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July 1, 2010

Drill, Baby, Drill . . . Still

By Selwyn Duke

The gulf oil gusher is a disaster of great proportions. We’ve all
seen the pictures of petroleum-soaked birds and dead fish, and the
area’s economy is on life support. The mishap truly is a tragedy for
all, from Gulf residents to English pensioners to marine wildlife to,
yes, BP itself. As bad as this is, however, there’s a way to make the
situation worse: by compounding it with another tragedy, one both
foreseeable and preventable.

Following the Emanualesque motto “Never let a good crisis go to
waste,” some would use the Deepwater Horizon accident to push an
anti-oil agenda. And given people’s tendency toward emotional reactions,
millions of others are willing to support them. It’s much as how there
was a hue and cry for gun control after the Columbine and L.I.R.R.
massacres. Passion may not govern wisely, as old Mr. Franklin warned,
but she sure does govern.

Read the rest here.
June 28, 2010

Would You Rather Have Obama Golf or Govern?

By Selwyn Duke

After seeing Barack Obama’s golf
swing, I’m confronted with the staggering possibility that he might
actually be better at governing than golfing.
And this is despite the fact that he seems to devote more time to the
latter, an impression that has won him much bad publicity.

(more…)
June 24, 2010

Online Society, Offline Civilization: How the Internet is Ushering in the End of the Age

By Selwyn Duke

When people discuss the overall effects of the Internet, they
will weigh the good and the bad. On one
side, they may mention how the Web, along with talk radio, has broken the
stranglehold over public opinion the mainstream media once enjoyed; on the
other, they may cite the pernicious effects of pornography, cyber-bullying or
the loss of privacy. Whatever the
analysis and verdict, though, it never truly captures how tangled a Web we have
woven. This is because seldom recognized
is a simple and profound fact: The Internet is one of the most powerful forces
ever unleashed by mankind.

(more…)
June 21, 2010

The Big Government-Big Business Axis

By Selwyn Duke

If you accept the old stereotype, you believe that big government is a
sworn enemy of big business. You believe that, were it not for
Washington’s protection, we’d all be under the boot of rapacious robber
barons. In reality, however, the two bigs have far more acquaintance
with each other than with the little guy.

Another old stereotype is that Republicans "mainline" corporate
money, and they certainly aren’t averse to such a diet. Yet this
stereotype is also deceptive. For example, it is well-known that Barack
Obama not only received cash from oil giant BP — he was the biggest
recipient of it in 20 years. And, as a quid pro quo
some say, his administration granted the corporation a waiver freeing it
from environmental regulations. BP isn’t alone, either. The securities
and investment industry has given the majority
of its donations to Democrats during this election cycle, helping the
party raise more money than the GOP.

Of course, there is the truism that “money follows power,” but
donations don’t tell the whole story.

Read the rest here.
June 17, 2010

Goodbye to One Man, One Vote

By Selwyn Duke

If you thought that “one man, one vote” reflected the full
flowering of representative democracy, think again. In the village of Port Chester, N.Y., just a
few towns north of my locality in Westchester County, there is a new
system. It’s “one man, six votes” —
brought to us courtesy of the U.S. Department of Injustice and a lunkhead of a
federal judge named Stephen Robinson.

(more…)
June 14, 2010

Congressman Etheridge Assaults Student

By Selwyn Duke

A shocking video released today shows Congressman Bob
Etheridge (D-N.C.) assaulting a student who asked him a question on a
public sidewalk.

The 71 seconds of footage opens with a student in a jacket and tie
greeting Etheridge with “Hi, Congressman, how are you?” The
Representative seems to respond cordially enough but then mutters, “Who
are you?” The student then asked a question the Congressman apparently
found intolerable: “Do you fully support the Obama agenda?” At this
point Etheridge stops, moves closer to the student, and asks more
aggressively “Who are you?” Etheridge repeats this query one more time
and then, shockingly, tries to grab the camera, interrupting the
recording.

When the video resumes a few seconds later . . . .

Read the rest here.
June 12, 2010

Liberals’ Lies about Religion in American History

Become a big liar often enough and you start to believe yourself

By Selwyn Duke

When I was in high school in the early 1980s, I knew that my education
was a cakewalk as compared to that of two generations earlier. And I
assumed the other teens knew this, too. It took me a while to understand
that many people are so immersed in their age that, to them, history is
a mystery. How does one understand a past he has never experienced?
Here’s how I explain it: If a doctor knows the pathology of a certain
disease, can’t he look at a patient with an advanced case of it and tell
you what the symptoms would have been during the early stages?

So it is with civilization. If you understand what social disease
ails yours, you can “run the tape backwards” and have a good idea what
the state of the patient was many years before. This brings us to the
subject of creeping secularism and religion in America.

Read the rest here.
June 7, 2010

Buddy Parenting

By Selwyn Duke

It seems that the more parents treat their children like friends,
the more unfriendly the world becomes.

While at a recreational facility the other day, I overheard a mother
call her six-year-old son “bud.” No, I don’t think that was his name and
he wasn’t a beer. Rather, the woman was exhibiting what, at least in my
area (NY), has become a meme: addressing your child as “buddy.”
“Buddy” used to just be a relationship descriptive and a generic, if
sometimes snarky, way of addressing strangers (again, at least in NY).
Now it’s a stranger way of addressing loved ones. It has also become
maddeningly common. Right now I’m thinking of two families to which I’m
close, and, in each case, one or both of the parents thus address their
child.

Now, I realize that criticizing people’s parenting is a hazardous
endeavor and that some reading this have gotten caught up in our “buddy
system.” So I’ll be gentle and not start this with a New Yawk “Listen,
buddy….” In turn, I ask that you hear me out.

Read the rest here.
May 25, 2010

Scientists One Step Closer to Creating “Artificial Life”

Hailed as a breakthrough, a cell driven by synthetic DNA has been
created. But what are the implications for science, man and faith?

By Selwyn Duke

In a development that has alarmed and excited many, scientists have
brought the world one step closer to creating what’s known as
“artificial life.” The breakthrough is the handiwork of Dr. Craig
Venter, a 63-year-old biologist and billionaire entrepreneur who has
long been pushing back frontiers in the field. BBC News reports on the
story, writing:

He and his colleagues had previously made a
synthetic bacterial genome, and transplanted the genome of one
bacterium into another.

Now, the scientists have put both methods together, to create what they
call a “synthetic cell”, although only its genome is truly synthetic.

Read the rest here.
May 23, 2010

Why Arizona Should “Racially Profile”

By Selwyn Duke

When the Times Square bombing suspect was first reported to
be a “white male,” I shook my head. I
knew that, despite Mayor Bloomberg’s asinine musings about how the perpetrator
was probably “homegrown” and perhaps someone upset about the healthcare bill,
this was nonsense. “It’s about as likely
as a story about Bill Clinton becoming a monk,” I thought.

Of course, this was no great insight. Given that 99 percent of the terrorists
bedeviling us today are non-white Muslims, it was just common sense — otherwise
known as profiling.

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