Category: Current Events

Wonder Is the One Frequency That Requires No Translation

My car sped down the hill, my eyes darting from the speedometer to the road as I debated how much I could get away with.  Over the car speakers, NASA flight control officers worked their way through the …

Sheeple Blinders: When ‘Just Asking Questions’ Threatens Weather Radars

I like to follow the news—part civic duty, part masochistic tendency. Yet sometimes I come across an article so mind bogglingly bonkers, it makes me weep for our future. We had one of those recently.  Here’s the headline: …

Violence Is the Last Refuge of the Incompetent

I am fond of a saying Isaac Asimov coined in his Foundation series: violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.  It’s used as an insult towards those who jump to violence because they cannot—or will not—work through …

We Have No Songs for Great Halls and Evil Times

The past few weeks have been heartbreaking.  Russia continues its unjust invasion of Ukraine, purposefully targeting civilians in an effort to break the Ukrainian’s spirit.  Azerbaijan launched another attack against Armenia.  And just last night, Hamas crossed from …

Spirit and Letter: Israel in Crisis

“Israel in Crisis” has led many headlines over the years. Rarely, though, has it been so self-inflicted.  I spent a considerable amount of time in Israel across a dozen-plus trips over four years.  My Israeli counterparts and I …

Big Trouble in Little Moscow: Wagner, Prigozhin, and Putin

In one of the more mindboggling turns of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I get to write the following sentence: a former caterer-turned-mercenary-warlord led an armed insurrection against the Russian government.  His Wagner forces got within a few hundred …

Terms and Conditions Apply

I took a big step this week and bought a new TV for the first time in ten years.  I could talk to how wonderful it is to have in-depth technical reviews of almost any product imaginable available …

ChatGPT, So Hot Right Now

“A wise man can get more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.”                         – Baltasar Gracian They’ve done it.  They went and ruined my writing career before it ever had a chance, and they …

Russia, Iran, and Autocratic Friendship Circles

I live my life by a simple set of rules.  Rule Number One?  Don’t go to jail.  It’s not relevant to today’s Wandering, but it always bears repeating.  Rules Number Two and Three, however, are germane: read, and …

Xi Jinping and China’s Downhill Sprint

‘90s rap is a trove of wisdom and quips.  Coolio coined the phrase “Ain’t no party like a West Coast party / ‘Cause a West Coast party don’t stop” back in 1995.  In homage to Professor Coolio and …