Far back in the Dark Ages when I was in military high school in 1958, the most basic infantry formation was called "The Diamond" with your nine-man squad deployed in that shape and the lead person called "the point." He was up there to draw fire, which hopefully did not kill him and identified at least one solid target - for the "fire and maneuver" 4-person-each elements who spread out behind the point and took cover as necessary, returning fire ...

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I'd like to report that it's getting hairy up here, and I'm happy to be able to report it live. Since the election, there's been a lot of hoo-ing and ha-ing, not to mention confusion and fire. Oh well... such is life last mid-century.

Authors Bio:
I have a law degree (Stanford, 66') but have never practiced. Instead, from 1967 through 1977, I tried to contribute to the revolution in America. As unsuccessful as everyone else over that decade, in 1978 I went to work for the U.S. Forest Service in San Francisco as a Clerk-Typist, GS-4. I was active in the USFS's union for several years, including a brief stint as editor of The Forest Service Monitor, the nationwide voice of the Forest Service in the National Federation of Federal Employees. Howsoever, I now believe my most important contribution while editor of the F.S.M. was bringing to the attention of F.S. employees the fact that the Black-Footed Ferret was not extinct; one had been found in 1980 on a national forest in the Colorado. In 2001 I retired from the USFS after attaining the age of 60 with 23 years of service. Stanford University was evidently unimpressed with my efforts to make USFS investigative reports of tort claim incidents available to tort claimants (ie, "the public"), alleging the negligence of a F.S. employee acting in the scope of his/her duties caused their damages, under the Freedom of Information Act. Oh well. What'cha gonna do?