By William H. Benson
The Parallel Lives
Of The NOBLE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS THINKERS AND BELIEVERS:
Roger Williams VS. Cotton Mathers
NEW ARTICLES
Attempts at Thought Experiments: To Assay, To Weigh, To Balance, to Evaluate
“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the loser’s tool.” -Socrates
“The propaganda machine is always looking for someone to hate.” -heard on National Public Radio, on Saturday, April 26, 2025
“He who can does; he who cannot teaches.” -George Bernard Shaw. I wonder if G. B. Shaw ever taught junior high or high school students. If he had, he might express a different opinion on teaching, and learn that it is hard work, not so well rewarded, but so worthwhile.
“He who can teach, teaches college; he who cannot teaches kids.” -an elaboration on Shaw’s quote above.
“People who can think, do not get things done, while people who get things done do not have time to think.” -a wise Norwegian author
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. They do not know what they do not know.” -H. L. Mencken
“The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are [so] sure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” Bertrand Russell, from his “Christian Ethics,” in his book, Marriage and Morals
“Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider”. -Francis Bacon
In the above passage, Bacon underscores the importance of critical thinking, of pondering a passage, of hesitating to believe or act upon its words when first encountered.
“The people who know how to run the world are too busy cutting hair and driving taxi cabs.” -George Burns
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” -Charles Darwin
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” -H. L. Mencken
The Dunning-Kruger Effect: “A cognitive bias when unskilled people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices.
“Their incompetence robs them of their mental ability to realize it.
“If participants improved their skills in a tested area, their cognitive competence increased, and helped them to recognize the limitations of their abilities.
“As people gain more education and intelligence, they become more aware of their limitations. This awareness can be beneficial helping people avoid costly mistakes.”
A contractor once said of an experienced brick-layer, “he forgot more about brick-laying than most people ever learned.”
“A study in 2018 indicated that Americans who know little about politics and government are more likely than other Americans to overestimate their knowledge of those topics.”
“I know that up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom, we, too, should have rights.” -Dr. Seuss, from “Yertle the Turtle”
Frederick Douglass, 1852 Speech
Frederick Douglass, 1852 SpeechFrederick Douglass, 1852 Speech by William H. Benson June 30, 2019 The Rochester, New York Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society asked the abolitionist Frederick Douglass to deliver the address at the Fourth of July celebration on...
A Frenchman Crosses the Atlantic in a Barrel
A Frenchman Crosses the Atlantic in a BarrelA Frenchman Crosses the Atlantic in a Barrel by William H. Benson June 13, 2019 The Atlantic Ocean intimidates, but many have dared to cross it. Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator initiated Europe's Age of...
America at War
America at WarAmerica at War by William H. Benson May 30, 2019 On Palm Sunday, April 14, this year, former President Jimmy Carter told his Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, that President Donald Trump had called him the day...
Australia’s Feral Animals
Australia's Feral AnimalsAustralia's Feral Animals by William H. Benson May 16, 2019 Australia is a world away from the United States. Ask a typical American for details about Australia, and he or she may recollect three familiar items: sheep, kangaroos, or...
Watergate—Woodward and Bernstein
Watergate—Woodward and BernsteinWatergate—Woodward and Bernstein by William H. Benson May 2, 2019 After police arrested five burglars in the Democratic Party's national headquarters in a suite on the sixth floor of the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. on June...
Watergate—Cracks in the Coverup
Watergate—Cracks in the CoverupWatergate—Cracks in the Coverup by William H. Benson April 4, 2019 Martha Mitchell was the flamboyant and outspoken wife of John Mitchell, Richard Nixon's former Attorney General and then, in the summer of 1972, the head of Nixon's...
Older Posts
Watergate—Conspiracy to Coverup
Watergate—Conspiracy to CoverupWatergate—Conspiracy to Coverup by William H. Benson March 21, 2019 On June 17, 1972, police nabbed five burglars inside the Democratic National Party's headquarters, in a sixth floor suite in the Watergate Hotel, alongside the...
Watergate—Crimes Committed
Watergate—Crimes CommittedWatergate—Crimes Committed by William H. Benson March 7, 2019 John Mitchell smoked a pipe when he served as Attorney General in Nixon's White House, and also as chair of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, CREEP, in 1971,...
Spiro Agnew and “Bagman”
Spiro Agnew and “Bagman”Spiro Agnew and “Bagman” by William H. Benson February 21, 2019 News of two separate scandals rocked the White House and stunned the American people in 1973. The first was President Nixon's coverup of his election committee's burglary...
California’s Housing Crisis
California's Housing CrisisCalifornia's Housing Crisis by William H. Benson February 7, 2019 Last time in these pages, I discussed Michael Greenberg's recent article in the New York Review on the plight of migrant workers in California's central valley, Indians...
California’s Farmworkers
California's FarmworkersCalifornia's Farmworkers by William H. Benson January 24, 2019 Michael Greenberg, reporter for the New York Review, examined California in two recent articles, the first in December on agriculture, and the second in January on housing's...
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty
Exit, Voice, and LoyaltyExit, Voice, and Loyalty by William H. Benson January 10, 2019 Economic and political ruin strikes one country after another. Yes, it seems that, on occasion, the world's nearly two hundred countries will suffer a disaster, a...
One of University of Northern Colorado’s 2020 Honored Alumni
William H. Benson
Local has provided scholarships for history students for 15 years
A Sterling resident is among five alumni selected to be recognized this year by the University of Northern Colorado. Bill Benson is one of college’s 2020 Honored Alumni.
Each year UNC honors alumni in recognition for their outstanding contributions to the college, their profession and their community. This year’s honorees were to be recognized at an awards ceremony on March 27, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak that event has been cancelled. Instead UNC will recognize the honorees in the fall during homecoming Oct. 10 and 11……
Newspaper Columns
The Duodecimal System
For centuries, the ancient Romans calculated sums with their clunky numerals: I, V, X, L, C, D, and M; or one, five, ten, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000. They knew nothing better.
The Thirteenth Amendment
On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and by it, he declared that “all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are and henceforward shall be free.” Lincoln’s Proclamation freed some 3.1 million slaves within the Confederacy.
The Fourteenth Amendment
After Congress and enough states ratified the thirteenth amendment that terminated slavery, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law declared that “all people born in the United States are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.” The Act equated birth to citizenship.
The New-York Packet and the Constitution
Jill Lepore, the Harvard historian, published her newest book a month ago, These Truths: A History of the United States. In a short introduction, she describes in detail the Oct. 30, 1787 edition of a semi-weekly newspaper, The New-York Packet.
Mr. Benson’s writings on the U.S. Constitution are a great addition to the South Platte Sentinel. Its inspiring to see the history of the highest laws of this country passed on to others.
– Richard Hogan
Mr. Benson, I cannot thank you enough for this scholarship. As a first-generation college student, the prospect of finding a way to afford college is a very daunting one. Thanks to your generous donation, my dream of attending UNC and continuing my success here is far more achievable
– Cedric Sage Nixon
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– Extra Times
FUTURE BOOKS
- Thomas Paine vs. George Whitefield
- Ralph Waldo Emerson vs. Joseph Smith
- William James vs. Mary Baker Eddy
- Mark Twain vs. Billy Graham
- Henry Louis Mencken vs. Jim Bakker
