In his latest TCS Daily essay, Arnold Kling writes, “As we get wealthier, we also e enhanced physically, cognitively, and morally, leading to a virtuous cycle of improvements to the standard of living.” Does affluence leads to moral progress? I don’t think there’s any necessary connection, and there’s plenty of counter-evidence, not least of which are the moral atrocities of the 20th century. But what about more mundane examples? In today’s WSJ, Kay S. Horowitz writes about the exploits of...

With all this talk of health care reform this year, I couldn’t help but do some digging into the real aspects of the proposals. Ranging from pletely disruptive universal medical care plan from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the socialist-like plan from Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) in the 110th congress, health care is big on the agenda for 2007. I am afraid that if the policies proposed by Schwarzenegger and Kennedy are passed, future generations will witness a detrimental effect...

The “new thing” in America’s prestigious Ivy League schools is “naked parties.” Supposedly, these parties have e landmark events “among liberal students being primed to e the nation’s elite.” The irony here us that the premise of these parties is designed to shed the arrogance often associated with the Ivy League schools. This would not be a party that you would catch me at. Not only because of the obvious plications, but also because I would not choose to be...

The question of cultural transformation looms over American Christianity. Should we engage culture? If so, how? In a battle for supremacy over American institutions? Or for the hearts and minds of the people? Reading through a sermon from Augustine, I was struck by a passage that illustrates how transformation of the world begins (and sometimes ends) in the church: …pray as much as you can. Evils abound, and God has willed that evils abound. If only evil people didn’t abound,...

On last week’s Huffington Post blog, Dr. Julianne Malveaux decries the practices of milk “charlatans,” who she claims, bine the concern about pesticides and additives with their own desire to grab hold of the profits available to those who can distinguish the food they produce from ‘ordinary’ food.” Malveaux argues that milk producers who identify their products as “hormone-free” are being dishonest and misrepresenting the truth. She says, “Animals produce hormones. Whether milk production is enhanced by rBST, a synthetic...

A part of the pornification of culture is the pornification of technology. G4TV, a cable network owned by Comcast Corp., has been covering the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) from Las Vegas this week and kicks off prime time special coverage tonight at 9pm ET. Of course, hip new gadgets like the iPhone (which actually was debuted at Macworld 2007) aren’t enough to appeal to “the male 18-34 audience and their fascination with video games, the Internet, broadband, ics and animation.”...

Sorry, gang, I just can’t seem to get away from Hugo Chavez. I must be drawn to idiocy. As I posted yesterday, Hugo Chavez continues his zany antics, saying no one can stop Venezuela’s movement toward socialism. Well, today it is reported that he has bolstered his Marxist position by appealing to the most famous socialist of all: Jesus! You have probably noted the recent forays into what I call religio-politics by folks like Jim Wallis, Barack Obama, and Jimmy...

Every now and again, I stumble across an article that just gets me going. Today was one such day, and this was one such article. Robert Samuelson takes aim at the baby boomers and their entitlement mentality in the Washington Post: As someone born in late 1945, I say this to the 76 million or so subsequent baby boomers and particularly to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, our generation’s leading politicians: Shame on us. We are trying to rob...

Dr. Michel Casey – Clicking this link will open a new window with a video player. Dr. Michael Casey was in Grand Rapids today to deliver the first address of the 2007 Acton Lecture Series, which was entitled The Religion of Politics. Dr. Casey is a Permanent Fellow at the John Paul II Institute, Melbourne, Australia, and Private Secretary to Cardinal George Pell, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. He is currently serving as a Visiting Fellow at the Ethics and...

I mentioned South Korea in mentary on population a few months ago. New data show that the erstwhile East Asian tiger is now the world’s leader in population contraction. Its fertility rate is 1.08, less than half the replacement rate of 2.1. In other words, if that rate persists, South Korea will halve its population with each generation. As is usual, aggressive government action played a role in the problem. The nation established its population control policy in 1961. Among...