US citizens: call on Obama and Congressional Democrats not to yield to Republican hostage-taking.

US-trained Syrian rebels traded some of their US-provided supplies to al-Qa'ida, in exchange for not having to fight al-Qa'ida.

The US training activity for Syrian rebels is not a serious effort, only a pretense. An "army" so small, and so little pugnacious, that it faces this sort of extortion would make little difference against Assad's forces which they are supposedly intended to defeat.

Younous Chekkouri was sent from Guantanamo to Morocco, where he faces a likely unfair trial.

I don't object in principle to handing over prisoners of the US for trial in other countries. But we should make sure that the trial is a fair one.

Women are publishing, through a web site, descriptions of how to give them sexual pleasure. It appears that a certain kind of rough and unrealistic porn has given boys and even men the wrong idea about the question. (I think it is a mistake to narrow the word "porn" to this particular kind of porn. Any work designed to arouse sexually is porn.)

Some teenagers have the good fortune to learn how to please a lover, and they move on to a life of sexual success. Others have worse fortune and have to wait years, even decades, to learn this. It is so sad, and so unnecessary. This is why I think every high school (and perhaps middle school too) should offer practical hands-on lessons in how to please a lover. Every graduate should have a basis to be confident that, "Anyone that I make love with will be glad we did."

The Supreme Court under its right-wing majority has nearly eliminated the possibility of taking action for school desegregation.

Meanwhile, US schools are becoming increasingly segregated again.