Certain objects of public dialogue – such as “supply-side” economics, or whether or not human overpopulation will have catastrophic results – rise and fall cyclically, coming and going and coming back once more, as if they had never been discussed in the first place. Another of these is the wisdom of the United States’ “all-volunteer” military.

The past few months have ushered in a rising din of calls to reinstitute the draft. New York Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel in 2005 introduced House Bill 2723 – the Universal National Service Act – and then again broached the subject in 2006 after his party took control of Congress. In recent weeks, news media outlets have latched onto and aired this issue. Interestingly, most of the coverage is coming out of small, rural media markets such as Sheboygan Wisconsin, Bradenton Florida, and Lexington Kentucky, where the burden of the all-volunteer military is felt most keenly.

In 1964 Phillip Converse wrote his ground breaking work, "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics", in which he challenged the idea that most people have structured, coherent opinions on which they base their political decisions. Forty years later this topic still seems to be fascinating to some and scary to others: a recent book, "The Myth of the Rational Voter", by Bryan Caplan attempts to shed new light on the issue, while Arnold Kling worries about "Two Strategies for avoiding Truth". However, to what extent is it (or was it ever) reasonable to expect that the 'average citizen'...

Five international interests working to protect and more stringently regulate the world’s Bluefin Tuna stocks [meet this week] in Kobe, Japan to agree on strategies which they hope will lead to more sustainable fishing practices. Blue Fin Tuna has long been popular in Japan as an ingredient in sushi and sashimi, and consumption of the fish has risen of late in the United States and Europe as “healthy diet” habits have become more prevalent.

On January 11th, the House of Representatives for the second time approved – it was first passed in 2006, and subsequently vetoed – a bill to allow federal support for research using stem cells extracted from leftover embryos that fertility clinics would otherwise discard, in an attempt to end a funding moratorium initiated in 2001 by the Bush administration. Stem cell research involves extracting stem cells from human embryos that are a few days old. The embryos are destroyed in the process, raising important ethical questions about the sanctity of human life and whether it is appropriate to use human...

A North Dakota farmer serving in the North Dakota state legislature as a Republican has submitted the paperwork needed to make himself the nation's first industrial hemp producer. Rep. David Monson (R-Osnabrock) filed an application with the state's Agriculture Department to cultivate about 10 acres of the crop. Included in his application were his fingerprints, and $37 to cover the cost of a criminal background check.

Advocates of industrial hemp production laud the crop for its wide-ranging industrial applicability - which ranges from nutrition to paper products to textiles - as well as the relatively low environmental impact