Articles written by William Meyers

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About me - William Meyers

I am a writer. To earn a living I have done quite a few things, some related to writing, others not. Retail clerk, railroad track laying crew, paralegal, legal secretary, publisher, bank teller, innkeeper, and book indexer covers a lot of it. Now I am a freelance

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Politics, News & Issues > Political & Economic Theory Critique: The Libertarian free trade argument: 2 of 5

The Libertarian free trade argument promotes free trade as an absolute good. The real world is complex and no reasonable person should want all human activity to be regulated only by free markets and free trade. Very few people want to see free trade in murder. We don't want it to be legal to kill people for a fee. "The Boss...
Religion & Spirituality > Heaven, Hell & Afterlife Life after death: Getting to know God: 4 of 8

Believing in "life after death," meaning the continuance of a consciousness or soul after the visible death of a human being (or, if you are Hindu, any animal), is a comfort to many people. We are sad when people die. We enjoy life, so we want it to continue even when nature is done with our living bodies. I am more comforta...
Politics, News & Issues > Politics, News & Issues (Other) Should pharmacists be forced to violate religious beliefs by selling the morning after pill?: 28 of 54

I don't believe in the use of force, except in self-defense. I believe people should have the right to practice their religious beliefs, or even their ethical beliefs, within reason. However, there is an important factor in this situation that needs to be considered. Pharmacists are licensed, which is to say they have a mono...
Politics, News & Issues > Political Issues Are there relevant parallels between the tyranny of King George III during the American Revolution and George W. Bush's presidency?: 4 of 6

Setting aside the "tyranny" label until later, of course there are parallels between King George III and President George W. Bush besides their names. There are a lot of differences as well. In 1772 a British judge, Lord Manchester, ruled that slavery was not legal on British soil, in the Somerset case. Shortly afterward a g...
Politics, News & Issues > War & Peace The US owes Japan an apology for WW II bombing: 8 of 11

An understanding of the history of Asian-American and Japanese-American relationships may change your mind about this issue. I don't believe the government of any nation should be excused for acts of aggression or targeting civilians during a war. However, what is aggression and what is self defense is hard to decipher when ...
Education > Teachers & Administrators Should teachers be held accountable for low student test scores?: 18 of 24

Teachers should be held accountable for low student test scores. But so should the students themselves, parents, politicians, and communities. We know that many factors go into student achievement. Children whose parents use large vocabularies at home on average show better language skills than children of parents with limit...
Computers & Technology > Operating Systems What it's really like to use Ubuntu, Linux operating system: 12 of 13

I like the idea of open-source software. I know that Linux makes a great deal of sense if you are running multiple servers and have a hard-core programmer type on hand to keep all your systems up, since there are no license fees. But my own experience with Ubuntu Linux was not encouraging. I had a CD shipped from Ubuntu and ...
Politics, News & Issues > US Leaders Assessing the legitimacy of conspiracy theories: 28 of 30

Substitute the word "planning" for "conspiracy" and you can take a lot of the emotion out of understanding situations. People plan. Clearly some people planned the attacks on the World Trade Center. Other people planned the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Organizations always have plans. Normally we don't use the word "conspiracy" fo...
Health & Fitness > Alternative Therapies Alternative treatment: High blood pressure: 9 of 9

Recently I decided to manage my own blood pressure. I don't know how typical my experiences are, but my numbers have improved from what I was getting under a physician's care. When I first was diagnosed with hypertension, or high blood pressure, my physician advised me to lose weight and exercise more. I lost about 10 lbs an...
Arts & Humanities > Philosophical Concepts The historian's craft: Is an historian more like a painter or a photographer?: 8 of 8

Historians may gather facts, but histories are a combination of facts and narrative. Historians pick the subject matter of their histories and select the facts that go into them. The narrative can be derived from the facts or it can be imposed by the historian. I think most historians work more like painters than photographe...