Politics of Revelation and Reason (Preface)
“We disapprove of the measures adopted by a certain party, styling themselves the Christian party in politics,” declared the petition from a citizens’ group. The document went on to indict Christian political activists for advocating policies that were “infusing a spirit of religious intolerance and persecution into the political institute of the country, and which, unless opposed, will result in Read More ›
Literature Survey January 1996
Zen Biology? Jeffrey Levinton, “Life in the Tangled Lane,” a review of Stuart Kauffman, The Origins of Order, Evolution 49 (1995): 575-577. In this review of Kauffman’s magnum opus, Levinton (Ecology and Evolution, SUNY Stony Brook) is cheerfully skeptical. “Kauffman’s model,” he writes, “is at once pervasive, explaining everything. But equally, it explains why we may never be able to Read More ›
Invitation to Chat with the General
In recent weeks, there’s been a lot of talk about talk. Specifically, about the right (?) of military officers to comment publicly on their Commander-in-Chief. Whether yet another 60’s vice–protest as emotional venting and self-expression–has hit the military, may be debated. Thankfully, however, there are other dialogues going on. Herewith a personal tale, and a short meditation on military statesmanship. Read More ›
Shopping for Defense
President Clinton, it would seem, has had a conversion experience–one that leaves many of his overworked and overwrought supporters feeling more betrayed than usual. After six years of trashing the military and blowing off the putative alarmists and doom-sayers, he now finds the world so threatening that, as he recently told the New York Times, he stays up at night Read More ›
Expeditionary Homeland Defense?
Herewith a Tale of Two Buzzwords, and of their implications for the common defense. Buzzwords (as though the readers didn’t already know this) are terms which encapsulate, evoke, express, and otherwise elucidate ideas currently in favor. This is especially true in Washington, DC, where buzz often generates and accompanies cash. Today, the Pentagon’s abuzz with two phrases: “expeditionary forces” and Read More ›
State’s Growing Tourism Industry Offers Employment Promise
These are heady times for entrepreneurs, high tech whizzes and international traders. But many people are left out of the boom, including bank tellers and telephone operators, middle managers and others whose jobs are being rendered obsolete by new technologies, corporate down-sizing and international competition. They can get jobs in this economy, but often not at levels commensurate with their Read More ›
Rethink and Restructure
It happened thirty years ago, but I still recall my absolute outrage the day my draft notice arrived. How dare they? I didn’t even bother to read the thing, just sent it back with a hand-scrawled note: I will never serve in the United States Army. Stop wasting my time and the government’s postage. Sincerely yours. P.S. I recently joined Read More ›
Pundit predicts a surprising outcome to next year’s election
By J. Pierpont Pundit* PUNDITTOWN, INSIDE THE BELTWAY–There are great benefits to your reading an insider’s column like this one. Thanks to the wisdom of the pundits, you can now be told the outcome of the 1996 Presidential Election, ten months early. A preliminary hint: You voters are wasting your time. Starting sooner than the January sales are three solid Read More ›
Designer trees? I say, ‘humbug!’ to these fashion zombies
Tort reform one route to restoration of a more civil society
A woman at McDonald’s spills hot coffee in her lap and a jury awards her $2.7 million. Another jury awards a man $4 million from BMW because he wasn’t told that his new car had received a minor paint touch-up before he bought it. Yet another man is awarded $12.3 million, most of it in “punitive” damages,” because he fractured Read More ›
Angst and Awe on the Internet
Well, it had to happen. As the Internet emerges as the central nervous system of global capitalism, the Luddite left is bursting into “flames” against the microcosm and telecosm, against interlinked computers and the global radiance of electromagnetic communications. This rising resistance resonates with the press coverage that has long lavished attention on the excesses of the Net. Richard Shaffer Read More ›