Month: September 2012

September 10, 2012

Commercializing Chaplaincy

I thought this piece in BusinessWeek last month from Mark Oppenheimer was very well done, “The Rise of the Corporate Chaplain.” I think it profiles an important and under-appreciated phenomenon in the American commercial sphere. Continue Reading...
September 10, 2012

Fr. Sirico on 9/11 and the End of Freedom

In his latest column at Forbes, Fr. Robert Sirico discusses his memories of 9/11 and the end of freedom: One might also be tempted to imagine that the answer to bin Laden’s religious mania is a morally neutral public square. Continue Reading...
September 10, 2012

How Ayn Rand’s Philosophy Supports the Welfare State

The paradox of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, James Joseph explains, is that her defense of individual freedom provides a “self-defeating apologia for the American welfare state.” Here we have Ms Rand’s answer to the murder-fueled regimes of mid-century communism: The Individual is the sole scale of value, individual freedom is necessary to the individual survival, she says, and my survival is the sole end of my existence. Continue Reading...
September 07, 2012

The Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty

To truly understand what a conservative believes, you must know what it is they want to conserve. Like many other Christians who identify as conservatives, my own answer to that question would be the same as that of Russell Kirk: The institution most essential to conserve is the family. Continue Reading...
September 07, 2012

ResearchLinks – 09.07.12

Book Note: “Walzer, ‘In God’s Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew Bible'” Michael Walzer, In God’s Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew Bible. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. In this eagerly awaited book, political theorist Michael Walzer reports his findings after decades of thinking about the politics of the Hebrew Bible. Continue Reading...
September 06, 2012

In God We Trust?

Video: At the Democratic National Convention, delegates opposed to adding language on God, Israel’s capital to platform shout, “No!” in floor vote. On Powerline, John Hinderaker quotes from a recent Rasmussen Reports poll to show that “Democrats, bluntly put, have become the party of those who don’t go to church.” Continue Reading...
September 06, 2012

Hippocrates and the Budget Deficit

Should we use spending cuts or tax increases to reduce the government’s budget deficit? New research suggests it depends on how much we like recessions: This paper studies whether fiscal corrections cause large output losses. Continue Reading...
September 06, 2012

Recessions and Recoveries

Stanford economists Russ Roberts and John Taylor offer a helpful discussion potential GDP, recessions, and recoveries. Their comparison of previous recession/recovery cycles to the most recent one helps to illuminate just how unusual (read: terrible) our current recovery has been. Continue Reading...
September 05, 2012

Big Government’s Belongings?

Last night, there was a moment at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte that may have alarmed some. The line from a video produced by the host city of Charlotte, declared, “government is the only thing we all belong to.” Continue Reading...