President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson: Social Welfare Benefits the Free Market

President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson: Social Welfare Benefits the Free Market

Iceland’s Random Republic overthrown by Corporations

Iceland’s Random Republic overthrown by Corporations

9/11: An Open Letter to the American Public

Today, I am filing my taxes, and as I prepare to do so, I can't help but reflect upon the kind of government my tax dollars will support--basically, a corrupt, sinister and hypocritical corporate regime that wraps itself in a flag, symbolizing truth, liberty and justice for all. Compadres, we are being used and abused.

For over a decade now, we have been lied to about the true origin of the 9/11 attack, and what is worse is that most people know that our government has lied to us and we have allowed them to get away with a terrible act of treason. The 9/11 "attack" was an inside job--a false flag operation. We know the truth about the WMD's--Iraq had none and the Bush Administration knew that there were none--and that the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were for control of oil; unfortunately, most Americans don't want to bother holding our government accountable, even though there is plenty of evidence for 9/11 being an inside job (http://www.911truth.org/). If you consider all of the circumstances surounding the 9/11 "attack", such as the fact that American military jets were not scrambled immediately upon breach of air control protocol to intercept and force landing of the four (4!!!!!) hi-jacked planes, especially the supposed plane that crashed into the Pentagon (as if air traffic control "missed" the rogue commercial airliner barreling into Pentagon air space), that FBI and CIA intelligence reports had been stifled prior to the "attack", that plans had been made to invade Iraq before the attack even occurred, etc., then it is clear that 9/11 was not an act of foriegn-born terror but rather a heinous US government-backed act of terror on it own public.

Of course, not everybody has been complicit in our government's treason. Many people have spoken out, and the first public figure to do so was Morgan Reynolds, Ph.D., who is professor emeritus at Texas A&M University and former director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis headquartered in Dallas, TX. He served as chief economist for the United States Department of Labor during 2001–2002, George W. Bush's first term. In 2005, he gained public attention as the first prominent government official to publicly state that 9/11 was an "inside job." (Check him out at his website: http://nomoregames.net/) Since his public denouncement of the official "terrorist" coverup story, many more politicians, public servants, and professional engineers and architects have gone on public record to accuse the US government of covertly attacking it own citizens to engender public support for an invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reynolds started expressing his doubts about the official story back in 2005 as is attested to by the following United Press International (UPI) Report:

Washington, DC, Jun. 13, 2005 -- Insider notes from United Press International for June 8, 2005 by John Daly, UPI International Correspondent: A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling." Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings."

Then, again, in 2006, Reynolds addressed a very large audience at the Wisconsin Historical Society auditorium. The report below provides the gist of what he had to say:

Ex-Bush Official Exposes 9/11 As Inside Job, Monday, May 8th, 2006.
An enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd packed the Wisconsin Historical Society auditorium Saturday to hear ex-Bush Administration insider Morgan Reynolds prosecute top administration and military officials for the 9/11 inside job.

Reynolds indicted Richard Cheney, George W. Bush, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Meyers, confessed WTC demolisher and insurance-fraudster Larry Silverstein, and others for mass murder, conspiracy, and other charges including high treason. The enthusiastic response from the overflow crowd was a de facto vote for conviction on all counts.

The former Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis, showed that the defendants conspired to create a false cover story of suicide hijackings in order to "blow the World Trade Center to kingdom come with explosives." A shock-and-awe psy-op designed to coerce the American people into supporting a pre-planned "long war" in the Middle East, massive increases in military spending, and the rollback of Constitutional civil liberties.

Reynolds stated that everyone in the worldwide intelligence community knew that 9/11 was an inside job as soon as it happened, with the obvious stand-down of US air defenses, controlled demolition of the World Trade Center, and non-protection of the President in Florida being the biggest tip-offs. The head of the Russian equivalent of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the former head of the German intelligence service Andreas Von Bulow, former National Security Agency official Wayne Madsen, and former MI-6 agent David Schayler have all openly called 9/11 an inside job, while former CIA official Ray McGovern has confirmed this directly in private, and indirectly in public by way of his ringing endorsement of David Ray Griffin's work on 9/11.

Reynolds, who served as George W. Bush's Labor Department Chief Economist in 2001-2002, believes that a 9/11 truth victory is looming on the near-term horizon. He predicted that one or more of the 9/11 insiders will soon "give it up and come forward with what they know, saying "Remember, you heard it here first. He said that most of those complicit in the attacks did not realize how over-the-top the plot was, due to the need-to-know compartmentalization of such covert operations, and that some semi-complicit individuals will probably be coming forward. Reynolds said that most of his email acquaintances are now worried that the 9/11 truth movement is going to win, triggering the greatest Constitutional crisis in U.S. history. For Reynolds, this is less a cause for worry than for rejoicing: "We need a Constitutional crisis!" Reynolds argued that 9/11 truth is a matter of extreme urgency, since the perpetrators seem to be preparing another 9/11-style terror hoax as a pretext for attacking Iran with nuclear weapons. He said that exposing the 9/11 fraud is the best way to stop Cheney's plan to stage an unprovoked nuclear attack on Iran, and the military draft and Pinochet-style prison camps and death squads for dissenters that might accompany it.

Reynolds urged the audience to help educate the American public about the 9/11 inside job. Personal contact with family and friends, the internet, alternative Media, and public events like this are all good educational strategies, he said, adding that a demonstration of 100,000 9/11 truth supporters at Ground Zero next year would be hard for the Media to ignore.

Politicians and the media will help expose the 9/11 inside job, he said, only after the growing grassroots movement reaches critical mass.

My fellow Americans, why should any of us pay taxes? Frankly, I do not think we should support our government's avarice. As citizens we can not allow President Bush and the members of his administration to get away with high crimes and treason. The fact that these corporate terrorists are allowed to roam freely about is shameful. It is our duty to demand that these criminals be brought to justice. I do not want to support the miltary-industrial complex that drives agendas that erode our civil liberties. I do not want our tax dollars used as subsidies for gas and chemical industries that shackle us to policies of endless war for profit.

So, I will file today, but the government won't get a cent from me if at all possible. I would encourage everybody to do the same. Please, contact your representatives and your local media and demand the truth, and refuse to pay taxes until our liberties are restored in full and the truth is revealed.

Thank you,
Carl Golden

American Empire: A Curse Upon the World and a Shame Upon Americans

It has been several years since I last posted to this blog, which is personally disappointing. I intend to start posting my own material again soon, but I came across this article by Don Monkerud that speaks to an issue that is a fire in my belly and should be a fire your belly, too. I wanted to share it with you.

As you know, the American dream has turned into the American nightmare for the majority of Americans as the ranks of the poor, the unemployed, and the underemployed increase, the middle class shrinks, and corporations and corporate lackies take over our government by hook and by crook. Make no mistake: the true terrorists are corrupt government and corporations and the direst threat to national security is the rise of the fascist regime comprised of the Republican party, the corporate Democrats, and a bunch of power hungry, corrupt corporations (i.e. - Halliburton, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, Goldman Sachs, and many more). Real Americans--those who truely respect the founding principles of our great republic--must rally together to fight the lords of empire at every turn and seek to undermine thier agenda.

Please, read Don's article for further insight.

A Shill for the American Empire




By Don Monkerud


Leon Panetta's transformation from Clinton's Chief of Staff to head of the CIA and now Secretary of Defense is a sad disappointment. With his recent speeches in Monterey Panetta's makeover became complete.

Panetta ushers in a new phase of using the military to enforce the policy of corporate America, which requires the complacency of foreign governments to back up its economic supremacy. The U.S. now puts a more optimistic smiley face on its domination.

Panetta's makeover includes his characterization of the all-volunteer army as the core of American democracy. Paying people to carry guns has nothing to do with democracy. The citizen draft is the most democratic way to apportion the nation's defense because it chooses everyone, both rich and poor, alike. The draft was dropped because citizens objected to bad wars with the advent of Vietnam.

Recruiting poor high school kids from small rural town who need jobs and education, or immigrants who receive citizenship in return for service, is more akin to a paying job than a democratic approach to national defense. Historically a nation's army was used for self-defense and a paid army was more properly called a mercenary army.

The U.S. increasingly relies upon paid mercenaries for its military force. Newsweek reports that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq "will be a boon for the private security industry." In the first four years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the U.S. paid $10 billion for what the media politely calls the 11,000 "private security contractors." Panetta doesn't mention these mercenaries, but they can hardly be called democratic armed forces.

Panetta goes on to praise two institutions that he helped lobby for as a congressman-the Naval Post-graduate School and the Defense Language Institute-as "national treasures." Both are dedicated to providing the language skills necessary for U.S. military intervention in other countries and making the military's job of controlling other countries easier.

Recall that President Bush installed military intelligence operations in every U.S. embassy around the world. These secret agents answer only to their military commanders rather than diplomats and the media does not investigate their activities. Unfortunately Obama continued this program. Having the military take such a prominent role in foreign diplomacy is a clear signal that the U.S. has entered a new stage in attempting to dominate world affairs.

Since the beginning of the Bush Wars, the language institutes hired over 1,000 instructors and more than tripled its budget. The Defense Language Institute (DLIFLC) began training troops in 2003, in a push "to win the hearts and minds" of Iraqis and Afghanis.
Enrollment increased 500 percent and over 15,000 military personnel received training in 2009 alone.

"We went in with the idea we'd overthrow the governments and 'Gee, it would be great,'" Stephen Payne, DLIFLC command historian, told the Medill National Security Zone blog. "We had no training going in, and when the next phase hit, we weren't prepared."

In a nation devoted to democracy wouldn't it be better to praise the teaching of foreign languages for diplomacy and peace making rather than for covert military operations? But Panetta seems to have drunk Bush's kool aid; he goes on to tell us that the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan will end "when the individuals who have threatened this country are no longer there to threaten our country."

This suggests that Iraq had something to do with the attacks in New York City on 9/11, the same excuse President Bush used for invading Iraq. It has been proven beyond any doubt that Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. History recounts how the Bush/Cheney regime used 9/11 as a pretext the invading Iraq despite Bush's flimsy excuses now that he was mislead.

Panetta defends the military budget that Mother Jones estimates at
$1.2 trillion a year, including hidden cost. The U.S. budget equals the rest of the world combined. Almost 5 percent of U.S. GDP goes to the military; it spends 10 times more than China and 20 times more than Russia. And Panetta claims the U.S. will suffer if it cuts this budget?

Panetta is an even greater disappointment when he tells us that the job of the military is to protect the American dream-making a better world for our children.

The American dream is already destroyed. The rapid increase in globalization, the de-industrialization of the U.S., the destruction of labor unions, the monopolization of the U.S. economy, the rise of corporate power, and the precipitous increase in wealth disparity marks the end of the middle class. This is the first time in American history that children can expect a lower standard of living than their parents.

The growing power of the radical right, the anti-immigration movement, the anti-tax refuseniks, the Tea Party nutters, and aggressive corporate and business power will insure that the middle class does not return. America has lost its greatness and joined the historic ranks of empires that rely upon military power to retain their might. It's a sad day for the country, while Leon Panetta does his best to guide the U. S. along this new path.

The End

National Writers Member since 1984.

Americans Paying More for Less and Losing Anyway
by Carl Golden

Until recently, the feds kept interest rates low on mortgages for approximately 20 years in order to promote homeownership and economic growth -- a smart decision. Unfortunately, our national and state leadership neglected to develop and enact appropriate regulatory policies to keep banking and real estate institutions' greed in check -- a stupid decision -- which gave rise to high-risk, predatory loans and absurdly inflated housing costs that neither bore relation to the real value of a given house nor to the local average of individual and family incomes. Now, we are faced with the predictable aftermath of this unbridled greed: a housing slump characterized by rampant bankruptcies, a plague of foreclosures, increasing loss of faith in banking and real estate institutions, as well as unnecessary misery for hundreds of thousands of Americans trying to make a life and raise families.

This slump is bad news, but it will eventually turn as regulatory policies that should have been in place all along are finally set in place; unfortunately, it reveals a sinister trend in American society, which is an increasing lack of regard for ethical practice in the marketplace that doesn't show any sign of abating anytime soon. In fact, this trend is increasingly becoming the norm, exposing a dangerous lack of moral integrity in American character, a low regard of one's fellow citizens, and the rise of greed as a cultural icon. This is bad news for everybody.

Although greed is part of the human condition and is a driving force within economies, it is neither desirable nor wise to allow it to govern our lives and our country, but this is exactly what is occurring. Unbridled greed, especially in the guise of corporate profitteering, is unraveling the philosophical and moral foundations of our country, and it is undermining the strength of the family and our civic culture. The United States of America -- the home of the free -- is quickly devolving into the United Corporations of America -- the home of indentured servitude. This disasterous trend must be checked and corrected, or we will suffer more than just a housing slump.

Creationism vs. Evolution?
Lets Stop Bullshitting Each Other

By Carl Golden

The clash between religious fundamentalism and science over the theory of evolution is a product of ignorance and arrogance on one side, disingenuousness on the other side, and idolatry on both sides of the divide. The religious fundamentalists fail to understand the mythic and mystical language of Genesis, as well as all of the other books that comprise the old and new testaments, because they misinterpret the metaphorical nature of religious language as the literal "word of God", making an idol of the bible. Then, in their self-imposed ignorance, they proceed to arrogantly claim interpretive authority over all of creation while denouncing science, generally, and evolutionary theory, specifically, as godless endeavors promulgated by the minions of Satan to confuse the children of God (meaning Christians, of course, since all other religious beliefs, including Catholicism, are considered by literal fundamentalists as pathways of the damned). They have assumed knowledge, and have made idols of their assumptions. While on the other side of this contentious chasm, science, as an institution, neither affirms nor denies the existence of God since proof cannot be found that substantiates belief in the existence of a universal deity who created the cosmos. I would agree that there is nothing to warrant belief in a universal, creative deity.

However, we aren't really talking about a deity, which is to say a divine person who reigns over all of creation from some celestial realm, are we? Spiritually rooted scientists know this. Thousands of scientists around the world are practicing Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, etc., who know that reference to god does not necessarily mean "deity". They understand that such deific, or theistic, language is metaphor for a state of being that is extraordinarily subtle and aware, while at the same time fundamentally, powerfully, and mysteriously creative. So, why don't they just admit professionally that there is something more to this material universe than meets the eye?

The fact is that science has uncovered quite a bit of evidence of a universe that "self" organizes, "self" directs, "self" corrects, and "self" adapts in many ways that seem to exhibit characteristics of "consciousness". Also, there are non-temporal and non-spatial phenomena that defy conventional reason, necessitating a more holistic model of understanding. The fields of quantum physics, biology, medical science, psychology, psychiatry, parapsychology, and consciousness studies have uncovered and collected an extraordinary amount of data that supports a reasonable hypothesis of a fundamental state of being that is the "ground" of everything. There are subatomic synchronicity events that simultaneously link and behaviorally influence subatomic particles that are separated by hundreds of miles as described in Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. There are unimaginable energy potentials of space itself hypothesized within Bohm's Implicate Order. Sheldrake's Morphogenetic Fields postulate biological (and perhaps social) energetic fields that contain "blueprints" for the formation of organisms (and social phenomena) as part of any organism's epigenetics. Then, there are the psi phenomena of remote viewing (clairvoyance), telekinesis, Extra Sensory Perception (ESP), Near Death Experiences (NDEs), and psychic healing, that have been abundantly documented and that profoundly implicate an order of reality that is non-dual, holistic, and conscious. In fact, when one considers the trend in evolution towards increasing orders of complexity across the kingdoms of life, then the idea of a purely material world as rich as ours derived by random associations is quite ludicrous. It appears that even life forms as simple as bacteria use chemistry to actively communicate about and intelligently respond to environmental necessities in order to adapt and survive.

So, why deny the obvious? The cosmos seems to operate at differing orders of complexity and sentience. Couldn't all of this information provide substantial and reasonable ground for hypothesizing the existence of something that people throughout the ages have related to as God, Brahma, Yahweh or Great Spirit?

Science has provided humanity with theories and hypothesis that have opened our minds, extended our senses, and explained more about our world and the cosmos than any one of us could have ever imagined. Yet, despite brilliant and mind blowing hypotheses, such as "dark matter" and "worm holes", science frowns upon mystical phenomena and spiritual language because it doesn't fit the scientific model. It makes me laugh. Have you ever sat down with a theoretical mathematician or an astro-physicist talking about "superstring theory" or "black holes" or "folded space"? Very metaphysical. Apparently, scientific esotericism is acceptable whereas religious esotericism is not. In other words, God does not fit the institutional dogma, whereas gluons and muons do. So, science has made the same mistake as the Christian fundamentalists by only recognizing "sanctioned evidence" as the literal truth while ignoring "challenging evidence" that supports the deeply sentient, spiritual, and metaphorical nature of the cosmos. Science is biased towards relatively simple material explanations, and has made an idol of its bias.

The problem for both religious fundamentalism and institutional science is their respective myopic commitments to literal linguistic models of reality that are threatened by ambiguity and paradox.

Oddly enough, however, ambiguity and paradox have been the mother and father of most of our deepest insights into the nature of the human soul and life itself. People of real faith and knowledge live every day with metaphor, ambiguity, and paradox, because we know that life is such, and we wouldn't have it any other way because contemplating the questions and the poetry of life deepens and enriches our experience of living by enabling us to touch the mystery of life in each other, in birth and death, in the world at large, in Nature, and in our explorations of the cosmos. We know that any idol, be it religious or scientific, is false because idols inherently strip away depth, ambiguity, and paradox, creating a pretense of reality that is utterly and disastrously superficial and predictable. Idols chain the mind and promote arrogance because they provide a false sense of knowledge and security; whereas, faith in the metaphorical nature of life—paradoxical as it often is—liberates the mind, ennobles the heart, and promotes humility in the face of great questions and uncertainties.

Many, if not most, persons of faith believe in a creative genius (or intelligence, or principle, or force) underlying all of creation, and that this genius is non-spatial and non-temporal, as well as transcendent, transpersonal, and deeply and mysteriously powerful in its nature. Unlike fundamentalist Christians, we do not believe in a divine person ruling and regulating all from some heavenly promontory. We know that god and the universe are one, and that religious language and scientific language are just different ways of talking about the same thing from different vantage points. So, what harm is there in recognizing that evolution is simply a scientific description of the divine creative process—as we have come to understand it—that is occurring all the time. Let's stop bullshitting each other over the differences recorded in the biblical and geological records, and start focusing on the implications of both the religious and scientific insights.

To do so, a new synthesis of religious truth and scientific truth needs to emerge. Creationism is not going to suffice, and it is ludicrous to suggest otherwise. Genesis was a story written approximately five thousand years ago for a culture as far removed from the modern world as the African pigmies are removed from Microsoft. Although Genesis still retains useful insights into human nature, which really has not changed very much over the millennia, it simply will not suffice as an explanation of the natural history of life as we know it in the twenty-first century. The fundamentalist notion that God put fossils into the Earth's crust just to test our faith is insane and blasphemous.

However, on the other hand, the idea that the biosphere evolved to its present state of complexity purely by random material events is foolish because the statistics of random events on a large scale over long periods of time inevitably tend towards a predictable mediocrity. Well, the biomes, ecosystems, niches, and plant and animal species of this world are anything but predictable and mediocre. No doubt there are random events occurring all the time, but these accidents occur within an extremely complex milieu of intelligences, all of which are emergent phenomena within a fundamental field of awareness and creative potential, which is just another way of talking about God.

So, let's give credit where credit is due. The theory of evolution needs to be given dual status as scientific theory and sacred story taught both in schools and churches alike. Perhaps in doing so, the age old occidental schism between the sacred and the secular would begin to heal, and humanity could begin to envision a future where the institutions of religion and science work with each other as partners mutually dedicated to understanding the whole cosmic order, both materially and spiritually.

Now, wouldn't that be a breath of fresh air?

An Inconvenient Truth Banned

By Carl Golden

I can't say that I was shocked when I heard the news that Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, has been banned from classrooms in Federal Way, WA, because the Hardisons -- a couple of misguided fundamentalist Christian parents -- do not want their daughter exposed to Mr. Gore's troublesome message. After all, the literalist tradition of American Christian fundamentalism is notorious for cultivating small-minded, ignorant people who have made it thier business to pull the nation back into the Dark Ages. God forbid that this world-class documentary may actually cause the young Miss Hardison to think. What a travesty that would be. No, I am not shocked, but I am irritated and disturbed.

The irritation arises from the fundamentalist Christian couple, Frosty and Gayla Hardison, who made the original complaint via e-mail to the school. They have no business complaining about Mr. Gore's film and the facts about Global Warming that it presents because they do not know what they are talking about. In fact, they have made a point of not knowing. They have trussed up ignorance with religious clothing and made an idol of it. So, why should we take anything they have to say on the subject seriously? If they want to criticize the message of An Inconvenient Truth and the science behind the message, then they should first do their home work. They should ask questions, study the facts, and seek understanding about the phenomenon with an open mind. This is what reasonable people do.

Of course, there is the catch -- the Hardisons and most fundamentalist Christians have neither open minds nor are they reasonable. Having grown up in America, I am all too familiar with the Hardison's brand of religious lunacy. Fundamentalist Christians are infamous for attacking reason, reasonable principles, reasonable people, reasonable institutions, and reasonable causes. The Hardison's misguided crusade is just another irritating attack in the same vein. Fortunately, for them (and unfortunately for us), they are American citizens whose right to free speech is inalienable. So be it. I would not have it any other way. They are free to speak their minds (deluded as they are). Usually, such nonsense is ignored by our society -- no harm, no foul.

However, the exclusion of Mr. Gore's film from a public school district is more than just another testament to the droning idiocy of America's religious right. It is a failure of a public institution to protect the public from unreasonable people making unreasonable demands. It is one thing to tolerate the fundamentalist Christians; it is another to accommodate their wishes to the detriment of the public, especially when the subject matter is as important as global climate change.

I am disturbed that the Federal Way School Board and David Larson, a lawyer and school board member, decided to promote the ban last Tuesday night, claiming that the documentary should have been presented with an opposing view that would have provided balance to Al Gore's message. I am alarmed that on the heels of the ban, school board members adopted a three-point policy, which requires, among other things, that teachers who show the movie must present a credible and legitimate view that opposes the perspective of Global Warming. Apparently, Mr. Gore's bonafide facts about the increase in carbon-based gasses in our atmosphere and the corresponding increase in average global temperatures, which are well documented and researched climatic phenomena, should be countered with other facts. What other facts? The problem with this policy is that there are no credible and legitimate facts that oppose the scientifically founded view of Global Warming, and the idea of presenting a biblically-based counter argument as suggested by Mr. Hardison, who believes that the Earth is 14,000 years old and that in the end times everything is supposed to burn up because the Bible says so, is just absurd.

It is worse than absurd because requiring students to listen to ridiculous "Book of Revelations"-based arguments in a serious venue will cause some confusion and a general erosion of respect for teachers, as well as academic and religious institutions amongst the student population. (Of course, we already have a problem with respect in our nation's schools, so this may be a moot point.)

By accommodating and institutionalizing the Hardison's irrational complaint, Mr. Larson legitimized it. What was he thinking? It is one thing to give the Hardisons a tolerant ear out of respect for their parental concern and constitutional rights, but it is quite another to institutionalize a district wide ban because the Hardisons have a problem with exposing their child to the truth. Evidently, Mr. Larson is misguided too, and he has no place on a school board, except for sitting in the corner reserved for dunces. His decision blasted another hole in the United States' weakening cultural dike that is holding back an ugly deluge of religious, social, and intellectual ignorance and intolerance.

Fortunately, most Americans are not fundamentalist Christians, but the ranks of fundamentalists are growing in number and influence. This is not good news. Think about the sacking and burning of the great Library of Alexandria, the Dark Ages, the Salem Witch Trials, Hitler's Third Reich, or the McCarthy Era. America is great because we built our society upon rational principles of human enlightenment, and we defended our society from both external and internal threats to our intellectual and religious freedom. Our public institutions are the fundamental bulwark to these threats, and we are greatly dependent upon them to maintain and protect our moral and intellectual integrity. What is happening in the schools of Federal Way, WA, is just wrong and un-American. The members of the Federal Way School Board need to do right by Americans, not American fundamentalists. Rescind the ban.