Petraeus

"The Ukraine war", said David Petraeus, "is about as clear a right-versus-wrong as we have seen in our lifetime".

Science and Democracy

Science and Democracy are interlinked. As Carl Sagan explained in words better than I could ever dream, "That kind of skeptical, questioning, "don't accept what authority tells you" attitude of science - is also nearly identical to the attitude of mind necessary for a functioning democracy. Science and democracy have very consonant values and approaches, and I don't think you can have one without the other".

Rotten

Scandals within the current Portuguese government are so frequent, almost in a daily basis, that they aren't getting ripe for political consequences. The sequence is simply too fast for the public mind to stay focused.