Last Friday 16 Nepalese Sherpas were killed in an avalanche on the “shores” of Mt. Everest, a stormy sea known for its exacting toll of victims. Sherpas are a cultural group native to Nepal;  the word also connotes specialists in mountain climbing.  In a team of Sherpas the person in charge is referred to as […]

  Seven Minutes and 150 Feet Nearly one year ago, February 26, 2013, two young Navy divers died during a reckless and unnecessary certification dive in frigid 150 feet deep water at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.  Their deaths were attributable to inadequate leadership, poor procedures and lack of risk assessment. Just four weeks earlier a […]

No doubt they would marvel at both our schools and our unwillingness to keep our children safe in them.

There can be but one position and dissent is neither welcome nor tolerated. It is extremely harsh fundamentalist doctrine.

  Fire Service Leaders with Nothing to Say On Christmas Eve, four Webster, New York, firefighters were shot and two killed when a paroled felon with a prior murder conviction set them up.  It’s more accurate to say they were executed with premeditated precision.  Arson was used as the pretext for drawing them into the […]

Mindless and Soulless in America               Zombies, at least in entertainment and gaming, are resurgent.  They are in their way both terrifying and popular.  Zombies are among the dead and have the vacant, expressionless look that typifies life without a soul. Two days ago, Piers Morgan, the TV talk […]

Yesterday’s blog post at IAFF online by Rich Duffy trumpets a “must read” article in a “prestigious, professional online magazine” by author John Steadman concerning the fatal fire at the former Deutsche Bank building which was under demolition at the time of the incident. First, employing “J’accuse”, a reference to the 19th century Dreyfuss affair in […]

Dude, you are so Schettinoed. Ask any “hoodyed-up” , skateboarding twenty-something all the way up to a 95-year-old triathlete who is the last person off a ship and they will universally exclaim, “Why, the captain, of course!” Apparently not so, in what now passes for the Italian Navy.  Last week as the Costa Concordia cruise […]