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I’d never been around cats or dogs from the same litter over the long term, so I had no idea just how different they could be from one another, even though they shared the same genes and same environment. Watching Charlotte, Emily and Anne grow up for the past couple of years has been an education for me in just how different they can be. I guess it’s no surprise considering how different human brothers and sisters can be.

I’ve already written about Charlotte and Anne, so you can read about them and compare if you’d like, but the biggest difference is that Emily is the friendly one who wants attention and closeness. In fact, there’s pretty much no place she’ll sleep each night than right on top of me. (On the right you’ll see an example when I woke up to find her wedged between the pillow and my shoulder, but she’s generally right on my stomach, back or side, depending on how I’m sleeping.)

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Most of us know what we don’t like about our current political systems. When we share our frustrations, we hear the inevitable question: What can you do about it? I think we’re getting closer to answering that question. Soon, it’s going to be time for you to decide which path to follow.

When I’ve talked here in the past about potential alternatives to sticking it out under the current system — or even worse systems, in the case of the places some of you are reading from — the answers have had to be pretty theoretical. We’re at a point at which the theoretical takes halting steps to become the possible and then the practical. And that’s when it gets exciting.

One of the most exciting projects in the world right now is going on in Honduras. It’s not the final goal of complete independence that I’d like — when people can build their own countries as easily as they can start companies today — but it’s a huge step in the right direction. It has the potential to be a game-changer for those of us who believe that economic and other freedoms can give people a chance to bring themselves out of poverty and find a better way to live.

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For some people, Americans are best represented by a hero such as Captain America. For others, we’re best represented by a doofus such as Homer Simpson. The truth is somewhere in between.

It’s self-evident to me that people are pretty much the same all over the world. Some are good. Some are bad. Most are in between. Some cultures are sicker than others — and I wonder frequently about ours — but you can’t really say that one is better than the rest.

That’s right. “American exceptionalism” is pure fiction today, even if there might have been a bit of truth when Alexis de Tocqueville dreamed up the concept in the early 19th century. His idea — that America was somehow different and better than any other country ever before — led to the imperial idea of Manifest Destiny and gave generations of Americans the dangerous fairy tale that they were superior to everyone else. (It’s interesting to note that the phrase “American exceptionalism” was coined by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin as a derisive term.)

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