SACRIFICE: A woe-is-me claim by office-seekers who lament the hardships they’re supposedly enduring – in an entirely voluntary endeavor.   Consider Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who recently made out his 2016 Republican presidential bid to be an act of self-sacrifice. In a fundraising e-mail, Cruz complained of time away from his wife and two young daughters, plus the financial burden it was imposing.   Cruz told of his sacrifice of “sleep with long nights and constant travel. And the pizza diet is a staple on the campaign trail.” He added, “The cost of campaigning back and forth across the…

دمشق ـ أ ف ب ـ اعلنت عشائر سورية الجمعة رفضها الدعم الذي اعلنه العاهل الاردني عبد الله الثاني والذي رأت فيه نية بتسليح العشائر، مؤكدة ولاءها للحكومة والجيش السوريين. وجاء هذا الموقف ردا على ما نقلته وكالة الانباء الاردنية الرسمية “بترا” الاثنين عن الملك الاردني لجهة تأكيده “واجب” الدولة الاردنية في “دعم العشائر في شرق سوريا وغرب العراق”، في اشارة واضحة الى المناطق التي يتواجد فيها تنظيم الدولة الاسلامية. وقالت العشائر السورية في رسالة وجهتها الى العاهل الاردني وتلاها شيخ قبيلة طي، محمد فارس العبد الرحمن، ْ في مؤتمر صحافي عقد في دمشق، “علمنا عبر وسائل الاعلام مضمون تصريحاتكم التي تعلنون فيها نواياكم…

Memo: Our   Winning Strategy in EuropeFrom: Russian Strategic Planning CellTo: President Vladimir Putin 1. Let me begin by congratulating you, Mr. President, on our outstanding series of strategic moves in Europe. We have consolidated our annexation of Crimea, which now finds its rightful place back as part of Mother Russia. Your series of “snap exercises” all around the periphery of our country have clearly frightened NATO. Additionally, the brilliant concept of “hybrid warfare,” combining the deployment of Spetsnaz special forces, additional Russian troops and trainers in unmarked uniforms, vigorous propaganda, information warfare, and cyberattacks has everyone’s attention. And NATOfreely admits it is not ready to…

Many of the answers to the question in the title above may seem too complex or obvious: unemployment, poverty, corruption, discrimination, or lack of access to financial services and opportunities. All of these could keep a newly banked woman from getting to an agent and making a deposit in her new savings account. But so could much smaller events like a bus with a flat tire or a dead cell phone battery. At JUNTOS, we see everyday the ways that these kinds of seemingly mundane, simple obstacles can have such an outsized impact on financial outcomes and behaviors. In our work, much of…

Spending lots of free time glued to the TV or computer screen can hurt your heart and shorten your life, no matter how much exercise you get when you're not riding the couch, a new study suggests. People who spent at least four hours per day watching TV, playing video games, or using a computer for fun were more than twice as likely as those who kept their recreational "screen time" under two hours to experience a heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular problem, the study found. Couch potatoes were also about 50 percent more likely to die of…