Cant phrases start most wars: like FREE WORLD

Even professed atheist humanists like the late great science writer Isaac Asimov show prudent hesitation in publicly mocking God. Asked why he could not find HIM, Asimov replied: "Why can't HE find ME ?" Shortly afterwards Asimov had some bad luck with his health. He reasoned that a kind God would tolerate his intellectual confusion. "But would HE tolerate a wise guy?" he wondered.

But if the terrorists were exposed to Isaac Asimov in their more educable youth, they might have grown up-under the influence of scientific rationalism-to be harmless and oh-so-beloved socialists rather than suicidal, homicidal maniacs.

Right wing talk radio here in Rhode Island, USA, is suggesting that a few well placed atomic bombs will quickly end international terrorism. Let's save the FREE WORLD, they rant. But FREE WORLD was a cant phrase even at the height of the Cold War-when we were fighting GODLESS communism.

Cant phrases inspired our entry into the First World War-which was the "war to end all wars... to make the world safe for democracy. " Thank God the Russian Bolsheviks were not fooled!

And yes, what ringing eloquence in French: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." THAT is what global capitalism is all about.

Can we at least make our world safe for our ONE PERCENT plutocracy? Forget about EQUALITY and FRATERNITY!

(comment on article published in Die Tageszeitung ( Germany) on Jan.9 2015 by Dorothea Hahn , WATCHING AMERICA)

Should Humanists embrace Ayn Rand?

How can Humanists best respond to injustice? Not in the rude, mean spirited manner of the New Atheists putting up obnoxious ads on Rhode Island Public Transit Authority buses: "Godless, so are we."

Does Logic & Reason culminate in a reactionary social philosophy? Should Humanists embrace the Ayn Rand cult? What does her crackpot atheist cult classic "The Virtue of Selfishness" have to offer black rage in the streets of America this past week? Do Humanists want to make common cause with our ONE PERCENT plutocracy? How many of these super-rich people are oh-so-enlightened atheists, having liberated themselves from the superstitious fear of Hell for the injustice they perpetuate here on earth?

Clearly the New Atheism is giving moral support to our government's Crusade Against Islam, spreading its oh-so-enlightened  Islam-o-phobia. A scandalous  TORTURE REPORT of prisoners of war is being released today. Put the military bases on alert against THEIR evil! The evil of ISIS!

As a long time SOCIALIST,  I must ask my fellow Humanists if they think they are above the CLASS STRUGGLE? Has the New Atheism made peace with U.S. imperialism? What does Reason & Logic have to say about the madness of the capitalist way of life?

I can't imagine joining a New Atheist club where a Hitler and a Lenin can exchange mocking jokes about Jesus Christ rising from the dead. And joking too about his gospel of Love. What a fool!

The crackpot atheist Ayn Rand, of course, worshipped MONEY. Do we embrace her?

NOTE:  Of course, there is a long tradition of Judeo-Christian humanism. Did organized atheism ever sponsor even a two-bit SOUP KITCHEN?

WATCHING AMERICA - Race in America

As a citizen of the United States, I am all ears to even "part of the solution" to the tragedy of race relations in America.  But as a democratic Socialist I can only chuckle at "improving the faith in the black community in the country's institutions."

To be sure, the courts and the police are completely subservient to our ONE PERCENT plutocracy. The police– with all due RESPECT– are correctly perceived to be the human pit bulls of PRIVATE PROPERTY. Young blacks-invariably POOR BLACKS–involved in the most petty crimes against property- set themselves up for ON THE SPOT execution by armed cops "just doing our job."

Only greater social and economic equality can deliver better justice here-even for tens of millions of poor working class white Americans.

As the black firebrand revolutionary Malcolm X said long ago: "Show me a capitalist and I'll show you a bloodsucker!"

But I expect the Neo-Democrat Party to continue to racialize POVERTY IN AMERICA. Isn't a 21st century New Deal preferable to bloody disorder?

(post to WATCHING AMERICA , published in LeDevoir (Canada on Nov. 27, 2014 by Guy Taillefer)