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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.
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from Asia Times Online
News & Media Website
Bill for 34 aircraft expected to total 3.5 billion euros. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program can expect a new member to be joining, according to reports on Sunday, after Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation fighter apparently beat out its European competition. Belgium has opted to acquire 34 of Lockheed’s F-35 stealth jets instead of Eurofighter Typhoons, which are manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.
Push to lower deficit target falls short at emergency meeting; EU expected to reject proposal. The European Commission is poised to reject a member state’s budget for the first time ever, which would trigger a period of uncertainty as Rome and Brussels presumably will enter into negotiations. Last week, the Commission said a draft proposal for Italy’s budget represented an “unprecedented” violation of European Union rules, after which officials in Rome convened an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday.
After China’s foreign ministry gave the UK a dressing down last month for sending a warship near contested islands in the South China Sea, the British Royal Navy is now suggesting there will be more where that came from. The UK has an obligation to “showcase” military support for allies in the region, the Royal Navy’s top official, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, told the Financial Times in an interview published Sunday. “If you are going to have a different interpretation of [international conventions on the laws of the sea] to the majority of nations then that has to be resisted,” Philipp said. “Otherwise you could see right around the world nations who will start to make their own interpretations.”
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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization
How Roman Historians Explained the Fall of Rome
Sallust, Tacitus, and Livy prove that great wisdom isn’t all recent. There’s a plethora of it to be found in Roman history and from these particular Romans themselves. They lived in ancient Rome and knew its traditions and shortcomings first-hand. Of all the great civilizations of the ancient world, none fascinates me more than that of Rome. Its Eastern component survived unconquered for a thousand years, the first half as a republic and the second as an imperial autocracy. From a tiny, nothing-special village on the Tiber to a bustling behemoth numbering 70 million people residing in Inverness to the northwest to Damascus in the east, its path is rich in useful instruction—about human nature, governance, power, economics, morality, and a great deal more. The Eastern component of Roman civilization, centered in Constantinople (now Istanbul), outlasted the West by yet another thousand years. All things considered, this is not a bad run as far as civilizations go; indeed, it’s one of the longest. We at FEE believe there’s so much to be learned from the Roman experience that we’ve gathered some of the best of numerous articles we’ve published on the subject and put them in one place: www.fee.org/rome.
Two Big Reasons You Should Show Business More Love
As long as we have taxes and imperfect competition, we have pragmatic reasons to show business some love. Most economists admit that business serves socially valuable functions. When I express earnest appreciation for business, however, my peers usually respond by mocking Ayn Rand. The sarcasm sings: “Oh, those heroic entrepreneurs!” When people selflessly toil for below-market pay, most economists eagerly endorse approbation. If you don’t earn your marginal product in dollars, applause can nudge the world in the direction of optimality. But why on Earth should we supplement businesses’ pecuniary rewards with our smiles and applause? Offering respect and gratitude to those who innovate, revolutionize, and meet our needs and demands is a powerful way to incentivize further progress.
Coase Theorem, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, and Zero-Sum Games in Modern Dating
Learn from these economic theories applied to modern romance to be a better person. The modern dating world is different than the one in which our parents grew up. Most people no longer date, marry, and build a life with their high school sweetheart. Instead, young adults pursue higher education, careers, and empowerment, whatever that may be. For the first time in history, we are marrying later on average than ever before. Men are now getting married at 30 and women are getting married at 27. Technology has completely transcended the marketplace for dating. Now, in the palm of your hand, you have access to almost any individual with a smartphone within a 60-mile radius. Traditionally, the set of people a young, eligible gentleman or lady would date from consisted of classmates, coworkers, family friends, and, occasionally, someone they actually met by happenstance in the street. Learn from these economic theories applied to modern romance to be a better person and to hopefully one day fall in love and not lose the potential love of your life to asymmetric information or a non-cooperative prisoner’s dilemma. Instead, I challenge you to date authentically, be honest, and wear your heart on your sleeve. It’s up to our generation to transform modern romance and not let game theory rule our lives.
What the Economic Models of Nobel Laureate Richard Nordhaus Say on Climate Change
The UN’s pessimism doesn’t jibe with these economic models. Yale University professor William Nordhaus was named a co-recipient of this year’s Nobel (Memorial) Prize in economics for his work on climate change. The award was of particular interest to me because back in 2009 I published an article in The Independent Review offering a thorough analysis and critique of his Dynamic Integrated Model of Climate and the Economy (DICE). At the Institute for Energy Research website, I have explained that Nordhaus’s latest version of his model does not support the United Nation’s current push for aggressive measures to limit global warming. In the present post, I will revisit my 2009 article to showcase three surprising facts about Nordhaus’s DICE model, all of which are very relevant to the climate change policy debate.
Have Antipoverty Programs Increased Poverty?
Economists James Gwartney and Thomas McCaleb talk about four disincentive mechanisms: the higher real benefit effect, the high implicit tax effect, the skill-depreciation effect, and the moral hazard effect. In “Poverty in the U.S. Was Plummeting—Until Lyndon Johnson Declared War On It,” Daniel J. Mitchell presented several different researchers’ conclusions about how poverty programs starting with the War on Poverty have shot themselves in the foot with their adverse incentives and slammed the brakes on poverty reduction rather than accelerating it.
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from First Things
Not every kind of hope is good, let alone morally good.
Austrian Catholic philosopher Josef Seifert is former Dietrich von Hildebrand Chair of Realist Phenomenology at the International Academy of Philosophy and is president of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family. This weekend, he spoke in Warsaw at the Second International Congress of the European Society for Moral Philosophy on the topic, “Is Hope Morally Good?” Elisa Grimi, executive director of the society, recently sat down with him to discuss his lecture, the meaning of hope, and the future of Europe.
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from Laudable Practice Blog
"MORE OR LESS THE DOCTRINE OF CALVIN": BROWNE ON ARTICLE 28 AND THE CALVINISTS WHO FORGET CALVIN
In 1855, in a profound break with the Old High Church tradition, Keble - in On Eucharistical Adoration - rejected Hooker's Eucharistic doctrine. The Old High Church tradition had, in continuity with Hooker, affirmed Virtualism. For Keble, a more 'advanced' Eucharistic doctrine was required.
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from LifeZette (& PoliZette)
Media/News Company in Washington, D. C.Illegal Immigrant, a So-Called Model Citizen, Is Under Arrest for Alleged Domestic Abuse
As a mob pushes toward our border, Ecuadorian national — who gained notoriety this summer — is accused of slapping his wife.
Nancy Pelosi on the Presidency: ‘People Ask Me All the Time, Why Haven’t You Run?’
California liberal talked about her 'special understanding' of the 'legislative process' — and much more.
Trump Challenges Reporters to Show Truth on Caravan
President says Central American countries fail to do all they can to stop migrant marches that create border emergencies.
Fake News About Kavanaugh’s Prep School Led to Correction by Media Outlet
The Washington Post was forced to issue a correction on Friday after an email chain that was made public proved a reporter had misrepresented the timing of a job posting at Brett Kavanaugh’s alma mater, Georgetown Prep, located in Bethesda, Maryland. The article was published in The Post’s “reliable source” section, but it took the publication a full day to correct the error — and only after The Post “attempted to stealth edit it with an update that was even more misleading,” said Breitbart in its coverage of the incident.
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from Orthodox Christianity
Organization in Moscow, Russia
The head of the U.S. Department of State, Mike Pompeo, put out a statement on Friday expressing the U.S.’s support for the creation of an autocephalous Church in Ukraine. “Patriarch” Philaret Denisenko, the head of the schismatic “Kiev Patriarchate” (KP) and the leader of the autocephaly movement from the ecclesiastical side has previously thanked the U.S. for backing his movement, as the KP’s website reports, saying, “We thank the U.S. for supporting Patriarch Bartholomew’s intention to provide us with a tomos of autocephaly… We hope that the U.S. will help us bring our Church matter to an end.”
Trust in the providence of God is much more than a general theory of how things are arranged in our lives and in the world. We tend to discuss the notion in the abstract, wondering whether this action or event is to be properly attributed to God. There is a much deeper matter, however, one that goes to the heart of the Christian life and the nature of salvation itself. Providence is not a theory about how things are – it is the very nature of salvation.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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