Obama: Yes we can but I need more time

Yes, keep hoping for that change, guys. Keep up your faith in science, technology, the human will, the human intellect, the sexual revolution, the this revolution, the that revolution... Utopia is just around the corner.

The spending cuts in the UK: a grim warning

If G K Chesterton has been alive now, he might have written about these cuts the way Paul Danon has in his blog: The cuts: a grim warning

"If the government spends less of our money for us, there is a grave risk that we shall spend it on what we need and want, rather than on what other people think is best for us. Cuts could mean less superfluous administration in public services and, perhaps, a better attitude on the part of otherwise surly public servants who have slight worries about their job-security."

Read the whole text here.

The fundamental questions in Thomas More's trial... and Britain today

The fundamental questions at stake in Thomas More’s trial continue to present themselves in ever-changing terms as new social conditions emerge. Each generation, as it seeks to advance the common good, must ask anew: what are the requirements that governments may reasonably impose upon citizens, and how far do they extend? By appeal to what authority can moral dilemmas be resolved? These questions take us directly to the ethical foundations of civil discourse. If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident - herein lies the real challenge for democracy.

words of Pope Benedict XVI in Westminster Hall, 2010

Acknowledgment to Joanna Bogle