The Realist Idealist

Gas prices won’t be going down for a while. But at least we as consumers can ease the pain by voting with our consumer dollars, and patronizing oil companies that are devoting at least a small share of their revenue to sustainable practices.
HIP Investor has rigorously evaluated and rated the top ten oil companies (HIP [...]

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I’m in San Diego this weekend for one of my quarterly meetings on the national board of directors for Hostelling International.
(Yes, the weather is insanely gorgeous.)
One of the incredible programs run by HI is called World Travel 101.
They are conducted in REIs and hostels and all kinds of places around the country, and I was [...]

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I arrived in Dublin before the sun. It was cold, and the air tasted like sea water. I found my way to a bus that would take me the two and a half hours to Belfast, where I would meet with the rest of my SAIS companions – Professor William Zartman and 16 [...]

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On a blog aimed at “making good things (actually) happen,” it may be a bit perplexing to see the T.S.A. referenced. Not only are they maligned (or even hated) for the seemingly arbitrary inconveniences they put so many of us through, but it could be argued they don’t actually do that much good either. [...]

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Original HuffPo post - jake brewer
Forget Condi Rice, Colin Powell, James A. Baker, and the rest. If you’re like most Americans, you already have anyway.
The best diplomats the United States has are citizens who travel abroad and serve in communities as volunteers.
Policy, negotiating, trade, intelligence gathering and the like is of course best left [...]

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A few years ago in Mongolia, under a night sky 100 kilometers from the nearest town, a group of us sat and listened to our Mongolian colleagues sing traditional songs around our camp fire. Upon finishing their melodic tales of love, loss and national pride, they asked the Americans, “now sing some of your songs.” [...]

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