Acton Institute PowerBlog - Entries from Friday, October 12, 2007

Prison for Paul Jacob?

Friday, October 12, 2007

For those of you following the case of Paul Jacob, here’s a link to John Powers’ column in the Chicago Daily Observer.

For those of you catching up: Jacob, the Senior Advisor at the Sam Adams Foundation, has been indicted on charges related to his work leading a petition drive in Oklahoma. Jacob is charged with a felony of conspiring against the State of Oklahoma in collecting signatures in favor of a Taxpayer Bill of Rights by an out of state resident. After 300,000 signatures were gathered by Jacobs and others, signatures removed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court keeping the petition from making it to a ballot.

Writes Powers:

It seems sort of like arresting mom for making apple pie, but it is indicative of the current low-brow nature of politics in the United States. Rather than facing an opponent on the issues, rather than campaigning on facts, rather than organizing support for a cause, there is a grand group of autocrats that would rather imprison their political foes than wage a legitimate campaign against them. It is also quite telling that outside of a few Libertarian blogs (and of course the Chicago Daily Observer), the media has completely ignored this story from any angle except day to day uninspired coverage of court issues in Oklahoma.

The Sam Adams site has a deep archive of resources, articles and blog discussions on L’Affaire Jacob here.

Posted by John Couretas in News and Events at 16:19 | Leave a comment | Trackback

Jayabalan on Radio Free Europe: The Pope and Islam

Friday, October 12, 2007

Kishore Jayabalan, director of Acton’s Rome office, was interviewed by Radio Free Europe’s Jeffrey Donovan today about the Vatican’s reaction to a letter sent this week to Pope Benedict XVI by more than 130 Muslim leaders. The letter urged peace and understanding between the faiths, warning that the “world’s survival” could be at stake.

The audio of the interview is not available online. What follows is a transcript of Kishore’s comments to Donovan:

“The Vatican is actually withholding comment until it’s had time to read and study and mull over the letter, which is already a quite different reaction than, say, from the Anglican communion, which has been much more willing to chomp at the bit and get right to praising the letter for its measure of goodwill.”

“What the pope was trying to say to Muslims [at Regensburg, Germany, in September 2006] is something that’s not mentioned in this letter by 138 Muslim leaders. There is no mention of violence in the name of God. There’s no condemnation of Islamic fundamentalism or terrorism, there’s no mention of the hijacking of Islam by terrorists. These are obviously the real issues. I think until Muslim leaders come out with outright, simple, easy-to-understand condemnation of these things, it’s pretty hard for most people to see how a sincere inter-religious dialogue can take place.”

“The pope is a theologian. His first question would most probably be, ‘What is the nature of God and Islam?’ There are obviously differences between the Islamic understanding of God and the Christian understanding of God. There’s constant reference in the letter to ‘there is no God but God and God has no partners or associates,’ which I take to be maybe an implicit reference to Christianity, where you have one God but three persons -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And I do not think Muslims can accept that, as Muslims.”

Posted by John Couretas in Vatican at 14:35 | Comment (1) | Trackback

Defined tags for this entry:
benedict xvi, islam, pope, vatican

The Nobel Peace Prize has lost all pretense to objectivity

Friday, October 12, 2007

Truth is definitely stranger than fiction, with Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sharing this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

In recent years, the Nobel Committee has shown itself more and more willing to name the Peace prize for political reasons. In awarding Al Gore and the IPCC the Peace Prize, however, the Nobel Committee has lost all pretense to objectivity. Not only are Al Gore and the IPCC shamelessly partisan choices, but also irrelevant ones. Whatever one thinks of their crusade to convince the world of catastrophic, human caused global warming, it has precious little to do with furthering world peace.

Gore seems to have anticipated the criticism. In his first statement, he explains: “The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.” Methinks this issue has much to do with ideology, and little to do with science.

[Ed. note: Hear Jay Richards discuss Gore’s peace prize on the G. Gordon Liddy show here.]

Posted by Jay Richards in Environmental Stewardship at 08:45 | Comments (6) | Trackback

Defined tags for this entry:
al gore, environmental stewardship, nobel peace prize, science

Global Warming Consensus Alert: Gore Snubbed by Nobel Committee!

Friday, October 12, 2007

A stony-faced Al Gore reflects on his failure to win a Nobel Prize for Science.

In a stunning turn of events, the Nobel Committee failed to award a Nobel Prize for Science to Al Gore, instead opting to present him with the Peace Prize despite the scant evidence that his recent climate change-related activities have contributed anything to the advancement of global peace.

The award can be seen as something of a consolation prize for Gore, however, as in recent days even the British judicial system has ruled that “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore’s global warming documentary, is full of “alarmism and exaggeration.”

Gore joins other non-luminaries of the global peace pantheon who have also won the award, including Kofi Anan and the United Nations and Yasser Arafat.

More: Czech President Vaclav Claus:

“The relationship between his activities and world peace is unclear and indistinct,” the statement said. “It rather seems that Gore’s doubting of basic cornerstones of the current civilization does not contribute to peace.”

Posted by Marc Vander Maas in Environmental Stewardship at 08:07 | Comments (8) | Trackback

Defined tags for this entry:
al gore, climate change, environmental stewardship, global warming, global warming consensus alert, nobel, nobel peace prize