1) According to the BBC, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, “The bulk of the money that Saddam [Hussein] made came out of smuggling outside the oil-for-food programme, and it was on the American and British watch”. This assertion is based on the contention that the $4 billion that Hussein was alleged to have received in the oil-for-food program is “dwarfed” by the $14 billion is said to e from “sanctions-busting,” illegally smuggling oil to neighboring states such as Jordan and...

On this date in 1955, Ray Kroc starts the McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants in Illinois. On a related note, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is the latest political figure to float the idea of a “fast food tax,” the newest incarnation of the “sin” tax. The reasoning is that fast foods, which tend to be higher in fat and cholesterol than other types of food, are unhealthy, and therefore worthy of special government attention. The Detroit Free Press editorial...

After Pope John Paul II’s death on April 2, the European Parliament was torn over a “difficult” decision – whether to lower the flags of the European Institution to half-mast. It seems that some members thought it was inappropriate to honor one of the most pro-European statesmen who ever lived with such a simple gesture. Eventually, they came to their senses and agreed to do so. Now it seems that the Polish members of the Euro Parliament have bit off...

A defense of Pope John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus. For example, On Globalization The Claim: “John Paul II . . . thinks that capitalism goes way too far and results in oppression of people in the developing world. So economic redistribution would be a very radical position . . .” Lisa Sowle Cahill, professor of theology at Boston College. Centesimus Annus Says: “Today we are facing the so-called ‘globalization’ of the economy, a phenomenon which is not to be dismissed,...

The incongruence of a culture that insists on knowledge of every detail about charity donations and yet puts no value on a disabled woman’s life is frankly mind-boggling. But let’s move beyond value of human life and focus on the importance of telling the truth and being honest. Stanley Carlson-Thies, formerly of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, makes a superb point that like too much of any good thing, too much transparency just might “turn” on...

Hot on the trail of chimeras as a service to you, dear reader, I pass along this story about the offspring of a dolphin and a whale. Apparently these so-called “wholphins” have been found in the wild. Wholphins, as whale-dolphin hybrids, are a less-famous form of chimera than more famous ligers (mules are the most famous). According to Napoleon Dynamite, a liger is “pretty much my favorite animal. It’s like a lion and a tiger mixed. Bred for its skills...

Sunday’s Independent has three pieces on the recent application of technological advances to ancient manuscripts, which are making readable previously illegible manuscripts. According to the paper, “infra-red technology has enabled hundreds of ancient edies, tragedies and epic posed by classical greats such as Sophocles, Euripides and Hesiod, to be deciphered for the first time in 2,000 years.” Also thought to be contained in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri are early copies of Christian texts, possibly including gospel accounts. Examples of the classical...

Following the resignation of a number of ministers, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi “plans to resign to form a new government, bowing to an ally’s demands for change after losing 11 out of 13 regional elections two weeks ago,” according to a Bloomberg report. One of the ministers who resigned on April 15, Rocco Buttiglione, is a member of the Acton Institute’s Board of Advisors. Mr. Buttiglione received the Faith & Freedom Award from the institute after withdrawing his nomination...

If looking for an exposition of the post hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy when applied to wealth and the size of government in the United States, you can find it in this speech, “The State Expands, and Weakens,” given by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, to a free-market businessmen’s group in Okemos, Michigan, on April 16, 2005. HT: Mises Economics Blog ...

Today marks the birthday of Eliot Ness, Prohibition Agent for the Department of Treasury-Chicago. Ness was made famous for bringing down Al Capone. The story was loosely portrayed in the movie The Untouchables, starring Kevin Costner as Ness. And on a related note, this year marks the 75th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision ruling that buying liquor does not violate the Constitution (May 26). In his occasional paper on the sin tax, Rev. Robert Sirico writes, “The sin tax...

God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Ignatius Press, 2002 Comments by Dr. Samuel Gregg: As Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has demonstrated again and again that he is one of the world’s leading theologians. In this extended interview with the renowned German journalist, Peter Seewald, we are given an insight into Ratzinger’s thought on a range of topics fundamental to Christian belief. This includes profound...

An excerpt from Cardinal Ratzinger’s “Homily at the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff,” given yesterday: How many winds of doctrine we have known in these last decades, how many ideological currents, how many fashions of thought? The small boat of thought of many Christians has often remained agitated by the waves, tossed from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from...