Grateful Dead

How fascinating to watch the sequence of steps leading to your own demise. To look at the clockwork mechanism of destruction tick toward the end. The spring unwinds and the gears mesh and the minute hand moves toward the midnight of our ultimate day. My last day maybe, with good luck. Or, if unlucky, the

Putin, Groves and Oppenheimer

I think I was looking for mushroom clouds as reference for drawing when I came across this photo from July 1945. An amazingly short time later two Japanese cities were laid waste by these gadgets. I am told that killing 150,000 civilians in a matter of days was NOT a war crime. Because it did

46 Virgins sacrificed to the God of War

The war in Ukraine is being reported as though it were a game. The analysists tote up the score and analyze the various team’s game. Several teams contest the field and their fans and supporters are not far away following the action. Today we are hearing that Putin has been declared a war criminal for

Sikorsky Santa

The ex marines I hung out with on the sidewalks of Vilcabamba were tough. Not as tough now in their 60’s and 70’s as they were in their 20’s but still somewhat….tough. They didn’t like the pretend veteran. There are a surprising number of these folks. They will buy old medals on ebay and old

Rainy day and windy too

I thought someone might be banging on the door. It was the wind. The wind lifting and dropping the show shovel hanging there. Hung by a cord. A handle, a lanyard. The shovel didn’t come with a lanyard – I added it. Shoveling snow must send lots of people to the chiropractor. It sent me.

Old war New war

I watch old movies. Now and then old war movies. This to escape, for a while, the war news that isn’t a movie. Its sort of real, surreal anyway. The news I mean. But the movies are too. The thing about the movies is that they are propaganda. The war was just, the USA wore

Helping Ukraine

The Modern Bully

I generally do these posts starting with the graphic. It is usually related to my state of mind. But, with the events coming on so rapidly, I find I am getting overloaded. Which is to say I don’t want to study war no more as the good book says. Its only interesting as an academic

Appeasement 1939 and now

A whimper then a bang

That’s how the world ends. The party seems to be over for humanity. The reckless expenditure of our potential. We could have been creating an Eden. Instead we’ve squandered the wealth the Earth has given us. We creep toward our just doom. I saw a photo yesterday. On the front page of the NYT. A