My dear Abhishek,
You are a sentient human being who is capable of using symbols.
There is one fact that distinguishes us from the rest of creation: our ability to use language. Or to put it another way, our ability to do abstract symbol manipulation. That ability, more than anything else, allows us to call ourselves members of the species homo sapiens sapiens. All our best attributes flow from that unique faculty. How did our brains diverge from the brains of our pre-human ancestors? What were the evolutionary forces which molded …

In connection with the London bombings, came across this at Phoenix Muses:
Jihad al-Khazen, an op-ed columnist for the London-based pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, wrote: “Such criminal terror acts prove that no measure is enough to fight terrorism.
“Actions that governments take to fight terrorism are totally justified because protecting life is a lot more important than protecting civil liberties.”
Brings to mind what Benjamin Franklin said about trading civil liberties for security. “Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Of …