In a new column in The Detroit News, I set authentic environmental stewardship against the goings-on at the recently concluded UN Copenhagen conference. A slightly longer version of mentary will be published tomorrow in the weekly Acton News & Commentary. Merry Christmas to all! The not-so-subtle politicizing of science revealed by the Climategate affair, along with the alarmist and at times downright silly antics of some proponents of environmentalism (a word that has acquired numerous shades of mitment), ought not...

During this holiday travel season, which has you more concerned, conventional terror attacks of the kind attempted on Christmas Day or tech terrorism, which aims to take down access to or breach puter networks? John P. Avlon of the Manhattan Institute makes the case that the latter perhaps represents a greater threat to national and economic security. Avlon concludes, “Whether it is perpetrated by al-Qaida, a hostile nation, or a lone hacker, we cannot afford to wait for a digital...

From the Holy Land, sung in Arabic. Merry Christmas to all PowerBlog readers and our blogging crew! St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 4:4-7 Brethren, when the time had e, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are...

I saw the latest blockbuster Avatar last night, and the early plaudits are true: this is a visually stunning masterpiece of “hybrid” cinematography, a “full live-action shoot bination puter-generated characters and live environments.” But there are other, pelling ways, in which Avatar is a hybrid of sorts. There are literal hybrids in the Avatars themselves, the genetically-altered bining both elements of Na’vi and human genes to act as bodies for the Avatar “sleep walkers.” mentators have noted the lack of...

I love the song, “Mary, did you know?”… Reflect on the words… The Incarnation is at the heart of the Gospel– not just that Jesus came as the GodMan in bodily form, as the ultimate sin-bearer, as the Perfect High Priest offering Himself as the Perfect Sacrifice for our sins. Beyond that, consider the manner of the Incarnation– He didn’t just roll down here for a week, hop on a cross, and rise from the dead. He lived our kind...

A new NBER working paper promises to blow up the myth that it is primarily the wealthy that will bear the cost of taxes on carbon emissions. In “Who Pays a Price on Carbon?” Corbett A. Grainger and Charles D. Kolstad explore the possibility that “under either a cap-and-trade program that limits carbon emissions or a carbon tax that imposes an outright tax on these emissions, the poor may be among the hardest hit. Because they spend a greater share...

With all of the blizzards, cold temperatures and the circus-like atmosphere in Copenhagen last week, it looks like people are ing more and more skeptical of global warming—or I should say climate change. But in times like these we have to remember that blizzards, or even historical low temperatures, are irrelevant–because it is not LOCAL warming, it is GLOBAL warming. The only time LOCAL temperatures have any significance is when they are hotter than normal–then it es empirical evidence. I...

NRO’s Corner published my article on Pope Benedict’s recent remarks to Brazilian bishops on liberation theology: It went almost unnoticed, but on December 5, Benedict XVI articulated one of the most stinging rebukes of a particular theological school ever made by a pope. Addressing a visiting group of Brazilian bishops, Benedict followed some ments about Catholic education with some very sharp and deeply critical remarks about liberation theology and its effects upon the Catholic Church. After stressing how certain liberation...

If ever G.K. Chesterton’s old quip about heresy being “truth gone mad” was in full view, es a report from England whereby Fr. Tim Jones, an Anglican minister, had actually encouraged the poor to shoplift from large chains this holiday season. … the minister’s controversial sermon at St. Lawrence Church in York has been slammed by police, the British Retail Consortium and a local MP, who all say that no matter what the circumstances, shoplifting is an offence. Delivering his...

As a follow-up note to my previous post, “Wealth and Fidelity, Golf and Marriage,” it’s worth exploring in some more detail the multi-billion dollar phenomenon that has been called “Tiger, Inc.” and the relationship between power in sports, wealth, and politics. Lord Acton’s dictum, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” has found relevance in a number of contexts beyond those of its initial utterance. It is most frequently used nowadays to refer to the kind of fullness...