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The Political Defaults: Ideological, Pragmatic, or Independent

Have you ever found yourself at a church gathering where the topic of conversation is supported by default, only because it is part of the agenda of the political party or organization behind it?

It is probably no different than a labor union meeting where your support is expected in favor of the political party that primarily supports labor issues.

Media Starting to Recognize How Top-Two Brought Business Back to California

California's nonpartisan, top-two primary has been in place for two major elections now. Critics, including several media outlets in the state, have frequently argued that it has not done much to curb partisanship or polarization.

However, a large problem with this is political pundits and academic researchers have focused mostly on the state's delegation in the U.S. Congress, while ignoring what has happened in Sacramento.

Report: Police Deaths Increase 56%; Ambush Deaths Match Decade-High

A report

published on Tuesday shows that the number of police deaths increased by 56 percent in 2014 and included 15 ambush deaths.

Military Families Look To a New Year with Growing Financial Uncertainty

The $560 billion

National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015 may have been forgotten by the mainstream media, but some of the details of the bill remain troubling for military families. Military members will receive a one percent pay raise and lower housing allowances in addition to paying higher prices for medications.

Poll: Millennials More Likely to View Volunteering as 'Very Important'

Millennials are often characterized as narcissistic, lazy, and entitled. A generation that came of age at one of the worst economic times in U.S. history, were mostly coddled by their Baby Boomer parents, and are the most indebted (due to massive student loan debt) generation in U.S. history is often looked down on by older generations -- perhaps unfairly, too.

The Biggest Lesson Everyone Should Learn from the Economy

Given the track record of economists, the wonder is that anyone pays any attention to them anymore. Their predictions are usually stated as loosely as possible, and even then they usually turn out to be wrong.

Correct predictions are as random as human behavior itself — which isn’t surprising, considering that predicting human behavior (more precisely, particular results following from human behavior) is exactly what economists attempt to do. There is, however, one hugely important, completely definite, very practical lesson that we can learn from economics.

It Is Time To Reconsider How We Define Peace

"Peace is hard, but we know that it is possible. So, together, let us be resolved to see that it is defined by our hopes and not by our fears. Together, let us make peace, but a peace, most importantly, that will last." - Barack Obama, September 21, 2011 at the United Nations

In the five years since being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," President Barack Obama has earned a bit more of a dubious distinction.

Change In U.S.-Cuba Relations Not Likely to Include Guantanamo Bay

More than a week has passed since President Obama's big

announcement that the United States is going to move toward more normalized relations with Cuba. The reactions to the policy shift have varied as speculation continues over what all it will mean for the U.S.

“The Actual Vision”: A Poet’s Wish for the Day After Christmas

Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes -- Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic. The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt, And the children got ready for school.

Two Robins Wish You a Very Happy Christmas

This article was originally published on BenSwann.com on Dec. 25 2014 and has been edited for publication on IVN.

I arrived in England yesterday from my home in the States and the jet-lag had the better of me this morning by 4:45 am.

Dad, whom I have traveled across the Atlantic to spend Christmas with, is still in bed as I write this, and I am sitting alone on his couch in a silent house.