In his farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation that a military-industrial complex, led by interests within the government, the military and those industries supplying the military, could stray from the original intent of national defense towards private interest. We were invoked to get it right by constantly scrutinizing decisions coming from those defending us, and to do this beyond the fears that may be engendered. This was about scrutiny, not abandonment. Today his words may easily be dittoed for the two biochemical-industrial complexes: food and pharmaceuticals.   more »

For centuries, homosexuals have been harassed into separate closets and are now being told that a military demand for confidentiality is about returning to that situation. Crusaders instilling such shame and defenders from them imagine that this policy is about their own holy war. It is not, but rather it asks whether homosexuals will be allowed to move onto this or any non-disclosure without being stigmatized as acting in shame. Nor is it about imposed dishonesty; after all how can one lie if one doesn't tell? How can one's silence infer homosexuality if none who are asked answer? The problem is not with Don’t Ask Don't Tell; it is with those heterosexuals who presume that they are only on the don't-ask portion of the protocol. Why are setting-the-record-straight soldiers being allowed to place the onus of the policy's practicality on the homosexual community?   more »

Beyond the risks associated with false positives, breast tissue is so sensitive to a mammography’s radiation as to be threatened by the very examination developed to protect it. (December 23, 2009 update)   more »

On October 25, 2009, CBS Sunday Morning tackled the multifaceted issue of obesity. Here I examine some of the topics covered.   more »

Not a professional—I have enjoyed a long interest in biology. In the early nineties I was struck by the destructiveness of diseases related to an inappropriate immunological response. At that time I chose to read up on the subject and in a chapter on cancer found that I could not continue without resolving a question about what I had just read.    more »

Mainstream medicine recommends avoiding both intentional and unintentional exposure to the H1N1 virus. I hope that they are right and perhaps they are, but the degree of certainty in their pronouncements indicates to me that they may be prescribing out of their depth: out of what may really require an application of probability theory.   more »

Long before the founding of Islam the charging of interest on loans had been broadly forbidden. Early encounters with interest bearing loans had often led to impoverishment and in response community by community condemned the instrument. Beginning with England under Henry VIII, many non-Islamic countries began recognizing the value brought to the borrower in a loan’s temporal empowerment.   more »

With the looming energy crisis, it is clear that we must revive the licensing of nuclear reactors by insuring the security of their radioactive fuel and waste in use, storage, or transit both from mishaps accidental or seismic; and from seizures or explosive scatterings by terrorists.   more »

For every nation that supports its citizens in obtaining health services there are financial limitations that make some care unavailable. Here I propose a system that mediates optimally between our deepest values and the realities of illness and scarcity. It would cut paperwork while spurring and even redirecting medical research.   more »

Understanding and ignorance both shape our choices. The latter may limit freedom whether or not there is an encroachment on our rights in that we approach the choosing point with its long term possibilities distorted or otherwise misunderstood and pass freedom by without recognizing it.   more »

Here I consider human rights in general, using specific rights only as examples. Although some of the conclusions that follow are my own, by the essential nature of the subject, most of this may well have been bouncing around for years. Such an overview helps me to get through the specifics; may it do so for you too.   more »

I just viewed Nova’s special on the confrontation between Evolution and those in Dover, Pennsylvania who feel disenfranchised by that theory’s preeminence. It is unfortunate that many who trust their religious experience have turned to such a limp reconciliation as Intelligent Design. I will address some issues raised in that show, but my main interest is in redirecting you towards my earlier article, Evolution, as a basis for mutual understanding.   more »

An earlier article comparing murder-suicide in the Middle East and at an Amish schoolhouse here finds a parallel to the mass murder at Virginia Tech.   more »

I write here of distortions in terrorist relationships to heritage and to self, not about their finding my country, the United States, to be a detriment to either. Stripped of these distortions, disappointment in our involvement would not be constantly upstaging its own agenda.   more »

Although I believe that the process known as Global Warming is taking place, I recognize that the theory is at a stage that necessitates a scrutiny and counter scrutiny that can only benefit science.   more »

About fifty years ago I read what must have been a young adult’s version of The Voyage of the Beagle. Along with Charles Darwin himself, many have drawn inferences from the basic premise that in the process of life generating itself, there is variation along with a tendency for survival among those variants best adapted to their environment.   more »