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The Annotated Inbox

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

A round-up of diverse items of interest, in no particular order:

“Iraq to open consulate in San Diego,” (and Detroit). Facing difficulties in reaching the populations of Iraqis in the US, Iraq is planning to open consulates in San Diego and Detroit. “The Bush administration set a goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees this year.” This rather meager goal comes years after the invasion and after hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have had to flee to other countries for safety. Too little, too late: “...while more than 100,000 Iraqi Christians sought to emigrate to the US, only 200 were granted access in 2006.”
Jack White of the White Stripes and Raconteurs pens an ode to his hometown, Detroit, after making comments perceived to be slights on the city after his recent move to Nashville.
John Couretas writes of the situation for Coptic Christians in Egypt at the AOI blog, “Egypt’s Copts the ‘New Martyrs’?”
Sam Gregg wrote the cover story for the July/August edition of Touchstone magazine, “The European Disunion: Benedict XVI on the Crisis of Faith & Reason.” This is the first issue I received as my prize for placing in the 2008 EO/Wheatstone blog symposium, and I’m eager to read it. Subscribe and get your own copy here today.
Jennifer Roback Morse reviews Helen Epstein’s The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight Against AIDS in a piece for the Weekly Standard.
Michael Novak reflects at the First Things blog on the difference in the culture of charity between the United States and Europe, “The Giving Society,” drawing on the research of Arthur C. Brooks.

Posted by Jordan J. Ballor in News and Events at 10:19 | Leave a comment | Trackback

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The Annotated Inbox

Thursday, September 13, 2007

A brief survey of a number of items of note from my inbox over recent days:

“U.S. Court Backs States’ Measures to Cut Emissions,” New York Times (September 13, 2007). This is noteworthy because one of the oft-overlooked elements of the Mass. v. EPA Supreme Court decision was that federal law prevents state agencies from introducing stronger standards than those of the federal EPA. There’s a states’ rights issue in there somewhere.
“Why the Hungry Refuse Help,” New York Times (September 13, 2007). No big surprise here: “bureaucratic hassles imposed by the city may be discouraging hundreds of thousands of eligible New Yorkers from getting the help they need.”
“Faith’s role on the rise in campaign ‘08,” Christian Science Monitor, September 12, 2007: “Hot-button social issues of concern to religious activists are taking a back seat to Iraq and domestic issues, even among Evangelicals.”
“Low Technologies, High Aims,” New York Times, September 11, 2007. MIT “has turned its attention toward concrete thinking to improve the lives of the world’s bottom billion, those who live on a dollar a day or less and who often die young.”
What was the cause of the sudden dearth of honeybees? At first the claim was that it must be related to global warming, the scientific default boogeyman. Now we hear it’s a rare virus instead. See “A Virus Among Honeybees,” which plays up other potential causes. See also “Virus Is Seen as Suspect in Death of Honeybees,” and “Clue found to missing bees.” The former report says that the “theory” of climate change as a cause has been “rejected.”
“Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries,” New York Times, September 10, 2007. The rather unsophisticated and seemingly blanket censorship is troubling, given the need that hardened criminals have for spiritual renewal. See also “Going Off Parole: How the Elimination of Discretionary Prison Release Affects the Social Cost of Crime,” a new NBER paper, as well as “Prison Town, U.S.A.” on the expansion of the prison-industrial complex.
“The Role of Religious and Social Organizations in the Lives of Disadvantaged Youth,” NBER Working Paper, September 2007: “This paper examines whether participation in religious or other social organizations can help offset the negative effects of growing up in a disadvantaged environment.” See also the Acton publication, “Faith Makes a Difference: A Study of the Influence of Faith in Human Service Programs.”
“Wealth tax initiative enters circulation,” Eureka Review, September 8, 2007. California might have a potentially devastating progressive tax measure on the ballot.
“The Freemasonry Threat,” Christianity Today, August 31, 2007. Denial of the compatibility of lodge membership with Christianity was one of the elements that has historically separated the Christian Reformed Church from the Reformed Church in America. See the CRC statement here. There’s been a big push in Michigan by the Masons to revitalize their organization. They advertise on every Detroit Tiger baseball radio broadcast, for instance. See also my “Civic Groups Remain Relevant” for the larger context.
“What is Wrong with Capitalism? The Problem with the Problem with Capitalism,” The Other Journal, no. 5: “Whatever defense of capitalism’s virtues is proffered, no one confuses capitalism with the Kingdom of God.”
“Should Christians Give Markets Another Chance?” The Other Journal: “As a Christian, I doubt that the kin-dom of God can accommodate the traditional baggage of ‘capitalism’ and its presumed antagonism. Indeed, as Kathryn Tanner notes, this image of capitalism seems to be Christianity’s exact opposite.”
“The 17 Percent Problem and the Perils of Domestication,” New York Times, August 13, 2007: “What does it mean to go from a humanly ancient world in which only 17 percent of nature had been “tainted” to a world in which only 17 percent remains untainted?”
“An Atrocity That Needs No Exaggeration,” New York Times, August 12, 2007: “No matter how noble their intentions, there’s no need for advocacy groups to kill more Darfuris than the conflict itself already has.”
“What the Beatitudes Teach,” Policy Review, August & September 2007.

And finally, from The Onion, “In The Know: Are America’s Rich Falling Behind The Super-Rich?”

In The Know: Are America’s Rich Falling Behind The Super-Rich?

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The Annotated Inbox

Monday, April 30, 2007

Here are some links of interest from recent weeks from my inbox and perusal of the web:

Speaking of Faith, “Restoring the Senses: Life, Gardening, and an Orthodox Easter,” Vigen Guroian, an Armenian Orthodox theologian and passionate gardener, experiences Easter as “a call to our senses.”
Marina Krakovsky, “The Science of Lasting Happiness,” Scientific American, “Through controlled experiments, Sonja Lyubomirsky explores ways to beat the genetic set point for happiness. Staying in high spirits, she finds, is hard work.” Related: “The Reliability of Subjective Well-Being Measures,” NBER Working Paper No. 13027. Also Related: “The Myth of Happiness,” Zondervan.
Joe Knippenberg, “Public support for vouchers in Georgia,” Knippenblog.
Roger Scruton, “Better off without religion?” Right Reason.
Gerard Alexander, “The Nonprofit Industrial Complex,” The Weekly Standard (HT: Instapundit), “The Independent Sector, which is basically the industry group for nonprofits, reports that the combined annual expenditures of all the not-for-profit organizations required to file Form 990 with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service had grown to nearly $1 trillion in 2004. (That’s about half what the federal government spends each year, not counting defense.)” Folks like Ron Sider have been saying for years that if Christians tithed, we’d have plenty of funds both to address all of the major economic and social problems and to invest more in missions and evangelism. Related: Bjørn Lomborg, ed., How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place.
Celia W. Dugger, “Oversight Report Says U.S. Food Aid Practices Are Wasteful,” New York Times (HT: Philanthropy).
Wolfgang Polzer, “Smoking May Damage Bible Production,” ASSIST News Service (HT: Logos Bible Blog), “The Chinese craving for cigarettes is responsible for rising paper costs in bible printing, according to the business manager of the German Bible Society, Felix Breidenstein.”
Editorial, “Dr. Conyers, I Presume,” The Wall Street Journal. Related: Impact Malaria.

Posted by Jordan J. Ballor in News and Events at 09:23 | Leave a comment | Trackback

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The Annotated Inbox

Thursday, October 19, 2006

A number of interesting links, but no more time than to pass them on with perhaps a bit of a comment before they pass into the ether:

“The Fate of the Earth in the Balance: The Metaphysics of Climate Change,” by Steven F. Hayward, finds the spirit of Martin Heidegger in the work of Al Gore and Jonathan Schell on views of impending cataclysm. (HT: Commons Blog)
Marketplace commentator David Frum argues that a carbon tax is advantageous, and says his argument is not based on any particular view of climate change. Instead, national security and other concerns dominate, so that “taxes on carbon-based energy help move us toward a future in which the Persian Gulf region reverts to the obscurity it so richly deserves.” I agree that we need to move toward a “post-petroleum economy.”
A misanthropist’s paradise: “Imagine Earth without people,” expounding the view that the Earth would be better off without us. Sound familiar? Call me “Ishamel.” (HT: Slashdot)
The “World’s 10 Most Polluted Places.” What do they have in common? They are poor. A clean environment is a costly good.