Saturday, September 19, 2009

Minsky

The economist Minsky knew the weaknesses of capitalism when others did not.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/09/13/why_capitalism_fails/?page=2

Friday, July 24, 2009

"HOW LOOKING POOR BECAME THE NEW STATUS SYMBOL"

Marketeers are so very clever; I have to give them their due in this matter. But I lay the larger part of the blame for the ills of "inconspicuous consumerism" on the buyers themselves. This socio-economic/fashion phenomenon fascinates me to no end. How is it that degraded jeans (knee holes and surface abrasion) can cost $250? And how can people fall into these spending habits? The article posits that they are hearkening back to by gone days, finding there the meaning for their seemingly spend thrift purchases; but in the past next to nobody would buy a damaged product only because it made a fashion statement (or attempted to disguise their actual social status). Absurdity!

http://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_9418

Sunday, July 19, 2009

"Methland"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106388550

This is a great example of what can happen when capitalist corporations buy out smaller companies and suppress the previously livable wages to a below livable level, forcing workers to put in more hours in order to survive. Then the workers take meth to cope with the stress of long working hours. I think that this factor should be brought into the debate over illegal drugs use in American cities: we should look at multiple variables instead of blaming the problem simply on lack of drug interdiction caused by insecure borders.

And, yes, this does put yet another nail in the coffin of secular, finance capitalism (as if it needed any more).

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Food Act of '09

Passage of the Food Modernization Act of 2009 has the potential to be a detriment to small farmers and the markets they support. If it does pass it could banish the days of small scale agrarianism as we know it, which seems to have once again taken hold in pockets of our culture, but this effort by lawmakers will ultimately be a boon for big farms and damage the small ones. Distributists unite! And combat the takeover of small holdings by wealthy, greedy capitalists!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

"A Study in Contrasts: Ave Maria University and the University of Notre Dame"

http://www.catholic.org/collegiate/story.php?id=33527

"The other University named for Our Lady honors only those who recognize and embrace the truth concerning the dignity of every human life at every age and stage."

Friday, June 5, 2009

Chesterton on Vows

http://chesterton.org/gkc/essayist/v1n3.gkcessay.htm


"The revolt against vows has been carried in our day even to the extent of a revolt against the typical vow of marriage. It is most amusing to listen to the opponents of marriage on this subject. They appear to imagine that the ideal of constancy was a yoke mysteriously imposed on mankind by the devil, instead of being, as it is, a yoke consistently imposed by all lovers on themselves. They have invented a phrase, a phrase that is a black and white contradiction in two words -- 'free-love' -- as if a lover ever had been, or ever could be, free. It is the nature of love to bind itself, and the institution of marriage merely paid the average man the compliment of taking him at his word. Modern sages offer to the lover, with an ill-favoured grin, the largest liberties and the fullest irresponsibility; but they do not respect him as the old Church respected him; they do not write his oath upon the heavens, as the record of his highest moment. They give him every liberty except the liberty to sell his liberty, which is the only one that he wants."

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Quote

"If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself."
-Saint Augustine

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The USCCB on Climate Change

It is appropriate to include the moral dimension in this discussion of how to manage the potentially devastating effects of climate change. This includes, among other factors, considering how higher energy costs imposed by the current climate change legislation before congress will impact the poorest Americans. Who should pay the high prices? Those who pollute the most or the least?

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/globalclimate.shtml

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Technology allows workers to be highly productive from home

Although I cannot agree with the author of this blog post when she says that workers "need to make sure they do not appear to put their personal lives above their commitments to colleagues, companies, and outcomes", I do value her perspective that men and women can do meaningful work and still have a solid home life.


http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/kanter/2009/04/stay-home-and-work.html

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

He brings division, not unity or hope: radical left VS. the radical right

With a president in office who is thought of as a radical left politician, what should we expect? His department of homeland security issued a document which warns all law enforcement officials of the potential threat of "right wing extremists", including among them those who are opposed to same sex marriage and abortion.

http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf

Pope John Paul II on Cunsumerism

At the end of this article, the author, Raymond J. de Souza, raises some pertinent questions which all of us living in capitalist, consumerist nations would do well to ask ourselves.


http://www.acton.org/publications/randl/rl_article_321.php

Letter to the Editor

My letter to the SBCC Channels about campus smoking.

Read my letter by clicking here.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Easter Pix 2009

Catholic means universal, and these photographers taken all over the world on the vigil or day of easter show how truly universal our catholic, christian church really is! From China to Pakistan, we all love God and his church on earth! He is risen, he is risen indeed!

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/04/easter_2009.html

Friday, March 27, 2009

The Pope's comments on AIDS

If those concerned about AIDS would accept the scientific fact that fidelity in marriage and abstinence are the best ways in which to prevent the spread of the disease, we might actually make some progress in overcoming the pandemic. Instead many hold onto the notion that condoms are the best way, which is demonstrably false. This false notion influences policies which will spur higher rates of death; this is already the case in many African countries. Edward C. Green and Allison Herling Ruark, of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, wrote in an April 2008 article in First Things magazine that “What the churches are called to do by their theology turns out to be what works best in AIDS prevention”. Despite the global frenzy, much of it chastising the Pope for his true comments, what the Church teaches on condom use should be taken seriously if we are to save the lives of those at risk for AIDS.

http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6172

Friday, March 20, 2009

Obama's anti-life actions thus far

On April 19, 2007, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) introduced S 1173 IS and HR 1964 IH, respectively, titled The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which, as Mr. Nadler said on the same day, would “codify the rights guaranteed under the Constitution by Roe v. Wade”. In answer to a question about what he would do to ensure access to abortion posed to him during a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event in 2007, then-candidate Obama said that the first thing he would do as president was sign the FOCA into law. Well, thankfully it wasn’t waiting for him when he arrived last month. If passed the FOCA would negate the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2007 which upheld the Congressional Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the act which stopped the atrocious killing of babies near drawing their first breathe. The FOCA would also tear states rights to shreds by stripping away all current state laws regulating abortion, including parental notification of minor girls, and tie the hands of future pro-life legislators. There is question whether or not the courts would even hear a case challenging the FOCA because of its status as law, not a constitutional amendment.

On January 23, President Obama rescinded the Mexico City Policy, Reagan’s presidential order which removed American tax-payer funding of international abortion-imposing organizations. Gallup polling of the American public’s view of Obama’s first actions as President shows that only 35% of respondents approved of the reversal. If the FOCA makes it to the Oval Office, will Obama once again sign his name to an act which disregards the will of the American people, the voters who overwhelmingly supported him in the November Election?

The FOCA is out of touch with the view of the American people on abortion. A survey conducted last year by the Marist College Institute of Public Opinion indicates that a mere 8% of American voters favor no restrictions on when an abortion can be performed during pregnancy. With these polling numbers in mind, how can our leaders so easily succumb to the will of abortion-inflicting special interest groups, such as Planned Parenthood Federation of American and NARAL, and continue in their relentless support of this far reaching legislation? If the FOCA passes and Obama signs it into law, once again his liberal agenda will triumph over the better moral judgment of most Americans. I Pray to God that he does not sign it. I Pray to God for his Soul if he does. Let us unite and contact our leaders and tell them that we reject the FOCA. Contact your Senators and Representatives today and tell them to vote no on the FOCA.

Beyond Wrong

I am on a legal term posting spree it seems.

"Moral turpitude - Disregard for established community standards of right and wrong in the commission of a crime, above and beyond the crime itself." (http://www.legal-dictionary.org/legal-dictionary-m/Moral-turpitude.asp)

If the Marist College Opinion poll is correct about the voting public's view of abortion, then it would seem to me that by endorsing the heinousness of FOCA, Obama is indeend guilty of Moral Turpitude.

Ex Post Facto

This legal concept fascinates me. How can someone be prosecuted after the enactment of a new law for a crime committed legally?

http://www.legal-dictionary.org/legal-dictionary-e/Ex-Post-Facto.asp

Primoris Viscus

Action without intent: does such mindlessness exist?

http://www.legal-dictionary.org/legal-dictionary-a/Actus-Reus.asp