Kevin O’Brien This is an excellent video of three BASE jumpers who sneaked into the Freedom Tower (the asymmetrical architectural abortion that is replacing the Twin Towers at the glacial pace of Bloomberg-era NYC) and parachuted off September 30th. We’ve cued up the video to two minutes in, so you’ll miss most of the nerving-up phase and …
Well, you could say that he knows prison, but that’s not correct: his sentence for bribe-taking was all suspended, so he’s never seen the inside of a jail. He didn’t even have to forfeit the bribe money, let alone spend time in the Big House. And he won’t be inside in this job, either, a …
The Bureau of Prisons does a nice sideline selling uniforms and equipment to the military. Federal Prison Industries actually has its own trademark: UNICOR™. UNICOR made stuff includes Army uniforms, web gear, rucksacks, and various other odds and ends. The prison administrators say that it not only earns the BOP money, but that inmates who …
This year brings the centenary of the War to End All Wars (well, it was a hearwarming concept, if imperfectly executed), and the Allied Powers are celebrating the centenary with events ranging from the silly to the significant to the solemn. We’d put into the “significant” bin the UK National Archives’ plans to release the …
While the world media’s been in the missing airliner frenzy… … here’s what they haven’t been watching: The civil war in Syria, which is a total mess, thanks in part to our Smart Diplomacy™ led by our C-minus Secretary of State. If you’ll remember, we were against the rebels when some of them were secular freedom-lovers, and …
This is Lux, the “violence-prone” cat, who looks perfectly ordinary (and not especially Himalayan). As you can see, he’s behind bars for now. The wannabe therapist, on the other hand, a guy who calls himself Jaxson Galaxy, looks weird indeed. (Don’t take our word for it; follow the link). We take back everything we ever …
We’ve recently mentioned Miles Standish, in a story about early colonist unconventional warfare. But Standish is an interesting character on several levels. He took his duties as Cmdr. of the Plymouth militia seriously; enough so, that when he perished in 1656, the weapons he had set aside would today have got him named an arsenal. …
Rick Shinseki is the ineffectual and unsatisfactory Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. He’s been in Congress a lot the last couple of weeks, and he’s pretty much been a punchbag for both Senators and Congressmen, and both Democrats and Republicans, because of various mis-, mal-, and non-feasance on his watch. So last week …
Guns A bizarre scandal is weighing anchor and setting sail in the Navy. Basic facts: high-ranking intelligence officers in charge of special-access programs (SAPs) arranged to buy suppressors from one of the officers’ brothers, a hot-rod mechanic in California. One of the officials, Lee Hall, is now indicted. (SAPs are very tightly-held classified projects, programs or …
The last minutes of a career in propaganda. So far. You can say a lot of things about reporters, but “savvy” seldom comes to mind. Especially when reading the story of Elizabeth Wahl, an ambitious young reporter who signed on to the state-controlled Russia Today international propaganda network, which the US intelligence commuity has understood …