In a move seemingly destined to cause a massive political fight on Capitol Hill, President Bush has nominated Judge Samuel Alito, Jr. to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the United States Supreme Court. In his years on the federal bench, Alito has earned a reputation as a reliable conservative voice, even earning the nickname “Scalito” for his philosophical resemblances to current Justice Antonin Scalia. Your thoughts on the nomination are e in ments section. (If you have an...

A flap over religion in schools developed last week at Newark High School in Delaware. According to reports, “The principal of a public high school apologized to parents for allowing a Christian-themed assembly that featured two Philadelphia Eagles players, saying he was misled about what the presentation would cover.” “Principal Emmanuel Caulk of Newark High School wrote in a letter that he expected the talk by players Tra Thomas and Thomas Tapeh to focus on ‘values, choices and challenges that...

There’s a new venture, Kiva, that according to the founder Matthew Flannery is “a startup focused on connecting lenders with micro-businesses online. We provide the world’s first and only online micro-lending opportunity and just opened to the public 3 weeks ago. We have now started over 30 businesses in Uganda and are scaling at a rapid pace.” The effort still looks to be in its infancy, but as of October 11 Kiva was officially out of “beta” testing. This means...

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Americans living in Europe were often scolded about the need for big, centralized government to look after the poor, and we heard yet again about the moral superiority of Europe’s social model over America’s market-driven one. People who follow the Acton Institute and read the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page are too smart and well-informed to fall for such bromides. The American Entreprise magazine also devoted a whole issue debunking Europe’s claims. But when...

Jordan Ballor, associate editor at the Acton Institute, responds to a study published by Joan Silk, a researcher at the University of California, which finds that monkeys do not passion. Silk’s team placed a chimp in a situation where it had the option of pulling one of two ropes. Pull the first rope, and the chimp received a bit of food. Pull the second rope, and the chimp received the same bit of food, but a monkey in a neighboring...

A story on today’s Morning Edition by Claudio Sanchez examines the future of the school system in New Orleans following the hurricane Katrina disaster. New Orleans school superintendent Ora plains that charter schools are stepping in to fill the void left when public schools were cancelled for the remainder of this school year. She says, “There are so many different agendas. The mayor has decided that the city can run 20 schools under a charter. We have individual schools going...

Aaah, the magical soothing balm that is government regulation! The delightfully titled Now Batting for Pedro Borbon blog (“Manny Mota…Mota…Mota”) reveals the (predictable) results of governmental efforts to “increase transparency” in the business world: So, let’s review. The law that was supposed to ensure greater transparency and make the stock market safe for all of us, especially the little guy, is panies to purge the little guy, e less transparent, and shun our world-class public capital markets. Score another beaut...

The Kill Malarial Mosquitoes NOW! coalition announced today that Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has endorsed the campaign to use DDT as a primary weapon in the fight to control and eliminate malaria. The coalition wants 2/3 of world’s malaria control funds to be spent on DDT, or any more cost-effective insecticide, plus bination therapies (ACTs). Archbishop Tutu describes malaria as a “devastating” disease that is holding back African development. Many African countries desperately need cost-effective insecticides, such as DDT, to...

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at mand, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:3 NIV ...

Joe Carter, purveyor of the evangelical outpost (no longer active online), had a discussion last week worth paying attention to on the specifically Christian pursuit of knowledge. He argues that this applies even in something so apparently noncontroversial as mathematics. Regarding questions of math and science, “Even the concept that 1 + 1 = 2, which almost all people agree with on a surface level, has different meanings based on what theories are proposed as answers,” he writes. He also...

For those of us who harbor some nostalgic sentiment for this country’s agrarian past… I’ve written previously about the corrosive effect of subsidies on American agriculture. Now, Denis Boyles, in a thoughtful piece on NRO, notes from a similar perspective the importance of entrepreneurial thinking in preserving the agricultural towns of rural America. Here’s one piece: When I asked Genna M. Hurd, the co-director of the Kansas Center for Community Economic Development at the University of Kansas and an expert...

In today’s Times of London, William Rees-Mogg writes about the Vatican and its apparent rejection of intelligent design. Rees-Mogg also makes this provocative claim about Pope Benedict and some possible surprises from this new pontificate: His critics had expected him to be more conservative than his predecessor. I tended to share this expectation myself, but refrained from expressing it because new leaders always surprise one; they move in directions no one had previously foreseen. We should have been more conscious...