Since English is an acquired language for me, I am a very frequent user of English dictionaries -- and foreign language dictionaries, too, but more on that later. Thus it is no surprise that an article, "The Role of a Dictionary," by David Skinner, at the New York Times...

Having a Bad Day? The U.S. Military certainly is having a very bad day.

It is reeling from a spate of very public and embarrassing sexual assault and harassment incidents -- the latest one Tuesday -- in addition to the thousands that apparently go unnoticed or...

This Sunday is Mother's Day, or Día de las Madres for us...

The Heritage Foundation is "a public policy think tank that promotes the principles that made America great: free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."

Apparently one of those principles that made America great is opposing, preferably killing, immigration reform as The Heritage...

About two years ago, I wrote about the idyllic weeks and months I spent as a child in Ecuador's "el Oriente." El Oriente is Ecuador's magnificent jungle region on the East side of the majestic Andes Mountains. It is the beginning of the...

Last week, the United States -- after Britain, France and Israel had already come to such a conclusion -- announced that it now also believes "with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent...

An article at the U.S. Air Force web site, titled "Leadership not defined by shapes, sizes," caught my attention.

Upon reading "Short in stature at 5 feet 4 inches, not particularly handsome, a bookworm and not exactly the life of the party," I became very hopeful that the subject...

As George W. Bush reappears in the public eye preparing for Thursday's dedication of his presidential library, the debate on his presidential performance, and legacy, has also come to the forefront once more.

In a Washington Post article last week, Stephen F....

In a move that was certain to be controversial, and as one of his last acts as Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta authorized a new Medal, the Distinguished Warfare Medal (DWM), to be awarded to service members whose extraordinary achievements, regardless of their distance to the traditional combat...

One sad statistic that keeps making the news recently is how many World War II veterans leave us each year... and each day.

In previous writings on this subject estimates were that these men and women were dying at a rate of 1,000 every day.

Subsequently,...

One of the major concerns during my 20 years of military service was what effect the constant moving, the frequent changing of schools, the leaving of old friends behind and the difficult task of making new ones every one or two years...

This is no cruel April Fools joke.

One of the world's poorest and least developed countries, a nation where, according to the United Nations, two-thirds of its people don't even know where their next meal is coming from, but...

About two years ago, when Rep. Michele Bachmann was a rising star in the Republican Party, I wrote about her "shedding" her youthful Democratic roots and becoming a Republican. Some, including this author, called her conversion an "epiphany."

I wrote:

"I will not mock [Bachmann's] change of mind...

It never seems to end in Afghanistan -- now the longest war in our nation's history.

It never ceases to amaze us -- the twists and turns, the corruption, the backstabbing, the incompetence in, by and of that country and its...

Note: Call it coincidence, call it a sign of things to come, but as I was writing this post on cyberattacks, the website of Chase Bank was experiencing a denial-of-service attack and was inaccessible. The initial service interruption to Chase.com lasted about 90 minutes, from about 5 to 6:30 p.m....

I knew we had something in common.

The way Henry penned neat, short but meticulous notes of important events during his tour of duty -- including how much money his buddies owed him. Like me, during my young military days, Henry must have...

In his foreword to the "2011 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress," released in November 2012, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan writes:

The report shows that our collective efforts to address homelessness are making a difference. Since 2010, the number of people in shelter decreased by nearly...

I have been meaning to write about this.

About the New Republican Party playing the victim game.

About the New Republican Party's "wimpiness" and "wussiness."

About the New Republican Party's, "Look Mom, they are being mean to me."

About the New Republican Party's, "We can't take it anymore," after all...

I do not remember the exact date -- I believe that it was late February or early March -- but I do remember that it was a pleasant, sunny spring-like day on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

It may have even been a weekend...

"Mr. Speaker, the domestic use of drones is on the way. There will be more eyes in the sky looking over America."

With those words, last week, Representative Ted Poe (R-Texas), reintroduced the Preserving American Privacy Act, "legislation [that] balances individual constitutional rights with legitimate government activity and...