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A Call For Scientific Authoritarianism

I have warned repeatedly that we suffer from “expertitis,” my term for the tendency to hand the most important policy decisions over to “experts.” Now, a well known environmental author named David Shearman has written an hysterical piece urging that we toss aside democracy . . . . Continue Reading »

Re: The Drum Beats Louder

Uh, no, Nathaniel, I don’t think that’s it at all . Our disagreement was about your overly-simplistic approach to this question, an approach you continue to take in your most recent post. You said the answers to these questions were “obvious;” I said they weren’t . I . . . . Continue Reading »

LOTR Nominated for Best Musical

. . . as well as four other Olivier Award thingees . Who knew it would make for anything but a ludicrous musical ? They must put on one heck of a pyrotechnical miracle over at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Go figure . . . Although, almost as staggering, Hairspray has broken an Olivier Award . . . . Continue Reading »

He Speaks! "Why Being Human Matters"

I am often asked where people can see recordings of my speeches. The Discovery Institute just posted online one I made there last year, called “Why Being Human Matters: Bioethics, Animal Liberation, and the Threat to Human Exceptionalism.” Hit this link, and I will appear after a very . . . . Continue Reading »

Re: The Drum Beats Louder

Ryan, you’re certainly right about one thing, namely my misuse of the term “rights.” I don’t actually believe that we have a right, under natural or constitutional law, to receive tax breaks for donations to non-profit organizations. My primary assertion was that the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Art of Creation

Art, Virgil says in Dante’s Divine Comedy , is the grandchild of God: God forms man in his own image, and we imitate this creative act. To put it differently, art reflects creation and creation reflects God. But literary critic Terry Eagleton isn’t so sure. Did God create the artist, or . . . . Continue Reading »

Reexamining the Catholic Vote

Over at The Campaign Standard, Jody seems to think that the Super Tuesday numbers on the Catholic vote leave his thesis that there is no distinct Catholic vote in tatters . I’m no expert, but it seems to me that Jody is being overly harsh on his own thesis. There’s actually much in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Honest Nitschke

Philip Nitschke, as I have repeatedly written, believes essentially in death on demand. He says so again in the wake of the suicide of woman he “counseled:”“Nitschke insisted that healthy people of sound mind, who were mature enough, should have the right to take their own lives if . . . . Continue Reading »

The Diplomacy of Religious Freedom

In the May 2006 issue of First Things , Thomas Farr argued that the US needed to pay attention to religion in its foreign policy decisions in order for those decisions to have any lasting effect: In other words, there is evidence that liberal democracy in religious cultures will not emerge without . . . . Continue Reading »

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