The happiness conundrum

February 27, 2007 • by Jordan J. Ballor

The happiness conundrum

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February 26, 2007

In defense of boring problems

Bjorn Lomborg has a better Powerpoint presentation than Al Gore. He’s also a more captivating speaker, and uses decent logic in his presentations. Is there any way we can get him an Oscar for the following 17 minute tour-de-force? Continue Reading...
February 26, 2007

The power of amazing grace

Rarely have I seen a movie that moved me the way Amazing Grace did last evening. The new film, which opened across America on Friday, is the story of the life-long struggle of William Wilberforce to end slavery and reform British society in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Continue Reading...
February 26, 2007

U.S. high schools learning less

U.S. high school students are taking harder classes, receiving better grades, and from every indication in recent data, leaning much less than their counterparts fifteen years ago. Go figure. All the talk about spending more money and about improving testing and teacher standards and the end result is that two decades of educational reform may not have improved things overall. Continue Reading...
February 23, 2007

Trickle-down decadence

Anthony Esolen, from the March issue of Touchstone: The most bountiful alms that the rich can give the poor, apart from the personal donation of their time and means, are lives of virtue to emulate. Continue Reading...
February 22, 2007

Mugabe’s bread machine falling apart

This made me think of this. From the NYTimes: “Zimbabwe’s economy is so dire that bread vanished from store shelves across the country on Wednesday after bakeries shut down, saying government price controls were requiring them to sell loaves at a loss. Continue Reading...
February 22, 2007

Is Catholicism green?

Over at Planet Gore, I responded to Catholic layperson named Mary Colwell who seems to have her theological priorities out of whack: Colwell complains that the Catholics are not consistently green, and hopes things will improve. Continue Reading...
February 21, 2007

Environmentalism as religion, one last time

I promise not to belabor this point any further (well, unless something really juicy comes in…), but Jay Nordlinger, in the latest National Review, offers more observations [subscription needed] on the religious qualities of “secular” environmentalism, from his perch at Davos. Continue Reading...