About

I took down the "about" page some time back, but I notice that people often search for "who I am" after reading an article, I do that when I read articles; intent before content and all that right?. When I first began writing publically I thought it smart to just be out in the open, to be undoxable because, well you were not hiding anything. Humans are pretty slimy creatures at times, that was naive, people still try to hurt others from the shadows.

In any event, I have added again an "about page" with just the highlights, and generalities. It is my hope that if you have come here this is not your first stop. So often we look for a label on someone else and then decide to listen to them but please check out my self-identified labels, understand my bias, but maybe give me a chance anyway to say something that is more important than "about me"

Regular, unassuming, normal guy - also a Christian, realist, pseudo, and opiner of things. I was once accused of being a haver of a crystal ball. I think we all need to ease up on the rhetoric and stop listening to sophists and seek truth -not my truth or your truth but the truth.

About me

♦ Retired from the Army in 2018, served 32 years, enlisted, and officer. I went to some places and did a couple of things. I was a terrible officer in the eyes of officers I thought were terrible, the only thing that saved me and allowed me to retire was perhaps a couple of events along the way - right time right place, all that.
♦ I spent a lot of time in school, but I am not an academic. My undergrad was in History, did some graduate stuff in Public Policy, and at one point some Philosophy and Theology.
♦ After the Army, I worked as a defense contractor, as a Department of the Army civilian employee, and at a University - I did not do any of that for long!
♦ My wife and I have run a small consulting business, but we do not put a lot of effort into it and have not sought or accepted new clients in quite some time. It was fun and enlightening but way too much effort.
♦I self-published some books, one as a joint effort with others. That one was #1 on Amazon in Constitutional Law for a time (because of the other authors, not me). Writing those books was more of an exercise in getting the words out of my head than trying to write and sell a book.
♦ I dabble at trends and threat analysis (business intelligence on military-grade steroids we joke) for a couple of select clients. (C4I Strategic Studies Group)
♦ I started a non-profit organization with the help of one of my heroes, that effort accomplished some of the original intentions and was worth the effort.
♦ I am a Christian and align best with Reformed Theology - but I seldom get along with almost any professional in established Christianity. I have been hard on preachers over the years.
♦ I have dabbled at social media, and I find it loathsome. People coalesce into self-referential groups of like-think and never move. if you do not have your own little army to like, defend, support, and boost then you are just an NPC in the simulation; an extra on the movie set. It takes an army and allies to succeed on social media, a gang, and I never really figured out how to build an army or develop reliable allies. People also act poorly there. Social media was not good for humans, despite its promise and potential.
♦ I consider myself a realist (realist optimist to be exact), and almost everything I think and write is colored by that. My realism is very often confused with pessimism, but I am not pessimistic.
♦ I believe myself a stoic and I favor pre-Kantian rational philosophy and the Scottish School (Reed et al.)
♦ My Achilles heel is that I expect people to act rationally, even my realism cannot help me with this flaw. I know the underlying philosophy behind all the prevailing ideologies was designed to be specifically anti-rational, and yet I am surprised constantly to relearn this.
♦ I grew up in a pretty special place, I literally had a "100-acre wood" that my dogs and I adventured in; it and they shaped me.
♦ A Boxer dog named Cooper is my constant companion in almost everything I do and everywhere I go.
♦ I have been hacked a couple of times here, folks have called me and attempted to threaten me, and sometimes IP addresses that look "radioactive" poke around specific topics. All of that is pretty silly, all things considered.
♦ And lastly, I am not sure I have a lot more to say that I have not already said. I was right or wrong on the conclusions I drew through observations, now it is a matter of letting events test theories.