In the Fall of 1998, Free Inquiry printed a series of articles under the heading “What Happened to Truth? The Postmodernist Attack on Science, Morality, and Common Sense.” The articles claimed that rejecting the ideas of “objective truth” and “absolute standards” could lead us to “cultural disaster.” I disagree and will try, in the space available, to explain why.

During the last quarter century many people have noticed not just that beliefs read more

Thanksgiving Day 2000
Every morning on the way to work and every evening on the way back home I walk between the east side of the United States Capitol and the west sides of the U.S. Supreme Court and Library of Congress. I’m often struck by the Romanness of the architecture and the Roman ambitions of this country’s past and present “leaders,” despite the differences between life in Washington and Rome.

Lately, the biting cold has left my face feeling like rubber during read more

Published at www.justicedenied.org in March 2001

“Prosecutorial Infallibility” Fosters Unjust System

By Guest Editor David Swanson, JD Team member

The fact that innocent people are convicted of crimes in the United States is now widely known. This is largely due to the magic of DNA testing, and its powers are also widely recognized. But the number of DNA exonerations each year will soon stop increasing and begin decreasing. This is because DNA is more often being used to prevent read more

Apparently a significant number of people are under the impression that events have now occurred that will show Ralph Nader the error of his ways. Without speaking for Nader, I’d like to point out why, as an unrepentant Nader voter, I have not yet been shown the error of mine.

I never had any delusions about George Bush Junior being a satisfactory president. I believed and continue to believe he’ll be the worst we’ve ever had. However, I believe that Albert Gore Junior would read more

First Things
To the Editor:

Stephen Worland

Jan. 1, 2001
In 2001 the mainstream press in the United States will discover a reversal, declaring that “liberals” have suddenly decided they want more power for local and state governments rather than for Washington. Right-wing pundits will describe this as hypocrisy and as a gross distortion of their own alleged preference for anarchy. “Opposing government interference at the federal level does not mean we want it at the local level,” they will tell each other.

This read more

We’re getting close to presidential election time, and many people are anxiously trying to find out what they’ll watch on TV while they skip bothering to vote. I hardly blame them. Neither major party candidate is seriously proposing to address our campaign-funding system of legalized bribery, the rapidly expanding wealth gap between the few at the top and the rest of us, the bloated military budget three times the size of all our supposed enemies’ combined, our deteriorating read more

The protest movement growing around global exploitation of workers and the environment is the most exciting thing of its kind Americans, and some others, have seen in over 30 years, and – therefore – in my life time. But it could very easily be much more powerful than it is. If it were organized into strategic nonviolent protests to the complete exclusion of any little groups of stone-throwers, the media would be forced to cover some other aspect of it than the little groups of stone-throwers. read more

I spent Memorial Day 2001 reading the first of the popular series of “Harry Potter” children’s books. I also caught some of the usual blurbs on the news about a president, whose family’s wealth got him out of going to war, honoring those who had gone off to murder people of other nationalities — whether by following the “proper rules” of war or by slitting the throats of women and children (the way one American war hero did in an incident that hit the read more

Published at www.loper.org/~george

Letters to the Editor: David Swanson Responds to Steven Stern on the Imposition of a ‘Living Wage’

George,

Professor Stern, like most opponents of wage standards, believes the answers can all be found in an intro to economics course. And, like most opponents of wage standards, he believes proponents have their hearts in the right place but are just remarkably ignorant.

When great numbers of people of all levels of academic achievement hold a view read more

13 Aug. 2001
Sent to the Washington Post (not published)
To the Editor
[Re. “Why Amnesty is the Wrong Way to Go,” Aug. 12, 1B]

Peter Skerry maintains that amnesty is the wrong way to go, but does not explain what destination he is trying to arrive at.

He begins by disputing the idea that illegal immigrants live in fear of deportation and consequently are exploited by employers. His evidence? A group of illegal immigrants protesting mistreatment by an employer, an illegal immigrant read more

Printed in Washington Post Magazine, Sept 30, 2001

Since I am an atheist, I would certainly rather have people in general be indifferent to atheists than hostile, but I would prefer a more engaged approach from journalists. Stephen Bates’s “The Unfaithful” [July 29] does not touch on why some theists consider it a matter of utmost importance that the world acquire more theism, or why some atheists believe the opposite with equal passion.

I see theism as offering a weak comfort read more

Newsweek
To the Editor:

Oct. 11, 2001

Why they hate us was the right question, but your answers leave me unsatisfied. You blame their religion, but most religions claim that death isn’t really death, that it’s a door to paradise. Most believers do not believe strongly enough to put their lives at risk for a cause, but the strength of the belief does not explain why the cause involved hatred of Americans.

Your explanation seems to be that arabs have long failed to appreciate the glories read more

Dec. 27, 2001

My initial reaction to the disaster of September 11, 2001, (See below), included the assumption that out of all that horror at least one good thing was bound to come, that it couldn’t possibly be avoided.

Namely, I was sure that our federal government would have to recognize that what killed all those people could not have been stopped by a bigger military or a military in outer space. I honestly had no doubt that, since American buildings had been destroyed with pocketknives, read more

Drafted in 2002

Completely publicly funded political campaigns.

No private contributions to political candidates, office holders, or parties.

Reasonable access to funding and debates for more than two political parties.

Decreased corporate welfare.

A moratorium on corporate monopolies or mergers that do not benefit competition.

Increased taxation of corporations and the super wealthy.

Decreased military spending.

Decreased spy spending.

Creation of a peace department.

A ban on discrimination due to sex, read more

If poverty means the inability to obtain a decent level of food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and independence, there has always been poverty in America. There need not continue to be.

Anything can be changed, regardless of whether such a change or anything like it has occurred before. There was a time when we could say that there had always been slavery in (at least post-Columbian) America, that there had always been legal racial segregation in America, that a woman’s right to self-determination read more

Privacy concerns have long been a mystery to me, and I have written about this many times. I will probably never fathom why I should give a damn if some bureaucrat knows how many bathrooms I have. The idea that “by the time the creditor has finished talking to the credit bureau, he is likely to know more about your personal life than your mother-in-law does,” strikes me as insane. Is my life reducible to a few facts and figures, even with some bits of irrelevant gossip thrown in? My read more

To Steven Shafarman
From David Swanson
Re “We the People”
Jan. 27, 2002:
Steve,
I have read “We the People,” and have started reading “Healing Politics.” I think you’ve done a great job of imagining a different society. You book is packed with concise and important insights into the ways we habitually view our political problems. I’ve benefited from many of your ideas. I enthusiastically support many of your proposals.

I have some doubts, however, read more

Also published on Alternet at www.alternet.org

The City of New Orleans raised its minimum wage by public referendum the day before the Superbowl. The City Council, the state legislature, and New Orleans’s monopoly newspaper (or, rather, infotainmentpaper) all fought against the increase. Front groups for hotel and restaurant owners vowed to continue the fight in court after the vote. Any public respect for democracy or even analysis of why the people had voted for a higher minimum wage was read more

Also published on BuzzFlash at www.buzzflash.com and on Democratic Underground at www.democraticunderground.com and on BartCop Reader at www.genslab.com/bcreader on March 26, 2002, and on www.makethemaccountable.com.

This past week, I sat in the audience and watched two performances in Washington, D.C. The first, a debate at the National Press Club, got me laughing and cheered me up. The second, a comedy show at the Improv, depressed me deeply.

The debate, sponsored by the American Prospect magazine, read more