No damnation without representation!

One of the main causes of America’s Revolutionary War against Britain was the fact that British Parliament was passing tax laws against the Colonies, but was also denying the Colonists the right to be represented in Parliament to protest those taxes.  “No taxation without representation” was the rallying cry that swept through the New world and solidified opposition to Britain’s dictatorial rule.

This rallying cry came thundering back into my head this week as I was reading the Bible — specifically, Daniel, chapter 9.  Nearly the entire chapter is devoted to Daniel begging for God’s forgiveness, because of Israel’s failure to obey God’s laws.  I suddenly realized that of the 600+ laws that God handed down to the Isrealites (the Ten Commandments were only a brief summary), *not one* was enacted with the consent, or even the counsel, of the Israelites.  As I read through the chapter, I suddenly realized how absurd Daniel’s begging sounded.  God did not give Daniel, or any other Israelite, any role whatsoever in making the laws that God handed down, so why should the Israelites take the entire blame for not following them?  Just as the American Colonists did in the Revolutionary War, shouldn’t Daniel have objected to dictatorial law-making as fundamentally unfair, instead of begging forgiveness for not adhering to it?

Let me anticipate the Christian objection:  unlike British Parliament, God is righteous and perfectly fair; therefore, his laws are, too.  Really?  If God is so perfect and fair, then why didn’t his elaborate …

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Why you need to be the one to speak up

Each of us sometimes feels the pressure of being the lone dissenter in a group. It can make you sweat and it can make your heart pound when you have to go up against the group. How strong is the pressure to conform?  This topic was explored and well-documented in the 1950s by Solomon Asch, a social psychologist who pitted the human tendency to conform against the tendency to be truthful. 

Asch told innocent subjects that they were going to participate in an experiment on visual perception.  The subjects were to participate in groups of seven to nine persons per group.  The group was instructed to indicate which of the three “comparison” lines were closest in length to a given line. Each person in the group gave his or her answer in turn.  There was only one innocent subject per group, however.  Everyone else in the group was a stooge who had been instructed to follow a routine prearranged by the experimenter.

The test was actually rather easy and the first three trials were simply a set up for what was going to happen next.  On the fourth trial (and, similarly, on selected subsequent trials), where the given line was 1.5 inches long, the three “comparison” lines were .5 inches long, 1.5 inches long and 2 inches long. The experiment had been arranged so that each of the stooges were designated to give his or her answer before the innocent subject had a chance. On that fourth trial, the …

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Iraq is good business.

In the September, 2006 Harper's "Notebook," Lewis H. Lapham begins with this quote by Rainer Werner Fassbinder:  In the last analysis, terrorism is an idea generated by capitalism to justify better defense measures to safeguard capitalism. Is there money to be made in Iraq?  Lapham, who has wielded a sharp…

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Afghanistan democracy is drowning in illegal drugs

President Bush and Republican leaders in Washington have failed America by not stopping importation of heroin from Afghanistan which has become a “narco-state” in the aftermath of the toppling of the Taliban regime which had supported Osama bin Laden and global terror through sales of drugs. A resurgent Taliban uses drug sales as an instrument of terror and finances international terrorism. The warlords which grow and process the drugs are supported by the US in our continuing efforts to prop up the post-Taliban government of Hamid Karzi. The flow of more potent Afghan drugs into the US has caused carnage among users, some as young as 11.

In 2001, the Taliban had banned opium production in Afghanistan to increase the price of its stocks which it apparently used to supply funds to Osama bin Laden and other terrorists for their attacks upon the United States and others. Opium production in Afghanistan fell to just 74 metric tons. After the overthrow of the Taliban, opium production capacity skyrocketed to 1,278 metric tons in 2002, according to DEA statistics. Production more than doubled in 2003, and then nearly doubled again in the next year according to James Risen, in his book “State of War.” Risen also writes that “by 2004, Afghanistan was producing 87 percent of the world’s opium supply. In late 2004, the CIA estimated that 206,000 hectares were under poppy cultivation and that the new crop would generate $7 billion worth of heroin.”

Congress and the Bush administration were aware …

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W engages in name-calling to feed the fires of war

“This nation is at war with Islamic fascists.” The President actually said this to describe our opponent in his war on terrorism.   It appears to be a GOP talking point.  Now, what would most Americans think if those intent on bombing civilians described their enemy as "Christian fascists?" How about "why…

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