Winter 2006 New Discoveries Discovery Responds to Dover Ruling In the wake of a federal district judge’s ruling against intelligent design in Dover, Pennsylvania, Discovery Institute scientists and legal experts are preparing a number of responses to submit to science publications and law reviews. CSC Associate Discovery President Bruce Chapman Director Dr. John West has published a four-part series Senior Fellow Stephen Meyer (right) and National Center for on NBC Nightly News titled “Dover in Review,” which is available on Discovery’s Science Education Executive Director homepage (www.discovery.org). Members will also have access Eugenie C. Scott (left) on MSNBC to Discovery’s detailed legal analysis of the ruling by Senior Fellow and Gonzaga University Law School professor David DeWolf and attorney Casey Luskin, our Program Offi cer for Public Policy and Legal Affairs. The title of the analysis is “Understanding Kitzmiller: A Response of the Discovery Institute to Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.” Additionally, Senior Fellow and biochemist Dr. Michael Behe has refuted the judge’s assertions that intelligent design is “not science.” As the issue shows no sign of letting up, neither will our fellows slow down in responding in detail. Be sure to visit our website where we regularly publish their papers, essays and op-eds. Assisted Suicide, in Courts and Culture Reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on Oregon’s Assisted Suicide law included dozens of requests for interviews from Discovery Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith. His analysis: it is not as sweeping a victory for the Right to Die side as the media have made out. It’s a narrow ruling. How it is used in politics is another matter. Ambassador John Miller featured on the cover of Pacifi c Northwest Magazine. The former The Growing (Infrastructure) Defi cit congressman spoke before a Discovery audience in July on his present work Defi cits make for great newspaper headlines: “U.S. Trade Defi cit combatting the international slave trade. Continues to Grow” or “Greenspan Warns About Federal –page 10 Budget Defi cit.” Yet one defi cit—perhaps equal to the others in its impact on our economic health and future prosperity—is often minimized or overlooked. It is that of our national and regional Moore’s Law, Kurzweil and Telecosm Stocks—4 infrastructure, from energy to transportation. Discovery’s Cascadia Center has long recognized this growing challenge Leaders Must Act Now to Avoid Severe Regional Crisis—5 and has built a reputation for offering bold, long-term solutions. Eradicating European Flu—6 As a result, the Puget Sound Business Journal invited Cascadia to produce a six-part series on the regional infrastructure defi cit. Brace for the UN Tax Man—7 The articles—spanning the coming energy crunch, the dying Viaduct: A Tunnel’s the Best Choice—8 federal role in transportation infrastructure, and the barriers to further development of broadband—appeared in the Journal on a It’s Over in Dover, But Not for Intelligent Design—9 biweekly basis from November through January. The fi nal article Discovery Events—10 and 11 will appear on January 27. It’s Clear: Plan Today for Water Tomorrow—12 Discovery’s Expanded D.C. Presence Paradigm Shift for the Nation on Transportation—13 In September, Discovery celebrated the fi rst anniversary of the Advances in Biological Science Raise Troubling Questions opening of its Washington, D.C. offi ce. The offi ce has given About What It Means to Be Human—14 Discovery a stronger voice “inside the beltway” and has afforded Judging Darwin and God—16 us improved access to decision makers in policy and media Holy Rights: Church and state and the Bush justice—17

More Discoveries on page 2 INSIDE President’s Letter Alternate Realities: Which Is Yours?

evidence both for and against Darwin’s Some jobs are going overseas, but theory. “Intelligent design,” we are many more are created here. If the middle was the best of times, it warned by university presidents and a class is shrinking, it is because the upper- was the worst of times.” federal judge in central Pennsylvania, is middle class is absorbing many of them Trite, and occasionally a poisonous religious doctrine without up. Infl ation, not the economy, is stagnant. true. But not true now. scientifi c merit. An outfi t called Unemployment is so low it invites media Depending on the Discovery Institute is trying to force-feed scare headlines about labor shortages. reality“It you inhabit, it is either the best of it to the schools of the land. (If the “not Home ownership is up to almost 70 times or the worst of times. You have to science” argument doesn’t persuade, try percent, a near record. Crime is down to take your pick. E.O. Wilson’s contention that ID may be early ‘60s levels, drug use among teens is As a history of the day, the major science, but it is wrong. Either way: no ID down, abortion rates are down, and at least news media would have you think that allowed.) some scholastic scores are up. the most important issue in America If that is your reality, MoveOn.org Overseas, the American military in early 2006 is the extent to which has a place for you to send money and not only has brought democracy to civil liberties have been violated by the Hollywood has several paranoid movies Afghanistan and Iraq, but also quieted National Security Agency spying on for you to see as they head toward assured the ambitions of Libya, and stimulated American citizens suspected of terrorism. Oscars. Syria to depart Lebanon. Elections are The media Left would have you see as a Now, welcome to our reality. Two being held in many parts of the region for backdrop to this supposedly sinister threat, meetings with entrepreneurs recently the fi rst time, and while Islamic parties a military quagmire in Iraq where they revealed to me an economy that is win many of them, most winners are far think that, at best, we will have replaced even more robust and certainly better more reasonable Islamists than those Saddam Hussein, a fanatical secularist grounded than in the ‘90s boom days. of Iran or even of the Saudi Arabia of tyrant, with fanatical tyrannical Islamic In this reality (say these entrepreneurs) recent memory. No progress like this has fundamentalists. Our costly invasion was the greatest dangers we face are 1) that been seen in the region before. It was in vain, unwarranted and deceitful. In American leaders—though successful not predicted or especially desired by the Israel, it is implied, the Israelis are always so far—will fail to apprehend serious alarmist Left in this country, let alone ultimately responsible for attacks on their terrorists and that those terrorists will do Europe. civilian citizens. horrifi c damage to a great American city Just as Ronald Reagan, during most At home the economy is teetering, (gosh, someone should tell the NSA), of his tenure, suffered international jobs are fl eeing overseas, the middle class and, 2) more imminent, that the media- derision for his “cowboy” Cold War is shrinking, and runaway government battered American Congress will fail to foreign policy, so, too, has Bush in the spending (on defense, it turns out) extend the 2001 tax cuts. The reduced fi ght against terrorism. But, as with the portends rampant infl ation in the future. tax rates, entrepreneurs know, are largely visionary Reagan then, so, too, under the In the culture, far right fanatics are responsible for the huge supply-side visionary Bush, U.S. relations have fi nally trying to impose their values—impose revenue infl ux that is outpacing even the improved in most of Europe and Canada, a theocracy, if given a chance—and the grotesque overspending by Congress (on while our military’s humanitarian relief instrument of choice right now is their general government, not defense), so the demand that evolution be taught with defi cit is being reduced as a result. President’s Letter, continued on 19

New Discoveries, continued from front over intelligent design—the need to August 19 article in The Washington Post protect academic freedom, particularly on and in November on National Public circles. Helping us celebrate on September college campuses. Our opponents, having Radio’s All Things Considered. Both 21 were members of the Discovery board abandoned the hope of limiting public described the persecution of Dr. Richard and a few luminaries, including Senator debate on the issue, have now turned Sternberg, an evolutionary biologist with Rick Santorum, Representative Tom their attention to quashing opportunities the Smithsonian Institute. A number of Petri and Ambassador John Miller. The for students to hear pro-ID arguments. An Discovery’s own fellows—including daylong event—aptly named “Discovery unanticipated result is a growing network Guillermo Gonzalez, an astronomy Day”—began with our fi rst-ever D.C. of student-sponsored organizations called professor at Iowa State University and board meeting, and later featured a IDEA (Intelligent Design and Evolution Scott Minnich, an associate professor of number of Discovery fellows, friends Awareness) clubs that bring speakers from microbiology at the University of Idaho— and staff speaking on topics ranging both sides of the issue together for collegial have also faced recriminations for their from transportation to technology. John debates. research on intelligent design theory. Wohlstetter also entertained us at his Of greater concern, however, is beautiful Watergate condo overlooking the the treatment of scientists and college Gorton Seminar on Public Policy Potomac. Given the success of the event, it faculty—including graduate students will likely be an annual autumn affair. and professors—who conduct intelligent This past summer, at the suggestion of design research, “teach the controversy” Discovery board member Mariana Parks, Fighting for Academic Freedom about Darwin’s theory, or even think ID the Institute launched an exciting new thoughts. The discrimination issue has lecture series aimed at college students We have entered a new front in the debate gained national attention, fi rst with an New Discoveries, continued on next page Winter 2006 2 Discovery Institute Views More Discoveries ... Continued from previous page and young professionals. The Gorton Pacifi c Lutheran University. Former Events An Unexpected Papal Blessing Seminars honor former U.S. Senator and Director Rachel Krauskopf, moved with Discovery board member Slade Gorton her husband to London, England. She is Pope Benedict XVI gave a surprise boost and features lectures on politics and the replaced by Annelise Davis, who is also, to intelligent design when he mentioned it importance of public service. Lectures this coincidentally, the daughter of former board at the end of a recent Wednesday audience year included Senator Gorton, Discovery member Fred Weiss. Our former Program at the Vatican. With Christoph Cardinal Institute President Bruce Chapman and Offi cer for Legal Affairs, Seth Cooper, left Schonborn of Vienna seated nearby, the Ambassador John Miller. Plans for Discovery in August to work as a clerk for smiling Pontiff quoted the Fourth Century summer 2006 are underway. State Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson. Saint Basil who had chastised those who Filling his position is Casey Luskin, a “imagine that the universe was deprived of Re-Igniting the Tech Economy, recent law graduate of the University any guidance and order.” Take Three of California at San Diego. Lastly, CSC The pope’s words were barely reported Senior Fellow Jay Richards accepted by Western media who have reported Discovery has long promoted telecom the position of director of institutional with uncritical acceptance the attacks on deregulation as a crucial stimulus for the relations with Acton Institute in Grand intelligent design by Vatican astronomer U.S. economy. In fact, our fi rst conference Rapids, Michigan. He will continue to George Coyne. Discovery Institute has on the subject, “Re-Igniting the Tech work with Discovery in his new capacity been mentioned often in the news stories Economy” featuring Senior Fellow on issues of mutual concern. that began last July with the publication of George Gilder, was held in Meanwhile, Discovery “Design for Nature,” an essay by Cardinal April of 2003, and a similar is pleased to welcome in Schonborn in The New York Times. conference was held in May its Religion and Public Life Cardinal Schonborn is a former student of of 2004. But 2006 looks to be program David Klinghoffer, Pope Benedict (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger a seminal year for real reform, as a Senior Fellow. David in those days) and later served under him as Congress begins to revisit is a regular columnist for as Senior Editor of the Catechism of the the Telecommunications Act the Jewish Forward and Catholic Church. of 1996. In preparation, the a frequent contributor to Attempts to discredit or minimize the Institute’s Technology Program National Review and The recent writings of Cardinal Schonborn on Director Hance Haney, Los Angeles Times. He is Darwinism led to an amusing incident in working from the Washington, currently completing a book October when the Cardinal had to correct D.C. offi ce, is marshalling on the Ten Commandments. the “English language media” on his forces to promote deregulation. offi cial website. Much of the work is already Senior Fellow Other Items underway. Hance Haney, Bret David Klinghoffer Do You Read Our Blogs? Swanson and George Gilder The documentary version met in October with FCC of The Privileged Planet, Traffi c grows daily at Discovery’s website, Chairman Kevin Martin and Senator based on the book by Senior Fellows and at the blogs attached to it. With an Ted Stevens, Commerce Committee Jay Richards and average of 20,000 daily visitors overall, the Chairman. Gilder earlier briefed members Guillermo Gonzalez ecialized blogs are getting a of the Senate Republican High Tech Task aired locally on KCTS healthy share of the cyber- Force, including Senators George Allen, Public Television callers. EvolutionNews.org John Ensign and Wayne Allard, among on Wednesday, presided over by Rob others. November 23 and Crowther) and Disco- Furthering the work of the technology continues to be seen ech.org (Hance Haney, Bret program, Senior Fellow Bret Swanson is around the country. wanson) have been cited by working with George Gilder to complete Stephen porters for the mainstream a book, tentatively titled The Crossroads Meyer, Director dia and in editorials, too. of Capitalism. The book examines the of Discovery’s ssiaBlog.org by Yuri impersonal regulatory environment that Center for Science mchur and Asianist.org hinders innovation and risk in the U.S. and Culture James Na are gaining an technology sector—ironically comparing participated in rnational audience, and we it with the relatively relaxed systems in international confere to build it with other foreign contemporary China and Russia. The book, design in Prague, Czech Republic in policy blogs as funds allow. and his recent trip to China, were the topic November. One notable result was Letter From the Capitol, by John of a “Tech Talk” lecture titled “China’s numerous additional signatories to our Wohlstetter, was a one-time private daily Technology Challenge” that Bret delivered “Dissent from Darwin” list. The new commentary for friends at a private listserv at Discovery on December 13. signers include members of the National that was so piquant and sage that we Academies of Science in both the Czech persuaded John to go public at LetterFrom New Faces at Discovery Institute Republic and Hungary. TheCapitol.org. Like Wesley J. Smith’s Discovery hosted a sold-out premiere Secondhand Smoke, LTC and the Asianist The past six months have witnessed the to the new Hollywood fi lm, The Lion, the also have an independent following. loss of some valued employees and the Witch and the Wardrobe on December 8. IDtheFuture.org allows intelligent addition of several others. Marshall More than 300 friends, fellows and staff design fellows at Discovery to write for Sana, former assistant to Bruce Chapman, attended. Profi ts will assist the C.S. Lewis the public. Bill Dembski has his own accepted a position with The Barnabas program of our Religion and Public Life blog unconnected to Discovery, called Fund in Washington, D.C. He is replaced project. UncommonDescent.org. by Patrick Bell, a recent graduate of

Discovery Institute Views 3 Winter 2006 Moore’s Law, Kurzweil and Telecosm Stocks

By George Gilder of Telecosm, Kurzweil faced a skeptical As Ray points out (page 209), the Forbes micro question from yours truly on the ribosomes that translate DNA into amino Published November 3, 2005 dismal failure of several teams of robotic acids accomplish 250 million billion engineers last year to create a device “read” operations every second just in REAT BARRINGTON, MASS.— that could negotiate a Defense Advanced manufacturing the hemoglobin that carries GOverfl owing the Resort at Squaw Research Projects Agency (DARPA) oxygen from the lungs to body tissues. Creek in Lake Tahoe, Calif. in late course through the Mojave desert without While the genes are digital, much of September into hotels in the nearby ski plunging off the road into a ditch or the biocomputing is inscrutably analog. village, this was the Telecosm of the an infi nite loop. In response, Kurzweil But in another four decades, so Kurzweil “Singularity.” A singularity designates confi dently asserted that teams from calculates, digital-machine intelligence a point in the future beyond which the Carnegie Mellon and Stanford would will exceed human intelligence, “event horizon” darkens, as the horizons succeed in this task in October. Sure precipitating the “singularity.” of the past darken beyond the reaches enough, he was on the button with this Humans, he predicts, will use of the Big Bang. In between—we are to prophecy. the machines massively to extend our believe—is the known universe. So far, so good. At the heart of lifespans and to project the reach of our But still in the dark remains the his larger prophecies is the continued learning by mastering the mysteries of question of when and whether Broadwing exponential progress of all the arts and consciousness within our own brains and will break out into profi ts using MPLS sciences of information technology out into space, with an imperial march (multiprotocol label switching) on the on beyond machines into a biological of human intelligence incarnate in our intelligent edge and fast all-optical “singularity.” Ray’s intriguing argument machines and in our newly bionic bodies. switching at the core of its still industry- is that today’s exponential curves It is a grand and triumphant trajectory leading network, while Cisco struggles to merely follow in the train of the original of thought on which Kurzweil is launched, keep the smarts in the core. evolutionary curve—which also reveals and his argument is fi nely mounted Even the present is enigmatic. We an accelerating pace of advance. It only and gracefully written, with much self- have little assurance whether bandwidth took 13 billion years from the exquisitely deprecating humor in artfully shaped prices are stabilizing—as Jay Adelson of “dialogs” at the end of each chapter. But Equinix reported in a fascinating speech— as some attendees groused, it would be or whether they are continuing their “In another four decades, so nice if by the time of the “singularity,” or downward plunge as confi dently testifi ed even before, Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - by Cogent CEO Dave Shaeffer. Nor, even Kurzweil calculates, digital- news - people ) could get Windows to boot after all of the earnest explanations of in less than four seconds and could avoid CEO Eli Fruchter and CTO Amir Eyal, machine intelligence will the darkened event horizons of its chronic do we know when EZchip will begin an blue screens. explosive ascent of revenue for ten-gigabit exceed human intelligence ...” And after many projects at Caltech Ethernet and line-card processors. And attempting to use neuromorphic models as despite the presence of representatives of the basis of electronic simulations of brain both Foveon and Synaptics , we still don’t calibrated bang to the biosphere, with functions, Carver Mead observed that we know when these two kindred companies DNA processing in the eukaryotic still have no idea of the workings of the will burst into the huge markets for (nucleated) cell, then the Cambrian brain and nervous systems of a common “tele-puter” sensors and imagers (though explosion of life forms some 3 billion housefl y. As I describe in The Silicon news from Foveon has been picking years ago, and then the rushed ascent of Eye, it goes about its business, eluding the up since the conference, including the punctuated equilibrium to the emergence swatter and garnering chemical sustenance special “Progress Medal” from the Royal of man and Ray and the Telecosm list, in the air, all on microwatts of power using Photographic Society in London). after which things really start popping. means that remain beyond the grasp of our Introducing a dazzling new bestseller, Discerned in all this heroic ascent most sophisticated neuroscience. The Singularity is Near, and generously is scant intelligence at all until the Oh, well, observed my colleague Nick giving a copy to each of the attendees, arrival of human technology, though the Tredennick, all these exponential curves Ray Kurzweil acknowledged that macro- information processing underway in the look fl at to the engineer attempting to futurism, projecting Moore’s law in all some 300 trillions of cells in your body, solve the immediate problems he faces. So directions, is much easier than the micro each with some 6 billion base pairs of back to work, folks. of predicting what will happen to specifi c DNA programming, excels the output companies and technologies. of all the world’s supercomputers with Excerpted from the November edition of Nonetheless, on stage the fi rst night all their intricate software and fi rmware. the Gilder Technology Report.

Winter 2006 4 Discovery Institute Views Leaders Must Act Now to Avoid Severe Regional Crisis

By Bruce Agnew and Charles Ganske 2005. The council’s prediction came to fi ve permitted plants are idle construction Puget Sound Business Journal pass last summer, when BPA was again sites, including two key plants close to the Published November 18, 2005 sorely tested by a surge in demand from Canadian border. Regional utility contracts California. with California customers are negotiable, Editor’s note: The Cascadia Center has BPA-operated hydroelectric but our power transmission to Canada is written a series of articles examining the dams—the foundation of the Northwest governed by the 1961 Columbia River state’s infrastructure defi cit. This is the power grid—provide roughly half of the Treaty. To compensate Canada for dams fi rst of the series, which is being published state’s electricity production. But after built upstream on the Columbia River exclusively by the Puget Sound Business fi ve consecutive years of near-drought in Canadian territory, the United States Journal. conditions and open-ended salmon must return half its downstream benefi ts recovery obligations, that foundation is in the form of electricity. The location ur predecessors understood the links eroding. In response to environmental Canada has negotiated for returns to be Obetween infrastructure and economic litigation, a federal judge in Portland is made (at the Interstate 5 border crossing growth. They cut tunnels through the considering a new order to increase spill in Blaine) favors power production mountains that opened ports, dug a canal and stream-fl ow requirements in order to west of the Cascades. But both National that linked Lake Washington and Puget aid the salmon population. By reducing Energy Systems’ Sumas and BP’s Cherry Sound, and built dams that provided water fl ows through hydroelectric dam Point gas-fi red cogeneration projects— electricity and water. How can we turbines, a decision for the plaintiffs would optimally located to help meet our treaty recapture that spirit today in a way that further reduce regional power production. obligations—remain on hold indefi nitely. promotes commerce and conservation? Power from another renewable Current natural gas prices stymie BP’s A series beginning today outlines the energy source, wind, must travel through and Nesco’s search for long-term utility Cascadia Center’s approach to addressing a bottleneck of aging electric transmission contracts, but it will probably not prove some of the major infrastructure lines in order to get over the Cascades fi nancially prudent for the utilities to pass challenges facing the region. from Eastern Washington’s turbine farms. on buying power from them. Regionally For decades Washington state has Puget Sound Energy CEO Steve Reynolds and nationwide, utilities consistently produced some of the nation’s cheapest recently stressed the need for “solid, fi nd electricity demand surpassing their electricity. But with mounting demands reliable energy infrastructure, not wishful projections, due to the blistering pace from California and Canada, our power thinking,” admitting that conservation and of technological change. Demand from grid is spread thin. Washington’s power wind power alone won’t meet the region’s electricity-hungry network servers and supply is showing the strain of coping demands. plasma TVs will seem like small change in with an uncertain market, driven by a few years, when fl eets of plug-in hybrid declining hydropower resources, not vehicles will recharge their batteries enough new power plants and aging “For decades Washington nightly from the Northwest power grid. transmission lines. Clean energy is a laudable long-term Much of our surplus energy—just state has produced some of the goal but a limited one. With wind power, how much fl uctuates greatly by the hour— nation’s cheapest electricity. hydroelectricity and high natural gas is sent to California through an agreement prices working as wild cards, it’s stable signed in the 1970s. Not having built But with mounting demands energy supplies that we need. We need to a single new power plant for a decade, from California and Canada, act now to avoid an all-out energy crisis. Californians in 2001 experienced huge We need to build more power plants and shortfalls in energy production, pushing our power grid is spread thin.” boost our output—before a blackout lets the Northwest power grid to the brink. us know we’re too late. Building the At the height of this crisis, Washington Better infrastructure is not all that’s permitted gas-fi red plants is the near-term had its own problems, with Seattle-area needed. Utilities also need some measure solution. Energy producers, policy makers utilities scrambling to meet an unexpected of certainty in an uncertain market. This and environmentalists need to come spike in power consumption from energy- means stable, long-term power contracts together to fi nd the long-term answer. hungry computer servers in the booming and a streamlined federal and state Right now, everyone’s waiting for technology sector. “We came within eight permitting process for new facilities. someone else to act. It may take blackouts minutes of a blackout,” recalls one utility In 2000, fi ve gas-fi red power plants and brownouts before the public demands executive. were submitted for federal and state reform. That won’t be pretty, and will Washington utilities received some approval, and today have been cleared prove far more expensive than paying reprieve in 2002 when several aging, for construction. But while the power slightly more on our monthly electric bills multimegawatt-consuming smelters plant operators were waiting fi ve years for gas-fi red power. were shut down—saving their operators for their permits, the price of natural gas millions of dollars in operating losses. quadrupled from $3 to $13 per BTU, BRUCE AGNEW is director and That same year, the Portland-based making future power from these plants too CHARLES GANSKE is a writer for the Northwest Power Planning Council, expensive. Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Center, a representing the states of Washington, Combined, these plants could have nonprofi t public policy center based in Oregon, Idaho and Montana, warned generated roughly enough electricity daily Seattle. that such one-time measures would only to power Seattle and Bellevue. Instead all stave off rising regional demand through

Discovery Institute Views 5 Winter 2006 Eradicating European Flu

By Richard W. Rahn their GDP. Homeownership rates are far justice, etc. By almost any measure, The Washington Times lower in Europe than in the U.S.—where though far from perfect, the U.S. comes Published January 2, 2006 more than two-thirds of the people own out better than much of Europe. their homes, which on average have about Such a campaign will not cause urope has not yet suffered from bird twice the square footage of the average Europeans to love Americans, but it might Efl u, but it suffers from an even more European home. help force them to view their own failed debilitating economic fl u—excessive Even more disturbing is the decline policies more critically, the fi rst step in government dependency. That dependency of optimism in Europe. A recent Harris bringing about change. is sapping both its economic vitality and Interactive poll found 57 percent of the The Bush administration also should its spirit and has grown most acute in the people in the U.S. were very satisfi ed with take a much tougher line, including full or core of Europe: Germany, France and their lives, compared with an average of partial defunding, with the multinational Italy. only 16 percent in Germany, France and institutions, such as the Organization for We need to help our European Italy. Economic Cooperation and Development, friends fi ght this disease, not through a This fall in status in Europe has the United Nations and others that new Marshall plan but through a sound resulted in a rise in envy and often an promote tax and regulatory policies which economic education campaign. irrational dislike of the outside world have brought so much misery to Europe The European Union is still the (much of it directed at the U.S.). Many and other parts of the world. world’s second-largest economy after Europeans are in denial about the failures The vaccine for economic fl u is the United States and is the major or of their socialist or “social market economic literacy. European (and other) signifi cant trading partner for almost economic education organizations every country. Europe provided have been dispensing the vaccine, mankind the modern concepts of “As the European economic fl u has become but their resources are too meager liberty and justice, and European more acute, there are signs more of their to stop the spread of economic culture and civilization have citizens and companies are prepared to support ignorance. Americans have in enriched the lives of most of the general greater economic literacy, world’s people. It has also been those who fi ght for economic literacy.” and hence have been less infected the source of great evil—fascism, by economic fl u, because private communism and socialism, all models.” All too many are woefully individuals and businesses have European constructs, which collectively ignorant about the reasons for economic understood it is both their responsibility have cost the lives of upward of 200 growth or failure. Europe is strangling and in their long-run interest to support million people. itself in bureaucracy and killing incentives economic education programs run by History has shown an economically through excessive taxation. Now the nongovernment organizations. healthy and free Europe is a boon to all Germans and French are trying to infect As the European economic fl u has mankind, while a depressed and failed the new free market economies in Eastern become more acute, there are signs Europe puts all at risk. Europe with this status fl u. more of their citizens and companies are Europe’s share of world gross Though it may be tempting to gloat prepared to support those who fi ght for economic product (GDP) has fallen from about the problems of the French and the economic literacy. If Europeans were roughly a third, two generations ago, to others, it is in nobody’s interest to do so. as familiar with the teachings of Hayek only one-fi fth today. The U.S. economy The United States, in particular, and its as those of Karl Marx, most of their has grown about twice as fast as major free market allies should be much more economic problems would disappear. European economies for the last two pro-active by supporting the pro-growth The question then becomes: Who decades, resulting in the average American policies of some of the smaller and is responsible for teaching Hayekian living about 40 percent better than his newer free market countries. Many in the economics? Hurricane Katrina showed European counterpart. In the last quarter- European ruling elite put down pro-growth the costly folly of relying on government century, Europe has created only 4 million policies by disdainfully referring to them bulwarks against the on-coming fl ood. new jobs (almost all in government). The as the “Anglo-Saxon model.” Economic despair in Europe will also U.S., despite a smaller population, has Yet, perhaps, the most infl uential result in a destructive fl ood unless those created 57 million new, overwhelmingly architect of the high-growth economic private individuals and organizations, private sector, jobs. policies followed by many countries was both inside and outside the Continent, The portion of the U.S. population the great 20th century Austrian economist help strengthen the bulwarks of limited working is about 20 percent higher than F.A. Hayek. government, free market, democratic in Germany, France and Italy. The U.S. The U.S. government ought to wage capitalism so all can enjoy hope, unemployment rate is about half theirs (5 an aggressive information campaign opportunity and prosperity. versus 10 percent). in Europe to offset many factual U.S. total government spending is misrepresentations about the U.S. in the Richard W. Rahn is director general of the about one-third our GDP; in Germany, European press—particularly in health Center for Global Economic Growth, a France, and Italy the average is about half care, levels of poverty, schooling, crime, project of the FreedomWorks Foundation. Winter 2006 6 Discovery Institute Views Brace for the UN Tax Man

By James J. Na of 0.7 percent of gross national product Development Goals” associated with the The Seattle Times for offi cial development assistance by summit document would “obligate the Published October 11, 2005 2015.” It then goes on to tout “the value of U.S. to spend an additional $845 billion innovative sources of fi nancing, provided in foreign aid” above what it already hen I extolled the virtues of our those sources do not unduly burden contributes. To give a sense of scale, that Wfederal system of government in developing countries.” fi gure is close to half of the French gross a previous column (“Sovereignty, from Translation: Selected rich countries, national product in 2004. sea to sea,” Times op-ed, Sept. 21), I left including the United States, should be Recognizing the danger, the U.S. out an unfortunate and pernicious side obligated to transfer their wealth to poor Senate has sprung into action. Sen. effect of having a government of multiple nations by what is, in effect, a global James Inhofe, R-Okla., along with 17 co- jurisdictions—taxes. income tax (after the U.N. siphons off its sponsors, is in the process of proposing Multiple layers of government, “administrative costs,” of course). The legislation that “would require the while encouraging balance of power and document also makes a specifi c mention of withholding of United States contributions competing regulatory ideas, also mean one such “innovative source” of funding to the United Nations until the president multiple layers of taxation. In Seattle, in the form of “a contribution on airline certifi es that the United Nations is not this means the federal government, state tickets,” i.e., a global taxation on air engaged in global-taxation schemes.” government, King County and the city travel, reputedly pushed by France. The vast dollar fi gure is outlandish of Seattle all take their pick at one’s According to the Center for Individual enough for most Americans, but beyond paycheck, business, house, car and, of Freedom, other “innovative” global- the money, the underlying ideology behind course, purchases of goods, including taxation schemes under discussion in and global taxation is far more sinister. The gasoline. left, while raising the phony specter of a The complexity and opaqueness of all “Multiple layers of government, fascist theocracy in the United States, has these taxes and their attendant regulations been ridiculing the right’s fear of “one are so arcane that they keep legions of while encouraging balance world government.” But the ability to accountants and tax lawyers employed to of power and competing tax is one of the surest manifestations of make sense of them all, acting as a huge sovereignty and, as such, the acceptance drag on economic activities of the nation. regulatory ideas, also mean of global taxation under the disguise Yet, if Seattleites thought that the multiple layers of taxation.” of international development aid is an statewide gasoline tax was the last word alarming precedent for international on taxation debate for now, there is intrusion into what has been traditionally another thing coming their way: global out of the U.N., in addition to the air-travel the domain of sovereign national taxation. tax, include an e-mail tax, a “carbon” tax governments. Unbeknownst to many Americans, the on gasoline, coal, oil and natural gas, a No reasonable critic of global taxation United Nations—yes, that organization currency-transaction tax and an aviation- is suggesting that Americans would of endemic cronyism and corruption, fuel tax. There are apparently other be subjected to one world government oil-for-food scandal and sex abuse by global-taxation ideas, including taxes on overnight. But if we accept such “blue helmets”—has been attempting for arms trade, ocean dumping, commercial precedents, inch-by-inch, step-by-step, we years to levy global taxes, particularly on fi shing, satellites, electronic spectrum and will creep toward “global governance,” wealthy nations. international advertising. another euphemism for one world Despite the best efforts of John These taxes would be in addition to, government, and will gradually relinquish Bolton, the Bush-appointed U.S. not in lieu of, the myriad of taxes that our unique American way of life. ambassador to the U.N., to defeat such Americans are already subjected to by schemes, yet another incarnation of global varying layers of jurisdictions within the James J. Na, a Senior Fellow in taxation made its appearance in the U.N. United States. foreign policy at the Discovery World Summit outcome document last Cliff Kincaid, editor of Accuracy in Institute (www.discovery.org), runs month. Media Report, has been tracking these “Guns and Butter Blog” (gunsandbut The document refers to “the global-taxation efforts tirelessly. Kincaid, ter.blogspot.com) and “The Asianist” establishment of timetables by many quoting U.N. adviser Jeffrey Sachs, writes (www.asianist.org). He can be reached at developed countries to achieve the target that the U.N. proposed “Millennium [email protected]. Discovery Institute Views 7 Winter 2006 Viaduct: A Tunnel’s the Best Choice

By Bruce Agnew, Tom Till and Bruce barbed protests against paying for what tried to, but couldn’t. Alternative transit Chapman is perceived as an economic development technologies for the Ballard-to-Westlake The Seattle Times and beautifi cation project for Seattle. From Green Line—including more express bus Published October 27, 2005 Port Angeles to Pullman, people gripe rapid transit in the tunnel with connections about the latte-sipping liberals trying to to Colman Ferry Dock, streetcars and the ew realize that if Seattle chooses raise our taxes to improve the view from Link light-rail line to the airport—could Fthe aerial alternative to replace the their yuppie condos, while others struggle make Seattle and the Highway 99 corridor Alaskan Way Viaduct, it would have to be to make payroll. more transit-friendly. This is a winning 50 percent larger and 7 feet higher than But such rhetoric misses the way to reduce congestion. today’s structure. Federal standards for fundamental values that underlie Mayor We already have a leg up on the safety require it. Also, it would not carry Greg Nickels’ decision: fi nancing, thanks to our state Legislature’s any more traffi c than it does now—or did • Regional Value. Key to restructuring earmark of $2 billion for the viaduct from when the current elevated roadway was Highway 99 as a stronger complement the 9.5-cent gas-tax package, together built in the early ‘50s. A “new” viaduct for north-south traffi c on Interstates 5 and with the $238 million federal grant for would contribute exactly nothing to easing 405, tunneling the viaduct has value that the waterfront project, which has been congestion. Not now. Not for the 50 years reaches past the city and takes on high recognized as a “project of national of its likely life span. regional importance. signifi cance.” A new, bigger viaduct The region (King, Pierce wouldn’t just be obsolete the day “A new, bigger viaduct wouldn’t just be and Snohomish counties) can it opens—it would be obsolete reasonably add another $1 before it is even designed. obsolete the day it opens—it would be billion to the federal and state And, learning lessons from San contributions—which would Francisco and Kobe, Japan, it’s bring the total funding up to not the safest choice in case of obsolete before it is even designed.” nearly $3.24 billion. This can be an earthquake. Transportation achieved through the Regional leaders concur that, of fi ve Transportation Investment • Safety Value. A tunnel can sustain viaduct-replacement options, the tunnel is District’s funding proposal now under natural disasters better than an aerial the best choice. preparation—as well as through structure. In the 1989 Loma Prieta All the options combine replacement contributions from the Port of Seattle, earthquake, aerial structures like the of the viaduct—which is a state road—and which would benefi t from the freight and Nimitz Freeway pancaked and crushed replacement of the seawall—which mobility improvements created by a more motorists, while the Bay Area Rapid is a city of Seattle facility—for both functional Highway 99. Transit (BART) tunnel under San engineering and practical reasons. The tunnel’s remaining balance of up Francisco Bay stayed intact and remained Comparing the tunnel with the aerial to $712 million can be fi nanced reasonably a lifeline after the quake. Because tunnel alternative, the tunnel-seawall construction and effectively the following ways: entrances can be designed to guard period is two years shorter, and the payments from Seattle Public Utilities for against rising water, tunnels are also better tunnel combines the added advantage of upgrading and modernizing the current protection against tsunamis. integrating $300 million of the seawall’s utility corridor—estimated to range from • Urban Land Value. The aerial $650 million total cost into its western $50 million to $300 million; a variety of alternative would wipe out another 22 wall. grants for environmental cleanup of Elliott acres of economically valuable land. Do Following the monorail meltdown, Bay; from plans to build a new Colman we really want to further wall off the city’s however, angst has been growing among Ferry Dock; local improvement districts recreational, commercial and residential a number of civic leaders over the that will capture increased land values areas—thereby thwarting a major source possibility that voters may cancel the (by taxing developers); and the additional of future property-tax revenues from a Legislature’s transportation package, and taxes paid by more and higher-quality redeveloped waterfront? many are now second-guessing the costs visits to a transformed waterfront. • Urban Transit Value. If the monorail of tunneling the viaduct. Current plans envisage a viaduct for project fi nally shuts down, opportunities “We can’t afford the tunnel,” the the coming 50 years that would have no arise anew. The Highway 99 tunnel mantra goes. “Go with a cheaper rebuild.” could do for Seattle what the monorail Compounding local self-doubt are Viaduct, continued on next page Winter 2006 8 Discovery Institute Views Viaduct, cont. from previous page more passenger-carrying capacity than the present one, built in 1953. To deal with the growing north- south congestion in the region, therefore, a tunnel should add two more lanes to the present six. These It’s Over in Dover, lanes would serve toll-payers and carpools, plus high-frequency, But Not For Intelligent Design high-capacity express buses (bus censorship of dissent. rapid transit) to link downtown By John. G. West Now, Darwinists are trying to silence and the western reaches of the USA Today debate through persecution. At Ohio State metropolitan area. Published December 24, 2005 University, a graduate student’s dissertation Yes, $3.95 billion is a lot of is in limbo because he was openly critical money; so what can we do to cut yrrhic victory. of Darwin’s theory. At George Mason costs? The state is doing what it PIt’s a phrase proponents of Darwin’s calls “value-added engineering,” theory might do well to ponder as they University, a biology professor lost her job which provides a sharper focus crow over the decision by a federal judge in after she mentioned intelligent design in on true costs. Recently, its track Pennsylvania “permanently enjoining” the class. At the Smithsonian, an evolutionary record in bringing big construction Dover school district from mentioning the biologist was harassed and vilifi ed for projects in on time and on budget theory of intelligent design in science classes. permitting an article favoring intelligent has also been excellent. Contrary to Judge John Jones’ assertions, design to be published in a peer-reviewed The sooner we get started, intelligent design is not a religious-based biology journal. the better. Central Puget Sound’s idea, but instead an evidence-based scientifi c Those who think they can stop the population almost tripled from 1.2 theory that holds there are certain features growing interest in intelligent design through million in 1950 (two years before of living systems and the universe that are court orders or intimidation are deluding the viaduct opened) to 3.3 million best explained by an intelligent cause. No themselves. Americans don’t like being told in 2000. It is slated to increase by legal decree can remove the digitally coded there are some ideas they aren’t permitted to another quarter before 2020. More information from DNA, nor molecular investigate. Try to ban an idea, and you will people translates into more cars, machines from cells. The facts of biology generate even more interest in it. and presently, the region’s north- cannot be overruled by a federal judge. Efforts to mandate intelligent design south traffi c crawls along three Research on intelligent design will continue are misguided, but efforts to shut down major corridors: Interstates 5 and to go forward, and the scientifi c evidence discussion of a scientifi c idea through 405 and Highway 99. will win out in the end. harassment and judicial decrees hurt Taking care of the viaduct is Still, Darwinists clearly won this latest democratic pluralism. The more Darwinists urgent. But even a stopgap solution skirmish in the evolution wars. But at what resort to censorship and persecution, will last 50 years or more. What we cost? the clearer it will become that they are do now, we leave for our children Evolutionists used to style themselves championing dogmatism, not science. and grandchildren, a footprint after the champions of free speech and academic we’re gone. From better transit, to freedom against unthinking dogmatism. John G. West is associate director of increased land values, to a more But increasingly, they have become the new Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & effi cient regional transportation dogmatists, demanding judicially-imposed Culture, and associate professor of political corridor, the mayor’s “Waterfront science at Seattle Pacifi c University. For All” vision creates economic value for the region, the city and the waterfront. Value for today, a Join Discovery today & legacy for tomorrow. receive a FREE CD! Inspired by his love for Washington’s Bruce Agnew and Tom Till beautiful Orcas Island and Gig Harbor, are co-directors of Discovery Senior Fellow Yuri Mamchur’s solo piano Institute’s Cascadia Center for album hit stores this month. Be one of the Transportation. Agnew is also fi rst to experience this dynamic new sound. a member of the Alaskan Way Viaduct & Seawall Replacement Visit www.yuriproductions.com. Leadership Group. Bruce To accept this special offer, Chapman is president of Discovery simply write “CD GIFT” in the memo Institute. portion of your personal check.

Discovery Institute Views 9 Winter 2006 Past Discovery Events

ohn R. Miller, the former U.S. AMBASSADOR Congressman from Seattle whose Jwork combating slavery was profi led JOHN R. MILLER in the August 21st edition of the Sunday Seattle Times’ Pacifi c Northwestt magazine, On Fighting Slavery spoke at Discovery Institute August 25th. Miller is the Director the State Department Offi ce to Monitor and Combat Traffi cking Persons and carries the rank of Ambassado at Large. Ambassador Miller, a native of New York City, moved to Seattle after earning his J.D. at Yale. He served on the Seattle City Council in the 1970s and was elected to Congress in 1984, representing Seattle’s 1st Congressional District for eight years. From 2000 to 2002, Miller chaired Discove Institute’s Board of Directors. Miller was selected by President Bush for his current p in 2002, while he was teaching at Northwe PAST EVENTS ... Yeshiva High School on Mercer Island.

What Canada’s National Election Means for the U.S. Featuring Bruce Chapman Young People Gather Your Navy and the Pacifi c Featuring U.S. Navy Admiral Gary Career Advice From Roughead Slade Gorton Handicapping the Supreme Court Battle Featuring Senior Fellow Phillip Munoz he annual Gorton Summer Program, A Jealous God: Science’s Crusade Against Religion named for our distinguished board Featuring Author Pamela R. Winnick member and former U.S. Senator Slade China’s Technology Challenge T Featuring Bret Swanson Gorton, introduces young people to the nature and A McNaughton Fellows Event & Part of Discovery’s “Tech Talk” Series ideals of public service. The series also examines Discovery Preview Screening: current political issues and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe their potential impact. This last The Student Response to ID: Attempts to Ban Intelligent Design on University Campuses Fuel Student Interest summer, the program included in Debate Over Evolution Featuring Casey Luskin an event—also part of the

Rediscovering Narnia: McNaughton Fellows Lecture The Continuing Relevance of C.S. Lewis’s Narnian Chronicles Series—featuring Senator C.S. Lewis Autumn Event Series Gorton, who discussed his life in Russian Business & Politics: What’s Next? Featuring Yuri Mamchur, Sr. public offi ce and the lessons he Darwin and Design: learned along the way. An International Science Conference Prague, Czech Republic EVENTS CONTINUED ...

Building Economic Prosperity and Opportunity in Africa Featuring Franklin Cudjoe of Accra, Ghana

ashington, D.C. The Abolition of Man Revisited: C.S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism his last September, Discovery Institute’s C.S. Lewis Autumn Event Series

“Discovery Day” in Washington, D.C. offered From Scopes to Dover: T Should the Courts Permit Public Schools to Teach Intelligent Design? icipants the opportunity to get better acquainted Discovery Day in Washington, D.C. h our board, fellows and staff—and for them Featuring Institute Fellows & Friends

A Tale of Three Cities nteract, in an intimate setting, with some of Transportation Success Stories From San Diego, Denver and Vancouver, B.C. supporters in the nation’s capital. The day Slavery and Human Rights: Lessons in 21st Century Diplomacy tured discussion and open dialogue on many of Featuring Ambassador John R. Miller

scovery’s Institute’s programs. The Meaning of Public Service Featuring former U.S. Senator Slade

CHINA’S TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGE s China’s economy grows, so does its status as both a geopolitical actor and as a policy issue in Washington, D.C. With an unlimited labor supply and world- Aclass prowess in science and technology, China is a key resource and partner for American technology companies. It is a key market for American consumer goods companies, as well as a key supplier of consumer goods to America. But it is also a major competitor for many traditional American industries—and American jobs. How will this impact the United States in the years ahead? And should Americans view this as a threat to U.S. leadership in technology and global affairs, or as an opportunity? In December, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Bret Swanson addressed these questions and others, drawing from his own experiences writing a book on the subject and from a recent, two-week visit to the country. Discovery Events IT’S CLEAR: PLAN TODAY FOR WATER TOMORROW By Matt Rosenberg from all key sectors, including forum on leaving water in streams for salmon, The News Tribune member agencies, on a follow-up effort and you’re faced with the choice of Published September 11, 2005 known as the Central Puget Sound people using less water, or making new Regional Water Initiative (CPSI). water supplies and water storage facilities ashington Gov. Christine Gregoire’s Delivered in April 2003, the CPSI available.” Wstatewide emergency drought report also stressed the need for a regional In the face of further growth and declaration in March 2005 energized a decision-making process putting human environmental pressures, Kirner adds, growing public information campaign for consumption on equal footing with fi sh conservation and increased storage and water conservation in central Puget Sound. concerns. supply need not be, and must not be, But with the many rains that soon The CPSI report also noted pointedly mutually exclusive. followed came an important realization: what some scientists and water utility In addition, Central Puget Sound The real water challenge in Western managers freely acknowledge: “It is must further develop an infrastructure of Washington is not scarcity. It is future clear that lack of knowledge (regarding pipelines and “interties” between pipelines population and economic growth. in-stream needs of fi sh) is a signifi cant throughout the region so utilities can more A 2001 Central Puget Sound Water impediment to successful water resource easily buy, sell and deliver water to each Supply Forum report projects the management.” other, especially when some are low on combined population of Pierce, King and While the viewpoints of American supplies and others are fl ush. Snohomish counties will grow from 3 Indian tribes, environmental groups This infrastructure is growing million people in 2000 to nearly 4 million and political leaders are undoubtedly gradually but without any real regional by 2020, and 5 million by 2050. important, it is also essential that the consensus on what the fi nal map should These fi gures dovetail with more perspective of the water utility manager look like. recent Puget Sound Regional Council receives equal emphasis as the dialogue Don Ellis is chairman of the projections, including a preliminary continues to unfold. Snohomish River Regional Water estimate of 4.6 million by 2040. Don Perry is general manager of the Authority and has been a Northshore The region’s future water needs, for Lakehaven Utility District, which serves a Utility District commissioner for almost both man and fi sh, will require more than population of about 100,000 in and around 40 years. conservation and more than the current Federal Way. He says his jurisdiction has “The ideal would be a multicounty fragmented approach to planning and not experienced drought this year despite regional system with the ability to shunt decision-making on in-stream and out-of- the governor’s pronouncement. water from watershed to watershed,” he stream water supplies. says. “If you had major pipelines and What’s to be done? “The region’s future water needs, cooperation between the agencies, you The Water Supply Forum report for both man and fi sh, will require could forestall some of the expensive asserted the need to start sooner, rather more than conservation and more development.” than later, on long-term planning to Because a regional process has meet future regional water supply needs. than the current fragmented not materialized, some utilities have The forum is a consortium of the three approach to planning and understandably felt compelled to press counties, plus the cities of Seattle, Everett decision-making on in-stream and forward with projects—each benefi ting and Tacoma and eight suburban water out-of-stream water supplies.” a host of water utility districts. Prime utilities, water utility associations and examples the Cascade Water Alliance’s committees. Lake Tapps project (awaiting fi nal The report states: “The Central Puget “We haven’t hit a threshold for this Department of Ecology approvals), and Sound area faces signifi cant challenges district for a drought. There’s substantial Tacoma’s important Second Supply in meeting the water needs for people groundwater storage. Our defi nition of Project on the Green River. and fi sh habitat with available resources. drought is ‘not enough water to serve our Yet some of the best choices for the … Demands on this natural resource customers.’ Some call it lack of planning.” future deserve more discussion. Future have been increasing and are likely to John Kirner, Tacoma Water supply options must include a serious look continue to do so in the future, although superintendent, says, “We have a at underground water storage projects of they will increase more slowly due to substantially increased population (in the potentially great regional signifi cance, conservation.” three-county region) versus 1970, and the such as the Lakehaven Utility District’s The report goes on to explain that the Puget Sound Regional Council forecasts Mirror Lake Oasis aquifer in Federal Way. region “does not currently have a structure a signifi cant increase beyond today’s It could yield up to 81 million gallons or process for making collective regional population. per day during the four-month dry season, water resource decisions” and that “such a “That means more economic based on what Lakehaven offi cials call a process is needed now.” development. The homes, roads, “conservative” estimate of 27 wells each In December of 2001, Jim Waldo, streets, malls, parking lots, schools and producing 3 million gallons per day. water adviser to Gov. Gary Locke, workplaces to support population growth initiated work with dozens of stakeholders all put stress on the water resource. “Add to that more emphasis than ever It’s Clear, continued on 19

Winter 2006 12 Discovery Institute Views Paradigm Shift for the Nation on Transportation

By Bruce Agnew and Jessica Cantelon infrastructure program—will soon airlines use with variable gate and landing Puget Sound Business Journal heighten the velocity of trade to the United fees. The idea is simple: The more you Published December 30, 2005 States. Within the next fi ve to 11 years, use, the more you pay. It’s time the rest of container traffi c through West Coast ports the transportation sector catches on. Editor’s note: The Cascadia Center has is projected to double. The West Coast is beginning written a series of articles examining the Since most freight moves via to. California leads the nation in state’s infrastructure defi cit. This is the truck, a lot more 18-wheelers will be implementing High Occupancy Toll fourth article of the series, which is being accompanying you on Interstate 5. (HOT) lanes, which allow single-occupant published exclusively by the Puget Sound Already, the drive through the narrow vehicles to use a premium lane for a Business Journal. stretch near Centralia can require a variable fee. Meanwhile, Oregon and harrowing maneuver through a line of Washington are building toll bridges and arlier in this series, we indicated trucks throwing a wall of rain onto your planning new toll facilities. Ethe need for Congress and the windshield. Double those trucks, and Use-based fi nancing can help administration to reaffi rm their you’ll be clutching your steering wheel strengthen West Coast ports, but the commitment to our nation’s infrastructure. with white knuckles. model must be applied both smartly and What should the new shape of this role Washington state is using part of regionally. Maritime commerce already be, and how should it refl ect the changing the recent state gas tax increase to fund assesses tens of billions of dollars in paradigm of our transportation system? the expansion of half that 40-mile choke federal customs and container fees, which The fi rst component of the solution is point. Who should pick up the rest of the are either spent on unrelated purposes or crucial: a revamped federal budget policy, tab? The good folks of Lewis County can benefi t some but not all ports. beginning with a long-due tax increase We need to consolidate these funds on transportation infrastructure. President “In today’s global economy, into a dedicated “Maritime Infrastructure Reagan did this in 1983 with his Nickel and Security Trust Fund”—similar to for America package. the regional, national and the Highway Trust Fund for surface Secondly, antiquated federal transportation. The difference would be distribution formulas that return at least international implications targeted regional disbursement as opposed 90 percent of federal taxes to the 50 states to the nonstrategic, 50-state return formula need to be replaced with targeted block of infrastructure investment of the Highway Trust Fund. Offsetting the grants to multistate trade corridors. In defy state lines.” immediate effect, which could exacerbate today’s global economy, the regional, the budget defi cit, the increased trade in national and international implications the long run will help balance the budget hardly be expected to fork over hundreds of infrastructure investment defy state and boost the economy. of millions of dollars to expand a freeway lines. Mobility needs of the 21st century In addition to the shippers and that connects Canada to Mexico. are increasingly defi ned by international carriers who profi t from trade, part of This brings us to the equity border crossings, rural/urban trade the costs should be borne by countries dilemma accompanying global trade. corridors and metropolitan gateways. whose prosperity depends on access to Regional economist Glenn Pascall notes, Historically, the primary purpose of U.S. markets. Potential direct or indirect “Despite the national benefi ts of trade, America’s transportation network has Chinese investment in West Coast a disproportionate burden has fallen been intranational mobility, connecting infrastructure has been raised in a dialogue on geographic locales that site critical our cities and fueling westward between the West Coast Corridor Coalition facilities.” Coastal states—from the expansion. Think of the Erie Canal, the and regional Chinese leaders. America’s Eastern Seaboard to the Katrina-ravaged transcontinental rail lines and the interstate relationship with our soon-to-be-largest Gulf Coast to our own West Coast—house highway system. trading partner is only as strong as the the bulk of infrastructure critical to Today, however, we expect a lot more infrastructure that facilitates our two-way international trade and national security. out of that same infrastructure. Consider trade. Trade involves an intricate web of the tri-national West Coast corridor. As the American problem solvers are benefi ciaries—from foreign trade partners nexus of APEC (Asia Pacifi c Economic preoccupied with the trade and budget to the neighborhood Costco and Wal- Cooperation) and NAFTA (North defi cits. Soon, perhaps they will realize Mart—which should bear an appropriate American Free Trade Agreement), the that addressing the third defi cit— proportion of the costs. region—rather than its individual states— infrastructure—could be key to solving the This notion, called use-based is most fairly able to determine how to other two. fi nancing, works well for utilities, which invest in the infrastructure that supports charge variable fees based on time of day. our national economy. Bruce Agnew is director and Jessica In addition, the commercial air industry Reduction in trade barriers to imports Cantelon is a writer for Discovery utilizes public authorities to build the from China—coupled with the pending Institute’s Cascadia Center, a nonprofi t basic airport infrastructure, which private completion of that nation’s massive public policy center based in Seattle. Discovery Institute Views 13 Winter 2006 BIOHAZARDS: Advances in Biological Science Raise Troubling Questions About What It Means to Be Human

By Wesley J. Smith Some of us also worry that advocates personhood theory already advocate San Francisco Chronicle of unfettered research are changing infanticide for profoundly disabled Published November 6, 2005 science from a means into an end, a belief babies and organ harvesting from people system rather than a method. diagnosed to be in a persistent vegetative y the end of the 21st century,” Indeed, “bioskeptics,” as they are state. “Bwrites Reason magazine science sometimes called, see a utopian ideology The already simmering humanhood editor Ronald Bailey in his book of “scientism” forming that threatens to versus personhood controversy is “Liberation Biology,” “the typical upend society’s belief in human equality going to boil over as our scientifi c and American may attend a family reunion and unleash a “new eugenics,” in which biotechnological capacities advance. in which fi ve generations are playing Aldous Huxley’s dystopian vision of mind For example, what if it becomes together. And great-great-great grandma, control from “Brave New World” could technologically feasible to create cloned at 150 years old, will be as vital ... as her become a reality. human embryos and gestate them in real 30-year-old great-great grandson with Look out America: The trajectory or artifi cial wombs to fetal stage for use whom she’s playing touch football.” of science is coming into confl ict with in drug testing or for organ procurement? UCLA futurist Gregory Stock predicts venerable human values. Which side (Such experiments have already been in “Redesigning Humans” that the genetic prevails will depend less on what scientists conducted successfully in cows.) engineering of progeny for Those who believe that health, intelligence, physical humanhood provides intrinsic beauty, even sociability, will be “Once having children was generally value argue that such “fetal so successful that procreation conducted in a simple way: Men and farming” should be prohibited through intercourse will be women got married, made love, and had because it reduces nascent deemed “too unpredictable,” human life to the status of a mere making “laboratory conception babies—although not always in that order. harvestable commodity. ... obligatory rather than To the delight of some and the dismay of Personhood theorists, on optional.” others, human reproduction has become a the other hand, would tend Princeton biologist Lee to support using cloned fetal Silver believes fervently, as far more complicated matter.” nonpersons to save the lives described in “Remaking Eden,” of persons and to reduce the that the wonders of human suffering of animals currently redesign will eventually lead to a “special can do than upon the ethical principles used in medical research, which are seen point” where our posterity will create that govern society in an era of biological as having greater moral value because they themselves into a “special group of mental control. possess higher cognitive capacities. beings who “are as different from humans In the United States today, every New Jersey has already legalized as humans are from primitive worms. human being who is born possesses the creation of cloned embryos and their ...’Intelligence’ will “not do justice to their full moral and legal rights. But this is gestation through the ninth month. cognitive abilities. ‘Knowledge’ does not under pronounced assault. Infl uential Another issue touching on the explain the depth of their understanding. philosophers, such as Princeton meaning and importance of human life is ...’Power’ is not strong enough to describe University’s Peter Singer, assert that the creation of animals called chimeras the control they have over technologies basing an individual’s moral value on that have been genetically engineered to that can be used to shape the universe in humanhood is irrational and grounded in contain some human DNA. which they live.” outdated religion. Promoters of this research point out The prospect of a 150-year-old In place of humanness as the criterion that great good could result, for example, living human being sounds fantastical. for ultimate value, these advocates offer from obtaining human proteins from So does pre-designing children or future “personhood theory,” in which rights the milk of these altered animals for use generations with godlike powers. But belong to “persons,” a status earned by in pharmaceuticals, a process known many futurists and scientists say we any organism or machine possessing as “pharming.” Other than a scattering humans are about to seize control of our minimal cognitive capacities. of environmentalists and animal rights own evolution. If personhood theory ever governs activists, few object to creation of these If the impeders of scientifi c progress society, the impact would be incalculable, “transgenic” animals. can just be pushed out of the way, they for as futurist James Hughes writes in But important questions remain: predict, the wonders of science and “Citizen Cyborg,” “Persons don’t have How much human DNA in an animal biotechnology will re-create us into to be human, and not all humans are is too much? (James Hughes believes superior beings who will live longer, look persons.” that chimps should be “uplifted,” that better, play harder and think smarter than Opponents of personhood theory warn is, enhanced genetically to “have human any of us can even dream of doing today. that it would lead to the most vulnerable intellectual capacities.” That’s a way, Others (including this writer) see such humans being exploited as mere objects. scenarios as more hype than hope. They note that some supporters of Biohazards, continued on next page

Winter 2006 14 Discovery Institute Views Cascadia Center Expands Focus AND Intensifi es It ith Initiative 912’s failure Chapman, and Tom Till, appears on page 8 organizations. A fol low-up event is last November, Washington of this issue. In addition, the Puget Sound expected early in 2006. Wstate voters demonstrated Business Journal is currently running a This spring, Cascadia looks clear approval for investment in series of six op-eds by Cascadia on the forward to its third annual technology transportation infrastructure. Of course, topic of infrastructure. The series, which conference co-sponsored with much work remains before trust in began in November with a look at the Microsoft. Focusing on the nexus leadership is completely restored state’s power grid, continues this month between transportation and technology, to a healthy state. And as we now on topics ranging from transportation to the event will include national and face a political landscape marked technology. international speakers with expertise both by great encouragement and Public education on transportation in policy, government, break-through great challenge, a critical window of took a major leap forward this fall with the technology, and more. The event is opportunity is opening for Discovery’s launch of Cascadia’s new Transportation currently scheduled for April 12–13. Cascadia Center for Regional Washington website (www.transportation Meanwhile, Cascadia serves Development. It is in this vein, then, washington.org). The new site contains on the steering committee for the that the Center presses forward to a wealth of information and sheds much- congressionally-funded West Coast bolster accountability and transparency needed light on Washington state’s Corridor Coalition—composed in government at the regional level transportation system—the way it works, of transportation leaders from (Central Puget Sound). For starters, who’s in charge, how it’s funded, as well Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and this means consolidating regional as futuristic ideas like plug-in hybrid cars. California—which continues to transportation agencies and, at the In September, Cascadia partnered work on transportation infrastructure local level, encouraging government with the Seattle Chamber of Commerce fi nancing and Homeland Security issues performance audits (approved in to host “A Tale of Three Regions,” a from Alaska to Baja, California. Fifty Initiative 900). forum highlighting success stories from percent of the international trade in and Cascadia is also endorsing San Diego, Denver, and Vancouver, out of the U.S. comes through West innovative regional funding strategies, B.C. The event featured a panel of Coast ports, yet the region receives such as high occupancy toll (HOT) transportation representatives from the only 20 percent of federal infrastructure lanes—HOV lanes that also permit toll three cities, discussing how imaginative funding—a challenge the Coalition is access to single-occupancy vehicles. funding strategies solved common funding taking head on. This logical, “user pays” approach to challenges. funding is currently proposed as a pilot In November, Cascadia Co-Director Established in 1993, the Cascadia project on State Route 167. Ultimately Tom Till participated in discussions on Center for Regional Development expanding HOT lanes and express bus talk shows on NPR affi liates WAMU focuses on transportation, commerce, service to a tunneled Alaskan Way, (Washington, D.C.), and KUOW (Seattle) and conservation in the greater State Route 520, and Interstate 405 about the November 2005 fi ring of Amtrak Cascadia region of Washington, will reduce the need for general tax CEO David Gunn. These interviews Oregon and British Columbia. The increases. followed Till’s National Rail Forum in Center brings the private, corporate This fall, Cascadia stepped up its D.C. on Amtrak’s long-distance trains in and philanthropic sectors of the region focus on regional infrastructure. In September. Hosted by Reps. Mike Castle together with all levels of government October, The Seattle Times printed an (R-DE) and Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), to discuss and fi nd solutions to opinion editorial advocating tearing the forum featured representatives from common economic problems. For more down the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the U.S. Department of Transportation, information, please visit Cascadia’s replacing it with a six-lane tunnel. The Amtrak, freight railroads, the railway website at www.cascadiaproject.org. piece, authored by Bruce Agnew, Bruce supply industry, and railway fi nance

Biohazards, continued from last page of others, human reproduction has become reproductive anarchy. Look for these a far more complicated matter. issues to cut through the body politic like he says, of proving that “personhood Infertile couples now conceive a laser in the coming decades: not humanness” should “be the ticket to through in vitro fertilization. Women who • Is there a right to reproduce? citizenship.”) can’t carry a child can arrange to have This issue strikes at core beliefs Should any animal DNA ever be their baby gestated by a surrogate birth about the importance of natural limits, permitted to re-engineer human embryos? mother. Gay and lesbian partners are age, gender, sexual orientation, feminism, Such experiments are far from demanding the right to marry and have traditionalism, normality and the purposes unthinkable. A new social movement families. Sex selection has already begun. of becoming a parent. called “transhumanism” advocates the The social controversies raised by • Should a 65 year-old woman be creation of a “post-human species,” these behavioral changes, already white- allowed to receive technological assistance which would include using animal genes hot, are going to grow even more intense giving birth? How about an 80-year-old? in progeny to increase strength or make as cutting-edge procreative advances offer • Should a man be allowed a uterus senses more acute. ever-greater latitude to those wanting transplant so he can become a mother, as Once having children was generally children and more-precise control over the bioethicist Joseph Fletcher suggested? conducted in a simple way: Men and kind of children they have. • Will it be acceptable for a woman to women got married, made love, and had But critics worry that our growing babies—although not always in that order. mastery over reproduction could slide To the delight of some and the dismay from liberty into license and even into Biohazards, continued on 18

Discovery Institute Views 15 Winter 2006 J UDGING DARWIN AND GOD

By David Klinghoffer smallpox virus but harder to eradicate.” explanation of how complex organisms The Seattle Times In his book “Darwin’s Dangerous arise. Published December 23, 2005 Idea,” Daniel Dennett, of Tufts University, As Darwin himself clarifi ed in his condemns conservative Christians for, correspondence, “I would give absolutely ssuing theological statements isn’t among other things, “misinforming [their] nothing for the theory of natural selection Inormally thought of as the job of children about the natural world” and if it requires miraculous additions at any a federal judge. Yet, this week when compares such a religion to a wild animal: one stage of descent.” U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones “Safety demands that religions be put in Religion, by contrast, does not assume III released the fi rst federal ruling on cages, too—when absolutely necessary.” that material reality is all there is. intelligent design, there was at the core Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, This may be why, third and fi nally, of his written decision an unambiguously at the University of Texas, declares, “I thinkers who have tried to assert the theological ruling: that evolution as personally feel that the teaching of modern compatibility of God and Darwin formulated by Charles Darwin presents no science is corrosive of religious belief, and invariably end up changing the meaning confl ict with the God of the Bible. I’m all for that.” of one or the other. Those, for example, Quite apart from what one thinks of At the University of Minnesota, who say that God may operate through his legal decision, what should we make biologist P.Z. Myers, a bulldog for the medium of Darwinian evolution have of his theology? resorted to a logical fallacy. Again, In brief, Jones ruled that the whole purpose of Darwin’s theory disparaging Darwinian evolutionary “Darwinism and religious is to discover a model by which life theory in biology class violates the could have evolved without a need separation of church and state. The faith begin from antithetical for God. Anyone asserting a full- context is Kitzmiller v. Dover, a case bodied Darwinism has, by defi nition, dealing with the question of whether metaphysical assumptions.” rendered God superfl uous and a school district may teach about an irrelevant. alternative theory, intelligent design The comforting thought Darwin, writes about how he wishes he (ID). The latter fi nds hallmarks of a articulated by Judge Jones, that we may could use a time machine to go back and designer’s work in the evidence of nature. have both our God and our Darwin, eliminate the biblical patriarch Abraham: Wrote Jones, “[M]any of the leading doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, as some of the “I wouldn’t do anything as trivial as using proponents of ID make a bedrock fi ercer Darwinists themselves evidently it to take out Hitler.” assumption which is utterly false. Their recognize. And so on. These are just a few presupposition is that evolutionary theory What this says about the public- examples but the bottom line is evident: is antithetical to a belief in the existence of policy question—What may be taught Not all Darwinists, including the most a supreme being and to religion in general. in schools?—should be clear enough. famous and admired, share Judge Jones’ Repeatedly in this trial, [p]laintiffs’ Whether children are taught materialism view that Darwin and God may coexist scientifi c experts testifi ed that thetheory (Darwin), or an openness to what peacefully. of evolution... in no way confl icts with, transcends nature (intelligent design), they Second, and more fundamentally, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine are being taught not merely science but a Darwinism and religious faith begin from creator.” philosophy about life and existence itself. antithetical metaphysical assumptions. As a matter of fact, Jones is wrong. The idea that it is constitutional In “The Origin of Species,” Darwin’s Darwinism is indeed “antithetical to a to expose young people to one such working premise is that God has no role belief in the existence of a supreme being worldview, but not lawful to introduce in the unfolding of the history of life. In and to religion in general.” There are three them to another, is not really education. It view of this belief, which he never states reasons for this, and you don’t have to be a is indoctrination. or defends but simply assumes, Darwin theologian to grasp the point. goes on to detail his theory about natural First, consider the views on religion David Klinghoffer of Mercer Island is selection operating on random variation. from leading Darwinists themselves. a columnist for the Jewish Forward, a It is only in the absence of a supreme Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins, the senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, being working out his will in the evolution most distinguished of modern Darwin and the author most recently of “Why the of life that we would even undertake advocates, writes that “faith is one of the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Darwin’s search in the fi rst place. That world’s great evils, comparable to the Western History” (Doubleday). was a search for a purely materialistic

Winter 2006 16 Discovery Institute Views Holy Rights Church and state and the Bush justice

By Vincent Phillip Munoz religion. The same four voted with Justice The more conservative justices National Review Online O’Connor last June to strike down Ten understand their role to be more limited. Published September 14, 2005 Commandments displays posted in two They take their bearings not from what Kentucky county courthouses. they perceive to be best for contemporary bortion continues to dominate The three other remaining justices— society, but rather from the Constitution’s Adiscussion about John Roberts’s Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas—take text. What is determinative for them is that nomination and will certainly dominate a different approach. They argue that the First Amendment prohibits religious commentary surrounding President Bush’s “strict-separationism” misinterprets the establishments and establishments, at the second nominee. Beyond the posturing Constitution’s text and fl atly contradicts time of the Founding, involved coercion and polemics, however, the core issue our nation’s traditions. They interpret of religious practice by force of law is not in play. Even if President Bush is the Establishment Clause to prohibit and threat of penalty. They confi rm this successful in appointing two anti-abortion “coercion” of religion—that is, compelling interpretation with our nation’s history, justices, fi ve votes will remain on the belief, practice, or fi nancial support of which reveals that many of the Framers Court to uphold Roe’s essential holding religion. They would allow religious who drafted the First Amendment protecting a woman’s right to choose. groups to participate in public programs themselves embraced non-coercive, Of more immediate consequence is the like school vouchers as long as the governmental endorsement of religion. If new appointees’ impact on constitutional religious groups do so on the same terms the American people now want to allow questions that have been largely as non-religious groups. Their approach a non-coercive religious presence in the overlooked, in particular the relationship also allows non-coercive governmental public square, the conservative justices between church and state. acknowledgement of religion, like posting will not object. With Chief Justice Rehnquist’s death of the Ten Commandments. From his record, we know almost and Justice O’Connor’s retirement, the The split on the Court refl ects deep nothing about John Roberts’s views Court lacks a fi ve-vote majority regarding differences in jurisprudential philosophy, on church and state. He is not going to the purpose and meaning of the First contrary understandings of the judiciary’s answer questions about specifi c cases, Amendment’s Establishment Clause. but queries about judicial philosophy are On cases such as posting the Ten fair game. Senators concerned about Commandments on public property “While at times paying lip service to religious freedom should ask Roberts and allowing public-school children the Founders, the more liberal justices how he would discern the meaning to say “under God” in the Pledge of the Constitution’s prohibition of of Allegiance,” the new nominees ultimately defend the “wall” by claiming religious establishments. Would he will control future jurisprudence. As that it is the best way to prevent social strife take his bearings from the meaning of potential holders of the “swing vote,” in modern day, pluralistic America.” the words as they were understood at they should be pressed about their the time of the drafting and ratifi cation understanding of religious freedom. of the First Amendment? Or would Four sitting justices—Stevens, role, and competing assessments of the he follow modern day precedents that Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer—embrace potential harmfulness of religion. take their bearing from the judiciary’s the “wall of separation.” They interpret While at times paying lip service to perception of the demands of social the First Amendment to prohibit the the Founders, the more liberal justices cohesion? The same question should also government from advancing one religion ultimately defend the “wall” by claiming be asked of Bush’s second nominee. over others or from favoring religion that it is the best way to prevent social Before anyone assumes the awesome generally over non-religion. In practice strife in modern day, pluralistic America. power of a Supreme Court justice, this creates serious doubts about religious They argue that the Court should the American public deserves to hear groups participating in state-funded withdraw from the normal political responses to such questions. The meaning programs and about governmental process questions that might divide the and extent of the Constitution’s separation endorsement of religion in the public American public along religious lines. The of church and state, not to mention the role square. implication is that the judiciary is most of the judiciary in contemporary American In 2002, for example, the four “strict- capable of determining how, when, and politics, will depend on the answers separationists” voted against allowing under what conditions religion may safely provided. religious schools to participate in an appear in public. And more often than not, Ohio school-voucher program. They when exercising that judgment, the “strict- Vincent Phillip Muñoz is an assistant argued that to allow public funds to fl ow separationists” vote to limit religion’s professor of political science at Tufts to private (mostly Catholic) schools has public presence because they believe it is University and a fellow of the Discovery the impermissible effect of advancing so potentially divisive. Institute.

Discovery Institute Views 17 Winter 2006 Article Excerpts ... Intelligent Design Could Be a The Free Press is Essential But Bridge Between Civilizations Journalists Cannot Be Above the Law By Mustafa Akyol National Review Online By Howard Chapman Published December 1, 2005 The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel “When President Bush declared his support for the teaching Published July 13, 2005 of Intelligent Design (ID) theory in public schools along with The New York Times had an editorial the other day about a Darwinian evolution, both he and the theory itself drew a lot of highly paid corporate CEO who was charged with questionable criticism. Among the many lines of attack the critics launch, one accounting practices. ‘He knew what the law was,’ it said, ‘but theme remains strikingly constant: the notion that ID is a Trojan he thought the law was wrong. He thought that gave him the Horse of Christian fundamentalists whose ultimate aim is to turn right to disregard the law. America does not work that way. If we the U.S. into an theocracy. don’t like a law, we can say so, and try to change it, but in the “In a furious New Republic cover story, “The Case Against meantime, we have to obey it.’ Intelligent Design,” Jerry Coyne joins in this hype and implies “OK, I made that up. It is, however, exactly the kind of thing that all non-Christians, including Muslims, should be alarmed that The New York Times editors would say – about somebody by this supposedly Christian theory of beginnings that “might else. They think of themselves, however, as if they were my offend those of other faiths.” Little does he realize that if there is imaginary CEO, entitled to ignore a law they disagree with. They any view on the origin of life that might seriously offend other have been ordered by a court of law to disclose the source, or faiths—including mine, Islam—it is the materialist dogma: the sources, of information gathered by a reporter. The case has gone assumptions that God, by defi nition, is a superstition, and that all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and they have rationality is inherently atheistic ...” lost ...” Mustafa Akyol is a Muslim writer based in Istanbul, Turkey, Howard Chapman, a resident of Fort Wayne, is an Adjunct and one of the expert witnesses who testifi ed to the Kansas State Fellow of Discovery Institute. Education Board during the hearings on evolution.

To read the complete text of these and hundreds of other articles, please visit our website: www.discovery.org.

Biohazards, continued from 15 Within 20 years, it is expected that is contained in the First Amendment. In artifi cial wombs will be available to this view, scientifi c experimentation is use animal or artifi cial wombs to gestate save troubled pregnancies. If so, it is analogous to a reporter’s right to research her baby so as not to have her professional foreseeable that some anti-abortion states a story. life inconvenienced by a wanted would pass laws requiring women wanting If there is a right to conduct pregnancy? mid- or late-term abortions to instead experiments implicit in the First • Is there a right to have genetically have their unwanted fetuses saved through Amendment, only a compelling state related offspring? Reproductive cloning transfer into artifi cial wombs. interest—such as preventing a plague— is off the table for now because cloning Science is opening the door to would justify the government infringing a isn’t safe. But what if it were? Some procreative “quality control.” Whether scientist’s fundamental freedom of inquiry. bioethicists are already suggesting that society will permit made-to-order children Opponents of unfettered research say outlawing reproductive cloning, at least will be the subject of debate for years to the scientist-equals-a-reporter analogy for gay or infertile couples, would be come. fails because granting a right to research unconstitutional because “procreative All this begs the question: Who would actually be akin to allowing a liberty” includes the right to have decides? reporter to set fi re to a building so he biologically related offspring. Some believe scientists should have could write a story about the arson. • Is there a right to genetically the exclusive say because of their unique How all of this will turn out, nobody engineer offspring? Eradicating genetic expertise. Thus, bioethicist Rahul Dhanda, knows. But as Leon Kass, former disease is one thing. But there is a chorus wrote in “Guiding Icarus,” that science chairman of the President’s Council on of advocates who want to harness our “knows what is good for society, like a Bioethics, has said: “All of the natural growing knowledge of the human genome parent knows what is good for the child.” boundaries are up for grabs. All of the to “improve” our children through germ Professor Francis Fukuyama, a boundaries that have defi ned us as human line genetic manipulations. noted public intellectual, took a different beings, boundaries between a human being James Watson, co-discoverer of the view in “Our Posthuman Future.” “True and an animal on one side and between DNA double helix, argued that prospective freedom means the freedom of political a human being and a super human being parents should use biotechnology to communities to protect the values they or a god on the other. The boundaries of eradicate undesirable traits—or fabricate hold most dear,” he wrote, “and it is that life, the boundaries of death. These are the wanted enhancements—in their children. freedom that we need to exercise with questions of the 21st century, and nothing More bluntly, bioethicist Gregory regard to the biotechnology revolution could be more important.” Pence suggested in “Who’s Afraid of today.” Human Cloning?” that parents should be The intellectual foundation is Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at allowed to use biotechnology to “aim for being laid for lawsuits that will seek a the Discovery Institute and a special a certain type” of child “in the same way constitutional right to conduct scientifi c consultant to the Center for Bioethics that great breeders ... try to match a breed research -- perhaps in response to passage and Culture. His current book is of dog to the needs of a family.” of a new federal law outlawing all human Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World. • Will the artifi cial womb affect the cloning. Contact the San Fransisco Chronicle at right to abortion? Some scholars believe such a right [email protected]. Winter 2006 18 Discovery Institute Views It’s Clear, continued from 12 Notice to Members and Friends In the eight rainy months, water would be treated and pumped into the WELCOME 2006! aquifer by the ASR (aquifer storage and recovery) wells, which would iscovery’s membership has doubled (to 780) in the past year and half, withdraw the water for treatment and DVDs based on our intelligent activities have sold 100,000 copies, more use in summer months. During the drier Dbooks than ever are scheduled to print, and our transportation documentary period, the aquifer would be recharged by is widely seen. Our daily average number of visitors (not “hits”) to discovery.org Tacoma’s Second Supply project and other is about that of a medium-sized city newspaper circulation—only our readership is municipal sources. national and international! And our blogs make news as well as report it. Other, less conventional water supply We are straining to keep up the pace. We desperately need general purpose sources for Central Puget Sound’s future growth must receive more analysis as funds to cover maintenance of existing programs and to expand where we are well. These include desalination, use of needed. reclaimed wastewater for nonpotable Discovery Institute is obviously fi lling a need that has not been met by purposes and managing development- universities, politics or the media. As a side matter, we are training and encouraging related stormwater runoff to boost hundreds of ambitions, bright young people and college professors for whom infi ltration to groundwater supplies. Discovery is a unique resource. Through their work, our positive impact on the Balancing economic and culture of these times has never been so extensive. You can see the results in environmental concerns will be international—as well as national and local—newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV. challenging, but the twain can, and must, We cannot even keep track of the publicity now, let alone respond adequately to meet. The recently drafted, 14-watershed Shared Strategy salmon recovery plan for it; we don’t have the funds. We’re having an exciting time, but it’s a strain on many Puget Sound delineates additional factors people. We have to keep growing just to keep up with the research and promotional affecting salmon, provides recent and challenges ahead. current examples of salmon recovery and This year we received our fi rst bequest and thought from the estate of Edward acknowledges the need for more research Westfall of Olympia ,Washington—a generous and thoughtful gift we hope will on in-stream fl ows. stimulate others to remember us in their wills. It also holds that, given suffi cient But we also need current gifts to help us meet the growing demands for our public involvement and political fellows’ expertise and assistance. Won’t you consider a gift to give 2006 a big leadership, both salmon recovery and expected population growth can be boost? Discovery Institute is not an ordinary cause, but the work of our fellows, accommodated. researchers, conference planners, writers and staff isn’t ordinary either. Neither are Shared Strategy highlights the our wonderful, loyal members and friends! need for salmon habitat improvements, including estuaries, fl oodplains, and riparian and nearshore areas, and with President’s Letter, continued from 2 respect to water quantity and quality and harvest and hatchery management. program after the Asian tsunami has won is that others are examining these subjects Shared Strategy estimates a cost of us more friends in that area than diplomats for themselves and their discoveries are $1.2 billion to implement recommended ever did. changing their worldviews—and them. salmon recovery measures in the 14 And the culture? Well, actually, you Only fi ve years ago a PBS series watersheds from 2006 to 2015. The cost should read the statements of biochemist on evolution asserted that hardly any for securing adequate future water supplies Michael Behe, political scientist John scientifi c doubters of Darwin’s theory for the region’s growing population will West, law professor David DeWolf and could be found. Today, unbowed by ACLU certainly be higher. our staff lawyer Casey Luskin on what lawyers and intimidating professional really is under legal contest in the issues of The piecemeal approach doesn’t bodies, some 500 scientists from around work. The clock is ticking, and the costs Darwinism and design. Suffi ce that these the world have signed a “Dissent from far-reaching questions have been pushed Darwin.” The Darwinists can’t stop people of securing enough water for our region’s into international consciousness, as never from reading and thinking. future grow daily. Gov. Gregoire needs to before—and when they are answered, they So our reality displays gratitude, show real leadership and bring all the right will pose the strongest rebuff yet to the cheerfulness and hope. It embraces the parties to the table, in a binding regional moral relativism of our age. future of transportation, economics, decision-making process for central Puget Discovery isn’t trying to require the foreign policy, technology and democracy, Sound, where the water needs of homes, teaching of intelligent design, only the as well as science and culture. businesses and public institutions are teaching of the scientifi c evidence for Our reality is both more pleasant and fi rmly placed on equal footing with those and against Darwin’s theory. And we more serious than the dreary alternative. of fi sh. are calling for protection for ID-friendly As I like to point out: In America, nothing scientists currently under attack at several is so naïve as cynicism, or so ridiculous as Matt Rosenberg is a Seattle writer, universities and the Smithsonian. Critics despair. blogger and consultant. This article is can make such a program sound radical Cheer up, people! You can start by adapated from a report he wrote for the only by misrepresenting it. joining Discovery Institute! But it doesn’t matter how many Cascadia Center of the Seattle-based silly and ignorant articles are written by Discovery Institute. The paper is available commentators in defense of Darwin and in full here. Rosenberg’s e-mail is against the logic of design. What matters [email protected]. Discovery Institute Views 19 Winter 2006 About 1511 Third Avenue, Suite 808 Discovery Seattle, Washington 98101 Board of Directors Senior Fellows

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