Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 244
June 8, 2015
Psychology studies too reliant on college students
The field of experimental psychology operates mostly in research universities. So their test subjects tend to be 20-something-undergraduates volunteering for research projects to get extra credit. That is not the world’s most representative population. (I volunteered for some of those experiments myself, and I remember how seriously I took them, which was not very.) A [Read More...]
June 5, 2015
Luther on sex
The younger generation, as has been said, always thinks that it has invented sex. And those who “don’t know much about history” seem to think that sex and sexual issues are contemporary phenomena. So the editors at Salon are giddy to learn what Martin Luther wrote about sex. Reading from a new book about Luther [Read More...]
Prosecuting global warming skeptics
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) says that some global warming sceptics should be prosecuted under RICO (the Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations act). He argues that some of the anti-global warming research is funded by energy companies, which is what Big Tobacco did in funding research that played down the health hazards of smoking, which brought [Read More...]
Perry & Chafee run for president
Former Texas governor Rick Perry announced that he is running, again, for the Republican presidential nomination. His cause? Fixing the American economy by emulating Texas. Meanwhile, former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee announced that he is running for the Democratic presidential nomination. His cause? Adopt the metric system. I’d like to hear from supporters of [Read More...]
June 4, 2015
Soft persecution
Catholic journalist Russell Shaw analyzes the persecution of Christianity that is breaking out in our culture and that, he says, is likely to get worse. It isn’t “bloody persecuction,” but a “soft persecution.” But it is still persecution of religion by the state, and it takes two forms. . . . From Russell Shaw, The [Read More...]
Talkin’ ’bout my g-g-g-generation
Elizabeth Scalia quotes G. K. Chesterton on what happens when the “young generation” gets old, claiming that he is nailing us Baby Boomers before any of us were born. From Elizabeth Scalia, 85 Years Ago, Chesterton nailed the Boomers, quoting G. K. Chesterton: “A generation is now growing old, which never had anything to say [Read More...]
Highly educated women are having more children
In some counter-intuitive news, a Pew study has found that highly-educated women are having more children than they used to. From Childlessness Falls, Family Size Grows Among Highly Educated Women | Pew Research Center: Among women in the United States, postgraduate education and motherhood are increasingly going hand-in-hand. The share of highly educated women [Read More...]
June 3, 2015
Calling God a woman
Now that the Church of England has ordained its first female bishops, it is considering changing the Book of Common Prayer and catechetical materials to refer to God as “she” and as “mother.” (This will probably be in formulations like “father and mother” as some liberal churches are already doing.) Here is a good response [Read More...]
The “Transabled”: people who want to be disabled
Transgendered individuals feel that they were born in the wrong body. There are also people who feel uncomfortable with their fully functioning bodies and feel that they should be disabled. They sometimes stage accidents to cut off their own legs or blind themselves. Some use leg braces and wheel chairs even though they don’t need [Read More...]
From a little eggcorn. . . .
The dictionary has added a new word: “eggcorn.” Read what it means after the jump. And then supply eggcorns of your own. From ‘Eggcorns’: The Gaffes That Spread Like Wildflowers : The Two-Way : NPR: Please pause if you’re about to tell us our headline should say “spread like wildfire.” We intentionally slipped an eggcorn [Read More...]
