Bin Laden “was used in the same way that 9/11 was used to mobilize the emotions and feelings of the American people in order to go to a war that had to be justified through a narrative that Bush junior created and Cheney created about the world of terrorism.” — Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik
With the [...]

As even ancient theologians could have seen, the U.S. worships at the altar of Pluto: the god of riches and death.  Our Plutocracy has become desperate in its end stages.  The gap between the rich and the rest is now bigger than it was during the Great Depression 80 years ago.
Robert Reich reports that the [...]

Two days before Christmas, the Associated Press wrote of Halliburton’s generous gift of $250 million to Nigerian officials, to bribe their government into dropping the criminal bribery charges against former Halliburton CEO and former U.S.  Vice President Dick Cheney.  Former President George G. W. Bush and former Secretary of State James Baker reportedly also made [...]

Reposted from Firedoglake.
It’s hard for an American to admit that we have become a country whose President now claims the power to arrest and detain indefinitely – or even order the assassination of — any American citizen that the President – without official charges, trial and conviction – sees as some sort of threat. Future [...]

Imagine a man who lived some time ago.*  From an early age, he was drawn to religion.  He went to the formal service every week, sometimes even taking notes.  He believed everything his church taught him, never felt a need to challenge the teachings, and tried to live as he was told he should.  He [...]

Using the words “Science” and “Salvation” in the same breath needs some preparation so people in both camps don’t hyperventilate.  “Science” means “knowledge.”  It can’t guarantee that the knowledge is good, or that it will still be considered true in a year.  “Salvation” can mean “to save,” or to make healthy and whole (with its [...]

We know that a baby’s birth and early life story shape behavioral styles that are often carried through adulthood.  We express it through aphorisms: “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree”; “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Others link childhood trauma or abuse with adult behavior. The Greeks said, “Character is [...]

Few people would expect a radically modern attitude toward religion or the gods from the oldest story in the world.  The epic of Gilgamesh is a story over a thousand years older than the Iliad or the Bible.  It was only discovered – written in Cuneiform on hundreds of baked clay tablets – in 1850, [...]

In the game-changing 1973 Roe v. Wade case, abortion was framed as an issue of women's rights.   The women's movement was in full swing, and it was easy to see why women would believe they should have the right to abort an unwanted fetus.   But the "rights" frame proved to be [...]

Our economic and political mess became more clear once I realized that most of the important political deals take place in the Mos Eisley Cantina.  You know the scene from the first “Star Wars” movie in 1976: a dark, smoky bar located somewhere in a twilight zone: a liminal and lawless hideout where the ethically [...]