Perhaps the most difficult part about writing this post was to come up with a title that tied it all together.  I found the title from a line in Kurt Vonnegut's novel, "Hocus Pocus."

"…we took the 10 machines we agreed were the most beguiling, and we put them on permanent exhibit in the foyer of this library underneath a sign whose words can surely be applied to this whole ruined planet nowadays: THE COMPLICATED FUTILITY OF IGNORANCE"

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President Obama recently spoke at the United Nations:

Out of the ashes of the Second World War, having witnessed the unthinkable power of the atomic age…

Truman had no trouble thinking of it.

…by building an international system that imposes a cost on those who choose conflict over cooperation…