Does the city of Pensacola, Florida care more about fort of cats than the dignity and safety of human beings? That certainly seems to be the case. Last week, a local news warning suggested that residents bring pets inside to protect them from cold temperatures. But the city prohibited its homeless population from covering themselves to keep out the cold. The Pensacola ordinance said a person may not be “adjacent to or inside a tent or sleeping bag, or atop...

While acknowledging that the Bible is not a book of political theory, a recent panel hosted by The Institute for Faith, Work and Economics asked whether or not Christianity and libertarianism patible. The panel, moderated by former Acton Institute intern Elise Amyx, was made up of young evangelicals eager to tackle the question. They came up with 5 reasons that Christianity and libertarianism were patible. 1. Christianity Celebrates Voluntary Action, Value Creation Jacqueline Otto Isaacs, a blogger at Values &...

Today at Ethika Politika, I take issue with Rod Dreher’s “Benedict Option,” a term inspired by the last paragraph of Alasdair MacIntyre’s book After Virtue. The basic idea is that, due to the Enlightenment, we have lost the social conditions — in particular a shared moral and religious narrative — that make virtuous living an intelligible and shared social standard. Thus, MacIntyre claimed, “What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms munity within which civility and the...

The “information theory of capitalism”, says Rev. Johannes L. Jacobse in this week’s Acton Commentary, upends conventional thinking about free markets and statist economic theories. Ever since the rise of information theory in the 1940s, it is ing increasingly clear that the universe is, in a sense, digital. Information, logic, data, whatever you want to call it, lies even deeper than the material operations that science has so ably discovered and quantified. This deeper informational dimension is dynamic and unpredictable....

Calling all business and economics faculty at Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries across the United States and Canada! The deadline to apply for a Mini-Grant is March 15, only a few short weeks away. The Acton Institute’s Mini-Grant Program will award a total of $40,000 to business and economics instructors for purposes of course development and faculty scholarship in the field of free-market economics. If you are a professor or know of professors looking for financial assistance to bolster course...

Shortly after filing my blog yesterday, the New York Times’ David Firestone added another wrinkle. It seems liberal billionaires also contribute millions of dollars to voice their strongly held beliefs regarding climate change: Those who are worried about man-made climate change might be tempted to e the news that Tom Steyer, a Democratic billionaire, will spend $100 million this year to fight it. Mr. Steyer plans to put up half the money himself for attack ads against governors and lawmakers...

Harvard students a century or so ago joked that Professor Irving Babbitt’s distaste for Jean-Jacques Rousseau was so fervent that he checked under his bed each evening to make sure the 18th century French philosopher wasn’t hiding there. In this humorous vein, one could apply the same fear held by progressive activists for the dreaded brothers Koch – Charles and David. Not only do activists check under their respective beds, but as well their closets, attics, basements, cookie jars and...

What just happened in Ukraine? For the past three months, a protest movement has been expressing opposition to the government of Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovych. Yesterday (Feb. 18), the protest reached a current peak when the country suffered its worst bloodshed since leaving the Soviet empire. More than 20 people were reported killed as riot police moved in to clear Kiev’s Independence Square, the crucible of the anti-government activism. What is the cause of the conflict? At its root, the...

The much-maligned 1%. Websites are devoted to getting them to spread their wealth. They are called self-pitying, greedy…just all-around bad folk. Really? In today’s Wall Street Journal, James Piereson says the 1% are actually hard-working people like the rest of us. They have jobs. They earn their money. Maybe they earn more money that most of us, but they do earn it; they aren’t trust fund babies or spoiled heirs. Where does their e from? The top earners depend heavily...

I have previously expressed my appreciation for the popular TV show, Undercover Boss, in which business leaders from large corporations spend several days working alongside lower-level employees. In an episode on Subway, Don Fertman,the restaurant chain’s Chief Development Officer, goes undercover at several locations across the United States.Most of the episode includes your typical Undercover Boss fare — a bumbling executive, dedicated workers, teer-jerker employee recognitions —but I was struck by a particular branch that Fertman visits along the way....