Intelligent design is intellectual dishonesty, Sept. 15, 2005

Several writers have been critical of Bradley Fikes' indictment of intelligent design as nonscientific. Intelligent design argues that the universe displays design in all dimensions. It further argues that design implies a designer. This is an old piece of anthropomorphism, i.e. we intelligent humans design things, therefore all design must have an intelligent designer.Tell it to orb spiders whose beautifully symmetrical webs involve no intelligence, just instinct. To impose such a fabrication on the nation's young is the height of intellectual dishonesty and would set back the teaching of science. That kind of nonscientific argument can have destructive consequences analogous to the Soviet Union's adoption of Lysenko's genetic theory in place of the scientifically accepted Mendelian genetics, because it better fit Soviet ideology. Truth was not a concern, political domination was.Intelligent design proponents are part of a massive effort by the religious right to dominate the educational system of this country. This effort includes the recent suit by students of Calvary Chapel Christian Schools to compel the University of California to accredit their religious courses. It can be seen at work in Richard Ackerman's candidacy for the board of the Murrieta Valley Unified School District.Ackerman is a pro bono lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which legally supports those seeking to teach intelligent design in public schools. See the National Center for Science Education http://www.ncseweb.org/ This effort also includes the attack on the nation's universities by David Horowitz's campaign to install a political test for professorships.ROBERT NEWHARD

Bush out to destroy legacy of Roosevelt, May 20, 2005

Bush out to destroy legacy of Roosevelt, May 20, 2005Recently President Bush apologized to the world for President Roosevelt's failure to stand up for freedom by "allowing" Russia to take over eastern European countries.Aside from trying to destroy every vestige of Roosevelt's legacy of a decent society, he is now trying to destroy his stature as well. The United States did prevent the Soviet Union from taking over Greece. This frat boy who ducked military service has the temerity to condemn FDR's capacity and motives. The world had been at war for six years, more than 60 million men, women and children had been killed, not to mention those scarred for life. The world's economies, except for that of America, were in shreds and G.W. Bush thinks we should have gone to war with the Soviet Union at that time.Bush is the voice of an irresponsible ideologue, and we are seeing the results both in his foreign adventures and his domestic policies, aimed at punishing the poor for the benefit of the rich and the destruction of our civil liberties and rights.Had Bush rather than Eisenhower been president in the early '50s Gen. Curtis LeMay, the mad incendiary bomber of Japanese civilians, may have had his way when he urged a pre-emptive nuclear attack on Russia with a projected 100 million deaths. See www.geocities.com/lemaycurtis/. Bush and his neocon barbarians should be jettisoned at the earliest possible moment, lest they inflict irreparable damage on this nation and the rest of the world.ROBERT NEWHARD

Bush attack upon Social Security

Administration continues to 'lie' about fund, Feb. 2, 2005The Bush administration is out to destroy Social Security. In the process, the administration members are prepared to lie as extensively as they did about Iraq. One of those lies, as promoted by Dick Cheney, is that far fewer working people are now "supporting" each retiree than when the system was founded in 1933 and that this "burden" will increase in the future. What Cheney does not talk about is that it takes far fewer people to support our population than it did at the inception of Social Security in 1933.There has been an enormous increase in per capita productivity since 1933. A study by the International Monetary Fund on world productivity growth between 1960 and 1980 alone shows that the U.S. per capita growth in dollars increased by 55 percent. It is clear that technology is the main source of that growth. Unfortunately, the benefits of that growth have gone disproportionately to the wealthy.This growth, due to robotization in factories, the computer's impact on office productivity, the computerization of financial transactions, etc., is in large measure why fewer people are required to "support" one retiree. As Bush and his buddies of wealth have used that productivity to downsize, i.e. layoff, thousands of employees transferring their salaries and benefits to the pockets of the investment community, so they are now trying to use it to move the funds supporting Social Security to the market and the tender mercies of stock and bond speculators.ROBERT NEWHARDMurrieta