My review of Yuval Levin’s excellent and thought-provoking book, Imagining the Future: Science and American Democracy , is up now at First Principles. Yuval’s closing exhortation to conservatives, to write more clearly, probingly, and persuasively about human dignity, is problematic, . . . . Continue Reading »
My rabid pro-Leibniz partisanship notwithstanding, I have to give kudos to Thomas Levenson for his article on the faith of Isaac Newton over at Killing the Buddha. The article closes with a somber reminder: Hence the pathos, the danger that I think Newton himself glimpsed. There is a serious . . . . Continue Reading »
Maybe. On the other (wrung) hand, the concept of safety itself depends on, and derives from, one’s ethics. Oops. Please chime in, “usual cabal of bioconservatives.” . . . . Continue Reading »
Well it seems like Ivan can relax , Michael Peroski has just solved all of our problems : Proceeding from ideology-driven inquiry entails starting from an answer: “Research on human embryonic stem cell should be forbidden because embryos are equivalent to human lives” and working . . . . Continue Reading »
On Morning Joe a few minutes ago, Pat Buchanan described the fear behind the death panel debate as the fear that old people without anyone around who loves them will be steered in their final years toward elective euthanasia. Surely the steering power of a government authorized to command and . . . . Continue Reading »
Every big idea that works is marked by simplicity, by clarity. You can understand it when you hear it, and you can explain it to people. Social Security: Retired workers receive a public pension to help them through old age. Medicare: People over 65 can receive taxpayer-funded health care. Welfare: . . . . Continue Reading »
Cards on the table, since those who dare even to broach this subject are inevitably subjected to name-calling. The ” collapsing consensus ” notwithstanding, I’m among those who believe that the earth is getting warmer, that human beings probably have something to do with it, and . . . . Continue Reading »
Megan , who’s started a dialogue with Ellen Ruppel Shell (author of the new book Cheap ), has some ruminations on the infamous maker of shelves with short shelf lives. Lots to digest, including some deee-lightful ancedotes from the bad old days of furniture so durable you seemed to be stuck . . . . Continue Reading »
Noted Neuro-Buddhist Sam Harris has this to say about the President’s choice to head the NIH: Dr. Collins has written that “science offers no answers to the most pressing questions of human existence” and that “the claims of atheistic materialism must be steadfastly . . . . Continue Reading »
Thanks to Alan Jacobs , I have read the latest excerpt from The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs . “I will restore your sense of childlike wonder,” he vows. “There is nothing you can do to stop me.” Hold that thought. The excerpt in question reads thus: Did you know that now, . . . . Continue Reading »
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