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August 05, 2005

Is anyone listening?

In a column in today’s Washington Times, Arnaud de Borchgrave looks at the growing gap between executive compensation and the pay of just about everyone else. He quotes a Wall Street Journal study showing that in 2004 the median salary and bonus for CEOs soared 14.5 percent, while paychecks for salaried employees averaged a 3.4 percent increase. Continue Reading...
August 05, 2005

‘They picked on the wrong Armenian!’

Check out this Seattle Weekly article, detailing the experience of Armen Yousoufian, who sought public disclosure of records in 1997 relating to “the proposed new Seahawks stadium, now called Qwest Field, which was built largely with public money.” Continue Reading...
August 04, 2005

Aces high or low?

If this isn’t a great example of power corrupting, I don’t know what is: see this Reuters report on an encomium to leader Kim Jong-Il on a North Korean website. Among Kim’s remarkable talents is his accomplishment of a “feat unmatched in the annals of professional golf by shooting 11 holes-in-one on the first round he ever played.” Continue Reading...
August 04, 2005

Tolerant evangelism

The abstract from an article in the latest issue of Dutch Crossing: A Journal of Low Countries, Volume 28, numbers 1/2 (Summer/Winter 2004), published by the Association for Low Countries Studies in Great Britain and Ireland: Edward Dutton, “Tolerant Evangelism. Continue Reading...
August 04, 2005

Shuttle support wanes

CBS News reports that “while a majority still thinks the Space Shuttle is worth continuing, the program receives its lowest level of support in this poll since CBS News started asking about it in 1986. Continue Reading...
August 03, 2005

Target: St. Peters?

Radical islamist terrorists have struck at the heart of New York City, Washington, London and Madrid (among other places). Could the Vatican be next? Kishore Jayabalan, director of Acton’s Rome office, appeared on Fox News yesterday as part of a report asking that question. Continue Reading...
August 03, 2005

Voluntary association and union politics

In light of the recent exodus from the AFL-CIO, Dr. Charles W. Baird examines the nature of labor unions through the lens of Catholic social teaching. “Catholic social teaching has supported labor unions as part of a general defense of freedom of association,” he writes. Continue Reading...
August 03, 2005

Oil prices: Up, up, and away

Crude oil prices have reach a record high $62 per barrel. Combined with Time Warner’s worse-than-expected recent earnings stocks dropped today as investors waited uneasily for the government’s latest petroleum inventory report. Continue Reading...
August 03, 2005

How to be a socially responsible investor

From SoYouWanna.com: “Socially responsible investing is when you take your beliefs and values and apply them to how you invest your money. This is also known as having a ‘double bottom line,’ because not only are you looking for a profitable investment, but also one that meets certain moral criteria and that lets you sleep well at night. Continue Reading...