The futility of the “war on drugs”

If you would like to review the sad details of this lost "war," visit Rolling Stone's recent article, "How America Lost the War on Drugs." Thanks to new research, U.S. policy-makers knew with increasing certainty what would work and what wouldn't. The tragedy of the War on Drugs is that…

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What do the families of the world eat?

Many of them eat much the same food as you, but there are many differences too. This is a wonderful photo-essay published by Time.  The Photographs, by Peter Menzel, are from the book Hungry Planet. The unvarnished facts speak loudly while you click through the series of photos. I found that viewing these…

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How to live consciously, buy wisely and make a difference

Yes, you could continue on your merry way, spending money on the wrong types of things for all the wrong reasons.  We've all done this.  But we don't have to keep doing things this way.  To give you an assist, you can get some ideas and inspiration from New American Dream. It…

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We’re running out of water and oil . . . (yawn).

Today, the following Associated Press article was run on page-19 of my local newspaper (the St. Louis Post-Dispatch):

An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn’t have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York’s reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year.

Across America, the picture is critically clear — the nation’s freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.

The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperature, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.

“Is it a crisis? If we don’t do some decent water planning, it could be,” said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the American Water Works Association, based in Denver.

Water managers will need to take bold steps to keep taps flowing, including conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development.

The price tag for ensuring a reliable water supply could be staggering. Experts estimate that just upgrading pipes to handle new supplies could cost the nation $300 billion over 30 years.

“Unfortunately, there’s just not going to be any more cheap water,” said Randy Brown, utilities director for Pompano Beach, Fla.

Truly, this is a major story; our country is running out of a critically important resource.  Combine that lack-of-water news, though with the equally unreported news that the world is running out of …

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More signs of rising economic disparity

Senator Bernie Sanders writes that the American Middle Class is being decimated.  He cites some interesting numbers.  Here's a couple shockers: Robert Frank, a Wall Street Journal reporter, has detailed the lives of the rich and famous in the book Richistan. He writes that households with a net worth of…

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