A View from the Right Science, POLITICS, & Religion

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” — Thomas Jefferson Why is it that so many people fail to see the dangers in giving increasing power & authority to the government, of becoming more & more dependent upon it for our livelihoods and well-being? Can’t they see how this […]

Came across these yesterday and decided it was time for a light-hearted post: “I’m not the only taxpayer who has no idea what he’s sending to the IRS. This year, only 28 percent of all Americans will prepare their own tax returns, according to a voice in my head that invents accurate-sounding statistics.” “Here’s my […]

Today, I continue what could be called “My Conversation with Michael the Heathen Gnostic.” As Michael and I traded comments about the Gospel of Thomas (among other issues), the issue came up of which were/was likely written earlier — those manuscripts that became the four Gospels in the Bible OR the Gospel of Thomas (GTh). […]

This is the continuation of a post that I pieced together from a forum discussion I had with a religious skeptic named Michael, but who gave himself the handle “Heathen Gnostic”. This particular thread has to do broadly with historical manuscripts and the canon of the Bible and more specifically with the Gnostic “gospels”. (I […]

Some time ago, I had an interesting discussion with a guy on a (marketing) forum about various aspects of Biblical reliability & canonicity, testing historical manuscripts, corruption in “The Church”, differences between major Christian branches, etc. It ran quite the gamut, with several threads going at once. At some point, I decided to start copying […]

Normally, when a conservative such as I mentions healthcare in the UK, it is to decry the largely socialist nature of their system — complete with reports of people waiting for years to get treatment or surgery, plus the occasional horror story from the news of people literally dying of neglect in their hospital beds […]

The “Celtic Tiger”. Until recently, the Emerald Isle was enjoying tremendous economic success, due to dramatic fiscal policy reform. First, they put a cap on government spending in the late 1980s, then reduced tax rates during the 1990s. Hugely important was the reduction in the corporate tax rate from 50 percent down to 12.5 percent. […]

One-third of American fourth-graders are functionally illiterate. Read that again. That’s 33%! These are the findings of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Not surprisingly, other studies have shown that students who cannot read but are still promoted to the next grade — something that happens all too often — will continue to fall […]

Just days after being sworn in as the new governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley has already found himself in a bit of hot water for something he said. In a speech at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church’s service honoring MLK, Jr., Bentley declared, “Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their […]

And, now for some good news…. Last post, I started off my “BP Oil Spill Aftermath” report by citing the harsh realities facing local economies along the Gulf Coast. I then focused on the prevalent delays in oil drilling, despite Obama’s having lifted his ban against deep-water projects. One thing I did not discuss, however, […]