Stephen Phelan, communications director at Human Life International, writes at Catholic Advocate about the alarming attempt of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) to investigate pro-life efforts to protect the unborn in Kenya. Reading about Kennedy’s effort to mount a federal investigation of a perfectly legal lobbying effort, you have to wonder if he is coming unglued … Read more
Newsweek recently published an interesting piece about the decline of creativity in America by authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. In May, a professor at the College of William & Mary, Kyun Hee Kim, analyzed 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults. Named for the psychologist who created it 50 years ago — E. Paul … Read more
From Amanda Carey at The Daily Caller: A new report by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shows that the Obama administration has indeed been using taxpayer dollars to fund a “yes” campaign in Kenya ahead of the August vote on the proposed new Kenyan constitution. One provision … Read more
Yesterday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal featured an unusual obituary for Mrs. Charlotte M. Tidwell McCourt, a long-time Nevada resident who passed away at the age of 84 following a long illness. The obituary itself is fairly pro forma, describing Mrs. McCourt’s life in terms that reveal her time here to have been both full and happy. But the … Read more
I missed this one: In June, Nancy Frazier O’Brien at Catholic News Service wrote about a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the amount of federal funding given to organizations that perform or promote abortion. Between 2002 and 2009 — during the Bush administration, in other words — the number was a staggering $967 … Read more
Now that the World Cup is over, I can finally turn my attention to that other international sporting event of the summer: the Tour de France. Even without the drama of Lance Armstrong’s record-breaking back-to-back wins, the Tour is endlessly compelling to watch. I’m hard-pressed to think of a sport that demands more from its … Read more
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), earlier this summer, issued a Notice of Inquiry on its new “Open Internet,” proposals. Better known as “net neutrality,” FCC leadership has made it clear they intend to use the power of the federal government to regulate broadband service on the Internet. To remind our readers, the policy of net … Read more
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), earlier this summer, issued a Notice of Inquiry on its new “Open Internet,” proposals. Better known as “net neutrality,” FCC leadership has made it clear they intend to use the power of the federal government to regulate broadband service on the Internet. To remind our readers, the policy of net … Read more
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), earlier this summer, issued a Notice of Inquiry on its new “Open Internet,” proposals. Better known as “net neutrality,” FCC leadership has made it clear they intend to use the power of the federal government to regulate broadband service on the Internet. To remind our readers, the policy of net … Read more
Weekly Standard writer Matt Labash takes to heart the dictum that to understand a man you must first walk a mile in his Birkenstocks–converting to liberalism and putting into practice the good advices of one Justin Krebs, as detailed in his book 538 Ways to Live Work and Play Like a Liberal. Labash starts out … Read more
As you’ve no doubt heard, yesterday, the government of Switzerland rejected a U.S. request to return fugitive child rapist/film director Roman Polanski to the states for prosecution. He is now, effectively, a free man. The Independent‘s Johann Hari has the best reaction: So now we know. If you are a 44-year-old man, you can drug … Read more
Here’s an interesting — and alarming — article from The Independent. One third of healthy young men between 18 and 25 have abnormal sperm counts. And the sperm they do produce is often of poor quality. Studies show that “only between 5 and 15 per cent of their sperm is, on average, good enough to … Read more
I can still vividly recall the first time I sat somewhat flippantly down to watch Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, only to discover myself mesmerized from the film’s very first scene. Its extraordinary colors, amazing visual (and acting) discipline, and strong, unsettling foreshadowing of the film’s tragic story all combined to make me instantly aware that I was about to … Read more
It’s a long-held belief that the phases of the moon affect people’s behaviors. That’s why it’s significant that a new study demonstrates that crime and violence do not go up during a full moon. According to USA Today‘s Dan Vergano, a research team studied the crime data of San Antonio, Texas, from 2001 to 2005, … Read more
In a column on Lew Rockwell’s site last week, Jeff Tucker argued for the repeal of federal drinking laws. Such things, he says, are better handled by the individual states (as they were until 1984). [I]t is only because we are somehow used to it that we accept the complete absurdity of a national law … Read more
On June 9th, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported that Dr. Kenneth Howell, an adjunct professor at the the University of Illinois, was fired for teaching that homosexual acts violate the natural moral law during his class on Catholicism. A student (not in the class) wrote to the head of the religion department on behalf … Read more
The comic I’m posting today is actually my first published work in any form, first appearing in 1992’s Thumbscrew #3, published by Caliber Press. At that time, I was still a pro-choice non-Christian, but I was increasingly aware of how horrific the issue of abortion was. This story came out of my thinking about the … Read more
Economist Mark Perry points out one of the unintended consequences brought about by the president’s new healthcare program: White Castle has been offering health insurance to its workers [since] 1924, but Obamacare “will make it hard for the company to maintain its 421 restaurants, let alone create new jobs,” says company spokesman Jamie Richardson in … Read more
Despite the concerted efforts of both Laurance and Deal, I have remained iPad-less. It’s not that their praise was insufficiently encouraging; far from it. Laurance called it “the best invention since the printing press,” after all. But my innate cheapskatery (strengthened by the truly shocking amount of food my boys have been putting away of late) prevented me from … Read more
Imagine Jeffery Immelt, Steve Jobs, or Richard Branson issuing an edict that asks their legion of employees to submit ideas for cost cutting. Let’s say they receive thousands of suggestions and then open the suggestions to their peers for voting. Then the creator of the winning idea gets a photo-op with the CEO. And yet, … Read more