Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

February 05, 2007

Blu-ray closing the gap; Thanks PS3!

Following up on my musings about the potential for the PlayStation 3 to position itself as the “family friendly” next-gen gaming system because of its on-board Blu-ray drive, it looks like Blu-ray is closing the gap on HD-DVD (HT: Slashdot): VideoScan’s numbers indicate that during the seven days between Jan 7 and Jan 14, Blu-ray managed to close the gap of total discs sold since inception with HD DVD by over seven percentage points, suggesting that if the current trend continues, the two formats could be at disc sales parity within weeks. Continue Reading...
February 02, 2007

The labeling conspiracy is expanding

It looks like Julianne Malveaux is going to have to expand her complaint against the labeling of milk to a whole new spate of products, including yogurt. It may be that the whole scope of items coming from the dairy industry is going to be affected. Continue Reading...
February 02, 2007

re: Environmental indulgences

Follow up thought, Kevin: Church indulgences had their roots in cheerful giving. Lots of cheerful “carbon giving” going on right now too; in fact, I’d call it downright prideful (which is why giving to God always had this condition on it). Continue Reading...
February 02, 2007

The right to a religious education

Sen. Dave Schultheis of Colorado has “proposed a ‘Public Schools Religious Bill of Rights’ to combat what he calls mounting, nationwide violations of students’ and school staffs’ constitutionally protected religious freedom.” Continue Reading...
February 01, 2007

Environmental indulgences

Among the immediate causes of the sixteenth-century split in Western Christianity was the sale of indulgences. The theological crudity of this abuse was encapsulated in the venality of Dominican friar Johannes Tetzel, whose activities in Wittenberg riled Martin Luther. Continue Reading...
February 01, 2007

T-U-R-T-L-E power

This might just be the best argument for increasing the minimum wage that I’ve heard yet: It’s just not fair that Michelle needs to go deep in hock to “feed her Ninja Turtle obsession,” is it? Continue Reading...
January 31, 2007

The Super Bowl and Christian freedom

This is, as millions already know, Super Bowl week. Nothing is hyped all across America quite like the Super Bowl. This game has reached amazing proportions when it comes to the viewing audience and massive commercialization. Continue Reading...
January 31, 2007

Material goods and “The Pursuit of Happyness”

In this week’s Acton Commentary, I review Will Smith’s latest movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, which stands as an extended argument underscoring the truth of conservative values. This may sound like an improbable anomaly given the traditional political, ethical, and social allegiances of Hollywood, but the power of the story lies in its basis in fact, the real-life story of Christopher Gardner. Continue Reading...
January 30, 2007

So .su me

“ICANN Reviews Revoking Outdated Suffixes” (HT: Slashdot). From the piece, “The Soviet Union’s ‘.su’ is the leading candidate for deletion.” A Google search turns up about 3 million sites with the .su Continue Reading...
January 29, 2007

How to do good well

The business of philanthropy education, teaching people how to give their money away, is a growth industry, according to Business Week (HT: The Wealth Report). It seems that wealthy kids often have trouble realizing and meeting their moral duties to be good stewards of their inheritance. Continue Reading...