July 09, 2018
July 05, 2018
How can a Catholic be a socialist?
In a Turing Test, a computer tries to pass for human in a natural language conversation. During the test a human judge engages in the conversation but doesn’t know if it’s with a human or a machine emulating human responses. Continue Reading...
June 21, 2018
What can I possibly (and practically) do to help fight human rights violations?
My head is swimming with thoughts, my heart filled with emotion, and my coffee is getting cold next to me. I opened my social media this morning and no matter where I go, all my feeds are bursting with news of violations of human rights and dignity taking place in all corners of the globe – far away and right next door. Continue Reading...
June 11, 2018
North Korea and the Trump-Kim summit: Don’t ignore human rights
The changes in U.S.-North Korean relations over the past year have been drastic enough to give any casual observer whiplash: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump have gone from openly exchanging threats of nuclear war to agreeing to the first ever meeting between a North Korean head of state and a sitting U.S. Continue Reading...
May 15, 2018
Socialism is dead (Part 2): What’s wrong with the market-based evolution of socialism?
I spent my previous post explaining that orthodox socialism is effectively dead and what remains is really different variations on societies that effectively accept the market as the standard frame. Here, I would like to explain, in part, why the Bernie Sanders approach to market-based socialism (after the death of socialism) is not the right way forward. Continue Reading...
May 11, 2018
Bernie Sanders is not a socialist. Socialism is dead.
I recently gave a presentation to students about foreign aid in the developing world. I tried to explain that many are coming to the conclusion that what is really necessary is to establish conditions suitable for a market-based society. Continue Reading...
April 20, 2018
Startup Cuba: Lessons from the country’s emerging entrepreneurs
Although the Cuban people continue to suffer and struggle under the weight of communist rule, many have been encouraged by even the slightest of Raul Castro’s incremental changes toward private businesses. Continue Reading...
March 22, 2018
The bishop, Balaam, and communism
Lester DeKoster begins his book Communism and Christian Faith, now out in a new edition from Christian’s Library Press, with a quote from Bishop Joseph Butler’s sermon ‘Upon the Character of Balaam’:
“Things and actions are what they are, and their consequences will be what they will be: why then should we seek to be deceived?” Continue Reading...
March 12, 2018
Is Elizabeth Bruenig even a socialist?
Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, yesterday published an opinion piece entitled, ‘Let’s have a good-faith argument about socialism’ responding to some critics of her earlier piece, ‘It’s time to give socialism a try’. Continue Reading...
March 07, 2018
Give socialism a try? Let’s not.
Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, yesterday published an opinion piece entitled, ‘It’s time to give socialism a try’. The title is a bit misleading as the piece makes no positive case for socialism but rather chronicles her own and several others convictions that something in our society has gone terribly wrong. Continue Reading...
