Since 2015, the idea of ending birthright citizenship has been on my radar. Those favoring anti-immigration, view the bestowal of citizenship on children of foreign citizens as a problem. In their mind, pregnant women are invading the United States specifically to have children and force the country to keep the parents. (It may delay, but the…
Saw a story that got me wondering what the reaction would be under the current president if the test had come back positive. An unidentified patient who was kept in isolation at a Philadelphia hospital while being tested for Ebola has been confirmed as not infected with the deadly virus. Thoughts and prayers? That seems…
Liberals see “rights” as something of a public good (like national defense or a scenic view), whose consumption by one individual doesn’t diminish consumption by others. In fact, they believe that all Americans are thereby made better off. In the conservative version of identity politics, however, everything’s a zero-sum game: Freedom from discrimination on the…
Now Kepler has found the much-anticipated first rocky, Earth-sized exoplanet. It did it by staring for months on end at the same 150,000 stars in the constellation Cygnus. Kepler’s 1-meter-diameter telescope, hooked up to a sensitive light-measuring instrument, is capable of detecting the dimming of a star as a planet orbits in front of it—even…
It talks about mirror neurons as the key to why we feel empathy. This empathy is the foundation for why we do things for others. Nice thoughts.
Today is the day many Americans will signal (any nonverbal action or gesture that encodes a message)Â their nationalism by displaying pictures of the World Trade Center, the United State flag, NYFD logos, or yellow ribbons. Given the current climate, such signalling probably is wise as anyone like me who fails to appropriately signal can be…
Soccer clubs are tied to a neighborhood or city. Doing well inspires local pride. National teams expand the base of supporters. Beirut-born Ibrahim (or Youssef) Bassal displayed a 70′ x 20′ German flag to show his family’s solidarity during the World Cup where millions of smaller flags are everywhere. Only people keep vandalizing the flags because…