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September 20, 2005

Corruption kills

Nigerian priest shot dead at checkpoint for ‘refusing to pay bribe’ Port Harcourt (ENI). The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) says that the Rev. Emmanuel Akpan was shot dead at a checkpoint manned by both police and army members for refusing to pay them a bribe. Continue Reading...
September 20, 2005

Charity and confidence in government

Interesting survey finding highlighted on the Heritage Foundation’s web site: Compared with peers who expressed a great deal of confidence in the federal government, those who reported having “hardly any confidence” in the federal government were 20 percentage points more likely to volunteer for a charity. Continue Reading...
September 20, 2005

Freedom from the welfare trap?

Rich Lowry: It is the other flood: The outpouring of concern for the poor of New Orleans. According to nearly every journalist in America, our consciousness has been raised about the invisible scourge of poverty in this country, and nothing is too much to ask when addressing the plight of the disadvantaged evacuees of New Orleans. Continue Reading...
September 19, 2005

Nonprofit training day in Fort Myers

Acton Institute’s Center for Effective Compassion is offering an intensive one-day event in Ft. Myers, Fla., on Oct 28, where nonprofits and community leaders will get practical, how-to skills to help them increase the “return on investment” for charity programs. Continue Reading...
September 19, 2005

Bigger is not always better

Government is the only arena in which I can readily see that incompetence and failure, often of the staggeringly ignominious variety, is “punished” with an increase of funding and influence. Many others have observed this phenomena, perhaps most pervasive in the public education system. Continue Reading...
September 16, 2005

Five marks of a Catholic school

Deal W. Hudson of the Morley Institute reports on an address by a Vatican official. The story is also reported here: Vatican Official Explains What Makes a School Catholic His name is one you should know. Continue Reading...
September 15, 2005

Katrina: A chance to escape the welfare trap?

The Wall Street Journal editorializes today that President Bush has a chance to encourage a more free-market oriented approach to rebuilding the gulf coast: Instead of channeling more cash through the same failed bureaucracies, he should declare the entire Gulf Coast region an enterprise zone, with low tax rates for new investments and waivers for any regulatory obstacles to rebuilding. Continue Reading...
September 15, 2005

State of nature redux

I’ve finally had a chance to respond to this piece on Tech Central Station, “The State of Nature in New Orleans: What Hobbes Didn’t Know” (Tech Central Station no longer active). Continue Reading...
September 15, 2005

Natural law and targeting whirlybirds

Psychiatrist and author Theodore Dalrymple has published a brilliant essay in the National Review highlighting the importance of the rule of law. He takes as a case study the looting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina: “New Orleans shows us in the starkest possible way the reality of the thin blue line that protects us from barbarism and mob rule,” writes Dalrymple. Continue Reading...