vs. Almost everyone has been critical of the government’s methods when es to disaster preparedness and response. We here at Acton also tend to be very focused on the importance of private enterprise when es to dealing with local problems. And so I present an interesting case study for your analysis: The Department of Homeland Security has created a website, www.ready.gov, that promises to be a resource for those facing an imminent natural disaster. The Federation of American Scientists has...

Might these be the new “Cuisinarts of the sea”? This story, “Energy from the Restless Sea,” in today’s NYT examines the efforts of experimental inventors to find machines that excel in “harnessing the perpetual motion of the ocean and turning it into modity in high demand: energy.” There are a variety of designs and types of machines, so of course not all of them are a danger to chop up hapless fish. Watermill of Braine-le-Château, Belgium (12th century). Photograph taken...

To conclude this series, let’s recap what is meant by natural law by parsing the term. The “nature” referred to in natural law can mean different things, but I mean by it the divinely engrafted knowledge of morality in human reason and conscience, that which all human beings share by virtue of their creation in God’s image. Theologically speaking, I think this understanding of nature points back to our original creation in God’s image, but it also anticipates the fall...

This story makes me think of an old joke. Stafford, TX has a population of 19,227 people and 51 churches. The city council is making noise about preventing any more churches from opening up because, as tax-exempt organizations, they are threatening the viability of the local government. My initial reaction: In one sense this is nothing new. Ever since the days of the Holy Roman Empire, church estates have been free from the taxes of civil government, and as monastic...

One of the flashpoints in school choice debates is the performance of public schools pared to private. A while back a Department of Education study drew attention by claiming that, when certain socio-economic factors were controlled, there wasn’t much of a difference between achievement by public and private school students. Those findings are now under fire from Harvard researchers Paul Petersen and Elena Llaudet, who use the same data but a different method—and claim that the Department of Education’s method...

Let me lead in here by saying I’m not by nature an overly emotional or "pentecostal" guy (lowercase ‘p’), though I have known personally the transforming movement of God’s Holy Spirit in my life and the lives of others at particular times. Let me also say that I’ve been to dozens of environmental conferences over the past 15 years or so, and while I have usually learned a lot and developed some great relationships with others in this business, I...

I pleted an interview that will air this Sunday on the Michigan Talk Network about state-run lotteries and Christian views on gambling for the “Michigan Gaming and Casino Show,” hosted by Ron Pritchard. The occasion was this piece I wrote awhile back, “Perpetuating Poverty: Lotteries Prey on the Poor.” For more, see also “Betting on Gambling is a Risky Wager” and “Gambling Hypocrisy.” You can check out the show live on the MLive talk radio feed here (click on “News...

The Green Wifi Prototype One of the concerns with the “little green machine” (discussed previously here and here) has been the issue of Internet connectivity. Little enclaves of mini-networks just won’t cut puters need access to the global web. Word out of the tech world is now that a couple of innovators, Bruce Baikie andMarc Pomerleau, who are “veterans” of Sun Microsystems, working on a solar-powered wi-fi access nodes, “which consist of a small solar panel, a heavy-duty battery, and...

I’ve noted the recent rash of books roughly on the theme of the danger of theocracy. As though in (indirect) response, several books celebrating Christianity’s impact on Western civilization (and democracy) have appeared. There was Thomas Woods’ How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Then there was Rodney Stark’s The Victory of Reason, about which others mented in this venue. Now there is Robert Royal’s The God that Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West. ...

This Sunday’s sermon at the church I visited was on Joshua 5:13-15: Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but mander of the army of the LORD I have e.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message...

As a brief follow up to my last post and the point about nationalism, see the Liberty Bible offered by the American Bible Society. The Kruse Kronicle passes along some more partisan options for those of us who put being a Republican or a Democrat above being an American (which are both above being a Christian). For my use of the quote appearing on the GOP Bible, go here. I’m willing to bet that the Liberty Bible will sell pretty...

The Acton Institute’s Jordan Ballor was a guest on the Michigan Gaming and Casino Show on the Michigan Talk Radio Network on Sunday afternoon to discuss his March 3rd, 2004 article, “Perpetuating Poverty: Lotteries Prey on the Poor”. Ballor and host Ron Pritchard discussed the negative financial impacts of gambling on the poor and the larger question of the morality of games of chance in general. To listen to the interview, click here (4.3 mb mp3 file, 25 minutes). ...