Month: October 2012

October 23, 2012

The Low Cost of Being Wrong

In March 2009 the deputy chief of Italy’s Civil Protection Department and six scientists who were members of a scientific advisory body to the Department held a meeting and then a press conference, during which they downplayed the possibility of an earthquake. Continue Reading...
October 23, 2012

Militant for Justice, Not for ‘Culture War’

The “culture war” is going to determine the future direction of evangelical political engagement, says Greg Forster. But Forster wonders why we can’t fight for justice in politics and build civic solidarity with our unbelieving neighbors: We have a moral imperative to be the church militant and fight for justice; we also have a moral imperative not to impose Christianity on people by force. Continue Reading...
October 22, 2012

The New Tolerance at Tufts

Perhaps I’m exceptionally naive, but it always surprises me when colleges and universities—the supposed bastions of tolerance in secular society—refuse to accept people or groups whose views do not align with their own administrators. Continue Reading...
October 22, 2012

On Thrift and Generosity

Recently at Big Questions Online, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead answers the question, “Does a culture of thrift cultivate generosity?” with a solid yes, documenting the history of thrift and generosity in the United States and their subsequent and unfortunate decline in recent years: By the 1960s, however, the coalition of national organizations promoting thrift ceased their activities. Continue Reading...
October 22, 2012

Tonight’s Foreign Policy Debate: ‘It’s the Economy, Stupid’

At some point in tonight’s foreign policy debate between the two presidential candidates, Governor Mitt Romney should send his very capable inner wonk on a long coffee break and press a big-picture truth that otherwise will go begging: America’s strength on the international stage requires economic strength, and our economic strength cannot long endure under the weight of a government so swollen in size that it stifles human enterprise. Continue Reading...
October 19, 2012

Last Chance to Register!

Is the “secular vs. sacred” worldview struggle just another first-world problem? Join us in a discussion of this topic in the AU Online series Freedom and Virtue in the Developed World. Continue Reading...
October 19, 2012

Sixpence to the Good (of Government)

This week I wrote about the dignity of paying taxes (among other ways of contributing to social flourishing). But as we know, not all taxes are created equal. Indeed, as Antony Davies and James Harrigan write this week at US News, “Politicians are in the business of buying votes with tax breaks and sweetheart deals for their preferred constituencies, and they have to offset these deals by taxing disfavored constituencies at increased rates. Continue Reading...
October 19, 2012

ResearchLinks – 10.19.12

Working Paper: “The Eurozone Debt Crisis — The Options Now” Buchheit, Lee C. and Gulati, G. Mitu SSRN Working Papers, October 8, 2012 The Eurozone debt crisis is entering its third year. Continue Reading...