The Dog Blog

Last evening, I had the privilege of attending a vigil and walk hosted by September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. I’m sure some of the family members who lost loved ones 25 years today will also be at the annual remembrance ceremony on the grounds of the World Trade Center where the names of those killed will be read out, in front of a bunch of politicians, a group that most notably this year will include our Lord Mayor Zohran Mamdani (and HOW DARE YOU Rudy Giuliani or George Pataki or other Republican BIGOTS suggest that this City’s first Muslim...

Not quite sure what we get… the official wedding list suggests that this is the silver anniversary, of this here blog that theoretically went live on September 4, 2001 (a week before you know what), although its first post was on September 18, 2001 (a week after you know what). So we’ll have more commemorations… maybe… Here in New York, at least, providence did us something of a solid, insofar as we are advised that the President will not be gracing us with his presence on this year’s September 11th commemoration (because he can’t just stand there and not give...

I see that I haven’t posted anything this year. Thus far, at least, I also haven’t run a marathon or an ultramarathon. The dearth of both of those things at the same time may well be unprecedented since I started this bloggy project a week or so after 9-11 back in 2001. Perhaps I sensed that the subterranean existential angst I was feeling [and many others were feeling] had just made things like my various adult projects just not worth it, particularly when coupled with a pretty damned unpleasantly cold and snowy winter in New York, at least weatherwise. Maybe....

The Loquacious Pup has come in for a visit from the Red State where she is pursuing her graduate studies. Between trying to work, picking her up from the airport yesterday, and getting a flu and covid vax on Monday, I probably ended up exhausting my 63 year old frame. Meaning, yada yada yada, that I was remiss in putting up my annual Festivus post. One would think I could handle a little vax and the physical challenge it presented at that this point, given that this was the very year that I set my personal distance record not once...

Among the almost infinite number of unforgivable sins committed by Donald Trump, he has taken away my ability to enjoy this moment, this moment of the death of Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney, the 46th Vice President of the United States. A moment I had looked forward to for decades. And now? Nothing. Cheney was widely “credited” as the principal architect of the post-9-11 global war on terror including endless arbitrary detention at torture at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Part of this, of course, is because of the antipathy and courageous opposition to said Donald Trump by...

And so we’re back. It’s 24 years on. Almost 10% in the life of our relatively young republic, almost 40% of my own life, since that fateful day (it was a Tuesday, and quite sunny, not unlike today in downtown N.Y.C., where I sit a few hundred yards from the WTC, as I did on the day itself; but I digress). Given how traumatic 2024 was in Stately Dog Manor (I am pleased to report that the Loquacious Pup appears to have come through with a good recovery from her extremely unpleasant illness and has resumed her studies in graduate...

I’m saddened to report that earlier this year, my friend and college classmate Lyle Brooks has passed away at age 66. Lyle was one of the original co-bloggers here, for its first few months in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, we had a point counterpoint format with yours truly serving as “the Left-Leaning Dog” and Lyle as “the Rabid Dog.” As his obituary observes, Lyle was still working in the New York court system at the time of his death, where he had worked for decades. Lyle was the nephew of famous beat poet (and Columbia grad) Alan Ginsberg. Lyle’s...

In the waning days of the Biden Administration, we have seen some remarkable movement on the GTMO front, as eleven prisoners (of the fourteen remaining who were cleared for transfer) were abruptly transerred to Oman. These prisoners were Yemeni nationals who because of the security situation in their home country could not be transferred there, and so, were sent to Oman, a nation with a supposedly successful record of “rehabilitating” former Guantanamo prisoners (notwithstanding that most of them never really had any actual connection to terrorism or Islamic extremism). As we approach some of the coldest, darkest weather of the...

2024 has been quite the wild ride. If the Democratic Establishment is to be believed, it featured an election that represents the execution of an existential threat to American democracy, with the Trump Restoration all but assuring, well, that. Mr. Trump managed to secure reelection either despite, or because of, the Democratic Establishment’s decision to time various criminal charges against him for maximum electoral impact, although only a New York County criminal prosecution over the Stormy Daniels “hush money” payments went to trial (and resulted in conviction). [As a long time practicing attorney in this city, albeit not specializing in...

And to all a good Festivus.

My friend Andy Worthington gives us the details of the abrupt release of three prisoners from GTMO, bringing the total number of Muslim men and boys held at our military’s great experiment in made-up-justice-to-cover-up-torture down to 27. It’s been quite a while since any prisoners were released, as Andy notes, the second longest period in GTMO history without a release. That may be about to change when Donald Trump returns to the White House. Frankly, despite my longstanding interest in the subject, it’s been a long time since I did an interview, or frankly, much of anything. For personal reasons...

As some of you know, 2024 had already been a difficult year here at Stately Dog Manor. In May of 2024, we lost our beloved cat, whom we will call “Mr. S,” to an awful disease. Ironically, this occurred when the Loquacious Pup, only 24, was herself fighting a similar disease. I am somewhat pleased to report that her fight, which involved well over a month as an inpatient and many months of other treatment, appears to have gone successfully, and she will soon be advancing her education in another city (alas, in a red state). And of course, TD...

As I frequently do, I missed the anniversary of this here blog, which turned 23 on the 18th of September. We kind of have other things going on at this time of year, and of course, this has been an eventful year here in Stately Dog Manor for lots of other reasons that need not be discussed right now. The world continues rolling on; things look “OK” as far as the United States not making the fatal mistake of a Trump Restoration, though this should be a foregone conclusion and it clearly is not at a mere 6 weeks before...

Yes, it’s 23 years after September 11th. For those who don’t know (and why don’t you?) my venue that day was at an office building on Church Street in lower Manhattan, at the job I lost that day after the building was closed for business for an inordinate period of time following the 9-11 events. I, of course, viewed the festivities from a 16th floor window. The easiest explanation for what happened is blowback from having armed Islamic militants to take on the former Soviet Union who eventually settled in perennial failed state Afghanistan, along with Islamist grievances associated with...

Apparently a plea deal has been reached between the United States Department of Justice and Julian Assange, under which Assange will plead guilty to a single count of something or other involving classified documents and be sentenced to five years time served. Assange will plead guilty to this in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Marianas, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but evidently, one of the closest American jurisdictions to his native Australia, to where Assange will promptly return. Assange has essentially been out of circulation for over a decade between a lengthy sojourn in the Ecuadorian...