Category: Some Other Important Topics

Even though the U. S. President has limited power to unilaterally change things in the country, he or she is the symbolic leader of the country and has considerable influence over the future of citizens.  Since the job of President is complicated and requires making good decisions about complex matters, as well as kissing babies…

Almost all of us want to be able to express our opinions freely, without fear of punishment, and in general this should be protected.  The only reason to prohibit speech in a democracy is if it harms others.  It cannot be acceptable to restrict speech solely because it questions or criticizes leaders or political groups. …

I believe that nations must cooperate in as many ways as possible on issues that affect all nations, including global climate change and global trade.  I will utilize all effective means of encouraging and participating in this cooperation, including activity in the United Nations and other global groups, without ceding any of our rights to…

The Social Security program has served a useful purpose in providing both disability assistance (SSDI) and retirement income to Americans.  Not enough is coming into the program through current payroll deductions to ensure a healthy fund, and this must be corrected soon.  I will press Congress to amend the fund’s legislation immediately to keep income…

Blaming the judiciary for “legislating from the bench” is simply a way for legislators to divert attention from the fact that they have not done their legislative job well.  Judges attempt to interpret the law as written when the law is unclear, and when necessary the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution as it applies to…

The idea of world peace is an important aspiration for all of us who reject any and all stealing of land or goods from one country by another.  Border intrusions are always wrong if unprovoked.  Defending one’s country is of course OK, but aggression is not. Leaders of countries are prime villains in the creation…

As the countries of the world become more interconnected and as human activity on the globe increases to the point of sometimes actually threatening our species’ existence on the planet, solving these worldwide problems requires working together with other countries.  Climate change is an example of this.  Whether or not you believe that human activity…

I believe, and I think a majority of Americans believe, that a collection of cells that have no human form is not appropriate for full legal protections as a “person.”  At some point in the gestation period, a human form can be perceived, though when that is probably varies quite a bit from perceiver to…

People use drugs to alter their internal states (their subjective experience of the moment), so the key question regarding alcohol and drug use (and abuse) is why people have such a need to change their subjective experience.  Is life not OK without the drugs?  Why not?  Using a substance, most often alcohol, at the point…

My understanding of the homeless situation, confirmed by people who actually work in the streets with the homeless, is that there are three major groups of those who are homeless—those who are circumstantially (and temporarily) homeless through loss of job, divorce, or domicile, those who are homeless mainly due to substance use and addiction, and…

Our intervention in Afghanistan did accomplish the main goal—to remove Afghanistan as a location where Al-Quaeda could grow, but our nation-building effort failed because we underestimated the persistence of the Taliban, the necessarily slow process of changing the local culture, and the loyalty of Afghanis to Islam (of the Taliban variety), while we overestimated the…

After centuries of China, a truly ancient civilization, being humbled and used economically by Western countries (including the U.S.), China is asserting that it is just as good as everybody else and trying to prove this by expansionism (Tibet, Taiwan) and military build-up. China and the Chinese deserve to be left alone and to feel…

Christopher Ebbe, Ph.D. 12-23 I am completely willing to guarantee the borders and safety of Israel from all attacks, but it is my opinion that the Israeli government could tomorrow, even unilaterally, divest themselves of some of the occupied territories and establish the formation of an independent Palestinian state.  I fault them for not doing…

Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has been pretty much ignoring Russia and gone ahead with its own push to democratize (Vietnam, Iraq) the world, but it not wise to ignore or downplay the largest country (in territory) in the world.  We have also, in the Ukraine war, simply vilified Mr. Putin…

China is determined to incorporate Taiwan back into greater China, which would be a catastrophic loss of freedom for the Taiwanese and a moral blackeye for the U.S. if we do not act to defend Taiwan’s freedom. (Taiwan’s current government stems from those in China who opposed Communism and were forced to flee to Taiwan…

The Russian aggression in Ukraine is completely unjustified.  Ukraine is not run by Nazis, and resistance by Ukrainians to Russia taking over their country is self-defense and not a threat to Russian society.  The West has no designs to take over or obliterate Russia.  The longer the war goes on, the lower Russia falls in…

Americans are not good at seeing things from the point of view of other countries.  We tend to assume that anything we do must be right or OK, since we are “good,” and any country that does things that are not in our best interest must be ”bad.”  This is a highly oversimplified view of…

War comes naturally to humans, since it can be crucial to survival of the group, but in modern times it can have horrendous consequences for millions of people, which makes it very important to control and minimize the occurrences of war.  Contemplating war is complex, since we must try to understand the relationships between testosterone…