original article (need subscription to access) Never mind the war on terror or the economy. AT&T has convinced some in the White House that the November election will be about . . . phone rates. How else to explain the Bush Administration’s anticompetitive approach to telecommunications, an industry that inside of four years has lost an estimated 900,000 jobs, $2 Read More ›
While the national press obsessed over the “jobless recovery,” the U.S. economy quietly received a major shot in the arm last week. This happened when a U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the Federal Communications Commission to scrap regulations that are holding back the spread of the broadband economy. Will the Bush administration finally embrace this victory for telecom deregulation and Read More ›
Original Article If there’s anything an election year teaches us, it is that even the truth, in the wrong hands, can be spun into almost anything. This isn’t much of a surprise for politicians. But scientists? The legendary astronomer Carl Sagan once claimed, “Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are Read More ›
Most people prefer to live in rich neighborhoods rather than poor ones — why is that? Perhaps they notice rich neighbors tend to keep the environment cleaner, respect property rights of others and do not engage in criminal activities threatening lives of their neighbors. The same is true of countries. We don’t fear rich countries — such as Japan, Germany, Read More ›
Today, March 15, at 2pm Pacific Time, John Drescher will be a guest speaker on the Internet radio program “Seeking Business Excellence,” with Roland Vogel. Click here to listen on Business America Radio.
As an advocate of the Intelligent Design movement, I’m very often confronted with the following rather pointed criticism: “Well, if the world is designed, then we’ve got to blame the designer for all of the evil in it, don’t we? Backaches and headaches, cancer, cats playing with mice, parasites, floods, Nazis, slavery, starving children—the whole mess would have to be Read More ›
Howard Chapman is an adjunct fellow of Discovery Institute If I had been a member of the Martha Stewart jury, she would not have been convicted. If I were the judge in her case, she would not spend any time in jail. Had I been on the jury, when we went into deliberations, I would have told my fellow jurors Read More ›
Allen Orr wrote an extended critical review (over 6000 words) of my book No Free Lunch for the Boston Review this summer. The Boston Review subsequently contacted me and asked for a 1000 word response. I wrote a response of that length focusing on what I took to be the fundamental flaw in Orr’s review (and indeed in Darwinian thinking generally, namely, conflating the realistically possible with the merely conceivable). What I didn’t know (though I should have expected it) is that Orr would have the last word and that the Boston Review would give him 1000 words to reply to my response (see the exchange in the current issue).
In his reply Orr takes me to task for not responding to the many particular objections he raised against my work in his original review, suggesting that this was the result of bewilderment on my part and intelligent design running out of steam and not, as was the case, for lack of space. This sort of rule-rigging by Orr and the Boston Review — give the respondent a little space, and then let the original author crow about winning — is to be expected. I actually find it encouraging, taking it as an indication of intelligent design’s progress. Orr’s review and follow-up hardly spell the death-knell for intelligent design or for my work in this area. Sooner or later (and probably sooner) Orr will find himself in a forum on intelligent design where the rules of engagement are not rigged in his favor. I look forward to his performance then.
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