Dreamers try to eliminate war. Pragmatists have figured out how to fight and win wars. The solution is destroying military objects, not people. Military objects include weapons, equipment, supplies, transportation, headquarters, and commanders. The Arab League and its allies don’t consider the average enemy soldier a military object. This new approach to warfare is the…
Spelunking
June 5, 2014
I love the word “spelunking.” It’s far more imaginative than the prosaic “caving.” I was a spelunker until 2012. Instead of crawling around in caves, I did it under my house. Never once was it my idea to go under my house, except for today. There were photos that had to be taken. The reason…
I liked the first day of 2014
January 1, 2014
Today our friend Sandra came over to Tim’s house and cooked us a turkey. Sandra is a remarkable person. She took care of my Great-Aunt Marian for nine years, a job for which she could not have possibly been paid enough. Marian was…difficult in her prime. As an angry, elderly widow who’d suffered a debilitating…
A funny thing happened…
December 18, 2013
When I say a funny thing happened, I don’t mean funny like this. I mean, really unusual. A few days ago, I got an e-mail asking about my Great-uncle Colonel Curtis Yarnell Kimball, O.B.E., U.S. Army (ret.) Here he is being awarded a medal by Field Marshal Bernhard Montgomery in Munich, April of 1945. At…
Advice for survivors
October 20, 2013
I’ve heard it from other survivors of a death, and now I’ve discovered that it’s true: Your “friends” will dump you. There are lots of reasons. They don’t know what to say to you, the death reminds them of their own mortality, they’ve never even thought about death, they’re not used to feeling or expressing…