Politics

A Historian Complains About a Cross on a Float Alongside Jefferson and Franklin

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The History News Network (HNN) posted a letter sent to Newsday from a retired historian after he attended a local Parade Celebrating Independence Day. The parade included a float with a large cross with the words “In God We Trust” displayed alongside Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. The historian, Bill Bernstein, complained that “[t]he float implied that there is a state religion.” You can imagine the responses!

I love the way one of the responders (Leslie Dimmling) explains that the Declaration of Independence included the “word ‘God’ in the first sentence, and ‘Creator’ in the second” [these words are not actually found in the first and second sentence but the first and second paragraph] but she forgot to mention the word “Nature’s” that appears before “God.” As she probably knows (or on second thought she may not know) “Nature’s God” is not the god of Christianity. For more read the post at the HNN.

More on Climate Denial: The Historian Naomi Oreskes Discusses Her New Book The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View From the Future

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Graham Readfearn of The Guardian interviews Naomi Oreskes about her new book. In the interview she explains why she believes that the denialists have been successful. There is also a really great clip of her trying to persuade Nick Minchin, a “climate skeptic” from Australia, that climate change is real. He seems reasonable in the clip but in a

short clip from the beginning of the ABC documentary “I Can Change Your Mind About Climate” that aired in Australia in 2012 he seems much less reasonable. (see the Skeptical Science blog for more on this documentary). There is no evidence that the documentary changing anyone’s minds. I’m not sure that anything will change the minds of the true believers. But I do believe that the efforts of Oreskes, Donald Prothero and others can make a difference.

The Bombing of Hiroshima: The Enola Gay Controversy Still Provoking Anger at Historians

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I was shocked to read an article at the History News Network (HNN) reminiscing over the controversy of the Enola Gay Exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum in the 1990s. For the fiftieth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima the museum had planned to do an exhibit of the recently restored Enola Gay. But when a draft of the proposed exhibit was leaked by the Air Force Association (AFA) a firestorm of controversy erupted pitting the museum and historians against veterans, the Air Force Association (AFA), and the right-wing media.

The Enola Gay and its Crew

The Enola Gay and its Crew

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In a New Pew Report Americans View Jews, Catholics, and Evangelicals Most Favorably and Atheists and Muslims Least Favorably

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This is probably not too surprising, but in light of our history of anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism this is amazing. It was not that long ago (1960) that

JFK had to explain that he believed in the complete separation of church and state because of fears that, as a Catholic, he would be under the control of the Pope if was elected as president. Too bad that some current Catholics don’t believe in the separation of church and state!

Unsurprisingly, Evangelicals and atheists mutually despise each other. On a scale from 0 to 100 with 0 the most unfavorable and 100 the most favorable, the Evangelicals rated atheists with a mean score of 25 and atheists rated Evangelicals with a mean score of 28. (Pew study)

Advice that Israel Should Take But Won’t

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Today in The New York Times Mustafa Akyol wrote a great piece of advice for Israel if the Israelis actually wanted to end the terrorism. It’s advice I would have given the Israelis if they had asked (ha ha!).

 

Is Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century just a rehash of Marx’s Das Kapital?

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When Thomas Piketty’s book Capital hit U.S. markets this year the response was both surprising and predictable. Surprising because a 700 page tome on economics became a bestseller! On the other hand the responses were predictable. The book received adulation from the Left and disgust from the Right. The polarizing effect of this book is immediately evident if one glances at the ratings of the book on Amazon.com. Out of 718 reviews 406 are 5 star reviews and 175 are 1 star reviews (viewed on June 26, 2014). Interestingly, the mean-spirted nature of the reviews was just as newsworthy as the book itself.

So I decided to take a look for myself. Like many comments on the internet, they were “nasty, brutish, and short,” to borrow Hobbes’ famous phrase. I only managed to make it about half way through the reviews, wishing that I had stopped sooner. The repetitive and spiteful nature of the reviews were making me nauseous. Here is just a sampling of some of the titles:

“Das Kapital Re-do”

“It’s Still Socialism/Communism/Facism[sic]”

“Don’t let this Marxist fool you.”

“Serious marx bull &&&&.”

“This book is nothing but re-hashed socialist BS”

“Das Kapital , by Karl Marx – has already been written , this is the same ideology !”

“Marxist propaganda”

“Piketty’s book would be better titled “The Communist Manifesto Lite”’

“Communist Propaganda at it finest”

“MARX Reincarnated”

“Karl Marx would love this book”

“Save your time and read Karl Marx’s Das Kapital instead”

“Communist Manifesto of the 20th century”

“Say Hello to the new Karl Marx”

“Karl Marx redux”

The content of these reviews didn’t add much to these titles (other than to flaunt the failures of socialism and demonize Piketty and liberals). The basic theme of these reviews was that Piketty’s book deserves a 1 star because it is pure Marxism.[1]

tea-party-rally socialism

Tea Party Rally

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