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