Brother Roger, founder of the ecumenical Christian community, Taize, was murdered yesterday while praying. Details here. Brother Roger founded Taize in 1940.

Brother Roger (on right) as a younger man.

In a FoxNews article, Jack Spencer of the Heritage Foundation reveals some interesting finds from their year-long study of the military industry: US Defense relies heavily on a global free market for its equipment. This may seem to fly in the face of the idea that if anyone ought to buy American, it is the American government. But as Spencer points out

Read more on Where Does G.I. Joe Shop?…

Pope Benedict’s highly publicized trip to Germany for this week’s World Youth Day stands as an opportunity for the event to, in the words of Kishore Jayabalan, engage “serious theological and intellectual work.” The pope’s homecoming means, “If there is a place to show how the Christian faith shaped Europe and formed heroic persons even in its darkest hours, this is it.”

Read more on Benedict and World Youth Day: Becoming Adults in Christ…

…You might be a Member of Congress:

Members of Congress want to establish a new government-backed venture capital program…

OK, but what’s the catch?

…to replace one that’s being phased out because of sizable losses.

I wonder if they’ve considered whether the Government should even be involved in the venture capital business in the first place?

Read more on If At First You Don’t Succeed……

A wide ranging piece in Policy Review by Robert W. Han and Paul C. Tetlock examines current aid practices, suggests the implementation of “information markets,” and looks at how such markets might impact current policy analyses like the Copenhagen Consensus and the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The MDG are the nearly exclusive focus of the ONE Campaign, and the failings of the MDG as such become closely tied to the failings of the ONE Campaign.

Read more on ‘Making Development Work’…

A promising brief recognizing the critical role of civil society in Nigeria, and especially that the Christian church, from Ecumenical News International:

Nigerian president urges African churches: Play part in governance

Abuja (ENI). Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has urged African church leaders to become key players in the process of achieving good governance in the continent.

“The Church must be a critical partner in the on-going efforts at strengthening the structures of democratic governance, and bringing about sustained development in an environment of justice, equity, and fairness,” Obasanjo told leaders at a meeting of the Nairobi-based All Africa Conference of Churches.

Read more on Church and Governance in Nigeria…

There’s yet more evidence that supports my claim, “Besieged by the media and public opinion, quick-service restaurants have got the reputation for being unhealthy. But the truth of the matter is more complex. Franchises that have put an emphasis on providing healthy foods have done well…. And as usual, the service industry has responded quickly and efficiently to customer demands.”

Read more on Fa(s)t Food…

What Amrith Lal calls patriotism in this piece from the Times of India is probably more accurately called nationalism, but the point is well-taken nonetheless. The brief essay begins:

As practised in our times, it is religion at its worst. The canons of morality and logic are lost on it. All that is expected of the patriot is blind devotion to an abstract entity called the state or whatever that symbolises the state. Needless to say, the state can never go wrong. Orwell’s Big Brother is morally permissible in the patriot’s idea of nation. All this is built into our understanding of the nation.

In this sense, patriotism/nationalism can clearly become a competing religion with biblical Christianity. And so often, the nationalistic impulse becomes expressed in partisanship (which I take a brief look at here).

Read more on The Idol of Nationalism…

An article from Nature examines how even human activity as inherently destructive as military exercises can actually boost biodiversity. In “Military exercises ‘good for endangered species,’” Michael Hopkin writes of the results of a study conducted following US military exercises in Germany.

Read more on Debunking the Preservationist Myth…

Be one of the first to book a flight to space.

In an interview with The Space Review Richard Garriott, vice-chairman of Space Adventures discusses the possibilities of space tourism and the potential market in the United States. Garriott describes Space Adventures as

Read more on Space Tourism…