Signs and Wonders: Bono blasts aid, touts capitalism in Africa

Bono vox. Paul David Hewson, better known as rock band U2’s front man Bono, recently spoke at Georgetown University and made news by saying, “Aid is just a stopgap. Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid. We need Africa to become an economic powerhouse.” Until now, Bono had been more of a proponent of big government programs for raising people out of poverty, but it’s possible his own experience may be playing a role in his thinking. In addition to being one of the world’s most famous rock stars, he’s also one of the world’s most successful venture capitalists. He is co-founder of the venture firm Elevation Partners, which was an early investor in Facebook. When the social media company went public, Elevation Partners’ stake was worth more than $1.5 billion.

Hooking up. A new study on the “self-reported sexual behavior” of college students offers some troubling results. The study, by University of Portland Professor Michael Monto, compares the sexual behavior of students who attended college between 2002 and 2010 with students who went to college between 1988 and 1996. About 59 percent of today’s students say they have sex at least weekly. That compares to 65 percent of the earlier era’s students. Some analysts say that’s an improvement, but both numbers are still pretty disastrous, if you ask me. Worse still, 77.1 percent say they have had a “regular sexual partner” in the past year. Today’s students are also more likely than their predecessors to have had sex with a friend, casual date, or other non-regular partner in the past year, as compared to college students of the past, by a small but significant margin. We should note that self-reported sexual behavior from teenagers is notoriously inaccurate, and this study has not yet been peer-reviewed, but if the numbers are even close, it’s a truly discouraging look at what’s happening on America’s college campuses.

Sea level rise. Al Gore and other global warming scaremongers often deride those who are skeptical of the negative effects of global warming as anti-science. However, those same critics have trouble explaining Fred S. Singer, professor emeritus of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia. Singer was the first director of meteorological satellite services for the National Weather Satellite Center, now part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In that role, he directed a program for using satellites to forecast the weather. Singer is now 88, but he still actively writes, often on climate issues, and his most recent article for American Thinker on sea level rise may raise eyebrows. Singer acknowledges sea level rise, but he says it’s been going on for thousands of years, and the rate of sea level rise is actually slowing down. Singer’s point is not that global warming does not exist, nor that sea levels are not rising. He acknowledges both. Rather, he says he is offering “a modest appeal to politicians to take note of new scientific developments and recognize that the drastic limits on energy use called for by climate-treaty negotiators will not stop the rising seas.”

Crazy like a PFOX. Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) is calling on Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray “to apologize for caving in to homosexual activists and removing African-American gospel singer Donnie McClurkin” from an Aug. 10 concert celebrating the civil rights achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Grammy award winning singer is openly ex-gay. “Gay activists, who used the black civil rights movement to win their own battles, have turned against African-Americans who no longer want to engage in homosexuality,” said Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX. “Gay rights groups demand marriage equality, but deny equal rights to ex-gays who want full inclusion in society at the same level that gays enjoy. Every person seeking positive life change needs the love and support of friends, family, the community, and the church. The mayor has, instead, slapped Donnie in the face.” I don’t expect an apology from Vincent is forthcoming, but I do have to admire PFOX’s tactics and in-your-face posture. Ex-gays are a living rebuttal to much of what homosexual activists wants us to believe about homosexuality, including their assertion that it is in-born and immutable. Raising the visibility of these men and women is a strategy that has the power to change this debate.