“We’re at the beginning of the 21st century in the middle of what many pundits refer to as the new economy,” says Howard Learner of the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Illinois Issues (April). “Yet we rely for about 60 percent of our electricity supply in Illinois on coal plants that were built mostly in the 1950s and ’60s.”
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Will “NRA-style Catholics” be lobbying against the death penalty or against abortion rights? “If U.S. politics is on one level a game of numbers, we should be able to get more accomplished with our 60 million,” writes Kevin Clarke in U.S. Catholic (May). “With just 3 million members, the National Rifle Association has thwarted every common-sense attempt to restrain the arming of America…. Its numbers reliably translate into votes and an avalanche of phone calls, letters, and e-mails each time America’s access to AK-47s and $35 handguns is threatened. The church needs to create NRA-style Catholics if it wants to be similarly ‘feared’ in Washington.”
“As genetic technologies identify which currently healthy people will later develop which particular diseases, insurance companies have begun charging exorbitant amounts to people predicted to be at genetic risk, or denying them coverage entirely,” writes Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Lori Andrews in her newest book, Future Perfect: Confronting Decisions About Genetics. “At first glance, such a policy seems reasonable, akin to charging higher rates to people who smoke…. As dozens of genes are identified each week, however, the absurdity of this approach becomes apparent. Since each of us has at least five genetic defects, everyone could become uninsurable.”
