Assorted Links (2/6/2012)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:

The Fallout from Christian Legal Society

www.nationalreview.com

“Since the Supreme Court’s sharply divided and startlingly wrongheaded decision two years ago in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, those concerned about religious liberty on campus have known that the fallout was on its way. At Vanderbilt University, it has arrived — and it’s as bad as anticipated… Vanderbilt believes that requiring “all comers” to be welcome in all organizations, no matter how ill-suited they are for one another, is such an overriding concern in fighting discrimination that it has overruled or ignored every objection including pluralism itself — and basic common sense.  Oh, wait, did I say all organizations? Actually, Vanderbilt has exempted its fraternities and sororities from the rule. The imperatives of social justice, it seems, lose all force at the door of the Deke house.”

Facebook and the St. Petersburg Paradox

online.wsj.com

“Investors thinking about Facebook should consider a mathematical riddle that shows how growth stocks can get overvalued so easily.”  The author of the Wall Street Journal’s “Intelligent Investor” column, Jason Zweig, draws some interesting parallels between buying into Facebook’s IPO and the famous “St. Petersburg Paradox” game proposed in 1738 by Dutch-Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli…

A Battle the President Can’t Win

online.wsj.com

“His decision on Catholic charities makes Romney’s big gaffe look trivial, Peggy Noonan argues.”

Did Early Humans Ride the Waves to Australia?

online.wsj.com

“Until 150,000 years ago, all our ancestors lived in Africa—and then they started spreading out. Matt Ridley examines the theories around the exodus.”

Record 1.2 Million People Fall Out Of Labor Force In One Month, Labor Force Participation Rate Tumbles

www.zerohedge.com

With a 1.2 million person drop in the number of people participating as members of the labor force, the proportion of the population either working or seeking work has fallen from 64.2 percent to 63.7 percent (also see the Boston Globe article on this @ http://bo.st/y2huib).

Obama’s Louis XV budget

www.washingtonpost.com

Charles Krauthammer delivers again! Quoting from this article, “Five days before his inauguration, President-elect Obama told The Post that entitlement reform could no longer be kicked down the road. He then spent the next two years kicking – racking up $3 trillion in new debt along the way – on the grounds that massive temporary deficit spending was necessary to prevent another Great Depression.”

The Great Divorce

www.nytimes.com

“Charles Murray’s “Coming Apart” describes the most important cultural trends today and offers a better understanding of America’s increasingly two-caste society.”

The Real “Truth About the Economy:” Have Wages Stagnated?

www.youtube.com

George Mason University economics professor Don Boudreaux debunks one of central claims of the OWS movement – particularly, the role that “wage stagnation” supposedly plays in the income inequality debate…

Price Controls for Harvard?

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, former Major League Baseball Commissioner and college trustee Fay Vincent writes that President Obama wants to unleash more lawyers and bureaucrats on higher education.”

Obama’s Enemies List

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson writes that David and Charles Koch have been the targets of a campaign of vituperation and assault, choreographed from the very top.”

The Wireless Equivalent of Fracking

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman Jenkins writes that the Wi-Fi revolution shows how far the FCC is behind the curve.”

What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism

online.wsj.com

Rabbi Aryeh Spero provides us with one of the best essays ever on the moral foundations of capitalism – right up there with the work of Catholic scholar Michael Novak (author of, among other things, the book entitled “The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism” (cf. http://amzn.to/w8Y6yG)…

Occupy AstroTurf

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Information Age columnist Gordon Crovitz writes that the Occupy Wall Street movement was an ersatz creation of social media and a weak-kneed city government.”

The Myth of Starving Americans

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Warren Kozak writes that according to the Census Bureau, 96% of parents classified as poor in the United States said their children were never hungry.”

Scoring Last Week’s RomneyCare Debate

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute writes that Rick Santorum correctly challenged Mitt Romney on the similarities between his Massachusetts health-care legislation and ObamaCare.”