Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 221

Obama wins with Iran deal

Senate Democrats rallied behind President Obama’s plan to lift sanctions on Iran in return for its promises to slow down its nuclear program.  Enough senators supported the agreement to sustain a presidential veto against Congressional attempts to stop it. UPDATE:  You have got to read Charles Krauthammer’s account of what just happened.  President Obama packaged [Read More...]

A journalist’s experience in Vietnam

The German Lutheran journalist Uwe Siemon-Netto, a friend of mine, has written Duc:  Triumph of the Absurd, a Reporter’s Love for the Abandoned People of Vietnam, a memoir of his days as a Vietnam war correspondent, telling of his affection for the Vietnamese people, describing his harrowing experiences, and going on to indict the way [Read More...]

3 reasons for the decline of contemporary worship

Jonathan Aigner, a card-carrying millennial concerned for the growth of the church, says that the decline of contemporary worship–did you know it was in decline?–is due to three reasons.  I give those after the jump, but go to the whole post to see how churches can move on. UPDATE:  Go here, a piece linked to [Read More...]

A totalitarianism masquerading as beneficence

Novelist and former Time editor Michael Walsh has published a new book entitled The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West.  It’s about how critical theory–the notion that all cultural and linguistic expressions are to be “deconstructed” as mere impositions of power–has brought Western thought to the point [Read More...]

The more prey, the fewer predators

One would think that the more prey animals–zebras, antelopes, rabbits, etc.–there are, the more predators there would be, since a larger food supply should support a larger population of animals that eat them.  But it doesn’t work that way.  According to a new study, predator populations decrease when the prey increases.  In fact, this seems [Read More...]

The Pope makes annullments easier

Roman Catholics don’t allow for divorce, the dissolution of a marriage.  They do, however, allow for annullments, which deny after the fact that a valid marriage ever took place (despite how long the couple has lived together, if they had children, etc.).  After an annullment, the marriage is considered never to have existed. The process [Read More...]

Ransomware

The internet purports to offer the cover of anonymity for embarrassing vices, but that is not always the case, as the number of people whose reputation has been ruined by the Ashley Madison hacks have learned.  Now there is a new class of online/cellphone virus called ransomware. This often preys on the user’s fear of [Read More...]

Kentucky clerk released from jail

Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has been in jail for the last five days for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, has been released.  The judge who found her in contempt reasoned that since her deputies in the office are giving marriage licenses to gays, there is no need to hold [Read More...]

Muslim refugees converting to Christianity

Thousands of refugees from Syria–as well as Iran, Afghanistan, and other Islamic countries–have been pouring into Europe, creating big problems and provoking all kinds of controversy.  But many of these Islamic refugees have been converting to Christianity. Some Europeans are skeptical, thinking the conversions are simply a facade to get asylum.  Religious beliefs aren’t supposed [Read More...]

Conservative Catholics revolting against the Pope?

The Washington Post reports that a backlash against Pope Francis is taking place among many conservative Catholics who disapprove of his seemingly liberal stances on homosexuality, immigration, climate change, divorce, and the like.  Details after the jump. This must surely create a great sense of cognitive dissonance, since a “conservative” Catholic would seem to be [Read More...]