They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I have no idea if that’s true, but I can say for sure that a new dog can teach an old guy a thing or two. I’m referring to myself,…
Who Belongs in America? A Memorial Day Answer
People of a certain stripe like to call themselves “real Americans.” By implication, anyone who doesn’t share their ideology is not. Counting people as second-class citizens for their thoughts—political viewpoint, religious tradition, sexual orientation—is bad enough, but some “real Americans”…
Facebook Quiz: What Kind of Fool Am I?
Every time I click “Accept” or “Agree” on one of those software end-user license agreements, I feel like a schnook. That’s Yiddish for a person who is gullible or easily cheated. (One Yiddish word generally outworks half a dozen English…
Monkey See, Monkey Do in the Social Media Zoo
Social media images showed a young man holding an assault-style rifle. The text threatened a forthcoming attack in Florida. But it was not Nikolas Cruz, America’s mass killer du jour. It was a copycat in Spartanburg, S.C. After the disturbed…
Trump’s Disrespect for Boundaries is the Real Threat
President Trump outdid himself—that’s saying something—with his vulgar dismissal of certain nations as “shithole countries” during immigration discussions. Visceral reactions poured in from around the world, forcing Trump to—deny, not apologize. Detractors hauled the epithet to the summit of his…
2017: Tampering with the U.S. Odometer
As 2017 yields to 2018, the political and cultural terrains look strangely familiar. That may be because America is driving in reverse. If life is a journey, the preferred American mode of transport is definitely an automobile (usually a pickup…
![(Alibiama): proper noun; name of a Southern U.S. state where corrupt politicians with selective memories elude justice and win elections by convincing voters that compared to any Democrat, a Republican charged with [pedophilia, adultery, bribery…] is the lesser of two evils.](https://www.frazeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Alibiama-copy-200x200.jpg)
A New Word for the Old South: Alibiama
Some folks in parts of this grand nation thinks Southerners talk funny. There’s a whole bunch of pointy-headed experts called linguists who spend time studying how people talk. They get deep into it, splittin’ hairs over the words we use,…
Liberty? Roll Over, Patrick Henry!
“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist,” Sir Edmund Burke famously wrote in his 1777 Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, regarding the Crown’s troubles with the upstart American colonies. Up to now, I had thought Burke’s quote…
Defense Spending: Biggest Bang for the Buck Isn’t a Weapon; It’s GPS
President Trump’s proposed $54 billion defense spending increase has sparked predictable debate, and rightly so. It’s accompanied by drastic cuts for programs that help the poor, protect the environment, fund medical research and support diplomacy. The “guns versus butter” debate…
C-SPAN to Air GPS History Presentation
C-SPAN will broadcast a talk about GPS that I presented with my coauthor, Richard D. Easton, May 5 at the New York Military Affairs Symposium (NYMAS) in New York City. The first airing will be at 2 p.m., Saturday, June…