Patriot Realm

For thousands of years, a diagnosis of leprosy meant a life sentence of social isolation.

People afflicted with the condition now known as Hansen’s disease were typically taken from their families, treated with prejudice, and cruelly exiled into a lifetime of quarantine.

Does this sound familiar? Isn't this happening all over again with the vaccinations? But who will be the lepers? Us or them?

That is the question. 

The current US president finally said it during a 60 Minutes interview: “The pandemic is over.” Though obviously true by the classical definition, Biden’s comment seemed almost accidental, said as an echoed response to a direct question. 

Consider, however, that many times as many people die from Covid daily in the US (300-400) than when the US first announced the outrageous lockdowns of March 16, 2020. In those days, deaths were approaching 50 per day, mostly in New York. It will very likely get worse over the winter months.  

When I think about horses in times of war, it is hard not to immediately think about the most famous horse of all: the Trojan Horse.

I must admit that I have always found it strange that the Trojans can't have been the sharpest knife in the drawer. They fell for a trick that even the most naive of us would have yelled most loudly " Don't do it! " 

Still, perhaps times have not changed so much: we still appear to let the enemy in, don't we? 

But, of course, the real war horses from history were not made of wood. They were heroes and served alongside their mates as earnestly as their human masters. 

So today, I want to pay homage to the brave horses and the dogs who served us so well in times of war and perished in piteous circumstances. They were among the mightiest of the mighty and dear and trusted mates.

“The Chief of the European Central Bank (ECB) has said that climate change is behind soaring inflation, stating that droughts and famines are driving up prices.

“If more and more climate disasters, droughts, and famines occur throughout the world, there will be repercussions on prices, on insurance premiums, and on the financial sector,” Lagarde said.

“We need to take that into account.”

No, what we actually need to take into account is that the so-called Climate Crisis is complete hogwash, starting with the basics of so-called man-made global warming. The fact is, the present era is one of the coolest and least carbon-intensive periods of the last 600 million years.

When I was a child, my teacher taught us the story of Grace Darling, a heroine of enormous courage. I wonder how many of us have heard her name today or know of her incredible act of heroism one dark and stormy night in 1838? 

For there are many heroes in history whose names have been forgotten and whose acts of bravery have been washed ashore on a beach and taken away by the waves of indifference. 

This is our salute to one person whose name and deed should never be forgotten and, in the words of Wordsworth  " "But courage, Father! let us out to sea,
A few may yet be saved." 

“Dad, why are the cops bad?”

This was the question I had to answer when I recently watched First Blood with my son. Only eight years old, he still lived in a world that was simple: cops are good guys, and their job is to catch the bad guys.

I explained to him that cops are just people like everyone else. Some are good and some are bad. That answer seemed to satisfy him, and soon he was watching Rambo II and Rambo III, films he favored even more, perhaps because they were less morally complicated.