Michael Gerson cannot bring himself to point out the theme of the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed that has been in theaters for three weeks now, but he still hits the mark with his column on the bogus "War on Science" issue that certain liberals have tried to float. He cites a useful paper by Yuval Levin of Ethics and Public Policy Center. Both are former Bush White House officials.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/06/AR2008050602446.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Here is another reason to go online for news features.http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/this-is-a-kosovar-muslim-11372

This question is going to be asked increasingly, I believe, as Americans of serious intellect and sober sensibilities start to examine what really is being offered--for huge sums of money--at America universities. As they do, some may stop falling for propaganda from university alumni relations offices that is designed to mislead them about the realities on campus.

I am going to return to this theme. Part of it is that old fashioned liberals and thinking conservatives should be making common cause on the issue of real university reform, especially as regards undergraduate studies.

Meanwhile, this article appears in The Washington Post. Its hero is a "secular humanist", or else it probably would not have been published by The Post. But at least the author gives a glimpse of a reality in which the big issues that used to matter--the "meaning of life" itself being at the top of the list--are now ignored or turned into silly cartoons.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/02/AR2008050202795.html?referrer=emailarticle

Again, why do you give money to institutions like Yale? And what makes you think your alma mater is, in a significant respect, any different?

It seems that terrorism and the arcade game, Whac-a-Mole, have at least one thing in common: Bludgeon one and another pops up to take its place. At least that could be the conclusion after reading the U.S. State Department's annual Country Reports on Terrorism, released today.

According to the congressionally mandated annual report, attacks are down in Iraq. But as al-Qaida and its affiliates have reorganized in the last year in remote tribal areas in the Afghani and Pakistani countryside, there has also been a corresponding increase in terrorist activity in Afghanistan.

To misread Foggy Bottom’s annual report would be to say, “Yes! I told you so: Putting troops and treasure toward the Global War on Terror is wasteful.” But you’d be wrong. A more equitable rant would be that the U.S. decision to fight terrorists is indeed a long slog, one that may best be defined by three steps forward, two steps back.

And to say that the U.S. focus on al-Qaida is all consuming would also be inaccurate. As the report points out, El Comandante’s island south of Miami is among the countries still included as a state sponsor of terrorism. Why? Can you say balmy, beachfront terrorist get away?

Cuba, which I admit conjures up more of a smirk than a shiver vis-à-vis danger at the doorstep, continues to offer haven to groups such as the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

For its part, the FARC most recently found its way back into the news cycle with the reported kidnapping of Cuban-American businessman, Juan Padron earlier this month. As ABC News reported, although the FARC and kidnapping have never been mutually exclusive words (some reports have their total current hostage count at 700), the most recent episode brought a new twist to their operations. It happened on Panamanian soil. Padron joins three U.S. government contractors who have been held since 2003.

If you have the time to read the State Department’s report, it's worth the investment. If you have less time, spend 55 minutes watching the presentation of the report this morning from Foggy Bottom. (Dell Dailey, State’s Counterterrorism Coordinator, navigates the highlights.)

Say what you will about the politically isolated Bush administration, but State’s annual report is widely seen as a thoughtful, clinical assessment of the threats facing America and its allies. And between the lines, it reminds that fighting terrorism isn’t just about subduing and removing the Hydra that al-Qaida has spawned. It’s about making impotent terrorist groups worldwide (al-Qaida affiliated or not) that represent real threats – strategic and economic – to those of us who value peace, security and something called rule of law.

When Sen. McCain was last in Iraq he seemed to slip up when he mentioned that al Qaeda was getting help from Iran. Surely he meant al Sadr? After all, didn't he know that Iran was Shiite and al Qaeda Sunni?

The trouble was (and is), Iran helps almost anyone who is an enemy of the United States or Israel, witness Lebanon.

Now, my favorite Iraq blog, Iraq the Model, poses the very real possibility of a tactical alliance between al Sadr and al Qaeda, brokered by....yes....Iran.

David Berlinski's The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions (reviewed brilliantly by George Gilder in the new National Review) is just arriving in book stores, while in Paris an entirely different, and also invaluable, book, Origines (Origins), has been published this week in French by Saint-Simon.

Those who know Berlinski's exquisite scientific inquiries into the origins of life, mind and matter will recognize the themes. As the dust jacket states (translated here into English):

Here are three great mysteries: the existence of the human mind; the existence of living creatures; and the existence of matter.
Why are they there?
Many scientists claim that while we cannot answer these questions in detail, we can answer them in a general way.
Can we indeed?
In this profoundly provocative book, David Berlinski, the best-selling author of La vie revee des maths and Une breve histoire des mathematiques (A Brief History of Mathematics), examines these questions, and argues that it is far from certain that we have answered them at all.
Origins will appeal to readers who believe that these great questions have been settled, and to readers who believe that they have not.

(And just to test your French:

Voici trois grands mystères: l'existence de l'esprit humain, l'existence de
les créatures vivantes, et l'existence de la matière.
Pourquoi sont-ils?
Nombreux sont les scientifiques qui prétendent que, si nous ne pouvons pas répondre à ces questions en détail, nous
vous pouvez y répondre d'une manière générale.
Peut-on en effet?
Dans ce livre provocateur profondément, David Berlinski, l’auteur de
La vie revee des maths et Une brève histoire des mathematiques, examine ces
questions et fait valoir qu'il est loin d'être certain que nous avons répondu à tous.
Origines fera appel aux lecteurs qui croient que ces grandes questions ont été
réglé, et aux lecteurs qui croient qu'ils n'ont pas.)

David is back in Paris after his U.S. tour and the opening of the Ben Stein film, Expelled, in which his role is prominent. He will return to these shores in a few weeks, speaking, among other places, at the annual Gilder/Forbes Telecosm conference, held this year at Lake George, New York from May 27 to 29.

A haiku dedicated to Yoko:

Yoko Ono mad
‘Imagines’ bad infringement
Stein movie Expelled?

Editorial comment: How can Left-wing Darwinists be so dense as to think that the way to deal with a film about their efforts to shut down dissenting scientists is to try to shut down the film, too? They are just proving the film's point! (See this release from the Expelled producers, received today.)

Time is running out for Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean to drain the electoral swamp his organization helped create in Florida.

The solution, as I wrote last January, was to adopt the GOP plan and give Florida half its delegates. The state was "punished" by the Republican National Committee for having a primary before the National Committee had authorized one, but the millions of voters in Florida still will be represented at the GOP national convention. That approach could be still be adopted by the Democrats if they would just be willing to compromise with one another.

The other possibility for the DNC this spring was to help fund a Florida re-vote. That actually had some merit, but the powers-that-be dawdled and soon the option disappeared.

All in all, the situation in the Democratic nomination process--no votes for Michigan and Florida--shows why the nominating calendar should be "reformed" (literally re-formed) again. This time, give a tax break for citizens who donate up to, say, $2000 (with an inflationary adjustment built in for the future), for the presidential candidate of their choice. But make that tax break available only as of the first of the year of the general election itself. That will slow all the primary campaigns down because small and medium sized donors won't want to fund them until the election season officially begins and their donations can be used for tax deductions.

Then provide a federal subsidy to the states to help finance primaries, but again, it only would be available if the primary takes place after March 1. In olden days, March was the time of the New Hampshire primary, so that is a fit time to begin the season.

And then, bite the bullet and set up regional primaries, with different regions getting the first primaries. The present front loading is simply unfair to candidates, and, more importantly, to the vast majority of the nation's voters.

Meanwhile, Floridians and Michiganders stew. Nobody at all seems to be upset that the Republicans are denying Michigan and Florida half their delegates, but they are really sore at the Democrats for denying those states all of their delegates. This from the party that made such a fuss in 2000 about the need (in Florida!) to "count every vote."

The amazing thing is how awareness of Left Wing censorship at the supposedly open and fair-minded Wikipedia is growing. I was delighted that the author of the National Post article recognized it. Tell your friends: except for non-ideological arcana, Wikipedia cannot be trusted for anything like accuracy or objectivity.

This is the footnoted version of the article that ran in Thursday's Seattle Times.