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Rewards of Economic Freedom

If you had to list 10 freedoms that are important to you from your most to your least important, how would you rank them? You might ask your family and friends the same question, and I expect you will find the lists and priorities quite different.Those who work in the media are likely to rank freedom of the press near Read More ›

Amtrak to Spin Off Corridor

This article, published by The Washington Post, quotes Tom Till of Discovery Institute: “This is exactly the right move to make,” said Tom Till, a senior fellow at Discovery Institute in Seattle who in 1999 led the Amtrak Reform Council, a group created by Congress to study the railroad’s problems. “The kind of funding needed to make the corridor work Read More ›

Leaders Must Act Now To Avoid A Severe, Regional Energy Crisis

Editor’s note: The Cascadia Center has written a series of articles examining the state’s infrastructure deficit. This is the first of the series, which is being published exclusively by the Puget Sound Business Journal. Our predecessors understood the links between infrastructure and economic growth. They cut tunnels through the mountains that opened ports, dug a canal that linked Lake Washington Read More ›

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Word or phrase Idiot in a dictionary.

‘ID’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Idiot’

Being an intelligent scientifically literate person who has serious problems with Darwinian evolution has caused me countless moments of consternation. I am frustrated with the dribble coming from anti-Christian people like Joan Ryan, syndicated columnist for the Times-Mail, and Eugenie Scott, professional Darwinian atheist. Reading Ryan’s column reminded me of a lecture Scott gave at the Indiana University Auditorium two Read More ›

Vienna Cardinal Draws Lines in Intelligent Design Row

Original Article VIENNA (Reuters) – When Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn waded into a heated debate over evolution in the United States, his goal was not to persuade American schools to teach that God created the world in six days. Nor was it to condemn Charles Darwin and his “The Origin of Species”, a book that Schoenborn, the Roman Catholic archbishop Read More ›

Brace for the U.N. Tax Man

When I extolled the virtues of our federal system of government in a previous column (“Sovereignty, from sea to sea,” Times op-ed, Sept. 21), I left out an unfortunate and pernicious side effect of having a government of multiple jurisdictions — taxes. Multiple layers of government, while encouraging balance of power and competing regulatory ideas, also mean multiple layers of Read More ›

Who is Stuck on Stupid?

Two adjoining building lots with beautiful views of the Gulf of Mexico were for sale. One was purchased by Mr. Charles Ant, an engineer, and the other was purchased by Mr. Teddy Grasshopper, a lawyer. Each lot was 6 feet above sea level. Scientists had calculated there was a 10 percent chance of a 5-foot storm surge, a 5 percent Read More ›

Foster Critical Thinking in Schools

Original Article Academic freedom fosters critical thinking and belongs in schools. My approach to explanations of biological diversity, be they the variety of scientific materialism theories such as Darwinian evolution (my district curriculum mandate) or a discussion of the emerging design theory (non-curriculum viewpoint), is to encourage students to weigh evidence on both sides of an argument critically. Charles Darwin Read More ›

A Kass Act

Leon Kass has stepped down as chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics. On one level, I am happy for Kass. For four years he has broiled in the pressure cooker of Washington politics, subjected to vituperation and vicious calumny from the bioethics and science establishments for his heterodox (to them) defense of the intrinsic dignity and importance of human Read More ›

Intelligent Design Offers a Competing Explanation for the Origin of Life

Original Article Last year, the Dover School District Board in York County adopted a policy that makes students aware that evolution is a theory and not fact. The policy also states, ”Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin’s view.” Representing 11 parents who object to the policy, the American Civil Liberties Union and Read More ›