Mother Teresa: The Orge of Calcutta

Mother Teresa was a great woman. She work her entire life to help the poor of the world, and is revered all over the world for her charitable deeds. Who would be tasteless enough to pick on her?

Well, besides me, there is writer Christopher Hitchens. Like myself, Hitchens is a free thinker with no use for any kind of supreme being. When looking for some of his writings online, I stumbled on an article entitled, Mommie Dearest
The pope beatifies Mother Teresa, a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud.

In his article, Hitchens quotes George Orwell's writings on Gandhi. Orwell wrote "that saints should always be presumed guilty until proved innocent." Reading his article, I discovered how truth of that statement.

One aspect of her life that is less than saintly is her absurd conviction of the most draconian Catholic dogma. According to Hitchens, she was opposed to the Second Vatican Council. That Council, among other things, finally stated that Jews were not responsible for the death of Christ and that non Catholic Christians actually had a chance of going to heaven. This seems like reforms any sane person would defend. She also was over the top on the issue of abortion. Now, I'm aware that abortion is a very serious subject. I myself get queasy when having to discuss it. Yet, when receiving her Noble Prize, she gave a speech calling abortion "the greatest destroyer of peace."

Another area of her life that never gets discussed is the company she kept. Hitchens documents her friendliness to the murderous Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti and her defense of Charles Keating. In the 1980's Keating stole tens of millions of dollar from the Lincoln Savings and Loan. He was a heavy donor to Mother Teresa who, therefore, accepted stolen money. This would be excusable if she didn't know where the money came from. However, after he was convicted no one has seen one dime of the money returned to its rightful owners. Apparently saints are immune to audit.

In reading an article bashing Mother Teresa, one is inclined to dismiss it as atheist propaganda. But, I have looked hard and found all of his facts to be accurate. If someone wanted to criticise his writing they would probably ignore the facts and take the " how dare you" approach. Some presumed saints have minor flaws that simply show that they are human beings. In Mother Teresa's case, the saintly image is cover for a bad person who has conned everyone.

Mussolini's Train Schedule

If you are not familiar with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, I'll give you a short introduction.

Born born on July 29Th 1883, Mussolini came to power in 1922 and assumed absolute power in Italy. He was the first fascist leader of the 20th century and other tyrants followed his model.

Among the characteristics of his rule were: a secret police force to torture or kill opposition, massive censorship, suspension of civil liberties, and persecution of Jews.

His foreign policy accomplishments include:

Invading and dropping poison gas on Ethiopia. He then executed tens of thousands of Ethiopians.

Conquering Albania and Libya in an attempt to reestablish the Roman Empire.

Supporting fellow fascist Francisco Franco in his mission to overthrow Spanish democracy in the Spanish Civil War.

Despite this there has always been one myth about his regime; he made the trains run on time. People probably mention this is a semi humorous fashion as a take off of the cliche that everyone has some good in them. "He may be a viscous dictator, but hey, he made the trains run on time!" They may also use it to demonize a politician they hate. " Man that so-and-so is an idiot; at least Mussolini made the trains run on time!"

The only problem with this belief is that it isn't true. The railroad system was repaired from its poor state in World War I before Mussolini came to power. This myth seems to have grown out of propaganda about the efficiency of the Fascist political system.

They say everybody has some good in them, but I can't find any in Il Duce.

The 1950's: Not Happy Days

The 1950's were wonderful. Every family was happy, there was no crime, and all families stayed together in happy bliss. If only we could return to those wonderful times. Well, not exactly. Popular culture paints a false portrait of the 1950's as a morally pure utopia. The image comes mainly from corny T.V. shows, since any honest look at the 50's shows the decade was plagued by a myriad of problems. Some facts about the 50's that may cause some to wig out include:

Crime: In looking for crime statistics on the 50's I found this article. I then checked the original sources and found they were quoted correctly. For those who don't want to read the whole article here are some highlights:

The Colliers 1961 Yearbook (which discusses crime statistics for 1959) noted on page 173: "Crime registered a new all-time high in 1959, some 69% higher than a decade earlier and 128% greater than the rate in 1940."

According to FBI information, the crime rate continues to outpace population growth at a rate of 4 to 1, and serious crime increased 11% over last year’s figures for the first nine months of 1960.

The author of this section, Donald J. Newman, while discussing the numerous murders, forcible rapes, and aggravated assaults recorded in 1959, writes on page 174: “Little wonder our world reputation is as notorious for crime as it is famous for technology.” Interesting that America has a reputation for crime in 1959.

In the 1962 edition (which discussed the statistics from 1960), Newman wrote that the rate of crime increased 13% over 1959 and 24% over 1955. The reported robbery rate had increased 24% since 1955, while burglary increased 29% over the same period. “No crime decreased during this time” (p. 172).

In his article for the 1961 edition of the Colliers Yearbook, Donald Newman observed on p. 179:

"The immediate outlook for crime and delinquency prevention is discouraging. There is every reason to believe that crime rates of all kinds will continue to increase during the sixties and that in many areas major crises of a nature now only dimly perceived will occur... Certain problems such as heroin and morphine addiction have every possibility of reaching epidemic state... Youth gangs show no inclination to lessen, and we have yet to develop generally satisfactory methods of focusing their activities in law-abiding directions." Notice the inclusion of heroin and morphine addiction as socail problems.

Teen Pregnancy: This issue is a serious one and is often used to show how our society has morally collapsed. However, before using it as an example of today's depravity it is interesting to note that teen pregnancy was higher in the 50's than it is today!!

Minorities and Women: In the 50's nonwhites were segregated from whites and subjected to frequent violence. Women were confined to the home to raise children. Next tie you hear someone talking about how great the 50's were, I can guarantee you that person will be a white male.

Freedom: In the 1950s, birth control was a crime in some states. Historic Supreme Court rulings in the 1965 and 1973 finally gave people the right to use contraceptives. Also witch-hunting congressional committees ruined many lives by persecuting people whose political beliefs were considered unorthodox or "un-american" . As far as gays are concerned, they were often imprisoned for being themselves. More about "freedom" in the 50's can be read here.

It seems that people many people forget these facts when talking about the "good old days."

Richard Milhous Nixon: Bleeding Heart

When one mentions the name Richard Nixon one word usually comes to mind: Watergate. On June 17, 1972 Five men were arrested in an attempt to bug Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate Complex in Washington D.C. Following massive Congressional investigations and relentless digging by reporters Bob Woodard and Carl Bernstein, it became evident that Nixon had ordered the burglary and attempted to cover it up. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 before impeachment proceedings were brought against him. After he left office, Nixon has generally been thought of as terrible president who brought disgrace to the office.

He is also thought of having an aggressive foreign policy because of his bombing of Cambodia and overthrow of the government of Chile.

However, upon looking at his Presidency with a stronger microscope one can find many aspects that would be considered liberal or even progressive. Some examples include the following:

He started Supplemental Security Income program that provides stipends to low-income persons who are either aged (65 or older), blind, or disabled.

He was an environmentalist. During his term he created National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act of 1970, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

He created OSHA, whose purpose was to regulate worker safety.

His policies on minorities and women included supporting the Equal Rights Amendment and adopting the first significant federal affirmative action program in 1970.

On health care, he introduce the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act which would have mandated employers to purchase health insurance for their employees, and in addition provided a federal health plan, similar to Medicaid, that any American could join by paying on a sliding scale based on income. Sound familiar?

Despite being a staunch anti Communist, he actually pulled the U.S. out of Vietnam. He also opened diplomatic relations with China and signed nuclear arms reduction treaties with the Soviet Union.

If it wasn't for Watergate, Nixon would probably be remembered quite different in the pages of history.

The Really Wild West

Popular myths about the American West are found in such entertainment such as: the films Young Guns and Tombstone, along with the T.V. show Deadwood. These shows are about the perception of the West as violent, lawless, and packed with vice. Unlike other popular culture myths, this one is based on truth.

That the Old West was chaotic may not be surprising, but the degree degree of chaos came as news to me. Take a look at these facts:

Deadwood, South Dakota was founded as a mining camp in 1874. In its first year the town averaged one murder per day. 365 murders per year, in a town of 3,000 people is probably the highest murder rate ever recorded for a single city. Another interesting fact about Deadwood: Ninety percent of the female population were prostitutes.

Charles Helm was a gunman and cowboy who was shot and killed by Billie McCauley in Tombstone, Arizona in 1882 after arguing about whether to drive cattle fast or slow.

John Wesley Hardin was one of the worst outlaws of the Old West with 30+ kills to his name. He reportedly shot a man in a hotel for snoring too loud.

Vigilante groups were common in the Old West. In San Francisco one Committee was established in 1851 and revived in 1856 to deal with crime related to the Gold Rush. In those two years the Committee lynched 12 people, kidnapped hundreds of others, and forced several elected officials to resign.

Doc Holiday once played a game of cards with a man named Ed Baily. When Baily thought Holliday was cheating, he attempted to shoot Holiday. Doc stabbed Baily to death before he could get off the shot.

It seems the world has been going to "hell and a handbasket" for over 100 years.

The First War on Terror

After the events of September 11Th, 2001 it was clear that the U.S. would have to commence fighting with certain radical Muslim groups. The country would need to use every military, diplomatic, and intelligence tool to prevent another attack from ever happening.

What may be surprising to Americans is that this was not the first time the country had faced an outside threat from radical Islam. Between the 16Th and 19Th centuries t is estimated that between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by pirates and sold as slaves. Around the year 1800 during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson and when the country was barley formed the U.S. fought one of its forgotten wars: the Barbary Wars.

In the time period before the year 1800 many American ships were captured by the Islamic Barbary Sates. When Thomas Jefferson attempted diplomatic relations with the State's ambassador he replied “it was written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Muslim who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

Realizing diplomacy was futile, Jefferson built the U.S. Navy up and sent them to fight the Barbary pirate ships. The first war lasted from 1800 to 1805 . When the Barbary States continued to attack American ships there was a second war in 1815. Reference to these wars can be found in the Marine Corps Hymn with the line "From the Halls of Montezuma,To the Shores of Tripoli; Interesting how history has repeated itself.

The More Than Hundred Years' War

In my search for facts about history I came across a fact that is somewhat trivial but was somewhat surprising to me. The medieval war commonly called The Hundred Years' War lasted from 1337 to 1453 and was fought between England and France.

The war is famous for lasting a long time and by the fact that neither side gained any territory from the decades of bloodshed. Another well known fact about the war is the peasant girl named Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc was famous for having claimed she had vision of God telling her to it was her divine right to guide France to victory. She was then captured and burned at the stake in 1431 by the English.

When you look at the timeline of the war something is strange: the war lasted 116 years. It would be interesting to know who decided that the title the Hundred Years' War had a better ring to it than the Hundred and Sixteen Years' War.

P.S. I am aware this is a silly fact, but it is not a silly as calling war that lasted a 116 years the Hundred Years' War.