Despite healthy tax revenues and federal spending that tops $25,000 per household, the House Democratic majority has proposed a fiscal year (FY) 2009 federal budget that raises taxes by $1.265 trillion over five years and $3.911 trillion over 10 years, or more than $3,135 per household annually.

The White House has responsibly pledged to veto legislation with tax and spending increases that would follow from these proposals. Congress should start over and write a budget that does not raise taxes on American families or businesses, is in line with the President's spending proposals, and addresses the coming entitlement tsunami. Anything less would likely worsen the economic downturn, make it more difficult for families to make ends meet, and kick serious budget challenges further down the road.

Must one allow sin, blasphemy and the celebration of the unholy, to live the examined life? Aquinas did not think so. Socrates did not either. What does the President of Notre Dame know that they did not?

If she wants to engender controversy, Notre Dame could refuse the trendy for the traditional. She could be an alternative place where men and women freely choose chastity, modesty, and dignity. In short, she could be a place where the archaic values of the culture of Catholics in 1963 would receive a hearing, even more radical would be to become a place where Pope Benedict’s ideas and world view were the norm for academic study.

The New York City Health Department's regulatory move appears to mark the first time a health agency has taken action against safe, legal foods -- in this case, certain margarines and cooking oils -- instead of disease-causing organisms. The regulatory demonization of trans fats and the underlying "trans-fat-phobia" reveal a good deal about how the media and consumers react to a health scare, how scientists respond (or do not), and what lies ahead for other food ingredients.

Most of the trans fats in our diet are derived from man-made partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (trans fats also occur naturally in beef, lamb, and dairy products). In recent years, trans fats have accounted for about 3-4 percent of our total calorie intake, but given the food industry's race to get trans fats out of many foods, the percentage of our total calories today that is trans fats is probably more like 1-2 percent.