Red-phobia is once again all the rage. Today, the question asked by the media and politicians is whether Russia had a hand in turning the U.S. election in Donald Trump’s favor. Decades ago, Mother Russia was the source of much consternation and breast beating following both World Wars – the First and Second Red Scares, respectively, munist conspiracies were exposed and prosecuted while others were merely speculations of the tin-foil hat variety (watch out for that fluoridated water!). The difference...

The Trump administration formally announced to Congress today that it intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). According to the Associated Press, U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer sent a letter to congressional leaders to start 90 days of consultations with lawmakers over how to revamp the pact. Here is what you should know about the perennially controversial trade agreement. What is NAFTA? NAFTA is the initialism for the North American Free Trade Agreement, an agreement signed by...

On April 27th, we were pleased to e John Mark Reynolds, president of the St. Constantine School, to speak on the topic of “Beauty and the Destruction of the Individual” as part of the 2017 Acton Lecture Series. According to Reynolds, starting in the late-Victorian period, American society began to question the existence of beauty, and over time our culture accepted the notion that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Despite warnings by writers such as C.S. Lewis,...

Imagine a president who regularly steps on his own shoelaces and seems to waste power. This president inspires an especially venomous reaction from the press. They actually have contempt for him. He repeatedly harms his own agenda by violating established norms with little regard for the negative impact of doing so. The institution of the presidency relies significantly on a reserve of social and cultural capital built up over the two plus centuries of its existence. My hypothetical president shows...

Note: This is post #34 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. How do tariffs affect consumers? What about producers? Who wins and who loses? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok looks at the costs and consequences of tariffs, quotas, and protectionism. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking...

The most mencement address was never delivered at a graduation. In June 1997 Mary Schmich, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, published what seemed like a perennial mencement address she would have given if asked—centered around one critical piece of advice: wear sunscreen. Two years later, Australian film director Baz Luhrmann set Schmich’s column to music, hired voice actor Lee Perry to record it, and released a music single, “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen),” that went on to top the...

The primary role of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to “direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations’ system.” But a new report finds that the UN agency is directing more money toward travel expenses than to fighting global diseases. According to the Associated Press, the WHO routinely has spent about $200 million a year on travel expenses—more than what it spends to fight AIDS and hepatitis ($70.5 million), tuberculosis ($59 million), and malaria ($61 bined. At a...

When es to responding to contemporary shifts in culture, Christianshave much to learn from Abraham Kuyper, the late Dutch theologian, university president, and prime minister of the Netherlands. “If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life,” Kuyper wrote, “and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit.” Kuyper’s public theology offers plenty of challenges to our public responses, bringing a range of implications for the future of a...

On Human Nature. Roger Scruton. Princeton University Press. 2017. 151 pages. On Earth Day, April 22, tens of thousands of activists held the first “March for Science” in cities around the world. “Science brings out the best in us,” Bill Nye, the star of two eponymous television programs about science, told the assembly in Washington. “Together we can – dare I say it – save the world!” he said, earning the enthusiastic approval of an estimated 40,000 people. Many of...

Liberty and collectivism are not peting political systems; at a deeper level, they are rival theologies. Each has its own depiction of God and, with it, differing assessments of human dignity. Sir Roger Scruton’s new book, On Human Nature, notes that modern fascism and socialism begin with the premise that mankind is captive, either to its biology or its social circumstances. My review dwelled upon the first, and the racially discriminatory societies that biological determinism produces. But the second is...