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August 17, 2006

Sharks for Social Change

“Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear / And it shows them pearly white… Ya know when that shark bites, with his teeth, babe / Scarlet billows start to spread…” –Bobby Darin, “Mack the Knife,” 1959 He asked for it. Continue Reading...
August 16, 2006

Republicans Gone [Buck] Wild

I have previously commented on the failure of Republicans in Congress to exert any semblance of fiscal discipline, and have suggested that limited government principles do better when governmental power is divided rather than being dominated by one party, whether Democrat or Republican. Continue Reading...
August 16, 2006

I Want My Pope TV

Sadly, my lame attempt to teach myself German (“eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf…”) has thus far yielded little to allow me, unaided, to enjoy the Holy Father’s television interview for German broadcast. Continue Reading...
August 16, 2006

The Minimum Wage: A Denial of Freedom and Duty

In this week’s Acton Commentary, “The Minimum Wage: A Denial of Freedom and Duty,” I look at the concept of minimum wage legislation from the perspective of the employer/employee relationship. In his second epistle to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul sets down a moral principle: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” Continue Reading...
August 16, 2006

The Acton PowerBlog Audience

Want to see where other readers of the Acton Institute PowerBlog are from? Check out the PowerBlog Frappr! map. Join the list of PowerBlog friends today. If the GetReligionistas can do it, so can we! Continue Reading...
August 16, 2006

Use GoodSearch, Advance Freedom and Virtue

Don’t forget, you can use GoodSearch to direct funds to the Acton Institute. Simply visit GoodSearch.com and type in “Acton Institute” in the “I’m supporting” field. When you click the “Verify” button, all of your searches conducted with GoodSearch will raise $0.01 for the support of freedom and virtue. Continue Reading...
August 15, 2006

‘The poor people’s God, the sinner’s God’

I’m reading John W. de Gruchy’s Confessions of a Christian Humanist, and despite some rather disagreeable elements to his theology, he does have quite a few valuable insights. Here’s what he says in the context of Nietzsche’s derision of Jesus Christ contained in The Anti-Christ: Christians should not disparage the body, human strength and bravery, or the aesthetic dimensions of life. Continue Reading...
August 15, 2006

Chimera Nomenclature

Another round of stories are out about the possibility of creating a modern-day wooly mammoth, Jurassic Park-style. The process would include injecting frozen wooly mammoth sperm into an egg of a closely related species. Continue Reading...
August 15, 2006

The Effects of Federal Unionism

According to figures recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, federal workers receive on average about double what private sector workers make: $106,579 vs. $53,289. These numbers are based on total compensation. Continue Reading...