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Just Check the ID

This article, published by The Washington Post, quotes Phillip Johnson of Discovery Institute: Creationists are attracted to ID, and one of its founding fathers, University of California law professor Phillip Johnson, is a devout Presbyterian. But you don’t have to be a creationist to think there might be something to it, or to agree with Johnson when he says, “The Read More ›

Design or Darwin?

This article, published by the Calgary Herald, quotes Discovery Institute Center for Science & Culture Senior Fellow Richard Sternberg: Sternberg, with two PhDs in evolutionary biology, was a prominent Smithsonian Institution researcher, editing the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. Though not an Intelligent Design proponent himself, in 2004, he allowed publication of an article critical of Darwinism Read More ›

Spooked by the Obvious

If you suddenly learned the government had reduced taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains, would you save and invest more or less? Most people would say more, because saving and investing would be more profitable with lower tax rates. As obvious as this seems, much of the Washington establishment is shocked the deficit is falling rapidly due to surging tax revenues, despite the “massive” Bush tax cuts.

The Washington establishment was shocked back in the late 1970s when, as a result of the capital-gains rate tax cut, tax revenues went up rather than down. They were shocked again in the mid-1980s when revenues surged despite the “massive” Reagan tax rate cuts. They were again shocked in the early 1990s when new tax revenues did not pour in after the Bush 41 tax rate increase. In the mid-1990s, they were also shocked when the Republican Congress forced President Clinton to cut the capital-gains tax rate, and revenues soared, leading to an unanticipated budget surplus.

Many in the political and bureaucratic class, not only in Washington, but in most world governments, are rather simple-minded on economics. They tend to think if they just increase tax rates they will get more money to spend. They rarely think about the behavioral responses of people and companies to changes in tax rates, and how the sum of these individual behavioral responses will affect the whole economy.

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Brutally Criticized

This article, published by Fox News, contains a transcript of Discovery Institute Center for Science and Culture Senior Fellow Richard Sternberg’s interview with Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor:

BILL O’REILLY, HOST: In the “‘Factor’ follow-up” segment tonight. As you may know, there’s a bitter debate over whether public schools should be allowed to teach students an alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution, a concept called Intelligent Design.

That concept puts forth that a higher power oversaw the evolutionary process. And that’s why man will never completely understand it.

One year ago, the editor of a scientific journal called Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington ran an article by Dr. Stephen Meyer of Cambridge University in England that stated intelligent design should be taken seriously as a theory. Well, since that time, Dr. Richard Sternberg’s life has been hell. He joins us now from Washington.

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The Future of Photography

This article, published by The New York Sun, is a review of Discovery Institute Senior Fellow George Gilder’s book The Silicon Eye: How a Silicon Valley Company Aims to Make All Current Computers, Cameras, and Cell Phones Obsolete: George Gilder’s “The Silicon Eye: How a Silicon Valley Company Aims to Make All Current Computers, Cameras, and Cell Phones Obsolete” (W.W. Read More ›

‘Reality Needs To Take Over’

This article, published by HeraldNet, quotes Dave Earling of Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Center: Dave Earling of the Cascadia Center for Transportation and Regional Development moderated the meeting, and said Snohomish County sorely needs the funding the gas tax would provide. “We need to think about how Snohomish County is the fastest-growing county in the state,” he said. The rest of Read More ›

Trial Exposes America’s Division Over Evolution

DOVER, Pa. — Outside the Dover fire hall last week, taking a break from a video lecture on “Why Evolution is Stupid,” Judy Grim blamed Darwin’s theory for America’s moral woes. “If I’m taught there is a God I’m responsible to, I know I have to treat people right,” said Grim, 63. “But if there’s no creator to answer to, Read More ›

New Mexico Schools Could Enter Battle Over ‘Intelligent Design’

Original Article HARRISBURG, Pa. — As a federal judge hears arguments over whether a Pennsylvania school district can include “intelligent design” in its biology curriculum, Dan Barbour fears that the New Mexico high school where he works could face a similar showdown. The school board in Rio Rancho, N.M., voted in August to allow the discussion of alternative theories to Read More ›

The New York Times Makes Progress on the Controversy (But Needs to Make More)

The New York Times’ successive two front page (Sunday and Monday), above the fold articles on Discovery Institute and intelligent design (ID) were better than we feared, which means we moved from the 90 % negative view long evident on the Times’ editorial page and the comments of executive editor Bill Keller to, oh, about 60 percent negative, 40 percent positive in Read More ›