Do you remember the days after 9-11 (11 September 2001)?
When we were worried that terrorists would attack us again? When we worried that our water supplies would be tainted by poison dropped into our reservoirs?
Continue reading Who is a terrorist?
Yes, I am going to use current events to scare you. Maybe that way you will DEMAND action from Congress (or your country’s legislature) to pass laws, to fund solutions- to stop problems, before they occur.
Continue reading Anti-terror techniques
Whew. You’re done. You managed to file your income taxes yesterday. (Some of you remember- long ago, when we stopped spending money to build America- that the Post Office stayed open until midnight [or 2AM] to yield that coveted 15 April postmark. No more…) And, now you won’t worry about taxes for the next 11 months.
Continue reading Post-apocalypse?
So, as I am wont to do, I was devouring my newspapers at St. Elmo’s (the best coffee shop in Alexandria- come visit!) and ran across this article by Reuel Marc Gerecht (Israel’s New Islamist Neighborhood) that blew me away. It was even a topic of conversation with a few of my friends. Not because it discussed Israel (which is a topic near and dear to my heart), but because of the thought processes it engendered about the more global situation.
Continue reading What I learned from the WSJ today…
We all know this statement….Ignorance of the law is no excuse. It can also make you look rather foolish. One of my friends, Ann Sattley, writes a blog about these law foibles.
Continue reading Ignorantia juris non excusat
You know the military is really keen on drones. It offers them unique possibilities to track (and kill) enemy combatants without putting any troops at risk. Of course, it also provide the opportunity to err and kill civilians. Or, to kill civilians who may be contiguous to the enemy the military wishes to eradicate.
Continue reading Look. Up in the Sky. It’s a bird. No, it’s a plane. Really- it’s a drone!
Do you ever wonder why some of these folks in the Middle East, Idaho, or Chechnya decide to become terrorists? What makes them consider killing innocent children, women, and men- and losing their own lives?
Continue reading Can we tame the terror card?
I had the opportunity last year to attend a very interesting program, graciously sponsored by Mintz Levin (an International Law and Lobbying firm). The program title was “Internet Freedom, Social Media and Policy-Making in the 21st Century”. I learned a lot and met some very interesting people. One of them was Jared Cohen- then, a 28 year old Wunderkind. Jared had worked for Condoleeza Rice in the State Department in the policy planning unit. He stayed over to work with Hilary Clinton, where he specialized in counter-terrorism, youth, technology- and even the Middle East. And, he explained the kind of work and things he had seen during his time there. He left the State Department last year to join the Council on Foreign Relations, subsequently joining Google. He agreed to join Google to do just what he is doing now. He heads up Google Ideas, a small (6 person?) think tank in New York. (And, no, there isn’t a website for Google Ideas.)
Continue reading Google has better Ideas? We’ll see soon…
I wrote about risk and sunk costs yesterday. (Other posts about 
risk are here and here.) And, I still don’t see any improvement in our leader’s capabilities (read Congress, Senate, Governors, et. al.) in this area. Nor have I seen schools taking up the banner. And, the end results is that we will continually make choices that are counter to our best interests. Some history…