Discovery Institute

^{Tom Alberg and Bryan Mistele

October 18, 2019

Cascadia}

Raising Taxes on Ride Sharing Harms the Public

_{Tom Alberg and Bryan Mistele

October 18, 2019

Cascadia}

Call it a head tax on wheels. The recently announced plan to triple the Seattle city taxes on all ride-share trips — to 75 cents from 24 cents, which would create the highest flat ride-share tax in the U.S. — is out of the same playbook that brought us the 2017-18 tax on jobs. It would hurt working people and Read More ›

Close-up Of Businessperson Showing Orange Figure Against White Human Figures On Seesaw Over Wooden Desk

^{Günter Bechly, David Berlinski and Brian Miller

October 10, 2019

Intelligent Design}

Right of Reply: Our Response to Jerry Coyne

_{Günter Bechly, David Berlinski and Brian Miller

October 10, 2019

Intelligent Design}

Jerry Coyne has offered a response in the pages of Quillette to David Gelernter’s provocative article, “Giving Up Darwin.” Gelernter rejected the standard model of neo-Darwinian evolution for a simple reason: he looked at three pieces of scientific evidence that appeared to be incompatible with that model. Read More ›

Young female hands hugging old woman, closeup

^{Wesley J. Smith

September 27, 2019

Human Exceptionalism}

Congress Should Pass the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act

_{Wesley J. Smith

September 27, 2019

Human Exceptionalism}

Unfortunately, the bill is opposed by some opponents of assisted suicide, people who are my friends and whom I respect for their commitment to defending the practice of ethical medicine. This makes no sense to me. The more confidence people have that their loved ones will be cared for properly through palliative and hospice techniques — as my mother was — the less they are likely to turn in desperation to support for assisted suicide. Indeed, euthanasia advocates engage in ubiquitous fearmongering to convince people that their binary choice is allowing assisted suicide or abandoning their loved ones to a potentially agonizing death. In this sense, public support for legalizing assisted suicide can be interpreted as a declaration of no confidence in the ability of doctors to properly care for people. Read More ›

^{George Gilder

September 15, 2019

Economics, Technology}

Isolating the Biggest Problems in Israel

_{George Gilder

September 15, 2019

Economics, Technology}

We all are beginning to understand what is right about Israel. It is at the pinnacle of human accomplishment in technology, innovation, culture and wealth. Amid a global slump, it is still growing at an annual rate near 5%. In startups, IPOs, and venture capital, it leads the world by any per-capita standard and in some ways by absolute metrics. Read More ›

^{Christopher Rufo

August 22, 2019

Economics}

‘New Left Urbanists’ Want to Remake Your City

_{Christopher Rufo

August 22, 2019

Economics}

America’s big cities are almost all dominated by the Democratic Party, but the politics of urban development are far from monolithic. In the past few years, a new faction has emerged across the country. Call them the new left urbanists. These activists have big dreams. They want local governments to rebuild the urban environment—housing, transit, roads and tolls—to achieve social justice, racial justice and net-zero carbon emissions. They rally around slogans such as “ban all cars,” “raze the suburbs” and “single-family housing is white supremacy”—though they’re generally white and affluent themselves, often employed in public or semipublic roles in urban planning, housing development and social advocacy. They treat public housing, mass transit and bike lanes as a holy trinity, and they want to impose their religion on you. Read More ›

^{Scott S. Powell

August 14, 2019

Religion and Civic Life}

Woodstock 50 Years Later: An Eyewitness Account

_{Scott S. Powell

August 14, 2019

Religion and Civic Life}

The 50th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival prompts many to reminisce about the extraordinary gathering of musical talent and idealism associated with that event. It more than lived up to its promotional billing as “three days of peace and music.” Woodstock featured 32 of the most iconic artists in American music history, establishing a high point of outdoor concert Read More ›

^{Christopher Rufo

August 8, 2019

Economics}

Pushback

_{Christopher Rufo

August 8, 2019

Economics}

The political ground may be starting to shift in America’s bluest cities. While San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver remain reliable Democratic strongholds, a divide is opening between the cities’ activist political elite and a liberal, but more pragmatic, majority of voters. Read More ›

Fake Dictionary, definition of the word Addiction.

^{Christopher Rufo

July 29, 2019

Economics}

Madness and Society

_{Christopher Rufo

July 29, 2019

Economics}

At six o’clock each morning, the alcoholics, addicts, and mentally ill residents of San Donato Val di Comino, Italy, emerge from their homes and congregate—sometimes together, but mostly alone—in the cafés around the town’s main square. Some of the hardened alcoholics order an espresso with a shot of liquor, then climb into work trucks and head out to farms and construction sites. The mentally ill—who suffer predominantly from depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia—order cups of coffee or sit at the patio tables emptyhanded, an indication that they have run out of cash for the month. Read More ›

^{George Gilder

July 1, 2019

Economics}

Three Steps to Save America from Collapse

_{George Gilder

July 1, 2019

Economics}

Our monetary system is broken. It’s given us low growth, a shrinking job force, inequality beyond what a healthy economy would produce, inefficiency, and the unnatural growth of finance as a portion of the economy. Our aging Federal Reserve System starves both small businesses and Silicon Valley of the capital needed to grow jobs and wages. Fed policy translates into Read More ›

^{Bruce Chapman

June 26, 2019

Citizen Leadership}

We Need to Bring Back Real Debates in America

_{Bruce Chapman

June 26, 2019

Citizen Leadership}

The televised Democratic presidential sound byte pageants will not be true debates by any realistic standard. They are reminiscent of the 2016 Republican primaries that started with 16 candidates preening on a platform and enduring “gotcha” questions by reporters/moderators trying to get themselves into the news story. Until the nominee field narrows, these shows are almost a parody of real debates in the Lincoln-Douglas or Oxford Union manner. That’s too bad. We need to bring back real debates in America, and not just among candidates. Name the issue (climate change, foreign interference in our elections, abortion, immigration, tariffs, privacy online, the future of artificial intelligence, the meaning of “free speech,” whatever): Americans are badly divided. Since media and politicians often operate in inward-looking communities, they tend to ignore or distort views that differ from their own. In this environment, mere calls for greater civility don’t work. What can work is facing issues straight on and together. Read More ›