Far East Cynic

So here we are again. Going through the motions, but making no real progress.

So here we are again. It’s been 19 years since that fateful day in September of 2001.  I remember exactly where I was that day. I had been out and about and had just returned to the BOQ where I was living then. The S.O. called me and told me

Continue reading

The Third Boer War

People, myself included, love to use historical analogies to describe the current hellscape we are living through. The most popular comparison of the rise of Trumplandia is to that of Nazi Germany in the ’30s. I confess to having fallen into the habit myself, and you can find plenty of

Continue reading

The cracks were always there – maybe the building needs to collapse.

The new wingnut narrative is coalescing. Since the “let them drink Lysol” narrative did not work, they are going to a new multi-pronged attack: 1) The governors are stifling pent up demand. The economy is ready to come back if it were not for this pesky emphasis on saving lives

Continue reading

L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim

Is the Hebrew phrase for, “Next year in Jerusalem”. ( לשנה הבאה בירושלים). A couple of things have been making me think of that phrase this past week. Today, for example, is Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day. It happens right before the week of Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day.

Continue reading

Where was Waldo? He was always here, just unbelieving of what was happening.

So, by my count, it has been well over 5 months since I posted here. There are a multitude of reasons for it, few of them good, but they were consumers of my time. It has been a busy five months as I was engrossed in a project as well

Continue reading

Behind the facade

During a recent conversation with a former squadron mate, the talk turned to the dismal state of American politics. He is of the conservative bent, but not of the wild-eyed MAGA hat variety. He made the assertion that Trump is an aberration, a unique creation of the times and the

Continue reading

I’m a trendsetter!

Eight years ago, I wrote a series of posts regarding the Navy’s imbalance in its flag officer community. The problem then, as it is now, is that the Navy has too many flag officers. It has more flag officers than it has ships. I pointed out then that the issue

Continue reading

The good guys win one for a change.

Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities in the world. I like it almost as much as I like Singapore and that says a lot. I first visited the city in 2000, only three years after the tragedy that saw it pass from British Control to that of the

Continue reading

These things are just not done.

Without a doubt, one of the foremost highlights of my time here in Europe has been the work I have been privileged to do in Israel. To be able to have been there for protracted periods, learn the language and see the society has been a fond memory for me

Continue reading

Short-sighted folks

I could not help observing during the visit of the Orange Monster to the mother country, how a certain segment of the American population is so blind to the realities of the world that was created in the wake of World War II. And I am talking specifically of that

Continue reading