War in the Western Pacific is in the air this summer, so I thought it might be a good time to file a few notes about the fight we had with the Japanese in the Philippines in 1944-45. Central to this podcast is the interview with my father in law, Ernesto F. “Papi” Martinez who … More The Sack of Manila, 1945
The release of the film Dunkirk this summer recalls the summer of 1940, when Western Civilization itself was held in the balance. Caught in a narrowing perimeter by the Nazi Blitzkrieg, protected by their British rear guard, their French comrades and the RAF, over 300,000 mostly British, but also French, Belgian and even a few … More The Speech After Dunkirk: “We Shall Fight on the Beaches”
Five years ago while visiting family there, we happened to take exit 82 off the Garden State Parkway and find ourselves in Seaside Heights, a beach resort on New Jersey’s central coast. As it turned out, this was just weeks before Hurricane Sandy devastated the island. This summer I packed my digital recorder and we … More Hurricane Sandy and the Resilience of New Jersey
What is it about Everett, anyway? People are born here, live out their lives here and die here, never leaving, never seeing a reason to leave. This audio is about a lovely Friday evening in Everett, and commentary about the town and what we do here in the summer then segues into a commentary about … More What is it about Everett, anyway?
Mr. Trump could learn a few things from his predecessor, Richard Nixon. This weekend the New York Times is reporting on President Trump’s financial disclosure made Friday. The report shows holdings with foreign countries and what appears to this lawyer to be a conflict of interest at best and a foreign emolument at worst. Wading … More Richard M. Nixon on Financial Transparency of Public Servants
In 1993 we drove south from Nashville on I-24 into rural Tennessee and into another world. The objective was a visit to the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg. It wasn’t much like the film Deliverance, but then the people we encountered were not that far removed from the cast either. Soon after turning right at … More My Visit to the Jack Daniels Distillery
Consider if you will a Europe still dominated by fascist governments like Nazi Germany. Or a Pacific ocean where Imperial Japan remained the dominant force. Or a step further, what if communism had prevailed? In this podcast I take up the selfless heroes we remember at this time who made the way it is possible. … More Memorial Day is for the Fallen
It’s a random war without front lines. All of us are soldiers. At stake is liberal democracy and our way of life. What is it Mel Gibson said in Braveheart? “They can take our land but they cannot take our freedom”. Today it is the other way around, they cannot take our land, but they … More Manchester. United.
802 years ago in a field at Runnymede, near London, England, King John was forced by his barons to place his seal on the first document ever known to curb executive power, Magna Carta, or Great Charter. Given recent events in the country birthed from England but with a more developed governing document, the United … More Magna Carta and the Rule of Law, Part 1
Well it has been quite a week here in the United States, which is quickly becoming more like the fictional Land of Oz. President Trump has taken the head off the agency investigating his campaign, declaring no one gets into to see the Wizard, no way no how! And who can forget the speed at … More Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain!
Lawyers Road Review 