Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 196
December 22, 2015
The strongman syndrome
Russian president Vladimir Putin has been praising Donald Trump, who has been returning the favor. When it was brought up that Putin has a habit of killing his critics, Trump said that our country also does a lot of killing. (See details after the jump.) It isn’t just that the two have a mutual admiration [Read More...]
Lindsey Graham drops out of the race
Senator Lindsey Graham has dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. He ran on the principle that we need a strong foreign policy, including the use of military force against ISIS. He observed that four months ago, he was the only candidate saying this. Today, most of the candidates agree with him. [Read More...]
December 21, 2015
Christmas and Vocation
One thing you learn from the doctrine of vocation is that the Christian life includes what we might describe as the secular. The realm of “Christian” does not consist just of overtly devout exercises. Rather, it also includes our lives in the family, the workplace, and the community. This point also applies to how we [Read More...]
Less than half of American children live with both parents
There are lots of disturbing statistics that get thrown out by every latest study. Phil Lawler identifies the most disturbing of all, the one that has the most devastating implications for our society, our culture, and our people: Fewer than half of our children today, 46%, live with both of their parents.From Phil Lawler, The [Read More...]
Where is your town on the political spectrum?
A “political technology” company called Crowdpac has analyzed the campaign contributions of nearly 5,000 towns and cities in the United States and has ranked them on a liberal/conservative spectrum. Thus we can determine the ten most liberal and the ten most conservative cities in America. But most fun is a tool that enables you to enter [Read More...]
December 19, 2015
Democrats debate on Saturday night
The three remaining Democratic presidential candidates (Clinton, Sanders, and O’Malley) will debate on ABC Saturday at 8:00 Eastern Time. Go here for details. I’m not going to try to live blog this one. If you want to comment on it, you can do that here. But, like most Americans, I have other things I’d rather [Read More...]
December 18, 2015
Letting the culture do the work of the church
Political scientist James R. Rogers (a member of the LCMS) argues that a big part of the problem in American Christianity today is that, for a long time, churches have relied on the culture to instill morality, rather than instilling Christian morality themselves. Ever since the Sixties, though, the culture has been taking a different [Read More...]
Can the new Star Wars movie be good?
Did you know that a new Star Wars movie is opening this weekend? I’m pretty sure you do, since I have never seen so much hype for a movie. Nor have I seen so much merchandising before a movie has even been released. As a Star Wars fan like the rest of humanity, I’m looking [Read More...]
Budget deal gives White House everything it wanted
The House of Representatives, which controls the nation’s purse strings, is dominated by Republicans. But they just agreed to a budget deal that includes $680 billion in new spending and special-interest tax cuts. The White House is claiming total victory. The deal gives the Obama administration what it wanted on Obamacare, immigration, and the environment. [Read More...]
Media union endorses Bernie Sanders
The Communications Workers of America endorsed the socialist candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, Bernie Sanders. This is the biggest union to come out for Sanders, with most of the others supporting Hillary Clinton. What most of the media reports about the CWA are omitting is that this is the union representing, along [Read More...]
