My first job in the AF was in operational testing, and I spent 3 years doing OT on the CSEL system. Fun fact: the picture in the manual showing how to hold the radio is me, taken at Ft Huachuca, AZ (though now turned into an anonymized drawing). www.ndtv.com/world-news/u...

thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2... A #review I did for Strategy Bridge. If you can get a physical copy, do so!

I’m a little ashamed to not know of this oath. Gonna go look this up…not as a Latin exercise, but for civ-mil fun.

In 2005, I was dragged kicking and screaming to DC. I may or may not have cried driving into town when house-hunting. Six years later, they had to drag me out. Five tours, 12 years (and counting), we like it here.

thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2... #OnObedience #DisciplinedDisobedience

“Worst” is a weird category, as is “city.” I’ve spent time in the boonies of TX, NM, and Southern California, places that would make your eyes water. But what really annoys me is not those places…it’s vanilla. Dayton, OH is the most aggressively average place I’ve over been.

Thinking about my Dad this morning, after some hard days and nights. He loved this song. m.youtube.com/watch?v=H49o...

White nationalist christo-fascist misogynists are gonna do what they’ve always done.

Favorite books about women's history? Any time period, any geographic location. It's for a thing

Some people are dumb. When someone else points it out. They double down. This is entirely predictable. On one side of this we have foolishness. On the other side we have culpability. Don’t be culpable.

I’m planning a trip for PME this spring. (FTR, putting me in charge of these things is a mistake.) We have a variety of places, organizations, and people we’ll engage. Bonus of being the boss? I get to challenge assumptions. Here follows some things I love that I will inflict on students.

Read poetry. It will change you. 👇👇👇

The blocks are likely coming soon. Yet this remains the basest of unoriginal snake oil. Give them not $0.01. Nothing for nothing.

Oh lord. They’re on LinkedIn. A polished front (that’s really AI slop) can’t hide the snake oil.

We can dream. We should dream. We should reach for things we can’t understand. We should be human and believe we can be more.

I think one of the reasons I was reasonably successful in my career (& side hustle) was the ability to hear another voice, write in that voice, and jump from voice to voice as needed. I think the (problematic) abdication of this to “AI” is enfeebling, circular, and terribly dangerous.

Oh me! Oh life!

👇👇👇

fs.blog/the-antilibr... The Antilibrary: The Hidden Value of Unread Books The legendary Italian writer Umberto Eco had over 50,000 books in his private library. When asked why so many, he had this to say: "It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy..."

I didn’t expect this as the word of the day when I hit the dictionary this afternoon…and I don’t think that was my first thought regarding definition. Was suddenly afraid @queenofthinair.bsky.social has been caught up in a DC scandal.

Had an interesting conversation today. There are things in which I’m reasonably expert (academically in math & maybe in the practice space of PPBE). I don’t teach any of that…but I designed a course I was told to design (last man standing), & while not perfect, it wasn’t crazy. “Heroic.”

#books #reading #writingcommunity #wolves #funny #booksky

I love this movie. It isn’t perfect, but it’s close. And if I watch this sequence, with what we know outside the fiction…I’m lost. I will cry. share.google/9PB7gXQ5oN7l...

I love @birdnote.bsky.social, but I especially love when they go full on for poetry in an episode. (I save up the episodes and then listen in a stream of birdy wonder.) podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...

How did the US mobilize for WWI? Join @prbeckman.bsky.social and @nathankfinney.com for a deep look at one facet of this fascinating question. thestrategybridge.org/the-podcast

“Wilson…ultimately put through legislation that increased the size of the military, started to increase preparedness in order to take that issue off the table in the election of 1916.” A great discussion on the politics of mobilization with @nathankfinney.com. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

👇👇👇

The thing we’ve all been waiting for? A new podcast episode! Don’t miss this discussion between @prbeckman.bsky.social and @nathankfinney.com on the National Guard in North Carolina during WWI. thestrategybridge.org/the-podcast

@kschake.bsky.social on civil-military relations is always worth your time. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Nice explainer.

Crowdsourcing an idea: I’m (likely) the course director for a foundational “strategic art” JPME class in the fall. In addition to targeted readings lesson by lesson, I’m exploring using a single book, read a chapter at a time, as a framing narrative. What should that book be and why? GO!

Many of you know birds and birding among my delights. This silly, but it is also a delight. www.instagram.com/reel/DWBniFz...

A thought, not original: “Passion” derives from Greek (πάσχω: to suffer, to be acted on) and Latin (passio: suffering). To have a passion for command is to suffer. We suffer, but we do it for love.

“I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made…“ —W.B. Yeats

President Eisenhower, who ran in 1952 in no small measure to prevent the Republican leadership from scuttling NATO, is probably disappointed in all of us.

I served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training for three years before the office was disestablished last year. I owned the policy on professional military education for all five services. I have listened to Secretary Hegseth's announcement. I have thoughts. 🧵

A terrifying thought? The horror we see is not Orwell. It’s rather Huxley (or maybe both), and the solutions for one are not transferable. We have problems, not “a problem.”

Someday I will learn my lesson. Send EVERYTHING bcc to put barriers in front of people who 1) don’t understand the difference between “Reply” and “Reply All,” and 2) think work-related communications are social media. Fucking stop.

This is repugnant policy, devoid of strategy, driven by foolishness.

This can get all the way, properly and Constitutionally, fucked.

I’m absolutely fascinated by this idea as a way to shift incentives. A best answer might be to create journals devoted to “negative” results, but this is a lovely communal alternative with lots of positive externalities. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

It appears to be Women’s History Month, and I’m allowed to observe it in any private capacity I like, regardless of my employer’s view. I’ll share this short piece Jill Sargent Russell was kind enough to publish once upon a time. More to follow. medium.com/cclkow-proch...

I’m finding more and more of late that the thing I’m most convinced of by social media is the evidence for the fundamental flaws of democracy as a system (premised on the notion that 0+0>0) and of the Founders’ failure in not going far enough to curb them.

Any discussion of this match must wrestle with a question: “Is Jon Freemon incompetent, stupid, or suffering from a hard blow to the head?” Congratulations @proreferees.bsky.social and @mls.bsky.social on continuing to suck at important things.

I didn’t intend a week ago to have posted something so timely. Alas.

We appear to be 100% on OPSEC.

As the DoD moves to eliminate educational opportunities at various schools for transparent reasons amidst larger efforts at erasure, I’m reminded of W.E.B. Du Bois and “The Propaganda of History.” I’m also reminded of Jean-Luc Picard: “There are four lights!”

I think there is a lot to this. The author is talking about literature and teaches undergrads at a civilian university…but every bit of this resonates with me, history, strategic studies, international relations, math, etc. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Lethality Jane is kind in her ask. If you’re judging what I read, I’m happy to talk about it. If you are even moderately snotty about it and we don’t have a relationship that makes that ok? 1) You are a bad person. 2) I hope you die in a fire.

It’s been about a week since I said something snotty (that they deserve) about this travesty. It’s time to again remind the world that these people are charlatans selling snake oil with no substantive backing.