VIOLENCE AND BELIEF

There is a wonderful book written by a former longshoreman, Eric Hoffer, about fanaticism. It's called The True Believer. One of its key points is that the more untenable a belief, the more fanaticallyit is held. To the point of killing the innocent and other unimaginable horrors. I don't have to mention Nazism and the Holocaust, the Inquisition,the Crusades, the fight between the Muslims and Christians in 1947 in which a million people died, or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks in the same year (another million killed).

Always it's over some stupid, stupid belief; and when the belief is especially stupid, the way out is insanity. There are millions of examples in the long history of mankind. Beliefs are a prime source of hate and violence.Christians even have a hymn based on an event in the Old Testament that begins, "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho...and the walls came tumbling down." It is one of the first recorded genocides inhistory, and we celebrate it!

The Israelites invaded another country to the extent of 2 or 3 miles, besieged the place for a week, circling it and making a lot of noise, banging drums and blowing on trumpets,until finally they were able to breech the walls.They then killed every man, woman, child, and animal in the place. It was such a wonderful victory that we still exult in it today.

Rememer that King David prayed to God to "smite" his enemies. Cardinal Spellman, during World War II, declared that "God is on our side." I thought it assinine at the time, and still do. I have a lot of ideas about meaning and morals, etc., but those I'll save for another time. Meanwhile you can read Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels, for one, where he illustrates some of the idiocies that get people fighting wars). And then clean your palate with Voltaire's Candide. -

POLITICS

Republicans Fight Dirty

The Democrats don't know how to fight. The Republicans do. The Democrats overestimate the intelligence of the American public. The Republicans understand that the public are a bunch of morons who will believe anything that's repeated often enough (death squads, Obama's birth certificate is fake, etc etc). This is a mud-wrestling match--not a college debate. I hope the Democrats wake up and figure this out before it's too late. --Charles Cowley

HEALTH CARE INSURANCE

The Selling of America

What's going on in the field of health care insurance is absolutely shameful. The public is in favor of a public option, but Congress is selling out to the insurance industry. Isn't that a beautful picture of democracy in action! Something has to be done about anyone (and no corporations) giving more than $10.00 to a candidate for election or re-election. The rest of the money needed should be provided by the government. Or, better yet, only public funding of political campains. Otherwise our country will continue to be sold out to the highest bidder.