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Upfront / Letters In an article1 about the recent Smithsonian screening of “The Privileged Planet,” based on a book I co-authored, Randall Kremer, the museum’s director of public affairs commented, “The scientific content for the most part is accurate. The problem we have is that the science is used to draw a philosophical conclusion.” Perhaps a more accurate statement would Read More ›

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 ›

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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 ›

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.

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.

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 ›

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 ›