Month: August 2006

August 22, 2006

Why Love Matters: Understanding Pope Benedict XVI’s First Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est

Today, Dr. Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute delivered a lecture entitled “Why Love Matters: Understanding Pope Benedict XVI’s First Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est.” The address explored Pope Benedict’s first encyclical – the subject of which came as a surprise to many – and delved into the background of the pope’s encyclical on Christian love, outlining its implications for the Church’s social teaching and its engagement with the world. Continue Reading...
August 22, 2006

“I Buy Goods from Poorer Countries”

From the “why didn’t we think of that first” department: The trade which can lift peoples out of poverty is assailed from many directions. A motley assortment of protectionists and anti-capitalists use every argument they can lay their hands on to protect their interests. Continue Reading...
August 21, 2006

Cartoon Capitalism: A Primer

The Acton Institute was not making animated films in 1948, but if we were, this might have been what we came up with. Though it starts out a bit slow, keep with it; it’s actually a pretty coherent defense of the free market. Continue Reading...
August 21, 2006

Breaking Physics

In the midst of rising oil prices, massive energy bills, speculation about our supplies of oil – not to mention global warming – a small beacon lights up in Ireland. A technology company named Steorn has made an announcement that it has discovered free energy. Continue Reading...
August 21, 2006

A Google for Pork?

Did you know that there is legislation in the works that would set up a databse making it possible for you and me to track how the federal government is (mis)spending our money? Continue Reading...
August 21, 2006

China: The Economics of Religious Freedom

Here’s a summary of a piece over at Forum 18: Economics has a large effect on China’s religious freedom, Forum 18 News Service notes. Factors such as the need of religious communities for non-state income, significant regional wealth disparities, conflicts over economic interests, and artificially-induced dependence on the state income all provide the state with alternative ways of exercising control over religious communities. Continue Reading...
August 18, 2006

Wind Power: Not So Novel After All

How different is this… In a recent WSJ story, “A Novel Way to Reduce Home Energy Bills,” Sara Schaefer Muñoz writes about the possibility of adding windmills to homes in order to cut down on the cost of utilities. Continue Reading...
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...