You have to wonder if this author laughed when he wrote this line...
...I don't know if the author laughed...but I sure did after reading his florid pap for about five minutes...I can literally see this writer in front of me now---ponytail encrusted with streaking gray, cascading rivules flowing from the edge of the eyes to the melting jawbone, the aging hands mottled to the point of...and so on and so forth...godawful drivel
...I'm surprised the guy didn't take Hagel's picture off the page to substitute his own...he did everything else he could to inject himself into the piece...