There was an interesting article here by Peter Gumbel http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/09/25/with-unemployment-high-france-forces-stores-to-close-early/ earlier this week on what France is doing in the face of high unemployment.  Before you read, remember this is France, since the nineteenth century, one of the most socialist (small “c”) nations in Europe, allowing for brief intervals of sanity.  It appears that Parisian officlals–the only […]

Economics is often thought of as a quasi-hard science;   a field where number crunching and rationality yield positive and true results.  While Ph.D.s in the field acknowledge that it is often hard to account for all the variables, in the past they would argue that if it were possible to account for all factors, a  mathematical […]

Gallup recently released polling data that suggests Americans are becoming more concerned with government’s power. The figure above shows the steady increase in the percent of respondents who see a problem and a similar decline in those who see government as having just the right amount of power. Notice, also, the relatively unchanged number of […]

A friend of mine posted the following graphic on Facebook:                   The graphic was posted on the Independent Journal Review site and is based on a March 2013 article “Cost of the Future Newly Insured under the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA)” sponsored by the Society of Actuaries. […]

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 […]