http://blog.acton.org "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:50:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As we appear to be nearing a climax in the many-months-long health care reform debate (maybe), opinion is remarkably divided on what the end result will be. Outright victory for left-wing reformers? Passage of a watered down, lowest-common-denominator reform bill? Or clear victory for Republican opposition? All possibilities remain on ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12697-dems-cornered-on-health-reform.html Cardus' Robert Joustra rightly pillories "fair trade" along with the logic of foreign aid in a challenging article, "Fair Trade and Dead Aid: 'My Voice Can't Compete with an Electric Guitar.'" Joustra's point of departure is sound: "The aid model is not working, and no large-scale cash infusion or debt forgiveness ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12689-critiquing-fair-trade-and-dead-aid.html This week's Acton Commentary: Does the market inspire people to greater practical virtue, or does it eviscerate what little virtue any of us have? Far from draining moral goodness out of us—as many think—the free market serves as a “school of the practical virtues.” Rather than elevating greed and self-sufficiency, the market ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12684-the-market-school-of-virtue.html Machiavelli's succinct and semi-diabolical advice to the prince is one of the most enduring works of political philosophy in the world. This man, writing in a time roughly contemporaneous with the Reformation, was less concerned with seeking the will of God than with winning at all costs. I wrote about ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12682-machiavelli-the-prince-and-the-tradition-of-liberty.html The Dave Ramsey Show appears on Fox Business Network and is also available for live streaming via Hulu. In last Thursday's episode (at about the 18:00 mark), a Twitter follower of @ramseyshow asked, "I want to start giving. How do I find the right charity for me and how do I ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12670-finding-the-right-charity.html In connection with the worldwide celebrations of the quincentenary of John Calvin's birth in 2009, the Acton Institute BookShoppe recently made available a limited stock of the hard-to-find Light for the City: Calvin's Preaching, Source of Life and Liberty (Eerdmans, 2004). In this brief and accessible work, Lester DeKoster examines ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12660-recommended-post-reformation-day-reading.html David Bahnsen reflects on last night's annual dinner: (Acton's) co-founder, Father Sirico, is a friend and patriot. He is a scholar in Catholic social thought, and perhaps as good of an orator as I have ever heard. He and I shared the podium at an event I did in Newport Beach ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12655-earned-success-happiness.html Brad Green, who teaches theology at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., published a commentary on health care in The Jackson Sun. Green, an alum of Acton's Toward a Free and Virtuous Society program, is also a co-founder of Augustine School in Jackson. So, what would Jesus do? Jesus would (and does) ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12647-what-is-a-christian-to-think-about-health-care.html My latest Acton commentary: Do at-risk black males need to be emancipated en masse from America’s public school complex? A new study released about high school dropout and incarceration rates among blacks raises the question. Nearly 23 percent of all American black men ages 16 to 24 who have dropped out ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12641-public-schools-flunk-the-test-on-black-males.html Recently I got a phone call from an engineering manager I've known for over ten years. He informed me that he'd been laid off last spring, but before I could offer condolences he added that he'd been hired by another company in the same industry for a consulting assignment. That temporary ... http://blog.acton.org/archives/12637-the-hidden-tithe.html