Public policy

jon-tyson-FlHdnPO6dlw-unsplash
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash.

Dreading the Coming Gloom? Blame Congress For Not Making Daylight Saving Time Permanent

It’s already too late to fix the clock this year. Congress has failed to pass legislation to allow states to stay on permanent daylight saving time. On Nov. 3, we return to tiresome old Standard Time. Some people like that, but most don’t. Last spring the cause of permanent daylight saving time seemed bright. State after state asked Congress for permission to enact the change. California voters in a November, 2018, referendum supported it 60% to 40%. Floridians, led by Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and House Rep. Vern Buchanan, were enthusiastic. Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Patty Murray of Washington joined Rubio to co-sponsor the Sunshine Protection Act of 2019. “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!” tweeted President Donald Trump. Read More ›
Homeless-on-Bench

The Politics of Ruinous Compassion

Abstract: The City of Seattle has failed to address its current homelessness crisis. In fact, because of ideological capture and poor public policy, the city has created a system of perverse incentives that has only made the problem worse. In order to truly confront the problem of homelessness, the city’s leadership must embrace a policy of realism: dismantle the system of perverse incentives, quickly build emergency shelter, and enforce the law against public camping and drug use. Ultimately, the city currently has enough resources to solve the crisis—it needs to summon the political courage to make the right choices. Read More ›

Bioethics in the Age of Trump

Ever since his unexpected victory, the media have been obsessing over what a Donald Trump presidency will mean for a range of important issues, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change, border enforcement, the judiciary, and Obamacare repeal. But one set of crucial concerns — those that go under the general category of bioethics/biotechnology — has received woefully short Read More ›

Time to End Stem Cell Institute

Hubris: No better word describes the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine’s plan to persuade Californians to borrow another $3 billion to keep it in business funding stem cell research. The CIRM was created in 2004 in the wake of President George W. Bush’s order restricting federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Knowing that many Californians perceived themselves as “the Read More ›

Author Critiques Darwin’s ‘Terrible Ideas’

This article, published by the Florida Baptist Witness, quotes Discovery Institute Senior Fellow John West: John West, author of “Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science,” lectured on his book and the idea of Darwin Day at the Family Research Council Feb. 12. The rest of the article can be Read More ›

Death on Demand

Should laws against assisted suicide be rescinded as “paternalistic?” Should assisted suicide be transformed from what is now a crime (in most places) into a sacred “right to die”? Should assisted suicide be redefined from a form of homicide into a legitimate “medical treatment” readily available to all persistently suffering people, including to the mentally ill? According to Brown University Read More ›

Trouble in Political Paradise

When House Speaker Tom Foley and his GOP challenger George Nethercutt debate next week at the Gonzaga University Law School more than just Spokane will be watching-and with good reason. CPAN’s decision to carry the debate nationwide reflects a growing sense that something almost cataclysmic is happening across the American political landscape from Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts to Tom Foley’s Eastern Read More ›

Bush, Mulroney Should Embrace Thatcher

Just six months ago on the eve of her 10th anniversary in office British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher seemed invincible. Today she looks politically vulnerable and there is something that Mr. Bush and Mr. Mulroney of Canada could — and should — do to help. Mrs. Thatcher’s political isolation has come about in part because of her dispute with European Read More ›