The insanity of Bush’s 2007 budget proposal

Here's Robert Sheer's take on the new budget: Ever since some lunatics, mostly citizens of our longtime ally Saudi Arabia, used $3 knives to hijack four planes on the same morning, President Bush has exploited our nation’s trauma as an opportunity to throw trillions of dollars at the military-industrial complex…

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Whatever Became of Thorium?

And why should we care about this material rarely mentioned outside of science-fiction? Well, it involves recycling, our energy future, and a chance to de-proliferate nuclear weaponry and reduce the threat of "dirty" bombs. First, a brief bit of history: Back in the 1930's, it was discovered that isotopes of…

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Politicians are psychologically wired up for war

Here’s a compelling article by Daniel Kahneman and Jonathan Renshon.  Kahneman is famous for identifying numerous human heuristics and biases in the lab. He received a Nobel prize in economics based on his decades of inspiring work. Renshon is a Harvard doctoral student. In this article, the authors note that many built-in…

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Patriotism and asking good hard questions

Did you see Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's response to the President's State of the Union address last night?  Here's the text. The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two…

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Don’t try to do brain surgery with a chain saw

Never try to do such a foolish thing.  It could never work.  It just makes things worse.  War is a chainsaw.  Reconstituting social structures is akin to brain surgery. So here's a question: In what major city were the following photos taken? (These photos were sent to me by an American friend who once lived…

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