Fair Trade… For Our Conscience Or Their Benefit?

Have you ever talked with people about fair trade, the idea of branding certain commodities that have passed muster as delivering a fair and decent price to its third-world producers?  I have, and they are usually boisterously supportive of it, or at least passively not opposed to it on the grounds of why not?  I [...]

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Three Strikes

UPDATE: Parts two and three of the series.  Treads similar ground but definitely worth a listen, just about 5 minutes each.
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While the title may lead you to believe this is a baseball post, it is not.  I will leave those inane ramblings about “the nations pastime” to Elijah.
Instead. this post is to direct your attention [...]

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Inglourious Propoganda

I saw the film Inglourious Basterds the other day, upon the recommendation of a number of friends.  I left the theater feeling two simultaneous and somewhat contradictory feelings (in a word: ambivalent).  On the one hand, I “enjoyed” the film:  the tension-building dialogues exploding in a climactic release (apologies for the sexual undertones there), the [...]

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The Virtuous Deregulation

Oskari Juurikkala of The Acton Institute has an interesting column on whether increased regulation in financial markets increases or decreases the virtuous behavior of market participants.  I’ve reposted a good chunk of it here:
 
In his book Not Just for the Money, economist Bruno Frey sheds some light on the question. Invoking research in motivational psychology, [...]

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Help Me Become A Socialist!

If you read this site, then you know the title is in jest.  However, I am putting a call out to recommendations of books, websites, or any other material that any CAI readers or authors would recommend as being powerful arguments for socialist or socialist-like policies.  The reason for this request is in anticipation of [...]

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Pro-Life?

Reader Josh pointed me to this gallup poll that shows for the first time since they began polling this question in 1995, that more Americans are pro-life then pro-choice.

You may know from some of my posts that I am fairly libertarian on drugs, same-sex marriage, and some other views. But on abortion my conservative [...]

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God’s Body

Remember when NASA ended up proving the Bible was true by finding “the lost day” described in Joshua?  Well now they’re providing us with pictures of the almighty from space.  Here’s God’s hand (they may not have called it that, but only because they don’t want to lose their federal funding from the LIBERAL godless [...]

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Led To Worship?

In preparation for Easter Sunday a friend of mine invited me to a gathering of people that intended to prepare for the celebration by focusing on the pain of Good Friday and the emptiness of Holy Saturday as a means to fully appreciate the joy of Sunday.  He sent the invitation through evite and used [...]

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Weekend Thought Provocation

End The War On Drugs?
Last weeks issue of The Economist had a series on the global drug war and the cost/benefits of ending the prohibition of drugs.  Their conclusion, and one that they have held since 1988, is that “the least bad policy is to legalize drugs”.  Take a look at the article and see [...]

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Cry Baby

Today I was eating lunch at a friend’s house and the television was on.  The Fellowship of the Ring happened to be playing and if you know me slightly well you probably know that I adore J.R.R. Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films.  So while we cooked and ate our [...]

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