Lenin and the Symbols of the Season
You may think it strange that Christmas makes me think of V I Lenin, the founder of the USSR. But for 50 years he was the symbol of everything good and holy in a powerful and...
Reprisals and the Killing of Civilians in War
"In Belgium there are many towns whose cemeteries today have rows and rows of memorial stones inscribed with a name, the date 1914, and the legend, repeated over and over: "Fusille par les Allemandes"...
Thoughts About Squishing Bugs
Every spring, in the bathroom sink, dozens of little black ants come out of the woodwork and dance around the basin. After 65 years of either squishing them with my finger or washing them...
Scratch a Russian and you’ll find a ……?
(Footnoted, 3/10)
Rudyard Kipling once wrote:
"I had six honest serving men who taught me all I know. They were, Who, What, Where, When, Why and How"
This simple life-rule has been virtually absent in news...
The Parable of the Grannies
As I've mentioned in other contexts, I spent a lot of time in the USSR before it fell, and then both Russia and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Empire, after it fell, from...
“First We Hang the Lawyers”
That wasn't quite what Shakespeare wrote in Henry VI, Act IV, Scene 2... "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". The debate still roils as to what the Bard meant by it, but I think Natural Law agrees with Shakespeare, that...