Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank those who read portions of this manuscript prior to publication and were kind enough to offer their comments, especially my brother Michael McWilliams, Heide Mintzer-Banks-Smith, Christopher McMullen, William F. Buckley, Jr., Lee Baumel, Rick Edelstein, and Laren Bright.

I would like to thank those who contributed ideas, articles, recommended books, sent videotapes, and in other ways supplied support and essential information. These include my mother Mary McWilliams; Norma Jean Almodovar; David Anderson; Bertrand Babinet; Harold H. Bloomfield, M.D.; Adam Blossom; Matthew Childs; Ted Conley; Stuart Elliott; Gene GeRue; Professor Lawrence Kaplan; Dr. Bryan McMullan; Jimmie McWilliams; John Morton; Kristin Onuf; Dr. Pei; Susan Post; Lake Puett; Diane Reverand; Dr. Richard Rockwell; Dr. I. Nelson Rose; Pauli Sanderson; Professor Edwin Schur; Peter Scott; Peter Sepp; Michael Snell; Cinder Stanton; Dr. Ed Wagner; Andrew Weil, M.D.; and Roy Tuckman of KPFK's Something's Happening.

Thanks to the people at Prelude Press: Shawn Abrahams, Zac Cook, Chris GeRue, Lorraine Harrell, Stephanie Horsley, Perry Segal, Janet Stoakley, Carol Taylor, Simon Taylor, and Paurvi Trivedi.

The Bible research probably could not have been done (at least not completed in this century) without my trusty computer and the Bible-text programs Biblesoft (The PC Study Bible), QuickVerse, and the Bible Library.

While riding around in my car, I especially enjoyed listening to the tapes on Thomas Paine's Common Sense and Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, by Knowledge Products, Nashville, Tennessee.

For copy editing, I would like to thank Debbie Sidell; for much of the desktop publishing, Victoria Marine, who made thousands of picky little comments, without which this book would be a far worse one.

For invaluable editorial comments as well as indexing, my gratitude and appreciation go to Jean Sedillos. For research, transcription, and taking the project over when others abandoned it, my thanks to Chris GeRue (who must transcribe even this, so if she's added words such as ever-faithful, brilliant, or overworked, this would be accurate, but she added them on her own). Without the support of these two women in particular, this book could not have taken place.

Thanks to Paurvi Trivedi, who rearranged schedules with the printers six times while I discovered one invaluable bit of information after another that simply had to be in the book. Thanks as well to the printer of this book, Bertelsmann, for making the six scheduling changes.

I would like to thank my friends—particularly Christopher McMullen and Heide Mintzer-Banks-Smith—who didn't see or hear from me for long periods of time as my obsession (I like to call it "dedication") with this book grew and my personal life shrank. (Come to think of it, they never complained. Maybe they didn't notice I was not around. Hmmmm.)

Thanks to Bessie Smith, a black, drug-using, bisexual whose 1923 recording of "T'aint Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do" inspired the whole book.

And, finally, I'd like to thank Pat Robertson and Jerry ("Jer") Falwell, without whom this book would not have been inevitable.

Copyright © 1996 Peter McWilliams & Prelude Press