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Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5

Partisan Politics Needed in New County Government

Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5
THE King County Council is about to recommend to the voters that they merge the county government with Metro and make the expanded government "nonpartisan." Bowing to nonpartisan municipal officials, an apparent council majority thinks that ending the role of parties in the county will improve the political process. Nonpartisan politics makes sense in a small constituency where the voters may be able to keep track of a few candidates, or in narrow-purpose entities such as the port. Even the City of Seattle, at about 500,000 population and growing very slowly, is still more or less comprehensible for voters and elected officials alike. In King County we are so far from a party-machine system that our two dedicated, but avocational, party chairs have to plead with folks to become precinct committeepeople. They have few inducements to offer in a system with almost no patronage and little recognition. Now the parties stand to lose even their present role in recruiting and sponsoring regional candidates. Read More ›
Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
8

It’s Ba-ack! National Service 1989 — Put Brakes on the Omnibus

Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
8

Wall Street Journal; New York; Oct 16, 1989; By ; Edition: Eastern edition Start Page: 1 ISSN: 00999660 Abstract: Why does the national-service virus keep coming back? Perhaps it is because utopian nostalgia evokes both military experience and the social gospel. If only we could get America’s wastrel youth into at least a psychic uniform we might be able to Read More ›

Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5

Is the U.S. Ready For European Political Integration?

Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5
If economic integration in Europe is still a novel topic for most Americans, however, political integration in Europe is truly terra incognita. Political union is the aim of the European Community, and one that many EC leaders are eager to hurry along after 1992. But the implications of a full political union have not been studied in detail by the United States, they are certain to impinge upon our NATO defense alliance, the West's role in encouraging liberalization in Eastern Europe, and chances for a military understanding with the Soviets. Political union, Western leaders would agree, must not proceed in a way that damages present defense unity. Should the Soviets think that the North Americans could be decoupled from their European partners, the domestic Soviet rationale for accommodation with the West (``If you can't beat 'em, join 'em'') would be undermined. -- One source of trouble will be neutralism. The European Community includes neutral Ireland, although the Irish are a long way from the Iron Curtain and no one minds their neutrality much, including the Irish. Read More ›
Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
4

The Adoption Option Needs Sound Nourishment From Bush

Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
4
EVEN if the Supreme Court does not change Roe vs. Wade in some way that greatly decreases the number of abortions performed, America faces a rising number of out-of-wedlock births. They are now nearing 900,000 a year - one out of four births in our country. Meanwhile, more than 300,000 children are cycled through foster-care homes, some for their whole childhood. But adoption, the policy, is an orphan, relatively unfunded and poorly advertised. In the Reagan administration, the president sincerely supported adoption, calling it ``the forgotten option.'' Among those forgetting it, however, were key White House aides and most officials at the Department of Health and Human Services. They believed, cynically, that adoption and the abortion issue were synonymous in people's minds, and that such issues should not be raised, except when unavoidable. Adoption and abortion, indeed, are connected subjects, but they also are separable. Adoption has its own history, identity and claims. Those who are ``pro-choice'' certainly should encourage the choice of adoption, especially in light of the huge number of out-of-wedlock births that have developed, even after the Roe vs. Wade decision. ``Pro-life'' people should take responsibility for the children who result when abortion is averted. Adoption alone cannot solve the whole problem, of course, but it can help. Read More ›
Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
8

Happy Birthmother’s Day

Bruce Chapman
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
8

Wall Street Journal; New York; May 10, 1985; By ; Edition: Eastern edition Start Page: 1 ISSN: 00999660 Abstract: But you could not bring yourself to abort your baby. And it also became clear to you that you were in no position to raise a child alone. My wife and I know from the adoption agency that you quit school Read More ›

Philip Gold
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5

Does it Have to be Europe versus NATO?

Philip Gold
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5

It’s an experience we’ve all had in our private relationships and affairs. The incident, the argument, not too important in itself, that tells us there may be deeper problems here. Most often, we back away. Don’t go there – at least, not yet. It’s happening now between the United States and Europe. There’s been a nasty snit and counter-snit over Read More ›

Philip Gold
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5

Beyond Acronyms

Philip Gold
June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5

Whatever happened to Europe? The question sounds ridiculous. It’s not. Ever since the USSR folded, and the Balkan mess notwithstanding, Europe’s centrality to American security and prosperity has slowly faded from public consciousness. Indeed, much of what passes for general European reportage nowadays seems little more than a shallow mix of Schadenfreude and bemusement – tales of falling Euros and Read More ›

June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5

It’s perilous to ponder the design of the universe

June 1, 1998
Uncategorized
5

Professor William A. Dembski, 40, does not show his face at Baylor University in Waco, Tex., all that often anymore. “That’s a very hostile environment over there,” he told United Press International. “I go to the library and use the athletic facilities, but I work from home.” Baylor calls itself the world’s largest Baptist university with 18,000 students. So why Read More ›

Mark Hartwig
June 1, 1998
Intelligent Design
5

Evolution Theater

Mark Hartwig
June 1, 1998
Intelligent Design
5

One thing I love about the creation/evolution controversy is that it provides no end of amusement.Take the summer of 1999 for example. When the Kansas state board of education voted to de-emphasize the more speculative aspects of evolution in the state science standards, folks went wild. In a broadside published in Time, Harvard paleontologist and science writer Stephen Jay Gould Read More ›