In this week’s mentary, I reflect on the past year’s developments for InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a ministry of Prison Fellowship. In June a federal judge in Iowa ruled against IFI’s work at Iowa’s Newton facility. In his ruling (PDF here), the judge wrote that the responsibility bating recidivism is “traditionally and exclusively reserved to the state.” This means that since reducing recidivism is a “state function,” anyone working bat recidivism is by definition a “state actor.” Panopticon blueprint by Jeremy...

Our series on the year in review continues with the second quarter: April “Surprise! Evangelical Politics Isn’t Univocal,” Jordan J. Ballor So from issues like immigration to global warming, the press is eager to find the fault lines of evangelical politics. And moving beyond the typical Jim Wallis-Jerry Falwell dichotomy, there are real and honest disagreements among evangelicals on any number of political issues…. May “How Do You Spell Relief?” Jordan J. Ballor If Congress really wants to address the...

I was glad to see a group of American Muslims register their objection to the Iranian government’s Holocaust Denial conference. A group of Muslims went to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. The Muslims were members of All Dulles Area Muslim Society. Holocaust survivors also attended the ceremony. The idea for the ceremony originated with (Imam Mohamed)Magid, whose Sterling (VA) mosque has been active in interfaith efforts. After hearing radio reports about the Iranian meeting, “I said to...

A climatologist reflects on his visit to AGU’s conference last week. Salient bit here: What I see is something that I am having a hard time labeling, but that I might call either a "hangover" or a "sophomore slump" or "buyers remorse." None fit perfectly, but perhaps bination does. I speak for (my interpretation) of the collective: {We tried for years – decades – to get them to listen to us about climate change. To do that we had to...

I like this feature on John Scharffenberger in this week’s U.S. News and World Report. It captures in anecdotal form almost all of the ingredients in entrepreneurial success. There is disregard for “conventional wisdom” and there is hard work and dedication. The author doesn’t articulate it this way, but there is also an ethical concern for quality product and the good of the customer. Entrepreneurial success isn’t as simple as all that, however. There is also “luck and timing,” and,...

Our series on the year in review continues with the third fourth of 2006: July “Isn’t the Cold War Over?” David Michael Phelps I’ve got an idea for a new . Titled, Hugo and Vladi, it details the zany adventures of two world leaders, one of whom (played by David Hyde Pierce) struggles to upkeep his image of a friendly, modern European diplomat while his goofball brother-in-law (played by George Lopez) keeps screwing it up for him by spouting off...

This series will take a representative post from each month of the past year, to review the big stories of the past twelve months. First things first, the first quarter of 2006: January “Who is Pope Benedict XVI?,” Kishore Jayabalan Despite his many writings, scholarly expertise and long service to the Church as Prefect of Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, there’s still much of an unknown quality surrounding Pope Benedict XVI…. February “The Mohammed...

New President of Mexico Calderon spent yesterday at the US Mexican border greeting Mexicans returning home for Christmas. His message was two-fold. First, a pledge to create jobs in Mexico: “The generation of well-paid jobs is the only long-lasting solution to the migration problem,” Calderón said before greeting immigrants in cars packed with Christmas gifts. Calderón, who took office Dec. 1, pledged to fight corruption to make Mexico more attractive to foreign investors. “We need to ensure that more investment...

Go to this page to watch a short video highlighting the story of one man’s fight against Canada’s health system. The film is focused on the defects of socialized medicine and so, naturally, does not deal with the serious problems existing in other systems (such as the United States). But it is an effective display of a problem that every attempt to manipulate prices encounters: how to make supply meet demand. ...

Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, passes along a Christmas message over at Phi Beta Cons on National Review Online. Reflecting on the Incarnation, Sirico says, “This belief teaches us to take seriously human history, its institutions, economies and social relationships, for all of this, and more, is the stuff from which human destiny is discovered and directed.” At the Christmas staff meeting Rev. Sirico passed on similar thoughts to us, and concludes with this, which I...