True, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration is a civilian agency. But you’d never know that from the way they behave. NASA’s gratuitous obsession with secrecy does not merely rival that of those organizations within the Executive Branch, such as the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency or the National Security Agency,… Continue reading NASA to Astronauts – What Are Those Rings Around Uranus?
Category: Politics and Law
To Lie Abroad for One’s Country
I heard my eleven o’clock consultation this morning well before I saw her – in the reception area, unloading a boatload of grief on poor Gretchen. “Who the hell is that?” My current appointment, a gentleman from Tokyo, with whom I had spent the previous three hours formulating risk-reduction strategies for integrated circuit manufacturing, nearly… Continue reading To Lie Abroad for One’s Country
First Family Redux
My three o’clock appointment today was one Randy Spassvogel, trade association representative for the Humorists’ Association of Cartoonists, Kibitzers, Stand-up Comedians, Allied Media Parodists and Satirists. Under the circumstances, I couldn’t resist. As he settled into the chair across from my desk, I just had to do it. “Knock, knock.” Spassvogel threw me a quizzical… Continue reading First Family Redux
Rock-a-Bye Recession
Today, I drove over to Fairfax and did my part as a good Catholic, attending the confirmation of a pair of twins. They were my sisters’s brother’s wife’s children, and no, I’m not their godfather, that honor fell to my sister’s husband’s brother’s wife’s brother, an Irish police detective from Chicago. All of my sister’s… Continue reading Rock-a-Bye Recession
Republicans Consider Name Change to “U.S. Pity Party”
I had no problems voting at my appointed polling place this morning. I’ve been a registered voter in Great Falls, Virginia for about ten years, I vote in every election, it’s a rather affluent community with no significant minority populations and I’m self employed. Consequently, the polls are very well equipped with lots of recent… Continue reading Republicans Consider Name Change to “U.S. Pity Party”