*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. “It is meritocracy in action,” President George H.W. Bush said of the military in a speech at West Point two weeks before leaving office. A few years later, I was a junior in high school when I first saw that…
*Note: Written to join my own “Arsenal of Ideas”…not for any wider publication. Every good idea sits atop a skull-mound of bad ideas. At least, that’s the way it works for me. So, in late 2015, when I wanted a novel idea for a logo to fit this new organization I was helping build, the…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on July 9, 2019. It can also be found online here, an image of the column is included below, as well as the text of the essay. Nobody likes potholes. Nobody. They’re like the plague that way. Broccoli to kids. Glitter to adults. Kryptonite to…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on June 26, 2019. It can also be found online here, an image of the column is included below, as well as the text of the essay. For about five minutes, I was transfixed. A young mother rolled around on the ground with her daughter,…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. A wartime military hospital in a combat zone is without morphine—a tragedy-in-waiting. Patients flow in, and with no other acceptable choice, the hospital’s leader, a colonel, tells his doctors to give placebo painkillers to incoming patients. “Here’s the formula,” he…
*Note: This essay was published in the Pikes Peak Bulletin print edition on June 20, 2019. It can also be found online here, an image of the column is included below, as well as the text of the essay. We were in Salida when I saw him. He was about my daughter’s age, fixed in his wheelchair…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on June 17, 2019. It can also be found online here, an image of the column is included below, as well as the text of the essay. It turns out that the best things in life are, in fact, free, and that’s certainly true for…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on June 7, 2019. It can also be found online here, an image of the column is included below, as well as the text of the essay. If you ever want to feel good about being alive, go visit Grand Central Terminal in New York…
*Note: This essay was published in the Los Angeles Times print edition on June 2, 2019. Images from the actual print story, as well as text can be found below; it can also be found online here (and a PDF version as well). Some photos must be taken, some images must be seen. These thoughts must have…
It was a lot of fun to hit BookCon 2019 on Saturday, June 1, with my co-editor Max Brooks – talking modern strategy, pop culture, and the end of Game of Thrones. Video of the event available here, or by clicking the image above. (Note: Sorry for the darkness of the stage – not sure…