I wrote this two years ago, but never posted it, due to the high emotions surrounding the Presidential election. Now, with John McCain dead and Lord Trump’s midterm popularity contest upon us, I think it’s a fair time to share.

For virtually my entire life, the political world has been divided between Republicans and Democrats.

The Republicans see themselves as the champions of small government, low taxes, strong defense, and individual initiative. Their opponents are quick to point out the shortcomings of Republican policies, which include corporate rapacity, military adventurism, blind nationalism, and selfishness and greed that run counter to the common good.

The Democrats espouse high-minded ideals like fairness, compassion, equality, inclusivity, »more

As a smart kid growing up in an economically depressed area, my adolescent ambition—and that of many of my peers—could be summarized in the two-word mission “Get out!” As in: get out of this backwater state and find an interesting place to live where you can meet intelligent people and make a good living doing challenging work that has a real impact on the world.

Once I fulfilled that goal, I used to take satisfaction in comparing my achievements to those of the friends I used to hang out with back in high school. I judged them and their lives by the degree to which they succeeded in getting out and making something of themselves: criteria which many of them had espoused back in our high school days.

Now that the struggle for status and success is much farther »more

When Inna and I visited Tiger Kingdom in Phuket, I mentioned to her that I’d never known that tigers have white spots on the back of their ears, and wondered what the heck that was about. I didn’t ask the keepers, and never learned the reason until a couple days ago, when I came across this photograph of a tiger bending low to get a drink of water.

Look carefully, and you’ll see something truly remarkable. Those white spots on her ears look remarkably like a pair of angry eyes. And if you extend that illusion, you will see the ladder of black stripes on top of her skull suddenly transform into the wrinkles along the muzzle of an angry beast, and the pointed white spots above her eyes become a fearsome set of bared fangs!

So while the real tiger is bending low in a vulnerable positio »more