Headed back to the states from South Sudan and catching up on the news — ie, spending time behind the headlines. I posted a few things in September that seem all the more relevant given recent events.

• I’ve often quipped that I’m 95% pacifist. This essay from an old history class goes a little ways toward explaining both the 95 and the 5.

• These are a few quotes on how, regardless of “facts” — and maybe even because of them — truth and honesty are, and always have been, difficult to find.

• And also some thoughts on bombs and human “brilliance” after watching Oppenheimer.

With the news of war, of more bombs dropping, each and every one of us should take some long, hard time to empathically imagine ourselves and our own families — our kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews — as victims, as the ones displaced, starving, blown apart, or crushed, in any country, any city, any ethnicity or religion, in any act of violence or in any response to violence … Then act and speak accordingly!