First item in this month’s Christianity Today Bookmarks. Conclusion: “Disconcertingly, Stark argues without qualification, nuance, and the balancing of perspectives that academics love so much. Nonetheless, he may be right.” ...

A newly certified Guinness World Record, presented without ment. ...

As the newly-burgeoning field of space tourism takes the first steps towards reality, elements of the federal government are already pushing for stringent regulation. In a 60 Minutes report last night, the Ansari X Prize, “an petition created in 1996 to stimulate private investment in space,” has spawned the new space race. This new field is “a race among panies and billionaire entrepreneurs to carry paying passengers into space and to kick-start a new industry, astro tourism.” Part of the...

For those of you who enjoy listening to podcasts, Acton has updated its own podcast to be more iTunes friendly. We’ve added an iTunes graphic to the feed, updated our description tags, and categorized it on the iTunes music store. For those interested in checking it out, please follow this link to the iTunes Music Store (iTunes is required). ...

I’ve written about the narrower problem of generational conflict as it relates to social security policy, here and here. From a perspective that passes the broader, related cultural, economic, and moral issues, Eric Cohen and Leon Kass write in Commentary the most thoughtful and thought-provoking piece I’ve read on the matter of intergenerational responsibility and end-of-life care. Credit to Stanley Kurtz at The Corner. ...

Sometimes one man’s trash is just trash. “Most people have no clue what’s involved with taking a garbage bag of stuff and getting it to the person who needs it,” said Lindy Garnette, executive director for SERVE Inc., a Manassas-based nonprofit that operates a 60-bed homeless shelter and food bank. According to this story, “Eager for Treasure, Not Trash: Charities Sort Through Piles of Donated Goods, Some of Which They Can’t Use,” by Michael Alison Chandler in The Washington Post,...

From all of us here at the PowerBlog, please accept our best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2006! Care to make any predictions for the new year? Feel free to leave them in ments. ...

The US government is getting set to open up a set of airwave frequencies, vacating the prime estate for obscure channels that will serve its purposes just as well. In addition, the newly available channels will provide a big boost to the capabilities of current wireless providers. As Gene J. Koprowski writes for UPI, “It’s something like an eminent-domain case — except this time, the government is vacating the space in order to further the technology economy, rather than the...

My little home town of Seminole, Oklahoma, has been scorched by the wildfires sweeping through parts of Oklahoma and Texas. My mother’s beloved horse riding trails in the rural area around Seminole are either smoldering or threatened. I talked to an old high school friend about our response to the disaster. He said, “Karen, we paid attention after those hurricanes. We’re not looking to the government for help. The churches and people all around here have been helping since the...

Here are the Top 5 Acton Institute PowerBlog posts of 2005 (by number of visits): The Ethics of ‘Price Gouging’, Monday, August 29, 2005Benedict XVI on Markets and Morality, Thursday, May 5, 2005Bono: Aid or Trade?, Thursday, June 2, 2005Puggles, Malt-a-Poos, and Labradoodles, Oh My!, Tuesday, August 23, 2005Museum of Plastic Cadavers, Friday, May 20, 2005 ...