[Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta, left, kisses her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell in the first time a same-sex couple was chosen for Navy’s traditional homecoming kiss] On this Valentine’s Day we must acknowledge how love has changed in the modern day. Whether you agree with gay marriage or not, the issue has landed …

Image: A can of tear gas lands near Loukanikos and protesters, February 2011. GIORGOS MOUTAFIS / ANZENBERGER Motivation Monday XI, along with our wishes for prosperity, goes out to the Greeks in the street. In July of last year an unlikely symbol of the Greek riots emerged. It is astonishing how something like a loyal dog can reaffirm that all …

photo credit: https://flic.kr/p/dDYM8J Before racial slavery was adopted by the Europeans, there existed the serf. The serf or peasant was a modified slave. The social contract between the serf and state gravitated, ideally, in protection for the serf from outlying forces. If you live in New York you can imagine what serfs felt like when seeing a castle on the …

www.rightlivelihood.org: Union of the Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia (CSMR) was founded in 1989 and officially registered the same year by 300 mothers of soldiers, whose initial aim was to campaign for their sons to return home early from military service in order to resume their studies. They succeeded in bringing home nearly 180,000 young men for this purpose. …

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) afflicts military veterans more than any other group. That is why it is not surprising that the medical marijuana (MM) debate has spilled over into the discussions on PTSD treatment. The Department of Defense (DoD) has a well known zero-tolerance policy against any scheduled substance. However, the Veterans Administration (VA) has traditionally been separate from the DOD. The …

The arguments that have been circulating in opposition to non-lethal weapons have rung in terms of how-dangerous-non-lethal weapons-are. These arguments lack teeth. Is it not better to be tased than shot? The problem is that non-lethal weapons are not used in place of lethal ones. Non-lethal weapons are dangerous, but more than that, they multiply violence by incapacitating  subjects. Stephen Coleman …

Image:: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1854761,00.html Yesterday, 200 men, women, and children were slaughtered by Syrian butcher Bashar al-Assad when a portion of his army joined the activists of an 11-month movement. On the the 30th anniversary of the Hama Massacre, where thousands of innocent Syrians were dematerialized by Assad’s father. 40 civilians died in the first half hour. The UN Security Council is deadlocked …

According to our friends at Occupy Spain and CNN, violent suppression resulted in a media blackout in Morocco. The city of Taza, close to Fez, burned last night in an altercation between police and citizens. Police have been invading citizens’ homes without any discrimination as to who is an activist and who is not. From Occupy Spain: News on Morocco- …

Image from boston.com Bahrain was the last place I “visited” before I took a very long military flight back to Virginia. The thing that struck me most about the Middle East in general is what I would call a beautiful silence. This silence does not exist in the West and most parts of the East. From the moment we arrived …

Image: tungphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net What motivates you? As world economies decline it gets easier to stay unmotivated. The state of world affairs can either be an excuse or a catalyst. When the media cycles droop to critical lows it is easier to motivate oneself in a kind of I-need-to-save-the-world mindset. But when they drool bellow an accepted equilibrium it is …