Doctors of Death: Kaiser Solicits Its Doctors to Kill
When liberals ask me why they should oppose physician-assisted suicide (PAS), I always reply, “I can summarize a big reason in just three letters: HMO.” That always raises an eyebrow. Liberals hate HMOs. Then I ask, “Do you know how much it costs for the drugs used in an assisted suicide?” They usually shake their heads, no. Answering my own Read More ›
Punishment with Widening Ripples
American stockholders are now recognized as an oppressed group by politicians’ rhetoric of the last few months. Stockholders are those with the faith and vision that keep the economic system afloat, and there is little doubt they are abused both by government and some corporate managers. However, despite the rhetoric, there is little evidence that government officials or corporate managers Read More ›
Practical Council: Important Stuff from the Kass Commission
They keep threatening to do it, and now, they say they have. The flying-saucer cult, the Raelians, announced that its scientists have implanted a woman with a cloned human embryo. “The next announcement will be the birth of a baby,” their chief scientist Brigitte Boisselier, cheerily announced to the world. Whether this is actually true, or whether such an embryo Read More ›
Farewell to alluring, but faithless, France
Original article I am breaking off my love affair with France. It was always tenuous. There were some occasions that were unhappy, even unpleasant. Like the time I was charged $22 for a brandy in a glass the size of a thimble, or the haughty waiter in the fancy restaurant who refused to acknowledge that the meat he had served Read More ›
“A Nuclear Bomb” for Evolution?
The discovery of a nearly 7-million-year-old skull has been hailed as “a small nuclear bomb” for evolution, “the most important fossil discovery in living memory,” and a “challenge to human origins.” Time said that the fossil might be “your very first relative.” An international team of scientists uncovered the mostly intact craniumnicknamed Toumai (meaning “hope of life”)along with two jawbone Read More ›
Addicted to Caricatures
(The journal Nature had Brian Charlesworth review my book No Free Lunch in its 11 July 2002 issue. I would repeat the entire article, but copyright restrictions prevent me. The article is available at nature.com to subscribers for free and to nonsubscribers for a fee. I respond to the article here.) One prominent evolutionist I know confided in me that Read More ›
Pursuit of Economic Literacy
Recent opinion polls show that substantial numbers of Americans believe: We are in a recession; free trade reduces jobs for American workers; controlling prices will make us better off; government can create jobs; the tax cut hurt economic growth; and corporations hurt American workers by moving their legal homes to lower-tax jurisdictions. None of the above statements are true. Why Read More ›
Darwin Cartoon
In Iraq, U.S. Has Been Bold, Right
Looking back on three weeks of Operation Iraqi Freedom, dozens of thoughts, vignettes really, about what has transpired create a mosaic that is nothing short of remarkable. And like at the end of the Cold War, one already hears rumblings from the chattering class as to the inevitability of it all — as if the months of uncertainty building up Read More ›