Steve Murphy loved his Miami-based work as an economic development consultant specializing in Latin America, but he found he could not explain it to young people. Many of the ones he met said they wanted to start their own businesses, but “when I ask where they plan to get their startup capital, they just shrug their shoulders. Motivation and knowledge Read More ›
Washington Sen. Slade Gorton received headline attention recently when he announced that he would not oppose extension of “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) trading status for China this year. He thereby helped avoid an embarrassing vote in the Senate at a time when Boeing has major Chinese contracts pending and Microsoft has just reached a new agreement on intellectual property rights. Read More ›
Recently I described the effort of Sam Beard, author of “Restoring Hope in America,” to rescue the Social Security system from bankruptcy and provide a real economic future for the American worker. Now touring the United States is another crusader with the nearly identical cause, José Piñera. The main difference between the two is that Beard, head of the Jefferson Read More ›
The front page story in the Vancouver Sun last weekend was from Seattle, where British Columbians were told that Sonics excitement revealed an “America…where sports become a life’s obsession.” Interviewing–get this–“Milt” and “Merle” from Texas, the reporter had these two urban cowboys hanging onto the bar at F. X. McRory’s restaurant in Pioneer Square and speaking for the rest of Read More ›
As a product of the government schools and universities, I was always under the impression that the argument about design began with William Paley and ended with Charles Darwin. In fact, in keeping with my indoctrination about the warfare between science and religion, I was under the impression that design was strictly a religious issue and objective science, ala Darwin, Read More ›
Most futuristic novels seem out-of-date after a decade or two, but That Hideous Strength is more timely today than when the book was published in 1945. On the day I began to reread the book for this essay, the press reported that a British government agency called the Human Fertilization and Embryological Authority (HFEA) is sounding out public opinion about Read More ›
Turf battles and budget cuts always stir anxieties in the military, but recent signs of damaged morale in the officer corps suggest worrisome trouble from more unusual sources. At some point the fighting ability of the military–its reason for existence–may be impaired. Before that happens, Congress should investigate the causes of the recent spate of firings, resignations, lawsuits, charges of Read More ›
