NPR profiles 'Afghan Girl' (1984) photographer Steve McCurry: 'McCurry's work has been featured in nearly every major magazine around the world, and he is undoubtedly one of the best living photographers in his field.'We’ve done a lot of thinking here at the PowerBlog on the future of journalism in a digital age. A recent piece in Forbes by Leo Gomez brings into focus (ahem) the question of digital innovation and it’s influence on photojournalism. In his August 24 “Digital Tools”...

The mortgage fraudsters are back, but this time they’re preying on people struggling to keep their homes out of foreclosure. In mentary, Kelsey VanOverloop looks at how the “Foreclosure e-on works and what homeowners can do to avoid the serious consequences of dealing with an unethical lender. VanOverloop describes the fraudulent schemes: Today’s mortgage fraudster preys on the vulnerable, those who have run out of options and are desperate for help. They seek out people known to have fallen on...

There’s more evidence that amidst the economic downturn people are ing more careful and intentional about the kinds of charities they fund. We’ve seen that those likely to continue to flourish are those that have cultivated a “family-like” connection with their donors. Often more local charities do well in this kind of climate. And, of course, the focus of the charity matters, too. Robert J. Samuelson reports (HT: Theolog) that charitable giving was down $308 billion in 2008, and will...

I don’t much like the term Calvinism. I think it is historically unhelpful, and in general prefer to use something like Reformed theology or speak about the Reformed confessions, depending on the particular context. And I don’t much like the term capitalism, preferring instead to discuss the market economy, or perhaps, in light of the results below, free enterprise. But while popular and intellectual usage certainly prefers the use of the former term (even if it often is caricatured or...

Published today on the Web site of the American Enterprise Institute: Some numbers are highly significant in the Bible. The Israelites, for example, wandered in the desert for 40 years. Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai when he received the Law. Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and nights. These are periods often associated with probation, trial, or even chastisement before the Lord. Now we have “40 Days for Health Reform,” a massive effort by the Religious...

A great deal has been made in recent weeks about Ronald Reagan‘s critique of nationalized or socialized health care from 1961: We can go back a bit further, though, and take a look at an intriguing piece from 1848, a dialogue on socialism and the French Revolution and the relationship of socialism to democracy, which includes Alexis de Tocqueville‘s critique of socialism in general. One interesting note is that Tocqueville identifies one of the mon to all forms of socialism...

Hunter Baker examines the push for the “public option” — the creation of a government backed insurance system — as part of health care reform in mentary. Baker takes an interesting approach at examining the push for a public option by dropping his readers into the life of a doctor, articulating the stress and sacrifice of the job: Imagine that you are a physician. You have made it through four years of college on a steady diet of biology, chemistry,...

Since it appears the health care reform debate isn’t going away any time soon (and, just maybe, has moved in a positive direction from where it started several months ago–e.g., one of the most dangerous proposals, the public option, is itself in danger), we’ll keep pressing the issue. Two recent articles of interest: David Goldhill in The Atlantic. Outstanding exposition of the dysfunctions of American health care and which policies will ameliorate rather than exacerbate them. It’s imperative that we...

I recently finished How to Argue Like Jesus (Crossway, 2009) by Joe Carter (The Evangelical Outpost, First Thoughts) and John Coleman. I would have loved to have had this book to assign during the 13 years I taught position and rhetoric. So many of my fellow evangelicals think rhetoric is a dirty word, as in “That’s just a bunch of rhetoric.” But as this primer makes clear, Jesus was a master of rhetoric, a master of principled persuasion. Happily, How...

This from a new mon Knowledge interview with Harry Jaffa: The society of the future is one in which the moral distinction that is based upon the Judeo-Christian and Greek traditions will dissolve. We are moving into a Communist world; we are moving into the world that Marx wanted without knowing it and without having the kind of revolution that Marx predicted and thought was necessary. For example, the President always talks about our values. What does [President Obama] mean...