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THE BELIEF THAT NUCLEAR WEAPONS KEEP their possessors safe, though it may be widespread, is neither true nor rooted in wisdom. The fact is that nuclear weapons are far too dangerous for any country to possess—let alone use–and that the U.S. and other countries have been playing nuclear roulette with them for nearly seven decades. Nuclear weapons have come close to being detonated by accident or design on numerous occasions […]

AS I WAS BEING RUSHED to the hospital, the world around me started to appear surreal and dreamlike, and I could feel myself slip further and further away from consciousness. The moment the oncologist saw me, her face visibly filled with shock. “Your wife’s heart may still be beating,” she told Danny, “but she’s not really in there. It’s too late to save her.” Who’s the doctor talking about? I […]

“I DON’T KNOW WHY you girls aren’t attracted to me,” he said into the camera. “But I will punish you all for it.” The next day, on May 24, news headlines said that a young man named Elliot Rodger in Isla Vista, California, drove around stabbing and shooting until six people were dead. He crashed his car and shot himself dead, leaving families to mourn slain loved ones. And he […]

IT BEGINS IN THE DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT with a coo, or a thump, or “Ho jeez,” or “A-duk-a-duk-a-duk-a-duk,” or “Da da dee da dee da dah” coming out of the baby monitor that stands at attention on my dresser. You could run a freight train past my pillow, yank-start a chainsaw next to my head, or fire a 21-cannon salute through my bedroom wall at that hour, and odds are […]