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COBOL (COBOL?), Defanging, and Still More Snowden Fallout

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I was lucky enough to be asked, again, by Francis Rose to be on his regular Friday ‘Federal News Countdown”, this last Friday, January 31st. The show can be heard here: Federal News Countdown.

The other guest was Jon Desenberg, the Policy Director for the Performance Institute, The Performance Insitute.

For those unfamiliar with the show, each guest selects their three top stories of the week relating to the Federal Government. The third most important story is discussed first by each, the second next, and the most important last.

Lego My …, Oops Wrong Analogy

I have a feeling that the new Lego movie, called creatively The Lego Movie, may be one of those that I will have to go alone without Ellen. Even though the initial Rotten Tomatoes rating is… 

Avoiding the Super/Puppy/Ad Bowl

Perhaps it is only because we do not host or go to any Superbowl parties. However, we are here today with my annual not-watching the Superbowl game day. My normal activity for the day is… 

Wendy and Lucy

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I just finished watching Wendy and Lucy, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wendy_and_lucy/, which I very much enjoyed.  The story line is pretty simple. A young woman played very well by Michelle Williams, Wendy, and her dog, Lucy, on her way to Alaska to hopefully get a good paying job is stranded in a small town in Oregon when her car breaks down. With little money to have the car fixed, Wendy is arrested for shoplifting and Lucy is gone when Wendy returns. The rest of the movie covers the events that follow as Wendy continues to search for Lucy and faces more and more difficult choices.

American’s Belief (or non-belief) In Evolution

I read a column in the Post that noted that Republicans (not me) are growing more skeptical about evolution while Democrats are increasing in their belief, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/12/30/republicans-growing-more-skeptical-about-evolution/. I then went and read the source Pew Research… 

How Is Counterinsurgency Like the Way the Human Body Fights Disease?

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Last week, I attended a Brookings Institute event, which focused on analogies between the human body, and how it reacts to disease and how nations react to insurgency.

The speakers were General Stanley McChrystal, formerly commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and now a senior fellow at Yale University, and Kristina Talbert-Slagle, an associate research scientist at Yale Global Health leadership Institute. The session was moderated by Brookings Senior Fellow, Michael O’Hanlon.