Acton’s enormously exciting FIRE SALE continues in the Acton Audio Store! We’ve marked down prices on our 2012 Acton University audio by SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT! Talks by luminaries such as Michael Novak, Eric Metaxas and Arthur Brooks are available for the low, low price of fifty cents! You’d have to be crazy not to check it out!
AND… scene.
On Tuesday June 11, Autocam Corporation went before the U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit Court in Cincinnati to argue against the enforcement of the Health and Human Services birth control mandate. President and CEO of Autocam and Autocam Medical, John Kennedy, says that “the law forces some employers to participate in what they believe is intrinsic evil.” But his request for an injunction had been denied by the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan.
A spokesperson from the Thomas More Society, which is representing Autocam and several other companies in the fight for religious liberty, said that their argument went well, but there is no telling how the court will rule or when they will make a decision. If the court affirms the denial of the injunction, Autocam and the Thomas More Society will seek review from the Supreme Court.
For previous PowerBlog coverage of this story, see here and here.
For more information about the various organizations in litigation, visit the Becket Fund’s Central Information page.
Finally, fathers are fun.
In his bestseller, Throw Them All Out, Peter Schweizer declares, “The Permanent Political Class has no sense of urgency to change because, for them, business is good.”
Schweizer, who is interviewed in the latest issue of Religion & Liberty, appeared today on the Mike Huckabee radio show to talk congressional insider trading. Schweizer told Huckabee that “Big government creates big profits for people that are in power.”
Schweizer added that this is not a partisan problem but a human problem that reflects the fallen nature of man. Listen to the full audio of the segment below.
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Among the most significant economic challenges in America today is getting Americans to understand what an economy is.
When the Latin term oeconomia was first used in the 1500s it meant “household management.” A few centuries later, the term political economy was used in reference to the economies of states or polities. It wasn’t until the modern era, though, that “economy” became to refer primarily to the production and distribution of national income and wealth and lost almost all connection to the household.
Because of that shift, we often see a confusion of terms and concepts. Take, for instance, the opening sentence of this recent news report:
The U.S. economy grew at a modest 2.4 percent annual rate from January through March, slightly slower than initially estimated.
The problem with this is that “U.S. economy” is conflated with gross domestic product (GDP) — the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time. While GDP can potentially be an important economic indicator, it is not a true measure of the nation’s economy (aka political economy).
Derek Scissors provide a superb explanation for why a better measurement is one that gauges the original economy:
(more…)
AEI Scholar Christina Hoff Sommers is on a quest to reclaim feminism. Her new book, Freedom Feminism and Why It Matters Today, explores why so many women today reject the title of “feminist.” She discusses the topic further in the following video.
One of the greatest benefits of living in the United States is our access to plentiful, affordable domestic energy. These benefits extend to the nation’s poor who enjoy an unprecedented wealth of heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, plentiful light in the evening hours and electronic devices that power up at the press of a button.
Driving up costs for energy forces a concomitant rise in costs to consumers in every strata of society. Such has been the case of renewable mandates enacted throughout the country. One of the reasons behind such cost increases is that current renewable technologies such as solar and wind simply can’t provide enough energy to satisfy rising demand.
But for Rev. William Somplatsky-Jarman, a Presbyterian minister affiliated with the Interfaith Council of Corporate Responsibility, the increasingly dubious threat of catastrophic climate change trumps cheap energy for our nation’s poor. Somplastky-Jarman, you see, is one of those religious leaders who submits proxy shareholder resolutions to reduce greenhouse emissions.
In the Reverend’s case, his resolution was aimed at Dominion Resources Inc., “Virginia’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases,” according to Bloomberg Business Week. Somplastky-Jarman was joined by 20 likeminded activists who proposed at last month’s shareholder meeting that Dominion issue a report on anticipated financial fallout from climate change. The resolution failed, but not before 25 percent of shareholders voted for it. (more…)
Many of you know Jay Richards from his regular lecturing at Acton University. He has a newly co-authored piece in The Daily Caller, “Enterprise is the most ‘effective altruism.’” There’s more to be said on the complex issue of helping the poor than can be put in a single op-ed, of course, but there’s some great food for thought here, particularly for those who view business and markets as necessarily part of the problem. Jay and Anne Bradley use the example of Microsoft to explain the confusion:
The Gates Foundation has saved an estimated 5 million lives thus far. But we rarely hear of the countless lives saved or improved by the profit-seeking activities of Microsoft…. One effect is the Foundation itself. To be able to start such a large aid organization, Bill Gates first had to be a successful entrepreneur. As a philanthropist, Gates is not “giving back” to the world, as if he had taken from it in the first place. His philanthropic giving is possible only because he first “gave” as an entrepreneur.
… Microsoft succeeded only because they provided value for hundreds of millions of people. Gates had to meet the needs of his customers … And to stay ahead, he had to invest wisely rather than consume or give away all the profits.
Edward Snowden and Catholic Social Teaching
Patrick Clark, Catholic Moral Theology
I want to suggest that the recent revelation of the scope of our government’s surveillance practices and capacities should make it clear that there may be certain times in which the defense of the common good will bring Catholics into alignment with libertarians on particular issues. I believe now is one such time.
University of Chicago Removes Pews from Chapel to Accommodate Muslim Students
Susan Berry, Breitbart
Administrators of the University of Chicago (UC) have permanently removed pews from an 88-year old campus chapel in order to accommodate Muslim students.
Head of Russian church urges monks to shun Internet
Reuters
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has urged monks not to use cellphones to access the Internet in order to avoid temptation.
Colorado Teachers Now Paid for Performance, Not Years of Service
Brittany Corona, The Foundry
Douglas County, Colorado is once again leading the state in education reform by adopting a teacher compensation plan that has school districts across the nation talking.
In March I wrote about the government’s largest—and mostly hidden—social safety net: federal disability programs. The government spends more money each year on cash payments for these Americans than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined.
This group is so large that if every family receiving disability payments were put into one state it would rank eighth in population, coming in after Ohio but ahead of Georgia:
The total number of people in the United States now receiving federal disability benefits hit a record 10,978,040 in May, up from 10,962,532 in April, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.
The 10,978,040 disability beneficiaries in the United States now exceed the population of all but seven states. For example, there are more Americans collecting disability today than there are people living in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey or Virginia.
The record 10,978,040 total disability beneficiaries in May, included a record 8,877,921 disabled workers (up from 8,865,586 in April), a record 1,939,687 children of disabled workers (up from 1,936,236 in April), and 160,432 spouses of disabled workers.
