Author: Justin

Or wanted to… On June 24, 2005, space-related industry leaders invited non-space industry executives to a dialogue exploring how lunar commerce could help achieve the economic growth foreseen by the national Vision for Space Exploration… To keep the event small and informal enough for genuine dialogue to begin, the invitation-only executive roundtable was held to…

Word from the complaints department has it that my recent post ?What Bioethicists Don?t Do? was so long and turgid (ahem) that it was well-nigh unreadable. The problem was duly noted, and is being addressed, right here and now. I?m going to run it past you again in an even more severely whittled down form…

Or perhaps “The Philadelphian” would be more appropriate? Wish I could work in some Tolkien. Anyway, I have it on the best authority that Eric is nearly back from his extensive travels. Huzza! Mere hours from now, you can all sink your incisors into the rich, creamy goodness (yet also tart, so very tart) of…

Just so you know where he’s coming from. Naturally, all italicization is mine. I rather like the effect. Testimony Before United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime on ?The Ethics of Cloning? June 7, 2001 Testimony of Leon R. Kass, M.D., Ph.D.* Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee. My…

Over at Bioethics Blog there’s a longish post addressing some longstanding peeves of mine. The entire thing is well worth your time, but I would never ever do that to you. No, no, never that. I’ll just give you most of it. Say, around ninety percent. Let’s start with the obligatory bona fides. My name…

I hope you’ve enjoyed “Rose Wilder Lane Week” these past few days. Her refreshingly direct love of country struck me as being perfectly suited, thematically, to the Fourth of July holiday. Nevertheless, “all good things,” eh? I have to say, it was harder for me than I expected, moderating the amount of her work that…

It’s an old chestnut, but still worth hauling out and dusting off…now and then. Actually, I never tire of it. Truly great writing is timeless, don’t you think? I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for…

Probably because C.S. Lewis and Star Trek are so much easier… Via the invaluable and tireless Reason at Fight Aging, comes this interesting news from Dr. Rafal Smigrodski… Today our team confirmed our previous preliminary data showing that we can achieve robust mitochondrial transfection and protein expression in mitochondria of live rats, after an injection…

An article by Ron Bailey at Reason brought Elusys to my attention a few years back. They were a biotech research company with a novel idea. On a whim, I checked out their website the other day to see how they were progressing. Huh. Things are just perking along. This news release was from late…

New tyrants, defending the ancient tyranny, intend to destroy utterly this new idea that men are free. They do not believe it. As firmly as Lycurgus or Nebuchadnezzar, they believe that all men are naturally subject to Authority (all but themselves.) Government, they believe is Authority; they are Government. They accept that responsibility. They believe…

Peace Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour, And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping, With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power, To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping, Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary, Leave the sick hearts that honour could not…

I’ve never been to London. It’s been on my to do list for a while . Seeing it on TV just now reminded me what a fragile treasure a city is. The people who did this thing aren’t really human in my book. Not where it counts. They may think they are, but they’re really…

I usually leave the political and topical stuff to Eric. He enjoys it, I don’t, and the resulting complementarity seems to work well for both of us. That being said, sometimes a political event takes place that cries out for attention, an event so shockingly conspicuous that even a confirmed politics-ducker like myself can’t help…

It’s still “Rose Wilder Lane Week” here at Classical Values. I hope you’re as pleased reading these selections as I am presenting them. One thing I’ve noticed about “The Discovery of Freedom” is that no matter how many inaccuracies I find in it, none detract from the central argument. I hope the rest of you…

You might be surprised… Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9-11 was doing a brisk business for the 10p.m. show at the local cineplex Sunday night, which tells me that the public is hungry for someone to make sense of the events of recent years. It’s too bad that Moore has been annointed the Great Explainer because he…

Independence Day plus one and I’m still feeling a warm love-of-country glow. I thought it would be appropriate to let today’s selection from Mrs. Lane reflect that. What follows is a consideration of American exceptionalism, written in 1943. Mrs. Lane was of the opinion that too much government can be harmful to freedom and the…

Just in case the “chickenhawk” argument should twitch, or even draw a tremulous breath in your presence, you’ll be wanting a handy refuting reference. The following, from One Hand Clapping, should fill the bill nicely… Here are my questions for Duncan Black: My son is a lance corporal in the US Marine Corps. He will…

I’ve been observing Independence Day this year by re-reading “The Discovery of Freedom” by Rose Wilder Lane. And eating too much barbeque. It’s an interesting little book, full of hits and misses. Lane herself was not entirely satisfied with it. As she grew older she became aware of certain factual errors in the text, errors…

Via Green Car Congress, the following fascinating article… An international research consortium has successfully built a 300-kW pilot plant that uses solar energy to reduce zinc oxide to zinc. The zinc can be used in zinc-air batteries or be used to produce hydrogen by reacting it with water vapor. In both cases the zinc recombines…

I just got back from seeing the new “War of the Worlds” movie, and I have to say that I’m stunned. As a long time fan of mindless alien invasion epics, I’m what you might call a discriminating consumer, and trust me, this one really delivers the goods. Hopefully, it permanently raises the bar for…