Category: Government Studies
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We Have Seen and We Have Said
Last month we were treated to countless rounds of being talked down to by law enforcement from Broward County, Florida after yet another completely avoidable massacre at the hands of an American citizen exercising his right to bear an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle. ‘If you see something, say something,’ Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said…
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Stock Recovery Plan
So what if the stock market is on a rollercoaster this week? Grab some cheap thrills and laugh off your losses with a 15% savings on Patchworks, a hilarious office satire about the ordinary bureaucrats working hard for you in Washington DC. Price too steep? Check it out at the Fairfax County Public Library! Can one…
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I Want the Truth!
Watching the special prosecutor drama unfold is like watching A Few Good Men. We’re at the part now where Tom Cruise explains his winning strategy against Jack Nicholson. Here’s how the lowly Navy Lieutenant plans to bring down a decorated Marine Colonel: Kaffee: He eats breakfast 300 yards away from 4000 Cubans that are trained…
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A Borrower Be
The patient wait is over. Patchworks is now available through the Fairfax County Public Library. Reserve your copy today. Can one intern save us from ourselves, when the government he works for keeps shutting itself down? Patchworks shares a pound of absurdity for every ounce of tragedy, winking in dismay at the circumstances of our…
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White Chapel, Black Hole
Human excrement paves the dungeon floors at Cape Coast Castle. The same is true of other slave forts dotting Ghana’s coast, and along the rest of West Africa. The impacted waste is one of the more subtle, more stirring features of a tour through those high limestone walls. The cannons are there and stacks of…
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Swamp Talk
Why do the murders keep happening? What are we doing to stop them? Can one earnest intern make a difference, when the government he serves keeps shutting itself down? Join the whole Patchworks crew for a bite at The Fed Buffet. Great Falls Library 9830 Georgetown Pike, Great Falls, VA Saturday Feb 3rd, 1:30-4:00 America’s next gun…
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Rock Paper Scissors Shutdown
Gun violence isn’t the only systemic failure of the federal government to be yodeled at with doomed futility in Patchworks. Furloughs and government shutdowns also pepper a story full of recurring small deaths. There comes a point—moments before the plot’s big turn—when two sympathetic colleagues must choose: which of them will take a round of furloughs instead of…
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The Mess We’re In
Only in our currently defiled situation could an unpaid intern have the gall and patience to assert moral power… This month’s Foreign Service Journal features an incisive review of Patchworks by author and retired Foreign Service Officer Dan Whitman. Generous praise from a great writer. Dan served as French interpreter for the State Department’s International…
Ben East Books 