Ronald Bruce Meyer

Wealth and Democracy
(Book review) The tilting of the US economy from production to finance as a source of wealth will spell the end of our economic dominance — just as it spelled the end of the Spanish, Dutch, and British economic dominance. We're already the world's largest debtor nation.

The Treaty with Tripoli (Freethought Almanac) The United States is no more a Christian nation because most of its citizens are Christians than it is a "white" nation because most of its citizens are white. We are Americans because we practice democracy and believe in republican government, not because we practice revealed religion and believe in Bible-based government.

Cry, My Heart, Cry!
(translated by Ronald Bruce Meyer)
The ditch is not deep at all. Most likely the spiritual ancestors of modern Russian fascists pushed my still-living parents into this ditch, the day of the Dnepropetrovsk Apocalypse. Most likely the sounds of Kaddish were echoing in the air.

Churches v. Libraries
(Freethought Almanac) During the solidly Christian period of 500 to 1300 not a library can be found in all of Europe with more that 2,000 volumes. The 19th century myth that the monks of the Middle Ages preserved the classics is doubly false. Only one or two abbots ever copied anything but religious works. In the greatest abbey of the 13th century not a single monk could read!

Why People Believe Weird Things (Book review) Shermer dissects the arguments of Holocaust deniers and tells us, via a concept called consilience of inductions, how we know the Holocaust happened. There was indeed a Nazi policy of ausrotten, but it takes evidence from many sources to demonstrate it.

The Columbine Massacre (1999)(Freethought Almanac) Remembering legends surrounding early Christian martyrs, the temptation is strong to show religious fervor even in these irreligious times. False stories that Cassie Bernall proclaimed her faith in God when the gun was pointed at her circulated. But if she really "said yes," where was Cassie's God when she needed him to save her life?

The Weekly Almanac

January 1: Sir James George Frazer (1854) + Huldrych Zwingli (1484)
January 2: Isaac Asimov (1920)
January 3: Franz Valery-Marie Cumont (1868) + Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE)
January 4: Fabian Society Founded (1884)
January 5: Umberto Eco (1932) + Anabaptist Felix Manz Executed by "Baptism" (1527)
January 6: Joan of Arc (1412)
January 7: Heidi Fleiss Sent to Prison (1997): Religion v. Prostitution
January 8: Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen (1911)
January 10: Thomas Paine Publishes "Common Sense" (1776)

Samples

Verbal Slouchery
The Subversive Purpose of Bettie Page Uncensored
Signs of the Times
Icon Fever
There Will Always Be Books

The Mystery of Flight 19
Galileo
Check Your Brain, Then Your Grammar!
Animal Rights - And Wrongs
Of Dickens Meyer (a cat)

Tour Scandinavia
The Faith-Based Initiative of 9/11/01
Creationism and (Un)Intelligent Design
UFOs: High-Flying Folly