Essay: Down with The God Squad

Imagine revising Genesis. In the new version Noah stands on the gangplank to the ark, reviewing the species of the world pair by pair, deciding on a purely economic basis which creatures to save and which to consign to the deepening waters. He turns away the pests, the serpents and other species he deems useless to man or too costly to take along. If such a vision strains the imagination, consider the call by some Bush Administration officials to amend the Endangered Species Act. Their aim is to expand greatly the powers of a committee of political appointees that already can...