Connections between the adult Jesus and the baby in the manger aren’t easy to make. At first glance, the gospels don’t help much; whatever the gospel writers had in mind, producing complete biographies of Jesus wasn’t it. Mark omits Christmas altogether, and starts with Jesus getting baptized and launching his career. John has a short […]

By now, the Three Kings are well on their way to Bethlehem, and the Christmas season is drawing to a close. But the Three Kings (actually, ‘wise men’ according to Matthew’s gospel) aren’t just bringing their famous three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They bring with them another set of questions that we have […]

Back in the beginning of the Christmas season, I wrote about the way the gospel Christmas narratives “roll the credits” by giving genealogical tables that link Jesus to Jewish history. In contemplating Christmas, we should never forget that the first Christmas was first and foremost a Jewish event. Mary, Joseph, the innkeeper, the shepherds, the […]

Back in the beginning of the Christmas season, I wrote about the way the gospel Christmas narratives “roll the credits” by giving genealogical tables that link Jesus to Jewish history. In contemplating Christmas, we should never forget that the first Christmas was first and foremost a Jewish event. Mary, Joseph, the innkeeper, the shepherds, the […]

The Blizzard of 2010 has crippled the glamorous borough of Queens; thankfully, I was visiting family outside the city when the snow fell and have now retreated to my rural retreat in the rolling Dutchess County hunt country.  There is plenty of snow up here, but we haven’t had to cope with the horrors the […]

Two books on anarchism suggest a new role for an old political philosophy.

On balance, no. It turns out that greed works after all.

The plutocracy is trying to neuter efforts to clamp down on tax evasion.

The legacy of American jurisprudence recognizes no contradiction between liberty and wealth—at least not yet.

With the November elections just around the corner, the Washington Post is reporting that the Obama Administration is scrambling for ways to boost America’s dismal job numbers—without busting the budget. Here are two low-cost options they ought to try: immigration reform and Federal R&D spending reform.