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The Public Interest, Fall 2004 JOHN Sperling, a man who has been called the Howard Hughes of biotechnology, has $3 billion and a dream: to retard aging and extend human longevity. According to a recent article in Wired magazine, he intends to found an endowment generating at least $150 million a year for biotech research. “I am…
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The New York Times Magazine | March 7, 2004 IN ENDORSING the passage of a constitutional amendment that would restrict marriage to the union of men and women, President Bush established himself as the country’s most prominent advocate of same-sex marriage. To be more precise, he established himself as the most prominent advocate of the best…
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The Atlantic Monthly | October 2003 THAT genetic engineering may be the most environmentally beneficial technology to have emerged in decades, or possibly centuries, is not immediately obvious. Certainly, at least, it is not obvious to the many U.S. and foreign environmental groups that regard biotechnology as a bête noire. Nor is it necessarily obvious…
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National Journal | July 26, 2003 “I WAS A LIGHTWEIGHT trading on a famous name, they said.” That was George W. Bush, then still governor of Texas, writing in his 1999 book, A Charge to Keep. He might have been pleased to know that “they,” the purveyors of conventional wisdom, had said the same of…
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National Journal | July 26, 2003 “I WAS A LIGHTWEIGHT trading on a famous name, they said.” That was George W. Bush, then still governor of Texas, writing in his 1999 book, A Charge to Keep. He might have been pleased to know that “they,” the purveyors of conventional wisdom, had said the same of Franklin Delano…
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The Atlantic | May 2003 ITcame to me recently in a blinding vision that I am an apatheist. Well, “blinding vision” may be an overstatement. “Wine-induced haze” might be more strictly accurate. This was after a couple of glasses of merlot, when someone asked me about my religion. “Atheist,” I was about to say, but…
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The Atlantic Monthly | March 2003 DO YOU KNOW someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the…
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The Atlantic Monthly | December 2002…..IN SEPTEMBER, McDonald’s announced plans to cook its fries in healthier oil. And not a moment too soon. Just a few days later the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that in 2000 (the latest year for which final figures are available) the death rate in America, adjusted for…
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The Atlantic Monthly | December 2001 IN the days following the terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center and demolished part of the Pentagon, I received a series of e-mails from my sister asking what I thought she could do to protect herself and her family. Should she stock up on water? On…
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Wall Street Journal | July 27, 2001 THE other day I attended what seemed an unusually disingenuous press conference, even by Washington’s standards. The event was the unveiling, by a coalition of church and community groups called the Alliance for Marriage, of a proposed 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The “Federal Marriage Amendment” was soon…