About Me

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So... who is The Mad Pigeon? I'm an Air Force officer and former Army NCO, and hold a Bachelors in History and Masters in National Security Studies. I'm currently a political science instructor at the US Air Force Academy, and have been a professional geopolitcal analyst for most of my career, with 5 years spent in NCO and commissioned leadership positions (I also moonlight as a Middle East Foregin Area Officer). My other notable assignments include Fort Polk, LA (2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment), Hanscom AFB, MA (Electronic Systems Center), and Ellsworth AFB, SD (28th Bomb Wing).

With that, my exposure to multiple religions, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds over the last 12 years has made me pretty jaded and bitter about our own consumer culture - once you've seen someone living in a hut its hard to tolerate cultural deadweights such as Paris Hilton. I'm bothered by consumerism, elitism, status seekers, snobs, and extremists on either side of the political and religious fence--especially when they try to tell me how to live my life. I don't want to be the target of anyone's marketing campaign, find television to be a intellectual sinkhole, and think whoever invented pop-up advertising and spam email should be rolled in glass and grain alcohol. But otherwise, for a guy whose job has probably led to the untimely and unspeakably painful deaths of hundreds of people I'm pretty much a softy.

Most of my writing, then, will be either on political-military analysis or making fun of above said snobs and elitists - with the occasional post on music, literature and useless trivia, of course.

ROOST ORGANIZATION

Layout note: I typically choose a source, post an excerpt first, then add my own dour commentary below the breakline. I used to comment first, but since I've moved away from ganking whole articles it flows better with the excerpt first--better to let the reader know who or what I'm slandering up front!

IN ADDITION, FREQUENT COLUMNS INCLUDE:

OPEN TOPIC OF THE WEEK - Usually every Thursday I pick a topic, add some source links, let my readers take a swing at it first, and follow up with my own thoughts in THE PIGEON's RESPONSE. I'll post random open topics every now and then as well, usually when I'm out of town.

THE PIGEON'S RESPONSE - My reply to the previous Week's open topic.

THURSDAY OPEN ROOST - A weekly open forum for readers to share their own posts.

CULLED FROM THE COMICS PAGES - I like to post engaging editorial cartoons I find from time to time.

PIGEON TRACKS - I use these to highlight and comment on the work of fellow bloggers.

Still skeptical? Here's a link, then, to what I consider my best articles--take 'em for a test drive! The Essential Pigeon Reading List

THE CAST OF MISCREANTS AND NE'ER-DO-WELLS:

THE MAD PIGEON – An Air Force Ops Officer who follows strategic news, slams high society and brews his own hard cider in the garage.

MOGS – An Air Force Weapons Officer who specializes in tactical news analysis, underground indie music, retro video gaming, and fringe group sociology. Want more on MOGS?  Check out his favorite posts!

ANTI TOOL - An Air Force Ops officer who specializes in historic analysis and keeps his finger firmly on the pulse of geopolitics trends.

WINTER - The Mad Pigeon's twin brother, a UNIX/LINUX guru, white hat hacker, Goth club denizen and Single Malt Scotch aficionado in the D.C. area.

THE HUMMINGBIRD- The Mad Pigeon's significant other and owner of Green Haven Soaps. She often finds source material for me to write on.

THE MINIONS - The Mad Pigeon's squabs, also known as the Mouse (daughter) and the Monkey (son).

DENVER BRAA - Yes, that's his real name. He a AF colleague of the Mad Pigeon and MOGS and plays the same mentoring role as Wilson did on Home Improvement.

THE PIGEONS - Why, my pet pigeons, of course!

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