This Wednesday, the majority of mankind is for quite a show – the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century. As the NASA graphic at right (click to enlarge) makes clear, the path of the eclipse traverses half the globe, covering all of India and Indonesia and most of China, not to mention the rest…

President Obama’s speech to the NAACP was equal parts encouragement and tough love. I found this passage to be refreshing, in that it broadens the reality of discrimination and thus implies common cause: “I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. And I…

One of the central rationalizations for the permissibility of “collateral damage” in warfare is that the enemy uses “human shields” – that militants are deliberately hiding among civilian populations so as to force the attacker to kill innocents if they decide to attack. I’ve argued for some time that collateral damage should be disavowed as…

Walter Cronkite’s passing away is an occassion for remembrance of a storied career and a true giant of journalism. It is not, however, the end of an era – the era of men like Cronkite ended a long time ago. While the media is engaged in a (well-deserved) hagiography about Cronkite’s career and influence, it…

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