This country suffers no shortage of heroic tales. For the Union soldier who served under Ulysses S. Grant, there certainly was no greater leader. Often referred to by detractors as “a butcher” for the wake of Union dead left after his victories, he took the fight to the Confederacy. After the Wilderness campaign in 1864, where 17,000 Union soldiers died in just a few days, Grant unlike all the Union generals before him refused to lick the Federal wounds and...

Cardinal Peter K. Turkson, in a recent address to French businesspeople, spoke about integrating faith and work. In its exercise of business, therefore, humanity would e a ‘rock’ that sustains creation through the practice of love and justice. And this appears to be really the vocation of the Christian business leader: to practice love and justice and to teach the business household for which he or she is responsible to do likewise, for the sustenance of all creation, beginning with...

Despite the rise of globalization and democracy, violent persecution of Christians, Jews, and other religious minorities is still mon in many parts of the world. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has released its latest survey of religious freedom and as Doug Bandow reports, it makes for grim reading: Dictators have been falling in the Middle East, but that doesn’t mean freedom is inevitably expanding. Unfortunately, the Arab Spring has turned into something far different than hoped. Especially for...

Join us as we e Mr. Jeffrey Tucker for the AU Online presentation of his popular lecture, The Nature and Function of Money. The online session is scheduled for Monday April 16 at 6:30pm ET. In this lecture, Mr. Tucker explores the centrality of money to market economics, its origins, the history of its development, and its functions in modern economic life. Visit auonline.acton.org for more information or to register. Mr. Tucker is a speaker, writer, organizer, and technology/cultural pundit...

The Obama administration has placed a high priority on making higher education affordable. In January, President Obama spoke to students at the University of Michigan about steering American colleges and universities towards more “responsible” tuition costs. It’s an admirable goal. According to the College Board, from the 2001-2012 school years, college tuition and costs at public universities increased at 5.6 percent a year more than the cost of inflation. For the 15 percent of consumers responsible for it, college debt...

On Sunday Bubba Watson, one of the most untraditional golfers on the PGA Tour, was the surprise winner of the 2012 Masters Tournament. But while golf may be his vocation, it isn’t Watson’s top priority. What he considers most important can be gleaned from the description on his Twitter account:”@bubbawatson: Christian. Husband. Daddy. Pro Golfer. Owner of General Lee 1.” Among the 39,000-plus messages he’s sent into the Twittersphere, he’s sure to spread the Gospel message: God made everything &...

Back in 2011, then-Bishop Timothy Dolan pointed out that our nation’s budget is not simply a matter of numbers and balanced books. “It reflects the very values of our nation. As many religious leaders mented, budgets are moral statements.” In a reiteration of this, House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says local control and concern for the poor must inform national budget issues. Ryan said that the principle of subsidiarity — a notion, rooted in Catholic social teaching, that...

Danny O’Dwyer of Gamespot has created an interesting video on religion in video games. As a self-described atheist, he examines the reasons why video games “haven’t reached the point where Islam can be portrayed without a suicide bomb.” The video also looks at various instances of religion in existing games and includes an interview with his Muslim friend Tamoor who works in the game journalism industry. You can watch his 15 minute video below. Danny’s article over at Gamespot has...

Did you know Che Guevara was at heart an Irish freedom fighter? In this week’s Acton Commentary (published April 11), Samuel Gregg looks at how the left “has been remarkably successful in distorting people’s knowledge of Communism’s track-record.” The full text of his essay follows. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton News & Commentary and other publications here. The Left Resumes Its War on History bySamuel Gregg What does an Argentine-born Cuban Communist revolutionary executed in the Bolivian jungle 45...

On his albums Bruce Springsteen may pose as a working-class hero. But as Bruce Edward Walker notes, in his real life he’s a crony corporatist: Add in the concert receipts and song royalties, and you have a guy with an estimated net worth of $250 million who shouldn’t have too much trouble making the mortgage on his 200-acre plot in Joisey and other properties valued well over $5 million. Poor Bruce and family pay $138,000 each year for taxes on...