“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.” –King Whitney Jr.-1967 I began writing […]

Support for the war in Iraq seems to be dwindling by the week as the general public loses faith in the administration and it’s reasoning for going to war in the first place. Forgetting the most vocal minorities at either side of the political battle, average citizens are beginning to seriously question why we are […]

War, when it occurs, is mostly the result of failed diplomacy or aggressive intentions. In a democracy, discerning the underlying motive for military action is vital for providing a defensible justification for using military force. And a justifiable reason for going to war is essential to maintain public support for actions that result in the […]

In the business world, everyone has a boss. When a problem arises, it gets taken to the boss for resolution. If the boss can’t solve the problem, they take it to the next person up the ladder and ask them to solve it. Eventually, if no one can solve the problem, it reaches the top […]

Accountability can imply many things: financial efficiency, honoring promises, imparting factual information, and taking responsibility for decisions that are made. When it comes to government, accountability doesn’t mean any of these things. It is just a fancy word thrown about to make politicians seem like they are looking out for our interests, but deniability and […]

There is no deed more somber a government can undertake than one of military action. Unleashing the tools of warfare on another people yields the very worst that humanity has to offer and leaves in its wake a shattered nation, a conquered people, and generations of despair. History often portrays wars of the past in […]

One of the basic tenets of American society is the right to privacy. Or at least, it used to be. With advances in technology though, it seems as if privacy is a passé idea in an information age where every transaction is digitally stored, every report is saved in bits and bytes, every communication traceable. […]

You’ve probably heard the expression “Quid Pro Quo” before. It means “an equal exchange.” Another way to say this is “You get what you pay for.” Whatever your phraseology, the concept is pretty simple. For any thing you want, you must have something to exchange for it. This concept is the basis for our entire […]

When we speak of democracy today, we understand it to mean a form of self-government. Indeed, the word is derived from the Greek word, demos, meaning people, combined with the Greek word, krati, meaning power or strength. In it’s present incarnation, democracy has become synonymous with the American system of politics. Yet just below the […]

Campaign finance reform is always on the periphery of politics, but not because the politicians in power want to change the very system that they have carefully constructed to maintain the status quo. Rather, these reforms are trotted out every so often as a means of placating the public, to assure us that our elected […]