Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 118

Trump and the culture war issues

An Associated Press story, excerpted and linked after the jump, says that Trump’s election victory “resets” the culture wars.  It quotes LGBT and pro-abortion activists lamenting that their causes have experienced a setback. First of all, Trump supports gay rights.  He “is fine” with gay marriage, something he reiterated after his election.  And the sexual [Read More...]

Euthanizing the mentally ill

Assisted Suicide laws usually have a provision specifying that a person must be “mentally competent” in order to make the decision to die.  But California’s new euthanasia law allows for the assisted suicide of patients who are so mentally ill that they have been institutionalized. From Wesley J. Smith,  A Right to Assisted Suicide for [Read More...]

Vocation as the foundation of culture

I learned some things at the Two Kingdoms conference I spoke at, sponsored by Jordan Cooper at Just and Sinner.  Jordan commented that our vocations–in the family, the economy, the church, and the state–are no less than the foundations of culture. He studied the first chapters of Genesis and concluded that the so-called “cultural mandate” [Read More...]

Best case & worst case scenarios for Trump

Politico asked a wide range of experts to sketch out what they think would be the best case and the worst case scenarios for a Donald Trump presidency.  The answers sometimes tell us more about the experts than about the possibilities of a Trump administration.  But still, it was an interesting exercise. Read the story [Read More...]

Leon Russell dies

Another icon of my youth, Leon Russell, passed away at age 74.  A piano player from Lawton, Oklahoma, Russell became a member of the “wrecking crew,” that set of session musicians who were responsible for most of the pop music coming out of L.A. in the early sixties, from the Beach Boys to the Mamas and [Read More...]

Merry Veterans Day

Thank you, veterans, for serving all of us. A grateful nation offers you all kinds of freebies today.  That is, certain businesses are giving veterans free lunches, free drinks, etc.  Go here for a list.

Unhinged over-reactions to the election

My daughter told me about someone coming up to her after Donald Trump’s election as if to comfort her, saying how she would be “safe” here in Australia. It’s a common theme I’m seeing on TV interviews, social media, and in the liberal press:  “I am so frightened.”  Columns on how to calm your children’s fears [Read More...]

The journalistic sin of smugness

Will Rahn, the Washington editor of the Daily Beast, no less (known both for its liberalism and its snarkiness), has written a mea culpa on journalists’ failure to understand the Trump phenomenon, a confession remarkable for its self-knowledge and its moral diagnosis. From Will Rahn, Commentary: The unbearable smugness of the press – CBS News: The [Read More...]

A civil libertarian analyzes the election

Thanks to long-time reader Todd for linking me to the “Best article I’ve read on the election so far.”  It’s indeed an outstanding analysis, connecting the Trump election to England’s Brexit vote as a long-overdue reaction of ordinary people to the clueless, corrupt, and condescending rule of a political elite, as embodied in Hillary Clinton. The article, [Read More...]

What Trump will do in his first 100 days

Back in October, Donald Trump released what he called his “Contract with the American Voter,” spelling out the specific intiatives he intended to take during his first 100 days in office. I don’t think this got all that much attention, since few people thought he would actually be in the office of the presidency.  But he [Read More...]