The Palouse Pundit Nick Gier (personal home page)

The columns below start every week as a radio commentary on Radio Free Moscow (KRFP 92.5 FM). To play the MP3s click here. 

For columns on higher education click here.

November 18, 2009:  We Are All Bushmen and Women

ARCHIVES

December 25, 2005: The Christmas Story and Other Redeeming Myths 
(PDF File)

December 28, 2005: The Deceptions of War: Cooking the Intelligence on Iraq
(PDF File)

January. 4, 2006: Why Not Democracy in the Workplace?
(PDF File)

January 14, 2006: Gandhi, King, and Thoreau: Three Principles of Civil Disobedience 
(PDF File)

January 18, 2006: A Woman's Right to Choose Hangs in the Balance 
(PDF File)

January 25, 2006: Happy 300th Birthday, Ben!  Franklin and Religious Liberalism 
(PDF File)

February 1, 2006: The Many Sins of Moscow's New St. Andrews College 
(PDF File)

February 8, 2006: A Runaway Train: Administrative Salaries Steam Ahead of Faculty 
(PDF File)

February 15, 2006: Was Katrina the Wrath of God? (PDF File)

February 22, 2006: Happy 274th Birthday, George! (PDF File)

March 1, 2006: Karma, Character, and America's Destiny (PDF File)

March 8, 2006: We Are All Liberals: Well, Almost All (PDF File)

Marh 15, 2006: The Wonder that Was--and Still is--India

March 22, 2006: Would Saddam Have Been Better? Three Disastrous Years in Iraq
(PDF File)

March 29, 2006: Anti-Intellectualism and America's Future (PDF File)

April 4, 2006: The Gospel of Weak Belief (PDF)

April 11, 2006: Mad Max Meets Jesus Christ (PDF File)

April 18, 2006: Chilling Parallels between Christian and Islamic Fundamentalists
(PDF File)

April 25, 2006: Why Reagan Can't Save the Republicans (PDF File)

May 2, 2006:  The Real Meaning of Sodomy (PDF File)

May 9, 2006: Mongolia: The Land of Chinggis Khan  (PDF File)

May 17, 2006: The Moment of Truth for America's Death Penalty
(PDF File)

May 23, 2006: The Brutality Connection: Abu Ghraib and America's Prisons
(PDF File)

May 30, 2006: Is the Gap so Great between Retro Red and Metro Blue? (PDF File)

June 6, 2006: "Happy Hour" Is Not What Aristotle Had in Mind (PDF File)

June 13, 2006: Liberals: Take Back the Flag! (PDF File)

June 20, 2006: "Bring Them On!" Al-Zarqawi Heeds Bush's Call  (PDF File)

June 27, 2006: Good King Now, but Bad King Later? Bhutan, Nepal, and Democracy
(PDF File)

July 4, 2006: Thank Adams and Jefferson for 230 Years without Religious Conflict
(PDF File)

July 11, 2006: Long Live the Braceros: Essential Guest Workers not Felons
(PDF File)

July 18, 2006: CIA Torture in Vietnam, Latin America, and Iraq, Part I
(PDF File)

July 25, 2006: CIA Torture, Part II  (PDF File)

August 1, 2006: Historical Revisionism at Moscow's Trinity Festival
(PDF File)

August 8, 2006: Moscow School Among the Top 40 Bible Colleges (PDF File)

August 15, 2006: Iraq: One Step Forward; Three Steps Back (PDF File)

August 22, 2006: Vietnam, Iraq, and Lebanon: Superpower Overkill Backfires (PDF File)

September 5, 2006:  Truth, Goodness, and Beauty  (PDF File)

September 12, 2006: Un-Declaring the War on Terror (PDF File)

September 19, 2006: The Woman Who Drew the Boundaries of Iraq (PDF File)

September 26, 2006: You're Doing a Heckuva Job on the Economy, Bushie! (PDF File)

October 3, 2006: Happy 137th Birthday, Gandhi!  (PDF File)

October 10, 2006: Afghanistan as Narcostan as well as Jihadistan (PDF File for 2006 version)

October 17, 2006: Congress Caves Into Bush on Detainee Bill (PDF File)

October 24, 2006: Should Former Deans Retain Their High Salaries? (PDF File)

October 31, 2006: What Part of Equality Don't You Understand? (PDF File)

November 7, 2006:  Convergence not Conversion: Religious Unity in India (PDF File)

November 14, 2006: Some Reflections on Veterans Day, 2006  (PDF File available)

November 21, 2006:  Buddhist Nationalism and Religious Violence in Sri Lanka (PDF File)

November 28, 2006: Their Souls Live on the Cemetery of Books (PDF File)

December 5, 2006: Virtue, Morality, and Expediency (PDF File)

December 12, 2006:  The Man Who Brought the Spanish Inquisition to Chile (PDF File)

December 19, 2006: Whistleblowers Need More Protection at the University of Idaho (PDF File)

December 26, 2006: The Palouse Pundit Looks Back at 2006  (PDF File)

January 2, 2007: Danish Social Democracy and "The Third Way"  (PDF File)

January 9, 2007: America's Health Care is a National Disgrace  Part 1 (PDF)

January 16, 2007: How Did We Lose Our Racial Color Blindness? (PDF File)

January 23, 2007: Happy 270th Birthday, Tom Paine: Patriot and Vilified Theologian
(PDF File)

January 30, 2007: Selling Latah Health Services to Gritman Medical Center is a Wise Idea
(PDF File)

February 6, 2007: A Runaway Train 2007: Administrative Salaries Outstrip Faculty by 99%
(PDF File)

February 13, 2007: Happy 198th Birthday, Charles Darwin  (PDF File)

February 20: Two Presidents Named George and the Golden Rule (PDF File)

February 28: The Deceptions of War Reconfirmed  (PDF File)

March 6, 2007: The Queen's "Tribe" is leaving Iraq (PDF File)

March 13, 2007: Ed the Viking, Greenland, and Global Warming (PDF File)

March 20, 2007: The Need for Liberation Theology is Greater than ever (PDF File)

March 27, 2007: Tolerance for Islam in the Early American Republic (PDF File)

April 3: Woman, Bonobos, and Peace  (PDF File)

April 10: Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles (PDF File)

April 17: What Ever Happened to the Last Judgment? (PDF file)

April 24: America's Moral Responsibility for Global Warming (PDF File)

May 1: New St. Andrews College Must Earn the Respect of Other Institutions PDF File

May 8: The Imam of Ait Kassem Serves Lunch (PDF File)

May 15, 2007: A Chilling Connection between Nanjing (1853) and Moscow (2003) PDF

May 23, 2007: Catholics May Have Good Reason for Abortion Reform PDF

May 30, 2007: The Passing of an Ugly Giant of the Religious Right PDF

June 6, 2007:  Christ is Commander-in-Chief: Relative Violence in Islam and Christianity
PDF  JPEG

June 13, 2007: God is Dead (Again!): Secular Fundamentalists Fight Back  PDF  JPEG

June 20, 2007: The Global Peace Index: Norway #1; USA #96  JPEG PDF

June 27 2007: King of Morocco Takes His Country in a New Direction  JPEG PDF

July 4, 2007: Senator Sam Brownback is Confused about Evolution JPEG  PDF 

July 11, 2007: The Living Goddess of Bhaktapur Loses Her Job  PDF

July 18, 2007: America's Health Care is a National Disgrace  Part 2  PDF

July 25, 2007: The Overuse and Abuse of Part-Time Faculty  PDF

August 1, 2007: Moscow's Trinity Festival Features Fraudulent Calvinists and Questionable Trinitarians   PDF

August 8, 2007: Academic Tenure is Not Sacrosanct: The Cases of Professors Churchill and Maki PDF

August 15, 2007: Muslim Democrats and Republicans Have Ignorant Idaho Detractors PDF

August 22, 2007: Soles Hundreds of Feet Thick: Visualizing Economic Inequality in America PDF

August 29, 2007: Faulty Historical Parallels: Bush, Once Again, Draws the Wrong Lessons PDF

September 5, 2007: Lost in a World of Red and Green: Colorblind Males as Neglected Minority  PDF

September 12, 2007: Here's to Good Royalty: A Defense of Constitutional Monarchy PDF

September 19, 2007: IKEA: The Progressive Big Box Store from Sweden PDF

September 26, 2007: Celebrating our Muslim Neighbors by Acknowledging Their Cultural Heritage PDF

October 3, 2007: Moscow's Calvinist College Makes the The New York Times PDF

October 10, 2007: A Denmark Retrospective: Fond Memories for Me and 41 Years of Socio-Economic Progress for the Danes PDF

October 17, 2007: The Three Ironies of Ed Iverson's Report from Eastern Johnbirchistan PDF

October 24, 2007: The 454th Anniversary of the Burning of Michael Servetus  PDF

October 31, 2007: Vote for Smart Growth in the City Council Election  PDF

November 7, 2007: Benazir Bhutto Returns Home to Cheers and Bombs PDF

November 14, 2007: Station Closed Because of Asbestos Abatement

November 21, 2007: The Failure of Abstinence-Only Sex Education PDF

November 28, 2007: Face to Black Face with King Tut PDF

December 5, 2007: India's Day of Infamy: The Destruction of the Babri Mosque  PDF

December 12, 2007: A Sad Chronicle of Complicity: Buddhism and Japanese Nationalism PDF

December 19, 2007: Civility is a Two-Way Street: Moscow's Christ Church and Her Detractors PDF

December 26, 2007: Pontius the Pilot and the Flight to Egypt  PDF

January 16, 2008: Bayard Rustin: The Gay Man Who Organized the 1963 March on Washington PDF

January 23, 2008: The Tribulations of Providing and Obtaining a Legal Abortion PDF

January 30, 2008: Why Not Democracy in Higher Education Workplaces? PDF

February 6, 2008: Indonesia: Rich Hindu Past and Moderate Muslim Future PDF

February 13, 2008: Quick Settlement of Wal-Mart Worker Strike is Suspicious PDF

February 20, 2008: Liberal Religion and Abraham Lincoln PDF

February 27, 2008: The Meterley Report: Always Giving 3.37 Inches More Than Yardley PDF

March 5, 2008: "Don't Tread on Me": Americans Rise Up Against Alien Invaders PDF

March 12, 2008: Progress in Iraq is only Temporary or Illusory PDF

March 19, 2008: Tibetans Struggle in Dealing with an Orwellian Government PDF

March 26, 2008: Olympia Brown: Leading Suffragette and First Ordained Woman Minister PDF

April 2, 2008: On the Importance of Three Cups of Tea PDF

April 9, 2008: The Meandering Maverick: No Straight Talk from McCain on Religion PDF

April 16, 2008: One Haitian Woman's Struggle to Save Her People and Her Land PDF

April 23, 2008: Rapa Nui: Case Study in Ecological Disaster PDF

April 30, 2008: Graduate Teaching Assistants: Exploited Labor on America's Campuses PDF

May 7, 2008: The Doctrine of Discovery and the Christian Conquest of the World PDF

May 14, 2008: Good Manners, Civility, and Diplomacy PDF

May 21, 2008: Dear President White: You Owe Us Another Five Years PDF

May 28, 2008: Sandpoint Nurses May Lead Idaho Unions in a New Direction PDF

June 4, 2008: Two Himalayan Kingdoms Decide on Their Kings PDF

June 11, 2008: The U. S. Starts Killings Its Own Again PDF

June 18, 2008: Our Troops Deserve Better When They Come Home PDF

June 25, 2008: Detainees Are People Too: The Supreme Court Upholds the Magna Carta PDF

July 2, 2008: Let's Not Forget the Ladies of the American Revolution  PDF

July 9, 2008: Denmark Leads the World in Wind Power PDF

July 16, 2008: Warning to the GOP: Don't Mess with Medicare  PDF

July 23, 2008: The People of Moscow Raise $35,000 for Schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan PDF

July 30, 2008: The Lake Woebegon Blues: Where Can I buy a Good Green Car? PDF

August 6, 2008:  Barack Obama is Right about the Surge PDF

August 13, 2008: Headscarves, Secularism, and Religious Freedom PDF

August 20, 2008: Please Register Here to Protest, but We Might Arrest You if You Do  PDF

August 27, 2008: Krishna and Christ: Hindu and Christian Saviors PDF

September 3, 2008: Restoring Democracy in the American Workplace  PDF

September 10, 2008: Obama's Health Plan is Working in the Bay State; McCain's would be a Disaster PDF

September 17, 2008: McCain's Pit Bull Is Waging Cultural War on America PDF

September 24, 2008: Will Sarah Palin Go the Way of Spiro Agnew? Troopergate May Speed Her Departure PDF

October 1, 2008:  Gandhi's Deep Religious Pluralism

October 8, 2008: Memo to McCain: The Economy Tanked Long Ago PDF

October 15, 2008: McCain's Straight, but Unwise, Talk on Foreign Policy PDF

October 22, 2008: Palin Destroys McCain's Credibility on Energy and the Environment PDF

October 29, 2008: Why I'm voting for Barack Obama and Joe Biden PDF

November 5, 2008: Hate Crimes Continue Against Gays; Necessary Legislation Stalled PDF

November 12, 2008: The Persecution of Christians in India, Sri Lanka, and Iraq PDF

November 19, 2008: Muslim Challenge Spurs Inter-Faith Dialogue PDF

November 26, 2008: The Persecution of Quakers: Shame on our Puritan Forefathers

December 3, 2008: The Gateway of India becomes a Gateway of Death PDF

December 10, 2008: The Day Confucius Went to the United Nations

December 17, 2008: Happy 405th Birthday, Roger Williams!

December 24, 2008: The Christ Child, Illegitimate Children, and the Meaning of the Gospel  PDF

December 31, 2008: UI Athletics Get Big Breaks During Financial Crises

January 7, 2009: Is Forgiveness Really Human and not Divine?

January 14, 2009: The War in Gaza: "Bombing 1.5 Million People in a Cage"

January 21, 2009: The Naked Emperor "Decider" Retires to His Ranch

January 28, 2009: Idaho's University Program Reduction Procedures "Severely Deficient" PDF

Obama's Strengths: Superb Intellect, Openness, and Pragmatism (Los Cabos Daily News) PDF

February 4, 2009: High-Speed Rail is Key for Infrastructure Renewal

February 11, 2009: Brave Somali Woman Rejects Islam with a Vengeance

Februrary 18, 2009: Interrogations Need To Be Humane not "Enhanced"

February 25, 2009: Drug Policy Failures from Nixon to Bush

March 4, 2009: 500,000 Frozen Embryos Cry Out to be Born PDF

March 11, 2009: The Iraq War was not Worth the Sacrifice

March 18, 2009: Internal Pick Best for New University of Idaho President

March 25, 2009: The Bamiyan Buddhas: The Destruction of Afghan Cultural Treasures PDF

April 1, 2009: Animals are People, Too: Overcoming the Myth of Human Uniqueness

April 8, 2009:  Palouse Pundit out with a bad cold/flu

April 15, 2009: Happy Birthday, Thomas Jefferson: "Atheist and Leveler from Virginia" PDF

April 22, 2009: State Faculty Union Responds to Financial Crisis

April 29, 2009: When Good Fishermen Became Bad Bankers: The Collapse of the Icelandic Economy

May 6, 2009: The Power of Pride: Vice or Virtue? PDF

May 13, 2009: Malvina Reynolds: The Poetess of Protest PDF

May 20, 2009: The Party of Nehru and Gandhi Win Big in India PDF

May 27, 2009: Union Cards Instead of Credits Cards PDF

June 3, 2009:  U.S. Loses Lead in Higher Education PDF

June 10, 2009: Neo-Puritans Rewrite Salem Witch Trial History PDF

June 17, 2009:  University of Idaho Wastes Time and Money on "Chief Inspiration Officer" PDF

June 24, 2009:  The Parma Research Station Must Continue Its Essential Work PDF

July 1, 2009:  Do You Want Wall Street to Control Your Health Care? PDF

July 8, 2009:  The World's Largest Island Closer to Independence PDF

July 15, 2009:  Should the Head of Nefertiti and the Elgin Marbles be Returned? PDF

July 22, 2009:  Could King Hussein Have Stopped Saddam Hussein? PDF

July 27, 2009:  Has Obama Taken His Eyes Off the Prize? PDF

August 2009: Lost in the Bush of Southern Africa

September 9, 2009:  Southwest Africa: A Century of Brutual Occupation PDF

September 16, 2009:  The Preacher, the Congressman, and the Neo-Confederacy PDF

September 23, 2009:  Tutu, Boesak, and Mandela: Giants of South African Liberation PDF

September 30, 2009:  Not Yet the Mahatma: Gandhi in South Africa  PDF

October 7, 2009:  The Constituiton, the University, and Freedom of Speech

October 14, 2009:  Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Obama  PDF

October 21, 2009:  The Crisis in Idaho Higher Education

October 28, 2009:  A Tribute to the Rev. Forrest Church: Theologian, Historian, Humanitarian

November 4, 2009:  A Great Dream Unfulfilled : The Martin Institute at 30

November 11, 2009:  An Update on the Habib Sadid Case