Fast Food Tax Redux As I alerted you to more than three weeks ago, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has proposed a 2% tax on fast food restaurants, in a vain attempt to cover the city’s fiscal woes. Here’s a sneak preview to this week’s ANC feature, “The Flawed Fast Food Tax,” in which I conclude: As a rule, governments should not seek quick and temporary fixes to structural budget problems. Sin taxes like the fast food tax are quick fixes...

Iain Murray at Tech Central Station writes that the EU is going to have a lot of trouble meeting its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, and this could have disastrous economic effects. He writes of recent statements from Spanish officials: This is a clear indication that at least one government has realized that Kyoto brings a severe economic cost with it, contrary to the protestations of the European Commission and Kyoto boosters around the world. Murray concludes, “The reality, then,...

Noting the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexis de Tocqueville, Samuel Gregg analyzes the current situation in Europe. “Tocqueville’s vision of ‘soft-despotism’ is thus one of arrangements that mutually corrupt citizens and the democratic state,” and clear signs of this ‘soft-despotism’ are emerging, contends Gregg. Read the full text here. ...

A New York Times editorial today argues that spreading concerns about the ethical validity of chimeras (human-animal hybrids) are unfounded. Here is a summary of the argument: 1) Strange and disturbing possibilities are more like science-fiction than real science. These “should not distract us from ing more mundane experiments with chimeras that will be needed to advance science.” 2) This is just the next logical progression. There’s no real substantive difference between transplanting organs or tissues and splicing genes. 3)...

According to the AP, Molly Akers has filed a lawsuit against the University of Chicago Hospitals, seeking more than $200,000 in damages for the pain, suffering and lost wages she suffered when her healthy right breast was surgically removed. The mistake was the result of a lab mix-up, and in a statement released on NBC’s Today Show, the hospital expressed regret for the mistake. Akers’ lawyer, Bob Clifford, is using the case as an opportunity to speak against proposed tort...

Interested in reading and reviewing various publications for your blog? Head on over to Mind & Media, a blog-based book reviewing service. The Acton Institute has placed three titles from the Lexington Books Studies in Ethics & Economics series, edited by Acton director of research Samuel Gregg. One of the books is Within the Market Strife: American Catholic Economic Thought from Rerum Novarum to Vatican II, by Acton research fellow Kevin Schmiesing. e a reviewer ...

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has found a new way to get the word out about its efforts. Food Force is a free downloadable video game (for the PC and Mac) designed by the WFP, in which the users will “Play the game, learn about food aid, and help WFP work towards a world without hunger.” Within the context of the fictional nation of Sheylan, the player embarks on a series of missions intended to give users a...

Today’s Christian Science Monitor has a story on the increasing use of micro-loans by Christian aid and development groups. According to the story, “Religious organizations are increasingly adopting the Talmudic sentiment that the noblest form of charity is helping others to dispense with it.” Ron Sider, in the twentieth anniversary edition of his book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, strongly endorses the use of micro-loans as a means of getting desperately needed capital to those who need it...

In his “Bad Economics, Bad Public Policy and Bad Theology,” columnist Raymond Keating makes the case on OrthodoxyToday.org that the Religious Left offers “assorted biblical passages that speak of aiding the poor, the necessity for charity and justice, or other vague generalities, and then simply assert that these quotations support the particulars of their big government philosophy. Of course, this ranks as either ignorant or disingenuous from a theological standpoint.” Keating examines resurgent activism by liberal/leftist religious leaders on environmental...

This es from Han Solo, which pretty well sums up his critique of Jedi knights in the Star Wars saga, “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side.” I also wonder whether it might be apt in describing the sometimes contemptuous relationship between scientific progress and religion (Christianity in particular), as the guiding pragmatic ethos of naturalism wars against orthodox Christian belief. Forbes has posted a slideshow giving reviews of the various technologies...

The Telegraph reports that there is growing dissent among the ranks of some scientists, whose dissenting viewpoint is unable to find a place in many major academic journals. According to the story, Two of the world’s leading scientific journals e under fire from researchers for refusing to publish papers which challenge fashionable wisdom over global warming. … The controversy follows the publication by Science in December of a paper which claimed to have plete agreement among climate experts, not only...

A post by Leslie Sillars over at Signs of the Times takes ABC’s show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” to task. His difficulty, essentially, is this: is this charity in any reasonable sense of the word? It looks like the best kind of charity—unmerited favor for someone in need, out of the blue—yet, ABC makes buckets of money on the program, Sears and the other sponsors get loads of exposure, and Ty and the rest of them are portrayed as angels...