I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall forted in the nether parts of the earth. — Eze 31:16 America had folks like Fossey and T.R. and Muir and Carson and Audobon and Carver and Pickering who brought conservation and ecology into our emerging national...

Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in California, has a new blog, Mouw’s Musings, and has taken notice of Sam Gregg’s recent Acton Commentary, “Self Interest, Rightly Understood.” Giving Gregg credit for making “an important point” with which he largely agrees, Mouw goes on to say: “At the same time this also seems to me to be true. People who are not motivated by an intentional desire to promote mon good often do not in fact promote mon...

Order Dr. Gregg’s new book today! With the publication this month of The Commercial Society – Foundations and Challenges in a Global Age, Samuel Gregg embarks on an exploration of the key foundational elements that must exist within a society mercial order to take root and flourish. Guided by the thoughts of Alexis de Tocqueville, Gregg studies the challenges that have consistently impeded and occasionally mercial order. mentary, excerpted from the new book, explains why people who begin to exceed...

Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch, M-LAW, started a contest to find the wackiest warning labels on consumer products ten years ago, and they’ve just released this year’s list of winners (HT: Slashdot). Topping the charts is the warning attached to a front-loading washing machine: “Do not put any person in this washer.” Other hits include: “Never use a lit match or open flame to check fuel level.”“Don’t try to dry your phone in a microwave oven.” The contest is part of...

A NYT editorial informs us today that retail prices for coffee products are rising (HT: Icarus Fallen). We are assured, however, that the price rise has been “relatively modest” and that an important factor is “changes in supply and demand in a global economy.” No kidding. The bad news in the editorial, at least for the fair trade crowd, is that these same forces of suppy and demand are raising the price for modity itself. According to the International Coffee...

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...

One of the oft-overlooked groups in the Iraq conflict are Iraqi Christians (many of whom are Chaldean Christians). Chances are if you hear about an Iraqi ethnic or religious minority, they are either Kurds or Sunni Muslims. Doug Bandow, who writing a book on religious persecution abroad, points out the dilemma facing native Christians in Iraq in his latest piece for The American Spectator, “Iraq’s Forgotten Minority” (HT: The Point). Writes Bandow, “Although the Shiite- dominated government does not oppress,...

Where have I seen that salute before? A new possible episode for my proposed : Chavez continues his power grasp in Latin America. My favorite quote: “We are in an existential moment of Venezuelan life … We’re heading toward socialism, and nothing and no-one can prevent it.” Stay tuned, gang. ...

On the same theme as a couple of recent posts (on the inanity of warning labels and signature file disclosure messages), Fast Company links to what they are calling the “Egregiously Legalistic Sig File of the Month.” It’s pretty egregious. Just think of all the wasted electrons. ...

It has been said that when Jonathan Edwards would roam about the countryside on his horse, he would record his observations and thoughts on little scraps of paper and pin them to his coat. When he returned home, his wife would help him unpin the notes and he would arrange them on his desk and use them as a basis for recording his thoughts in more permanent form. This story has been viewed by some scholars as apocryphal, although Paul...