Julian Assange – founder and director of WikiLeaks, claiming he was only acting as a journalist revealing the truth about government secrets – was taken into custody by the Metropolitan Police Service in London after seven years of self-imposed confinement in the Ecuadorian Embassy. In 2010, Assange and WikiLeaks published classified American military and diplomatic documents delivered to him by...

Halfway through the comedy City Slickers, Curly – the irascible, tougher-than-leather cowboy played by tough guy Jack Palance – unexpectedly dies on the trail. At his burial, the cook offers this short admonition to the Almighty: “Lord, we give you Curly. Try not to piss him off.” Given Senator John McCain’s somewhat regular bouts of anger, the Almighty would be...

No sooner had Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments against 12 Russian military intelligence officers involved in the hacking of our 2016 presidential election, then Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats cautioned Senators on Friday that “the warning lights are blinking red again,” meaning that we are facing another potential 9/11-size cyber-war with our adversaries, most notably, Russia. “Russia,...

Today, the news cycle is likely to be consumed by the summit meeting between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jung-un. To regular visitors to this site, you might be surprised to hear me say that I’m hoping things go well for both sides, truly. But, while Trump’s “crazy man” gambit may pay off, this commentary is about what Trump,...

There have been many issues on which I have disagreed with Senator John McCain. However, I respect the Arizona Republican for one simple reason: I trust him; I trust that he acts in the best interests of the country, not his own. Last week, when it was announced that McCain had brain cancer, I was stunned not because such a...

In the early evening hours of October 25, 2007 in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, Army Staff Sargent Salvatore Giunta and seven troops were returning to camp when they were ambushed by Taliban fighters from all directions. “There were more bullets in the air than stars in the sky,” Giunta said. “A wall of bullets at every one at the same time...

“I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.” – Ronald Reagan “For the first time in the seven-decade effort to avert a nuclear war,” The New...

True story, every morning, I make the bed. (I also wash my own laundry but that’s another story.) Over the years, my wife has occasionally mentioned this to others at social functions, as if performing such tasks was due to some anomalous male genetic mutation. (The shocking truth is, most men routinely have made their beds and other chores before...

In a moving commentary in Monday’s (May 29), New York Times, Documentarians Ken Burns and Lynn Novick reflect on their ten-year research detailed in an upcoming documentary, The Vietnam War. “For more than a generation,” Burns and Novick write, “instead of forging a path to reconciliation, we have allowed the wounds the war inflicted on our nation, our politics and...

“When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.” – Richard Nixon “The law’s totally on my side… the president can’t have a conflict of interest.”          – Donald Trump Well, I made it through the wilderness of Lent, and refrained from writing about President Trump until last Friday. However, in reviewing events of the last 7 weeks,...