Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 225
August 25, 2015
Hackers enforcing morality?
So the Ashley Madison site, designed to hook up people who want to commit adultery, was hacked, leading to the release of data about some of the website’s 30 million customers (including already disgraced “family values” activist Josh Duggar). This has created some indignation about the hackers’ “public shaming” of would-be adulterers. But the fear [Read More...]
August 24, 2015
Why reading is good for you
Reading a lot, for pleasure, is associated with all kinds of physical and psychological benefits. Details after the jump. From David Murray, How Reading Can Transform Your Health | HeadHeartHand Blog: In How Changing Your Reading Habits Can Transform Your Health, Michael Grothaus says, “Reading doesn’t just improve your knowledge, it can help fight depression, [Read More...]
The Pope as illegal immigrant?
Pope Francis is coming to the United States next month. Back in January he said that he would like to come in by crossing the Mexican border. That would be, he said, a “beautiful sign” of solidarity with illegal immigrants. I would think such a crossing would be at one of the legal checkpoints, rather [Read More...]
Court removes injunction on Planned Parenthood videos
The court removed an injunction that it had placed on the release of more Planned Parenthood sting videos, ruling that the Center for Medical Progress has a First Amendment right to show them. The company that had been buying the fetal organs, StemExpress, asked the court to stop the release. The company has since stopped [Read More...]
August 23, 2015
August 21, 2015
Why churches need confessions of faith
Union University is leaving the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, an organization of evangelical schools, because some of them have decided to embrace gay marriage. Other schools are considering doing the same. This has raised the question of what evangelicals and their institutions must be expected to believe. If everything is left to the [Read More...]
How Donald Trump uses the government to seize private property
Critics of Donald Trump’s business practices have focused on his bankruptcies. But what is far worse, especially from a conservative point of view, is his history of using eminent domain laws in his real estate developments. That is, he gets government officials to use laws designed for the buildings of roads to seize private property! [Read More...]
Euthanasia keeps expanding
The Netherlands and Belgium legalized euthanasia a number of years ago. Originally, the idea was to let terminally ill patients put themselves out of their misery. But once the basic taboo against physicians killing their patients was surmounted, euthanasia in those countries has expanded to the mentally ill, to the depressed, to children, and to [Read More...]
August 20, 2015
Unburden’d crawl toward death
’tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths while we Unburden’d crawl toward death. (Shakespeare, King Lear, Act I. scene 1. lines 38-41) Have any greater lines ever been written about retirement? OK, it didn’t work out very well for King Lear. I’m hoping that [Read More...]
