Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 136
August 29, 2016
The older you get, the happier you are?
A study has found a linear relationship between old age and happiness. That is, the older you get, the happier you are. Despite the deterioration of the body and the whole array of health and mental problems as people age, happiness increases. The linear relationship means that people in their 90s are happier than they were [Read More...]
Gaffigans end their TV show for a more important project
A few nights ago, we watched comedian Jim Gaffigan’s routine “Obsessed.” We laughed so hard we were in pain. He and his wife and writer Jeannie just announced that they were going to end their successful TV series, “The Jim Gaffigan Show.” They said that it was taking too much time away from their “most [Read More...]
August 26, 2016
“The issue will come and find you”
Liberal Baptist theologian and LGBT advocate David Gushee says that there is no middle ground when it comes to acceptance of LGBT rights. Churches and individuals must either accept them or not, and if they don’t they will face dire consequences. He says that affirmation of LGBT issues is already mandatory in government, education, medicine, corporations, [Read More...]
Trump now says he is “softening” his position on immigration
Donald Trump is drawing back from the hardline position on immigration that brought him lots of primary voters. He now says that he is open to “softening” immigration laws, expressing sympathy for immigrants who have been here for over a decade. His earlier statement that he would deport all illegal immigrants seems to be off [Read More...]
Scandinavian welfare state reform
As I reported from my recent sojourns in Scandinavia, the vaunted “welfare state” the Nordic states are known for is much more complex than we Americans realize, with the generous government benefits co-existing with extraordinarily free economies and a culture fixated on hard work and personal responsibility. (Might all of this be due to the [Read More...]
August 25, 2016
New study on church-going has surprises
Pew Research has released a new study on church-going, including why people leave, how they choose a new congregation, and why people don’t attend. Read the study here. The reason lots of people have stopped going to church, it turns out, is not so much that they are rejecting religion in favor of scientific materialism. [Read More...]
Study challenges LGBT assumptions
Public opinion, government policy, and Supreme Court rulings about LGBT issues has been predicated on the notion that same-sex attraction and having a gender identity different from one’s biological sex are innate, fixed conditions. In the words of the Lady Gaga song, “I was born this way.” But a Johns Hopkins study has found otherwise. [Read More...]
Clinton Foundation pay for play
The Associated Press, no less, has been investigating the Clinton Foundation. It reports that over half of the people Hillary Clinton met with as Secretary of State outside of the government were donors to the foundation. Meanwhile, as Clinton’s clandestine e-mails come out, more questionable details about the foundation are surfacing. For example, in 2013 its income [Read More...]
August 24, 2016
What Judaism teaches about the afterlife
It is often said that Jews don’t believe in a life after death. In fact, Jews often say that. But, as Jeffrey Salkin says in a review of a new book on the subject, Judaism DOES believe in an afterlife and always has. From Jeffrey Salkin, Woody Allen is wrong about the afterlife | Religion News [Read More...]
The case of the trans-gender funeral director
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) (1993) is still the law of the land and can be a potent weapon in cases involving the conflict between religious liberty and LBGT issues. This was demonstrated in a case involving a Michigan funeral home that fired a male funeral director for violating the company’s dress code by insisting [Read More...]
