National governments

are becoming

increasingly irrelevant

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki effectively governs less and less of his “country’s” territory.

RECENT EVENTS in Iraq and its neighbors have once again put the focus on the diminishing role of nation states in the turbulent region.
Sunni rebels said to be supported by Al Qaida have all but taken control of Iraq’s western Anbar province, with sectarian strife now spreading eastwards from Syria across the two countries’ long, porous border.
The same organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (the Levant), keeps appearing in reports of clashes in both countries and in Lebanon, already reeling from a massive influx of Syrian refugees.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad now effectively governs only a tiny sliver of territory. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seems to be heading in the same direction – with diminishing amounts of territory under his government’s control.
What role – if any – is left for these central governments?

COLORADO POT LEGALIZATION MAY BE STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION
The beginning of legal cultivation and sales of marijuana in Colorado may be the most hopeful sign in America.
Many national initiatives begin at the state and local level (the minimum wage is another current example) and eventually work their way up to become federal law.
If the Colorado experiment proves to be a success, it may lead the way to a more sober view of drug policy first in other states and then, perhaps many years from now, at the federal level.
It is way past time to end the 40-year-old “war on drugs.”

PRIVACY MOVES TO TOP OF AGENDA, LIKELY TO REMAIN THERE
As the clock ticks down to a Gregorian-calendar new year, we can look back and see the term “surveillance” as the most discussed and analyzed during the past 12 months.
As we ponder what’s ahead for the new year, one of the items at the top of our list should be our notion of privacy. The line between public and private has become blurred beyond recognition. Most are only subliminally aware of this.
This is a vitally important topic for each and every one of us as we enter a new calendar year.
Let us hope it is a happy new year.

’TIS THE SEASON TO COUNT OUR BLESSINGS
As we endure the long mid-winter nights approaching the start of a new year, for many it’s useful to reflect on those less fortunate and count our blessings.
After all, isn’t that the true spirit of the seasonal holidays, however one celebrates them?
It is man’s inhumanity to man that is the cause of so much needless suffering. It’s time for us to focus on the more uplifting side of the human spirit, so we can renew our commitments to improve it rather than degrade it further.

LATEST DISCLOSURES WEAKEN CASE FOR MASS SURVEILLANCE
Through his disclosures, Edward Snowden has not only gotten the attention of President Obama, but other world leaders and countless millions who use electronic communications.
He has attained what he said he wanted: a major public discussion at the highest levels about a hugely important issue.
Congratulations.
He deserves to be heralded as the most influential person of 2013.

REPORT FURTHER ERODES FAITH IN ELECTRONIC PRIVACY
While the recommendations of a presidential panel on government spying have been mostly welcomed, they could be seen as a confession that the revelations of Edward Snowden are accurate, and that everyone for years has been monitored on a massive scale unprecedented in its scope and size.
The key issue is one of trust. It has been seriously damaged.
Reform is urgently needed. The longer it is delayed, the more trust will erode.

REFUGEES FROM SYRIAN STRIFE STRAINING RESOURCES IN MANY COUNTRIES
The continuing bloody battle in Syria has spawned an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that is spreading across the region.
It was brought into the spotlight this week by the United Nations refugee agency.
We simply cannot close our eyes and ears to the plight of so many millions.
What began as an internal conflict has become one with global ramifications. We hope the international response is commensurate with the urgency of the problem.

PERSONAL USE OF WEAPONS DEEPLY EMBEDDED IN CULTURE
More than a year after the shocking schoolhouse shooting at Newtown, Connecticut, little has changed in the picture of gun violence in the US.
It is a national embarrassment that so little of real consequence has changed in the US since the Newtown massacre.
The culture of gun violence runs deep the American psyche.
It is little wonder so many in the US feel it is acceptable to draw a gun at the slightest provocation, and settle even minor disputes this way.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH BEGINS TO PROVIDE CREDIBLE EVIDENCE
A newly published scientific study concludes that, indeed, the act of taking a picture – supposedly to keep the memory of the moment – actually interferes with that very memory. It is weakened.
The research is a first step in a broader understanding that putting a four-inch screen between one’s eyes and reality is not the optimal way of recording a visual experience.
We should think twice, or three times perhaps, before mindlessly spoiling our reality

OBAMACARE NARRATIVE MORPHS INTO GOOD-NEWS STORY
For more than six weeks, the story about problems with the federal web site created to enroll in health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act dominated the front pages – and the entire news cycle.
Now it is gone.
We have not heard the end of the Obamacare rollout disaster by any means yet. It is bound to haunt us at least through the next election cycle.
But the narrative has surely changed, just as predicted.