If you had told me back in, say, 2003, that biotechnology would not be an incendiary subject of political and cultural controversy in 2017, I would have thought you lived in an alternate universe. Those were the days of the great embryonic stem cell (ESCR) debate, during which President George W. Bush and pro-lifers were angrily accused by scientists in Read More ›
Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer popularized “speciesism,” a derogatory term for the belief that it is acceptable to treat humans differently from animals based solely on species membership. Singer identified this idea as a form of discrimination, as odious as racism and sexism. Speciesism is universally condemned within the animal rights movement (as distinguished from animal welfare advocacy), which holds, in Read More ›
The U.S. has reached its lowest ranking ever in the Index of Economic Freedom, produced annually by the Heritage Foundation. The U.S. spent years in the top 10, but has been declining for years, and is now at number 17. Hong Kong maintains the top spot, although the city-state is officially part of the Peoples’ Republic of China. Other countries Read More ›
On February 14th, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) gave the American people a big, beautiful Valentine by introducing legislation to abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). “Don’t let the name fool you,” said Senator Cruz in the press release announcing the effort. “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does little to protect consumers. During the Obama Read More ›
I was born at the French Hospital, City of Los Angeles, State of California, in 1949. As of this writing, I have never been outside my native state for more than three weeks. That’s about to change. Last week, I moved from California to the Washington, D.C. area after my wife accepted a journalism job there. The situation should last Read More ›
On day one President Trump surprised business leaders gathered at the White House, declaring U.S. regulations “out of control” and “in need of 75% or more reduction.” A week later, he boldly signed an executive order requiring repeal of two old rules for every new one that government agencies implement. The fact is that cutting regulations is as critical as Read More ›
World trade in goods and services has morphed into a gigantic manipulative carnival of currency trading. This needs to change. Folks, we have a consensus here. Formidable thinkers such as Paul Krugman, Larry Summers, and David Stockman, some 370 economists including 19 Nobel Laureates, and editors at the Economist, Fortune, and Barron’s all believe that Donald Trump as president is Read More ›
There has been much handwringing about the news that scientists injected human stem cells into pig embryos, creating a mostly-pig-but-a-little-bit-human chimera. Some have expressed fears that these experiments constitute a first step toward a hybrid species with human intellectual capacities, like that in H. G. Wells’s horrific Island of Doctor Moreau. Given our neurological complexity, it is highly unlikely that reputable scientists will Read More ›
The late, great Nat Hentoff befriended me during the 1990s, I don’t remember exactly when. Having read my work against euthanasia, he reached out to me for an interview for one of his columns. That initial professional interaction bloomed into a good friendship, mostly conducted over the phone, but also in person over meals whenever I was able to get Read More ›
Assisted Suicide: Last year, Colorado voters and the Washington, D.C. City Council legalized physician-assisted suicide. Ohio, by contrast, passed a law making assisted suicide a felony, no matter who does the helping, and attempts to legalize doctor-prescribed death in about half the states failed. Expect advocates across the country—funded in the abundant millions by George Soros—to push legalization again, with the Read More ›