiful Today

 

[Photo by Fadhil Abhimantra at Unsplash]

Zinger

"Santayana took to teaching as a swan to ping-pong."

- Joseph Epstein, Essays in Biography

A Visit to a Bank Branch

Two increasingly common features:

Very few tellers. You're supposed to be banking online, get it?

And they're getting rid of safety deposit boxes. 

The home safe business must be booming.

We've gone a long way from the "Open a savings account and get a free radio" days.

A few more years and people will be used to a lower level of personal service. 

The younger ones will not have experienced a time when there were six or seven teller windows.

I mentioned to a bank officer that they might want to consider the potential downsides of the change.

He was puzzled.

And I didn't even get a radio.

On My List

 

I really really really wanted one of these in the Sixties.

Reading and Enjoying

 

It starts with George Washington. 

I believe that Joseph Epstein is our greatest living essayist.

Back By Popular Demand: "The Lady of Shalott"

 

Black-and-White Films

 I know some young people who do not watch black-and-white films. 

I believe they miss the fact that color sometimes detracts from the story. 

"To Kill a Mockingbird" would not have the same emotional impact if it had been filmed in color.

Can you imagine refraining from seeing these black-and-white films?

Citizen Kane; Witness for the Prosecution; The Caine Mutiny; The Longest Day; 12 Angry Men; High Noon; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; The Maltese Falcon; The 39 Steps; Psycho; Casablanca; Lost Horizon; A Tale of Two Cities; David Copperfield; Sunset Boulevard; The Third Man; Double Indemnity; The Grapes of Wrath; The Battle of Algiers; Some Like It Hot; Oliver Twist; The Last Picture Show; It's a Wonderful Life; Harvey; Strangers on a Train; The Train; Touch of Evil; Paths of Glory; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; The Apartment; Dr. Strangelove; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Stagecoach; Stalag 17; The Manchurian Candidate; Inherit the Wind; Judgment at Nuremberg; Key Largo; Sherlock Jr.; On the Waterfront.

The Scent of Orange Blossoms

 

This is the time of the year when my Phoenix neighborhood savors the scent of orange blossoms. 

The entire block was once an orange grove, and enough trees remain for seasonal aroma flashbacks. We still have and use the irrigation canals that stem from the much larger canals that weave throughout the Valley of the Sun. Many of those were initially dug by a long-departed tribe of Indians.

Just the other day, I was noticing the number of out-of-state license plates: Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Florida and, of course, refugees from California. We are still in the snowbird season, but most of them will have left by the arrival of June.

Summer is for character-building and population reduction. If we didn't have the heat, there'd be around three million more people here because winters in Phoenix are very nice.

[Photo by Max at Unsplash]

The Culture and Music Man

 Kurt Harden deserves a radio station.

His is a life well-lived.

From One Who Knows

 "Notice that when you are sure, your writing is more precise."

- Nicholas Bate

Bullet Dodger

Prayers and healing vibrations are being sent to the Stoic of South Florida.

The FutureLawyer has some good news and here's hoping it gets even better.

First Paragraph

 It is night on the Palatine Hill, a historic height in the heart of Rome. Imagine yourself alone there after the tourists go home and the guards lock the gates. Even during the day, the Palatine is quiet compared with the crowded sites in the valleys below. At night, alone and given an eerie nocturnal run of the place, could you rouse imperial ghosts?

- From Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine by Barry Strauss

Citizens of the Virtual World, Disunite!

 A Substack post with the flavor of our times.

Read it now. You can always scroll later.

To Be a Good Novelist

 "Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."

- William Faulkner in The Paris Review

You Know You Want One

 

Meetings and Tiberius

Part of the morning will be spent in meetings and the rest will be devoted to studying revisionary histories of Tiberius.

That's business too, I promise.

As my clients know, I often approach issues from different directions.

On My List

 

The Three Choices in Life

A Large Regular has Naval Ravikant's Three Choices in Life.

Excellent.

Sublime Courage

 The Claremont Review of Books in 2024: Gary Saul Morson on the bravery of the Soviet dissidents. An excerpt:

Bukovsky managed to do so by using his imagination. “I set myself the task of constructing a castle in every detail…. I carefully cut each individual stone,” planned the tapestries in all detail, invited guests, and browsed through old books. “I even knew what was inside those books. I could even read them.” The castle preserved Bukovsky’s sanity because “it saved me from apathy, from indifference to living,” and from the emptiness that annihilates the self. 

"Gold Diggers of 1935"

 

Watched a clip of the dance scene from the end of the new version of "Snow White" and wondered if the spirit of Busby Berkeley is spinning.

An EdTech Tragedy

 Jonathan Haidt and Zach Rausch look at a UN report on the harm done around the world due to the closing of schools during Covid.

Crank It Up

 

Read Boldly

 

Gurgle

 The Free Press: "The Luxurious Death Rattle of the Great American Magazine."

Life Skills 101

 

Substack: Our schools need a program that teaches success.

On My List

 

One of the Most Interesting Commentators Out There

 Tablet: Michael Lind on "Why Tariffs Are Good."

Find Something Beautiful Today

 

[Photo by Michael Kroul at Unsplash]

Man With a Movie Camera

 

The not-so-good old days in the Soviet Union. 

Made in 1929.

First Paragraph

 In November 1932, fourteen years after it was put in place, Germany's first parliamentary democracy found itself mired in its deepest crisis. The election on 6 November - the second that year - proved disastrous for the moderate parties that constituted the Weimar Republic. A full third of the workforce was unemployed, more than five million people in all, and many of those still in work had been hit with punishing wage cuts. The economy was at rock bottom, and political culture had taken a cutthroat turn. On the streets of Germany's cities, the situation frequently erupted into violent conflicts that left hundreds dead. Senior politicians, businessmen and journalists spoke in hushed tones of a civil war.

- From The Gravediggers: The Last Winter of the Weimar Republic by Rudiger Barth and Hauke Friederichs

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son"

And while we're on a Lewis Carroll roll, let's not overlook "Jabberwocky."

[Photo by Simon Berger at Unsplash]

"In my youth," said his father, " I took to the law,"

 

Start the weekend right with "Father William."

[Photo by Ritchie Valens at Unsplash]

Mrs. Chirac

 

The Little Things Can Be Very Big

Singapore has a surplus of $55 billion a year whereas France has a deficit of around the same number. What are these numbers really telling us? If you realize that there are only 6 million people living in Singapore compared to 60 million people in France, it's clear that the performance of the individual carries much more weight in Singapore. The Singaporean surplus becomes much more significant when you take into account that it has been reached by only 6 million people, with no oil, no gas, no natural resources and very little land.

- From Move Up: Why Some Cultures Advance While Others Don't by Clotaire Rapaille and Andres Roemer

"De Staercke hit on an essential element of leadership - the determination to achieve tempered by humility." - Donald Rumsfeld

"What one needs in life are the pessimism of intelligence and the optimism of will."

- Ambassador Andre de Staercke

Yes

 

First Paragraph

 "Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down - from high flat temples - in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan."

- From The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

Waiting for the Chainsaw

Jon Gabriel on why we need more DOGE if we're going to shrink the national debt.

Well Done

 

A Serious Novelist

 One of my plans over the next twelve months is to re-read several Saul Bellow novels, starting with Mr. Sammler's Planet. It is about an elderly Holocaust survivor's life in New York City. Here's the first paragraph:

Shortly after dawn, or what would have been dawn in a normal sky, Mr. Artur Sammler with his bushy eye took in the books and papers of his West Side bedroom and suspected strongly that they were the wrong books, the wrong papers. In a way it did not matter much to a man of seventy-plus, and at leisure. You had to be a crank to insist on being right. Being right was largely a matter of explanations. Intellectual man had become an explaining creature. Fathers to children, wives to husbands, lecturers to listeners, experts to laymen, colleagues to colleagues, doctors to patients, man to his own soul, explained. The roots of this, the causes of the other, the source of events, the history, the structure, the reasons why. For the most part, in one ear and out the other. The soul wanted what it wanted. It had its own natural knowledge. It sat unhappily on superstructures of explanation, poor bird, not knowing which way to fly.

A Starlink Deal

FutureLawyer, the stoic tech wizard and poet who lives with his wife and parrots in southern Florida where he practices law when he isn't buying smartwatches, gives a learned update on Starllink.

He's convinced me. It's now on my to-do list.

Live Not by Lies

 

Presidential Management Styles

 From FDR through Trump, we've seen a variety of presidential management styles.

Trump's may be a unique blend.

My latest Substack post has the details.

[Photo by Getty Images for Unsplash+]

On a Roll in Newark

 Visit A Layman's Blog and you will be happier and wiser.

There must be something about Newark, Ohio that produces great bloggers.

In addition to Steve Layman's blog, Cultural Offering, The Hammock Papers are also excellent.

Snake Charmer

 FutureLawyer, who is also a poet, notes a major societal problem.

Crank It Up

 

Life Often Resembles the 1936 Olympics

 Stephen Landry has a moving account of when Luz Long wrote to Jesse Owens.

The Survivability Onion

Cultural Offering has an excellent review of your levels of personal protection.

Remember, if it comes down to you, don't act like you're in an English boxing match. 

Turn into the Tasmanian Devil.

[Photo by Michael Jerrard at Unsplash]

The Evil of Rationalism

 Commentary magazine: Christine Rosen examines some new cults to worry about.

Your Best Year Yet

 Nicholas Bate: You do not need to wait to surprise them.

The Passion for Office Products

I recently bought a Smead Desk Sorter Organizer out of nostalgia. 

Many years ago, in my investigator days, I'd used a larger version from another company to keep notes in order. The larger version was clunky and so it became inconvenient.

This one seems just right for an inveterate note-taker and index card jotter. It reminds me of the strange emotional ties we can have for office products. 

I know of people who have serious affection for certain pencils, ballpoint pens, and erasers. They go out of their way to avoid using any other types.

And, of course, there is the near-religious veneration of fountain pens.

Which is tied to another secret love: certain colors of ink. 

I confess to ambivalence when it comes to blue and black inks, but there are people who possess a cult-like allegiance to green ink.

And that's not a bad choice.

Are there any other contenders?

Water Boy

 Irrigation comes tomorrow and so I spent some time today reinforcing the dirt mound in a leak-prone corner of the front yard.

I grew up with irrigation and am familiar with the routine of flooding the property. It's a great way to get a deep soaking of the trees, but it can arrive at odd times, such as the middle of the night. 

When I was young, I thought my father was irritated by having to get up to irrigate at 2 AM, but upon reflection, as a former farm boy, he probably enjoyed it.

Irrigation is one chore I now contract out to a professional.

I just looked out my windows and noticed we might get some rain.

Figures.

Things Are Happening in Oxford

 Nicholas Bate has a list with a story of Queen and country and much more.

Meandering in Merida

 Sippican Cottage is strolling around Merida, Mexico.

I'm adding that to my list.

After "The Great Nap"

 

Gratitude and National Service

My Substack post on national service has gotten cheers and boos (more of the former than the later). 

I just picked up a copy of the above book to explore - no doubt in greater detail and eloquence - Mr. Buckley's support for the concept.

Best Irish Film

 

Find Something Beautiful Today

[Photo by SpaceX at Unsplash]

Rationalizations of the Unethical

 The late Earl Long and I look at rationalizations for unethical behavior.

Grand exercises in creativity!

The Ides of March

 

"The Peace of Wild Things"

The classic poem by Wendell Berry. 

[Photo by Nick Fewings at Unsplash]

As Germany Moves to the Right

 

Carmina Break

 

First Paragraph

 On July 16, in the aching torpid heat of the South Florida summer, Terry Whelper stood at the Avis counter at Miami International Airport and rented a bright red Chrysler LeBaron convertible. He had originally signed up for a Dodge Colt, a sensible low-mileage compact, but his wife had told him to go on, be sporty for once in your life. So Terry Whelper got the red LeBaron plus the extra collision coverage, in anticipation of Miami drivers. Into the convertible he inserted his family - his wife Gerri, his son Jason, his daughter Jennifer - and bravely set out for the turnpike.

- From Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen

You Could Base an Entire Philosophy on This

 "We made the wrong mistake."

- Yogi Berra

Alan Simpson, R.I.P.

 

A Main Requirement of Injustice

Widespread injustice depends more upon indifference than upon support.

Back By Popular Demand

 

A Life of Purpose

 

Commentary magazine: Joseph Epstein on the difficulty of leisure.

The Importance of "And"

 "You think because you understand 'one' you must also understand 'two', because one and one make two. But you must also understand 'and'."

- Rumi

Bring Back the Draft!

 Greetings!

(As the old Selective Service notices used to say.)

My Substack on bringing back the draft is up!

Read it. There will be no deferments.

Written in Mid-Century, 1st AD

 The duty of a general is to ride by the ranks on horseback, show himself to those in danger, praise the brave, threaten the cowardly, encourage the lazy, fill up gaps, transpose a unit if necessary, bring aid to the wearied, anticipate the crisis, the hour and the outcome.

- Onasander

[Quoted in In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire by Adrian Goldsworthy]

Classics: A Series

 

The Tariff Game

The Free Press: Michael Lind on why tariffs are good.

The Labyrinth

Helping my wife with scheduling appointments related to her upcoming surgery: doctor, specialist, EKG center, neurologist, and surgery center.

Such a treat.

And the automated telephone answering services make me long for the days when you immediately reached a person.

Back By Popular Demand

 

When in Rome

 This will be a Roman morning. Reviewing research and scribbling. I conduct an All I Said Was workshop later this week, but this and the following week will be largely dedicated to writing.

And reading, of course.

I'm planning on finishing the Stoicism book by the Seneca of South Florida (more on the Rick Georges work later) and The Return of the Strong Gods by R.R. Reno.  Also need to review some revisionist material on Tiberius Caesar.

And having fond memories of when I, Claudius was the series everyone was following on television:

Classics: A Series

 

Keep in Mind

"Thieves of private property pass their lives in chains; thieves of public property in riches and luxury."

- Cato The Elder

The Great Clarification

 "The Great Clarification" has been my most popular Substack essay by far.

On Order

 

The Vampiric Internet Giants

"The strategy of today's internet giants might best be called vampiric. Their overriding goal is to know us, to transfer into their databases our informational life-blood. Their thirst is unquenchable. To survive, they must suck in ever more intimate details of our lives and desires. And we are not averse to the seduction. We must embrace these companies, welcome them into our homes and our lives, because we desire the gifts they bear, the conveniences they provide. Yet even as we tilt our necks, we feel that mysterious loss of selfness. We sense that we're being emptied, that we're beginning to blur at the edges."

- Nicholas Carr in 2007 (Utopia Is Creepy and Other Provocations)

Find Something Beautiful Today

[Photo by lindsay Cotter at Unsplash]

Classics: A Series

 

Remember Whittaker Chambers?

 

While perusing A Large Regular, one of my regular blog visits, I saw a quote by Whittaker Chambers, and remembered a dating rule that author George V. Higgins had after he achieved fame for his great crime novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle. 

As the story goes, Higgins began dating stunningly beautiful - and young - women all of whom were nice, but he encountered a conversation gap with many of them since they were unaware of certain key points in history. 

His eventual solution was to screen dates by asking if they knew about Whittaker Chambers. From then on, he only dated those who passed that single question exam.

Anyone who would not have been able to pass The Higgins Test, should know that although Eddie Coyle's associates were interesting, they were not as interesting as those of Whittaker Chambers.

To Be Enjoyed Again

 

Some of the greatest characters in literature. Bleak House was first published as a volume in 1853, but you can spot clones of Harold Skimpole and Mrs. Jellyby running about today.

Not to mention the lawyers and the case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce.

Radio Man

Thanks to Cultural Offering, I have a second career on the horizon. 

A Growing Movement

 

Hmm

 

Perspective

 

Dystopian Society Checklist

Here's the list on Substack.

Look it over and write your novel.

Arcane Research 101

 One of the odd aspects of research, at least in my own case, is that when I'm engrossed in a subject, I assume at least a few others have a similar interest. 

Many years ago, while in law school, I began researching a book on the Arizona Right to Work Law and the subject became so interesting I assumed that there must be several other people doing the same thing.

This assumption may be related to the sort of reasoning to which wallflowers fall prey. They think they are the object of intense scrutiny when most of the other attendees at the party are stuck in their own corners with similar worries.

Anyway, my recent research has revolved around Roman law, emperors, religion, and administration.

You know, the sort of thing that captivates everyone.

Buckley's Stamp

 

Details on the new Buckley stamp here.

Cultural Offering is already increasing his correspondence.

Which captured him? The stamp or this Time magazine cover?

Bach Break

 

The Hollywood Bubble

 For those thinking the "woke" thing is over in Hollywood, know this: It is more profound than a trend. It is, by now, a deeply held collective belief system. Oscar voters live in their own universe. Almost nothing gets in or out unless the publicists want it to. They are protected and insulated, like the French aristocracy before the Revolution.

- Sasha Stone

Every Day Chores

 

Following the rules. Applying appropriate exceptions.

Over and over again.

But If I Smoke a Cigar

Cultural Offering on one of the more nitwitted societal decisions: the spreading recreational usage of marijuana.

For Those Who Are Interested in Ancient Rome

 

Aside from the above television series and The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, here are some books to consider:

• A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum by Emma Southon
• Ancient Rome by Simon Baker
• Dominion by Tom Holland
• How Rome Fell by Adrian Goldsworthy
• Pax by Tom Holland
• Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy
• Rome and Jerusalem by Martin Goodman
• SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
• The Fate of Rome by Kyle Harper
• The Roman Empire by Chester G. Starr

Clear Communication

 

Looking Forward to Summer Time

 

Evergreen

 

On the Mountain. In the Canyon.

FutureLawyer on Starlink Messaging Beta.

I eagerly look forward to using Starlink.

I Need to Catch Up on This

 

Trump's Hidden Strength

 Most American presidents have a hidden strength; an ability that gives them an edge in the political wars.

Donald Trump's is the ability to drive his opponents absolutely insane. 

Looking back over the years, I think the only other president with that ability was Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Classics: A Series

 

The Next Time I'm in London

 

The Churchill Arms.

[Photo by Vincent Creton at Unsplash]

Statement From the President of Ukraine

 I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace.

None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same. Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins. We are grateful for this. Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format. We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.

8:37 AM · Mar 4, 2025

ARC Panel

 

As Our Attention Spans Shrink

 

No, my latest Substack essay is not on the Greek Debt Crisis, but the subject is mentioned.

Check it out here and you may think twice about your scrolling addiction.

Just Arrived

 

On My List

 

Modern Diplomacy

 "We want Department A to support our proposal."

"Have you talked to Department A about the proposal?"

"No. We will get their ideas after we've completed the proposal."

"Wouldn't it make sense to get their ideas in advance?"

"That would take too much time. We are confident that they will like the final product."

"What is the basis for that confidence?"

"It's really a great proposal."

"You're not giving them any advance notice?"

"No."

"But their support is important?"

"It's essential."

"And you're sure they'll like it?"

"Oh, they will love it."

Back By Popular Demand

 

Find Something Beautiful Today

[Photo by Simon Spring at Unsplash]

Career Advancement Techniques

He clambered up the city's Democratic party ladder, on the way collecting allies and enemies with utter disregard for the consequences, attending the typically unruly Tammany meetings armed with bowie knife and pistol. He pursued his legal career in the same unfettered fashion. The New York diarist George Templeton Strong, himself a lawyer, described Sickles as "one of the bigger bubbles in the scum of the profession, swollen and windy, and puffed out with fetid gas." Few ever expressed a neutral opinion about Dan Sickles.

- From Controversies & Commanders: Dispatches from The Army of the Potomac by Stephen W. Sears

Scandals and More Scandals

 

Any Civil War book with a chapter on Dan Sickles will exceed its quota of scandals.

One of the Best Things Jeff Bezos Has Done

 Cultural Offering has the details.