Orthodox Editors

The Law of Intended Consequences

RealClearPolitics | Robert Tracinski | May. 8, 2008

In recent weeks, Congress has been furiously backtracking on ethanol, with Democrats considering legislation that would freeze ethanol subsidies and mandates at their current level, while Republicans are talking about rolling back the whole system. The buzzword on Capitol Hill is that government supports for ethanol in gasoline have led to “unintended consequences”: a cruel tradeoff of food for fuel that has contributed to a global increase in food prices.

This recognition of the so-called Law of Unintended Consequences–coming from the mouths of everyone from Republican Representative Jeff Flake to Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer–might seem like a good thing, like an overdue expression of skepticism about the wisdom of government intervention in a free economy. The problem is that “unintended consequences” are being invoked in this case by people who have never before expressed such skepticism about the power of government–and who are not likely to do so again. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

The Great Global Warming Race

FrontPageMag | Steven Milloy | May. 7, 2008

Can global warming’s vested interests close the deal on greenhouse gas regulation before the public wises up to their scam?

A new study indicates alarmist concern and a need to explain away the lack of actual global warming. Researchers belonging to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, reported in Nature (May 1) that after adjusting their climate model to reflect actual sea surface temperatures of the last 50 years, “global surface temperature may not increase over the next decade, as natural climate variations … temporarily offset the projected anthropogenic warming.” [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Michael Moore, Frank Rich, Jeremiah Wright and John Hagee

Townhall | Dennis Prager | May. 6, 2008

It is with no pleasure that I put in writing what I have long believed: Though many individual liberals have only goodwill toward black Americans, the liberal world since the late 1960s (i.e., after the major civil rights legislation of the mid-1960s) has done incalculable damage to black America and to race relations in this country. Whether out of guilt or because of its own racist views (i.e., the unspoken but regularly implied belief in the inferiority of African-Americans), the left-of-center’s general attitude toward black Americans has been that they cannot be judged by the same standards as others.

From lowering standards of admission to universities to blaming the high number of black men in prison for violent crimes on white racism to decades of cultivating black victimhood and the subsequent Wright-like rage against America, liberals and their party, the Democrats, have immeasurably hurt African-Americans and America. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Pope Benedict, Logos, Chaos, and Freedom

American Thinker | Andrew Walden | May. 3, 2008

Speaking at the White House, Pope Benedict XVI April 16 embraced America’s “quest for freedom….” Benedict explained: “Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience – almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad.”

Today, as in the Civil War, Logos is on the side of freedom. And in spite of the secular media effort to obfuscate, Benedict’s message couldn’t be clearer: Logos rises to defend against the secular call for submission to the Chaos unleashed by Islam. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Darwin and Hitler: In Their Own Words

Human Events | Benjamin Wiker | May. 5, 2008

As David Berlinski recently noted, “the thesis that there is a connection between Darwin and Hitler is widely considered a profanation.” But striking an indignant pose — feathers in full ruffle — is not an answer to such a serious charge, especially when the words of both Darwin and Hitler speak otherwise.

Those defending Darwin cannot have read his Descent of Man, wherein he applies the principles of natural selection to human beings — a thing he prudently avoided in his earlier Origin of Species. In the Descent, the eugenic and racial inferences are clearly and startlingly drawn by Darwin himself. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Be Happy: The American Refusal to Deal with Suffering

American Thinker | Jude Acosta | May. 3, 2008

God bless America. I mean that with all sincerity. We are a nation of hopefuls and always have been. We march on Washington. We cure diseases that have wracked humanity for eons. We break records and run faster-than-four-minute miles. We split atoms and conquer space. We manifest our destinies and defy the presence of gorges, rivers, and mountains that threaten to block our collective will. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Globe may be cooling on Global Warming

ScrippsNews | Deroy Murdock | May. 1, 2008

Australia, the land where sinks drain the other way, has alerted Americans that we see Earth’s climate upside down: We’re not warming. We’re cooling.

“Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.” Dr. Phil Chapman wrote in The Australian on April 23. “All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead.” [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

More Carbon Dioxide, Please

NRO | Roy Spencer | May. 1, 2008

There seems to be an unwritten assumption among environmentalists — and among the media — that any influence humans have on nature is, by definition, bad. I even see it in scientific papers written by climate researchers. For instance, if we can measure some minute amount of a trace gas in the atmosphere at the South Pole, well removed from its human source, we are astonished at the far-reaching effects of mankind’s “pollution.”

But if nature was left undisturbed, would it be any happier and more peaceful? Would the carnivores stop eating those poor, defenseless herbivores, as well as each other? Would fish and other kinds of sea life stop infringing on the rights of others by feasting on them? Would there be no more droughts, hurricanes, floods, heat waves, tornadoes, or glaciers flowing toward the sea? [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail