Poor Kids in America are Fat

A new study finds that children growing up in poverty in America are disproportionately more likely to be obese, compared to other income groups (HT: God’s Politics). So, poor kids in the US are fat…and in this they are just like the rest of America: “The whole country is struggling with this,” said Virginia Chomitz , senior scientist at the Institute for Community Health at the Cambridge Health Alliance . Continue Reading...

Movie Review: An Inconvenient Truth

Several weeks ago now I was offered a review copy of Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. After watching it on a cross-country flight in November I elected to let Gore’s expos’e sink in a bit before I pasted my thoughts more or less permanently on the web. Continue Reading...

Merry Christmas(*)

I have just returned from a week of holiday rest, and began tackling my 250 lb. email inbox. Flipping through a number of Christmas greetings and Fruitcake (Xmas spam), I came across a quick message from a dear friend, an email of the sort where the message is in the subject line, and the text is left empty (save for common signatures or disclaimers). Continue Reading...

Who Really Cares for the Poor?

Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks challenges perceived mainstream social orthodoxy in his new book, Who Really Cares: America’s Charity Divide – Who Gives, Who Doesn’t and Why It Matters. For generations it has been assumed that political and social liberals are generous towards the poor while conservatives are proverbial tightwads. Continue Reading...

2006 in Review, 4th Quarter

Our 2006 year in review series concludes with the fourth quarter: October “Do You See More than Just a ‘Carbon Footprint’?” Jordan J. Ballor It’s a fair question to ask, I think, of those who are a part of the radical environmentalist/population control political lobby. Continue Reading...

Remembering Gerald Ford

The Acton Institute’s offices are right across the Grand River from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum (and what will be Ford’s final resting place). Having passed these sites every day for several years on my walk to work, news of the ex-president’s death was especially poignant. Continue Reading...

Never a Countdown on Effective Compassion

The “10 years after welfare reform” articles of this past summer are old news, of course. Not surprisingly, indications were that, like any public policy, reform hadn’t been the all-time poverty solution, but that policies had, in fact, helped a significant number of people to move themselves to self-sufficiency. Continue Reading...

Single-payer Schemes=Supply Shortages

Go to this page to watch a short video highlighting the story of one man’s fight against Canada’s health system. The film is focused on the defects of socialized medicine and so, naturally, does not deal with the serious problems existing in other systems (such as the United States). Continue Reading...

2006 in Review, 3rd Quarter

Our series on the year in review continues with the third fourth of 2006: July “Isn’t the Cold War Over?” David Michael Phelps I’ve got an idea for a new sitcom. Continue Reading...