“The death of one man is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” – Joseph Stalin. It would be an exaggeration, though not a severe one, to say that in the modern west we are ruled by statistics. When government acts on a local level, it is relatively easy for it to see whether its actions are having their desired effect. And when business acts in a free market, there are feedback mechanisms which quickly let the business know... Read more
With much embarrassment I watched the recent episode that most of us know about how students from Franciscan University lifted a sign reading “Abortion kills children” in the middle of a speech given by Bill Clinton. We all know what happened afterwards. The discussion got heated between the students and Clinton. I don’t care for Bill Clinton and the point of this post is not to attack nor defend him, simply because he is not Catholic and he is not... Read more
Ask your typical conservative what he thinks of Paul Krugman, and he’s likely to reply: “what a nut!” Krugman is best known among the general public for his op-eds in the New York Times, many of which contain a strident tone quite at odds with his mild mannered personal demeanor. But if you were to ask a conservative or libertarian economist about Krugman, the response is more likely to be: “what a waste!” Prior to starting his NYT’s column (or,... Read more
I would like to set the record straight on something that has been repeated often in the blogosphere. Some are going to be offended by this, but I’m sorry, people aren’t entitled to their own facts. Mothers have been punished for aborting their children. Though invalidated by the Supreme Court, Wisconsin Statute 940.04 covers this: (more…) Read more
Not sure how many Vox Nova readers are familiar with Duke theologian/ethicist Stanley Hauerwas, but I am sure that more of them should be. Ecumenical blogger Inhabitatio Dei passes along the following classic Hauerwas episode, an excerpt from a talk he gave for Princeton’s Forum on Youth Ministry: “I assume most of you are here because you think you are Christians, but it is not all clear to me that the Christianity that has made you Christians is Christianity. For... Read more
A fun little test about how people feel about the current crop of candidates– the Implicit Association Test from Harvard University tries to uncover hidden political biases. My results? Obama at the top, McCain and Huckabee in the middle, and Clinton at the bottom…. interesting! (Hat tip: Cathleen Kaveny of Commonweal). Read more
Having seen a steady diet of Obama on the TV, Wisconsin votes today. Obama even called my wife yesterday, or at least she got to hear his recorded voice. I’m in the Green Bay television market, and I would guess Obama has had 60% of the ads. Cinton has had 20% of the ads, almost all of them whining about Obama. The over 20% of political ads have been divided between Huckabee and McCain, both messages generally positive. I haven’t... Read more
Castro steps down as President of Cuba. What’s next? CNN, BBC, FOXNews Read more
Many people seem to misunderstand the meaning of subsidiarity. They think that because the Catholic Church rightfully places one’s locality and community as the central place where social interactions should take place, this means that the Catholic Church teaches that every ill should be solved in, and is best solved by, one’s locality. If everything was handled on the local level, many, if not most, societal problems would vanish. While there is truth to the fact that the services are... Read more
In his last State of the Union address, President Bush had a nice laugh line in response to recent pleas by some of our citizens to have their taxes raised. Noting that some “have said they would personally be happy to pay higher taxes,” Bush responded, “I welcome their enthusiasm. I’m pleased to report that the IRS accepts both checks and money orders.” It seems that the Commonwealth of Virginia (and the state of Arkansas) have already beat him to... Read more
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