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Ah, The Luck Of The Irish

There are many celebrations of holidays where we gather with friends and party with strangers, depending on where we might be, that might involve special dress, special colors, special greetings, songs, and/or traditions. Themes are very important in the celebrations of these days. Some come with a day off from work or school, some become a little more excitable (rowdy?), but celebrating them makes for a very enjoyable time. This coming Tuesday, March 17, is one of those days. It’s the yearly celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, where we see many shamrocks, green clothes, festive ...

Are We Losing Our Minds?

“Hey” Google, Alexa, Siri….. There was a time when searching for answers required a little more depth than simply making a request from a digital assistant like Google, Amazon, Apple, or Samsung. As of March 2025, Google maintains the majority market share for searches, while AI ...

Life Advice From A Wise Old Frog

When I hop to my computer each morning, I promise myself I won’t fritter away my time. Fuggedaboudit. I get some of my best ideas while frittering. On Monday, I didn’t have frittering time to spare. I was cleaning up some of my messier computer files when I stumbled across an article I copied last May from the Baltimore Sun newspaper. I had completely forgotten about it. Upon rereading, I knew why I kept it. It brought back a lot of fun memories. It is about one of my favorite people: Kermit the Frog, star of stage, screen, and swamp. Yes, Kermit acts like he is one of us. ...

Mother Nature Interferes With Warfare

Sometimes we think that, as humans, with all of our technology, we can conquer anything. It just takes a hurricane or a flood to remind us of who really is in charge. The same is true in warfare. You can have all of the fancy software and technology in the world—but war still takes place over real terrain in real places. I was thinking of this recently when the war news came out that some 200 oil tankers were trapped, stuck in the Persian Gulf because of the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. Through that strait runs 20% of the world’s oil, so with its closing, oil prices jumped ...

The Long Game In Iran

The choice of Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father shows that the Islamic Republic of Iran plans to dig in and prolong the war as long as possible with the goal of inflicting maximum damage on the economies of the U.S. and our allies. This seems like an illogical approach unless you understand The people of Iran and the Islamic Republic of Iran regime are two different things. A regime that routinely detains, tortures, and kills its own citizens doesn’t care if innocent Iranians die in US-Israeli airstrikes. In fact, civilian deaths may galvanize more support for the regime. ...

Texas Candidate Walks A Tightrope

I’ve always been vigilant about the separation of church and state and wary of political figures who tout their faith. But I’m intrigued and encouraged by James Talarico’s candidacy for Senate. Why? Because Talarico is that rare Democrat who, as a Presbyterian seminarian, is well versed in Christianity. Moreover, he doesn’t shy away from talking about his faith in the political arena. Instead, he has the wisdom to channel his spiritual convictions into persuasive, secular rhetoric, instead of holier-then-thou talking points. For far too long—at least since 1954 when ...