About Those "BB&T Courses"

(Editor’s note: This essay was presented at a meeting on “Emergent Orders in Higher Education” in February 2012, sponsored by the Foundation for the Study of Spontaneous Orders, and directed by John W. Sommer. John Allison was chairman of the board of Branch Banking & Trust, or BB&T, until 2008.)

Ideas drive human action. Unless students (i.e., future leaders, teachers, professors, etc.) learn the principles that underlie a free society, the United States will continue to move toward statism and economic decline. The believers in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” must retake the universities, or America will ultimately become a second-tier country with a dark future. That is the context in which BB&T began its program “The Moral Foundations of Capitalism.”

Commercial banks, both by tradition and under regulatory pressure, have long contributed to local community non-profit organizations such as the United Way. BB&T has primarily been a supporter of education, based on our belief that the only true natural resource is the human mind.

About twelve years ago we re-examined our charitable giving and realized that our contributions to universities were not typically being used in our shareholders’ best interest. At the same time, we were studying the question of why the United States had moved from the land of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to the “redistributive state.” We became convinced that the reason for this transformation was that the Left had taken over the universities and educated future leaders, including teachers, in statist/collectivist ideas.

A related question occurred to us. Why do free-market principles, which by any objective analysis have won the intellectual argument, continue to be dismissed by most intellectuals? We concluded that the free market economic arguments were routinely defeated by moral arguments, and those were primarily focused on the distribution of wealth.

Furthermore, BB&T has used the fundamental ethics expressed in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism in very successfully growing our business, and we wanted Rand’s ideas to be heard in the academic community.

Finally, in general, BB&T tries to fund charitable projects that are clearly in our shareholders’ long-term best interest, but have goals that would be difficult for shareholders to achieve on their own.

Based on these factors, BB&T has sponsored 68 programs on the Moral Foundations of Capitalism at most of the major universities in our operating area, which includes the mid-Atlantic and southeastern states.

The programs vary from university to university based on the focus of the professors involved. However, most of the programs have similar core components. Typically, Atlas Shrugged is included in the reading list. Sample syllabi are listed at the site of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. The range of our commitments is usually from  $500,000 to $2,000,000, payable over ten years (at $50,000 to $200,000 per year). We have an annual renewal option based on performance.            

Typically, the university is expected to spend the principal, rather than use the funds to create an endowment, although we have funded a few endowments where there is a state match. The key to success has been finding professors who are interested in the ideas that underlie a free society and are committed to communicating these principles.

Each year, BB&T sponsors a conference at Clemson University for the 70 professors involved in the BB&T Program. While many of the professors are in economics or business, there are also philosophers, historians, and political scientists. The cross-fertilization of ideas has been a very valuable experience.

Approximately 25,000 students participate in some aspect of the BB&T program each year. Thousands report a life-changing experience. Many indicate the program is the first time they have heard capitalism defended from an ethical perspective.

BB&T has limited resources and it only funds programs in its primary operating area. Based on these limitations, Fred Fransen, president of Donor Advising, and I have created a foundation to support programs outside the BB&T operating area:  The Fund for the Inquiry into the Morality of Capitalism.

I am a strong advocate of the privatization of education through tax credits or voucher systems. However, even if all public schools were private, where would the schools find the good teachers who understand the principles underlying a free society, given our current university education system? I do not believe that efficiency improvements or technological changes matter much unless students can be taught to think independently, critically, and with the right philosophical premises. That is the underlying goal of these programs.

(Home page-photo of Ayn Rand courtesy of the Ayn Rand Institute.)

View the original article here

Our Way of Life in America is About to Change for Better or Worse?

welovetruckssite.com — I reference th? 1930's b?????? history h?? a w??rd way ?f repeating itself b?t w?th a twist. In small, during th? 1930's th?r? w?? th? initial stock market crash th?n a mild recovery ?nl? t? b? hammered again b? a further crash th?t w?? even worse th?n th? first one (?b??t a 90% crash). Th? reason wh? I’m telling ??? th?? ?? b?????? back ?n 2008 w? w?nt through wh?t w?? th? initial stock market crash followed b? a mild recovery b?t I believe th?r? ?? ?n even l?rg?r crisis lurking.In small, I want t? talk ?b??t a specific event th?t w?ll take ?l??? ?n America’s very near future wh??h ???ld really bring ??r country ?nd ??r way ?f life t? a grinding halt. 4 days ago View in Crawl 4

View the original article here

About 70000 without power in Connecticut

abouttwitter.info — S?m? brief facts ?nd updates f?r N?w York, N?w Jersey ?nd Connecticut f?r Saturday night. Marinas pulled boats ?n fr?m th? water, tourists canceled shoreline getaways ?nd Connecticut's governor urged residents t? m?k? storm preparations. Hurricane Irene ?? thundering up th? east coast, lashing th? tri-state w?th high winds ?nd torrential rain ?nd leaving millions without power. 1 hr 59 min ago View in Crawl 4

View the original article here

Something About Birthing

An occupational hazard of the preacher is his tendency to turn the everyday things of life into homiletic examples. The latest victims? My five grown children.

As we get ready for the launching (soon, we pray!) of the Ordinariates on this side of the Atlantic, there’s a bit of dust-stirring, several ongoing kicks-from-the-devil, and a general messiness. The long Vatican summer seems longer than usual (even though it’s not). Dossiers have been sent in for consideration, resulting in lots of Anglican clergy hanging around mailboxes, hoping for a response today, or tomorrow at the latest.

As I view all this from the relative comfort of my already-Catholic parish, I feel an overwhelming desire to straighten it all out (not that I can). There’s something in me that wants to settle the dust, kick back at the devil, and organize the messiness. It probably stems from my “inordinate need for order,” or something. Whatever the cause, it brought my mind around to my children. More specifically, to the births of my children. What could that have to do with our present pre-Ordinariate situation, you ask? As with any preacher, give me some time and I’ll tell you.

I was present at the birth of each of my children. I went into the first one like a lamb to the slaughter, not knowing beforehand that I would be in the delivery room, and having no idea of what to expect. It was in St. Brenda’s Maternity Hospital, Clifton Park, Bristol, England. I was prepared to do the “Ricky Ricardo” routine of pacing around the waiting room, chain-smoking, and waiting for the door to open, with a nurse showing me a delightfully wrapped bundle of joy. That was not to be. When we arrived, with JoAnn in the midst of ever-increasing contractions, the midwife thrust some scrubs at me, told me to change, and to report for duty. Apparently, I was expected to help.

It wasn’t a pretty sight – near-miraculous, yes, but not pretty. No one needs the graphic details, but suffice it to say that I wasn’t expecting my sweet little daughter to enter the world with a bluish tint, and what appeared to me to be a misshapen head with forceps marks as added decoration. Her nose appeared to be pushed to one side. I couldn’t imagine what we had brought forth! But then…the first breath, bringing with it a healthy color to the skin. In almost no time, a precious round face and perfectly-shaped head. All the fingers and toes present and accounted for, and it became evident that we had produced a most beautiful little girl. I hardly need to say, after that experience, I was far better prepared for the next four births.

Could this be what we’re seeing now, with the birth of our Ordinariates in America and in Canada? I think we expected it to be all clean and tidy. Just one little push, and it would be delivered to us, all wrapped up in a pretty outfit and ready to show off to our friends and neighbors. Instead, like first-time parents, we’re getting a dose of reality. Birthing isn’t easy, but it sure is worth it!

Our Ordinariates will be born, make no mistake about it, so let’s not be put off by a bit of pain. We shouldn’t wonder that the whole thing is rather messy. It’s going to bear the effects of a difficult birth. But after the first breath, things will begin to come together. It will be ours – and like every one of our own new-born children, it will be very beautiful.

Related posts:

Waiting with PurposeReflections on "Becoming One"Keeping Doors OpenLittle By LittleSome Words to the Wise Fr. Christopher G. Phillips is the pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church in San Antonio, Texas, where he has served for the past twenty-eight years. He is the founding pastor of the first Anglican Use parish, erected in 1983 under the terms of the Pastoral Provision. Fr. Phillips was ordained as an Anglican for the Diocese of Bristol, England, in 1975. After serving as Curate for three years at St. Stephen Southmead, he returned to the United States and served in two Episcopal parishes in the Diocese of Rhode Island. In 1981 he left the Episcopal Church and moved with his family to Texas, where he was subsequently ordained as a Catholic priest in 1983. Fr. Phillips and his wife, JoAnn, have been married for forty years. They have five children, all grown and married, and two grandchildren.

View the original article here

More Scare Tactics About Death Panels

The Affordable Care Act — also called the health care reform act or “Obamacare”  — is still being debated even though it passed over a year ago. Many provisions in the ACA pertain to Medicare, which makes it of particular importance to many mesothelioma patients. This deadly lung cancer is most often diagnosed in people who are in or approaching their Medicare years.

One provision of the ACA generating controversy is the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB. IPAB will be a panel of health care experts — including doctors and patient advocates — who will look for ways to save money in the Medicare program.

IPAB won’t exist until 2013. Even then, it has no responsibilities unless Medicare spending grows faster than projected. In that event, the IPAB will make recommendations to Congress about how to more efficiently run Medicare to keep costs low, without compromising care.

Congress may accept or reject these recommendations. However, if it rejects a recommendation, under some circumstances Congress may have to find another way to save the same amount of money.

There are some kinds of changes IPAB is not allowed to recommend. These include health care rationing, raising taxes, raising premiums, or changing eligibility. The panel may not dictate to doctors how to care for Medicare patients. And the scope of its authority is strictly limited to Medicare alone.

Even with the limitations, however, the IPAB is expected to help contain costs. Henry J. Aaron wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine,

“In enacting the ACA, Congress created a broad and potentially powerful portfolio of cost-control instruments, containing virtually every method that analysts have advanced for slowing growth of spending in a rational fashion — accountable care organizations, comparative-effectiveness analysis, bundled payments, value-based insurance design, limits on the exclusion of employer-financed premiums from personal income tax, and health insurance exchanges to promote competition among insurance plans.”

So what’s the problem? In a word — politics.

The health care industry is lobbying to repeal the IPAB. Saving money on Medicare means some part of the industry will be receiving less money.

But on top of that, some politicians are trying to paint IPAB as the new “death panels.” These politicians claim IPAB will be set up to ration care, even though it is prohibited by law from rationing care.

Last month, Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said that under IPAB seniors would lose control of Medicare.  A “politically appointed 15-member board that’s unelected and unresponsive to the will of the people called IPAB will make the decisions about what care we get and what care we don’t,” she said.

Criticism of IPAB has increased in recent weeks, after a Republican proposal to privatize Medicare proved to be hugely unpopular and a political liability. Democrats have been getting traction with voters by bashing the so-called “Ryan plan.” Observers say Republicans are turning IPAB into the bogyman as a way of fighting back.

The fact is that the IPAB will have no authority to decide what health care anybody gets. It is the Independent Payment Advisory Board, not the independent medical care advisory board. Its task will be to look at how medical care is paid for through the Medicare program and find ways to save money. And those ways may not include rationing.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 18th, 2011 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

View the original article here

Good News About Medicare

With the frightening economic news we could all use some cheering up. It might surprise you to learn there really is some good news out there, and some of that good news is about the Medicare program.

In 2010, about 47 million Americans were enrolled in Medicare. This number probably includes the majority of people diagnosed with mesothelioma, since symptoms often don’t develop for decades after exposure to asbestos. If you don’t receive Medicare yourself, you very likely are close to someone who does.

So what is the good news? First, the average cost of Part D prescription drug premiums will be slightly lower in 2012. This is an average cost, mind you, which means that not every Part D plan will be lowering premiums. But seniors who shop around during the open enrollment period in the fall may find some bargain prices. This is a little ray of good news for taxpayers, also.

Here’s another cheerful thought for the taxpayers — a study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the prescription drug program actually offsets costs in other parts of Medicare. In particular, hospital and nursing home costs are reduced because seniors stay healthier when they take the medications their doctors prescribe.

This week the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced good news about seniors who hit the infamous Part D “doughnut hole,” the benefits gap that that leaves some seniors paying all of their out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses.  This year 900,000 Medicare beneficiaries who fell into the “hole” received a 50 percent discount on their medications.  They saved a total of more than $461 million, HHS said.

HHS also announced that millions of American seniors have taken advantage of the new provision that lets them receive preventative services without a co-pay. These preventive services include annual flu shots, check-ups, and many kinds of cancer screenings. It is hoped that this benefit will save money by catching health problems earlier, when they are easier to treat.

The lesson we might learn from these news stories is that sometimes you have to spend money to save money. It’s less expensive to fix a small hole in your roof than a big hole in your roof. It’s less expensive to maintain a bridge than to build a new one. Often it’s less expensive to treat a disease when you catch it early than if you put off seeing a doctor.

The idea behind a lot of proposals to “save” Medicare is that seniors should be spending more of their own money on health care instead of less. This is supposed to make them “smarter” consumers. But in the real world, many people simply put off getting care, or they stop taking medicine they can’t afford, and the result is that more money comes out of the health care system, not less.

So, don’t let politicians take any of these benefits away from seniors because they’re “too expensive.”

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2011 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

View the original article here

More Scare Tactics About Death Panels

The Affordable Care Act — also called the health care reform act or “Obamacare”  — is still being debated even though it passed over a year ago. Many provisions in the ACA pertain to Medicare, which makes it of particular importance to many mesothelioma patients. This deadly lung cancer is most often diagnosed in people who are in or approaching their Medicare years.

One provision of the ACA generating controversy is the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB. IPAB will be a panel of health care experts — including doctors and patient advocates — who will look for ways to save money in the Medicare program.

IPAB won’t exist until 2013. Even then, it has no responsibilities unless Medicare spending grows faster than projected. In that event, the IPAB will make recommendations to Congress about how to more efficiently run Medicare to keep costs low, without compromising care.

Congress may accept or reject these recommendations. However, if it rejects a recommendation, under some circumstances Congress may have to find another way to save the same amount of money.

There are some kinds of changes IPAB is not allowed to recommend. These include health care rationing, raising taxes, raising premiums, or changing eligibility. The panel may not dictate to doctors how to care for Medicare patients. And the scope of its authority is strictly limited to Medicare alone.

Even with the limitations, however, the IPAB is expected to help contain costs. Henry J. Aaron wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine,

“In enacting the ACA, Congress created a broad and potentially powerful portfolio of cost-control instruments, containing virtually every method that analysts have advanced for slowing growth of spending in a rational fashion — accountable care organizations, comparative-effectiveness analysis, bundled payments, value-based insurance design, limits on the exclusion of employer-financed premiums from personal income tax, and health insurance exchanges to promote competition among insurance plans.”

So what’s the problem? In a word — politics.

The health care industry is lobbying to repeal the IPAB. Saving money on Medicare means some part of the industry will be receiving less money.

But on top of that, some politicians are trying to paint IPAB as the new “death panels.” These politicians claim IPAB will be set up to ration care, even though it is prohibited by law from rationing care.

Last month, Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said that under IPAB seniors would lose control of Medicare.  A “politically appointed 15-member board that’s unelected and unresponsive to the will of the people called IPAB will make the decisions about what care we get and what care we don’t,” she said.

Criticism of IPAB has increased in recent weeks, after a Republican proposal to privatize Medicare proved to be hugely unpopular and a political liability. Democrats have been getting traction with voters by bashing the so-called “Ryan plan.” Observers say Republicans are turning IPAB into the bogyman as a way of fighting back.

The fact is that the IPAB will have no authority to decide what health care anybody gets. It is the Independent Payment Advisory Board, not the independent medical care advisory board. Its task will be to look at how medical care is paid for through the Medicare program and find ways to save money. And those ways may not include rationing.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 18th, 2011 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

View the original article here

Good News About Medicare

With the frightening economic news we could all use some cheering up. It might surprise you to learn there really is some good news out there, and some of that good news is about the Medicare program.

In 2010, about 47 million Americans were enrolled in Medicare. This number probably includes the majority of people diagnosed with mesothelioma, since symptoms often don’t develop for decades after exposure to asbestos. If you don’t receive Medicare yourself, you very likely are close to someone who does.

So what is the good news? First, the average cost of Part D prescription drug premiums will be slightly lower in 2012. This is an average cost, mind you, which means that not every Part D plan will be lowering premiums. But seniors who shop around during the open enrollment period in the fall may find some bargain prices. This is a little ray of good news for taxpayers, also.

Here’s another cheerful thought for the taxpayers — a study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the prescription drug program actually offsets costs in other parts of Medicare. In particular, hospital and nursing home costs are reduced because seniors stay healthier when they take the medications their doctors prescribe.

This week the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced good news about seniors who hit the infamous Part D “doughnut hole,” the benefits gap that that leaves some seniors paying all of their out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses.  This year 900,000 Medicare beneficiaries who fell into the “hole” received a 50 percent discount on their medications.  They saved a total of more than $461 million, HHS said.

HHS also announced that millions of American seniors have taken advantage of the new provision that lets them receive preventative services without a co-pay. These preventive services include annual flu shots, check-ups, and many kinds of cancer screenings. It is hoped that this benefit will save money by catching health problems earlier, when they are easier to treat.

The lesson we might learn from these news stories is that sometimes you have to spend money to save money. It’s less expensive to fix a small hole in your roof than a big hole in your roof. It’s less expensive to maintain a bridge than to build a new one. Often it’s less expensive to treat a disease when you catch it early than if you put off seeing a doctor.

The idea behind a lot of proposals to “save” Medicare is that seniors should be spending more of their own money on health care instead of less. This is supposed to make them “smarter” consumers. But in the real world, many people simply put off getting care, or they stop taking medicine they can’t afford, and the result is that more money comes out of the health care system, not less.

So, don’t let politicians take any of these benefits away from seniors because they’re “too expensive.”

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2011 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

View the original article here

Another Word about Preparing

Remembering that the readership of this blog is international, I’ll ask forgiveness for another post having to do particularly with the future Ordinariate in the United States. The subject here is the catechetical preparation of the laity.

One of the many marks of genius in Anglicanorum coetibus is the importance it gives to the place of those communities and parishes coming in from Anglicanism. It's not just about the clergy! As we all know, the very name of the document means “groups of Anglicans.” Not to state the obvious (but I will), these groups are comprised of individuals, each of whom will need to make a profession of faith. To make such a profession necessitates a program of Catholic catechetics, and one of the tasks of the Anglican clergy presently responsible for a group of Ordinariate-bound people is to teach them the fulness of the Catholic faith.

I don’t think there’s a single incoming community or parish where this isn’t taking place in some form already, but the expressed preference for the catechetical material to be used in America is the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. Many places are using this, but I thought it might be good to state the expectation so there will be conformity in the preparations being made.

The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults is a publication of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and it states this on the website:

The presence of the Catholic Church in the United States reaches back to the founding days of our country through the leadership of Archbishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in the United States. His story, like other stories at the start of the chapters in the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, gives us a glimpse into the lives of Catholics who lived out their faith throughout our country's history. Each chapter in the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults includes stories, doctrine, reflections, quotations, discussion questions, and prayers to lead the reader to a deepening faith. The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults is an excellent resource for preparation of catechumens in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and for ongoing catechesis of adults.

You can purchase copies through the USCCB website, and there is a 50% discount for ten or more copies (which is a good thing, since the full price is a hefty $24.95). Also, you can find individual copies on Amazon.com, and that’s probably the best place to go for fewer than ten copies, since their price reflects the discount already. Additionally on Amazon.com, there are used copies available for as little as four or five dollars each.

In my earlier post, To Those Preparing, I mentioned some of the things that can be done during this time leading up to the formal establishment of the Ordinariate. The catechizing of the laity is one of the truly essential responsibilities for those of you who are pastors of souls.

I’ve heard from lots of you about the preparations you’re making with your congregations, and from all I hear, our Ordinariate congregations will be amongst the best-catechized in the Church!

Related posts:

To Those PreparingSome Thoughts on Cardinal Wuerl's CNA InterviewPreparing for the Canadian OrdinariateSpreading The WordWord Just Keeps Spreading Fr. Christopher G. Phillips is the pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church in San Antonio, Texas, where he has served for the past twenty-eight years. He is the founding pastor of the first Anglican Use parish, erected in 1983 under the terms of the Pastoral Provision. Fr. Phillips was ordained as an Anglican for the Diocese of Bristol, England, in 1975. After serving as Curate for three years at St. Stephen Southmead, he returned to the United States and served in two Episcopal parishes in the Diocese of Rhode Island. In 1981 he left the Episcopal Church and moved with his family to Texas, where he was subsequently ordained as a Catholic priest in 1983. Fr. Phillips and his wife, JoAnn, have been married for forty years. They have five children, all grown and married, and two grandchildren.

View the original article here

What Can We Know About Jesus And The Holy Trinity?

As we go deeper into Advent, we are called to open our hearts and welcome Jesus, our Saviour, into our lives more fully. It also is an invitation to know Him better. So, how well do we know Jesus? How well do we know the Father and the Holy Spirit? Do we know — or accept — that Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit are one divine being? Michael Vorris from RealCatholicTV explains.

We cannot know everything about Him, but we can some things, even many things, about Him.

View the original article here