Hollywood once produced many technically mediocre movies that were redeemed by morally upbeat messages. Today the craft of film-making is awe inspiring, but the sensibility is often pernicious. Take three leading contenders for Oscars, The English Patient, The People vs. Larry Flynt and Evita. All three films display adroit writing, acting and editing. And all three use the bedazzling tricks Read More ›
As it struggles to comprehend nature, science sometimes has to completely re-think how the world works. For example, Newton’s laws apply to everyday objects but can’t handle nature’s tiny building blocks. Propelled by this discovery, quantum mechanics overthrew Newton’s theory. Revolutions in biology have included the cell theory of life in the 19th century, as well as the slow realization Read More ›
What does an enlightened citizen believe about God at the end of the 20th century? The topic is of growing interest as the millennium approaches and the Baby Boom generation ages. Print and broadcast media have discovered a growing appetite for news about religion in all its manifestations, and they have been feeding and encouraging that appetite. Some deep anxiety Read More ›
The common assumption in news stories and commentaries about Newt Gingrich is that the Speaker misused tax exempt money to teach a partisan college course. But that assumption goes almost wholly uninspected. Few people know what actually was taught in the course,”Renewing American Civilization.” Media accounts have utterly failed to give details on it. That is entirely unnecessary, for the Read More ›
The best news in the paper these days is in the Lifestyle section, where, among other revelations, we learn that “swing” is back. Of course, it’s not 1940 all over again, nor is the trend pervasive. College kids around Seattle and around the country are not proposing to outfit a museum called 50 Years On, let alone inhabit it. But Read More ›
State House Majority Leader Dale Foreman is a logical candidate for governor. He’s smart, personable, and experienced. At 48, he’s still a fresh voice in politics, having been elected first only four years ago. He’s the easily-met, thoroughly decent kind of person you’d like to have as a neighbor. An attorney, orchardist and author, the well-rounded Wenatchee representative has the Read More ›
There before the cameras in Washington, DC were Republicans and Democrats, their grins so big their fillings were showing as they cheered the tax cut deal. Oh, boy, we’re all going to get re-elected in ’98, those wild smiles said. The exuberance points either to the finest accomplishment of political compromise in our time, or to a grotesque absence of Read More ›
Something is fishy in the salmon dispute with Canada. Why would two friendly countries who do a billion dollars of business with each other each day wind up in a public relations confrontation like the blockading of the Alaska Ferry in Prince Rupert, BC? In political terms, who was supposed to be persuaded by British Columbia’s Premier Glen Clark calling Read More ›
The scandal game in Washington, DC is only going to get worse, and you may want a scorecard. That is because the latest collection of charges could turn out to do long-term damage to our system of representative democracy, leading to false reforms that will make matters worse, not better. Here is the dilemma: If serious law breaking at high Read More ›
The following is Michael Behe’s response to the essays published by Boston Review following Allen Orr’s review of Darwin’s Black Box. Allen Orr Professor Orr has a mistaken notion of irreducible complexity. I thought I made that clear in my reply, but from his response I suppose I did not, so let me try again. I define irreducible complexity in Read More ›