As children, our brains go through specific stages of development. One of the experiments used to demonstrate this growth is to ask toddlers if they want one cookie now or two cookies in five minutes. Kids of a certain age are incapable of grasping the notion that if they just wait, their reward will be…
Arms reduction works in Utopia, not here on Earth
January 18, 2016
Every now and then, I read something about how this or that nation is the world’s biggest importer or exporter of arms. So what? Groups that track arms sales never explain the context. Who’s buying the weapons, and for what reason? Arms in and of themselves don’t matter. It’s the people who own them who…
Pragmatism has triumphed over nationalism
January 11, 2016
Having stepped out of society, I’m able to perceive things that others can’t. It’s not that I’m smarter than anyone; instead, I’m simply unencumbered by fear of rejection. If I’m wrong, it doesn’t matter. Ridicule means nothing to me. What I enjoy most of all—after talking with my brothers Tim and Eric and collecting World…
Syrian Democratic Forces: Possibly the people we’ve needed
December 13, 2015
On October 11, 2015, a new Syrian rebel alliance was announced: the Syrian Democratic Forces. A Kurdish militia in northern Syria has joined forces with Arab rebels, and their new alliance has been promised fresh weapon supplies by the United States for an assault on Islamic State forces in Raqqa, a spokesman said on Monday….