and Republicans are seemingly going to give him what he wants.  Both the budget and the debt limit are coming up and Mr. Obama says there is no negotiation.  No longer will there be any discussion on the debt limit (indeed, he does not believe we should have one), since we have to “pay our […]

Washington, DC, aside from its various political denizens, is always full of opportunities to hear interesting lectures, speeches and debates on myriads of topics.  Last night my daughter and I attended a debate at the Library of Congress entitled “Freedom, Security and America’s Role in the World.”  It was sponsored by the Koch Institute and […]

Politico ran a story recently attesting to David Barton’s controversial influence within the Republican Party and the Christian community. For those who may not know, Barton is a famous figure among conservative Christians, primarily for his persistent belief that America was founded as a Christian nation. Barton’s influence is beyond argument. He is the most prominent and […]

Obamacare will continue to gain attention for the foreseeable future, but today’s news give two opposing and irreconcilable views.  Mr Obama was asked if American’s were wrong about his health care bill (since so many oppose it).  His answer?  Yes, they are wrong. Yes, they are…….The problem we have is that over the last four […]

Our Bereans@thegate blog has as its aim the engagement of Christian thought with the spheres of politics, economics and culture.  But it has occurred that perhaps the readers of the blog may not have a full sense of why and how we write what we do.  In other words, many of the posts are about […]

That’s likely to be the result in the U.N.’s upcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) “fifth assessment report,” if this sneak preview reported in the WSJ is true.  Indeed, the benefits of global warming could be greater than the harm: Therefore, the new report is effectively saying (based on the middle of the range […]

During President Obama’s two campaigns, Republican critics suggested his signature health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) was socialism, since the government was trying to centrally plan 1/7 of the economy.  Naturally Democrats reject that characterization, and accuse the Republicans of demonizing the president.  Rather than focus on the question […]

From today’s Wall Street Journal: Poll Finds Republicans Gain Favor on Key Issues.

I am in the middle of reading a couple of really interesting and controversial books on capitalism.  One is Deidre McCloskey’s The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for An Age of Commerce.  University of Chicago Press, 2006.  This is a big book on big subject, a grand sweep type of book with high ambition.  McCloskey is currently a […]

The French government finally “gets it”. Or they have been forced to get it. In response to the euro-zone debt crisis France has been increasing taxes to cut its deficit. But the French economy has hit the wall. In France Says It Will Miss Budget Deficit Targets published in The Wall Street Journal, William Horobin […]