What's New Friday June 13, 2008

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 13 Jun 08   Washington, DC

1.  FREEDOM OF SPEECH: DO AMERICANS TAKE IT FURTHER?
Maclean’s, Canada’s leading newsweekly, is on trial for disrespecting 
Islam.  The magazine argued that the rise of Islam threatens Western 
values.  This prompted a front-page article by Adam Liptak in yesterday’s 
New York Times, "Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in 
Speech."  What sets the U.S. apart from all other countries is The First 
Amendment to the Constitution.  In a sense, these 45 words ARE the 
Constitution - the rest of it is just operating instructions.   But does 
the rise of Islam really threaten Western values?  At the risk of being 
put on trial in Canada, we note that the NY Times reported a day earlier 
that an increasing number of Muslim women in Europe seek hymenoplasty, a 
surgical restoration of the hymen to recapture the illusion of virginity.  
It’s not clear whose values are being threatened.      

2.  OPENNESS: SCIENCE HAS ITS OWN "FREE SPEECH" CLAUSE.  
The success and credibility of science is anchored in the willingness of 
scientists to expose their work to the scrutiny of the rest of the 
scientific community, and to abandon or modify accepted facts or theories 
if better evidence becomes available.  This includes sharing the details 
of how the work was done.  The basic assumption is that for every physical 
effect observed there must be a physical cause.  Science is a matter of 
tracing the chain of causes back in time until we can write the theory-of-
everything on a T-shirt.  Governments would do well to emulate the 
openness of science.  

3.  FOOD: POPE URGES WORLD TO COMBAT CAUSES OF HUNGER. 
In a message read at the June 3 opening of a three-day World Food Security 
Summit in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said that hunger is unacceptable in a   
world that can produce plenty to eat.  He quoted a 12th Century church 
text: "If you do not feed someone who is dying of hunger, you have killed 
him."  But if you do not provide the pill to populations with inadequate 
resources, have you murdered starving infants?  In a finite world, food 
shortages are inevitable in the absence of adequate family planning.   In 
Britain, where population is soaring due to record immigration, the 
Chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission called for a "zero net 
immigration" policy.  He commented on the malign combination of a Catholic 
Church that sees contraception as wicked, and a United States, which takes 
an ideological approach to family planning.  Martin Rees, President of the 
Royal Society said: food and water shortages are a dangerous reality in 
developing countries. 

4.  MARS: PLANNING THE FIRST HUMAN MISSION.
John McCain told Florida newspaper editors that it would be exciting to 
send a man to Mars.   He explained that he’s been intrigued by Mars ever 
since reading Ray Bradury’s Martian Chronicles.   Actually Mars has 
changed a lot since then.  I’ve been making a list of appropriate crew 
members for the trip and I’d be happy to include McCain so he could see 
the changes for himself.

5.  NATUROPATHS: IN MINNESOTA THEY CALL THEM "DOCTORS."
After 99 years of trying, naturopaths in Minnesota can now call 
themselves "doctor."  That’s OK, in Minnesota they call tag-team 
wrestlers "Governor."

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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