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My Page: Nick Gier

After attempting the wipe out religion completely during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government now tightly controls the Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims within its borders. It has been especially harsh on Falun Gong, a new form of Chinese. For long version to to http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/ChinaReligion.htm. [more]

General American tolerance of the hijab stands in contrast to French intolerance. A 2004 law prohibiting the wearing of hijab in France's public schools was passed by a vote of 494-36 in National Assembly. Turkey's radical secularists have also been undermining the liberal foundations of their modern nation by taking an unreasonable view of the Muslim headscarf. Read full version at http://www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/hijab.htm. [more]

The McCain campaign is running ads slamming Obama for his position on the surge, which McCain claims has been a great success in a justified war, but which Obama correctly describes as a "tactical victory imposed upon a huge strategic blunder." See full version at http://www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/Surge.htm. [more]

The people of the Palouse have raised $35,000 for schools and clinics in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the final count after bringing Greg Mortenson to Moscow, Idaho on April 4. After a failed attempt to climb K-2 in Northern Pakistan, a dazed Mortenson stumbled into a small village where his life was saved. He has now dedicated his life to helping people there and in Afghanistan. See the full column at http://www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/3CupsTea.htm. [more]

Some Republican Senators were running scared for the July 9th Senate vote reversing cuts to Medicare. On June 26th the Democrats did not the get the 60 votes necessary to stop a filibuster, so Senator Ted Kennedy left his sickbed for the second vote. As it turned out, the heat applied to the Republicans made Kennedy's presence unnecessary. A total of nine GOP senators switched their votes to provide a 69-30 veto-proof majority. On July 15 the House and Senate overrode President Bush's veto by votes of 383-41 and 70-26 respectively. [more]

When in Denmark for my first sabbatical in 1978-79, I was following the news about a hippie commune in Tvind that was selling excess electricity from its home-made windmill. The Tvind windmillers solved basic problems with rotor composition that had stumped other engineers. The hippies at Tvind were instrumental in making Denmark the world's leading exporting of wind turbines. See full version and pictures at http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/wind.htm. [more]

As a way to celebrate the Bicentennial in 1976, I researched and published an article on the religious views of the Founding Fathers. (Read it at http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/foundfathers.htm.) Back then I neglected the Ladies of Liberty, and here is my first attempt to make up for the slight. [more]

The recent Supreme Court decision essentially upholds the position that all persons, regardless of their origin or circumstances, have basic legal protections that go back to the Magna Carta of 1215. The few detainees who are probably guilty of heinous crimes will escape conviction because evidence obtained by torture is inadmissible in courts the good justices now require. The saddest fact of all is that because Bush chose his own form of cowboy justice, America's moral authority as a nation of decency and laws is ruined for the foreseeable future. Read 900-word version at http://www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/detainees.htm [more]

A recent Supreme Court decision allows states to start executing their death row inmates, but recent polls show that the American people are now much more concerned about killing the wrong people and much more in favor of life sentence without parole. [more]

I'm always annoyed when people criticize my stance against the Iraq war by charging that I don't support our military men and women there. With very few exceptions our soldiers and sailors are the best trained and best behaved in the world, but they should be sent into battle only when the nation is truly threatened. We should be glad that Iraq War veterans are receiving much warmer homecomings, but we should be ashamed of what has happened to some after the parades are over. [more]