Police Chief Mark Kessler – Unsafe At Any Caliber

The City Zen restaurant is located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, on Maryland Avenue here in Washington.  This means, of course, that the hotel guests come there to dine, and so it was that last night, as Cerise and I were enjoying our desserts of raspberry pavolova and tarte tatin, respectively, prior to departing for an… Continue reading Police Chief Mark Kessler – Unsafe At Any Caliber

The Internet Gets Pwned by NSA

Syria had everyone who is anyone in Washington – and their assistants – which includes me and Gretchen, of course, inside working today.  That’s a real shame because the weather was absolutely gorgeous outdoors and all I could do was look through the picture window at it as the sun shined down through a seventy-five… Continue reading The Internet Gets Pwned by NSA

Ted Cruz and the Natural Born Hypocrites

After dinner at Rasika followed by a night of club hopping in Adams Morgan, Cerise and I slept late this morning.  I prepared breakfast in bed – duck eggs Benedict, featuring freshly made hollandaise sauce and grilled New Zealand fern fiddle heads with organic Canadian bacon, accompanied by hand-squeezed Barcelona blood orange and Veuve Clicquot… Continue reading Ted Cruz and the Natural Born Hypocrites

Send in the Congressmen… Don’t Bother, Steve Stockman’s Here

Around eight-thirty Friday night at the Round Robin Bar in the Willard Hotel, I chanced upon Jefferson Jackson Beauregard Clay III, a key member of Representative Steve Stockman’s staff.  He was enjoying a specialty of the house – the branch water mint julep, and the one he was drinking might not have been his first… Continue reading Send in the Congressmen… Don’t Bother, Steve Stockman’s Here

Edward Snowden – Raskolnikov, Robin Hood or Rat?

Yesterday afternoon, Dr. Margaret Scheisshower, Senior Deputy Assistant for Policy to President Barack Obama, paid me a visit.  She demonstrated her forthright nature by striding into my office and selecting the chair positioned directly in front of my desk. “Mr. Collins,” she opened in a well modulated contralto with a slight Chicago accent, “the Administration… Continue reading Edward Snowden – Raskolnikov, Robin Hood or Rat?