During student protests in Paris in 1968, Roger Scruton watched students overturn cars to erect barricades and tear up cobblestones to throw at police. It was at that moment he realized he was a conservative: I suddenly realized I was on the other side. What I saw was an unruly mob of self-indulgent middle-class hooligans. When I asked my friends what they wanted, what were they trying to achieve, all I got back was this ludicrous Marxist gobbledegook. I was...

Most Christians recognize that the Bible has lot to say about economic topics, such as money and poverty. Yet there is a paradoxical assumption, whether stated or unspoken, that these passages don’t speak to larger economic issues. Occasionally this is true, but more often than not, we can find principles from Scripture that can help us discern how we should think about matters related to economics. Consider, for example, the issue of economic systems. The Bible doesn’t claim to favor...

It is estimated that, at any time in the U.S., there are 1.2 million people with mental illness who are being held either in jail or prison. Some of them, without a doubt, truly belong there. For most, though, jail and prison has e a quasi-triage center/hospital/safety net. And it takes a huge toll. Take Cook County, Ill. for example. Sheriff Tom Dart keeps track of the mentally ill e under his jurisdiction. On average, at least 30% of the...

It’s interesting to debate and share idea like freedom of speech, religious liberty or entrepreneurship. Helping folks in the developing world create and sustain businesses if exciting. Watching women who’ve been victimized by human trafficking or their own culture find ways to support themselves and their families is wonderful. But none of this happens without rule of law. Rule of law is not “sexy.” It doesn’t get the press of a brilliantly successful NGO. There are no great photo ops...

The modern age has introducedmany blessings when es to child-rearing and child development, offering kids ever more opportunities for education, play, personal development, andsocial interaction. Yet as time, leisure, and wealth continue to increase, and as we move farther away from years ofexcessive andintensive child labor, we ought to be wary of falling into a different sort of lopsided lifestyle — one that over-elevates othergoods (e.g. study, practice, play) to the detriment of good old-fashioned labor. As I’ve written previously,...

Samuel Gregg, Director of Research at Acton, recently reviewed Niall Ferguson’s latest, The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die. In the book, Ferguson discusses the symptoms of a decaying society and explains what causes rich economies to decline. Though the book is a short one and written for a nonspecialist audience, Ferguson develops a very strong case to illustrate how the hollowing out of the rule of law, the deterioration of representative government into soft despotism, the increasingly...

What is the world’s deadliest environmental problem? Householdair pollution. According to the World Health Organization’s latest report air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk, and the main cause is entirely preventable: Around 3 billion people still cook and heat their homes using solid fuels (i.e. wood, crop wastes, charcoal, coal and dung) in open fires and leaky stoves. Most are poor, and live in low- and e countries. Such inefficient cooking fuels and technologies produce high...

This November marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This momentous occasion symbolizing the decline of Soviet Communism is sure to be met with joyous celebration, not only in Germany, but around the world. While November signifies Soviet Communism’s decline it memorates one of its darkest, most horrendous hours. Annually on the fourth Saturday of November, Ukrainians remember the brutal, man-made famine imposed on their country by Joseph Stalin and his Communist regime in the 1930s....

Vox is telling us that it’s “dangerous to be a woman in America.” (The news is delivered in a creepy video where statistics are displayed via writing on a woman’s body. No objectification there…) They also want us to know that it may take a “nuclear option” to tackle sexual assault on college campuses. Enough. In the U.S., 1 out of 6 women will suffer some sort of sexual assault during her life. 73 percent of the time, she will...

One of the most profound ironies in our current debates over religious liberty is the Left’s persistent decrying of business as short-sighted and materialistic even as it attempts to preventthe Hobby Lobbys of the world fromheeding their consciences and convictions. Business is about far more than some materialistic bottom line, but this is precisely why we need the protection for religious liberty. If we fail to promote religious liberty for businesses, how can we ever expect the marketplace to contribute...