At Alternet, Valerie Tarico argues that the Internet is shriveling memberships in religions. She gives six reasons:
1. Radically cool science videos and articles. 2. Curated collections of ridiculous beliefs. 3. The kinky, exploitative, oppressive, opportunistic and violent sides of religion. 4. Supportive communities for people coming out of religion. 5. Lifestyles of the fine and faithless. 6. Interspiritual okayness.
Almost half of Americans fall within one or more of the descriptions in the DSN5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual--5th edition). Why so many? Because, according to the Slate article titled "Abnormal is the New Normal," we diagnose mental illness more accurately, because more of us are mentally ill and because we've expanded the definition of what constitutes mental illness. "Caffeine intoxication," anyone?
From an Alternet article by Steven Rosenfeld:
Whistleblowers are not spies or traitors, as the Bush and Obama administration’s lawyers have alleged. They are patriotic and often conservative Americans who work inside the government and with military contractors, and who find unacceptable—and often life-threatening—or illegal behavior goes unheeded when they report it through the traditional chain of command. They worry about doing nothing and feel compelled to go to the press, even if they suspect they may lose their jobs. What they don’t realize is that their lives will never quite be the same again, because they underestimate the years of government persecution that follows. [T]he whistleblower [is] a special kind of American hero—one whose importance is easily forgotten in today’s infotainment-drenched media. Since the Vietnam War in the 1960s, whistleblowers have been part of many history-changing events: questioning the war in Vietnam by releasing the Pentagon Papers on military’s failings; exposing the Watergate burglary that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation; exposing the illegal nationwide domestic spying program by the George W. Bush administration after 9/11; revealing the military’s failure to replace Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan with better bomb-deflecting vehicles, leading to hundreds of deaths and maimings . . .
According to recent polls, a growing number of Americans believe that the Second Amendment was put in the Bill of Rights in order to guarantee that our government will not impose any kind of tyranny upon us. That an armed populace is a bulwark against government oppression. [More . . . ]
Here is a basic rule of American journalism: Don't speak the truth during times of war. Martin Luther King received received harsh treatment by the mainstream media when he dared to speak out about the Vietnam War, even after his many successes in the area of civil rights. The occasion was King's somber Riverside Church speech. Part II of King's speech is here. King's speech is accurately described as follows at this Youtube page:
By 1967, King had become the country's most prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, and a staunch critic of overall U.S. foreign policy, which he deemed militaristic. In his "Beyond Vietnam" speech delivered at New York's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 -- a year to the day before he was murdered -- King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." Time magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi," and the Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.At the recently concluded National Conference for Media Reform, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now commented on the propensity of the media to become obeisant to warmongering American politicians, and the equal propensity of the media to criticize those who criticize warmongering. To hear Goodman's excellent speech, go to minute 28:00 of the composite video.