Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 128

U.S. no longer makes the “free country” top 10 list

The United States is no longer in the top 10 of the world’s most free countries.  We are number 15.  However, despite our obesity rates and bad eating habits, we are number 1 when it comes to health.  We are #33 in safety and security.  The United States is #11 in economic strength and overall prosperity. [Read More...]

Vice-presidential debate post-mortem

So who won the Vice-presidential debate?  Did the debate change your mind about either ticket?  Which one of these guys would you rather have as Vice-president?  Which would you rather have as President?

The Tradinistas

A group of mostly young Catholics is emphasizing both leftwing economics AND conservative theology and morals.  (See our post on the American Solidarity Party.)  They are calling themselves “Tradinistas,” a combination of “tradition” and “Sandinistas.”  Read about them after the jump. Can there be Protestant–or, Evangelical; or, Lutheran–Tradinistas?  Or is this synthesis, grounded as it is in papal [Read More...]

Make the Hyde Amendment permanent

Even the majority of those who believe in abortion agree that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for it.  The Hyde Amendment, which was passed 40 years ago last week, prevents taxpayer dollars from paying for abortions.  The problem is, it has to be approved every year. In the past, this has always received routine bipartisan [Read More...]

Vice-presidential candidates debate tonight

I recently read a letter to the editor that praised both vice presidential candidates.   The writer wished that they were at the head of their tickets. Consequently, he is going to vote for the least healthy presidential candidate in the hope that the vice president will have to take over. What a terrible thing [Read More...]

Religion replaces sex on the Banned Book list

Last week was Banned Books Week, the American Library Association’s tribute to books they get complaints about.  Now this observance is essentially bogus.  None of the current books they list every year have actually been banned.  Complaints are not the same as censorship.  Libraries have a certain budget and select what books they want to [Read More...]

NY Times illegally published Trump’s tax returns

The New York Times published three pages from Donald Trump’s state tax returns for 1995.  They show a loss of $916 million, which “could have” allowed him to pay no federal taxes for 18 years.  (The story is here.) That remains highly speculative until we can see the full returns. But the biggest problem is that publishing tax [Read More...]

Question for Colin Kaepernick

My cousin Bob Foote has a question for Colin Kaepernick and other athletes protesting the American flag because of how this country treats black people: During the Civil War, some 500,000 men gave their lives to end slavery.  They fought and died under what flag?

A Lutheran take on exorcism and the demonic

We’ve blogged about a Lutheran exorcist.  A new book from Concordia Publishing House offers a theological framework on the reality of demonic activity, actual case studies of people afflicted by demons who were helped by Lutheran pastors, and practical guidelines on how these malign spirits can be cast out by means of the Word, the [Read More...]

Both parties have abandoned free trade

Whoever gets elected president will oppose free trade.  In fact, both parties are rivaling each other in condemning trade agreements such as NAFTA (which forms a common market with Canada and Mexico) and the not-yet-ratified TPP (which eases trade with Australia and Asian countries other than China). Such a turnabout is astonishing, since Republicans have [Read More...]