I saw the latest blockbuster Avatar last night, and the early plaudits are true: this is a visually stunning masterpiece of “hybrid” cinematography, a “full live-action shoot bination puter-generated characters and live environments.” But there are other, pelling ways, in which Avatar is a hybrid of sorts. There are literal hybrids in the Avatars themselves, the genetically-altered bining both elements of Na’vi and human genes to act as bodies for the Avatar “sleep walkers.” mentators have noted the lack of...

As a follow-up note to my previous post, “Wealth and Fidelity, Golf and Marriage,” it’s worth exploring in some more detail the multi-billion dollar phenomenon that has been called “Tiger, Inc.” and the relationship between power in sports, wealth, and politics. Lord Acton’s dictum, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” has found relevance in a number of contexts beyond those of its initial utterance. It is most frequently used nowadays to refer to the kind of fullness...

Breaking news: India, China walk out of climate summit So much for the “God moment.” Seeing as how this was our last chance and all, I think I’m going to take the afternoon off to go get my affairs in order. Mind Boggling: How could world leaders e to a consensus when Chin-Strap the Polar Bear and the Guardian Angels of the Climate were all in agreement? Unity in diversity! It was so spiritual! The mind reels. CONSENSUS! No, seriously,...

With all of the blizzards, cold temperatures and the circus-like atmosphere in Copenhagen last week, it looks like people are ing more and more skeptical of global warming—or I should say climate change. But in times like these we have to remember that blizzards, or even historical low temperatures, are irrelevant–because it is not LOCAL warming, it is GLOBAL warming. The only time LOCAL temperatures have any significance is when they are hotter than normal–then it es empirical evidence. I...

NRO’s Corner published my article on Pope Benedict’s recent remarks to Brazilian bishops on liberation theology: It went almost unnoticed, but on December 5, Benedict XVI articulated one of the most stinging rebukes of a particular theological school ever made by a pope. Addressing a visiting group of Brazilian bishops, Benedict followed some ments about Catholic education with some very sharp and deeply critical remarks about liberation theology and its effects upon the Catholic Church. After stressing how certain liberation...

In a new column in The Detroit News, I set authentic environmental stewardship against the goings-on at the recently concluded UN Copenhagen conference. A slightly longer version of mentary will be published tomorrow in the weekly Acton News & Commentary. Merry Christmas to all! The not-so-subtle politicizing of science revealed by the Climategate affair, along with the alarmist and at times downright silly antics of some proponents of environmentalism (a word that has acquired numerous shades of mitment), ought not...

Those three words Just Sign Here are what you’re told when you sign up for a cellphone, or buy a car or take out a bank loan. And it’s what you’re told to do when you buy a house whether or not there’s a mortgage. Just the buying part involves many disclosures about the nature of the property and pages of stuff to read and acknowledge. Over the years I’ve heard more than one escrow officer admit, “if you read...

A new NBER working paper promises to blow up the myth that it is primarily the wealthy that will bear the cost of taxes on carbon emissions. In “Who Pays a Price on Carbon?” Corbett A. Grainger and Charles D. Kolstad explore the possibility that “under either a cap-and-trade program that limits carbon emissions or a carbon tax that imposes an outright tax on these emissions, the poor may be among the hardest hit. Because they spend a greater share...

If ever G.K. Chesterton’s old quip about heresy being “truth gone mad” was in full view, es a report from England whereby Fr. Tim Jones, an Anglican minister, had actually encouraged the poor to shoplift from large chains this holiday season. … the minister’s controversial sermon at St. Lawrence Church in York has been slammed by police, the British Retail Consortium and a local MP, who all say that no matter what the circumstances, shoplifting is an offence. Delivering his...

The question: Is this Copenhagen global warming conference an environmental pilgrimage for some? Says one demonstrator: “You can call it, like, some kind of a new religion, I don’t know … ” But the guy in the polar bear costume isn’t so sure. ...