Michael D. Brown

I love Russia. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and all the villages and burgs with their clashes between young and old, yesterday and today. The vodka. Oh, the vodka. And, of course, that never-ending Russian tendency to never quite escape the old Soviet Union with its KGB, Cold War, disinformation. So while the old Pravda newspaper [...]

Tax on soda, pop, fountain drinks, whatever it is you call it in your part of the world. Tax on obesity, fat, lard-ass, whatever it is you call it in your part of the world. Tax on email is now being touted. In the New York Times’ Idea of the Day today they take the [...]

Maybe because it’s spring in the Rockies, the bear, deer and mountain lions are out and about, the river is running full, noisy and smells great. But whatever the reason I woke up in a particularly great mood this morning, ready to get to work. And then I started reading the news. Now I’m ready [...]

Photograph of Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan by Digital Globe. How many times have you thought something but dared not speak it because of political correctness, or sensitivity to others’ feelings, or fear of backlash? Come on, fess up. I’ll confess to having many times thought about Ground Zero in Manhattan and thought, maybe we [...]

My friend Brian Williams at NBC Nightly News had a segment tonight on the removal of the puffer machines from airports around the country.  Considering that General Electric was one of the manufacturers of these machines, I was amazed at Brian’s “editorial” presentation on the removal of the machines: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, [...]

On the same day the Identity Theft Assistance Center Blog posts its interview with me on the issue of cybersecurity, comes this headline on Bloomberg: Disappearance of Disc With Clinton Data Investigated. I suppose it’s time to call Inspector Clouseau.  According to the article, a disc with Secret Service information, White House procedures, and Social [...]

From the Huffington Post comes this report about military deployment to Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I don’t write a lot on this blog (but elsewhere and pounding away on the word processor!) about Katrina, but thought this was interesting. Eventually we’ll know the entire truth about what occurred, even if it is [...]

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

If you haven’t seen any of the Seinfeld episodes featuring the Soup Nazi, check them out here, otherwise you’ll miss the humor and accuse me of anti-Semitism or insensitivity. I’ve previously written about obesity being the next war on individual rights and the decimation of personal responsibility. Unfortunately we are becoming so extensively regulated and [...]

Last week the Wall Street Journal’s Homeland Security reporter Siobham Gorman filed a report that has received very little attention, but which points out so many problems within the federal government, including problems that I had in DHS and that most departments and agencies suffer. The report also highlights the increasing vulnerability of the federal [...]