ESPN.com is reporting that Junior Seau, who committed suicide in May, just two years after retiring from the NFL, tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy(CTE), a neurodegenerative disease that has been associated with dementia, memory loss and depression found in many deceased NFL players. Naturally, as more data and deaths point to football’s brain injury risks, there will be more and more calls to action. A fundamental question in this discourse is this: “who has the moral responsibility and authority to regulate sport at any level?”

I have friends with boys under seven-years-old who have decided that their sons will never play organized tackle football. The correlations with long-term brain damage is too great of a risk for my friends to expose their children to for the sake of playing the game. Every week it seems that we hear about an college or NFL player leaving the game because of a concussion. A few weeks ago, three NFL starting quarterbacks–Michael Vick of the Eagles, Alex Smith of the 49ers and Jay Cutler of the Bears– all suffered concussions. Because of the frequency of concussions in the NFL, some are raising questions about whether or not the game should still be played at all. The question for parents is simple, “is tackle football worth the risk?”
Read more on On Regulating Football…

USA Today has a piece today on the HHS mandate battle. What I noticed was not so much the story, but the photo the newspaper chose to run. It’s an AP photo by Derik Holtmann from a rally held last spring, about the same time as numerous other rallies were taking place around the country. Since there is nothing in the story about the photo, I can only assume it was chosen “randomly.”  Here it is:

Read more on Media Bias in the HHS Mandate Fight? Say It Ain’t So…

I recently discussed the importance of aligning ourselves to God before getting too carried away with our own plans for economic restoration. We should instead seek to supplant the personal for the divine, embracing a transcendent framework through which we can pursue what we already recognize to be transcendent ends.

Read more on Self-Denial in the Age of Self-Help…

Economic Consequentialism
Pat Archbold, National Catholic Register

To do something wrong, no matter the intended or even realized consequence, is to do something wrong. Period. I think this principle is often overlooked when it comes to the matter of public spending and public debt.

Read more on PowerLinks – 01.10.13…

In this week’s Acton Commentary, “The Mundane Morality of Les Misérables,” I explore the new musical film and in particular a transitional episode where the main protagonist, Jean Valjean, is faced with a moral dilemma: “If I speak, I am condemned. If I stay silent, I am damned!”

Here’s a performance of the scene from the musical’s 10th anniversary, featuring Colm Wilkinson as Valjean:

Read more on Valjean, Lord Acton, and the Common Moral Code…

In one of my favorite exchanges on the sitcom Seinfeld, Cosmo Kramer and Jerry Seinfeld have the following discussion about tax write-offs:

Kramer: “It’s a write-off for them.”
Jerry: “How is it a write-off?”
Kramer: “They just write it off.”
Jerry: “Write it off what?”
Kramer: “Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.”
Jerry: “You don’t even know what a write-off is.”
Kramer: “Do you?”
Jerry: “No, I don’t.”
Kramer: “But they do. And they’re the ones writing it off.”
Jerry: “I wish I had the last twenty seconds of my life back.”

Fortunately, Jerry and Kramer were talking in person. If this had been an email exchange they might have been flagged for being in the “fraud triangle”—the nexus where rationalization, pressure, and opportunity meet.

Software developed by the FBI and Ernst & Young reveals that Kramer’s favorite business term is on the most common words and phrases used in email conversations among employees engaged in corporate fraud:
Read more on The Favorite Business Term Shared by Cosmo Kramer and Corporate Fraudsters…

“Hell hath no fury like a tax-and-spend liberal scorned“  -Me (like ten minutes ago)

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In the on-going debate between proponents of Big v. Limited government, it can often be too easy to dismiss the other side on partisan, emotional grounds. The Left accuses the Right of possessing callous hearts toward the poor, indifference toward the “infrastructure” of our nation, and a blind allegiance to nefarious, shadowy 1%-ers who pull the strings of Big (insert any word but “Government” here). The Right views the Left as being naive about mankind’s fallen state, indulgent with other peoples’ money, and un-serious about the, shall we say, “troubling” fiscal position our nation (and many of our states) finds itself in.

Mixed up and lost in all the hyperbole and high emotions are actual facts, figures, and dollar amounts. Regardless of someone’s religiosity, most Americans want to be good stewards of the unprecedented wealth we’ve been blessed with. In fact, many who embrace the most fiscally-detrimental tax-and-spend policies are the most certain they are living out our Lord’s call to look after “the least of these.”

With all of that said, please consider this recent Bloomberg News article on the economic upswing taking place in Texas:
Read more on Texas: The Thorn in Progressive Liberalism’s Side…

America’s recent fiscal crisis has been delayed, not averted. Even if action is taken within the next few months to cut spending and/or raise taxes, the day of reckoning will only be slightly delayed since no one is willing to touch the three programs that constitute almost half the federal budget: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Read more on The Fiscal Cliff and the Fifth Commandment…

Record unemployment rates in Europe have been published and they should alarm Americans. Why? Because we are headed in the same direction. Nile Gardiner, of The Telegraph, is quite sure of this:

Read more on New E-Zone Unemployment Rates Should Raise American Alarm…

Man Offers Own Mountain Of Proof Against Russia’s U.S. Adoption Ban
Richard Solash, Radio Free Europe

D’Jamoos is one of several disabled U.S. adoptees from Russia who have taken on activist roles in recent weeks, protesting their birth country’s ban on American adoptions.

Read more on PowerLinks – 01.09.13…