Free Republic

There can be no doubt that we live in one of the most tumultuous political climates of the nation's history, a climate where politicians can be toppled on a whim, election results disputed in the country's highest courts, and governors unceremoniously recalled. It's enough to leave even the most cynical voter asking, how did this happen? Harry Thomason and Nickolas Perry's incendiary documentary, based on the best-selling book by Gene Lyons and Joe Conason, offers a glimpse at the genesis of these partisan vendettas and explores the myths and truths behind the nearly 10-year campaign to systematically destroy the political...

(Belated) congratulations to Senior Fellow David Berlinski for being included amongst the best science writers for 2002. David's article What Brings a World Into Being? from Commentary Magazine is included in Matt Ridley's The Best American Science Writing 2002. Congratulations David! David is author of the now historical The Deniable Darwin. His books include A Tour of the Calculus, The Advent of the Algorithm, and Newton's Gift. His new book, Secrets of the Vaulted Sky, is forthcoming from Harcourt later this year. From the publisher: If, as Matt Ridley suggests, science is simply the search for new forms of ignorance,...

In criticizing Phillip Johnson's "intelligent design creationism," Robert Pennock raises a particularly worrisome legal consequence of Johnson's view. According to Pennock, Johnson insists "that science admit the reality of supernatural influences in the daily workings of the world." But what if the same reasoning that Johnson is trying to import into science were adopted in Johnson's own area of specialization--the law (Johnson is a law professor at UC Berkeley)? Here's the concern as Pennock lays it out in Tower of Babel (p. 295): "For the law to take [Johnson's view] seriously as well, it would have to be open to...

The God Hypothesis: Discovering Design in our "Just Right" Goldilocks Universe by Michael A. Corey (Rowman & Littlefield, 256 pp., $27) GOD'S EXISTENCE is not required by the premises of quantum mechanics or general relativity, the great theories of twentieth-century physics --but then again, it is not contravened by their conclusions either. What else can we do but watch and wait? The agnostic straddle. It is hardly a posture calculated to set the blood racing. In the early 1970s Jacques Monod and Steven Weinberg thus declared themselves in favor of atheism, each man eager to communicate his discovery that the ...

"The Republicans don't have a clue how bad the economy is," a Democratic congressional aide told us one late October night, savoring the vision of a gavel in Dick Gephardt's hand. Then, slowly, he broke into a wide smile, like a happy hijacker dreaming of seventy succulent virgin interns awaiting him in paradise. Chiefly in the business of appraising enterprise and technology, we do not visit Washington often these days. But with deflation and depression now ravaging our domains, we decided to make an expedition to the source of the problem. During a week walking down those benighted corridors, we ...

They sit on the boards of the largest companies in America. Many sit on government committees. They make decisions that affect our lives. They rule. theyrule.orgo.org (requires Flash 5).

Tragedy purges the mind of trivia. Perhaps the horror of a new Black September can rescue our culture from its thrall of humorless TV Conditry. From gossip about the moral codes of mayors and actors. From the search for the combination to the loony bin of politicians and economists who believe in the lockbox for Social Security. Instead, we can focus on what is truly important: the glass ceiling facing millionairettes at Morgan Stanley. Having survived the vaporization of its 24-floor former World Trade Center offices, the Wall Street power now faces a second wave from the gender cops. Purged ...

Talking with your kids about money is tough. We've known parents who would rather explain to their four-year-olds why Bambi's mama isn't coming back than reveal how much money they make. And we think that's a shame. You may not owe your kids a car when they turn 16, you may not owe them a college education, you may not even owe them an allowance, but you do owe them an education in money. To get you started with your curriculum, here are 10 lessons about money that we think every child should learn before they start out on their ...

I. Since their inception in the 17th century, the modern sciences have been given over to a majestic vision: there is nothing in nature but atoms and the void. This is hardly a new thought, of course; in the ancient world, it received its most memorable expression in Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things. But it has been given contemporary resonance in theories--like general relativity and quantum mechanics--of terrifying (and inexplicable) power. If brought to a successful conclusion, the trajectory of this search would yield a single theory that would subsume all other theories and, in its scope and purity, ...

ID as a Theory of Technological Evolution William A. Dembski Metanexus August 10, 2001 1. Nature and Art In Book II of the Physics Aristotle remarks, “If the ship-building art were in the wood, it would produce the same results by nature.” Aristotle is here contrasting nature and art. Nature provides the raw materials (here wood); art provides the means for fashioning those materials (here into a ship). For Aristotle, art consists in the knowledge and skill to produce an object and presupposes the imposition of form on the object from outside. On the other hand, nature consists in capacities ...

"While Johnny and Jill may not be learning how to read, they are learning that: • Teachers are underpaid; • God is irrelevant; • Big business is ruining the environment; • The Bible says driving an SUV is a sin; • Rewards should be based on need rather than performance; • Bisexual individuals are under the command of unstable genes; • The Alamo was a great Mexican victory; • Society rather than the individual is responsible for crime; • Saving the sucker fish is more important than saving farmers; • Teachers' pay should be doubled; • A diversity of cultures ...

This is a meditation on the Marines' MV-22 Osprey, the crash-and-cost-and-scandal-plagued tilt-rotor aircraft that's rapidly emerging as a media target of opportunity and Pentagon candidate for cancellation. But the Osprey is about more than airlift. In a very real sense, it's a metaphor for America or, more precisely, what America seems to have become. Before getting into the details, a pair of thoughts whose very banality suggests that they have something important to tell us. First, every major project goes through three phases: It won't work, it'll cost too much, and I thought it was a good idea all ...

As the media toast to the Clinton years commences, we must remind them why the informed opposition will demur from clinking glasses. From the top, here are twenty-five good reasons, at least half of which could not only have gotten a Republican impeached but also convicted: 1. The transfer of missile technology to what Clinton once aptly called "the butchers of Beijing," either directly or indirectly for campaign cash. 2. The most notorious church burning of them all, Waco, and the destruction of its 80 good souls, more than 20 of them children, more than half of them minorities, for ...

If John Scopes were alive today, he might be arrested for speaking against evolution in a public school, rather than in favor of it. Scopes stood trial in Dayton, Tenn., 75 years ago this summer for using "Hunter's Civic Biology," a textbook containing a paragraph on Charles Darwin, in violation of a state law prohibiting the teaching of natural selection. The Tennessee law was embarrassingly wrong-headed. Evolution unquestionably occurs and is essential to understanding biology. But today the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction, with everyone from the Supreme Court to establishment media holding that students should hear only ...

Discovery Institute has called for an investigation into the funding behind the national pattern of riot-planning and accuses rioters of civil rights violations. Riots aimed at disrupting the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia are expected to be followed by still more serious disruptions in Los Angeles, but still there is no public effort to investigate. "The rioters pose a nation-wide conspiracy to break the law, " charged Bruce Chapman, Discovery’s president and a former US Ambassador to the UN Organizations in Vienna. Discovery Institute is a national think-tank, headquartered in Seattle, WA. "Many delegates to conferences and conventions, and ...

November 2nd - 4th, 2000 Yale University New Haven, Conn. Researchers across a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines are discovering fresh evidence that the universe and life bear the marks of intelligent design.The purpose of this conference is to present these findings and to assess their significance. Keynote speakers will locate Intelligent Design theory in the context of a variety of contemporary debates in the hard sciences, mathematics,and philosophy of science. Breakout sessions will explore evidence for design within particular disciplines.

The heaviest element known to science was recently discovered by investigators at a major U.S. research university. The element, tentatively named Administratium, has no protons or electrons and thus has an atomic number of 0. However, it does have 1 neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice neutrons, and 111 assistant vice neutrons. This gives it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force that involves the continuous exchange of meson-like particles called morons. It is also surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since it has no electrons, Administratium is inert. However, ...

"Republicans bring out Colin Powell and J.C. Watts because they have no program, no policy. They have no love and no joy. They'd rather take pictures with black children than feed them." --Ms. Donna Brazile, the black lesbian manager of Al Gore's "family values" campaign 2000. Translation: "Whitey brings out Colin Powell and J.C. Watts because they have no program, no policy. They have no love and no joy. They'd rather take pictures with black children than feed them." Of course, there is an unspoken rule that abject bigotry is not really bigotry when the offending comment originates with a ...

"It is essential for Congress to take a stand against bigotry and do all we can to end these modern-day lynchings that continue to occur in communities across the country." --Ted Kennedy It was only a few years back, when Bill Clinton, waxing long about the bogus epidemic of racially motivated church burnings, reminisced that as a lad he witnessed "race-based" arsons in his hometown. Problem is, there were no such arsons in or around his hometown. Actually, only a few racially motivated arsons occur nationwide each year -- unless, of course, the air is full of political "race card" ...

SECOND OPINION: THE FEDERALISTS REVISITED, PART II In The Federalists Revisited, Part I, we focused on the Federalist Papers and their exposition on the constitutional limitations of the judiciary -- specifically, that the notion of interpreting the "spirit" of the document was expressly condemned by the Founders. In Part II, we focus on the executive branch and its broad violation of "original intent." Sociocrats, under the leadership of Bill Clinton, have aggressively sought to undermine the limitations the Constitution places on the federal government. Mr. Clinton and his administration, more than any previous executive branch, have deliberately endeavored to redefine ...