Daily Times of Pakistan: LAHORE: Electricity shortage has exceeded 3,500 megawatts and load shedding is likely to increase across the country, Geo TV reported on Sunday. The water in both Tarbela and Mangla dams has dropped to dead levels, causing the shortfall, the channel quoted PEPCO officials as saying. The electricity demand had shot up after an increase in the use of air conditioners… Ah, load shedding. We lived in Guam for a couple of years in the early 90’s....

The recent dramatic rise of food prices reflects the worst agricultural crisis of the last 30 years, especially for developing countries whose citizens inevitably spend a larger portion of their es for basic needs. The list of countries facing social unrest as a result is long and growing: Cameroon, Egypt, Niger, Somalia, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina, and the Philippines. Consequences of these price increases are also affecting the United States, where rice is beginning to...

Acton Senior Fellow in Economics Jennifer Roback Morse made an appearance last night on The Glenn Beck Show on Headline News Network. The topic of conversation was “hookup culture” and the degraded sexual ethics of our culture. Dr. Morse is the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-Long Love in a Hook-Up World. If you missed the show, the clip is below: ...

A fight broke out this week between non-profit groups over fundraising. While not in petition for donor dollars, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance expressed its displeasure with Meijer, Inc. for participating in a fundraising event with the Humane Society of the United States. The program was set up to contribute money to a support Foreclosure Pets Fund, designed to give support to pet owners facing foreclosure. Meijer suspended the program after plaints from the Alliance that the chain was cooperating with...

Sure to be a significant issue in the presidential campaign going forward, the question of immigration reform continues to divide otherwise like-minded religious folks. Mirror of Justice sage Michael Scaperlanda penned an article on the subject for First Things in February. A raft of letters upset with what the writers deemed Scaperlanda’s unreasonably lenient view toward illegal immigrants followed in the May issue (not accessible to non-subscribers), along with an article-length exchange between Scaperlanda and attorney William Chip. Scaperlanda’s initial...

How is the 80’s song “The Final Countdown” by the band Europe tied to sound Catholic secondary education? Surprisingly, it’s through Acton’s Catholic High school Honor Roll. After a short prayer, the below video shows the pep band for Xavier High School in Appleton, Wisconsin pumping up the crowd for its Honor Roll announcement this past Fall. After applying for the Honor Roll last year, the school earned a place among the Top 50 Catholic high schools in the United...

Last Friday the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released its 2008 report, noting eleven nations as “countries of particular concern,” being “those that are are most restrictive of religious freedom”: Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. (HT: The God & Culture Blog) Howard Friedman relates, “The Commission is postponing its mendations as to Iraq pending a Commission visit to the country later this month. promise was approved after a sharp party-line...

: What I have found odd is that so many Catholics, especially female religious, should gravitate toward what appears to be essentially pantheism or what some eco-spirituality thinkers prefer to call “panentheism” (the universe as the “body of God”) when the Church has addressed the entire ecology question in a way that would, practically speaking, lead to the same results in terms of respect for the created order and sustainability. Indeed. Given the present direction ofCatholic movement on climate change,...

Continuing with my posts highlighting just how wonderful things will be here in the United States when the government finally does its job and takes over the healthcare sector of the economy, I’d like to bring your attention once again to the fabulous success story that is the Canadian health care system: Last year, the Canadian government issued a series of reports to address the outcry over long wait times for critical tests, procedures and surgeries. Over a two year...

The story of the Deutsche Bank building following the NYC 9/11 attacks is a study in bureaucratic petence…but more importantly it’s an ongoing experience in human tragedy and loss. There’s a great deal to sort out. This piece, “The tombstone at Ground Zero,” does a good job introducing the issues. The article begins with an introduction into the fire at the building site in August of last year: …Thick black smoke was pouring out of the shell of what used...