Recently by jkugler

A close friend brought this story to my attention to help a friend of hers.  Let's see if we can use the power of the Internet to do some good.Takumi was a graduate student in Japan, taking care of his parents and younger sibling when not in class, until a series of debilitating symptoms began to afflict him.  In January and February, he suffered three heart attacks. In February, he had a stroke.  Born in...

I hold Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the highest regard because of the good work they do around the world to provide medical care to those in crisis. They are also one of the most effective charity organizations, with administrative costs of only one percent. Please, help them help those who cannot provide for themselves in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. Nearly a third of Haiti's population lives in Port-au-Prince. The...

The Conservative Case For Gay Marriage by Ted Olson is a must-read, no matter where you side on the issue.And I'm not just saying this because I agree with every word. :)Olson's article in Newsweek is a window into the case he is about to make against Proposition 8 in California.  It is a glimpse of the future and a shot across the bow of those who would use a tyranny of the majority to...

Some conservative bloggers and talking heads, including Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich, have accused President Obama of "ceding American sovereignty" over an executive order granting Interpol the same immunities and privileges granted other public international organizations with offices here in the US.This practice is an outgrowth of Ronald Reagan granting Interpol immunity from prosecution for official acts and from lawsuits in 1983 and the culmination of a request lodged with the Bush Administration when Interpol...

With the Copenhagen conference and "Climategate," the Internet and the media are abuzz with climate change.  I think more rational voices are being drowned out, though, by the bickering between those that have become polarized in the political debate.  (Gee, does that sound familiar?)  The lines between good science, good problem solving, and good policy have been blurred to everyone's detriment.  Let's try to unravel this Gordian knot a bit.First, the science.I was a climate...

I still hear from some corners that this administration "abandoned" our allies in Europe by canceling the Ground-based Midcourse Defense silos in Poland and X-band radar site in the Czech Republic proposed by the Bush Administration.  The administration, especially Defense Secretary Gates, makes the argument that they've traded an unproven capability for one that can be deployed sooner and have a real effect on improving European security.As a former weapons analyst myself, the subject and...

At the risk of giving some of my readers a heart attack, I'm going to cite a Fox News article, because I think it provides the best summation I've found yet.It has been reported that the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, has expressed to the President serious reservations about sending additional troops to Afghanistan to bolster a government seen as corrupt and illegitimate by many.Retired Lt. Gen. Eikenberry is no State Department wallflower, though. ...

Republican candidate for New York District 23, Dede Scozzafava, recently pulled out of the race.  She had come under withering attacks from Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and his supporters, including Sarah Palin, for not being "conservative enough" because of her pro-choice, pro-gay marriage stance on social issues, ties to organized labor, and support for the stimulus.  Scozzafava claims her record was misrepresented and that she simply could not raise enough money to counter the...

If you want to see what stifling free speech really looks like, examine the case of Simon Singh.  I had the honor of seeing him speak at the Museum of Natural Science here in Houston once, so I'll get my own bias in his favor out of the way up front.  He's a real scientist and a brilliant communicator, kinda like Britain's Neil deGrasse Tyson.Singh recently published a book with Edzard Ernst, the first Professor...

The AP reports that the US has agreed to deploy Patriot missiles in Poland in 2010 and is in talks with the Polish government to include them in plans to develop a ground-based variant of the successful SM-3 ship-based anti-ballistic missile.US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Alexander Vershbow seemed particularly enthusiastic about the latter."We are very interested in the possibility that Poland would be the host country for one of the two land-based...