ILF POST

strong>By Charles Lindblom People used to maim, kill, and sometimes eat each other. It took at least several thousand years for masses of them to learn that their own lives would be more secure if these practices could be constrained. They later learned that they could do even better by also creating authorities, customs or [...]

By Douglass Carmichael My intent is to lay the groundwork for the idea that there is a platform that 80% of the population would easily assent to. The platform combines the best of progressive and conservative thought in the large territory where, in their modem form, they do not conflict. It basically is an approach [...]

By Michael Crichton (Remarks to the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, September 15, 2003)
I have been asked to talk about what I consider the most important challenge facing mankind, and I have a fundamental answer. The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the [...]

By Harlan Cleveland By voting to make criminals of 11-12 million illegal immigrants and whoever cares for them, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives produced by far the largest Hispanic-American street demonstrations in our nation’s history.
The turnout was stunning — half a million in Los Angeles, half a million in Dallas, huge [...]

By Charles Lindblom Democracy, we say, gives power to the people. What power does it in fact give to you, me, or any person? Almost nothing. It gives a grant to me of one vote, as it does to millions of others, and the result is that you, I and every other person is almost [...]

By Mary Catherine BatesonIt is logical to assume that increasing diversity in the classroom will offer children and young people the opportunity for broader and deeper learning, and certainly one of the main goals of school is to expose children at every age to different kinds of people and challenge them to get along across [...]

By Gloria Feldt So the Hammer finally nailed himself. I am so disappointed. It would have been much more fun to defeat Tom DeLay fair and square at the ballot box in November. I was prepared to walk door-to-door in the district (my son, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons who deserve better representation live there). [...]

By Douglass Carmichael

There is conceptual confusion in our use of the labels that best fit the leaderships of the two parties, and the labels that best describe the supporters of the two parties. Much of the confusion is because the supporters do not have the values of the leaders. Moreover the President, a “conservative” [...]

By Harlan Cleveland Last week in this space, Michael Crichton poked fun at the ownership of information as “idiotic.” I want to agree with him, and carry the argument a step further.
My own interest in this topic was piqued in 1981, when I acquired my first home computer. The ethical dilemma leapt out at me [...]

By Gloria Feldt I don’t know who coined the phrase, but it means I’ve reached the point where I’d vote for a yellow dog before a Republican in the next elections. It’s clearly time for a major course correction.
For three decades, I was professionally nonpartisan and personally voted for candidates who represented my values regardless [...]

By Charles Lindblom The governor of my state wants to spend a half million dollars to study the possibility of capturing a professional sports team for the state. He believes, or is riding on the common belief, that in policy making we need to use more brains, less brawn — study our problems much more [...]

By Mary Catherine Bateson Will you be wise when you grow old? Don’t count on it, work on it. Traditionally, wisdom comes at the opposite end of the life cycle from education.
This model fits a society that is fairly stable, so that by maturity individuals have a basic competence in their culture that can [...]

By Douglass Carmichael My view is that the centers of power: Washington, Wall Street, industrial centers, and real estate interests (rent and interest on loans), have created a very dynamic but fenced in merry-go-round of activity that is set up in such a way that most of us can’t get on. There is not room. [...]

By Michael Crichton
The Earth revolves around the Sun.
The speed of light is a constant.
Apples fall to earth because of gravity.
Elevated blood sugar is linked to diabetes.
Elevated uric acid is linked to gout.
Elevated homocysteine is linked to heart disease.
Elevated homocysteine is linked to B-12 deficiency, so doctors should test homocysteine levels to see whether the patient [...]

By Jane Alexander A ritual occurs every year in Washington DC which gets little play in the press but which is important to those of us in the arts. Arts Advocacy Day in March is when legions of artists and arts advocates visit the Hill and talk about federal funding for the arts and [...]