Free Republic

Sudden ChillEven a limited nuclear exchange could trigger a climate catastrophe Sid Perkins In the mid-1980s, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union each had thousands of nuclear warheads, along with a multitude of aircrews and missiles, sitting on red alert to carry those bombs to their targets at a moment's notice. The philosophy of mutual assured destruction—the notion that any use of nuclear weapons would trigger a full-fledged exchange that neither nation would survive—may have deterred any use of such bombs since World War II. Today's combination of nuclear proliferation, political instability,...

Will Iran’s nukes only kill Jews? That’s the question Palestinians should be asking themselves. Because the answer is no. There is no way to make a nuclear bomb that just kills Jews. There is no way to “wipe Israel off the map,” as Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sworn to do in a nuclear armageddon, without wiping out the Palestinians, as well. A nuclear fireball detonated over Jerusalem would kill a substantial fraction of the city’s half-million Jews — and the city’s quarter-million Palestinians. But not only lives would be destroyed. Next to the Kaaba in Mecca, the most sacred...

Racism is a disease that affects everyone. Diversity is a statement of fact; multiculturalism is a representation of the value of inclusiveness. The whole Earth is my home. I am part of, and have a loyalty to, all of humanity. These are just a few of the realizations that have become most important to me. Personal experiences - childhood friends of many ethnicities, and young adult travels to Africa, the Azores and Norway, where I was welcomed by strangers and invited into their homes - have allowed me to know what it feels like to be a world citizen, and...