"They were careless people...they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the …
April 17, 2003
Asia: travel reviews
Left in Hell
War and Journalism
When I see an embedded reporter like, say, the late David Bloom of NBC (a great reporter and sorely missed), green in night-vision light, crouched behind a berm, whispering into his mike while guns and …
April 10, 2003
Baby Killers
Last week I wrote a piece called "Chimps with Nukes." When I had a draft I e-mailed it to a bunch of old soldiers to see if anybody thought I had left anything important out. …
March 20, 2003
San Diego veterans of World War II's Bataan Death March sue Mitsui, Mitsubishi
"I live a perfect life,” Lester Tenney told me. “I’ve been a very fortunate man.” We were sitting in the sunshine on his patio on Mount Soledad. Betty, his wife of over 40 years, had …
March 13, 2003
Chimps with Nukes
In Jared Diamond's book The Third Chimpanzee, he points out that we share about 98 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, which is not much greater than the difference between chimps and bonobo pygmy chimps. …
March 13, 2003
I'd Fight
America saw a return to patriotism after the 9/11 tragedy that managed to raise enlistment rates in the military. But will the escalation of aggression in Israel stimulate the same response from American Jews? As …
May 23, 2002
Their Mothers Cry Too
While Israel's war with Palestinian terrorists rages on, hopes for peace diminish. Some Jews in San Diego are hopeful, even if their hope is only philosophical. Alex Brauer, 79, knows a little bit about Israeli …
May 16, 2002
Korean connection
A post-September 11 foreign-spy technology crackdown by federal authorities has netted yet another San Diego company with ties to South Korea. Neopoint, a Rancho Bernardo-based maker of so-called smart cell phones, has been slapped with …
March 7, 2002
Dining out, Thai style
The latest hot gossip in Thailand involves a Bangkok movie star and his alleged affair with Thai princess Ubolratana Rajakanya, divorced from San Diegan Peter Jensen, onetime business partner of ex-felon Richard Silberman and former …
January 24, 2002
Forgotten Valor
Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards every one. -- Pete Seeger, 1961 James Francis Walter Ford's death was certain, but his life remained a mystery. After he was accidentally struck and killed …
September 2, 2001
Why aren't there any Vietnamese names in the Obituary column of the UT?
Matmail: Why is it there are never any Vietnamese names in the obituary column printed in the San Diego Union? -- Mort Schwartz, Clairemont According to the local Union of Pan Asian Communities, to find …
September 30, 1999
Gateway Computer billionaire Ted Waitt loads the family aboard his executive jet
Wasn't that ponytailed Gateway Computer billionaire Ted Waitt, currently La Jolla's most famous resident, seen loading the family aboard his executive jet parked at Lindbergh Field's private terminal last Friday night? He pulled up to …
March 18, 1999
Navy SEAL Harry Constance accuses Charles Watson of cowardice during Tet offensive
August, 1997. It is a sunny Saturday on Coronado's Orange Avenue. Bay Books is having a ball. Half a dozen ex-Navy SEALs sit at tables inside, each autographing the book he has written about his …
February 18, 1999
Evangelical chaplains sue U.S. Navy for discriminating against them
This is the joke among the Navy's evangelical chaplains. "Question: What do you have to do to get promoted in the U.S. Navy? "Answer: If you're a Roman Catholic, you've got to be able to …
November 5, 1998