by John Shimkus, a member of Congress from Illinois, has received international attention recently for a statement that he made at a congressional hearing on climate change in March 2009. Shimkus said, “The earth will end only when God declares that it is time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth.” He cited Genesis [...]
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Yesterday I attended The Royal Society’s conference entitled “Geoengineering – Taking Control of Our Planet’s Climate.” The Royal Society is 350-year-old group of elite scientists that “encourages public debate on key issues involving science.” I confess that the only member of the Society’s board whom I recognized was HRH William, the Prince of Wales, whose [...]
Read the full postThe failure of Congress to enact a climate change law, like the failure of last December’s Copenhagen meeting to produce a new international climate change treaty, has provoked various responses from the proponents of such measures. A recent article in the New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_lizza) cast blame on Republicans (for being obstructionists), Democrats (for being timid), [...]
Read the full postThe Taliban took “credit” for killing ten medical aid workers in Afghanistan on Saturday. It explained that it did so because the workers were promoting Christianity among the people whom they helped. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded that we “condemn the Taliban’s transparent attempt to justify the unjustifiable by making false accusations about these [...]
Read the full postEach year, many people wait eagerly for the Academy Award nominations. I wait for something different. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has just announced its annual list of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places,” which you can see at http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/11-most-endangered/. Not to ruin the suspense, but this year’s list names:
America’s State Parks & State-Owned Historic Sites
Black Mountain, Kentucky
Read the full postTwo words struck me in Elena Kagan’s brief speech this morning: humbled and blessed. Kagan used both words to describe her reaction to her nomination to the Supreme Court. Such words are commonplace on such occasions and may be little more than platitudes, but they both identify important idea. “Blessings” are typically thought to come from God, “from whom all blessings flow” as a popular doxology puts it. Humility, too, is a uniquely Christian virtue, as Thomas Aquinas wrote centuries ago. Humility also plays a surprising role in legal thought, as particularly evidenced by the many tributes to retiring judges who are praised for their humility.
Read the full postThe Supreme Court has been busy addressing issues that have been characterized as pollution yet which were far from the minds of the writers of our standard environmental laws. The Court just granted certiorari in Video Software Dealers Ass’n v. Schwarzenegger, 556 F.3d 950 (9th Cir. 2009), which struck down a California statute regulating the sale of violent video games to minors. Violent entertainment has often been described as cultural pollution, especially in the aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Duke political scientist James Hamilton’s book “Channeling Violence” presents a sophisticated analysis of violent entertainment as a problem of toxic wastes. Yet the courts have uniformly rejected any effort to regulate such cultural pollution, even as it affects minors.
Read the full postThis week’s deadline for submitting our federal income tax returns was accompanied by the ritual publication of the returns of the President and the Vice President. As usual, I was interested to see the charitable giving choices of our elected leaders. President Obama gave 5.9% of his earnings to charity, except that number is much higher — 19.6% — when his Nobel Peace Prize is included. (The prize does not constitute income, so the donation is not deductible either). By contrast, Vice President Biden gave just 1.4% of his earnings to charity.
Read the full postSurely it is not a coincidence that Justice Stevens announced his retirement after 34 years on the Supreme Court just one hour after Bart Stupak announced his retirement from the House of Representatives after 18 years of service there.
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