CNBC's Kudlow & Co has George Gilder on tonight from 7pm-8pm ET for a full hour as the featured guest. It's part of the roll-out of Knowledge and Power.
Meanwhile, Steve Meyer is on after 3 p.m. ET on the Dennis Miller Show.
Dennis Prager is in for it now.
He has a fine column at National Review on intelligent design and why many scientists now accept its validity (though not as many as see the increasing flimsiness of Darwinian theory).
As usual, however, some of the comments are telling. Darwinists apparently can't abandon a silly argument, even when it is refuted again and again. And they often propose it as if the thought was brilliantly original to them. Thus we have the assertion that design can't be true, because (drum roll, please) what kind of designer would be so incompetent that he would create a world where little babies die, animals eat other alive, and my back gives me pain?
It's being called "a game changer" in the debate over Darwinian evolution. And the pre-publication campaign has been so successful that Steve Meyer's book already is "Number One" at Barnes and Noble. The official pub date is tomorrow.
In the way a healthy economy works, the scientific case against Darwinism and for intelligent design has built slowly, but surely. Darwin's Doubt is the most comprehensive and in many ways the best researched treatment of the subject and one that actually will change minds rather than simply appealing to those already decided. This is a tour de force.
Continue reading "Eve of Publication Success for Darwin's Doubt" »
The "fourth criterion" for tenure should be "collegiality", according to a current stream of university thinking. (The first three are said to be "research, teaching and service.")
We are supposed to want "productive dissent," and the key word that must be interpreted, of course, is "productive." Who decides? A scientific critic of Darwin's theory in the biology department is, by definition, an unproductive dissenter. An advocate of free market economics in most universities does not add the stimulus of intellectual diversity, you see, but instead threatens "unproductive" dissent.
Continue reading "How to Purge Faculties of Real Diversity" »
Fifteen years ago Discovery Institute and its fellows were part of the national debate over regulation of telecommunications. The pro-regulation crowd thought the government was needed to spread the new benefits of broadband. But here has what has happened in just the past few years (hat tip to C. L. Hoewing of Verizon):
THE STATE OF BROADBAND BY THE NUMBERS
*In the year 2000, 4.4% of American households had a home connection to broadband; by 2010 that number had jumped to 68%.
*Broadband networks at a baseline speed of >10 megabits per second now reach more than 94% of U.S. homes.
*Overall, average delivered broadband speeds have doubled since 2009. In 2012, North America's average mobile data connection speed was 2.6 Mbps, the fastest in the world, nearly twice that available in Western Europe, and over five times the global average.
Claire Berlinski has a personal report on Taksim Square in the new Spectator (U.K.)
People, she points out, have asked if Prime Minister Erdogan, by personally directing the water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas, is "trying to start a civil war." When Erdogan left the country, things quieted down. When he returned, back came the riot police.Oddly, he seems to have divided his own party and united his diverse and normally non-coopeerative opposition.
Some meetings are being held at last.
But Americans are especially anxious on the diplomatic front as the USG starts to move toward sanctions (favored by Turkey) against Syria.
George Gilder received notice today from Mark Skousen, noted libertarian leader and organizer of the 1800 member Freedomfest that is held in Las Vegas each July:
"I'm happy to announce that you have won the Leonard E. Read Book Award for 2013 for your breakthrough work 'Knowledge and Power.' This award is given yearly at FreedomFest for the outstanding libertarian book of the year. Congratulations!
"We will present the award at this year's FreedomFest (time to be announced) in front of the entire audience, and encourage attendees to go to your session on Saturday when you will be discussing it, followed by an autograph session."
Leonard E. Read was famous, among other things, for the great essay in economics, "I, Pencil", on the genius of collaborative free enterprise worldwide--the kind of unforced cooperation that lets hundreds of groups and thousands of people produce everything, from a pencil on..
It's very appropriate, given Knowledge and Power's new and unique explanation of the nature of creativity.
The NSA controversy has some people in both parties understandably worried that the Government has over-reached. However, it is likely that we will find that the NSA's broad sweep of data is far safer for civil liberties--and for national security--than the alternative means that might be needed if the NSA were not on the job.
Regardless, we are in danger of the NSA imbroglio distracting us from more imminent and damaging domestic intrusions on citizen privacy. Do you remember when the President after the 2010 elections--and the return of a Republican House--let it be known that he would effect his will through administrative means, rather than relying on legislation? In agency after agency that is transpiring in ways that endanger liberty.
Continue reading "Regulatory State Morphs into Snooping State" »
There are variations in the prayers for the Church that are part of the Catholic Mass. In some parishes the priest asks for prayers for the pope (Pope Francis now), the local bishop and all clergy and religious. In others, retired bishops are mentioned by name. But apparently it is rare to hear prayers offered for the "retired Pope, Benedict XVI".
Perhaps it is because there is no liturgical experience for having a "retired pope".
But prayers might now be in order. Pope Benedict XVI, who is living in the Vatican complex, is reportedly in failing health, still fit in mind, but greatly deteriorated in body.
Richard Viguerie, famous for, among other things, the innovation of direct mail campaign fundraising , is also a public intellectual of perpetual energy and enthusiasm. In today's New York Times, which I will link through the Viguerie site, Conservative Hq, Viguerie makes the case for prison reform with arguments that appeal especially to conservatives: "Public safety, compassion and controlled government spending."
Lowering recidivism rates saves money, obviously. It also saves lives. It's true that locking up bad guys lowers crime rates. But it also bothers the Christian conscience that we have such a huge prison population--especially if we have available common sense reforms that will lower both the crime rate and the number of people in prison. Viguerie's article points out that Texas developed such a program and put it into practice in 2007. The plan is saving money and cutting parole failures.
