Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 249
May 15, 2015
Progressive authoritarianism
More and more progressives are openly calling for the end of democracy and for replacing it with an admittedly authoritarian regime that would give power to experts. From Joel Kotkin, Some progressives grow disillusioned with democracy – The Orange County Register: Left-leaning authors often maintain that conservatives “hate democracy,” and, historically, this is somewhat true. [Read More...]
Free trade with higher wage countries & the China card
As Democrats make a political point of rejecting the free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership–to the point of defying the Democratic President–Charles Lane clears up the disinformation being spread about the treaty. He says that, contrary to the rhetoric, it won’t lose American jobs by sending industries to lower-wage countries. Our biggest partners [Read More...]
May 14, 2015
Seven reasons to rejoice today
Today is Ascension Day, a major festival of the church year–on a par with Christmas and Easter–but it doesn’t get much attention these days. Prof. Joel Biermann of Concordia Seminary gives us “seven reasons to rejoice on Ascension Day.” From Joel Biermann, posted at Concordia Publishing House: Bibles, Christian Books, Church Supplies, Lutheran Curriculum & [Read More...]
New study shows percentage of Christians declining
The Pew Research Center has released a new study of American religion. In 2007, the date of its previous research, the percentage of Christians was 78%. By 2014, the percentage dropped to 70%. The percentage of those with no religious affiliation has shot up from 16% to 23%. (Atheists have gone from 1.6% to [Read More...]
An AARP for kids
A California group has announced that it intends to become an “AARP for kids.” I don’t think that means getting children discounts at Denny’s. The goal will be to lobby for children’s rights. I don’t know the ideology of this particular organization. Will they lobby for children’s right to be brought up by their mother [Read More...]
Obama and Republicans lose on free trade bill
A major priority for President Obama is the passage of the Pacific trade accord, a free trade bill that would open up markets in Asia. But a proposal to fast-track the treaty–allowing a single up-or-down vote, rather than risking death by a thousand amendments–was defeated in the Senate. All but one Republican took the President’s [Read More...]
May 13, 2015
“The smartest human being” on sin and grace
More from David Brooks, two interviews in which he talks about what he learned from St. Augustine, “the smartest human being I’ve ever encountered in any form.” Specifically, that would his concept of sin as disordered love and the Christian concept of grace. St. Augustine is, indeed, a brilliant thinker. You don’t have to agree [Read More...]
Is the religous right finished?
Are religious conservatives finished as a political and cultural force? Not at all, argues David French, responding to someone who claims that Mike Huckabee’s inevitable defeat will put the nails in the coffin of the Christian right. French says that Christian conservatives don’t have to vote for Huckabee because every other Republican candidate are claiming [Read More...]
Progressive imperialism
In an interview with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is considering a presidential run as a foreign policy war hawk, George Will sums up what went wrong with Hillary Clinton’s diplomacy in Libya and gives us a useful term: “progressive imperialism.” From George Will, The two issues that would bedevil Lindsey Graham’s campaign – The [Read More...]
May 8, 2015
Baptists who baptize infants
A Baptist minister has stirred controversy within his tradition by baptizing an infant. Yet it has become a common practice to baptize children 5 years old, or even younger. This all seems to be in the context of reconsidering what baptism is, that it is more than just a symbol. (To be sure, one might [Read More...]
