Deep Thoughts

| April 2, 2015

“For my own part, I’ve been around long enough to know the Winter just past as the normalcy of my childhood, when we kids were playing “king of the castle” flinging snowballs in defence of battlements built atop the lofty snowbanks thrown up by the plough that cleared the school parking lot, and this all […]

Nature’s Jocularity

| March 29, 2015

“Oddly enough, this poem was born from an intention to write something with a pretty beginning that set the reader up for a funny punch line involving the way Spring unveils just how much frozen dog shit has been slumbering under the snow and ice in our yard, and that blessed day when Nature does […]

The Cop on the Block

| March 4, 2015

For many years now, it has been with furrowed brow that I have observed the world as it applies to the work of professional law enforcement. My troubled mind comes from having had the extreme privilege of a career that has led me to know and work with a satisfying sample of cops – some […]

It’s Results that Count

| February 22, 2015

The involvement of Canada’s military services in the open warfare that has flourished since the events of 11 September 2001 has led to an unsurprising and historically inevitable outcome: Healthy people are dispatched on the mission. Some come back fine, some die before the end of their tour, while still others come back broken. Wars […]

Whither I Wentest?

| February 7, 2015

It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that I’ve been more than a little sparse in my utterances of late. Let me tell you a little about that. We of the LFM Clan are a healthy and robust lot, descended from a bunch of tough nuts. When we catch a cold or flu, we take the […]

Leaders and Leadership – Chapter the Second: A Historical Study in Leadership

| January 8, 2015

In his 9 December 2014 article, How Ernest Shackleton can help world address climate change, Paul Kennedy wrote: A hundred years ago, Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton failed — in absolutely spectacular fashion. But some believe the way he turned failure into a historic triumph is inspiration for world leaders dealing with the crisis of climate […]

Leaders and Leadership – Chapter the First

| January 3, 2015

The expulsion of evils, from being occasional, tends to become periodic. It comes to be thought desirable to have a general riddance of evil spirits at fixed times, usually once a year, in order that the people may make a fresh start in life, freed from all the malignant influences which have been long accumulating […]

A Long Winter’s Night 2014 – Day 11: Perfection

| December 31, 2014

To speak of the Warrior Path is to conjure images of life and death. Of strife and struggle. Of blades and guns and martial skill directed toward a goal of death and destruction. But as the Warrior walks the Path, it will soon become clear that if his reason for being there is to subjugate […]

A Long Winter’s Night 2014 – Day 4: The Origins of Father Christmas

| December 24, 2014

Since 1739, Rare Exports Inc. of Finland has been delivering impeccable, well mannered, and extremely rare, original Finnish Father Christmases to over 150 countries every Yule season without fail. On this Christmas Eve we offer a rare insight into their methods; heretofore shrouded in secrecy.

A Long Winter’s Night 2014 – Day 3: Perspectives on Acquisition

| December 23, 2014

“I figure that we are hard-wired to be hunter and gatherers, and somewhere, that whole shopaholic thing expresses some kind of visceral need to acquire and store items. Once upon a time, we might have been out finding acorns and tucking them away or putting a turnip away for winter. Now, we are buying an […]