Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

August 27, 2009

National Ed Care

As the fall school term approaches there were a lot of announcements this past week relating to education — both K-12 and college — including the annual publication of U.S. News and World Report’s America’s Best Colleges, a Wall Street Journal story about the SAT score results, ACTA’s College Report Card and ISI’s latest edition of “Choosing the Right College.” Continue Reading...
August 26, 2009

Patients and Doctors

In an Acton Commentary this week, I argue that a critical piece of any comprehensive and meaningful reform of the health care system must include malpractice litigation (tort) reform. Part of what makes this so urgent is that the litigious climate in which we live has eroded the doctor-patient relationship. Continue Reading...
August 25, 2009

A Public Choice Primer

Amity Shlaes, a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations, has an excellent primer on public choice in the August 3 edition of Forbes, “The New PC.” Continue Reading...
August 24, 2009

The Future of Photojournalism

We’ve done a lot of thinking here at the PowerBlog on the future of journalism in a digital age. A recent piece in Forbes by Leo Gomez brings into focus (ahem) the question of digital innovation and it’s influence on photojournalism. Continue Reading...
August 19, 2009

More Health Care Reform

Since it appears the health care reform debate isn’t going away any time soon (and, just maybe, has moved in a positive direction from where it started several months ago–e.g., one of the most dangerous proposals, the public option, is itself in danger), we’ll keep pressing the issue. Continue Reading...
August 19, 2009

Prioritized Giving

There’s more evidence that amidst the economic downturn people are becoming more careful and intentional about the kinds of charities they fund. We’ve seen that those likely to continue to flourish are those that have cultivated a “family-like” connection with their donors. Continue Reading...
August 18, 2009

Socialism in America

A great deal has been made in recent weeks about Ronald Reagan‘s critique of nationalized or socialized health care from 1961: We can go back a bit further, though, and take a look at an intriguing piece from 1848, a dialogue on socialism and the French Revolution and the relationship of socialism to democracy, which includes Alexis de Tocqueville‘s critique of socialism in general. Continue Reading...
August 17, 2009

On Calvinism and Capitalism

I don’t much like the term Calvinism. I think it is historically unhelpful, and in general prefer to use something like Reformed theology or speak about the Reformed confessions, depending on the particular context. Continue Reading...
August 11, 2009

A Checkered Future?

Chester E. Finn Jr. served with William J. Bennett [The Book of Virtues et al] in The Department of Education under President Reagan from 1985 to 1988 — that point in Reagan’s presidency when the talk of shutting down the Department had been abandoned. Continue Reading...
August 04, 2009

Money, Greed and God at NRO

“We talk about what caused the financial crisis, whether ‘greed is good,’ and if ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ Continue Reading...